Our Snow Angel

Here's Riley's first trip out sledding. She got a sled for Christmas so we broke it in before the Vikes game today. Game is still in progress, but it's not looking good so I thought I'd post pics instead. We didn't stay out long, but she seems to like the snow:)

P.S. Happy Birthday Uncle D and Maureen!

Final housekeeping for 2007

Hey. Don't forget you can subscribe to this blog on the right hand side of the page. I know I have 3 subscribers right now:) It just saves you the hassle of checking in all the time. It will e-mail you when I have posted something new. Now that Christmas cards have been sent, I'm hoping there are more of you out there we can keep in touch with in this way... especially you out-of-towners! I will try to make this about more things than just Riley, I promise:) If you stop in once in a while but don't subscribe, post a comment so I know you're out there! Highlights so far this year, be sure to check out these posts: Dancing Kiddos, SHE'S HERE, Testing a New Trick, Thinking Green and way back at the beginning, Testing my Skills. Thanks for checking in on us! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Three more pics

Here's three more and some explanations: Notice Riley holding Ghandi, one of the popular gifts of the evening. Popp, the friend of ours in town from the Air Force is the one with the blue hat and the santa hat in the background, not Tommy on all fours...long story! There is video if you want to see it, but I won't post here. Popp will be leaving next week for Japan again:(

Oh the insanity....

Here are some pics from our recent holiday shin-dig. Nuff said!

Schuster Christmas

Ok, I'm not sure why the layout on this is getting goofy, please forgive the copy not lining up right. Here's some pics of Josh's side of the family where Riley was spoiled rotten again. Boy this kid has a lot of STUFF! We need to move just to fit it all in. She got her first hockey stick, a dry erase table among the many NOISY toys and maybe one quiet one. My favorite pic is the one where she's plugging her nose. That's what she does when she's "stinky" and then she plugs your nose too! Also, Auntie Jess and Roo decided to switch hats:)

Cooley Christmas

Ok, in a nutshell, here's Christmas at the Cooley's. Riley had a very good night, spoiled rotten by her grandparents, aunties and uncles. Grandma helped her discover the chocolate fountain and we snuggled with daddy...no naps for this little Roo! Josh got a T-shirt from my parents with a pic of his huge walleye this summer. Thanks for the help on that Bean! The last pic is of my cousin and her boyfriend Nick on their way to his family celebration which included an ugly sweater contest. I must say, I'm impressed at a guy who will wear that crazy outfit in front of a group of people he's never met before! Hope you guys won the prize! If you want to see the first pic of the 3 "Cooley" cousins, Zack, Riley and Adrienne, go to Meg's blog, she beat me to it.

Dancing Kiddos

Here's just one video from this Christmas. I'll post another one, but I'm waiting until after my aunt and uncle visit Ryan in Chicago:)

The Way Riley Imagined....

Ok, so I'm over my mall Santa tirade. Here's what I decided. I am more upset with the fact that children are turned away than I am that Riley didn't see this particular Santa. I'm not sure how parents explain all the different mall Santas to children, but here's my thoughts. Maybe they are all Santa, but they look different at different places or on different days because that's how you imagine Santa that day. The Santa we went to see last night first was the way mommy imagined Santa, and we were meant to see Santa the way RILEY imagined him. So here are some pics of Riley's Santa...funny, I think this might be how Adrienne also imagines Santa, and maybe sometimes even Zack!

Ok, maybe twice a week...

Sorry, I can't make it to Monday, I've been dying to post something and now I have something relevant to post. My older sister and the last of us "Cooley" girls started her blog this week. See The Bartsch Clan link on the side. We've had a very busy week this week, which was SUPPOSED to be capped off tonight with a trip to visit Santa. Let me tell you, I have heard of this "making appointments to see Santa" thing, but I must say, I was DEVASTATED (and yes, I mean devastated, many of you know how much I love Christmas) ...anyway, devastated to discover that we were not allowed to see Santa tonight because his appointments were all booked. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? Children do NOT understand that Santa now takes appointments and many parents didn't know if this craziness either. While I waited for Josh to arrive at Ridgedale, I watched at least 10-15 kids turned away crying because 4 days before Christmas, Santa was booked...UNACCEPTABLE! Thankfully, we have a back-up Santa and we went to visit him right away. I'll post pictures later, but I'm so grumpy...it TEMPORARILY messed with my Christmas spirit. Not necessarily that we couldn't get a picture with the mall santa, which Riley probably would have been terrified of anyway, but that they can turn away kids before the holiday. How will Santa know what they want for Christmas??? Thanks Mom and Dad for restoring my spirit:) And for the Fudge;)

Trying to lay off...

