Fessler Boys Update

Giving each other a high five. It is one of Luke's favorite things to do!

I was watching my boys play today and thinking about how much they have changed in the past couple of weeks. I wish I had the time to sit and write down everything or even take pictures of everything that they are doing. But, part of the joy of being a mommy is that you don't have time for those things because you are busy with your kiddos. So, I have to settle for the random blog post that I get to write every couple of weeks. Oh, how I hope that I don't forget anything important.

So...first up is Will.

This child is seriously one of the most polite, sweet, compassionate kids I know. Some of the time. Just today I watched him take his brother by the hand and lead him to me to put on his shoes. I had called Luke a couple of times and Luke did not come. Will took upon himself to be the big brother and help Luke. After I thanked Will he said "Don't worry mommy! I just needed to help Lukie!" He will gently walk up to Luke and give him a hug or even a kiss. He is constantly telling us the he loves us, and each and every time it melts my heart. If something is wrong, he always wants to know and will even try and console us. Oh, he is such a sweet boy!

He loves to say grown-up phrases when we ask him questions. If we ask him if he wants to go to Target her will say "Sure, that sounds good" or think about it and say "Yes, I can do that". He loves to play with his friends and he loves to pray for his friends. I'm pretty sure that Jack, Caia and Kenni, our good friends 2 houses down, are some blessed kids with all the prayers we send up on their behalf!

He also thinks he is grown up because he can open the fridge and get food out for himself. Today he went and opened the fridge side and the freezer side and told me that we were out of cookies(the toll-house break and bake kind). He then told me we needed to get some more. Oh, wow! I felt like I was seeing into the future a little and had a vision of Will as a teenager.

Will has been going through a weird eating phase the past couple of days. I don't feel like I can fill him up. He is constantly wanting seconds on lunch or dinner or just needing more snacks. He ate an entire bag of goldfish yesterday. I was blown away! Usually it is a fight to get Will to eat. We have to play games and offer treats. He has always eaten when he was hungry, but that never seemed to occur around family meal time. I am pleased with this new phase and hope it is not going to pass soon. But, I also wonder if it is just a growth spurt and we will be back to normal in a few days.

Will is very much into reading right now. He has always loved books, but right now it is even cooler to read any book he can find. We spend a lot of time during the day reading. He also likes puzzles, games and playing on the computer. Will is totally into firetrucks. He got a couple for Christmas and they are a joy to him. We have seen one close-up, and had the chance to sit in it over Christmas. He didn't like that. He just wants to enjoy them from afar.

We are also experiencing a little defiance from him right now, as I'm sure most three year olds like to do. But, we are doing our best to take care of it. I won't share those stories with you. I don't want you to hold Will's not so pleasant side against him!


Now for my little Luke.



Oh, my word! I love this kid! Luke is in a really fun stage right now, and it is just plain funny! I feel like we get good laughs from Luke everyday. And the funny thing is he eats it up. I think this kid is going to grow up to be the class clown. He is just so good- natured and loves to laugh!

Luke is trying his hardest to talk. He is not saying many words right now, but he has learned the word "more". He has also learned the concept. So, he chooses to stand in the kitchen all day and just say more hoping I will give him another snack! He will also say mama and dada. But the other day he started saying dado. He also has this cute singing thing he does where he just says oh-e-oh-e-oh. I guess I should try and catch that on video. He does understand everything we are saying to him and will respond and react to what we say. We aren't worried, we know he will be talking our ears off soon!

Luke also loves to read and can't get enough of books. He went through a stage, like his brother, where he would run from me when I pulled out a book to read to him. I guess he thought that I was going to try and hold him down so I could read it to him and he wanted no part of that. Now, though, it seems to comfort him and we read often. He loves to get a book and come plop himself down in your lap. That is his way of saying ok, you can read to me now. His favorite book now is "Kitty Up", which used to be WIll's favorite too!

Luke loves to play outside and his new accomplishment is climbing the ladder on our swing set. He can get himself up into the clubhouse part by himself and slide down by himself. And of course, he doesn't need our help because he thinks he is so big. When he gets up there he is so proud of himself that he likes to clap and give you a high five. That's another of his favorite things to do right now. He can't get or give enough high fives!

One of my little readers

Fresh Air

All four of us have been sick all week long. We have been housebound and some of us couch-bound and I think we were starting to get a little cabin fever. We had to get out of the house! Yesterday was such a pretty day, sunny and 73, so we decided to take the boys to Charlestowne Landing. Mimi and Poppy got us a pass for Christmas and it was the perfect day to use it.
Now, just in case you were curious as to what C-towne Landing is...it is the piece of land where the original settlers came and set up Charles Towne back in the 1600's. It is now a state park and has some historically accurate replicas of houses and a boat that would have been used during that time. There is also a zoo where you can see animals that would have been found in this part of the country when the settlers got here.
Whether you like history of not, it made for a good outing. Afterwards we took the boys to Chick-fil-A, or Chicka-fil-a as Will calls it! The boys had a blast, Mike and I were exhausted and I think the fresh air was good for us all. I don't know if we are 100% yet, but hopefully being outside on a nice day helped.

at the otter tank

The puma~he was pacing as we walked up. Evidently, he is rarely this active so I guess we were given a rare treat!

bison...still hard for me to believe that bison lived in Charleston.



the boat replica, this was by far Will's favorite place

A Christmas Recap

I think the past two weeks went by in fast forward. Honestly, it seemed like it was just a few days before Christmas a couple of minutes ago and now here we are in January. Well, I sure hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. We sure did. Here is a little recap of our Christmas...

