The deal with Lulu's name

Louise was born January 26, 2009. And from that day on I had naming remorse. I just felt like her name was not her and that I wished her name was Lulu, since that is what we call her. My middle name is Louise, my grandmother, and a bunch of relatives on my side and Ben's side share the name. I don't hate the name, I just hate it for Lulu. The big kicker was when people would pronounce it Louis with a spanish accent. I had brought up legally changing it to Ben many times, with no luck.

Then along came our future child that needs a name. Again we are struggling to agree on a name. I want his name to be Maverick and Ben is not so sure about that name. So we make a deal and these are the conditions:

1. I can change Louise to Lulu... Legally.

2. Ben has final say about the name of baby boy.

3. We need to keep it under wraps until Lulu is official.

It is not that easy to change a name, by the way.

The next day I went to the court and filed the paper work, paid the $$, put an ad in the newspaper that had to run for 4 weeks, went back to court to get the name change approved, phoned the office in Sacramento with questions on how to get the new birth certificate, they mailed the specially bonded paper for me to fill out, filled it out and mailed it off with more $$. But it is official and I couldn't be happier with

LULU NANCY SCHULTZ

Now how Ben came up with Elliot- He had an ongoing list that he would add names and take names off. Elliot wasn't even on the list till the Sunday before I delivered. On day 1 of Elliot's life we choose Colt. Then decided to sleep on it. If you say "Colt Schultz "out loud it is a little tricky, so Ben pulled out the list and said, "Elliot?" I was fine with anything- wanting to keep good on my end of the deal. So when the girls came to the hospital to visit, Ben asked them which name they liked for the baby: Colt or Elliot. They both liked Elliot more.

So we named him Elliott, then changed it the next day to another spelling of Elliot. We were able to change it before the paper had been filed for the Birth Certificate-thank goodness cause I was not going to go through that name changing process ever again!

Big Bear 2012

We went up to Big Bear this last weekend to go see some snow... unfortunately there wasn't much. But we had fun even without it. We stayed in this guy:

And across the street the neighbor had some nice old snow that we were able to be entertained on.
And then the second day our friends came to join us, Yeah for Royah and Travis. It is nice having a friend with built-in friends for my kids. She is also pregnant with a boy a few weeks before me, so let the friendship continue.

Then the dads got in the spa, and us pregnant women held down the fort inside... Talking.

Good times.

Some Christmas 2011 Pics

For the Blog Family Memory Book that we will someday make

Lulu 2

Ruby 4

Mike, Katie, Ben. Gail and Jim were in Tennessee with Nick and Jessi. So it was a Brea, Schultz Christmas.

Made some Christmas Salsa with my mom and dad before they left to Tennessee. It was a gooood batch

The Backyard

I LOVE my backyard! We LIVE in our little house, but we PLAY and escape in the backyard. We have several new additions to our backyard to go along with our garden boxes (you will get to know more about these later).

#1 Composter. I was a little intimidated by this guy, Ruby and I assembled him and we feed him everyday and spin him around everyday, so he will make "Black Gold" for us. At least this is what Mel Bartholomew calls it.

It takes 20% kitchen waste or Green materials:

80% Brown materials like these dead leaves, or sticks

Oxygen (spinning it) Moisture (water) Heat (sun)

We are getting there.

#2 Old news... Gus- but he does have a fancy new collar and name tag (Our friend that takes him out in the hills to run refused to take him until he got a name tag... a few months later Ben got one for him, At least one of us cares if he gets lost... )

Ben is cleaning out the Shed to make room for....

These bad boys! Ben gave me one of these shelves for my birthday, and I was sorta confused... like "What?! Food storage shelves...(insert ungrateful comments)" Yeah I am eating my words... literally. After we assembled it, I asked Ben if we could get one more. They are really awesome!
#3 our Shelf Reliance Shelves in all their glory!
We are still in the process of sorting out all the crap that was in the shed, but to make it safer for the kids, we cover all the stuff with a tarp- think of it more as an invisibility Cloak, as you watch this footage- I love this time of life, no homework to deal with, no soccer or basketball practice to shuffle kids to and from... just tree climbing, swinging, and yelling across the neighbors backyard to the other neighbor kids.

Art, Ruby, Groupon

Around August we saw a Groupon for Art classes. Ben and I thought, "hey Ruby likes art... lets get it." Let me back track... In the past I have signed Ruby up for Ballet and Tap numerous times, a drawing class, and a tumbling class all at the community center. Totally affordable and a great way to sample different recreations to see if your child has a passion for anything.

