this christmas

is over. and i'm so sad about it.

as i was laying in bed last night, which was crowded with gavin, bella, dan and i- by the way it's a FULL bed, not a queen or king or anything- i was saddened by the fact that our christmas for 2012 is over. it was filled with so many wonderful memories and great times spent with family, i didn't want it to end.
last night we let gav eat a little too much candy from his stocking, so by the time night night came around he was extremely hyper and not willing to go to bed. which is fine, last night i really didn't care, he just wouldn't go to sleep. so he meandered up to our bedroom at 10pm and snuggled in between dan and i, with bella at his feet. we will have to get a newer, bigger bed when jude is able to get out of his crib and join us. which means i will shed a major tear getting rid of our antique bed-frame that i had to beg dan to bring up and replace our much bigger and newer queen sized bed.
we came home from our fourth and final christmas in new ulm with an extremely over tired little jude and an extremely happy little boy who was so excited to play with all of his new toys, and of course his brothers as well. before that we had my mom over for a delicious brunch and present opening. in which she spoiled our kids and us more than she ever has before. i feel somewhat horrible for only getting her the booster carseat she wanted, but she insisted that was all she wanted this year. because i feel as you grow up you loose that "
getting" feeling and grow into the "giving" instead. which is what it's all about when you have kids.
like dan and i. we decided to only do stocking stuffers for each other. we have had some extreme purchases this year, and what dan wants i cannot buy.. new tires? are you kidding me? like i have an extra 2grand laying around? we spent most of our "christmas" budget on the special little ones that are a part of our lives, not on each other. but of course dan over did himself and went far too overboard for me. i am a lucky girl. and i feel bad, yet again for getting him a "stocking stuffer" of candy and goodies, and a runnings gift card. i'm losing the point of this post surely but quickly.

Grandma Audrey's beautiful Christmas tree

christmas eve we had an amazing day filled with family. of course we went to paynesville- and ate, drank and the schramels are always merry so the "be merry" never is needed. spent some quality time with my dad, adored my grandmas exquisite decor in each and every room and laughed with family until 10pm when we finally decided to head back. that morning was spent with the schroeders, watching the kids run around and play. i can't wait to watch jude and merrick play together next year, as they are only seven months apart :)
the holidays are always so much fun. i enjoy spending time with our families.. and i love that we all have a "larger" family. since i was little i dreamed of having siblings around the holiday times to play with and spend time with. and i am SO thankful that jude and gavin have that now. i now dream for a larger home, or even a more hosting efficient home to have holidays at our house.
we are in talks of expanding/changing things in our family. in one way or another. nothing happening soon, but whether it be a move, a dog or another schroeder baby (dan's got a big negative on the last one, for now) i feel that 2013, or maybe even 2014 will be a big year for this family. we have so much coming up in 2013 that i feel it will fly by much faster than we have ever hoped.

god bless

i am so lucky-
i have a husband who loves me.
two sweet little boys.
family and friends whom i love...
and many other amazing things that i cherish.
and in CT there are hundreds of people crying over loved ones who have lost their lives because of some mentally unstable man who decided to shoot up an elementary school. i am so sad. i cannot stop watching the news and crying, constantly. it's so so sad. my heart aches for all involved.
say your prayers and cherish this day.

new music

so my husband, aka d- dj- dan, finds all of these new artists because he must have some spare time at work (haha... right) and brings them home and i usually blow them off. like i did aaron lewis. then out of the blue he and a few of his co-workers decided go to go an aaron lewis concert downtown minneapolis. i said yes basically because i knew it would make dan so happy to spend some time with his fabulous co-workers outside of work, and dan has been a huge fan of aaron lewis (so is his mom, shari). shari talked and talked about how amazing aaron lewis is during thanksgiving and i kind of just brushed it off. she asked me if i knew who he was and i honestly had NOOOO idea.
remember the band staind? here goes the song: "i'm on the outside, i'm looking in, i can see through you, see your true colors, cause inside you're ugly, you're ugly like me, i can see throug you, see throug the real you" OR "it's been awhile, since i couldn't hold my head up high, and it's been awhile since i first saw you"...well that my friends is aaron lewis. he is/was (i don't know the logistics) the lead singer of staind and is now going out on his own... dun dun dun, country!

so anyways i went out with dan's co-workers, mike- who dan thinks of as his mentor maybe? and mikes super hot girlfriend, chrissy. and pete (a guy who is my mom's age) and his girlfriend. it was SO fun. we ate and had a few drinks downtown and then headed to the concert... it was amazing. the opening act was randy montana.. dreamy! he just might of topped my celeb crush over cam gigandet, dave franco or charlie hunnam. no, no i guess he didn't. but anyways. i had the pleasure of running into randy montana, literally.  i was headed to the bathroom and randy was coming out of backstage and bam! he did grab my arm and say, "excuse me, miss" with his southern charm. it was pretty cool. don't worry i did wash my arm and i didn't think it was fate or anything... just coincidence.

but getting back to the meaning of this post. these two were awesome! i will go back to see randy and aaron again. aaron put on an amazing show. his voice is SO sexy and played acoustically at the end which was my fav!

here's aaron:




and i can't seem to add randy.. but his 1000 faces song is my personal fav!

thankful

as you all know thanksgiving is my favorite holiday...

and this year didn't let me down.

i love everything about thanksgiving. the food, the family, the thanks.

i feel like this year (2012 in general) has been a doozy. many highs and lows. many things to look back on and improve. but no matter what i am totally thankful for everything this year has brought. especially my sweet little jude baby. our family and extended family has grown so much closer since jude was born. we are so lucky and so blessed!

i am looking forward to Christmas as well. i can't wait!... and a new year in 2013!

