Happy New Year !!! (pictures in post)

we had a wonderful Christmas!! julia kept saying, "this is the best Christmas ever!!" it was definately the busiest Christmas ever!! somehow everything got done and the day was nice. we went to pat's brother's house this year. we had a nice turkey dinner (the schneemann's are not big ham eaters) and then the kids( all of the cousins) gave eachother their homemade gifts. that was sooo fun to watch each of them open their gift. the gifts were very creative and thoughtful! of course there were "takis", sour candy and mexican candy involved in the gift exchange. the kids love that stuff and it is sooo available here in san diego!! i don't know how they eat some of the candy (if you can call it candy!) for those of you who don't know what "takis" are, they are rolled corn chips with this hot red coating on them. mexican candy is a large variety of different things. many of them are mango with hot, salty, sugar stuff on it. some of it... i am not sure what it is. but they all love it!!!

corey, aubrey and julia are finally done with the "Traditions of Christmas" musical. in 18 days they had 22 performances. they really had a lot of fun and corey would have done 20 more performances if they had let them!! i hope you enjoy these pictures. corey has several costume changes in the pictures, but you should be able to tell who she is. aubrey is the "little mermaid" with the red wig. julia is a "baby doll" in the red dress and blond curly wig. of the 3 baby dolls, julia is on the right. they looked so cute! the show ended with a live nativity with goats, lambs, a white donkey and even a camel!!

i am really enjoying this week we have off. it is nice to not have so much to do. i took julia to see "Bedtime Stories" and it is a cute movie! patrick and daniel are leaving tonight to go to the desert, camping with mike (pat's brother) and their cousins. they are really excited to go. they get to do a lot of motorcycle and quad riding when they are there. hopefully they will return injury free! i always worry when they go!

i truly have had a lot to be grateful for this last year. as hard and crazy busy as things have been, we have been truly blessed in many ways. i am so thankful for family. the support that we are to eachother makes hard times not quite as difficult. we have, for the most part all been very healthy and i know what a blessing that is. we have a new baby on the way and as much of a surprise as that was to find out, it is a great blessing from our Heavenly Father. we are so excited and the kids can hardly wait for the baby to arrive! we are especially grateful for the Savior and His birth, life, and atonement. i hope and pray that this next year will bring all of you a healthy, happy and successful year. we are grateful for each of you and recognize the great strength you are to our family!!

Finally!

I finally chnaged my background from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Gee it's only the 15th of December!! Life could not be more busy than it is right now. Corey, Aubrey and Julia have today off from performances for the "Traditions of Christmas." They then have performances for the next 8 days straight! Emily has a dance recital every day this week along with showchoir rehearsals and performances for her and Patrick. I am trying to enjoy the Christmas spirit...did I say I am trying!! I do LOVE to see all of my kids perform and the Christmas music is beautiful!! My mom was here for almost a week and she went home last night. :-(( It's always hard when she goes home and I can't believe that the next time I see her I will be holding brand new baby Michael!! Yes, we are definately going with the name Michael for the baby. I hope you are all having a safe, happy and healthy Christmas. We love you all!! PS...enjoy this song... it is one of my favorites!!

Our new house...

well, i am finally posting some pictures of our new house. i have had some family and friends who don't live near by, bugging me to post them so they could see the house. so, here you go. we really love our new house and were starting to feel like it's home.

My cute NERDY daughter Emily...

it was nerd day at the high school on friday and emily's nerd costume was great!! emily is so fun and always participates in the fun school activities. i wanted to share these pics of her because i thought they were so nerdy and cute!

one of the teachers at the school stopped emily in the hall and told her that her outfit was the best he had seen all day! so here is cute nerdy emily...


ps...emily is standing in front of our front door at our new house. i am going to finally post some pics of the house later today or tomorrow.

