Lots of pictures from Christmas

Christmas morning started at our house with Megan opening her stocking stuffers, 3 little Dr. Seuss books (perfect for carrying in my purse!) Next she opened the gifts from Santa. Apparently he knew that she is going to be a well traveled child and she got her very own backpack and a very fun orange hibiscus print dufflebag! Santa went for practical items this year because he saw the truck load of toys that were handed down from Megan's cousins (I'm not kidding when I say a TRUCKLOAD)

After breakfast we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Berthold's house to open gifts with Grandma-great, my Aunt Lynda, Uncle Jim and my cousins Michael and Allison (from Texas). Megan was taking a nap while the non-kids opened their gifts so I was able to focus completely on her when she opened her gifts, which was fun. In this picture Megan is modeling her "Super Baby" cape that she got from her Uncle Jason and Danielle. She looked so cute wearing it and didn't want to take it off!

Sizing up her Megan sized spatula. She has played with it everyday since Christmas.

The first ride on her new tricycle from Grandma-great!!! It took a while for Megan to get on it. It appeared while she was taking her nap and she didn't know what to think of it. It wasn't until my mom put a stuffed Santa on it that Megan figured out what to do.

Not quite fast enough for her cape to blow on the breeze!

So cute and so happy!

Now is that a trike or what!?!



It didn't take her long to figure out how to ring the bell. (sorry the video is dark)

After riding her tricycle for awhile Megan disappeared into another room. When she came back she was carrying a Santa that was the same size as her. I don't know if she wanted to thank him for showing her how much fun her trike was, but she was on a mission to get him back on the tricycle.

"Just get on the bike Santa"

Well she got Santa on the bike, he is now recovering from a broken back, but he's on the bike. Poor Santa :(

And finally, the family picture in front of the tree. (pink shirt and all!)

This was a great Christmas, we all got fun things we didn't know we needed but loved them now. For me I couldn't have asked for more (other then selling our house) Mark got me a Nintendo DS that is addicting and I finally got the pan that I have been eyeing in Williams-Sonoma for years, an All-Clad 6 quart saute pan (I love it, I love it, I love it!!!) Now hopefully next year we can have one big Christmas party in our new house, but until then I will just look back and remind myself of how much fun it was watching Megan this Christmas, she had a blast.

Christmas Cookie Extravaganza 2008

Megan not even trying to hide the fact that she is sneaking a cookie.

Grandma helping Megan frost the cookies she rolled out AND cut out by herself.

Taking a break from the freakish amount of cookies to play with the tree. Just like at our house Megan was allowed to take a couple ornaments off of the tree at Grandma's house. We pointed out a few ornaments that were child friendly, and Megan knew she could only take those ornaments off. She remembered from day to day and hardly ever attempted to take other ornaments off.

Megan's Christmas cookies. The first day of cookie baking Megan rolled out the dough, with a little assistance then grabbed a heart cookie cutter and pushed it into the dough. Grandma was in the process of moving the heart cookie to the cookie sheet and Megan decided she wanted to embellish the heart with some finger holes (they kind of look like a face) She then cut out the circles and the next day she frosted them 90% by herself. Right now the heart cookie is in a bag hanging on her dad's bulletin board at work! Very cute.

Practicing for cookie baking...

Egg Number 1
When I took the eggs out of the fridge, Megan was all excited to help me crack them. We have been working with eggs for awhile and she gets the "concept" of breaking eggs.

Egg Number 2!

I swear this was the first attempt at me trying to record her cracking an egg!

Egg Number 3
Well, egg number 3 ended up on the floor! But Megan loved how it looks running down the side of our cabinets. Egg number 4 was scrambled before it made it into the bowl. Finally, egg number 5, I cracked myself. The lesson here is that Megan does great with a couple eggs, but get WAY too excited when it is an egg assembly line!

Busy, busy, busy

Here is a Christmas card outtake. I will take this moment to explain why Megan is dressed this way; after brunch with Santa at the Country Club I was taking Megan's dress off so she could get into her hockey jersey (she had been begging to wear it) I got the dress off and she thought she was a "naked baby" so she took off towards the tree. I thought she looked somewhat like an elf, so I started taking pictures. Hence the picture on the Christmas card. ***for the record I was NOT trying to have yet another card with Megan naked but I thought the picture was cute so I used it.***

With Christmas getting close I have been busy doing a little bit of everything, from shopping to cleaning to being crafty to visiting grandma-great in the hospital. So I promise to get back on track with new post after Christmas but until then the once a week posts will have to work. Hope everyone is having a great holiday season and I'll write more when I can.

