Happy New Year!

Wow…our first Christmas as one big happy family is over! It was a busy, exhausting, and very happy holiday! The kids were spoiled (of course!!) they got all kinds of great gifts like a kitchen set, easel, clothes, a vacaum cleaner, a shoping cart, a VERY large play house, and Lots Lots more.


December 22nd
We made cookies on tuesday... this was a day I told everyone we were staying at Bill and Pam's and relax. We helped Grandma Pam make christmas cookies and went to go see Cousin Megan's calfs. The kids loved the cows... they still talk about them.

Uncle Dale playing Candyland... learning that you better watch R or she will cheat! heehee

Waiting for Santa under the tree.... I luv luv this picture!!!! This was taken at grandma schulte's. They were all laying under the tree listnening to some music. Picture Perfect!!!They all look a little tired!!! Everyday the kids slept really well during naps.
Christmas Eve -- December 24th

On christmas eve we always have the Schulte christmas. The kids got their first taste of christmas's to come..... they got spoiled! We had some wonderful food (chicken noodle soup over mashed potatoes.... YUM!) and wine.

Uncle Dale and Aunt Stacy got Xavier the full Fireman getup. With remote control fire engine, fire helmet, awesome fire coat, fireman books, axe, and much more..... He is crazy about it!!!
Christmas Day
Nate and I also learned a few things such as… as new parents YOU MUST have every type of battery ready for when your children come to you and say “please can open this” and you notice it takes 4 D batteries, or 6 C batteries or 4 AAA batteries (and you have NO batteries UGH!) Everything requires batteries. Next year we will be prepared. Christmas at the Blankemeyer's.Baby Lincoln's first christmas.... so cute!!!Tradition... the Blankemeyer's playing games. It wouldn't be christmas if there wasn't some competive game and someone was crying!! ;-)

December 26th -- the Day After
The day after christmas was a detox day. We went over to Megan and Lauren's house and played with all the christmas toys.... talk about weird.... Stacy and I both got a mother's ring for chirstmas and Dale and Nate both got WII?? and no one talked to each other about it????

The kids had a blast playing over at their house, so the kids stayed over night for a slumber party!! Mom and Dad got to go out and meet up with some friends. (got to take advantage of babysitter's while we have them right??)
December 27th

The kids and us got to see all kinds of family on this trip. We saw many extended family members and the kids did wonderfully, they played with other kids amazingly and they did well even though they were out of their routine. Nate and I even got to visit with some of our friends back home and went out to dinner on Tuesday night “Columbus Style” to a wonderful restaurant which had amazing martinis and mussels and pimento cheese & guacamole (who would have thunk?!?)

Our trip home was an adventure. R came done with some sort of bug…before now my kids have kind of been in a bubble .. so this was our first real sickness. It took us 11 ½ hours to get home.
7 stops
5 throw-ups
3 dirty pants
5 hours of snow falling
3 views of Hannah Montana
1 really slippery spot where we ALMOST lost control
And 2 VERY TIRED PARENTS!!!!!


This is what our kitchen looked like after we emptied both vehicles UGH!!!!!!

X couldn't wait to play with the toys so we did it amungst the mess!!!!

Needless to say we all got a good night's rest that night.... and decided not to worry about the mess until morning.

Now it is New Year's Day and we are sitting hear watching the Buckeyes and cheering them on. The kids are in their buckeye gear and they love playing upstairs with their kitchen set and easel and all the new toys. Soon I will post a pick of the loft before and after the christmas toys.... a little different! :-)

Happy New Year and here is a toast to a wonderful year filled with love and joy. 2010 will be a year of finalizations (adoption), new beginnings (school), many firsts with the kids, and more fun trips as a family. I can't wait to see what we are instore for this year........

Family is not as much about being related by blood as it is being related by LOVE>

Home for the Holidays

So Christmas Is Here... at least the Christmas Party Season!!! On Friday Night, we had our John Deere christmas party!!! It was alot of fun, it was good to see some of the John Deere wives i don't see alot... and even some of our friends that now that we have children we don't get to socialize with alot! :-( It was very nice to enjoy a Friday night out dressed up and with my honey!!! (thanks bunches Angie for finding a babysitter!!!)

(Amber, Me, and Angie)

Then the next morning we woke up bright and early and me and the kids got on the road to go back to Ohio to see the family. The kids did wonderfully on the drive home. We watched a few movies, sang some songs, and ate some yummy snacks!

