Christmas 2010

Ok so this my third post of the night and then I am done! Justin and I had such a wonderful Christmas. This is our first Christmas away from immediate family and even though we were sad to not have them for the holidays, we were super excited to spend the day with each other and start our own traditions as our own family. So for our first tradition we decided to have our Christmas Eve dinner be foil dinners. And let me just tell you...They were delicious! So Christmas night we opened one gift and that was it...even though my impatient husband tried to convince me that we should open all of them! Oh yeah, I should probably also tell you about our UGLY Christmas tree this year. We decided to go out and buy a real Christmas tree instead of packing our fake tree all the way to NY. So of course Justin gave me the job of picking one out...bad idea. In my defense though the guy at the tree place told me I was the last sale of the year. I only had 3 trees to choose from because thats all that he had left. The other ones were just as ugly. I asked the tree guy his opinion and he told me that the one I picked was the best even though the back side of it was flat (literally all of the fullness is on the front the back side is pretty flat). I decided that since the tree was going up in the corner it didnt matter how flat the backside was. Well I didnt think about the fact it would be top heavy and not stand up on its own, so we had to shove our side table up to hold it up. Its pretty ghetto! Also the tree is very fat...at least on the front side. So its a pretty ugly tree but we love it and it served its purpose!

Justin and I got all kinds of things for Christmas so I wont mention all of it but Justin got me a camera (which I REALLY wanted) and he got a watch. We got a lot of other things too but those were our bigger presents. After having our little Christmas we went to the Hotel where Justin is working and they provided us with a Christmas dinner. The dinner was awesome and we had lots of fun! So here are some pics of the day. They are not in order of how they happened and I am not going to rearrange them to make them...sorry

After lunch...I think I ate too much...do I look a little fat?? LOL

The boys going for a ride on the lifts

high in the air

Everyone getting ready for Lunch

The most important table of the day...the desert table

All of the food that was set up for us...mmmm it was good

My new MU hat

What can I say...I married a Levi Jeans model, those are his new ones

My gifts from My very own Santa

Justin's gifts

Ignore the ugliness of myself...its early thats all I can say

My handsome husband

Our UGLY Christmas tree that we loved!!!

My first baby shower

On Dec. 4th my wonderful sisters and my awesome friends threw me a baby shower. It was so much fun and they did an awesome job with it. It was a lot of fun and I got a lot a great stuff. My sister in-law Lindsey was able to go with me and she took a lot of the pictures during the shower...it made her feel very important to take the pics. A bunch of my family got together to give me a pack and play. Since we are going to be living in New York when the baby is born a Pack N Play is much needed so my baby can have something to sleep in!

My high school friends

One of the gifts given to me

The cake

Playing a game where everyone had to guess my size...lets just say I must look bigger then I really am! However my friend Amanda guessed it perfectly!

The present table

Linsey and Sara did a great job on the decorations

and on the sweets!

Update and leaving Ariyan

So it has been a long time since I have posted anything to my blog...I guess you could say I am way behind on it. So here is a little history of the past few months. First off the Pregnancy is going good, I am pretty ready to get this little girl out of my stomach and into my arms. I am pretty sure that holding her in my arms will be a little more comfortable then in my belly. I felt really good with the pregnancy until about week 30, Now I am 33 weeks and feeling huge. It getting harder to sleep comfortably at night especially when you have to get up every two hours to go to the bathroom! Anyhow, I guess the closer I get to the due date the more ready I am to get her out!
Next big thing in our life is that Justin and I made the HUGE decision to go to New York. There is a construction job in Rochester New York that will provide us with good pay and allow me to have the opportunity to be a stay at home wife. Now, the reason I say this is a HUGE decision is because it also required a lot of HUGE sacrifices. The first big sacrifice is that we have to pack up and move which means that I have to quit my job. Now quitting my job is not the sacrifice, I couldnt have been more happy about that, however it means that I have to take out cobra insurance and lose my cheap insurance with my job. It also means that I have to find a new doctor at 7 1/2 months pregnant in a place that I am completely unfamiliar with. The biggest sacrifice is the fact that we had to give up our foster parenting which means that they had to find a new placement for Ariyan. Now you may ask why we made this decision to go to New York the only answer I can give is that its what the Lord wanted us to do. Giving up Ariyan is the hardest thing I have had to do. But obviously the Lord has different plans for her and for us. So don't worry, the story gets better.