Worth Every Penny!!! (all 18,000 of them)

Here is the learning tower that we needed to get for Megan so she could be safe as she helps out in the kitchen. I ordered it one night after Megan fell off of the stool she was standing on and the next day Grandma and Papa called telling us that this would be our family Christmas gift from them and we were more then thrilled with this as our gift! Then the next day, Grandma Berthold called and said she ordered it for Megan's Christmas gift. So in the matter of 2 days, Megan got 2 towers! The good news is that she will get plenty of use out of them at both houses. She loves helping out in the kitchen.After getting the carrots (in the first picture) Megan helped me tare the lettuce. If you look in the sink you will notice the salad spinner that Megan has filled the lettuce she has "torn" We are working on making her piece a little bit more bite sized :)

Just an above shot to show you how much room she has to move around on her tower. It is so nice to have this because I can actually cook in my kitchen. Before I could only do so much and I had to wait for Mark to get home to devote my time to the main part of the meal. Because you can only do so much with one hand, plus now that Megan can stand on her own, I can use both of my hands to show her the right way to crack an egg and stir with a spoon, etc. I love this tower!

Just a video to show how proud Megan is that she can get in her tower by herself.

I was attempting to get a video of Megan getting out of her tower but that didn't happen. It is still a cute video. And yes, she does hang like a monkey trying to get down. Since this video she has learned to take my advice and climbs out of the stool like she is going down steps. Now she can climb up and down all by herself. Just to set the record straight, I love this tower!!!

Trip to Canada, part 2, eh!

Here is a picture of what a Lego competition looks like. Basically, Conary and his team had to build a robot and program it to move around obstacles and complete "missions" They also had a research project to complete, this years topic was the environment. Conary and his team looked at how the weather will change by the year 2050 and how to reduce their Carbon footprint. It was all very interesting. Keep in mind Conary is 11.

Conary's team is at the competition table trying to figure out what is going on with their robot. It wasn't until after the competition that his team realized they weren't as focused as they should have been when it came to their robot this year. They still did a great job and I was very impressed at all the things their robot was able to do.

Along with running the programs they created for their robot, they also had a series of interviews about their project and about teamwork. Here is Conary's team in the teamwork building interview. They didn't win any awards for their robot but they did win an award for teamwork, good job Conary! I was only able to stay for one robot "challenge" and an interview then I was off to take girls to dance classes. But the skills Conary used for this Lego competition were amazing and I can't even imagine how complex his robot will be by the time he is 18.

Conary- if you stick with this, you will learn so much and go so far. I hope I can see you and your robot for years to come.

Caila- I hope you take this up too! You did a great job helping Conary in his video and seemed very interested with everything at the competition. I hope you have a team next year.

Megan sporting her cheer leading outfit to cheer Conary on. I put Megan in this outfit on purpose, because Conary likes to wear all of his Michigan stuff when I'm around because he knows I don't like Michigan. I'll forgive you for that Conary but someday I'll find a way to make you wear Ohio State colors!

It's CHRISTMAS!!! Ok well Christmas for this group. Aren't they just adorable!?! I'm still impressed at how we could decorate a tree so perfectly in a matter of hours.

Big shock, a baby how could care less about her gifts and focus on a balloon!

It was great seeing everyone and just hanging out as a family. I wish every weekend could be so much fun.

Kelsey Bells- remember our pinkie swear and have "master mind" ready for a rematch! We are going to have to keep track to see if we can improve as we keep playing. Smile for me :)

Crystal- I hope you are feeling better by now. Thanks for letting me sleep in your bed, your Dora canopy made me feel very cozy! Oh, and thanks for all of the great toys you are letting Megan play with, and I checked, we didn't take any Dora stuff :)

Our Trip to Canada, eh!

For Thanksgiving we took a trip to Canada to spend some time with family. We left right before Megan's nap time but as you can see, she was ready for a road trip. Goofball! Crossing the boarder into Canada was quick and easy, coming home, not so much, but Megan is now a "world" traveler.

