My favorite photo's of the season.

This is from our ward Christmas party. I love that they did family pictures for everyone. Too bad I already have our Christmas cards done.

These two are from my Mom's group Christmas party. We decorated cards for the troops and then Santa came and read the kids a couple of books. Leo was so excited to see Santa. Thankfully there was a few awesome Mom's with shy kids that didn't mind Leo slipping past them to get to Santa. He even asked Santa for drums, which is a good thing since Santa dropped them off early and left them in our basement since they were too big for the sleigh.

Happy Halloween! Here are the three cutest kids out that night, Spider Harris, Dragon Ethan, and Cowboy Leo. Leo did not want a costume with a mask or anything too spooky this year. So we opted for the cowboy; he loves his hat and guns and wore them for weeks on end.

And this little ham is celebrating Thanksgiving at our church. Heather planned an activity of decorating cookies like Turkeys. Leo saw Jessica with the camera and turned on the charm, he can be such a silly turkey himself when he wants. And he decorated his cookie all by himself. Having learned awesome techique from Grandma Sue while decorating his gingerbread house. (sorry no pictures that day I forgot the camera).

Happy Holidays Everyone!

The Tree is up!

I'm super excited about Christmas this year. Its the first year that Leo is aware of what is going on. He's loved all the lights and trees in the stores we took the evening last night and set up our tree. Leo helped by putting all the penguin bulbs on the tree so they are all on the bottom branches. I'm kind of a crazy parent and decide to keep Leo up late on Thanksgiving so we could hit walmart at midnight.(okay Leo decided he didn't want to go to bed so we went as a family) Can't say it was the most fun I've ever had but Leo was so cute. I had him on my shoulders trying to make our way through the crowds all off the sudden I'm hearing him sing Jingle Bells. It was the sweets thing I've ever heard. So now I'm crying as we walk through Walmart. Silly thing is I only found two things I wanted and after looking at the lines. We put it back and left. I can't wait to take Leo to see Santa this year and Christmas morning is going to be so wonderful watching the wonder in Leo's eyes. So bring on the holidays!

Christmas cards!

I bet you’re all surprised to see a new blog post from me. It’s been a while sorry about that. I friend told me about this awesome Christmas card give away for bloggers. http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/. And I thought wow, what a great motivation to update my blog and have awesome Christmas cards to share with my family and friends this year.

So here goes.................. The last few years at Christmas time I have looked for a great Christmas card to send to out. This is so important to me, because Leo was so small his first Christmas. We had so many friends and family praying for him. I wanted an easy way to share pictures of him with everyone; that didn’t take a ton of time away from me being in the NICU with him. Shutterfly has awesome cards that you can order online. http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards/t_blank. These cards are awesome you write your message inside attach the picture you want and you can even add your Christmas letter mailing list and they will mail them for you. Talk about making it super easy to stay in touch with family and friends. And the cards are super cute too. Check out this one.

Finding the perfect card to show how Leo has changed over the year has become a favorite holiday activity to me. I love the photo cards that allow you to show off more than one picture of your family. Shutterfly has hundreds to pick from. http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards/t_blanks-photo-cards/t_blank. This allows you to show family and friends all the highlights of the year. It’s so hard when you take pictures all year long to pick that one perfect picture that allows you to share your year with family and friends. Cards like this one give you the option to allow your families true personalities to shine through.

Last year on top of great Christmas cards I made photo books and calenders as gifts. It’s super easy with shutterfly. http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/t_blank I love having my calender having family pictures instead of the free one that the bank hands out with pictures of random animials or houses. And it was cool to see how much Leo has changed from Halloween last year to this year. I can’t wait to make my Christmas cards and calenders this year. I’m leaning towards this card. I love the Christmas Letter right on the front with the pictures. But with so many to choose from you will just have to wait to open your mailbox to see if it’s the one that both David and I agree on.

Thanksgiving

Here's Leo in his Thanksgiving outfit. Again this awesome shirt is from Jessica's Little Dude Duds Etsy shop. I made his silly Pilgrim pants. Stay tuned for the Feb. addition of The Schmelzer family Christmas.

Halloween

Leo and I with our silly pumpkins. He loved to shut off the lights and watch the candles send shadows of the faces cross the room. I love this smile.

Leo with his pumpkin that he decorated at Uncle Darin's on Halloween.

Leo's first Trick-or -Treating, He loved keeping up his cousins. He never learned how to say Trick or Treat but he did ask for MnM's at every house.

Here's a picture of our little Tigger, Black eye and all. Leo took a nice fall into a bookcase at Daycare right before his birthday/Halloween.

Here's Tigger at his daycare party before the fall. He wasn't amused that I wanted a picture of him with Pooh Bear.

Catching up!

Leo's Birthday Party with friends. So I finally got my pictures put on CD's so that I can add them to the blog. Sad to say but that means that I still haven't said much about Leo's Birthday. I'm that far behind. We invited a few friends over to help celebrate and the boys had a blast playing in Leo's room. We have turned Leo's swimming pool into a ball pit. What else do you do with a swimming pool during winter in Nebraska. I had trouble getting a good shot of all the boys. In the picture with Leo are Angus (a NICU friend) and Brenden(baby of Nurse Katie). Brenden didn't have time for pictures there was so many balls to toss about.