This art school is pretty legit. She has a jacket with her name on it, which we love! She gets a patch for every 14 projects she completes and she comes home with a little art history knowledge. Every class they study an artist and do a piece of art that is similar to this artist.

This is Miss Ohana her teacher. She is really rad and lets me know how Rubes is doing. She even sends post cards to Ruby to let her know the good things she is doing. The best part about it is Ruby loves it! Miss Ohana tells me that Ruby always adds her own little touches to the project.She pointed out that in this one, they were studying Modigliani and Ruby added the tear drops, cause she wanted the girl to be sad. Funny kid.

Lulu is 3- Tea Party

For Lulu's birthday this year we gave her a couple options a tea party with 3 of her friends or a bounce house place with lots of friends. We tried to keep Ruby from answering for her, Lulu's decision... after showing her a couple pictures of what each would mean, she quickly and with finality decided on a tea party- immediately Ruby's reaction, "Nooooooo Lulu, choose the bounce house place!" These girls are really taking on their own personalities, they have a lot of fun together but they are so different. So we did a fun little family party with ice cream cake, both sets of grandparents, and auntie ruth and her Schultz boy cousins on her birthday. The day after we did a tea party. I was so stoked to have my friend Heather come with her 10 (Emma) and 8 year old (Sam) to help out.

1. First we did crowns, frames, and mirror decorating crafts

2. Then for the Tea Party- I got 85% of the tea party supplies from my mother in law Nancy- it is so nice to live so close to my caterer in laws! I borrowed the Tea set, linens, serving ware.

3. We did a beauty parlor- Ruby set up the station (one of her favorite things to do is organize her station in her room, so I had her set up the beauty parlor, she did a great job)

The helpers paired up with the girls and did their nails, hair, or make up, depending on what the little girls wanted :

Ruby painted Wendy's finger nails and did her makeup, then put a ribbon and half a can of hair spray in her hair.

Emma did Lulu's finger nails and make up.
Sam did Melia's nails and makeup.
Heather did Amelia's nails and makeup.
The tea party was fun...
I gave each girl their own candle to blow out
After the present opening, the kiddies finally got to go out in the backyard to jump on the trampoline, which is what they were most excited to do the whole time.

A little bit about Lulu

1. She has been potty trained for almost a year already, still sleeps in her crib and doesn't climb out.

2. She loves to take care of babies, but doesn't want to be called one.

3. nicknames include- pumpkin headed baby, pumpkin head, lulu bubs,

4. She prays for her friend Melia every night.

5. She is a candy addict- nothing is off limits, she even likes hot tamales, ice breaker gum, sour patch kids.

6. She loves to cuddle, suck her thumb, has natural ringlets that I love to put in pig tails.

7. She loves to hug Ben's arm and express her love, "I love you daddy." She has Ben wrapped around her finger.

8. Clean eater

9. Will not let me get her dressed, has no fashion sense.

10. Always asks "WHY?" when told to do something.

Whats the Haps?

Hello family, friends, and stalkers(there is no shame in stalking, we all do it). I am alive to prove it here is some news.

Katie-
I am still pregnant- due March 21st with a Boy.
I am still doing joy school ( www.values parenting.com) and I love it, especially now that Lulu is in it too!
I still have a dag named Gus that bugs me 90% of the time and brings joy the other 10%
Uncle mike just got me hooked on Parenthood. Love it so much.
I just celebrated my 28th b-day Jan 7th at Farrells and going hiking and seeing puss and boots.
Just purchased a baby Bjorn bouncer off craigslist like my sis Berkeley has and am sooooo excited about it.
Looking to purchase a big bunny- to hopefully be friends with Gus

Ruby-
Is in an art class (Fiboart.com) she LOVES and on her down time is doing art.
Has a count down for when we will go see snow next, she can't wait
Still would wear a dress everyday if she had enough and if I didn't get in her way about it.

Lulu-
Excited to be in Joy School
Loves baby dolls and strollers- i do not love tripping over her strollers.
Is almost 3
Loves bubble gum
Loves cuddles

Ben-
Built me above the ground garden boxes for christmas-that are so amazing and I can't wait to start gardening weed free
Busy doing 4 different projects. People ask me what he does for a living, and it is not so easy to explain... His title is music supervisor, but his life is office manager, talent scout, finance controller, producer, and ...
He loves football season and basketball season, but is bummed on " his Lakes" right now
Is juicing fruits and veggies a lot lately
Likes to play golf