Christmas Eve we had the chance to meet some needs of one of the families that we delivered LOVEGAVE Food boxes to. We took the boys shopping and stopped by a friends house for donations to get the things that were needed. It was neat to be able to talk to Will about sharing, giving and serving so close to Christmas.
That night we went to church and were treated to a service that was largely child focused. For us, this was awesome because it allowed our boys to be a part of the service, but it also allowed them to hear from someone else about the things we had been teaching them at home.
Once we got home, we had a bowl of vegetable soup that had been in the crockpot all day. (Thank the Lord for crockpots!) Vegetable soup is a Fessler family tradition on Christmas Eve. Now that we are a ministry family, it made sense for us to have a quick easy meal to eat after church as opposed to a fancy meal that I needed to prepare.
After dinner we let the boys open one present before putting on jammies and heading to bed. This has become a tradition of ours as well.





Christmas Day was peaceful, relaxing and enjoyable. Since we got married we have always made sure that we were in our own home on Christmas morning. Now that we live away from family and our boys are getting older, it is important to us to allow our boys the chance to stay home and play with their new toys on Christmas Day. So, that's what we did. We let the boys take their time opening their gifts and we let them spend all day playing with them. And they did!









We left for our big family Christmas trip the day after Christmas. We went to my family first this year and spent a couple of days with them. Will and Luke got to play with their cousins and all was good until Wednesday afternoon. We noticed that Luke started running a fever and then started coughing. We called the pediatrician's office and got some advice from them. The next morning we got up and got ready to head to Mike's parent's house. Luke still didn't act like he felt great. He was still running a fever and did most of the day. In fact, we could not get it to go down. We finally felt that we needed to have him seen and we ended up spending
four hours in a local emergency room to find out that Luke had a bad ear infection. He was put on antibiotics and we thought things would be ok, but the next day Will came down with a fever and was coughing as well. His fever was manageable and came down with a dose of Tylenol, but it happened again on Saturday and by Sunday, they both felt bad and would hardly eat anything. We came back home on Sunday afternoon. Monday, both boys were miserable and just wanted to be held and Mike and I started to not feel good either. The doctor's office was closed so we all had to suffer. We finally got them in to see the doctor on Tuesday and found out that Luke's ear had not cleared up and was still infected and that Will had a double ear infection with a slight case on pneumonia! What! That was not exactly the way we wanted to spend and end our Christmas vacation.

Despite the sickness, we were blessed by the chance to go home and be with our families. Our boys were spoiled by their grandparents, got way too many toys and ate way to many Christamas cookies. But that's ok. It only happens once a year!

A Christmas Lesson

So, here we are a week before Christmas and I still have things to do in preparation for our celebration next week. My plan for this Christmas season was to have everything done early. Christmas cards would be sent out at the beginning of December, shopping done before Thanksgiving, all wrapping and baking would be done the first week of December as well. Once all of this was done, it would allow my family to just sit, relax, and enjoy our "holiday". The funny thing is when I make a plan, God usually doesn't let it happen, so that he can show me the plan that he has for me. His plan also has a lesson, and this time was no different.

First, let me tell you that around Thanksgiving I started reading "Radical" by David Platt with my Life2Life group. If you want to be challenged and kicked in the rear end about how you are serving God, then this is the book for you. If not, then stay far, far away from this book, because it will change your life in a terrible way! (I say that with a lot of sarcasm! Seriously, after the Bible this is a must read for believers today.)

Our December started off with an outreach event called LoveGave Food. Our church partnered with 2 other churches here in Charleston and in Madison, MS to raise money to feed kids over Christmas Break. We were at 2 Walmart Supercenters for 58 hours straight asking for donations. We were also online with a live feed from both locations. Our goal was to feed 400 kids. We needed to raise $40,000. Well, God had other things in mind and he allowed us to raise $58,000!! It was crazy, and exhausting! We will deliver the food personally to the families twice to the designated families as Christmas Break approached.

The week after LoveGave, I got a 6:30 am phone call that my aunt who was battling cancer had passed away. All that knew my Aunt Sharon, knew that she was actively involved in sports all her life. In fact she was still playing volleyball in the Senior Olympics and traveling all over the country when she was diagnosed. She was a coach and a fierce competitor. She was at times a second mom to me, and growing up my family's backyard backed up to hers. I spent just as much time at her house sometimes as I did my own. She was well loved and was always quick to help out those who needed it. In my last conversation with her she told me that she wanted to be more generous and thoughtful. The funny thing is that these are two words that already described her. And because of that there was a 3 1/2 hour wait to see her at the funeral home. That whole weekend was overwhelming and surreal for my whole family, but it left my thinking about just how generous and thoughtful I am in my own life.

