Levi Matthew

Our little miracle has arrived!! We are so blessed and filled with joy to welcome our new son into our home. Introducing...

Levi Matthew Schulz

Born January 25, 2016 2:43pm

7 lb 7.5 oz; 19.5 in

Levi decided to pleasantly surprise us by coming nine days before his due date! I think he may have seen the note I left him on the kitchen counter last week. Although that doesn't quite add up because I hadn't started teaching him how to read yet. We're making better progress now that he's out of my belly. 

Summary of labor (please scroll on if uninterested): My water broke around suppertime Sunday evening and things moved pretty slow. They started me on Pitocin at 3am and I eventually got an epidural at 9. The last few hours were pretty relaxing. :) Levi arrived exactly twenty-one hours after my water broke and we were oh-so-happy to meet him!

The first family picture with Levi! 

We got quite a few excited visitors that evening! I will spare you from the half-million photos that were taken, but here are the happy grandparents! 

Grandma and Grandpa Schulz 

Grandma and Grandpa Massner 

The kids had to stay out in the waiting area, but Levi came as close as he could to see them. 

We ended up staying three nights at the hospital so the doctors could watch his jaundice. He ended up spending most of Thursday under the bili lights until he was discharged later in the afternoon. Other than that, we are very thankful that he seems to be a healthy baby!

Headed home! 

The first evening was a little overwhelming, but we are recovering nicely and getting settled here at home.

Levi finally got to meet Uncle Bill when he came home from college yesterday. 

Laying in the sunlight this morning...oh so cute!! :)

We are enjoying our little one so much and are looking forward to the adventures of parenthood that lie ahead! God has been so good!

Changing Diapers Just Got Better

...well, as good a changing diapers can go, anyway.

Matt's latest project is complete! He spent the last couple months working on a changing table/dresser for the upcoming baby, and the results were impressive!

It all started with an idea that became a plan resulting in a trip to Menard's for supplies. From there, he spent several evenings cutting, gluing, routering, and screwing together wood in the garage before we got around to taking any photos.

A close-to-finish progress photo. 

Amid the business of December, he managed to keep at it. Maybe because he was told that deer hunting would need to be put off if he didn't make enough progress. ;) The next steps involved getting things all ready to be put together.

Then he took it all apart and stained the wood. 

And sent it to Uncle Keith's shop to be varnished. 

We picked it up last week and got it all assembled in the baby room! 

Turned out great, I'd say! :) I think he had fun doing it, but is so glad to have it finished. Now all we need is a little one to come along and give it a try!

December Christmasings

Wow, December sure zoomed by!

Our first highlight to share is Matt's success at getting a deer during hunting season. Woohoo! I should probably share the details of his hunt, but that sounds hard to do. He did legitly get it from a deer stand near our place one Thursday afternoon. This was my first-ever experience doing anything with deer meat, as my family didn't consist of hunters and Matt hadn't brought home a deer since we'd been married. Soo...now we've got a nice stock of ground deer in the freezer. :) And it tastes like beef to me.

We attended a couple concerts at school to get us in the spirit of Christmas. The 5-12 band concert starred Camille, Travis, and Justin, along with many others. 

Her first band concert! 

Later, we attended Vespers, where we watched the 7-12 grade choirs starring Travis, Justin, Jonathan, and several cousins. 

I got my first experience at Wiegand Sewing this month. Cindy hosted and this was the group that showed up for an evening with very little sewing going on! We had a good time!

December Christmases started with Lanz Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's. There were 134 people in attendance (all but about 12 were able to come!).

We were privileged to host Matt's siblings for an appetizer evening while Mom and Dad took all of the younger kids and grandkids on an outing to Mount Pleasant. It was a fun evening for us adults, too!

The next morning, we made the five-mile trek to Mediapolis to attend my family Christmas. As tradition would have it...

Chicken lips! 

Ok...not a tradition, but there is a little stocking addition this year... 

Pretty table (and napkin art!) 

Massner family Christmas band 

Jesse's Magic Show - he did a great job at fooling his brothers!! 

The next day of our Christmas marathon, we went to Matt's parents house with the Schulz family for a lively time!

The "pick up a bag without using your hands and keeping your feet on the floor" game. The bag keeps getting shorter and shorter until eventually they had to pick a dime off the floor with their teeth. 

Grandma and Grandpa had their "hands full" with twelve grandkids  

The WHOLE gang! 

The 3-year-olds enjoying their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa!  

Connecticut Cutie 

Gare-bear...Ethan gave me this bear costume for our baby, but for now it fits Garret pretty well! 

Our last Christmas gathering was the next day over at Skylines in Peoria, where Grandma Knobloch lives. We had a nice time with the Massners! 

Angie got some new Christmas socks! 

The newest member of the family...Jake & Andi's baby Max was five weeks old! 

Our week of events ended on Sunday over at Uncle Troy and Aunt Joni's, where several of the Lanz cousins gathered to spend the evening with Erika and Cameron, who were home for Christmas. Lots of excitement! 

Blowball! 

Oh, and the peaceful ending to our Christmas (and year) was our very own family Christmas on New Year's Eve. I practically had to drag Matt away from his other projects to force him to attend. Once I filled him up with food, he was too tired to do anything but relax so it went pretty smoothly after that.

Our third Christmas together! 

That night, we rang in the New Year 2016! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and find God's blessings in the coming year!

Thanksgiving in MN

This year's Thanksgiving weekend brought us to Hancock to spend time with the Schmidgalls! We were thankful for smooth travels with my family on the way up. 

Our arrival time at the Ascheman home was perfect as a "project" was created for Matt when Lucky's gate got trampled and broken. While most of us would have decided the splintered gate was trash, Matt decided to fix it. I didn't get an "after" picture, but it pretty much looked new by the time we left. 

"Got any clamps and wood glue?"  

Thursday morning we went to church. We were reminded to give praise and thanks to God for the many ways He provides for us - and most of all, for our salvation!

We were thankful for the gracious hospitality of our aunts and uncles that day. Aunt Brenda served us lunch, and then we moved in on Uncle Rob and Aunt Kax for supper. I'm not quite used to having two good meals in one day! It was great to catch up with our cousins, too!

As if the Massner family didn't get enough of each other on Wednesday's ride to Minnesota...we met back up at the Knobloch place.   

Our hosts and hostesses at the Schmidgall home! 

Friday morning, we went ice skating at an indoor skating rink in Morris. The boys played hockey on one end, and the rest of us skated on the other. I hadn't ever skated anywhere besides on our pond, so it was kind of fun to skate on an all-smooth surface! I was a little hesitant to be on the ice at seven months pregnant, but I made it without any falls.

We went to Pizza Ranch for supper on Friday and then bowling afterward. Billy had an impressive score of 203 - two turkeys and a couple spares. I am the "S" above him. I'm glad I got my best score ever this game so I didn't look so bad for Billy's pictures. 

That night, the cousins got together at the Ascheman cabin to play games and spend the night. We went for a little while and then brought the younger ones home for the night.

"Make a sound like..." 

The Aschemans hosted the Schmidgall Christmas Saturday evening. I think everyone made it except the Illinois crew and a cousin in Arizona!

Singing 

Gifts

Games

 ...oh, yeah, and we ate all night too. In case anyone wondered. I was just too busy eating to take a photo.

After church on Sunday, we visited Grandpa and Grandma Schmidgall's grave before heading home.

The following weekend, we made a return trip to Morris for Nathan and Lucy's wedding. It was a blessing to share in the happy couple's big day and we are excited to welcome Lucy to Iowa!

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving! I can't believe December is almost half over...!