Luckily the family that they chose for Ariyan is AWESOME! They have been so wonderful with us and with her. They are from Marshfield as well and live close. They have been more then happy to let us come over and visit Ariyan and spend time with her. Right before we left they let us keep her for the night. Her life will be so blessed to be living with them and we have made some new great friends! Now that we are in New York they are sending us pictures and emails with updates of her. I am so happy that they are willing to let us be part of her life because she will always be a part of ours! I think that we have gotten the best happy ending to a worse case scenario. Like I said it hasn't been easy but I am happy with the results. So here are some pictures of our last visit with her before we came out to New York
She is getting so big...she can sit up all by herself!

So cute!

This is the Christmas gift we gave her...she loved it!

Justin holding her, I couldnt figure out how to get the pic to turn...sorry

Me and Ariyan

ITS A GIRL!!!!

On the 22nd of September we finally found out what we are having...ITS A GIRL! We are so excited and now since we have Ariyan we have lots of little girl things! My due date is still February 13th however I am measuring a week further along (which is what I told them from the beginning). We have a couple of names picked out that we like but nothing that is set in stone yet. We think we might have it narrowed down to two names but are still looking for other options. We have decided that we dont want to decide on a name until we actually see her pretty little face! However I will let you in on the names that we have picked out so far....My #1 pick is Rylee Jo Schmidt and Justin's #1 pick is Brooklyn Elaine Schmidt. But like I said, neither of these names are set in stone and if anyone has any other suggestions we would love to hear them! I will try to post some sonogram pics and some 21 week pics soon!

Ariyan

As I mentioned in a post before, Justin and I signed up to do foster care. Well we finally got our placement! Her name is Ariyan and she is 3 months old. We have had her for about 2 1/2 weeks and we just absolutely love her! She is such an easy baby! She smiles at us and she ooo's and cooo's at us. She has really taken well to having us as her parents and even though we arent perfect parents we have really taken well to being her mommy and daddy for the time! I can honestly say that I didnt know how much it took to be a mommy but I am loving every minute of it! She has made so much progress since she has been with us and she is becoming such a little chunker! We have loved the opportunity to help her out and we are crossing our fingers that maybe one day we can adopt her but for now, we love being her foster mommy and daddy

This is my 12 weeks photo. Trust me, I am bigger now! I am currently 14 weeks however I am beginning to think I am going to give birth to a toddler! It seems like this is going so fast yet at the same time so slow!!! My first trimester was not bad, however there were definitely times when I wish I could have just thrown up. I mostly just had an upset stomach most of the time. However, right before week 12 began I started feeling great! When I went for my 12 week appointment we were able to hear the babies heart beat which was pretty awesome however I have to say that the 3D ultrasound was a little better. It is reassuring to hear the babies heart beat and I look forward to hearing it at the next appointment! This has been such a fun and exciting experience so for us so far...well Justin might not agree with the fun part since he has to deal with my attitude...but he has been doing great, and believe it or not, we are still married! ha ha! I am also posting my pic of the ultrasound that we had done at 10 weeks. I really wasnt expecting to get a 3D one but I am so glad she gave us one!

Pregnancy

So in the beginning of June this year, Justin and I found out that we are expecting! This is such a huge blessing in our lives. We feel like we have waited forever for this to finally happen to us...and now we have to wait nine more months to finally get the baby! I am so excited to be experiencing pregnancy. Dont get me wrong...the first trimester hasnt exactly been the best 3 months of my life, but its well worth it! I knew before I took a pregnancy test that I was pregnant and I kept telling Justin that. I dont know if he really believed me because trust me, its not the first time I thought I was pregnant! However that morning that I took the test and it was positive I was so happy. I took a picture of it and sent it to him in a text. He was in the bedroom still asleep. I walked into the bedroom and told him I heard his phone going off and that he should probably check it because it might be important. He kinda blew me off and said he would check it later. I then became more persistent that he needed to check his phone message right then so he did. He was really excited! Since then the pregnancy so far hasnt been too bad. I have had some bad nights where I just feel blah and of course the nights when I cant decide if I want to laugh or cry, and the nights where Justin cant do anything right, but for the most part its been pretty good. Justin says he cant wait for me to get out of the first trimester so he can have his wife back. Unfortunately since I work I dont get to take little cat naps during the day so when I get home I pretty much eat dinner and crash! I am so tired! One thing I didnt expect about pregnancy is how much my appetite controls my life. As soon as someone talks about food I either want to throw up or I wont stop thinking about that food until I can eat some! Its crazy, and some foods that I use to love I cant even stand the thought of them anymore. I am really beginning to show as well. I am so surprised that I am showing so much because I feel like its too early to show. I guess I am just working up a 9 pound 8 oz baby like its daddy! Anyhow, its been a great experience so far and I am so excited to be stepping into the second trimester...I heard thats the best one! I am 10 weeks right now so that means I finally hit double digits!! YAY!!!!

