Schaefer Family Adventures: March 2019

March certainly flew by for me. It was filled with visit from grandparents and travels to New Mexico! And lots and lots of laundry. It’s amazing how much laundry two little people can make!

Growing up, March was always my favorite month. Probably because it’s my birthday month. Actually, most likely because of my birthday. Other than that, March is a pretty boring month. It’s usually cold, damp and gray, not really winter and not really spring. Even those monthly calendars in our classroom growing up depicted March with windy, gray clouds. No pretty flowers like May or colorful leaves like October. But even though it’s thought of as the gray, boring month, I still love it. There’s the anticipation of the coming spring. The weather at the end of March tends to get warmer, though you still could have a huge snowstorm. So it goes in Steubenville, Ohio! You never know what weather tomorrow will bring!

We began this month with a visit from my mother and two of my younger siblings. They were here for a long weekend to help me while Matthew was in Minnesota visiting friends and family. I love watching my mother play with my kids. There’s nothing like seeing your own mother become a grandmother. All the amazing times and memories I have with her are being relived in a new and beautiful way with my children. We baked cookies, read stories, danced to music and just spent quality time together. It was a great weekend and I didn’t want it to end. I never want my mom to leave. My house is always happier and cleaner when she’s here. We are currently trying to convince them to move here!

Midway through the month we went to New Mexico on a mission trip. I wrote a separate blog post on it that you can find HERE. One evening we went up on the hill behind where we were staying and we grabbed three student missionaries to help us take some family photos. One was the “Grace Holder”, one was the “John Wrangler” and the third was the “Picture Taker”. It worked out great and we got some amazing photos! I set the camera settings and talked the student through taking the photos and she did an amazing job!

The month ended with a visit from Matthew’s parents. They met Grace for the first time in person and got to go with John to his weekly Montessori class. I took some photos during that class. It’s probably the highlight of both my and John’s week. It’s 90 minutes each Thursday morning and it’s hard to put into words how amazing the classroom and teachers are. I have seen John grow in leaps and bounds since starting the toddler class and I’m continually learning how to implement montessori type works and learning into our home. I just bought these two books from Amazon and I’m excited to learn more about this incredible approach to learning. Here are the links to the books LINK and LINK.

Grace had her 3 month appointment at the doctors and she growing and developing just beautifully. She’s just now switching into 3-6 month clothes, size 2 diapers and she’s started verbalizing a TON. She’s so chatty and its adorable, even when it’s a 2am. She has so much to say! Grace loves John and thinks he’s hilarious. She definitely is more shy than John ever was and likes to stay close to her Mommy. She’s happy to smile at people she doesn’t know as long as she’s safely in my arms. John is talking more and more and he is quite the sense of humor. He loves to dance and if he’s dancing, he wants everyone to join in with him. Like, he comes and pulls you off the couch to make you dance with him. It’s adorable. Current favorites are the song “Funky Monkey” from the movie Rio and “Seize the Day” from the Newsies. He still loves to play with cars, trains and dinosaurs, sometimes all at once!

We are really looking forward to this spring and summer that will allow for more time outside and summer trips! Bring on the sunshine! Here are some of my favorite shots from this month, enjoy!

Oh look! A plane!

Taking a selfie with a DSLR…not easy!