Happy Monday!

Yes, it has been a long time since I blogged...which means you are about to get some fairly old pictures...but they were too good not to share.

Firstly...the blizzard!! Well..the closest thing we'll have to a blizzard anyway...on our way back from Gatlinburg (which is at the END of this post..I'm chronologically challenged) it started snowing and snowing and SNOWING! We had never seen so much snow! But we made good use of Matt's day off:

A REAL snowman!! Complete with a carrot nose and charcoal eyes.

Snow dog Chassie...she had a marvelous time galloping around in the snow.

More snowman...this time with Mommy. Who, fortunately, was on hot chocolate duty and did not have to participate in the rolling of the snow.

And one more (seriously, I don't know when we'll ever get to show these kinds of pictures again!)

Pea...well-not so much into the snow. So she hung out in the wagon for as long as she could stand it. (with socks on her little hands. I was not prepared for this!)

Making snow angels.

Having their first snowball fight Big Green...going up the icy hill in front of our house with no trouble at all! Sadly this was one of our last adventures with the truck...Matt traded it in for a new car. We're gonna miss it!

Daddy and Pea.

Caitlin and Matthew...ready to play! (check out the amount of snow on the grill behind them)

Prior to the snow, we went to Gatlinburg to celebrate Matt's birthday-probably the most fun part was the aquarium (actually it was all fun. Unfortunately the aquarium was the only place I remembered to use my camera :)). We had been there a few years ago, but Caitlin and Matthew were too young to remember-

"In" the fishtank.

Caitlin reaching down to touch the ray

Caitlin and Mathew in the jellyfish hair-Hannah is ready for a nap!

Being silly.

More silly

Matthew just LOVES taking pictures.

Hannah and Dada

Caitlin

Here are a few random pictures that were on my camera-

Hannah's new favorite book. (It's a boy, by the way!)

Happy...February!

Well this might just be the busiest February we've ever had! We started the month with Matthew's birthday (which somehow stretched in to two weeks, and go figure, I ended up with a grand total of ONE picture from the event(s).), and will end it with Matt's birthday. Between the two we have Valentines day, car shopping, Andree's Baby shower, and Grandma's birthday. Shew! Im tired....

However I have managed to muster enough energy to post a few pictures and keep y'all updated on all of what's going on around here. First of all, here is my littlest Valentine...in cousin Sarah's adorable dress...isn't she sweet?...

...I mean aside from the fat lip and almost healed black eye of course:

Poor Pea has had a rough few weeks-she has started to learn how to run, which results in many many baby boo-boos...lots of tears, and of course chocolate to make it all better. She does have a HUGE sweet tooth so I am beginning to wonder if all the bumps are actually accidents...

Matthew turned five on the first day of the month, and he doesn't quite believe that he has made it to five...on his birthday he kept asking me "are you sure I really turned five?". It's a pretty big deal I guess!

He had strep throat on his actual birthday, so we were unable to do the family party we wanted to, but instead had ice cream sundaes after dinner...let me tell you...putting candles in ice cream can be a bit dicey!

He and Caitlin are still in love with all things dragon. They continue to call each other Mr. and Mrs. Rosie and I hardly ever hear them use their real names. One of their favorite things to do is to play the new wii Santa brought for Christmas. They are quite good at wii sports, but we have had to ban them from playing Mario Party because inevitably somebody always ends up in tears...hopefully they will outgrow that! Poor Pea would love to be able to play...so we always just give her a remote so she thinks she is playing:

Anyway, I gotta run...the kids are all out of school today and they are quickly and efficiently tearing up the house I just spent all morning cleaning!

Pictures!

I have some major cat-chup to do here...I took my camera out to take pictures this morning and realized I hadn't uploaded pictures since BEFORE Thanksgiving! So, here they all are!

Hannah, who is 1, wearing a 3-6 month old GA cheerleader outfit. Can you tell?

The cousins! Minus The Puglise of course...

Hannah and Sarah

Matthew: "Aw, mom! Real men don't HUG!"

Will: "Aw mom! Real men don't hug Ga. fans!"

We recently found a great playground near our house...the kids love it.

Matthew being a wild man-as usual.

Hannah

This is one of their favorite things on the playground..it's spins and is impossible to hold on to.

Even Daddy likes it...

Going down!

And now...for the cats. Our neighbors cat, who likes to come down to Cafe Schroeder, recently had a litter of kittens and brought them down to visit...the kids are in HEAVEN!

This is the mommy...Emma...who is clearly exhausted and looking for a place to unload her children....

We have named them...just for fun...not because we are keeping ANY of them...(ha!). The black one...my favorite...is the only male. He is Bernard.

These are the three others...all female.

Matt's favorite: "Zooooooo-ey". Stalking around as if she (already) owns the place.

This one is "fatty Patty" ..Matthew' s favorite...a little on the chunky side, but probably the most social.

Mommy cat...napping on the job.

"Arlie"...Bumping up and down in Hannah's little red wagon.

Playful Bernard-

Out of Hibernation

So Im back! Aren't all two of you who still read my blog excited?!! I knew you would be.

Let's get right down to business.

Y'all remember this?
Our lovely television...with cords visible and looking a little naked right? Well...it is naked no longer:

No...not pottery barn. Or Ikea, or any other fancy schmancy furniture store. MATT'S DAD!! Yep. In a few short months he looked at this picture in a pottery barn catalog at a shelf Matt and I loved, and figured out exactly how to make it (and make it better) for our house...Check out another angle:



And the details:

Is that not gorgeous? I absolutely love it. The kids are as excited as we are and keep trying to put their important treasures (usually dragons) up on the shelves.

