As Our Year Winds Down....

What a Christmas it's been for the Schroeder clan.  So cold you feel you're in the Polar Express stream, Snow!, and lots of time together. 

Max has had a rough go of it with his epilepsy.  He had breakthrough seizures while we were in Minnesota the middle of the month and it's been a tough time ever since.  It has taken a couple of weeks to stop the seizures; the only way to do that was with heavy doses of his medications, which makes him pretty much a bump on a log.  Once he'd gone a couple days without seizures we started to lower his dose and are hoping to have him back to his goofy self sometime soon.  He is a bit more alert than he has been, but still isn't any more active than a lump of pudding.  It's been hard on us all to watch our active boy take such a down turn, but we have hope that he will continue to bounce back even if it is at a snails pace.  

Max and Gracie, this past summer in their little music video

We had a lovely Christmas.  We enjoyed our traditional breakfast of cinnamon rolls while opening gifts, then we headed off to the Lied Lodge in Nebraska City for Christmas dinner.  Stress free and nearly mess free:)  I loved the opportunity to spend the entire day with my family with no distractions whatsoever... a rare treat to be sure.  

Hard to keep Annie still with all the excitement, but she had a christmas tree sweater complete with a lighted star :)

 Grammy gave her a gift card to her favorite place to eat

 She'd been wanting those for two months

 Sarah found a mug for her that says "World's Greatest Mimi"

 Our free-spirited little explorer

The other BIG NEWS around here is that Sarah started on her insulin pump the day after Christmas.  She is loving the ease of managing her insulin with a push of a button rather than multiple injections every day.  She and Gracie are now "podding twins":)

We hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas, surrounded by those you love, along with sweet memories of Christmases long past.  Praying that 2018 brings God's amazing blessings.  Happy New Year! 

Chaos and Christmas Cookies...

What a week it's been!  It was time for our semi-annual trek to Rochester, MN for the girls routine endo appointment.  This trip was a bit longer than our normal over night due to extra appointments at the end of the year, so we were gone for three days.  Honestly, it was a fun trip, filled with making fun memories.  The girls appointments went well.  Gracie improved her a1c by over half a point and Sarah was given the go ahead to start training for her new insulin pump.  Since we were there extra days, and Dad came with us this time, we decided to trek a bit further to the Mall of America to have dinner and see if we could get into the Christmas spirit.  Craig has been there once, but the rest of us have never been.  We honestly had a great time, for a family of (mostly) non-shoppers/mall avoiders. Our first stop was the American Girl store.  While the girls don't really play with their dolls like they use to, they still LOVE them and they absolutely adore this store.  Craig treated us to a special dinner in the AG diner...something they've always wanted to do, but the KC store we usually shop in doesn't have.  It was charming.  They loaned the girls dolls to dine with since they hadn't brought theirs along and we had the entire diner basically to ourselves.  We enjoyed chatting, watching the people walk by below us through the window (Hannah commenting on every receding hairline she noticed;) and playing the game that was on our table.  Dinner was actually quite yummy!  Not gonna lie, I was surprised and impressed.  From there, we decided to walk the mall and take in all the Christmas splendor.  There were hardly any other shoppers so it was actually a pretty nice way to spend the evening, complete with Christmas concerts in the center of the mall.  Thursday, on our way home, Craig treated us to lunch at The Machine Shed in Urbandale IA.  If you ever have a chance to stop in there, TAKE IT.  We really enjoy the atmosphere and their food.

We got home to discover our poor boy, Max, was having seizures and had most likely been having them for a day or two.  Poor Tess, who was taking care of everyone while we were gone, thought he was just moving slow from old age and the cold weather.  She honestly had no way of knowing what was going on.  We gave him extra dose of his meds to try to help overnight and we took him in to our vet on Friday.  At his age, it's going to take him awhile to get back to feeling better, but as of this morning (Sunday), he was moving a bit better and seemed to be able to see better again.  He is such a goofy boy and can make you crazy with his lab antics, but we adore him and want to see him back to his goofball ways quickly.

Yesterday, Gracie and Hannah had a Holiday Fun Day horse show.  Hannah's first show ever:)  They really had a lot of fun showing alongside their friends and team mates.  They have such a great team of girls and it's truly heartwarming to watch them encourage and cheer each other on.  They all did AMAZING and won lots of ribbons.  I think it's safe to say that this little team is hooked on showing and going to make their coach, Anne, and Double Clear Equestrian Center proud as they all grow and continue to improve in their abilities.  Shatara, one of their team mates, wind reserve champion in her division, and Gracie won champion in hers.  All told, every one of these girls went home with huge smiles and I'm sure they all slept as well as my two did last night;)  On a side note:  It was truly amazing to see Gracie and Hannah showing together.  Watching Gracie calm Hannah's nerves and helping her calm down and warm up her horse beforehand, and keep him calm during their division, made my heart burst with joy and a little pride in the young ladies they are growing into.

Well, we are officially 8 days away from Christmas and we just aren't feeling it around here.  This is a first for our family!  We usually have the trees up by the first week in November and the house decorated along with the gingerbread village made by December 1st.  We are struggling with the festivity this year.  So.... We are taking Kyah (Sarah's puppy) to visit Santa today and hope that puts a bit of the magic in our spirits so we can get it together.  There's a lot to be done in the next week!  The smell of christmas cookies baking might help move us along, so that may need to be on the top of the list.  Stay posted to see how this all goes around here..... Christmas in the barn surrounded by horses and hay may be in the works because there doesn't seem to be much incentive to get moving on things around this house;)  We've already hung stockings on all the stall doors, so it's more festive than our house already;)  Merry Christmas!!!!!

Merry Christmas....

