Greta Laughed Today!

As we enjoyed Greta laughing and having just a silly time, it occurred to us that we have a camera and could share that enjoyment with everyone. Not much cuter than a 3-month old laughing. By the time the camera was out, she was pretty much done giggling, but we caught one little chuckle that we'd like to share with y'all.

Jude and Marriage....

Well, last night we were walking around Costco (as all responsible Americans do on Sunday evening), and I was checking out the jewelry case with Jude. I thought it was a good time to explain to him that the sapphire ring on my right hand is his. I told him that his daddy gave it to me on the night he came out of my tummy, and since it's a girl's ring, he doesn't need to wear it. I told him I will wear it for him until one day when he picks a wife, then he can give it to her.

He thought for a minute and said, "But I want you to be the wife, though."

Ahhh..there are almost no better words that could come from a 2 1/2 year old boy! I told him I will gladly be his wife someday (I'm trusting he'll change his mind at some point).

Halloween...

Well, here are some pictures of Halloween, better late than never. And, in other news, Greta was two months old yesterday! She weighs 11 lbs 9 oz, and is 22 1/4 inches. She is healthy and we're so thankful for her. She's still recovering from her vaccines...wow...what a fit! She screamed for about 15 minutes afterward and only calmed down once we were out of the doctor's office and in the car. I guess she has a few opinions!

Jude's first jack-o-lantern.

Jude and Greta in costume.

Jude's friend Olivia, whom we call Olive, was an olive! They went trick-or-treating together.

You know your son's a Texan...

~When he is really cold in the middle of the night and you have to explain to him what the down comforter crumpled at the foot of the bed is for...

~When he keeps telling you, "I don't like the long shorts Mommy!" (in reference to pants, which is a word he doesn't know).

~When you go to the Northwest and he says, "Look at all those Christmas trees!" (meaning pine trees...)

~When you read the book about seasons, and you get to the winter page...he looks at you like you're crazy.

~When it's 50 degrees but he tries to take his sweatshirt off and you have to explain, "It's like a blanket for your body..." because he doesn't know why on earth a person would wear one!

Greta's 1 Month B-day

Here are some pics of Greta, who is now 1 month old.
First Bath. She liked it.



We met up with Mike, Ember, and Emory (Stevi's cousins) in Waco.


Jude, Grammy, and Troy got to ride on Thomas the Tank Engine when he came to town.

Greta's first week...

She's nine days old today! We are so thankful for her. God has truly blessed us with a beautiful, healthy, sleepy baby. Jude seems to think she's acceptable so far, and he's been enjoying her. He's particularly interested in her umbilical cord and when it will fall off....

Here are some more pictures from the past week...

More Pics of Greta

We are home now and it is nice. Greta is just sleeping a lot, but she has been a very easy baby so far! We are actually decently well rested. The first picture below is the outfit she wore when we left the hospital. The booties and hat were knitted by a student at Veritas named Caroline.

Meet Greta Mae

After a night with no sleep, Greta was born at 6:28 this morning. She weighed exactly 8lbs, and stretched out 20 inches. Stevi and Greta are both healthy and we are so grateful to God for His kindness to us! Here are a few of the first shots we've taken of our beautiful little girl.

Greta's Empty Room

Well, still no Greta Mae. But at least we have her room finished. If you want to take a look, we've given you two options. You can just look at this picture...or watch the 2.5 minute video tour of her room.

One month....

Well, today I am officially one month away from my due date. I have been acting like I only have a couple of weeks left, since Jude was a bit early, but the possibility is real that I may have to wait a month or longer. I hope you come soon, little girl. Your knees are pokey, and you are squishing me.

Also, today is the first day of school at Troy's school. The summer has flown by, and today marks the first day of his third year at Veritas Academy!

Saturday is our family co-op. This is code for "work day." We trade once a quarter or so and all spend a day working at someone's house in our family. A couple of folks are devoted to watching kids, but the rest of us work on projects like painting, yard work, window washing, etc. This week, everyone is coming to our house to help with some projects in our pitiful backyard, and help finish getting the baby's room ready. The project I'm most excited about: Troy's sister, who is a wonderful artist, is going to paint some daisies on the nursery walls. Hopefully, we'll have pictures soon!

Potty Training....

