The Nursery is Ready

How do I get ready for the baby when I have no idea what I'm having? I washed all my white and yellow onsies, blankets, and a few sleepers for the baby. I washed all the white crib bedding and put it on the crib so I have somewhere for the baby to sleep when we get home. We got the baby carrier down from the top shelf in the garage and I have two sweet little outfits all ready to be washed. There really wasn't much work to do and I'll have lots to do once I get home from the hospital.

It's so fun not knowing what we are going to have now that it is getting so close. Todd and I are trying to decide how to tell everyone after the baby comes - we might make all you locals come to the hospital to find out. Although knowing my family my mom or sister will have called everyone before I even know what I had. If you want to be on the call list let me know and I'll make sure you get called as soon as possible after the baby comes.

The Big Girl Bed

Saturday Claire went down for her nap as usual and didn't make a sound. Then after about an hour I was walking back to my room and when I passed her room the door was open and she was standing there with only a shirt on and the room smelled HORRIBLE. So I yelled "Todd get the camera you have to see this!"

Claire took everything out of her drawers (luckily most of her clothes are hung in the closet). She pulled all her books and toys off the bookshelf, took off her poopy diaper (it's sitting right in the middle of the floor), and dumped out her little Tupperware of hair elastics (you have to look close to see these on the floor). Luckily for me she had no desire to touch or play with her poopy diaper so it just sat there in the middle of the room. She is the first of the 3 kids to quietly play in her room before, during and after she sleeps - so this is all new to us. Last week in the morning Todd heard her playing and when he walked in she was playing with toys completely naked (no poop thank goodness). We need to get a peep hole put in her door so we can keep an eye on this little rascal. At night she doesn't get out of bed either - she just sits in her bed crying until we come in. We had to get those special door handles for the boys to keep them in their rooms when they first experienced the freedom of a big kid bed, but not Claire she just waits for us to come to her if she needs something or gets out of bed if she wants to play.

Here is what her room looks like when she hasn't been in there playing.

Chelsea's B-day

This weekend was Chelsea's b-day and the kids were so excited. We have started letting them pick out their own presents for people. They love it and it always ends up being a little more entertaining than when Todd and I just get something from them. Saturday Todd took the boys to the mall and they got Chelsea some very bright jewelry. The boys said "Chelsea loves big necklaces and earrings" so that's what they got. Here is picture of her showing off her sweet new presents from the boys (belt, earrings, necklace and bracelet - there are also a very large pair of bright yellow star earrings that aren't in the picture).

Flashback Friday

Summer Vacation 1984

As far as I can remember this is the most kids we ever had go on a family vacation together (we are missing Timmy and Mark - but 8 of us kids were on this trip). My parents took us on a church history tour this summer. We all piled in the van and headed north from Missouri. We went to the Johnson Farm in Ohio, the Kirkland Temple (that's where I met Peter Vidmar and Steve Young), then up to New York to the Sacred Grove, Hill Cumorah and we even went up to Canada and Niagara Falls (not part of the church history but fun). I was 12 years old and this is one of my most memorable family vacations. Here are some sweet shots from the trip.

(Top Row: Steve, Mom, George, Dad
Middle Row: Sherry, Kathy, Danny,
Bottom Row: David, Heidi and Jeannie)


Here I am at the Sacred Grove. This was incredible, my parents had each of us go off on our own and pray and I will never forget the peace I felt or what a testimony builder this was for me. I found a leaf on the ground and pressed it and it was in my scriptures for years.


This picture was just too classic to pass up. No-one has combed hair and we all look so dirty. Check out Danny's baseball shoes and the crazy shorty shorts that he and I are wearing with the matching triple stripe.


Apparently as long as I changed my shirt I was good to go. This is Jeannie and I.


Not a great picture by any means, but I have to document family badminton. We played this game so much when I was a kid and my dad rocks at it. He could beam us so hard and we could never beat him. 2 years ago we tried to take him on as adults and still couldn't beat him.

All the Small Things

So much has happened in the last week.

Roman's Blessing: It was so great to be apart of my newest nephew's blessing day. He is the cutest, sweetest little guy. It was great to spend time with the family and celebrate such a wonderful day.

Birthdays: June is a big birthday month for the Schultz Family. Happy Birthday to my dad, my brother Mark and my nephew Allen. And this Sunday is Chelsea's (our awesome nanny) b-day. The kids have been singing a lot of happy birthday this week.

