in... pain.

so it's been just about three weeks since my pelvis started hurting.

i've done numerous things to try to relieve this pain... yoga, extra stretching, sleeping differently, going on more walks, soaking in a warm (lets be honest, hot) bath just up to my hips, hip rotations, chiropractor appointments.... nothing has helped.

thankfully, my doctor is back from her vacay this week and i have an appointment on tuesday to see just what might be happening "down there" or what is gearing up to be happening.

i've never been in this much consistent, nothing-you-can-do type of pain, so i'm eager to hear what my doctor says.

my cousin, the nurse, said that she's had a couple patients that have had this severe pain and it's just my pelvis opening up to get baby ready to descend. well, it's still quite a bit early, so i'm hoping that's not the case. she did also say that there's not too much i can do at this point--- urgh. like i said, i'm hopeful that my doctor is going to have some more information for me, cause this REALLY sucks.

also, i've started to have numerous braxton hicks contractions... greeeat.

...some really intense ones that knock me almost off my feet.

i'm not ready baby, stay in there a little bit longer. like a few weeks so we can at least 100% finish your room.

whats in a name?

so this is our dilemma.

we cannot agree upon a name.

such a simple task, some might say... nope, not in this house.

i think deciding on a name is like deciding you want to reproduce again. it's a HUGE deal, not something to take lightly. it's going to be what you call your child from birth til the end of your life. how do you just decide? you could go a traditional route, a unique route or something completely in between, but still. you. are. deciding. i just want a strong but somewhat unique name. something that flows well into our family names as well: dan, sam, gavin and..... what?

when i was younger i thought i had my whole baby name wishlist down to a fine science. of course my kids were going to be two boys and one girl-- so far so good-- and their names were going to be hunter, wyatt and addison. well, i don't particularly care for hunter at all anymore, wyatt is taken, and addison is dan's cousins daughters name... so nope, that's not going to happen. so then when we were deciding names for baby #1 we liked, gavin, mason, connor and trevor..... well we already have a gavin- no need for a gavin #2, mason is my cousins sons name, connor... well it's still in the running (dan's pick) and i can't tolerate trevor anymore, it just sounds funny to me, trevor schroeder. so here were are, again i say; dilemma. it would be fabulous if dan would just give in to my name........ jude, but so far it's not working.

we have the middle name decided and it sounds great with both names we've come up with but still, no luck in deciding.

it shouldn't be this difficult. with only two months left, i would like to get the babes room completely ready for him to come, which includes putting his name on the wall and i don't really want to wait till he's here to try to find time to do it.

so in the next two months we have to decide on a name. a daunting task. i bet we will have a unnamed baby in our arms for at least 30 minutes in february.

tis the season..

of busy mom and dad's running around with their little ones, spreading christmas cheer!

this past weekend the santa semi came to town... with frosty, rudolph, santa and a couple extra helpers! it was fabulous!

clearly, gavin was way more excited to look at the fire trucks and the big semi trailer than to take a picture with "fosty"

dan was so excited to show gavin the lights and santa and everything else the santa semi entailed. it was a proud daddy and gavin moment.

so thankful that santa semi came to litchfield, and for kinsella chiropractic for putting this on for all the little ones.

so the weeekend before seeing the santa semi we picked out our christmas tree at turks trees. it was eventful to say the least. gavin was kind of in a strange mood and did more "hiding" and running away than helping us pick out a tree. we had to pretend that the rabbits were chasing us around to get him to stay with mom and dad. it was so odd picking out a tree with no snow on the ground.

gavin still loves the chickens, but....

he hates the turkeys. i must agree with him though- they are not very cute.

this is gavin, chasing after me and the rabbits ;)

that same weekend my mom took gavin to the stockade for an old fashioned christmas. she said he was such a good little boy and had so much fun decorating this pine cone, you can kind of see it in the picture.. that after only 2 minutes in the car he looked like this. gavin slept for 3 hours after hanging out with grandma.

so tired.

the first snowfall.. where did the snow go? gavin and daddy went out and shoveled the snow, in the dark. he was having such a good time shoveling he started to shovel the snow in the grass, it was pretty cute.

all dressed and ready to go help dad.

that same day we decided to make homemade playdough. something i found on pinterest. gavin's quite the helper in the kitchen. and yes, he is getting a kitchen for christmas- i don't care what people say about it being "girly"... he has an imagination, might as well use it!

ready to be moms little helper.

cool huh?

we made green and blue and red. next up we're going to make purple. neon colors of course! yea, i felt like a super cool mom when he was so excited to make it. again, he's such a helper in the kitchen... i love it! you can find the recipe here.

