Christmas Shoes by Newsong [HQ]

Christmas Shoes by Newsong [HQ]
This is a video of my nephew singing with NewSong at the Chick-Fil-A Christmas Concert. Samuel is the boy at the end, about 5 mintues in.
I think he did a great job!

Birthdays and Sunny Sunday

This weekend we celebrated my birthday and Michael's birthday. In our family if someone has a birthday near you and you are an adult, you have to share! We had a great time together, the kids played and played and played. And we ate and ate and ate (Ledo's pizza and cake and pie).

Sunday, the weather was beautiful, so we spent more time outside. Kellie learned to drive Meg's battery powered ATV and loved it. It is so cool to watch them play together and Megan is a pretty good big sister!

October in review

I can't believe October 2009 is history already! The girls have enjoyed playing in the leaves. It is so cool to see them have fun with such simple things!

Most of October was spent with at least one of us being sick! Both girls had fevers that went away and then they had ear infections a week later. Kevin and I both had sinus junk. The pharmacy tech at Target now recognizes me and welcomes me back!

Meg's every 3 month check with the retina specialist went well. Her retina is still attached and working and her vision is almost back to pre-surgery. So now she's finished with drops in that eye. She is doing much better in school. They've had a long term substitute teacher lately, so I'm anxious to see if things continue to go well once her regular teacher returns.

Kellie finally had her 2 yr check up, she's a tall kid- in the 50-75th percentile for height! She's still on the bottom of the weight chart, but that's to be expected. She has picked up a few new words.

Halloween was fun. Meg's school had a parade and party on Friday. Kevin went to help at the party, which thrilled Megan.

We went to visit Granny and Granddaddy Hurst on Saturday afternoon. The kids had fun running around like crazy folks!

For more pictures of the fun go to- http://kevginmegkel.shutterfly.com/1476

On Saturday Megan and Kellie went trick or treating with Meg's friend Amy and her brother Brandon (who is close to Kellie's age).

Well, that's the high and low lights of the month at our house.

Please continue to be in prayer for my family, as my parents house sold, the separation papers are in process, Dad will be moving away, and Mom will be moving too.

Please also pray for Grandaddy and Granny. Granddaddy had a heart attack and yesterday they put in a pacemaker and he is in the ICU. Don't know much else at this point.

Thanks!

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

Megan has been struggling a bit in school. With her handwriting, getting her work done, staying focused, being motivated, and she's talking too much.

My mom gave me some of my report cards from elementary school.
Here's what they said
"When Virginia settles down, she does better work. She is a lovely child, but often seeks the attention of others through some form of noise
"There are times I have to push her a little"
"Is making satisfactory progress in most areas with the exception of self control"
I got some 3s in "writes legibly" (with 1 being the best).

Poor Megan, she got it honestly!

Hershey Park

On Saturday we went to Hershey Park (Kevin's company had some cheap tickets to a "private event"). We had a great time. The girls love rides and I love watching them enjoy the rides. They had such fun! Kellie wasn't too sure about the Frogger ride where they bounce up and down, but she endured til the end, with Megan holding her hand. The rest of the rides they both loved. It was a beautiful day weather wise, which added to how nice and fun the day was.

In typical fashion for us, the trip was not without a little "issue". It was a sunny day, sunnier than I realized it was supposed to be. So, I bought sunscreen at one of the stores in the park. Within minutes of applying the sunscreen Kellie broke out into hives, started itching, was pulling at her tongue, and her eyes puffed up. Washing it off didn't help, so off to the First Aid Station we went. I convinced the nurse to give her a dose of benadryl and within 30 mintues Kellie was better. Her 1st souvenir from Hershey Park, a pretty blue medicine spoon!

The chocolate factory tour was neat, and at the end we got Kit Kats. Meg and I love Kit Kats!

On the way home we stopped at a campground right near Hershey to check it out, so maybe next year we'll camp there.

September wrap up

I can't believe we are already a few days into October! I thought I'd do a wrap up on a few things from September. Most of the big stuff I already blogged about.

