The Schoonmakers

Pink!!!

2011-09-15T14:28:00.000-06:00

We had our ultrasound two weeks ago and we were told it was going to be a GIRL, but I had serious doubts. Jeremy thinks that I was just upset that he had guessed right both times and I had guessed wrong both times, but really it was because this pregnancy has been SO different than it was with Karli. But we went back in for another ultrasound because of some concerns about the baby and she is definately a girl! The baby is healthy and the concerns were just "soft markers" for possible problems but they don't think anything is actually wrong; they just wanted to freak out her mom for a few weeks. We are so excited! Now here are some new pictures of Karli.

Poor baby was sick and fell asleep in the middle of her favorite movie.

Karli got new sunglasses after she kept stealing her moms she LOVES them and wants them on any time we go out side. Ridiculously cute!

Karli playing on the tramp with her cousins and her Grandpa Quade

Karli kept getting her special new sunglasses stolen by her cousin "tiny baby lydia" what a cute little bully.

The best part about the library is the poles Karli gets to climb up and slide down. It's like a playground that has books to read. Basically the best thing ever!

Long Time No Blog

2011-08-09T14:02:00.009-06:00

Well, it has been awhile since we've blogged and I will do a little bit of catch up with the pictures and videos, but first we have exciting news: We are expecting baby #2!!! We are VERY excited and the baby is due January 16th; we don't know what 'color' of baby it is yet but we should be finding out in the next few weeks and I'll get it posted when we know. I was feeling pretty sick but I am doing much better now thank goodness! Now on to the pictures of our darling girl:

Karli went to a fun little play place with her cousins in Colorado in MayWe got Winnie the Pooh fabric to make a pillowcase for Karli's new pillow...but she wouldn't really let go of it for a few days; here she is wearing it like a shawl or something. Cute kid!

Karli got to ride the Merry-go-Round with Daddy, and now anytime she sees it in the mall she gets REALLY excited!

Karli got to make cookies with her Grandma Schoonie when we went there over the 4th of July; what a nice treat with Grandma!!!

Karli LOVES to read; she reads (or gets read) DOZENS of books everyday (generally the same 5-10 books all day...not at ALL annoying to the reader lol) This time she was reading to herself at the doctors office.

Karli went to her first movie...(well the first one that she had any idea she was at) Winnie the Pooh and she LOVED it! Her dad also got her treats which made the whole experience that much better!

Karil loves to play with her cousins in this video they had just got back from swimming and were waiting for dinner, so why not run around like crazy girls right?

I FINALLY got Karli singing on camera she usually sings more of it but the blanket is pretty distracting lol! Sorry that it's sideways but it's so worth it.

Haaam

2011-05-03T21:13:00.000-06:00

Karli loves to read books and she has a new favorite every other day. This time it's Green Eggs and Ham. Here is the cutest video EVER!!!

Easter

2011-04-24T16:14:00.000-06:00

Happy Easter!!! We tried to explain Easter to Karli yesterday while we were dying eggs. She seemed to understand that a Bunny would bring her treats and so she found her stuffed bunny (who she named Hop) and decided that she would sleep with him that night. I figured she heard the words "Bunny" and "Treat" and thought she better keep her bunny close so that she didn't miss out on any treats. The videos show the path of jelly beans or "treats" leading to her pile of stuff, and then her finding eggs hid around the living room. I think it's safe to say that she is a pretty big fan of Easter!!!

Karli is trying to share her treats with "hop"

Looking for eggs

Trying a peep

Oh and she likes it (big surprise)

Toilet "Uh-oh"

2011-04-12T11:27:00.002-06:00

Karli came up to me this morning with a very distressed look on her face saying, "Uh oh!" Yeah that's never a good sign with a toddler. She said, "han" meaning "give me your hand and I will show you" I followed her to the bathroom. This is what I found... Lovely. I'm glad that she is showing and interest in the bathroom which means that she might be interested in potty traing in a few months, but this is not exactly what I had in mind.

Well at least she is trying to help clean up :)

Jiggle and Jam

2011-04-08T10:30:00.000-06:00

Karli and I go to the library at least once a week and do the activities they have there. This was a session called "Jiggle and Jam" where the kids dance and sing and get to play with instruments. We both love it!

Play Time

2011-04-07T21:40:00.002-06:00

Karli loves to play outside! At least once a day she brings me her shoes and says "alk" which means walk. She also loves to play in our backyard that we fixed up in the fall and now has her little playset out there; she spends a good amount of time out there either by herself or with her friends the neighborhood girls. These are some pictures from last month when she still needed to wear a jacket.

Sweet Karli

2011-02-13T20:41:00.003-07:00

We have such a pretty girl, and we have so much fun! These are some cute pics and videos. Enjoy.

My little drummer girl

Smile

She just started letting me do her hair...and she just started having hair long enough to DO and only in the back. She got a cute little mullet.

Catch Up

2011-01-10T11:26:00.005-07:00

It has been over two months since our last post and they were two CRAZY months. Jeremy and myself traveled in November for a week and then we spent Thanksgiving in Colo Springs with his family and then spent Christmas and New Years Eve with mine. So this is going to be just a catch up post of the last few months.

Karli and I went to Casper while Jeremy was in Dallas for work, and Karli got to meet her new little cousin Lydia. And she LOVED her!!! She was always looking for her and if she couldn't find her she got REALLY upset. Mega cute!

Daddy's little girls and THEIR little girls!

Karli and her Uncle Sean

Karli With her Grandma and Grandpa Quade!

