the snow

ahhh christmas is over. and in many ways i am so happy. no more traveling in the horrible snow and gavin can get back to his normal routine. which will make for a happier baby!

it was just about at this time last year that i FINALLY discovered that i was pregnant. so many emotions and thoughts running through my head at that time, and now i have a beautiful baby boy.

now we get to enjoy the snow. bundle the babe up and get him outside. he doesn't quite understand the snow yet, but next year at this time ohh, he'll be running around like crazy. cannot wait to make a snowman and snow angels with him!



all of this snow is good for one thing, well maybe two...

SLEDDING! we got gavin into my old sled that i used to use when i was his age. he couldn't quite sit up because it was so slippery, but he liked it!

..and for dan and the boys, snowmobiling. now, he just needs to fix it so he can go out west in feburary.



my two WONDERFUL boys on Christmas Day!
dan and i are truely blessed to have such an amazing and happy baby.

'tis the season

IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME IN THE CITY...
ringaling, children sing.. soon it will be christmas day!

FINALLY there is snow on the ground, and i can't complain about the temperatures, because so far it's been pretty nice out. this is one great time of the year. so much love and laughter, all the family is together and ahh gavin seems to love wrapping paper :) he likes it way more than what's underneath it, which makes me smile! now, i just wish he would always like the paper better than the gifts.. i doubt that will happen though.

we enjoyed this weekend to the fullest!
friday we started, yes started our christmas shopping. it was extremely short lived since my mom showed up an hour late to babysit gavin and we got to st cloud around 7:45. we ended up just getting gifts for the schroeder side.. so that means we'll be going shopping again this week! I CANNOT wait to get gavin his present!!! ahhh :)
saturday we headed to rick and jenn's ugly sweater party, which is always so entertaining. almost everyone had an ugly sweater, which was nice to see. i made the drink "strip and go naked" and all of my clothes stayed on, thank goodness.
sunday morning i awoke to the happiest little boy. his shreaks ended up waking up jeremy and jeremy commenting on how gavin sounds like a girl. HAHA! cooper popped his head into the kitchen around 10 while gavin and i were taking our cat nap on the couch. coop decided to go wake the boys up, and then proceeded to plow out our driveway. THANKS COOP! :)
the rest of the day we spent time at the schroeders for an early christmas celebration. the kiddos loved the gifts and shortly after opening them decided to take naps. the boys went and did their manly things outside and cassidy, mel, sarah, shari and i sat around and chit chatted. we were there for just about 6 hours and when it was 7 i decided we needed to head home. gavin got the cutest outfit from shawn and sarah!!! and it's 12-24 months, which is perfect since we don't have too many older outfits! perfect for next christmas, if he doesn't keep growing like he has been. if that's the case we're going to have to go buy a WHOLE new wardrobe and soon!
kristin stopped by today with a 'little something' for gavin. TWO ADORABLE onesies with the words "chubby" and "loveable"with the dictionary definations on them. ahhh what a lucky little man i have! THANK YOU KRISSY!

now the countdown is on! t minus (technically) three days till christmas eve, which is when we do most of our celebrating. heading to grandma cheryl's for supper and to grandma audrey's for presents and drinks. then christmas day we'll all go down to new ulm and celebrate with shari's side of the family... and christmas day means gavin will be SIX MONTHS OLD, already! wow, time is flying by. soon we'll be celebrating his first birthday- which honestly gets me a little emotional.

