1st Picture of Baby Schmitz!

Here is the very first official picture of our baby.

Enjoy!

♥ James & Michelle

New Obsessions

There are MANY things I have been obsessing about lately.

The first is food. haha, it's so cliche for a pregnant woman, I know. I have been thinking about yogurt EVERYDAY. Especially with fresh fruit (bananas & blueberries particularly) and granola mixed in. mmmmm. Seriously, that's all I can think about. I also crave a fresh spinach salad from time to time. At least I am craving healthy things!

The second is home decor (obviously). I looooove This designer I have recently heard about, Michael Penney. He is Canadian, he is AWESOME. And his designs are so cute and colorful and makes me want to re-think my whole house. Plus, he does a lot of designs on a low budget. You know how much I love doing things on the cheap.

The third is Photography! I LOVE LOVE LOVE looking at all the talented photographers out there. Here are a couple links I have been looking at lately.
Heather Pepin Photography - www.heatherpepin.com
Tec Petaja Photography - www.TecPetajaPhoto.com
the Maternal Lens - http://thematernallens.blogspot.com

The last is another obvious, BABY STUFF! I am looking at EVERYTHING from core blood research to nursery to maternity pants that I will be needing probably sooner than later. I found some really cute baby blogs lately:
I heart Baby - www.iheartbaby.com
Spearmint Baby - www.spearmintbaby.com
the bump - www.the bump.com


With so much down time from schools being closed for Spring break, I have had a ton of time to check out these blogs/websites. You should really check them out. They may make your heart pitter patter too.

♥ Michelle

Important announcement

Notice a theme in the last three post titles?

Our Newest Addition....

BEACH CRUISERS!!!!
Our spur of the moment,we gotta have them bicycles. We love them. And peanut loves the basket he rides in. :)







♥ Michelle

Baby-palooza

Many family members are having or have had a baby. Yesterday, Missy and Joey welcomed Dorian. John and Molly recently had a baby boy. Melissa and Jason recently had baby Sydnee, my cousin Hannah had baby Dylan about 6 months ago and very soon the Marca's will have a baby boy. That's a lot for only half a year.

Seeing the different families blessed with a child is great. I am very happy for each family and so excited to see the all the little ones.

Crystal let us in on a little secret God told her: we will be having a baby boy! God had told her about the other babies expected in the family a while ago, and she was right on all of them so far. That makes me even more excited, I have not only been praying for a baby, but specifically a baby boy.

I know God has a plan for us and our family and He is just taking extra time to send him to us because He is making him extra special. :)

♥
Michelle

The Knitted Viking Beard Cap

Loretta is the master of all things knitting. When we announced our "WEGE '09" (white elephant gift exchange '09) party, Loretta knew exactly what would melt my heart. A full-on viking beard cap. Lucky for me, through all the chaos and fist fights, I walked away as the winner of this marvelous gift. Before keeping it for myself, I let everybody take a picture with it once (and only once) because I am such a nice guy. Here are the pictures of the cap in all its glory.

- James

Salvation Mountain!!!

We finally went to Salvation Mountain. We have been talking about going for like a year now. Peanut, Donna, Aaron and my sister Virginia went with us. I can't wait to take Crystal when she comes out this summer. :)

The mountain was spectacular. These pictures really don't do it justice. Isn't it great to be able to use the gift God gave you to spread His word?

Click on the pictures and they will enlarge for your viewing pleasure.

♥ Michelle

We changed our link!

our NEW link to our blog is

James-Michelle.blogspot.com

I don't know if if matters if you subscribe to our blog via blogger, if it does, make sure you change it :)

We Almost Died

I know that the "We almost died" phrase is used quite often and not always to be taken literally. But this time it totally is. We really did, literally, almost die!

We were driving on our way to work. James driving, crossing the trolly tracks on Petree and Marshall. It was a green means go light. As we were driving through the interesection, a white van that was driving perpendicular to us ran a red light. I look up and see the van coming straight toward me. It's not like the van was stopped at the light and decided to go, he was coming from a distance and gunned it, acting as if we were not there and his light was green instead of ours.

Thank goodness God decided it was not our time to go. The van missed us by a couple inches. I thought for sure he was going to t-bone us. The thing is, he didn't even touch his brakes, not even after he almost hit us. It all seemed to go in slow motion.

We were so shocked and startled that we pulled over immediately to calm down and thank God for watching over us.



Things like this really make you appreciate life. And make me not want to drive.

Well here it goes...

Getting a lot of stuff done around the house this week. Some good while some other experiences are almost depressing for me. . . I need to sell some of my music gear! WHY?!??!!? I guess this day had to come eventually though. I really had too much stuff than I actually needed. . . not that possessing about 6 guitars is a bad or selfish thing at all. . . we just really need more room round here, nah mean?
Anyways, I'm excited because Michelle is getting to know her new sewing machine really well. Learning this all by herself, not even with the help of some YouTube video like we normally do for EVERYTHING! What would we do without YouTube? Probably all die in 7 days. She is making curtains out of a duvet cover (thinking outside the box) which totally makes sense because there is a ton of material in it and IKEA always has them on sale. $20 for the duvet cover vs $60 for curtains. . . hmmm
Oooh, and big news came this week! My brother and his wife, Melissa, just had their baby! A month early, but a beautiful and healthy baby girl named Sidnee. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jason and Melissa right now as they begin to experience the rest of their lives with their daughter. Love you!


- James