Weekend at Papa's and Grandma's

After a busy and exciting Thanksgiving we got to spend some downtime at Papa’s house.

The girls spent the day on Friday baking cookies. Hadley and Zoey Belle did their best to help, but Lindsey was a baking machine. Along with Grandma’s help, they made a few dozen cookies in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Hadley’s favorite was the “mouse” that she made.

On Saturday, we frosted the cookies and the girls were less interested in helping frost and more interested in eating the treats.

We planned on leaving for York at lunch time, but Zoey Belle and I decided that naps were more important and we both crashed for a couple of hours. This worked out great because it allowed Hadley to get a dune-buggy ride with Papa Mark. She loved seeing a dead deer carcass and continually exclaimed, “That dead deer is so awesome!”. It was fun to watch her standing and riding in the dune-buggy just like I had a quarter century ago.

After a supper with the folks in Arlington, we made the trek back. Hadley zonked out the instant the car hit the road, but Zoey Belle was in it for the long haul. She did great and kept us entertained with her giggling and “stories”.

Click HERE for all the Photos from the weekend

Thanksgiving

We had one heck of a Thanksgiving break. We began by heading to the farm for the last part of the week. On Thursday we met up with the Schmit family and had all sorts of fun.

Hadley and Zoey Belle were both completely engrossed by Amy and Jon’s dog. I’m not sure how long they sat and stared out the window at her, but the only thing that tore them away was lunch.

Classic Schmit Thanksgiving lunch of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, corn and assorted salads and desserts. Hadley sat downstairs with the kids and did a pretty good job of eating and interacting. I think it’s tough for her at times to keep up with the older cousins, but they do a great job of trying to keep her involved.

Zoey Belle was showing signs of exhaustion early and missed the first part of lunch to have a quick nap. After that, she enjoyed getting fed and spoiled by her grandma and papa.

The traditional football game came next and Hadley came right along. Once we got to the football field, she was quickly distracted by the playground equipment and decided to spend her time there. Thanks to Barb, Carrie and anyone else who might have kept an eye on her over there.

Because and hour and a half of football isn’t enough for kids with energy, we headed back to the house where all the kids spent hours playing tag and soccer in the backyard. Overall another successful and fun Schmit Thanksgiving.

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family and the two best little girls in the entire world.

Click HERE for all the Thanksgiving Pictures

Smarty Pants

Hadley has picked up from somewhere, “Well, aren’t you Mrs. Smarty Pants.” Except, she cannot quite get the hang of the “sm” sound. So she has been going around saying, “Well, aren’t you Mrs. Farty Pants.” And then she giggles and laughs endlessly.

Her and Zoey Belle have been two peas in a pod the past few days. They are doing everything together. It is actually very nice to have them entertaining themselves, especially this week when we have some extra things going on.

Yesterday I was able to take Hadley to meet Olivia. I even got to give her a bottle, and she did well. She is so cute! Hadley wanted to be able to kiss her and we told her no. She replied with, “but I just love her so much…but not too much.” Hadley wasn’t quite understanding the concept of gentleness, so I think next time I go to see Olivia I will do it alone. It will probably still be another month before Olivia can go anywhere, but maybe then she will be a little bit more sturdy.

We have been baking up a storm and tomorrow we are cooking a meal for the basketball team at the college. They are still in town and the cafeteria is shut down, but there are still 20 hungry guys to feed, so our church is volunteering to make them meals. We signed up with another couple to feed all of the guys, so we are getting things ready for that. After that is done we will be preparing for the Schmit family Thanksgiving. Eric is wanting me to bake more chocolate cupcakes, so it looks like there is more baking in my future.

Batman Girl

Our weekend has flown by. On Friday Dondi and Julie came to help us out so we could fix our garage roof and since I was going to be gone all day Saturday helping a friend, Julie was going to watch the kids. They seemed to have all sorts of fun and the girls really enjoyed their time with Grandma and Papa. On Saturday night we marked a milestone; Eric and I had our first paid babysitter for the girls. I won’t deny we have been spoiled. We have always had Emily to watch the girls for us and we have never taken that for granted. Now, with the new addition to our family, we decided it was time to branch out and find more options for sitters so it will be possible for Eric and I to leave the house once in a while. Everything went great, and Hadley was super excited.

This morning the girls were up and at ’em early so we had plenty of time to get ready for church and class. We haven’t gone to class for a long time because we have either been out of town or someone has been sick. Zoey Belle did not cry at all when we left her in class, which was also a new milestone. She almost always throws a fit when we leave her in class, but today she just wanted to play with the other kids. The whole day Hadley wanted to be “Batman Girl” so she wore her black dress and did “good things” like Batman Girl apparently does. Eric and I appreciated it though because she followed our instructions and was very pleasant to be around today. She also said that Daddy is the Joker and everyone else is Bat Girl. Eric kept trying to convince her that Mommy is the Penguin, but she never really went for that.

