The Schmidgalls

Welp, she is three years old but still hates to have her hair washed…and still panics at the doctor! She barely let the doctor touch her.

Height - 39.5 inches (92%)

Weight - 32 pounds, 6 ounces (68%)

My baby girl is THREE years old today!! She has been thrilled about her birthday, of course.  Though, the funny thing is she can’t actually say her “th” sound.  She says she is turning “ssree!”

Honestly, I have been a bit sad as we got closer to this birthday.  For some reason, “three” just feels like my baby is now a young lady.  She is really such a big girl.  She sets the table for dinner.  She can work any electronic device.  She plays games on Daddy’s iPod and can choose a video, put it in her DVD player and get it going all on her own!  She takes such good care of her brother.  I mean, sure, she shoves him away from her toys here and there.  But I will often catch her taking him toys or snacks.  I even found her wiping his mouth after a spit-up the other day.  She always calls for me if he is heading into danger (near the stairs, fireplace, eating something off the floor).  In the morning, she goes into his room and gives him toys in his crib, sometimes even crawling in to play with him.  She calls him “Zekey-boy” and makes him laugh!

Ella is such a generous child.  She will share even her favorite food.  She is affectionate and gives hugs and kisses easily.  She is silly and a bit of a ham.  She has passion and independence.  God knew exactly the little girl for me!

Whenever I would ask Ella what she wanted to do for her birthday party, she was clear - “I wanna go to Aunt Lora’s house!”  When I would ask her what she wanted for her birthday, “I want candles!” (like on her cake).  Well, she isn’t lost on the spirit of festivity.  For Christmas all she wanted was “a Christmas tree with lights!”

Ella is pretty loyal - she decides her favorite things and stays true to them.  She has adored Snow White as long as I can remember.  She is also fiercely dedicated to Grover monster, certainly not the most popular Sesame Street character.  She wanted a Grover birthday party this year! We decided to do dinner for just family at Aunt Lora’s and celebrate a bit early since we have a church retreat this weekend.

It was a special day so we had to do a special hairstyle!  Mama put Ellie’s hair in hot curlers for the first time!

No joke, once I showed her hair in the mirror, she started posing all over the place, looking back at me over her shoulder all sassy.  Have I mentioned how much I love this child?

This fancy little outfit arrived in the mail from Mimmy just hours before the party.  The gloves were her own little addition.  I said she was independent!

“Booter, are you excited about your birthday?”

“How old will you be again?”

Aunt Lora and Grandma decorated the house for the birthday girl.  She loved it!  She made a special request for one of her favorite foods - Broccoli Cheese Soup, made by Aunt Lora.  I made her a Grover cake, chocolate on request.

Loved by her mama…

“Wait, we forgot…how old again?”

She got shy when we all sang to her!

Blow ‘em out baby!

Spoiled with love…Uncle Matt and Aunt Amanda stopped by early before Matt had to run off to sit in the chamber for the State of the Union address by President Obama.  Just another day working for the United States Congress!  The Tinkerbell purse was a hit!

Little brother helper!

Look, she even reads the card.  Okay, she looked at it, couldn’t get the card out so tossed it aside!

Wow Grandma!

All grown up! 1, 2, 3!

Fun little Ella story to end…

Since she gave up her pacifier, Ella has had a harder time going to sleep at night.  She doesn’t understand why she has to be in her bed alone but Mommy and Daddy get to share.  A while back we started telling her that Mommy and Daddy are married and that is why we sleep in the same bed.  She seemed to accept that.  Well, last week, she woke up a few times in the night - out of the ordinary.  I was so tired, I finally went and got in bed with her to soothe her.  We both fell back asleep and in the morning, she woke to find me there and clearly didn’t remember me coming in.  Her eyes got wide and she said, “Mommy, we’re married?!”  I busted out laughing!  Clever girl!

Thank you Lord for three years with such a special little person!  It is such a gift to be her parents.

