By Keighla Schmidt, Correspondent

The noodles are cooking on the stove top, all four dogs are yipping around the house, the boys are jumping and flipping from couch to couch, the girls are eating ice cream and talking about their days back at school and on top of it all of this there is a neighbor kid over. Sound like a typical family of eight? Look again.The Exline-Nelson home in Lakeville is anything but ordinary.

Brother and sister Zack and Dylan Nelson moved in with Maddie, Kelsey, Taylor, Ben, Michelle and Joel Exline in January after their mother, Anne, died from complications of lung cancer. Just six months before their mom died, their dad, Graig, died of melanoma, a form of skin cancer.

To help, a fundraiser is being held in Shakopee for the family to help offset the purchase of a new vehicle. The evening will include a silent auction, a live band, food catered by Lund’s and a Wii Guitar Hero contest. The event will be from 4 to 11 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13 at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 1760 Fourth Ave. E. For more information on the event call Elizabeth Badillo Moorman at (612) 203-3378.

Graig and Joel grew up with each other as childhood friends and became close. Anne and Michelle developed a close friendship during their high school years.“She was something else,” Michelle said. “When Anne walked into a room, she would smile and it was contagious … we miss them both.” 

As if by fate, Anne and Graig started dating and eventually got married and the foursome remained close friends. After the two couples started families, the kids grew up spending time together.

When Anne’s health was deteriorating, she told Michelle she and Graig wanted her to raise their kids. There wasn’t any hesitation.

“When she told me, I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a big honor,’” Michelle recalled. “When I called to talk to Joel about it, he started to cry on the phone – this big 6-2 guy crying … I asked him what should we do. He immediately said we would take them in, I agreed.”

Anne died two days before her Jan. 6 birthday, and shortly after, Zack and Dylan left their home in Savage and fell asleep on bunk beds in the new Lakeville home. Michelle and Joel became their legal guardians. Their older brother, Scott, remained living on his own, but is welcome in the home.

Dylan, 13, said it was an adjustment living with sisters and a younger brother, but she’s getting used to the move.

Kelsey, 17, said when her parents had her youngest brother, Ben, 4, she thought they were done getting more siblings.

“I never expected more kids,” she said. “But you just gotta live with it. We have our stressful days, but we all get along – it’s fun.”

Oldest daughter Maddie, 19, came home from school in May and as soon as she got off the plane Dylan gave her a big hug.

“And that was it, we’re really close. I’ll text her at night and we talk and have nighttime snacks,” she said. “I came home and talked to Zack about everything. It was never awkward - it’s not like we were meeting someone new.”

Even 8-year-old Taylor introduced Dylan as her sister to friends. Michelle said the family has done some adjusting and she’s slowly learning the recipes the kids like and becoming more open to talking about the parents.

The day Anne talked to her family, her children and the Exlines about finalizing plans for the kids to live with them, she and Michelle said they would take a day to share parenting ideals, recipes and other details.

“We never got that chance. It was just a whirlwind after that,” Michelle said. “They both had just lost their whole world, their parents, their school their friends on the block,” she said. “It’s hard enough to help them change schools. How do you help them grieve the loss of their parents at the same time?”

The two were shy to talk about their feeling and their parents at first, but with time and by keeping in close contact with old friends and staying active at their church, Michelle said, they’re adjusting. 

“It’s been interesting and wonderful to watch how they’re becoming part of our family,” she said. She recalled the first time Dylan called their home “home,” and another when she said she wanted to “spend time with her family.”

“That was a great feeling. Joel and I felt really good when we heard her say that,” she said.

The family, however, faces some challenges. Sharing a bedroom with someone much older or younger can be hard. So, Zack and Dylan’s uncle surprised the blended family with an addition to the house and consequentially, their own bedrooms.

“At my old house nothing in my bedroom matched,” Dylan said. “Everything was hand-me-down furniture; now everything matches.”

An addition was built and the furnishings, time and supplies were all donated.

“We’re just amazed that people would put this together for us,” Michelle said. “We didn’t expect anyone to do anything. You don’t (take in kids in need) for recognition or help, you do it to help the kids and your friends.”

While Kelsey has been eager to help tote kids to activities and help with things around the house, the family doesn’t have a vehicle large enough to carry everyone at once.

Keighla Schmidt can be reached at kschmidt@swpub.com.