Marie Isabel

Marie Isabel has arrived! March 3 (oddly enough born on her due date!) at 5:17pm, 7lbs 15 ounces, 20.25 inches long. She has a head full of dark, thick hair. All are doing well, if a bit tired, and enjoying our new family! Enjoy the pics and our love to you all!

Shannon, March 2, ready for baby...
Marie Isabel, moments old.
Josie meeting her new sister, she thinks Marie is "pretty okay" and "alright". She is protective so we're pretty sure she likes her!
Luke is an incredibly proud Daddy!
More of Marie...
Finally home, napping girls...

Holding Marie for the first time, Josie is a pretty proud big sister!

Our pretty, pretty girl...

Some really good artwork

The other morning Josie was drawing on her magnadoodle and I had to take pictures, she was doing some really good faces.


This one actually has pupils in it's eyes if you look close enough!
This one is me she says. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

And finally, because she's such a goofball, here's a great one of her idea of a "really good" outfit. Poor kid got my knock-knees though. She loves that rose, we won it at the carnival at a fair last summer, so it's really cheaply made. I don't think it was meant to be played with as much as it is, but she drags it around with her quite a bit. I just realized how old this pic is though. She's come a long way since November. For those that don't know, Josie is completely potty trained now!!! No more diapers, only big girl panties! We're really proud, but I think she's proudest of herself and her accomplishment!

Belly pic update

Ahhh, the belly. Getting bigger!

Sorry this one's blurry, I'm thinking we need a new camera. This pic, and the other in the red shirt are from a month ago, so about 28 weeks.

Almost exactly a month later, the belly at 32 weeks. Not much bigger I notice now, but if you look low where my hands are you can see it. I feel huge. Baby is doing great, very active. More so than Josie was for sure. This one kicks like crazy, and certain activities will actually wake it up and set if off (namely getting up at night to use the restroom, I dread it because it takes forever to fall back to sleep with No 2 kicking like crazy). Currently I'm measuring a week to two weeks big, but since Josie was 8 lbs 6 oz they're predicting this is just a large baby. I'm up to Dr appointments ever two weeks, and my next is Wednesday the 17. Currently I'm 33 weeks along, so that means we only have 7 weeks to go! I can't believe it's getting so close. March 3 is definitely creeping up on me. Luckily it's scaring me enough to get my butt into gear and start getting things ready.

Christmas cont...

Christmas Day we went to Luke's sister & her husbands new house, it is beautiful! We had a nice visit there with Luke's mom, and then came back the next day.
For Judy, because there aren't many pictures of you guys: Sorry it's not the best, but it's not too bad ;)

And Josie and Uncle Glendon checking out one of the movies she got (I love their two heads peeking over the couch):

Christmas!

We spent Christmas Eve at home, having a "lunch" with Josie's Great-Grandma & Grandpa and Papa Steve. We exchanged gifts and had a great time. Papa Steve totally spoiled Josie with this ridiculously nice princess dress up set and she LOVES it! She's a diva, I know.




Luke and I also got her a tricycle, which she had been asking for about a month- 2months before Christmas. She loves it, but with the cold & snow she hasn't had a chance to ride it outside much yet. It's a good thing we have hardwood floors so that she can cruise a little in the house.

And, of course, another year gone by without me getting a decent picture of her in her Christmas dress (red velvet jumper & black turtleneck this year for those of you who care about details). I know, but blame it on my "pregnancy retardation". Luke's been using that excuse a lot lately!

Snowstorm pictures

As you know, before Christmas we got hammered with a pretty good snowstorm here. We actually really enjoyed the time to relax & just stay home. That and Josie loved the snow. Here are a few photos of our beginning attempts at "digging out".

This is our "sled" that Josie loves, I took a pool floatie and tied a rope around it to drage her around. That's us summiting a 4 foot drift in the middle of the lawn.

This is my favorite picture of the snow, her cheeks matched her coat & pants, and she was just smiling away.

Here's Luke shovelling the front walk, somewhere under that drift by the wall of the house is our air conditioning unit, totally covered.

The amount of snow around her playset tells you how high it was, I think we got about 20" but the wind blew so badly it all drifted. I couldn't get her inside, she wanted to stay out and play, too bad it was only about 15 degrees at the time.

Feeding Cows...

It's good to be 2, you don't have to walk, you can see everything from Daddy's shoulders, and, in this instance, he sort of looks comfortable to sit on...






Papa Bob helped Josie climb to the top of a pretty tall haystack, she loved it up there and didn't want to come down.







I like this picture, you can't see too much but the sun gives it a nice element.







Here's Josie sitting on "Blue". She actually asked to get up on him, which I though was awsome. She really enjoyed it. And, one left over from the river, Luke and Josie climing rocks.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at my parent's house this year, and while we didn't take a ton of pics we got some nice ones on the way over, and a few the next morning feeding cows with Papa Bob.


This is the Arkansas River that runs through the canyon on Highway 50 between Canon City and Salida. It's really beautiful and Luke and I's favorite part of the drive over. This is a pullover at an old railroad tressle that they've converted to be sort of a viewing point for the canyon/river.

Josie and I at the "viewing station" they built on what I think was one side of the old tressle, the water below is awsome, some pretty hardcore rapids. Very neat to stand and look down. Also, my belly at 25 weeks :)










Luke and Josie throwing rocks, this picture came out a bit darker than I would have liked...









Josie and Luke checking out the rapids, we also hiked down and let her get close to the water (with one hand on her at all times of course)! She loved it!

Incredibly proud of myself!!!

