Happy Christmas!

Whew, Christmas is over and I'm exhausted! We did the Schulte family Christmas on the 18th so it was nice to spread things out a bit. On Wednesday, Kevin and I went to Reagan's preschool and we helped her make a Gingerbread house...I had to keep on Kevin to quite eating the candy until the house was completed! On Christmas eve, we spent the day at my mom's house and was visited by Santa (Reagan was just fine and dandy but Reagan still has a complex about getting anywhere near Santa). Christmas morning was soooo exciting for Reagan. Every present she opened, she wanted us to open so she could start playing with it. Make note..next year Santa won't bring so much because interest is lost by the end! I took a picture of her in her new housecoat and her dressup wig. She got a moxie girl doll, barbie doll head to fix hair with, dresses, books, cowgirl boots, and dress up costumes to name a few. Reese got some of the necessities and a baby gait to keep her from crawling up the stairs (which she may be doing soon!) I took a picture of Kevin's new hat that my uncle embroidered-he has started a business doing all kinds of things like that. That afternoon we went to Beecher City for a Christmas and then went to Belleville on Sunday for the last Christmas. What a fun time. It's always sad to see it go knowing we are facing the winter with nothing but Spring to look forward to. Merry Christmas everyone!

The big 3-0 is finally here

Sorry to all my faithful followers for going 2 months and no posts. I had almost given up on blogging, you know...never enough time it seems like. Not even sure where to begin or even what has happened in the last two months. Reese is growing up so fast, has 2 teeth already and just started eating some rice cereal about a week ago. Reagan is loving preschool and is so excited about Santa coming to her (she wants EVERYTHING she sees on commercials). Yesterday was my big 3-0. Yep, it's official, I'm old. No exciting party or anything but we did have Kevin's family Christmas yesterday so that was just as good. Also to kick off me being 30, I applied to graduate school yesterday to start my Master's for Nurse Practitioner. This is something I've thought about for a few years but never thought I was in a good position to do it (still not sure I am). But I just did it quickly before I had time to think about it. My sister-in-law Jessica is doing it too so we can carry each other through it for the next few years. Wish me luck....think I'm going to need it!

Halloween

Hope everyone had a great Halloween. Ours was pretty broken up. We started last weekend at West Union getting that side of the family. By the way, congratulations to my sister for announcing that she was 10 weeks pregnant on that day!! On Friday evening, I stayed at the nursing home for the evening to help out with the trick or treating event while Kevin and the girls helped pass out candy at Grandma Schulte's house. Finally on Sunday evening, we went around Newton to a few places to finish up. We had planned on going to the Halloween parade on Saturday night but Kevin and Reagan ended up with the stomach flu in the middle of the night on Friday. Despite that part in the weekend, we still had a good holiday. Happy Halloween everyone! Now we can focus on Christmas:)

Finally!!

Well, anyone who is close to us knows that we've had goats since last April. We weren't exactly ready for them yet...no house, no fence, no hay. But Kevin convinced me that it would be okay to keep them with the chickens for a short time. Well that's just been a big mess. They poop and pee everywhere and are always jumping up on the fence around our coop which certainly was not meant to have goats leaning and pushing up on it. It had gotten so bad out in the coop that we just stopped going in there period. So for the first time in over a year, I had to start buying eggs from the store. We were just saying that we were suprised that none of the eggs have hatched out yet when last Tuesday, we found 10 baby chicks running around! To make things even better, our fence guy finally came out and installed the fence out across the pond (which Kevin has been working on endlessly for months to get ready for this). So Saturday was the move in day for the goats (one of the best days of my life). I had to get a picture of Kevin standing next to the fence that we, and Patrick, did...all by ourselves! We were quite proud of it along with the building that Kevin and Dad built over the summer. Then I got the chicken coop all cleaned out and we are back in the egg business!