Just a random cute picture of Karli wearing Jeremy's hat.

These are pictures from Thanksgiving at Schoonmakers house. We had a ton of fun and Karli loves her cousins.

Karli in her Christmas outfit from Grandma Schoonie

Family picture in the back yard.

Christmas Time!!! We had so much fun and got to spend a lot of time at home with my family and here are pictures of that.

Karli and Lydia in matching dresses that Grandma and Grandpa got them.

Kari is reading her her cousin Elaena.

Karli and Madalyn who is the closest cousin in age to her.

Mom and Karli in the Sunday clothes

Matching girls and their moms

Daddy and Karli Decorating our tree.

Karli opening presents with her Mom.

Karli's new Kangaroo climber. She goes up and down the sides and the slide.

Uncle Michael reading Karli her new Winnie the Pooh book. She just LOVES Pooh Bear!!

The next pictures are from a Christmas Murder Mystery Party we did at my parents house with a big chunk of my brothers and sisters. It was SO fun; everyone got into it and played their roles and as you can see the costumes were SWEET! Thanks to Mom and Dad for hosting and buying it!

Murder Mystery Party

2010-11-06T19:10:00.005-06:00

We did a Halloween Murdery Mystery Party this weekend and it was a BLAST!!! We did one last year and I was a little iffy about whether we would like it or not, but we REALLY did and so we are making it an annual thing and this year was even more fun than last year. We had a lot of friends come and get all dressed up. Jeremy was a serial killer and I was The Phantom of The Opera.

2010-11-01T11:35:00.002-06:00

We had a fun Halloween this year Karli thought the whole thing was very funny. We carved pumkins and got a costume for Karli, and she held on to her little pumpkin bucket all day.

About to carve pumkins, Karli still thinks they are balls and is pretty excited about it, because she LOVES balls.

And this is when she realizes that they are NOT balls and is trying to get as far away from them as possible. Soon after we started carving them she said "All done" and walked to her room to get ready for bed.

But Jeremy and I finished both pumkins one with Pooh Bear for Karli and then a cool spooky one.

A tradition at my house growing up was after everyone got done with their pumpkins we lit them all and looked at them in the dark...very cool.

Karli found this Pooh Bear costume at the store and wouldn't let go of it...so we got it and she got really excited every time she saw it.

Tricker Treating

She can't say Trick or Treat, but she said "Pssssss" (Please) at each house, and then she would blow kisses to say thank you. So cute!!!

"Yummy Skittles." I think Karli found her new favorite holiday.

And of course sharing with Mom.

Jeremy's B-Day Weekend

2010-10-10T19:52:00.005-06:00

Jeremy's team at work won a competition and so he had an extra Friday and Monday off, and he had to use them by the end of October. Which worked out great for his birthday this weekend. We just relaxed at home: watched movies, played games, did yard work...(our landlord is paying for the materials to landscape the backyard and we are very excited for Karli to be able to have an outside place to play where I'm not constantly freaking out about the street!) and of course we went to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. This is a world wide gathering of hot air balloons and it goes for two weeks. We went at night and then "chased" balloons in our car another morning. We had a great weekend and here are some pictures!

Jeremy wanted his fruit pizza to look like Superman's Shield... and so i did my best. I love him!

Before they do the balloons they have a big carnival-like thing. There are booths with overpriced things and over priced food, but it's generally worth it because you can't get the stuff except in this setting...and besides, it's fun! Karli wanted to walk most of the night even though we had her stroller.

I don't think she understood the point of this picture, but it's still cute.

It was a pretty breezy day and so people were flying kites on the balloon field before the balloon crews got there. Karli REALLY liked the kites.

These were the first balloons up (they don't take off at night they just 'glow' by using the gas fire that heats them)

The fires were loud like a HUGE blow torches and Karli was pretty freaked out. She clung on to me and she didn't let go until we put her in her car seat to go home. She likes here momma quite a bit.

This is a few going up. They use fans to fill the balloon as much as they can first and then the use the fire to make it stand. It's pretty fun to watch and every one claps.

Our little family in front of the balloons (Karli still clinging for dear life.)

Labor Day

2010-09-08T14:47:00.001-06:00

Labor day weekend was a BLAST! My parents came down from Wyoming and spent it with us, and Karli was especially happy to have Grandpa and Grandma 'Quade' there. Here are some pictures from our weekend.

We went to the zoo and Karli just loved it! She got to see all the animals and since Grandpa and Grandma were the ones who showed her most of the animals she did not let them out of her sight. Any time they got too far away she pointed and "ooh"ed until we caught up. In this picture they are all looking up at the monkeys.

Karli and her Uncle Sean are in the bird cage.

Along with the zoo we went to botanical gardens and the aquarium. One of the gardens had everything giant sized so it felt a little like "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" and this is Karli inside a giant carrot.

And of course we watched BYU's opening game where they won (I think it was directly related to Karli's cheer outfit) That was a good night!!! Go Cougars!

And this last one is a picture of Karli's church dress. Man she is a doll! Thank you Grandma Schoonie for the cute dress.

McQuade Renuion 2010-Bear Lake

2010-08-08T15:54:00.000-06:00

We had a McQuade family reunion at Bear Lake this year. Everyone but Michael, who is in Korea on his mission, was able to come. Megan and Monte were awesome-they came up with the theme and the place, and planned tons of fun activities for adults and for the kids. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Also my mom and dad were amazing-they footed the bill for the house and food (which there was a TON) MAJOR THANKS to them too!!! From Monday to Saturday we played games, swam, played games, played volley ball, played games, sang, and of course played games!!! And our MAJOR news was Karli took her very first steps. I have so many pictures that I just did I slide show and then a video of Karli's first steps.

