From 2 Years Old To A Teenager Overnight

I thought I had a good 10 years before this would happen at the dinner table.....

Merry Christmas!

This year our Christmas festivities were a little limited since I couldn't travel to Teague or Hico but we still had a wonderful time celebrating with Jonah and our family at home. Christmas is so much more fun and special when you have little ones to help you celebrate!

On Christmas Eve we opened our presents, drank hot chocolate in front of the fireplace (even though it wasn't that cold) and watched the Polar Express. We tracked Santa on the Norad Santa tracker and when he finally made it to Texas we started the preparations for his visit to our house! Jonah decided to set out cookies at the last minute for Santa instead of Mac and Cheese like he had originally planned and even remembered the carrots for the Reindeer! After reading the Christmas story and the Night Before Christmas Jonah was out for the night! Christmas morning was really exciting! I'm not sure who was actually more excited, us or Jonah! When we finally woke Jonah up at 9am we asked him what did he think was down stairs and he said "lots of toys from Santa!" Well, he was right! The look on his face as he walked down the stairs was priceless! There was a large dinosaur tunnel/tent that took up our entire dining room and inside were lots of goodies for our little guy! But Jonah's biggest surprise from Santa was the one thing he really wanted and has been asking for since he first saw Santa at the Polar Express - A phone like Daddy's. Except instead of the iPhone he received an iTouch. He was so excited and loves saying "This is Jonah's phone!"

Josh cooked Christmas breakfast and then we played, played and played some more with all of Jonah's new toys and my new toy - A pink laptop that I received from Josh and Jonah! Jonah loves my laptop and calls it "Mommy's Pink Computer" That afternoon Opa, Oma and Jen came up to visit and spend the night and then that evening we had takeout Christmas dinner and watched movies with Jerod and Lauren after they came back from Hico.

We hope all of our friends and family enjoyed their Christmas holiday!

Elf Yourself

Jonah loved watching our family dance around as elves last Christmas. He watched it over and over again! So back by popular demand here is the Schneider "Elf" family!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Holiday Festivus

Last week our entire family was sick. We took Jonah to the doctor thinking he had strep throat but after a negative strep test we found out he just has a virus "that's going around" and we heard the words all parents hate to hear - "It just has to run it's course." So, no magic antibiotic to make it go away in a couple of days. We've just had to stick with over-the-counter cough and congestion medication, a cool mist humidifier and Vick's Vapor Rub. So, needless to say we haven't gotten a lot of sleep in the last week. Jonah and I both have been coughing all night and of course all I can take it Tylenol Cold. Luckily Josh's cold only lasted a couple of days!

So with Jonah being sick and since I'm still on bedrest we had a low key week at home. I've had to miss a lot of our annual holiday festivities including Josh's company Christmas party and other activities that we like to do during this time of the year. But we've still managed to have some fun at home. Josh and Jonah made a gingerbread house, Jonah wrote his first letter to Santa and he has been a big helper to Josh with wrapping presents.

Each piece of candy was carefully placed on the house.

We made sure to build the house on the weekend in case there was a sugar rush from all the candy!

But to our surprise Jonah didn't want any of the candy! He wanted it to all go on the house and yelled at Josh and me when we snuck out a couple of sweet tarts!!

Okay Mom, that's enough pictures!!

I think for 2 years old even Martha Stewart would have to agree Jonah did a great job on his house!

Writing his first letter to Santa

Mailing his letter to the North Pole

Of course Josh and Jonah have squeezed in several games of "Tickle Monster"

Birthday Weekend!

This weekend I celebrated my birthday and though Josh and I had originally planned to have a little weekend getaway, someone else, who will remain nameless (basically because we haven't decided on her name yet) had other plans. So, I spent my birthday at home with my family and my wonderful friends who came over to help me celebrate. My friends Jenn and Sarah came over Saturday afternoon and cooked us a yummy Mexican lunch complete with Key Lime pie for dessert! It was so good!! Then my friend Vicky came over to visit and she brought cupcakes and petit fours and my friend Shannon and her son Ryan came over to visit. Jerod and Lauren also came over to stay with Jonah and spent the night so Josh and I could spend some time together.

