Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Under construction....

Liam's room with the stain on it
Our room with the stain on it

 Liam has been really good. He has limited play space and we have been working really hard on the house and haven't had a lot of extra free play time.  By no means do we ignore him or not play with him, but he just hasn't been the center of attention the past few days.  He has really been interested in helping.  As you can see in the photos below, he was trying to get going on the living room floors.  He would pick up a pair of pliers or a tool and start imitating  what we are doing.  I think he likes all the activity but wishes he could get a hold of the sander.  Jake and I started yesterday morning by renting the equipment at Home Depot. We started with a less aggressive sander and after several hours of sanding with not as much result as Jake expected, he made another trip back to get the Drum Sander or the more aggressive sander.  I did sanding with the non-aggressive one and Jake was in charge of the aggressive sanding.  Liam and the dogs really followed me with every pass of the sander. We were able to sand and stain the floors by the 7:00 pm last night.  The next step will be to apply the poly-urethane.  The stain definitely had a odor but we had the windows and doors open.  The poly-urethane is more volatile so Liam and Jake will probably be staying somewhere tonight while it is drying.  I think they look great so far and can't wait to see the finished product.  It will end up costing us around $211.00. This includes renting the equipment, buying the stain and urethane, and then after 9-11 hours of work we have managed to save ourselves a couple hour dollars.  Hopefully this will be done by friday and we can get the furniture back and get the house ready for the realtor to come and take photos.  Please know that my house is normally very clean, and pretty organized.  The photos below are not usually what our house looks like.  It's really insane that anyone could ever live like this, I feel like our house looks like we are hoarders.  Hope you have enjoyed the photos and the update! I will keep posting as the house comes along.  Happy reading!!



Jake's dust coated self..His hair looks like he is going grey on the side

 
Jake applying the first coat of stain
The hired help...Serious about sanding



He really prefers to wear a diapers and shoes only



The drum sander..aggressive sander

This is what Liam's floor looked like after  I removed the carpet

It had lots of paint stains and spills

Liam was trying to work on the living room floors







Cute little thing!


Jake working on our room
Liam's room carpet







 
Lately we have been working on our house to get it ready to sell.  We initially were going to do some minor fixes and paint the bathroom,replace the bedrooms carpet, minimal landscaping, and stage the house.  Well, that has changed, we have now added a little more on our plate.  We decided we could save money by refinishing the floors underneath the carpet and we needed to paint the "man room".   I also decided to paint out bedroom furniture and then we had to paint the room trim too.  We have been moving from room to room and the house is in complete disarray!! We are hoping to be done with the house by this weekend.  Here are some pictures off the floors and of course Liam!!

Non-aggressive sander... Liam was very curious
















Monday, February 21, 2011

What's been going on lately....

