Merry Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas Tree is how AJ says Merry Christmas. I just love listening to him talk! Anyway... here is our Christmas Card for 2009, along with a few pictures.

Dear Family & Friends,
This has been yet another exciting year for us. I think I can just cut and paste this next line from our previous Christmas letters, “We have yet again moved and welcomed a new baby to our family”. We have two family goals for 2010… First, we are NOT moving next year, and second we will break our “having a baby every year streak” (2007, 2008, and 2009) right now! No getting pregnant and having a baby in 2010. Do you think we can do it? I hope so or you’ll be sending this mamma to the loony bin.
While the last six weeks have been insanely crazy, we are so very happy to welcome our new little girl Emma Renon, born November 16. She has been such a sweet baby. Of course I think she is the most beautiful little girl in the world, but I may be a little biased. She sleeps great, four weeks old and almost all the way through the night! She loves getting kisses and hugs from her big brothers and I’m pretty sure she already has Daddy wrapped around her little finger. Other than eating and sleeping, she really doesn’t do much. But I sure am having fun dressing her up in cute girly clothes and pink bows!
Mikko will be two in March and has become our little “Mr. Personality”. He loves to tackle AJ and wrestle with him. He also loves to talk, attempting to repeat everything big brother AJ says. He is completely obsessed with trains, and loves to gently run his cars along the walls. Okay, I lied, he doesn’t gently do it, he puts huge marks all over my walls by running those stinking wheels along everything. He eats almost anything you put in front of him and one of his favorite things to do is drive me crazy by going in the pantry and dragging out boxes of crackers eating one handful and moving on to another cracker box. We got smart and put a lock on the pantry in our new house. Mikko is always full of surprises, and we can’t wait to see what he does next.
AJ will be three in March. He has finally reached the age where he will sit and watch an entire movie. I cannot tell you how many times we have seen Cars and Finding Nemo. A couple months after AJ turned two, he suddenly started talking like crazy! He loves to ask questions and repeat EVERYTHING we say. We have had a few really funny moments with AJ repeating what we say, but I would feel inappropriate writing them in this letter, so if you want to know what they are give us call. AJ loves to sing songs and read books. He also loves to count things and point out letters. He carries the most random things around with him, and won’t leave the house without them. AJ has been so exciting this year with all the new things he wants to learn, it already makes me feel like he is growing up too fast!
Aaron and I are doing great. Moving and having a baby within two weeks of each other may have gotten us into a few arguments… okay, maybe a lot of arguments, but we came out of it still married and loving each other. Aaron is still with Eli Lilly and serving in his same calling at church as Young Men’s President (which he totally and completely loves). I am still lucky enough to stay home and raise my sweet beautiful children. And while some days Aaron comes home to a “ready to break down” wife who just wants a moment to take a shower, most days, we do just fine.
Our growing little family has been such an amazing blessing. Despite any hardships we have and will face, we are so very grateful for what we have. We are happy and healthy and during this time of year especially, we feel so fortunate for our knowledge and faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ. May you all enjoy this Holiday Season as well, and have a very Happy New year!

The Queen Bee has arrived!

The day has finally come and gone! I went in to the hospital with a scheduled induction on November 16. Her due date was the 23rd, but she was measuring a little big, so we decided to take her a week early. We thought she may come on her own, since 5 days before my induction, I was already dilated to a 4 and 90% effaced. AHHH, I was so nervous! I had never gone into labor on my own before. But, we ended up making it to our scheduled appointment for Monday morning the 16th.

Everything went very quickly! I received the pitocin at about 9:30am, my water broke on its own at about 11:00am. I got my epidural about a half hour later (which worked great! As usual) and I could feel around 1:00pm, that she was ready to come out! When they checked me, I was right, we were ready to push, but since we weren't expecting it so quickly we had to wait for Dr. to arrive. Once she arrived, I gave it a couple good pushes and she was out in about 60 seconds.

Queen Bee was born November 16, 1:16pm, weighing 8 lbs, 9 oz, 20 inches long. She is SO CHUBBY to me! I just LOVE IT! She came out just perfectly! I was hoping she would be right between her brothers, and she was. However, she is a short little thing. Both her brothers were 22 inches long. She has some dark hair, but not too much. Both the boys had a lot more than her, but we'll take every strand of hair we can get, cause I'm pretty sure she'll be bald for a while.

Daddy was a great coach! He is always wonderful during labor. He got to cut her cord, and even got to help give her a bath (which was a first for us). He loves his little girl so much already! And she is already such a Daddy's girl. She has him wrapped around her little finger!! I have been recovering pretty well. The after labor pains are MUCH worse the 3rd time around. I was sort of expecting it, but hoping it starts to fade soon. I hate taking pain medication, and I'm sick of feeling tired and dizzy from it. But other than that, we are enjoying our little addition!