Megan and I went to paint pottery again, It's been almost a year since we've been there. We enjoy it, not sure why it's been so long. I made a pencil holder with different shades of purple on it (in hopes that if we use it I will be able to find a pen or pencil near the phone in the kitchen!). Megan made a cute puppy bank.







On Sept 18th Kevin and I celebrated 16 years of marriage. Seems like just yesterday and yet a lifetime ago! We met when I was 16, so I've been married to him the same amount of time that I spent not knowing him.



September pretty much was spent trying to get into the school routine. Megan doesn't like 1st grade, but goes without too much of a fight. She's struggling with learning when it's ok to talk and when it's not (she gets that from me- in 1st grade I stayed in trouble for talking!). She loves to draw and tell stories and is getting very good at both.

Kellie is starting to become very opinionated about everything, but is still my happy girl most of the time.

I'm enjoying the weather. Kevin is enjoying football season.

Well, there's the wrap up!

Boyds Bear Country- Camping- Gettyburg post 3

We had a late checkout on Monday. After doing all the getting ready to go stuff that we could do early, we headed out.

1st in search of a gas station with diesel. I never realized it's hard to find sometimes. We learned to go to a highway and look there, not bother looking "in town".

Then we headed to Boyds Bear Country. This place is huge and sorta overwhelming, but fun.

They have different theme areas and it's cool to look at all the stuffed items available. Of course, Megan was in heaven (she'd been there before- once when she was very little and then last year when she spent the night camping with G-ma and G-pa), but still loves it.

Megan really wanted a puppy and picked out a yorkie. Kellie got a puppy too, a chocolate lab like Cody- a dog we see on the way to school. Kellie isn't really into stuffed animals, but she seemed to enjoy it. It seemed she thought it was a big playground and not a store. Megan loves stuffed animals and wanted one of everything!

Then we headed back to the campground, finished unsetting up (what do you call that?), got hooked up and headed home. Both girls chose to ride with daddy (he's fun and had the DVD player in his truck), so mommy had a nice ride home all by herself. I bought some wonderfully juicy crisp Honey Crisp apples at the Catoctin Orchard (I also had a yummy raspberry crumb bar!) on our way home.

It was an enjoyable trip.

Below are some pictures- here are more- http://kevginmegkel.shutterfly.com/1449

Land of Little Horses and Gettysburg camping- Sunday

Sunday morning there was hope for better weather so we decided to do something outside.

As I headed to the shower I found out that our site didn't have sewer hookup meaning that either we had to be careful with how much water we used or we'd have to hookup, drive to the dumpstation to empty the tanks and then do set up all over again! Not our idea of fun...

I debated for a while and decided that I wanted a real shower (my showers tend to last 15-20 minutes), so I packed up my stuff and my Lysol and headed to the bath-house. YES, I took a shower in a public shower. But this place has the nicest set up. There are like 4 bathrooms in the bathhouse- each with a door, sink, toilet, shower , with ceramic tile walls and they were clean. They are bigger than our bathroom at home. So after a nice hot shower I felt refreshed.



We headed out to Land of Little Horses. They had horses (miniature and "regular"), donkeys, llamas, emus, sheep, pigs, goats, and some other animals. Kellie's favorite animal was the cat that followed us everywhere. Finally after 2 hours of hanging with us she finally let the girls pet her!
It was fun.
Below are some pictures, to see more go to http://kevginmegkel.shutterfly.com/1401

Camping trip #2- Gettysburg Fri and Saturday

Friday night Kevin, Megan, Kellie, and Emmett and the camper headed to Gettysburg for the weekend. I had to work on Saturday, so I drove up after work.
Kevin managed to get the camper into a not so easy spot in the dark (thanks to a little help from the campground folks and to the girls and the dog for being well behaved!).

They spent some of Saturday morning at the playground, then Grandma and Grandpa came to spend the day (and apparently brought the rain). The girls had a great time with G-ma and G-pa even in the rain and close quarters of the camper.

