Jackson's one year photo shoot....

we did Jackson's one year photo shoot over again,
since we are not in a cast we thought it would be fun.
we did a fall look, and it taught me to things.
1. can't plan ahead with clothes for a preemie...he is still in 6 month
clothes and some 9 months but not these jeans they would have fallen off if he was standing

2. never turn your back on your child when they are on an elevated surface, even for a second.
never the less we got some cute shots prior to the incident.

we also had to share that we took Jackson swimming for the first time and we have a fish on our hands. HE loves the water.
Hates the floaty thing...it is just two restricting. He wants to move and shake.

Momma's weekend AWAY!!!

So last week I got a call from my friend Anne from Fort Wayne...

"hi, I was calling to see if you needed a weekend away?", anne

"why what were you thinking?", nichole

"Alex and the kids are going to be gone and I am going to be home alone...i was thinking farmer's market and horse back riding and catching up. "- anne

"I am in, let me talk to Adrian and I will call you back."- Nichole

let's just say Friday at about 5 pm I was headed to fort wayne. Arrived about 7 pm. To the most delicious dinner ever. Grilled pizza dough pita style with cheese, corn, peppers and onions in side the dough then grilled on the grill...oooooohhhhh. then stuffed with grilled portebella's and chicken, tomatoes and a sour cream sauce. Can I say YUMMMMOOOOO!!!! it was delicious. we hung out on a beautiful night, looked at her amazing day lillies, and landscaping as you guys know... i am on a landscaping kick lately. SO I am interested in seeing everyones. we watched a movie and went to bed.

on saturday we woke up at 6 am, I know, I know.,...not a good thing to not sleep in with out a baby, but there were farmer's markets to make it too..we took in two and can I say one was amazing. the Bar Street Market...I would call it a food and craft market.

I got this.................

Isn't it CUTE....it is from the lizzy anne clothing company out of Fort Wayne. you are all in luck..She has an etsy shop and she makes purses and clothes. the little girl clothes were so adorable...it was a good thing that I have a boy and she doesn't. her etsy shop is www.elleshanklin.etsy.com
she is such a sweet lady too. and amazing talent. check her out.

We also got delish bread for lunch. mmmmmm...

then we went to this day lily place. I thought there were maybe like three colors of day lilys, yellow, gold and an orangish color...cuz that is pretty much what you see everywhere. this lady had at least an acre..full of day lily gardens and I have never seen so many color combos. and she sold them for 5 dollars a peice and guaruntees them. She was amazing lady that gets her happies from cross breading day lilies...she was so funny. and I got this amazing flower.

so now I have three in the front of our house and like six in the back...I just have know Idea what colors they are...since i got them from an amazing family the TOTH's...who were brace yourself....destroying a flower garden.. I know sad...but just think what the newly created landscaping will look like here at the Schrock's . I can't wait to see what will bloom in the next two years.

Back to my weekend.... later for dinner we went to a local place and had dinner with Anne's mom and then enjoyed the evening relaxing. I gotta tell you I was so excited to sleep in I was excited to go to bed.

Sunday morning:
I gotta say my BLADDER had other ideas, other than sleeping. I had to pee sooo bad at 7 am I had to get out of bed, walk down stairs and go to the bathroom...so by then I had walked past the coffee pot and I was awake. so I was up for the day. we read the newspaper...Anne did, I looked at the ads. then decided to ride horses. they have two and a new baby horse. well its been wheened. but it is still cute, or so I thought she was. then she decided I was a horse and tried to nip my shoulder. gotta say I was shaking and freaked out. Being trampled by a horse is not the way I would like to go. So after anne saved me, I got up the nerve to brush, then hop on and I rode. it was fun....scary....and out of control, for me not the horse....all at the same time. But it was cool too. Thanks Honey...I had fun. (honey's the horse, you never know if she might be reading the blog). Then we cleaned up, at some lunch, picked zuchinni out of the garden, some onions, and then headed over to Anne's mom's to get some green beans and then I headed home about 3 pm to find this:


isn't he cute. he over the last week has started...army crawling and pushing up to his arms and feet...with his cute little butt in the air. He also pulls up on your fingers to stand. it is so much more adventure in the Schrock household. Our baby is almost one...it is crazy. I had a fun weekend, but I missed my boys and I was happy to see them both. Have a great week eveyone.

I took this quiz the other day from Jewel's blog.
sometimes I think things like this have me pegged and other times I am not sure. this is one of those unsure moments.

You Are An ENFJ

The Giver You strive to maintain harmony in relationships, and usually succeed. Articulate and enthusiastic, you are good at making personal connections. Sometimes you idealize relationships too much - and end up being let down. You find the most energy and comfort in social situations ... where you shine. In love, you are very protective and supporting. However, you do need to "feel special" - and it's quite easy for you to get jealous. At work, you are a natural leader. You can help people discover their greatest potential. You would make a good writer, human resources director, or psychologist. How you see yourself: Trusting, idealistic, and expressive When other people don't get you, they see you as: Bossy, inappropriate, and loud

What's Your Personality Type?

this week has been crazy. Last weekend my parents came to visit. I couldn't believe it but it was true. THis was the first time since last November that we have seen my parents outside of the hospital. Crazy huh? It was great to have them interact and play with Jackson. They got to witness him ARMY CRAWLING. we are in the movin and shakin world. HE also started pulling up to stand. Thanks mom...I have been busy holding him up since you left. I would post pictures but blogger is being a pain. I will post them on Monday. Cuz this girl is taking a VACATION. my friend Anne called and invited me to Fort Wayne for the weekend. I took her up on it...and as much as I was excited for her to see Jackson....I decided that a weekend away would be more fun. So I am headed out here in a couple of hours. whohooo.....

so I will have lots to share when we get home.

update on Jackson....we are still throwing up once or more a day. that is the bummer. the good thing is the last time we were at the doctor we were gaining, just very slowly. I can't imagine that the puking is helping. We are still waiting for teeth...haven't gotten any yet and have been told that the increase in puking could be from that too. OH well we are in no hurry.

have a great weekend.

