Our Year in Review

Well Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! This blog post is just about as timely as our Christmas cards! Unfortunately our last month has been busy with doctor appointments and illness, so this got pushed to the back burner. But its all good now as 2015 is our year of health, wealth, and blessings!

Before I get ahead of myself I will give you a highlight of our year! It has been quite an amazing one, so I will try to not let this get too lengthy! 

A few of our family highlights were:

We started out the year finding out that we had baby # 2 on the way! We were overjoyed at least for the first 6 weeks, then everyone else remained overjoyed and I became sick. The road was all too familiar, but I tried to stay on top of it and find tricks to get me through the days. It didn't seem quite as bad, but maybe that was because I had Ezekiel to run after! 

The following weeks were kind of a blur for me as it was mainly about survival! :-p But we were all anxiously awaiting our Family Trip to California, aka #schwarzbemisvaca! After our long and crazy cold winter it was so nice to head out to California in May, though the weather was starting to get nice here in Minnesota, there is just something different about the California sunshine! We went with my family, so my parents, my brother and his family, and our wonderful nanny, the beloved Ms. Jacqui! We also were so excited to have Mikes brother and his family meet us out there. I began to write about our trip and it became WAY to lengthy so I just made another post about it, so you can read about it HERE, I am hoping to add more detail and pictures soon! But it was such an amazingly fun trip, Ezekiel had a blast and we created so many amazing family memories! I can't wait to do it again soon!!!

After the super rainy spring that we had, we spent everyday outside! Ezekiel loved riding his trike and roller coaster (his big wheel, which got the name roller coaster after going to Disneyland) with Dada, Pah, and all the neighbor kids! Like all the previous summers we were out for walks all the time, either to the park or up to see the carwash (he loves to just watch the cars drive through the carwash)! And of course after playing on the beach in California we had to increase the size of his sand box and he spent hours everyday out there! He also overcame his unsureness of water this summer! Atleast once a week if not twice, we would go to the outdoor pool at the gym. He started the summer out not wanting to go into the water very far or get very wet to splashing, putting his head underwater, and jumping to Mike in the deeper water! It was such a fun progression to see!

Ezekiel, celebrated his 3rd birthday with friends and family and a major storm that knocked the power out at our home as guests were driving up! LOL! It was still a successful party, it was just a bit dim! :-) Ezekiel also had the honor of being a Ring Bear in Ms. Jacqui's wedding, he looked so cute in his little tux. He was a bit unsure of all the attention, but we successfully got him down the aisle, both ways...but barely!!!

At the beginning of September, Ezekiel and I took a quick trip to Chicago with my family. It was such a fun trip as Chicago is such a fun city to go to with young kids! We did the Bean, Navy Pier and the ferris wheel, lunch on top of the John Hancock building, Buckingham fountain, a boat tour, and the zoo! Ezekiel was in heaven because he got to ride on a plane, train, trolley, boat, and bus all in the matter of 4 days! :-) I called it my "buddy moon" as most people take a "baby moon" before their babies are born, this was a very special trip for me as I was able to have so much one on one time with Ezekiel (which was also exhausting!) and was able to have some special time with him before the baby came.

And little did we know that 10 days later Griffin would come into the world! He was born 7 weeks early and no one had any clue that this was going to happen until about an hour before it did! There were no warning signs along the way. For the full story you can read about it HERE, otherwise the short version is that I had some bleeding at 4 pm on the 16th, after a bunch of test they realized we were both in distress and he had to come right now. So in for a c-section we went and then off to the NCU Griffin and Mike went, where Griffin stayed for 21 days. It ended up that I had a abrubtion (sp) of my placenta and it was 50-75% detached, which is very serious and if it would of been just a couple hours later we both could of died! Thank God for his protection!

Everything since then has been a bit of a whirlwind! Griffin did great in the hospital after his first couple of days. He just needed to learn to breathe on his own and figure out eating, just like he would of in the womb. It was a hard few weeks, leaving him every night, but it was also hard to be away from Ezekiel too. We were very happy when he was able to come home 3 weeks later. Ezekiel was so excited to have his little brother come home, until Griffin cried for the first time! Then he was a bit unsure about him, it took him about a week to come around and now he is in complete awe of him and loves to be the special big brother helper!