Karli's 1st Birthday

2010-08-08T14:49:00.001-06:00

For Karli's birthday we went up to Colorado so she could have a fun party with her cousins. She had her Grandpa and Grandma Schoonie, Megan and her family, Ben and his family, Mandy and Rick, and even Lacey and Mark who came down for the weeknend. All came to her party! Although she had no idea what was going on she sure had fun and so did we!!!

Karli and Samantha (Megan's youngest)

Mithchel, Samantha and Karli all playing.

Yummy Food!!!

Karli sees her cake, but mostly just wants the sparkly think that's sticking out of it.

"Cake?...I don't know what you're talking about... I didn't eat any cake!"

Karli got a lot of fun toys, and one of her favorites was this bike/walker thing. She doesn't quite get the bike part of it so we just keep it pulled up so she uses it as a walker. There's a video of her walking with at the end of the post.

Karli gets her new dress and new shoes on for church.

Schoonmaker Reunion 2010

2010-08-08T14:19:00.000-06:00

In June we had a family reunion in Utah where ALMOST everyone (we missed you Nicki) got to come. It was so fun to see everyone and even though Jeremy and I have been married almost 2 years and dating for over 5 years it was the first time I got to meet a few of Jeremy's siblings which was great!! So here's some pictures from that.

Our first day we walked around BYU campus and went to the Bean Museum which Karli LOVED because she loves animals! (dead or alive apparently) This picture is taken before we went to the museum it is of Karli and her mom and Evaleen and her mom.

Karli and her cousin Estella Grace (Robbie's youngest)

Jeremy is holding Karli and Ruby and they are not quite sure what they think about it.

One of the really fun things we did was go to a jumping place... it was like a big gymnastics training area and it had trampolines, mats, a big pit full of little foam cubes you could jump into...and it had sumo suits... which as you see in this picture and the following video Jeremy and Trista found.

Pre-Move Favorites

2010-08-08T13:35:00.000-06:00

We have so many pictures and videos for the last few months so I am just going to do a bunch of posts to get caught up. This first one is just some random pictures from before we moved.

This is a collage that I made of our pretty lady!

This is one of the all time favorites of McQuade children everywhere. The hat/boat/t-shirt story that my dad does with the newspaper. She is cute in her hat!

Karli and her Grandma.

Karli found one of her mom's hair ties and decided it was quite tasty...she looks like she has a goatee or something.

Karli got to try a shake from Sonic...big mistake we couldn't get it back from her.

Brushing her teeth all by herself...she's cool!

Grandma Schoonie got her a new book, and they are reading it together.

We Have Arrived!!!

2010-06-25T17:51:00.000-06:00

Well since the the last post SO much has happened. Jeremy graduated, got a job, and we have moved to New Mexico! We are renting a little house in a cute suburb of Rio Rancho. Karli was a trooper through the packing, moving out, moving in, and unpacking in which time we didn't get to spend as much time playing and reading with her. Jeremy has now completed the first week of training at his job and really likes it! I took a video of the house so that certain members of my family can see the house...but I sound pretty geeky so just ignore that please! Since we finally got internet today I will try to do some more catch up posts cause we have had a CRAZY few months with good stories and pictures. Hope you enjoy!

Breaking News!!!

2010-04-20T19:31:00.001-06:00

Karli has cut her first tooth, and almost her second. This happened today while I was taking a final. No word yet on the size or shape of the tooth, but we will keep you updated as information becomes more available to us!

2010-04-03T15:05:00.000-06:00

It's been a long time since my last post, and we don't have much news. Karli is growing fast: crawing, teething, etc. Jeremy has ONE week of school left! We have applied for several jobs but have yet to hear from them. Here are some pictures and of course a video. Enjoy!

Pretty little girl!

Karli LOVES going outside and playing at the park. Her favorite as you saw in our last post is the swing. She has gotten even more excited about swinging since then: we will go outside and she will start shaking and grunting with excitement, it's really cute.

Karli loves her daddy and when he gets home he is pretty exctied to play with her. Here is one of their favorite games.

Karli's Swing

2010-03-07T17:15:00.000-07:00

Well, Karli is getting bigger. She is semi-mobile and so close to crawling it's scary, she actually started eating some baby food,(much to my relief-there for awhile I thought I was going to have to nurse her exclusively until she left for school)and she has now grown out of her swing. I have posted a few videos first showing her in her new swing and then her growing out of it, and finally of her in a "big girl" swing. Enjoy I know we did!

Bedtime For Baby

2010-02-26T14:50:00.000-07:00

Karli was playing with her "Uncle" Christopher (who is practically a member of our family) after her bath and before bedtime she LOVES Christopher he makes her giggle. This is, in my opinion, one of the cutest new things that Karli does. (And she technically isn't doing it in this picture, but we CAN'T get a picture of her while she's doing it so just imagine it, because this is RIGHT before she did it) She lays on the ground and puts her feet up on whatever is close (in this case the futon) and she pushes against it and raises her butt of the ground so the only thing touching ground is her shoulders and head... of course it makes it rather difficult to change her diapers now because she will lift her hips off the ground there too.

Karli still likes to be swaddled, but she also like to have her pacifier in while she sleeps, and so we have to go in and put her binki in her mouth when she squawks. And we usually get her craned neck and a HUGE smile.

