At the ball game

We had a great time at the baseball game on Tuesday night. Brett was happy with the surprise and loved every second of the game. We were right above the home team dug out (foul ball territory) so Daddy was a tad nervous about that, but we survived. Brett is very interested in the catcher, the umpire and loves it when the runners slide and get their pants dirty. He was concerned and full of questions each time a ball went foul. I think he thought they'd run out of balls. We finally pointed out the pouch the umpire has around his waist for extras and that satisfied his curiosity....for a short while.

Reagan loves characters so of course had to high five Mr. Shucks the mascot. She was probably more into watching people than the game itself, but had a lot of fun.

We all had fun, even tired Daddy enjoyed himself. It was definitely a great way to turn 3 as far as Brett was concerned.

Brett's Birthday Party

Brett turns 3 tomorrow!! We had a family party at our house on Sunday. It was a baseball theme as the boy is obsessed with the sport and just plain loves it. He wanted a white cake, which I say yuck to, but we went with the the boy wanted and got the baseball scene white cake from Hy Vee. I made chocolate cake into baseball cupcakes to satisfy my own craving!! Brett was "helping" frost when Scott caught him on camera testing his work. Cutie. He had a great time at his party and got some great new things to play with too. Tomorrow night for his b-day we're going to a minor league game in Cedar Rapids. He'll love it. We'll post the pics of that later.

Scott returned from Virginia on Saturday. He caught an early flight which ended up being a blessing since his original flight ended up getting cancelled! We went to Texas Road House on the way home and Scott told the kids the news of there being two babies. Reagan was, tears in the eyes, giddy and excited. Brett said he has two babies in his tummy too. There you go. They're pretty excited and are realizing what big helpers they are going to need to be.

A day in the backyard

It finally wasn't blazing hot the other day so we got to hang out in the backyard. Brett and I played some baseball, of course. I was then able to convince him that him and Buddy could both be happy if Brett would play fetch with him. It worked!!! Two happy boys, one ball. Yippee for new milestones.

Reagan and the neighbor girls set up a fort almost daily in the honeysuckle hedge that lines out backyard. What ever makes them happy.

Our garden is doing well. Brett is showing off our first zucchini of the year. We'll be enjoying zucchini bread soon and doing a lot of canning and freezing!

We also took a walk to feed the ducks. We threw them some bread which was a hit for the kids and the ducks!

Schmitz Babies A & B

Well, here they are. Baby A with a frontal shot and just the top of baby B's head. The tech was able to tell me that they are fraternal, so they won't look exactly alike. She was also able to tell me that I apparently ovulated from each side instead of the normal one side at a time. They were movers and shakers during the ultrasound. I saw two little heart beats, twenty fingers and twenty toes...my goodness that sounds awkward when writing it out!! I have another appointment in 4 weeks so hopefully we'll see what each of them is. We'll definitely be finding out.

Holy Shit....

Several title options came to mind but this one seems the most appropriate....I went to the Dr. on Tuesday and discovered that I've got more news to share than I originally thought. There are TWO baby Schmitz's arriving after the new year. YIKES. I'm pretty much still in shock. Yesterday I found the news a bit funny. I woke up at midnight with a panic attack.....today things don't seem so funny. I'm a wave of emotion. One can't help but be excited about babies, but good grief!! Here we go..............day by day..............breath by breath. We've yet to tell the kids....Scott's still out of town and wants to share in that so we'll wait until Saturday. And to think I was just imagining about the quite baby time I was going to have when Rea and Brett were both off to school in the fall.....jokes on me. Holy shit. I go back on Monday for another ultrasound.....I'll post a pic if we get a good one.
Take care.

What a week!

Well, as you know I'm taking online classes to FINALLY tackle the "Bachelor's Bug" that has been pestering me for oh, ten or so years now! I'm happy to say I'm in my second to last class and I'll be done. This, of course, is done online so Internet is a necessity. For some unknown reason last Wed. I suddenly had no Internet access. Scott is out of town until the 25th and he is the computer person in this house, I just use the thing and don't know much about the technical whateverness. He also had the laptop with him as well. Crap!

