Merry Christmas!

Dear Family and Friends:

As 2009 comes to a close, we review the year with gratitude for the many blessings we've enjoyed. We are mindful of the people who may have faced job loss, health problems, and other misfortune. Despite the ups and downs of life, it is comforting to know there are caring people all around willing to strengthen and support us. Our year has been busy but unmarked by any earth-shattering events. That is definitely a good thing!

Charlie is four-years-old and lets everyone know this fact! He started taking gymnastics in the spring and is loving it. He enjoys building towers and railroads. Charlie is a great helper to his family. He helps set the table, makes sure Ellie doesn't get into things she's not supposed to, and dresses himself. Charlie is learning new things all the time! He loves to spell and can spell his name as well as Ellie's. He knows all about the letters and the sounds they make. Another thing Charlie loves to do is sing. We enjoy Charlie and his great personality.

Ellie, 22-months, has grown so much this year. She went from crawling to walking to running. Her bright smile brings cheer to everyone around her. Ellie loves doing everything her big brother does. She loves to talk and laugh and sing. Her favorite songs are “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, “As I Have Loved You”, “I Am a Child of God”, and the alphabet song. Ellie is also a great dancer. She and Charlie have a lot of fun dancing to the music on the piano. We just love this sweet little girl!

Dan continues to work hard at Echostar as a network engineer. He's usually the go to person when others can't fix a problem. He's great dad and husband. The kids are always glad when he gets home from work. When not at work, Dan's busy working around the house. He's very handy when the computers break or if the garage door doesn't work. His latest project is fixing drywall and painting it.

I'm just trying to keep up with it all! I love being mom to two great kids. They are the joy of my life. I try to keep balance in our schedule and to enjoy this time while they are little. We have three things we do every week: gymnastics, story time at the library, and playgroup. When the kids are napping, I get to work on my hobbies: exercising, learning more about personal finance and investing, reading books, and blogging.

So, that's what we've been up to this year. I hope you are all well. We'd love to hear from you and to keep in touch. We are grateful this season for the Savior, Jesus Christ, and for the meaning he gives to our lives. May you and your family be blessed with peace, joy, and happiness now and in the new year.


Love,

The Schmidts
Dan, Linda, Charlie, and Ellie

Christmas Parade

The holiday season is a wonderful time of year, especially with little ones. I love the decorating, making treats, and all the other activities we do with the children. Even going to Lowe's to get the stuff we need to fix our kitchen walls turns into a family activity. The kids love looking at the Christmas displays they have. Charlie's favorite thing to look at is the Christmas village with a moving train going in circles.

Our first event to kick off the Christmas season was the Cheyenne Christmas Parade. We thought we were going to miss it because although we arrived in the downtown area on-time, it took a while to find parking. Finally we parked a couple blocks from the Wyoming State Capitol and I asked a passerby whether we were far from the parade route. I was pleasantly surprised by the reply that we were very close to it because the parade passed the State Capitol. So, we didn't miss much when we got there. Despite the freezing cold, I think it must have been literally freezing temperatures, there was a good crowd along the route.

I read a neat story in the paper about how they started having the parade. Since we're Michiganders, it's fun to know that this parade was modeled after a parade in Michigan. The couple who got this parade started had been driving back to Wyoming through Michigan when their car broke down and they had to stay overnight in Marshall, Michigan. They found out there was a parade and enjoyed it. It was held after dark and all the floats had lights on them. When they got back to Cheyenne, they thought it would be neat to have a parade like that here. The woman has been involved with the parade planning for the past 17 years.

We were really cold but enjoyed the parade nonetheless. I was glad we had a blanket to keep the kids warm! I couldn't believe it lasted over an hour!! The parade organizers did a great job getting different businesses and organizations to sponsor floats. It was wonderful to see the community coming together for this event.One of my favorite floats was the one where they had this huge flame coming up.
Here are a few other floats with pretty lights.

Shutterfly Stinks!

Hope you don't mind if I vent a little. Also, I want to share this so no one else has to go through the frustration I felt. Here's a synopsis of what happened:

We were at the mall and decided to get a picture of the kids with Santa. Great idea right? Yes until we decided to buy a picture package that included a gift card for Shutterfly. I thought how great it would be if we got the digital image of the Santa picture and uploaded it to Shutterfly and ordered a bunch to send to friends and family for Christmas? Well, little did we realize that it wasn't as great a deal as it seemed. I did upload the picture to Shutterfly and proceeded to try to order the pictures. The card was for $20 but you had to use it on an order totalling $20 or more. Also, even after I did try to make an order meeting the minimum dollar requirement it gave me an error. So the order didn't happen! By then I had wasted more than two hours just trying order some cards and pictures... (GRRRR! Visualize face turning red and steam coming out of my ears!!!)