Ultrasound pictures of baby...

i thought i would post these ultrasound pitures for you to see. They are both looking at the side view of the baby as he is looking up. The first one looks like he is sucking his thumb. the other you can see a view of his head and tummy! pat and the kids are soooo excited. they touch my tummy constantly to see if they can feel the baby kick. my neice colleen is always touching and rubbing my tummy when she sees me...she is so sweet!

we had a little scare a couple of weeks ago when i went in to see my new doctor and she found two large cysts (CPC's), one on each side of the baby's brain. i left dr. stanco's office in tears and called pat and told him that she had told me the baby might have trisomy 18. i also called my sister-in-law, andrea and bawled for 10 minutes and she started looking on the internet to see what she could find out. after talking to her and looking on the internet myself, i was much less worried. these cysts or CPC's as they call them, are actually quite common. dr stanco still wanted me to come the very next day and have a level 2 ultrasound and an amniocentisis.

so pat and i went to her office the next day and met with a genetic counselor and then had the ultrasound and amnio. the ultrasound looked great!! there were no other markers found that would lead them to believe that it was trisomy 18. the heart, liver, kidneys, and other organs looked perfect. i had the amnio anyway, which i was pretty nervous about. i had had an amnio once before and they numbed my tummy with a local anesthetic, but dr. stanco said, "here we go," and just stuck the 5 inch needle in my tummy. an amnio feels really odd, you can feel the needle pucture the amniotic sac. ewww!

we got the results back from the amnio and everything was negetive. no trisomy 18, no spina bifida or down syndrome. we were so relieved to know that he did not have trisomy 18!! my heart goes out to others who don't receive the good news that we did!

so, i am now almost 5 1/2 months (on sunday) and everything is looking great so far. i am feeling a lot better. no more nausea and very limited gagging these days.....hooray!!! i will keep you updated...maybe i'll even be brave enough to post a picture of me!!

we are thinking about naming the baby michael kenneth...(after pat's brother and my grandpa folkman, who's first name was kenneth.) what do you think??

Things I've Done...

To participate just copy and paste in your own blog, and bold all of the things you have done. Happy discoveries!
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving...NO WAY!! I am way too chicken!!
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check (not proud of this one!!)
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone (more thn 1!!)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem (someday I will do this one!!)
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

A "leading role" for Corey...

Corey auditioned for a leading role in the musical, "Traditions of Christmas." It is one of the biggest Christmas plays in San Diego. They perform the play at the East County Performing Arts Center, which is a huge venue! Anyway, she tried out a few weeks ago and had waited about two weeks to find out that she had been selected as one of the 6 female leads in the musical. There are 6 guys and 6 girls that make up the ensenmble and Corey is one of those girls. The girls and guys are paired up and do a ton of singing and dancing!! The ensemble has 12 costume changes!!! There are about 150 people in the musical all together, so it is a big production. What an honor for Corey!!! She is the youngest one in the ensenmble. There is a boy that is 19 and all of the other performers are 22 and older..... and Corey just turned 18 last Friday. I can't tell you how excited she was when she found out. I am so happy for her. She deserves it. She is a truly talented singer and performer. We can't wait to see her in December!! If anyone would like to go, give me a call and I can get you 2 for 1 tickets. They are regularly $35.00 a ticket.

Oh...and more fun...Aubrey and Julia went to the "Traditions of Christmas" auditions as well. They were only able to audition at the singing audtion and missed the dancing audtion. When Corey pulled up the cast list on the computer, Aubrey and Julia were cast as "Toys" in the musical!! How fun is that?! They both did well at the singing auditon. I couldn't believe how brave Julia was when she got up to sing in front of everyone! I thought they weren't going to make it becasue they missed the dancing audition. So, the 3 girls are in it, which is really a fun experience for them!!!

A funny story about Julia...

I had to share this cute story about Julia with you. She says the funniest things sometimes and this was so sweet and sincere I wanted to tell you. A few nights ago Julia and I were saying her prayer. In her prayer she was saying "Bless my family to be happy and help us to have a good day at school tomorrow," and then she said this......."and bless you (you being Heavenly Father) and Jesus Christ to have a good time in Heaven!" It was so sincere. I need to start writing these things down more often because as time goes by I forget the cute things she says!

