Tis the season.....

We are having so much fun trying to fit in all the goes with the Christmas season. With our fun, we have also worked on helping to get the kiddos healthy. We have had our share of sick kids, that is for sure. Today, I wrapped up every unwrapped gift that needed wrapping in the house. We are most of the way done with our shopping. We just need to get a few more things. Gregory and Maggee are both having such a good time. Tonight, we went out and looked at Christmas lights. We saw some amazing lights. Such fun! Last week, our niece Taylor came over and we built both a gingerbread house and a gingerbread train. Every day, we have an elf who watches over our house and reports to santa at night. Gregory and Maggee both enjoy looking for the elf in the morning since he finds a new place to sit every day. The surprise of all surprises is that neither kiddo has tried to mess with the tree or any presents under it. Gregory does have a list 47 miles long for Santa. We have had to have the talk about how santa will just bring a few things, but not everything that he wants. We hope that goes ok. We are sure it will. Gregory is also getting very excited about his birthday and turning 3. We can not believe he is turning 3 already. Maggee is talking more and more all of the time. She is saying some things very clearly. It is so very cute when she talks. She is a happy little baby and we love to watch Maggee and Gregory interact. They absolutely adore each other. This year, we will be heading to Colville after I get out of school on the 22nd. We will spend Christmas there and then to Spokane on the 27th for a birthday party for Gregory at my brother's house. We will then head home on the 28th.

Long Lost Me

It has been entirely too long since my last post. September, really?? I feel like I have just been running around chasing my tail..... So, here is the rundown of what has been going on with us. It has been so long that I feel like I am about to write a Christmas letter. So, let's see....October.... Jon spent some time at the cabin in Winthrop in October hunting with family and his friend, Tom. They had a great time and Jon came home with meat for the freezer. he shot a 4 point buck. He was very excited and Gregory was so so excited to see it when he got home. While Jon was gone, the kids and I went to Colville. We really enjoyed our time there and got to see a lot of family and friends. We went to a halloween party there for Gregory Hall, the nephew of a friend of mine. Gregory has cancer and his make a wish was a huge Halloween Party. It was a huge success. We really enjoyed the party. While we were in Colville, our Gregory started to not feel real great and got a fever. His fever lasted a couple of days. He still had a good time, just did not have the energy that he usually has. At the time, I thought nothing of it....now I am pretty sure that he had the flu....more on that later. A week after we got home on a Sunday, Maggee got a fever. She was at 102. This was after many kids in my class and students in our school were absent with the H1N1 flu. This was also after our niece Taylor was diagnosed with the flu. At this point, I was pretty sure that Maggee had it. I got online and made her an appointment for the next day. Sure enough, Maggee had it. Her fever did break before we even went to the dr. and it never did come back. I was home with her that week for three days. We took Gregory to daycare just to help and try to avoid him getting it from her. After he escaped it and about a week later is when I thought about it and realized with Maggee's case so mild, I am sure that is what he had in Colville. Maybe that is why he did not get it after she did. At the end of the month we enjoyed going to Jacob's always fun Halloween Party and then trick or treating the night after. Gregory was an adorable dragon and Maggee a sweet pink poodle.
And, now it is November. Maggee is now a year old. We can not believe it has been a year. And on the other hand, we can not remember our life without her in it. We are so lucky to have such amazing kids. Jon and I were talking tonight about how sweet she is and how amazingly precious Gregory is to her. He is always calling her sweetie and giving her kisses. They have really started playing well together and he is very good about sharing with her. He absolutely adores her. Maggee had a birthday week for her birthday......just like I used to get. It started the weekend before her birthday with a party at Grandma Schmitz's house. She was so adorable and had a great time. Then, with her birthday being Veteran's Day and a day off, she had her birthday celebration at daycare on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we played and celebrated her birthday at home. On Friday, she had a little birthday celebration at Kim's (the kids last babysitter). What a busy birthday week it was.