Karli was just laughing at me while I was rocking her to bed...not the result you usually want from rocking a baby to bed, but it was ridiculously cute!

Karli And Her Daddy

2010-02-10T12:22:00.000-07:00

Karli and I bring Jeremy to school some mornings, but before we go out she has to get all bundled up...she thinks the mittens are frusterating because she can't play with things very easily and they taste fuzzy. But she loves her daddy and she loves when she gets to see him in the morning before he goes. Jeremy is busy busy busy right now with finishing school and doing the final draft of his senior thesis, and he also has two jobs at BYU one job for Maket Source-HP AND he is also tutoring a few people in all of his "free time." These pictures are after Jeremy has gotten home from work and Karli is just SO happy to have him there. (If you can't tell she looks just a LITTLE bit like her daddy)

This video gets you a little taste of how cute Karli really is, AND it shows her rolling over at the end (which she still does A LOT)

Lacey's Wedding

2010-01-26T14:00:00.001-07:00

Well, after Christmas we went to Lacey's wedding which involved more traveling- blah, but was still really fun to be able to see her and Mark all lovey dovey and happy AND we got to play with lots of family which was awesome! Here are some pictures from the wedding and reception. Congratulations Lacey and Mark! (Lacey has REALLY nice wedding pictures on her blog check them out)

Karli and Madalyn had a fun time playing before the wedding, they are going to be great friends!

Karli and her mommy are so excited for Aunt Lacey

The typical Utah winter weather made Karli confused and a little bewildered at first (since we don't usually let her hang out in the snow) but she quickly discovered that snow is pretty and all, but she doesn't like it very much when it hits her face! Mommy's little girl.

Lacey and her sisters at the reception.

The Schoonmaker family at Lacey's reception it was beautiful and very fun.

Christmas

2010-01-19T16:46:00.000-07:00

We have had several complaints on the lack of new postings lately because of Jeremy's busy schedule finishing up his Senior Thesis, applying for graduate schools and internships, and of course going to and FINISHING school. So I have decided to try and pick the slack-my posts will probably not be on the same level as Jeremy's but at least there will be pictures and some explanations. In the last post Karli had just started laughing... Well she is growing like crazy, since September she has continued to laugh A LOT and she smiles and plays (something Jeremy is very happy about) and she has also started rolling... and rolling... and rolling all day long. I will turn my back for just a second and she will be half way across the room! She learns so much everyday and she is almost sitting all by herself. I will try to get some videos of her new tricks for the next post. For now enjoy these pictures that were taken this Christmas while we at Jeremy's parents house in Colorado Springs. We had a GREAT Christmas!!!

Karli and her Aunt Nicki are having fun on Christmas morning

Karli is playing with her new toys with her Daddy (who is in his M&M Christmas Pajamas)

Karli got the cutest Santa outfit which she went caroling in-she got tired and we went home near the end, but for the time that we were out she did a very good job of being shown off by her daddy AND her Grandparents

Another Christmas outfit-our daughter is mega CUTE

Karli Laughed!

2009-09-30T20:31:00.000-06:00

Karli laughed for the first time tonight. She kept laughing and we got a video of it. I hope that this makes you a little happy, it made me happy!

Baby Blessing

2009-09-03T21:39:00.000-06:00

One-Year Anniversary

2009-08-19T05:44:00.001-06:00

So I was not horribly smart this year, and did not take any pictures on our anniversary. It boggles the mind how I could forget to do such a thing, but there it is. So, with the lack of photographic evidence you will simply have to trust my memory to accurately portray the events of the night to you. Risky? I think so...(Now would be a good time to mention that I am writing this at 6AM. No, I am not an early riser, I am still awake, taking astronomical data. Why you may ask? I don't know, but if this post is wicked weird, I will blame it on lack of sleep rather than horrible literary ability on my part.)

August 15, 2008 is a day that will go down in my family history as the day that Kelly and I got married. It has been one year since we tied the knot (one year, I joked with Kelly, since I have had any fun). In the last year we have successfully prodcued a gorgeous baby (see post below,) moved into a new apartment, argued and debated about our future, and had an all-around pretty awesome time.

To commemorate the event, we had a date. On the advice of a co-worker we had dinner at a restaurant called "Four Seasons", a chinese Hot Pot,where you cook your food in a pot of boiling broth right on your table. It was quite the experience, the owners and only employees are a couple who I am sure only know enough english to explain the food. It was amazing,we are definately planning on going back in the future.

We had not decided whether we were ready to take the step of leaving Karli alone with a babysitter for a few hours in order to properly celebrate the occasion, but at the last minute, Kelly's cousin Drew was able to step in and babysit for us. So, we used some free movie tickets Kelly had and saw "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" a decent movie about people throwing around magic spells. The overall aura and feeling of the movie was only interrupted by Kelly's constant checking to see if Drew had called and if anything was wrong with Karli. Oh, my cute wife, she is so funny, she missed Karli so much!

All in all, it was a perfect anniversary and I was glad that I have spent the last year with my beautiful wife!

Karli is 5 weeks old!

2009-08-16T21:03:00.000-06:00

Hello again everyone! Our little girl has reached the ripe old age of 5 weeks old. We haven't put up pictures for a while, and I thought that I would no longer deprive all of you of seeing the most beautiful girl in the world! Here we have a picture of Karli sleeping, one of her kissing her mother, one of her and her aunt Lacey, and another of her sleeping in a pretty dress. I also included a video. She likes to sleep on mom or dad, but sometimes she wants to get a bit better vantage point. Here she is hiking up Mt. Mommy to get a peek at the surrounding area.

