A new Valentines Day tradition

Nothing says I love you, like throwing someone you love on a piece of plastic/rubber and pushing them down a huge snow covered hill! :)

We got a Gift Certificate for Christmas to Snow trails Ski Resort , it's about an hour north of Columbus and it has skiing & Snow tubing so we decided we'd give it a try on Valentines Day.

It was a day that reeked of what true love is all about! Patience: We had to wait 2 hours just to get tickets to go tubing. so while we waited we got into a huge fight..... snowball fight that is..... and we tried to fight fair! Trust: The place had a little conveyor belt that pulled us & our tubes up the side of the hill and it was a little scary! I was hanging onto Leah for dear life and kept looking back and Theo & Ethan wishing he'd hang onto him a little tighter and then looking in front of me watch Alex and praying that he wouldn't try any dare-devil stuntsNausea: Faith in the people that ran the place that they KNEW what they were doing and none of us would end up broken & bruised. So we climbed in the tubes, gave each other a couple of nervous smiles and pushed off..Exhilaration. The look their faces were priceless..... scared and exhilarated all at the same time IT was SO FUN!!!

Repetition, Do it again, Do it AGAIN!!!

And of course the ever present, often repeating need to have Patience.

It's too cold.... My feet are freezing.... I'm hungry.... I have to pee

Ethan was definitely the trooper of the bunch and has earned the title of "THE SNOW - MANS" he never complained and just had the best time! We grabbed a bite to eat and then he passed out before we were even out of the parking lot!

I think we are going to have to make this a new family tradition!!!

A visit from some "farm" girls.....

Alright they are gonna KILL me for referring to them as farm girls.... but since they moved to B.F.E. they are getting a little taste of the country life and it doesn't seem to be doing them any harm! Our favorite Teenage nieces Hannah & Madison were able to come and spend some time with us a few weekends ago and we were so happy to have them here!

Here's Hannah with Leah

Madison & Ethan
Madison stayed with us for the weekend and got to catch up with some of her old friends here in Columbus, and Hannah & Garrett came for dinner Sunday night. (somehow I didn't get Garrett in any pictures). Hannah brought her new boyfriend over for us to meet him real quick and I've decided next time we'll have to torture him with dinner and 20 questions.

We definitely want them to make the trip to see us again soon and Leah keeps saying she wants to see their new bedroom so we'll have to go visit them out in Boo Foo Egypt....
We've missed these girls SOOOO much!!!

For the LOVE of PETE

I've been saying that ALOT lately..... for one thing I'm trying DESPERATELY not to cuss as much... and saying FOR THE LOVE OF PETE.... is long... there are lots of vowels and it does make me feel a little better especially since my friend Sally said.... "This Pete fellow sure has been getting a lot of love".... It makes me smile .... and makes me wish I had a really good friend named Pete.....

But the reason I've been needing to avoid cussing is because people have really been annoying the crap out of me the last few days.... NO i'm not PMSing or Prego.... just once again I am amazed at how people can take something beautiful & simple.... and turn it UGLY and complicated.
Ok so let me give you some background, I'm the president of My son's PTA.... I've been getting alot of information from the National PTA on ways to get fathers more involved in our school. There are TONS of articles that talk about the importance of a father's involvement, the way it effects the child's view of school, the child's self esteem, the grades that a child earns...... litter ally their a million articles on the web that will basically tell you that but in much greater detail and much more eloquently than I.
So in one of the above mentioned articles it gives ideas on things a PTA can do to help get fathers involved.... one of many ideas listed was a father daughter dance....... Oh how cute... little girls dancing on their daddies feet.... getting a dressed up ..... getting pictures taken....... and just feeling like they are the center of the universe.... or at least the center of their Daddies universe..... It was that simple.... that innocent........
Well I took the idea to the principal and she was totally on board with the idea.... I researched DJ's..... looked into decorations..... and made up signs & Flyer's to put up at school. When i was typing up the flyer it occurred to me that not all little girls have a Dad.... so not wanting to exclude them I put ON THE FLYER..... All the ladies are invited to bring their favorite "fella" be it Dad, Step-Dad, Grand-Dad, Uncle, Brother...... I thought that would cover it all.... and then i decided that the cost of a ticket may keep some girls from being able to come, So i created some Gift certificates/vouchers.... that teachers could give anyone that they felt might need it..... I was feeling so darn proud of myself..... Doing something for all the little girls at my SONS school... thinking about how fun it would've been to do something like this with my Dad or Step-Dad as a kid..... So I made the copies and passed them to all the teachers.... hung up the sings around school..... All was right with the world
Then Yesterday it ALL blew up in my face.......... apparently people are "UP IN ARMS" that I'm excluding little girls who have same sex parents.... it's not fair for them to not get to go..... UH????? Say What? Of course they can go, bring who ever they want...... it's not like that.... and then today someone was upset by my choice of using the term "fella"................ Uh again HUH???
FOR REAL PEOPLE.....................GET A GRIP!!!! Surely this isn't the first time that this little girl has noticed that she has two Mom's and no Dad's.......... and I thought I covered the whole line up of possibilities...... she doesn't have a positive male role model in her life willing to spare two hours to take her to a stinking dance??? If that's the case this little girl needs an opportunity to create that relationship...... Did her Mom's really think that this would NEVER come up in her life? ... and as far as the term Fella................. REALLY??? You have a problem with the English word fella because apparently it can be translated to mean something similar to girl on girl............ The whole Gay angle is NOT one that I thought would come up in this scenario....................Never even crossed my mind....... FOR THE LOVE OF PETE..................... actually Pete's getting so much love.... go talk to Pete about all this cause I'm just OVER IT!!!!

