2012

Our family has had a truly blessed year.  Just a few highlights:

- In February, we celebrated our beautiful daughter's 1st birthday!

- In March, we completed our Homestudy and paperwork for Adoption #2.

- In March, we also received the news that our profile had been chosen by a birthmom and that the baby boy was coming very soon!

- In April, our dear son Anthony was born.  He was born on Holy Thursday and we celebrated Easter by bringing our second child home.

- In May, we celebrated my second Mother's Day with another Baptism.  Two years in a row and I couldn't be happier to share my day with such a very special Sacrament for my children.

- In May, we also took our first vacation as a family of four and celebrated the wedding of my childhood best friend, Annie.

- In July, we celebrated our 4th wedding Anniversary.

- In August, my beautiful niece was born.  Her and Anthony quickly became fast friends and my kids have so much fun playing with their cousin "Chee-Chee".

- In September, we travelled to Wisconsin to celebrate the first birthday of our very special Godson, Theodore.  And of course, I celebrated my 27th birthday and Anna's Adoption Day.

- In October, we were overjoyed to celebrate Anthony's Adoption Finalization!

- And now December, we've thoroughly enjoyed spending lots of time with family and celebrating traditions old and new with our children. 


As I look back on the last year, I can't even believe how abundantly blessed we have been.  There have certainly been challenges, but in the end, welcoming our son into our home and our niece into the family have been the biggest highlights.  Sometimes I still can't believe that I am the mother to two such beautiful children.  They are such a joy and delight and it makes me all the more excited to see what God has in store for our family in the future.

Friday Quick Takes (42)

  

The  2 billion pictures Christmas Edition

--- 1 ---

For starters, we got our first snowfall last week.  This is the first time it's really snowed here since Anna was born.  About 3 weeks before she was born, we had Snowzilla 2011 and last winter was, well, not winter.  So the white stuff is all new.  And they look stinkin adorable in their snowsuits!

Bundled up and ready to go outside!

Anna loved looking at the snow.  Stepping it in was a whole different story.  Hopefully she gets more practice this winter.

Obviously she's not used to the snow, she wanted to play with sidewalk chalk...

 

--- 2 ---

We spent Saturday celebrating with my family.  We had fun playing games, opening presents, and watching a movie.  The kids were completely spoiled by their aunts and grandparents and have had a blast playing with all their new toys and wearing all of their new clothes.

 

Making homemade hot cocoa mix with daddy.

Helping grandma make homemade pizza.  This is one of her favorite things to do.  She's getting very good at it!

Family picture

This pretty much sums it up.  Anna wouldn't take her "pack-pack" off once she opened it and she proceeded to say "uh-oh" every time we tried to get her to open a gift.  Needless to say, we opened most of hers.  Anthony, on the other hand, was all over ripping that paper off and had a blast opening his presents.  Go figure!

Cousins in front of a small portion of their presents!

 

--- 3 ---

On Christmas Eve, we celebrated with our little family at home in the morning.  We always go to my grandmas on Christmas, so my family always opened presents on Christmas Eve.  We've continued that tradition at our house. 

Excited to come down the stairs to see their presents!

 

He was super excited about his stocking!

Checking out her loot and eating her M&Ms.

Family pj picture!

Checking out their main gift, a playhouse.  They absolutely LOVED it.  Anna has been begging to play in it first thing every morning until I let her go down to the basement.  She can't get enough of it!

 

--- 4 ---

After we opened presents and got ready at our house, we went to my in-laws to celebrate with them.  The kids got a lot of neat gifts there too and have especially loved their big Minnie and Mickey and their Noah's Ark.  And Nana had fun getting them super cute clothes!

Anthony enjoying opening up his Noah's ark.

Anna and Big Mickey.  She danced with it for a long time.

Anthony loves the Minnie and Mickey!

Head family fun!

 

--- 5 ---

Christmas Eve evening, we went to Jeremy's grandpa's house.  His family always gets together on Christmas Eve and it's always fun and full of lots of people!  We enjoyed seeing everyone and the kids had a blast.

Hanging out, waiting for presents!

Anna loves Great-Papa's full length mirror at the end of his hallway. 

Checking out her new laptop with Uncle Jason.

He's just so happy all the time.  That smile kills me :-)

Another family picture.  Our hearts are overflowing!