Well, Jude has been doing really well with potty training until today. Of course we were visiting with friends and he did #2 in his pants. GROSS. And, I accidentally flushed his underwear down the hotel toilet while I was trying to clean them. Good riddance, I say. Will that mess up their plumbing?

June and July....

Well, I can't say my excuse for the last lapse is very good..I've had some free time this summer. I've been hanging out with Jude while Troy has been at conferences, retreats, and at work. It's a little lonely at times, but I caught up on our photo albums, I've been learning how to can things, and trying to keep walking in the mornings. The walking can be a little tough if I don't go early enough, since it's Texas and it's summer and I'm pregnant...very pregnant.

But, I'd say my excuse is just that I've been lazy about blogging. Today however, I am in a hotel room (we came along on this trip with Troy...we're in Dallas), while Jude and his friend Olivia (daughter of a close friend and co-worker, Allison) are sleeping. So, here it goes:

Baby news: I am 31 and 1/2 weeks pregnant. I really hope this baby comes a little early like Jude, but even still, I have some time left. This pregnancy has been fairly easy, but I am not a person who loves being pregnant...so I am trying to be patient. Every little bit of it will be worth it in the end...

Exciting development: Jude is potty trained. He still has a rare accident, but he's doing really well. Here's my tip: Leave on an 8-day trip to Colorado with 15 ninth graders, leave your toddler with your mother- and sister-in-law, and come home to a potty trained kid! For some reason, they thought to buy him a froggy potty, which was all it took. That idea never occurred to me. Eight days away from him was really hard, but in hind-sight it was totally worth it! YEAH! So, at least for the moment, we'll be only having one kid in diapers (once the baby is born, of course).

Church/adoption: We're enjoying our church very much. We have recently started working with the crawlers in the nursery. It's amazing how quickly I've forgotten what little ones are like. It's making me excited for my own little baby, though. We're planning to attend Together for Adoption in October (a national adoption conference that our church is co-hosting this year). Adoption is something we've been thinking and praying about for a while. We'll see how God directs our family in the future.

School: Troy's school is doing really well..especially considering that many private schools are struggling because of the economy. They will grow in enrollment again this year, and have been able to hire some amazing new staff. Troy is now officially "Head of Upper School," which means he runs the upper campus (grades 5-11 this coming year, adding 12th in fall 2011). He still loves his job, though it can be very consuming. We're thankful that he is confident it's where God wants him, and that he loves the staff and students there. It makes the long hours clearly worth it. He plans to stay...well....forever.

I will only be teaching one hour per week next fall, since I'll have a new baby. I dropped a couple of my classes this year. I am glad to not have the restrictions on my schedule, though I will miss teaching dance and girls' fitness. I suppose I'll have to work out on my own!

Pics:

Here are a couple of pictures....



Jude and Kate (cousin) playing in our yard...





Jude's big boy room. This is mostly for my Auntie Kris, who just sent him a pillowcase that matched his room exactly with out ever seeing pictures. She just pegged him for a construction truck kid, I guess...pretty good.

Jude Singing and Playing the drums

IT'S A......

Hey Everyone! If you haven't already heard on Facebook, or through an email, we wanted to share our exciting news that it's a GIRL! Our little one looks healthy and wonderful. We are very thankful, and Jude is excited to have a little sister. So far, I am enjoying pregnancy with a girl...she's much gentler inside than Jude was! We are so thankful for God's kindness in making her. Getting to see her on the ultrasound was a great reminder that God has done the work of knitting her together, and it's really a miracle. All four chambers of her heart, every little rib and even her little nose (which is a lot like Stevi's and doesn't turn up like the noses in the Schuknecht family....as far as we can tell), are all His beautiful creativity. It's nothing I've done, and certainly a display of His amazing grace. We are excited and hope you'll pray for us. We have no idea what to do with a girl, and she's coming in September whether we're ready or not!

Stevi

Jude's new toy...

Spring Break and Easter....

Hi everyone! Here are some recent pictures. We went to Houston with some friends over spring break (in March)....

Jude and his (best) friend Olivia at the Children's Museum.

This is a t-rex behind us at the Museum of Natural Sciences...

At the Houston Zoo...

Jude and Olivia at the zoo...

