Family Photos

Erin Duggin took some fall photos of our family recently. I am in love with them for so many reasons...here are a just few:

1. I think Erin is amazing and so talented. She always captures the perfect moments, like this one:

2. I LOVE fall!! I love fall weather and fall colors! It is my favorite season and it just makes me happy to have some family photos during this time of the year.

3. I bought the dress Sophie is wearing in the pictures for her 1st birthday, and I think it's so cute on her, so I'm glad we have some great photos of her in it! :)

4. I've always been a fan of fields. Yep, you read that right. I love fields. I love the patterns made by the tractors; I love fields of grains that turn a deep red in the fall; I absolutely LOVE fields with one single oak tree in the middle (there's a great one on the way up to the rural town where I went to college), and I especially love fields of tall grasses in the fall...which is perfect, because that's where this photo shoot took place...by happenstance, actually.

So, if you want to check out the rest of them Click here and enter schaeferfam as your password. I think you'll see why I love them so much!
Thanks Erin!!

My Big Brother

I have to give a little shout out to my brother. Click here and here for some cool stuff he's featured in. (The video takes a while to upload.)
As we were growing up, I always said he'd be the next Frank Lloyd Wright and that students would learn about him in their art history and architecture classes in the future. I do believe he's well on his way.
Sooooo proud of you big brother!!

More Cute-ness!

She refused to put this apple down. Don't worry...we were watching her closely.

Her bangs were in her eyes, so I put her in her first pseudo "pony-tail."

A visit to Kansas

We went to Lawrence for Poppy's birthday mid-October. She's four and I can't believe how fast it has gone! As always, it was great to see my brother and his family!

My parent's with all the grandkids.

Poppy & Oskar adore their Uncle Matt (I mean, what kid wouldn't?!), and that warms my heart!

I love how this pic captured Sophie banging on Oskar's head.

It doesn't get much cuter, folks! This one's a keeper.

Swings in the new house while it's under construction. How fun!

Grandma & her girls.

Poppy & Oskar think it is hilarious to make goofy faces for pictures. It was a challenge to get them to just smile.

My brother was able to take a break from working on their house to have dinner with us Saturday night...which explains the paint all over his face.

We hit the pumpkin patch Sunday morning. It was COLD, but fun! Oskar was on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin, and Poppy collected about 10 of them before she chose her favorite.

This was the best one we got of them with our pile of pumpkins. After about 30 mintues of searching, Oskar finally found one he was satisfied with. He's got his hand on it in this picture.

Back That Thang Up

Let's back up here a bit.

When we got back from Wisconsin, I only had about a week before heading back to work for the school year. Sophie was moving around like crazy at that point, and you could totally tell she was going to take her first step very soon! I prayed and prayed that she would take that first step before I had to go back. I even sat her down and made her promise that I'd be there when she did it. TWO DAYS before my first day, we were in the church nursery and she reached that major milestone! I was SO relieved that I was there for it and that our sitter didn't have to lie to my face to avoid telling me she did it while I was gone.

Then school started and the craziness began. First of all, this transition back to work was definitely harder than my transition back in December. Sophie is so much fun now and we had such a great summer together. It was much more difficult to leave her all over again. To make matters worse, after three days back with our old sitter we decided it was time to switch daycare situations. We found a friend who said she was willing to help out for the year. Well, two weeks later she decided it wasn't working out for her, so we were back at square one. Matt was still job searching at the time, so we decided he would stay home with her. About 2 days into that he got a job! MAJOR PRAISE! We are so excited, but it put the pressure on for finding a new daycare. Needless to say, all of that was very stressful. Thankfully, we had a week or two before Matt started, so we had a little leeway. Matt starts this Monday and on Friday we finally found a great fit for Sophie! We are praying it works out as well as it seems that it should and that Sophie transitions smoothly.

In the midst of all of the daycare drama, my school thought it was a good idea to rearrange my schedule and the classes I teach on the THIRD day of school. Yep. You read that right. School had already begun and they gave me a brand-spankin-new class to teach. Freaking awesome. Not really. I pretty much feel like a first-year teacher all over again. I'm teaching 2 preps I've never taught before, along with my tried and true 11th grade English.

There was a night after work when Matt and I had put Sophie to bed and we were sitting out on our patio, when I realized that I had NEVER been so stressed out in my life. My baby was being jumped around from place to place and not dealing with all of the transitions very well at all, she was getting 3 new teeth all at the same time, my life at work was a disaster, Matt was hitting dead-end after dead-end with the job search, and the only thing that could solve all of my issues would force us to declare bankruptcy. Quitting my job just wasn't an option...but it sure was tempting.

Now that Matt's working (or about to start), we have a great daycare option for the school year, and things are settling down at work, I finally feel like I can exhale. And that's a good feeling.

MIA

Sorry I've been MIA lately. Life has thrown a few curves and I've had a hard time keeping up. Regardless, I have lots to post about. Not sure when all that will happen, but just know I'm still here and haven't given up on blogging...yet. Hopefully life will slow down soon and I'll be able to catch all of you up on some things I want to share. Primarily, Sophie's first birthday and all of her new tricks. Stay tuned...

Wisconsin '09

We had another great trip to Wisconsin this year! It was hard to believe that last year they were throwing me a surprise shower. My, how life has changed!

We left St. Louis just as the weather was about to turn hot and hit Wisconsin right as they were having a nice cool week. It was great. It could have been a bit warmer for hanging out at the beach, but we enjoyed some long walks in the sand and nice runs in town. We got a jogging stroller recently and have been LOVING it! It is so great for rough trails and uneven sidewalks. It just rides right over everything. Sophie loves it, too!

Perhaps the most exciting thing about the trip is that Matt's dad bought a boat! So fun!

Grandpa bought Sophie a baby life-vest and went out in the boat twice while we were there. We all took turns driving. Even Sophie:

When we first put the life-vest on to see if it would fit, she threw a fit! Did not like it at all! But that was in the house, and once we were out on the boat, she must have understood its purpose, because she did not mind it a bit! She didn't laugh and have a huge smile out on the boat, but she didn't scream and cry either. She was very serious the entire time and seemed a bit nervous.

We tried to keep her occupied with food, which seemed to have worked.

On the last day there, we had Sophie test the waters of Lake Michigan for the first time. The lake was FREEZING cold, but she loved it! She actually cried when Matt pulled her out of the water and started walking back in.

Every year Matt goes into the lake, no matter how cold, and goes all the way under. He wasn't sure he was totally submerged the first time, so he went twice. Here's the series of shots to prove he went under. He's nuts! I'm telling you, that water was SO cold!

Going out.

Going under.

Coming in.

One day we went into town and bought Sophie her first little hair bow. It's not actually a bow, it's a little pink flower, and it is SO cute! She didn't even pull it out. I was impressed seeing as how we've never stuck anything on her head before.

Matt's dad and grandparents LOVED playing with Sophie and were so good with her. It was fun to see their reaction to how big she is now. The last time his grandparents saw her was at Christmas. She's a lot more fun to interact with now.

Until next year...