I tried to wait until he was a year, I really did!  But, he was starting to have scraggle hair…and I can’t let anything distract from his gorgeous deep blue eyes!

I gave Zeke his first haircut tonight!  I did a quick Internet tutorial, gave him his milk for distraction, and snip-snip!

Before

After

Not too bad, huh?

And this is proof…that is doesn’t ALWAYS smile.  Just usually!

What do you get when both grandmas have the love language of “gifts”?

Our family members overwhelmingly bless our children.  I always try to get a picture with their gifts because I think they will love looking back when they are older.  I would love to see pics with my cabbage patch kids, Betsy Wetsy doll, Light Bright, Little Miss Makeup, Cricket doll, etc.

It does make me happy that Ellie has a very thankful heart.  She is truly blessed by her gifts and when she plays with a toy or puts on a new outfit, she says, “This is from Grandma?” or “Mimmy gave me this?”

And we have such wonderful families that I know my kids’ memories will be full of traditions and warmth and not just gifts.  Yay for Christmas!

We had an awesome Christmas season!  I LOVED celebrating with the kids!  We were very festive - baking, shopping, going to parties, enjoying every moment.

We had an amazing Thanksgiving with family.  After being in New York City last year for the Macy’s Day parade, we loved being back to our traditions.  The feast was heavenly!  The company was even better.  My sister joined us from Philly again and, as usual, helped us get our tree up and the house decorated.

To kick-off December, Ella made her stage debut as a baby angel in our church play, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.“  And it was!  Ella stole the show when she got a little nervous and had to be shuffled on stage, cute as ever!  (Note the tiny little shy angel front right.)

Cousin Summer had a lead role as the snooty, snotty Alice.

Cousin Siah and his buddies were shepherds.

We took our traditional stroll back in time to visit the holy family at our church’s Live Nativity.  It is so cool for the kids to see the animals and visit baby Jesus.

Ella and best-bud Giovanni pose with Mary and Joseph.

Giovanni paused to give some kisses to baby Jesus!

My friend Shelley surprised me as a shepherd!  Shelley and I grew up in youth group together and she just moved to DC!

Cookie Decorating Party! - Ella hosted her buddies from our church playgroup for cookie decorating at our house!  The kids ate as the decorated and many sprinkles were consumed!

The hostesses with the most-esses!

Snow Storm! - We had a history making snow fall the weekend before Christmas!  It was incredible!  We went to play with cousins and get crazy in the snow!  Our church had record low attendance since people and their cars were stuck!  The Schmidgalls were there both Saturday AND Sunday, of course!

She insisted on the goggles!

The next day was a little more tiny-kid friendly since the snow stopped blowing.  We took the kids sledding and then built their first-ever snow man!

Since we were going to be gone for Christmas, we went to stay one night with Grandma Schmidgall and celebrate early.  It is always snuggly and cozy to relax at her house and the snow made it even cozier!

Zeke opened his first-ever Christmas gifts!  Stockings first…

…and then the Grandma jackpot!

Joel and I are very intentional about encouraging our kids in service and looking for opportunities to care for others as a family.  On Christmas Eve-Eve (Dec. 23rd), Joel and I took the kids and Giovanni to a convalescent home down the street to give flowers to the residents and wish them a Merry Christmas.  I can’t even tell you how sweet it was to hear their little voices.  They even sang some carols!

We got nailed with 15 inches of snow in DC - people were calling it snowageddan! So we made the best of it and did some urban snow skiing in DC! All you need is 15 inches of snow, a mini van, an extension cord, a sled, some boots, and a bad sense of balance.

The first video is Mommy & Ella doing some tubing. Ella learned what snow tastes like The second video is Dad doing some street snow skiing.

