Hello Again...

Sorry it has been awhile since the last post, but life is once again getting crazier around here. The upcoming move back to Springfield (we close on the house on June 16) has put so much more on our to- do list.

While spring has certainly arrived in Iowa City, we are now dealing with a moisture of another type...rain, and lots of it. Here we are attempting to make the best of yet another rainy day. Olivia has discovered the joy of building forts and putting all of her "special toys" in there. The fort will usually last about an hour, and then Enid (our cat) will jump onto the roof of the fort thus causing the entire thing to cave in on us.


We made the trip back to Litchfield and Springfield this past weekend. We had house related things to do, and meeting with family and friends was definitely on the agenda as well. Here are the kids with Grammy and Grandpa Brett at our lunch date with them. It turned into a cozy party of twelve with us, grandparents, and aunts and uncles.

The weather cooperated long enough for Olivia and grandpa to plant some tomatoes and peppers together. He is determined to make a gardener out of her. That and we hope that if she helps to plant and tend the tomatoes, she will then want to eat them too (tomatoes are the one food that she will not eat at all for some unknown reason).

Feeding the fish at my parent's pond has long been a summertime tradition. The fish get a bit greedy about the food, and will swim very close to the edge making it very easy to clearly see them. The main trick was making sure Olivia didn't fall into the pond due to the force of her throwing.

We were able to have a playgroup with the entire gang. It was great to catch up with everyone, meet some new siblings, and watch the kids all play together. Not many pictures were taken due to the energy levels of them all, but we did manage to get this one picture of everyone in one place. In the picture we have Olivia, Dominic, Caden, Griffin, and Kellan.

May the Schwartz Be With You

For those of you who do not know...my husband is a complete, total, utter, unquestionable, self-professed Star Wars nerd. He has seen Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope) over 300 times, he incessantly quotes the movies, our dog's name was Yoda, and I secretly think that he married me solely because my brother is (honestly) named after Luke Skywalker.

Anyway, after buying our new house, we thought it would be sweet to buy each other house warming gifts. Joe is buying me a set of All Clad pots/pans. Joe opted for something a bit less practical. Keep in mind that we already own THREE authentic autographed lightsabers PLUS an autographed thermal detonator, not to mention several framed posters. Now we are the "proud" owners of not one but TWO autographed life size Star Wars helmets. Darth Vader and Boba Fett. And I'll bet he'll want the Stormtrooper helmet for Christmas.

So what should have been a happy moment for Joe trying on the Darth Vader helmet only had me thinking of one thing...Rick Moranis from Spaceballs. The helmet is comically big on Joe as you can see in the picture. Joe says "at least it looks slimming". I was not able to convince him to take a picture with the Boba Fett helmet on as well.


The only way that he would allow for me to post the above picture is if I posed as well. Joe understands the grief that he will get from putting his picture on the blog. (P.S. for Curt: these pictures are not authorized for duplication under "all night call" penalty for ALL residents).

Our Kids

Joe could not believe that I have not included this picture in the blog yet, so I am doing it now. She is playing dress up at the Children's Museum, and Joe thinks that this is one of the best pictures ever taken. Olivia...our deep thinker, beyond smart, musical, loving, talkative "Miss Munchkin".


Ethan is a little guy, except for his head. Thus, the outfit is too big yet the hat does not fit, making for a great picture. Ethan...our active crawler/climber, playful, sweet, adventurous, always experimenting "Big Man".