How Many Cans

So this is a record in quick posts, so everyone can rest at ease. Which makes me think, can you rest at anxiety? I would think that its a given that if you are at rest, you would then be at ease?

Anyway, Luke and Julie came into town this weekend and we had an opportunity to take the entire clan (Micah, Chole, Jude, Noah, Levi) to a local orchard.


Here is the whole crew of us (minus Jude who was sleeping at the time, I think we left him in the Ida Red section of the orchard). Looking at this picture it is hard to fathom that we have gotten to this point in life. This morning in chruch Luke and I were talking about the free and "easy" days of gathering together at thier house on Newburg at 11pm to drink coffee until about 2am or so. Now, dirty diapers, day trips to orchards, discussions regarding our children's apperant bent to frustrated us in ways never thought possible. For crap sake, we both own mini-vans. How far we have come. We will catch up with a third child someday...hey maybe we should visit St. Louis again so we can take Interstate 55. (ha, ha)

Chole, Levi, Micah, Noah the future of America

This is Chole and Levi after being caught kissing under an apple tree.

Here are the two oldest boys. Micah looks as if he is being forced to enjoy his time with Noah while Noah looks thrilled to spend time with someone other than Levi.

Julie and Emilie

Finally, the two that are important...well you can't see them behind Luke and Joe, sorry

A little housekeeping
I added a link to Noah's school along with a link to Luke and Julie's blog (mostly Julie's) and a link to a dear friend of our's blog. Her name is Michele and she truely is one of the most talented persons we have ever met, not too mention pretty cool! Please check out her blog, it is what this blog dreams of looking like.

These Are The Days

So...it sounds as if some updating is needed. How come Emilie never gets yelled at for this!? Anyway since I have not updated since September 8th, lets go through this systematically and with order (I know that was redundant, again, over and over).

So last time we left our super family, we had gone to the beach, started school and painted our kitchen. Since then, we have...

Had a family jam session (Emilie was kinda like the bad drummer in this picture, ya know unreliable and off-beat - ha off-beat that was funny!)

Celebrated a number of birthdays in which...

Levi was frustrated by the concept of being alive for two years without the capability to drive a car yet...

...Noah posed for another picture...

Levi protested being part of a family (really he is enjoying the single most irritating car and truck toy imaginable, thank Gretchen and Marc, you will be getting these back in about a year!) Are my teeth straight? (If you laughed at this, you have been at our house since this evening)

Again, Noah is astonished at how smart Grandpa Kelly is. Seriously, he could show Noah a pile of dirt and tell him it came from an alien tiger who flew in on a boat and Noah would believe him and argue with anyone who disagreed with him. It's pretty fun!

Before, during, and after...KA-POW!!! (what a fitting shirt)

While Levi was off KA-POWing, Noah and Grandpa Kelly pleasured all of us with this great picture. I'm not sure who is happier?

We have also...

Learned how to ride a two wheeler (sans training wheels) And what does this mean?

It means that Daddy had to learn that it is time to join a gym and get into shape

Levi learned how to lick a bowl properly. Yes you Levi, you learned it!

We travled to Africa and took a stroll through the savannah, that was fun, kinda hot though.

While we were there, we had the privlidge to see in person the talented group Tito and Sanchez the amamzing singing giraffes. They were pretty good, but reminded me a bit of Hall and Oats though.

Option #1: After yet another melt down, Emilie lost control and tried to trade him away to this giraffe for a sack of onions.

Option #2: Emilie uses the social behaviors of giraffes to use as a teaching tools for Levi and how to get along with others

In a word, wow!

And yes we painted the living room, and hall, and stairway, and upstairs hall. (Thanks dad, even though he doesn't read this, big props anyways.)

And finally, we stopped by a little place in Rockford Michigan to remember good times that were had by all. Nothings says love like eatin' popcorn in the corner!

Aint It Great To Be Crazy (Boom Boom)

This week, marked two major milestones within the Schelling family. First, we finally painted our kitchen, which was a nice shade of puke yellow/creamy type color. As you can see, we finally feel at home with the standard issue green on the walls. Now we just need to finish with some Mocha/Latte paint (which is a fancy way to say beige) in the living room and we shall have our family colors back in working order.