It's a BOY !!!

i had an ultrasound last week and we are having a boy. MORE BASEBALL!!! we are sooo excited. my mom was here helping with the move so she got to go to the ultrasound with me. the ultrasound tech gave us a copy of the video and it is fun to watch! right after the ultrasound i sent a text message to corey, patrick, and emily and told them. my mom, pat , julia and i all went to the elementary school to tell daniel and aubrey. we went into the office and had them call daniel and aubrey out of class for just a minute to tell them. daniel came into the office first and i said, "guess what, it's a boy!!!" and we seriously thought daniel was going to pass out!! the office staff was asking him if he was ok...he had to sit down. it was so cute!!! daniel and aubrey were both really happy!!!

julia was really cute the other night. i was laying by her tucking her in for bed and she said, "i am glad the baby is a boy, mommy!" and i asked her why and she said, "because if it was a girl, all aubrey would want to do is play with the baby and not me!" i guess she is beginning to feel the crown slipping already!!!

we are all done with the move to our new house. we had a lot of help and it made such a difference! we had 6 missionaries, our bishop, and 2 good friends, danny quidang and patrick pettijohn to help us. we started at about 9:00 am and they were done by 3:00 pm. so it didn't take too long. i don't know what we would do without danny quidang. he is the hardest worker i know and he has been helping us for 3 months to get ready to move and then to get moved in...THANK YOU danny!!!

what would i have done without my mom during the 10 days she was here to help me. she helped me sooooooooo much. i couldn't have done the move without her. she is amazing and such a hard wotker!! mom, thank you so much for helping me. you made things so much easier for me and we got so much done. thank you thank you and i love you!!!

Moving...what a job!!!

I have been so flaky lately about posting! Between feeling pretty awful and doing a HUGE garage sale and packing my house I have been a little busy! We are moving to our new house in 6 days! HOLY COW!!! We are excited and the kids are soooo thrilled to each get their own room! (Well, except Aubrey and Julia...the trouble with being the youngest of 7, I suppose!) Aubrey and Julia will be sharing a room as they do now. My mom is coming this Sunday to help with the final two days of packing (kitchen!) and then help me get things settled in the new house! I don't know what I would do without such a wonderful mother!! She loves to organize and there will be plenty of that in finding new places to put everything! Thanks, Mom!!!

We did a garage sale the last 2 weekends and it was pretty successful. We ended up selling about $1400.00 in all our junk that we have collected for 11 years! We still have a lot left so we are donating it the the high school and elementary school for the rummage sales that they are having. The same junk will look like new junk in a different location, right? Anyway the money has been put to much needed use!! It was hard work but worth it.

I will post pictures next week of the move and the house. If I survive it all!!!

First Day of School !!

Wow...it's been a while since I last posted. I have been feeling pretty lousy with this pregnancy so, I guess that has shown in my lack of getting on my blog! I am feeling a little better during the daytime, for which I am soooo grateful! Night time is still very "gaggy". I do a lot of gagging these days, its pretty gross! But, I suppose that is better than throwing up.

These pictures are of the first day of school for the kids. Corey, Patrick and Emily are not in the pics. Corey started collage at Southwestern College a few weeks a go! It's hard to believe that she is in college. She is going to the same college where Pat and I met...WEIRD!! That could make me feel old!! Patrick was in Hawaii with the Varsity football team for the whole first week of school. They played against a Hawaiian team from a high school in Kona, Hawaii. Bonita (our school) beat the Kona team 38-3. The boys were very happy and Patrick had a fun time! Emily left for early morning seminary on the first day of school and it was dark outside when she left...we were going to take a picture when she got home, but you know how that goes. Anyway, Daniel started 6th grade, Aubrey started 4th grade, and Julia started Kindergarten.

I have really debated within myself wether or not to start Julia in Kindergarten! She is 4 and turns 5 on November 1st. She is sooooo attached to me and with the baby coming I thought it might be good for her to have something of her own. Socially she is ready and she seems so bright...I just hope I did the right thing. She is so young! I guess time will tell.

Things are crazy busy around here. We are moving to a different house on October 1st. On Patrick's 17th Birthday!! We have 3 more weeks to get everything packed so we are packing something every day! We are getting quite a bit done. It sure is nice to get everything so organized and sorted! We will still be in Bonita, just down the road from where we are now. It's a bigger house and we are excited about that!! I will post some pictures when we move!

YES, it's true.....Schneemann child #7 is on the way!!!

