Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Check out Nate Sallie's new album


Holy Spirit-a new song off of sallie's album

Nate went to Evangel University and always played a packed house on friday nights when he played at the Joust when it was in the barracks (remember that?!!). His music is so moving. The whole family is very talented, including Sarah, who lives in missouri still with her husband Jay. Sarah was one of my bridesmaids and is so talented and creative. We keep on telling her she needs to be an interior decorator because she is so talented.


Anyways, support Nate by going to iTunes and downloading his new song, Holy Spirit, off of his new album Ruined for Ordinary. It's very raw for a christian artist and really makes you want to draw closer to God. I love it!


For more information, visit http://www.natesallie.com/.


Do you have a song you think I should check out? E-mail me at theshmidts@hotmail.com or leave a comment on blogger.

Monday, April 23, 2007

weekend of bliss! Monday Musings

Monday musings
This weekend was so amazing. We had 80 degree days and the sky was so clear and blue! So nice from the usual blustery, rainy days we are used to in Ohio! For all of you that aren't in the state right now, it was gorgeous! Too bad today is windy, yuck and gray! And it's supposed to rain all week.

Just when you start getting used to beautiful days -- the weather turns for the worse.

Anyways, we are doing well. Brandon is in a softball league this summer and ava and I are in a fitness for two class, which is helping me lose the baby weight! I also am in a bible study on tuesday nights in plain city that is really good! And we have small group on thursday -- when we can make it--and family stuff all of the time so we are pretty busy right now!

Ava is doing so good. She is getting big and strong. She loves to try to stand up, with some help, on our legs. She also rolled over the other day from her back to her tummy. She is a little worker and loves to kick, kick kick! She also loves to spit up all over mommy and daddy and gives mommy lots of laundry to clean (ie. Our water bill went up $30 just from the extra loads of laundry!). But that's okay. Hopefully she's almost growing out of it as she is not a newborn now that she is 13 weeks old.

She also has kept the blue eyes that she had at birth, which we love. Right now she really doesn't have all that much hair so it's hard to say what color of hair she will have. I think blonde like me!

Happy Birthday Shoutout!
And a happy birthday shoutout to mommy rachel who is 16 weeks prego right now. Rachel is in Phoenix, Az and enjoying 80-plus weather. Boo.

Friday, April 20, 2007

easter dress


I just now had time to get ava's easter pic on here. Here is ava and ethan on Easter Sunday.

Princess olivia

we are over at mom and dad's and looking through old pics
and found this one of cousin olivia with her tiara!
so cute! olivia is 6 now!

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Visiting cousin samuel

angie and baby samuel
cousins ava and sammy with angie and me!
so sweet!
Baby Samuel

On Monday we took brought dinner to Angie and Darry as they just had baby Samuel who was just born on April 4. He weighed 6.8 lbs. and reminded me so much of Ava when she was born! He was so delicate and so beautiful! good job guys! they are such great parents.


Here are some of the pictures of the little cutie and cousin ava.

To Grammy's house we go...

Over the mountains and through the woods, well, there are no mountains in Ohio...getting in an afternoon nap before we get to Circleville.
Grandpa liked Ava's mirror toy!
Grammy has the baby touch!
Grandpa and Grammy say hi to Ava
Aunt Shearon burps Ava!
We visited Grammy and Grandpa Shmidt this past Sunday since they just got back from Florida. Ava, Brandon and I met them in Circleville for lunch at Bob Evans and then went to their house to catch up. It was so nice to see them again! We will get to see them more now that they are back in Ohio.


Thursday, April 12, 2007

"what do you do everyday?"

Hey, i had a great sleep last night! time to get up!
Ava doing exercises with me as i do pilates in the morning.
Ava loves her little lamby. She watches mommy sweep the upstairs and she listens to the cd of lullabyes she got from amber and trevor.
naptime!
Ava and i get ready to post to blogger!
As a stay at home mom, sometimes people wonder what ava and I do all day. So, here's a little recap of our day today. It was a gross, blustery day, but inside we had fun!

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Friends and family

brandon, tj and troy are up to no good!
aunt rita, uncle nick, nickey and grandma visiting cousin emily and wesley (and dave!) visit!
Isn't Shaun a natural? Love the boppy!

more photos from ava's photo shoot

Here are some more photos for ava's first photo shoot. So cute!

my goal this summer is to...

The route up Mt. Bierstadt (below) offers a breathtaking view of Mt. Evans.
climb mt. bierstadt this summer in colorado with brandon. This mountain is one of the easier 14ers in Colorado to climb. This is a big step for me as I have a severe fear of heights, which I got after a sky diving jump where my parachute was twisted, while I was doing the jump solo. So scary!
Anyways, I have heard you stick to a goal better if you tell people! Geoff, Nick and Brandon are going to try to climb a bunch when we go there for two weeks during July. So I will post those pics after. Can't wait to see my little nieces and nephews- Olivia, Colin and Brady!




Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Ava's baby dedication at Vineyard Columbus

"Can you believe Mommy has been planning this since last December?" "Doesn't daddy look handsome!"
"This dress is not very comfortable!"
"????????"

Uncle Luke and Aunt Kelly were there too!

Ava's baby dedication at Vineyard Columbus

aunt christina and uncle troy hold ava at der dutchman. Ava is showing off her sweet vans that katie paluch bought for her! thanks katie! Aunt Christina and Uncle Troy drove down with Grandma and Grandpa Shmidt for the dedication! Thanks for coming down!
Happy 25th birthday Luke! Yummy white cake. It's an amish birthday song!
We joined 25 other couples in dedicating our baby at Vineyard. We are the second couple from the far left.