AHH i love this time of year. family family family :) and soon it will be 2010! which reminds me that i have absolutely nothing planned yet.

leaving

today was justins funeral and it was such an emotional service. there were tons of tears, many smiles and some laughs. he will be missed always, and never forgotten.

grandma shari came over to watch gavin while we were at the service. it seems like when gav's with his grandma shair he dosen't want to sleep, just play. this makes for a very tired baby when mom comes home.
there was a weird feeling that i got today. as we sat around with friends at justin's lunchen... i felt like i didn't have a baby. i mean i was talking about gavin and comparing him to danielle's brothers newborn baby... it was so strange. a bunch of people were heading to kickers to have a drink or two, or five after the lunchen and i was ready to go. it didn't even once hit me that no, i have to go home to my baby. i really don't know why this happened... it never has before. even when we were driving home i was all ready to go spend the rest of the afternoon with smith and dan.
i think this is the first time i've gone out and not had gavin on my mind. where is he? is he okay? is he being fussy? did he eat? nap? poop? smile? crawl? laugh? scream? i mean, NONE of that went through my head. i think i might of had a little bit too much on my mind and in my head. it was crazy.
we did come home. dan and smith went into the garage to do their manly things and fix god only knows what.. i came inside to find my little man in grandma's arms, half asleep with his hands over both of eyes. one look at him and i frogot about everything that i had gone through this morning and all of the crazy emotions that were going through my head. i forgot for the first time since friday that justin was gone. i fell completely in love with him the second he moved his hands from his eyes, opened his eyes and looked at me with a smile.

...a loss

on friday, december 4th we had a horriable loss..
justin shoutz was killed in a two car accident. his car was struck on the drivers side killing him instantly. his cousin, brandon, was air lifted to st cloud hospital with serious injuries. the driver of the jeep, which hit justins car, was taken to the meeker county hospital and shortly released.


he was only 23.

it's so hard not to be angry towards this other man who took justin from us. stopping at a stop sign is something we do everyday. why didn't he do it this time? why did he hit the front drivers side? why couldn't he of hit the back? why did God choose this for him? why did he take him away so quickly? justin had been in a snowmobiling accident back in 2004? or 2005? my memory isn't that great, he came through it. why couldn't he have done it again? why now?

he had a girlfriend, two brothers, parents, many family members and so many friends. and now he's gone. how do you deal with this. no parent should ever have to bury their son. no young woman should have to grieve this kind of a loss. and no younger brother should have to say goodbye to their older brother.
it is such a horrific loss. i cannot imagine what his family and danielle (girlfriend) are going through. i think tonight they had a candlelit vigil at his parents house. gathering family and friends... the wake and funeral are going to be so hard for so many people. all the friends and family, ahh my heart sinks just thinking about it.
dan has had a hard time dealing. they were not the best of friends, but definatley friends. we both got to know justin and realize what a loving friend he was to everyone. this is a first loss of a friend our age, it's hard to cope.
i have so many amazing memories of justin. the random classes that we had together... i will never forget having bible lit with him. ms langseth was not a fan of all of us. justin always made all of us, including ms langseth laugh... uncontrollably. i've never seen justin be mean towards anyone, ever. he would walk down the halls at school and greet everyone. whenever i saw him he would say, "why hello samantha"... no one really called me samantha, and give me a hug :) he was a goalie for the LHS hockey team for many years. erin and i took stats for the boys hockey team for three years and got to know justin on a whole nother level there. he always was friendly towards the both of us, even when the other boys didn't laugh at our jokes or even want us around at times. another memory was his graduation party!!!!!! ahh, beer, beer, karoke, loud music and everything in between. his graduation party lasted till the middle of the night, with A LOT of people.. everyone loved justin. i remember dan telling me about going carp spearing with justin.. and talking over those cb things all the boys had in their trucks for awhile in high school. haha these are just a few that stick out in my mind. i'm sure many people have fantastic memories about justin. and many could go on for hours.

i haven't seen justin in awhile. granted we have a lot of mutual friends, we've strained away. i understand it happens, but i feel horriable about it now. danielle had posted a recent picture of justin. he had a scruffy beard.. to be honest it didn't surprise me... :) danielle had said that he wasn't going to cut it till she grew her hair back out. stubborn justin, that didn't surprise me either.
it is horriable to say goodbye.

