I'm an aunt!

Lux Lucille was born August 25, 2011 at 5:23pm. She weighed 7lbs 2oz and was 20.5 inches long. She is beautiful and has a head full of dark hair! Mom and Dad did a great job during labor and are making the transition home today. We will be there welcoming them home!

I am so excited to be an aunt. I now get to experience the joys that my sisters have had with James. Like teaching him how to stick out his tongue, giving him back when he's crying, playing only while it's fun, and sneaking ice cream bites!

Praise God for the miracle of newborns! She is beautifully and wonderfully made. We pray she will grow up to be a woman who loves the Lord with all her heart.

Can you ever be ready?

So I came across this article the other day and thought it was funny. Baby #2


I could answer yes to all of them!  Could you? It did get me thinking about the fact that you can't really ever be "ready." I mean those signs she wrote make it seem like hell on earth to be pregnant or to have another one. I know it's worse for some than it is for others, and I can't speak for those of you that were puking day in and day out. But there isn't one of us that enjoys the roller coaster of emotions where you could be crying and laughing within minutes of each other and you don't know why.  Does anyone ever enjoy feeling sick at the sight of food but know you need to eat because you feel sick?  Sleep deprivation is a known fact, but you can't ever prepare yourself for being so tired you are laying on the floor to just to "rest your eyes" while baby is falling asleep. 


I guess I don't look at the screaming and lack of sleep as a deterrent. Those come with the job. There are hard things with every job. But there isn't anything as rewarding as seeing your baby smile at you, or taking his first step, or clapping because you are going to read him a book or even getting him to poop on the toilet!For those of you without kids I seem crazy..but I hope someday you get to feel that pride. And I know it's all just beginning. I can't wait to see all James has to accomplish. I can't wait to see the man God created him to be. That's what keeps me going. And that's what makes me want to have more!


I guess I never really thought, "can we do this?" It was just a known fact that we were gonna have 4 babies and they will be close in age to each other. Now it is probably easier for me to say this because I do have  the best baby in the world. He is always happy, can play independently, and is a great eater and sleeper. Maybe this article should be written about being ready for baby #3 :) I figure by then though we'll be used to living in chaos and another one won't make much of a difference. We'll see.

How many babies do you want to have?

10 months

I can't believe James is so close to a year old. It seems like so long ago that he was a tiny baby, but it seems so quick for him to be running around independently! That's right..he took 3 steps the other day by himself! He is so brave and has so many forehead bruises to prove it. He cruises around the furniture and tries to go from piece to piece. Once he has the hang of it he will be unstoppable..so full of energy.

Other things he's doing these days:

* looks at the object you are pointing to

*Understanding more and more. I ask "where is your...ball, spoon and cheerio?" and he looks around for it and will usually find it. I tell him to put the ball "in" the cup and will do it too.

*LOVES dogs and can see them 3 blocks away on a walk. He just starts waving and "ti, ti, ti" trying to get the dogs attention. so cute.

*pooping on the toilet 1-2 times a day! He starts grunting while playing and I say, "lets go poop on the toilet" and we go in and put him on. He sits there and we sing while he fills the pot! It's so funny to watch..he does such a good job.

*Loves to eat table food. He loves toast, spaghetti, sweet potatoes, strawberries, cottage cheese, yogurt. But wants to try anything and everything I am eating or drinking..thinks he's pretty big :)

*Been sleeping from 8pm-6:30am for about 3 months now and still takes 3 one hour naps during the day. I wish we could get down to 2 naps but he just can't do it yet. When he's tired, he's tired.

*Listens to "no, James" really well. If he is approaching something he knows he isn't suppose to play with he will stop and look at me and say, "hmm?" to see if I'm going to stop him this time. There are times when I have to go redirect him, but a lot of times I say, "no, that's not a toy, we don't play with that." and he'll go play with something else. Such a good boy.

That's all I can think of for now. He is always making us laugh and we love him to pieces. It's so much fun watching him hit all of these milestones.

Nachos and French Fries

So I think I'm having a girl. I have had such a different pregnancy so far and it's only been 8 weeks! Last night we had some friends over to play cards and I got a craving for wedge fries with ranch! Unfortunately, I didn't convince Mike to go out in the rain to get to those for me so then the craving switched to Old Chicago nachos! Oh man I wanted those bad. Last time I was pregnant I never really got cravings..so Mike isn't used to running out and getting nachos at 11pm :) And if I did want something it was always something sweet. I ate more dessert during those 9 months than in my entire life!
Another unfortunate difference in this pregnancy is my face and how broken out it is. ugh, too many hormones! It's so crazy how different it is. I seriously had less zits while pregnant with James than beforehand. So we'll see.
I went to a shower for my cousin-in-law today and the groom's mother and I were talking and she said she always predicts the gender correctly..she said friends of her sons will come to her to find out what they are having becuase she's been right so often. She told me today it's a boy. funny.
So excited for my drs appt so we can see that heartbeat and make sure everything is going okay!! Please continue to pray for baby limabean. It's always so "up in the air" to me talking about being pregnant when I have a stick that is telling me I'm pregnant! I always feel a lot more excited and certain when I get to see that little bean! Counting down the days.

