Express Christmas

Tuesday night I got a call from my sister in-law. She said she had the weekend off and wanted to meet us at Grandma's and Grandpa's house for Christmas and playing in the snow. So we finished our Christmas shopping and then packed the car to head to Cheesesconsin.

Saturday morning we made our first Frosty! As soon as we got in the house it started pouring rain so Frosty was pretty skinny when we left on Sunday.

Ann showed up with James and had a wonderful surprise to share with us.  James is going to be a Big Brother this summer! She took of his jacket and all I could see was the large "ER" and right away I knew she was pregnant.  Dave thought it was a hand-me down from Adam at first- ha!

Then we had the typical ridiculous Schwedler Christmas tree with presents and opening.

Sunday morning the boys and I decorated cut out cookies. They did the sprinkles and then made sure the cookies turned out okay.



The boys watched the Packer game and I got in my second run of the weekend (it was a balmy 40 degrees most of the weekend so I got to run outside).

My father in-law brought the old school Fisher Price Record Player saying it was broken and he was going to throw it out.  He said if I could fix it, I could have it.  So Dave and I got it open enough to spray some WD-40 in to make it work again. 

Dave and I left late in the afternoon for the drive home and we both commented on being bummed out, but then we realized Christmas was still more than a week away!

Christmas Jammies

I texted my husband a picture of two sets of Christmas Jammies while I was shopping Tuesday night. I got a responce back right away- "Hopefully it wasn't supposed to be a surprise cause the boys want reindeer." A few minutes after I purchased them I got another text "Adam says he can't wait he wants to put them on now." Oh child from the uber instant gratification age- you must wait for your momma to come home from her shopping trip before the jammies can be worn.

You better believe Wednesday and every night sense then the boys have worn their Christmas jammies.

Love them so much!

Snow Much Fun

We got snow this weekend. Friday afternoon we got what seemed like a fair amount of snow, but now I realize was next to nothing. On Saturday morning Adam asked if we could go outside to play in the snow and I said yes, because it was his chore to shovel off the deck.

Don't worry I helped him a little.  When we woke up on Sunday Adam took one look at the deck and said, "wow, I need to shovel."  We got 12" of snow over night and the snow was still falling. We spent a lot of time outside in the morning and after nap.  Our neighbors made a ramp on their deck for the boys to sled down and there was lots of shoveling- so much that my abs hurt on Monday. 

White Christmas and cross country skiing- I'm so excited.



Happy St. Nick's

December 6th is St. Nicholas' Day.  Adam and Eli found a surprise in their shoe- chocolate and a tangarine.

And I found a surprise in their bedroom- I went into their room to check on them and Eli wasn't in his bed. So I looked in Adam's bed and he wasn't their either. I turned around to find him curled up on the floor in the tiny space in between the changing table and the door, Thankfully I didn't step on him. I moved him back to his bed, but when I came upstairs to get the boys up for the day he was sleeping in front of the door again.  So cute!

We've had a rough couple weeks of sleeping the whole night in the correct bed. One or both of them end up in our bed most nights. Some nights we're up because someone had an "accident" in their bed *caugh-adam* and other nights someone is crying and can't be consoled *caugh-eli*. Those nights are harder than waking up to a little hot body or two in our bed. Hopefully this trend will end soon and we'll have full nights of sleep all around (Santa- that would make an awesome Christmas gift).

Christmas Tea and Children's Party

Thursday night was vacuuming and putting the Christmas tree up.

Friday Dave and I left work early to go to a friends wedding in the cities.  My wonderful parents picked up the boys from daycare and spent the evening with them. We spent the night celebrating Mandi and Justin's wedding with work friends and then drove the hour and a half back to Hutch. We got home at 12:30 AM. Saturday morning came way too early. My mom came into our room at 6:30 AM with Adam and Eli. I guess Eli got a huge pout on his face and the only way my mom could cheer him up was to show him we were home!

Then it was off to Eden Prairie for my mom, dad and I for Christmas Tee with my Aunts. My mom did a beautiful job decorating the table.  I just love her Christmas plates and gold forks! This is a tradition that I can't seem to give up, even though it means missing the boys see Santa at the 3M Children's Christmas party every year. The picture below is blurry, but you get the idea- Eli doesn't like Santa!

Three surprising things happened once my parents and I got home from the Tea.  First my mom, Adam and I got to go for a bike ride because it was such mild day for December 1st.  Then when we got home I was doing push ups and sit ups which always ends with Adam or Eli on my back "helping".  Eli climbed on my back and my arms gave way so I was flat on the floor face down and he starts bouncing and cheering for me and when that didn't work he pulled on my pony tail! Then Dave decided to do push ups too.  Eli climbed on his back and started counting- all the way to ten.  I had no idea my 19 month old could count to ten! He must have learned that at school/daycare.  And the third surprising thing is I had a fellow Viking fan on Sunday.



Adam wanted to wear his Vikings jersey Sunday morning- despite Dad's best efforts to convince him to wear a Packer's jersey.  It was the Viking-Packer game on Sunday and we went to Adam's godparent's house to watch the game after church. We had a great busy weekend!

The Thanksgiving Calomine Lotion

Thanksgiving started early this year.  We made it to Cheese-sconsin just after 2 PM on Tuesday only to notice our check engine light was on. So we turned around to go to a dealership- except the dealership by my parents house didn't have an opening.  So instead we stopped at a corner gas station/fix it place.  The ran the code and tried to fix our car while we waited.