This was at the Space Center....there were some Star Wars characters. Jude still talks about how we went in a rocket. This is Jude, me, Olivia and my friend Allison.


Jude at the Aquarium (I know...they had a tiger, weird). But, it was his favorite thing!



Olivia and Jude near the tiger exhibit.


Houston....


Dyeing Easter eggs with Josiah and Kate (Jude's cousins).



Jude and Josiah on Easter with Jude's new swords!


In other news, we just got a flip video camera...so hopefully we'll be adding videos to our blog soon!

Bedtime Prayer

Tonight I was praying with Jude before bed, and he was telling me the things he was thankful for. He insists on praying for himself these days, which can be quite humorous, but also sweet. Tonight it went like this:

Jude: Dear God and Dear Jude, (we aren't sure why he starts it that way...) Thank you for toys....Mommy, God don't say "You're Welcome."

Me: Oh Honey, God does say it, but we can't hear Him because He lives in heaven, but He can hear us and see us.

Jude: Oh. Heaven in the sky.

Me: Yes, Heaven's way up in the sky. (I know it's not really accurate, but he's two...how else do you explain it?) God and Jesus live there, but they can see us and hear us.

Jude: And the birdies up in heaven too...

Me: Well, the birdies live in the sky, but heaven is far far away where we can't see.

Jude: I wanna go to heaven too.

Me: (Seriously, how do I begin to explain this???) You can go to heaven when you die, but right now God put you here to live with mommy and daddy.

Jude: I wanna go to heaven with God and Jesus and Daddy and Mommy.....there's a fan up there (referring to his ceiling fan, purely a mid-conversation observation).

Me: Someday we'll all go to heaven together, but right now we live here on earth (as if any of this makes sense to him....)

Jude: Where Daddy? Daddy in heaven right now?

Me: No, Daddy's in his car on the way home from Veritas.

Jude: Oh.

Well....I did my best to explain it. But, it's a tough concept.

Baby time!

Hey everyone! We are thrilled to announce that we're expecting our second baby in September! I'm 12 weeks along tomorrow, and we completely thankful for this baby. We've been waiting for him/her for a while now! Jude is very excited to be a big brother, and today he asked me if he could "hold the baby now?" It's so hard to explain to a 2-year-old why the baby can't come out! My official due date is Sept 18th, so it's gonna be a warm Texas summer for me =).

Praise the Lord!

Iron Chef, water, and other exciting events...

Well, yes, we're still around. We took a big break from blogging, again. Sorry.

Anyway, here's a quick update (if anyone even still reads this blog) of what we've been up to in the past month or so...

My sister came and stayed with us for most of January. It felt right to have all three of us in Austin! A.J. is loving his job, and doing well at it...and looking quite happy as you can see. We had a great time with Leah. She learned how to speak "Jude" and was awesome to have around.

Jude turned 2!!! His birthday was January 21st, but his party was the 24th. Here they are eating pizza (at Jude's request)... His cousins and his two best friends in Austin were at the party!

This is a picture of him getting ready for bed on his actual birthday.

Troy grew, and shaved some facial hair. He shaved the beard before the...ick...mustache. Can you say creepy? I think I only let him keep it for two days or so....


Last weekend we had an iron chef party with our best Austin friends, the Franklins. This was the winning dish...made by three teenage boys. Chicken and chorizo paella. WOW! It was awesome. I recommend playing iron chef with your friends anytime you want to have a good dinner!



Friday night, Troy went to a ping pong club (don't ask) in Austin, so Jude and I had a picnic and watched part of Cars. We had a good time. Later, Jude mentioned that our friend's motorcycle (parked at our house) wasn't talking....maybe too much Cars?

Last night, we went hiking in the greenbelt (every certain percentage of land in Austin must remain undeveloped..this one happens to have Barton Creek running through it). We had a great time, and were amazed at the amount of water there. Last summer, there was absolutely NO water in the same spot! Can you believe it? It seems that our drought is over. Praise God.

Also in the Greenbelt.

Oh yeah! And for all you pinnochle players out there...here's the highlight of my (Stevi's) Christmas break (aside from celebrating our Savior coming to the world):
Yes...it's true 1000 ACES!!!! I don't think it gets better than that. I've never seen or heard of it done. I've had 1500 pinnochle twice, but I never thought this would ever happen...ever.