My Beloved...

From Song of Solomon in the Bible: "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine."

This weekend my baby cousin Melissa got married to her Prince Charming...Josh. My pregnancy hormones were in overdrive. I can remember when they brought her home from the hospital. Tara and I were 8 years old, in 3rd grade and we swore up and down that they brought home the wrong baby. She was so dark complected and had such thick BLACK hair. But she quickly turned into our Miss, and in no time we knew she was all Myerscough and the spitting image of her older sister. I was thinking about that day as I went to the church dressing room to see her before the ceremony. I had intentions of getting all these wonderful pictures and of course we got half-way there and I realized my camera had no SD Card in it. Darn the luck! So all I have are these cell phone shots, oh well! I know I can snag some from other family members eventually.
During the ceremony, I was a reader. Colossians 3: 12-17 was the scripture I read... "Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony." Colossians 3:14 was the verse that stood out to me the most, I had to put a lot of effort into not crying while I was reading and of course teared up the minute I sat down. One of Josh's family members read from Song of Solomon, the Beloved verses. Now, you might not know it but Amy means "Beloved" and as a child I always associated those verses with my own name. I even had Mitch's wedding ring engraved with "My Beloved is Mine." So that part of the ceremony was especially touching.

Melissa was gorgeous, she has always been beautiful on the inside as much as the out. But yesterday at her wedding she was radiant...glowing. And I know it can only be because she found her one true love, her soul mate. Welcome to the family Josh! We were so happy that we could be there to help you celebrate your special day and the beginning of what we hope will be a very fulfilling and exciting journey for you both, Cheers to the bride and groom!

Did I Mention...

Although summer technically hasn't arrived, it has arrived here at the Schultz house. This weekend we had temperatures in the 90's so it seemed like the right time to bust out the sprinklers and popsicles. And the girls LOVED it. They played in the water for over an hour on both Saturday and Sunday and with temperatures expected to be in the 90's starting Thursday and through the weekend I am sure this will become a regular occurrence.

It didn't take long before Leah got pretty inventive. She was quick to get her buckets from the sand table...she started filling them and was tossing them in the general direction of her sister. Kiersten had another type of fun in mind. In no time, there were mud puddles forming and she thought they were the best thing ever. She would stomp and play in them like it was no big deal. Leah on the other hand would go over give it a try and then quickly head back to the sprinkler to get cleaned off. 

At noon we brought the girls in to get them ready for lunch. We dried off, changed clothes and were set. We told them that maybe we could play in the water more later and they seemed happy with that. After lunch they went back out to play while Mitch and I got to work on other things. He worked in the garden a bit, I was dusting, we FINALLY started getting the nursery organized. And DID I MENTION in the previous post that Bug has a new nickname??? We took a peek outside and Kiersten was covered in head to toe mud...yep, Pigpen! She was so happy and having so much fun. It was hard to get upset with her. She kept using her new catch phrase. "That's okay Mommy, No harm done." Such a little stinker, but so cute. So needless to say on Sunday after playing in the water, we moved one of our little tikes play structures over the mud puddle.

My Funny Girl

My little bug, just keeps me laughing. She is such a funny girl! It's amazing that the more time I spend with my girls, the more I have flashbacks to my childhood with images of Little Amy and Laura. Leah is JUST like me and Kiersten is the spitting image of Laura...well, maybe not in looks, but definitely in action. Even my mom comments how much of "Laura" is in Kiersten. She says the darndest things...you never know what is going to come out of her mouth. She keeps my mom and dad laughing too! I love it when she says "That's disgusting" at the top of her lungs. She is definitely getting good at exhibiting her independence. She will tell you how it is. And if things aren't the way she wants them, she will let you know that too! Her favorite new phrase is "that's okay, no harm done." It's pretty sweet!