Ok, for those of you who subscribed to my blog and are thinking, oh great, now I'm going to get a daily update on what the Schuster's are up to, what was I thinking...I decided I post too much, so I'm going to try to stick to a Monday schedule of posting unless something SUPER exciting happens and I just HAVE to tell you about it:) Thanks to all of you who read and responded to my "Thinking Green" post. I'm going to check the Cub by our house and see if they recycle bags...that seems to be the most likely place to start!

Welcome Home Popp!!

Ok, I have been a little preoccupied with baby and have neglected a very important post. WELCOME HOME MATT POPP!!!! A very good friend of ours is home on leave for the month and I am soooo happy to see him. He is stationed in Japan, but spent 4 months in Iraq and has hardwear to prove he was under enemy fire while there. Not to mention the VERY scary looking bugs in the pictures he showed us. I won't stop worrying until he's back in the USA for good...which may not be for a while! Anyway, Happy Holidays and we have him home to celebrate!

Adrienne Report

Baby Adrienne (I checked and that is the correct spelling) and her mommy and daddy are doing great! The Tredinnicks came up from Wisconsin just in time to meet her with the rest of us yesterday, including Grandma T. They have been busy with visitors all day today and enjoy showing off the little one! Linda, if you are reading this to your friends at the nurses station, please tell them that Meg and Chris have thought very highly of all the nurses and doctors that they have had and especially appreciated the turkey sandwiches after hours last night! Thanks for spoiling them! As promised, I will let Meg and Chris post pictures before I post more (that's my job tomorrow is to teach Meg how to post pictures when they get home, check their site tomorrow night). She has changed so much in just a day it's amazing! She had a bath last night and her hair looks so much different and her head isn't as cone shaped...She passed her hearing test today too:) The happy family will be much happier tomorrow when they get to sleep in their own beds, or at least when they can TRY to sleep. "A" has her days and nights a little mixed up! Ok, enough from me. Good night, and sleep well, those of you who can!!!

SHE'S HERE! Adrienne Kelley Tredinnick!

Ok, I'm sorry I'm so late in updating, but we have been at the hospital all day and I don't have access to laptop or wi-fi so here it is. Adrienne Kelley (I'm pretty sure of the spelling, but check Meg's site in a few days) was born at 7:01 p.m. today, Dec. 14th. She is BEAUTIFUL and has the sweetest quiet cry. She was 7 lbs. 12 oz. (A little bigger than Roo and smaller than Zack, I think). I will let Meg post more pics, but here is one close up and one family picture to keep y'all happy:) Mom and baby are doing well, Dad is so wound up I think he won't sleep for days!! He did great coaching and watching the monitors! I'm sure Meg is ok with visitors, but call her or call me if you want to check. What did I forget?

WE KNEW IT!

Ok, so I called Meg to see if she was going to work this morning and said "Riley wants to know if her cousin can come out and play today." Instead of saying she was on her way to work she said, "Tell Riley I think she can play this afternoon..." She's feeling contractions and just waiting for them to be close enough together to go to the hospital...YEAH!!!! I'm not sure if  should be posting this early, but I'm so excited and she did tell people to check my blog for news:)

13 Days or less

Ok, here's the Meg update. She is on a weekly doctor appointment schedule since last week. For those of you who understand this kind of terminology, last week she was dialated to 1 and 0% effaced and baby was considered "high" up in position. This week she is dialated to 2 and 70% effaced. Her doc told her he was on call this weekend if she wanted to come see him then. So it's coming SOON!!! Or I should say SHE is coming soon:) Stay tuned, I promise more pictures when she arrives, I know I am copy heavy again... 

Testing a new trick

Does this work http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHye5pl3Plo

Someone test this for me

Ok, I do believe that i have this site set up now so that you can subscribe to get e-mail updates when I post updates. On the right hand side of this page there is a box that says subscribe. You sign up there and you will get daily updates if I post. So if I post 3 times in 1 day, you'll just get 1 e-mail, I think. Test it out for me and tell me if it works!

Still waiting for baby

Ok, so Meg is getting VERY ready for this little person to join us. But sadly, she is still at work today, so no news to report. Now everyone is telling her...don't go on this day because I have my party with these people, can't do that day, it's my office party...meanwhile, I'm saying, do it on Saturday so I can skip work to see the baby:) J/K I do have my office party that day;) But don't go on Friday, Meg cuz that's when we're makin' food for you so you don't have to cook...I always loved when people tried to schedule baby when I was pregnant. Meg says Chris has an office pool and he was asking her what day to pick...like she has some kind of inside scoop:) Oh well...more later.

