Ashtyn Erica Schmit was born on June 17, 2010 at 12:54 p.m. She weighed 8 lbs and 10 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. The labor and delivery went great. Grama Robin and Lindsey stayed at home with the three older kids, which was wonderful! Thank you guys so much!



Ashtyn is a very good baby and doesn't cry too often. She is a great nurser and a great sleeper. She only wakes up once in the middle of the night to eat! Her older siblings have adjusted really well to their younger sister. Brayden has gotten a little rough with her, but he is mostly a very good to her.



On June 20, 2010, my father passed away from cancer. On June 21, 2010, we started the trip to MN for the funeral. We drove through the night and got to MN on the 22nd. It was a 17 hour drive. Our pit stops were about an hour long due to feeding the baby and potty breaks. It went really well, though. The kids slept through the night. We also picked up our niece Alex before we left, who is spending the summer with her dad in TN. She was a big help with the kids at the pit stops. Thanks Alex!



All my siblings were home, which was wonderful. We rarely get everyone home at the same time. And I know we are a big reason for that because we don't make it home that often. The wake was on the 24th and the funeral was on the 25th. We started back to TN on the 28th. We didn't drive through the night this time so we didn't get home until the 29th. Again, the kids did so great on the way home.



Here are some pictures from the past month or so. Enjoy!



Just born Ashtyn Erica Schmit (named after my sister Erica)

Grama Robin with Ashtyn

Big sis Skyler with Ashtyn

Our four kids: )

Robin, Alana & Ashtyn

Going home!

Sweet new baby: )

The three older kids with the visors they made with grama.

Playing in the pool after we got home from the hospital.

We saw all kinds of animals in MN. Here is a lamb that Chris had to dive to catch. He was only a few days old.

We went to Nick and Erica's and we got to see lots of cows and calves.

L to R - Skyler, Brayden, Alana, Sophie and Katie. Sophie and Katie are Nick and Erica's girls. They were pretty proud to show our city kids around the farm.

This is Mr. Chewy. He is Sophie and Katie's favorite calf.

This is Sophie feeding the calves gummies. In simple terms, Nick feeds his calves corn. Gummies are made of corn syrup, which is a byproduct of corn. He gets the gummies from a gummy factory near by. They are the end of the line gummies that the factory will just throw away, so they sell them to farmers as feed for animals. They come in large cases or barrels and are an inexpensive energy source for the animals. Our kids thought it was pretty cool to feed gummies to cows.

Skyler feeding gummies to cows.

Grandkids having lunch. L to R - Lauryn, Alana, Sophie, Katie, Brayden, Grama, Zach & Skyler

Alana and Skyler shared a bed in MN. This is how they ended up sleeping at one point during the night.

Brayden on the rings. Poor boy grabbed on to an electric fence and couldn't let go. Chris went to pull Brayden's hand off and his hand got zapped away so he just grabbed Brayden around the waist and fell backwards, which pulled Brayden off of the fence. Needless to say, they both got the shock of a life time: (

Me rocking my two sleeping babies: )

Erica and Nick also had baby Zach two weeks prior to Ashtyn's birth. This is the only picture we got of the two of us and our new babies. Don't we look lovely?: )

Zach and Ashtyn. Love this picture: )

Stretching out while sleeping: )

Ashtyn sucking her thumb.

When we got home from MN, these were our surprises from our garden. Yum!

Checking on his baby sister.

Brayden and some toy goggles:

The girls and their new goggles and nose plugs: )

