The Schmidgalls

Ella got the giggles on this video - adorable! And at the end she stood up for 1 second - momentous occasion! Enjoy…

Ellie’s Aunt Lora has a birthday today! Lora’s birthday requires special mention because she has really amazed and touched us with her commitment to our family, especially this last year.

It is no secret how difficult it is to live away from my own family, especially this year as we became parents. I have been continually amazed at the lengths Lora will go to give love and support to our family.

I suppose it doesn’t make sense that I am surprised by how much Lora loves our little girl. Lora has three kids and with them I got to experience auntie-hood for the first time when Joel and I got married. It is true, being an aunt is a BLAST! You are not burdened by the concern of raising the kids, you simply get to ENJOY them. Being an aunt to all of our niece and nephews has been one of my greatest joys! (I now realize that I am somewhat doomed for payback after all the goodies I slipped the kids or rules I might have overlooked. Oops)

Yet, even knowing how sweet it has been to be an aunt myself, I have still been overwhelmed at the lengths Lora has gone to support Joel and I in parenthood. Even more, I am warmed at how much she truly delights in our daughter.

On Sunday mornings, Ellie goes to Aunt Lora’s house while mommy and daddy run around church, trying to take care of ministry responsibilities. A few weeks ago, a friend asked me before church, “Where’s Ella?” I told her, “Oh, she is at Aunt Lora’s. She will be here later.” My friend, who also has a little one, responded “I wish WE had an Aunt Lora.” No truer words could have been spoken!

So today we celebrate Lora and who she is. We give thanks for her servants’ heart, the toys she buys for her house just for Ella, the Sunday mornings and other countless times that Ellie plays at her house, the sermons she has missed to rock her, taking Ella for her first overnight away from home, the many meals she has fed us over the years, the fun we have shared in ministry, the happy phone calls when we just have to tell someone the new thing Ellie just did, the teary phone calls as I seek guidance through motherhood (a few more of those than I like to admit), and for all the memories still to come!

I have never had a big sister but praise God for the one I have now. Happy, happy birthday Lora. We love you!

Earlier this week, I took Ella for her nine month checkup. Here are the stats:

Weight: 22 pounds (92nd percentile) - not a skinny anymore!

Height: 29 3/4 inches (99th percentile)

She had to get a flu shot…but she didn’t even cry! Her eyes got wide and she sucked in her breath - but no crying! My brave girl! We had to go down to the lab to draw blood and I had to hold while they drained her little finger into vials. She cried then but was easily consoled by the Scooby-doo bandaid for her finger. The nurse told me to take it off before I put it in the car so she didn’t eat it. She was so entertained by it that I left it on though (rebel Mommy). When we got home and I took her out of the car it was gone. I looked around the car but haven’t seen it. Uh oh!

That reminds me about something new she is doing… Each night when I read books to her, I point to things on the page and name them. She has started pointing to things too! Now, she points all the time…she doesn’t seem to care when I tell her it is kind of rude.

“Bath time Mommy?”

(You KNOW this photo is even better with the full view. But, this is the world wide web friends, and I can’t go there with my baby girl. Imagine and giggle…)

I can’t believe our little girl is NINE months already! She has grown so much! It is amazing the changes since the beginning of the year!

A while back a friend told me that at each stage with her little girl she thinks, “No THIS is my favorite stage!” I finally believe her. I don’t know how it is possible but every moment with Ella is more precious. I double-heart love this little girl!

Two weeks old - first Sunday to church!

Six months old - off to church again!

Nine months - church again this last Sunday!

The big news in our family is that I am a bowling CHAMP!!! On Sunday night, our small group met up with the other NCC couples groups for a bowling tournament. If you know Joel, you know he was SO excited to strut his bowler-man stuff. And I was less than thrilled. The only thing that mattered to me was that my girlfriends would be there to chat while we waited for our turn. (Come on gals, you know this is the best part of bowling! Just like basketball games, baseball games, and the occasional football get-together.)

We got word last week that the groups might be getting tee-shirts. Since we all have families, we didn’t really consider it a priority to make that happen. We showed up looking totally ghetto – we wore black shirts with a little felt bowling pin stuck on. The other groups had these fancy screened tee-shirts. Who would have guessed that we would SCHOOL the competition! And who was the high scorer? Oh yeah…it was me! If you sense me boasting, you are totally correct because I STINK at bowling. I have no idea what got into me. Bionic arm? Wheaties breakfast? Intense desire to beat Joel? All I know is that, on behalf of my team, I accepted this glorious trophy. Try not to be jealous.

