A Florida Christmas!

For the first time in our lives, we celebrated Christmas away from the cold and snow. Grandpa and Grandma B also ventured down to the tropics to celebrate with us. This was their first Christmas away from Minnesota as well. We had such a great time doing all the holiday like events...... baking cookies, opening presents, driving around to see lights, snowball fights with packing peanuts, going to see Santa, GOLFING, BEACHING and going to the park! We missed Uncle Danny and Uncle Adam terribly! Grandma and Grandpa Schipper celebrated Christmas morning with us over the web cam. We got to open presents with them over the computer which was so awesome! Gracyn loved her new bike and shopping cart. It was so much fun to see Gracyn all crazy opening presents and talking about Santa. It's hard to imagine that next year that we will have another peanut crawling around and Gracyn even crazier than ever!

Grandpa and Grandma B headed home on Sunday. We ended the visit with a trip to the park where Gracyn insisted wearing her tutu, a Christmas gift from Claudia. We also had our first pizza at Chucky Cheese! We had such a blast watching Gracyn and Daddy on the rides. It was hard to see Grandpa and Grandma leave...... even harder for Grandpa to leave his chair on the outside patio.

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. We can't wait to hear all about it! Happy New Year!

Dahline Comes to Visit

Our good friend Jim made it down for a quick weekend visit to catch up with us. Although is was very short, around 40 hours, we had such a great time. The UMD Bulldog football team pulled off a victory which was broadcast on ESPN2. The boys headed to a local pub to catch all the action and eat some very, very, very good buffalo wings. GO DOGS!!!!

feeling better

Everyone was feeling healthy this weekend! Saturday we finally decorated the tree. Gracyn had a blast looking at all of the ornaments. The bottom of our tree consists of all the wooden and plastic ornaments. We learned the hard way! I also was able to finish up making our Christmas stockings! Gracyn is loving her snowman! I finally had a relaxing weekend and feel revived! Luke on the other hand has been studying for finals this week all weekend long. He will be done mid-next week and then his boyfriend, Dahline, will be visiting us from Minnesota. We are all excited to see him! I also posted some belly pics. As you can see, I'm getting HUGE! Only 3 1/2 months to go.....

so much for a relaxing weekend

This year's Thanksgiving weekend was supposed to be a weekend of relaxing and eating. Unfortunately, we experienced quite the opposite. Gracyn woke up Wednesday night with a terrible case of the stomach flu! It was so sad to see her sick. I've never seen anyone so small throw up! HORRIBLE! I headed over to the Miller's house alone on Thursday for a delicious Thanksgiving meal. Sharon made the most amazing pumpkin cheesecake! I brought home left over's for Luke since he was taking care of our sweetie. Gracyn started feeling a better on Saturday afternoon so we headed to Lowes to get a Christmas Tree. That's when things took a turn for the worse. We got the tree home and Luke was not feeling well. Needless to say, Luke was up all of last night with the flu. Gracyn was up all night as well with a relapse. I am exhausted! Both of my sweeties are struggling today. I am hoping that I do not catch whatever has been consuming them. I'm not sure if I will be mentally able to handle it!

Gracyn driving the silver bullet to Lowes

sad news.....

Our beloved Abe passed away unexpectedly last week. He was such a great kitty and we will miss him a ton! It's hard to believe that this orange fatty won't be roaming our home any longer. As you know, I AM the crazy cat lady. I've put together a slide show of some of my favorite Abey moments.

grandma b & auntie dawn....... mommy's birthday party

We had a great week! Grandma B and Auntie Dawn came to visit. Gracyn had so much fun hanging out all week. I swear she was showing off since Grandma was here. She is now talking in full sentences! She can pretty much say anything that we can....so mommy needs to work on her language! Gracyn and Grandma were inseparable .....cooking ....shopping .....swimming .....planting flowers. Gracyn's school also had a Fall Festival where we had cotten candy, doughnuts, and played in the hay. We went on a nature walk in the Everglades where Grandma took pictures for our Christmas card.

I also celebrated a birthday....32! Is that right.....1976??? I am old! Gracyn and Grandma made me a birthday cake. She organized the candles dozens of times before I blew them out! Luke and I had a dinner date while Grandma and Dawn babysat. We miss them already. We will see Grandma and Grandpa in just 4 weeks for Christmas!!!

ROCK the vote

On Saturday I waited in line to vote early. I waited for 3 1/2 hours!!! Lora can attest to it. She was on the phone with me for 2 hours of it. I still can't believe it myself. I don't know what I'll do if Obama doesn't take office!!!!! I finally returned home for Luke to document the monumental event.

Happy Halloween

As many of you know, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! This year was no exception. Gracyn was the cutest lion! She was uncertain at first, but warmed up quickly with lots of ROARRRRS! Her school had a Halloween parade around my work where daddy met up with us and we did round one of trick or treating. We then headed over to the Miller's house to trick or treat in their neighborhood. Sarah, Lindsey and Gracyn had a blast......AND Gracyn had her first taste of candy!

Sarah's turns 2

Last weekend we celebrated Sarah Miller's 2nd birthday! We had such a great time seeing all of our friends. Gracyn LOVED the bounce house and cake! She also had fun playing with Katie and stealing all of her toys. We haven't quite mastered the practice of sharing.

Baby Schipper is 20 weeks old!

We had our big ultra sound on Thursday and got to see our little sweetie. Everything is tracking normal and all tests came back negative! I forgot how amazing it really is to see the baby this early along. He/she kept rubbing their head and putting their fingers in their mouth! It was so hard not to find out what the sex is....especially when the technician admitted to knowing what it was! My doctor had us schedule a c-section since I had one previously with Gracyn. The big date is March 19, 2009 at 7:30am!!!!!!

happy fall!