We've had all kinds of stuff going on around here since we last updated. I guess about a month ago I went to the dentist to get a broken tooth/filling fixed. The dentist said I needed a crown on the tooth, which I expected. I had to go back the next business day and they would fix it for me. I did and they tried numbing me up and the tooth still hurt. The dentist decided I needed a root canal, but she couldn't do it in her office so she had to send me to a specialist. I went to this other office across town and they took x-rays before they started and they told me that I'm sure my dentist told me that since the filling broke so low and the cavity below it was right at my gum line, I would need crown lengthening before I could get a crown put on. I said they didn't mention a thing about it either time I was in the office, but I would deal with that after I got the root canal. They did the root canal and I went back to the original dentist and I told them what the other dentist said about needing crown lengthening. The dentist didn't have a clue that I would need it. I even knew I needed it after the second dentist showed me the x-rays. Anyway, I was referred to a periodontal surgeon for the crown lengthening. Crown lengthening consists of the gum tissue and some bone being removed from around the tooth that needs a crown. You need to have some tooth all the way around to be able to put a crown on and for it to stay on long term. They did the procedure and it was incredibly painful that evening and I very limited on what I could eat for several days. Not fun at all. But it has healed and I have since been back to see them 3 times for check-ups and to get the stitches removed. At the last visit they said some of the tissue has rebounded and I have to go back on Wednesday and they will laser the tissue down. Once that has healed, I will be able to get the crown. I will definitely not be going back to my original dentist.....she doesn't seem to have a clue.

Not long after the whole tooth thing started, I ended up getting a severe case of poison ivy. I have an idea when I ran into it and I know I didn't touch much of it, but my body had a secondary response to it. It started all over my thighs and some on the bottom part of my legs and on my upper arm. I did take some pictures, but I think I will spare you all. It wasn't pretty. After about a week and a half of it continuing to spread to both arms and more on my legs, stomach, chest, neck and up on to my face, I saw a doc for a second time and she prescribed some steroids to take for a couple of weeks. I also started taking Zyrtec for the TERRIBLE itching. The meds helped and it has mostly gone away now. My skin is still discolored where it was the worst on my legs and arms. I'm afraid it is permanently scarred. Let's hope it goes away in the next few months. It also still itches some and I continue to take Zyrtec, which does help. Anyway, Chris and the kids will tell you I was pretty miserable for quite a while. Not fun at all.

Okay, on to some good stuff. We bought a minivan a couple of weeks ago. Love it!!! Chris has the Pathfinder now and we are working on selling his Explorer. It was time for us to get a second vehicle that will seat four children. Our fourth child is scheduled to arrive on Thursday, June 17, 2010! We are soooooo very excited and I am soooooo ready not to be prego anymore. I have had some terrible aches and pains this pregnancy and now I am just exhausted. This has definitely been the worst pregnancy on my body. I am just really ready for this little one to be on the outside. Chris' aunt Robin is flying in on Wednesday and will be here for a week to help with the kids. So excited for her to arrive! I know Chris is going to love to have the help with the kids while he is going back and forth from the hospital. Chris' sister has also been staying with us for the last couple of weeks and she will be moving to Colorado to live with Rich and Robin in the next week or two. We've had a full house here for a while and it will just continue to fill up this week! Chris is off of work for the next two weeks, which is wonderful! He knows I'm not physically capable of doing as much as I was and he has really picked up the slack. It's been great. Only a few more things to do and we will be ready for baby! Yeah!

They kids have been doing well and they are very ready for baby to arrive and for grama Robin to arrive. They love to play in the water outside. It's been been a good summer so far.

Enjoy the pictures! We won't update again until Thursday after baby arrives! Yeah!

Brayden peeking out the window of the playhouse.


Skyler: )


Water play.


The kid and the hose.

The new minivan!

Playing in the pool

Our sweet children: )

38 weeks prego today!

Brayden figured out how to climb up the ladder to the play house this past week. He can climb up really well, but he can't get down at all. He thinks and he tries to get down on his own. He will go to the ladder or the rock wall and try to climb down like he climbs down the couple of steps to the deck. He doesn't understand that the play house is much higher and a lot different to get down than just a couple of regular steps. Oh well...we knew this would happen at some point. It just happened sooner than we thought. Silly boy: )

Yeah for Mother's Day and being 33 weeks prego!!! It has been a wonderful day. I was served breakfast in bed today and we went out to lunch at Logan's and then I got a nap and ate another great meal for supper and then had dessert, which was a warm brownie under ice cream, Ready Whip and caramel and chocolate syrup. It's been a very good, relaxing day: )

