Fall is here!!!

Oh i love this weather... the air is turning a little cooler and perfect campfire weather and apple pickin'. The weekend has gone by soooo fast. All this time is quickly passing .. can't believe, what it has been 9 weeks??? since we got these great kids.

This week we have been really working on the potty training. I haven't gone anywhere far form the house so we can have the kids all in underwear. We have had a few accidents, but we think we are making progress, they have all now gone on the potty. Now, is just the consistency. Hopefully they will grasp this soon!!! :-)

Sunday we took the kids out to Pioneer Ridge, where i worked on the education garden all summer. The kids were able to pick the pumpkins, tomatillos, green beans, spaghetti squash, acorn squash, apples, and pears ... all what mommy spent all summer growing. I have been working on this garden for the last 3 years, as part of a educational piece for school children to learn about gardening. This summer we had preschoolers, third graders, and some shelter school kids out to the garden for programming.

The kids had a wonderful time running around and filling their buckets. So needless to say we have had lots of good fruits and vegetables to eat the last couple of days ... cinnamon applesauce, squash pancakes, tomatillo salsa, and tomorrow i am going to make a pear and apple crisp.

The kids have enjoyed it... you just have to give the stuff fun names... like spaghetti squash was "magic spaghetti".

So we have had a fun time... and can't wait for more fun times soon.

Love, The Schulte's

Caution: following pictures are irresitable!! ;-)

Our Little Princesses

And check out the flying ability of our little guy!!!

Okay to say i needed an outlet this week would be an understatement. So, like usual i find a project and go crazy on it. i was looking on the web for cool picture ops for baby Lincoln and stumbled across a cool pic of a girl sitting in a tutu. Adorable! So then i went on my favorite site to buy cute things and came across these tutus that ladies were making and figured i can do it myself! And the end product is adorable!!! So i went crazy went to Wal-mart and have been making the tutus ever since!

The girls just love them they danced around in the loft all day and were mad when i made them take them off to eat lunch and dinner. And since the girls were getting something X wanted one.... but daddy wouldn't allow that... so mommy made X (a poorly sewn because lord knows i hate to sew!) cape. With a big X on the back for the Little Prince.

They were so cute... and loved to get their photo taken today! it's days like today that make me glad that i am here with them spending every minute having fun dancing around the living room!

Still Sick

Okay.. so our house is just dripping with runny noses! Saturday morning the kids woke up with a cold, this includes runny noses, congestion, and now a cough. I have checked for fever, but so far luckily no one has had a fever. So saturday we got up and had breakfast (nate made omelets!) and then got our buckeye gear on to watch the game. I put up Rosetta's hair in twists and nate mowed the lawn before the game started. Then we watched the game... this time because they were sick x and r both fell asleep. (they hadn't slept well friday night)

Also friday night we had given them a bath in our bath tub for the first time... and put on the jets... mental note the bubbles go crazy in jets. The kids LOVED it!!! I couldn't even get them out!

They also saw baby colt this weekend... as you can see G loves babies. Maybe a little to much... this picture was taken Friday night before they were sick... sorry Amber :-( Hope little Colt doesn't get this.

Saturday night we had a going away party at a friends house across the street.... the kids had helped me make cupcakes and a lemon poppy seed cake..... since they were sick i didn't let them frost the cupcakes only sprinkle sprinkles on them.... as to not pass on this disease!!! :-)

Sunday we spent sleeping and lounging around the house to feel better. We brought up the sleeping bags and layed them all over the floor and had a slumber party. We went to redbox a got 2 movies and watched them on the floor cuddled up in sweat pants and lounge clothes.

Then Monday began and Nate went back to work...I don't know if R clued in to what was going on last week, or just decided to test me and Nate but this week has not been easy. We have had a few accidents, R picking fights, weird conversations, and to top it all off.... X and G are fighting over mommy. This all has frayed my nerves. But i have the best husband in the world, who took the kids to the store last night so mom could have a little peace. I spent the time taking a much needed shower and sorting through the closet full of stuff that the displaced material from the kids rooms went. I really made a dent in sorting and putting away in appropriate places.

