February 2011

Hello Everyone,

Hope all you Minnesotans are thawing out:) We've been keeping busy here in Las Vegas. Jay has been coaching basketball as an assistant on varsity for Faith this year. It was a big change from the middle school team he has been coaching the past 5 years. It was fun to watch the kids he started with play their senior year. Unfortunately there was no championship for them this year. The season ended last week.

Gioia is really enjoying being a big sister. She is very nurturing toward Braden. (Sigh of relief). She's always making sure we take care of him if he fusses, gives him his nuk when he needs it and likes to pretend her babies are just like Braden. She has enjoyed going back to daycare to play with her friends as Kim went back to work at the end of January. She is learning new words everyday and is starting to put sentances together even if we don't understand them. She can say the letters of the alphabet somewhat clearly with us helping her and is so adorable as she says her night time prayer with us.

Our newest addition is getting bigger and bigger everyday! He's following our faces and looking for us when he hears our voices. Braden loves watching Gioia and just looks like he can't wait to move around with her. He is a little charmer already with his adorable smile. Enjoy this video we just took 2-18-11.

Peaceful baby boy

Gioia still loves him...and he loves the attention

We got her hair into a ponytail superbowl sunday:)

Braden's 2 month pictures

Christmas/New Years

Christmas and New Years brought plenty of family to visit.

Kim's Mom and sister, Amanda, came down to visit for 5-days (Dec.17th-22nd). They had the displeasure of experiencing, what I claim, the longest storms in Vegas history. It rained for 5-days straight (every second they were visiting).

This was the first time we were in Las Vegas for Christmas. It was very different to celebrate the birth of Jesus with palm trees and 55-degree weather. It was very relaxing not traveling for place-to-place-to-place, but we did miss everyone in MN.

This was taken one night when we were trying to teach Gioia how to stay in bed and fall asleep at night. She got the "falling asleep" part down, we just need to work on "staying in bed."

Jay's whole family came out between Christmas and New Years. Adam and his family came early, along with Mom, so we traveled to the Grand Canyon for quite the adventure. The whole trip seemed like a Clark Griswold vacation, but in the end everything worked out.

Eric and his family came later in the week. We had the Schutte Christmas in Vegas along with the Braden's baptism and New Years at Red Rock Casino while everyone was here. It was great to for all of the cousins to play for 3-days non-stop. Gioia was complete wiped out after that weekend.

In a 14-month period, Mom will have gained 6 grandchildren (one more is still on the way).

It will be a crazy next couple of months. Kim will be going back to work in a couple weeks. Her classes start up again at the same time. Jay is trying to finish his Masters Program, hopefully by February, while basketball is in full swing.

We plan on making a couple small trips back to MN this spring along with our big trip in the summer.

Take care!

Baby Braden

Here's Braden Steven Jay Schutte.

Born at 9:05pm on Dec. 9th. 8lbs 6oz, 19 1/2in.







Gioia loves to be around Braden. Here a short video of her holding him.

Halloween/Thanksgiving Update

Finally, I got a chance to update this blog. Sorry for not doing it for a few months. Kim decided to go back to school to become a nurse, so she has been busy with that. She has been doing great with the pregnancy, up until this past week. The baby is starting to get her a little uncomfortable, which only means that it is getting really close for the big day (Dec. 15 is the due date). Gioia knows what a baby is from her dolls (and baby Austin). She will point to Kim's belly and say "Baby," so who knows if she really understands what is happening. We weren't too concerned about her being nice to the new baby up until this past week when she started to drag her dolls around the house by the leg and putting them in the car seat upside down. Hopefully she will be a little nicer when the real one comes......Here are some pictures and videos from the past couple months. Enjoy!


We went to a pumpkin patch that had a petting zoo. Gioia hated the big goats and chickens, but loved the bunnies and baby goat.




Gioia's Halloween outfit. She painted the one pumpkin with Mom and carved the other one with Dad. (It is pretty scary that anyone would wear anything with "Vikings" on it.)


Trick-or-Treat'n with Jon & Marti's Boys (Zach-Spiderman, Noah-Werewolf, Luke-Cowboy)




This is Andre Agassi's house. He decorated the front of his house like the ship from "Pirates of the Caribbean."




Gioia help cleaning the house to get ready for Christmas decorations.


We went to a park on Saturday that had a Christmas decorations, Santa Claus, and rides. She is not too enthused about Santa this year, so this statue was the best we could.




Gioia had concerns about riding the carousel, but feel in love with it by the time it by the end.


On Sunday, we went up to the mountains to go sledding for the first time.


She hated every second of it.


We hope all is going well you everyone. You'll definately be getting an update in the next few weeks when the new kid arrives. We are sad that we won't be able to make it back to Minnesota for Christmas this year. Kim's mom and dad will be coming to Vegas when the kid is born and Jay's whole family (mom, brothers, sister-in-laws, nieces & nephews) will be in Las Vegas between Christmas and New Years, so we will still be able to see most of our family for Christmas.

Baby update:)

Getting ready for the pool...

Summer time is here!!! Gioia loves being in the water. She'll start swimming lessons in August when we get back from MN!

And now...the first look at Baby Schutte #2...we had a 1st trimester screening on Friday and were able to see baby flipping and moving all around! The sonographer said the baby is a 'wild one.'

This picture is the baby looking at you (sideways) and waving:)

Profile picture...you can see the fingers and one leg if you look really close!

We go back for another screening to make sure things keep going well in August. See you all soon!

We went camping this past weekend up in the mountains with Jon, Marti, the boys and 3 other families. It was quite the weekend! With cold temperatures (35 degrees the first night) and Gioia and Jay getting sick, it made it a rough weekend for some of us.


Gioia and Kim got to head up to the campsite much earlier before anyone else could come up.


We hiked a trail leading to caves where the theives use to hide out in the old days after riding into Vegas to rob people.

Mommy wouldn't let Daddy climb any farther with Gioia on his back.

The boys playing in a snow pile between two rock walls. There were rock climbers climbing the wall on the right.

July 13th is when Gioia and Jay fly into Minnesota and will be there until August 1st. Kim will only be there the last few days of the trip, just in time for Jon and Marti's wedding.

Can't wait to see everyone!

Gioia's Birthday

We were discussing wedding plans!

From Aunt Jacqui & Uncle Jon R.

Swimming at Marti's house

Cousin Alayna and Grandma Schutte made a surprise visit for Gioia's Birthday weekend.

From Shelby & Mari Buhr

Checking out the new potty chair from Grandma & Grandpa Ruzicka.

Kim has been feeling good with the pregnancy. She is really enjoying taking long naps with Gioia on her days off....I have about 2-weeks left of school, then Daddy Daycare starts....All three of us can't wait to make our trip to MN in July. It looks like Gioia & I will be back for a couple weeks before Jon's wedding. We haven't figured out the exact dates yet, but looks like it will be a longer visit than normal....We are going camping in the mountains over Memorial Weekend. We'll see how long Gioia lasts sleeping in the tent.