Jonah sang Happy Birthday to me all day but I think it was because he was having so much fun blowing out the candles each time!!



Thank you to all my wonderful friends and my very sweet husband and Jonah for making my birthday so special since I couldn't leave home!

Visit with Santa

Santa came to visit Jonah's school yesterday and check on all the kids to make sure they have been good all year. Jonah was so excited to see Santa and told me that he asked Santa for a candy cane, a toothbrush, a guitar, and a phone like Daddy's. I was thinking how random that he asked for a toothbrush. Then I remembered that when we visited Santa in the North Pole after the Polar Express, Santa's Helpers handed out toothbrushes to all the kids. That was one of those ah-ha moments! So, now it makes sense why Jonah asked Santa for a toothbrush. He has a good memory!

Josh and I thought that Santa was coming by for a visit on Tuesday so we dressed Jonah in his holiday outfit for pictures and then after Josh took Jonah to school yesterday he called me and said Santa was there and they were taking pictures. I guess we had gotten our days mixed up! Oh well! What do you do???

He still looked cute!

Deck the Halls

Over the weekend Josh and Jonah finished decorating our house for Christmas. They decorated the tree, the mantle and paid the man who installed the lights on the house :) If you could see how steep our roof is you would know why we pay an off duty fireman to put up the lights! I have no desire to spend hours in an ER explaining why my husband fell off the roof.

I did get up to take a few photos of their decorating masterpiece and I have to say they did a great job. We had some difficulty connecting the lights on our pre-lit Christmas tree. So, Josh had to make a trip to Target to buy some extra lights and then another trip to Target to exchange the lights he bought for the right size lights. Next year I think we'll be buying a new tree.

Jonah had a lot of fun putting up the homemade ornaments he made last year and his special ornaments (the ones we buy for him each year). We also had a couple of new ornaments to add this year including Santa's bell from our trip on the Polar Express and the ornament that Josh and I picked up when we visited San Fransisco earlier this year. I hope to fill our Christmas tree in the years to come with many memories. I want each ornament to have a story! The first year we were in our house and we bought our tree I went out and bought all matching ornaments but they had no meaning. We still put most of those ornaments up but each year we are slowly filling it up with the ornaments that have a story.


The Schneider men hard at work decorating the tree


Daddy and Jonah after completing their masterpiece


Mommy and Jonah


Riley decided he would rather eat his stocking than have us hang it. (I thought I would dress up a little and put on jeans before we started taking photos. I didn't want all of my December pictures to be in my comfy lounge clothes or as my doctor calls them "my day pajamas"!)


Notice that the "A" is missing a stocking?? This year we went ahead and purchased a new Christmas stocking holder set in the anticipation of our new arrival. Next year the "A" will hold a "Baby's first Christmas" stocking :) Jonah also got a new stocking this year. I didn't get a chance to order new stockings for Josh or myself. I guess we'll wait until next year.


The finished product. I think it turned out great!

Santa's Christmas Eve Menu

As we were bringing out all the Christmas decorations Jonah asked what was the plate for that was sitting on the end table by the fireplace. We told him it was for Santa's cookies and explained to him that on Christmas Eve you leave a plate of cookies and milk for Santa and after he eats them, he leaves you toys. Jonah thought about this for a minute and responded "Santa doesn't like cookies."

"What do you mean he doesn't like cookies?" I asked.

Note that Jonah is not a huge fan of sweets or really cookies except occasionally he will eat my mom's homeade chocolate chip cookies!

Jonah responded "Santa doesn't like cookies, he likes Mac and Cheese (Jonah's personal favorite)." "Oh!" I said. "Well, I guess we can leave Santa Mac and Cheese on Christmas Eve if you want."

So, at that point I had to step out of the living room for a minute and when I returned I saw on the table that Jonah had gone to the pantry, pulled out the box of Easy Mac and Cheese and put it on the plate!