While we were waiting for the turkey to roast Tracie wanted us to cut down the pine tree in her backyard. So we all went outside to tackle the soon to be Christmas tree.

And by "we" I mean Mark got the job of cutting down the tree. But I helped carry the odd shaped tree inside. I say odd shaped because we used the bottom of the tree and it was 8' wide and 7' tall. How many Christmas trees have you seen that are wider then it is tall??? I'm kidding, it was a nice tree and it was beautiful once it was decorated with nothing but homemade decorations that we made in 2 days.

Megan walking on visible snow for the first time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Somehow the Uncles always end up with multiple kids climbing on them!?! I have no idea why Crystal is the only one not wearing her pj's but most mornings in Canada were just as silly as this one and as far as I'm concerned it shouldn't be any other way.

I was checking the tapes in our camera bag and found one of Megan's first few months of life and Crystal wanted to watch. So Megan walked over to watch the crying baby in the video, it was cute.

Possibly Megan's new favorite food of all time...grape pie! By now all of you should know Megan's love of grapes, but turn them into a pie and she was in heaven. All we had to do was set the pie in front of her and she freaked! the first night I let her have a couple bites of mine but the next night we turned her into a "naked baby" and let her go at it all by herself.

Do you think she liked it? I bet you can guess where our next stop was...that's right the bathtub!

In the next post I will have pictures of Conary's Lego competition and Christmas, so don't worry Grandma and Papa more pictures are coming!

Cold Weather Won't Stop Megan

Wearing her winter hat we bought her to wear last year and a winter coat that was too small for Alexandra Harrington (thank you she loves it) Megan is ready to play outside. Megan knows that when I put on her socks and shoes we are going to go outside and she can barely sit long enough to get shoes on. She loves being outside!

When it was warmer out Megan would just play in and out of the garage for hours and she wasn't really crazy about taking walks. Now that it is cold out, the first thing she does is walk to the stroller and point. She gets in, I wrap her legs in 2 blankets and off we go. She likes to point at decorations as we walk. We gets lots of looks from people who are driving in their warm cars, not so nice looks either. But my theory is, "As long as it's not icy, rainy, snowy, or terribly windy, we're going to be outside!" Am I wrong for thinking this?

I think I re-started this stroller trend last weekend. We were inside all day and Megan started getting antsy around 5:30, too early for dinner and dark outside. I wrapped her up just like this, handed her a plastic bug lantern and off we went on a night time walk. She loved looking at all the lights, street lights, car lights, porch lights, she had a blast. At one point when there were a lot of cars coming towards us, Megan held up her light as if it was her head light, it was very cute.

After our walk next up is going for a bike ride. I carry Megan and the bike to the sidewalk and away she goes. Most of the time she goes backwards, but she doesn't care. As you can see from the video below, she likes her bike.

I had to take a picture of me in full "mommy mode" Megan always takes her baby outside and I asked if her baby was cold (Megan has misplaced her baby's shirt) Megan shock her head that her baby was cold and then handed me the baby. So being a mom, I put her baby in my coat to keep her warm.

The next day was a little colder and windier but we were still outside. Megan chose to ride in her convertible to take in the great weather. With a fleece blanket wrapped around her bum, a blanket to fill the gap by her legs and the second layer to her new coat (thanks again Harrington's!) we were off. I don't know if it was because she couldn't move her arm that well (think "A Christmas Story") or if she is dreaming of becoming a NASCAR driver but Megan would only turn the steering wheel to the left. After a few blocks of "turning" left I was cracking up. Oh good times, cold, but good!

Ready for the Holidays

After this week, the Schutte Family is officially ready to celebrate a very happy and a very healthy holiday season. This year has been a year where lots of our close friends and family have been through some not so happy things. From cancer to knee replacements to a soldier in Iraq this year was difficult, but I am happy to say that just in time for the holidays all of the not so great news has turned into fantastic news!!! The two wonderful women, my mom and Michele, who fought breast cancer have beat it! Papa Schutte has recovered from two knee replacement surgeries! This week we learned that our family friend, Jannae Schloemer, has beat Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma for the third time! Last but not least, Sunday at 9:00am my friend Angie Ringman will get to see her husband and father to her 2 children home safe from Iraq after a 15 month tour of duty (his 3rd tour)!!!