And when that didn't work grandma and grandpa came to take the boys and our van full of things to their house.

The van was towed to a dealership that could fit us in that evening (huge hugs to Inver Grove Honda).

We made the best of the situation by going out for a dinner date while we crossed our fingers that they could get it fixed and fast! It was fixed when we went back (yay), just a spark plug (double yay) and the fix and tow was covered on our warranty (triple yay)!  We were back on the road at 8:30 PM. The boys slept as we made good headway across the state. I called my sister in-law after Dave took over driving for me at 10:30. I started complaining about my sore back and allergic reaction rash in the same spot. Right away she diagnosed me with Shingles.  

I got to visit my father in-laws doctor and drug dealer (pharmacist) and made an emotional attachment to an old bottle of calomine lotion in my mother in-laws cupboard. I was diagnosed with Shingles and told I'm way to young to have them.  Joy!

We ate the turkey on Wednesday afternoon. Eli told Dave that he needed a nap and didn't make it to our dinner.  

Later that day the three boys gave Grandma and Grandpa a concert in the basement and the parents enjoyed some adult time upstairs before Ann, Titus and James departed for home.

I wanted so bad to do a Turkey Trot on Thursday morning, but my body was telling me no.  Instead we slept in and went to a park to enjoy the beautiful 60 degree day.  This was the most amazing park I've seen and it was only 20 minutes north of my in-laws.

The boys played for a whole hour. The biggest boy wore himself out and was napping before we got home.  He napped in the car while we hung out in the front yard with beers- did I mention it was Thanksgiving day and we were outside sans-coats.

Friday we drove back to Minnesota. Black Friday meant cheering for the black and yellow Hutch Tigers.

It was a nail bitter, Hutch pulled out the win 67-7.  Way to go State Champs!

Saturday was my grandfather's funeral. I miss my grandpa, but I enjoyed spending the weekend with family. The boys had a great day allowing for lots of quality family time.  Sunday we hung out with at my parents house until it was time for Matt and Shar to go to the airport. Our good friends Andy and Brooke came over for the Packer game Sunday night and made the loss a little more bearable for David. I'm so thankful for our Thanksgiving and that old bottle of Calomine Lotion that is almost gone (and so are my Shingles)!

Grandpa Cyril

We lost my mom's dad today. He died peacefully in the farm house he was born in 87 years ago. My mom and most of her siblings were there with him. I know I am lucky to be nearly 30 and I had all 4 of my grandparents still alive.

Today we took the boys to the farm to see my family and especially my grandma. It was hard and stressful at times, but I am happy we went. It was like a close family wake.  We love you and are going to miss you grandpa!

We Don't Make 'Em Big

Eli had his 18 month check up last week.  His weight was 22 pounds 0.4 ounces which is the 19th percentile, his height is 31.25 inches which is 11th percentile and his head is the only thing above average at 86th percentile 19.25 inches in circumference.  And Adam was only a little bigger than Eli at his 18 month check up.

Our family doctor echoed the words of a family friend who told us, "those boys, you sure don't make them big." Yes our boys are small, but they sure are fun!

Big Boy Bed and Other Firsts

Thursday night we decided to convert Eli's crib into a toddler bed and after seeing how high off the ground it was we did a swap and put Adam in the converted crib and Eli into Adam's old toddler bed. The move to the big boy bed came because Eli did not like being confined to the crib in the dark when Adam would get up in the morning to go potty. He has been a crab in the morning and I don't blame him. So far getting him to sleep in his bed hasn't been an issue and in the morning he's a happy baby again!

Today Eli asked to use the potty, so I put him on it and he peed.  Go Eli! We called Adam into the bathroom and had family high fives.  And he did the same thing tonight before bed! We also had several false alarms (potty mommy, and two seconds later I have a naked boy running around not sitting on the potty with nothing in the potty).

Eli got his first real hair cut today. His hockey hair was impressive and he needed a cut. Grandma had to hold him and he needed a sucker, but after that he did pretty well- no tears.

 Big brothers a pro- "Hey Eli, look I'm getting my hair cut too!"

Happy Halloween

I remember that Halloween usually included pizza for supper and my cousins that lived in the country coming over to Trick or Treat in our neighborhood. So to continue that tradition we had our friends Jon and Denise over that live a little outside of town now. We had pizza and then practically had to pry the boys out of the house to go trick or treating because they were having so much fun playing together in the bedroom.

We got cannie (candy)! And Eli gets it- he had a solid grip on his bucket. When his brother and friend Nate dropped the bucket in the wagon because they were getting heavy Eli had no interest in letting go.  When we got home he sat down in the kitchen and tried to open and eat his candy.

Jack O'lantern

The boys were very excited to see their pumpkins Jack o'lanterns (the three year old reminded me that they are Jack o'lanterns not pumpkins) in front of the house when we got home from school today.  We had a family event carving the pumpkins last night. We only got as far as cleaning the pumpkins and drawing the face on before bedtime.

We thought the boys would enjoy digging in and getting dirty cleaning out the pumpkin. We were right about Eli- he loved it.

 Adam stuck his hand in once and then ran off to the bathroom to wash his hands.

 So he watched from the sidelines while daddy and Eli did all the work (ok- it was daddy who did most of the work).

 But after the spoons came out he was helping away.