Having Fun in Columbus

What we LOVE!

2009-10-11T14:36:00.000-07:00

My handsome boys!!

Books!

Playing downstairs with our toys!

Pudding!
(And anything else involving food-Andrews most famous phrase is "mmmmh"-he can spot a papa johns a mile away!!)

My dad and playing games on his IPOD!

Pajama day at school!

(I would cry whenever my buzz light year slippers accidently came off)

Growing up:)

2009-09-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

Andrew started going to a daycare/preschool one morning a week after I work and while Steven is at school. He loves it and no longer cries when we leave him places! While there they sleep on cots, though, so we thought we would try the toddler bed at home. He has been so excited for his new bed, and for the active boy that he is, has done surprisingly well. He has also started talking more and you can actually understand some of the things he says (YEAH!!). Now, once we get rid of the binkie at night and stop the drooling, he will no longer be my baby:(

Very delayed post!!

2009-09-20T13:33:00.000-07:00

August was full of visits from both sets of grandparents-Steven and Andrew loved all of the attention and were sad to see them go!! Sadie is the only dog Steven says he likes-all others he runs and hides from as fast as he can! He loves when Grandma and Grandpa bring her and she is all he can talk about after they leave!
A little ride on the camel at COSI

We have really tried to make reading something Steven and Andrew enjoy doing-but Grandpa Larry is the ultimate example!!!

We finally went to the National Air Force museum, it is huge!

Andrew is the busiest little boy I know! There aren't too many pictures of him because he won't sit still (unless we strap him in somewhere)!!

Yes, I still drool-especially when I am having fun:)

No more swimming!

2009-07-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

Who else would be so excited to get a cast (especially a glow in the dark cast)!! Whenever Duane has a break we always seem to make at least one visit to urgent care or are wiped out sick-so this is what we got this last week:)

In response to what happened, we were having an exciting afternoon at galaxy, when we heard a loud scream-after realizing it was our child who had fallen and performing a medical evaluation (good thing a 4th year medical student was there), it only took us 24 more hours to take him in to urgent care. (So you don't think we are bad parents, it was a very small break and this was our repeated conversation with Steven when trying to decide. "Steven does it hurt a lot or a little?" "Well, a little." "Does it hurt here?" "no" "Does it hurt here?" "no" "Does it hurt here?" "Well, a little." Not very helpful!!

It's finally getting HOT!!

2009-06-25T12:45:00.000-07:00

Having fun in the pool

Steven's newest garage sale item-every time we go for a walk Steven asks "Mom, can we go to a garage sale?" I guess that is what happens when you live on a budget and only buy your kids toys at garage sales-sorry Steven!!

Steven did a program through the Hilliard rec center called Safety Town. He loved it! For a week he went to 3 hours of class each day where firemen, policemen, etc came and talked about fire safety, crossing the street, poison control, bike safety, pool safety, and on and on! He came home each day with more and more information on what to do when there is a fire, or if a dog is chasing you, and some pretty funny songs too. They had a graduation Friday night-a little over kill-but they seemed to like it.

Steven after graduation

After Fire day

I love my sandbox!

I am finally starting to talk. If you give me something

I really want, I might say "Thank you!"

June birthdays come and gone!!

2009-06-25T12:31:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Steven had a fun batman/superhero party. Despite the thunderstorm that started about five minutes into the party and lasted until about ten minutes until the end, the kids seemed to have a lot of fun!! He had to have superhero capes, so the kids got to decorate their own princess/hero cape. Steven also helped me make a cool bat pinata!!

I think he was smiling almost the entire time!

My new bike

My favorite aunt came to visit!!

2009-06-25T12:02:00.000-07:00

Steven seems to have a special place for Aunt Julie. Maybe it is because she used to not have kids and so she would pay more attention to him, or maybe it is because of "that guy with the motorcycle" he still talks about playing with (aka her husband Clint). Either way, he was so excited for her to come and we had so much fun having her here. Julie and Caden
Steven, Andrew, and Caden

Once he discovered his old baby toys, and the baby occupying them was gone,
Andrew claimed them back for his own!!!