next up: tonight is the santa train in eden valley... it's a little late (9pm) but i think he'll be so excited to see it that he'll stay awake! this weekend we're taking him to see santa in town, and of course, to see the fire trucks as well!

christmas is just around the corner, so dan and i need to get in a good night of finishing our christmas shopping. i can't wait to put the presents under the tree and see gavin light up :)

the babe update

well, we're on our 29th week of life together. is it over yet? just kidding.

i'm now finally, 100% feeling pregnant.. which is to be expected. i had my 7 month prenatal visit last tuesday, and dun dun dun, the dreaded gestational diabetes testing. ishh! my test was negative for gestational diabetes, which i am thrilled to hear and the babe, well he's low (surprise, surprise). and it's humorous to me that my doctor keeps telling me that he's "going to move up" but with only 11 (or fewer) weeks left, i just don't think it's going to happen. this baby is more active than what i can remember with gavin and it keeps me reassured that he's alive in there. he is super active around noon and around 10pm so if those are the time he's going to be up-and-at-em that's what i'll have to be prepared for. other than that things are going well. he's still growing and getting ready to make his arrival. i'm still going to prenatal yoga, which i would highly suggest for ANY pregnant momma. it's helped with all of my small issues i've had with my back/tailbone and is the biggest stress reliever a pregnant person could ask for. i will defiantly continue a yoga class with katerie once i'm done being pregnant.

we still have no name decided on this little guy. or even a couple that we can agree upon. i obviously have the name, middle name and a picture of what i think he will look like, but dan, not so much. the only thing we've decided TOGETHER upon is who the godparents will be and how we plan on asking them. we've finally gotten the room set up (kind of) and this week it's dan's job to start to paint the room so we can start a little bit more on the decor! i am thrilled that any of this will/has been done, since dan's so busy with work and his construction work after work.

last friday gavin, dan and i got the pleasure to watch little piper johnson for an hour or so while the rest of the clan went bowling. gavin loved every minute of it. and surprisingly even when piper did a little fuss when mom left, gavin wasn't too upset by it. gavin was very calm and gentle around the baby and slightly confused when piper left and mom still had a baby in her tummy- oh my little two year old.

also, i think every-single-mommy-to-be is having a girl, except this one.. and my friend kati. it's crazy!!!

be thankful, family

for as long as i can remember i've always spent thanksgiving with my schramel side of the family. it is my favorite holiday, and spending it with my schramel side is just the way i want to spend it. with six kids and their spouses, numerous grandchildren and their spouses, and now, a couple of great-grandchildren, it's a full house at grandmas. my dads side of the family is extremely close and has been for quite some time. my grandparents did an amazing job of instilling family values into their children. the four brothers; my dad, uncle brian, uncle dennis and the baby of the family, my favorite uncle mark, are avid hunters and go on many many hunting and fishing trips- actually they are on one right now ;)- and spend so much time together. we've always been close and share an unbreakable bond, thanks in large part to my grandpa and grandma.

when grandpa died a couple years ago it was a huge blow to our family. he was the rock that held the family together. in good times or bad, he was always there for advice and of course an amazing smile. growing up i spent a lot of time with my grandma and grandpa. as a single dad, my dad didn't really know what to do with a little girl who would rather play with dolls than go huting 24/7- don't get me wrong, i went A LOT, but sometimes it's just not so fun. so my dad would sometimes bring me to gran's house to hang out. my grandpa never raised his voice at me, never scolded me and never made me feel like i was a young, immature girl. we definitely had a bond. it was like i was his seventh child and all the memories we shared together were priceless and things i hope my dad will someday share with gavin.

back to thanksgiving, well it's a fabulous time. grandma makes all the delicious goodies expected to be at thanksgiving and we all add in the rest. lots of good mushroom recipes, non-traditional deserts and sometimes a wacky side like grilled salmon or smoked pheasant if my uncles are up to it. we sometimes have to eat in shifts, there's no dinner table that could ever hold us all. so sometimes we eat in shifts and sometimes we eat in the living and dining room. either way we're spending a lot of time together and are sometimes too close for comfort, while eating at least. after dinner our family all gathers into my grandmas beautiful living room and joke or tell stories, there might be a game or two, or as of recently, laugh and watch gavin entertain us. there's booze, and a lot of it- to be honest i bet the family drinks at least two 1.75 bottles of captain morgan and maybe a six pack of beer.... but that's what i've grown up with so its never a shock. letting in a "newbie" in our family is a hard task. it almost seems like there's a "hazing" period, of talking shit and giving shit to see if they can handle it. dan seems to think that just by passing my dads test, he didn't have to follow the hazing with my uncles... i think he's right, my dad's a tough pill to crack. our family could spend the entire night talking, reminiscing, and drinking- sometimes we do just that.

