Mardi Gras Mambo

It is Carnival time in Louisiana. Time for parades and king cake! We are excited to take the kids to as many parades as possible. Contrary to popular belief, most of the parades are extremely family friendly. Carnival began at the beginning of January and lasts until Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), which this year is February 16. The parades haven't really officially begun, but we will be heading to our first one next weekend. We will have some special guests with us. Aunt Wendy and Zach are coming for a visit next weekend. I look forward to Wendy's visit because it is really the only time I have to visit with her all year. When we go to Virginia, we try to fit in so many visits with so many different people, I feel like I don't get to spend quality time with any one person. Will is very excited about Zach coming. He has been talking about all of the "cool thingys" he's going to show Zach. Zach is also a HUGE Saints fan, so it is a good time to visit with Saints fever going on right now! Tomorrow Jon will be taking a half day off, so that we can celebrate my 29th birthday. I can't believe I'm turing 29!!!! I just got used to saying I am 28, and I haven't been able to remember what year it is since 2006 (coincidentally, the year Will was born). We will have pictures to post probably after tomorrow, but for now, I wanted to post the laundry basket video. I was inspired by the video of Callie that Amanda posted, and I thought I would share what my own kiddos like to do with laundry baskets. Will also likes to dump all of the clothes out and use the baskets to transport his toys all over the house. Brighton, as you can see, just likes to ride in them. :)

In training for the Third Quarter Stretch :)

Brighton at 14 months

Brighton Rae will be 14 months old tomorrow. I can't get over what a funny little girl she is becoming. She is into absolutely everthing! I cannot take my eyes off of her for a second, but if I do there are a few things I know she could be doing:

1.) Playing with a musical toy, so that she can bob her head, more like her whole body, to random kid songs.
2.) Sitting on the step playing with tupperware she stole from the cabinet.
3.) In the pantry trying to get into the trashcan.
4.) In the bathroom, throwing various household items in the tub, or worse the toilet.
5.) Growling, yes growling, at her brother because he won't share his snack (the same snack that she just finished).
6.) Turning any electronics within reach on and off, on and off, on and off.
7.) Peeking her head into the shower to see if anyone is in there, so she can get her head wet.
8.) Tackling her brother(who is a wonderful sport about it) or the dog (who is not such a good sport about it).
9.) Using her toy cell phone to make pretend calls where she babbles and laughs at random intervals. (I'm sure I don't sound like that on the phone)!
10.) Using Mommy's cell phone that she's found by rummaging through my purse to make random calls to people in my contact list. (I'm sorry about the phone calls and voice mail messages full of busy baby babble.)

She gets into everything (including the laundry)...

She's growing everyday, but I'm not sure she's as big as she thinks she is in this picture! She's like a little tornado...leaving every room a disaster!

She's really developing a personality!

Dinosaurs and Baby Dolls

All the Schus in Schuville had a wonderful Christmas this year. We enjoyed the Christmas Eve service at our church and then celebrated with our new church friends at one of the member's homes until it was time to come home and get the kids ready for bed. It was hard though to be away from family. We were very sorry to miss the Christmas Eve tree lighting in Williamsburg where Jon's mom gave a speech in front of a very large crowd. The rest of the family got to sit on stage at the event, but we were 1000 miles away keeping her in our thoughts and prayers. It was hard to think about my family getting together in Virginia Beach for Callie's first Christmas and we weren't able to be there. I get sad thinking about how Brighton has not even spent a Christmas with her grandparents yet, and it has probably been too long for Will to remember the last Christmas he was around either set of grandparents. But I can't dwell on these things too long before I remember how truly blessed we are. For the last two Christmases here in Louisiana, we've been able to do something different on Christmas Eve--meeting new people and having new experiences. And we've been able to spend a very peaceful Christmas as a family of four in our home together. We stay in our pjs most of the day, open presents, eat food that we work together to prepare and, best of all, take Christmas naps!!! This year we spent a long time opening presents since we had them from two sets of Grandparents and three sets of Aunts and Uncles on top of the presents Jon and I bought for the kids.We had to eventually get Brighton out of bed because Will had been up for a while waiting to open his presents. We munched on strawberrry bread and took our time with each present since both children wanted to get all of the presents out of their boxes. It was a long morning that ended with a pancake feast courtesy of Daddy and Will. The kids settled in for an exhausted nap while Jon and I finished our mimosas and watched Holiday Inn...trying not to look at the explosion of wrapping paper and toys all around us. We eventually took our Christmas nap, and when everyone woke up, we started on a massive clean up! We played for the rest of the evening and Jon and I worked together on our Christmas meal: Bleu Cheese and Fig stuffed Pork Tenderloin. It was truly a Schuville-worthy roast beast! We spent the rest of the weekend shopping with our gift cards and playing with all of the new toys! It was a great Christmas weekend, and we couldn't ask for more. Thank you, Nana, Papa, Grandma, Granddad, Aunt Wendy, Uncle Geoff, Brady, Zachary, Uncle Eric, Aunt V, Jake, Sophia, Aunnie, Uncle Matt, and Callie for all of our presents! We hope you all had as merry of a Christmas as we did down here in the deep South. Enjoy the pictures, and hopefully I'll be able to send some video if I can figure out how to shorten it!!!!

Our family room, right after Santa left...(right after we finished wrapping presents very very late on Christmas Eve)

We had to let Will open one present to keep him occupied until Brighton woke up...we played this game for a while...it was soooo early!

I love this doggie!!!

Brighton also insisted on having the gifts open and taken out of the box as well.

back to back...and neither one of them realizes it!

Brighton's engraved bracelet...Thank you Gma and Gdad!

Will likes his snow globe! (Thanks Grandma for continuing the snowglobe and nutcracker tradition!)

To bow or not to bow.

Thanks for the gift Nana and Papa!

!

Such a Ham!

Do you see what I see?

I saw a little shepherd boy this morning!! Will participated in the live Nativity scene this morning at our church. The children of the church did a short program that involved singing and bell playing as well as dressing up. Will also had another very important role earilier in the service as all four of us lit the fourth Advent candle. Brighton and Will participated with us, and I made sure they wore their new coordinating Christmas outfits that Grandma (and Granddad) bought them over Thanksgiving. It was a great Sunday morning. We made a few attempts to get some pictures of the kids after church, but they were both tired, so we didn't get a fantastic shot of them together. After naptime, we headed to the park for a little while. We've had so much rain lately (taking the form of snow in VA!) that it was good to get outside again. It was a little cold, although Jon and I have decided that we've become sensitized to cold from the Louisiana heat. Enjoy the pictures of our day...

PS--I forgot to include in my previous post that Will is wearing big boy underpants to bed now, and he has rarely had an accident. Brighton, of course still in diapies, BUT I have to mention that she has become quite the dancer. She has perfected a kind of "ghetto" head bob and will start bobbing anytime music comes on...even hymns at church!!!

Will was a shepherd in the Live Nativity at our church this morning!

He was a little nervous...this was his acting debut

Christmas Girl