Well, yes, it's true!! Child #7 is on the way! I am due March, 28, 2009. Here is the story: I woke up on a Tuesday morning about 3 weeks ago and realized that I still had not started my period I ALWAYS start on a Sunday night every 28 days (sorry if that is too much information for some of you!). So, given that it was a Tuesday I started to be a little concerned. I was thinking "There has got to be a reason for this!!" I was thinking maybe even pre-menopause (ok, I know 40 is a little early). But surely there was an explanation because it couldn't be that I was pregnant!

So, I called my sister telling her what I was thinking and told her I was on my way to Rite-Aid to buy a pregnancy test. I told her that if I was pregnant that Heavenly Father must have decided that since I was being stubborn he would have to intervene, because that would be the only way that I could be pregnant! So, I went home and took the test and of course that little blue line was there in all of about 10 seconds!! So, I told the kids I would be right back and I went out to the car and cried! I was shocked!! I called my sister and she said, "Hadley, what did you just say to me while you were walking in Rite-Aid?" So, I gathered myself together...(a HUGE thanks to my sister, what would I do without you Shelly!)...stopped crying and thought... ok, I can do this! I may be 41 when this baby is born, but I can do this.

We think that we are in charge of our lives sometimes, but then humility brings us back and we realize that our Heavenly Father has a plan for us and He is in charge. So, I have faith that He will help me. I'm trying to do all that I can do to help myself too!. Taking my vitamins, walking, and eating healthy. I do worry about my health toward the end of my pregnancy! I had pre-eclampsia with Aubrey and Julia and would really like to not have it again. So, I hope that doing all of these things will help.

Corey was in Hawaii on her senior trip at the time, so we called her and put her on speaker and told all of the kids! They all started screaming and yelling with excitement. Corey wanted to talk to Julia, so I gave Julia the phone and I heard Julia say, "Oh my gosh, I'm totally freaking out, I am so excited!!" We can always count on Julia to come up with a great one-liner!! My kids could not be more excited to have another brother or sister (the majority vote is for a boy) and Pat said he is as excited as he was when we found out we were expecting Corey! What a wonderful husband I have (Not that he wasn't in on the whole making of the baby!!) . Some husbands would be completely overwhelmed ...not Pat!!

I will keep you informed as we go and let you know how mom and baby are doing. I appreciate the support that many of you have given us already!! We are truly blessed in so many ways!

i love summer!!

i love summer! it has been such a nice summer so far. i have REALLY enjoyed the down time from our regular crazy schedule!! i have tried to make it just simple and fun. we have spent quite a few days at the beach so far and plan to go a lot more before summer is over! patrick is LOVING surfing and is getting really good!! he has gone a lot! he tries to squeeze it in before or after football practice. by the way...he had such a great time at efy (see prior post for explanation). the experience was life changing for him!! he had so much fun that corey decided to go this last week to efy in santa barbara as well. we hadn't registered her ahead of time so we made a bunch of phone calls and finally got a hold of someone on sunday night. they ended up having room for her so we drove 4 hours to santa barbara on monday morning, dropped her off and then had a 4 hour drive home. she had a fabulous time as well...what a neat spiritual experience that they both had! i am sooo thankful they were able to go!!! corey ended up taking the train home on friday for only $38.00. it cost me $140.00 in gas when i drove her there on monday and drove home. gas prices...uuuuugh!!!

yesterday my cousin joelle, her son aidan and her boyfriend, dave came to our house to stay for a day and a half! i love it when she comes. we are so much alike and spend most of the time laughing!! as tradition calls for we have to make a yummy dessert and watch a scary movie...and we did both. we made pazookies (I don't know if i spelled that correctly but it's a yummy dessert they make at bj's restaurant) and we watched "the forgotten". it was fun and it was really nice to meet dave and to get to know him! today we went to the beach (west mission beach) and had a blast!! although the waves were lousy for patrick and nathan (patricks long time friend that went with us), they seemed to have more fun boogie boarding today! we were by the jetty and joelle, dave, julia, aubrey and i went over to look at the little tide pools and crabs on the rocks. we came home and had dinner and then went to see "journey to the center of the earth". what a fun movie, although we didn't get to see it in 3-d which would have made it even better! after the movie joelle, aidan and dave had to head back to visalia. darn it!! we both wished we could have had more time together because we enjoy being together so much. we are hoping to take a trip to visalia some time before the end of the year ( i promise joelle!! ) so, here are some pictures from today! enjoy!

