Christmas (Part I)

So I finally got the pictures off of my parents' camera from our Christmas spent together. We gathered together on the Saturday before Christmas at my aunt & uncle's house. My brother and his family had just come in town and it was GREAT to see my babies. Okay, so they're not really babies anymore, but I just can't get enough of my Poppy & Oskar.
This is a picture of my grandparents with all of their great-grandchildren...minus Hannah, who was sleeping at the time. Sophie is all swaddled up, because she should have been sleeping, too!

My cousin, Dan, came straight from the airport. He is in his first year at West Point and was glad to be home for a while!
This is my brother, Scott, and my cousin, Kyle.

That night we all spent the night at my parents' house. It was pretty fun to have the whole family under one roof again. That just doesn't happen very often anymore. Sunday morning we got up and had our family Christmas together. Matt & I gave hooded towels to Oskar & Poppy. They LOVE hooded towels and refuse to take a bath without one. I thought they would like them, but I had no idea how excited Poppy would be! She wore it on her head for the rest of the day.


This was taken after their bath on a different night.

The highlight of Christmas morning, however, was the gift my parent's gave Oskar. I need to back up a little though. Last year at Christmas, my dad set up his old electric train around one of their Christmas trees knowing that Oskar would love it. He is absolutely infatuated with anything that has wheels, especially trains! Little did we know that Oskar would spend every waking minute in front of that train. Here is a picture from Christmas in '07:


That is pretty much where we could find Oskar the entire time he was here. Running the train.
Well, my dad wanted to get Oskar his very own electric train this year, and spent hours researching the perfect train. He found one that is almost identical to the one he grew up with as a kid. You guys, I just can't explain it, but it brings tears to my eyes every time I think about how special this is for my dad and Oskar. I just think it's so cute and will create a lifetime of memories for this little man. Just look at these pictures. PURE JOY!

Opening the train

Setting it all up. 3 generations of Trettels. Those boys love their "engineering" toys! It runs through all of their blood!

Manning his very own train! He had it all figured out in less than 10 minutes.

She's so silly.

Scott left on Sunday afternoon, but Amy & the kiddos stuck around for a few more days. (Scott is pretty much building their house by himself right now, and he needed to get some more work done on it.) It was great to have a few days to goof around and play with Poppy & Oskar and catch up with Amy.

Poppy was pretty interested in Sophie & Oskar thought she was hilarious. He cracked up every time he could get her to smile.

(If you are following my blog at all, Amy is doing well and is managing her MS with diet and excercise and it seems to be working really well! She's feeling good and hasn't been having as many symptoms lately. Keep praying for her health and for a cure!!)

So that's the Trettel Christmas in a nutshell. It was a blast! Looking forward to next year when Sophie is a little more aware of what's going on!

Surprise!

It was this exact day last year when my world turned upside down. We found out I was pregnant. On the way home from an evening at a friend's house, I needed to stop and get some pantyhose for work the next day and randomly decided to pick up a cheap pregnancy test, too. Just for fun. Because I'd never taken one and thought I'd get a shock out of Matt. I honestly did NOT think I was pregnant. The test was $3 and it was more for a joke than anything else. So around 10:30pm, while Matt was doing laundry, I "took" the test. It turned to a plus sign immediately. I just kind of stood there in shock. Then I went and showed Matt. I can't really remember his reaction, to be honest, but I'm pretty sure I got that shock out of him that I was expecting...just in a different way. I got on-line and researched the most reliable pregnancy tests out there, because I was sure I must have gotten a faulty one...remember, it was only $3. Then we ran out to the drugstore and bought a 2 pack of the "best one out there." I took another test that night...it was positive, too. (I didn't know at the time that there's no such thing as a false-positive with pregnancy tests...only false-negatives.) I didn't sleep all night, my mind was racing, and I took another test in the morning. Still positive.

The rest is pretty self explanatory. Sophie arrived about 9 months later.

On Monday, Sophie Grace will be 4 months old. We went to the doctor today and she weighs 13 lbs 2 oz and is 25 inches long. That's the 40th percentile for weight and 80th for height. She is growing and healthy and all smiles these days. I am amazed and humbled at the precious gift God has blessed us with. Little did I know last year that my life was not turned upside down, but right-side up. Everything has changed, and it has changed in all the right ways. 2008 was full of surprises for us, and I have loved every minute since September 5th at 11:34pm with an amazing husband and this little angel God has decided to share with us. I'm looking forward to all the surprises and blessings God continues to bring us in 2009.