Video of our little lady

2009-07-22T00:57:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, here is a cute video of Karli sucking her hand. She cries until she has something to suck on, its pretty cute. Also some more pictures with her Grandma Schoonie and her Great-Granparents and her mom and dad. Also, for a few days after she was home she was very jaundice and we had to put her under this "tanning bed" thing. It looked really freaky, but she slept really well in it. (That is West Wing in the background of the video by the way)

More Pictures

2009-07-14T14:24:00.000-06:00

Grandma and Grandpa "Quade" stayed with us for a few days (thank goodness, who knew our daughter would like her grandpa more than her dad?). They always hang pictures of the grandkids up on their wall and so they took a picture with Karli and one of Karli to hang up on their wall. They also suggested we take a picture at the apartment she was born in so that is included as well. Enjoy!

Introducing Karli Kathleen Schoonmaker

2009-07-12T21:17:00.001-06:00

Here is the long-awaited pictures of our beautiful girl Karli Kathleen. We had a tough birth, but Kelly was amazing and made it through! After a few days we got home from the hospital and are now enjoying the company of Kelly's parents and all of my family that is in town. If you want to hear more about our birth story, feel free to call!

Zoo, Wedding, Graduation

2009-07-01T14:07:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone!
I can't figure out how to get these lousy pictures to work right for me on Blogspot. So I am just going to put them all below and you need to figure out which goes with which:). So here goes:
I am finally getting pictures up from our trip to Colorado and Wyoming in May. While in Colorado, one of the favorite things to do is go to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. When you go to the zoo there are a lot of fun activities, one is feeding the giraffes. I fed the giraffes a lot but Kelly thought that the giraffe tounges were gross so she decided that I could feed them for her. Here are pictures of my mom, dad and Trent as well as me looking like a giraffe and Kelly enjoying the heat of the day!

While we were in Colorado, we attended the wedding of one of my good friends Anne Gollan(Volkmer now). She and her husband Mike had their reception at the Officer's Club at the Air Force Academy and Kelly and I had fun meeting my old friends and hanging out with them. Here is a picture of Kelly and I and a picture of me, Anne, and my other good friend Amanda Jackson.

Finally, the week that we were in Wyoming, Kelly's brother Sean graduated from high school. Here are some pictures of him with parents and grandparents.

More pictures coming as soon as I can find the charger for our camera.

Catch-up

2009-06-03T13:21:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone!

I know it has been a long time since I have blogged and I apologize. Not allowing everyone to get there "Jeremy and Kelly Schoonmaker blog" fix must have been hard.

We have been pretty busy, I finished finals and started my work for the summer doing research and doing Physics homework help. The research is going well despite the fact that my advisor has decided to pretty much triple the amount of work that I need to do on my senior thesis. It is okay though since that means it will just be that much better. The homework help has been fun as well and has been a lot of help in keeping me thinking about physics and re-teaching me some things that I had learned in earlier classes.

Kelly is doing really well and is excited to be on her 35 week of pregnancy. We are gearing up to have the baby and are both really excxited about seeing her. Kelly has started a few projects in preparation for having the baby including a wall hanging, hypnobirthing, and moving to a new apartment. Between the three she stays very busy.

We spent some time out of town in May visiting my parents and Kelly's parents. I have pictures that I will include in the next few days from a trip to the zoo, a wedding, a graduation, baby clothes and birds! Stay tuned!

Crib Pics

2009-04-09T21:32:00.000-06:00

Those of you who would like to see pics of the new crib, you are lucky, because here they are.

Kelly crazy happy about the crib and starting to build it.

Trust a crib maker that can not spell?

After about 4 hours of building here it is all built and nice!

Kelly very tired but happy that it is done!

A few days later after the room is clean. We also
bought a mattress, sheets, and a blanket my mom sent.

Those of you who are observant can learn a lot from this previous picture. You will see that there is a "tuning fork" of galaxy classification published by the Spitzer Space Telescope in the background. A must in any new baby room.

The Crib Fiasco

2009-04-06T22:52:00.000-06:00

There comes a time in a pregnant woman's life that is often called "nesting." Kelly hit this stage hardcore a few weeks ago, and no corner of our house has been safe from cleaning or organizing since. The desk (shown in the post below) was a product of this. Since we bought the new desk it has been time for another new piece of furniture...the crib.

Kelly has been really wanting to buy a crib for the past few weeks, and after extensive(and those of you who know Kelly well will know that this means lists upon lists) research into what crib to get, we(she) decided on one that she really liked. We ordered it and Kelly has been patiently(impatiently) awaiting its arrival. Well, today I got the e-mail that said it was ready to get picked up. After looking over the size and weight, I, being the man, decided I would be able to hoist it into the car and get it home.

So, the trip began about 3:30pm with Kelly picking me up from school. We drove down to Wal-Mart, had to stop to get something to eat (neither of us had eaten since 8 that morning), and went to get the crib. As soon as they wheeled the flat cart out that had the crib on it, Kelly went BERSERK, laughing uncontrollably, she was so happy. We got the crib out to the car and to our dismay, it did not fit.