Thinking Green

Ok, here's what got me thinking green. I have 1 million plastic bags in my house and I was wondering if anyone knows where they still recycle plastic bags. Then I got my city newsletter in the mail today and it has holiday helpful tips for being more eco-friendly, so I'll share some of my faves here the complete list is at www.co.hennepin.mn.us :
• LED lights: They not only save you energy, but they are cool so they won't start your tree on fire. (I'm going to buy these after Christmas for the tree next year! I might even give up my bubble lights?)
• Send e-greeting (I might post my holiday greetings on the blog next year, except for people who don't have internet)
• Wrap in reuseable gift bags or comics.
• Update your mailing list make sure addresses are current. ( I assume that's because to resend you have to use another envelope, more paper, more resources, etc.)
• Instead of bows, decorate the top of the package with part of the gift: cookie cutters, hair bows, etc.
• Re-use gift packaging for kid's craft projects
• Recycle your tree
• If you can't return an unwanted gift, donate to charity, donate unused canned goods, etc. to food shelf.
~Back to the original question. Does anyone know where to recycle plastic bags?

16 days and no news...

Meg is still round, so nothing to report with baby. Everyone in our house has a cold so we're staying in for a few days and hopefully we will be all better when this baby comes. I do NOT want to be sick so I can't hold my little niece!!!

Tracking Tredinnicks their site....http://tredspot.blogspot.com/

Ok, now you can track Meg's baby progress on her very own blog. There is a link on the sidebar to their site or cut and paste above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHye5pI3PIo

Ok, again this is not the most efficient way of doing things, but copy and past to see the video of Roo saying Hockey. Cousin Dan, how do you post YouTube stuff on your blog?

No news...

Ok, so far Meg is not in labor, so maybe it was just the start of nothing before, but we still think she will be early. Like I said, there have been some signs but as anyone who has ever been pregnant before will tell you, "It's different for everyone..."Which is the answer the doctors will give you about EVERY question you have from "What do contractions feel like" to "How does an epidural feel"... It gets old...oops, that's me venting about things long gone by:) I'll keep you posted, but nothing immediate to report.

18 Days +/-

Ok, no news again this morning. I have to work most of the day and then we're going out looking at a few houses. No, we're not planning on moving, it's kinda recreational house shopping. We're looking in Hanover where some good friends of ours moved. They want us to be neighbors, so Jenny had sent us some houses to look at and we're going to peek at 3 of them. Nothing serious, I add, because in this market, how would we sell our house fast enough??? Anyway, if our plans change due to Meg's baby plans, I'll post later. Otherwise, more when I know anything.

Oh, the big news around our house is that Riley can now say "hockey". There is video of this wonderful occasion and as soon as we figure out how to post video, you can view this for yourself! In the meantime, here's a pic of Riley at the nursing home in awe of the Christmas tree...she loves lights! Not sure why this comes in sideways, because on my computer when I open it, it's not, so turn to the side until I figure out this craziness!

Baby Watch - 19 Days?

I don't think it's going to be 19 days. I think it might be within the week. I'll keep you posted.

Baby Countdown - 20 Days?

Ok, so my sister is due Dec. 26th. So starting today, it's 20 days to baby, but her doctor told her yesterday she could go anytime in the next week or two. Katie and I were both early, so we assume this baby will be here before Christmas. Check back for updates and pics as soon as the baby is here. For those who don't know, it should be a girl. Now, my nephew Zack was supposed to be a girl too, but this person who did Meg's ultrasound said she hasn't been wrong in 9 years. We'll see!

The picture here is Riley's feet at like 5 or 6 months old...

Who's out there?

Ok, now that this thing is up and running, I'm curious who's out there? I've gotten some comments, but those are from people I expected to hear from. Who else is out there? Anyone? Send me a comment or e-mail me so I know I'm not writing this for 5 people. I'll probably still write for those 5 people, but then maybe we can tell secrets about the other people:)

P.S. Stay off  the roads today, YUCK! Riley and I went to visit a friend and her new baby (Hi Jenny and Eli, if you're reading this!) in St. Paul...slow moving! But it was Riley's first trip out of the house since she was sick. She has been pulling at her jacket and saying "bye-bye" for 3 days!

More photos

Ok, and here's just a cute one of Roo...She thinks she's French, I think?

Ok, this is getting to copy heavy and not enough photos. Here's some pics from a recent party with some of our friends. We were meeting the new girls that Tom and Bean are dating. They met  them at Chris and Meg Nettleton's wedding. Very nice girls, fun party!

Trying to Help

Ok, I'm testing this thing here. My friend Dan (not cousin Dan) suggested from the start that I try feedburner.com to get people set up to have e-mails sent to them when I update. Now, supposedly, I have done that, so I'll see if it works. There is a "tutorial" on the web site if you want to try it out. I guess this is the site that is affiliated with Google and Blogger so I went with that one. Help? I'm a techie illiterate! Otherwise, check comments made by my cousin Dan to the entry labled "How to know if I've updated." Dan has some other options. This is the blind leading the blind, I'm sorry!

