December Fun

Making Gingerbread houses with our friends: Kyle was not as interested as the girls were


Making rolo pretzels







Hand and Foot Reindeer




Troy and Kyle watching the Chirstmas Ship Parade in Everett





Cookies ready to deliver to our neighbors





Gingerbread men cookies






Kyle's cookie


Last year a friend of mine (thanks Beth S.) gave me the idea to start a tradition with my kids to do a fun activity each day to celebrate Advent/Christmas.


Here are some of the things we did this year:

Get a Christmas Tree at Farmer Browns
Decorate a Christmas Tree in your room
Christmas Ships in Everett
Drive around and see Christmas Lights with cocoa
Bellevue Square Mall-Snowflake Lane
Bake and Decorate Christmas cookies/gingerbread men
Hand and Foot Reindeer
Pick toys to donate to needy kids
Watch our favorite Christmas movies
Make a graham cracker gingerbread house
make fudge
make rolo pretzels
read Christmas books
deliver cookies and cards to our neighbors
visit Santa and go out to dinner
do chores around the house to earn money to donate to "The Arrival" at church

I am excited to add to this list each year and create wonderful Christmas memories for our family!

Missing Auntie Sarah!

Read Kaden's shirt....that is what he wants for Christmas!

Christmas Tree Farm

Every year we head out to Farmer Brown's Christmas Tree Farm in search of the perfect Schwenke Family Christmas Tree. We load up the truck and fill our travel mugs with hot cocoa. This year is the first time Auntie Sarah has not joined us...since she lives in Thailand. We missed having her there with us.
For some reason we have a hard time agreeing on what the "perfect" tree really looks like. We tend to spend way too much time wandering around the huge farm in search of THE tree. When we find one we like we try to remember where it is and then go see if there are any others better than that one. But we usually want to go back and find the first one and usually can't seem to find it.
This year we were on a mission. It was cold. We had a 7 week old baby with us that wanted to have some mommy milk very soon. We had to make it quick. We found our tree in record time and still had fun! Kyle LOVED measuring the trees with his tape measure and he enjoyed walking through the "forest" (as he called it)
We found a great tree and we can't wait to decorate it!
It was a success!
And I am thankful for my handsome husband and cute helper that did all the sawing and lifting. I just got to cuddle the baby the whole time :)

Fishing with Uncle Nando

Uncle Nando took Kyle to Whatcom Creek to go fishing on Thanksgiving morning.
Kyle had SO MUCH fun!
The fish are Chum Salmon and they are on their way to the hatchery.
Kyle liked reeling in the fish the best!





FISH ON!


Reeling it in!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Bellingham with Troy's family. It was a great day of spending time with the people we love and eating WAY too much food! We have so much to be thankful for! Our family, our friends, our health, Troy's job, our two beautiful children, our home. We are truly blessed!


Family Photo

Sleepy Boy (after eating all that turkey) :)

The turkey weighs more than Kaden does!

Pies! Yummy!

Christmas Lights

We were coming home last night from swimming lessons and it was dark. Kyle spotted the first house that is decorated with Christmas lights.
Kyle says: "Look! Christmas Lights!!!"
Mom says: "Yes! It is almost Christmas Time....we get to see Christmas Lights and Celebrate Jesus' birth, and give presents to our family and friends.
Kyle says: "And go Trick-or-Treating"
Mom says: "no, that is on Halloween, silly!"

Dinner Disaster

Yesterday was Sunday. I planned a crock pot meal.
I used a great blog site.....http://crockpot365.blogspot.com
I made Pasta Figole soup.
Before church I put everything together and turned it on. Check. Dinner will be ready at 5pm. Or so I thought......
I even made "homemade" bread in my bread machine (it was a box of bread machine mix)
BUT.....Little did I know that I thought I set the crock pot to LOW but it was actually on the OFF position. AND....I thought I pressed start on the bread machine but I forgot and I just set the timer. SO....at 4pm I realized that my soup was COLD and my bread was still a pile of water, flour, and yeast.
Too bad my mom and dad came over for dinner.
Plan B.....frozen pizza.
Oh well.....we get Pasta Figole soup tonight! :)

When mommy takes a shower.....

This is what happens when I take a shower....

I put Kaden in his crib (in a bouncy seat) with the bars up so that Kyle would not get him.
I turned on a TV show for Kyle downstairs.
Kyle was glued to Curious George so I took the opportunity to get a quick shower.
When I got out of the shower...this is what I found.