Leo's awesome Birthday outfit is made by our friend Jessica. She searched high and low to find Curious George fabric for his hat and shirt. Didn't they turn out awesome. Jessica has her own Etsy shop, I love her shirts. Right now she is selling valentine shirts. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38794314

Okay so I can't figure out how to rotate this picture but here is Leo's second birthday cake. He was so excited to see George on the cake. And we now own the movie where this scene is from. (Thank-you Gmam and Papa this movie is what I used my Christmas money for. Love you Leo)

We're Home!

Leo is healing very quickly. Yesterday he bounced back to his funny, hyper self. They hep-locked his IV and added extra tubing to his Oxygen so he could explore his room. There was no stopping him. He knocked on the door to the room until I opened it so he could see what was going on in the hallway. He then proceeded to smile, wave, say Hi and wink at everyone who passed by. My baby is such a flirt! It made me cry to see Leo being Leo again. The last few days have been pretty scary. Yet both David and I felt a great sense of calm because we knew it was only a small bump in life and Leo would be fine on the other side. Leo was so excited to be free from tubes when they took him off his oxygen that he refuse to take a nap even though he was tired. He just kept moving (maybe we shouldn't have watched Nemo "just keep swimming"). He discovered he could crawl from the couch to the little table to see out the window and watch the snow melting off the building, and that the bathrooms have a wonderful echo. If you haven't heard Leo walking around singing "Leo Leo Leo" and giggling then You can't imagine how excited and cute he was singing in the bathroom and having it echo back at him. I love his laugh. They let us go home about 4:30 yesterday. Leo was doing great at drinking on his own and even manged to eat half a bowl of Mac and Cheese. His oxygen absorption is still borderline but it doesn't fall into a dangerous Level and the Dr said that it could stay border line while he is sleeping for 2 weeks or more. We are very grateful to be home already. One of the nurses said most RSV babies stay somewhere between 5 and 10 days. I can't tell you how wonderful it was to sleep in my own bed. And my guessing Leo agrees since he went to sleep at 9:30 last night and he's still asleep now at 10:30. He woke up at 3 and 6 for a bottle but quickly went right back to sleep. His breathing sounds great and he doesn't have a temp, so I'm just letting him catch up on his sleep.

Day two in the hospital

Leo decided to start the day early by getting up with his 4 am cares. He was cranky but definitely more Leo like. We played with a dump truck and Monkey. Monkey is a seriously bad driver bouncing off of all the crib rails, then crashing and falling on his head. I know silly, but it was making Leo laugh and we both needed that. The afternoon has been a little rough. Leo really wants a nap but they turned off his oxygen to see how he does on his own. Every time he falls asleep it dips below 90 and sets off an alarm, walking him up and starting the crying fits. I feel terrible for him and have complained a couple time. They turned the alarm down but it still woke him. After fighting the alarm for close to four hours they turned his oxygen back on so he could sleep guaranteeing us another night in the hospital. He's been asleep for about an hour now. His breathing is so much better today and he hasn't had a temp so he is showing some great improvements. Hoping after a nap he will eat and we can wean him tomorrow from the oxygen and then go home.

RSV SUCKS!

So I'll start off apologizing for not updating sooner. I keep thinking that I'll get the pictures on the camera put on a CD so I can upload some great shots of our Christmas fun. I also have a video of Leo running around doing his impression of Kevin from "Home Alone" but the clip is 6 seconds too long for me to upload anywhere to shorten it. And I've just been busy. But Leo is taking us on a roller coaster ride again and I wanted to let our friends and family know. Leo could use some prayers right now. Friday he started coughing....... Saturday he spiked a fever. At midnight he was panting like a puppy and hot, really really hot. David and I decided it was time to see a Dr so off to the ER we flew. The ER was super busy but we got great care for Leo. Poor kid had to have a nasal aspiration, blood work, and they checked for a UTI. He then had an X-ray. Funny the x-ray techs remember Leo and couldn't get over how big he's gotten. He was diagnosed with RSV and an ear infection. He got a breathing treatment and the sent us home with a nebulizer and antibiotics. Sunday we thought he was feeling a little better during the day but it was a really rough night. Leo threw up both doses of his antibiotic yesterday and got sick a couple of more time. He won't eat and was barely drinking. He didn't fall asleep until 4am. At 7am he was burning up again. When we tried to give him Motrin he gagged and dry heaved for a full 5 min. So I quickly dressed and brought Leo back to the ER. Poor David had to go to work, too many snow days lately. When we got to the ER they started Leo's IV almost immediately, I knew then that we where headed upstairs. His breathing was super rapid again and his temp was 103. They gave him another breathing treatment and some IV antibiotics and then moved us upstairs. Where his Respiratory therapist is another familiar face from the NICU. Leo has been really fussy and cuddly all day. He finally settled in around 4 and has been asleep for three hours now. Dr M stopped by and said Leo can go home when he starts drinking and breathing on his own, could be a day, could be a week. RSV just has to run its course there really isn't a treatment for it. You just treat the symptoms. The antibiotics are for the ear infection. I had high hopes that the new tubes would help us avoid those but guess I was wrong. I end this post by saying Merry Christmas and Happy New Year since I haven't done that yet.