Would you believe him?

I got a new washing machine and dryer this summer. I love it. I can fit so much into the units and it is so nice to go down after running a load through the dryer and have the clothes actually be dry. The dryer runs until the clothes are dry, it actually knows when they are dry! Isn't that cool! Although I love my new machines, getting them wasn't a piece of cake. Instead of deciding one day that we should start shopping for a new set because we have do so much laundry, we decided to wait until one of the machines actually died. It was a long wait and a really long drawn-out death for our old dryer. It would have been nice if one day it just stopped working, but instead it gradually dried the clothes less and less and required more and more cycles to get a load dry. Then Spencer took a chance fixing it and then my dad had to give it a try. Each time that someone tried to fix it, it took a few more days to figure out that it really wasn't fixed. It was awful. But, all of that was worth it when one Thursday Night Date Night in July, after doing our research, my wonderful husband bought me a huge, super-deluxe washing machine and dryer.


You may be wondering why I brought this up today. Don't worry, I have a point. First, look at this picture of the control panel of our washing machine.

The way the control panel works is when you turn on the machine, there are orange lights to show you what your options are and then a green light to indicate which option has been selected. Since the machine was running when I took this picture, the temperature and other options have already been selected; therefore, you can only see the orange lights on the last 2 columns. Spencer has jokingly claimed, since we got the machine, that he can't do laundry *anymore* because the machines look too complicated. So anyway, Charlie puked in his crib tonight. I took care of cleaning up Charlie and Spencer took care of the dirty laundry. A while later, he was telling me that he wasn't sure if he did the laundry right because of all the buttons. Huh!?!?! So, I went down to look and to show him what to push. Well, it turns out that he *claims* that can't tell the difference in color between the green lights and the orange lights. And, it doesn't appear that he is joking. I've always known that he is a bit color blind, but orange vs. green...no way! We definitely should have checked this out before we bought this set.


I guess that it is a really good thing that it is such a nice washer and dryer since I am apparently going to be doing all of the laundry for the rest our lives!!! You don't think he is messing with me do you???

Babies Schmidt

A quick update for anyone looking for info about the boys' soon-to-be cousins.

Jen is now 26w2d pregnant. She has been at Hinsdale for about 3 weeks and doing well. She has had one bleed since she has been there, but it has resolved. She mentioned that her Dr. may let her go home at 28 weeks, but I hope they keep here there until those munchkins are born. Her latest ultrasound was 2 days ago and Baby A is estimated to be 2lbs and a few ounces and Baby B & Baby C are estimated to be a few ounces short of 2lbs. That is pretty amazing since it is Baby A that keeps tearing his placenta and he has consistently been bigger than the other 2. I guess he is getting what he needs! So prayers for about 9 more weeks of growing would be appreciated. A huge short term goal is 28 weeks...I just like to think big!

We are so happy and thankful everyday that she is still pregnant. The day we got our Christmas tree was the same day that Jen had that major bleed that was very scary and sent her to Edwards because it was the closest hospital. I remember as we were finishing putting up our tree that I couldn't help but hope and pray that those babies would not yet be born when it was time to take our tree down. It didn't look good that day, but she made it. Our tree came down a few days ago and still no babies. We really do have a lot to be thankful for!

26w1d (01/03/08)

The Boys' Room

Since my goal for this blog is to give the boys and even Spencer and I a place to record our memories, I thought posting pictures of the boys' room would be fun to see in years to come. Their room has basically looked like this since they got their big-boy-beds shortly after they turned 3.

They each have a toybox at the bottom of their bed for their special treasures. They can keep happy meal toys, birthday party favors, old menus, deflated balloons or anything else that suits their fancy in their toybox. That way it won't be left on the floor or a coffee table and mistaken for junk and thrown out by mom. We really need to go through those toy boxes one day very soon. It is not a job that is enjoyed by mom or son. It is so hard for them to part with such *valuable* treasures...apparently. They must have inherited that from their dad and Grandmom Adelaide. Not me...I love to throw things out!! If you can see, Jack's toybox is not even closing all of the way. We've definitely got a project ahead of us.

We plan on rearranging their room and bunking 2 of the beds about the time that they turn 6. I'm sure they will LOVE that! I can't believe that they are about old enough for bunk beds!

In the last picture, you can see the latest addition to their room. They received the Solar System for Christmas from Santa. They love it! They think it would be a great idea to paint their ceiling and the top of their walls black so that it would look more like space. I don't think so! Jack is a bit confused because Pluto was included with the set even though it is no longer a planet. Someone told him that fact months ago, when it was in the news, and he is still thinking about it. Yesterday in the car, he said "Mom, I just don't understand why Pluto got kicked out". His questions sure keep me on my toes. Thank goodness for Google!!

Charlie is taking a nap right now, so I'll have to do his room later.

