Curly Sue... I mean... Curly Madison

Madison has to have her hair curled for every competition. She gets so tired of me needing to curl it every Saturday not to mention that I have to get her up at least by 6:30 to have it curled. So we decided to try sponge rollers and see how they worked on her hair. That is what a lot of the mom's use at the gym. I thought that her hair was to short to use them, but as you will be able to tell by the pictures... it isn't.

Here is Madison this morning before I took her curlers out.
Can you tell that she just woke up?

Front View

Side View

Other side view

Here she is... Mrs. America

She looks so cute!!
Her hair was much shorter

Look how curly it was

Back view of the curls

I am glad we tried this. This is how we are going to do it every Friday night. That way I get put makeup on her and put her hair in piggy tails and off we go!!

Madison's Pirate Party

Madison had a pink pirate party for her birthday party with her friends. She calls her real birthday her "fake birthday" and her she calls her party with her friends her "real birthday".

Unfortunately I was super busy with the party that I didn't get very many pictures. She had a lot of people there. She had 25 kids and at least 40 adults. You could tell she was having a ton of fun. She had a smile on her face the whole time and was running around having a blast. We had her party at Papa's Pizza.

Here are some of the pictures I was able to get.

Here was the star of the party.
Pirate Madison

Here are the decorations that were on the table

Here is the sign that I had made for the party. It matches all of the decorations! :)

Here is the cake table and party box table. If you don't know I am kind of a freak when it comes to decorating and parties so it killed me that these had to be on the same table. I usually have a cake table and a present table and the party boxes usually go on the present table. oh well... It was still cute. The girls got purses to match the theme and the boys got treasure chests.

Here is another picture of the decorations with some of Madison's guests.

Here was the pop table with all of the labels.

Here is the close up of the labels.
They match the theme. :)

Here is Madison's pirate cake


Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Madison
Happy Birthday to you

Madison blowing out her candles

Here is the pinata.

Usually I buy pull string pinata's which I thought this was. It wasn't. :( It was a real pinata. How could we use a bat and break a pinata at Papa's Pizza?... We couldn't. So Madison's strong Daddy broke it in half and dumped out the candy!!

Kids getting candy.

More kids getting candy.

Madison opening her presents

Madison opening her chair that she can color.

I am trying to organize all of the presents. Let's just say- that was a job.
Here friends were very generous

Thanks to everyone that came to her party.
Everyone helped make it such a special day for her that she will remember forever.

Happy 5th Birthday Madison!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl. I can't believe that she is 5 years old today. We have been privileged to raise her for 5 years and can't wait for many years to come. She is such a joy to have in our lives.

Here are some pictures of her when she was a baby

Here are pictures of her at her 1st Birthday Party

Here are some pictures from her tonight at Red Robin
on her 5th Birthday

Madison hugging Red Robin

Madison while they were singing to her. She got that hat at preschool today

Happy 5th Birthday Madison

I decorate their doors on their birthday's so when they wake up they are all decorated. They love it and look forward to it every year. Here is Madison's door and then her standing by it.

The sign that I made for Madison's door.

Her door all decorated.

Close up of Madison before she went to school. She still has wet hair. :)

The "birthday" girl standing by her door.

Eric came home today and the kids didn't know. He surprised them and they loved it.
I am so glad that my baby girl had a great birthday. We love you so much Madison.

Happy 5th Birthday!!

Firsts for Shane and Madison

This was an exciting weekend for Shane and Madison!!

Madison has been practicing her cheer leading since June and she had her first competition this weekend. All of her practices were finally worth it. It was so fun to see her Tiny squad get so excited for their first competition. They won 1st place this weekend. Unfortunately, Madison missed the awards ceremony because since I am a single mom now since Eric is in Arizona we had to leave the competition early to take Shane to his first basketball game(which I will talk about in a second).

Here is Madison in her competition!!

(I can't get this video to load so Eric will have to help me when he gets home)

Here are some pics of her competition:

Emerald All-star Tiny Team

My little poser...

My sweet girl. She is so pretty!!

She has a competition every weekend until April. We have to go to Portland, Salem and Tacoma. Can you believe that we have to drive 5.5 hours to a cheer leading competition? I can't but I will do if for my sweet girl.

Shane just started basketball. He loves it. He keeps asking me to get him a basketball hoop, but since we are moving soon I told him that we needed to wait until we moved. So he says that he will be better next year when he can practice more. He is the tallest boy on his team by almost a head. The coach says that he is building the plays around Shane. That puts a lot of pressure on the little guy. The first game was a little crazy. Shane shot at the wrong basket, but didn't make it. Thanks goodness... He also took of dribbling the wrong way. That isn't too bad for his first time playing basketball. He also got the majority of the rebounds. He is now really good at stopping after her rebounds the ball and passing it to the point guard. It didn't work out to well when he dribbled. He is like his mommy in that sense. I always got the rebounds and then passed them to the point guard. When you have as big of feet as Shane and I it is a better idea just to pass the ball. A few times he was running down the court so fast that his long legs got away from him and he would just fall. I think that will happen for a while until he grows into his body which might take a while. He is so fun to watch. Since I played basketball it is really fun to see my kid playing. I am the loudest mom out there cheering for Shane and telling him what to do. It makes me think of my dad at my games. ;) Shane scored a basket with more to come...

