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!!!