We are expanding..

by 2 feet!



Baby Schneider is expected to make his or her arrival in April!

Josh and I are very excited and looking forward to this new chapter in our life and Jonah is very excited about becoming a big brother!

Happy Birthday to Opa!

A special message to Opa from Jonah! He insisted on holding a candle for you :)

Hope you had a wonderful day!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hubba Bubba

I was taking a piece of gum out of my purse the other day and Jonah ran up to me and said "I want one". I was a little hesitant at first but then decided he could try it. Since he was baby we have been able to entertain him with blowing bubbles and popping our gum. We would blow a bubble and he would pop it with his hand and laugh hysterically while we tried to wipe all the gum off our face. He put the piece of gum in his mouth and instantly said "I like it!" It was so funny to try to watch him blow his own bubbles but I just don't think he's quite ready for it yet. I look forward to the day I teach him how to blow a bubble within a bubble because that takes some serious talent ;) I'm kidding of course.

Jonah's first piece of bubble gum!

Just a Sprinkle

On Saturday Vicky and I hosted Shannon's Baby Sprinkle along with her mom Jan at the Lavender House Tea Room in downtown McKinney. The setting was beautiful, the food was great and the cupcakes for dessert from Spoons were wonderful! If you have never had a cupcake from Spoons in McKinney, you are missing out! Strawberry is my personal favorite! Shannon was "Sprinkled" with some cute new items for Baby Slade who is due to make his arrival in the next few weeks! We can't wait to meet him!

End of Summer Blowout

Jonah's school had their End of Summer Blowout on Friday. They enjoyed train rides, pony rides, face painting, a concert and a sack lunch with corny dogs!

Jonah really enjoyed riding the train (we rode it twice) and he loved the pony ride! When we walked up to pick out our pony we had to decide between three ponies - the white pony with brown spots, the white pony with a rainbow mane, or the white pony with the pink mane and purple glitter hooves. Guess which one Jonah picked - the white pony with the pink mane and purple glitter hooves whose name was "Fancy"! Jonah really liked Fancy! He kept telling her "Good job Fancy" as she walked around in circles. At the end of his ride he said "Thanks Fancy, I love you!"

Afterwards we headed to the face painting station where we waited in line for over 30minutes to get Jonah's face painted. Towards the end of our wait we were informed that the face painter was getting ready to leave so she was only painting simple designs like hearts and stars. Jonah kind of had his heart set on a Tiger face which resembled the other elaborate designs like a Butterfly or Spider Man that we had seen earlier on the kids running around. But I finally talked him into a star on his hand and somehow we ended up with the face painter's son as our artist who stepped in to help out his mom. I'm not even sure this boy was old enough to color inside the lines. He ended up drawing a yellow blob on Jonah's hand with black lines. I was disappointed that we waited over 30 minutes for this artistic masterpiece but Jonah was happy with it so I guess that's all that matters.

It was still a fun party and Jonah had a great time! I can't believe Summer is officially over and Fall is just around the corner! I'm so ready for the holidays and some much needed cooler weather!

Riding on the train


"Fancy"


Jonah showing Ms. deGuzman his painted "Star".

Sleepover

Jerod and Lauren (aka JJ and LaLa) took Jonah to their house for a sleepover this week. Jonah loves JJ and LaLa so he was super excited to spend some time with them. They ate pizza, watched movies and did a little shopping and Jonah came home with two new movies. He's becoming quite the movie junkie! Jerod had planned to take Jonah to Six Flags but the Texas weather didn't cooperate! Oh well, maybe next time!

Josh and I went out to dinner at Wasabi, one of our favorite restaurants. Then I did a little shopping at Target by myself which was a huge treat! It was nice to have an envening to ourselves but we definitely missed our Jonah!

Check out this cute picture that Jerod sent to me from his iPhone.

Farmer Jonah

Jonah and I headed to my parents ranch this past weekend for a visit. All Jonah could talk about on the way there was riding on Papa's tractor! On Saturday morning Jonah helped Charlie feed the chickens, the ducks and the cows. He even remembered which cows were his! Then he ate a big breakfast prepared by Nana complete with pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage and biscuits with gravy (I enjoyed it too. My mom makes the best breakfasts!) Afterwards, Papa brought out the tractor and took Jonah on a ride and even let him drive around the hay fields. He was so excited!

Jonah was all boy this weekend and managed to also find a dirt pile to play in. I didn't bring any sandbox toys for him to play with so my mom found a spoon and an old can that she filled up with water and Jonah kicked it old school style and made mud pies. He was covered in dirt from head to toe by the time he was finished but he had a great time!

For Sunday lunch I told my mom I wanted good Southern comfort food so she whipped up chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes with gravy, corn on the cob, and fried okra! It was so yummy! I may live in the city now and eat sushi as often as I can but I still enjoy going back to my small town Southern girl roots every once in a while!

Here comes trouble!


Jonah likes to drive the tractor "fast"


Jonah and Papa


Jonah loved watching his Elmo DVD in Nana's car! I'm in love with the headphones! I definitely think I need to invest in both with my next car purchase! I was actually able to listen to adult music while we drove!


Boys will be boys! Jonah loved playing in the dirt!


Look at that face!!! Time for a bath!

Thanks to Opa

While I was in Denver for work, Josh's Dad came up to stay with Jonah since Josh was in a training class all week until late in the evening.