This last weekend was a fun one. Jon ended up going to the cabin with Tom for one last hurrah....they saw lots of deer, fished a little, and just enjoyed their time there. They even got a little snow. We would have loved to go as well, but already had things going on. I went on my annual shopping trip with my friend Jackie on Saturday. We had a blast. It is always something I look forward to every year. A fun time was had for sure. On Sunday, Gregory and I enjoyed our mommy son day to Disney on Ice. Gregory absolutely loved it and did not lose interest the whole time. We will definately be doing that every year. It was wonderful.

Now, we are caught up....wow!~ We are looking forward to some up and coming events. Nephew Marcus started wrestling today. We look forward to starting to attend his matches coming up in December. We are looking forward to seeing our nephew Michael as he is getting home from college in North Dakota for the Thanksgiving holiday on Sunday. We will be home here in Buckley for Thanksgiving this year. Jon is looking forward to doing some elk hunting. I am looking forward to Black Friday shopping. We are all looking forward to Thanksgiving with family. For Christmas this year, we will be going to Colville. We will be looking forward to that as well. It is always a wonderful family filled time.

Little Guy

This morning began with my thoughts to venture out and about to the mall and to Costco. I got up, got myself ready and then the kids ready. Jon elected to skip the shopping and stay home to clean the house (which means vaccuum....but better than nothing). I was happy with that. The house looked great when I got home. Back to my shopping adventures. We went to the mall to get Gregory some new shoes. I had been eyeing a pair of Nike Shox Camo that are so cute and I was prepared today to bite the bullet and buy them. Of coarse they do not have them in Gregory's size. We will be waiting for them to come in the mail next week. We are leaving the shoe store and a woman is coming in with two small girls. One is about 3 and one about 5. The three year old looking one is in a stroller and her eye looks freshly blackened. Swollen and purple underneath. Ouch!!! I say to the nice lady, "Oh it looks like she took a fall". The lady says back to me, "It is a birth mark."...............oh crap........bury my face in the sand. How embarrassing! Now I have made myself a fool. Off to Costco. We are in Costco minding our own happy business and shopping along. I am looking at something and Gregory says from the cart, "Mommy, that just a witto guy". "What?" I say. "That just a witto guy," he repeats. I look and there, near our cart, is a little guy (I am sure the correct term is no longer midget)....but there he was with Gregory pointing at him. And then my two year old says, "Mommy, I am not little, I am a big kid." "Yes, Gregory," I say as I push my cart away from the little guy.....

not so new computer....

I have not been good about posting this month. I have a new computer, which I do not like. It is a laptop that we bought from someone Jon works with and I hate typing on it, because I am typing along and then I touch something and it just erases the whole entry. This is my third try on this one. GGGRRRRRR! That is issue #1 with this computer. Issue #2 is that I can not figure out how to get my pictures off of my camera and onto the computer. I think I need an updated USB drive. Where the heck do I get that? It is making me crazy!!!

I just finshed writing a bunch and then it erased....so for now...I am going night night and I will be back soon... maybe this weekend if I am lucky.

Back to Work

OK..so this is the week....the week that Tahoma teachers come back to school for four days of meetings before school will begin next Wednesday. This is a tough week. It did not used to be this hard...before we had kids. It is hard to get back into the swing of getting up at the crack of dawn (5:30ish) and getting myself ready very quietly so I am ready before the kids wake up. So far this week, I was almost ready yesterday when Maggee awoke and I was barely ready today. Yesterday, I grabbed Gregory's nice soft blanket and wrapped him in it before plugging his sleepy body in the car in his jammies. Since I have to be at work at 8:00, this means we must leave before 7:00 to get to Maple Valley where the kids are going three of the four days this week and get them settled before getting to my meeting by 8:00. It really has not been that bad. I am realizing why I am glad that the kids have childcare during the school year in Buckley close to home rather than being close to my school. Gregory has been choosing not to nap during the day so he zonks out within 5 minutes of being in the car. This means he is sleeping at 5:00. Maggee is so happy to see me after becoming quite the mommy's girl this summer and then I have to plug her in her car seat facing the rear....for a 45 minute drive home. She is not impressed! So, I will be glad when this week in over...when I am done with my meetings at 6:00 on Thursday. That will leave us with 5 straight days before the real day of back to school and daycare. We will find some fun things to do on some of those days....hmmmmm...maybe the zoo.