We got back to start preparing to make deliveries to the families that were to benefit from LoveGave Food. As we started making those deliveries and hearing stories of friends and their deliveries, we realized that this was much bigger than we thought. We quickly found out that we were bringing food to families in very impoverished and sometimes bad neighborhoods. We were taking food to families, who in some cases, only had a roof over their heads. Some had no furniture, no toys, no blankets, no food. No luxuries that I take for granted everyday. These families are in dire need of physical nourishment and essentials. I have been thinking about these families, and these stories, since I have seen and heard where/what they live in. I have literally been stopped-short by their lack, and embarrassed by my overabundance of things just sitting around my house. At the request of a friend I have been cleaning out my closets and garage and finding things to pass to one family who quite literally had nothing.

So, my Christmas has not been perfect and Christmas card like. It has gone nowhere near according to plan. I have been humbled and broken by the experiences that my family has gone through in the past 3 weeks. But because of this month God has taught me some important lessons. And I think those lessons are as follows:
* Life is short, so make sure you love on others with the same kind of love that He has shown us. Whether that be your dear family, your neighbor or a family in another part of town, Jesus has asked us to simply give and show love. Not just at Christmas, but all year long.
* God has not called us to be comfortable in our own houses while ignoring the needs of those around us. He has given us things, like houses, clothes, food, furniture and extra money to be able to bless those around us for His Glory.

Its so cliche, but Christmas is not about presents, cookies, perfect family dinners or even Christmas Cards. Are those things bad? No, not at all. But when you get right down to it, Christmas is about love. The love that God showed for us by sending His one and only Son to earth as a baby. He sent his Son to save us from our sin and give us the chance to have eternal life and be with God forever. Thank you God for showing me love. I pray that I can show your love to others in a way that glorifies you!

Luke's Dedication

Me and my little man!

This past Sunday was a big day for Luke, even though he didn't even know! We had the chance to dedicate Luke and our family to the Lord. Our church had a baby/family dedication service where roughly 12 families dedicated a child. It was special to us because we made a verbal commitment in front of God and our church body that we would raise our little boy to be a Christ follower and that we would teach him God's ways. There was no salvation decision made, obviously Luke is not old enough to make this yet, and there was no water baptism. These will come when Luke has made this decision for himself. But still, it was an important day in Luke's life and for our family.

Its hard to see, but this is a family shot of us on the stage.

Poppy and the boys before church.

Update on the Boys

My two little boys are growing more and more everyday. They are changing so much and I am noticing that if I don't write it down, I won't remember it! So here is what is going on with my Will and Luke.


I will start with Will. The biggest thing going for him is that he has learned to ride his bike. He started a couple of weeks ago after he saw a little boy down the street riding his bike. That's all it took, and it seemed like the next day he was an expert at riding his bike. Now he looks forward to taking walks because it means that he can ride beside me instead of riding in the stroller.



Will is still my little helper and is always looking for ways to help Mike and I. He loves to go on errands with just Mike or I. I think it is because it makes him feel like a big boy, but I also think it makes him feel special. He has come to adore his little brother and loves to play with him. He is also very protective of him and will tell me, or anyone else, to be nice to "my brudder!" It makes me smile to see his love for Luke. Of course, that doesn't mean that he is always nice to him, but it lets me know that he does love him a lot!



Now for sweet little Luke. Well, maybe I should say active and always into trouble Luke. Wow! This kid keeps us hopping. We have learned that we can not turn our back on him for a second or there will be a mess to clean up. The other day I cleaned up candle wax that he scraped out of a jar candle. Tonight I cleaned vaseline out of his hair that he used as hair gel. Of course he did this after his bath! I'm pretty sure he means well and is not trying to wear his momma out!

Last week Luke had his first haircut. Mike did it, just like he cuts Will's and his own. I was not quiet ready for it, but Mike thought it was time. He didn't get a full cut, but enough of a trim to make him look like a big boy.



Let's see what else is Luke doing? Well, he has also become quite a dancer. He will start dancing anytime he hears music. Sometimes he just bobs his head up and down and sometimes he moves from foot to foot, but he loves it! We are starting to see his athletic ability come out. He is kicking a soccer ball, he has been doing it for a while, and is throwing with his left hand. And just the other night he actually shot a basketball into their little basketball goal in the playroom. For awhile he would walk up and drop the ball through the net, but not anymore. He takes an actual shot. Crazy! His independent nature is starting to show. He no longer needs mommy to do a lot of things. He wants to do everything by himself, so we let him, for the most part. What a big boy he thinks he is!


These two little boys are so special to us. Mike and I are truly thankful for both of them!

Play time

Both of our boys adore playing outside. Here recently we have had some pretty amazing weather, so what better to do than be outside in the beautiful 75 degree weather! Most days we stay at home and play in the backyard. We have a swing-set in our backyard along with several other outdoor toys. But last week we went to a cute little playground on Daniel Island called Pirate Park. It had an actual pirate ship and a lighthouse to play on. It also had treasure chests full of sand to dig in. Seriously, it was so cute and my boys had a blast! They played hard and slept hard that night!