Jonah ran up to me and said "Look Mommy! I left Santa Mac and Cheese!"

Half way there...

I have finally reached the half way point of my pregnancy. As of this week I am 5 months and I can't believe how fast it's flying by! I was also pregnant with Jonah during this time of the year and I think it's the holidays that make it seem to fly by so fast.

The baby is doing great! She's very active and likes practicing her Karate moves quite often! She should be a black belt by the time she is born! Unfortunately I'm still on Mandatory Bedrest even though I'll be honest - I'm not the best patient. I'm going a little crazy! Bedrest is a lot harder than it sounds. I envisioned laying in bed, catching up on my TV shows on the DVR and shopping online. Yea Right! The reality is I'm still working because I work from home, I have a 2.5 year old (who did I mention started potty training right before I was put on bedrest), a dog and a husband that works in Dallas and spends more than two hours a day in rush hour traffic. Not to mention it's the busiest time of the year with the holidays! I'm resting as much as I can because well, I have to but it's very challenging. I go back next week for another sonogram and if my condition hasn't changed I think I'm going to go on leave at work so that I can focus on resting because I'm suppose to be laying flat on my back and only getting up to go to the bathroom, take a shower and fix lunch. Laying on your back is nearly impossible when you are typing on a laptop, checking your Blackberry every five minutes and attending conference calls all day.

I don't know what I would do without Josh right now. He has been wonderful! He's been taking care of Jonah, going to the grocery store, taking care of the house, running errands and he's even done some of my Christmas shopping for me! I'm very lucky to have him! Jonah has also been very sweet and every time he asks me to pick him up I have to say "Mommy can't pick you up right now her tummy is hurting" he gives my belly a little kiss and says "I'll make it all better!" So sweet!

So here is a picture of Mom and baby! I'm not brave enough to post an exposed picture of my expanding belly!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving was pretty uneventful considering my current status of "Mandatory Bedrest" so my parents and my brother Charlie were sweet enough to come to our house and bring us Thanksgiving dinner as well as stay to help Josh out with Jonah since I was imprisoned on the couch. We watched a lot of football and several Christmas movies. I kept Jonah entertained with a package of construction paper, tape and scissors (blunt of course). We made crowns and hand turkeys for everyone. My brother Charlie was even nice enough to put up our Christmas tree for us on Friday but I couldn't talk anyone into putting our Christmas lights up outside on our house! I guess we'll be hiring someone to do the job as usual! Now, I just have to talk Josh into doing all of our Christmas shopping! Ha!

Our family has much to be thankful for this year! We hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and enjoyed their time with friends and family.

Below are a couple of pictures we managed to take.


My location during the Thanksgiving holiday - the couch!

Papa and Jonah wearing the crowns we made.

Thanksgiving Part 2

This past weekend we had our second Thanksgiving celebration with Josh's family in Austin. There was good food, lots of playing, and many new memories made!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Will work for Sunchips

After one of my conference calls this morning I walked out into the family room and told Jonah we needed to finish getting dressed for school. He told me that he would go to school after Ozwald was over and I said, "No, we need to leave in the next five minutes, Mommy has another conference call for work in thirty minutes." So, he put on his shoes and we headed out the door.

We arrived in his class at school. We put up his backpack and before he headed over to circle time he ran back up to me and gave me another big hug and kiss and said, "I love you Mommy! You have to go back home now and go to work so you can buy me Sunchips!"

Party Animal

After the Backyardigans we headed to a birthday party for Jonah's friend Quanah, who turned 7 years old, at Pump it Up! Jonah loves bounce houses which is why we ended up purchasing our very own for the backyard. They provide hours of fun and a great night's sleep!

Jonah played for hours through the maze of bounce houses, played air hockey with Josh, he ate pizza (dinner #2) and then cake! Apparently he had worked up quite the appetite! Jonah was one of the youngest kids there but he had no problem keeping up with the older kids!

Five minutes after we backed out of the parking lot Jonah passed out!