First time for everything

I will have been married 8 years this year and believe it or not, I've never mowed a lawn since we've been married. I don't know why...I always mowed growing up and enjoyed doing it. When we rented our first house, all we had was a push mower. After a few laps around the yard the first time I tried a push mower, I was completely exhausted and decided push mowing definately wasn't my thing. Kevin and I have taken on the traditional household responsibilities...he does the outside work, I do the inside work. Well then of course we had kids so now I never have the opportunity to go out and mow because I watch the girls while Kevin is outside working. I was called in to work Sunday evening and decided to take Monday off. The girls went the the sitter and I spent the afternoon mowing and planting grass seed. I didn't get too crazy on making cool strips in the yard but I do have to admit, I should be mowing more often for as good as it looked!

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My girls

Here's my girls...aren't they adorable! Reagan still loves holding Reese and sitting by her in the chair. I absolutely love this picture of them together! Reese in almost 3 months old now. Where does the time go? We've had a few nights of her sleeping 7-8 hours but nothing consistent. I'm still adjusting to life at work. It's amazing how spoiled your body gets when you go 8 weeks without working and without anywhere to be. Is it too soon to be pregnant again just so I can have more time off work?

Preschool

Reagan's first day of preschool was today. She was sooo excited about it. We went last week for the open house and she got to see everything and meet her teachers. Kevin is taking her to preschool each morning and the bus is taking her to daycare afterwards. I just can't believe my little girl is old enough to start school. Hopefully the homework will hold off for awhile... I'm not ready for that yet!

Tea party

Lat Thursday I went to the annual "college roomies" get together. Well, it's not necessarily annually....more of a matter of when we decide to try to arrange 4 different work schedules to find a time we can all get together. I think each time we get together, there's a new kid in the mix. This time we went to Lisa's house in Charleston for a tea party! We all had chicken salad croissants and sweet goodies to go along. Oh and of course the tea. Crystal and Kylee both went to high school with me and were in the class graduating ahead of me. I met Lisa when I moved in with the three of them after my first semester at Eastern and we took several classes together. The two of us started painting as well. Yep, my first semester at Eastern when I lived by myself was spent learning how to paint with Bob Ross (those of you that aren't aware, he was a hippie artist who painted "happie little trees" in his landscape paintings. Unfortunately, I haven't seemed to have had the time to keep up with my painting hobby since I've been married:(

Just Dance

Reagan has been in a 6 week dance class over the summer. She's really enjoyed learning how to be a ballerina! Last night she had a dance recital at the Parish Center here in Newton. I couldn't have been more proud of her. She really is a shy girl and we've always had a hard time getting her to get up on the stage at church. A few weeks ago she had to get on the stage at church for vacation bible school and she did an awesome job. She repeated again last night. She went up there with no problems, smiled, and did all the moves! The dance class is over but we intend to start back up on the tumbling again in September.

Swimming

Reagan took swimming lessons this summer and has got a lot of enjoyment out of using the new Newton City Pool. Recently, Jessica's mom and dad bought a house just a few doors down from Kevin's parents. They have a really nice enclosed in-ground pool in the backyard. Needless to say, we've spent a lot of time there lately. Reagan's swimming abilities have really improved this summer. She can now jump in by herself while holding her nose. In the last few days, she has started to swim under water a little bit after jumping in and before she comes up! She's also gone down the slide by herself at Jessica's moms. At the beginning of the summer, we could barely get her to go under and she would sort of flip out anytime she got water in her eyes! I'm hoping to get Reese in the water soon but plan on waiting a few weeks. She is now exactly a month old already. Where does the time go?

Twilight

I've turned in to quite the book listener (book on tape is the way to go) over the last few years. It all started with my long trips to Union Hospital and trying to find ways to stay awake. I've listened to a lot of murder mystery and eventually got into some of the romance novels. It would just depend on my mood at the time. So now I only have a 15 min. drive to work but I seem to have this addiction and I almost panic if I'm going to be driving even as little as this and don't have a book to listen to. I just can't stand the boredom! So when I was at the library the other day, I realized they have the twilight series. I have never watched any of them and I've always wondered what the big deal is?? Anyway, I'm still in the early part of the book but so far, I'm really liking it. Can't wait to get it finished so I can watch the movies!

