O'Christmas Tree!

We went to our traditional place, Eby Pines, and cut our Christmas tree down the day after Thanksgiving. We always get a Frasier Fir and we were excited to see how Ava would react to this family outing. She was glad to be outside but she was more excited about her new boots Or "boops" as she calls them. She kept looking at her boots and loves walking around in them. However, after we got the tree home and it's now decorated with lights and ornaments, she is crazy excited about the tree! The first thing she wants to do every morning is for me to plug in the tree lights. She just sits in front of it and giggles! She wants to show everyone the tree as soon as they come in the door and she never seems to get tired of this routine. It's wonderful to be able to witness the awe in a child's face and eyes as they light up with enthusiasm over the beauty of a Christmas tree.

Ava and Her Turkey Tiara

Thankful Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving I feel especially grateful for all our blessings and many of the miracles we have seen unfold over the last six months. We are thankful for the blessings of our healthy twins well on the way, the miracle of a twin pregnancy for our friends Terry and Stacy, and the miracle of our friend Larry's recovery from life support. George and I are so grateful for our family, friends, and for all the daily opportunities and freedom we have in this country. George and I feel blessed to have a job, a home, our health, and best of all to be able to have a family together. We love Ashley, Ava, and our two newest additions that will be here soon, with all our hearts! All that we are, and all that we have, is poured out to us from heaven above. We thank God for his never ceasing, ever amazing, ABUNDANT love.

Sweet Pics from Cookie Day

Cookie Day Fun!!

This year I thought it would be fun for us to host a Christmas cookie decorating day for some of our friends and Ava and I. Our nanny, Crystal prepared the cookie dough, cutout all the cookies, and handled all the cleanup. That left the best part for the the kids and Moms, which was to decorate cookies and of course, to Eat!! Ava tried to put ALL her decorations onto "one" cookie and it took some convincing to get her to decorate the rest of her cookie sheet. We all were able to sample the end product, and had a lite luncheon after the cookies were baked. It was a great morning and a lot of fun for us all.

George and I took some pregnancy pictures from home to record this beautiful life event that we share. I'm at 22 weeks and have 15 weeks to go!

Ava loves Art

I ordered a art easel from "The land of Nod" and was planning on it being one of her Christmas presents....but alas, I was too excited not to show it to her and then she was to excited for me to pack it away. One side is a chalk board and the other side is a white board with an art paper roller. She LOVES her art easel and she is so cute when she is drawing. Every time she picks up a new colored pencil or crayon she says Okaaayyyy and she draws it out like she is contemplating how this color will look. It is now one of her favorite daily activities!!

Halloween 2009

This year George and I took Ava to the farmer's market on Saturday morning in costume to ride the ponies and to trick or treat inside at all the booths. We weren't sure what she would do since this was her first time, but she did amazingly well. She waited patiently in line for her turn, only took one piece of candy, and said thank-you! George and I were very proud of her but fairly astonished since she is so young. Saturday afternoon we had George's parents and Ashley over for a Chili supper and we all took Ava trick or treating in our neighborhood. She again did very well and was an enjoyable evening for all. No tricks this year, just a treat of a day and night for the Schmidt's.

Daddy and Ava having fun at the Pumpkin Patch

Look Daddy! I picked the most expensive pumpkin in the patch!

Sitting on Big Green Pumpkin

Mommy and Ava in the Pumpkin Patch

Mommy, twins in belly and Ava Grace

Pumpkin Patch Family Fun

George and I took Ava to pick pumpkins a couple of weeks ago from a farm off of Douglas road in Mishawaka. We have been there the last couple years to get our fall decorating supplies but knew this year would be a lot of fun with Ava. Every year seems to get better. They have the most diverse colors, sizes, and types of pumpkins and gourds I've ever seen. They also have mums, Indian corn, corn stalks, and hay bales for sale. They have everything decorated in a fall theme and have several places set up for family photo opportunities. They also have a corn maze, an antique tractor for kids/adults to get on, wagons to gather your pumpkins/kids and a they added ponies and pygmy goats this year.

Needless to say it is a smorgasbord of fall festivities. Ava was so happy and she loved everything!! We spent a better part of our afternoon there and took lots of photos. Great day for the Schmidt's!

OX Bow County Park- Fall Fun

George, Ava, and I went hiking at Ox Bow County Park last Sunday afternoon with the Curtis's and I am embarrassed to say that I live 15 minutes from this beautiful park with hiking trails and never had been there before. The park is very nice and has lots of trails, waterways, pavilions, etc. Butch knew of a nice scenic route that didn't take us too far out since Terri Curtis and I are both pregnant and we had the kiddos to think about also. The trails were so pretty and the kids had a great time. George and I plan on taking advantage of our county parks more often for family fun and I recommend it to others that have have ignored our fine county parks, like me.

