Christmas coat

Before the snow completely vanished again, I had to get a few pictures of Olivia in her red Christmas coat. She is such a character and ooh..her dimples are so precious!  Love this girl!  

Family Wausau Day

After several weeks of being cooped up with a cold, I was feeling really antsy about getting out and about.  We decided to take the kids to Wausau for the day for some shopping and food.  I discovered a few months ago that the kids and I can spend hours in Target if I get them a bag of popcorn and set them up in the cart with it.  So, we meandered around Target for quite a while, browsing and picking up a few new items - most importantly a NEW HIGHCHAIR!  I have HATED the high chair we've had for the last four years with an intense passion.  It is the worst designed baby gear I have ever used.  It has a million crevices and cracks where food can get stuck and it is impossible to clean.  So, I was positively giddy to bring home a new one!!

We stopped at a few more stores before heading to one of Eric and my favorite restaurants, The Red Eye Brewing Company.  They use a lot of fresh, local ingredients and have really creative and unique food.  Surprisingly, the kids were AWESOME!  They were so well behaved and used great manners.  I was really proud of them and it was so fun to be able to take them someplace nice and have it be so successful.  

After lunch, we headed to Sweet Lola's.  I've been wanting to go there for a long time, so I was super excited to take the kids there to pick out a few special treats.  Their cupcakes were absolutely beautiful.  It was so hard to decide what to pick!  We brought home six special treats to share and sample and each one of them was unbelievably tasty.

We've been working really, really hard lately with our Love and Logic parenting techniques, and they've been working so well! The few pre-meltdown moments that happened in Wausau were so easily diffused, without force or frustration.  It made a whole day, nap-free activity possible and even fun!  Both of our kids did awesome, and it makes us want to do more fun outings with them!

siblings

I love how they love each other.

Spring in February?!

This has been one of the strangest winters I can remember. It has been unseasonably warm for much of the winter and this week we saw 60 degrees!  The snow almost completely melted and we enjoyed several springlike days outside with the kids.  I couldn't believe the view in front of our house - the baseball field was almost completely melted!  Some years that doesn't happen until late April/early May!  

The snow returned a few days later with a School Closing blizzard.  I guess that's life in Wisconsin...!

Fruit of the Lu

This one just LOVES to put other people's clothes.  Especially underwear. Tonight she dug a pair of her brother's underwear out of the dresser and put them on her head, and ran around giggling manically.  She knows she's hilarious.

This kid

Oh, Nolee Olee, you sure make me laugh!

Doggie sleepover

Last week, our parents left for their annual trip to Mexico together, which meant that Roxy came to spend the week with us.  The kids were so excited to have her here.  I'm not so sure she shared their enthusiasm...at least for the first day or two.  Roxy was not super thrilled being under a constant attack of over-eager petting from the two youngest humans and the almost constant attention from the spotted clown dog.  

But by the end of Day Two, everyone hit their stride.  The novelty of having her here had somewhat worn off and Roxy figured out that she could sneak onto the couch and snuggle in for a nice, long nap.  Sometimes the kids joined her, which she didn't seem to mind too much.  The change in Miles was amazing.  With an older, low key, confident dog here, he didn't bark in the yard or need as much attention from us.  He was far less anxious and much more relaxed, though she did teach him her naughty couch napping habit.  It *almost* made me consider getting a second dog - if only from the perspective that it might make him less work. 

We had to laugh though, because Miles taught Roxy one naughty habit, too.  When Steve came to pick up his beloved companion, he walked over to the gate, and found BOTH of them standing there with their paws up on the gate.  Awfully undignified for Miss Perfectly Behaved Princess Roxy!

sweet and tender moments

Last night, as I was running all over the house getting things picked up and things ready for bedtime, I looked in my room and saw my two precious babies snuggled in my bed together.  Little Livi was sucking on her thumb, with her other little hand curled around her pink baba, rubbing it up against her nose...the same way she does every night when she's tired.  Nolan was snuggled into my pillows with his green baba close by, giggling because he was excited that Livi was in there with him. Man, these moments are precious...and fleeting!

I picked up Livi and took her in her room to rock her with her bottle.  We read "Find the Puppy" for the dozenth time today, turned her lamp off, and she snuggled in.  I rocked my sweet baby girl to sleep and laid her down in her crib.  

As I came out from Livi's room, Nolan was waiting for me, excitedly showing me his new favorite book that he wanted me to read from - "A Light in the Attic" by Shel Silverstein.  He was nervous about sleeping upstairs all alone since Daddy was gone to the cabin, so I got my little buddy all tucked into my bed for the night.  We read our stories and listened to the Okee Dokee Brothers until he fell asleep.  