Christmas (Part III : Wisconsin)

On Christmas morning we got up bright & early at 4:30...well, it wasn't actually that bright outside, pitch black in fact, but it was freaking early...to head to Wisconsin. Joy & Peter were supposed to be at our house by 4:45 so we could load up the car, squeeeeeeze us all in, and pull out by 5am. At 5:30 we had left several messages on both of their cell phones and hadn't heard anything from them. We decided to drive over to Joy's house, but her car wasn't there. We had no idea what was going on, so we went ahead and started our trip up north to Wisconsin without them. We were on the highway by 6am. Around 8:30 or 9 we eventually got a phone call. Joy had overslept, but didn't know that Peter didn't make it either. Later we got a call from Peter...he had also overslept. Neither of them had heard their alarms or their phones ringing when we called. So the two of them met up and headed up about 4 hours after we had already left.

Sophie did really well in the car. She got a little fussy with about 2 more hours to go, but luckily Matt has family in Rockford, IL., so we pulled off the highway and hung out with them for a while. Thanks Ken & Diane!

We arrived in Brookfield, WI, at Matt's grandparent's house, around 2pm to this:

Talk about a white Christmas!! Nearly 2 feet of snow! We relaxed the rest of the day, waited for Joy & Peter, opened gifts between the immediate family, and celebrated Christmas with the whole family the following day on the 26th. Matt's aunt & uncle & cousins all came over to his grandparent's house, and once again there were many jokes & much laughter! Lots of fun! Saturday was spent relaxing a bit and checking out some after-Christmas sales at the mall & at Crate & Barrel. All too quickly we were up at the crack of dawn & back on the road again on Sunday morning. It was a wonderful trip, but was too short! The ride back was long, but Sophie was a champ & didn't fuss at all.

Here are some pictures of our trip:

Sophie with her Great Grandma! She's wearing an adorable dress given to her by her great-grandparents!

Sophie with her Great Grandpa!

Joy & Peter with their little niece. She's wearing a shirt that says, "Snow Angel," I thought it was appropriate under the circumstances. :)

This was taken Christmas evening after Joy & Peter arrived and we opened gifts. We were very blessed this Christmas on all fronts, and very excited about our new video camera from Matt's dad!! Once I figure out how to upload videos, we'll be sure to post a few on here!

Somehow we managed to forget to take pictures on the 26th when the extended family came over. So sad, because it was a great evening with lots of photo-opps.

Coming soon to a blog near you: Christmas Part I & Part IV. (Part IV hasn't happened yet.)

Christmas (Part II)

You might be thinking that you missed Part I. Well, we're doing things a little out of order this time around. The reason for this crazy adventure is because apparently we forgot to take pictures on my camera during Christmas with my side of the family...which was first in the order of events. We celebrated with them on Saturday the 21st, and then my sister-in-law stayed in town with Poppy & Oskar until the 23rd. So...I'm going to wait to post about all of that until I can steal some pictures off of my mom & dad's camera.

Anywho...We enjoyed our first Christmas together by first going to church Christmas Eve evening. It was a nice service and so special to hold our baby girl singing hymns of our Savior's birth. She drifted off to sleep at the end as we sang Silent Night by candlelight (one of my favorite things about the Christmas Eve service), and tears were in the corners of both of our eyes as we held her and each other. Such a wonderful memory to treasure.

We came back to our house to have Christmas with Matt's mom; her boyfriend, Mike; and Matt's siblings, Peter, Joy, & Mitchell. It was a fun time had by all! Lots of jokes, laughter, and smiles! It was very relaxed, too, thanks to Matt's mom who brought over dinner. Here are some photos of the evening:

Our first family Christmas photo

Proud Grandma

Mitchell & Peter

Joy, after rocking her niece to sleep. So cute!


Mike & Diane

Mommy & Sophie
I can't help it. I love this picture of us!!

Merry Christmas, everyone...albeit a little late. Parts I, III, & IV coming soon...but who knows in what order! Admit it, the suspense is killing you!

It just stinks.