 

--- 6 ---

We went to "midnight" aka 10pm Mass on Christmas Eve and the kids slept right through it.  It was beautiful and and a very peaceful Mass.  I always love seeing the infant Jesus laying right in front of the altar, underneath of the crucifix.  It is so beautiful to gaze at a statue of our Lord and remember that he came from such humble beginnings.  Then gazing at my own babies in our arms and understanding Mary's love and her sacrifice.

 

On Christmas day, we made the trek to my grandma's in southern Illinois (about a 2 1/2 hour drive).  I have lots and lots of family and it's always fun to get together and see my aunts and uncle and cousins, and definitely my grandma.  For the first hour we were without power.  Luckily dinner was cooked and ready, so we ate in the dark, but it was delicious as always.  The power came back on shortly after dinner and we enjoyed the rest of our day.

A sampling of the many people that came to grandma's.

Hanging out while all the babies napped.

Our Schmitt family with my grandma.

 

--- 7 ---

Jeremy and I just can't believe how wonderful it has been to share our families' traditions with our children.  We do lots of celebrating and see lots of different people and we wouldn't have it any other way.  Our family is surrounded by people who love us and who love our children.  We are so blessed and have truly enjoyed this blessed Christmas.  Christmas is all about Christ's birth and sharing his love with our family and friends.  We definitely did that this Christmas. 

 

We will continue our celebrating this weekend.  Tomorrow we have a meeting with Anthony's birthmom and she told me that she has lots of fun gifts for the kids.  We have dinner with Jeremy's family tomorrow night and then on Sunday we're celebrating with my dad's family. 

 

Matching Christmas pj's from grandma.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Friday Quick Takes (41)

 

--- 1 ---

We've been baking like crazy over here.  We've made all kinds of deliciousness and we've enjoyed baking with the grandparents as well.  Anna quickly accepted her role as taste tester and sprinkle licker.  This girl loves to bake and even more than that, she loves to sample her masterpieces.  She's very lucky thatI love to bake and that both her grandma and her nana are excellent bakers and that she gets many opportunities to practice her skills!

 

Eating it straight off the beater.  She's her daddy's daughter!

 

--- 2 ---

Anna has moved on from being petrified of her uncles to just being skeptical.  This is great news for them as they love to play with her.  To make up for Anna's skepticism, Anthony adores his uncles (well, and everyone else really).  He can't get enough of playing with them and totally eats the attention right up!

Hanging out with Uncle Jason, who is becoming quite the baby-holding expert.  Both uncles love to hold him now that he's not "breakable" and he's sturdy :-)

 

Sheer delight!

--- 3 ---

We've had multiple Christmas parties at our house this week.  Add to that the craziness that the last few months have been health wise and well, my usually pristine house has been for lack of a better word, dirty.  It needed a good cleaning and having people over is the perfect motivation. 

 

So for the first time in months, we had a Saturday morning with nothing going on and we chose to have a cleaning party.  The kids enjoyed helping us dust and vacuum (Anthony likes to hang out on my back in my Olives & Applesauce).  Anna loves to be "helpful".  And they got a real treat when we let them watch Mickey Mouse on the computer.  Both kids just LOVE Mickey and Anna begs for it all the time.  She usually only gets to watch when I do her hair, so this was an especially great treat for her! 

 

We got our house clean and everyone enjoyed time as a family.  And we all took great naps that afternoon!

 

 

--- 4 ---

AYWH wrote a review of the Brother Francis DVD's.  I had never heard of them until I read her post, but I'd been meaning to check them out.  Anna's Godparents actually sent her the Eucharist one as her Christmas gift.  We watched it this morning and absolutely loved it.  The kids were complely fascinated the entire time.  Anna loved all of the songs and Anthony giggled through it.  There are times in a week when I just need them to sit quietly for a few minutes so I can catch my breath or deal with a cranky kiddo.  Well, I don't even feel bad about sitting them in front of a 30 minute Eucharist video that they love.  You can bet we will be getting the other ones!

 

--- 5 ---

I cannot get enough of these two.  They just adore each other!  I'm so happy to see my babies getting along so well and being such great friends already.  Anna is constantly giving Anthony hugs and his reaction is priceless!