it's a great holiday. no stress with the money or the gifts or pleasing each other. just time to spend together, all about family. i am so thankful to have such a great family, and to raise gavin and this new baby as a part of the schramel family as well. i hope that dan and i can create an amazing bond and instill those family values just like my grandparents did for their children, into ours- just not six kids ;)

wednesday

tomorrow is going to one heck of a day!

gavin is going to be so busy with so many different activities, i am slightly jealous.

we have story hour at 10, followed by a "nontraditional" thanksgiving lunch at daycare. shortly followed by a nap :) then we're making place-mats for a thanksgiving lunch at schroeders on thursday- pretty cool, huh? we're going to make apple cheesecake for thanksgiving too! then, just when you think it doesn't get any better, it does. he gets to spend the night at grandmas house! WOW! gavin loves to spend the night at grandmas, simply because there's no bedtime and he gets to watch movies in bed with grandma... lucky huh?

i am shocked that she volunteered to take gavin so dan and i could go to st cloud for dinner and to get some christmas shopping done. so we're pretty excited. now if only he would go to bed? cause it's a little late- gavin.. once again, go to bed.

crafty

so it was 60 degrees outside last sunday and gavin, my mom and i took full advantage of it. we went to the farm and then ventured to the darwin nature trails. it was absolutely beautiful and i wish we had just a little bit more time to enjoy 60 degree weather. gavin was in heaven and ran up and down the hills screaming in joy!

aww, i simply love this little boy!

so i've been trying to be super-de-duper crafty these days. getting ideas from numerous websites and adding in my own creativity. these projects aren't totally finished because i need to make a st cloud run to crafts direct to get some final touches but you get the drift.

i got all these evergreen branches from the farm and decided to make something i've seen on pinterest, just adding some different things. i need to get a couple bigger gold bulbs, a little bit of gold ribbon and then i think this one might be finished.

my dad is a HUGE hunter. he hunts pheasant, duck (sometimes), deer, moose and bear and goes on numerous hunting trips up north, to the dakotas and montana. i've seen a picture of this wreath and no tutorial on just how to make it. so today i tried my hardest to make this look as good as i can. i think this turned out pretty good. but like i said, i need to add finishing touches. i need to get some burlap, to make a bow, and also an "s" and paint it brown and add it.. then i'll be finished with one of my homemade christmas gifts :)

thanks TONS to heather and jeremy sanden for all the shells that they used at their wedding. TOTALLY greatful for them!

this one is my favorite!

i'm 100% obsessed and in love with grapevine. i'm all about it and would love to find about 50 feet more of it to make more wreathes. it's so easy once you start but the beginning process is well, daunting. it's such a tricky thing to get a hold of and managed. i found the four glittery gold pine cones at walmart and will gladly go back and get a few more to add. simple and kind of rustic. i will make more and more as gifts for others.

but who couldn't love an ornamental wreath?

i love love love these ornaments. i'm really into gold if you haven't noticed. i got about 100 silver and gold bulbs from walmart and made this with nothing more than blubs, a hot glue gun and a wire hanger. i do need to add a ribbon to the top but sadly, cannot find the bronze color that i'm dreaming of.

so there we have it. a few of my crafty projects, that sadly still need to be finished. i think i'll try to go to st cloud early friday morning to get my finishing touches so i can check these off my list. i still need to make the ornamental trees i've been dreaming of and of course, a few more wreathes as gifts.... then, on to start/finish the babys room. i'm going to be a busy little decorator in the upcoming months!

100th post

wow, can you believe that? 100 posts? i feel like i just started this blog.

anyways, i'm ITCHING to start decorating for Christmas. dan, well he thinks i might be slightly delusional. he says, that it's only the beginning of november and i should wait till after thanksgiving. i've slowly taken down the halloween/autumn decor and am ready to start with the full on christmas decor! am i crazy?

today is such a blah day. we're still in our pj's- oops! and as of right now i have no idea when it would be a good time to change into our normal clothes. maybe right before dan gets home from work? tonight we're having a "date night" and going "hunting" at ryan's new house/barn/woods for some grapevine and old wood for a project i've decided to make. which reminds me to go to my moms house to pick up some of her "junk" she's volunteering to give to me for what, yet another crafty project for christmas... bless her!