Riley update

Oh, and for those of you wanting to know how Miss Roo is doing. She's feeling better today. She made it all day yesterday without being sick and even ate some food. We'll try her on some solids today and see how that goes. I don't want to go too fast because last time that kinda backfired! She's napping now, but doing well...She was up at 6:30 this morning and we tried to get her to come back to bed with us, but it was more toe tickling and laughing, so we gave up and played tickle monster instead:)

How to know if I have updated...

Some people have asked me if there is a way to know that I have updated my site without having to go to the site everyday to check. I asked my blog-savvy cousin and he recommends using Google Reader. You sign in and there is a place to subscribe to your friends' blog sites and you will get a message when they update.  You can subscribe as many sites as you want. To add mine, all you have to type in is moschumadness and click subscribe. I don't think you get an e-mail, but I made it my home page so when I open internet or hit "home" it shows me if I have new messages to check on people's blogs. I hope that helps. Let me know if y'all have any problems. If anyone out there knows how to get a message e-mailed to you, that would be great! Post it in the comments so people can see it.

Ok, so I'm a dork too....http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1120092760

Check this out!  Copy and paste the link above.

Fun Night, Let me Tell ya...

Ok, so I guess I was a little wrong when I said Riley was feeling better, or maybe she was and I got too excited and fed her solid food too fast, who knows. But last night was a fun one! Riley went through 4 pairs of pajamas and 2 sets of sheets and Josh and I both had a change of jammies too...She was sick 4 times in the night from 2 a.m. to about 4:30 a.m. I should be napping now, but I'm waiting to hear back from the doctor's office. They claim it's not from the flu shot, but I'm not buying it! Oh, and for you mom's out there, they said Pedialite is better than Gatorade because Gatorade tends to be hard on the tummy...I was using Gatorade but I was diluting it with water, so now we've switched to Pedialite...we'll see how that goes. She's sleeping now which is GREAT! My mom says you have to have a sense of humor when kiddos get sick, and I was doing well with that until 2 a.m....It's hard to watch your kid be sick...And it just reminds me how some moms have to watch their kids go through much worse. I'm so lucky to just have these bumps in the night.

Ouch, sorry for the bummer message today, I am lacking sleep!

Thanks Grandmas!!!!

I want to thank both grandmas for bringing Jello, Gatorade, and other necessities for sick baby. Riley is feeling much better and keeping food down today! Thanks for taking care of us:)

Grandpa Teach Me

Now these pics were on Thanksgiving too...sorry for going backwards, but I just downloaded pics for our Christmas card so I thought's I'd post some. This was Grandpa Mark's drumming lessons.

I like links with photos

So my cousins were over at my sister Katie's house the day after Turkey Day...well, except Dan who had to stay home sick...Here's some pics of Dan and Sharis's little guy Ryan. Isn't he a doll!?! Riley wasn't sure what to think of "baby" and Zack was thinking...Thank God another boy to play with!

More Crazy Fun

Ok, so i have a sick kiddo sleeping and I decided to do some laundry because of the pre-mentioned dirty clothes messes. Well, I forgot that I had the quilt in the laundry tub soaking from yesterday's mess, so I went to change the laundry and OOPS, the tub had overflowed! Thank God for the hole in the floor down there ( I know know it has a technical term for it, but right now, I'm just glad it's a hole in the floor!) Now I have to go bail that out! Fun times! I should be cleaning my house anyway, Daniel C. you may have created a monster. If anyone comes to my house and it's a mess, blame my cousin:)

Riley's first real bug

Today's adventure...and yesterdays too...Riley is sick. She got a flu shot on Tuesday and she's been yucky all day yesterday and this morning so far. She seems a little better today, but it's hard to know...she's still a happy kiddo, but once in a while she just gets sick...and she tickles her own feet and laughs while I'm changing the yucky diapers, so it's hard to say she doesn't feel good...no fever either, so I'm sure it's just a shot reaction, but this is really the first time she's had more than a cold. Not fun:(

Here's a pic of my sister-in-laws wedding in September. Riley was the junior flower girl...

Working out the bugs...And I don't mean ladybugs:)

Ok, Dan, is there a way to make the font size stay the same size and style as a default instead of changing it each time?

Testing my skills

I'm trying out this blog thing, here's my effort to post photos...

Call me crazy!

Ok, after much prodding by my cousin in Chicago, I've decided to give this blogging thing a go. I like being able to see pics of his little guy as he grows up and i thought this might be better than stuffing your e-mail boxes with a million pictures! I will assume most of this blogging will come from me, but Josh might have some input too...who knows!?

Any thoughts about what I need on my blog? Let's start there!