She's here! Hannah Madeline Schroeder, born at 1:48pm on Monday October 29th, 7lbs, 11oz (wrong on my other blog) 20" long and the sweetest baby you can imagine. She has a full head of black hair and looks more like Matthew did (minus the excessive bruising) than Caitlin at birth.

Here are the latest pictures:

We're back!!

Hi hi hi!! So, we're back from our wonderful vacation...it was so great to just get away from everything for a week and enjoy the be-yew-tiful beaches of Gulf Shores. I could not have asked for a better time of year than this to go too..the weather was mostly fantastic (except for the horrendous thunderstorms on the last day and a half...but hey, we had to get to the outlet mall sometime, so it was OK) The kids had a marvelous time...riding their new scooters, making sand castles with daddy, and hanging out with Nana, Dee and the Aunties. However I dont think anyone enjoyed the vacation as much as Chassie Dog. SHE LOVES THE BEACH! Every day, all she wanted to do was go out and chase the shadows of the birds and wade/swim in the ocean. She tells me we are all going to retire to the beach in a few years. (i told her she's going to have to get a job). While we were down there we celebrated Caitlin's fifth birthday. We asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner and she said SHRIMP and Cauliflower! (I don't know why she said cauliflower..she's actually never had it before...) So we went out to this great little restaurant called Doc's and had fried shrimp (no cauliflower) and gave her all her presents. That is one spoiled little girl let me tell you! Then later that afternoon we had butterfly birthday cake. Delicious!

We did so many fun things while we were there...and I just loved the beach house. It was the most perfect vacation house.

I'll post pictures now...I must have taken a million. Plus all the ones Caitlin took with her new camera-

Happy Family. (dontcha just love Matthew's jazzhands?)

Matthew is directing daddy's sandcastle efforts-

I just love this picture...she looks so pretty and grown up (five years old?!)

Nana and Dee gave them scooters for Caitlin's birthday...I think we all enjoyed them as much as Caitlin and Matthew did!So, if you can't see with the helmet on is it still considered protection?

Daddy and (a very tired) Matthew at Doc's. Caitlin and Daddy at Caitlin's birthday partyIn case you were wondering how old she is now.....

Daddy, Matthew, Nana. All in a row

Soaking up the sun

I told them to make silly faces for the camera...

I guess all they could think of was to stick out their tongues

Hula Hottie

Hula hottie #2. (we found that real grass skirt washed up on shore)

Playing in the sand in her Dora bathing suit. ("mommy forgot to pack my Ariel baby suit")

Dee and the babies-

Soooooo many captions for this one:

1. HEAVENS! WHALES AT GULF SHORES! WHO KNEW!?

2. Real women have (lots of) curves

3. Big and beautiful (?)

But I aint skeered! I'll post the big picture, if only to document that Hannah has been to the beach already...

Happiest dog ever.

I have no photography skills, but this was my attempt at caputuring one of the most beautful night time pictures Ive ever seen. There was so much more color than this picture shows..and the moon was just this perfect crescent...I just love the beach.

Caitlin was pretending to be "a different chassie" dog and would follow Chass around the beach trying to do doggie things.

Building a sand castle with daddy...

The view from our room. Could you ask for anything more???

Mr. Sandyman.

I like this one of Caitlin....
And this one of Matthew. I know they are duplicate, but I couldn't help myself.

Just after pouring a bucketful of ocean water on his head...

And now...a section devoted entirely to the photography skills of Caitlin. Who got a new (pink) camera for her birthday....

New Things

Hey!!

We're out of here tomorrow for a week of sun, sand and utter bliss...at the beach!! So I thought I'd leave you with a few pictures before I go. Caitlin and Matthew each got some new things which they are so proud of today...and so we had to take pictures.

For Caitlin:

The ULTIMATE frilly, girly, butterfly, ballerina, tutu, princess, dancer costume. Every time I turn around she adds another accessory...and she loves it.

