Happy Birthday Zach!

Congrats to our kids!!

Mini-me.

Syd - a natural cowgirl.

and our cowboy.

She really isn't mad...

I love this pic- Ash with friend Michayla

Happy birthday Syd!

Our soccer stars!

Happy Easter!

Our plants are so much bigger than this...I need to post a recent pic.

Ok, so again it has been a while. I hate for this to happen because so much happens in that time and of course I want to share it all. We have celebrated 3 birthdays- mine included. We don't need to talk of that one, Syd turned 8 in April, and Zachary turned 6 at the beginning of this month. It is crazy how fast they are growing. We are having so much fun as a family. I love each new stage of life more than the previous with them. It is so exciting watching them grow, learn, and reach new heights. I especially get to see this through schooling them. We are pretty much done with our first year of school. What a year we had- kids loved it and I did too. We will be homeschooling agin next year. Had a rocky end- for about two weeks we all had a really horrible virus (except Dan) He was working a lot so he escaped the germs I guess. I have never been that sick ever before in my life! Luckily the kids got over it fairly fast- Ash started it and I ended it. I will spare you the details but there is nothing worse than the feeling of glass on your tongue. So once we were better we had planned a trip up North which didn't happen. Thankful for that because we needed the time for school- so we will be headed that way our usual time this summer. Some grandparents came for a visit, we got to go to Tampa to visit some friends, I got to have a girl getaway, an anual trip for the last three years, and here we are. Zachary graduated kindergarten, girls promoted to the next grade and all is well. I just have to work on their portfolios and we will be set. We look forward to the summer to unwind a little, go to the beach and spend time with friends. We will try to keep up with math throughout the summer and we will read a family book together- not sure which one yet. That is probably our favorite time together. We just finished "The Secret Garden". It was great- now we ill rent it and watch the movie! Speaking of gardens- ours is out of this world!!! Our tomato plants are huge and we have so much lettuce a rabbit couldn't keep up. If you can't tell we have been studying plants. The kids have been realy into the garden, it is so fun to see their faces light up when they see a flower on the plants, and when they find a new tomato or strawberry.

Last time I wrote I was about to run my 15K. It went well. I did better than last year and that was my goal. I have just started running a bit again. Fell away from it, but still working out. My favorite class is Zumba right now, but knew it was time to have a little bit of cardio thru running. It is my best bet. The kids are getting into exercise. They will all be in a race this weekend. When they finish they will have accomplished a total of a marathon. We have been tracking miles leading up to this race and they run the last 1.2 at the race. They are super excited. Ashley has been working out with me and I even have her Zumba'in.

Dan is well- working a lot. He has been out on the road- they lost a service guy, and as the new one trains, he has been a service guy. It is taking a toll on his body! It has been a awhile since he a to dig a drywell everyday. The rain has been awful. Well, I take that back we soooo need the rain, but it has literally been raining since Sunday and it is Friday. Little to no break. So getting a little bit of cabin fever. It has been great for our gardens!!

Spring is in the air!

The Azalias are blooming...

Our newly planted strawberries.

Well we have had spring fever here. The past few days have bben gorgeous. We got out in the yard this weekend and planted some stawberries and got our garden ready for round two. We needed more dirt so as Zach likes to say we bought some "cow poop". Yep we did. Our garden was still a little sandy so we had to add some things. Now it is ready to go- we will be buying some plants here soon. We look forward to what is to come. Dan likes to say that I do not have a green thumb so here is my chance to prove him wrong:) Here are some carrots from round one. the kids were sooooo excited.

In school we just started our Bugs and plants Unit. Perfect timing for spring. so our garden will play a big role in school, and look at this crazy leaf bug we found. It landed on Syd's booty- she freaked a bit, but luckily I had my camera so we got up close and personal with the bug. His portrait will be a part of our bug board!

These are pics from our most recent adventure to the MOSH. Museum of Science and History.
We had a blast. We went with some homeschool buddies, and basically had the place to ourselves. we wentin the afternoon when all the school field trips were done, it was great. We just finished our study on the planets, so what better than to see the stars in the planetarium! It was cool.

We got to walk through the human body- Ewww!

Dan and I all dressed up and ready to go. Doesn't happen very often so I thought i would document it- and of course, it is the perfect picture. Captures the true Dan and Kel.

Oh, how this brings back some chilhood memories. I have so much fun watching Syd's new activity. Zach and Ash are both taking guitar lessons, and when Syd heard us talking about it, to make arrangements- all of a sudden she wanted to take guitar too. Well tht would have lasted about 5 minutes. so i told her you don't want guitar lessons, lets do something you want to do, and she said gymnastics. So here we are. We are starting out at the Y, and it is great. We also just started all 3 in soccer at the Y too. I look forward to connecting withnew families and being apart of our little community near our home.

The big race is this weekend! My last day of training is tomorrow. So, for the second year I will be running the biggest 15k in the US held here in Jax. It is an awesome experience- and i am looking forward to it. I feel ready, we'll see how I feel Saturday morning :) Last year there were 50+mph winds- so hopefully that won't be the case this go round.

We are back!

Okay, so it has been a few months- I apologize! It just seems to have gotten busier and busier since the holidays, if you can believe that. Life in the Abel household is exciting. We took quite a bit of time off during Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year.

