I YI YI

So much is happening...I'm getting really far behind on my blogging...

First of all, a little shout out to the 80's. Like that little seat there?!?! you guessed it, it had four Schweitz butts in it at one time or another (not all at the same time - haha). On our recent trip back to the big N, dad sent it back home with us knowing that we'll get more use out of it than if it was up in the attic. He is RIGHT! Perfect for the boys, they enjoy the leg freedom, and Gramma and Gpa enjoy a high chair...actually, the correct name of the seat found on the label is the 'Pewee Perch." hahahaaahaha And of course, you can almost always count on Gramma feeding the boys, it might be her favorite thing to do.



And then we have Kenny and Angelique's wedding last weekend...he's pretty much runnin the show at Tabor Hill Winery, so the food BLEW EVERY WEDDING FOOD EVER SERVED out of the water. It's like the difference between Amber Kohler finishing a marathon (like today!!! -way to go Bama!) and then me trailing in about 3 hours later. That's how good the food was. Green Beans, mashed potatoes, a FILET, AND raspberry chicken. About 3 times as much food as I would normally eat in a meal. And as sure as my last name used to be Schweitz, I was totally in the clean your plate club. Thank you Arlan for the 'clean your plate' concept,(my dad)...if I ever get fat it's your fault. haha. Anyhoo, check out these cakes!!! you guessed it, that 'bottle of wine'...oh ya, thats a cake. DAAAANG!!! Absolutely beautiful. And since Ry and Nate were both in the wedding, Joe and Suz and I tag teamed boy patrol to make for an interesting service and reception....trying to control the movers and chatter boxes. Haha. They did really great though. I do believe this is our first ever Thomas family picture....lookin sharp!!








Hilarious. They both can climb up there now. My days are numbered.






And this is what happens when Uncle Whitey comes to visit. Diaper hats!! E didn't like his too much. So funny. Wait til your kid is born, Josh, and then see how much fun you have with diapers!

New Sis!!

I would like to dedicate this post to my bro, Cale and his newly fianced Megan soon-to-be-Schweitz. He had yesterday all planned out to sweep her off her feet...it's a great story, ending in the evening all dressed up at the Blue Orchid and she said YES! SO, get ready Nebraska, we're COMIN BACK next June!!! Woot Woot!!






Welcome to the fam Megan...be sure you really think about this 'yes' thing...we're all kinda crazy!!! =)

hahahaaa

mom blow dried our hair again.





heheh heheee

Shelter me

I'm in love, I'm in love and I don't care who knows it!!

Name that movie..... ELF!!! hahaha Can't wait to watch it again in a few months!

Anyhoo, recently I'm hearing the same thing in multiple places, friends, church, bible study, friends' blogs, radio, our traveling journal...can't seem to get away from it. And I don't know the answer. Here it is....WHAT'S YOUR PASSION?!?! Oh man I'm not excited about that question, and it seems to follow me around so I can't stop thinking about it. I have a couple options...but I feel like 'passion' is such an emotional word and it's too 'extreme' for me. I really enjoy a lot of things. A LOT. Nature. Giving. Family. Twins. Babies in general. Listening. Outdoor activities. Friends. Quality conversation. Reading Scripture. Cutting hair. Music. Traveling. Uninterrupted, FOCUSED reading... there are many things. Don't think I can pin point a one particular LOVE....

And for some people it's not hard to say what their's is...and it's really easy for me to pick one for someone else I know well, just not sure why I'm having such a hard time. Hmmm. Reading Carissa's blog written beautifully about being a mom and knowing that that job is the most important thing to Ethan and Garrett right now puts things into perspective a bit. I love their cuddles, smiles, laughs, the way they move, the way they sneeze, I could watch em all day (it's a good thing that's my job). I love them. But it's completely different than the way I love Ry, or my family...weird. No, not weird, AWESOME. God MADE US to do that, to grow and to be needed and to need others. The beauty of the body of Christ. Everyone has different gifts, talents, skills, ideas, PASSIONS...and it all works together for good. He thought of everything. Amazing.

MR AND MRS EIGSTI!!!

Well everyone, our trip was a SUCCESS!! And we finally made it home...here's a sum up of the trip.