So, sorry you may not be getting any pictures from us this year! But you can check back on this blog to see the cute picture of the kids with Santa and an update of our year. Thanks for listening and allowing me to let off some steam!

What I'm Grateful For

Around Thanksgiving time it's natural to think of things for which we are grateful. President Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said: "Our realization of what is most important in life goes hand in hand with gratitude for our blessings" (October 2008 General Conference).

When I think about what I am grateful for, President Monson's statement rings true. These things are truly important to me... Here are a few:

* My relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ
* The atonement of Jesus Christ
* The restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ and all its ordinances
* My husband
* My children
* Inspiration by the Spirit
* My health
* A home
* Extended family members
* Friends
* Temples
* Opportunity for education and learning
* Good books
* The beauty of the earth
* Living in a free land
* Motherhood
* Life

Happy Thanksgiving!

My Little Handyman

New and Surprising

Recently, we've had a few interesting experiences...

1. Two snowstorms in October- Having lived in Cheyenne for 2.5 years, I thought we'd seen it all: high winds, hail storms in July, highways shutting down in winter storms, etc. But, a snowstorm the first week of October beat it all. I'd never seen snow in October before, let alone twice! Apparently, the amount of snow we got last month was the average amount of snow this area gets in one winter.

Our backyard after the first snow storm:
After the second snow storm:
2. My first auction - A friend had told me about an auction in town and I wanted to go see it for myself. She was supposed to come with me but spaced it. I was nervous but decided to go by myself anyway.

It was definitely an interesting experience! I made a an embarrassing mistake on my first bid and won a box of sheet music for $65. That was a lot more than I wanted to pay for it! Seeing the shocked look on my face, the auctioneer was kind enough to redo the bid. Someone else got a steal on the music once I was out of the bidding. I did get a swivel rocker for $10, a chair for $5, and VCR for $5.
3. A new bed. We finally got around to getting Charlie a twin bed. Can you tell what he thinks? We were worried about him falling out of bed but so far so good!
4. A trip to the park - It's the beginning of November, hardly a time you'd think of going to the park. Well... apparently in Cheyenne anything is possible! It was gorgeous and 66 degrees so we made sure to spend it out of doors. I took the kids to our favorite park in town. We took a little walk and afterward my plan was to let the kids play at the playground. As we ended the walk, I suddenly remembered that a new children's garden had just opened at the park so we went there to see it. What a great place! The kids loved all the neat water features there. It was really hard to tear the kids away.

Trunk or Treat

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!! My favorite part is seeing all the kids in their cute costumes, especially my own. Would you believe I bought Ellie's at 5:20 PM on Halloween? Charlie wanted to be Thomas the Tank Engine again this year and fortunately we were able to borrow one from a friend.

Traditionally, our stake does a carnival at the stake center. They set up games and activities in different rooms. The kids get candy as prizes.It's so fun for the whole family. Unfortunately it was canceled because last year there was such a huge turnout it became a fire hazard.

Luckily, we still had our ward's trunk-or-treat last night. It was even better because it was combined with the ward that shares our building so we had a bigger crowd. The kids got tons of candy. I think we have enough candy to last us the whole next year.

Easy Jack-O-Lantern

Here's how you can do a jack-o-lantern in 5 minutes:

Grab a pumpkin and some permanent markers, any colors you want. Draw face on pumpkin with child's help. Take picture. So easy and cute! No mess!

Notice the red ear? That was Charlie's idea.

Ready for Potty Training?

I wish!!

Ellie has really become mommy's girl in the past couple months. She just wants to be with me all the time. It's quite flattering and sweet but can be very inconvenient sometimes. Like when I'm using the bathroom, she would insist on coming in with me. Then, she'll sit on the little potty, making sure the lid is off.

Even when Dan's holding her, if she sees me she'll want me to hold her. I know I should enjoy it and bask in this sweet adoration because I won't always be so loved. I guess I don't mind if it means an early interest in potty training... Well, one can hope, right?

What Happened to Autumn???

We had our fourth snowfall last week! The first few were light but this one was a big one. I don't remember ever seeing snow in October.

Clean, Dirty

It's funny how children can differ so much, even within a family. Charlie seems to have a streak of OCD. I probably shouldn't say this in jest since OCD is a serious problem for some people. He's the only child I know of who hates being dirty. He loves washing his hands. It's not that he does it all the time but at times when one should wash hands, like after using the bathroom, he enjoys the whole process: turn on the water, put soap on his hands, rinse. He just likes to be clean. This morning, we had leftover waffles from yesterday. As usual, he asked for a rag (moist washcloth) so he could wipe his hands and face in case get got syrup on himself.