south mission beach

Happy 4th of July!!!

happy 4th of july to everyone! we had such a fun day. we got up in the morning and got everything ready to go. on our way to the bay/park/beach we stopped and got in-n-out for lunch (in honor of you, steve!! lol). it was a quick and inexpensive way to have lunch. we brought water, soda, and snacks to have at the beach. we went to glorietta bay (in coronado) and found an area that was grassy and only about 20 feet from the beach. it was perfect!

mike and dena brought the boat over to where we were and anchored up. the kids could swim out to the boat...and they did! the kids jumped of the boat and it was a blast! mike and dena bought 2 really nice jet skiis just about a week ago and they brought them. we took rides on the jet skiis all over the bay. i was the official taxi driver as i was always wanting to give someone a ride around the bay...it was so much fun! mike (pat's brother) barbequed chicken on the boat. yummy!

at dark those who were on the beach went out to the boat and we all watched the fireworks together. they shot the fireworks off right in front of us over the bay. it was beautiful. listening to the moving patriotic music and being in such a beautiful place with fun family, really made me feel thankful to live in the united states. we are truly blessed for our freedoms and to live where we can worship our Father in Heaven as we want.

i have been watching some specials this week that they have had on pbs about our founding fathers. one in particular about benjamin franklin. these men were truly inspired. how beautifully they were able to articulate in the declaration of independence the freedoms that we needed and that our Father in Heaven wanted us to have. i am thankful to those men who were willing to put their lives on the line to give us separation and freedom. and to those soldiers who serve us all today, i am thankful for each of them and their willingness to put their lives on the line to maintain those freedoms. happy independence day!!!

julia's new hair cut!

julia got a new hair style today! she has been wanting to get her hair cut for a long time, but i didn't want to cut her naturally wavy hair. it seems like when i cut my other girls hair when they were younger they lost their pretty curls! julia literally runs from me when i want to do her hair. so, i decided to make her life (and mine) easier and cut her hair. she loves it!!! it matches her sassy little personality too! what do you think?

daniel and patrick also got haircuts!

daniel got his hair cut!! he looks great. he was ready for a cut. he feels like he lost half his hair (i think he did!). i hardly recognized him in his baseball cap at his all-star baseball game tonight. it will take a little while to get used to it. soooo much better for the warm summer though!

patrick also got a hair cut!!! (i don't have his picture). he left for efy (especially for youth) this morning for the week. if you don't know what efy is, it's a church camp for mormon youth ages 14-18. they have pretty strict guidelines for dress and appearance and patrick's hair was too long. patrick went wtih three other boys (dillon, blake and jeff). his roomate is dillon doria. he had to get up at 4:15 this morning. we met at dillon's house and then they went together to the train station. the 4 of them took the train to santa barbara and then took a ride in a taxi to the university of santa barbara where the youth conference is. patrick said the train ride was fun (there were cute girls on the train also going to efy!) all aong the way from san diego to santa barbara at the train stops, kids would get on the train that were headed to efy. there are about 400 kids attending this session. i'm sure they will have a great time and i hope patrick has some memorable spiritual experiences also!

my beautiful flower girls!

on saturday pat's nephew, chris keeran got married. aubrey, julia and chris and rommyna's daughter alani (not pictured) were the flower girls. i curled their hair and it took a long time! aubrey thought i would never finish, but it was worth it because their hair was sooo pretty!

chris and rommyna got married at the immaculata, a catholic church. it is probably the most famous and beautiful catholic church in san diego. it is really something to see...the stained glass windows are pretty amazing!

the reception was a "sit-down" dinner. we had halibut with lobster sauce, mashed potatoes, and steamed vegis. yummy!! there was a dj and we were all dancing together...the adults, the cousins! it was really really fun!! rommyna was absolutely beautiful!

corey and emily graduate.....first- corey's graduation pictures

what a fun and memorable week we had. my brother steven, his wife andrea, and their two kids ashley and andrew, got here on thursday, june 5th. corey's prom was on friday. my mom, my sister shelly, and her four kids, kailey tyler, megan, and emily mae arrived on sunday, june 8th. we had soooo much fun while they were here. we went to belmont park, fuddruckers (thanks frank!!), the beach, in n out, swimming at steve and andrea's hotel, and of course the necessary trip to lolitas! i loved every minute of it..being together like that is just the best!!!

