new news?

such a busy and wonderful week.

well, things are going to change around here... again. i've decided (with dan's blessing) that i'm done working at my job. monday morning i put in my two weeks notice letting them know that i was d-o-n-e working for them. the program that i work in is just so unorganized and the para's there do the majority of the work and with me being pregnant it was actually starting to be kind of dangerous to myself and my baby. so as of this upcoming friday i will no longer be employed. which is totally scary and also really exciting at the same time. i'm kind of fretting about it right now, but in actuality i would of been done in december so it's just a few weeks sort of my actual quit day. and our pay system is so crazy that i will continue to get my paychecks up until thanksgiving so that's good. gives me some more time to spend with my sweet love, gavin before the new baby comes.

in other news; our ultrasound is scheduled for october 19th so we will be finding out what this baby is that kicks my stomach all night long. i'm feeling that it's a boy again, which is fine, but would be in complete shock if they said it's a girl. i just found the bedding that i'd like to get for this babe and it's pretty gender neutral so i plan on ordering it as soon as i get permission from dan- which might take a little while since it's kind of spendy ;) but it's really the only big purchase we need to make before the baby comes..... besides girl clothing if it ends up being a girl. gosh the 19th seems so far away now.

oh, almost forgot! danielle and max had their baby. a little girl, piper grace johnson. i got the pleasure of meeting her thursday night. she is so stinking adorable. usually it takes me awhile to think that little girls are cute... but not this one. she has the most adorable dark brown hair (lots of it) and such tiny features. OHHH i could just stare at her for days. she's so so so cute. so congratulations max and danielle. couldn't be more excited for you both, oh and ryder too!

today i feel like i have so much to accomplish around the house before dan comes home and we get to spend the entire night alone--- which NEVER happens. we're going to dinner and going shopping tonight, with gavin going to my moms for the night. pretty excited. i have TONS of pictures that need to get uploaded as well.... i wonder what will get done today and what will have to wait till tomorrow. with all this rain i feel we might be stuck indoors all weekend :(

this weekend

might be the best weekend, ever.

well besides friday. i had a migraine from h-e-l-l, and NOTHING, not even the prescription my doctor gave me helped it. so i stayed home from work, which was more of a chore to find/call subs and the bus company than it was to actually ever go to work. finally, i got myself covered for the day and headed back to bed... after bringing gavin to daycare. anyways, my headache and nausea finally went away after taking two tylenol and drinking a diet coke-- which my cousin, ashley, suggested since she's a nurse. thanks ash.. BY THE WAY: ashley is now engaged to her new finance, josh. they are in the planning process and will be married august 4th!!! so excited for her. friday dan and i ran to hutch to get something to eat and grab a few things for amara's birthday party that was today.

saturday morning dan headed to school (yes, it's started again... boo) and gavin and i headed to the posse expo at the fairgrounds. of course you all know, gavin loves lilly's (horses) and gets so excited to see lilly's (horses) no matter where they might be. so we walked through the barn and saw all the beautiful and well behaved horses and gavin was in the zone. my mom helps sue barrick and her husband every year with the obstacle course... WHICH IS INSANE and i cannot believe that horses would EVER do these things that they do. so this year gavin and i helped grandma help sue. this obstacle course is timed and judged and it's kind of a big deal so you have to be quiet. i didn't think that gavin would last more than a half an hour being quiet, but he lasted 3 full hours! i was SO impressed. he told me what color each lilly was and showed me twister and sunny (sue and jims horses) in the barn and even fed them. again, i was impressed we didn't have any meltdowns and even went to the potty a few times on a nasty fairgound potty :) around 11:30 we headed back home and picked up sarah to head to carlsons apple orchard to have lunch. again, gavin sat so nicely and was so well behaved, i was shocked. lunch was delicous but i was slightly unimpressed on this orchard... not too much to do. but it was great to go there and check everything out.

