Joshua Robert Schmitt

I know it's been awhile since I last blogged so I figured I better get on here and update you all. First, here's another layout I did using our maternity pictures. This is one of my favorite pics from that day. :)



The biggest news that I need to update you all on is that Joshua Robert Schmitt joined our family at 8:03 am on 9/19/09. He weighed 9 lbs 14 ozs and was 21 inches long. A big baby indeed and born naturally thanks to a failed epidural. Something I don't care to ever experience again. lol My other two were born under the beautiful influence of an epidural and were a breeze in comparison. While I was spared from any tearing or need for stitches poor Josh was born with a broken clavicle. Guess that was the trade off. :( He's doing well now though and it's healing on it's own. Here is the first scrapbook layout I made of him.



And here are some additional pictures of the little guy. Kyle & Jenevieve are both very excited to have a baby brother. They have been SUPER helpers and in the morning they race down the stairs to get to hold him first. It's so cute.

Most recent pic taken at 2 1/2 weeks old. I can't believe how fast these first couple weeks have gone!

Things are going well overall. I'm able to breastfeed this time which is awesome since it didn't go well at all with the first two kiddos. Hopefully it'll continue to go well with Josh. I think being a stay-at-home mom will make breastfeeding much easier than if I was working. It feels like Josh has changed and grown so much already but his 2 week check-up yesterday had him weighing in at 9 lbs 4 ozs so he's still smaller now than when he was born. Shocking since he eats like a pig! I'm sure he'll start packing on the pounds soon. Afterall, he is my son. lol

Well, Josh is going to hang out with the neighbor for a bit and I best make good use of the alone time. Time to run some errands and possibly even sneak in a little nap. Although it's so nice outside that a walk sounds good too. Hmm...choices. :)

Oh...I'm happy to report that I've lost all the pregnancy weight that I'd gained plus some. I'm currently 14 pounds lighter than I was before I got pregnant. I really hope I can make better choices and get my body healthier. I'll never be skinny but I'll be happy with healthy.

Ok, time to get Josh ready to go and get my errands done. Have a great day everyone!!!!!

maternity photo scrapbook pages

Hello everyone! Sorry I've been bad about keeping up with the blog. If you want to know what's up with us it's best to follow me on Facebook instead. Today is my due date and still no baby. I know he'll come when he wants to come but it's still frustrating! A couple weeks ago we went and had pictures taken at Target and I've been slowly but surely getting them scrapped. Here are the ones I have done so far. I have more of the pictures posted on Facebook but I'll continue to post the scrapbook layouts here as I get them done.

Misc. Ramblings

I went to the dr. yesterday and everything seems to be going well. Blood pressure is good, uterus size is on schedule and my weight is staying where I'd like for it to. I've gained 10 pounds total so far. I've had a tiny bit of swelling in my feet lately but NOTHING like I had with Jenevieve and it usually goes back down if I put my feet up for awhile. It never went down with Jenevieve until after she was born. Biggest gripe is hot flashes. Man oh man do I get HOT! lol That and heartburn. VERY sick of the heartburn. I've had some back pain lately but that's to be expected. I went to the chiro today so hopefully that'll help. I didn't think my neck was too out of whack but wow, it sure did pop so that very well might explain the headaches I've been having.

The kids finished swimming lessons today. I never in a million years expected the results we got. Jenevieve FINALLY passed level 1 (her 3rd attempt) and Kyle didn't pass level 3. He was devestated! I really didn't expect him to get nearly as upset as he did. He was crushed and didn't understand why he didn't pass. I tried and tried to explain to him that the higher levels focus more on technique and doing things for certain legnths of time or for so many yards so they get a lot more picky about what it takes to pass. I keep reminding him that there's always next year but he really doesn't want to hear it. As thrilled as I am that Jenevieve finally passed I know she'll refuse to do everything that's required in level 2. It's a lot of putting your face in the water and that's the part she hates. Hopefully she'll show great progress between now and next year.