maternity pics

I had my maternity pics taken at 37 weeks with my friend Lisa (http://www.thepicturepatch.com/). I remember I was in such a hurry to get them done because I had procrastinated and was also worried I'd be going into labor at anytime. Turns out I had plenty of time since I ended up being induced after all:) Anyway, just thought I'd share a few of my pics! We did things a little different and had the pictures taken at our house. It had to have been the hottest day of the year. Not to mention I have this sweating problem that is exacerbated by the heat intolerance of being pregnant. I had to keep going inside to cool off and wipe off all the sweat about every 5 minutes! I especially liked the family pictures we had taken. Reagan was really a good sport that day...at least she was after being bribed with ice cream!

I'm hooked

I was once an avid watcher of the tv show "ER." I realize it was unrealistic but it was still addictive. Maybe it just made me feel smart because I knew what they were talking about in their medical jargon? Anyway, now that I'm on week two of my maternity leave, I've found that there is absolutely nothing on TV during the day. Not to mention, the average of 6 hours a day I spend breast-feeding has left me bored. Last week I watched a rerun of Grey's Anatomy (first time I've ever watched it) on Lifetime and liked it. So I continued to watch a few more episodes. However, it was frustrating because they were out of order and I was having a hard time keeping track of what was going on. I got the boxed set from Jessica over the weekend and have started from the beginning. I'll admit, I've become slightly obsessed with the show. I did have to cheat and watched the season finale from last May. If you haven't see it, it was a good one....very intense!!

Baby Reese Hannah

Precious little Reese Hannah was born on Wednesday, July 7th at 12:44p.m. at Olney Hospital. She was 8 lbs, 3 oz. and 20 in. long. I have to say that I feel I was extremely lucky with this delivery experience. We went in at 6:30 a.m. to be induced. By 7:30, the Pitocin was started. To my luck, the anesthesiologist showed up at 8:45 at which time I was barely having contractions and having no pain. Shortly after, the doctor was there to break my water. As time got closer, the nurse had me go ahead and start pushing to see how quick things would move. When she saw that it wouldn't take long, she called the Doctor who was on her lunch but reported she would be there soon. We continued on with the pushing and before we knew it, she was telling the nurses to call Dr. again because baby was coming fast. She actually came so fast, she had to call in the other nurses and they actually delivered Reese!! They had just cut the umblical cord (well, Kevin did) when the Dr. finally came in. The whole process of the delivery only took 20 minutes!! Reese is dark skinned with very thick, jet black hair! My dad said she looks just like I did when I was born. Anyway, we're all doing great, just came home from the hospital today. Reagan loves her new sister! She keeps kissing her and touching her. She's going to be so good to Reese!

Baby time

Well the day has finally come for us to have this baby. After being told at 36 weeks that I wouldn't make it to my due date, I quickly began getting everything prepared. I've spend every day at work as if it was my last. I've tried to keep up things at home such as the cleaning, laundry, dishes, etc. and Kevin keeps his phone with him at all times. But each week has gone by with no signs of baby coming. It was the point that I decided I was going to dilate past the point of being able to get an epidural before I ever even go into labor! So today at my appointment when I was told that I was a good "4" I just asked the Dr. if we could go ahead and induce tomorrow. She was totally okay with it and told us to come into the hospital at 6:30a.m. I figured I'd be pushing it to ask for an 8 or 9'oclock appointment for this so we agreed. Next time I blog, I should have some exciting news!!

Happy 4th

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July. We spent the day in West Union for all of their festivities. There was a parade at 2p.m. and then we went to the park and particpated in a cornhole tournament. Wasn't exactly planned...I would have preferred to have spent the afternoon swimming as originally planned but we found out last minute that my dad was hosting this tournament so it was sort of a requirement. Kevin and I came out in 3rd place so I supposed we didn't do too bad. That evening we watched their fireworks. It's always suprised me that a small town like West Union can put on such a popular fireworks display. We opted to sit back further this year since Reagan was burned pretty bad last year and spend half the display in the back of the ambulance. However, we chose a downwind area and still had firework pieces landing on us!