Ellie, on the other hand, doesn't seem to mind being dirty. She freaks out when I try to wipe her face and hands clean after meals. It's not that she doesn't like to be clean because she enjoys washing hands and taking baths. I think she just doesn't care as much about being clean all the time as Charlie does.
Here's a picture of Charlie and Ellie after eating pudding. Notice how Charlie's face is practically spotless (and just to be clear, I did not wipe his face or hands before taking this picture!) and how Ellie has pudding all over her face. Even after I thought I'd cleaned Ellie up, Dan discovered she still had pudding in the creases of one of her eyelids.

LOL

I wish I was better about recording the cute and funny things my kids do. Dan told me this story when we were going to bed last night.

We were at the farmer's market yesterday. I must have been at a different stand at the time while Dan kept an eye on the kids. A lady was trying to get people to buy her tomatoes and was calling out her prices. When he heard her, Charlie ran up towards her stand and shouted, "Team Geotrax, all aboard!" If you have a little boy who loves trains, you'd know that that's from the theme song of a video about trains. I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I heard about the incident. I love how my kids make me laugh all the time.

Waipo and Waigong

In Chinese, Waipo is what you would call your maternal grandmother and Waigong is what you would call your maternal grandfather. My parents were here for a visit this past week. Charlie and Ellie loved having them here. Charlie kept saying "Waipo and Waigong" constantly. I think this is the first time they were both able to take a long trip somewhere together for fun.

There wasn't much happening this time of year in Cheyenne but it was nice to just relax. We enjoyed going to the park, the library (which is amazing by the way), and to Ft. Collins. It was great to have my parents here because they did the cooking half the time! Ellie, who loves going outside and walking down our street, was really glad to have someone willing to walk with her. Charlie said it was nice to have Waipo and Waigong come and visit us. I'm really glad they came too!

Yea for Dan!!

Dan studied computer science in college. He realized that his school was not strong in the area on which he wanted to focus - computer networking. So, after getting his degree he took classes specializing in Cisco networking and got two professional certificates which instantly made him a lot more marketable. Those tests were beasts - for the first certificate he only had to take one test but for the second certificate he had to take FOUR tests. But his hard work paid off and he was able to land a good paying job mainly because of this second higher level certification (and because he's a great problem solver!).

Well, there's a catch with these professional certifications: you have to renew it every few years, which means taking more tests. You only have to take one test to renew before the expiration date but if you don't do it before the expiration date, you have to retake ALL four tests. Talk about torture! Anyway, he's worked really hard to study for the exam between working full-time, taking care of his family, and dealing with health issues. But, he never gave up and just kept trying when most people would have thrown in the towel.

Once again, he has overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. He passed his test today. I'm so proud of him!!

Flow

Yesterday, I went running. I LOVE running. I could do it everyday. But, alas, I don't often have time to be able to go running. Also, when I am able to do so, it's not the ideal time because most of the time it's the middle of the day and the bright, hot sun is beating down on the barren landscape of our town - which is 6062 feet above sea level, almost 1000 feet higher than Denver. There's not much shade to speak of. I'm usually out of breath. I'm really sweaty. My eyes sting from the sweat mixed with sunscreen running down my forehead. Despite these discomforts, at the end of my runs I'm always glad I did it.

Luckily, my run yesterday evening was very pleasant. It was after 5 PM and the sky was overcast. In fact I had felt a few raindrops but I wasn't going to let that keep me from enjoying a little me time. Usually, when I go for my runs I have a goal to run at a certain speed so I could get back home as quickly as possible to tend to my family. While that was in my mind, this time I chose to consciously enjoy myself and to not push too hard. The words "just do it for fun" kept running through my mind. I seemed to notice that my gait was smoother, that even though I was running hard I didn't feel like I was too out of breath. Near the end, I was going up a steep hill, at which point I normally would've felt like walking but instead I kept going and felt like I could've gone on running forever.

That feeling is why I run.

I Won!!

Okay, most people will probably not consider this very exciting but I've recently discovered a new investment product - bonds. We have some savings with Zions Bank and they have a website called Zions Direct where they sell fixed asset securities like bonds and cd's. I've never considered investing in bonds before but I got an email about a 1-year corporate bond with a yield of 5.35% which in today's market is phenomenal. Also, I learned that 5.35% is the yield if you choose to pay at par but if you decide to do some bidding, the potential yield is about 2% higher because you could end up paying a lower price. Of course, depending on the rating of the company buying a corporate bond is not without risk. Because the bond I'm buying is being offered by Zions Bank and I've always had a good experience with them, I feel relatively comfortable taking the risk.

