Clare's 4th Birthday

Happy birthday my sweet, bright, helpful, funny and tenacious Clare. You are more than I could ever have imagined in every way. You have a brave but tender heart and love overflows from you. I am so thankful that you are mine!

Fun with Picasa

Okay, so I've finally found out about Picasa an am having fun learning all I can do with it. One of the main reasons I don't update the blog often is my old way of loading pictures to this blog was very cumbersome! Now it's quick and easy. Yay! Here are a few pictures of Cate playing soccer along with her siblings watching on the sidelines.

Ahhh Summer

The end of summer is fast approaching so I thought I'd post a few pictures of what we've been doing this summer.

Cate spent a week up with Grandma and Grandpa Schwake at the lake. Clare and Cooper and I had fun here too.

Remember how fun it was to play in the rain?!!


After Cate, Clare had her turn up at the lake so Cooper, Catie and I made do.

Nothing like sweet corn in the summer.

Of course, the summer does get long so we have to figure out new ways to have fun. The girls decided to swim without getting their hair wet....

Daddy and Cate took in a day at the PGA Championship when it was in Chaska.

And finally, apparently summer is the ideal time to lose some baby teeth!

Enjoy the last couple weeks of summer.

If anyone is reading this...

Hi all,
I've been following the story of a sweet little boy named Stellan on his mom's website http://www.mycharmingkids.net/. He is in critical condition right now, very near death so if you are reading this anytime today, July 27, 2009, please pray for this little boys life. You can follow real-time updates at http://twitter.com/MckMama. Thanks for your prayers.

Early summer pictures

Here are some pictures of our summer so far

On the swing at Webb Lake.


Mom and Cooper on the boat during 4th of July boat parade.


Nice hat, Schwake!


Here's a shot of Coop's missing tooth. He's still cute as a button though!


Cate Schwake - DIT (Diva In Training)


Clarebear enjoying a warm sunny day in the pool.


Sisters enjoying an orange cream soda float during a swim break.

Hiatus

I have been on hiatus, it appears. I can't believe that my last post was in May and here it is, well into July already. Summer is zooming by. We haven't been doing much except spending a lot of time outside. All the kids have been enjoying the weather and so have I. Why hang out in front of your computer typing away when you can be outside soaking in the sun, digging in the dirt and in general enjoying life?!

Here's the quick and dirty update on us Schwakes. The girls took their very first dance classes in June. I think they both liked it a lot so I signed them up for dance in the fall. Well, they'd better like it because I plunked down a nice wad of dough on their ballet and tap shoes! I've gotten Cate involved in a 'play at the park' gig where I drop her off every Wed for a couple of hours at a local park where they do activities and such. My goal was to get the two girls away from each other a bit so that they weren't constantly fighting. But of course Cate doesn't like it. It was inexpensive so I'm not gonna be super pushy on her going every time - it only goes through July. Cooper has finally gotten the hang of the walking thing. And thus the injuries have started. And he doesn't do piddly injuries like scrapes and bruises. Not my kid. No, he goes all out and KNOCKS OUT HIS FRONT TOOTH! That's right, he sporting the hockey look. He fell over at church and it was bye bye baby tooth. I'd better cut his hair in a mullet to complete the look, don't ya think?

We spent 4th of July weekend up at the lake again and it was splendid! I don't know if the hormones I'm taking are kicking in or if the little chat I had with Scotty sunk in but I had a ball up there! Gorgeous weather, lots of leisurly time, simple meals. It was great!

Oh and speaking of hormones, I found out that my body is making virtually no progesterone nor testosterone. Which explains why I've always had so much trouble sleeping, get so many headaches and why my irritation with my kids this past year was through the roof. I've been on bioidentical hormones and I've been feeling so good!! And sleeping like a dream! It's been awesome! Now if they can just melt all this flab around my belly, I'd be truly happy.

And that pretty much brings us up to date. I'll post pictures soon. I have a ton to download from my camera which will take plenty of time. Or I won't. It's been so nice I just don't want to hang out inside. I need a rainy day!!

Take care all. I'm off to dreamland. Yay!