I’m doing a sermon on The Pursuit of Happyness. How do you define happiness? Feel free to chime in, here’s my attempt…

*Coming into a room and seeing ella turn and give me a big grin.

*Seeing someone else get pulled over for speeding
*A thick, juicy Filet with extra butter sauce

*A hot fire on a cold, snowy night
*Bears 27, Packers 20
*Picking up a crying Ella after a long nap and she nestles her warm head into my neck.
*My Mom’s crepes, Mimi’s tacos, Papi’s apple pie, Nina’s Eggs Benedict, Lora’s apple crisp, Manda’s pudding, Robb’s Ribs, Carrie’s Enchiladas, Swony’s rootbeer.
*My family eating hot dogs in Wrigley Field

*Music, a dance floor, and me and my wife on it
*Singing songs of worship with my church family after being gone a weekend
*A full tank of gas
*Sore legs, sweaty shirt, and worn out body after a full day of serving our community
*A crisp fall night with the school band playing at a high school football game
*Charlie Brown’s Christmas cd in Barnes and Noble over looking the Inner Harbor
*Seeing my girls after being out of the country for 9 days

*Family laughter
*That dingaling sound effect that occurs when you receive outlook e-mail, after you haven’t been able to get online for awhile.

I realized that I never really got any pictures of our little Ella-bee by herself.  We were so caught up in all the fun with her friends that we never took the time for a picture of just our little bug.  Since her turtleneck was in the wash due to the excessive animal cracker consumption, we had to get creative.  I personally like this look even better.  (Thanks to my momma who hand-crafted this adorable outfit and all the accessories!)

So, we coaxed (forced) Ella through her first official Halloween experience. Late in the afternoon, some of my friends came by my office with the babies so the staff could see everyone is costume. Then we all met up at the church offices for the parade of costumes…okay, not really a parade since most of the kids can’t walk. Okay, here goes… (don’t mind the poor quality pics - I had other things on my mind.)

We dressed Ella, Violet, and Go-Go as bugs! Ladybug Vi, Bumblebee Ellie, and Go-Go Spider. (Can’t you tell Ella was having a BLAST?)

“Girl, stop the cryin’! The parents are loving this.”

Mommas and their buggies

There is one main street for trick-or-treating so, even though the kids don’t even eat candy, we marched them down the road to see everyone else. There is an event close to our house called “Hilloween” (get it, we live on Capitol HILL?) but, again our babies are really too young to participate. (Do you see a theme here? We all decided that the kids just HAD to experience these events even though the strangely dressed children were probably pretty overwhelming.)

Proud papas and their “creatures”

Ella knew that it was dinner time so she wasn’t really having a blast. We basically kept shoving animal crackers at her the whole night. It didn’t help that I was adamant that we walk another ten blocks (round trip) to see our friend Allison’s spooky house. (I wish I had a picture - it looked amazing!)

Joel the bee keeper with his little bee (Fellas, for the record, I FORCED Joel to wear this…it lasted about 30 seconds.)

Our busy-bee was a little champ. I am sure she is already dreaming about next year. ha

I am totally late in posting these pics but we took Ella to the church Family Harvest Party at a working farm a while ago. It was a fun time with some other families at the church. It didn’t really feel like fall because it was like eighty degrees!

Here we are on the hayride with a bunch of random people. The funny thing is that I saw the next hayride and there were just three people on it. Haha - apparently 1pm is prime hayride hour.

Stacey and Millie - sun hats required…

David had fun…though the babies didn’t really understand why they couldn’t crawl around. “What are we doing exactly?”

“Who cares about scenery when Aunt Lora will read to me?”

Bella the bell ringer…actually, they had a tin can that you could raise food up to goats and they would crawl up and get it.

I had never really seen Ella get scared of anything but she did NOT like the black-faced sheep. She would cling for dear life to whoever was holding her. Little David LOVED the animals though. He just laughed and laughed at them!

Summer took Ella through the maze! “Where are you guys?”

Delia had fun outside too!

The cousins - Ella, Summer, and Siah

I would go to a pumpkin every weekend in October if I had the time! Fun!  Happy Harvest!