So, today I got a message that my bid for the number of shares I wanted was accepted! And my rate is 7.1%!! We'll see how it plays out but I'm pretty excited to have learned something new and to try this out.

Too Bad...

This year I planted a small (tiny) garden. We have a small yard so I wasn't very ambitious. In a corner of our flower garden, I planted some snow peas and a few bean plants. We have two rectangular wooden planters on the patio in which I had planted green beans, broccoli, and spinach. Then, I've also planted two tomato plants in pots. I wasn't expecting too much since our backyard is shady and those areas where I've planted are the main spots that get sun throughout the day.

Just when the spinach was ready to be eaten, I discovered something unfortunate. One day, Ellie was playing with a small label she'd peeled off one of the planters. It turns out, the planters were built using treated wood - as in treated with chromated copper arsenate, which was used to prevent rotting. So, this means my spinach, broccoli, and green beans are not safe to eat. Oh, well! At least I found out before we started harvesting the green beans. Darn, I'd been looking forward to fresh homegrown green beans!

So, the moral of the story is, if you have anything in your backyard that's made of pressure treated wood, find out what it's been treated with so you can take proper precautions. Most pressure treated wood for residential use is now safe but it's best to be sure. We will be dismantling our planters soon and we have our kids wash their hands after playing outside.

Grandma Schmidt

Dan's mom came out to visit this past weekend. We really enjoyed having her here and doing some fun things together. The kids loved being with Grandma Schmidt.
On Friday, we went down to the Denver Zoo. It was probably the hottest day ever - temperatures reached 99 degrees! Even though I lathered on sunscreen a couple times I still got a little sunburned. We had a great time though! Can you tell what Charlie's favorite thing was?
Grandma picked the busiest time of the year to come to Cheyenne. Every year for 10 days near the end of July Cheyenne hosts the largest outdoor rodeo in the world: Cheyenne Frontier Days. Our little town of about 57,000 doubles in population and every hotel is at capacity. Traditionally, we go see the US Air Force Thunderbirds airshow which features six F-16 doing amazing acrobatics and formations. We also go to one of the parades which march on 4 different days. The third thing we always do is go to the carnival which is open everyday from 11 AM to midnight. This year, we took Grandma to the parade and carnival on Saturday, the day before the end of the rodeo. I wish we could've gone to the rodeo as well but we just ran out of time. Maybe next year!

The carnival was a blast! Of course, Charlie had to go on the train ride. He got to be conductor. Ellie was too young for most of the rides but was able to ride on the crousel. Charlie was sure he wanted to go on the ferris wheel. He first went on it at last year's carnival with Dan. This time, I got to go on it with him. Let me tell you, it can be scary even for a grown up! I managed to quell my nerves enough to grab an aerial view. Charlie was really brave to go up on this scary ride.
After the carnival, we walked around the chuck wagon area where we sampled food from chuck wagon cook-off. We also discovered the Indian Village which features Native American displays and crafts.

We were all sad when it was time for Grandma to go home. The sweetest thing was when Charlie said to her, "Grandma, I don't want to let you leave."

Shelf Reliance

Does anyone know anything about Shelf Reliance? It's a website that sells food storage and emergency preparedness products. If anyone has had experience with their products, I'd love to hear about it!

Apparently, they do weekly giveaways and this week they're doing a drawing for a 72-hour kit for two.

Being prepared in an emergency is definitely something I could always improve on!

Preschool Decision

I've made a decision... Well, sort of. After a lot of thought and prayer, I've realized that I'm not ready to send Charlie to preschool. It's ironic that I was so worried about him being able to make the adjustment to going to all-day kindergarten when I'm the one that will be having a hard time sending my baby off into the world. I remember a friend of mine who'd always say how sad she was when school started in the fall because her kids would be off to school again. At the time, I was amazed to hear her say that because I thought it made life easier when the kids were out of the house. Now that I have my own kids, I've realized how quickly they grow up and how precious is that time you have with them. It seems like nowadays society pushes kids to grow up even faster.

While I'm sure preschool can be a wonderful experience, it's not a requisite experience. However, I know every child is different and it's a personal decision for families whether to send their kids to preschool. I've decided to try to do preschool at home for a couple months. However, I've left myself the option of sending Charlie preschool if that doesn't work out. I'm looking forward to spending more time with him!