Jackson At The Park (5 Months, October 2010)

I can't believe how fast our "Boy Wonder" is growing! Jackson is four months old now and, "he's just getting so big" This weekend, Ernie and I took him to the park so that he could experience his first birthday party. His little buddy Adan just turned two and Jackson especially loved his first time on the swing. I just love these pics of him. I think they really capture his innocent wonder!

Slobber Mouth Strikes Again!

Just Hangin' Around

The Face of Destiny

Whatchu Talkin' About Willis?

Whoa, that's a long way down

I Often Drool When I talk

Mr. Meat Paws

Your Thumb is tickling me Mommy

Deep Thoughts

That's What I Call Jolly!

Jackson's Zoolander

Our Countdown is Complete!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Our Labor and Delivery Story

Our first of many trips to the hospital :)

On Thurs. June 11th at around midnight I started having my first real contractions. They were coming sporadically every five to 10 minutes. By Friday morning the contractions were still coming. That evening the contractions still hadn't picked up speed, so Ernie and I went to the mall to walk around and try to speed things up, (to our chagrin) this only slowed things down.

By Saturday morning the contractions were even more intense and were starting to become more consistent, so I told my parents to hit the road. I couldn't believe I had been in pre-labor for over 24 hours. That night my mom, Ernie and I decided to make our way to the hospital. I had a feeling they might send me home, but it had been two days and I wanted to see how far along I was and make sure all was well with Jackson. When we got there I found out I was making progress, but I wasn't far enough along to stay. However Jackson was doing great.

Over the next two days we visited the hospital another two times only to be told that I was progressing, but not enough to stay at the hospital. When we were sent home for a third time Monday afternoon Ernie, my mom and I were exhausted and a little upset. I never imagined that I would be in labor for four days. Then we prayed and got our faith up and the three of us believed that my water would break that day.

That night my contractions were one right on top of another and they were almost unbearable, but I was determined not to go back to the hospital unless I knew it was for real. Then (Praise the Lord) my water broke and we were off to the hospital for the fourth (and final) time. This time when they checked me I was 4 to 5 centimeters dilated and Jackson was well on his way.

I was in the hospital for about seven hours and then it was time to push. The nurse told me that it would probably take 2 to 3 hours because it was my first time. I knew better. I was one determine Momma at that point and I can't tell you how badly I wanted to see my son. Forty minutes later I gave everything I had on that final push and little Jackson Alexander came into the world.

I was so overwhelmed I was crying but no sound was coming out. When they placed my little son on my chest I thought I might pass out from sheer emotion and Joy. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. The first thing I told Ernie was, "Can we have four more." He was crying himself and he just laughed. He was the best labor partner I could have asked for and I looked at him and said, "We did it" It was one of the best moments in my life.

We have been blessed beyond measure. Our son is healthy in every way and more than we could ask for. God gives good gifts to his children and he has given us the best gift. Our countdown to baby Jackson is complete and we are so excited to raise this little guy in the ways of the Lord. Thank you Jesus!

Ready...Set...Go!

I'm 37 weeks today, which means my little baby boy is considered full term. So now, he can come at any time and be as healthy as can be. This is big news in the Schulz house. We have been praying, preparing and participating in all kinds of activities in the great expectation of our first child for months and months and we can hardly contain our excitement that we are so close to meeting him.

His little clothes (and I mean teeny weeny) have been washed in his special little baby soap and they are hanging up waiting to be worn, his bassinet is all assembled and waiting to be slept in, his car seat is in the car waiting to bring him safely home, the hospital bag is packed with all kinds of useful comforts and is already in the trunk.

Birthing classes have been taken, books have been read, registries have been made, showers have been attended, research has been done, blogs have been written, doctor appointments have been kept, advice has been given and received, cribs have been assembled, nursery walls have been painted, our home has been rearranged as well as our lives and all in preparation of a little tiny bundle that will soon join our lives.

Meanwhile, Jackson is in the womb all nice and toasty, unaware of all of the fuss and goings on. Little does he know that in weeks, days or maybe even hours he will be thrust into the world to began this journey of life.