Leave for NE Thurs after Ry get off work (1.5 hours later than expected)
Smooth car trip, boys did great.
Get into Elkhorn at 2am, boys wide awake. Awesome.
3am Boys decide to finally go to bed...so we can too.
6:30am E wakes up.

Friday morning, Eidams came over for a quick hello to the boys.
Head to the dental school in Lincoln to see Uncle Nate and other teeth people.
Lunch with Schweitz siblings and mom.
Hang out in Selleck and Cale's house with boys while Marth gets hair cut by Courtney!!! (HALLELUJAH)
Run and pick up dress for Steph Eidam's wedding in December, head to church...meet up with Ry and the boys.
Rehearse. Eat. Be Merry.
Pack up and head to Hohlen Inn and Suite to hang out with old church friends, meet new little guys Turner and Camden!
Late night talk of teeth, finally go to bed.
6:30am E wakes up.

Saturday boys, breakfast, shower, go to church to cut Bama's hair.
Rest of girls arrive to start getting ready.
Work some hair magic and then have a meltdown trying to get Scipp ready in time. I actually cried...loosing my skilz I think. Dangit. I dont think that's ever happened before...
Wedding BLISS - best ceremony we've been to in a really long time. LOVED IT!!
Ride in limo to reception
Recept. Eat. Dance. Be Merry.
Catch up with MANY friends - it was a blast!
10:30pm head to Uncle Nate's to say goodbye
Midnight, back in Elkhorn, put boys to bed.
6:30am E wakes up.

Sunday morning, shower, hang out with fam, eat a great breakfast see GREAT GRANDPA SCHWEITZ!! Sigh, he's my favorite...
Gma Eidam, Stephy and Briana visit to see the boys
Ry does dental checks on Dad and Beth.
Look at pictures, Eat Pizza, Be Merry.
Leave for Mich at 3PM.
Notice the flat tire. (There was a screw in it - actually it's still there...)
fill up tire, get some coffee, start the drive.
Couple hours in, G BOMBS while sitting in the carseat, up the back, out BOTH sides and up the FRONT!! of his diap. Time for a rest area, 20 min delay of game.
Back on the road, few hours later stop for gas, eat subway, it gets dark. 30 min delay of game.
Chicago comin in kinda hot, wait a second, why are they making us exit....take a 2 hour detour on this random highway south of I80 due to flooding.
E wakes up to poop. Since we're moving about an inch every 10 minutes, Ry changes his diap in the front seat and he plays in dad's lap for a while. (I was driving the second half) Goes back to bed in car seat.
Arrive back in Mich at 3am, 12 hours from start of trip.
I look like I got hit by a bus.

There you have it!!! Pretty eventful! Now it's back to house decisions, and the boys' 9 month doc visit today. Thank you Dr. Neal - Ry got to sleep in a few extra hours because of his schedule, so he went in at 11 this morning. All in ALL, GREAT trip, we got so see so many of our friends and family, there is always more we wished we had time for, but it was so GREAT to see one of my BEST friends get married and start this new stage of life with her man. Love you Scipp!! Pictures to come...

4 in the am.

Can't sleep. Really great for the night before a LONG road trip in the dark, with me probably driving...sigh. Ethan woke up about an hour ago for whatever reason, so I fed him a bit and he went right back to sleep. I, on the other hand, couldn't stop thinking about the million other things i need to do today before we take off for Nebraska this afternoon. WOW. My list is huge, things to deliver to a bunch of people, our own stuff, the boys' stuff, unload the unnecessary stuff that's already in the car, reload with the goods...my morning is full, house stuff, bible study...last minute shopping. Aye yi yi.

but this is what's currently on my mind. The framers are done on Friday. We won't be here then. I want to make a couple of cornhole boards out of the wood that I have already purchased (what they're framing with) - ESPECIALLY because I don't have the tools. SO....what else would I be doing at 4 in the morning. Looking up 'official dimensions' of cornhole boards of course! I have to meet the stone guy there at 11:30, and I better have my board dimensions all ready to go so they can just whip out the saw and cut all the pieces for me...and then maybe even use their nail guns too....hmmm. Better bring em some snacks or pop or something. They already think I'm a freak cause I'm there all the time. hahahaaa

Anyhoo, most of the windows are in now, and half of the house has shingles. Movin right along... Better get back to my dimensions so I can go to BED!!