 

--- 6 ---

This baby has come a long way in just a few weeks.  We were starting to get a little concerned about his lack of milestones there for a little bit.

 

Not to worry, Anthony just all of the sudden decides that's it's time to do things.  One day he couldn't sit, the next day he could.  One day he was hardly verbal, the next day we couldn't shut him up.  One day he has no interest in toys or picking anything up, the next day, he's grabbing everything in sight.  So needless to say, he's your typical 8 month old now.  Knowing his birthmom has developmental delays can sometimes make me worry about his progress.  And then he surprises me with leaps and bounds. 

 

So for now we're enjoying the non-mobile stage (which we never really had with Anna, the child crawled at 5 1/2 months old).  And at the same time, he's interacting like crazy how.  And getting to be such a big boy.  I can't wait for his 9 month check up to see how he's grown and see where he's at size wise.  I just love this little boy and he brings so much joy to us each and every day!

 

--- 7 ---

We love our Adoption Support Group.  It is so nice and so necessary to connect with other Adoptive families and other couples who are still waiting.  While I love my group of mom friends, sometimes it's so important to have people around that understand infertility and adoption.  We had a Christmas part for our support group at our house this week and it was really great to see everyone.  And we're all having dinner again tonight.  I really love these families, they're all such wonderful people. 

 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

 

 

Melt

Seriously, makes me melt.

 

 

Emotional, the good kind

I've been incredibly emotional lately.  However, it's in the good way.  I am overwhelmed with happiness this year with my two babies as we anticipate Christmas. 

We have been enjoying lots of family time as we read the Bible stories for our Jesse Tree and as we light our Advent candles during dinner.  We've spent time playing Advent songs on the piano, Anna's favorites being O Come O Come Emmanuel and Immaculate Mary (played, of course, for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception).  We've been attending daily Mass three times a week (something we started in November when our schedule evened out a little bit).  We've played with our Little People nativity for countless hours and talked about Baby Cheea (Jesus).  Anna can pick out the various Navitity participants, her favorite being the Shhhheeeeep (followed with a resounding Baaaaaaa).  We're really made Avent a time of preparation and anticipation in our home.

I cannot even explain how much my heart swells when I think about celebrating Christmas with my two children.  They love spending time with family and they love all of the places and people we'll see for Christmas. 

I spent many years being emotional in the other direction.  Sad, that yet again, we had no anticipation of a baby for Christmas.  Sad, that there were no little people in our house to build traditions with.  Unknowing about the future and how many more Christmas' we'd have to endure the endless questions of, "So when are you guys going to have kids?"  It was hard and it was painful.  And it made Christmas very hard to anticipate.

And then last year we had our precious Anna.  The joy she brought to our home was immeasurable.  And this year we have our sweet Anthony.  And we couldn't be happier.  God has blessed us abundantly and it makes the previous years make much more sense.

Aside from the wonderful emotions Advent and Christmas are bringing me, there's the added emotion of my baby sister's birthday.   It's one thing to get older yourself and turn ages that sound old.  It's a whole other thing for your younger siblings to get old.  Today my sister Julie turns 21.  That makes me feel ancient.  She's the baby, the last of the Schmitt girls, bringing up the rear.  And she's such a beautiful young lady.  Julie is what everyone wants in a baby sister.  She's kind, she's sweet and she loves life.  She takes every opportunity to serve and every opportunity to love.  She's holy and definitely an example to all of us in faith.  Her love for Christ and the Church is something that has inspired me over and over again.  It constantly restores in me the hope for young people of today.  She puts her faith first and foremost.  Julie's determined and hard-working.  She never stops working towards her goals.  And at the same time, she'll take time out to help anyone.  She's constantly telling us about this volunteer opportunity or that one, this pro-life event she helped coordinate or that one.  I am so proud of her and all her hard work.  She is truly sharing her talents with all and she will make a wonderful nurse in the coming years.  I can't wait to see what God has in store for my beautiful (and old) baby sister.

One of the posts I didn't get a chance to write for my thankful posts was how thankful I am for my siblings.  Each of my sisters are so unique and don't worry Sara and Lisa, your posts are coming, your birthdays are, in fact, coming quickly as well :-).

