A weekend of parties and Catholics.

After being stuck in the house for far too long due to illness and winter (I was worried we might be heading down the road to becoming hermits!), we got to enjoy this beautiful weekend with some of our friends from college hence the title "Catholics."

First we got to spend some time with Sean, Jack, and Denise at a great St. Patrick's Day party.  Two years ago we went with Stephen's birth looming and none of our friends had had any kids yet.  Now there were tons of kiddos and Stephen had a great time running around.  Its also fun to reconnect with old friends because Sean and his wife Denise are now virtually neighbors!

Matt, Josh, Sean and Jack.

Old friends and kiddos.

And today we got to visit with friends to celebrate Rex's baptism! 

Nina and Georgie.

Liz and Rex, Nina (disclaimer George is not Nina's child, he's ours- we were worried this might cause some confusion!), me and Stephen

Georgie testing out Rex's toy.

Nick and Stacy.

We had a great weekend.  Its nice to enjoy the beautiful weather and for the Schatz family to finally be hitting their stride again after a few intense months.  Welcome Spring!

Hello City, Tierney, and Happy St. Patrick's day!

We got to spend our typical Thursday with Tierney in the city.  With Stephen's ever-expanding vocabulary he has started to name family members.  He calls his Grandpa (Grandpa Greg) "GG" and has started calling my sister, Tierney, "T" or "TT."  He often talks about them, probably because I do.  For St. Patrick's Day we got to go to see "TT" and spend some time out in the beautiful weather.  It's always a fun day for me because I get to be with three of my favorites.  Stephen especially loved the day because he got to have some yummy gelato!

Stephen and T.

How much is left in here anyway?

Georgie enjoying some giraffe!

Happy Baby and T.

St. Patrick's Day Party!

Again, we find another reason to celebrate.  Here are some pictures of our ever expanding playgroup!  Check out our littlest members sharing a seat.  Georgie and Emma look pretty cozy!

Haha!  Love our kiddos who are looking the other way.  Check out Stephen not far from his brother's side.

True love?  Maybe, but they certainly have time to figure it out!

We had a great time and a fabulous host.  We missed some of our friends, especially Nicole and Taffe who just welcomed a new son/brother home!  Welcome to the world baby Kingston, we can't wait to meet you.

And we are back!

I am happy to say (keeping my fingers crossed) that both our kiddos are FINALLY better and we are returning to normal life and our fun routines.  After more than two weeks at home and double ear infections for both boys, I can say that things were a little crazy around here.  This is how we spent most the two weeks.

Keeping an active toddler sedated due to illness is not easy work.  The more Stephen moved around the more he coughed and the sicker he got!

Steve and I were able to sneak out one night for a long planned outing to the Caps game with my sister, brother, and significant others.  I had never been to a game before and both my brother and sister in law are big fans.  Here are some pictures of our fun night out, over two weeks ago now!

The girls.

We called this the "gimpy" ticket.  This ticket actually got us into the game.



The sibs.

This picture was originally called "significant others," however, Joe felt unhappy with this term and coined it "Spouses and Joe."



Bye, Bye February.

Our little Schatz clan is very happy to say goodbye to February.  The month of love was anything but loving to us this year.  We spent the last day of the month with our little one on the way to the hospital in an ambulance.  Stephen went very happily down to his nap on Monday with only a slight cough.  About an hour later I heard a terrible noise that I actually thought was a dog outside.  A few minutes later I realized that it was Stephen, who was having a seriously difficult time breathing.  I pretty immediately knew he had croup, called 911, and put him in the bathroom with the shower going full steam. 

The ambulance arrived very quickly and the EMT had to take Stephen out to give him oxygen and later a nebulizer on the way to the hospital.  Poor little Stephen was very subdued and was in clear distress but got huge eyes when the sirens started because he always imitates them.  Georgie was all strapped in as well and kept lifting up his head with big eyes.  Our little guy had to have another breathing treatment at the hospital and was almost admitted!  Luckily, we got sent home after three hours and Stephen was able to sleep through the night with no recurrences.  Yesterday, we made a trip to the doctor for a follow up and it seems that he's on the mend.  Croup is so strange though because even though he can breath much better now he has more cold like symptoms and has become more stuffed up, although that means he's actually getting better.

Despite the whole ordeal, I can again be reminded of how many kind people there are in our lives.  The EMTs arrived at our house within minutes and the two men were wonderful.  One in particular was very sweet with Stephen and stroked his head in the ambulance on the way to the hospital while Georgie and I had to be strapped in.  The nurses and doctors were wonderful and fawned over Stephen who became much more animated and said goodbye to everyone as they left.  And finally all of our wonderful family and friends who have been emailing, calling, and even bringing us meals!  We are very lucky to have so many wonderful people in our lives!

So goodbye to February, a month of cold weather, skin cancer, lost wallets, running out of gas, the ho-hums, and finally hospital trips.  We are happy to see you go and are sure that  better things are to come as Spring heads our way!