Dee, I know you don't like to be thanked...but thank you. A million times...this is an absolute work of art...and I really appreciate all the time, money and effort you spent on it for us. I would offer to reciprocate by making you something nice out of wood, but unfortunately the city does not provide you with a trash can large enough for the mess I would make of it :) So maybe some brownies?

Happy Fall!

This has been a very busy Fall around the Schroeder house...between C and H's birthdays, the beach trip and my school we have not stopped for a second! First things first...Happy Birthday Lil' Pea! Here she is...on her birthday:

Reading a very ratty loved copy of brown bear brown bear....I guess tattered doesn't really matter when you can't read the words right? And while Hannah had a great birthday, complete with not one, but TWO mylar balloons...Little C did not have the best day. In fact...Im going to go ahead and say that it was the worst day (sartorially at least...which for Caitlin is pretty much everything) of her life. Yesterday she had to dress up as...A SCARECROW. For those of you who know Caitlin know that she is...shall we say...into, clothes. She likes everything to be just so, and while her choices are not always conventional (or even matching) she likes it a particular way. Evidently having straw (that was picked up from an empty parking lot hahaha) sticking out of your oversized, made for a boy, flannel shirt doesn't cut it.

I know you are not going to believe this, but this outfit took me at LEAST three hours to make...and by gosh the girl was going to wear it! You can see how she feels about it though. Isn't she the cutest little scarecrow you ever did see? So, she did end up going to school...and being the concerned parent I was, I decided to check in with her to see how she was doing as a scarecrow at school...so I went to have lunch with her. I almost didn't recognize her because she had shed the shirt (she wore a butterfly shirt under it) and had made an attempt at rubbing the freckles off. Little stinker.

Anyway, as further evidence of fall...we have put up our fall wreath, (thanks Granny) and carved the pumpkin:

Of course Pea thinks those round orange things are balls...her second favorite kind of toy...and keeps trying to pull them off. Lets have a close up:

Guilty! She knows shes not supposed to touch them.

Matthew really seems to love the fall...he got a webkinz bat and his very own little pumpkin which he likes to carry around and decorate the house with. He also likes to put it in his play house:

Which is cute and all, but what it really means is that mommy has to go around the house searching for this tiny little pumpkin right before bedtime when Matthew can't remember that he put it "in the back of daddys truck so it could go for a ride". Good times.

Chassie also loves the fall..she has resumed her most favorite-est activity..chasing the leaves as they fall. When she gets tired of this, she enjoys the bounty from the nearby tennis courts:

Here's a random picture i took of the three little ones...(four if you count Matthew lil' pumpkin)
And Pea..in her new jacket: ('Hannah in the 'hood', if you will...)

I really should be studying/writing a paper/reading chapters right now, so Ive gotta run, but Im going to leave you with one more of C the Scarecrow: (in her best, "If I Only Had a Brain" pose)

Y'all have a happy Halloween!

A Lil' Helping of Hannah....

Haven't posted the Pea in a while...here she is! She is growing so fast!

She is about a minute away from walking...she'll stand up, use her walker (we call it 'mowing the grass bc her walker kinda looks like a little lawnmower), and yesterday I swear she jumped off the ground with both feet and landed! She gets so excited when you cheer her on and can't help but bounce up and down, whether she's standing up or sitting down. I guess yesterday she just got so excited that she actually jumped! It was funny.

I'm off to pick up Matthew and have lunch with Caitlin at Kindergarten...Happy Thursday!

Dear Granny:

Although this letter has been rolling around my brain for the past 72 hours, I find that as I sit down to write it, the words just won't come. There's so much that I want to say to you! I don't want to forget you or forget all the joy you brought to my childhood, and your kindness to me as an adult. So I guess this letter is my way of not forgetting.

I want to remember your old house and that week I spent there with mom and Ginny. I can remember taking a walk with you on a trail that ran through the woods behind your house. And your basement! The "pachinko" games; and the chair that you could sit on and it would take you right down the stairs with just the push of a button. And Clay. That big sweet collie dog...who loved to have his snout "scritched". And when you took us to the Smithsonian. We rode a train or a bus to get there, and while we were out you bought us those little capsules that turn into dinosaurs when you put them in water.

I want to remember how we shared a room on vacation once, and we had a game where if you found something of mine on the floor you would get to put it in the hallway; and if I found something of yours I could put it in the hallway. Not unexpectedly it was always my clothes books and toys out in the hall! I can remember just putting your old taupe colored shoes out in the hallway even though they were supposed to be on the floor...just so I could watch you pretend to be upset at having left them there.

I want to remember you coming to the lake house and buying all of our favorite treats...a giant jar of dill pickles, a "romantic" prime rib, and blizzards at the dairy queen. Nothing was ever so good!

I want to remember you forgetting that we kept koolaid in the milk carton...and morning after morning pouring it on your grape nuts. A muttered "damn!" was the only sign of your irritation before eating the tropical punch flavored bits of cereal.

I want to remember the cans of velvet creme popcorn that you never forgot to send for Christmas; it was such a treat to be able to share the tradition with my own family and to have my own kids look expectantly in the mail for the big cheery tin filled with caramel, butter and cheese flavored popcorn.

I want to remember the kind words you sent; telling me how much you enjoyed my blog, and reading about how my children were growing up. I'll always be thankful for the trip I took two years ago with Caitlin and Matthew so that they could meet "Great Granny Mccaw" at the Jefferson. Hannah will never know what she missed.

But most of all Granny, I want to remember you. Your warmth, and unexpected sense of humor; and your kindness. And while it's too late to tell you how very much I love you here on earth, I just know that you are watching me from up there in heaven, and you know.

Lot's O' Love,
ML