9months

JUDE IS NINE MONTHS OLD... really?
i can't believe it. i feel like i was just going through some excruciating pain and welcoming my sweet little boy.  now i am shuffling to get gavins toys away from jude, praying to go to the bathroom without jude rolling (yes, rolling, sliding, whatever) to greet me, and waking up to jude babbling into his monitor at 7:15 sharp- everyday!
this is jude at nine months:
an eater. loves food. not a bottle. but foooooooood. not so much cereal, but fruits and veggies are his thing. honey nut cheerios and the famous puffs are of course fav as well.
my sweet jude is a sleeper but not, absolutely not a napper. he likes to take cat-naps. cat-naps don't really work with this mama so we spend a lot of time crying (to be honest), and rocking, and lately driving in the car for a little nap around 4. jude sleeps from 9:30-10:15, at the max. and again from 1:00- maybe 2:30... but that's not all that often. bedtime is always at 7 and we get up at 7:15.
in that cute little mouth there are now 6 cut through teeth, and three teeth cutting through. REALLY? i cannot wait for teething to be done and over!
as previously addressed jude cannot crawl. we've talked to a few nurses and doctors and other mommies and are now okay with the fact that crawling might not happen. jude can pull himself up onto the couch, he can stand next to things but just cannot crawl. rolling and scooting across the floor is how he seems to get around. my mom said that i didn't crawl right away, too. instead i was one of those babies that walked at 7 months, and that just might be how i got my nickname "scooter"... fun fact that i never knew about ;)
jude's hearing is at 100% and that's a relief because he didn't pass his first two hearing tests. they say that because his delivery was so fast the junk that's in babies ears and gets pushed out by being pushed out slowly didn't all come out because his delivery was so fast.
those chocolate browns that he got from his mama are ladykillers. my grandma calls them shit brown eyes, so that's what they will be called! at his last appointment jude's doctor and myself became slightly alarmed with jude's left eye. it's slightly off center. we will soon be heading to our first eye doctor appointment. and my doctor was shocked that i haven't ever been to the eye doctor? i've never had problems so why would i go? right? i'm extremely nervous about this eye "precaution" because vision is so important in babies.
he's growing up just like his brother. long and almost lean. he's 29 inches, 21 lbs and a large head!
favorite words: beeeelllllla, ma-ma, daaaaaaah, and uh-oh. it kills me when he screams for bella!
speaking of bella, he LOVES her. bella comes and follows us around all dang day and jude will almost always be in a good mood when she's around. other animals he loves are horses, but not all of them, just lilly. which melts my heart. jude kicks his little legs and cant wait to grab onto lillys nose when he sees her.
what else????
toys.. baby toys are no fun so jude plays with all sorts of old phones, remotes, toys gavin will allow him to play with and a blanket.
jude sleeps with his blankie, stuffed dog and his burpee. he still sleeps soundly on is tummy and now has a slight snore.
favorites are mommy, daddy, grandma shari and of course big bro gav. he's kind of terrified of men with big beards...? i feel like around this age gavin was as well.
jude is getting to be such a fabulous little boy.. not that he wasn't before but well, i guess he kind of wasn't the easiest baby in the beginning... but of course, I LOVE HIM. LOVE HIM LOVE HIM LOVE HIM.

there's always something in his hands :)

he kills me over and over in his little fleece and hat

this is how he eats. he blows bubbles, rips off all his bibs, and spits... it's fun.

SEA LIFE

so i guess the name has changed since i last visited "underwater world"... it is now called SEA LIFE- Minnesota Aquarium.. my bad.
we had an amazing time and want to go back again. the boys were SO well behaved i would take them back in a heartbeat. i am only blogging about this adventure because i get to post a picture- that i am in for once. i am always the one behind the camera... capturing the photo of my little loves. thankfully, my mom went with us and we snapped this photo before the lady told us we weren't allowed to take it :)
we did a small amount of shopping, toured the sea life and went for a delicious lunch at famous daves. i'd say our day was perfect!

another instagram picture... sorry! but one that i love more than most.
my sweet little boys :)

halloween

i'm a sucker for halloween. the idea of dressing up in costume is fabulous... if it were my choice, halloween would happen at least four times a year.
i will say that i had an amazing time this year. and to be honest i had way more fun trick-or-treating with my little munchkins then i did on the party bus. something about knocking door-to-door, yelling out trick-or-treat, getting candy, taking pictures and everything else is SO fun when you have kids. of course jude didn't really understand halloween, but gavin was in full force this year. we had to drag him home in the pitch black of darkness... :)
i am so in love with these two little cuties.

my sweet little cow, and handsome cowboy

happy first halloween to my little moo moo

next year, i'm making the entire family be a theme :) i wore cowboy boots and a cowboy hat.... dan didn't.