What is this baby doing here??

Aunt Julie even went down in the Submarine with Steven at COSI.

How come my mom never does that??

Steven trying to get Caden to smile-he usually doesn't pay much attention to babies, but he really liked Caden and kept giving him toys(not always wanted) and making him smile!

Mmmhhh, this tastes good!

2009-05-11T05:57:00.000-07:00

I thought these pictures were pretty cute.

Andrew was thoroughly enjoying his cantaloupe.

Lots of Pictures!!

2009-05-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

After the Capital City Half Marathon. I made it!!We had a busy week on Duane's week off last week. After my wonderful husband took apart our car and fixed the fuel gauge and the a/c (I should have taken pictures!!) we drove down to Cincinnati for a few nights. Besides one small child screaming half the night the first night-I wonder who that would be-we were able to enjoy a visit to the aquarium and children's museum. I finished the week off with my half marathon and a nice long nap!

Andrew loved the Children's museum-as you can tell by his drool

soaked shirt(he is getting 4 new teeth as well)

Here he is pushing his shopping cart around full of food and various
other items he picked up on the way

Those are the sharks swimming by in the background. Duane and I touched one of the smaller ones-but Steven wouldn't have anything to do with that!

Look at those frogs!!

Easter Morning-why do I put that green grass stuff in their baskets??? I'm not quite sure, but I seem to find it around the house for the next few months.

Spring!?

2009-03-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

We finally had a fun day at the park with nice weather. I love our metro parks here.

Trying to hold Andrew back so we can get a picture of him

It was a lot of work to get me to hold still and smile facing the camera for this picture. I just can't help running everywhere!! My mother wants to know where her little baby went, because I now enjoy running around the park with at least five different sticks/twigs in my hands, I like to chase geese that are the same size as me, I point at every single possible dog and continually say "dog, dog!" And I have started to wear the same clothes my brother wore when we first moved to Columbus (including his Lightening Mcqueen pj's!)

We are still here!

2009-01-11T19:38:00.000-08:00

Well, we are still alive! It has been awhile since I have posted anything, but to those of you still patient enough to check our blog-here are lots of pictures from around christmas time. We really enjoyed our Christmas break with Duane's two weeks off of stress free, no school, no studying for a major test time! We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!! It finally snowed this last week-although just a sprinkling we thought we

better take advantage of it
Here is the trouble maker in action-he loves racing for the stairs and climbing up as high as he can get before you catch him. He also loves getting into the cupboards and seeing what noise all of the different pan lids can make on anything he can bang them on!

This is the typical Andrew-drool all over, one sock off, and a huge smile on his face

-the only thing missing is his binkie!

Christmas break projects

2009-01-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

So after 7 years of marriage, I thought it was finally time to make some stockings. My original plan was to get all 4 done, but you know how that goes. So I got the person's done that appreciated it the most! We will see if I get the other three done in time for next year. We found a really good deal on some tile and needed to replace part of our shower, so we decided to tile it-we will just say it took a little bit longer then we thought-but I really like it!
My wonderful husband was brave enough to put in some recessed lighting in our main room. It is wonderful!! We no longer live in the dark:)

Christmas

2009-01-11T18:11:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from Christmas. Andrew represents the

"eating lots of food" part of Christmas!

This is Steven's prized Christmas gift from Grandma-a lego set to build a boat, truck, etc. It was a good thing he got it, because the night before Christmas he said that Santa was going to bring him legos! Amazingly he hasn't lost any parts yet-we will see how long that lasts!

This year's gingerbread house consisted of graham crackers hot glue gunned to a cardboard box house-sorry Steven and Andrew!

This is after pajama day at school-Steven was so excited to go in his pajamas and drink hot chocolate and eat popcorn while they watched a movie. He is holding a book his teacher gave to him as a Christmas gift

Loving Fall Continued

2008-10-17T13:34:00.000-07:00

Loving Fall!