after dropping off sarah and gavins 45 minute nap we headed back to the fairgrounds to help grandma again. and finally headed home to hang out with dad. again i wondered to myself, who's well behaved child is this? he was an absolute joy all day long. ahhhh i still get smiles on my face when thinking about this day.

today was a pretty good day as well. dan and i did a lot of planning for the nursery and even more organizing to get the basement space ready for the extra stuff that will be downstairs once the spare bedroom becomes the new babes room. we then went to amara's birthday party where gavin charmed everyone with his amazing smiles and personality. he was such a ham! we came home, took a nap and started cleaning/playing again! we just finished making rhubarb apple crisp and now gavins in bed and i'm shortly behind. after i pack my completely garden fresh lunch for tomorrow.

back to work i go... really? do i need to tell you that i started the countdown for december? it's not soon enough.

this baby

is kicking and moving and having a party in there.

that's all for now :)

hope ya'll had a good day!

two of the best things you can hear at a prenatal appointment:

of course, the babes heartbeat is number one! it was great to hear it, loud and clear. although, my doctor had a hard time "finding" the baby at first which gave me quite a panic attack. it's right at 160, which is great! such a great feeling when you hear it for the first time, knowing that it is alive.

the second best thing? hearing the nurse tell you you've LOST, yes, l-o-s-t, weight since your last appointment. i've lost 9.3 lbs since last month. at first my doctor was slightly worried, thinking i had insane morning sickness and vomiting frequently... but i'm not. i do have morning sickness and night sickness, and sometimes mid-day sickness, that don't make me want to eat, but i do anyways. i've just been really conscious about what i'm eating.. more fruits, veggies and meats, less snacks and ice cream. which brings me to dan...

dan is such a great husband. he's been so busy working and then working on his LBC projects that sometimes i don't see him until 9 pm- which totally sucks- but each night he calls me and asks if i want a blizzard/shake/anything horrible for me... and each night when i say no he says, yea me either.. but he's totally DYING to eat a shake, but won't in front of me. he's such a sweetie, he comes home sits on the chair and almost always immediately falls asleep. he works SO hard, doing extra jobs here and there so we have a little extra money to do extra things on weekends. and with me done working for the remainder of the summer and only working 30hrs during the summer, i am very grateful for him. i've landed myself a keeper :)

next weekend is dan and celestes wedding and we're heading up to tower a day early to have some "us time" without gavin. we are, however staying with my mom in the cabin she rented on friday night but we plan on going out to a nice dinner and crashing early. saturday morning i'm doing hayleys hair for the wedding and dancing my sober ass off all night long! mike hicks did ask me if there was a way to cut off the baby for a night so i could drink... (he is obviously so worried about my well being and ability to have fun) i think he was kidding... but sometimes with mike i'm not too sure ;)

and another great thing today, as i'm looking out my window i see... a cute blonde, little boy on is bike, with his daddy walking next to him on their way to to the park... guess who it is? ryder and coop! SO cute! can't wait for gav to get a little bit bigger and that can be gav and dan!

well..

okay, so here it goes.

we're pregnant... oofta! it takes a lot out of me to say that out loud---or i mean, type it. as pleased as we are to be expecting again, i hate telling everyone. i mean, when i was engaged i hid my ring under the table until someone actually commented on it, and i told people i was pregnant last time by announcing it on facebook and only telling about five people myself. actually, some rude relatives asked us if we were ashamed of being pregnant, and no, we weren't, i just hate all the attention.

so, it was perfect timing to tell everyone at our party on saturday (come back to that later)... and the word spread quickly :) it was fabulous! i still have to tell my dad and don't want to tell him via the phone, so it might have to wait till this weekend when i can see him face to face.