but there won't ever been a goodbye, just a see you later. we have all of the wonderful memories justin has given us to hold us over till we see him again. God really has quite an amazing guy up there now. justin is going to keep a watchful eye out over everyone. i'm sure he'll be screaming and yelling at the next derby or laughing at someone's joke at the next party. there's a group on facebook.. "we'll miss you justin shoutz" and there are 304 members already, and i think it was created yesterday. that is L. O. V. E! how AMAZING is that. there was a time when i wasn't such a fan of our little litchfield and surrounding areas. i am so proud of our community now. we are so strong and so loving.

my prayers and thoughts and heart goes out to danielle and justin's family. nothing will heal their pain right now, but they are strong and they will get through. much love goes to them.

mylittleman

my baby boy.

i am in l.o.v.e with my beautiful photos that sarah pollio photography took.

i cannot believe how wonderful each and every photo turned out. honestly, i think i didn't like one of them, and that's because my and dan's face looked a little creepy :S but the rest of them sure made up for that one creepy one.

love this one

i am so ready for another photo session- maybe this time just gavin and i since dan has had his fill probably till gavin turns one. i have seen so many of sarah's photos from nicole and leah and always admired them, but now ahhhh i am so comepletely overwhelmed with the joy that these pictures have given to me...yes, weird that i'm so excited and happy over pictures. very greatful that craig smith let us use his sheds, old truck and residence.

i am ready to go to st cloud and make a LARGE photo for our living room and get ready to give some photos out for christmas gifts for our family.. and a few for the hawes residence!

these are some of my favorites! it's so hard to choose which ones i want for myself.. i could easily print every single picture of gavin and have a huge shrine of pictures of just him- but i think every mom deserves to have that, so maybe i'll do it. i saw a bunch of frames on sale the other day, i think i'll go back and get them!

ahh i love gavin scott more than anything or anyone else in the world. he has my heart in his hands.

it's christmas time in the city

it has been quite busy around our household.

we had gavin's baptism on november 15th at zion lutheran church. i was completely shocked when the whole service was done and gavin didn't even make a screach. he was such a good boy! it was perfect and we couldn't of asked for anything more. we continued our day by coming back to our house and eating our lives away on so many goodies. it was wonderful to have all of our families together celebrating this special day for gavin.. he slept almost the whole time people were here.. it was naptime so i somewhat understand.

we took some family pictures out at the smith residence. i am very, very excited to get them back. sarah pollio took them and she does amazing work. gavin was a doll the whole time, many many smiles. they should be done sometime this week :)

and now thanksgiving. there is so much to be thankful for...
..dan has an amazing job. granted driving back and forth is getting a little old, he makes good money and enjoys what he does. cannot complain about that..

..all of our families are healthy and safe. this is the first year we haven't lost someone around a holiday and we are very greatful!

..we have gavin. although this teething process drains every bit of energy and patience out of me by 8 pm, i am so happy to have him. i went to st cloud for four hours on saturday and was more than ready to come home to him. i am GREATFUL for him, and to be able to stay home with him everyday.

..our parents and friends and family are around. when we lived in montana or even the cities there was so much driving and even some holidays where we didn't get to see our families, we are so close to everyone now.

..our friends are honestly, hands down, some of the best people ever. we always enjoy eachothers company and love to spend time together.

..we have so much love for eachother. dan and i have had our fair share of complications but are stronger and happier than ever before.




THANKSGIVING... ahhhh
i am guilty for loving the night before thanksgiving. everyone comes home, the class of 05 reunites and things go back to the way they used to be, like high school. it's silly that i love it so much but it's wonderful to see everyone's faces and hear how everyone has been. it's funny that the night goes by so fast and we want to relive it every day after, hangover or not.
and thanksgiving... ahhhhhhh what's not to love about thanksgiving.
we went over to dan's parents house around noon and ate an amazing lunch. turkey, ham, stuffing, corn and everything else that's sinfully wonderful. later that night we went over to my moms and enjoyed yet another amazing dinner. AND we get to relive that amazing food again this saturday at my dad's sides thanksgiving. i'm debating on bringing gavin with, since we usually drink more booze than we eat food. i guess this time i'll just make dan drive home ;)