Game Night

Every night of the week is Game Night in our house. Well, except Thursday. ;)

Spencer has been playing games with the boys almost every night for the last couple of years. He started as soon as they were really able to grasp the concept of a board game. He has so much patience!!! I've probably played about 1/50th the amount of Candyland and Chutes and Ladders than Spencer has and I am so grateful to him for that! Those games are kind of annoying. I know that those games are/were age appropriate and good for them and blah, blah, blah, but can be tough to sit through. It is also not easy organizing three 3-year olds or three 4-year olds, or even sometimes three 5-year olds to sit down to learn to play a game. Spencer is awesome at it and they have have so much fun and have learned so much!! Now they are moving on to more fun games like Monopoly Jr., Yahtzee, Sorry and even The Game of Life. I wonder if they'll let me play sometimes now, I loved that game when I was little. Tonight, Game Night went to a whole different level when they ended up playing the game that Spencer got from my dad for Christmas, Golden Tee! How cool did they think that was!!

01/02/08 - Notice Drew's "I made a good shot" pose

I think it is so nice that Spencer does this with them so often. The boys absolutely love it and they are getting so much out of it and having so much fun with their Daddy. Every once in a while, I thank Spencer for playing with them. It really is a nice break for me and some nights I REALLY appreciate it. The jist of his response is usually that he enjoys it and how he can't help but think that one of these days, they will have better things to do than play games with dad. The boys are really lucky to have him for their daddy and I hope that they will remember the game nights with daddy forever.

New Years Eve

We had a kid-friendly New Year's Eve Party last night. We just invited a few neighbors and ended up with 4 families, including us. That turned out to be 7 adults and 14 kids. We had a great time. It definitely felt like more than 4 families though. ;) The boys made it until the NY ball dropped. As soon as it dropped, they went upstairs and put their pajamas on. They didn't even say anything, they were so tired, they just went upstairs. The little girl from next door and her dad were still here, but the boys were too tired to care. It was a fun night. Here are some pictures.

Almost all of the kids

Doing our own countdown, with about 3+ hours until midnight

Jack toasting the New Year

Waiting for the Ball to drop

Charlie enjoying what was left of the party favors on New Year's morning

Clean kids

It is becoming a family tradition (this year and last year) for us to spend New Year's Day in our pajamas. The boys think it is the coolest thing ever. It always seems like a good idea to me when I'm feeling too tired to jump into the shower, but as the day progresses, it just feels more and more gross.

Call me wierd, but I started giving the boys baths every morning when they were about a year old. Charlie has been getting a daily bath pretty much since he was born. Since then, I can probably count the number of days that they did not get a bath (not counting when they swim) on my hands. There were a lot of reasons that I started giving them a bath every day. Without even really considering the food, snot, dirt, sand, poop and miscellaneous other things that they mush into their bodies on a daily basis, the main reason that I started daily baths was that they really liked it and it was something to occupy part of our morning. It was 1/2 hour or 45 minutes of them enjoying themselves without whining and I ended up with clean and dressed kids!! Another reason was that I never wanted to miss the opportunity for an outing. If someone called me up and wanted to have a playdate or meet us someplace, I wanted to be ready to go! It didn't happen too often when they were babies, but we were ready if anything came up.


One more reason that I discovered is that if my kids (and me) were clean and looking half-way descent, our day seemed to go better. One day, when the boys were babies, we took a fieldtrip to the mall with a friend. I remember commenting that her kids looked cute that day. She laughed and told me that it had been a rough morning and she decided that if she dressed them up cute, she would be less likely to kill them. Although I am not going to kill my kids, and neither is she, there is definitely some truth to that.


So, for the record, the boy did stay in their pjs, all day today. I'm still in my pjs now at 9:10pm, but I fully intend to go up and take a shower when I am finished with this. Spencer went out in public today, so he didn't count. We almost made it with Charlie, but he had a leaky diaper earlier today and then was practicing showing us his hair at dinner. Great except that he had Macaroni and Cheese for dinner and still doesn't use a spoon. YUCK! He got a bath and is sleeping peacefully, and cleanly upstairs.

This kid needs a bath!!!

Macaroni & Cheese in his hair

and red marker on his forehead.

YUCK! Cute, but still YUCK!

Enjoying the Snow!

Wow, I never thought that I would type that!!! I'm a summer girl, but even I have to admit that we did enjoy the winter season for a little while today.

When we bought our house, there were a lot of things about it that we really liked. One thing that we did not notice is the cool sledding hill on the side of our house. The boys got saucer sleds from Santa and we all had a great time using them tonight. They really go fast!! Charlie even enjoyed sledding a bit. He jibber-jabbered the entire time that we were pulling him in the sled. The faster he would go, the more he would talk. Too funny!!

Drew & Jack

Ben

Charlie

Drew, Ben, Jack & Elaina (from next door)