11 month (a year in review)

Ok everyone...you need to sit back and remember with me today all that my little guy has been through in a year. it was weird being in Indianapolis this past weekend. I realized as we were driving back to Adrian's brother's from the fireworks that it was a year ago last saturday that I ended up on Bedrest. So in a lot of ways this journey started for me then. I also don't think i have personally thanked all of my wonderful friends that came to visit me while i was stuck in the hospital. Nor do i think i have publicly stated what an amazing husband I have. So THank you everyone.

My husband spent the month of July a year ago, driving back and forth to Memorial in South Bend everyday. He would spend every night with me after work and then go home to take care of Macy, our Chocolate lab. He tried to figure out his schedule so he could work some mornings after he would stay in south bend to try and save on the driving. But regardless....I have a husband that is committed to his family. He has adjusted his schedule so much over this past year and I don't think I have given him enough credit. So HATS OFF TO MY HUSBAND...

Ok so here goes with the year in review for Jackson. (or at least the last 11 months)


So I did this layout this month for Jackson's scrapbook and it lists all of the tests and surgery's our little guy has been through in the last year. the journaling reads:

as I look back over the last 12 months I never imagined the challenges you would face in such a short time. Surgery at two days old, 5 weeks in the NICU, multiple barium studies, feeding tubes, anemia, an oxygen deprived seizure, colostogram, a four hour reconstructive surgery that turned into 12 hours, kidney function testing, 3 blood transfusions, ultrasounds (as if you didn't have enough in utero), 2 upper GI's, too many x rays to count, urodynamics and other bladder function tests, bladder infection with a 103.6 degree fever, two radioactive sinta scans, 12 different medications, synagis shots, EEG, MRI, epogen shots weekly, tethered spine release surgery, reconnection surgery, failure to thrive hospitalization, blood work all the time, hundreds of mile in a car, casting your hips, and I am sure there is a more that I am missing....
you have fought ONE big fight, that has left ONE big impression.

I tell you this lo gave me some perspective of how far God has brought our family and how much we have all grown individually and together as a family over the past year. God is good, he is a healer and it is AMAZING how much he has shown us through our beautiful little boy this year. Thank you all for walking this journey with us and we look forward to sharing with you the amazing work God has left to show us all through Jackson in the coming years.

update on Jackson

Update on Jackson We went in for his procedure at 6 am. His surgery was scheduled for 7:30am. We handed him off after many vitals, talking to docs and paperwork.

We went up to wait in the surgery waiting area, ate some breakfast, drank some coffee and by 8 am we had received the call that the doctor needed to talk to us. So we went back down to the day surgery area and spoke with the doctor. he informed us that the closed reduction did not work and this is not something that you want to force. It can cause more damage. He answered some of our questions about what happens next, is there any restrictions until the surgery and how do I go about scheduling. Then we went back to wait to be called into recovery. By 10 am after a very crabby baby went to sleep, we were discharged. Gotta say Jackson spent most of the day sleeping. He was awake for about 5 hours total out of 24 hours and when he was awake he was quite uncomfortable. HE wanted to move and couldn't. However this morning he woke up his normal self. We took a bath in the kitchen sink...see pictures and took a nap. Now it is play time with Uncle Conrad.

yesterday we went over and saw my cousins new baby. who by the way is absolutely adorable. Gotta say our children like the dark hair when they are born. He was so sweet and they are all adjusting well to the ups and downs (up all night) of parenthood.

We are not harboring ET...

Don't worry we are not harboring ET, we have not started a space program, we are not under quarantine. I promise. Although it really looks like it....
don't worry we are not under quarantine. We are remodeling are dining room, i say remodeling
because it is more than just slapping up a coat of paint. Three years ago, we stripped wallpaper off the walls and one wall had some major damage. So we spackled it and didn't smooth it out, because it looked kinda cool with the color wash. Well with the solid color it didn't look so good, so we decided to knock down most of the ridges and started by hand sanding, not so much fun. SO that brings me to my gift. Adrian bought me a power sander. (I didn't get a picture sorry) see i told you it wasn't the typical thing to get excited about. Although I really enjoyed all of your guesses. (especially you Dena). WE took turns on Sunday afternoon and then last nightAdrian finished it. I washed the walls today and we are set for priming when Jackson takes a nap today. So much for this being a quick paint job right.
The plastic above is to harness the powder that flies off the walls when you sand and let me tell you, tape doesn't hold it up. so we had to use nails, but it saved the rest of the house from looking grey like Adrian does below.
my hubby ROCKS!! HE did most of the work and was covered with dust. I will love it however it comes out, because of all the work that went into it. Stay tuned for the next pics of the finished project. Our hope is to get it done before we leave but I am thinking that it will just be primed and then the paint will happen when we get home or one coat will be up. I feel like we are living in a construction site, and this was not the plan when we went to the store last friday night. IT was going to be a weekend project. ooopppppsss!!!!!!!!!!