We had a great time in North Carolina. We headed to the mountains for Turkey day. We had a wonderful, relaxing time with good friends. Our dinner was out of this world, everything turned out just right and on time. We were so organized I think we surprised ourselves. We hoped to see snow while we were there and some of us did! Lauren, Ezekiel and the kids and I stayed an extra day to close down the house for Lauren's parents and the night we stayed it snowed all night, so when we woke, we were stuck! We had already got rid of all our food, kept snacks of course for the ride home, but other than that we cleaned house! Well then we found out we couldn't go anywhere. So Lauren got bundled up and went on a hike to raid a family friend's cabinets. She came back with canned salmon, frozen corn, refried beans and a single serving of pizza. Needless to say- we got creative with meal time! We had many funny stories throughout our day, but the best was seeing the kids faces when I said we can go play int he snow. We had a snowball fight and even tried our hand at a snowman. We were able to leave a day later and literally had to dig our way out of the driveway- I haven't had to do that in YEARS. Good times!

Christmas was wonderful. We love celebrating our Lord, Jesus Christ! It was nice and relaxing. Dan's dad and step mom made it down to celebrate with us. It is hard because we miss family so, but it is really important to Dan and I to be home on Christmas morning with the kids. We implemented new traditions, brought back some new ones. The kids love making Christmas Operation Gift Boxes to be sent out to boys and girls all over the world, so they have a gift to open and have the opportunity to hear the Gospel. We were also given the opportunity to contribute in helping a local family have an awesome Christmas. We love getting into our PJ's and hopping in the car to go look at Christmas lights. There are few neighborhoods known to tour. Our neighborhood has a contest each year along with putting luminaries out Christmas Eve. It is really beautiful. Doing these things as a family really makes our holidays special. So, if you asked our kids what was the big gift this year, it would be the Wii. We have had a blast having family game nights.

Now that the New Year is here we have gotten back to reality- school, and work. Business is slow for Dan right now, but he is hanging tough. School for kids, and I, is back in full swing. We are studying the Solar System right now and Poetry. Poetry is a bit difficult to get through- so I have had my challenge to make it interesting, so we are finding our way:) Learning about the planets and watching the moon every other night and documenting the phases has been so fun. Our character study is Orderliness. God has a specific order to all things! It is amazing the wonderful creation He has given us. ( We will be learning shortly about rock classification, bugs and plants. We will be working on our very large garden which right now only has carrots growing).

It is also amazing the opportunities we have had to serve lately. Dan and I had taken a break from serving, we have felt now it was time to get involved in some cool things happening in our church. This is probably why it seems we are more busy now, but we both are loving our new journey. We look forward to what God has in store for us.

Who's that Girl???

Is it Gabriella? oh...no...wait that's Syd!

Could it be Sharpay???? Oh...no that is Ashley, not Ashley Tisdale- Ashley Abel!

Darth Vader???

Nope, Zach!

The girls hanging out Community Fest 2008!

The Abels in a cornfield in the middle of nowhere- well actually Hilliard, Fl.

Some of our great friends- we were waiting on a hay ride.

The farmers lost their cows- so we got an extra long ride to try to find them!

The bull ran through the fence and the women followed.

Our friends, Alex and Micayla- Syd, Ash and Zach

Went throught the a-maiz-ing corn maze with the Millers and the Gentges.

We are trying to find our way. It was suppose to take us about a half hour, we picked the long side. We got through it in about 40 minutes. Not too bad!

Kids in corn!



We have had an exciting week, A Corn Maze and Halloween in the same week! We had such a good time. Dan took the day off to spend with us at Conner's Farm. What a day- it was perfect because it was actually cold! Yes, I said it, COLD. Whenyou don't have any warm clothes, and it is 50 degrees and the wind is whipping- it is cold! We even had to stop for hot chocolate! It was great- I would much rather that than going through the maze in 80 degree weather. We had a blast with our family and friends!

Community Fest is held at our church every year on Halloween. They have all kinds of jumpy things, hayride, train ride, bumper cars, cotton candy, snow cones, real food (yummy Hawain cooking by our very own Pastor T), a boardwalk thru the portables where the kids experience all kinds of fun, AND lots, and lots, of candy!

We get to be with all our family friends, young and old- it is so much fun- it has been our halloween traditon.

As you may know High School Musical is very popular among the youngs ones- my young ones included. We had Sharpay and Gabriella represented, probably could have had Troy, but Darth Vader won out. Zach is way into Star Wars and I am not even really sure how. So many people didn't even recognize Syd, with her dark hair wig- it took moments for someone who had stopped to talk to me to realize Syd was standing next to me- many assumed it was another child not related to me :)

We are headed to visit Aunt CC this weekend and then our

next school venture is going to take place at a Pioneer Art Settlement next week! Then we may go see the space shuttle take off from Kennedy Space Center, we have friends coming in town for that AND after that, and then for Thanksgiving we will be traveling to Blowing Rock North Carolina! We'll have a long weekend in the mountains and we hope to go horseback riding there as a part of our Unit Study on Horses! What great fun we are having!!

Pumpkin Patch

HAY FIGHT!!

They were all jumping, Zach was doing cannonballs at one point...

We had our annual stop to the pumpkin patch this week. This is the first time in a long time we did not go with friends, but we had fun as a family picking out our perfect pumpkins. The kids found the hay stack and went crazy throwing , jumping and diving! Syd had so much on her head at one point it looked like her hair. We have not carved them yet with the kids, we will do that at the beginning of this week. Dan and I however, did carve ours for our pumpkin competition. We did win a lovely prize for the "scariest" but we did not get the overall 1st place ribbon. It went to our friends Pastor T and Noelle- who won first place the only year Dan and I were not entered- so we were a little bummed- but they did a great job! We still love our creation and we have it in our front yard for all to see. I think it will be an added accessory for the coming years.