Where has time gone, it's already Feburary and I haven't updated our blog.  Liam is keeping Jake and I quite busy lately.  He is in to EVERYTHING! I literally mean everything he can get into he does.  We have placed a lock on kitchen cabinets and the fridge and I am not sure what we will be locking next.  Liam has decided he likes to climb everything.  He started clmibing in top of the toliet and it has since progressed to our bed, his glider in his room, on chairs, on the couch, the other day I thought I was going to die when Jake told me what Liam had climbed.  There is a little white antique dish that I like to put candy in.  I don't always have candy in there but I started doing this around his first birthday.  I guess after seeing so many people get candy out of it, he decided he should too.  So he pulled the chair out, climbed up the chair and then climbed himself right up on the table and helped himself to 4 or so reese's cups!  Jake found him just going to town and doing it like he had been doing this for months.
Liam's latest obsession is being outside. The past week the weather has been in the 70s and he just loves being outside.  He loves screeching at the top of his lungs to hear his voice echo.  We have been trying to get the leaves raked up and clean up the yard but it is so hard to do yard work with him.  He is either trying to get into the pile I was raking in, bring something out he finds in the garage, he loves pushing his stroller around and loves to aim right toward the street.  He is constantly on the move whether it's running in the neighbor's yard or going up and down the stairs to smack the window to get the dogs attention, he makes yard work quite challenging. 
Each day I think he gets more and more vocal.  He jabbers on about what ever he is doing and his favorite phrase to yell or say is "Da".  He always calls out for Jake no matter what.  Even if I am sitting right next to him he says it.  He says Mama, Da, Ball, Dog, pup= puppy, "Uck=Yuck", mmm-hmm for yes. He can show you where his head, ears, belly, and toes are.  We are working on knees right now.  He can telling you what a puppy, a wolf, and a cow says.  My favorite is the wolf...so stinkin cute.  He has liked this for awhile but he loves being in just a diaper and would prefer to run around naked all the time.  Every time he gets out of the bath tub, I quickly half-way dry him off so he can sprint around the house naked for a minute.  It is so funny to watch him scurry around and his will get on all fours and walk around like moglie from the Jungle Book.  He thinks that he is hilarious. He loves when you say to him, "look at the belly"  he just pats his belly. He also thinks he is so funny to lean back like he is going to fall back and he makes this little face and he strains to lean back and hold himself up... He just cracks himself up! 
I will post some photos soon and get a video or 2 of him being crazy.
Other updates around the Schmitt Household....We are planning to put our house on the market the first week of March and hope that it sells.  This week we have started working on the house.  So far we have cleaned up the yard, Jake has been doing repairs to the ceiling and painting, we have removed the carpet from out room which currently has nothing in it.  We still have so many things to do and a Liam that is not conducive to have us working together to get things done.  Right now, our house looks like an episode of hoarders. The Man room has been dismantled and all of our bedroom is piled in the man room. It's so beautiful... photos will be coming shortly. Well that is all I can think of for now! Hope you enjoyed the update!!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Happy Birthday 2011!

It seems like 2010 went by so quickly.  So many memories and milestones for our little family. Liam turned one, Jake ran his first ultra marathon, I started working weekends, Liam walked, we made many road trips to Indiana, and so much more.  I am truly grateful for all the moments and memories whether they are big or small, they are what made our 2010.  We had a busy and fun trip home to Indiana for Christmas.  We celebrated 3 family Christmas and Liam got a ton of presents. Santa was really nice to him!!

2011 is going to be a year of change for us and it is going to be bittersweet.  Jake will be graduating in May and then we will hopefully be moving back to Indiana.....all fingers and toes crossed.  It will mean leaving our first home.  This is the place where we started our married life, left family for the first time, had our first baby, watched Liam take his first steps in. I started my first nursing job here. I will miss the amazing friends I have made here and miss all the amazing people I work with.  Well, now moving on to a lighter topic...Liam!

He is become quite the mischievous little boy.  He is in to everything he can get his little paws on.  His new favorite activities are opening the fridge and then removing various bottles, soft drinks, vegetables, food, etc.  He will occasionally put things back but for the most part he just likes to open the door and hang on to the shelf and stand there. Activity number two that he likes is climbing up on everything.  He climbs on our bed, on chairs, the toilet climb is by far his most difficult maneuverer. I have taken a video of him doing something toilet climbing, some of his latest tricks and silly things he does.  He has started to shake his head "yes" and "no", sometimes it is in context and then every once in a while he shakes it to be silly.  He still loves the dogs and he now love chasing them around with his shopping cart and his little chompin mower.  They are not really amused by this but are the best and go with the flow.  He is constantly grabbing Sophie by her ears and pulling her leg.  Steve is harder for him to catch because Steve resists his loving a little more.  They will be sitting on the couch and Liam will pounce on Steve and back him into the corner.  Liam squeezes him and Steve's way of fighting back is to lick Liam 777,000 times until Liam lets go.  Steve then hi-tails it off the couch.  Liam has also acquired another little toof!! His 7th tooth came in next to the bottom left one.

Here are some funny videos of wild pants McGee....Hope you enjoy!!






Friday, December 17, 2010

Happy Christmas Y'all

Watching for Santa

Angry little elf!
Happy little elf after a yogurt covered pretzel!
Some other hungry elves!!
Clapping elf!!




