Welcome Lucy!

On November 26th our family welcomed Lucy JoAnn!! I was induced in the morning and had her at 3:58p.m. I had a really good delivery and everything went well. Lucy was 7 lbs 7oz and 19.5 inches long. She was so mad when she came out. She cried and cried and screamed until they swaddled her back up and she was held. The kids were standing waiting outside the delivery room and when it was time they fell in love with their new little sister. They got to hold her and there was even fighting over who had held her the longest. It was a wonderful day... a day I will not forget. She has been such a blessing to our family and her sweet spirit that she has brought to our home is so nice during this Christmas season. We are so lucky to have Lucy part of our family!!

She finally stopped crying and was happy being held. They put a fun little Thanksgiving hat on her after she was born.

Lucy and her proud Dad!

The kids love her so much and when we brought her home from hospital I had to take Lucy on a tour of our house. The kids had made her cards welcoming her to her new home.

She had many visitors and I have pictures of just a few. But, lots of Uncles and Aunties and Grand-parents paid visits to Lucy in the hospital.

Hanging out at the hospital as a family.

Her first week home she has done well. We are doing the newborn schedule but, she is so sweet and fun to cuddle.

Anne is the best babysitter and she will hold Lucy while I get things done around the house.

This is what she does most of the time is sleep. She is the best baby and what a blessing she is!!!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was at Tom and Cathy's. They did a fantastic job hosting all of us and we had a great meal. All the food was soooo good and we had a good afternoon enjoying each other's company. There were lots of tables full of the funnest people.... the cousins!

After dinner the kids played pin the feather on the turkey and all the kids some how placed the feather in the right spot! I think there was a lot of peaking! Auntie Kari did a craft with the kids and the older kids enjoyed playing bingo. We had a great holiday being with our family!

Fun Moments

This past week I opened the dryer to fine a dollar bill sitting on top of dry clothes! Sometimes I make a joke when I find loose change in the dryer or washer and I say " Hey, I just got paid for doing the laundry!" So, when I found the dollar I told the kids that I got paid a whole dollar for doing the laundry. Jason said, " Mom I put that dollar in there. Thanks for doing my laundry!" He really surprises me sometimes and it is a moment I never want to forget. I told him I do his laundry for free because I love him!

The first snow happened and the kids were ready to go out a play at 7:45 in the morning. Yes, my little early birds were so excited to play in it. Eliza kept shouting, " It's Christmas, It's Christmas!" So, I let them go out and play and after about a half hour they were done. There is something happy about the first snow but, when it snows in May not so happy. I think I have a love hate relationship with snow!!!

Getting Ready

We decided to put up our Christmas tree this week. The kids want the house to look nice when baby Lucy comes home and they are serious. Mike put up the tree and put on the lights and then the kids went crazy. They did a great job this year and I think Lucy will be excited to live in the home with her amazing brother and sisters!

Max has officially taken his spot....under the tree! He did this last year and he loves sleeping under the lights. It's really cute!

Cousins

We had a wedding shower for our beautiful sweet cousin Elizabeth. She is getting married in about a month in the Portland Temple to Jeff. They are such a cute couple and have a bright future ahead of them. We had the shower at our home and we just had adults come which made it a lot easier to actually have a conversation with someone. We ate, opened presents, and got to know Jeff a little better.
I am grateful for cousins and the unique relationship they bring into my life. I really don't have a really close cousin my age so on the Young side I treasure the opportunity to spend some time with them. I remember actually babysitting Elizabeth and now she is getting married! There is something neat, though, about getting together with people that have the same blood running through them as you do and when you talk there is a special connection that never goes away.


Here are Elizabeth and Jeff opening presents

Anne and Eliza were the only kids around. They were so good and ate their dinner up in the play room. They were so excited to eat up there. They even put a table cloth on their play table and made there own party!

We were so excited to welcome a new cousin to the Schwitzer family... Emily! She is such a pretty baby and we are excited to have close girl cousin for own baby girl Lucy. ( Who should be coming in any day.) Congrats to Josh, Sara, and Ryan and we can't wait to take more pictures and spend more time with our new cousin!

Till We Meet Again

Sweet Grandma Rawsthrone passed away early in the morning on Nov. 3rd. We knew she was sick and that this time would come but, it's always hard to say the final good bye. She lived such a great life and was such a wonderful example to all of us. I am so grateful that we had the chance to visit her this passed summer and my kids have such good memories of her. Her legacy will live on through all of her grand-kids and great grand-kids. She will be deeply missed.

The Best Times

The day after Halloween is our anniversary and we celebrated by going down town. We do this it seems just about every year. We love going back to place we were married. Since I am 9 months pregnant I couldn't walk around the grounds as long but, we enjoyed eating at the Garden which over looks the SL temple. That morning the kids looked through our wedding pictures and watched our wedding video. My girls love it and ask me when they can have a princess dress like mine! I love Mike so much and I hope my kids always know how much I love their Father. We have been through a lot of changes over the past 9 years but, that is the stage we are in. I wouldn't want to be on this journey with anyone else!

Halloween

Halloween morning the kids carved their pumpkins. They all carved them on their own and they turned out really good. Then it was the waiting all day to go trick or treating! We had ward party in the early evening and that was fun. It was raining that day but, it seemed to stop just in time to go trick or treating! The kids ran from house to house and filled up their buckets with lots of yummy candy. Ryan and Erin came trick or treating with us and that made Eliza happy to go out with Sydney!