My girl LOVES being outside. I think she would be out there 24/7 if I would let her! Her outside play has quickly earned her the nickname "PIGPEN". I know, like the girl isn't already set with a nickname. She comes in with dirty hands, dirty feet, dirty face, sand in the hair...she gets down and dirty. Big surprise, my mom says that Laura was the same way. Mom even shared stories about Laura with potty training and how Laura would just strip off her pants and go in the bushes and then mom would find her underwear all over the yard (sorry Laura, too much information???) And I know that is going to be Kiersten. I've started putting her in dresses so it will be easy for her to come inside and go to the bathroom. HENCE, the princess gown out at the sandbox. I tried and tried to get her to put shorts on that day, but Sissy was wearing a dress so Bug had to have one as well. And any old dress wouldn't do, it had to be the pink princess dress!!! Now it's sitting down in the laundry covered in Shout stain remover. Oh well, at least she had fun, and aren't the rain boots a nice touch? LOL!

The End of 3P

Yesterday, May 17th, was Leah's last day in 3 preschool!!! I almost cried. Why does it have to go so fast??? She has had such a great year and has learned so many things. She surprises us all the time with the new things that she says and does. Seriously, my girl is smart. I met with Mrs. Koch(Preschool director) this week to talk about what to do with this girl. The four-year-old class works on writing their name, learning their address and phone number and she already knows all that. She is starting to write additional 3 letter words now too! Basically she may be a little bored next year, but she really needs to work on sitting still, waiting her turn, all those social elements that come along with preschool. I have no doubt she will get there. But anyway, for the last day of school yesterday they had a Luau/Hawaiian themed party/performance to celebrate the end of the year and 4's graduation. 

My girls were picture perfect in their Hawaiian themed dresses, and Leah was super excited. I have been listening to Leah practice the songs all week long "Hula, Hula, Jesus is a ROCK!" She has had them down and loves singing them when we are outside on the swing set. After we got to the church, Daddy took Leah down to her classroom and Kiersten and I went and found seats. It wasn't long before the show started. The 2 year old class was adorable singing their songs, quickly followed by the 3's. Leah was so cute and kept waving to us in the audience. They sang the song about Zaccheus, and another bible song. Then the 4's were up for their song and receiving of diploma's. Afterwards the whole group sang two more songs and the night was done. Before we left Leah had to go give her teacher, Mrs. York a hug goodbye. I think Leah will miss her. She was her teacher last year for April and May when we first got here and then all of this year. But I know Leah will adjust easily to the 4's...she's a go with the flow kind of girl when it comes to socializing! Good job last night, Leah! I loved watching you do your thing up on stage.

Roller Derby

Did I mention that last week was utter insanity for us!!! We had a dance recital Friday night, a Mother's Day lunch on Saturday, a birthday party at 12:30 in Mattoon, a birthday party at 5:00 in Monticello and a final dance recital at 7PM on Saturday night back in Decatur. Sunday was Mother's Day so we went to church and then spent the remainder of the day resting at home...I think we have been recovering from the weekend ALL WEEK LONG! 

My niece Macy turned 7 on May 10th...yes, the day after Leah's birthday. She had a roller skating party at Silver Star Skating rink in Mattoon. I knew that Leah would want to give it a try. She was super excited about it, and I knew that Mitch would be patient and good with showing her how...of course he was! And she did awesome, it took her no time at all and she was out there going around the loop on her own. Yay, Leah!!! 

What I wasn't prepared for was Kiersten's insistence that she was going to skate too. The skating rink has a huge indoor play area so I thought she would be content to...you know, play. And I thought that surely Colby would be in there with her. Nope, I was wrong. Within 5 minutes of Leah being out on skates, Kiersten and Colby were begging to go to. "I skate too, I skate too!" So I went and got her skates, Gigi laced her up and off she went. Gigi started out with her and then Mitch took over since Leah was doing so well. Kiersten on skates was comical. She kept giving it her all. Everytime she fell on her toosh, she jumped right back up. She didn't ever really get the hang of it, but she loved it all the same. 

Halfway through the celebration we had pizza and cupcakes and ice cream and of course sang Happy Birthday to MACY!!! After that we spent most of our time hanging out in the play area. Leah did go back out to skate a few times. Kiersten and Colby were happy to just run crazy. Paul and Michele were there with Spencer and Tyler, and Tiffany came with Brooklyn and Parker so they got to play with cousins and I got to visit. Now I'm wondering about how long it will be before they are asking to go skating again.

