Homeowners, at last!

Part of a conversation that I had with Maida while we were swinging on our front porch swing this afternoon...

Maida: Mommy! Dad is a boy, Skogie is a boy, Barkley! is a boy, me a girl, mommy is.... a Princess.

Ha!

I'm a princess... and a homeowner! That's right! Everything went very smoothly yesterday and it is official. We have purchased our first home! I really expected to get special feelings about this - maybe like butterflies in my tummy, or some sort of feeling of special accomplishment and pride that would make me jump up and down, hug Erik excessively, and squeal every time I thought about the new house. I haven't felt that - or anything like that - yet. It's really funny because while I was sitting in our new house yesterday, I felt like it had always been ours. It was meant to be, I guess! Here are some pictures of the big day...

Maida the morning of the closing

Maida sat on Erik's lap the entire time and pretended to sign her name on a paper like we all were doing. It was so cute. She behaved very nicely during the closing. We hardly knew she was there!

Erik, Maida, and me with my mom and dad (Skogen was sleeping in the corner)

I had no idea how much paper work went into buying a house. I also had no idea how many times I'd be signing my name at closing!

Us with Linda, our realtor.

Tomorrow we get the moving truck and load it up. (If you would like to stop by and help, we'll be loading from 4:00 on and will have pizzas for everyone for dinner!) We then are driving to the new house and unloading it on Saturday afternoon. I plan to get started on painting right away! I can't wait to do all those fun little things to make the house our own.

We're Closing on a House!!!

We all have so many different emotions about closing on our first house.

We are excited, happy, nervous, glad, thankful, and stressed out.

We've spent the week getting together with friends for the last time and enjoying this beautiful city, in between all the packing and organizing, too.

We've had so many ups and downs (a lot of downs) with this whole process and I'm really hoping and praying that it all goes well.

Guess who's sitting up ALL BY HIMSELF!!!!

That's right! It's Erik! He's been working at it for years all that work has certainly paid off. He's not the only one, though. SKOGEN is sitting up like a champ and has been for the last week. He's a much quicker learner than Erik, though and can stay sitting on the floor for more than an hour as he plays with his toys and with his ever-so-entertaining big sister. What a little stud!

Check out the tum-tum and the man-boobs. :)

Happy Father's Day, Erik!

When Erik and I started dating, Erik was pretty wild - not wild in a bad way, wild in a completely crazy way. A couple years after we got married, Erik was accepted to medical school, and a little while before medical school started, we had our first baby. Through out these past five years, and all the transitions we've been through, I've gotten to witness Erik change from being the craziest, most outrageous person I ever knew, to being the most patient, gentle, responsible, loving man, husband, and father I'll ever know.

Erik's journey to fatherhood was filled with lots of new surprises as we learned all about pregnancy with our growing bump.

When Maida was born, I was under anaesthesia for three hours after the birth, so Erik was all alone with our new babe. I remember saying to him when I saw him for the first time after Maida was born, and I found out that he had been alone with her, "Did you even know how to hold her?!!"

To my surprise, Erik did know how to hold her... and a lot more! With Maida being in the Special Care Nursery right after the birth, Erik stepped up without me and filled the role as "dad" even though I know that he was completely scared and worried at how everything would play out that day.His love, courage, and fatherhood didn't stop there. He was always looking for ways to help. Shortly after bringing Maida home from the hospital, Erik complained about me getting to feed Maida all the time (since I was nursing) so I would often pumped bottles so that Erik could participate, too.
As time went on (all too quickly!), Erik never ceased to amaze me. Dirty diapers, big owies, bubble baths, and bed time - there wasn't anything he didn't do. He grew as a dad right alongside our growing baby and toddler.

Our second pregnancy and birth seemed a little easier, despite Erik being in school and having to work around his exam schedule!

Erik really surprised me as a dad in new ways, this time at how natural it was for him to become a daddy of two.

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank God for making Erik the father to my babies. He has grown so much - and still is a little crazy once in a while... now he just has two little partners in crime!!