anyways, we are pregnant. as of now our expectant due date is february 21, so 02-21-12. my doctor so cleverly pointed out that it would be an amazing date, with all twos and ones, haha! we found out right away, because yes, to all of you wondering this question, we were trying. we didn't want to tell people right away to make sure everything was good in there and both of us were healthy. we saw our little peanut (and i mean, peanut because that's what size he/she was when we saw him/her on the screen), about four weeks ago and got the go ahead to announce it to the world that.... GAVIN WILL BE A BIG BROTHER.

we told the grandparents, minus my dad, via gavin wearing a tshirt that says "I'm going to be a BIG brother" and everyone seemed to get a huge kick out of it. there were tears and my mom was shocked, 100% shocked and said "i hope you haven't been drinking"-- it was 8 am and we did wake her up. now, she's so excited and probably more excited to spend more and more time with gavin.

for the most part this pregnancy has been uhhh, well, a rough one. it's totally different than my last. i've been sick at least three days a week after i eat dinner and i have some issues with my ribs hurting (already)... and although i don't necessarily look super pregnant, i feel like i am. my jeans are getting snug at my waistline and baggy around my legs- which has NEVER happened, so that's kind of exciting- my legs are a huge issue for me.

i haven't had any crazy cravings yet, which is great. i actually don't feel like eating too much anymore, it's like my stomach is shrinking... and ice cream seems to not be an issue this time around...yet. just the same old normal eating habits, minus all the delicious coffee- bummer. that's the only thing that i actually miss. freshly brewed dark roast coffee, or a medium iced expresso with one shot of caramel from caribou coffee. oh my gosh i'm SO craving that now.

we are going to find out again this time around what the sex is and our projected date to do that is the first week in october. i'm too much of a planner to not find out, plus if it's a girl there are so many cute outfits to get and if it's a boy we can relax a little and save a bit more money with some of gavins clothes that are still in good condition. we are both hoping for a girl, then we would like to be done. but if it's a boy we would be more than happy. gavin would have a little playmate and dan would have another mini-me. we don't plan on having any more kids after this..... anytime soon. i would love to have another in oh about 5-6 years but dan thinks that's nonsense.

so that's that. i have another doctor appointment on friday to hear the heartbeat and chit chat with the doctor about some issues i've heard about the litchfield hospital (gavin was delievered in edina at southdale hospital... we had ZERO and i mean ZERO issues before, during and after so i'm having huge anxiety about delivering somewhere else). if you are pregnant in the twin cities area and don't have a doctor in mind i HIGHLY suggest dr. amy brown- she's phenomenal and all the nurses at southdale are extremely great as well. i felt like i was kind of on a mini vacation before having gavin.

so now, i think everyone knows about us being pregnant... even if you weren't at our party, or didn't see it on facebook, this blog post should clear things up :)

so how do i nicely call the cops on my neighbors?

last night they were "jammin" till 4am. yep. 4am.

last night we all had a hard time falling asleep to the loud music and yelling going on.

tonight, well i've heard every single katy perry song......... loud and clear.

i'm totally spent.

so again i ask, how do i kindly call the cops?

we've thought about knocking on the door and asking them to turn down the music, but we know they will knock on our door tomorrow (while they're still drunk) and apologize and make us feel even more annoyed because they NEVER leave.

another issue- not so much the neighbors themselves, but the 28 year old "son" that lives there... he's a bum and we're all pretty sure there is some serious dealing, and i don't mean cards, going on when he's there. if he wasn't there, we would have NO issues.

by the way- we live on 3rd street. the entire street is full of older couples and tons of families. so why do they need to live right next to us? urgh! what to do?

three years ago.

we became mr and mrs...

we got our flowers and the reception gerbs from cashwise... weird, i know. but they were so beautiful and such a reasonable price. I LOVE the colors in the bouquets...

and colors looked stunning against my white dress, the boys's black tuxes and the girls yellow dresses..... ahhh i LOVE this picture

the dip in the back of my dress is what sold me.

i still love my dress, wouldn't of changed a thing.

the same goes for my hair and my hairpiece.

