Familie Schmitt

End of the school year

2010-05-31T10:01:00.002-05:00

School for Benjamin officially ends June 11th, but things are wrapping up with some fun events for the whole family. Last Thursday Mike and I tore ourselves away from work during one of the most beautiful days I have seen in the long time to accompany Benjamin and his classmates on a picnic at the school. The school has an amazing outdoor environment that is acres by acres large that is full of places for the kids to run around and play. He is so lucky to go to school in this kind of environment versus the concrete parking lot that I had at my schools.

Next week we have an all school picnic to attend at a park near our house. I think this time I'll remember to bring a blanket for us to sit on! :-)

http://thefamilieschmitt.com

Nursery Inspirations

2010-05-26T11:31:00.004-05:00

People have begun to ask what our plans for the baby's nursery are, so I thought I'd share some of my inspirations and ideas here. First of all, we are planning a space that the little lady can grow into as she ages. Painting Benjamin's nursery a bright yellow and adding in nursery rhyme sayings and a big mural of Humpty Dumpty didn't carry him much beyond 2 years old when he moved into his new big boy twin bed, so I didn't want to make that mistake twice. We're going with a neutral creamy yellow for the walls with no plans for a mural at this time.

Here are a few photos that can give you an idea of where I am going with the wall color (first photo) and the overall feel of the space:

The look I am going for is one that is not overly feminine, but is also light and airy with the fabrics and brightness of the room. Whenever I try to describe what I want to Mike, he looks at me like I am insane, so hopefully that makes sense to you.

I put together an inspiration board for the things that I am looking to include in the room. This includes the fabric I purchased for the crib bedding. The floral fabric is going to be the crib skirt and the aqua accent color is the color of the sheets. We purchased and assembled the nursery rocking chair already, but we are still waiting on a replacement slipcover (in the color shown here) since the zipper broke when we were trying to get it on the chair. I already picked up the lamp here at IKEA this weekend and am on a mission to find the mirror. I'd like to get the circular one here, but since I have yet to be able to find one exactly like this one anywhere, I may just end up going with one that is rectangular.

I am still undecided on the curtains. Benjamin was (and still is!) and awesome awesome sleeper and I am afraid that it was partly because of how dark we kept his nursery. We have a light blocking pull down (ugly!) shade on the window now, which I plan to keep. We also have some pretty dark curtains as well, which keep the light out nicely. However, since my idea for the room is to keep it light and airy during times when the baby is awake, dark curtains wouldn't really achieve that goal. I like the look of sheers, but not the functionality - hence my indecisiveness.

Two major things that are missing from this board are the wall hanging I bought many months ago and a painting we have in our house from our time in England that we plan to use. Both of these things tie in the "theme" of the room. I hesitate to call it a "theme" because the entire room doesn't revolve around it, but since there are more than a couple of items that do, I guess that is what it can be called. I'll have to snap some photos of the painting and wall hanging, but you can get an idea of what they might involve by looking at one of the prints in the inspiration board above.

I think that's about it for my ideas. I plan to track our progress of getting both of the children's rooms ready on here, so stay tuned. We are hard at work trying to clean out Benjamin's new room, which is no easy task!

http://thefamilieschmitt.com

Baby Girl Sighting #2

2010-05-20T08:34:00.002-05:00

It is almost like she's waving to us! We've added new photos to our flickr account.

http://thefamilieschmitt.com

Happy Belated Blogiversary!

2010-05-11T13:16:00.002-05:00

I totally had planned on writing something special for our 5 year anniversary of starting this blog (5/5/05), but with all of the excitement going on around here, I forgot. Whoops!

Five years ago I was 32 weeks pregnant with Benjamin and we posted some ultrasound photos we had done on May 5th as our first blog posting. Crazy. Here I am, five years later and 20 weeks pregnant with our second child.

With Benjamin's birth we held the "Great Labor Debate" where friends and family guessed what day he would be born. We plan on doing that again and will begin to take bids here on the blog and by email after our next ultrasound on May 19th. Feel free to leave a comment or email us if you are just dying to share your prediction before then. Some stats to help you make your guess: my due date is September 25th, I was six days late with Benjamin and usually second children come earlier than first children.