The bible says, "Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Children are like arrows in a warriors hands and joyful is the man/woman whose quiver is full of them." Psalm 127.

I am truly in awe. I weep even now. (yes I'm pregnant so I cry a lot) but these tears are meaningful. Jackson means "Son of a Gracious God" and how true it is. God is so gracious and so good. He gives good gifts to his children. He is giving Ernie and I the most amazing gift of family. In these last nine months God has not just allowed us to have time to prepare our home, but he has prepared our hearts.

So I say, bring on the stinky diapers, 3am feedings, and plethora of hormones. What a small sacrifice for such a huge gift from our Spiritual Daddy. Thank you Jesus!

Mommy Schulz

Pregnancy Photoshoot (By Ann Pasquini Photography)

Last week our good friend Ann flew into San Diego from Texas. I was so excited because Ann is also a photographer and she lived in San Diego when Ernie and I were engaged and she took our engagement photos, which we loved. I was hoping that she would come and visit sometime during my pregnancy because I was dreaming of a baby bump photoshoot with her.

It was a gorgeous sunny day in La Jolla when we joined Ann. The three of us had so much fun frolicking in the park and playing at the beach. We took a ton of pictures but these are some of my favorites. (I will post more of them in a slideshow format later)

We only have about two months left in this pregnancy and it's amazing how quickly the months have flown. I'm glad this time as been captured on film, it's been such an amazing season. We are so ready for our son to join us and we are so thankful that God has blessed us with the miracle of life.

Jackson's Nursery

So, I had so many different ideas for the nursery when I began looking around. I liked modern, I wanted something unique and colorful. I played around with the idea of orange. However, when I saw this nursery called Bali by Cocalo Couture I fell in love. It has my favorite color combination which is aqua/turquoise and bright green and it has chocolate brown and a great sand color. It is very tropical and a little "jungly," but I am adding more "beachy" elements as well. It reminds me of our babymoon cruise and I know I will love spending time in it with little Jackson. I hope he loves it as much as his mommy and daddy do.

We are going to do all white furniture to brighten it up instead of the black. Ernie and I are going to paint the walls (which are now cream) white in the nursery and do an aqua accent wall.

This mobile is too cute, and I found a company that does odd shaped round wall decals and chocolate brown palm trees. I plan to put them on the wall behind the crib.


I also plan to sneak a few little pops of orange in as well through toys and cute little baby accessories.


I found this beach painting at Zgallerie. It matches the colors and brings in an ocean vibe.


These pillows will look great on the daybed we will have in the nursery.

I also bought one of these frames and a matching green one from Zgallerie that will look good on the shelf over the dresser/changer.

Ernie and I are having so much fun decorating Jackson's room and getting our home all prepared for our new little son. We can't wait for his arrival!

Slideshow of our Blessed Babymoon!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Awesome Blessing from The Skys!

Ok, so I just can't wait to blog this testimony! Can you say wow! Where do I start?

Let's see, for Christmas Ernie's parents blessed us with money. We were all set to put it aside in savings, with the baby coming and all. Then we got this brochure in the mail about a cheap cruise and our little wheels started turning.

We had a long conversation and put much thought into it and realized that we weren't going to be able to have our annual summer vacation this year and in fact we weren't ever going to have another vacation before we started having babies...that is unless we decided to take a trip sometime in Feb. before I was too far along.

Our next step was to pray and ask other friends who had new babies what they thought. Every couple with kids that we talked to told us to go for it and take the vacation. They said we would regret it if we didn't because our life was about to change forever.

So, we started looking into cruises leaving from San Diego to Mexico and from Florida to the Caribbean and the British Virgin Islands. We were thinking Mexico at first because we wouldn't have to pay for airline tickets, but in the end we chose a 7 night cruise leaving from Fort Lauderdale and going to exotic places like San Juan, Puerto Rico and St. Thomas in the British Islands.

We booked the cruise about a month ago, but I just kept putting off buying the airline tickets. I told Ernie several times that I just had this feeling to wait. Then last night we realized we only had a few weeks to buy our tickets so I went on line and they had gone up in price pretty drastically. This didn't fit into our budget and I was starting to get down.

