Happy 1st Birthday Ben-Ben!!!

Benjamin turned 1 on February 15th!! We celebrated his 1st birthday on Sunday February 15th at our house. Great Grandma Schultz, Great Grandpa Schultz, Grandma Pat, Grandma Tom, Nana, Papa, Uncle Tom, Aunt Alisha, Great Aunt Julie, Great Uncle Jeff, cousin Kim and cousin Ali joined us for the celebration. I took on the initiative to make his birthday cake. It took a while to decide what to do, but we decided to go with a farm theme.
Jacob and Benjamin went up to Grandma Pat and Grandpa Tom's house after the party. I was signed up to go to the Commercial Code Review in Madison, the following day I had a company wide engineering meeting also in Madison. On my way up to pick up Jacob and Benjamin, I stopped to see my grandparents. My grandmother had pneumonia and my grandfather has Alzheimer's. I was very glad to get to my parents house and see Jacob and Benjamin. Benjamin would not let me out of his sight. He had fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house, but he did miss mommy and daddy.
Benjamin started to take some steps just after his birthday. He still prefers to crawl, but slowly he walks more and more.
Benjamin, I love your smile. I love how you smile and blink your eyes when you know what your going to do is something you know you shouldn't. I love your curly hair that I never know what to do with. I love how you think that you can hide something behind your back and think I can't see it. I love your excitement for Molly. I love how you look up to Jacob and what to do what he does (most of the time). I love how excited you get when daddy gets home. I love your enthusiasm to play and wrestle. You love to eat and you couldn't wait to eat what everyone else was eating. You are a sweet little boy and I can't believe you are one. I feel like I blinked and you turned one. You are a gift from God and we are so thankful that God choose to bless us with you. We love you!!!

January - Financial Peace

In January, we made a difficult decision to step down from our ministries at Spring Creek Church. We love Spring Creek Church, but we were hoping to find a church were we could connect with people who lived in our area. Since January we have been attending Fox River Christian Church, which is just down the road from our house. Josh had participated in a couple of men's basketball leagues the past couple of years and has always felt welcomed there.
We also decided to attend the Financial Peace University thru the church. I also started to attend a Tuesday morning group called "Momtime". Both have been a huge blessing to Josh and I. I have wanted to attend the Financial Peace Class for some time. Josh went to the class somewhat reluctantly. We still have a large amount of school loans from MSOE that we have not been able to make extra payments on. Even though we paid off our credit card bill every month, we still never seem to have any extra to pay extra on our loans. Needless to say, we have used the tools from the class and it has revolutionized our finances. We also were able to pay almost $2,000 dollars on the smallest of the loans!!! How cool is that. Josh is now a huge fan, even after being such a skeptic. We would encourage everyone to attend a Financial Peace University Class!!
We also got two potty chairs for Jacob. Yeah... I feel like we will be forever potty training. I stopped stressing about it. So many people have told me that once their sons turned three they just decided they were going to do it. So, I have till July. Jacob loves to sit on the potty and watch T.V. Maybe not the best of incentives. Here Ben is trying out the potty chair. He thinks that if Jacob is doing it, I should be doing it too.

Celebrating Jesus's Birthday!

In the midst of basketball season we prepared for the Christmas season. My cousin Ali bless her heart was up late one night helping me wrap presents for grandparents, great-grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles and two little boys. I think it was the night of my birthday.
Jacob, Ben and I went to go pick up Ali at school. We stopped at Culver's in Watertown for supper. Then we headed to Waukesha North for the girls varsity game. While we were at the game I took Jacob to the bathroom and noticed he had a rash on his stomach. We headed home and by the time we got home the rash was all over his body, from the bottom of his feet to his forehead. He also started to have a temperature. I called the on-call pediatrician and they said to watch him, it was probably a virus. The next morning it was getting worse, his pediatrician was on call and had us come into the office. Dr. Esser did a strep test, Jacob even thanked him for it. Dr. Esser said he had never been thanked for doing a strep test before. The strep test was negative, he said it still looked like a viral infection. He said that if the temperature reached more than 104 to take him to Children's immediately.
Shortly after we got home from the doctor Josh called and asked if I could come get him, the car would not start. I thought maybe he had something planned for my birthday, no such luck. That evening we hymned and hawed about going out to eat for my birthday like we had previously planned to do. We took the chance with our rash boy, not such a good idea. He threw up at Chili's. Let's say it was a very eventful birthday. My wonderful husband did get me an awsome cake from Sweet Perfections in Waukesha. There were 8 flowers for our 8 years of marriage and two roses for Jacob and Benjamin.


The weekend before Christmas we spent with Grandma Pat, Grandpa Tom, Uncle T.J. and Uncle Andy. It was Benjamin's first Christmas and Jacob's first Christmas with Uncle Andy. We were planning to come back to Waukesha on Sunday, Josh had a big conversion at work and was hoping to work a couple of day before we headed down to Illinois. The boys and I were also going to ride over to the airport with Grandpa Tom to drop Andy off for his trip to Alabama. However, the weather on the Sunday before Christmas was so bad that my brother T.J.'s car got stuck less than a quarter mile from my parents home. Needless to say, we decided to stay an extra night. Monday morning we caravaned down to Milwaukee, dropped Andy off at the airport and headed back to our house.
Josh and I then hymned and hawed about whether we should head down to Illinois late Monday evening. He had a basketball game Monday night, so I packed while he was at the game. I even put the boys to bed, we tried to transfer them to the truck without waking them up, however that didn't happen. As we arrived at Josh's parents house it started to snow. Normally it would not have been such a big deal to go down there, however, Josh's sister Trisha and her family were in town. We do not get to see them very often so that is why it made it a difficult disicion.
Jacob and Ben had a great time with their cousins Kaitlyn and Abigail. We were able to see Great Grandpa Toepfer, Great Aunt Donna and Uncle Vic. Jacob also got to spend some special time with Great Grandma Schultz. Kaitlyn got to ride in the front end loader with great Uncle Ronnie. Shhhhh... don't tell Jacob, he was at Great Grandma's with Papa and Daddy. We spent Christmas Day at Great Grandma and Grandpa Schultz's house with the whole family. Jacob and Kaitlyn thought it was great to open up their presents and their siblings. Ben and Abigail were not really into the whole opening up gifts yet. Ben did catch on for the last present, which happened to be one for Josh and I.
As I reflect on the Christmas season, I am reminded of the anticipation of the Isrealites awaiting their savior. Also the anticipation of the wise men as they traveled to see Jesus. It is like the anticipation of a child waiting to open a present from a loved one. As a parent you love your child and you want the best for him/her. Just like our heavenly Father loves us and wants the best for us. It is amazing to see Christmas through the eyes of a child.