pumpkins and leaves

here's a somewhat long string of "fallish" pictures beginning with our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. always great fun. although looking at madeline's expression, one might think the whole idea was a bit overrated. ;)

hayride!

 barrel ride




carving pumpkins. this year will designed a castle/ goofy face carving on his pumpkin and andrew went the Martha Stewart route w/ his.  the girls just enjoyed digging out the sliminess and i took pictures.

 will's castle is on the back side of the pumpkin on the right and of course, andrew's is on the left. talented isn't he?!

last sunday we took advantage of the beautiful leaves at andrew's parents house and coerced everyone into acting photogenic.

baby ben got in on the fall fun too

will and uncle nathan- accidental twins last sunday

the schmidt girls and guys

all six

here are some snap shots we took this weekend of all 6 of us!

 
 

paper chandelier/mobile

 Ben's room needed a mobile. i had seen something similar to this online with a price tag of over $50.00. Here's what "handy andy" and i came up with (fyi- this is my new name for husband. those of you with preschoolers have probably met "handy manny" on tv. my handy andy is waaaay handier. in fact, i think he could probably take over this blog with all his handiness. Yesterday he made homemade yogurt. today he reupholstered the top of the footstool in baby ben's room! such an over-achiever :)
Here's how YOU can make one too:

1. First, i cut out about 100 circles. i used Creative Memories circle cutter to cut 3 different sizes in 3 different shades of yellow.


 2. Then i punched a small hole (i used a needle) in the top and bottom of each circle




 



3. Then i laid out the circles in 9 rows and slightly varied the lengths

 4. Then i thread fishing line through the top and bottom holes of each circle in each row

 5. Here's where Handy Andy came in: i had already spray-painted this dowel that was probably 2 ft long? (bought at hobby lobby for less than a $1) He cut the dowel into 3 pieces and then glued them. This part looked pretty tricky to me. I don't know exactly what he did but i do know he used a strong white glue, crossed the rods atop a plate, taped them and let them dry overnight.

 5. then i tied 1 strand on each of the 6 ends and then tied 3 more strands in the middle triangle area to give it some depth. *TIP- leave extra fishing line to the bottoms of each strand so you can move the circles up and down or add/remove circles to make it look right.

 6. This step also required handy andy's help. to make it hang evenly, he tied fishing line to every other rod(3 ties) and then tied a knot at the top, then tied it to a long piece of line to tie around a screw that was put into the ceiling. **Wow, i used the words "tie" and "tied" 5 times in that run-on sentence...

 Here you can see  how i left the fishing line long so i could adjust them once it was hung.

baby ben

here's  benjamin or "baby ben" as the girls will adamantly correct anyone who refers to him as "benjamin" or "your little brother" or any other term. he's a little over a week old and just as sweet as can be; which makes up for the lost sleep and hormones that have gone berserk. :)

My next post will be a baby room post...i hope :)

baby time

For the last few weeks, my doctor was increasingly monitoring our baby's growth. there were several signs of growth restriction that they were a little concerned about. my weight gain had stopped, the fluid levels were low, the placenta was showing abnormal calcification and then finally in the last week, our baby's weight and measurements were showing that he was having to compensate for these things. on tuesday after my ultrasound, our doctor advised that i be induced either that night or the next morning. we chose to go in on wednesday. after my initial freak-out that i didn't feel at All ready to have our baby  2 1/2 weeks early, andrew helped me get a grip and by wed. am i felt very much at peace and excited to meet our little guy. :)

still smiling while waiting for the pitocin to fully kick in...

and 6 hours later.....little Benjamin Andrew Schmidt was born

He weighed 6lbs 4oz and was 19inches long

I promise to post more pictures soon. :)