on top of all of that and most exciting were the graduations of corey and emily. emily's middle school graduation was first on wednesday. she wore a pretty pink dress and she was so happy and excited!! it was really fun to have so much family there and cheering for her. after her graduation and to celebrate both graduates, we all went to shogun kobe; it is just like benihanas (maybe better!) and we had a fun and yummy dinner. we took up two tables of 10...of course our '5th daughter' olivia johnston had to come along!! (love you olivia!)

corey's high school graduation was on thursday. she was excited but nervous!! all of the seniors in sound unlimited and music machine sang the national anthem and they sounded beautiful. it made me cry! we took a ton of pictures of corey with her family and friends. that was fun!! to see all of them so happy and with the excitement of their futures ahead of them...you could really feel it! corey has two friends in paticular, devon and caitlin, that graduated with AMAZING honors. they inspire corey...thanks devon!!!!

it was a special week that i hope, especially corey, will treasure! thanks to my family for taking the time, energy, and money to come and celebrate with us! it truly would not have been the same without you here!!! we love you!!

emily's graduation

dinner at shogun kobe

more cousin pics

andrew (steve and andrea's son)

corey (17), patrick (16), emily (13), kailey (12), daniel (11), aubrey (9), tyler (8), julia (4), megan (3), ashley (3), andrew (19 months), and emily (8 weeks).

kailey, tyler, megan, and emily (shelly and ryan's kids)

julia and ashley (my youngest and steve

and andrea's daughter)

corey, patrick, emily, kailey, daniel, aubrey, tyler, julia, megan, ashley, emily and andrew

Corey's Senior Prom

wow! what a day getting a 'girl' ready for prom!! get her hair done...get her makeup done...buy shoes...buy earrings...get ready...it was a fun mother-daughter day!! a day i will always remember.

corey had a great time at her senior prom! she went with four other couples and they are all in either sound unlimited or music machine together. they all met at the lake first to take pictures and then went by limo to an italian restaurant for dinner and then to the prom. what a great group of kids for corey to go with...cameron and veronica; matt and jennifer; henry and robin; jonathon and corinne. corey went with justin and what a gentlemen justin is! he was so good to corey and could not have been a better date! (Cindi you should be soooo proud of what a special son you have!)

The Graduate

i can't believe that in 11 days corey is going to graduate from high school. i mailed out some graduation announcements and it has really started to sink in that she is graduating. it has been an amazing journey to raise corey and watch her develop into a young women over the last 17 years! she is a beautiful person inside and out! We went to the music department awards today and corey received some awards, but i think one of the neatest awards she received was "most inspirational". the award was voted on by her classmates and what an honor for corey! the graduation will be on june 12 and i will post pictures...
emily is also graduating on june 11th from middle school. she is soooo excited to start high school!!! my mom, my sister and her kids, and my brother with his wife and kids will all be here for the graduations. it will be so fun to be all together for such special events for our family!!

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a fun weekend. We went to Temecula for a baseball tournament with the San Diego Stars, a travel baseball team that Daniel plays on. We were really hoping to win the tournament, but sadly we did not. The kids always love staying in a hotel, especially Julia!!! She wanted to go swimming the entire time we were there but it was too cold! It rained off and on and was windy all three days! We were all huddled under our coats and blankets at the games! Julia had such a fun time with her two friends Kiley and Olivia (sorry Gigi if I mis-spelled Kiley's name). The 3 of them and Aubrey are the big "cheerleaders" for the team!! They have this cute little cheer they do..."Turn up the radio, turn up the radio. Who's on the radio? Stars on the radio!!" It was a great holiday weekend and I even got quite a bit of my book, 19 Minutes, read!!! I hope all of you had a nice and relaxing holiday weekend too!!!

emily made sound unlimited!!!!

well, emily did it!!! she auditioned for show choir at the high school and she made sound unlimited! she is sooooo happy. the auditions started on monday. monday was the vocal audition, tuesday was the dance audition, and wednesday was the group vocal audition. it was a long stressful few days!! on friday night two of the senior "sound girls" came and kidnapped emily... one of the "sound girls" was corey!! they dressed her up in crazy clothes and crazy make-up and then took her with them. they went and kidnapped other girls that made sound; one of them being emily's best friend, hannah pettijohn. they are really excited to be in show choir together next year as they start high school. i can't believe that emily is graduating from the middle school in a few weeks...she is VERY excited to start high school!!! congratulations emily, we are soooooo happy for you. you will be awesome!!!

