Poverty and Riches

JoAnn has this picture in her home and I have always loved it.  It's by Bessie Pease Gutman and it's called Poverty and Riches.  It has a rich lady with fancy clothes, nice jewelry, and she is holding a dog.  Under her picture it says Poverty.  The lady on the right is holding a baby and is a little more plain looking but, under her picture it says Riches.  The last couple of years I have looked around for this painting.  I even just wanted a little postcard of it or an old calendar picture of it.  But, it could not be found anywhere.  We soon found out that this painted is very rare and has some copyright laws with it. There are probably only 200 in the world and they are original prints.  I thought I would never come across one.  I started looking on ebay everyday to see if anyone would be selling one.  One night ,this beauty came up and Mike and I new we wanted to bid on it.  So, long story short we won the bid and got this original 1915 print of Poverty and Riches.  I love it and it means a lot to me because this is how I feel.  I am so rich to be the mother of 4 children.  They greatly bless my life and make me a better person each day.  I truly am a rich woman!

Meet Elizabeth

 On February 28th Joe and Jessica welcomed their first daughter Elizabeth Christine into the world.  She is such a beauty and it was so fun to see her in the hospital.  We are so excited for Joe and Jessica and the boys.

 I took Anne and Jason to see her a couple of days later.  I asked Eliza if she wanted to go and she said she was good just looking at a picture.  That girl cracks me up sometimes!

 About a week later Jessica had me take some pictures of her.  I love newborns and she is an extra cute newborn!

 I caught her smiling while sleeping.  I always wonder what they are thinking about.

Mom was holding her and talking to Elizabeth.  She was wide awake and we could tell she was trying so hard to tell Mom something.  It was a sweet moment.

Disneyland Day 8

 This was our last day of Disney and our vacation.  We decided that in order to get on the new Cars ride we would have to be one of the first people inside the park right when it opened.  So, we were!  We had a sweet plan to get us all on the new ride without waiting in the long line.  I was with Jason, Anne, and Eliza and we were the first people into the park.  Mike, meanwhile, with Lucy went and got a fast past for the ride.  The kids and I were one of the first to get on the new ride and it is so cute and fun.  We got off and Mike had his fast past.  He got ready to go on the ride when it broke down!  It was down the whole day and Mike never got to go on the ride.  I was so sad for him but, then thought this gives us reason to come back.  Mike still needs to go on the Cars ride!

 Cars Land is so cute and you actually feel like you are right in the movie.  We had fun just looking around at the sights.

 We couldn't believe these cars.  This is an actual car of Mater.  They would drive around the park so people could get pictures with them.

 I love this area of California Adventure by the pier.

 We went back to Disney so we could go through Minnie's house for Lucy.  Minnie's house is always so cute and fun.

Our last stop was meeting Mickey Mouse.  We said hello and then started to make our way out of the park.  The kids each got to pick a souvenir to take home.

Family vacations are a must and we have so much fun together as a family.  We made so many good memories and it was a good break from usual life.  Hopefully, we can make it make to Disney in a couple of years again!!

Disneyland Day 7

 Today was the princess breakfast.  The breakfast was held at Ariel's Grotto and as we walked down the stairs we were met by Ariel herself!  She told Lucy that they must be sisters because they both have red hair!

 We started to eat our yummy breakfast when they started announcing that certain princesses were at the breakfast.

 We met these princesses...Belle

 Cinderella

 Sleeping Beauty

 and Snow White.  It was a fun morning and the girls had fun meeting the princesses without standing in a long line.

 After the breakfast we decided to hit our favorite ride before the line got to long... The Toy Story Ride.

 Lucy loves this ride and this time around we were riding buddies.

 In California Adventure they have this adventure park that the kids can just run around and play in.  We spend a good hour just letting the kids run.  Anne and Jason liked this zip line tire ride.

 Mike and I took some time to get a pic with our sweet girl Eliza!

 The Hollywood area of California Adventure.

 The little girls really wanted to meet Tinkerbell back in Disney so, we split up and the older two went on rides while we waited in line to meet Tinkerbell and Fawn.  They were so cute with Eliza and Lucy, and it was well worth the wait.

California Day 6

 Today was Sunday.  We started the day by heading to church.  We found a ward in Anaheim and I have to saw I am so glad we went to this ward.  It was probably one of the neatest sacraments I have been to.  In the ward there is a down syndrome priest.  So, one of the priest blessed the bread and then they let the down syndrome priest bless the water.  One of the priest would whisper in his ear and then the down syndrome priest we repeat it in the microphone.  I was so impressed by the priest in this ward and the way they included the handicapped boy.  I am so glad we took the time to take the sacrament even while on vacation.

After church we got some lunch and thought a good way to observe the sabbath is to be in God's creations.  We headed to the beach to hang out as a family and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

 We headed over to Newport Beach.  I love this beach and was happy to visit it again!

 Eliza found a sand dollar!  She was so excited and happy.  This is one of the biggest and prettiest I have ever seen.

 The sea shell loot.

 I could sit and take pictures of my kids all day at the beach.  It's so much fun!

 Mike and Lucy chasing seagulls.  This was Lucy's favorite game.

 The kids built a sand castle with some of our shells.

 Then this handsome guy found a sand dollar too!!  It was the Schwitzer's lucky day!

 We buried each other in the sand.

 I thought the water was freezing but, the kids were full on in swim suits and jumping in the waves.

 Love this kid!

We walked the board walk in Newport and found some seals in the water just below us.  We enjoyed seeing them catch fish.  It was a great Sunday.