The boys weren't able to visit her in the hospital, so they had to wait until we brought her home to meet her. We only stayed at the hospital for one night. When we brought her home on Tuesday, the boys were pretty indifferent about it. Big brother said a quick hi, then ran off to play. Mama's Boy ran straight to me and was a little afraid of Queen Bee. He wouldn't touch her and didn't even want to look at her. But now he has really warmed up to her. He likes to watch her from a bit of a distance, but he will give her kisses and likes to point to her. He hasn't been mean to her at all yet, so I'm hoping he won't. Big brother likes to take her things and is already protective of her stuff when Mama's Boy tries to get into it. He says, "no, thats babies, no no". So our little family is adjusting.

We are loving having a little girl around. So far, she eats and sleeps wonderfully! But they all kind of do for a few days. So I won't say anything more, I don't want to jinx our good sleeping / eating baby.

Having three now has made things busy around here and its only been a few days, but I think we'll manage just fine! I'm excited for mine and The Boss' first night away tonight! We are going to see the midnight showing of New Moon! I am so excited and so grateful my sweet husband is willing to do this with me! We'll try to keep you updated on our little growing family, although we are moving in a week and a half, so it may be while before you hear from us again. But I promise... I'll try!!

It's official!

I have two "It's officials" actually.

First, I went to the Doctor yesterday and we did the ultra sound. Queen Bee is about 7lbs right now and I am 371/2 weeks. So we decided to schedule the induction for Monday the 16th (a week early from my due date). We were thinking of taking her 2 weeks early, like we did with Mama's Boy, but she isn't quite as big as her brothers. My Doctor said if I deliver on the 16th, little girl should be between 8lbs - 8 1/2lbs. That is just perfect! I really don't want her to be any smaller than 8lbs. I like my babies a little on the chubbier side. However, I am feeling absolutely miserable right now. I'm starting to swell, my legs, arms and hands feel stiff. My belly really is growing to be huge (even though I'm not nearly as big weight wise as I was with the boys), its getting REALLY uncomfortable! I don't know if I am dilated at all, but I really feel like I am. Baby is head down (and has been the last few weeks). I just started having some contractions the other night, so it seems like we are getting into ready mode! We sure are ready for little Queen Bee to get her, but we don't want her coming too early, so I've been trying to take it easy and NOT do things that will induce labor (poor Boss, I think he was hoping it would be the other way around). We'll keep you updated!

Second "official" item, is that we are yet again... brace yourselves... moving. As most of you know the house we are renting now has been up for short sale for quite some time and was eventually going to go into foreclosure (although we have still faithfully been paying our rent to the owners who I'm sure haven't made a payment in over 6-months....). Well, the house is in escrow, and while there is still a chance it could fall through, we found something we really like, so decided to take it. We've been looking for the last couple months, knowing that the house could sell or go under at any point. Plus, this house is entirely too large for us. I haven't enjoyed cleaning it, or paying the rent and utilities for it. We want to start saving so we can buy again, so a downgrade is a must. We are just moving down the street, and we know the house won't be going under, because the owner just bought it in October and paid cash. This was one of the main reasons we went with this home. I am NOT taking anymore gambles on renting a house that's getting ready to go under!!! Its 2350 sqft (so still plenty big) and has 4 bedrooms. Its also has darker carpet!!! You have no idea how excited I am for this. Kids can make such a mess on carpet (especially light carpet) and I HATE dirty carpets, so keeping these clean has been a challenge. This house actually has tile through most of the downstairs anyway, so NO MORE SCRUBBING THE CARPET!!! ... silly I know. The biggest bummer is that we are moving the 1st of December. That's only a couple weeks after Queen Bee is born. So I am TOTALLY NOT looking forward to packing up and moving everything right after I give birth, but I would rather be all settled for Christmas. Our initial fear was that we would get our 30-day notice right around Christmas... so while it will be a pain, between The Boss and I (if you know us well), everything will get done and while "words" may be exchanged in the process and stress will be high for a couple days, we are pretty efficient and I am confident that within a few days of moving, it will look like we've lived there all along. Wish us luck!

Halloween fun... and a few naughty things

Halloween was really fun for us this year. I didn't quite know how well the boys would "get it" but they did and it was SO FUN!!! We started out carving pumpkins (which they didn't "get" or care at all about) with the big 'ole Schwitters clan. Aaron and I had fun carving them though, and the kids had fun playing at GG's house. Its always fun getting together as a family and catching up with everyone.

(I thought this picture was so sweet! Mikko LOVES the swings, and he especially LOVES swinging with his Daddy)

Halloween night, we went to my mom's house for her annual Halloween Party. I think she was a little disappointed that the boys didn't want to jump in the "jumpy house" she rented... maybe next year. But all the other cousins LOVED it! Its always a hit! For trick-or-treating we were just going to take the boys to a couple of houses. We put Mikko in the stroller and let AJ walk. At the first house, I had to guide AJ a little... "say trick-or-treat... now say thank you and Happy Halloween". After the first house he TOTALLY got it! It was so fun. He and Mikko both LOVED looking at all the decorations that people would have out. They would point out the lights, the pumpkins, the ghosts, etc... The only problem we had with AJ is that he didn't want to stop! My parents neighborhood is a little spread out, and with AJ walking it was taking FOREVER! So we drove over to my cousins (Laurie) neighborhood where the houses are closer together and we did some trick-or-treating with them. At one point in the middle of it all AJ was holding my hand walking to the next house and he looked up at me and said "I like trick-or-treating mommy". Ohhhhh.... it melted me. I was actually surprised, AJ never cared about eating his candy. I think he just liked going up to peoples houses and having them put something in his little bag. He never once even tried to eat it. And the next morning when we were eating breakfast he said, "we go trick-or-treating mommy?" It broke my heart! I told him he had to wait a whole year, but I'm pretty sure he didn't comprehend it. So it was a fun Halloween! It makes me really excited for Christmas now that I know AJ gets excited about things. Hope everyone elses Halloween was as fun as ours!