Yup!  Those are my monkeys and this is my circus... I will claim them along with all the chaos that surrounds us all ;)

2017 was NOT the year we expected it to be.  We saw much happiness and much loss.  The girls have thrived and grown through it all.  Craig and I are in awe of all the blessings God pours down on us and try not to get overwhelmed with the dailyness of it all.  

The biggest and most exciting news is that Tess said YES!  She and Logan have been together for 3 years; he proposed on Thanksgiving with both our families gathered round.  It's been a joy to watch these two grow together over the years and we look forward to seeing them build their life together.  For now, we are consumed with wedding plans and lots of shopping.  Being a family of predominately females... I don't see a problem with this, one bit ;)  Stayed tuned for more details as we get things set in stone.

We faced lots of sadness this year as we said goodbye to many of our 4-legged family.  Our precious Brody James, a golden retriever/border collie/great Pyr mix that Craig brought home (along with his brother and sister) over 10 years ago, passed away in June.  We'd gotten his cancer diagnosis in March and spent the next many weeks loving on him and enjoying every moment we had left.  He was always one of the most special dogs we've ever had and will always hold a special place in our hearts and memories.  There's not a day that goes by we don't enjoy thoughts and memories of him.  Gracie's bunny, Oliver and her last gerbil Daisy also passed away this summer.  Oliver was our very first bunny and was such a joy that we gladly opened our hearts to others because of him.  Daisy was our geriatric little gerbil, living over twice as long as most her species.  She was nearly 5 years old and we were blessed to call her ours for 4 of those years.  Mom's dog, Teddy passed away this fall as well, and our entire family feels the void he left.  Sarah was just a toddler when Mom adopted him.  Frankly, none of the girls remember life without him.  He was such a good boy and brought great joy and companionship to Mom, as well as to Mamo when she was still alive.  We love knowing that Mamo and Teddy are together again.

We added new family members to our ark this year too :)  I'm sure y'all saw that coming;)  Tess adopted Doug, a 100+ pound black lab with the personality to suit his name, back in January.  He has been a HUGE blessing to Tess as well as all of us.  He's turned out to be an awesome, laid back boy.  Sarah adopted Kyah May, a tiny black chihuahua in July.  Kyah is as tiny as Doug is huge, but they are the best of friends.  Doug looks out for his baby cousin and Kyah keeps Doug young.  Gracie was given Peaches, an adorable angora bunny in May as an early birthday surprise from her Dad.  Peaches would make the grumpiest person smile with his adorable face and crazy hair.  Of course we also got Wendy Lou Hoo, our beautiful paint pony, back in March....you've heard of the Easter Bunny?   Well, Wendy was kinda the Easter pony;)  She has been such a sweet girl and we love doting on her each day.  The girls have proven themselves to be responsible, sacrificial, and hard working as they care for her each day.  They are working to get her cross-trained from a western ride to an english hunter/jumper.  It's a work in progress, but she's coming right along.  CJ joined our family just in time for Craig's birthday in July.  He's the most adorable golden retriever you could possibly imagine.  As sweet as can be, with just enough puppy left in him to keep us on our toes.  He has us all wrapped around his sweet little paw.  Then there's little Miss Pearyle Joy, the kitten we got to keep Mom company after Teddy's passing.  She is a little spitfire!  She gives Mom endless reasons to laugh and keeps her company.  Of course, we still have Felicity, Max, and Annie, our other dogs (who are all a bit spoiled) along with Benjamin, Ginger, Smokey, Jolly, and Mistletoe our cats, Peter the rabbit and Joey the guinea pig.  There is no shortage of critters in this ark!

We are still homeschooling (our 14th year, I think).  Sarah only has one class to finish up and she will graduate.  Gracie and Hannah enjoy all the freedom and flexibility that homeschooling offers.  They thrive in the non-traditional environment with the freedom to delve deep into everything they want to learn more about.  A truly child-directed education is beautiful to see when your children love to learn and are given the freedom to do it in the way that works best for them. 

Tess loves being a dance teacher.  It's truly what God created her to be.  She spends her mornings working for Kids Educational Dance Express, traveling around town teaching educational dance to preschoolers.  I see what she does and am constantly amazed by my daughter's passion and talent.  She teaches at Greater Impact in the evenings and is also the dance and gymnastic instructor at the new YMCA in town.  Logan, Tess's fiance', is a nursing student and he works at the dialysis center.  These two are pretty busy, but when you're in your 20's I guess you have that kind of energy;)

Sarah is still working at Runza.  She transferred to a different location this fall and is really enjoying the new store and coworkers.  She is planning on pursuing a degree in early childhood development and wants to become a preschool teacher.  She enjoys teaching first grade Sunday School each week and it's been a joy to watch her prepare her lessons.... she is much more organized than her mom;)

Gracie and Hannah are consumed with their animals.  They would live in the barn if we'd let them.  They fly through their school lessons each day so they can get outside to spend time with all their critters.  They love riding their horses; Gracie is now jumping at 2 1/2 feet and is hoping to qualify for the Omaha Int'l in April.  Hannah is finally ready to start jumping and showing as well.  These two surprise us with their ability and diligence to their sport.  

Craig is still traveling the country to work with small communities; growing young entrepreneurs and helping small towns retain their population in the face of population decline.  God created him with a passion for small towns and their people.  I'm extremely proud of the work he does... and am in wonder of it all.  He's also picking his love of photography back up again and enjoying having a camera back in hand.  

I am finally able to make time to quilt again.  What a joy it's been to get back to putting needle and thread to fabric and creating quilts for my family.  

Alrighty.... that pretty much sums up our year.  We pray the Christmas season brings peace and joy to all our friends and family.  Merry Christmas!