Happy Easter - 4 weeks as a Family of Four

4 am - Chocolate Bunny

Wow!!! Has it really already been 4 weeks??!! I can't believe that Wyatt is already one month old! We have had a busy 4 weeks. I started feeling better about 2 weeks ago, and am now on the run. Wyatt is such a mellow, sweet boy. Gracyn had colic which occurred 24/7. Wyatt hardly makes a peep, and when he does it's because he's hungry or a little gassy. It really is such a different experience. We feel so lucky! He has been sleeping at night, and only gets up to eat or have his diaper changed. A routine is starting to sink in.

Gracyn has taken on full responsibility as Big Sister. She is helping in all the right and wrong places. She smothers Wyatt with the best of intentions. As you can see from the first slide show, she loves to brush Wyatt's hair and to push him in the stroller.

Easter morning started very early for us, 4:00am!!! Gracyn got up to go to the bathroom and spied her Easter basket across the room. Needless to say, we were all up at 4am. Chocolate bunny and all! We celebrated Easter at the Miller's house with a delicious dinner and egg hunt. Wyatt had his first official visit away from home. Gracyn and Sarah had a blast gathering up eggs filled with stickers, stampers and tattoos. We always have such a great time with them.

Happy spring all to all of our fellow Minnesotans! We are excited to hear that you have come out of your caves and are fully in BBQ mode! We wish we were there to celebrate with you:)

Wyatt Lucas Schipper is Here

It's a boy!!! After much anticipation, we finally got our little boy! Despite the fact that both Luke and I were determined it was a girl, we had a healthy little boy! What an amazing feeling. We checked into the hospital on March 19th at 5:30 am, and 3 hours later, Wyatt was here to hold! All in all the planned c-section went fine. Since Gracyn was born by c-section, we were not given an option for the delivery of Wyatt. I had some terrible reactions to the anesthesia in the beginning, but felt fine by the end of the surgery. Scary!!!

We had an amazing bonding experience with our little Wyatt during our 4 day stay at the hospital. Luke and Wyatt had their first official March Madness time as father and son! I did forget how hard the whole surgery recovery thing would be. Today is our third day home and I am feeling a million times better. Both Grandma's made it down from Minnesota to help us out. We are so grateful that they are here. This was the first time that Luke and I have been separated from Gracyn overnight since she was born.

Gracyn assumed the role as big sister with no problems. She is eager to kiss the baby and wants to hold "it" all the time! She was more into playing hide and seek in our hospital room and eating her animal crackers than hanging out with her little brother. I'm anxious to see how our first weekend as a family of four goes.

As for Wyatt, he is eating like a champ! Breastfeeding was so difficult for Gracyn and I in the beginning, but Wyatt picked it up with no problems starting day 1. We had his first doctor's visit yesterday and he already weighed 7 lbs 3 oz. Our doctor couldn't believe it. He has been fussy during the night, which has been exhausting for us since Luke is trying to take care of me and Wyatt. I am hoping this is just a phase. If not, I will be up all night and sleeping most of the day. I am planning on taking 12 weeks off of work to be with him.

Jamee and Jeff Yung were vacationing in the Florida Keyes and made it up for dinner and to meet Wyatt on Monday. It was so good to see them!

Thank you to everyone for the well wishes. We miss you all so much and wish we could be closer to you to share this experience. Now, I'm off to bed.....

Happy 2nd Birthday Gracyn Ella!

It's hard to believe that our little baby girl is now a sassy 2 year old! What an amazing 2 years!!! We started the birthday festivities at Gracyn's school for a little Nemo dance party. Gracyn had a good time but you could tell that something wasn't right. Friday night mommy and Gracyn were not feeling well.

By Saturday mommy had the full blown flu and Gracyn had a mild case. Daddy was busy taking care of his girls all day. The good news is we all woke up today and felt a million times better. The bad news is we canceled Gracyn's birthday party the day before because we were under the weather. Regardless, the three (four) of us rallied together and opened presents and made a pink, sprinkled birthday cake. As you can see, Gracyn buried her "2" candle into the cake! We had a great relaxing day together. Gracyn could not get enough of her new froggy boots (thanks grandma b) and bubble gun! Little does this monkey realize that in 11 days her AND our lives will never be the same! GRACYN IS GOING TO BE A BIG SISTER!!!

potty time!

Last week Gracyn officially moved to the "Two's Room" at daycare. We decided to transition her before the baby came so she doesn't have too many changes at once. In her new classroom they have REAL miniature toilets and Gracyn has taken an immediate liking. She is now volunteering to sit on her own potty at home and over the weekend, successfully tinkeled 2 times on her own. Imagine the shock when we went in to see why she was yelling with joy! Luke and I could not stop laughing! Besides the potty, she struggled at the beginning of the week having withdrawl from her old classroom teacher. She did much better towards the end of the week. News break!!!!! I've just been interrupted......Gracyn just tinkeled for the 3rd time on her potty! Hugs and kisses all around!

We also headed to the beach for a long walk. As you can see......baby schipper's anticipated arrival is in 39 days and I am getting bigger by the minute. Hope you all have a great week!

Big Girl Bed!

Last weekend we rearranged Gracyn's room since she will be sharing a room with the baby. We moved her crib and the daybed around to make more room. When we went to put her to bed that night, she was so upset that we had moved her crib. She insisted sleeping in the "big girl bed" because that's where her crib used to be. Needless to say.....she has been sleeping in the big girl bed ever since! AND she has actually been sleeping a lot better in it. It is shocking that she can now walk into our bedroom every morning when she gets up. The past few mornings it has been the same thing "Mommy, get up! Waffle!" Another cute note to mention, when we ask Gracyn what we should name the new baby, it never fails....Batman! We shall see.......

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Luke turned the big 31 on the 19th! We celebrated the weekend with a trip to the park and
fishing in our back yard. Luke caught a small mouth bass which Gracyn thought was the "real" Nemo! We also made Daddy chocolate birthday cupcakes. I gave her one to decorate while I frosted the others and when I looked up she had eaten half and had a whole package of birthday candles in the other!!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We had our own party and counted down to 2009 at 8pm. Gracyn and Daddy danced the night away! Mommy didn't quite make it until midnight, but was awaken by Daddy for a New Year's kiss! We are excited for the all of the new wonderful memories to come in 2009. We wish you and your families a happy and healthy year!

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.......