In addition to my sister, today's my grandma's 80th birthday.  Another reason I'm emotional.  We had a surprise party for her on Saturday.  My entire dad's side of the family was able to make it, with the exception of my cousin and brother-in-law Kel who were working and Julie who is busy taking finals.  We rarely get to see all of this family at the same time, but everyone made it.  It was beautiful to watch Anna and my cousin's daughter, Evie play.  They're only like 6 weeks apart in age and they had such fun playing together.  We're lucky that we'll get to see them again at Christmas and I can't wait for these fast friends to play together again.  It was beautiful to see us all having such fun and taking such delight in family.

My grandparents and their 4 great-grandchildren.  Evie (22 mo), Cecelia (4 mo), Anthony (8 mo) and Anna (21 mo).

Anthony, Evie, and Anna watching Mickey Mouse on the iPad with my cousin  Krysta (Evie's aunt)

Happy 80th Birthday Grandma!

And then there are days like yesterday.  I had the day off, as the little guy I watch wasn't feeling well.  I spent the day taking the kids to the library and McDonald's to play.  We played and sang and shared a treat.  I snuggled my babies and loved on them all day long.  At the end of the day, I was completely exhausted and yet I felt like I was bursting with love for my family.  I love my job as a stay at home mom and it's nice to have a day off once in a while to remind myself of how blessed I am to be home with my babies, watching them grow, even if it means taking care of an extra child (or 2 on a lot of days). 

I had no intention of writing a post this long, but I haven't had much time to get my thoughts out lately.  I am overcome with happy emotions.  I'm crying a lot, but they're happy tears.  I can only describe it by saying I'm overflowing with happiness.  As much as I always look forward to the next phase (in this case, adopting children through foster care), I'm enjoying each moment with my two children and taking time to soak it all in.  I am increasingly thankful for our infertility and the gift of not taking things for granted that it gave me.  I know what special gifts my children are and try to make sure that's a constant reminder when days are hard.  It also makes me pray, in a very special way, for those that are walking the path of infertility and/or adoption.  I will never forget what those emotions felt like.

Friday Quick Takes (40)

 

--- 1 ---

St. Nicholas visited our house Wednesday night!  He left our kids' favorite mouse friends in their shoes along with some treats.  If we had our act together, we would've gotten some gold coins to go with them, but I was in the midst of hive-zilla, round 2.

Anna quickly confinscated both Mickey and Minnie and claimed them as "Mine".  When he gets his hands on one of them, Anthony goes crazy and kisses them all over.  

 To read about our St. Nick tradition and why we celebrate his feast day but don't do Santa, read last year's reflection here.  I found it interesting to remind myself about traditions we started and will continue :-). 

--- 2 ---

I feel like the last three months have been a constant health saga over here.  I had a sinus infection which concluded with my first bout with intense hives.  I itched head to toe for about a week.  Then that week I fell and broke my tailbone which I think is finally almost all the way healed.  Then I had the stomach flu which spread to Jeremy and Anthony, leaving Anthony with a messed up stomach for like a week and a half.  Finally, we were all feeling great when the mysterious hives showed their ugly face again.  Only this time, along with them came incredibly swollen hands and feet.  I couldn't get my rings orr and I couldn't walk because the soles of my feet hurt so bad. 

 

So finally, yesterday, I bit the bullet and went to the doctor for some relief.  He gave me a steroid to help with the itching and swollenness and said the hives were definitely an allergic reaction.  I think I've pinpointed the allergy and will be avoiding a certain monthly feminine product from now on. The steroids did wonders and within an hour, I was hive, itch, and swollenness free.  I could walk again and my fingers no longer looked like sausages. 

 

Today, I feel better than I've felt in months.  I have incredible amounts of energy (thanks to the steroid, I'm sure) and I'm super motivated to get things done and stay active.  After months of needing a daily nap and having to pry myself out of bed, it feels good to be back to normal!  Let's hope it stays!

--- 3 ---

Since I have all this energy, my house is getting some much needed attention today. I watch a very mobile almost one year old on Friday evenings, so it was important to make sure my kitchen floor didn't look like a family of pigs lived on it.

 

--- 4 ---

I seriously love Anna's afro. It looks super adorable right out of the bath, with a healthy amount of leave-in conditioner. Unfortunately, 3 hours later, after lots of playing, a nap, and drying time, it no longer looks this cute and looks more like a hot mess. So we let it go for a day and it was so dry, I had to condition it all over again. So back in a style it went. But it was cute while it lasted! Hopefully next summer when the air is moist again, we can go natural for longer at a time!