Mother's Day weekend was a delight. We tapped into some grandparent babysitting Friday night so Mike and I could celebrate our anniversary sans five year old. Thank you to Mike's parents. Saturday was spent bopping around St. Paul with Jennifer and Andy. We visited the farmer's market, Penzy's spices, and the Golden Fig, had lunch at Midtown Global Market and enjoyed dessert at Izzy's Ice Cream. It was great to spend a day with no plans, just doing whatever anyone wanted to do at any moment.

Sunday morning Mike made cinnamon rolls and even picked up some fresh watermelon for me (my latest major craving). We spent most of the morning outside doing some much needed yard work. After lunch all three of us went to see a movie I've been looking forward to for a long time, Babies. It is a documentary that follows 4 babies from birth to about 18 months in San Francisco, Tokyo, Namibia and Mongolia. It was very cute and we all enjoyed it. Here is the very adorable preview:

After the movie we capped off my special day and the lovely weekend with dinner at our favorite restaurant. It was wonderful!

http://thefamilieschmitt.com

Eight years ago...

2010-05-04T13:01:00.003-05:00

These two crazy kids got hitched...

What makes a runner?

2010-05-01T17:26:00.006-05:00

Here is an article I wrote for our local running club newsletter that I decided to share with everyone.

My son Benjamin is no stranger to running. He's been at nearly every marathon I've run. He watched me qualify for Boston, cheered for me on the hills of Newton, and has attended more running events than he can count. My running friends are his running friends, and they are good friends to have. It's through our influence and passion for running that inspired him to race.

Nearly 6 months ago he ran his first race. It was a 1K around Lake Harriet in the dead of winter. People say should start them young, and that's exactly what my wife and I intended to do. I ran with him in many layers chatting the entire way. He asked if we were going to just run a "short one". I told him yes and we proceeded to run the entire race without stopping. It was then I knew he had "the bug".

I was once told by a wise runner when my son was born that my running will only get better with a child, especially when your child runs with you.

Today my son did better than run with me, he ran without me. He suited up in his track suit, pinned his number on, laced his shoes, and stood perched at the starting line with his hand on his watch. When they yelled go, he didn't turn around, he didn't look for daddy or mommy, he was off like a shot looking to run his first ever 1 mile race. He told me that he did have to walk for three steps but otherwise ran the entire race without stopping. At the end of his race claimed his medal as thousand before him have down, he bowed his head while someone placed it around his neck in victory.

Today my son became a runner.

2010-04-26T13:40:00.002-05:00

Sugar and spice and all things nice...

We had our 18 week ultrasound today. We were pleased to see that the baby looks healthy and is growing at exactly the correct rate. The ultrasound technician asked us if we wanted to know the gender and it was quite a surprise when she said, "This baby is a girl!" The look on our faces must have been priceless. We laughed and let out a "No way!" response a few times. Looks like we're bound to have lots of pink frills in our future!

AJ is 5!

2010-04-13T10:27:00.004-05:00

Our nephew/Benjamin's cousin A.J. turned 5 last week and on Saturday we celebrated his birthday at Chuck E. Cheese.

They had a machine there that would take a token and then print out a photo of you that looks like a drawing. A.J. and Benjamin sat together for one photo. Although they only give you one copy of the drawing, I took a photo of it and here is the SILLY result:

On Sunday Mike completed the indoor triathlon that was the culmination of his 12 week "Why Not Tri" class. I think he is glad to be done with the mandatory 5:30am mornings, but he is also looking forward now to the outdoor triathlons he has coming up soon!

Map Work

2010-04-07T13:13:00.001-05:00

One of the things that Benjamin really enjoys at school is working with maps. Over the course of his first year at school he has learned all of the continents and many of the countries of the world. Right now in order to improve his handwriting, he has been labeling maps. Here he is working on a map of South America. Benjamin's teacher provides us with photos of him hard at work throughout the year and it is great to see him doing the things he talks about at home.