We Miss Our Abbey & Amelia!!!

It's been officially 6 months since the Gibbs moved to Utah,.... Yes Leah & I have been out there and Ben & Danielle have been here twice... but it's just not enough. Especially not for almost 3 and a 4 year old.

Abbey and Amelia come up in conversations daily, we have a conversation at least 1 a week about how long it takes to get to Utah either by plane (1 long day) or by car (4 long days) ... they are always talking about how we are going to go out there after the baby comes (due in march) and who Ethan thinks should be named Millie and Leah thinks it should be Hannah. Leah has also solved our housing dilema and says that when we move out of this house to find a bigger one, we can buy one down the street from Abbey's new house. There are LOTS of big houses out there by the BIG mountains!

I think it's amazing that even though it's been months since they've played together (Ethan hasn't seen them since they moved) they still talk about each other all the time. I know they seal families in the temple... but do they seal friendships too?

I think GOD knew that our families were meant to be together for all eternity and so we've been sealed/baptised through Kool-aid, snotty noses, lots of laughter, and just as many tears, and our strong faith and trust in each other... or the fact that we know WAY too much about the other to ever let the other get to far away.... for fear that we'd sell the rights to the others story and become a Lifetime Original Movie! ( I think Patrick Dempsey would make a great Ben)

We know adjusting to Utah hasn't been so easy at times, it hasnt been easy getting use to you being gone either! I'm still trying to find Ben a job back here in Ohio! There's been more than just a few days that I've wished I could just walk across the street and find 4 of my most favorite people in the world.... But we also know that everything happens for a reason and We are trusting that The Big Guy knows what he's doing!

For now we'll just keep planing trips to Utah and keep coming up with reasons for you to come back to Ohio!

We Miss you like crazy

My new favorite day...

There is no Rhyme or Reason to why it works with us, it just does. We make each other laugh more than we make each other cry. We work together more than we work against each other, we disagree but still listen to the other's side. And at the end of the day I rather get a hug from him than anyone else in the world! I just love this guy and it's a good thing because I'm hoping to live to be 95 years old... that means I'm stuck with him for 61 more years.

Here we are the new Mr & Mrs.

It was a great day! We had pictures taken downtown and we got to stay at the Hyatt on Capitol Square. They upgraded us to the Presidential suite so we had a GREAT view, a whirlpool bath, a sauna and I'm not sure If I'm spelling it right but it also had a bidet. Not to mention the enormous bed with 15 pillows on it! It was AWESOME.

Then we went down to Lindey's were everyone was wrapping up their cocktails and appetizers.We had the ceremony & reception there.