It now looks like this. A super easy veil style this time, with two pony tails in the back. Similar to her princess do, but much less complicated and it only took me about 20 minutes start to finish.

--- 5 ---

We celebrated St. Francis Xavier's feast day on Monday.  Anthony's named after him (his middle name is Xavier).  We originally had Francis picked out as his middle name, but his birthmom really wanted Xavier as part of his name.  We were completely thrilled with Xavier and we're glad she had a part in naming him.  We celebrated with dinner out, in our pjs.  We have a library lap-sit on Monday nights and it was the last one, so they declared it a pajama party.  We looked silly eating out in our pjs, but oh well!

Playing in the discovery room at the library.  They love it there and as soon as we get off the elevator, Anna shouts (yes, unfortunately in the library) "paaaaayyyy" (play) as she bolts for the discovery room.  One day she'll understand the rules of the library... At least the librarians think she's adorable!

--- 6 ---

Last night we took our kids with my mom and my niece to our local pottery place.  You can paint your own pottery and then they glaze it and fire it and you pick it up the next week.  We did ornaments for the grandparents last year and thought we'd continue the tradition, adding an extra for Anthony's birthmom.  The kids had so much fun and were so good.  Anna loved "painting" (we just let her have water and a paintbrush) and Anthony and Cecelia loved all of the attention!

 

My kids love doing projects with their handprints!

 

--- 7 ---

Anna has always been incredibly verbal and far ahead of where she should be.  But this week, her verbal skills have skyrocketed.  All of the sudden all of her jibberish is starting to make sense to us (we know it made sense to her before) and she's suddenly speaking in sentences.  We are constantly cracking up at the things she says and we're realizing common phrases that we say all the time.  I just love each and every new phase of development.  And with both kids, it's new and exciting.  They meet different milestones and different times and excel in different areas.  We're just soaking it up as much as we can while they're still little!

 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

8 Months Old

Our happy little Anthony is 8 months old (yesterday).  I cannot believe 8 months has gone by and at the same time, I can't remember life without our sweet boy. 

He is such a happy baby and always has a smile for anyone.  Anthony loves everyone.  He will make just about anyone's day with his huge grin when they talk to him.  He especially loves the older ladies at Mass in the mornings.  He's seriously so very friendly.

Anthony finally started sitting up well in the last week or so.  We've been working on it for a while, but he's just so laid back, he doesn't really care.  Just in the last few weeks, he's finally shown some motivation for getting up and moving.  He's realizing that there's a whole world of toys he has yet to discover and he can watch Anna much more intently if he sits up to do it!

 

 

Anthony is a star eater for us.  He has 5 (6 oz) bottles a day.  He's now eating a fruit for breakfast, some table food for lunch, and two veggies for dinner.  One just wasn't cutting it, he's a little piggy!  He's not picky at all, and boy does this kid love some puffs!  He loves anything solid, but especially the sweet potato puffs!

 

He's still a great sleeper.  Most nights he sleeps from 7:00-6:00.  Once in a while he'll get up around 4:30 for a bottle, but for the most part, he's going 10-12 hours.  He takes a morning nap from like 8:45-9:45 and an afternoon nap from 12-2:30/3. 

 

We're not sure how big he is at this point, but I don't think he's gained much weight since his 6 month check up.  He's longer for sure, but he doesn't feel heavier to me.  He's still in 6-9 and 9 month clothing, but I'm sure within the next few weeks, he'll be moving on to the next size.  

Anthony's loves watching his sister and he's starting to copy things that she does.  He's really starting to play with toys and everything goes in his mouth.  Up until a few weeks ago, he wasn't really in to grabbing things and playing with them, but all the sudden, he discovered that talent.  I swear, he's just so laid back, until it clicks, he just doesn't care! 

He's a total Mama's boy and lights up so big when he catches sight of me.  It seriously makes me melt the way he smiles when I walk in a room.  He's happy with anyone as long as he has what my husband calls a "mom sighting" once in a while! 

I cannot imagine our lives without this little guy.  He is such a joy and such a crazy, fun, happy boy.  I am so thankful for him each and every day.  I cannot believe how blessed I am to be his mom.