Easter and spring break

2010-04-05T10:48:00.003-05:00

Benjamin was on his very first ever spring break last week. We weren't able to go away on a vacation (have you seen the price of airline tickets lately?!?!), so we tried to fill up his time with fun local activities. He spent the first weekend with his Grandma Chris and Grandpa Ed who took him to Dave & Busters, the Minnesota Zoo, and out to see How to Train Your Dragon. He stayed there until Monday, when I picked him up and took him to the Minnesota Science Museum for the afternoon. On both Tuesday and Wednesday he was at a school-provided daycare program where he played for hours outside in the nice weather with some friends. Tuesday was also the day when Mike and I finally got to have another OB appointment. We were supposed to hear the baby's heartbeat, but I have an anterior placenta, which blocks the way for the machine to pick up the heartbeat. Instead, we were treated to another ultrasound where we were able to see the little one moving around, kicking and sucking its thumb. We now have our anatomy ultrasound (where we'll find out the gender) scheduled for April 26th.

On Thursday we drove back up to the Twin Cities again to spend the day with Jen, AJ and John. The boys played outside in the almost 80 degree weather, we had lunch and we all spent a few hours at the Minnesota Children's Museum.

Here is a video of Benjamin and AJ performing at the museum:

After leaving the boys and Jen, we met up with Uncle Andy for dinner and even were able to see Aunt Jennifer for a short while before our drive back to Rochester.

We were able to celebrate Easter with both sides of the family this year for a change. First we spent Saturday night and Sunday morning/afternoon with Grandma Chris and Grandpa Ed and then the rest of the day was with Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Bert (plus Uncle Andy, Auntie Katie and Uncle Dan). It was a fun and tiring day that brought lots of goodies for Benjamin.

Weather: please make up your mind!

2010-03-22T09:54:00.002-05:00

Wednesday and Thursday felt like spring. Friday and Saturday felt like winter. Sunday was spring again. This is truly my least favorite time of year. While I am happy to occasionally have a bit of sunshine and warm temperatures, this back and forth garbage is for the birds! Mike's parents visited on Saturday while the weather was at its worst, unfortunately. So they took Benjamin and enjoyed some indoor activities with him. When the weather was better on Sunday, the three of us tried to take advantage of it as much as we could. The photo above was taken while Benjamin sang about baseball and did some kind of crazy dance on the driveway, go figure.

As I said in my previous post, we've been working on some small home improvement projects here and there. Mike installed these new overhead lights in the basement, which I thought went well with our movie-theme down there. They kind of remind me of an old art deco movie theater.

I spent a couple of days freshening up the 3 doors in the front of the house with a new coat of paint. I went with a dark blue color, which seemed classier to me than the lighter blue that had been there since we moved in almost 7 years ago (yikes)!

There is more work to be done! I just hope my new inspired outlook on my list of to-do's sticks around. We have a huge amount of work to do before Benjamin moves into his new room. I am not looking forward to that. I'm also trying to delay that process as long as I can because I'm not sure that I am ready to move my baby downstairs!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-17T09:43:00.001-05:00

Here's a photo of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin from our 2003 trip to Ireland.

Meltdown

2010-03-15T09:56:00.005-05:00

The last of the snow around our house has finally melted and signs of spring are beginning to appear. Benjamin and I grabbed the chance to enjoy some outside time Friday afternoon while I cleaned the garage and he rode up and down the block in his electric jeep. Saturday morning, while Mike was away on his run, his brother Dan called and asked if he and Katie could come down for the afternoon. We had a fun visit with them and Katie and I were even able to get some shopping in at Hobby Lobby. I bought our first item for the baby's nursery and am pretty excited about it. I won't share what it is until we're ready to reveal my plans for the room sometime after we find out the baby's gender.

On Sunday we helped our friends Jen and Nate celebrate the first birthday of their daughter Julia. It is hard to believe that she is already a year old!

The weather was so beautiful, but for some reason we found ourselves inside installing new overhead lights in our basement family room Sunday afternoon. The lights look great and certainly make the room brighter at night, but Mike's neck may never be the same! I'll take a photo of the new lights and post it sometime soon. Either my nesting instinct is kicking in or maybe it is just the coming of spring or it could be the countless hours of HGTV in HD that I've been watching, but I've been very inspired to do some small projects around the house. I'll show them off here when I can.

My my my heart like a kick drum...