BeforeAfter

On Thursday, June 10th our patio project was finally started. We wanted to get the patio done so we can move on to our constructing the deck. We decided to go with a Walnut two-toned color with a stamped finish. The concrete people came out and poured the concrete on Thursday and came back the next day to spray off the layer of powder that they put on after pouring. We got a little nervous because the evening after they poured it, we got a pretty good down pour of rain. We just sat and watched nervously knowing there was nothing we can do and just hoping that the concrete was dry enough not to get all messed up. Luckily, everything was fine. One week later they came back to put on the sealer and viola...our patio is complete! Once the goat barn is done, we'll start on the deck to go over the patio.

Gotta love summer!

Happy Father's Day

Newton Pool

Drive-in Movie


Well, I know with the heat it may be difficult to say you love summer but there is so much opportunity for fun things in the summer. I've lived in Newton for over 7 years and live less than 5 miles from the Newton drive-in and never been there. We all went on Friday night (Reagan's first time too) to watch Toy Story 3. Once the sun went down, there was a nice breeze...turned out to be a beautiful evening. To top it off, Reagan and I watched a falling star from the sky! On Saturday, my dad came and over and we started on the goat barn. It had to be the hottest day of the year so far! We went to the new Newton Pool later in the evening to cool off. Sunday, we went to church in West Union and had a father's day dinner at my mom's house. Happy father's day to all the father's out there!

36 weeks and counting

I went for an ultrasound and my 36 week visit today. The ultrasound confirmed that the baby is still a girl...much to my relief. She weights approximately 6lbs 14oz. I didn't bother posting a copy of any of the pictures because they weren't very good. I could see a little profile of the face and the 4D visual just looked like a blob unless I could point out where the nose is. After the ultrasound, we headed over to the clinic for my appointment. The doctor states I'm 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced! She didn't act like I'd go anytime in the immediate future but said she was certain I would not make it to my due date. Guess this was enough to get me motivated to do some things to prepare cause I came home and finished picking up the babies room and throwing some things into the laundry. I decided maybe it was time to think about getting the car seat ready too. Hopefully I'll be able to get my maternity pictures taken in the next week or so before it's too late!! It's funny how you spend 9 months thinking it seems like it's so far away and here I am basically ready at any time and feel like I'm still not ready. Normally I'm very prepared and organized but I'm sure not feeling it this time!

Jessica's wedding in Kentucky

We made a trip down to Lexington, KY over the weekend...(well actually Georgetown) for my friend Jessica's wedding. This is a picture of her and my other friend Lynna who have been my best friends since I can remember. Despite the distance between all of us, we've been able to keep in touch and get together a few times a year. The wedding was a beautiful outdoor wedding with a reception in a rustic barn. Luckily there was no rain like was predicted but the humidity and heat made it a little rough...especially with me being 9 months pregnant now! Needless to say I wasn't feeling up for much dancing but did manage to dance with Reagan for a little while. Reagan absolutely loves "bacation" as she calls any vacation or aka hotel room. We got down there early enough on Saturday to do some swimming in the pool. Reagan also had a blast at the reception hanging out with the flower girl and running around outside. Congratulations Jessica and enjoy your trip to Ireland!

Happy Birthday Reagan

We celebrated Reagan's big 4th birthday this last week. Her birthday was on Wed, May 19th. Kevin and I had really debated on whether or not to spend the money on this Barbie jeep....they're certainly not cheap. It comes with a working radio and everything! But we figured she's going to have a sister that can get enjoyment out of it too and with summer coming, Reagan is always outside so she'll get plenty of use out of it. Reagan loved her jeep and always has her baby doll as the passenger. On Saturday, we had the immediate family over for supper, gifts, and cake. I got this Barbie cake from Wal-Mart and have to say I was quite impressed. It took all I could do to keep Reagan out of it while it was sitting on the table half the day. Happy Birthday Reagan!