I arrived at dinner time in pouring down rain and it continued to rain all night. Rain is really LOUD in the camper! Plus we had a wooded site, which was surrounded by walnut trees with dropped walnuts every time the wind blew- that was loud too!

We spent the evening catching up and resting. And the sound of the rain lulled us to sleep.

Labor Day visit with G-ma and G-pa

We spent Sunday and Monday of Labor Day weekend with Kevin's parents at their log house in WV.
The weather cooperated and it was a nice visit.

The girls love being there and so does Emmett. The 3 of them just ran and ran and ran (well Emmett ambled and rested and trotted a bit). They loved seeing all the deer and Emmett even put his nose to the ground and followed a deer's tracks.
Megan and Kellie enjoyed playing with and being with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma and Grandpa are probably in need of naps today!

It's nice to get away to the quietness of the woods and to not really having to do anything.

BTW_ if you're in Berkeley Springs WV, stop by the Earth Dog Cafe on S. Washington St for some yummy BBQ.

Survived the 1st week of 1st grade

Megan and the rest of us survived the 1st week of 1st grade. They had Friday off so it was a short week.


None of the kids from Megan's Kindergarten class are in her 1st grade class, but she's delt with it like a champ. She has 2 girls that she knew of last year that sit near her and they seem to get along.

The 1st day I asked her who she played with at recess, she said Bindi. Bindi is her invisible friend (Bindi the jungle girl, Steve Irwin the croc hunter's daughter.) Then she said she ate lunch with Amy, her friend from K, so that made momma happy that she and Amy still do stuff together. Amy and her mom are so sweet.

Then I asked her who she talked to in class, she exhaled loudly and said "We're not supposed to talk in class." as if that was a trick question (it wasn't, but good to hear she understands that, in 1st grade I didn't get that concept and got in trouble frequently for chatting- if I talked too much I didn't get to watch Donny and Marie on Friday night).

Her teacher called today to let us know Megan had a good week and that she's monitoring to be sure Megan is in places where she can see well. She even left her home number if we needed to talk to her. How sweet.

Kellie enjoyed having the house to herself and my attention, but by Thursday she was missing Megan. I'm probably going to start taking her to classes at the library to give her an activity and maybe help expand her vocabulary and get her talking!

On Friday we went to a playground with their cousins Samuel, Luke, and Cassie as well as Aunt Angie and Nana. It was fun. The kids always have a good time and expending some energy was good for them!

A photo book of our camping trip

Click here to view this photo book larger

Camping Day 5- Red Deer Farm & heading home

On Thursday morning we visited the Rolling Hills Red Deer Farm.

The owner (who is a character and made everything interesting) took us on a hayride through his red deer pastures. we got to hand feed the red deer (who are in the Elk family). It was very cool to see them up so close and touch them. They are majestic animals and are very soft. Apparently they make good eats, too- high in iron and protein, low in fat and cholesterol. Megan and Kellie enjoyed feeding them and the owner even took them into the barn to see a baby red deer up close, as the babies didn't come up to us on the ride through the pastures.


Then we headed back to the camper to finish packing up. Of course, it started to rain so poor Kevin got all wet doing the outside unhooking and putting away. I got muddy undoing the stabilizers and such, but it had stopped raining by then.

We had a safe trip home, some rain that was sorta heavy but nothing like the ride up!

Emmett, our dog, seemed happy to see us, but was well cared for by Nana. Maybe next time, when we will be at the campground more, we'll take him with us- although he doesn't like to ride in a car.

Kevin asked me when we were going camping next and I'm actually looking at my schedule to see when we can go! And I'm perusing the Camping World catalog (man that thing is huge) for things I can buy for our camper.

Thank you to Terry (and a few other ladies I know) who shared their experiences and helped me take this step into this new experience. Terry, I owe you a big thanks for giving me the courage to do this and for encouraging me with your positive words.