2008-10-17T12:59:00.001-07:00

There are some mornings when you love being a mom, and now that we are adjusting to our new life style (aka: me not working all the time and Duane gone a lot so I am officially a mom 24/7) We are having more of those mornings. A few mornings ago Steven woke up and rushed into my room with a huge smile and two thumbs up in the air saying "Give me two thumbs up mom!" "Why?" "Because I get to go to Bookers house today and I get to go to school!" When I asked, "where did you learn to do that" he replied "I just made it up" Then he stated "I'm going to be super fast!" and proceeded to get ready for school 20 minutes earlier then usual without me having to nag once! At the same time I could hear Andrew jabbering away in his crib, laughing and playing after a good nights sleep. You wonder why they can't do that every morning!While Steven is playing outside with his friend, my mean mom traps me inside!!

A little Halloween Preview (including the long begged for and talked about batman costume) Steven's line when he first put it on was "Nobody will know who I am because I have a mask, I'll have to tell them that I'm Steven with a batman costume on!"

We went to another fun fall pumpkin farm with some friends that put our last one to shame. The kids could have spent all day there and practically did! Here are a few fun pictures.

The Banana tractor train

Fall Fun

2008-10-06T05:42:00.000-07:00

There are lots of pick-your-own pumpkin farms here, and we finally made it out to one of them! Steven's favorite parts were the tractor hay ride and the little playground area with a dried corn sandbox and a huge plastic pipe that made up a slide.

We tried to get a good picture of the two of them but Andrew wouldn't stop looking and playing with the pumpkin, so this is the best we got!

Growing up

2008-10-05T17:44:00.000-07:00

Lately Andrew has been growing up so fast, I thought I better hurry and take some pictures! He took his first few steps this last week, but still prefers the crawling:)

This is were his mother traps him during the day. With his brother always adding new toys, Andrew is usually pretty entertained.

Right before my first real haircut.

2008-09-03T21:53:00.000-07:00

HI!
I had to show a picture of our huge flowers growing in our backyard-Thanks to Duane (I usually forget to water and usually end up killing things)

2008-09-03T21:44:00.000-07:00

My first day of Preschool-I LOVE IT!!!!
We went to a waterslide park down by Cincinnati and Steven had a lot of fun-he kept going on the same ride over and over-He was so excited that these are the best pictures I could get because he wouldn't stand still for me!

Summer Fun

2008-08-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

Steven had fun fishing with his playgroup friends. Although he only got his worm eaten a couple of times, some of his friends did catch some fish.
Here he is on his new scooter (which he likes a lot better then his bike for some reason). The handle bar goes up, so Duane and I took it for a little spin as well:)

look at that smile!

Food in my mouth?

2008-08-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

Why should I eat my food when it is so much more fun to play with it?
I think we may be coming to the end of just gobbling down the green beans!

If my brother is getting his picture taken, that means I need mine taken too!! (or at least squeeze into the background)

Hocking Hills

2008-07-06T19:29:00.000-07:00

Duane had a week off so we were able to do a few things we have been wanting to do. We were finally able to make it down to Hocking Hills and it turned out to be a really nice day (especially in the shade!)
Steven had fun in the water until a couple of dogs got in and then he tried bolting out of the water so fast that he kept falling down and got soaked. Once he knew the dogs couldn't get him he thought it was pretty funny.
Steven is supposed to be showing how strong he is by holding up this tree
I don't know if you can see it, but for some reason a butterfly kept flying around Steven, he was pretty excited.

On the move!

2008-07-06T19:09:00.000-07:00

I meant to post these a couple of weeks ago but didn't get a chance to until now. Andrew has been on the move crawling everywhere and pulling himself up. He is determined and has a quick grab so we keep having to move things out of reach higher and higher! Steven is having a lot of fun with him crawling (until Andrew touches one of his toys of course) and loves to be the boss and keep him safe by copying me and saying "no, no Andrew" or pulling him back by his legs to keep him away from something.

Birthday #4! Tribute to Steven

2008-06-03T13:06:00.000-07:00

Just me smiling in my fat days:)
Birthday #1
Birthday #2

Here is the big 4 year old-I can't believe how fast time has flown by! We realized Steven was only 3 months old when we moved from Seattle and Duane went back to school! My new bike (it reminds me of the days of Julie's "New Moves"!)
For some reason I wanted a dog cake-so here is the best my mom could do!