If you'll notice below I've finally figured out how to put videos on the blog, which ROCKS! I won't tell you how much time I've put into it this evening, that part is embarassing. But, I'm really excited! Now you'll all get to see what she's up to:)

The top in the bunny costume is of course Halloween, all dressed up and ready to go. Below that is Josie dancing to her without-a-doubt-absolute-favorite-bestest-most-wonderful song in the whole world, Shakira's Hips Don't Lie feat. Wyclef Jean~ Enjoy :)

http://www.bolt.com/shanschlachter/video/Happy_Halloween/2582829


Get video codes at Bolt.

http://www.bolt.com/shanschlachter/video/Hips_dont_lie/2582221




Get video codes at Bolt.

I'm a slacker...

At long last, here are Halloween photos! And, for all of you that I never talk to, I'm sorry. I know I've been really really bad about calling people lately. As for No. 2, at the ultrasound it was basheful, so we'll be waiting to find out at the birth if we're having a boy or a girl! Here's some updated belly shots for my girls, and Josie the Bunny!

I know my belly is still tiny, which is interesting, because this baby feels huge!








Josie smoosing for the camera. She loved her bunny suit, and luckily it was warm because it was all of 24 degrees out while we trick-or-treated. She had a blast!











The carrot was actually sown onto her hand, they were like little mittens. This was nice until about an hour in, then the carrot really started to tick her off. Imagine that, Josie, upset... ;)





Josie enjoying a chocolate cupcake. Of course we had to do cupcakes for Halloween, and Luke was there to help us decorate them. As a note to self, the black sugar looks good but will stain anything it touches!

A few more pics...

These last few photos wouldn't fit in my last post, so, here they are.

A cute one of Luke and Josie, she's really becoming Daddy's girl, and I think he likes that!

For those of you who've asked, here's my belly. Not terribly big by any stretch (yet...) but my jeans are getting tight. I was 18 weeks on Saturday, Sept 30, so nearly halfway there!!!

Update on the family

At long last, here are some long overdue photos. Good one's though...

Josie washing the pickup with Daddy, she was so serious doing this! She helped him for nearly an hour, washing the hubcaps, and bottom of the pickup.







This is Josie's very first morning of Sunday school, all ready to go! She started nursery class a little early because I'm teaching kindergarten and Luke was planting wheat so we talked with the church and she got to start early. She loves it! She was so proud of herself! But, of course, she wouldn't let me get a good picture!

Update

Monday I had my 4 month dr. appt. Nothing eventful, I refused the blood test to screen for Downs. Somehow, I feel best not knowing, condemning this unborn for something I struggle to see as a disease. All Downs children I have know have had their challenges (don't we all), but they were all somehow, so angelic. Forever innocent, which really, is a blessing of a kind. Anyway, enough philosophy, I refused the test.

Dr looked for 5 minutes until we heard the heartbeat, both of us were getting nervous I think. Josie sat so still while he was looking (she was sitting on the bed next to me). Finally he found it and when he did OH BOY! It was loud! He actually turned the Doppler down, you could hear the thump, thump, over the static. Josie was just amazed, listening. Dr said that he normally doesn't hear heartbeats that loud and clear in babies this small.

Sometime during the week of October 16th I will have the ultrasound, we will check for babies health, and we will (hopefully) find out the sex! That is if no. 2 is not being shy.

We are sowing wheat, Josie is missing Luke. He has to kiss her goodbye in the morning before he leaves or there is major drama. She gets upset when he forgets. Hopefully we will be done soon, there is some rain holding us up, I have my fingers crossed that the end of next week we'll be done.

That's really all the news on us, I'm trying hard not to shop for the new baby, until I know what we're having. Everyone is saying it's a boy, I guess we'll see!

Photo update

Here are some recent photos of Josie, this one taken at Grandma Judy's house, of course, hamming for the camera.







This picture is finally a nice on, but still a bit of a funny face. I like the colors though...








Take that Tinkerbell! Josie all dressed up wearing her new favorites, green converse sneakers. She got them when we went shopping a few weeks ago and hasn't taken them off much since!









Josie is obsessed with winter at this point. She is very impatiently waiting for the snow. I made her a new hat/scarf for winter this year and she's really excited about them. She also really liked the yarn, sort of a thick chenille. And of course, it's purple!


One of the few and elusive photos of Josie and I together. We were snuggling and Luke caught this one. Every time a see a photo of Josie and I together I'm struck by how different our coloring is. I'm hoping that maybe this next kid looks a little like me and not a carbon copy of Luke!

Heard the heartbeat!

I'm about a week late in posting on this, but we did go the Dr and got to hear the heartbeat! He didn't have to look at all, just put the Doppler on my tummy and there it was. He moved the microphone a bit to get it a little louder. So, number 2 is doing good! Somehow reassuring to hear that little noise.

Josie was excited and keeps talking about baby's heartbeat. She will put her head near my belly and tell me "I hear that heartbeat!". She's definitely looking forward to being a big sister. She talks about it quite a bit, and Elmo did a thing about families on Sesame Street last week that she loved. Also, I'm waiting until the time is right and the "Big Sister Dora" DVD will make an appearance in our library. Anything Dora does is totally cool with Josie.











That's about all the news we have for now, my next apt is in mid-September, but we should be finding out if it's a girl or a boy in October at 20 weeks, so about a month and a half from now!!!

Expecting No. 2

Just a little note to let you all know that Luke and I are expecting baby No. 2 on March 3, 2007. I'm currently about 9 1/2 weeks along & doing pretty good. Morning sickness was pretty icky in the beginning but I'm starting to feel a lot better now.

We'll keep you all updated here with news, and happenings:) We will of course be finding out what we're having, but that won't happen until 20 weeks. So, check back often, if I get brave I may even post belly pics ;)D!