The fact that Kevin did most of the cooking and gross stuff while we camped helped a lot too! Wonder how long that will last?

But, I'd still like a hotel stay once in a while!

Camping day 4- Fun at Knoebels

Wednesday morning we headed back to Knoebels for some fun.

The park is really neat- no admission fee, you get tickets and pay as you ride or you can get a ride all day bracelet.

The park has a nostalgic feel, but it should as it's been around in various forms since the 1920's. Not to say it hasn't been updated, it has some new rides along with the classics. We saw a juggling/ hula hoop show, rode some rides. The food was good and reasonably priced, they had a big selection of items. And I must say the fries were so YUMMY yummy.

We all had a great time. The girls really enjoyed the rides and we did too (my favorites were the trains- quiet and peaceful and shady). It was so fun to watch them have a good time and listen to them laugh.

Below are a few pictures of our day, I'll post more on our photo sharing site (http://kevginmegkel.shutterfly.com/) once I get them all edited.

Camping day 3- around town and late night at park

We decided that Tuesday was going to be a sort of laid back day, we were tired!
Kevin made pancakes (plain for us, M&M for the girls) on the griddle outside and we had breakfast on the picnic table in the great outdoors. I also got to watch how some other folks were doing breakfast over campfires, interesting.

Then we got reliable directions to WalMart (from the campground office), made a stop at a Country Store that had some great things, and made it to WalMart where we purchased a water purifier for the sink and a blanket for Kellie.
Back at the camper we did lunch, Kellie took a nap (and so did mommy) while Kevin and Megan toured the campground. There are some beautiful swans there.
While out walking Kevin and Megan ran into people we used to go to church with (what a small world, they were camping there too).

Then we headed to Knoebels for some rides. The girls had a ball!


Back at the camper Kevin made a campfire, Megan was scared of the fire, so we put the girls to bed and enjoyed a late night by the campfire and some s'mores just the 2 of us!

Camping day 2- the pool

We got up on Monday and it was HOT, so we decided today would be the day we spent at Knoebels's Crystal Pool.
We had a donut breakfast
and headed to the park.

The pool was great. They had life jackets for the kids (which safety minded mommy loved), slides in the big pool, diving boards, a water fall, locker rooms to change in, space to lay out in. And it felt great on the hot day!

Megan loved the water tube slides that you go down on a tube, they had double tubes so Kev & I each got to go with her a few times.

They had a kids pool with all kinds of cool stuff that dumped water, shot water, squirted water. Kellie enjoyed sitting the johnny jump up seats, both girls liked the slide and the area where water randomly shot out of the ground.

We didn't take the camera that day so we don't have any pictures. But it was great!

We took a ride on one of the park trains before heading home after the pool and Kellie fell asleep.

We went back to the camper where Kevin made a yummy dinner of burgers and hot dogs.

Camping trip day 1- getting there...

I think the saying goes "Getting there is half the fun", well...

With me having been sick the week before, we were behind in our preparations for leaving on our camping trip. We left about 2 hrs later than we planned (would have been later, but our wonderful neighbors Weeze & Dave took the girls for a while so we could focus). But we didn't have to go back to the house to get stuff we forgot like we usually do.

We hit some really rough weather on the drive (I think it was around Lebanon PA on I-81)- really hard rain, really strong winds that blew branches and vehicles. Meg was crying and praying, I was praying (and was pretty scared), Kevin was holding on tight to the wheel. Thank God we made it thru, Kevin is a good driver.

We make it to the campground. Driving in I see nothing but mucky mud puddles and rivers running thru campsites. Some sites were more like swamps. Apparently the storm had hit the camping area pretty hard. But our site wasn't too bad and we were really close to the top of the hill, so just a few puddles.

We parked and leveled the camper in it's spot (Kevin is a good driver and backed it in really well) and got most of the outside set up done. It was around 7pm, I realized I had forgotten a blanket for Kellie, plus we needed to eat and no one felt like cooking. A camping neighbor let us borrow their GPS so we could get to WalMart. (What hotel have you ever stayed in that when you asked for directions someone says "here take our GPS", although they did say if it rained again all 15 of them would be knocking on our camper door to get out of the rain).