AMAZING MIRACLE

Our good friend Larry Best woke up on the morning of October 15th feeling lousy and starting coughing up blood and told his wife Lori to call an ambulance. Withing 12 hours of this, Larry's organs had completely shut down and he was on full life support. The Doctor's ran many tests and they were perplexed at what was causing his body to shut down. He tested negative for swine flu and all other tests came back negative as well. As if being on life support wasn't bad enough, he took a turn for the worse and he went into septic shock and they prepared Lori for the worst, and told her he may not make it. We as friends, who love them both dearly, were devastated at this news. The Doctor's told Lori to pray for a miracle. We started praying day and night and spread the word among those we consider prayer warriors. His family, friends, co-workers, and people he has never even met, all in unison prayed and petitioned God for Larry's life and recovery. The first 48 to 72 hours were tenuous to say the least, and it look bleak by all medical standards. However, then there started to be small signs of improvement each day after and by October 24th, the MIRACLE HAPPENED! Larry was taken off of life support and started talking. He asked his wife what happened to him? A MIRACLE HAPPENED! What a testimony Lori and Larry now have. The power of prayer works and we are so thankful for God's Amazing Grace. Larry still has some hurdles to overcome before he can be released from the hospital but we are still praying for a full recovery, restoration, and revelation of how great God's love is!

Hiring a Nanny

Our Doctor's, along with other Mother's of multiples have been telling George and I that we will definitely need some help during the last few months of my pregnancy and also after the twins are born. So...with me slowing down and already not able to keep up, it was time to start looking and interviewing. We started by joining a web-site called Care.com where people can post their profiles, experience, references, and background checks for child care, and other home services such as elderly care, housekeeping services, pet and house sitting. It's a pretty good site and you can refine your search to be pretty specific and even post your own ad. We looked through 100 profiles and narrowed it to 15 and then interviewed about half of them. We also placed an ad in an Amish newspaper called the People's Exchange and were completely overwhelmed by the responses!! I received well over 100 calls and tried my best to return most of them, but by the end, I just gave up. We did end up interviewing quite a few Amish girls and we learned a lot about their culture and community. We paid for their drivers to bring them to the interviews and they usually brought there parents along with them. In essence, we were being interviewed also. It was actually great to see such strong family ties and the respect that these young women had for their parents. One family invited us to dinner in Topeka so that we could meet their family and interview their daughter. It was a great dinner and the family was very nice and made us feel right at home. In the end, we ended up hiring someone from the Care.com web-site mostly due to the difficulties of getting an Amish girl to our house everyday. We first hired a teacher from Grand Rapids that was moving here for a boyfriend. However, after a week of her boyfriend causing all sorts of problems we moved on to our second pick and she accepted. Our new nanny is Crystal Thomas and started on October 19th and will work for us up through the beginning of spring. So far, things are going pretty well and I'm getting the rest and the help that I need, and Ava seems to like her. Glad the process of hiring is over!!

Ava has a Big Girl Bed

Since we have been finalizing the babies room, we have moved Ava's crib into the twin's room and bought Ava a big girl bed. We took her shopping with us and she was SO excited about the whole process. We bought her a full size bed with a twin trundle underneath. She Loves her new bed and can get up and down from it pretty easily. However, sleeping has not occured yet in the new bed. Right now she is enjoying looking through books and playing on her new bed, but sleep is not part of her agenda. We have not pushed the point as she is still very young (17 months) and she can sleep in her crib until the babies arrive.

Update on Twin Pregnancy

Although we have known for awhile that we were having TWINS, we didn't know what the sexes were. On September 28th during my ultrasound, we found out that we are having a BOY and a GIRL! We are very excited about this and have been busy buying clothing, cribs, swings, etc. to get ready for these two precious babies. We are in the final phases of finishing the twins room and are so happy that they are both very healthy and active. I, on the other hand have had a somewhat difficult time of it and At times I feel like a old automobile that needs a lot of repairs. Long bouts of nausea and exhaustion marked my first 16 weeks and my last four weeks have transitioned to back pain, a groin hernia, and varicose veins in unmentionable spots! Ugly stuff... but what a GIFT to be pregnant again, and to top it off, we are so blessed to be having TWINS. God has been so good to us! Thank you to all of you that have kept us in your prayers.

George is 40!!!

George turned 40 this year on September 12th and although he went to Alaska in June for his birthday present from me, I couldn't resist having a little surprise get together for him at our favorite breakfast place, Uptown Kitchen. I planned the surprise rather last minute and for once I was glad he was out of town the week before so I could call people, order balloons, and have a poster size picture blown up of his face (see above). He was VERY SURPRISED and enjoyed the breakfast birthday very much. It was great to see so many friends and family on such short notice. We are sorry that we missed many of you that couldn't make it, but I'm sure this won't be the last surprise B-day party for George. It was actually better this way... He couldn't say no, he couldn't give me a budget, and best of all he kissed me and thanked me for a great party.