Owies

Good morning to all. I hope you are all having a beautiful day so far. We have been doing well. Cooper is walking (Yay!) but more as a novelty than as a consistent form of locomotion. But it's coming along. And he gets such a kick out of it.

We had a nice memorial weekend up north at the lake - where I'm sure 92% of the people in Minnesota were as well. We left our home around 1:30 pm and went to drop off Attley (the big black dog) at the farm as he is not allowed at the resort where Scott's parents lease their cabin. Then it was off to drop off Scott's truck at a work site so that we could drop him off at work on Tuesday morning (we try to come home the morning after a big summer holiday to avoid the huge line of cars headed home). And, since Scott is adamant about not eating in our new van, we had to stop and have a snack outside. Once we got everyone buckled back in and a movie set up for the girls, we were off to the cabin...I think we didn't leave the city until about 3:00. We stopped in Nisswa for some yummy pizza at Rafferty's around 5:30 and finally arrived at the cabin around 7:00 pm. Yes folks, that's 5.5 hours for a 3 hour trip.

Even though the weather was cool, the girls (and Cooper) had a great time with their cousins all weekend, playing in the sand, running around the yard, and just generally goofing off. We took a couple of boat rides on Grandpa Kenny's ginormous pontoon and sat by the campfire one night. Scott got in a lot of fishing with his brother and some good conversation with his folks and the other resort people. I, on the other hand, didn't have as fabulous of a time. As all moms know, it takes a lot of work getting everything packed and ready for a trip with 3 little kids. I also had to bring a lot of food since we (the ladies that is) were sharing food duties this weekend. While we were up there we had to have Cooper in our room with us which was a complete nightmare the first night since he was scared in the new place and unsure about having US sleeping with him. After the first night he was much better but I would wake up at every little grunt and movement so I was counting the seconds until I could be back in my own bed. Then there was all the normal stuff, making meals, cleaning up from meals, watching kids, cleaning kids, putting kids to bed, etc. Then, once home of course, there are the loads and loads of laundry to deal with and super crabby overtired children to deal with. We've been home 4 days now and I feel like everyone is just now catching up on their sleep. Going up north is great for the kids and Scott and, while I do have some moments that are good (like chatting with my Sister-in-law) or where I can get off by myself, they seem too meager in comparison to the increased amount of work and stress that goes along with it all. It is definitely not a "weekend getaway" for me at all.

Crabby enough for ya? Sorry about that big rant. It's the reality of life sometimes, isn't it? It's part of what we buy into when we plunge into having a "family". I had lots of years of "me" time and now I'm just trying to remember that it all goes by so swiftly and soon I'll have more "me" time than I will want.

The only other eventful thing that happened this week is that Cooper cut his left pointer finger pretty badly in my shower, of all places. I've looked all over in there and cannot figure out how he did it. Anyway, he sort of sliced it so that there is a big flap of skin (sorry for all you squeamish folks out there). I probably should have taken him in to get a stitch or two or at least some glue since it bled for a really long time. But the thought of putting 3 crabby overtired kids (one bleeding all over) into the car right before lunchtime to hang out at urgent care for who knows how many hours just didn't sound all too appealing to me. Call me crazy. So I did my best to clean it up, put antibiotic ointment on it, and wrap it in a few bandaids with him crying and pushing my hands away with his other hand, and wriggling his finger so I couldn't get a good grip on it. It wasn't easy. And of course the bandaid fell off 20 minutes later. So I managed to find my gauze and medical tape and did a more "professional" looking job and that stayed for a while. But he loses the bandage once or twice every day and that dang flap of skin gets pulled back and it starts bleeding all over again. So I'm afraid it's not healing super well or very fast. I've been keeping a close eye on it for infection and so far it looks okay. If I could only get that flap of skin to stay closed and a bandage on for a nice long time, I think it will start to get better. Speaking of which, just looked and it's off again. I'd better go do some more bandaging.

Enjoy the beautiful late spring day. That's all from Schwakeland for now.

Strolling along

Hi folks,
Yes, it's finally happened. Cooper is venturing out and walking at 16 months! Check it out.