We wanted to make sure that no one is left in the dark now as we have announced our 2nd pregnancy. I am 9 weeks along now so Schwitters baby #2 is due to arrive September 6, 2008! We are happy to be close behind Matt and April as well as Mitch’s twin brother and his wife over here with their pregnancy. There will be playmates for our kids everywhere!
I have enjoyed reading about some of your Easter holidays and hope the rest had a good time too. We were fortunate enough to be graced with the lovely presence of my Mom and Dad for 10 WHOLE days! It was exciting to see them again, we counted down the days til’ they could come. We picked them up at the airport in Minneapolis and headed to the Mall of America to check it out and eat at Famous Dave’s. We also took in a bit of the Elvis impersonation show going on in the center of the mall and Mom broke out some knee swingin’ which drew some attention, it was quite a show! Ha ha! Mollie was melting completely down from the no-nap situation so we opted not to see the Science Museum! Dang. I never laughed so hard those 10 days. We had fun - even not doing much. Grandpa and Grandma were constant entertainers for Miss Mollie, singing crazy songs, playing games with her, making weird noises and faces and reading stories. For days after they left, Mollie looked all around and then at me like “Where’s my FUN parade?” Mom and Dad got to experience the big Schwitters family Easter and then we spent Easter Sunday at the lake house with Mitch’s immediate family. We also got to have a date night just the 4 of us and saw “Blades of Glory,” what a riot! We had a birthday dinner for Mitch’s 27th birthday and also went to St. Cloud for some good shopping and dinner. I have some good pics to follow! We had some snow and ice bombard us for a few days so that was a slight damper but we STILL HAD FUN! We just watched a lot of movies.
Picking up Grandpa & Grandma! Woo hoo!
MItch’s 27th birthday at Applebee’s restaurant…
Dinner at the Olive Garden, we spotted something odd: “Clare, don’t move, there be a wee leprachaun on yer shoulder!!”
Yum, calamari!
Visiting the puppies 
and playing with cousin Kaley
Me and Dad 
Mom and Mollie saying goodbye
Mom got a nice slobbery kiss! 
We can’t wait to see them again SOON hopefully! Thanks for coming Mom and Dad!
In other news…I was an illegal alien for a few months as my Resident card expired in November but I was unaware of it until our insurance guy noticed it. I could NOT believe I didn’t see THAT. I thought the INS people told me they would mail me further application information when I would be eligible for dual citizenship. So I did not realize I was an ILLEGAL ALIEN! Ah! I had dreams of Homeland Security SWAT teams taking me down in the middle of the night, and actually thought it wouldn’t be SO bad to come back home for awhile. 
But, yesterday I received a letter of approval to my renewal application. We were quite scared for awhile because my lawyer said they could easily strip my status and take me to immigration court! EW. So we are thankful it looks like I will just need some fingerprints and I’ll be staying. I also just wanted to thank everyone who was praying for our nephew Trent who is battling Leukemia and came down with chicken pox awhile ago. He had a rough time and doctors were nervous but God pulled him right out of it and he is running around again, a healthy little boy. He is in his last year for leukemia treatment too so that is exciting. Thanks for being prayer warriors guys! I will put some recent Mollie pics up on our photos page again. BYE!
Love,
Laura, Mitch & Mollie
I wanted to post a picture of Clint and Jenny’s little additions as their 2 Vizsla’s had NINE puppies! They actually brought them all into a studio to have pictures taken with their baby, Kaley this week, I can’t wait to see them!! Here is the pic from the day after they were born. 
On a different note, we had Mollie’s 6 month pics taken on Feb.10 (I can’t believe she will be 7 months soon!) and it was a really jolly time as we had to wait for quite some time at the studio and Mollie got tired and red-eyed, and the poor photographers were using all the energy they had to get the child to crack a smile. She was ready to crash but we got a few cute ones anyway!
Oh, and Mollie is now able to sit by herself!! YAY! I still keep my hands by her though because she gets unbalanced now and then. We have really been getting snowed in this week and there is more coming! Mitch is so sore from snowblowing and scooping all of our properties he wants to puke I think. But we have been renting the series 24 and enjoying watching that!
