The Cutest!

I found these adorable "sugar"cookies for Myah on etsy. They are so sweet! Myah loves playing with them and I had her jar personalized for her. You must go and check out Nana Company on etsy. Her things are so cute, I want them all. I learned that she was adopted herself and she also is married to a police officer! Such a small world isn't it! She has the cutest aprons and baking kits. I love that she has some girly Asian inpired fabrics on the aprons. I have posted some pictures from her site here for your viewing pleasure, run, don't walk to her site!!!!! You are so talented Amy!

Horsing around!

We were invited to Megan's birthday party this past weekend at the local riding stable by our house. We weren't sure if Myah would even like the horses. She begged to get on it and had a smile a mile wide while she was riding it! The cherry on top for her was that this gave her an opportunity to wear her favorite pink boots! Always a good day when that happens!

My Hero

I can't believe that 17 years ago today Mark started his new job as a police officer. Ironically it was also a Friday the 13th. I did have a few reservations about him starting on such a day but all went well. I remember moving him down to our friend's house and crying the whole way home. Phyllis was driving and Eric sat in between us handing us tissues. He was 2 hours away from me! Oh young love!! Mark had graduated at the top of his class in college and was blessed with many job offers, many of them in the metro area. I knew that his dream was to be a police officer so I couldn't help but be happy for him. I was sad that he had to leave everything that he loved, his family, friends, community, me.... and start out all alone not knowing anyone in a strange area. He will agree that they were very long months. However, now we are so thankful that he works for such a great, state of the art police department. He has had the opportunity to explore areas of law enforcement that we never dreamed he would go. We also thank God for his promotions over the last 6 years. He has experienced some very dramatic moments through the years and we praise God for his safety and security. He has put his life on the line to protect his community, he is a hero in every sense of the word. Many people ask if I worry about him. I always reply no because I seriously don't. He is living his dream, and that makes me happy. That is not to say that I don't get upset at times, the schedules are very demanding, he may leave in the middle of the night, have meetings and court without much warning, he is always sleep deprived, and work comes first many times. A police officer's wife is not an easy job but fortunately, we have a sister hood of other wives who understand our situation and we look out for each other. We have witnessed many marriages fail during his 17 years with the department. It isn't easy that is for sure, but to Mark's credit he has made our family a priority. We might not get to see him as much as we would like to but he makes the most of those precious moments that we do have together by spending time with us. Some of you don't know us personally, most of you do and you know of the situations we have faced in recent years. Our faith was never more stronger than the morning he called me and told me that he was involved in a shooting. Not sure of the situation, I drove home from up north frantically, learning news from my friends who were watching the news and calling my cell phone. I can't really share a whole lot more at this point but I know that Mark was spared that morning. God shielded him and wrapped his arms around my precious hubby and gave him the strength to protect himself. He is so brave and so humble. I love him so much and appreciate his hard work all these years, he is such a great provider for our family and works so hard so that I can stay home and raise our children. We pray for daddy's safety every night, believe me, it works. We love you Lt. Schultz!

Five Years Ago....

I don't like to publish alot of sad memories on this blog, enough was said during the long months waiting for Myah! But today I can't help but recall that 5 years ago I received the call that my Grandma Friend had died unexpectedly in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. We were extremely close to her and took it very hard. As many of you know that was a super hard time in our lives. It is really painful to look back on that summer. Mark's Grandma Schultz had became very ill very quickly and died just a few weeks after being diagnosed with her bile duct being blocked. She was the martiarch of his family and hosted all of the family holidays and get togethers. This was a huge loss to all of us. To make matters even worse, Mark's dad was dying also. At one point we had Lynn(dad) and Grandma, mother and son, in the intensive care unit at the same time. I remember praying outside the unit very late at night at wasn't sure which one of them were going to leave us first. Grandma passed away late one night and Lynn died 3 weeks later. My Grandma Friend died 3 weeks after that. This all came the same year that we lost 13 people that we were friends/co workers/family with. I pray that we never feel the pain again like we did that year. These were 3 very important people in our lives and life just hasn't been the same since. We don't see our families very much at all, homes have been sold, personal belongings have been given away, all we have our precious memories, photographs and a few keepsakes to remind us of our days when they were just a phone call away. We have moved on but days like today bring it all back again. We sure miss them and look forward to our reunion in Heaven someday when Grandma Schultz talks about how good the Tigers are doing, Lynn introduces us to his new best friend, Dale Earnhardt, and Grandma Friend plays us the songs she has written for the angels choir.

The Smith's Visit

You might remember my posting on babyjellybeans this past February when our good friends the Smith's moved to Wisconsin. Well, they came home for a few weeks and we were able to visit with them on Tuesday. As soon as they left everyone in our household was sad. We met when Dayton and Nick were in the same 3 year old preschool class and Abbie was about 3 months old. Jeff was a pilot for Northwest and has since taken a job flying a private jet for the executives of a big company in Wisconsin. We love spending time with them and can always catch up right where we left off. We sure miss them but know that good friends are lifelong friends and no matter how much distance is between us, they are always in our hearts.