At this point in time I would like to say, it was darn close. My manly 3-d sense of packing was sooooo close to right, only about 3 inches off. Unfortunately, the size of the crib can't shrink 3 inches, so we were stuck. Lucky for us, Drew Barnes drove over with his truck to bail us out. We load the crib into his truck and head for home. Right as we are pulling out of the parking lot, we see a motorcycle accident. Not a bad one and not anything that had to do with us, so we drive past back on our way to Provo. Unfortunately, the road that we were going to take was closed, so we kind of randomly drove around for about 20 minutes all the while Kelly giggling like a mad woman.

We finally got home and started to put the crib together. After about 10 minutes, we noticed that in one of the legs, they did not drill the holes for the legs in the correct places. We thought if we could just sand about 1/8 of an inch off the top, it would work well. Trip #1 to Home Depot to get sandpaper followed and we got home at about 7:30. After about 40 minutes of sanding, our sandpaper was smooth and it wasn't getting any closer to fitting. Trip #2 to Home Depot to get more sandpaper. We did finally get it sanded down enough that we could get the screws in, but not well enough that we didn't have to really get mean with the screws. In doing so, I stripped one of the screws pretty good (lets hope it never needs to come out) and scratched up a small piece of the wood. Kelly, being the wonderful person she is, told me it was no big deal. So, we got the thing put together (though after we put the drawer together we realized we did it wrong and had to take it apart and put it together again). After it was together, we had to vacuum, move the furniture and clean the house.

7 hours later, the task was complete. The crib is built and ready for a mattress and sheets. Kelly could not be happier, though she is exhausted. Oh the joys of parenthood. And to think, I wanted to do homework tonight.

New Desk

2009-03-26T13:42:00.000-06:00

Kelly and I decided to spend a bit of our leftover wedding money (giftcards) and we found this beautiful desk that we really like. We already have a desk in our spare bedroom, but since that is getting converted to the baby's room, the desk has to go. The problem is that the desk is falling apart and won't fit out the door and etc. so we decided to get a new one. (By the way, if anyone wants a desk that only needs a little work to be useable, let me know) Here are a few pictures of Kelly building it (for those of you who don't know, building furniture is one of Kelly's most favorite things to do which is good since I am not exactly a "handy man." She takes care of most of the repair type things(lously lack of masculentiy)) and some pictures of it totally setup and looking good.

Update

2009-03-24T19:06:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, I haven't put anything up in a while, and I feel real bad about it. I realize that my blog is probably a daily stop in your internet surfing and there hasn't been anything new for a long time. For most of you there hasn't been anything interesting in an even longer time. So, I thought I would just do a quick update on our lives.

Kelly is doing really good. She has started going to a chiropracter every week or so, which makes her life way better. Despite the fact that she is no longer morning sick, the annoyances of pregnancy continue to haunt our house. She has had a lot of back pain and discomfort and sore muscles. Going to the chiropracter helps her out a lot and she always sounds a million times better when she gets home. Despite her aches and pains she has been really active around the house. She has set about trying to clean and organize the whole house, including moving furniture.(Very fun times-how many times does furniture have to move to be in the right spot?) She has also started working on her quilt again and it should be done really soon. We are excited about the baby coming and she is WAY excited to start getting "cute" baby things.

As for me, I am still plugging away at school. I have about three more weeks of classes until finals, and I definately don't feel ready for them. I have spent a lot of time working on my research and even presented last Saturday at the Spring Research Conference. It went well enough that I am pleased with the overall results. I will continue to work on the project and the writing of it over the next few months, with a goal to have it completely submitted by June.

Kelly's birthday was a few weeks ago, here is a pic or two. Hope you all are doing well.

Spring Research Conference

2009-03-02T14:30:00.001-07:00

I just got the news that my abstract was accepted for the Spring Research Conference! This is sort of exciting for me since I will be presenting research that I have actually done the analysis for (as opposed to my presentation at the AAS meeting where I was merely a peon). I will be presenting at 12:15 on March 21. I am not sure if it is something people are invited to, I think it is. If you are interested in coming, let me know and I will figure it out. Also, if you aren't interested in coming, don't feel bad. Attending a research conference for the department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences is definately something I would not go to unless I was presenting. Either way, I will let you know how it turns out.

Publishing

2009-02-28T00:04:00.001-07:00

Hello again everyone. Kelly and I have been doing all right, just having fun and working and what-not. The new exciting news for me is that the paper that I am the second author for has been accepted for publication. It is set to be published in the April issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. This is pretty exciting for me since it will be the first astronomy paper that I am an author for that is being published. When it is online I will send out the URL so that you can read it if you want. Along the same lines, I have also picked a project to do for my senior thesis. I am hopefully going to present the intial results of the research at the Spring Research Conference in March, and will hopefully be done with the thesis by the end of April. Also, if everything goes well, I will re-write it and try to get it published in the American Astrophysical Journal sometime this summer. Below I have included the abstract that I submitted for the research conference.

Analysis of the Hα and Hβ Temperature Curves of ∂ Scuti and ∂ Serpentis

In ∂ Scuti type variable stars, the two prominent spectral features are the Hα and Hβ hydrogen Balmer lines. Using a Strömgren color-index centered on one of these lines, an index can be produced that will give the temperature of the star. Both of these lines can be used for this temperature calibration. Using spectral data taken from the 1.2-m telescope at Dominion Astrophysical Observatory on two variables, ∂ Scuti and ∂ Serpentis, we applied the temperature index to each line to make a graph of temperature vs. time. Since these stars are pulsating variables, we expect to see them oscillate over time with the pulsation period of the star. Also, we expect to see the separate temperature calibrations in phase with each other. Here, we will present the preliminary results of this analysis.