as soon as i've accomplished the remainder of the wreathes that i want to finish this week i'll upload them to the blog so you can check them out. i'm pretty excited with the end results so far :)

have a great day!!!

new pictures!

we had another fabulous photo session with sarah from sarah pollio photography! and as windy and wild as it was outdoors, and how gavins attention span was cut short, i was shocked that we had 100 amazing photos to choose from. sarah is fabulous and i am always amazed by her talent! she has great ideas and was willing to walk right into the pasture with the horses, including duke, the intimidating draft horse. i am sad that it will be february when the baby arrives cause it'll be too cold for outdoor photos so we'll have to find someone else for an indoor session.

we took this session out at "the farm", or well sue barricks farm, where we board lilly so that she could be a part of this families photos for once. grandma tagged along and got in a couple shots so now she has some professional photos of her and gavin, she's pretty excited! i wish my stomach was a little bit more prego in these pictures, like what it looks like now, cause in some it looks like i'm just extra fat, ha! these are just a few of my favs, with 100 to choose from it wasn't hard to find a few good ones :)

thanks sarah! great job! we love them, xoxo!

a month

it's been quite some time since my last blog. yes, the fact that we're having a boy has totally set in and we are so excited! i've gone through gavin's old clothes and got a lot of things ready for this new babe. but... since gavin was born in june with the heat and humidity, not a whole lot will be working for the new addition. but that's perfectly okay, it gives me a great opportunity to go shopping :)

we've been so busy with little projects here and there. we finally have NEW carpet in the two rooms downstairs (gavin and the new babe) and i love it! omg! we found this amazing man who has been laying carpet in the litchfield area for almost 45 years and he is so cheap and so so so good! we scored on the carpet, and the labor so now we're ready to do the upstairs beast, our bedroom. our bedroom has been by far the most neglected since we've moved in- almost three years ago. we've done nothing to it in the least bit. a new bed and bedding is pretty much it. but enough with home improvement talk!

gavin and i spent the weekend out at the farm finding, cutting and creating new "masterpieces" for our autumn/christmas decor! everything is so fabulous and so incredibly cheap, free! dan's pretty excited that instead of us buying all this crazy evergreen mumbo jumbo from turks i've already gotten it. i made three grapevine wreathes for the doors that i just need to add some finishing touches to and then hang. if you or anyone you know has grapevine i would be more than happy to take the pesky tangled vine off your hands ;) we also went to walmart yesterday and picked up a bunch of gold and silver bulbs for us to make but yes, what else, another wreath for closer to christmas time. pretty excited about it, not going to lie. i can't wait to get all the christmas decor ready and put up, but i think it might be just a tad too early.

this week my plan is to focus on all the DIY baby decor that i've found on my favorite new website. tomorrow while gav's at daycare i plan on going to hutch to get some new fabrics and paint to start the projects.... which might take me quite some time to finish, so i better get started. thankfully, dan's totally on board with these projects as well, and is ready to help out- which is great cause i can't sand or do everything by myself. my goal is to have babes room almost finished by christmas so i can focus my last two months with gavin on solely gavin. i just kind of realized that when i go into labor i'll more than likely be by myself, with gavin, and i have no idea what we'll do. i think i'll have to grandmas and daycare to try to come up with a plan, yikes.

so thats our life, well more like my life in a quick little update. lots and lots of projects and lots of fun things planned for the upcoming weekends. it's thanksgiving and the new breaking dawn movie all in close to one week time span... who's excited!? THIS GIRL!

oh. my. goodness.

IT'S A BOY!

woooooooooooooah! i don't know why i am so shocked... but i am!

after spending the majority of the day thinking i was getting cues from 'up there' that i was having a girl, i was quickly brought back to reality. i think we were there for just about an hour taking up to at least 78 photos, the ultrasound tech wrote on the screen "I'M A BOY" and i honestly lost my breath. there were so many emotions and thoughts going on in my head that i didn't say hardly anything. i think we finally arrived at daycare around 4:15 and i had seven text messages and four missed phone calls... which made me laugh quite a bit cause i forgot about calling anyone at this point.

we picked up gavin and told him that he was going to have a baby brother and that's when it hit me... a little brother. WE'RE HAVING A BOY! wow! two little boys... oh my goodness! so excited! we got home and played outside and i got to send out the messages and make the phone calls and got super super excited. weird, we're having a boy!