Well, apparently the WalMart had moved farther away, but we found a McDonald's and gas station with diesel (which we really needed as the tank was low). And headed back to the campground without a blanket for Kellie. Note to self- apparently some campgrounds are in the "woods" and not near WalMarts and restaurants and Sunday at 7pm is not the time to find a place open in a small town!

We all slept pretty well (Kellie had a beach towel for a blanket and she didn't seem to mind). We were excited for the next day's adventure.

Things I learned from our 1st "camping" trip

Kevin and I purchased a used 5th wheel camping trailer (from Kev's parents), it took some time for him to convince me this would be a good investment and that I'd enjoy it.
He was right. We just got back from our 1st camping trip and it was really nice. I'll post more about the trip itself once we get the pictures uploaded.

Until then I'm going to share what I learned, in case you want to know...

- NEVER assume "I don't know anyone here, I'll never see these people again" and use that as an excuse to eat breakfast at the picnic table in your pjs with bed head. Just a few camper spots down we found some friends from long ago (Ralph and Cecilia W. for those of you who went to Covenant!). Fortunately they didn't see me in my pjs, but I wasn't all freshened up when we ran into them!

-The size of our camper bathroom is NOT meant for 2 people to be in at the same time and when you trip over the 2 yr old child in the bathroom with you, don't think the toilet paper holder will help break your fall, it will not break your fall, it will simply break.

-the size of the hot water heater tank and 4 folks who need baths/showers before bed will teach you water conservation real quick!

-it is great to be on vacation and not have to worry about what icky person slept in that bed before you, that icky person is you!

-the girls felt comfortable there, making sleeping easier.

-once you are packed you don't have to completely unpack at your destination and repack to go home! That is GREAT. Plus as long as you keep it in the camper it will go home with you. And you can take more stuff with you than if you were in the car, the camper has lots of space to store stuff!

-ladies, be sure to have someone along who doesn't mind dealing with the sewer line, the thought grosses me out. Thankfully Kev was willing to take care of it.

-I learned that I can get down in the mud and turn all kinds of T-handles and knobs so we can get the trailer settled. It's nice to get muddy once in a while.

Bubble fun

Megan and Kellie love bubbles.
So, Nana bought the girls a "bubble generator". It makes a lot of bubbles and no one has to use up all their air to make the bubbles!
They are both enjoying it a lot, but Kellie is especially having a ball with it!

July stuff- so far!

We went to Carter and Danielle's for 4th of July and had some great food and fun!
It's always nice to spend time with them. Meg and Kel enjoyed playing with Cara and Nat.

Then Megan went to VBS at our church with Samuel, Luke, and Cassie. She loves having them around. They were so sweet and made sure that Megan got her bible buddies from VBS and the crafts to do.

Such great cousins my girls have!

Megan only made it to 2 days of VBS because she had to have surgery to repair a detached retina in her left eye. She did well with the surgery, recovery has been a challenge, but we will make it thru!



Then we had a great cookout with some long time friends, but I forgot to bring my camera! We had a nice time chatting and being together! It was nice!

We were supposed to be in Gettysburg on vacation (our 1st camping trip), but Meg's eye surgeon said she shouldn't go, so we're hanging at home for a while!

Bumble Bee turns 2!!!

Kellie turned 2 on June 25th, I can't believe she's 2!
Kellie is growing well and is generally a happy go lucky adventurous kid!
I'd always dreamed of having a birthday cookout where the kids could just play (but with Meg's winter birthday that hadn't happened!)
So, for Kellie's birthday we did just that! It was a fun day of the kids just running a playing!
Kellie chose a zoo animal theme for her party (she passed by Elmo and Blue's Clues for an elephant and giraffe!). It was cute!


Here are some pics of the party! For more pics go to our photo site at- http://kevginmegkel.shutterfly.com/