Sadi

So Sadi is getting so big, she has been alive for a whole year now! She is such a big part of our little family. We have gotten so attached to her! She is SUCH a good dog. Justin can do anything to her and she is so laid back she doesnt even care! The other day he picked her up and put her on his shoulders and she just sat there and enjoyed the ride! She is going to be GREAT with kids. However, about a month ago we noticed she started limping on her back legs. We figured that maybe she just pulled something or whatever and we figured it would go away. After about 2 weeks of her limping we decided to take her to the vet just to be sure. The vet looked at her and pulled on her legs and noticed that they were really tight. He looked up at us and said, "well its look like your dog has arthritis." Seriously??? She is still a puppy! A very big puppy, but a puppy none the less! So he gave us some pills to help her and they worked however they were expensive so they vet told us to give her childrens tylenol and it would do the same thing. So for the rest of her life, my poor dog will get cherry flavored childrens tylenol. Its so sad! Anyhow are still very happy to have her and even though I still dont like dogs a whole lot, I love my little Sadi! So here are some pictures of here.

Sometimes Justin uses her as a pillow and she is perfectly fine with it...however this is him after tackling her. She loves it!

she is really good at shaking but this is her latest trick you just say "Sadi give me a high five" and this is what she does!

This is her shaking

Standing on her hind legs

This one is hard to see what she is doing but she is standing up on her hind legs in this one. (I have such a talented dog!)

And of course I cant forget about Roxy, she is a talented dog to!

Preparing to be foster/adopt parents

In November of last year, after trying for almost a year ourselves to get pregnant, Justin and I decided to consider other options. We did this not simply because we thought we wouldnt be able to have kids but because we just felt like this was the right thing to do. So we starting to do some research and found that there are plenty of kids out there that need a good home to grow up in so that is how we found foster care.

The foster care process is such a long process. We had NO IDEA!!! First we had to do the initial application and back ground check. Once you pass that then they have to do the first walk-thru of your house. This is where they tell you everything you need to do to make your house safe. For example, you have to have hand railings, fire extinguishers, carbon monoxide detectors, locked medicine cabinets etc... (all stuff that we hadnt even thought of!) The next part was getting referrals. Each person we put as a reference had to fill out a questionnaire about us. So once those were in your start a 9 weeks process of classes. They were 3 hours every Monday night and they were an hour away! Justin and I missed one of the classes so now we have to wait till July to make it up! Anyhow, along with the classes you have homework and question papers to fill out. Plus you have to have physicals and get your fingerprints done...its crazy! After classes end you have to have 3 home visits with a counselor/worker which last about 2 hours a visit! Anyhow, Justin and I are finally in the ending stages of this long process. We still have to get our physicals and make up our one class and one more home visit. We are getting so excited that this LONG process is almost over. Assuming we get things done we will be officially certified by July 21st!

Anyhow, before we can take in any kids we have to show that we have things like a bed, car seat and so on. Which since Justin and I dont have any kids we really dont have ANY of it! So I went on a craigslist shopping spree and here is what I found!

This is the car seat that I found its only been used twice by its previous owner!

I also bought a convertible crib. It can be a crib, a toddler bed or a full size bed! (i didnt take any pics of the bed because its in like 10 pieces right now since we havent set it up!

This is the fabric I picked out for the room we tried to go with a gender neutral color with the baby green but there is a little bit of blue in one of the fabrics but it looks great in the room!

I also bought some toys and an extra car seat that is pretty ghetto right now but we are going to recover it with some really cute fabric. I am so excited about all of this stuff!