2010-03-09T12:18:00.002-06:00

Mike and I were able to see another one of our favorite bands, The Avett Brothers, in concert this weekend at First Avenue in Minneapolis. Before the show we enjoyed some Thai food at Chiang Mai Thai, which was our first "date night" in a very long time. The concert was fantastic! We only very recent came across their music and are most familiar with their most recent release, so we were very happy that much of the set list was familiar to us. I was very nervous about staying awake, since pregnancy has made me impossibly tired lately, but to my surprise I was able to stay awake until almost 1am without any problems.

From our vantage point at the concert:

Benjamin spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa Schmitt who also took him to see Great Aunt Alice Saturday afternoon while Mike and I grabbed the chance to have even more alone time.

On Sunday we prepared for our annual Oscars party, which was a success! We really aimed to make it a low stress party with simple foods and more time spent with our friends vs. cooking, etc. I think we met our goal. We had about 10 adults and 4 kids and it was a lot of fun. Now we just need to catch up on our movie watching!

Benjamin has been taking swimming lessons for a couple of weeks now. Mike takes him and has been able to snap a few pictures of him swimming.

He really enjoys the class but is still quite hesitant to fully jump in the water, which all of the kids do at the end of the class. I think after another few classes he'll be a pro at it!

School

2010-02-22T16:18:00.001-06:00

The 100 board
Originally uploaded by Familie Schmitt

Benjamin has been at his new school for just over six months. He loves it, we love it. Every day holds something to discuss about school. Here are a few pictures of things he's been concentrating on lately.

8 weeks, 4 days

2010-02-17T12:10:00.002-06:00

We had our first doctor's appointment today and they did the very first ultrasound on Baby Schmitt #2. They are measuring at 8 weeks, 4 days and we could see the little one's heartbeat beating. Because the baby measured in a little older than they had originally thought, they've moved the due date up to September 25th. Hooray for a shorter pregnancy!

I have been feeling better these past 2 days, but am still slightly nauseous and very tired. Now that we've seen the baby, it is all beginning to feel more real!

Laced Up

2010-02-15T08:52:00.003-06:00

(photo borrowed from Renee @ her blog)

Sunday marked the third running of the Lace Up Against Breast Cancer half marathon and 5k. Mike is on the planning committee and I am the webmaster/Mayo-connection for the race. We've been working since last year along with a whole pack of other people to put together the race. Mike's oldest brother, Joe, came down to Rochester to run the race with Mike. The money raised from race entry fees, donations and from the silent auction goes to breast cancer research here at Mayo Clinic, where I work. Mike bid on and won a dinner for 6 prepared by a local Cooking Light club, which should come in handy as things get crazier within our growing household.

Our Valentine's Day was pretty low key this year. The race was in the morning, but both Benjamin and I woke up feeling sick, so we had to skip volunteering for the event. When Mike came home we exchanged Valentines and played with Benjamin's new Playdoh Ice Cream Shoppe set. Grandma Chris and Grandpa Ed came down Sunday evening, we all went out for Mexican food and then came back home to watch some Olympics. Benjamin is off of school today for President's Day so Grandma and Grandpa took the day off as well to hang out with him. They had all kinds of fun things planned to do while Mike and I are at work.

We are all very excited for this week because I have my first OB appointment with my doctor and we'll finally be able to see the baby via ultrasound. He/she is only the size of a blueberry at this point, so the photos won't be great, but it will be a relief to confirm that everything is going well. I'm sure we'll be back with an update after the appointment!

September 29 25, 2010

2010-01-25T09:38:00.002-06:00

Snow Angel

2010-01-11T13:58:00.004-06:00

For at least a while this weekend we came up past sub-zero temperatures, so we were finally able to enjoy all of that snow we have. Joe, Jen, the boys, Andy and Jennifer all came down for the weekend and it was fun to have visitors. Sunday morning most of us bundled up enough to enjoy some sunshine and snow. Joe and the boys built a huge snow fort in the backyard and we adults had some fun throwing around snowballs.

The boys spent a lot of time inside playing, too. Here is a video of Benjamin making John laugh.

Beginning a new year

2010-01-02T22:36:00.003-06:00

Christmas is over, the new year is here.