Oh, 2 weekends ago all the Schwitters went to stay at a hotel/waterpark in the Twin Cities. We do this every year for a getaway mostly for the kids. We slapped a little suit on Mollie and took her to the kiddie part of the waterpark which she was completely suspicious of the whole time. It certainly did NOT help that we took her to the top of the park under the water bucket which dumped on us pretty hard and Mollie freaked. It was funny though, she was very brave and recovered quickly! I will leave you with some pics.
The Bucket
Mollie with oldest cousin Mandy
The pinata for the kids! We were concerned for Dale’s “safety.” But he was a great pinata holder.
Mitch kickin’ back with some brew.
Well, that’s pretty much all for now. Things are going pretty good all in all, just keep pressing on! We were forced to evict a nasty renter in this horrible weather who has given us quite a time since Mollie’s birth. Mitch and Clint went to the house 45 min away and put all his things in the garage. This guy would literally not move out even after we won the court case and he was ordered out. It is really unbelievable how the system favors people like this and makes it very very difficult and expensive for good landlords like Mitch, Clint and Wayne.
We could use some prayer for our nephew, Trent, who was diagnosed with Leukemia about 2 years ago. He is 6 years old now but was sent to the hospital this week as he caught chicken pox and with all the treatments he is on anything he catches can lead to something fatal, even a bad cold. They were worried he would get pneumonia. He was in bad shape and needed ice packs and cold cloths on him all night. God has been so great though and he has been doing much better so far that we have heard. It is a scary situation for the family and they have to protect him a lot. Pray his little body can beat the leukemia for good!
Bye everyone, there are more Mollie pics on our photos page, check it out!!
Here we are in good ol’ Willmar, MN again catching up on lots of things we put off for our spectacular Christmas in Ontario! It felt like high gear the whole time trying to enjoy everything and everyone so it went light speed fast. One of the highlights was seeing Beppe again even though her worsened state unsettled my emotions, it was a gift to watch her sing praises to God. How awesome.
Despite that 2 weeks felt like 2 days, somehow I have like 350 pictures on the camera!! Go figure. I would love to share some of our faves:
At Minneapolis airport ready to go!!
On the plane Mollie did awesome, she was even patient with the layover in Toronto, delays, and running like chickens every which way!! On the plane home she had a small meltdown or 2 but we made just fine.
We received the WARMEST welcome with a big sign and festive hats…I think our family was the talk of the airport!
Reunited at last with Grandma (or Oma? we call her Groma)
The Christmas dress from Gropa & Groma
Dad went 90% but… 
Oooh, dissed in church!
Fun with gift opening: 
Going to see the VanderVeens! Woohoo! Unfortunately this outing was cut short because of a piece of luggage containing valuable things including all our money, our baby book, MP3 player, photo chip, and passports which was not stowed with the stroller on the plane and went missing. They said they found it and delivered it the day of the VanderVeen get together. Nice timing. But thank goodness it was found!!! Thanks to Mom who laid down the law with management!
Shopping girls
Mollie attacked Aunt Aprils chin repeatedly.
Hanging out with Uncle Matt & Aunt April
Mollie got some quality time with her unlces: 
Then we had a Murder Mystery fondue dinner on New Year’s Eve which we had never done before and it was so fun! Everyone did great on their character and I was the killer:
2007 is here! 
We went to some good restaurants like The Works build a burger joint, yummmy.
Kris posed in his dolphin PJ’s but he claims “They’re Killer Whales!”
Mollie says her goodbyes and we head for Peterborough 
Grandpa Time! 
And Grandma time too!
I needed them too 
Mollie had her first rice cereal there 
She also caught a nasty cold and I got a nasty picture: 
We walked to a restaurant in Toronto and then we hit the pool and hot tub which was a first for Mollie too: 
Mom and Dad were in hysterics when….
Dad lent Mitch his swim shorts and they were snug to say the least! 
And that is our lovely Christmas story, hope everyone had a good one too! Happy 2007! We miss everyone back home!!
Hey everyone! I am posting a picture of the Schwitters clan. We had a delightful turkey day, and actually we had 5 turkey dinners throughout the past week and a half. No pun intended here but we’re STUFFED. There are more new pictures on our photos page so check those out to when you get a chance.