Jason was Darth Vader. This is the year of Stars Wars for him!

Anne made the perfect Alice in Wonderland with her blonde hair and blue eyes!

Eliza was Little Red Riding Hood. She loves this costume and everyday we have to put it on. Grandma Young helped me make Eliza and Anne's costumes. Really, Mom did most of it but, it was fun to work on them with my Mom!

Young Spooky Dinner

Each year Grandma and Grandpa Young put on a spooky dinner. It is really fun and the kids look forward to it each year. I did not get very many pictures this year so, I guess this will do! We all dress up and there are spider webs all through their house. The kids love this and try to make their way through the web to the kitchen. We just ate and talked and the kids enjoyed being together again.

Grandma Young was a ghost but, her costume actually turned out more pretty than scary! I guess that was good for the all the young kids we have in our family!

Schwitzer Halloween Party

This year the Halloween party was at our house and it was a lot fun. All the grand-kids came dressed in their costumes and they were one good looking Halloween bunch! We got the crazy grand-kid picture first before all the games and eating began.

We ate dinner first and then we had set up 3 stations of games. We divided the kids into age groups and had then rotated through the games. One of the games was the donut eating contest which is a Schwitzer family tradition. All the kids did great and even Max got crazy a couple of times. Max really LOVED Andrew's costume this year! Ha Ha

The kids had a contest of sucking up some Halloween paper with a straw. They would have races to see who could suck up their paper the fastest!

Eliza and Claire were just happy playing in Eliza room. They were so cute that night and the flash didn't catch it but their faces were covered in Halloween treats!

Anne, Evelyn, Will, and Kate after completing all their games. The last game was a spooky game down in our basement where the kids had to touch and feel certain pretend body parts and guess what kind of food we used to spook them out. After we had a dance contest and Andrew was by far the winner of that with Max right by his side! We had a really fun night and enjoyed having everyone to our home!

Halloween Traditions

There are some events we try to do every Halloween and we ended up keeping the traditions alive! We made Halloween sugar cookies and the kids did a fantastic job decorating them and making them look festive.

We went to Hee Haw Farms and the kids had so much fun. We got there just at dark so getting good pictures was a little more tricky this year.

The kids love riding the tire horse swings and Eliza cried every time we took her off. She would have swung all night if we let her.

We got out into the pumpkin patch right at dark and finding a pumpkin in the dark is interesting. The kids found their special pumpkin and then we got a very bumpy tractor ride back to the main area.

They have the farm animal petting area and of course Eliza was all about this. She wanted to hold this bunny and she was in heaven. The kids went down the huge slides for about an hour. Every time Eliza went down she would scream the whole way and then laugh the whole way back up to go down the slide again. It was a good time!

Growing up!

Anne has not been interested in learning to ride her 2 wheeler. She loves her razor scooter and enjoyed riding her bike with training wheels. One day I accidentally ran over her bike and broke the training wheels. So, she just never rode her bike for months. The other day she saw Marcie riding her bike and she is younger than her. That was that and she got on her bike and just started riding. She is the bike queen now and with the weather being so nice she is out riding her bike all day. Sounds like someone else I know (Me!) I loved riding my bike and would spend all day riding it in the nice weather!

Anne lost her first tooth and she was so brave. There were just a few tears and then lots of a laughs and excitement for the tooth fairy to come. We keep telling her to stop growing up but, she is not listening!!

Random Thoughts and Pictures

I love when my girls wear matching outfits and they love it too. These two girls are so sweet and I am so excited to have another girl. Before I had kids I really thought I would have all boys. I am not a Tom Boy but, I grew up with mostly boys and it just seems natural to me. I love being in Cub Scouts and going to their camps and I love watching sports with Mike. So, now I have been blessed with daughters and it's the greatest blessing to me. I love being a women I have found as I am raising these daughters what a big responsibility Heavenly Father has placed upon me. I am raising the next generation of mothers! I see little parts of me in each them and I hope I can be a good example of motherhood to them.

Anne wanted to take a picture and I told her take a picture of my big belly. She did a pretty job considering she never really uses a camera! Here I am at 33 weeks and I am getting down to the last couple of weeks before this new spirit comes into our home. Some days I feel nervous about having a newborn again but, I can't wait to finally see this little girls face. Jason, Anne, and Eliza are counting down the days for the baby like they are counting down for Christmas. This has been probably my most fun pregnancy because I feel like I am sharing it with my kids. They ask about her and talk about what they want to teach her and what toys they will share with her. In the past it has just been Mike and I excitement but, this time I can feel the excitement running through all of us. So, here we go with baby #4!

A Great Day!

Jill went through the Draper temple and it was neat day. The Draper temple is so pretty and it was fun to do a session there with our whole family. We are so proud of Jill and know her decision to go through will greatly bless her life. We love her and were so happy to spend this special day with her.

Allie, Me, Erin, Jill, JanaLynn, Mom, and Jessica.

Matt, Mike, Joe, Jill, Ryan, Dad, Brad.

After the Temple Session we went to dinner for Mexican and had a great time eating without the grand-kids. We love them but, it was so nice to talk just as adults. Congrats Jill!