Happy Nurses Week

Happy Nurse's week to all my nurse friends out here. Hope you all celebrated in some way or another. I did a little spa hour for my nurses at the nursing home. We had a lot of Beauty Control products and did the whole foot soak thing, warm neck wrap, lip appeal, cucumber eye pads and relaxes to some music. Then we painted fingernails and toenails and indulged in some sweets! I even had a massage therapist lined up to come in but things sort of fell through on that. We also had gift basics made up with a bunch of bath and body type products. It was a nice day to kick back and relax. Right now we're overlapped with nursing home week so we have all kinds of activities going on this week.

Guttering finally

After 2 years, we finally got guttering put on our house. Yeah, I have to blog about this for lack of anything better:) Now we're just waiting for one of Kev's friends to come out and do some trenching so we can lay down some tile to get the water away from the house. THEN, next spring's project will be to do all of the landscaping around the house and in the circle drive. We had wanted to do that this year but with the deck and pation coming this summer, it wasn't going to happen. Not to mention I have this issue with my belly size increasing along with the decrease in ability to bend over.

Lucy and Ethel, our newest addition

Kevin's dreams of owning goats has finally come true! We went to the 4-H goat auction last weekend and bid on 1 goat but we didn't get it. But while we were there, a guy Kevin works with said he knew of a guy wanting to get rid of his two goats. So Kevin and his brother went to pick them up on Saturday. Their names are "Lucy and Ethel" named after the characters on the I Love Lucy show...supposedly because they are mischevious! The goats are beautiful and very friendly, and they loved being brushed. Right now we have them in the pen with the chickens while we're working on more permanent placement. The goats don't seem to mind being with the chickens but I don't think the chickens care for the intruders. We're still trying to figure out what kind of small shelter to make for them but I did find a hay feeder construction plan on the internet I felt that was do-able. Luckily it was raining and Kevin didn't have anything else to do so he offered to help. Worked out well for me to be his boss and tell him what to do and he did all the manual labor! It turned out really well, now we just need to find someone who has some hay they can sell to us....

Can't say I didn't try

I think I might be the last person on the earth that doesn't have a facebook account. After some convincing, I finally did this whole blog thing which suprisingly I've sort of kept up with. So all I wanted to do was get on facebook just to even see what it is. I was suprised that as soon as I logged in, who all showed up automatically...I guess they link it to your email account? I had people showing up that I didn't even know (a lot of dog customers). I did spend about an hour one night looking at things and was shocked at the faces I came across just by looking at some of my friends accounts that had 300 friends and then into their freinds! The whole time I'm thinking, how does a person keep up with all this?! I soon starting getting many emails regarding those wanting to be friends. Apparently you can't just get on facebook to see things, you're information is automatically posted out there for all to see. Tonight I just deactivated my account for now since I really don't plan on using it and didn't want anyone to think I didn't accept them as my friends. So sorry Jessica and all those others that have been pressuring me to enter the facebook world. Maybe some other day.

The Wizard of Oz

We went to the Newton High School's "The Wizard of Oz" play on Sunday afternoon. Reagan and I went with Kevin's mom and grandma, cousin Jaiden and Aunt Ashley. Reagan has watched the movie a few times so I was hopeful that she'd have interest in the play. She was really pumped up for it. It was difficult explaining what a "play" was. I think she thought that we were supposed to wear costumes! She did really enjoy it and behaved even better than what I would have hoped for. Of course it helped that her Great-Grandma was giving her candy most of the time! At intermission, we had a chance to stand with Dorothy and get pictures taken so her and her cousin happily stood next to her. It was another first for our little Reagy!

New improvements

Kev had a guy come out to our land this week to do some clearing and land leveling in the prospective goat land. He's been busy for months it seems like gradually getting the woods cleaned up so we can get some grass to grow and eventually get some fencing put up. We're hoping in the next week or so, we'll be getting our guttering put up on the house and garage finally! We're also making final arrangements on the patio to go back by our walkout basement. It's so exciting makin home improvements!