We had a very busy weekend! Saturday morning we participated in the 3 mile Walk for a Cure for breast cancer in Boca Raton. Gracyn was so over it after one mile in the stroller! We cheated and cut out after mile 2.

Last weekend we ventured to crazy IKEA and bought a new table and chairs for Gracyn. I stained them a rustic teal and green. As you can see, it makes the perfect play dough station. When I take a look at her sitting at the table, I can't help but wonder.....where did my baby go???

Today we met up with the Heggerick's and Miller's to go to the pumpkin patch. Gracyn and Sarah were all over the place. For all you Minnesotians....they do it a little bit differently down here in Florida. The pumpkins were not in a field but on the side of a road....instead of the beautiful changing leaves in the background, plam trees.....instead of hot cider, snow cones were served! Gracyn loved the snow cone! So did baby Schipper. The baby was moving like crazy when I had a few bites. We are excited to carve the 2 pumpkins that we got today, but have to wait until the day before Halloween. Since it is 85 degrees and humid, they will rot if we carve them any sooner!!!

As for baby Schipper, so far so good. Luke and I had a doctor's appointment and heard the heart beat. We are excited for the end of the month when we have our BIG half way ultrasound.

grandma schipper to the rescue!

Grandma came to help relieve the Schipper household for a few weeks. Mashed potatoes and baked chicken dinner..............yummmmy! She's been so helpful in giving us a break to take naps and study! Unfortunately, Grandma got sick a few days after she arrived with a nasty sinus infection that has knocked her out for the majority of the visit. She is thankfully feeling much better today. Despite feeling under the weather, we've managed to venture out for a little fun! Today, Luke and I went to our friend's Lisbeth and Jarrod daughter's baptism. Katie did such a great job in the spot light. We are excited that Grandma is here until Wednesday.

I am feeling much BETTER! I think that nausea is finally subsiding. Everyone always told me that each pregnancy is so different. I was so hopeful that I would not be so sick this time. I keep thinking......it must be another girl. I'm 15 weeks and already starting to show a little bit. I think that I actually felt the baby move this weekend, which is makes it so much more real. I REALLY am pregnant!

gracyn is going to be a big sister!

We are having a baby! We always said we wanted our children to be two years apart, and two years it is. We are due March 19, 2009.....Gracyn was due March 13th! We are so excited and overwhelmed at the same time. I've made it past the first trimester and like my last pregnancy, it has been horrible! I feel like I have the stomach flu 24/7. Luke has been so awesome these past few months taking care of Gracyn and I. He is exhausted! I'm anxious to feel better....hopefully soon! We look forward to our surprise baby in 6 months!!!!

Luke took Gracyn to the sunrise this weekend so I could sleep in. He got some great shots of her. We also attempted making chocolate cookies for the first time together. Grandma B sent Gracyn her very own apron! Thanks Grandma B!

Stay tuned for postings of my growing belly.......

labor day

We had a relaxing Labor Day weekend. Since it was so hot outside, we hung out inside for the majority of it. We built forts, danced, read A LOT of books, puzzles and ate lots of ice cream!!! On Monday we went over to the Miller's house for swimming and a BBQ. The girls LOVED the water. Gracyn is getting used to the idea of going under and Sarah is already a water bug! She can even jump in the deep end!

where did august go??!!

Why haven't the Schipper's been updating the blog this month? That seems to be the question of the week. Yes, we are all doing well, no need to worry. The month of August has been jammed packed!

Luke went up to The Loonschip Lodge in Morson, Ontario for a week of fishing with mom, dad and Dan. He had a great time and of coarse, lost the BIG one! He enjoyed his walleye fish frys and drinking Labatte Canadian beer. While Luke was fishing for "the hog" Gracyn and I had Auntie Lora come spend the week with us. We had such a great time catching up and hanging out! We spent our days at the beach, park and in the house....lots of time in the house with this Florida heat!

We also experienced our first tropical storm of the year, FAY! We got over 10 inches of rain and a day off of work! Besides that, for us, Fay was a non-event.

Below are some pictures at Gracyn's school. They had a magic show and every other day have water play.

minnesota vacation.....and it's summer!

After 3 1/2 years of only returning for cold winter holidays, we finally made it back to Minnesota in the summer. Despite waiting on the runway in Atlanta for 3 hours, we made it exhausted but excited to be back HOME!

We headed straight to Addi's 2nd birthday party for a few hours then headed up to Duluth, the place where it all started with Luke and I. Thanks to Grandma Schipper, we had a luxurious ride in her new Toyota Camry. We stayed at Great Grandma's fancy new condo right on Lake Superior. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect Duluth day. The weather was absolutely beautiful.....no humidity! Grandpa Schipper and Oreo joined us in Duluth for the festivities. We then headed to Grand Rapids to see Grandma and Grandpa's newly remodeled home.

Our road trip continued back to Minneapolis to stay with Uncle Adam and Katy for a few days. We were spoiled by the two of them with great food (stuffed french toast) and drink! Grandpa and Grandma B came up to visit for the day and loved up on Gracyn. I was so good to see the two of them. In between we saw lots of good friends and family.

The week ended with Luke and his brother playing in a softball tournament, and Gracyn and I headed to Spicer for a GIRLS ONLY weekend at the McDonald's cabin. Even 4 week old Chole made it up. Addi and Gracyn were trouble together to say the least. It was so great to catch up with my girls. I miss them so much already!!!

Thank you to everyone who made time to see us. We had such a great vacation! Check out the 3 slide shows below....yes, I love to take pictures.