So we are going through a few growing pains this week... but still having good times too.. between the blowing of the noses. The sunny part in this is that Nate hasn't gotten sick. At least I only have 3 kids to take care of instead of 3 plus one big guy! ;-)

Breathing a Bit Easier

So today feels like a totally different day... the last few days we haven't been able to sleep or function for fear of losing these kids. Which is ridiculous because they have only been in our lives for 7 weeks ... but they are ours in our heart. So yesterday seemed to go as good as we could have asked for. I did give the father an album of pictures of the kids and he did comment that they look happy, so i hope he believes that this is the best place for these kids to be.

Our adoption counselor says the worst is behind us and we are just going to contimue to plug away at all the required paperwork and process to adopt these kids and the adoptinn will be finalized in 2010. We will keep you posted, but i just wanted to thank everyone for all their prayers.

Thanks -- 3 little monkeys jumping on the bed!

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Pioneer Weekend

So we have just returned home from Kalida. The kids are in bed and we are trying to get everything out of the car and laundry put away, dogs fed, ... oh who are we kidding we are both here on the couch watching football. :-)

The weekend seemed to go as well as we could have hoped. The kids seemed to understand the whole way to Ohio that we were going to be staying at Nana Pam's and PaPa Bill's. We got in about 2 am on Saturday morning... G we found out really doesn't like the dark in the car. She pretty much was unhappy and aggravated from Angola, IN till we turned in the driveway at Pam & Bill's house. They went down pretty easy... when i took Rosetta to the potty she was looking pretty curiously at everything like where are we???

Saturday morning we woke up and the kids saw Grandma Pam once again. This time it was a little different because they remembered her and got to play and run around. They even played shopping cart and were toting around her canned goods around the house. Nate brought G in Neil's room to wake him up, but got a surprise when Neil made a BIG snore and scared G half to death ( we won't be telling the social worker we did that! :-)

We took the kids up to the Car Show and saw some old John Deere tractors and then rode the car ride with Megan and Lauren. The kids seemed to like it... and wanted to go again after we had our first social burger. They are a big fan of carnie fries!!! They then went back to Pam & Bill's for a 2 1/2 hour nap. When they woke up we got them ready to go see Megan's cheerleading competition. We went up there and were able to sit on the stage, which wasn't surrounded by alot of people and was perfect!! Xavier was really into the music and was bee bopping his head to the dancing. Rosetta liked it too and told nate she wanted to be a cheerleader and dance! After the cheerleading, x had asked to see cows, so we took them out to Grandma Schulte's. They got to see cows and baby cows. When G saw the baby cows she said "Hello Baby Cows"

We then got to see up close John Deere tractors and got a few pictures on the green machines. Then the kids got on their pjs and watched the 1st quarter of the OSU game. They are pretty good and saying OH -- IO now!!!

Sunday morning they slept in until about 9 am..... which mommy and daddy needed after going out and seeing friends that night!!! We had breakfast and then got ready for the parade. The kids were excited they knew we kept bringing up that they were going to get CANDY!! We drove up there and got lunch first and the kids got corndogs and snow cones!!! They sat so nicely at the parade and were extremely well behaved. IT was a great sign to see them looking towards us to get permission to get up and go on the road to get candy and even when strangers came up to say hi they really didn't say hi until we told them they could.

Imagine being in their shoes and seeing all these strangers and your parents say hi to some and tell you this one is your aunt and this one is mommy friend and this one is your cousin or your daddy's cousin..... but now when we go to the store and say "hi" to be polite to a random stranger that is not someone you hug or interact with... very confusing when you think about it like that!?! So they did very well for not knowing anyone. They also could remember some people's names and point to pictures of Uncle Neil and Cuz Megan and Baby Lincoln. So they are learning!!

So i think the trip was a success. We are coming back in three weeks, so the kids will get to meet even more of you and get to know all of you better. We show them all the families pictures when we talk to you on the phone or talk about you. I will keep you posted on this week as soon as we hear what goes on on Thursday. Keep us in your prayers.

Love -- lynn, nate and the kids

Good Night!!!

Labor Day Fun

The weekends are so fun because Daddy is home!! Friday night we took the kids to the park and ate supper there and played on the huge jungle gym. The kids had a blast. They thought they were in heaven because we had a picnic for lunch and they got to have supper outside.