dan has all the sudden taken the time to be mr. fix it aroudn the house. usually he just keeps to himself out in the garage.. tidying it up for the fifteenth time this week. he got a new faucit for the kitchen and a new garage door. i really like the new door and want to get rid of the other two red doors that are on our house... ew... today we, and when i say we, i mean dan, put up the christmas lights outside! it's so beautiful!! i refuse to take pictures yet because we NEED to have snow... if that will ever come. next weekend comes the tree :) wait, i mean three trees! gavin seems to be kind of interested in the holidays. today i put him in some christmas lights and he thought it was great. i guess he's like his momma... being that dan is kind of a scrooge about the holidays... BAAH HUMBUG to you dan! i am more than ready to have gavin grow up in a house that loves christmas time, christmas music and all. that is if dan dosent' throw away all the cds :)
the holiday time makes me so happy... but i need to start my christmas shopping, should be so much fun shopping for gavin this year. AND he'll be 6 months old on christmas day!!! time is going by so fast.

THANKSGIVING IS COMING!
i loove thanksgiving. i love the food, family and everything in between.

the leaves have fallen

and so it came and went, my beloved halloween.

i think that halloween and the fourth of july are my favorite holidays, third place goes to christmas. at halloween you get to dress up as fun and crazy as you want, and no one can say ANYTHING about it. this year i begged and begged dan to be batman.... it worked! we went as batman and robin and it was so much fun. we had quite the night... drinking too much at the amazing sob's, and going over for those shots and final drinks at the pub across the street. by the way, i didn't need those shots. ;) finally, around 2 am gerry (dan's dad) came and picked up... me, dan, jeremy, robbie, caleb, justine, anthony, theresa, emily, andy, blair, katy, kim and caleb... if you count gerry driving, thats a record number of 15 PEOPLE in a MINI VAN!!! too many for me considering we rode out there comfortably with a total of seven, well i take that back, we picked up jeremy, robbie and caleb in kingston, so ten. needless to say by the time we returned to our house i was more than ready for bed. with daylight savings time it was a little early at 7 am when gavin woke me, ready for the day. see, in gavin's world it's still an hour later... normally we wake up, eat and then take an hour or two nap... well, the day after halloween that didn't happen. he was so happy it kind of made up for it.

this is gavin around 10 am on sunday.

fall is here and it's so beautiful. the weather is amazing, thus far and i'm enjoying every minute of it. my mom often housesits for sue barrick out at her farm when she and her husband take their many hunting trips. so whenever she's out there i always come out and spend some time with her. i get to feed chickens, doggies and horses.. while running around throwing the ball for gunner and vadar. i did enjoy myself running around taking photos while the sun was setting. we took some really cute pictures of gavin too, before he got full of leaves and threw a fit. for right now dan and i are settled into our house in town, but someday, someday i will be out in the country with a barn, enjoying the country life- maybe when i'm 30??? haha.

HOME IS WHERE THE WORK IS!

we're finally finishing our house! and by that i mean painting and decorating the walls. since we've moved in we've had nasty floral boarder (in EVERY room), and white bare walls, gross! now we have only three rooms with white walls: the bathroom, our room and the living room. gavins room is done, the spare bedroom is done, the basement is done and the kitchen is done. dan refuses to paint the living room any sort of color, so i'm giving in and leaving those walls white since we have all black frames, shelves, tv stand and coffeetable.