When it was time for me to join him in bed later that evening, I had to laugh.  Little man sleeps in the weirdest positions.  He was in my spot with his feet on my pillow and his head totally under the covers.  I gently rolled him into his spot, and he proceeded to sit completely upright, look at me, smile with heavy, blinking eyes, and curl up on his tummy, like a little turtle.  He rustled around for quite a while, until he snuggled up close to me and fell into a deep sleep.  As I laid next to my precious son, I couldn't help but smile and reminisce.  I watched him take his slow and restful breaths, and marveled at his beautiful, long eyelashes  I thought about when he was a little baby and he used to sleep with me in bed, because it was the only way either of us could get any sleep. And I thanked God for entrusting me with these beautiful children that I get to call mine.  

Taste of Chocolate

Last weekend, I got the privilege of spending the evening out with these lovely ladies for Rhinelander's Taste of Chocolate.  We shopped and sampled chocolate treats at most of the downtown stores before we ended up getting dinner at a new favorite restaurant, 151.  I appreciate time with my girl friends even more now that I am a mom.  Kid-free evenings are hard to come by, but it is so nice to get to go out without a diaper bag in tow!  The support, encouragement, and laughter fills me up and helps me feel energized and refreshed.  Plus, I ended up with a purse full of chocolate - what could be better than that?!

Fort

Nolan has been really into making forts lately.  Sometimes they're rather involved, with all the pillows, cushions, and blankets he can find.  And sometimes he's content to just put a blanket over his head and play on his tablet for a while. I love watching his imagination at work!

My Valentines

We made heart cut-out cookies for Valentine's Day this year.  Nolan really enjoyed helping measure the ingredients and using the cookie cutters.  We all enjoyed eating them!  I'm so grateful for each of my valentines!

Happy Half Birthday, Livi and Mommy!

My favorite little birthday buddy turned 18 months this week, which I guess means that I'm halfway through my 32nd year!  I know it is cliche, but time is going so fast!  Didn't I just graduate college?!  

Change of Heart

Yesterday was a tough day.  While at the grocery store, Nolan became extremely defiant, hitting me, kicking me, and ramming the cart into me over and over as hard as he could.  I'm not entirely sure what set him off, but he was very upset. We're been trying some new Love and Logic techniques with him, which encourages a parent to respond to situations unemotionally, as to not escalate.  My gut says that he was very frustrated that his antics weren't noticeably making me angry and he was escalating his behavior to try to get me to get upset.  It took everything I had to remain calm, especially as he forcefully kicked the back of my chair the whole way home.

Once we got home, I calmly put him in his room for a little bit, while I tried to clear my head and think about what consequence might actually stick and be meaningful.  I decided to tell him that handling his tantrum at the store had used up all my energy, and that now he had to take over and do all the things that I still needed to get done today.  He vacuumed the family room and both sets of stairs, he unloaded the dishwasher, reloaded it, and washed the dishes, he took the garbage and recycling out, he sorted, washed, dried, and folded 3 loads of laundry, he put away all of the groceries from our shopping trip, and picked up all the clutter on the floor.  He did it all quite willingly and after 3 hours of hard work, I let him off the hook.  He asked me if my owies were feeling better from where he hit and kicked me, and I told him that they still would need some time to heal.  His response made my heart melt. "Dear Jesus, Please help Mommy's owies feel better and help me be a good listener. Amen." 

On a day where I second guessed most of my parenting decisions, it is clear that I at least did something right.  My son showed concern and compassion, and when he couldn't fix it himself, he asked the Lord to help him.  I think that counts as a win, right?

Prayers for Amy

When I moved to Rhinelander, I expected to grow even closer to Eric's family. What I didn't necessarily expect was the amazing community of family friends that would enrich our lives in a plethora of ways.  One of the Orys long term family friends is the Frasier family.  Nancy is an honorary Schuldt sister, joining us for occasions like Crustfest, birthdays, and even the vacation to Mexico that our parents take together.  So, naturally when her daughter, Amy, was pregnant with Macy at the same time I was pregnant with Nolan, there was a lot of excitement to go around.  When the babies were born, we dubbed them "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" and loved every opportunity to get them together.

Last week we received some unthinkable news.  Amy, age 39, has Stage IV breast cancer, that has metastasized to her lymph nodes and bones, including her spine.  She is one of the most health conscious people I've ever met and is now the mother of three beautiful little ones.  To say this is devastating is a gross understatement.  I've been struggling to process this; As a fellow mom in her thirties, it just hits so close to home.  On this side of parenthood, I so deeply sympathize with the pain and agony of facing this kind of nightmare.  I can only imagine how betrayed she must feel by her own body and how devastating it must be to not know what the future holds, especially for her precious babies.

A beautiful part of life, even in the midst of this disaster, is that there is always hope.  I know Amy is a very strong and determined person, and she will fight this cancer with everything she has.  We know that God is watching over her and her family.  We know she can beat this.