Saturday we had the kids pumped up for buckeye Football. They now say O-H I-O and can notice the buckeye symbol everywhere. We had them dressed up in their OSU attire and they sat for the first half downstairs watching the game. At half time i took X with me to go pick up Subway.

After the game we had the kids up and playing outside and going on a bike ride. Saturday night nate went with some of our firends to our good friend Ryan's fight. I stayed at home with the kids and also watched Amber's little boy Colt. The kids were wonderful with him. Colt was a sweetheart and G fell in love with him. She wanted to kiss him the whole time. They played on teh floor with him and watched him in shifts while i was taken my kids to the potty. they kept giving me updates .. like Colt is smiling... Colt is saying MaMa... Colt isn't crying. It was sweet. It was the first night that I was the only one putting them to sleep and the kids did great. they all listened to the bedtime story said goodnight and went to bed. (Heavenly)

Sunday we got the whole family up and went to church for the first time. The kids were so well behaved. They were perfect little angels. Then yesterday, Daddy made chocolate chip pancakes for lunch and the kids played inside while I mowed the lawn. The kids also helped us rake up the grass that was a little long. We had friends over for dinner that night and the kids played and played until they were exhausted.

And today we just tried to have a relaxing monday. It has been so nice having Nate home, he even made Chili for supper tonight and the kids loved that and the cornbread to go with It!!

It was the first Holiday for us as a family.... and it was Great! Can't wait till we have another 3 day weekend!!!

Life Has Changed!!

Okay -
For all of you who have been looking for updates on the blog here you go.... Nate and I have been sending e-mails to our family updating them on the day to day happenings of our NOW big family. On July 16th we were contacted by our adoption agency --first two sentences of the e-mail read like this.... Lynn and Nate I am just throwing something out for you to consider - or maybe you know immediately it would be a "no". Would you ever consider having an instant family?

Okay so i have to say we were intrigued!! We were told of a sibling group of three children in the Des Moines Area ages 4,3, and 2. We at that point did not even no genders. They said there was a pending death situation and the hospital has contacted them. Our adoption profile seemed to meet alot of their criteria and they wanted to know if we were interested in learning more. So right away, nate and i said "no" then we would think about it more and then say "why not". Oh i left out that they did tell us that the children were of African American Heritage.

A week and a half of learning tidbits of information occurred after that. One Monday our adoption agency called to see if we could meet the kids the next day the grandma was really sick and wanted to meet the possible couple. We of course said yes and went to meet the kids the next day. We walked into our adoption agency and they placed Munchkin in my arms. She is the 2 year old, and is such an angel. Her smile could melt ya. Then Little Prince, 3, and Little Princess, 4, came in form a walk and they were both very shy -- i showed them pictures of our puppies and nate played ball with them. That night i told them give us 48 hours and we can take the kids. So our decision was made.

We then started back to Home, thinking of all the things we needed to prepare before three kids came into our lives in less than 2 days. We stopped to eat on our way home, and called both sets of our parents to tell them the good news. Now, we know nothing is final and some legal stuff needs to be sorted out.. but the kids have been in our care for 5 weeks now.

The kids are adorable, but we think the honeymoon period is over. They are all showing their true personalities. Princess is 4, she says she likes Hannah Montana -- but i don't think she know what that is? Her favorite color was pink... but today it is orange. She definitely takes on the older sister roll as taking care of the other two. She has really attached to nate and likes to be held by him alot. They have a bond. She likes to do puzzles and is just starting to sit down and try to read a book. (or act like mommy and daddy reads it!) She also loves doing anything Mommy is... like doing dishes, washing everyone hands, cooking, etc.

Prince is 3, he loves anything spiderman, batman or superman. He loves to sing at all times and has contagious laughter. He is tiny for his age, but really adventurous. He is very ornery and likes to get into trouble. He is an extremely quick learning and had bicycling down in no time.

Munchkin is 2 and her smile is so precious. She loves food-- anything but peanut butter. Happy go lucky and loves to watch Mickey Mouse and Dora. She loves to be held and is very smart for her age, she is already singing her ABC's.

So this is our family. It is in a transition and we are just getting the hang of things, but everyday we getting better at understanding one another and becoming one big happy family!

I will keep the blog More updated from now on.... i just needed to get some sleep first! ;-)

http://www.farandaway-ouradoptionjourney.blogspot.com/