Ava & Sister

Ava and Grandpa

Summer Fun In Indianapolis

Went to Indianapolis in August to visit family and Ava and Malin had some good times outside! They are only three weeks apart so it's fun to see them grow up together. It's always great to see Brooke and Corey and we enjoy the company, hospitality, and the food!

WE ARE PREGNANT!!!

We are so grateful to be pregnant again. We are humbled by God's covering over our family and just thankful for the opportunity to have another child. We have enjoyed so much about being parents, that there are no words to describe what an incredible gift it is to have a baby. We are thankful to our friends and family who have cared for us in many ways and especially in their prayers. Now the journey begins...what a wonderful path to be on!

Indianapolis Extended Weekend!

Many of you know that George and I are trying to have another baby and we were scheduled for our embryo transfer on Saturday morning in Indy. We had some good friends go down with us on Friday so that we could relax and enjoy ourselves, and then they were going to watch Ava for us on Saturday morning while George and I were at the clinic. First WRENCH IN the works! Saturday morning we received a call from the lab and they were going to push the transfer to Monday a.m. I had already thrown out my med's so we were praying that the clinic had enough for me to take until Monday. The other concern was what we would do with Ava. The nurse assured me that they would commodate us and not to worry. The upside was that I was able to join my family and the Curtis' on a trip to the Indy Zoo. Great Zoo with lots of good exhibits and fun stuff for the kiddo's. George, Ava and I stayed at the hotel through the rest of the weekend. Second WRENCH IN the works! Saturday night we were awakened by a raging drunk next door to us who started trying to kick in our connecting door and screaming at his girlfriend and tearing up his room. Long story short...five cops showed up, we were in the lobby for over an hour, they ended up moving him to another room (not sure why they didn't arrest him) and then Ava cried until almost 5:oo am. We had reservations at a French bistro for Father's Day breakfast but ended up sleeping through it. The upside was that had my transfer occurred on Saturday a.m. like planned, we would have had a disturbing night, which for an embryo transfer, it is important for the first 72 hours to be relatively stress free. Also George, Ava, and I were able to spend Father's Day outside at Clay Terrace Shopping center and had a pretty relaxing day after all the drama from the night before. Monday morning was the BIG DAY. We all arrived early and the nurses were very helpful and accommodating with Ava. They brought her in her own scrubs and she was able to be in there while the procedure was being done. Third WRENCH was that on Saturday we still had 10 embryo's but by Monday morning only two of them made it. At first we were kinda shocked but again the upside was that the two we had were excellent quality!!! The Doctor was very positive and we know that God works in mysterious ways and although we sometimes don't understand, he has a plan for everything and everyone. We are so very grateful for this opportunity and so humbled by how God cares for us and takes care of things even in the midst of our own misunderstanding. Now we are just praying for a positive result!

Ashley's Mexico Mission Trip

Ashley got back from her Mexico mission trip on Friday, June 12th and she said it was an amazing and life changing trip for her. Ashley and her teammates spent time at two different orphanages where they did painting, cement work, hung clotheslines, etc. and played and interacted with all the children. Most of these children were just dropped off/left at these children centers by their parents. The mission team also spent time in an area called Rio 3 which is basically a landfill or dumping site for trash but that people actually live and build "homes" (just cardboard or cement blocks for walls-no roofs) right on top on the dump. These people are the poorest of the poor and they had no clean drinking water. The team installed a clean water filtration system for this area called Rio 3 and now the children and families there no longer have to drink and bath in the same water that contains feces,dead animals, and other pollutants.
This was the hardest day for Ashley to see what poor conditions these children were living in. Her most enjoyable part was time spent playing and interacting with the children of Mexico. She was impressed with their happiness and smiles regardless of what they had, or where they lived. Ashley was glad she was able to participate in such a worthwhile trip. She is ever so thankful for all the freedoms and blessings we experience everyday that we all take for granted! George and I are thankful for her safe return and for God's goodness in using this team to reach those in need. May we ALL find something or someone to give a helping hand.

George's Fishing Trip to Alaska

This year George turns the big "40" in September and I wanted to give him something special to remember. He has always wanted to go fishing in Alaska for King Salmon on the Kenai River. So....with me being a novice, I gathered as much information/pricing/location/ etc. as possible and then told him what his early birthday present was going to be. George booked his trip and set off for Alaska this last week in search of the BIG fish. King Salmon average 40-65 pounds and can get as big as 90 pounds. He spent four days on the Kenai river with a Master Angler guide each day, but ultimately came up empty handed. The salmon were running slower this year, so George knew there was a chance that he may not get the Gran-daddy Salmon. Nonetheless, George was able to see plenty of nature and the beautiful scenery that Alaska has to offer. Better luck next time!