Leave for NE: 12 hours
Scipp's Wedding: 71 hours!!!!!

WOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Just kidding....

Let's walk into sunshine

So I've been teaching the boys a new trick! They can hold their own bottle!!...for a while anyway... Yesss....so chubby!


And this happens to be Garrett's favorite game for a while now. Hide in the blankets, climb around on pillows or blankets or whatever...hahaaaaa anyone that's had us over knows how much G likes the pillows. =) Ethan likes it too, but he's not NEAR as crazy/hyper!




Ya he's pretty much hilarious. And Ethan just sits back and watches him...he's not as crazy, which is good, cause if I had two crazy climbers...woah. Speaking of climbing, Garrett can now get himself up on our couch with no problem...can't quite make it up on the coffee table, but pretty sure that's only a few days away. he's into everything!!! Usually I just let them play in my little 'sectioned off' area of our living room and then I can do random stuff around them while they play...every once in a while I'll look in a G will be on top of something new...too bad I don't have more pictures of it..he's just so dang fast that I don't have time to get the cam out. haha. And E will just stand right beside him and watch. Sometimes he starts laughing while he's looking at him. hmmm... =) wow they're funny.

Ya. Notice where G's feet are. That's his favorite ladder...the car seat. He can move it just enough so that he can climb up onto the next higher thing...in this case, headed straight over to knock over the pictures. Sometimes he will get into the car seat, STAND up and hold on to the handle bar...and then he thinks its fun that it rocks back and forth. awesome. On occasion I flip the car seat over and put a blanket over it to make a little mini-mountain for them to play on...they're in heaven. And I just sit and laugh....alot!

AND...stairs are IN now!! Check it out! It's raining here today, but no worries cause the roof is up!

Impossible to find

Hello again! We had some serious fun this last weekend, and if you have an hour feel free to take a look at the pictures. For the long weekend we hosted Josh and Erin for a few nights, and as usual it went extremely fast. They got their teeth cleaned on Friday at Ry's office, went and checked out the house, played a few rounds of hand and foot (AKA 'Book It'). Saturday we worked out...kind of...Josh did, =)...watched some football at Josh and Emily's Mich Party, to which all of us wore Husker attire. haha. Then home to change for the 1998 Lakeshore Highschool Reunion!! It would be no lie that I had fun. The DJ played all music from 98...and of course they were all good songs...Erin and I had a hard time controlling our song outbursts. And Josh was dying to dance, but he resisted temptation. The food was pretty good, only a small group of people came...40ish out of the 200ish from their class, and then their spouses. Kinda a bad turnout, Ryan and Josh thought there would be way more people there because their class was pretty close, but guess not. We did all enjoy the shocked looks on people's faces when they realized who Josh was...as he looks completely different from 10 years ago. My sis is married to a stud, I'll say. Anyways, makes me excited for ours in 3 years!!! BOO YAAA

Little update on the boys...Garrett = Mr. Climber. Everywhere. up on the furniture now...on Ethan, over my little road blocks...seriously he's crazy. But it's funny to watch him cause he starts moving and then will look back to see if I'm watching him, then get a huge grin on his face and start goin again. haha. Repeat 3 or 4 times until it's on to the next obstacle. Food is going pretty good...trying to get 3 meals in a day is a job. Especially factoring in the cleanup. But it's fun to feed them now that they can eat from a spoon, it was really frustrating at first, but now they have it down. Ethan pretty much eats anything you put in front of him, but he eats smaller bites and chokes a little. ha. Garrett doesn't like changing flavors, or introducing new foods until the 3rd or 4th time, then he's ok. And he can handle giant mouth fulls at once..he grunts a bit if you're not feeding him fast enough. And then when he's done, you'll know because he'll start grinning with his jaw clinched so nothing more can get in there. And of course they both slap the table cause it's loud. That's fun. it's also fun when they sneeze and food flies out their mouth. haha. oh and Ethan has his two bottom teeth now too. SO CUTE! Garrett's are up and big now. Kinda hurts if they bite you just right. Anyway, there you have it. Comin up on 9 months!

House is moving along...I haven't taken many pictures lately cause the outside hasn't changed much. Monday the shingles are going on, that takes 3 days...and then all the random inside tasks that the framer still has to do, like the stairs and a few short walls, and the fireplace...movin right along! Stay tuned!