The Baby

2009-02-10T19:16:00.000-07:00

Hello again everyone! I have great news for this post. Kelly and I went to the doctor today and she had an ultrasound. The technician lady was really nice and somehow knew what everything was. She kept wanting the baby to move so that she could see different things, so she would push on Kelly's stomach to get it to move around. Kelly didn't appreciate that too much, but we were able to see the baby's hands and arms and feet. We saw the spine, the brain, the face. Our baby appears to be perfectly healthy. This makes both Kelly and I feel so much better. I think that both of us were preparing for the worst possible scenarios that we could think of. We were both worried that the baby would be crippled or not have a heart or something like that. Lucky us though, our baby is wonderful and looks healthy.

Now I am sure that you all want to know what we are going to have. I can't stop smiling as I type this. We are going to have a girl!! A perfect, healthly little girl. I really wanted a little girl and am just so excited. With all of the fret and worry that has gone into this baby in her short little life, I am just so happy she is healthy.

Wedding Pictures

2009-02-02T08:42:00.000-07:00

One thing that I really wanted to do on this blog is to post some wedding pictures of Kelly and I. I still plan to post a few...someday. Until then, I will let you all know that I have put a lot (but not all) of our wedding pictures up on facebook.com for people to view. If any of you are not familiar with facebook, it is a networking website that started out as exclusively for college students. It has now grown large enough that anyone can join and network with their friends and family. Anyway, on my facebook profile, I have posted about 300 or so of the pictures from Kelly and my wedding. Enjoy!

Inauguration Day

2009-01-27T17:27:00.001-07:00

So last Tuesday, I was getting ready for school and realized that I would much rather stay at home and watch the inauguration, than to go to my class. Though, I have to wonder what kind of unpatriotic professor decides to hold class on the day of one of the most historical presidential inaugurations that I may ever live through. Wait a second, Democratic president, BYU proffessor, the wheels are turning.

Anyway, I really enjoyed seeing the inauguration, I was awed by how many people were there. I heard that almost 2 million people came from all different parts of the United States to watch President Obama take the oath of office. (On a humorous side note, they must have been pretty disappointed at the akward situation that insued while the oath was being taken. If you don't know what I am talking about, get on YouTube.com and look up a video of Obama being sworn in. Kind of funny!) I really love the way President Obama speaks. He is very inspiring and I think that the American people in general are very excited about his presidency. I am sure that many people do not agree with his politics, but it is an awesome thing to have an African-American president, especially one who is so popular. I feel that he is the right person to break that barrier and I hope that he will do well in office.

All in all, I think that our country has a lot of reasons to celebrate. It is no small thing that power has transferred peacefully from one executive to another, especially one who would not have been able to vote 50 years ago. America has broken an important barrier this year and it is good to know that I was there to see it happen!

Astronomy

2009-01-15T18:18:00.000-07:00

So, you all know that I am into astronomy. So much into it that it is my major. I have loved astronomy since I was a kid, and I am very excited that I get to be a part of the astronomical community in general. I recently attended a meeting of the American Astronomical Society where I presented a poster on some research that I helped my professor with. It was a very fun and exciting experience. Two-thousand astronomers in the same building. Wow!

I also work in the astronomy department as a TA for an observational astronomy class. It is fairly enjoyable, I get to help students learn how to use the telescope and take scientific data. This allows me to spend a lot of time at the ESC at night doing homework and answering questions. Most of the time we look at variable stars or open star clusters, meaning that the pictures we take are just fields of stars. There is not anything very magnificent in taking pictures of star fields, but once in a while we get a chance to take some fun pictures. This is a picture of the Hourglass Nebula that I took while helping some intro astronomy students with a project.

I also took pictures of the Orion Nebula (M42) when I was taking the observational astronomy class. This isn't the true colors of the Orion Nebula, but I really like how the picture looks.

This is two different versions of the same picture of Jupiter. In one I have the contrast set so that you can see the stripes on the planet, and on the other, I have the contrast set so that you can see the Galilean moons.

These final set of pictures are pictures that I took of the moon during the August 2007 total lunar eclipse. Usually, the moon is too bright for us to take pictures of, but since most of the light was blocked by the shadow of the earth, I could see it fairly well. I plan on trying to make a mosaic out of these four pictures, and if I ever succeed in doing this, I will post it.

Mongol

2008-12-30T00:13:00.001-07:00

Today in Casper, I visited one of the top tourist spots. Well, it may not be for some people, but for me it is a must-see in Casper, WY. It is the Mongolian Grill. Here is the deal, for 9.99 you get a gigantic bowl and then go down what looks like a buffet line, putting whatever you want in. They have veggies, chicken, pork, beef, and some other random nasty looking stuff. Then, comes the noodles. The trick to the noodles is to use your hands(yes your hands) to stuff as many noodles as possible into your bowl. This is more of an art-form than just a task. With your enormous bowl overflowing with noodles and other fixings, you hit the sauce bar. They have a Mongolian sauce(not sure exactly what this is, but it seems like a staple to have, so what the heck right?), barbeque sauce, lemon butter sauce, ginger, curry, garlic, hot sauce etc. You scoop whatever you want onto your bowl, for whatever flavor you want.

Then comes the fun part. Two oriental(Mongolian I guess) looking guys take your bowl and dump it onto a very large round, hot stone. They use what can only be described as very long sticks, to push your food around slowly on this stone. They add water to cook the noodles and will add pretty much as much spicy sauce as you want. Once the food is cooked they do the coolest thing. They get your noodles and fixings into a big pile and then with the most amazing finess, push it into your bowl. My description doesn't even do this part justice, you just have to see it.