I'm going scrapbooking tomorrow night and can't wait. I haven't gone in awhile now. Need to get a few more pages done before the baby comes and scrapbooking takes a back seat for awhile. That means I need to get all my stuff rounded up before tomorrow though. I have it spread out all over the porch right now. I had good intentions of scrapping out there but it never happened. Imagine that, right? lol

A couple weekends ago we went camping in Kieler, WI. Jason had a family reunion there and I suggested that we camp and make a weekend out of it. Kieler is a super small town and I was surprised to find out that they have a campground there. It's a REALLY nice place! The lady who runs it was very sweet and the kids took to her right away. Probably more so than she would have liked. lol She was very accomodating to my pregnant bladder and gave us a spot across the road from the bath house. The place is very clean, has a wonderful bathroom & showers, wireless internet, a laundry area, a playground and plenty of room for the kids to ride their bikes. We arrived on Friday and spent Saturday in Dubuque doing some odds & ends. Jenevieve wore the tires off her bike so we added shopping for bike tires to our list. Thank goodness Theisens had them because they were the only place that did. We took the kids to ride the Fenelon Place Elevator which they loved. Jenevieve said it was "a little freaky" and I have to agree with her. Heights are NOT my thing but I did it. We then went to the Dubuque Arboretum and had a picnic lunch there. They had a really nice playground so the kids played for awhile and then we headed into the flower gardens. Got some pretty pictures of the kiddos and had a really nice day together there. The kids both liked the koi pond and Kyle wanted to explore all the trails and paths. I was tuckered out by the time we left. The path out was all uphill and I thank goodness Jason helped drag me up it. lol Sunday was our family reunion and we had a great time at that as well. We hadn't seen that side of the family in awhile so it was really nice to see everyone again. I couldn't get over how much all the kids have grown. Jason's cousins were all so young when I came into the family and now they are getting married, moving out on their own and seem so grown up. And I feel oh so old. lol

The kids are going to stay with their aunt Paula and her fiance Chris next week. Gotta admit I'm looking forward to having a little break. I know they'll have fun and I'm hoping we can make some progress in the baby's room while they are gone. The baby's room seems to be taking as long as the dang bathroom did. Jason keeps saying he thinks the walls are about ready to primer and then he goes in and sands the mud and sees spots that need more mud. So back to square one. Hopefully when he sands the mud he put on last night it'll be good to go.

Well, I suppose I better go tackle my scrapping supplies. Have a wonderful day everyone!

scrapbook pages

I forgot to add the scrapbooking layouts I've done lately. There might be a few more but this is plenty to bombard you with for now. lol

Kyle & his buddy J.T.


Katie & Mason


Julia & Michael in California


Jenevieve & Julia at Easter


Random shots of Jenevieve. She felt left out when I took pictures of Kyle & J.T. and wanted pictures of her too. lol


Julia building a masterpiece.


Julia's trip to Build-A-Bear


Julia & Michael on the California beach

update

Hello everyone! Haven't blogged in awhile so I thought I better get my butt on here and do so. The kids started church camp this week and loved their first day. Hopefully today will go just as well. Kyle was NOT excited about going yesterday and I even had to make a deal with him to get him to go. I told him that he had to give me 2 full days of attending and then if after 2 days he really didn't like it he wouldn't have to finish out the week. I wasn't about to let him make up his mind after just one day so that's why I required 2 days out of him. I knew he'd be hooked after 2 days. I picked him up yesterday and asked if he had fun. He was enthusiastic and said yes. His comment was "I thought we would just sit around and talk about God ALL day but we didn't. We did fun stuff too!" I had to chuckle. Attending this camp is good for him and he doesn't even know it. It's like sneaking veggies into their supper without them tasting it. :)

We had a fun 4th of July. It rained most of the day but that didn't stop the parade. Kyle was in it for Cub Scouts again. I felt bad for all the people in the parade who were getting rained on. Jenevieve had a few different 4th of July outfits to choose from but all of them were sleeveless and suitable for normal July weather. Too bad we didn't have normal July weather. It was COLD! She wore a sweater over her dress and later had to put pants on. I wore jeans and a t-shirt to the fireworks. So unusual. Usually we sweat our butts off. lol We went to Grand Mound around 7 pm and waited for the fireworks. The kids had fun with sparklers and were incredibly well behaved this year. Kyle loved the fireworks like always and Jenevieve enjoyed them but doesn't like the loud ones or the firebomb things. After like 3 fireworks she came up to me and sad she was tired and wanted to go lay down in the van. I was like seriously??? We waited all night for this and now that it's started you want to sleep??? lol She stuck it out though and stayed up until the drive home. :)