Also this week Noah started kindergarden. As normal, Noah was excited, but overly concerned about gym class while we were relishing in the fact that we can say "My, look how quick they grow up" and other typical adult things.

To add to the excitement, Noah's best buddy from church is in his class. Here's to the gruesome twosome!

To end this session, everyones favorite...random pictures!!

These are pictures from our recent day trip to Grand Haven

Great pictures because it looks like Noah is surfing. Really he is just kinda standing like that and jumping

The boys ready to hit the road, and to make it further than the local CVS

Big trains equal big fun (note: this is one of the few times that Levi actually looked at the camera at the right time)

Here is a great example of the fact that Noah is usually in charge of getting Levi to look at the camera. Also an example of the fact that rarely does Levi heed older brothers advice

"When I was your age Noah, I once swam all the way to Wisconsin just to eat cheese and brats!"

Let me explain this picture. This was taken on our way home. Levi was muching on some chips and fell asleep. What you can tell if you look closely is that he fell asleep with a chip in his mouth. (Yes, we stopped the van and took the chip out. We just waited until we have a picture of it so we can add it to his slideshow thing that he will have at his wedding)

Here Noah and Daddy work on cleaning my car. Again, Noah usually is good and looking as if he is helping, but leaves right after the pictures are taken

Even Levi gets into the action and once again refuses to look at a camera

After a job well done, Levi rewards all of us with a brief moment of cuteness! What a boy!

You Say It's Your Birthday

Happy Birthday to Our Little Levi Joseph

Two Years Old Today

Photograph

I know, I know...Here's pictures...I know it's late but here are pictures!

So a few weeks back we spent a week down in Columbus Ohio visiting Honey and Grandpa Kelly. We had a great time, despite the unnerving heat! We cannot thank them enough for putting up with all four of us for a week. Thier place is wonderful, though a bit like a compund. Seriously though it was wonderful. They do not live in an apartment complex, they live in a community.

First our trip to the Columbus Zoo

Who doesn't love a good picture of an elephant's hind quaters

What a tragedy, another victim of poor driving through the African savanah...ho wait, just a sleeping cat, cause it was too hot for even him!

This is a silver back gorilla beginning to stick its tounge out at Noah and myself. Not very appropriate if you ask me. I suppose I just make a joke regarding evolution, but I can't think of anything witty enough to be worth it

This is a manitee. I took the picture through the glass (which you all probably assumed since I am not the type ot swim with a large mammal such as this). Not only are these things really cool, they are huge! I know everyone knows that they are large, but the National Geographic Channel does not do them justice as far as size goes! Wow, big swimming cows, pretty cool!

Though it's kinda blurry, I love this picture. Gramps, Honey, and two of the three pigs. We had been trying to stage this photo all day with little luck. You can imagine how hard it is to get Honey to look at the camera and stop horseing around. (Just kidding, it was Junior)

We had a blast at the zoo, however hot it was. We did not get to see the whole thing, we are hoping to go back and see more in November. Hopefully it will not be as oppressively hot then. But then again it is Ohio and things seem to be a bit backwards there.

We also played some baseball while down there...

As you can imagine, this was one of those moments that forever changed Noah's life. Apperaently he had no idea that he was able to play on a "real professional baseball feild". As he stated, "I can't belive this, this is the best thing that ever happened to me". Oh, to be four years old again! Once again, this event was only overshadowed by the fact that we we enjoying our time in a freaking oven!





We also spent time with Tim and Kendra, the Buffingtons! This picture was taken at an outdoor (as you can tell) concert featuring the band British Invasion, hmmm, interesting. Great people, we really enjoyed thier company...the boys loved thier son Coakley







The boys had the most fun enjoying swimming, everyday, all day

(easy Em, if I'm in here, so are you)

Noah and Daddy took a "hiking adventure" to a pretty cool "nature preserve" jsut down the street from the Waco Compound. It was really cool, it kinda felt like we found something new.

All in all we had a great week of relaxation, conversation and quality time. We look forward to visiting again in November!