Why I love Grandma and Grandpa's!

2008-05-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

Steven loves Grandma and Grandpa's, he had lots of fun while we were in Utah-somehow he got lucky with both sets of Grandparents owning a tractor:)

More Utah

2008-05-14T12:57:00.001-07:00

Steven had a lot of fun playing with "Cousin Nancy" (It used to be "Baby Nancy", but as Steven informed us, she is not a baby anymore!) They really seemed to get along-without naps and everything! He was sad to leave

Grandpa Bob and Andrew

Utah

2008-05-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

It has taken me awhile, but here are some pictures of our trip to Utah. We all had lots of fun at Women's conference and it was really nice to see all of my sisters/sister in laws. Andrew had lots of fun being the only boy and getting all of the attention of 9 women!
Here are the four sisters

Julie has always been Steven's favorite aunt, but during this trip he started asking where Julie's husband was and if he could go to Julie's husband's house. I think it had to do with the motorcycle toy he had!

2008-04-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

If only I could reach just a little farther-Oh, I wish I could crawl!! (Steven has already been getting mad at Andrew for touching his toys, he likes to pick which toys Andrew can play with-just wait for the shock once he has to share!)

Jumpin' Baby!

2008-04-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

This is Andrew's new found love! He loves standing up and could spend up to an hour in his exersaucer.

Easter Sunday

2008-03-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

Ready, Set, Go!

Steven with his post-hunt candy and egg stash (organized by each kind of candy of course!) I think he enjoys playing with the candy more then eating it.

March Snow

2008-03-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

I meant to post these earlier, but didn't have a chance. Here is our crazy 2 feet of snow we got within a day in the middle of march! I had the joy of driving home in it the morning after work and almost made it all the way home without getting stuck, but 2 feet from the garage the car wouldn't make it any farther and I had to walk the rest of the way in! My wonderful husband shoveled the car out while I was sleeping. Notice the huge snow drifts on the roof on the right.

I think this was Duane's third time shoveling the driveway in the same day!

Here is one week after the snow storm-where did it all go? We are hoping Spring!

Washington fun

2008-03-11T10:53:00.001-07:00

We were glad to be able to see our Aunts and Uncles and cousins in Seattle on our way to Yakima, even if it was only for a few hours.

We had a lot of fun visiting family in Washington. Steven played with a different set of cousins almost everyday and had so much fun (although he couldn't keep track of everyone's names and so just called all of the kids his "cousin"). I was a little worried what would happen once we got home, especially when one of the days before the cousins arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's we found Steven sitting out on the front steps. When we asked what he was doing he said "Just waiting for my cousins!" Here is Baby Andrew's cousin Andrew(above) and his fellow red head cousin(below)!
I don't think I have ever seen two kids want to hold and play with a baby so much. Andrew got very spoiled by Taylor and Allie.

Steven had fun with Grandpa, especially down by the barn-which Steven calls a "little farm." He was sad to see the tractor was gone, though!

Best Buds

2008-02-14T05:55:00.000-08:00

Andrew really likes Steven's bed for some reason and they really like being there together when we put Steven to bed. Steven always has to give him a hug and kiss before he goes to bed.
In their Sunday best!

This is Steven's very own camera work, there are a few with no baby in them!

Just keep on smiling....

2008-01-26T12:03:00.000-08:00

Not much has changed since the last post, we all just keep on smiling. Andrew's smile gets the most attention and helps us all smile. Here's him playing in his car seat. We are fortunate to have a happy baby! If you look closely you might see one of his dimples--its kind of hard to see on this picture. We will work on getting a better one...

Hope this picture helps you smile, it works for us!

January fun

2008-01-24T12:35:00.000-08:00

Arrrgh Matey! Steven had lots of fun at his friend's pirate party, he even left his hat on the whole time! After Steven watched his show this morning he saw my aerobics DVD and started asking if he could do it. He did the entire 30 minute show by himself, all the way to the end where he closed his eyes and did the deep exhales while stretching. It was pretty entertaining as he kept going the entire time. Although it was hard to capture his graceful moves, here are a few attempts!
We love to see Andrew smile, it is amazing how fast he is growing up! He also loves his swing so he can keep an eye on all of us in the room!