since i put gavin in bed... which was just over 15 minutes ago i've changed every idea i had in my head for the baby's room; blues now, different bedding, different drawers, different shelves, pretty much different everything- and i thought i was so planned for a boy/girl baby room... nope. i've texted dan at least three times tonight (he's working on some basement somewhere) about different names i like. seeing what he likes... or more like, doesn't like. so i feel like the last 5 and a half months i've just been planning for a girl- which is weird cause i've thought this baby was a boy from the get go.

okay enough. this baby is healthy and a snuggler. the tech said that he wouldn't stop laying on his stomach, which made things hard for her to see/take pictures of, but still active. so that's also why it took so long. the only thing that is somewhat abnormal is that my placenta is low, which is what happened with gavin and we just had to monitor it and have a few more ultrasounds to make sure it moves up so there's not anymore complications.

so that's it. crazy huh? i guess i'm still in shock, but a good one :) two little boys... wow. this is actually what i prayed for when i was younger... two boys, then a girl.... hmmmm.

from the scratch... pumpkin pie

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

1 small pumpkin- you can find "baking" pumpkins at the grocery store. or i'm sure just a small pumpkin would do just fine.
2 eggs
1 1/2 heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla

here we go.

mix:

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

add in :

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour (i used whole wheat)

cut your pumpkin in half and "gut out the seeds"

bake your pumpkin skins up at 350 for 45-60 minutes--

or until golden brown and mushy.

peel off the skin or scoop out the pumpkin.

puree so the pumpkin is a good consistency.

set aside on coffee filters or paper towels to drain.

add the 1 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

and then...

the spices/sugar and pumpkin.

mix together.

(gavin got to help a lot with this step)

i had already made pie crust the week before to make my

homemade apple pie... but i'm sure you could buy a pie crust and it would be just as tasty.

add the pumpkin mixture to the pie crust.

preheat oven to 450.

bake for 15mins at 450...

reduce heat to 350 and bake for 45 mintues or until golden brown

and you can stick a toothpick in and have it come out clean.

let cool and enjoy... i like mine with whipped cream :)

i also made pumpkin cookies. they are delish and actually pretty healthy for you. i mean, they are cookies... but you know what i mean... nutritious cookies??? they are from ashley olsons blog. you can see the recipe here.

tis the season for pumpkin treats. next up? pumpkin cheesecake... yum!

pretty, fabulous fall

..so far.

today, however might be questionable.

gavin has been one lucky boy lately. he's been so spoiled by his grandma and his parents. every weekend there's a new outing, a new adventure. i wish i was this lucky when i was his age (and i very well could of been but who remembers when they were two? not me).

lets see here... first we'll start off with our nelson farm trip. on a gorgeous sunday afternoon. nelson farm is such a great place to go in the fall. i could easily go there every weekend.

he seriously could of spent the entire day on these little "tractor" bikes.

we had to pull him away from the bikes and all afternoon he wanted to go back.

and this calf hut was an endless amount of entertainment :)

he smiled and giggled the entire day at nelson farm.

getting the tractor wagon ready.

gavin's dream come true.

sitting on a tractor!

although driving it could quite possibly make his entire 2nd year of life.

in we go!

sliding down the slide with daddy and mommy :)

i'm not sure who enjoyed this more?

"momma, baaaaaby cow.. moo moo"

so then last sunday my mom and i decided to take gavin to the amaze n' farmyard, regardless of the insane 15+ mph winds. oh well, gavin seriously enjoyed every second of it. last year we tried to take him there and he cried and was crabby the ENTIRE time. so this year he actually got to enjoy everything amaze n farmyard had to offer.

crusin'... he thought it was so cool that "his tractor" was at amazing farmyard

and at home too... too funny!

"baby duke" this mini horse was soooo adorable and fluffy.

we kind of wanted to take it home. along with other little furry animals.

baby deer "lilly"

and the "kangas" aka wallobees.

feeding all the animals the corn just like we do at the farm. except here we didn't

have to worry about juliet eating gavins fingers!

awwww

"mom.... bunnies, look... cheese"

gavin and his grandma.

i've never seen someone love their grandma as much as gavin does.

i think its cause grandma spoils him ? and never says no? haha.

we found corn in places corn should never be after playing in it for a half hour.

i didn't get to enjoy the corn cause i wasn't wearing socks... oops!

ending our day driving the tractor... what a happy little man

whats next? well since mea is this week we (my mom, myself and gavin) are heading to our third annual trip to apple jacks in delano. which is MY favorite place to go, ever. they have the best lunch and baked goodies and of course apples and all sorts of small animals. let's hope for some good weather. but even this overcast/cloudy, cold, damp weather will be okay for us.