Griffin ended up needing surgery to repair bilateral inguinal hernias that he had, they were causing him a lot of discomfort and digestion issues, so we were happy to have it taken care of. Though it was hard to see him have to go through a surgery. It is a very routine surgery and actually quite common in preemie boys. he bounced back in just a couple of days and only had to stay in the hospital one night. He unfortunately also ended up with pneumonia, we caught it right away so he wasn't under any distress, but they just wanted us to stay one night in the hospital for observation. Other than those bumps in the road, Griffin has been the best baby! He is such a sweet and peaceful baby who loves to cuddle, take baths and get his legs rubbed by Mah (my mom)! He has been such a blessing to our family and is just the perfect addition! He has learned to smile and coo and is doing them both all the time! I think he will be finding his feet soon and is trying to roll over, though I think it will be a bit yet until that last one happens! He is such a good sleeper and has slept through the night since his pediatrician gave us the green light to let him decide when he wants to eat! He is such an amazing and strong little boy and are so thankful that God chose us to be his Dada and Mama!

Ezekiel started preschool this last fall and it has been such an amazing thing for him! They continue to remind us of how smart he is, which we know as he blows us away every day with the things he talks about! He has really matured and is becoming a big boy (what happened to my baby)! His teacher said that he really has a big heart and cares of his friends and classmates and take the time to help them out or take them under his wing. I have always seen that in him and I love that it is coming out when he is away from home too. He has such a sweet and caring heart! He loved everything about this Christmas season, the lights, the music, learning about baby Jesus and celebrating his birthday, giving and receiving (of course) gifts, and spending time with family!

I am sure there were so many more things that happened this year that I failed to mention! We were beyond blessed in 2014 and we know that God will provide such an amazing year for us in 2015! And we pray the same for each and every one of you and your families!

(sorry for the lack of pictures and any grammar or spelling errors! i will try to come back and update it soon!)

#schwarzbemisvaca

I really wanted to take the time to document our trip in words as well as visually. I knew I wouldn't have the energy to do it while we were on vacation so I am going to try to do it now. There will be a post for each day and they will probably be rather detailed and slightly boring to anyone else. But this was our first MAJOR family vacation that was mostly for kidos, which also means, they won't remember much of it so I want to be able to have something to look back to and show Ezekiel some day about how wonderful of a time we had and how much he enjoyed our trip!

When we first started talking about this trip, I feel like it was over a year ago, Darek was not in favor of the idea of taking the boys to Disney at such a young age, because they wouldn't remember it. And though I totally agree, but my defense was that this trip was more for us and to see they excitement and joy on their faces as everything that they had seen in the movies has come life right before their eyes. And then we would continue to do Disney trips as the boys grow up and other kidos join our family!

And can I just say that this vacation was EVERYTHING that I hoped it would be and so much more!!! Everything worked out pretty much perfectly and we made so many wonderful memories!!!

Soooo here we go...

We flew out early Saturday morning the 16th of May. We had to be at the airport by 4:30, so that meant waking Ezekiel up at 3:40, we never have had to wake up him that early for anything, so we weren't sure how it was going to go, but he was ok with it once we reminded him that we were going to fly on a BIG airplane! Everything went great and smooth at the airport and boarding the plane. I should mention as well who we were traveling with...of course, myself, Mike, and Ezekiel, also my dad and mom (Pah and Mah), my brother and his family (Darek, Steph, Toby, and Carina), and then our and my brother's families' wonderful and amazing nanny, Jacqui! We had a quick layover in Denver, which did work out well for us, because then Zeke got a chance to run around a little bit and gave me a chance to settle as well. Because going into this trip I was 16 weeks pregnant and feeling the "all day" sickness, the motion for the plane or exacerbated the queasiness and needless to say after the flight I was in search of the nearest bathroom, or garbage can! The second flight wasn't as bad, but I was happy to be arriving in CA!

We flew into San Diego, and spent 4 days there, which consisted of Sea World, walking La Jolla beach, time in Coronado, and a lot of playing on the beach! I loved everything about Coronado and Ezekiel LOVED playing in the sand and he had the opprotunity to dip his feet in the ocean for the first time!