Aunt Rebecca holds baby Ethan.
Shout out to the girls!

Friday, April 06, 2007

Brrrr...is easter supposed to have snow?

Ava's crying...she wants to go to the beach to get away from cold Columbus!
Well, it's the usual Columbus weather around easter--cold! Except this year it seems to be extremely cold, windy and downright yuck! I have a cold, and i keep hoping i am not giving it to Ava. She seems a little more fussy than usual so i hope she isn't getting sick!

Last night on the way home from small group, she started screaming so loud! I have never heard her cry that loud for so long that i thought something must have been wrong. So i pulled over and checked her out -- no stickies anywhere, no spit up--she was just extremely hungry.

So i had to pull over into a bob evan's and feed her! Luckily, that did the trick and she went right to sleep. I told Brandon being a mom is hard because you always have to keep a level head even when you feel like you are going to crack.

I tease brandon now about a recent episode, but he understands Ava's sudden crying bouts. Last tuesday i went to the store and was gone an hour. i came out of the store and saw that my phone had a message - brandon had left a voicemail for me. On the voicemail, all it had was ava crying! And not just crying, but wailing!! It's funny what a 10 lb little person can do to you!

Anyways, it's Ava's first easter. we pretty much got her a cute little dress and sweater, but i think we are going to do the easter basket when she can understand the concept - like next year. We also are going to the easter egg hunt at my parents tomorrow and are going to dye easter eggs sometime this weekend.

I hope everyone has a great Easter. today is good friday. And it's as gloomy as every good friday usually is.
Happy Easter Everyone!

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

MOTHERLAND AFGHANISTAN_ a moving PBS documentary


"This is my lifetime dream coming into reality, and I always wanted to do something positive for the Afghan people in terms of health education and health care." (3:33)

MOTHERLAND AFGHANISTAN

A documentary about the deplorable conditions for pregnant women in Afghanistan

PBS documentary

I began to realize that I had made really a huge mistake taking this job. I couldn't do enough to change things under these circumstances."

Those were the words of Dr. Qudrat Mojadidi who is an OB/GYN and was forced by political pressures to emigrate from Afghanistan to the U.S. in 1972.

The highest infant mortality rates in the world
Motherland Afghanistan was filmed by the doctor's daughter, Afghan American filmmaker Sedika Mojadidi, who traveled with her father and mother to a country who has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world.


A blessed country
If these infants were born in the United States -- there is no question that they would live. But because of their country being in turmoil, they have no lifesaving equipment. I was floored when i watched a preemie baby who could not be helped because the hospital did not have any heat lamps, oxygen maps that fit the babies mouth, or even a heart monitor - a local afghan man had to keep the heartbeats time standing beside the doctor by motioning his finger back and forth like a piano timekeeper. It made my stomach sick.

The preemie infant dies later and the Dr. comforts the mother by saying that it was God's will and that she will have another child.

As i was sitting there at 3 a.m. nursing ava and watching the show on PBS, the reality of our great blessings really hit me. Maybe because we are surrounded by prosperity, we forget the great poverty and horrible conditions for other women across the world. Here, i had an ultrasound, epidural, great care, a state of the art room to have my baby and across the world, a woman sits on a cot being comforted because her surving preemie twin dies after a couple of days because the hospital does not have the bare necessities.

If you want to learn more about this film, go to


http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/motherlandafghanistan/film.html. It will really move you to pray that more will be done.





Here's more...


In 2003, nearly two years after the Taliban’s fall, he is invited by the U.S. government to helrehabilitate the largest women’s hospital in the country, Rabia Balkhi, now under U.S. sponsorship with a newly re-named Laura Bush Maternity Ward. He returns to his homeland with great hopes that with U.S. funding, he can help set in motion the large-scale changes necessary to stem the epidemic of maternal mortality in the country.



But when Dr. Mojadidi arrives at the Laura Bush Maternity Ward in Kabul, a city still plagued with danger and unrest, he finds deplorable conditions, with limited supplies and unsanitary facilities. As he tries to bring hope to the ward and make the best of archaic equipment and an untrained staff, the film introduces the women behind the statistics and exposes how the U.S. government's Department of Health and Human Services has impacted Afghan lives, particularly in terms of the devastating epidemic of maternal mortality.










Monday, April 02, 2007

Easter Rabbit

ethan and ava sit with the easter rabbit.
Kelly and I went to Easton last friday and saw the easter bunny with ethan and ava. Cute photo! I am glad ava was asleep because i remember how much colin and olivia hated the easter rabbit and santa! they always cry because they think they are so scary! it was a little weird that the bunny didn't even talk to them or anything!

zoo pics II

Ava takes a catnap after the long day.
tigers and bears, oh my!
Heather and drew are leaving columbus in april to do mission work in indonesia so we thought it would look cool to have their picture by this sign.
a lovely zoo worker took a photo for us by the daffodils.

Well, i love blogger, but don't like how long it takes to post pics! so here are some more from the zoo day.

Ava's first trip to the zoo with Wesley and Drew

Emily and Heather with Wesley and drew head to Asia Quest.
The flamingos were so vivid! they were my favorite.
Ava lies in the stinkiest flower in the world. ew!
We wore them out! A long day at the Columbus Zoo.
Zoo time...

Here are pictures from our first trip to the zoo with my cousin Emily and Wesley and her friend heather and drew. It was so beautiful outside, high 70s, and we had a great time! We really loved the monkeys! Too bad ava slept the whole time!


we will just have to take her back soon with cousins colin and brad.