When we arrived in Kalida we headed to Nana Judy's for the Unverferth Xmas. We got to see all their cousins even Will from Florida. The kids had a blast playing and it was the really first time they fought me leaving somewhere. UGH!~ Oh there's no place like home for the holidays... it is to bad that daddy can't be here to enjoy it with us!! We miss you... hurry here!!!
On Sunday we had cousin Willy's birthday party, the kids finally had to be patient while someone else opened the gifts.... good practice before xmas day!!!

Happy 6th Birthday Will!!!

The kids have also been able to play in the snow here. Of course the snow followed us, but this is the snow you dream about.... the PERFECT packing snowball snow! Watch out some of them hurt!!! heehee SO i had brought all their gear home with me and we modified some of our old snowmobile suits for faith, Jacob and Will... and we headed off into thte snow!

Thumpetty thump thump thumpety thump thump

Look at Frosty go

Thumpetty thump thump thumpety thump thump

Over the hills of snow

Here is a kid from Florida who loves the snow!!!!

look at that face what is not to LOVE!!!!

The kids have had a absolutely wonderful time here in Ohio playing head on until they crash at night. There is just soooo much to do that it is overwhelming. Daddy starts heading here tomorrow and then Santa Claus so the kids are excited. Right now they are sleeping after making Christmas cookies with Grandma Pam all morning. That's the other thing.. these kids are NOT used to having all this sugar. Talk about bouncing off walls!! ;-)

Sugar.. Sugar...Sugar...

Well... christmas is closing fast... I can't believe we are headed home on saturday! I really can't believe it because i am not ready to go yet... not everything is done. But i couldn't have gotten done what i have if it wasn't for having Aunt Kathy here this week. She has been a big help with getting errands done, and even fitting in time for me to go on a date with my hubby!!!

Today, I took R to meet her teacher and see her school which she will be attending. She was really excited. FIRST we stopped at the vet to drop the dogs off to groomed...and of course that cannot be uneventful!! Archie started to really shake when i brought him in and when the vet Dr. Lori took him from my arms he starting having a "vocal seizure" he foamed at the mouth and moved his jaw uncontrollably... before they could get the meds to stop it.... he was back to normal. BUT it was scary. POOR BABY!!

He was monitored all day, and he has never had a seizure before so they said it could be epilepsy or could be brought on by stress. So we are going to keep a close eye on him. They took some blood tests to rule out some things so we will see.... only our family!?! UGH!

Then we stopped by R's school.... she was super excited... but was VERY quiet while we were there. We met her teacher (even nate came from work to be with us to walk around!) looked at her classroom, and saw the playground she will play in. After we left the school, she talked once again... and wanted to play school with G when we got home! SO CUTE!!

Her backpack is packed and she is ready for school once we get back from Ohio.

Then the kids after naptime... got to make gingerbread houses!! They are really hard! I don't ever remember putting a gingerbread house together ... but they are not easy!

Then we made Christmas cookies all day. We made sugar cookies, molasses cookies, gingerbread cookies, and a couple more.... NOW my feet hurt and i am tired. So i am going to put my feet up and relax. See everyone soon!!!

Icepacks and Ibprofen

We are home!!! Yeah, our little R made it through her surgery... what a big girl!! It was excruciating and unnerving sitting in the waiting room and waiting. We were at the hospital, of course, 2o minutes early! They put us right into the room and i had brought plenty of things to keep us entertained while we waited so we played with the baby, read a book with the tag reader, watched Dora and Diego, and waited.... then the nurse came in. Rosetta asked alot of questions about what each person was doing. She kept asking if they could do it to her doll baby first... so the doll baby had its temp taken and oxygen level taken. I stayed with her as long as i could... then i had to go into the waiting room. UGH!!

I have never had to leave my child in a dr.'s hand before while i waited for them to poke and prod them... it is horrible. I know it was just mouth surgery (which by the way they called full mouth reconstruction!!! -- that freaked me out!!!) but as i was sitting in the waiting room... i was freaking out and counting the hours until the dr. called R's name. The surgery took 1 hour and 40 minutes... so of course when hour and 1/2 went by and it was 1 hour and 31 minutes... i was on the edge of my seat thinking what could be wrong. It turns out when the dr. got in there he ended up pulling another tooth and putting in not one BUT two spacers!

While we were at the hospital -- aunt Kathy was watching the other two at home.... when i talked to her on the phone she said that the kids asked if R was going to die? It makes my heart break... they are soooo traumatized by hospitals since their mother and grandma passed away. Hopefully after seeing R go to the hospital and then come back unscathed... okay reasonably unscathed.... they will see that it is not all bad endings.