Tale of the Mighty Jonah

They are a Schneider household name. We have several of their DVD's. They come on Noggin and we have a set recording on the DVR at 7pm CST sharp each day to record their cartoon! Most days we have their CD's blaring in our car as we drive. They are known as Pablo, Tyrone, Tasha, Uniqua, and Austin.

They are the Backyardigans, and today we took Jonah to see them LIVE! Today's show "Tale of the Mighty Knight" is one of Jonah's favorite episodes. We have the DVD and even though it's a little embarassing, Josh and I both have the entire movie and all of the songs on it memorized. However, I will say that the Backyardigans is by far one of my favorite Noggin cartoons and I really do like their music and their dancing. I don't mind listening to them in the car. They don't make me want to pull my hair out the way some do!

We went to the concert today with our very good friend's Shannon, Bryce and Ryan. Jonah and Ryan had a great time! After the concert we headed to a birthday party for Jonah's friend Quanah. It was a busy day for The Mighty Jonah!

Happy Fall!

Here are some fall pictures I took of Jonah over the weekend. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving: Part 1

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday probably because we have multiple Thanksgiving Day celebrations with our family and that means lots of yummy food and good times with family. November is always a busy month for us! This weekend we had Thanksgiving dinner with Josh's Dad and Susan before we rode the Polar Express. Susan started a tradition last year making Thanksgiving placemats for Jonah and Kayla and then this year Christian made his first placemat. So, they enjoyed making their "hand" painted turkey and decorating their placemat with markers and colors. Jonah and Kayla also had so much fun playing in the leaves in the yard, playing chase and riding in the wagon. After lunch we tried to put them down for a nap before riding on the train but that didn't work out so well. They were having so much fun laying in Oma and Opa's bed together reading books and watching the Polar Express that they never fell asleep!

I can't wait until a couple of years from now when there will be four cousins, maybe more, running around and playing together during the holidays! That is something I really missed out on as a child growing up. All of our extended family lived on the East Coast so we never celebrated holidays with them and being by far the youngest in my family I didn't have anyone to play with during the holidays so that's something I always wanted my kids to have and now they do so it makes me very happy! I love having all the family around and the chaos of it all!

Jonah and Kayla

Christian's adorable smile

Reading together in Opa and Oma's bed

Watching the Polar Express on Jonah's portable DVD player when they should be taking a nap!

The Polar Express

We took a ride on the Polar Express with Jonah and our family over the weekend. Jonah's Opa was the Conductor and Oma was one of the Reindeer Helpers. Jonah has been reading the book and watching the movie all week to get ready for his big train adventure! The kids wore their pj's and had hot chocolate and cookies while watching the hot chocolate dancers perform, listening to music and listening to the Polar Express story on the train ride. Aftwerwards we pulled into the North Pole where all the kids were greeted by carolers and Santa!! It was a perfect way to get into the Christmas spirit!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Low key

This rest of this week has been pretty low key for the Schneider family for obvious reasons so I haven't had much to blog about.

I could have blogged several posts about the election this week but I usually just leave the political commentary to Josh. If you don't know Josh, we talk a lot about politics in our house but I ususally don't post our views on the blog. I will say that neither of the candidates were a top pick for either of us but we were only given two choices. It saddens and scares me that Americans decided to let Hollywood and a biased media help them choose the President of our country instead of reading the facts and then making their own decision. I hope they chose wisely. I guess only time will tell. Let's just say we had our day of mourning at the Schneider house on Wednesday and now it's time to move on.

We've watched a lot of movies and spent a lot of time just hanging out as a family and that's been really nice. Though I think Riley is starting to get a little cabin fever. When he doesn't get to go on regular walks he gets a little hyper! Hopefully he'll get some outdoor time this weekend.

Below are a few pictures I've managed to snap of Jonah this week!

Happy Friday!

Enjoying an ice cream sandwich!


Jonah's school had their own election on Tuesday and Percy's Pajama Day won so they all get to wear their pajama's at school all day today!


Watching the Polar Express in 3D