So as you can see this holiday season is extra special for us and our friends and family. We wish everyone a safe, happy and healthy holiday season. Happy Holidays!

Kitchen stools, diaper bin and lactose...

We have discovered that Megan will let us work in the kitchen as long as she is able to see what we are doing. So that means standing on a stool. We had great intentions of building a "kitchen tower" over the summer but that didn't happen. So I think we are going to breakdown and buy one from Williams-Sonoma just because I do not feel safe with Megan on a stool. This way everyone wins, it is a little (a lot) pricey, but it will get used for years in the kitchen.

To explain why Megan is in the sink...she was standing on a stool next to me while I washed dishes (we don't have a dishwasher) I was done, but Megan wanted no part of being done standing up high where she could see things. She was soaking wet from "helping" me with dishes, so I stripped her down put her in the sink and gave her a messy biter biscuit. She loved it and I was able to clean out my cupboards.

Doesn't this just look horribly uncomfortable? She laid like this for about 5 minutes. They really are made of rubber!

The last few weeks Megan has had some very rough nights. She would wake up around 12:00 screaming. When I went to check on her she would cling to me with a death grip. She was having REALLY bad gas and would just scream in pain. We did everything to help her get rid of the gas. Just when she would try to settle in and go back to bed she would sit up and scream again. This process last 3 hours almost every night. Because is was gas related and not her wanting to party I didn't prevent her from exploring. I kind of made it ok to read books, but she couldn't get toys out (I had to draw the line somewhere) Since she couldn't play with her toys, she played with her diaper bin. These pictures where not taken at night, she was never this happy at 1:00 AM!

Because she was awake for three hours in the middle of the night trying to get gas bubbles out she got kind of sick of me holding her/squeezing her/trying to get her to sleep. So she sought comfort in Baron and no cuddles with him when she starts to get sleepy (cute) If you notice, Baron is holding one of the stacking plastic balls in his mouth. Mark and I put one of his tennis balls inside and we wanted to see how big of a ball Baron would hold in his mouth. It was funny, because he would not let go of the plastic ball!

After 2 weeks of Megan waking up in pain I called the doctor to see what was going on. Dr. Hunter thought it sounded like Megan was having problems with the lactose in milk. Mark was thinking that but I didn't think that because she was eating cheese and yogurt since 8 months. Dr. Hunter said that some kids can tolerate cheese and yogurt but not milk (who knew) So now Megan is drinking lactose free milk (expensive) The first two night after switching, Megan slept trough the night :) The third night she didn't go to sleep because of gas. So today I cut out the cheese and yogurt and she just drank the lactose free milk and she went to bed just fine. So I am going to have a few days of figuring out what dairy products Megan can tolerate. Time will tell, cross your fingers she can have some dairy just because she needs it. I'll keep you updated...

Leaves!!!

The last day that it was warm/dry Megan and I needed to rake leaves in the backyard. I pulled out some toys, blocked the deck stairs (16 feet wide) turned on the radio and started to rake. Megan loved it because it was the first time she was able to explore the backyard. Before if she was in the backyard she would climb the steps and eat grapes, she never explored anymore then the grape plants. So she loved finding different places to hide and explore.

I'm sad that the picture is blurry but you can still see that she was helping me out. I had to get her the other rake so she and I could both rake leaves. She got the hang of it. She was very cute. We didn't get all of the leaves before Megan had enough but we made a dent. It's up to Daddy to get the rest of the wet leaves :)

From Santa's Workshop...

Last week, Megan got her first official package from Santa's workshop, "The Elf on a Shelf"
Santa sends out lots of elves each year to different houses to help him keep on eye on who is naughty and who is nice. Santa sends along a book with each elf to explain all of the rules the elf has to follow. We need to give him a name but haven't settled on one yet.

Megan was excited to open the package from Santa.

Here she is meeting Santa's personal helper for the first time. She doesn't know it yet, but he will be with the Schutte family for a long time. He is sitting on a shelf right now and she says good night to him every night before she goes to bed and he leaves to report back to Santa.

Now that she is used to seeing him sitting on the fireplace he can move around. I heard that he likes to be in a different spot each day, so she will have to look for him in his hiding/spying spot. I'm so happy that Santa sent one of his elves so we can start a Schutte Family Christmas tradition.

Any suggestions for elf names would be appreciated...