Yesterday, Mollie rolled onto her side for the first time! It was only for 5 seconds but I hope to see her repeat that soon! I am in a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group that meets twice a month to get away, have some brunch and talk about different topics. It’s pretty interesting but there is a catch…you are put on a rotation schedule to babysit the leaders kids while they meet for 2 hrs. Yesterday was my turn and when I entered the room I was face to face with 22 kids age 5 and under screaming and running and banging things relentlessly!!! That’s not the bad part, there were only 3 of us to care for them, that is until a fourth lady came halfway through. It was nutso. Luckily Mollie got sleepy and I had the excuse to go find a quiet room to lay her down. (YES!) Oh well, I made it through, I am a weenie when it comes to that stuff, sheesh. Anyway, Mitch is busy working on a house on the SE side of town. He is painting it today so he has made great progress. Unfortunately, he had to file a police report this week as someone came and threw rocks through almost every window on the house, breaking even the ones Mitch had just replaced! That was really a bummer. We are really looking forward to getting done with and hopefully selling this property, it will really look sweet when it is finished, lots of character. Well, that’s pretty much all for now. Oh ya, and we have officially crossed over to minivan travel!!!! What could be next for us? Stay tuned…
In the top row at the left is Mitch’s twin, Clint and his wife Jenny and their baby girl, then his older sister, Stacey and her husband Dale and their 3 boys, then Mitch’s older brother Chad, his wife Sheila and their 3 kids, and at the right is his oldest sister Cindy, her husband Scott and their 4 kidlets. In the front row on the left is Mitch’s older sister, Kim her husband, Steve and their 3 little ones. Mitch’s parents are in the middle.
I would like to draw attention to a new photos we put in our photos page at the bottom involving the good hearty genes Mollie has inherited, it’s really quite interesting! It may be worth a peek.
Hello family~
Mitch and I just wanted to say how much we appreciate this blog, especially being way the heck out here in MN. It is sooo fantastic to see pictures and here recent updates from everyone, it makes me feel much closer to home. I struggle with missing home constantly so coming for 2 weeks for Christmas is long overdue, needless to say. We haven’t had any snow dumps yet like those out west (ALLELUIA!!!) But it has gotten cold enough that our old Chrysler “Bessy”’s flaws are starting to really shake and rattle - the starter being one of them. If we replace that and maybe our weird door that doesn’t close right we can go another 215,000 miles!! Woohooo! Too bad the air conditioning which used to pump out teeny ice chunks when we were dating now only gives a foul smoky odor when we try to coax it out. We are just kind of waiting for Bessy to FINALLY bite the dust before we think of purchasing a …minivan??
Watching your own baby grow is really something! Last night Mollie stared wide-eyed at her tight fists just concentrating so hard like she knew there had to be more to these things than just sucking. When I put her Pooh rattle by her she awkwardly opened her fingers a bit and slowwwly closed in on it with her hands. She needs to work on the holding thing though as she quickly lets go as soon as she grabs it. She is funny to watch! This morning was a rush to get to church on time for our class. We were about to be just five minutes late when Mitch thought he smelled something, checked Mollie’s diaper and cried out “HELP!” That is never a good sign. The explosion ended up getting on her super-stylin’ coverall dress and we had to change everything. So we were a tiny bit late, thank goodness church is very forgiving.
Well, wish us no cavities at the dentist tomorrow! Hope everyone has a delicious Thanksgiv……OH wait a sec…..ya, you already had that. Oh, no more pumpkin pie or turkey or stuffing for you?? Oh, sorry, that’s the pits. Oh well, we will share the Christmas goodies together eh? See.. I keep the “eh” alive still. Love you guys, til’ next time!
Laura, Mitch, and Mollie
How sad that the trees are all bare! Now it’s just a waiting game for that nasty old frost to set in. But Christmas cheer is around the corner and before we know it another year will be gone! All these kids and babies are growing SO FAST.
We went to a Halloween party on Saturday and have some new pics posted on our Photos page…I am still working out the mess I made of the page! Mollie had tons o’ fun watching all these dressed up kids carve pumpkins and then the shed filled with all kinds of people ready to eat. Now she is on the floor cooing away. She is starting to suck her hands and is starting to enjoy listening to a short story. She LOVES being talked to and stil loves watching her Pooh mobile. But she still has issues with the swing and pouts her lip and whimpers as she stares hard at the Tigger and Rabbit I tied to it for her to look at. She is a funny girl, she is always making us laugh. Hope everyone has a spooky Halloween, we’ll write more later!