KRISTIN IS GETTING MARRIED. kristin and eric have been together for longer than i can remember and finally he popped the question while she was visiting him over halloween in virgina. they are getting married august 21st, 2010.... AND she's more than ahead of herself with all of the planning. i'm soooo excited, as i've been asked to be a bridesmaid! it's going to be a busy summer again this year :) bring it on.

gavin's baptism is this weekend, i'm sure he'll be cute as ever in his little white get--up. hope the day goes well. after this weekend is done i'm starting the christmas season early, well minus the tree. i cannot wait to start decorating. oh, and dan FINALLY figured out where the hot tub is leaking. i'm hoping it will be fixed by next weekend so we can enjoy it.

october

i can't believe that it's already the middle of october.
this month has gone by so fast already and we have another couple busy weekends ahead of us.
october has been a little different this year. we have some cold, freezing weather and then also some amazing high temps, (perfect long sleeved shirt weather), now it's all rain :( i don't think gavin or bella like the rain. everytime i bring bella out she prances around on her tippy toes and does her business as fast as she can. gavin on the other hand.. well, he's really not a fan of this cold weather. he HATES being bundled up in his fall monkey jacket, even though he's adorable in it. he does like being naked, or well in his daiper, around the house.
we've done nothing amazing to our house.. dan and anthony got the cement done in the backyard for the hot tub, and somewhat fixed the small heater in our garage, but that's pretty much it. i'm wondering if we'll get the kitchen and living room painted before the baptism? i find it highly unlikely.
dan has a busy weekend this weekend... blackhawk, need i say more? he and cooper and a few others are heading to the concert on friday. i've heard my fair share of blackhawk, i will not be attending. then we have joellen and jesse's wedding on saturday. and then next weekend is halloween :) the BEST time of year. thanksgiving is going to be just around the corner and soon christmas will be coming. gavin will be celebrating his six month birthday on christmas day!!! the time is flying and he's getting so big.

happy (belated) birthday to grandma b, and camron today!

baby gavin

on june 25th at 5:54pm after 30 minutes of pushing gavin scott schroeder entered the world. weighing exactly 8 pounds, 21 inches long and healthy my baby was finally in my arms! the whole labor process is a little bit too much for me, but holding that little one in your arms for the first time is worth every ounce of pain. he came out looking exactly like his father, but with a big bottom lip, just like his mama. the next few days were very draining for the both of us. no sleep, a lot of crying and tons of poopy diapers, yuck. now that gavin's almost four months old it's a totally different story. he's such a happy and healthy (chunky) baby, sleeping through the night, rolling over and now he's getting his first tooth! everyday i am so thankful that he is in my life. although there are some days that i would love to be alone, all day, seeing him smile or hearing him mumble that thought is quickly passed.

i love gavin more than anything else in the entire world. we have a perfect family... and for now, the three of us is just fine. maybe in a couple years- two at least, we'll want an addition, but we are so happy and i don't want to take on anything else.

seventwentysixtwothousandeight

today i marry my best friend...

on july 26th, 2008 dan and i became husband and wife. this day will be engraved in my memory for the rest of my life. dan and i chose the most amazing people to help us celebrate our special day. the day started with the boys getting ready at gerry and shari's house and the girls getting ready at justine and anthony's. we took... a few ;) pictures and then headed to the church. it was one of the most emotional days of my life, i cried the entire way down the asile. i cried during our vows and i cried during the beautiful song carmen sang. we greeted and thanked all of our guests and then headed to the bars for a couple shots/drinks and then we were off to the reception. i can honestly say that we danced the night away, up until we were kicked out of the eagles. we packed everything up and headed away for the night. what a splendid day!

montana

Dan and I first met in 2000, which seems to be so far away. We started dating in October of 2004. We have had our fair share of complications, but have stuck it out together and will continue to be together, like they say, till death do you part. Dan and I moved out to Bozeman, Montana so I could go to school. Dan got a job working in West Yellowstone building beautiful houses in the oh so amazing Yellowstone Club. We had many friends move out to the beautiful Montana.. Shawn- Dan's brother, Tyler and Ashley- mutual friends, Cooper- mutal friend and Katy- mutual friend. Sadly we all eventually moved back to Minnesota to be closer to our friends and family. It was amazing while it lasted, and we have such amazing memories to remind us of our beautiful stay out in Montana.