Opa bought a bike trailer to attach to his bike and took Jonah on several bike rides! Jonah loved it! I wish I had some pictures of Jonah in his helmet and pads. He kept telling me on the phone when I talked to him "we went fast on the bike!" They also went swimming, spent an afternoon at Peter Piper pizza eating and playing games, played in the bounce house, and watched movies!

Jonah had so much fun spending time with his Opa and we were so thankful that he was able to rearrange his schedule with our sometimes overlapping-crazy-hectic schedules. One thing I've learned about having a child is there is a lot of coordination of schedules that has to occur and I'm not sure what we would do without family there to help us through the hectic times!

Thanks again Opa!

Movin' on up

We finally moved Jonah into his new "Big Boy" bed a couple of weeks ago. He was very excited when we picked it out and had it delivered. His first response when he saw it in his room was "That's Jonah's cool bed! I like it" He's adjusted really well to sleeping in his new bed except for the fact that he is a wiggle worm so we will need to add rails to the sides of the bed at least for awhile. Josh and I love being able to lay down with him when we read at bedtime except there have been many nights that we've fallen asleep in his room only to wake up around midnight and have to crawl into our own bed.

There is still lots to do as far as decorating his room with the wild animal/jungle theme I have in mind. I don't really like themes but I love the bedding I found at Pottery Barn Kids because it's not too over the top. It is perfect for a little boy that loves wild animals and Jonah loves them all! So now we just have to paint, change out the nursery accessories and take down his crib! He's growing up so fast!

Cure for the Camera

I am in despair! The flash on my camera has stopped working! At first I thought I had mistakenly changed a setting because all of the pictures I took inside were coming out burnt orange. But after talking to a very knowledgeable associate at Wolf Camera it seems that the flash bulbs periodically go out so I will have to send it off to be repaired. I guess I finally wore it out!

Four weeks without my Canon Rebel. I'm not sure what I will do! I guess I will have to use my digital point and shoot but it won't be the same. Eight megapixels vs. 12 megapixels. Manual settings with multiple options to tempt my creativity vs. flash on or flash off. It will be a depressing four weeks.

Rebel - you will be missed! I anxiously await your return.

I got all my sisters with me....

This past weekend I headed to Austin for my Chi Omega pledge class reunion! Every year we get together for the weekend and this year we spent a relaxing weekend at the Barton Creek Spa and Resort. Friday night we had dinner at the Belmont in downtown Austin and while we were waiting for our valet we saw two actors from the show Friday Night Lights. It was definitely a highlight of the evening (or at least for Shannon!) Then on Saturday we took advantage of the Spa with massages. My massage was great, especially the foot massage, my favorite part. After the spa we had a Texas size barbecue lunch at County Line. After that we louged around the pool the rest of the afternoon with some yummy drinks. For dinner we ventured out to the Iguana Grill on Lake Austin. The scenary was awesome. Sunday we did it up Austin style and had breakfast at one of mine and Josh's favorite places in college, The Magnolia Cafe. They really do have the best breakfast, especially the pancakes!

It was a fun and relaxing weekend. It made me realize how much I miss living down there! But I had a great time hanging out with all the girls! We laughed, shared lots of stories and made some new memories! I'm already looking forward to next year's reunion!

Dinner at the Belmont - Vicky, Lindsey, Stephanie, Lindsay, Stacey, Shannon, Monda and Jessica

At the Barton Creek Spa - Don't we all look very relaxed???

Dinner at Iguana Grill - great views of Lake Austin

Vicky, Monda and Stacey

Relaxing on the porch at Barton Creek with a glass of champagne (except Shannon of course!) We also had a little creepy crawling visitor that decided to join our party that evening - A VERY LARGE SCORPION! Needless to say after this picture we all sat with our feet up in our chair!

More pics from the weekend...

Here are some more pictures from the weekend with Kayla, Christian and the rest of the family. Jonah and Kayla always have so much fun together! Friday night Amy went to dinner with Jon and I babysat two toddlers, a newborn, and three dogs by myself since Josh had a late work function! I was a little nervous but to my surprise it was relatively easy! Jonah and Kayla kept busy with art projects and baking cupcakes. Christian slept most of the time. The dogs spent most of their time barking at the window but for the most part they were pretty good :)

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

The Wiggles

A couple of weekends ago Jon, Amy, Kayla and Christian came up for the weekend and we took Jonah and Kayla to go see the Wiggles in concert! Jonah was so excited about going to the concert with Kayla. He told everyone all week that "I'm going to see the Wiggles with Kayla on Saturday!!" Well, Saturday finally came and we headed to Grand Prairie. Amy had picked out awesome seats so we were in the third row. Jonah sat through the whole concert in amazement! He was so fascinated with the stage and the performance! Since then we've been forced to watch the Wiggles everyday. I thought I was doing so good with him just watching the Backyardigans (mine and Josh's personal favorite!) Oh well, they are better than the Doodlebops (which really freak me out) and Barney!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

August Rush

Sorry I have been MIA. I've really been neglecting my blog recently but we have just been so busy that by the time I have two minutes to actually sit down to rest in the evenings, I usually end up falling asleep.

We have an even busier month ahead of us but I do have lots of updates to add, some cute pictures of Jonah, and a few new funny stories to share so as soon as I get back home from Denver I promise I will sqeeze in some time to focus on the Daily Stroll!

But right now, I have to go to bed! It's way past my bedtime! :)