.....Let's just say that a gazillion calls to Qwest, one modem with new phone, Ethernet and power lines, one USB cord, one trip to the neighbor's computer (to let my teacher know I hadn't fallen off the face of the earth), one hellish trip to the library to turn in an assignment online there(Brett was BEYOND terrible), another gazillion calls to Scott in Virginia to complain, further calls to his brother Phil for help and A LOT of cussing later, yesterday it was working again. Holy crap for a pain in the rump! I unfortunately mentioned to several people and my teacher that to me a computer is much like my car, went I need it, it should just work. Well, I should have kept my mouth shut because today I got a flat tire! Luckily it wasn't on my trek to our veggie cooperative to pick up our weekly veggie box, but at Earl May near our house. A kind employee had a pump and that was able to get me to the tire place near by. It was near closing time but they graciously patched my tire for me.

After returning homen Reagan went to play with some friends while Brett and I took our neighbors their share of the veggies. Upon returning to our yard I find a guilty looking Reagan. She, as you might know from my letter this Spring, tells on herself, which I find quite helpful...and honestly I am hopeful that it continues well into her twenties!! Anywho, she reveals to me that she didn't feel like going all the way into the house (maybe 20 feet) to use the bathroom so she peed in the bushes. Quite nice. As you may or may not know peeing in a Japanese toilet is much like a roadside experience of balance and aim so having gone to preschool there she is quite skilled with the squat. I proceeded to mow the prairie of a lawn we have going before the humidity picks up again. As usual, I mow Brett a ball diamond in the back so he can hit balls off the tee while I mow the rest of the back, side and front yards. Upon returning to the back yard I find Mr. Brett with his pants to his ankles. He says to me, "I had to go potty (mind you he wasn't in the previous conversation with his sister and her experience earlier). Brett not only had to pee, but poop as well. Oh, yippy. He proceeds to tell me that I should not only get him new pants and shoes but get a plastic bag to pick up his poop like we do Buddy's. So, there you have it, my week and this week's adventures with my kids, oh wait, it's only Monday!

We did have some positive things happen this morning...Brett jumped in the pool at lessons without holding my hands (we've been working on this). His reward was McDonald's and play time in the park. We had fun at the park this morning and I've attached a couple of pics. The one of Rea and the mustache is from the other day. On Friday's they have story time in the park so we attended that after swimming last week. The books were all about grandparents and since some grandpa's have mustache's they handed out mustaches to the kids. I had to laugh at one of the kids' response to the readers question about whether or not their grandpa's had a mustache. Some said yes, some said no, one said, yes and so does grandma!!! HA!!!! I checked the mirror for strays when I got home!!! Oh the things kids say!!!

The picture of Brett on the swing is him doing his Buzz Lightyear. He actually presses a "button" on his chest to make his wings go out, then in his Buzz voice does the, "to Infimany (as he says it) and beyond!" Ya gotta love it.

Tomorrow we're going to visit a preschool for Brett!!! We'll let you know how that goes!

Take care.

Happy 4th of July and.....

We're going to have a low key 4th. Scott is working half of Friday and then his brother Philip and his family are coming to town. This will be their first visit so we're excited for that.

Also, I went to the doctor on Monday and they confirmed that a new baby Schmitz will be joining us around Feb. 8th. I'm at 9 weeks, so almost 1/4 of the way done...ha! We are all very excited. Reagan and Brett both seem to think it should be a sister, we'll see. As Reagan says, "God picks what it is". Too funny. Reagan's pretty, been there done that, and says good night to the baby each night when I kiss her good night. Brett wants to see it....a more difficult request.....but he's content once we say he has to wait a while. He loves babies so we're thinking he'll do well in the big brother role. We'll keep you posted on our progress!! And yes I knew before Hawaii and all of my drinks were fruity, yet alcohol free!!

Take care and have a safe and Happy 4th of July!!