Pregnancy update:
Well, I'm now 30 weeks and 4 days into this pregnancy. I was cruising right along and feeling quite well until lately. It's like a switch was flipped and all of a sudden all of the pregnancy aches & pains have set in. As well as the return of crazy hormones that make me want to cry & have temper tantrums. Gotta love it. Sleeping has become a challenge and I get crampy a lot. Lots of Braxton Hicks too which I'm not enjoying since I never had them with the first two kiddos. I told Jason last night that I've been feeling so torn lately. I want to enjoy every moment of this pregnancy knowing that it very well might be my last and yet I'm ready for it to be over so that I can meet Josh. He's moving like mad today and I know I'll miss this feeling. It's what I missed so much after Kyle & Jenevieve were born. I have a dr. appointment mid month and I'm going to ask the doctor if he can tell how the baby is laying. I have a feeling the little guy is laying sideways across my belly instead of up & down. I'm wondering if that's why everything has felt SO different from the first 2 pregnancies. I only get kicks on my left side and pushing on my right. And whenever I try to sit or bend it's like having a brick in my belly with sharp right edges. Hurts like heck!

Here's a pic of my 30 week belly. No new stretch marks yet but my marks from the first two didn't show up until after they were born so I know I'm not out of the woods yet.





I took my 2nd glucose test and didn't hear anything so I'm assuming it was fine. They usually only call if the results are bad. I'm REALLY relieved about that. I'm really curious to see how much weight I've gained. (nope, I don't own a scale) I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job at keeping it under control this time but I want to know what the numbers say. Jason has a REALLY old scale out in the garage for weighing his scrap metal junk so I went and stood on that and it read what I weighed a month ago so I'm guessing it's a tad off! lol

The house projects are STILL dragging on. The bathroom is finally finished minus a few touch ups and baseboard. The baby's room is started. Drywall has been hung and the first coat of mud was put on and sanded. Now it's waiting for another coat of mud. Jason also got his step-brother over here to start wrapping the windows that were put in a couple summers ago. About time! The aluminum that goes around them blew off the window in our bedroom during the very first storm we had after it was put on. That construction crew did such a crappy job with everything here. So Mike's been here fixing it all up. He only got that one window done so far but it looks really nice. I think he's supposed to come back this afternoon and work on them again.

I'm anxious to start painting the baby's room and get everything all set up. I'm majorly lacking energy these days so I hope Jason hurry's up and gets that room done so I can start in there.

Well, I need to get over to True Value and chat with Billie Jo about getting new cell phones and renewing our plan, etc. We haven't gotten new phones in years. Jason's took a little dip in the river on Sunday and now it's a tad pissed off. lol Have a great day everyone!!!!

I just scrapped this layout using one of our 3D ultrasound pics of Josh. I used a beautiful kit called My Baby Boy by Verena Karolyi, Digital Freebies. Can't wait to meet our little man!!!

Warning....if you don't want to know the gender of the baby read no further!!!! We had our elective ultrasound today and were able to confirm the gender. I'm happy to announce that we're having a........................... BOY!!!! Click on the pictures to enlarge.

In this picture his butt is down toward the bottom of the picture and his legs are sticking straight up. In between his legs you'll see the scrotum and a bit of the penis sticking out.


2D gender confirmation


He was just as stubborn as last time about not giving us the best pictures. The majority of the time he had his hand in front of his face. His hands are definitely his favorite past time right now. Here's one of the few face shots she managed to get without the hand in the way.


Probably the cutest part of all came right at the end of the ultrasound. He was sucking on his fingers and we could watch his mouth open and close and see him sucking. So fun to watch!!!!


It was such a cool experience. I'd never had a 3D ultrasound before so it was surreal to see our little one in so much detail. The kids thought it was pretty cool too and Kyle is thrilled to have a brother. Jenevieve is accepting the news but with less enthusiasm as Kyle.

We're enjoying our time in Madison and will head home tomorrow after going to the zoo. Today we went to the botanical garden and the brat fest. Both were a good time. Have a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend everyone!!!!

touch the sky

Just got Julia's layout done. :)
The wordart says "I know what it feels like to touch the sky". These pics were taken during the rehearsal dinner for Dad & Joan's wedding. I used Bren Boone's At One With Nature kit and Magnus Kit. Thanks for taking a look!

Just wanted to share this layout that I made last night using the ultrasound pictures. The kit is called Baby On Board by Bren Boone. I went back and bought a few more of her kits today. I'm working on a layout of Julia using her stuff right now. I'll post it when it's finished.