Noosa

So my favorite blog to read is over at iowagirleats. Kristin, the writer, got me hooked on this yogurt..Noosa. The problem is its $3.50 for 8oz. But it's so creamy and just the right amount of sweet..like cheesecake. yum. I've tried a couple flavors and I don't think you can go wrong with any of them. Well guess what..it's on sale at HyVee! I tried it a couple months ago when it was on sale and so now whenever I'm at HyVee I wonder over to the yogurt section hoping to find a sale sign again! On sale it's $1.88 so that's a bit more reasonable especially for such a yummy treat. I grabbed the last blueberry yesterday and a peach, both are new flavors to me. I tried the blueberry this morning in my oatmeal and I love it. There are always quite a few strawberry rhubarb flavors left so that's the flavor I tried the first time. I know it sounds kinda weird..but try it. It's delicious. And the best part is it's good for you! It's made with cane sugar instead of fake stuff and it's pretty high in the protein department too! Good stuff all around.

                                         

Watch out though..you'll start creepin' in the yogurt aisle too!

Alone in the big city

That was us. Well we weren't really "alone" because we were there with Mike's work for a recognition dinner, but we were without James. For the first time overnight. Needless to say I was worried how he would do. Of course he did great though, and I even did okay too! By the time we got home I was ready to cover him in kisses and not let go, but I am glad we took the opportunity to spend time alone again.

So we went to Kansas City Friday afternoon. It takes forever to get there these days with the flooded river, but we made it in time to get on a chartered bus that took us to dinner.  We had some good appetizers and a good dinner. A band played and plenty of people did karokee (especially towards the end of the night after they had visited the open bar plenty of times.) So then the plan was for the bus to take everyone to the Power & Light District (KC's downtown scene). Well I had to pump and we weren't all too excited to hang out with the drunks. So went back to the hotel with the "old people" at 10. We decided we didn't want to just go to bed when we had the opportunity to hang out and sleep in.  So we walked to a nice restaurant and had a nice chat over chicken tacos..which were amazing. We slept in Saturday til 9 and ate at the complimentary breakfast buffet..then shopped around the plaza and ate at the Cheesecake factory. Yum.

So the food was definately in my top 3 for the trip..and it's awesome because since I'm pregnant again I don't have to feel bad about my belly growing :)  My #2 was the king bed.  I loved having so much  room to spread out! Sleeping with a 6'7'' man does not leave much space in a queen bed. (besides the fact that I am a furnace and radiate heat so we try to spread out as much as we can!) and my #1 was walking around downtown and the time at the restaurant with Mike. It was a good time to reconnect and have some good conversations.

Today it was back to real life. 3 kiddos here today. But I did get a nap in so that means it wasn't so bad :)

I'm trying this again..

My family knows that I spend lots of my freetime on the internet. I love reading blogs, pinterest, facebook, email, and/or researching my next item to purchase. My family will even ask me to "research" for them. It's just how I like to relax. Sit and get lost in the interwebs. Well it's time I make it productive. I had a blog started while I lived in Texas, but didn't feel like I had a topic to specifically write about so I got bored with it. Now that I have James I want to use it to keep track of his milestones and our memories as a family. If anyone else wants to keep up with us or get lost in Scheffertland then I welcome you! I had been using a notebook to keep up with James but I always felt like I was "wasting" my internet time (yes I am a little addicted) so I stopped doing that too. So I hope I can keep up with this blog this time for those two reasons.

So lets start out with James. The love of our lives. The most beautiful baby on earth. Such a happy boy. So curious and funny. We serious sit and watch him. I don't know what we did before him..he's our entertainment. He's 10 months this week. There has been times that have gone by super fast and other days that drag on. But that's just part of staying at home with a human that can't make out words yet. Don't get me wrong. He's a chatty Kathy like his dad. He willl sing as he's crawling along or walking the furniture. He says hi to strangers in the grocery store. He loves to be around people. So we try to get out as much as we can. He loves walks, going to the pool, loves people watching at the zoo, grocery store, and reading books at the library. He loves music. He claps all the time. Just today he starting holding up 1 and 2 with his fingers. Hopefully that means he'll start using some of the signs I've been teaching him. 

In other news..we will be having another little one running around here soon! I found out I was pregnant last Tuesday/Wednesday! I took a test 2 weeks ago and it said negative. So I waited a couple days and took one again, and still negative. I was disappointed. My sister said she got a negative test until she took it at 5 weeks. So I waited til Tuesday, August 2 and took another one with little hope. I almost threw it away, but in desperation looked at it again hoping I could magically  make a line appear. Well then I saw a faint line! I didn't believe it. I decided to wait and check it again after the Y to see if my eyes were tricking me. So I got back and looked again and saw it was still there. I went in to bed and told Mike there might be a faint line on the test. He got out of bed right away and said, "well yeah you might be pregnant, but go get a real test today". I had been using some cheap tests from the internet that my sister had bought, so I went and bought a $7 test and took it wednesday. Sure enough it showed up positive again this time a little bolder. Yeah! So that puts my due date at April 6. I go in for my first appointment on September 1 so that will make me rest easier once I see that little heartbeat.