And for Matthew:

Man Sandals! Perfect for the white beaches of Gulf Shores. We are completely prepared. Now if we could just be sure that Hannah is not interested in making her appearance before we get back....

Hookie!

Good Morning...don't they look cozy? Both have come down with a little cold and came and crawled into our bed this morning (any chance I had of not getting sick..all gone now). I decided to let Matthew stay home from preschool (Caitlin didn't have school today), so we're home having a big ol' sick party.

So, the cutest thing happened yesterday...I guess all this baby talk is starting to affect Matthew-Yesterday he brought me "Allie's" trunk full of clothes. (Allie is Caitlin's doll) He wanted me to open it...and I just figured he was going to empty it to make a new hangar for his airplanes, or stuff it full of action figures. A little later though, I wandered into Caitlin's room and this is what I saw.....

He's changing Allie's diaper! And dressing her! (he doesn't seem to mind the fact that he's only half dressed...). Then he put her in her carseat and carried her around. I asked him where he was taking her, and he said, "im just carrying her because I don't have a car". Is he already dropping hints??
Sweet little man..practicing for Hannah I guess :)

UltraSound 3

Hola!!

Today we had the third and final ultrasound for baby Hannah..and she looks great! She actually stuck her tongue out at the doctor while he was checking her out..pretty funny to see. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of her...doc put everything on a DVD for her first baby video. Also there weren't any good shots of her face because she had her hand blocking it for most of the time. It was ok though because her measurements were perfect and she is right on track. However she is following the same weight pattern as Matthew which means she will probably be another 9 pounder!!! So, Im not thrilled about that. In fact Matt and I have pretty much decided to go with an induction about a week early, moving the due date to Oct. 28th. (if you've had a 9 pounder then you know why) So that's exciting. And hopefully the recovery period will not be quite as bad it was with Matthew.

Anyway, not much else to report, and no pictures today...more after this weekend i hope.

Pet Day and Two Wheels

Happy weekend!

We have a few things to report...first-Friday was "Pet Day" for Matthew at the preschool. We did this with Caitlin last year and kind of knew what to expect. We took Chassie, who had a horrible time because I kept her on a VERY tight leash and wouldn't let her chase a single cat. Or hen. (yes..someone brought their pet hen. This is rural Georgia we're talking about) Matthew had a great time..mostly with the kitty cats.

Chassie in the choke hold.

Matthew loooovvveeeddd pet day.

You have to look closely but here he is, squatting down to see the kitten.

The next business of the weekend is that we decided to start Caitlin on two wheels! We pulled her old bike out which was conveniently missing one of it's training wheels (that's what happens when you leave your bike in the path of Daddy's redcar), and we removed the other wheel and gave her her first big girl lesson. Matthew also got a lesson (big BOY) and both did very well! Caitlin even went a few seconds by herself. It's gonna take a lot of practice, but i know she'll get it. Matthew wasn't really all that interested in learning-the novelty of having a real big boy bike hasn't worn off yet. So he mostly just rode his bike around.

We started out in our own driveway, but it was a little too hilly, so we ended up in an empty parking lot near our house.

Matthew was very color coordinated for the bike riding...

Mommy in an "oh-so-flattering-leave-me-alone-im-8-months-pregnant" pose, helping Caitlin.

Of course the peanut butter puppy got to come with us.

Look!!! All by herself!

Fall Festival!

Here's the quick and dirty on this weekend:

1. THREE SHOWINGS!!
2. Zero buyings
3. Gorgeous fall weather...i think the high on saturday was 78.
4. Fall festival in north georgia.
Here are some pictures from all the fun:

In front of the shoals. Which I completely left out of the picture. But I got the munchkins, so it's ok:)
Petting the "children's python". Seriously, that's what it's called....
Caitlin was totally making fun of the poor guy dressed up as a duck. Just look at her face...
Matthew on the other hand was scared to death....he wouldn't take pictures until I was between him and the scary dude in the bright yellow suit.
Down the gigantic slide....

Daddy and Caitlin

Little cowboy-

"Trigger" and Caitlin