Mother's Day, 2012

Four years ago I celebrated my 1st Mother's Day. Leah was born on Friday, May 9th and so my first Mother's Day, Sunday, May 11th. I laid in a hospital bed recovering from my C-Section, but that was of little concern. Being a mother filled my soul and made me realize that I was learning about a love that I never knew existed. To top it off, my mom had flown in the day before so I got to spend my first Mother's Day with my mother and brand new daughter. This year on Mother's Day I realize that the love only continues to grow. My spirit is happy and singing with joy in regard to the love I have for my 2.5 children. I'm one lucky momma! Not just because of these precious little ones, but because of their father. What an amazing gift HE has given me.

I'm not a perfect mother, not even close. I'm not supermom, but I do the best I can. I have to tell the story from earlier in the week...Mitch was working on the lawn mower in the garage. Leah kept fiddeling around in the garage. So he asked her to go draw our family with her chalk. Well, we didn't even know that she could draw people so imagine our surprise when she drew our family and more. I applauded her and told her how much I loved her artwork. She started to point out which person was which to me...Now look closely at the picture. I'm the 3rd one from the left. She tells me that my mouth is big and open because I was yelling at her for not being a good listener...God love this child, I had to laugh. But man, oh man...is that how you want your child to think of you??? Maybe next time she will draw a picture of one of the hundreds of times I have praised her, and in the meantime maybe I need to praise her a little more in the days to come. After she drew the picture of our family she drew a picture of Gigi and Papa. I'm supposed to know it is Gigi and Papa by all the flowers in the picture. Gigi has a lot of flowers at her house. Isn't it awesome to see how their minds think.

This morning I woke up to two precious girls who wanted to climb into my bed, give me snuggles and told me "Happy Mudders Day!" Then they eagerly ran downstairs to make me breakfast. Leah decided the day before that she was making me an egg sandwhich (Eggs on an English Muffin)...and they did great! Then they gave me a darling Tinkerbell Mother's Day card and a new purse from Coach. I'm a lucky girl...because what I wanted to most was just to spend the day at home with my girls, and that's exactly what we did. What a beautiful day! Oh, and for fun a picture of me 34 weeks and 2 days with baby #3. I think this picture is deceiving. Mitch always squats down like he is taking a picture of the girls and so the camera is always looking up at me. Most people say I don't look that big and can't believe I only have 6 weeks left. Looking at this picture, I think I look enormous!!! But regardless, only 6 more weeks until our little ones arrival. The anticipation is starting to get to me, I can't wait!

Mambo

Shortly after our arrival in Decatur, I signed Leah up for dance at Richland Community College. Last summer she was in tumbling tots, and this year she was enrolled in Creative Movements. For their spring concert they performed to Lou Bega's, Mambo #5...and aren't the outfits so appropriate?!?!? They rehearsed once a week and in the past 2 weeks started trial runs on the big stage in Schilling Auditorium. Leah didn't have an ounce of stage fright...in fact she was so excited to get out there and "shake her groove thing." And she did fantastic. Mitch actually took her to the dress rehearsal. I was a "stage mom" for the Friday and Saturday night performances. Which basically means I sat in the back stage room and helped get them up to the stage in time and then walked them back when they were done. There was 7 girls, and so we kept them occupied and together until it was their time to go on. Which also means I had to watch the performances from backstage :(  But thankfully Mitch got it on video.