The large bowl is enough to feed a family of four (not kidding on this people) but they do let you take leftovers with you. The most amazing thing about this whole ordeal is that the "mongol" (translation: food from Mongolian Grill) tastes just as good or even better when it is cold. So, take home your leftovers and eat it for a while.

Somehow, the best Mongolian food in the entire world is in Casper, WY. It is one of the strange tragedies in history how that happened, but it is the truth. If you are ever driving by, or passing through, or know someone that is from there, it is worth the stop. Jeremy's ratings: 4 1/2 thumbs up. (Why not 5 you ask? Well, the after effects on my digestive tract from all the spices is better left not posted online, but you can let your imagination take it from there!)

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

2008-12-24T20:35:00.001-07:00

Friends and family,

Kelly and I are spending this Christmas in Casper, WY. For me, things are a bit different, while im used to snow and cold, I am definately not used to the wind. Wyoming has crazy wind. We are having a really good time here and are just taking a few minutes before opening some Christmas Eve presents.

The McQuade family has a tradition to read a book called "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" a classic story. For those of you who have never read this book, you should do it. It is fairly short, and very cute. Kelly's dad reads it out loud and everyone gets quite choked up. The author is Barbara Robinson.

I hope that all of you out there are having a good Christmas season and are getting to spend it with those you love. If not, I hope you are safe and that you can return to your loved ones soon. Merry Christmas!

Black Friday

2008-11-28T18:19:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, Jeremy here again!

I am excited to see some people have seen our blog and taken our poll. I think that I am most excited to see that so far, the poll results have our baby being a girl! Hopefully word will spread about this blog and more people can vote for a girl!

So today is Black Friday. It is the day that most retail stores go into the "black" meaning that they have fulfilled their costs for the year and for the rest of the year, simply make profit. Being a sales rep for HP, I have the duty to go into my Best Buy store and work during this day. This is a little bit crazy! I admit that I have never been in the store as it first opens, when people are running all over each other to get the product they want and get in line to buy it. I will say however, that after this initial rush, some crazy stuff does happen!

Today, I got to the store at 8:30, 3 and 1/2 hours after the store opened. One might think that the crowds would have slowed down a bit in those hours, but you would be wrong. There were customers everywhere and all of the desparate to get help. While Best Buy does employ extra employees to cover the extra rush, it is never enough. I try my best to help customers find the products that they want and to answer their technology questions, but sometimes I get overwhelmed.

There are too many people and all of them expect help. I talked to a customer who wanted to know if any of a certain computer were in stock. I took the tag and was walking to a computer, on the way, I was approached, nay, attacked by a customer, demanding to know if we had any more of the "door-buster" monitors on sale. After trying to convince the customer that all the "door-busters" were long gone (and failing to convince) I took another step towards the computer and was asked by a customer for help on a router. I am not an expert on networking and so after trying to answer his questions (and failing) I finally got to a computer. While there, I was asked by another customer if a different computer was in stock. I looked both up and attempted to return to my original customer, being stopped every step along the way. I realize, that people do not want to wait for help, but mercilessly encroaching on my ability to help other customers, is really not the way to do it. This type of constant barrage of people continued well into the afternoon, with no one customer really pleased with the amount of service we are able to provide. I think that best way to describe it (for you MASH fans out there) would be "meatball sales" get them stable and get them out the door.

Also, for those of you who don't know "door-buster" means that they are the absolute best sales of the day and people are trying to bust the door down in order to get what they want. I think that is fairly self-explanatory, but for some customers, I think it escapes them. 6 or 7 hours after the store opens, I have customers coming up to me and asking me if we have the $99 monitor or the $379 computer left. I stare at them for a moment, wondering if they are serious, or just plain dumb. "No, I don't think we have any left," comes my reply. This is quite the understatement. There have been people camped out at Best Buy since Tuesday night (not an exaggeration) in order to get these deals and they are tagged for sale before the store opens. Now, if only one or two customers asked me about it, I could understand, but every other customer?? Is the word "door-buster" really not straight forward enough?

To sum up, I can say that while no single customer really hurt my feelings today or was really rude, I think it makes me sad for people as a whole. Hundreds of people storming Best Buy's all around the country, just to obtain a $400 computer that will be obsolete in 6 months, makes me well, a little disgusted with people in general.

I vow never to contribute to the madness! Never will you find me outside an electronics super store, selling my comfort and indeed my very soul, for a lousy computer. (At least not for a Toshiba notebook:)

Welcome to our Blog

2008-11-16T18:13:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone Jeremy here,

As Kelly and I start off on our lives together, we thought it would be an interesting experiment to start up a blog. It should be fun for us, and maybe it will be fun for you too. We will try to keep it updated as often as possible for your and our enjoyment. Both Kelly and I will be posting to this blog, so make sure to watch for the subtle differences. If someone posts "I miss my husband" or "my husband is awesome" or "isn't my man the best?", just remember that it isn't always Jeremy who is posting, try not to get confused!

So, to start out, here is the big news coming from the Schoonmakers, we are going to have a baby! Sometime in the summer, we will have a new and wonderful addition to our family. I think that it will be a girl, Kelly is under the delusion that it will be a boy. Poor girl. So, we are probably going to have a girl, and it will be fun. Kelly isn't loving the being sick part, but we are both excited to have a child.

That's all for now, I hope that you all will take some time every now and again and check us out. We will try to keep it interesting for you!