kathryn did such an amazing job making me look my best on this special day.

the boys enjoyed themselves as much as you can imagine.

i love this picture of cam, my brother from another mother.

and what would we do without anthony "life of the party" hawes.

my mom was not too trilled someone was peeing while we were taking pictures.. but to be completely honest, once she saw it was anthony she said it was okay. she's a sucker for the hawes charm.

the colors in this picture capture the day perfectly.

we were so blessed to have such great weather and such beautfiul flowers at anderson gardens to take pictures with. they made our pictures stunning.

i am a HUGE supporter of country gallery photography.

we had two photographers on our wedding day, lisa and katie, who did a phenomenal job capturing our entire day. the background in this picture is absolutely perfect. i love how dan and i are just about to kiss, but snapped this pic just before.

THIS IS MY FAVORITE, FAVORITE PICTURE.

i think your wedding photography should be the most important thing, besides the dress of course and the love you have between the mr and mrs. i have over 400 pictures and love almost every single one of them. it's the only thing that you can look/touch/have memories to take with you.

so happy together. and i actually love that we had people in the background so it didn't look so "posey" like most wedding pictures do.

my mom surprised us with a horse drawn carriage to pick us up from the church and bring us to the reception. dan was not too thrilled about it and would of rather cruised around in his truck, but this was something special for us, and you don't see it too often.

our reception area was really simple and crisp. colored gerbs and white linens..

we made our own programs (now, i wouldn't dream about doing it again) but at the time it seemed like a good idea. no two were the same, and my mom and i had some good bonding time doing it.

my personal attendants, ashley, erin and kathryn, were so great... even if they did forget my veil ;) they got it just in time! kathryn and ashley are my friends from aveda and did hair for the wedding, making everyone look ultra fab! i've known erin for many years and am so happy she was a part of my day as well.

every time i look at this picture i get super emotional and will probably cry while writing this little memo: right before this we were doing the father/daughter pictures and i looked down and saw that my dad was wearing my grandpas "tiger eye" ring. my grandpa was such an incredible man and my dad reminds me of him so much. my dad told me that my grandma really wanted him to wear grandpas ring so that he would be there for my special day. if my grandpa would of been alive for my wedding day he and my dad would of walked me down the aisle, that was always the plan.

my mom looks absolutely gorgeous in this picture. her dress, her hair were perfection. and hands down this is the best my dads looked in quite some time. my parents look so happy in this picture, many wouldn't of guessed that they were divorced, they looked so happy together.

my dad has this framed above his entertainment center. i had just broke my bracelet and he was fixing it for me :)

dan and his dad have such a special and close relationship that many father and son would be jealous of. i believe lisa told gerry to hug dan and instead he laid a big kiss on his cheek. everyone was smiling and it was a tender moment.

i must say that i married into such a loving family. some girls dread their mother in law, but i adore shari.. i couldn't of asked for a better in law family.

the entire schroeder family, as of 7.26.08. this fall shawn and sarah will be getting married and we can add in sarah, the girls and gavin :)

dan and i are so lucky to have such wonderful people in our life. and these were the most important people at this time. our wedding wouldn't of been the same without them.

every guy looked so dapper in their tuxes and the girls looked so exquisite in their dresses and heals.

when lisa told us to all climb up on the playground equipment i thought she was crazy. i thought "hell no" i'm not going to ruin my dress. but thankfully everyone was calm and the pictures went perfectly. (except for frank... see below)

we had such a great time "stealing the bride and groom".. almost too good of a time, since the boys and i were completely drunk by the time we got to the reception- oops!

oh such beautiful brunette bridesmaids :)

this is what i was talking about... oh frank, gotta be the clown.. sadly i just deleted the picture of dan and the girls on his truck that he LOVES to look at... but i'm not sure how to properly put it at the end of all these pictures without dragging it and potently messing up the entire blog, so maybe i'll repost it later.