Kyle had come upstairs. Gone into the laundry room and got a laundry basket. Turned it upside down. Then went into the bathroom and got his stool and put it on top of the laundry basket.
Climbed up and was able to reach the baby!
All in a 10 minute period.
Yikes!
He told me he just wanted to give Kaden a kiss.

Next time I take a shower I will put the bouncy seat in the bathroom with me so Kaden doesn't end up "smothered" by his brother's kisses :)

Piggy Bank

Yesterday Kyle was washing his hands and used WAY too much soap. (It is the Kandoo Bright Foam Handsoap for kids) I told him that he would have to pay for a new soap with the money in his piggy bank since he was being wasteful.
He then told me "I don't have a piggy bank. I only have a cow bank and an elephant bank"
(Because his piggy banks are shaped like a cow and an elephant)
Smart kid.

Kaden's Dedication

"Children are a gift from the Lord..." Psalm 127:3 a

November 15, 2009 will always be a special day in Kaden's life. It is the day that we had him dedicated to the Lord at our church.
God blessed us with two beautiful children, Kyle and Kaden. We had Kyle dedicated on January 27, 2007 and now we have the honor to present Kaden back to the Lord so that he can fulfill God's plan for his life.
This is a public celebration of gratitude to God for this gift. Our family and friends came to church to stand beside us in support and prayer for our children. As christian parents, we want our kids to grow up under our care in our family as we commit our children to God for His purposes. We want our children to have the building blocks to thrive and grow into the person of God's design.
Thank you for praying for our kids with us!

Kaden's Hospital/Birth Photos

I went into labor on a Tuesday night (October 6th). It was 14 days before my due date. I was scheduled to have a c-section on Wednesday, October 14th but the baby decided that he wanted to come a week before that! I knew I was in labor in the middle of the night when my contractions were getting stronger and closer together and I started bleeding. I woke Troy up at 4am and told him he better go make sub plans. I took a shower and finished packing for the hospital. Kyle must have heard all the commotion because he woke up at 5:20am. I e-mailed my sister in Thailand and told her that I was in labor. I called my mom and arranged for her to take care of Kyle. Troy went into work at 5am. I took Kyle to my neighbor's house at 6am and then I drove myself (in labor) to the hospital.
They checked me into triage. I was dilated to 1cm. I had an appointment with my OB/GYN that day at 10am. So they told me to walk around to try and see if my body would progress more and then they told me to go to my appointment at 10am.
At 10am they checked me again and I was at 2cm.
Then I went back to triage. I was told I would have a c-section in about 4-5 hours. I had to wait longer because I had eaten breakfast at 6am and they wanted me to have an empty stomach. But Kaden wanted to meet me before that. By 11:30am I was dilated to 5cm and my contractions were STRONG AND PAINFUL!!! Within minutes I had a doctor, an anaesthesiologist, a nurse (giving me an IV), and another nurse prepping me all in my room at once. Five minutes later they were wheeling me into the operating room for my c-section. It was cold in there and I was nervous to get my spinal. I cried. But after it was in I was happy!
Troy joined me wearing his scrubs- he looked cute!
Then Kaden was born about 10 minutes later.
It was all very fast!
We were thrilled!


Just before the c-section


My handsome husband!



Kaden's first minutes of life




Our first family photo




Kaden


Proud Daddy


Kangaroo Care with Mommy



Kyle's first time holding Kaden



Our little guy


1st trip in the car seat. Going HOME!


I was very pleased with my c-section experience. It was a WAY easier recovery for me than the one I had after having Kyle. (I had lots of complications)
We are so blessed to have Kaden in our family!

Halloween

Happy Halloween 2009

Kyle's Halloween Artwork. His best coloring job yet! He really took his time and tried to stay inside the lines. I must say, I am pretty impressed with his work considering he does not sit still for very long and he is only 3 years old. I think his coloring is so good because he is a little bit "OCD" :)



Kaden's Halloween Jammies



Kyle decorating ghost cookies with MiMi



Kyle and his friends at a Halloween Party
(Kyle is the elephant)


Kyle, Max, and McKaden at Trunk-or-Treat at our church.
The kids had SO MUCH fun handing out candy. It was fun to see them serving others and having a blast!


Our little pumpkin (24 days old)


Our little lion- so fierce!


Kyle and Kaden-1st Halloween together


Halloween photo on the porch
Kyle is *trying* to hold Kaden up