When they let me go back into R's room, she was not in there yet. But i heard her crying as soon as they her bed came through the door. They couldn't make out what she wanted other than apple juice. but as soon as she saw me she was trying to get out of the hospital bed. So as soon as they had her bed locked I crawled in and she got on my lap. They brought her an apple juice and she downed it and then they brought out another. They also brought her oreos... which i thought was weird since she just had all her teeth worked on ... but she did eat one??? ouch!

The nurse and i tried to roll her over when she was sleeping, so i could get up since i was falling off and holding on to the rail for my life, but R woke up instantly and started to cry.... so i did not get up anymore.... she only wanted to go home so the nurse's help me dress her and then they brought a wheelchair, But she wanted me to carry her! Putting her into the car seat was another story ... since she didn't want to let go!

And now we are home, the littlest two are in bed... and R is comfy on the couch watching Hannah Montana. Thanks for all the prayers... we are all okay! I don't know if the tooth fairy will come tonight... does he come if she doesn't even know it came out??? I do have it in my purse though.. THANK GOD that they put it in to a little box.... eewwwww!

Now, to relax and enjoy Aunt Kathy being her and hanging out!

Send you new updates soon!

Princess and the Frog

Disney's newest Princess...... Princess Tiana And our little princess..... Mommy was able to take R and X to the movies this afternoon. We saw the movie "The princess and the frog" it was a very cute movie... with of course a beautiful princess. X was enthralled with the movie and as much as R tried to fight she finally fell asleep half way through the movie. I have to admit it was pretty cute and had some catchy tunes!!!

My favorite character was an alligator who plays jazz music and only wants to play music but all the humans are scared of him!! And there is a firefly names Raymond who is in love with a bright firefly in the sky Evangeline (who is actually is a star!)

It was nice to take the kids to the movies and enjoy it. And daddy had G and Daddy time at home ..... she has been momma's girl all week so it was good to get away for a little bit :-)

So if you want to see a cute movie with a beautiful princess go and see it!!! I am sure i will have to download the songs from the movie so the kids can sing them as well.... i am really getting tired of listening to Hannah Montana ALL THE TIME!!!

Okay, now i have to prepare for R's surgery tomorrow. We have to be at the hospital at 9 am tomorrow for the dentist to do his magic inside her mouth. I am sure she is going to be tired and sore .. so i have plenty of fluids in the House for her to enjoy afterwards.... keep us in your prayers.

Love,

the schulte's

Frosty the Snowman

So Jack Frost came to our hosue this week and dumped alot of snow....and here is our driveway! Notice the high mound of snow adjacent to our driveway.... that just didn't end up there.... that is hours of back breaking snow shoveling by me!! Ouch!! Maybe it is time to get a snowblower!!! ;-)

I helped the kids make tunnels in the snow to play in, liek we used to do at mom and dad's in the big drifts. X and R loved the snow, but today G was not liking it......the snow was so thick she couldn't manuever very well.... and was stuck on her butt alot!
Here is our first snowman!! Isn't he cute!


Then we came inside to warm up with some Hot Chocolate YUM!!! and lo and behold we finally started getting mail again and Xavier got a birthday gift in the mail!!! Thanks Uncle Dale and Aunt Stacy!!


I just had to add this pic of our littlest DIVA in action!!! Check out those shades!!!!

Okay so the house is semi-clean for Aunt Kathy to come and stay.. our first house guest since the kids came into our lives! So, how do i keep the house clean until she gets here???? I know the perfect thing to do! On Friday night the new Disney Princess movie came out!!! The Princess and The Frog.... a story about an African American princess. It is a take on the princess and the frog story... and is full of songs! YEAH! (now just to convince nate that we ALL should go see it today!) I have gotten the girls the sticker book and a small book to prep them for the movie. They see previews on tv and get excited. I was thinking of maybe just taking Rosetta, but i think they would all enjoy it!! We will see... but i will keep you posted on how good it is!

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."

Mark 10:14

Happy Birthday Missy Me!

So it seems just like yesterday that we lost our missy me. And I don't know why, maybe because i have children this year... but it hurts this year more than most. I miss her lots and know she is looking down on us and smiling.





I just love this picture of nate and missy.... it is so precious. She is our little snow angel! :-)

Little angels up above, Bless our home with lots of love.

Missy Me (M&M)

December 10, 2003 - July 1, 2005