I love you, Erik. Happy Father's Day.

You are such a great dad.

All I wanted to do is take a picture of them together

but Skogen kept trying to kiss Maida, which Maida thought was hilarious, and so she kept coming back for more.

It all ended in Maida tackling Skogen and them laying on the bed together laughing.

I love how the simplest things in life can bring them joy - like just trying to sit next to each other for a picture.

It isn't possible to even begin to describe how much I love our little family. God amazingly brought Erik and I together and then created Maida and Skogen so perfectly to fit together with us. I am beyond thankful for what He has given to us. God is good.

Here are some pictures and a video of last weekend. I haven't had much time to post this week because we are in the process of moving. Yes, I said MOVING!!! We are planning on closing on our new house on the 24th of June, if everything goes well. Keep praying! My mom and my niece, Sarena, came for three days this week to help me pack boxes. I am so thankful that I have such a serving mom, always willing to help us out.

I love this picture of Barkley! outside.

Look at those curls!

Playing outside.

Helping mommy make truffles.

Reeeeeally wanting to taste them!

Having a cookie (after licking the spoon!).

Reading outside with Hippo Girl. Maida told me right after I took this picture that Hippo Girl wasn't looking at the book, she was looking at the roof.

Always has her legs crossed.

Our truffles. Some were covered in sugar cookies and some were covered in chocolate sprinkles.

We packged the truffles up, made some thank you cards, and then delivered them to our friends who watched Barkley! for us while we were house hunting.

Daddy and Skogen

Our BIG boy!

Me and the "BIG DEAL"

I finally was able to break out the flip flops - it's summer!!

Mommy's Girl

While in Oklahoma last weekend, I was told that Maida looks a lot like her Nana (Erik's mom) when she was little, but before I went to Oklahoma, I had this post brewing and thought I'd still post it...

I didn't take the time to go through and pick out some pictures of Maida to compare these to like I did for Skogen and Erik, but here are some pictures of me when I was a little girl...

From what I'm told, I always liked to run around in my underwear - so does Maida!

These next two pictures are of me and my nephew, Darin. My mom and my sister were pregnant at the same time! Growing up, Darin was more like my brother. I miss our old times together. He moved to Arizona when I was in fourth grade and now looking back, I think that loss of a buddy...a playmate...a brother, was harder on me than anyone realized at the time.

Well, after looking at these pictures again, I'm proud to say that I think Maida may look a little like her Mommy - even the curls! We always give credit to Erik for those, but I, too, had curls until I was a little older.

It will be interesting to see who she looks like as she gets older and changes.

[One thing is for sure, though, I won't cut her hair into a mullet like my mom did mine!!! If I get brave enough, I'll post some pictures of my mullet... stay tuned!]

5 Months Old

Skogen,

You are the best baby I could have ever wished for. You are growing up so fast. I just keep thinking how unreal it is that in one month, you will be a half of year old!!! I can't believe it. You are so talkative and always moving. You love anyone who will hold you or talk to you. You took your first big vacation this month - down to Oklahoma. You did amazing in the car. You started going to Bible School on Sunday mornings. You love it, but always cry when you see me afterward, as if you are trying to gripe me out and make me feel bad for leaving you (Maida did the same thing at this age!). Your eczema is getting better now that I got a steroid from the Urgent Care clinic. You love your daddy and could stare at him for hours. You laugh at him anytime he acknowledges you. You can roll over pretty quickly and easily now and in fact, you've already fallen off the bed when I wasn't looking. You've moved out of the infant car seat and into a bigger one, which you really seem to like. You sit in the cart now, like a big boy, when we go to the store. You are interested in anything your sister has and you aren't afraid to take her on to get it. You are starting to get used to the idea of me holding you while you sleep and I love it. You still puke a whole lot, but this next month after we move, I'm hoping to start some cereal with you on a more regular basis, which I hope will help you hold things down a little easier.