Many of you know that I started back at work on December 4th. People have asked how that is going and I'm never quite sure what they want me to say. "Oh, it's WONDERFUL! I just LOVE leaving Sophie at 7am so I can miss the best parts of her day when she's all smiles and giggles! It's great to pick her up at 4pm when she's tired and I'm tired and we only have a couple more hours together before she goes down for the night! I love 'watching' other peoples' kids all day so that I can pay someone else to watch mine." I feel like the answer should be pretty obvious, but I know that's just me being cynical & rude. I know that the people asking are just trying to be kind and show that they care. And I know that they do.

So while that's been running through my head, my verbal response has been pretty much the same to everyone: "Luckily, I'm good at compartmentalizing, and when I'm at work I can focus on being there. The hardest part is walking away from her in the morning, but once I get to work I do okay." And I do. But I can't wait to get in my car and zoom over to whoever she's with for the day (she's been staying with family & friends until Christmas break) and grab her in my arms and smother her in kisses. And I do. Maybe if she weren't so stinkin cute it wouldn't be so hard and I'd shed less tears every morning. But she is...so the tears will keep coming.

People say "It will get easier." I'd like to be able to go back in time so I could remember who said that to me, because either they were lying to make me feel better about the crappiness of it all OR they never had to leave their baby in the arms of someone else every day and have no clue what they're talking about. Every single working mom that I've talked to has confirmed that it does not get easier. I know I've only been doing this for about 2 weeks now, but I can say that it only gets harder every day. The reality of it sinks in more and more, and it just stinks. In fact, that's a good way to sum it all up, and maybe it should be my new response to those who ask:
"It just stinks."

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love the weather outside, the food, but mostly I just love a getting together with family out at the lake. This year was great because we had an addition to our family, our little turkey. My brother and his family also came out for the first time to meet Sophie. It was wonderful to catch up with my brother, Scott, and sister-in-law, Amy. Poppy and Oskar warmed up to us after a bit and were A LOT of fun to wrestle around with. They're getting SO big! Here are some photos of our time out there on Thursday.

Our family picture.
I don't know why, but I love that my brother and I aren't holding our own kids. I just think it's sweet and shows how much we love each others children. I'd do anything for Oskar & Poppy and I'm pretty sure Scott thinks Sophie's pretty cool too.

This just melts my heart. I just about cried when I looked across the room to see my big brother holding my baby girl. So sweet.

My cousin Brian is SO sweet with kids. Sophie was kind of a grump this weekend and every time Brian held her she cried. He totally thought it was his fault, but it never was. She just has her moments, and unfortunately they occurred while he was holding her. She really does love you, Brian!

Grandma with her granddaughters. She was in heaven!

A funny one of Poppy checking out her tummy. She is SO full of energy!

My sister-in-law, Amy, is a very talented artist. One of her specialties is hand-dying fabrics. She started up her own clothing business a while back and makes amazing clothes for babies and kids. She gave Sophie some beautiful clothes when they got to the lake. I am obsessed with them! She's worn them everyday since Thursday! (Don't worry, there were several different outfits.) This is just one of them:

We got to celebrate the season with Matt's family in addition to our time out at the lake on Thursday. Wednesday night we got to have a lovely dinner with Matt's mom and family. Lots of laughs and good stories! And on Friday, we were able to hang out with Matt's dad who was in from Chicago. Thanks for coming and visiting Grandpa Schaefer!

We are very blessed by and thankful for family this year.

Just Crazy

Did you hear the story about the girl who was on a run in Arizona, was attacked by a rabid fox, and had to run over a mile back to her car with it attached to her arm? Crazy. She was on Letterman the other night and told her story. It was pretty crazy. The fox attacked her and then sunk its teeth into her arm. She knew it had to be rabid, so instead of shaking it off (which probably would have ripped through her muscles anyway) she grabbed it by the neck and started running back to her car. The fox was worn out enough after the run back that it relaxed its bite, so she threw it in her trunk and headed to the hospital. I mean...that's crazy, right? I am just not that tough. She told the animal control people that it oddly smelled like skunk, and they told her it had probably killed and eaten a skunk recently...which is probably where it picked up rabies.

Ya know something else crazy? I wouldn't have been able to tell animal control that it smelled like skunk. Wanna know why? I can't smell skunk! Isn't that crazy? I have a very strong sense of smell, but I have never been able to smell skunk. Other people will be all like, "Ewww...do you smell that? Skunk. Gross." And I'm all like, "Nope. Can't smell a thing."

So there's your story for today. Nothing to do with my cute daughter...just some weirdo thing about her mom that she might inherit. Crazy.

(Feel free to share something you know is crazy in the comments!)