Mother's Day

mother's day was a lot of fun! we spent the afternoon at the yacht club with pat's brother mike, his wife dena and their kids jackie, trevor, macy and kelvin. the cousins LOVE to be together. they went for a walk on the beach and played and wrestled on the grass (with pat and mike). we sat at the table and laughed and talked for hours! pat and mike are hilarious when they get together. it's always a lot of fun to hear their stories and mike does the best "kip" ever! in fact mike was "kip" before "kip" was "kip"!!!. (hopefully you've seen napoleon dynamite and know who "kip" is!)
after we went to the yacht club we went to patsy's house (pat's mom) and took all of the kids. it had been a while since they had all seen her! we didn't stay too long because the 8 of us wear her out, but we love her so much and we were happy to get to spend some time with her.
the one thing i wanted for mothers day was for all 8 of us to sit and watch a movie together. so, at about 7:30 we all sat and watched "p.s. i love you". boy, what a tear jerker!! I think i cried 4 times!! it's not very often that all of us are home together long enough to sit and watch a movie, so that was my favorite part of the day.
since it was mothers day i cannot end this post without acknowledging my mother and the beautiful person she is. she is a wonderful support to me and to my family. growing up, no matter how bad my day was, i could always count on my mom to be there to talk to me and she is still that way today!!! she is loving, fun, kind, charitable, and a wonderful grandma!! my children love her SO much and are always glad when "grandma's coming to town!" so mom...thank you for always being the mom i needed and for being the mom that i want to be!!!
i love you.

love these pictures!!!

i love these pictures (thanks shelly) of my kids with shelly and her kids in cedar city when we went to tour suu. we had soooo much fun being together those 3 days! it was a really fun trip. we went swimming, watched movies, worked on the computer (hence the blog) and just had fun talking and being together!!! after we left cedar city, corey, emily, aubrey, julia and i spent the night in las vegas. we stayed at circus circus. we went and saw one of the circus acts at circus circus, went out to dinner and then watched 27 dresses...(cute movied if you haven't seen it.) it was a really fun girls only trip!!!

baseball...softball...showchoir...etc

life is sooo busy these days. between patrick playing baseball, emily playing softball and daniel playing little league baseball and travel baseball, we have on average 7 games a week! i guess it's a good thing we love baseball sooo much! patrick got pulled up to varsity baseball from jv a few weeks ago. he is enjoying it and is playing 3rd base and is a pitcher. corey and patrick are so busy, they don't have much time to themselves! patrick goes from school to baseball practice(2:15-6:00pm) and then on some days has music machine rehearsal after baseball. corey, for the first time ever in the history of the choirs at the high school, was selected to be in both showchoir groups (music mahcine- boys and girls...sound unlimited- girls) and she is always doing something with one or both of the groups. they are both really busy, but i think they are happy doing what they love. Life is crazy busy but life is good! my kids bring me more joy than i ever thought was possible. they are the highlights of my days!!!

corey...our senior

it's hard to believe that corey is a senior and is graduating in 7 weeks! where has the time gone? one of the greatest joys i have is watching corey perform in music machine and sound unlimited; the show choirs at her high school. she is such a talented singer and it has been so fun to watch her grow as a performer and as a person the last 4 years. this picture is corey performing a solo in her high school group, music machine. that is patrick just to the left of her. they have been in music machine together for the last 2 years and that has been a lot of fun! i will truly miss corey being in mm and su, but I know that we have years to come of watching her perform!

the schneemann blog begins...

well, i guess i will catch up to everyone else (shelly, mom and andrea) and do a blog of my family. i have been in utah with corey...she is considering going to southern utah university. shelly and the kids came and met us in cedar city and shelly got me motivated to finally start our blog. so, here goes...