Stickers

2008-01-13T11:11:00.000-08:00

Steven finally earned enough stickers to go to Chuckecheese. He was so excited and didn't let us forget that we had mentioned he could bring a friend. As soon as he got all of his stickers he said "We get to go to ChuckeCheese and Booker is coming too!" They had a lot of fun together!

Christmas Fun

2007-12-30T18:21:00.000-08:00

One of Steven's favorite parts about Christmas this year was getting packages in the mail, it didn't matter who they were for as long as he got to open them!
This was the one part of a christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa that wasn't wrapped in the package and as soon as Steven saw it he said "It's Scrambler! Where is the other part?" We had never seen it before and have no idea how he knew what it was.
Here is Scrambler in action!
Another favorite Christmas gift was his booster seat. It is always nice when they love a gift you have to get them anyways!

Smiles!

2007-12-30T16:38:00.000-08:00

I've started smiling more this week and finally got it captured on camera! It looks like I inherited the dimples:)

2007-12-09T15:46:00.000-08:00

I still have lots of hair that likes to stick up in the air, especially after my baths (after all of the spit up and hereditary greasy hair is cleaned off). I also have blue eyes!
I have recently discovered that I love lying on my belly-especially if I have my binky.

Is it Christmas yet?

2007-12-09T15:34:00.000-08:00

Steven has been asking "Is it going to snow?," "Can we get a Christmas tree?," and "Is it Christmas?" ever since Halloween ended. So finally it snowed and we got a Christmas tree! I still have to keep telling him it isn't Christmas yet, though. Now that it has snowed he has started asking "Is the snow melting, is it going to be spring time?" I think we have a ways to go before spring!

Steven loved decorating the Christmas tree, Andrew slept:)

2007-11-29T06:43:00.000-08:00

I'm already hooked on my binky! I think I must have the same genes as my big brother. Hopefully I don't get the drooling genes, though!

Steven is a good big brother...

2007-11-25T17:25:00.000-08:00

Steven has really enjoyed his little brother. In fact, Andrew is his "favorite baby." Here's a little picture of Steven reading a book to Andrew (I think Andrew is sleeping).

We miss you grandma!

2007-11-25T16:06:00.000-08:00

Steven and Andrew had lots of fun with Grandma Eileen and were sad to see her go!

After she left when he said his prayers he also blessed that Grandpa would come.

It was pretty cute.

We love to paint-so when Grandma painted Steven's hand he was pretty excited!

2007-11-18T19:50:00.000-08:00

I'm here!! My name is Andrew Jay Schonlau and I was born on November 14th at 415pm. I am 7lbs 11 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long.

I really like my big brother, even though he is a little too enthusiastic at times and wants to hold me all by himself.

I'm ready to go home from the hospital!

The count down!

2007-11-11T19:37:00.000-08:00

These pictures are for all of those on the west coast who don't see me and forget that I am pregnant! I don't seem to have that problem too often! I am being induced this Wednesday at 10am, only 3 days left!! We are very excited-I will finally be able to bend over, eat normal, and maybe not run out of breath going up the stairs!

Soon Steven will no longer be the spoiled only child. I don't think he realizes that yet, but hopefully having a play buddy will make up for it! He is excited for baby Andrew to come.

Trick or Treat!

2007-10-29T16:56:00.000-07:00

We had lots of fun scraping out pumpkin guts!

Our door at the ward trunk-or-treat happened to be in one of the nursery rooms. Steven spent more time playing with the toys and eating candy then trick-or-treating, but still had fun.

2007-10-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

Well, we are finally here!! After months of looking at other people's blogs and saying "We should do that...." We have finally joined the leagues of bloggers.

Here is our first post to our new internet home. And here is a picture that shows some of our recent activities.

Steven has been asking to be a super hero for months. I think he picked to be superman just because of the cape. So here is superman with his cheesy smile!