And then there is Jon. He is getting up before the crack of dawn to leave before
4:00. Tomorrow morning he will need to leave before 3:30 so he can be at a meeting at 4:30. OUCH. Of course, tonight Maggee did not want to go to sleep at 8, she needed to do a little grouchy crying. Jon was not impressed that he could not sleep. We need to get Maggee going to sleep a little easier. We may have to begin that training over the weekend.... stay tuned for how that goes. We were not so good at this with Gregory...

Ok, I am a sleepy girl. Night Night!

Terrible Twos Day!

Here is the picture for your head. Picture the nice little family of four going into Costco today....Myself, My Nephew Jacob, Sweet Maggee, and Gregory (the two year old :( Got the picture....ok... We are in the store and Gregory does not want to ride in the cart anymore after about 2 minutes. "I wanna walk," he says. I tell him he must stay by us and that is fine. But...it is Sunday...there are a thousand people at Costco...and they do not want to shop at the pace in which Gregory Schmitz wants to get out of their way. He is definately holding up traffic. So I pick him up......"WWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH," he wails. I calmly walk down the isle like I do not have a screaming two year old on my arm, maybe throwing things in my cart a little quicker. Luckily, Jacob is there to man the cart..and Maggee (who by the way has a smile on her face the entire Costco experience). So, I play the put him down and pick him up screaming game with Gregory for the entire Costco shopping excurtion. I also point out nicely to him every single other nice child in Costco as I tell him, "look at that sweet little boy listening to his mommy and sitting so nicely. I bet he might get a prize today." I am sweating by the end of the trip. I pay for the goods and we have headed to the car. By this time, I have given Gregory the information that he will not be getting back the little gun that we had just purchased prior to this shopping spree. We get in the car and he says to his sweating mommy, "I'm bein a good boy mommy. Can I have my gun now?" I then give him the information that the gun is going bye bye. And...........the gun will be put away for later use....much later....like a stocking stuffer or something.

Vacation

We, just this afternoon, returned home from a week long vacation first to Winthrop for a few days at the cabin and then on to Colville for a couple of days with my Mom and Dad. What a fun time we had. We arrived in Winthrop last Monday at around dinner time. Jon and Gregory immediately hit the river for some fishing. Yep...they caught some. So much fun! We spent the whole week in Winthrop enjoying ourselves there. Jon did some fishing with and without Gregory. Besides fishing, we enjoyed evening rides to look for deer, and a trip to the swimming pool in Twisp only to find out they did not open for us to swim until 1:00 (it was 11:00). 1:00 was not going to work for a toddler and a baby. Back to the cabin we went. One of the days we enjoyed a lunch in town with ice cream to follow. There were also lots of deer to look at. Gregory really enjoyed just being outside at the cabin with his chainsaw by the woodpile. Here are some pics of our time there. Oh....I forgot to mention our trip down to the river for some water time with Maggee and throwing rocks for Gregory.

On Friday, we headed to Colville to visit with my family. On Friday night my mom watched Maggee and Gregory while Jon and I went to the beer garden in the park with some friends. We had such a great time. I saw so many people that I had not seen in years. The added bonus for the weekend was that mom slept with the kids all three nights, even getting up in the night with Maggee. Wow! What a gift that was. On Saturday, we enjoyed our perfect day with my dad on the water. My mom also joined us. We went out in dad's boat and had a very relaxing afternoon. Maggee loved it. Gregory was very nervous at first, but got used to it and couldn't get enough. What fun that was. After that, we went with my mom and visited some friends who have property on a lake. What a great evening. We tried Indian Tacoes for the first time. YUM! On Sunday, we went to Kettle Falls to visit with both of my Grandmas. Gregory figured Grandma Millie (GG to him) needed some help with her trees in her yard so he had his chainsaw ready to go while we were there.

Jon is probably off work for a few days while the woods are shut down for fire danger. We will enjoy some more time with him off work. Not sure what this week will bring... stay tuned!!

Oh yeah.... What is Maggee doing this week: Sitting up, saying more sounds including mamama...finally, scooting all over, smiling and laughing more than ever, eating some baby snacks, and drinking water from a sippy cup.