He was getting a little tired of being in the bucket

Laughing at his daddy


I love his sweet little mischievous smile 

Scaredest elf that you ever did see  : )

His table in his playroom/mini-man room.....set up for company

Hi guys! It has been almost a month, a busy month since my last post.  We have traveled home to Indiana for Thanksgiving where Liam decided to get sick and end up making a trip to the ER. After he got over that, we had the St. Jude Marathon which Jake ran in.  Jake's mom, Eric, Caleb, Blaize, Jenny, Emilie, and Isabelle also came down for the race.  Emilie and Caleb ran with Jake, which happen to be there first marathon.  I had to work that weekend and there was no way to get it off because we were moving to the new LeBonheur Children's Hospital.  It has been a busy past few weeks. But now I have a free moment to update our blog.
our humble little Charlie brown tree


Liam's 2010 Christmas ornament
Liam is a wild boy!  He is walking/speed walking all over the place.  When you ask him where his belly, ears, or his head is, he will point to them. He gets a tad confused at times but then he gets the hang of it. He is pointing to things and babbles.  His new and favorite naughty mischievous activities are opening the fridge and standing inside the door, he loves to turn on the bath water and run away, he pushes his little car, caterpillar truck, and push toy around after you and loves to ram into you and various other things.  He has knocked the Christmas tree over 3 times, once by pulling it, once with a ram from the car, and once by falling into it.  He loves his daddy and knows to go to look for him when I tell him daddy's home.  He still likes parents day out but one of his teachers left and the first she was gone he was very sad.  He is trying to feed himself with a spoon and does a pretty good job.  I have to help him scoop it onto the spoon, but then he does the rest.  He loves being wild and rough.....such a boy.  He likes to climb on things, including the dogs.  He thinks they are his personal pals, he loves on this, squeezes the tar out of them and pats them.  He essentially drives them crazy, but sister pup still loves them . His new favorite thing is a stuffed animal my friend Amanda sent him for Christmas.  It is the dog from the book the Grinch who stole Christmas.  It is so sweet, and he absolutely loves it, he has frequently been spotted loving on it, putting it in his car and pushing it around, and carrying it all over the place.  I will post some photos and a video of him. 


I recently took some hilarious photos of him for our Christmas card which I hope everyone loves as much as we do.  The photo shoot began with him crying and not cooperating.  However, after receiving a yogurt covered pretzel, all was well and he cooperated.  Hope you enjoy the results!!! Speaking of cooperating, Liam is waking up from his nap so I have to go get him!! Enjoy!! Merry Christmas to all our family and friends, near and far!!!   
His ramming mobiles 


Liam in ram mode!


Feeding himself with a spoon...Spaghetti squash dinner

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Walking in Memphis.....

Liam is walking!! It's official!! He is all over the place and within a week he acts like he has been walking for years.  It is truly incredible to think how babies master milestones and skills and within a few days they have improved leaps and bounds.  He had been taking steps to me and Jake for a while and the day he started walking I had been trying all day to get him to walk to me.  Jake got home from work and Liam always gets so happy to see Jake when he gets home!  Jake got down on the floor to see him and Liam just toddled right over to him, and then he did it again, and again....Clearly my efforts to get him to do it all day eventually paid off....I guess he was just waiting for his daddy to get home so both of us were there.  Here are some videos of him walking around.  Hope you enjoy!!!




While Liam has been waalking around, I have been working on some Christmas decorations.  My friend Nicole and her son Luca have been coming over the past 2 weeks and we have been having our "Christmas Craft Day" as we like to call it.  It is a nice because the boys kinda entertain each other and we just work around their schedule and it gives us time to have a hobby.  Here are a few things I have made! Hope you enjoy!!
This is still in progress but will be a card holder...

This is Liam's ornament that I bought for him.  Every year I am going to buy him a special ornament 

It was so sweet, warm, and fuzzy and just reminded me of him!

We both made these but Nicole's is different than mine. I found something similar in a pottery barn kids magazine and wanted to make my own version


Add caption

Red bird ornament

Christmas sign

Going to start doing this for all of our kids thanksgivings...their first thanksgiving
The brown is Liam's hand....I have a similar idea for Christmas that's really cute too!!