Church Plant Vision Nights

We had two nights in November where we had meetings in Raleigh and in Charlotte for people to come out and hear more about our church.  We were blown away.  The whole time I have been so so worried about it being just us, but people showed up.  It was so great having people come who are open to moving with us from the Raleigh/Durham area.  Then it was really awesome to be in Charlotte and have people so excited for us to be coming there.  We had invitations to come over for dinner, to bring out kids out to play, places to stay while we are house hunting or just exploring the area. People who said this church is a very specific answer to prayers they have been praying for months and even years.  It is just so awesome to see God already moving and preparing the way for us.  Spence and I also were able to enjoy a night away from the kiddos just the two of us for the first time in almost 14 months.   Spence wrote a little something here about the nights.  

Meeting in Durham

Meeting in Charlotte 

I get the privilege of being married to that stud 

Halloween on the same day we return from Disney?!

Well, we are the crazy people who traveled back from Disney and immediately jumped into Halloween.  I mean what a week for our kids, right?  Insanity.  The kids did a fabulous job traveling back, but when we got home it was COLD compared to that gorgeous weather we had all week.  

The boys searched through all their costumes and chose Woody and Spider-Man.  We put Haddie in Ben's old monkey costume.  Ellie trie don 3 different costumes, but in the end refused to wear any of them.  So, she went as a "An Uncooperative 2 Year Old".  We went trick or treating with some friends in the neighborhood and had so much fun.  

Back on the Magical Express

It isn't as fun of a ride when you are leaving, but we still loved it even if it was super early to get out the door and on the bus.

My sweet sleeping girl was such a champ for the entire trip.  I went on and on about how Ellie did when we took her at 7 months, but that girl had us up walking around in the middle of the night because of waking up.  Haddie on the other hand, really rolled with whatever we threw at her.  She napped when and where she could and was just so so sweet the whole time.  She charmed everyone who saw her and didn't even make a fuss at all the whole time.

yeah, no words

that boy

nothing like a chubby little monkey

Best pic I could get of Ben 

Yes, that is her beautiful Cinderella costume that she refused to wear

As many of the kiddos as I could get in the pic

Last Day DISNEY DAY 5- back to Magic Kingdom

So, these photos are gonna be all out of order, but I can't get them straight, so I will explain as we go. Wednesday night ended up with Ben and Ellie throwing up.  Ben threw up a lot for a really long time so he was still really not feeling well the next morning.  Ellie on the other hand, threw up once and bounced right back ready to go.  Spence and debated back and forth what we should do with our last day.  We ultimately decided I would go with two kids into the Magic Kingdom, by myself.  Ya'll, did you hear me say I went into a park by myself?  It was an amazing day, though.  We were able to do lots, and Ben rested up with Dad and Haddie.  We were able to nap and then the whole family hit the park in the evening.  

I'm still in a bit of shock that I went with these two cuties into the park

We saw Mickey

We rode Dumbo, but they both really really enjoyed the play area before we rode the ride.  It was funny to me, but a good testament to kids loving to play

She was speechless meeting "the mermaid"

I snapped a couple really pretty pictures of the castle

love this one

Zeke is a pretty good photographer, and Ellie has fantastic posture apparently

This is "Puppy".  He hasn't left her side since we gave him to her, including going all through the park with us.  She kinda loves him a lot

While the boys went and rode Buzz and the Speedway, the girls went to see Minnie.  Ellie only wanted to see Minnie and refused to talk to Daisy.  She jumped and hugged Minnie

But she refused to have anything to do with Goofy

We were able to ride the carpets all together

Haddie really enjoyed meeting all the characters while Ellie was pouting and stomping.  Daisy kept trying to sign the boys autograph books that I was saving for Donal and Goofy's signatures.  She was pretty funny, but Ellie wasn't interested at all

Donald was really funny trying to get Ellie in the picture, but she was having none of it

She couldn't keep her eyes off her.

She even imitated her curtsy.  I melted into a puddle in the floor

This is us on the way out after we dominated the park

This sweet snuggle made me all teary

One of Ellie's favorite dances on Just Dance Disney is "Everybody Wants to be a Cat" so we had to meet Marie on our way out of the park.  We also met Pluto, but didn't get a great pic with him.

The Shelton Six with the Main Mouse

Haddie charmed Mickey

Disney Day 4- REST DAY

If you are going to Disney, I HIGHLY recommend a rest day in the middle of your trip.  It was so nice to not have any plans (well except a dinner reservation) for the day.  We woke up and leisurely made our way to Downtown Disney for the morning.  The boys were one tracked with the Lego store on their brains.  But were distracted in the World of Disney store by the "build your own light saber". They chose to spend part of their money on each making one while the girls and I wandered around and stared at all things Princess.  

We got to the Lego store.  We love seeing all the cool Lego things they have made and then the big kids all had fun building for a bit.  We let the boys combine their money left and they bought two Star Wars Lego sets (are you seeing a theme here?)

As we were leaving, we passed Rainforest Cafe (no we didn't go in and relive the nightmare of the dinner from 2012). We did run over to see the cool parrot though and the boys thought it was hilarious that she put him on their heads.  After this we headed over to Pop Century (next door to AoA) to grab some lunch and have a rest. While the girls rested though, the boys went swimming before dinner.

Dinner for the evening was at Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  The food was really yummy and mostly African in flare so that was really fun.  After dinner we happened to wander outside because I had heard you could see animals from the resort.  I am so, so glad we did.  I had been a little sad about not going to Animal Kingdom this trip, but seeing all these animals made me feel tons better about it.  Zeke and the cast members chatted quite a bit and they were impressed with his animal knowledge.