We are 33 weeks along today. Baby is doing great....I, on the other hand, am getting more and more uncomfortable as the days go by. Besides the fact that I am sleeping like crap, I have been having terrible hip pain for quite some time now. I had this kind of pain while prego with Skyler and Brayden, but this time it is much worse and lasts for most of the day. My doc prescribed me some good pain pills that help tremendously because Tylenol does not work at all. I'm not a fan of taking prescription drugs so I have only been taking a pill a couple times per week when the pain is really bad or when I know that I will be physically working harder that day and I need to get stuff done. I just don't like the thought of the baby getting the drugs so I just try to avoid them as much as I can. Because of how uncomfortable I am now, we will be inducing by 39 weeks, which will be by June 21st. That is only 6 weeks away! We are so very excited! We are pretty much ready now. We need to do some washing of some baby stuff, but other than that, I think we are prepared. We even narrowed the name pool down today for the baby. We are pretty sure we have picked out a name for a boy or a girl. We may change our minds in the next 6 weeks, but at least we have it narrowed down big time and we agree on the names.

The kids are doing really well. Alana was out of school last week due to terrible flooding around middle TN. A lot of schools in our county were flooded along with roads that were destroyed and washed away. Buses would not be able to travel around to pick up children. They are scheduled to open back up tomorrow, but we still don't know if they will have to extend the school year to make up these missed days. If they don't have to make the days up, Alana will be done with school in 2 weeks. I can't believe she is almost done with first grade and will be going into the second grade. Blows my mind how time has flown by over the years.

Skyler and Brayden are doing really well. Skyler has been a little stinker now for several months and has been pretty nasty to Brayden at times. She gets really mad at him if he plays with her stuff. Many times she has smacked him. And now Brayden has even done that to her a few times. Monkey see monkey do. Let's hope this behavior stops before the next baby arrives. We don't need Brayden smacking him/her. Other than that, Skyler is such a sweet little girl. She can be very polite and very kind to us all. Brayden is also such a sweet little boy. He is so different from the girls. He is just much more laid back than they have ever been. The girls are just much more dramatic than he is. Let's hope he doesn't pick up on that.

Chris is doing well, too. Same old, same old. He's working and being a daddy and a husband. Nothing else too exciting, which is good.

Below are some pictures from the last month. Enjoy!

30 Weeks


Alana wanted to pose like me.


This was a picture of the Target a couple of miles away from our house. What a mess is will be to clean up.


Brayden has moved from our bedroom into his new bedroom. We painted it a few weeks ago. We really like the color. It is a very bright blue. The new baby will move in with him at some point. Our babies always stay in our bedroom after they are born. It is a very bare room right now. Only the crib and his dresser and some toys are in it now. We are storing some other diapers and baby stuff in the closet, but that is it. We will work on decorating as the days go by.

So Brayden got past Chris' child proof (I used that term very loosely) barricade he had in front of the door and decided he would play in some of the white paint. Chris automatically started laughing and screaming "Get the camera!" I came running and didn't think it was as funny because I saw the paint was all around his eye....but I still took a quick picture. We threw him in the tub and washed him up. Thankfully, the paint never got into his eye.

Skyler decided to put some baby butt cream all over Teddy. I had to get my phone for this one and take a picture

We planted a garden several weeks ago and the kids decided to play in a bucket of water we had sitting next to it for watering.

Alana and Brayden love the water. Skyler is not as big of a fan as them.

Brayden crawling under the changing table.

I had to take a picture of this too. We were outside playing and somehow Brayden got caught up on this bar on the swing set. He couldn't seem to get himself stood up or flipped over the other side. It was pretty funny....not for him....he cried until I saved him. I know, terrible of me to pause and take a picture before I help him.

Skyler was helping me fold clothes and decided to try on one of Chris' shirts.

Silly boy.

He has figured out how to unlock the dog cages and he loves to play in the water and dog food. This is the first time that he actually crawled inside. Silly boy.

Skyler showing me her birthday cake with the stick candles. The girls LOVE to dig in the dirt and find worms and other little creepy, crawly creatures.

Silly kids pushing Brayden in the baby stroller.

Sweet Skyler: )

Brayden has always loved the dishwasher. He now loves to climb in it. Again, silly boy.

Sweet kids: )

Riding in the car.

33 weeks prego!

Mother's Day pictures with my kiddos. This was the best one we got. It is hard to make three kids sit still and smile at the same time.