(Mikko was Cosmo, the BYU Cougar mascot. This was what AJ was last year. I'm cheap and don't want to buy my kids new Halloween costumes. It seemed to work well!)

(The boys also got into the dirt right before we left for trick-or-treating. So as disgusting as it is, that's not candy or chocolate you see on Mikko's face... its dirt... maybe with a little cookie mixed in.)

(AJ was a little spider for Halloween. At first he wasn't too thrilled about wearing the actual costume. But we pointed out the spider on it, he liked wearing it. He also liked telling us he had a "spider" on him.)

(As you can see, Aaron and I came up with a last minute costume idea... being limited on what I can fit into... and being cheap and not wanting to purchase anything, Aaron was a ref and I was a BYU basketball player. Everyone thought I was hiding a ball in my jersey... nope, it was the real thing!)

These are just some pictures of some of the boys' favorite things to do... naughty things to do. They do many naughty things (not too naughty though... I have no room to complain), but these are their latest favorites.

(They LOVE playing in the car! As soon as I unbuckle them from their car seats, it is a race to the front of the van to get in the drivers seat. AJ says "I driving mommy" or he says "Cocoa driving like big boy". They can't really hurt anything right?)

(The other naughty thing they LOVE to do is get into the pantry and unload ALL the water bottles. They like to stick them in random places and tear off the labels.)

The end is in sight with little Emma. Tomorrow we do an ultra sound and schedule the induction. I am SO ready! Last night was horrible!!!! And her movement is hurting me so bad now! I don't know if shes extra squished or what. Anyway, I know the last few weeks are miserable for everyone, so I'll stop complaining. But we'll try to keep everyone posted. Most likely it will happen some time next week! Can't wait!!

New rooms

Some of you may or may not know that we recently put AJ and Mikko in the same room, so Emma could have her own. They have done excellent sleeping in the same room together! AJ is in a big boy twin bed now. My little boy is growing up so fast! He loves to fill Mikko's crib with books and toys in the morning when they wake up. I think Mikko rather enjoys it! Here are some pics of their new room.

Of course I am terribly limited on what I can do since we rent. Which means no paint!! I don't get to do EXACTLY what I would like for Emma's room, but I've had a lot of fun doing little projects for it. We really don't have the money right now to do all the things I'd like, but it has turned out nice.

I made these really cute bow and picture boards. So cheap! And I LOVE them WAY more than any I saw online or at any store.

I also recently took a trip to Phoenix where I visited my cousins Devin and Tanya. Tanya was so sweet to show me how to make these little headbands with flowers. It was fun, cheap, and so practical. She also showed me how to make a little ballerina skirt. So I made Emma's first little ballet skirt. LOVE IT!!

I also made the letters we put over her crib. Well, I didn't make the actual letters... but I painted them, sanded them, and then stuck the little butterfly and flower on there (which I also painted and sanded). I've had so much fun with all this!

So, here is her room so far. We are all ready for little Emma to come!! Thanks to my mom and dad for getting Emma her bedding. I LOVE it, and it makes me feel ALL READY for her!

As I mentioned, Aaron and I went to Phoenix a couple weeks ago, where he had a business meeting and I visited friends and family. I don't have any pictures, but I hung out with Jill (and Kelli was there visiting), going to the outlets and eating at Rain Forrest Cafe. It was fun! My kids would LOVE that place! We were seated right next to the moving loud elephants!

I also got to visit my cousin Devin (whom I hadn't seen in years) and I met his wife Tanya and cutie kids Rylie and Ezra. It was so much fun hanging out with them. Tanya and I did some crafts (the headband bows & ballet skirt), we got to eat at Cafe Rio (YAHOO!!!), and just hang out with the kids and visit. Thanks for letting me hang out guys!

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted. I am just SO tired all the time right now. While in Phoenix, of course, I got the stomach flu. Then, a few days later, Mikko got the stomach flu... then AJ... then Aaron got sick. Now, I am sick again with a cold and possible respiratory infection. AWWWWWHHHH!!! Its not bad enough that I'm having a baby in a few weeks, (cause that doesn't make you tired), I have to be sneezing, and coughing, having headaches, heartburn, ear aches, completely drained of any energy, and I get to clean up other peoples throw up, hold crying sick babies, and not completely ignore my poor husband. Thats my rant. Hopefully things will get better soon. Aaron and the kids have been feeling much better, which is fabulous. I am getting an ultra sound done in a week to see how big our little Emma is, and once we do that, I think we'll be able to pin down when I'll be induced. Right now its looking like November 9th, or 16th. So, I'll try to be better about keeping everyone updated.