I love how Ella can smile on cue! Check out her and Zeke with Santa at the mall…

What a difference a year makes!  When Santa asked Ella what she wants for Christmas, she repeated the exact same thing she has been telling us at home for a while now, “Lights!  Blue lights!”  All the girl wants is a tree with Christmas lights!  Her wish was granted…though we put the blue lights up in her room and left white on the tree.

2008 (not too thrilled last year)

2009! (all about it!)

(Note the death grip on Santa’s coat!)

Our cutie little pilgrim had a Thanksgiving feast at playschool today. This picture is deceiving…she wasn’t feeling particularly thankful about having to take a photo.  This smile is forced…or bribed.

She is thankful for her daddy though, that is for sure!

And, here are some recent pics of Zeke at eight months.  It is getting a little more, um…difficult to photograph the little dude.

No babies were harmed in the attempted making of these photos.

“What’s the problem mom?”

Here’s the best I got…Ezekiel Edwin, 8 months old

I am so thankful this week!  I am feeling the holiday spirit for sure!  Joel and I are continually thankful for our family.  Our marriage and our babies are such a gift!  The kids have me laughing a lot lately.  I am so blessed to be their mama!

Eloise update:

We are working with Ella to give up her pacifier.  As she gets older, she seems more and more attached to it.  It is time (probably overdue) to start the weaning process. We have realized that we are just as addicted as she is because it really does help her gather self-control, put herself to sleep, keep her calm in the car, etc.  So far we have made it through two days of passie-free nap and bedtime.  Bedtime has tears for sure, but we are making it!  She assures herself that she is almost three!

Lately, Ellie says the cutest little phrase when she is a little under the weather.  “Mommy/Daddy, I’m not feeling-good-very-well.”  She had a pretty bad fever this last week and we heard that lots!  So cute!

Our little girl LOVES for us to tell her stories.  Each night, as we put her to bed, she says, “Mama, say ‘Onnnnce upon a time…’”  Daddy’s stories send her into giggles because he usually finds a way to work in the word “poo-poo” at some random point.  I, on the other hand, have been trying to tell Bible stories…which she usually loves, though she did tell me recently that she didn’t want to hear about Mary and baby Jesus anymore.  Oy!

This little girl is already excited about her birthday.  She announces often that her birthday is “January 29!“…gotta make sure we don’t forget!

The other day at dinner she announced, “When I get big, I am going to get married!”  We were both a little shocked but simply asked, “Oh yeah?  To who?”  She confidently announced, “To Christmas!”

Ezekiel update:

Zeke just turned eight months old!

Sometimes he will start cracking up if you just look at him - like he knows he is being funny! He loves, LOVES to bounce in his exersaucer or jumper and sometimes he will grunt at me until I look over.  Then, he starts smiling and laughing and bouncing as though he just wanted to show off!

We have a hugger!  He gives a big squeeze around your neck when you pick him up - pure heaven.

The dude LOVES food.  He can eat anything - tonight he ate FOUR pizza crusts!  Just like his sister used to, he sings (hums) when you feed him.  If you stop for even a moment, he grunts at you.  Needless to say, we are working hard on baby signs!  I keep telling him, “Zeke, don’t shout at mama!” Pretty much the only time he complains is for food!

EZ is trying desperately to crawl.  He can’t seem to figure out to put his knees down and move them.  Instead he keeps pushing up with his feet flat on the ground!  When that doesn’t work, he defaults back into the sitting position.  He loves it if you sit down on the ground with him so he can crawl all over you, practicing pulling himself up.

“What mom, that won’t work?”

On his eight month birthday, he started clapping!  Though, he refuses to perform on command.  He also broke his first tooth just a few days ago.  You still can’t really see it but he is drooling like a mad man and you can feel it in his mouth - razor sharp!

Whenever we feel shocked by the demands of life with small children, we remind ourselves that this is just a stage.  Though it has it’s challenges, I still wish to freeze time sometimes, keeping these kids small.  They think we have all the answers, can fix any problem, and pretty much want to be with us all the time.  Those days are short, we are sure!