I love you more and more every day and I'm so honored that God chose me to be your mommy

Praying for Scott

Our good friend, Scott (who I've mentioned before), is fighting a tough battle with cancer right now. Him and his family temporarily moved out to Philadelphia recently for treatment and from there he writes an entry on his CarringBridge site almost every day. I have been so encouraged by his posts, not only because it is so nice to feel like we are all a part of this battle with him, and be able to pray for immediate specific concerns, but because he includes a scripture with his posts. Along with the scripture, he usually has some of his own thoughts about the scripture and, personally, I have been using this as my own daily Bible study.

Tonight Scott's post mentioned some cards that his mom made that she, and others, can pass out to people. These cards have his CaringBridge site and some pictures of his children. When I read about this, I thought this was such a great way to remind people to pray for Scott, and to recruit others to pray for him, too. So, I got to thinking that I could do the same thing, only in blogland style. So, I created a "button." If you are unsure what a button is, it is an image that is attached to a link, so that when you click on the image, you are taken to a specific site. Most buttons that I have seen and used are related to prayer requests, just like the one I made.

My button for Scott is located at the top right-hand side of my blog and when you click on it, it will take you to Scott's CaringBridge site. You can also post this button on your blog, too. I would love to see this button passed around to as many blogs as possible. Erik made fun of me and said, "Do you actually think that people are going to put this button on their blog?!" and I confidently said, "YES." My thought is that if even only five people put this button on their blog, and only five other people read their blog and see the button, that's 25 more people praying for Scott.

I put the link to the button right under it. So, just copy and paste that onto your blog by going to "Customize," "Layout," "Add a Gadget," "HTML/JavaScript" and posting that link there. Let me know if you have any problems with this. And don't forget to PRAY FOR SCOTT!

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God."

Psalm 20:7

"I went potty in back yard."

For some reason I really just didn't see this coming. I always figured this would be something I'd hear from a boy, but not from Maida!

Sure enough, when Erik and I were hauling boxes from the house to our garage, Maida was outside playing, and at a time when Erik and I were both inside talking, Maida came in and said, "I went potty in back yard." We asked her to show us where she had went potty and she brought us right over to the flower bed where the flowers had most definitely recently been "watered." The stinker even managed to take her underwear off before going.

When I asked her if she stood up to go potty or sat down, she told me that she had sat down on the ground. I asked her if her bottom got dirty and she said that it had. So then I asked her if she had remembered to brush it off. She said "no," and then took off running into the house. I followed her in to see what in the world she was doing and she had gotten a big, long haired brush that we use for dusting and sweeping up small messes, and was "brushing" her bottom off!

I almost died laughing.

June Oklahoma Trip 2009

I had good intentions of quickly posting our pictures from the trip, but Skogen got sick, so my time was spent with him. The pictures are up now, though! You can view them here: http://www.scharrerfamily.shutterfly.com/. Warning: there are a lot of them!


About our trip: We took a quick trip to Oklahoma to surprise Erik's brother and his wife, Karlie, at their house warming party. We also surprised Erik's grandma (Mema) and grandpa (Deda), his Aunt Lola, Uncle Ron, and their sons Jacob and Alex. We got to stay with Erik's mom (Nana) and dad (Papa) while we were there and spent some good quality time with them. On the way down we stayed with my cousin, Jared, and his wife, Des, and daughter, Coco. We also were able to stop and see my college roommate and really good friend, Aubrey, and her little girl. On the way home we saw my cousin, Melody and her daughter, Jaylen. We then stayed the night with my Aunt Becky, Uncle Steve, and cousin Myra.


On our trip Maida and Skogen had many firsts. Maida had her first ice cream sandwich, her first push-up, ate at Braum's and Sonic for the first time, and swam in her first little swimming pool. This was Skogen's first time out of the state of Minnesota, his first time seeing Erik's side of the family, and some of my family, too!


While we were traveling down to Oklahoma, Maida turned 25 months old. I didn't have the internet to post a 25 month post, so here's a picture of her on her 25 month birthday.