From there the girls headed up to Anaheim to visit my Great Aunt Shirley, it was so nice to see her again. While the guys headed to the Padres game as they were playing the Twins; the Twins actually won, so that was a nice perk!

The next day was the day the boys had been waiting for (and me too :-D), DISNEYLAND!! We apparently picked one the slowest times of year to go, so it was beyond perfect! We spent the first day in the Disneyland park and with in minutes of walking into the park all of the characters came out right in that main area and were available to meet and take pictures with! It was such a HUGE blessing as we were able to get pictures with all the main characters right then with only waiting in line for 5 minutes, if at all! I have heard that some people wait in line for hours for a picture with just one of the characters. The boys absolutely loved meeting all of the characters, those are moments that I will never forget! And I got to meet Mary Poppins, who is my favorite, so my day was triple made! We had just gotten done getting out picture taken with Mary Poppins I think and Donald duck was walking out to take his spot and we started following him and he grabbed both Ezekiel and Toby's hands to walk with!! It was beyond picture perfect!

We spent the rest of the day, seeing the castle, getting his Mickey ears, getting the Mickey Mouse chocolate covered ice cream, and of course riding all the rides!! The highlight was that Ezekiel rode Space Mountain with all the grown ups! He was 40 1/2" so he was tall enough, though he was only 2 years old! Just call us parents of the year! He loved driving the race cars and riding on the spaceships, he rode the Tea Cups with Mike and Ms. Jacqui and he LOVED that! Ezekiel crashed on Mike's shoulder so he got a nap in the stroller for a bit! We also made reservations to eat dinner at Goofy's Kitchen, which is a character dinner. So it is served buffet style, but as you eat, a bunch of different characters come around and interact with you. Ezekiel was a bit nervous at first but then warmed up as the dinner went on. Though he never really warmed up to Goofy! The other characters that joined us at dinner were Minnie, Chip and Dale, and Alice, I think that was all.

After dinner we took the monorail back to the park and we got to ride in the front with the conductor, Ezekiel was beyond thrilled! Right after we got off, the parade was about to start, so we watched that. It was so fun even though a lot of those character Ezekiel didn't know as they were more "old school" Disney characters (i.e. Lion King, Aladdin, Mary Poppins, ect) , but he still enjoyed it! After that we rode one more ride and then headed back to the hotel were some more of our California family was there to visit. This time it was my grandma's brother, his wife, their son and his family! They are so nice and it was so nice to see them again, though it was a short visit as Ezekiel was DONE!

The next day we headed to the California Adventure Park! This park was a bit more up the boys' alley as it has more of the Pixar and Disney Junior characters, which is most of the movies that they watch. We headed straight for Carsland, of course, before it got too busy. Ezekiel just thought it was so awesome that it looked just like Radiator Springs in the movie (which it really did! It was amazing)! We were able to meet Lightening McQueen, Mater, and Red, which was so fun! To see the look on his face when he saw them for the first time was beyond priceless! Ezekiel go to ride on the Radiator Springs Racers, he was a bit startled the first time, but then went on it two more times after that, so apparently he liked it! He also got to go on Luigi's Flying Tires and the Mater and the Tractors ride! We watched the Disney Junior Live show, which was so  much fun because Ezekiel had been watching those shows right up to our trip. We went on the Monsters Inc ride and A Bugs Life rides, there also was this really cool flight simulator ride that he really liked and was very cool! They had a parade with all the Pixar characters and it was so fun because Ezekiel knew most of them and was so excited to see them all! We opened and closed the park that day, to say we were tired is an understatement!!

The next morning we did another Character meal, this one was with Mickey and we also got to have visits, from Daisy, Stitch, Minnie, and Pluto! Those are by far the coolest way to meet the characters as they take the time to interact with each child! After that we did a little bit of shopping in Downtown Disney and then headed to the airport.

A lot of people had said that they boys were too young to go and they are right that they probably won't remember much about it, but as I told Mike, this trip was more for us than them. It was beyond amazing to go at when they were this age, we will definitely be doing many more Disney trips in the futur