Misc.

These are so out of order, sorry... This is my sister's new kitchen, you all know how long this project has been taking them, the rest of the house is almost done too, I am jealous of her space, look below for another shot of the kitchen.
Miracles do happen, these little girls are proof of it! I had the pleasure of photographing the Steckel girls a few months ago and I just love them. I hope they don't mind my sharing these!
Look at these beauties! They are such miracles, you little girls are so lucky to have a mommy who went through so much to bring you into this world!
Aren't they just adorable! This blog doesn't do justice for how cute they all are!

Here is Myah in her favorite new chair from Grandma. It is just her size and she drags it all over the house.
Happy 2nd Birthday Cousin Sophie, isn't her room cute!
Myah loves to blow bubbles!
Another miracle, Margaret is finally home and we are so thankful, she is so special to us!
Aunt Mel's kitchen again, we can't wait to see what yummy goodies she will whip up in here! The best part is her huge walk in pantry complete with french doors around the corner.

Sorry I have been neglecting my blog this week, with the holiday right in the middle it threw me for a loop. We are planning on spending the weekend on the boat again, say your prayers for us as we bought a pair of water skis for Dayton this weekend! Yikes! We are looking forward to my friend Sherry and her family coming by for a visit next week, she moved to Wisconsin in February and I haven't seen her since, I miss her terribly and can't wait to see all of them! I took Dayton to the Dr. today and afterwards I drove by the airport near our old house, they have an air show this weekend and the Blue Angels are performing. When Dayton was newborn, one day I heard this loud window rattling noise and had no clue where it was coming from. I ran over to Dayton and covered his little ears while trying to cover my own. It was the Blue Angels preparing for the show. They come into town a few days before hand and start practicing. I sat with Dayton for 4 hours today in the back of Mark's pickup praying that they would be there. They WERE!!! We sat right at the fence to the airport and had these amazing jets screaming right over top of us. It was so awesome! Dayton said I got the "cool mom of the day award", hey I have to accept these awards when I can, they don't come very often! Miss Myah is doing great, she is into taking all of her clothes off during her sleep/naps. She also is in the habit of throwing all of her food. She has learned the word "mine" and knows when to use it. She is talking so much that we can actually almost have a conversation with her. She asks me questions like "where daddy/Dayton go?" One of the sweetest developments this month is how when we say her prayers at night, she has started saying everyone's names to "bless" . She goes down the whole line, it is so cute. She even says her family in China. She keeps us so busy, she gets into everything! She loves her bike, wagon, swimming, sidewalk chalk and bubbles. It has been so nice having Dayton home during the day to help in "watching" her every move. He is very helpful, it really is nice to have a large gap in ages, who knew. They are cute together, he begs me to pick her up at night before he goes to bed so that he can hold her, I know I am nuts but it is so sweet, she holds right onto him, he needs that too. She is still not a big cuddler so we have to take it when we can! I don't have alot of pictures from this week so I will include some miscellaneous pics from the day to day life that we live! Hope you all had a great 4th of July!

Great Weekend!

Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for all of the fun!
Our boat on it's maiden voyage on our lake!
Dayton and Myah ready for a spin!
Cousin Sophie was the flower girl at the wedding.
Our girls loved to dance! Myah even did the chicken, hokey pokey and YMCA!
Sorry the pics skip around a bit, Myah found a nice spot inside the tube to relax.
Grandpa and Grandma anchored off so we could all swim for a while.
Is it cold Myah?

Myah, Chloe and Annabelle before leaving for the wedding.
Myah looking precious for her first wedding.
Myah was my date for the night.
Congratulations Courtney and Chad, they were high school sweethearts too!
The Michigan State Sparty was at the wedding, the girls completely freaked!

Grandma and Myah relaxing on the water.
See what I mean about beautiful!
The day before our wedding my dad took Mark fishing, dad snagged a lure on a stump in 12 feet of water and lost it. A little while later, Mark "caught" his lure, pretty miraculous! This is the spot where it happened 14 years ago! We still have the lures connected to each other.
Myah loved watching Dayton catch fish, she would kiss them! Yuk! She loved her own fishing pole and played with it all weekend.
This is Dayton's bass that he caught off of the dock.

We went up north this weekend (back home to those of you who don't know us personally) and had a wonderful time. This was the first time that we hauled the new boat up to my parents. I grew up on the lake and it was so fun to finally have our own boat on my lake! On Friday night we took a boat ride with my parents and dad showed Mark how to manuver up the river. It was beautiful, we saw deer on the bank, the water was like glass. We don't get home very much anymore with school, kids, work etc., and we sure seem to appreciate it so much more now that we can bring our kids up there and see how much they are growing to love it too. Every single time we come home, Dayton tears up, he just loves to be up north. He always tells us that he is going to live up there. I can't blame him! In between boat rides, fishing and playing , we went to a cousin's wedding. My mom, sister and I took the 3 little girls, whew, what a handful! But what a beautiful wedding, it was fun to see our family and celebrate a special occasion. Here are a few pictures from our weekend.