I happened to check my Facebook page, and my friend Ann and sent me a link to a Southwest Airline Promotion that was happening in San Diego today. I even called Southwest to make sure the promotion was legit.

I found out that 200 Southwest employees were going to be downtown and they were going to give away just 40 round trip airline tickets to anywhere they flew. Ernie and I decided to hold off buying the tickets one more day and give it a shot.

Today, Ernie took his lunch break and scooped me up and we headed downtown, Gaslamp district for our adventure. On the way I asked my mom and my prayer partner friend Sundy to pray for us. My mom prayed specifically that God wanted to give Ernie and I this gift and she said the words, "they are going to find you and give you the tickets." Go prophetic momma!

Ernie and I roamed around for a bit and then saw all kinds of Southwest employees. However, most of them were tight lipped and wouldn't say anything about any round trip tickets. Then we found a group of employees who were rounding up people to be in a talents show (on the news) to sing and try to win 2 tickets. Ernie and I knew that wouldn't be us. We are no kind of singers, let me tell you!

We were a little discouraged, but I felt God was leading us and we walked down one more street. We saw a group of ladies from Southwest we had seen before and they asked us if we had an luck. We told them no and Ernie mentioned about our baby and the one last trip. Nothing. So we started to head back in the direction of the truck.

What we didn't know was that a man who had been with the ladies was following us. He followed us a block, almost to the truck and then stopped us. He started asking us questions about how we found out about the promotion. We mentioned Facebook and then we told him about the trip and our baby. He just kept smiling this really big smile and then he pulled out two free tickets for us. One of the lady's snapped our picture with the man and we just kept thanking them and laughing.

We are so excited and amazed by our Heavenly Daddy! I believe it was him all along that was guiding me not to buy the plane tickets and my mom's prayer came true. God's blessings actually chased us down on the street. I just looked up what the tickets are worth on Southwest and the total was $780. We are truly blessed. I had to put this on the baby blog because our little one was a big part of all of this. Plus he'll be traveling with us you know. His first vacation in a way :) Caribbean here we come!

"God's blessings shall come upon us and overtake us!" I hear him saying, "It's just because I love you."

Colorful, Modern & Playful Nursery Ideas

So, I love this kind of stark black and white look with vibrant pops of color everywhere, but I'm not sold on the black accent wall for a nursery. I think I would go with bright green, orange or maybe chocolate brown.

Ya, so I'm not gonna do pink for my boy's room, but I do love the crazy circle decals. I could really have fun putting those up in funky patterns.

I love quilts, but a lot of times they are a little too country for me. This is the perfect answer to my dilemma. A quilt like this would be a great piece to build a nursery around.

This nursery stood out to me because I love orange for a boy's nursery. It's bright and unique.

Can't Wait to Meet You!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

YES FOLKS, IT'S A BOY!

January 29, 2009
Today was the big day! The Schulz' are having a BOY!

It all started at our fourteen week ultrasound. The specialist asked us if we were planning to find out what the sex of the baby was and we said yes. I love surprises, but I really want to be all prepared with a perfect little boy's nursery and clothes. So, out of no where she asks, "Do you want to know now?"

My heart shot to my throat and was beating furiously. I was all prepared to go in at 20 weeks and find out, but this was over a month early. Ernie's response was, and I quote, "heck yes."

Up until this point I had been feeling like maybe it was a girl and Ern had been thinking maybe a boy. Then she showed us a screen shot and said she was pretty sure it was a boy. We both started crying and all I heard out of Ernie were phrases like, "that's my boy" and "Go head, I have a son."

On the way home we called our parents and told them, which of course was a really great moment. However, when I did a little research I found out that it is next to impossible to know for sure at 14 wks what the sex is. At that point we decided to try and stay open and that we would wait for the 20 week confirmation to share the news with everyone.

Today we got that confirmation! (complete with an arrow)

This picture tells the full story. Hopefully our son won't be too disgruntled when he finds out we put his business out there to all our friends and family to see. I will post more of the ultrasound photos once I get them scanned, but oh my, he is so cute and funny. He even had the specialist laughing. He's active and all of his measurements and readings were very healthy! Praise God.