Family Photos

In June (yes June - I know it's been a while) we had some new family photos taken as the girls reminded me we did not have a family photo with Emma in it on the wall.  We utilized Laura again at True Life Images (and her wonderful Groupon) and had a beautiful outdoor sitting.  The pictures of the girls are amazing, it is crazy how quickly they are growing up.

I know it's a short update - but at least there are photos!  I'm still way behind on Emma's first birthday.....

A quick shout out to my friend Kelly Reiter (now Rover) who will be celebrating her wedding reception this weekend.  All the best to you and Nathan!

Apologies

Yes I know I have been absent for a LONG time....
A few things have happened along the way.

• Sadly, I was laid off in May.  Trying to find a new job has been challenging and unsuccessful so far.  With that has been added stress, anxiety, and sleepless nights.  So adjustments to our new situation, and new plans for the future are coming together.  It was our choice to not relocate to Atlanta and we are happy with that decision...I'm just happier with a paycheck. :)
• Secondly - we put our house on the market.  That is a lot of cleaning if you have seen our toy stash!  So the rest of May/June has been filled with boxing up items for garage sales, goodwill, and storage.  The house is still for sale - so if you know anyone looking for a great family home let me know!
• When the house sells we will be moving to Auxvasse to live in the "shouse".  Accepting that reality has been a challenge for me.  However it's the best decision financially to get us in a position to build a house which is the ultimate goal.  We have a lot a great plans for the farm and being out there will help us spend more time making them happen.  Plus having the opportunity to be more active in the school district will be nice and get to know our Auxvasse neighbors better.

• We took a family vacation.  Well the girls and I did, Tim met up with us later as he was fishing in WI.  Survival mode was in full effect with 3 weeks of quality girl time with our babysitter going on vacation, our vacation, and then vacation bible school.  It actually went very smoothly and we had a lot of fun in all of our adventures.

So now it's back to business and hopefully updating you with all the wonderful family photos we have that I finally downloaded from my phone.....smartphones could be the end of computers.....

So I promise to catch you up on things, and get back to blogging more regularly.  Probably not as much as our lives are in transit to a new beginning but I'll keep you posted.....
 

Team Spirit Day at School

This week has been a celebration of how well Auxvasse Elementary did on their state testing scores.
Monday was pajama day.
Tuesday was crazy socks day.
Wednesday was hat day.
Thursday was camo day (yes, the majority of the school has camo - Emma even wore camo).
 Friday is team spirit day and you get to wear you favorite team gear.  You can guess what my girls are....CHEERLEADERS!  Emma is participating today as well.

Emma wasn't that happy because I made Abby hold her because she kept crawling out of the picture.
Had to put on some pants though - it was snowing this morning!  Just flurries for a little while, but not what we expected to see.
Happy Friday!

Sometimes the kids are just too cute.....

We had a long evening out on the farm and they ran and played with neighbors while we got some tasks done.  Emma had to survive in the stroller:

and just watch us plant trees and work on a compressor.  Thankfully she loves the outdoors and the day was warm and lovely.  We are very lucky to have these 3 kiddos!

Emma is 9 Months

Ms. Emma is now 9 months and is into everything!  But it's a good thing as it's forcing us to baby proof a little bit more and for her sisters to clean up after themselves or she will get into their stuff.  I'll admit - I am secretly a little happy when Emma destroys something and I get to throw it away and it's a "lesson learned".

So on to our milestones from last month:

• CRAWLING FORWARDS is our biggest change from last month.  Not that she couldn't get everywhere, now she doesn't get stuck underneath things (as much).  
• Hits her head on things more since she is crawling forwards - not sure how she doesn't see these things coming.
• Looks for an audience before she starts to cry if she falls over now
• Has started pulling up to her knees a couple of times on her activity table
• Still just 8 teeth but I think we are close for some molars this month, she is chewing on everything
• Gives open mouthed/slobbery kisses if you pucker up for her
• Waves at you a little bit if you wave to her
• Hair puller!
• Still not a big fan of bananas.  
• Has tried chicken, working on some new meats to add in to the mix.
• Lowered her crib so she is now in "baby jail" as the girls call it.
• Still eats, naps, and sleeps like a champ.
• Is still very content to play and sit on her own, looking for more interaction from her sisters
• Went (halfway) down a slide at the park for the first time
• Lots of babbling, but still no "Mama" even though I say it to her all the time, still determined that will be her first word.
• Got "promoted" into the big kid room at daycare so she can play with the other kids.  So far so good.

That's about all I can think of for now.  She is a wonderful baby and we can't get enough of her.

Happy Easter

The Schmidt Easter celebration was pretty laid back this year.  We did not travel, and no one traveled to us - I know, a first!  We decided to just relax (we tried) and just enjoy the weekend.  Then we had a faucet explode on Saturday.  Seriously, the cold faucet handle burst up and water came shooting up out of it, just like in the movies....it can really happen!  Another bathroom faucet was in need of repair due to the stopper breaking as well.  So Tim got to replace 3 bathroom faucets on Saturday/Sunday, 2 due to necessity, and 1 just because he couldn't handle them not matching.  Thankfully we had 2 faucets (a project from 5 years ago that never happened) so we only had to buy one for the girls bathroom.  As our home is a little over 10 years old now we are experiencing some new surprises.....

So beyond our plumbing experiences we had a nice Easter.  The Easter Bunny found our house and delivered a couple movies and of course there was an Easter egg hunt, and all eggs are accounted for.  All girls were happy, that was until we made them get up this morning.

The Great Baby Comparison

Many people have given their opinion on which sister looks like which sister so here are the results from our latest photo update.

Emma and Abby definitely have the same Schmidt ears although Abby's face is a little rounder.  All three have the same cowlick that I have, but I think Emma and Abby will have the same hair color.  Megan will be our only bleach blonde. The Papke nose is on all 3 of them as well.  There is no doubt that they are all my daughters.