Baby's First Purchase: I finally bought something for our baby. It hasn't been tempting to shop since I have no idea what we're having. Today I bought some cute white bundlers and jammies so I can have something washed and ready for the little one to wear the first few days at home. I also bought a pink and blue footed jammie for the hospital. I can't believe we are going to find out what color in 5 short weeks.

A Healthy Baby: I had an appointment this week and it's always so great to hear the baby and know things are progressing normally. And this week our baby is finally head down so that has taken a lot of stress off me. I hate standing on my head to get the baby to turn.

Happy Birthday Dad

Today is my dad's birthday so I thought I would take a few minutes to give him a shout out. I might be slightly prejudice but I think I have the best dad in the entire world.

My dad was so great when I was growing up he taught me the importance of hard work which has gotten me to where I am in life. He always had his priorities straight I don't ever remember him coming home from work and being too stressed out from a hard day to get down and play with us and be a dad. He never brought home his work, when he came home he was 100% ours and I never realized how important this was until I became a mom and I struggle so much to leave work at work and really be there for my kids.

My dad has more patience than anyone I have ever met - to put up with 10 kids and a very spunky mom. I don't remember him ever raising his voice at us - he just mastered the "look" which struck fear into us kids. I'm sure I didn't appreciate him for how amazing he was when I lived at home, but the older I get the more I realize just how amazing my dad is.

My dad has always been a worth priesthood holder and I can remember so many times as a kid waking him up in the dead of night because I was sick and needed a blessing. Never once did he tell me I was fine and to wait until morning. I remember one time it was because my knee hurt - growing pains I'm sure and it was 2:00 am. Not a word of complaint from him, he simply got out of bed and took care of me. Even now I won't turn down the yearly "back-to-school" blessing from him even though I've been out of school for a very, very long time.

My kids absolutely love their grandpa. I am so glad that I live a half mile away from him. He's always there when I need him and I love it when he just stops by. He's always ready for a party especially with his kids and grand kids. He bought 2 boats just so he could play with us all summer at the lake.

Happy Birthday Dad! I love you and am glad I was lucky enough to be part of the best family in the world!!!

Nesting?

You can call it nesting, but I personally think I just had a lot to get done this weekend. I don't think the projects stopped all weekend and we still have a few left for next weekend. Here is a recap of what we did this past weekend.

Claire's Room: It's official Claire is a big girl and couldn't be more excited. We got her new bed put up, my dad helped me put together a new bookshelf, put her new dresser in her room and did some redecorating. She LOVES her new bed and the freedom it brings. She doesn't come out of her room very much but every time I check on her she is doing something she shouldn't be. She likes to take the books off her bookshelf and line them up along the floor, she takes everything off the shelf above her bed (so this is being moved next week), she was pulling out wipes this morning as fast as she could and she completely ruined one of her books by pulling all the pages out. When she sleeps she pushes all her covers down, throws her pillow off the bed and sleeps like she is in a crib on the top third of her bed with just her silky blankets. It's very cute. (I will be posting pictures of her room soon)

Boy's Room: We moved the boys downstairs completely. They have been living half in each room - beds downstairs, clothes upstairs. But I cleaned out the entire closet and Todd moved the dresser so they are officially in the basement. I'm not loving having to walk up and down the stairs constantly to get their clothes and it is going to make laundry harder. But it's nice to have everything done.

The Nursery: The crib, dresser and glider are all moved into the nursery. Of course I can't decorate until after the baby is born, but at least everything is in the right place and it's cleaned out. Now we just have to figure out what to do with the blue race car bed (anyone interested???)

The Dishwasher: For the past few weeks our dishwasher has gotten progressively worse at getting the dishes clean. Neither Todd nor I are extremely handy with fixing appliances so we looked online and it said the filter is self-cleaning so we shouldn't need to do anything there. The water seemed to be running fine and I added some of the water stuff to it. But it was just getting worse and I ended up re-washing almost all the dishes. Yesterday I asked my dad what we should do and he said to clean the filter (they don't really clean themselves apparently). So Todd and I took apart the dishwasher and cleaned it - let me tell you it was so disgusting! I can't believe that I was eating off dishes that were washed in that machine (I might have to go strictly paper from now on). Seriously, it was so dirty but we got it all spic and span and Todd managed to put it back together (after every part he would say "I should have looked at how this was in before I took it out). Then we ran it empty last night to see if it would work and so far it's working like a charm.