After Friday nights show, Leah was so disappointed...not that she didn't love it, she was just sad that it was over so quickly and she wanted to go back out and do it again. On Saturday night Gigi came to Decatur to take in the show. The weekend was incredibly jam packed with fun stuff to do. She performed Friday night, Saturday we were up and out of the house early to go to Mattoon for a Mother's Day Lunch with my parents, then off to the skating rink for Macy's birthday party, followed by a second birthday party for Charlee in Monticello. Needless to say, on the way to Richland I wasn't sure how Leah was going to do. She was TIRED and a bit cranky. But we got her into costume and the minute she saw Gigi she was ready to go. She told Gigi to clap loud for her and was ready to put on her game face. And did she ever! I think Saturday night's performance was an even bigger hit. She had the biggest smile, did her summersaults, straddle rolls and even a back bend with perfect ease. She was GREAT! Afterwards Gigi took her out for ice cream which made the night even better. So proud of my little dancer.

Mitch said that Kiersten was awesome in the audience. Sat in her chair and watched all the performers before Leah intensely, and then was super excited when Leah's group came on. Kiersten had to watch the rehearsals so often she probably could have done the routine, poor kid! And she told Leah she did a good job and gave her hugs. They are so sweet. One thing I learned is that I won't be a very good dance mom...there were way to many pushy women backstage doing hair and make-up on 2,3 and 4 year olds for my liking. I put a little blush on Leah's cheeks and some lipgloss on her but felt that was enough. These girls were all glittered up, lip liner, eye liner, mascara, fake hair pieces...the works! I just couldn't do it, not with a 4 year old. Mitch called it "toddlers and tiaras" YIKES! Even though Leah wasn't all "dolled up" I thought she was BEAUTIFUL! And I am much more suited to being a soccer mom, Ha!

The Real Deal...She's 4!

After celebrating on Saturday, and dinner at Gigi's on Sunday...today we are finally at the real deal! At 10:37 this morning, Leah was officially 4! Yikes, my baby girl is definitely not a baby anymore and she is pretty quick to tell you what a big girl she is. It's been a bit confusing to her with all the birthday celebrations...she keeps thinking that we are having another party at our house tonight because today is her actual birthday, but we are doing our best to make sure that her "day" is special. We put a special outfit on for school today, and had cupcakes, juice boxes, and treat bags for a special celebration at school. I went to  her class room early so I could be there to help her celebrate. Her smile was a mile wide as they sang happy birthday to her! Even Kiersten got to get in on the action.

After we left preschool we went to meet up with Daddy for a special birthday lunch. We took her to Dairy Queen last year for her birthday and we took Kiersten for her birthday this year, so it seems to be becoming a tradition. Both the girls were super excited...probably more so to see Daddy than to have ice cream for lunch, that's how much we love him! But lunch was fun...and now we are winding down for the rest of the day. There have been phone calls, emails and text messages from family members near and far wanting to wish her a happy birthday. My girl is loved. She is so special and I can't even begin to count the ways that my life is better having her in it. Sometimes she pushes my buttons and she certainly tests the limits, but  that's what is so great about her. She wants to do things on her terms, she is adventurous and outgoing and not shy in the least. I wouldn't have it any other way. Love my Leah and looking forward to all that the future holds. Happy Birthday, my beautiful brown eyed girl!

Gigi's Birthday Dinner!

My mom, Gigi, has a long standing tradition of wanting to make a birthday dinner for whoever is celebrating a birthday. This past Sunday we went to Charleston so she could make dinner for Leah (the 9th) and Macy (the 10th). She even called the girls and asked them what they wanted for their special birthday dinner. Macy requested tater tots, and Leah requested Ravioli's...uhm, okay...how do you make that work in one dinner?!?!? Well somehow she pulled it off. She got some steak kabobs, fresh sweet corn on the cob, tater tots and then did some toasted ravioli. Different, yes...but it worked. The kids were happy and I didn't hear any of the grown-ups complaining.

The weather was gorgeous so the kids had lots of fun playing outside. Macy recently taught Leah how to walk on the brick wall...an old trick that Aunt Laura taught Macy 3 years ago, thanks Aunt Laura. So the girls walked back and forth. Colby and Kiersten got caught playing in the garage. Papa found them sitting on his Harley, and so he started it up and boy did they jump. Uncle Matt even gave a few golf pointers in the backyard. Of course, the big hit of the party was the cupcakes and ice cream. Always a big hit! We love go to Gigi's house, it's always a special time.