My sister was the Maid of Honor, and Theo's best friend Jason was the best man. The kids were our fabulous ring bearer & flower girl. Leah was a little nervous and had my sister carry her in, Ethan just flat out refused, but Alex was a trooper and did a great job! My Dad walked me in to the song "turn around" it's a oldie, but when I was in High school my step-mom Jean pulled me aside one night and told me to listen to a song that was playing on my little brothers Lullaby tape and it was Turn Around, she asked me to play that song at my wedding. I thought she was on crack at the time, but she's been gone almost 10 years and I'm so glad that the ONLY song played at my wedding was the one SHE had asked me to! I also got to wear her Mother's ring, a tradition my sister started 9 years ago. Two other sentimental pieces were a bracelet that my little brother Justin gave to me my senior year of High school for my prom and told me I could wear it when I got married too! And My Grandma McCord's rosary was wrapped around my flowers.

So I had all kinds of little memento's reminding of me of special people

The actual ceremony was just about 10 minutes long, our good friend Tim Lee performed the ceremony and I think he was a little nervous and accidentally call Theo.... Leo.... but he had no idea he had done it until his wife brought it to his attention later in the evening. But perhaps the funniest and most "US" moment was when we were exchanging vows and Ethan decided that it would be the perfect time to do ... 1....2....3... Wheeeee..... and have Mom and Dad swing him... it's so fun and how often does he see us just standing around holding hands.... It was a classic "schmierney" moment and I can't wait to bring that up at HIS wedding in 30 years! :)

Here are some pictures of the kids, even though these are great shots, they just couldn't capture how adorable they were from the suits & dresses to the "fancy shoes" they just STOLE the show Me and Alex my handsome little guy!

How Cute is Ethan in this one?

We didn't get ONE picture of him smiling the entire day! Little stinker! But he looked so cute in his little 3 piece suit!!! Here's Princess... Yes I got Leah a crown, if you could've seen her face when i showed it to her, you'd understand why. She was just so excited and honestly she was ADORABLE all day long!

I could post ALL the pictures from that night there were so many great shots and there are SO many details I feel like I'm leaving out, but I'll say it was just a great day .... actually it was my favorite day of all time because all the people I love the most were in one room at the same time and I got to hug each and every one of them!!!! How much better could it get?

Our December to Remember

What do you say to a mother of three kids, who is the president of the PTA, is planning a Huge Holiday Bazzaar at her son's school, has a bachelorette party, turns 34, then gets married the next day and is having christmas a week later .....

You say hello Crazy lady have you taken your crazy pills today?!?!?

Obviously I did not take my crazy pills, because it has been a crazy month!!!

The Westgate Holiday bazaar

Was a huge success! We made over 2K for the PTA! Here are the kids in their new choir vests that the PTA just bought for them this year! Its was a fun night and ALOT of people came to enjoy the evening! Can't wait until next year when I'll feel like I have a clue as to what I'm doing!

My Bachelorette partyI have to say this was a pretty calm one! We had a great dinner at Brio at Easton and finished the night with a drink at a neighboring bar! I have 2 picutres from that night, this one is of my friend Amy.... it's particularly funny to have a picture of Amy at a bar because shes Prego and mormon! She made the comment that this is where ever pregnant morom girl should be... at a bar!!! But I love the evening! Thanks to everyone that made itMy 34th Birthday

The older I get, the less excited I am about turning another year older, but I have to say this one was pretty cool! I get to spend it with my little brother, My Dad and Connie, and even my sister came down. We ordered a pizza and played Wii with the kids. Leah actually kicked Justin's butt in Wii bowling! Mr & Mrs. Schmidt

So this one deserves it's own blog, and I'll get there, but here is a preview, I'll just say for now that the night was perfect. The kids looked adorable and I married my favorite person!!! The Jolly Fat man Rides again

Santa found his way to our house once again.... Lot's of wheels in the living room this year! Ethan got a "motorcycle" and rode around with his new helmet for most of the day!Alex also got a snazzy new bike! Leah also got some fabulous new things..... but darn it I'm tired just typing about it.... so you can imagine how pooped we are! It's PJ's week at our house! and I'm so thankful that the kids have another week off of school! Hope you had a great December too!

Remember our PUPPY???

Back in April we adopted a Black Lab Mix puppy from Pets Without Parents Animal Shelter. He was adorable and so little and although I knew he'd get bigger, I had no idea.....

This is a picture from the day we brought him home.

This is a picture I took of him last night.... and he wont be a year old until February....

The Vet thinks he's a Black Lab mixed with either a Great Dane or a Mastiff.....

uhhhh. we need a bigger house & a MUCH bigger Yard!!!