Nolan's First Day

At 8:22 this morning, we welcomed the newest edition to the family. Nolan Graham Schachtner entered this world at 20.5 inches, 8 lbs 8oz, and a full head of hair. Mom and Dad are very proud (and tired). He met his big sister Gwyn for the first time a couple of hours later and the much anticipated event was a wonderful moment in the life of all involved.

Preparing for the New Baby

We have almost finished preparing the house for the arrival of our newest family member. The hardest part has been finding a place to put all of the junk that was in the old room. We started in the spring by moving Gwyn into the extra bedroom. We repainted and decorated the room and converted her old crib into a full-size bed. She loves it!

Then we put wallpaper and moulding in the nursery. We decided to leave the paint the same color. 

Just last week,

 I finished building the new crib! It's my best one yet. The style is slightly different, but more suited for a boy I think. It turned out great, and as you can see, it passed the weight test.                

We also bought an unfinished dresser and stained it the same color as the crib.

Shannon's co-workers threw a baby shower and we scored enough supplies to keep us stocked for the first 6 months. Thanks everyone for your gifts!

Gwyn's First Baseball Game

This was my Father's Day present. We took a trip to Kansas City Friday to watch the Royals take on the Cardinals. We started the day in downtown going to eat and to Kaleidoscope at Crown Center where she got to hone her artistic skills. Then she went to play in the fountains. 

There were more fountains to see at the stadium as we sat in right field near the outfield fountains. It turned out to be a great place to sit on such a hot day, because the wind occasionally blew mist from the fountains in our direction, giving us a welcome cool down. The game didn't go so well for a family of Royals fans as the boys in blue went down thanks to Ryan Ludwick's grand slam. But the game was fun anyway. We saw six home runs and fireworks after the game topped off a great day. Notice in the pictures that Shannon is about to pop. She was a pretty good sport braving the heat for us.

St. Louis Trip

 We went to St. Louis with Casey and Riley to see the "Dora Live" show. The girls had a blast. We also took them to the arch. 

Gwyn's Mother's Day Gift for Mommy

Gwyn's Halloween

Thanks to my talented Mother, who made Gwyn's adorable and original Halloween costume. She loved it and we loved having a great time with her! 

Pumpkin Carving Party

We hosted a pumpkin carving party for Gwyn's friends and cousins on Saturday. Anna got to clean out the guts on her pumpkin before she carved out the eyes, nose and mouth and painted it up like a princess.

Felicia, Carmen, Ellie and Gwyn all painted their pumpkins while Ellie's dad carved out a pretty good Webb City Cardinal in his pumpkin. 

After the work was done, the girls posed for a picture with their beautiful pumpkins.