At bedtime, Zoey climbed out of her crib once, but Eric put her right back in bed and she didn’t get out again, so hopefully this won’t be too much of a problem. We’ll find out soon enough…

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Skateboarding with Dad

I left work a few minutes early so that I could beat the sunset and get outside with the girls for a little bit.

Hadley and Zoey spent awhile riding their bikes while I enjoyed some skateboarding. It wasn’t long, though, before Zoey Belle lost interest in the bike she can’t peddle and wanted to shred with dad.

After Linds taking some pictures, I switched it up and took Hadley for a couple rides on the ramp. Hadley is much heavier than Zoey Belle, but I didn’t fall and/or injury anyone, so we’ll call it a success.

Click HERE for the Photos

Decorations

The past few days have been very busy. We went to Eric’s cousin’s wedding reception on Friday night. The whole ride there had Eric and I questioning why we ever thought it was a good idea to have kids. Both girls screamed bloody murder the whole way (1.5 hours.) It was not pretty.

The actual reception was very nice and a lot of fun. We saw the Schmit side of the family and got to visit for a while with everyone.

Saturday night we went over to our friends house and had fun playing over there. The guys watched some football and us girls visited while the kids played. Our friends have a little girl who is almost two and the kids had a lot of fun playing together.

On Sunday some of the girls from church and I threw Emily a baby shower. I think it went very well, and hopefully Emily will be one step closer to welcoming Olivia home. That evening we went to eat with Eric’s parents and finally headed home to get the kids in bed. It seemed like the weekend just took on a life of it’s own, but we sure did have fun.

Now that our week has slowed back to normal speed, I can share some of the funny stuff that Hadley has been up to. Tuesday night, Hadley was hiding a stamp in her room. For some reason she got up out of bed and came into the living room. Eric and I couldn’t even ask her what she needed because we both started laughing at what we saw. She had marked all over her face with the stamp. When I tried to get it cleaned off she lost it. She started to cry and scream, “Nooooo!!!!! That’s my decoration!!!!” She high tailed it back into her bed to get away from me wiping her clean. Eric and I just could not stop laughing. We did manage to take a few pictures in the midst of the whole thing.

So much to do

Normally, I would say the girls and I are not that busy. I hear a lot of other moms complain about everything they have to do and how they have no time to do it, and I am so thankful that I really don’t fit into this category. Lately though, it seems like it has been a different story. There are a ton of groceries to buy, things to clean (and I’ll be honest, that part did not get done yet), seasonal clothes to switch out, dance classes to attend, bills to pay and countless other things on our “to do” list.

The best thing I am learning from all of this is that a “to do” list means nothing when you have a precious new niece. I feel bad for our girls that they have not yet met their new cousin, but I just cannot wait until we can cuddle and snuggle her. I have been enjoying extra time spent with Emily and I am feeling that relationships are just a little bit more important than the dusting this week.

Olivia also makes me focus more on living in the moment with my own children. While our girls were never as small as Olivia (she is up to 4# 3.2 oz!!!!) I am realizing how the past three and a half years have flown by and how every day of those years, I have questioned my abilities to do what I am doing. I have come to the realization that if I have faith in myself the same way that God has faith in me to be the mother of my two daughters, I will probably do just fine.

I haven’t asked Emily and Glenn to post pictures of their little cutie, but when I remember to and if I get the go ahead, I will post some. She is just so sweet…kind of like my girls.

Hadley loves rainbow ice cream

Olivia is here

This past Friday we were lucky enough to meet the newest member of the family, Olivia Tandy.

Due to strict hospital rules, the girls weren’t able to go in hospital. But Hadley and Zoey Belle were excited to get to spend time at the Schmit house. We are extemely grateful for Barb for warching the kids so that we could see Emily, Glenn and the baby.

After we saw Olivia, we headed for Papa and Grandma’s house. It ended up being a late night and Zoey Belle was up quite a bit. She is over her H1N1, but now she’s got some teeth pushing through, so that’s been fun.

Linds and mom headed to the craft show and dad and I stayed with the kids. We got some chores done, took a tractor to Fremont, saw G&G Schmit, played with kitties and got to go in the hot tub.

A busy day, but fun and the weather was amazing.

Special Delivery

Today, in the early morning, we received a call saying that Emily (Eric’s sister) was at the hospital because her water had broke. She is 33 weeks along, so baby Olivia is showing everyone early, just who is in charge. Point taken.

Our girls are all geared up to go to the Schwarz’ house for the afternoon/evening so we can travel to the hospital and see Emily and Glenn. The plan as of right now, is for her to have a C-section on Friday since Olivia is breech. She is just over 4 lbs, so she is just going to be a little peanut.

Unfortunately, Zoey Belle and Hadley will probably have to wait a while to meet their first cousin since Zoey is still dealing with her H1N1.

Please be praying for everyone’s health and safety! I know Eric and I are excited to be meeting our new niece!