They have the kids read the rules at the YMCA Basketball games which I was not aware of. I had to take Madison to the bathroom and when I got back I saw Shane reading with the referee with everyone watching him. I automatically grabbed the camera and started filming him. My father in law told me that the referee gave Shane the piece of paper to read and Shane said I can't read all of that. She said read what you can and I will help you with the rest. I am so proud of him for doing that. He is only in the first grade and I thought that was very brave. Look at the smile on his face when he finished. He was so proud and I was so proud of him!!!!

Shane reading the rules...

It is amazing seeing how much taller he is than the rest of his team.

Shane after his first game

Shane and Grandpa Alan after his game.

I am so proud of both of them for trying new things and being brave even though there Daddy wasn't able to make it. They also missed Grandma and Grandpa Warren, but that is why I taped it!! So they both could see them.

Communication with Eric in Arizona

Eric has been away from us since January 1st. It has been 10 days. It is really hard for the kids having their daddy away that long. Tonight they were able to talk to him and see him on the computer. They talked to him for about a half of an hour. Shane did his homework while he was on there. He read daddy his books. It was so cute to see how excited they were to see him...
Hopefully we can do that every night.

Shane trying to figure out how to read to Eric on the computer

Shane showing Eric the book while he was reading

That got too hard so Shane just read it normal while Eric and Madison listened.

The kids were so glad to see Eric and by the smile on Eric's face he was glad to see them!!

One important thing I forgot to post from 2009, but won't forget

Here is our family picture from August 2008

Here is our family Picture from August 2009


Here is a Eric and I in August 2008



Here is Eric and I in August 2009


Ok... So what is the big difference between 2008 and 2009??
Our weight...

Eric and I worked really hard in 2009 to lose weight. We started by working out and then we decided that we wanted to start running. I don't know where that came from since I have hated running my whole life. Eric ran cross country in high school, but hadn't run since then. Not only did we starting to run, but we decided to run a half marathon. There is a lot of training that it takes to run a half marathon. We were doing a long run every weekend from January until April. The half marathon was in May. We ran it and did very well for our first one. It was great for Eric and I to be able to spend time together. Eric lost 40 pounds and I lost 50 pounds. The best part about it is that we have kept it off and are in the process of losing more.

Happy New Year- 2010

Hello Again...

My New Years Resolution is to keep my blog updated. I debated weather to go back and fill you in on what the Schwake's have been up to for the last 7 months, but I just thought it would be easier to start fresh.

As many of you know from my Christmas letter we are moving to Arizona. January 1st Eric filled his truck and started the move to AZ. The kids and I are going to be in Eugene until Shane gets out of first grade in June. These 6 months will be long and hard, but we will be able to handle it. We are excited for what this move will bring us. More to come on that...

Eric and the kids on New Years Eve.

As many of you know we have a chocolate lab named McKenzie. Needless to say she is a love, but a handful. I found this wonderful lady who trains dogs. She keeps them at her house for a month and trains them for you and then she teaches you what the commands are. McKenzie is leaving for her house today. As Shane says "This will be sad, we are losing a member of our family." I assured Shane that she is coming back and she will be a better dog because of it.

McKenzie with her Christmas Candy Cane.

What else... Shane starts basketball on Wednesday. He is so excited. He has already had 1 practice before the break and is excited to start basketball again. Madison gets back into cheer leading on Monday. They took an extended break over the holidays. She has her first competition on January 16th.

Highlight from this summer:

Shane played Pop Warner football and loved it. He sure learned a lot and is excited for next year. Go Sheldon Eagles!! He is number 6 and the back of his jersey said SCHWAKE (that way you can find him in some of the pictures better).

Shane opening a wholeShane coming out of the tunnel. Can you tell he loved it, by the smile on his face?

Good defending Shane.

Shane blocking.

Close up of Shane concentrating.

What a cutie!!

Here are a few pictures from stuff that happened last year:

Shane's 1st Grade School Pics

Shane's 1st Grade School pic (Body Shot)

Madison's Preschool Picture

Madison's Preschool Picture (body shot)

The H1N1 hit our house. Eric and Shane had it. :(

Madison and Alia (cousin) at the pumpkin patch

Our very own Clone trooper and Hannah Montana

My sweet girl...

What beautiful and loving kids.

Madison at cheerleading

Madison before her school performance. She did so good. She had a solo.

She loved her sparkly tights.

Madison and Eric hanging an ornament

Shane and Madison decorating the tree.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve in their new jammies.

Look for more updates on a weekly basis.... Looking forward to a great 2010.