In looking back at our 2009 Photo Collection, I realized that we've had quite the busy year. Early in 2009 Mike took a "plunge," we celebrated the weddings of Andy & Jennifer and Erin & Dennis, my Mom and I traveled to Hawaii for Kelly & Mike's wedding, Mike competed in his first triathlon, we both raced in the Amuzing Race again, Benjamin turned 4, started at a new school and trick-or-treated as a robot for Halloween. And of course, most importantly, we took a family roadtrip.

The three of us have had the past week off of work and school and it is hard to believe we only have one day left of our vacation. I have a big week coming up at work this next week. I am coordinating a research symposium on Wednesday that I have been working on for about a year. Mike has many races scheduled for the year already and we've been throwing around ideas for at least one big vacation. Hopefully 2010 is a wonderful year for us -- and for all of you!!

By the way,

2009-12-21T08:48:00.000-06:00

Did anyone notice the new photo I put up in our template??? We're all Christmas-ey!

Rotary Lights

2009-12-21T08:30:00.002-06:00

Every year in La Crosse, Wisconsin, there is a holiday lights display down at Riverside Park put on by the Rotary Club. Mike and I have been including this event in our holiday traditions for probably about 12 years. We only missed the event when Benjamin was too tiny to enjoy it or when our holiday season was too busy to have a spare weekend to drive down. La Crosse is also one of our favorite cities, so we make a point to spend the whole day doing the things we love there: visiting the Co-Op, eating at Buzzard Billy's, and going to the candy store. We had a fabulous time there this Saturday and though the drive through line for the holiday lights was too long to endure, the weather was nice enough for us to stroll among the lights by foot. It was magical.

Catch Up

2009-12-15T10:00:00.003-06:00

I haven't exactly been feeling much like updating the blog lately, so two weekends have gone by without anything from me. Oops.

Mike and I spent a lovely weekend in downtown Minneapolis recently to see a concert of one of my favorite bands: The Swell Season. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova were in the movie Once, which won an Academy Award for Best Song in 2008. You may remember that Marketa was played off my the orchestra at the awards show and didn't get to give her thank you speech so the host, Jon Stewart, brought her back on later in the show so she could speak. Their music is just so beautiful and Glen Hansard is one of the best live performers I have ever seen. I got our tickets during a presale, so we were lucky enough to sit in the fifth row in center seats at the State Theatre for the concert. It was amazing.

Benjamin spent that weekend with my parents and they had many adventures, which you can read about here.

We had a snow day last week due to a blizzard that gave us about 12 inches overnight.

This past Friday I was able to spend the day holiday shopping with my Mom, which was a treat, since for so many years they lived too far away to just spend a day with her. We also hosted Mike's parents on Saturday and they brought along a few surprise guests: Andy, Jennifer, Dan and Katie. Mike made everyone some awesome Greek soup and we spent the evening hanging out and playing some games. It was very nice.

I am happy to report that my Christmas shopping is nearly done. I only have one more present to buy and wrap, it feels great. We are very much looking forward to our Christmas Eve traditions of holiday lights, church, a special meal and early bedtimes. Before we know it, the big day will be here!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2009-12-01T20:17:00.005-06:00

A relaxing Thanksgiving was spent with Grandma Chris and Grandpa Ed last week. The food was great and the company was wonderful. We even fit in a long walk after dinner - Mike was happy! On Friday we went to a Christmas parade/celebration in Excelsior, which was very quaint and cute.

On Wednesday night Mike and I acted like youngsters and went to a rock concert in Minneapolis. One of our new favorite bands, The Big Pink, played an AWESOME show! We had dinner together and then miraculously stayed awake long enough to see the performance. They ROCKED our favorite song, Dominos and even did a cover of a Beyonce song - it ruled!

The Christmas tree and decorations are up, the Christmas cards are ready to be mailed and we've started in on our shopping - the holiday is shaping up to be spectacular! Everyone at the Familie Schmitt Haus is EX-CI-TED!

Fun day at the really fun park

2009-11-24T09:45:00.002-06:00

As part of our birthday extravaganza/boys' time weekend Joe, Jen and the boys came down to Rochester for a visit. We took all 3 boys to our favorite park: "really fun park" aka Three Links Park and they played for hours. I brought my camera and tripod along and snapped some great pictures of them!

Those two big boys sure are growing up fast!