Some News...

I finally found a little down time to catch everyone up on what's been going on with us!
April 8th, after Shane got off work, we headed to Gretna, NE to his sister, Lindsey's house. Shane then spent all day Friday installing a fireplace mantel that he had made for her (pictures below). This was his first time at doing something like that, and it turned out beautifully! Most importantly, I think Lindsey loved it! While Shane was working on the mantel, Emma and I slipped over to Omaha to see my cousin Tracy and her daughter Taya for a little while.
We then all headed to Lincoln to spend the weekend with our friends, Heather & Jon Hughes. That evening we went out to eat to Carlos O'Kellys...where we laughed at lot! Saturday we all went to the mall, shopped a little and ate, then Shane, Emma and I headed to see our friends Jon & Kristin Jakub and their newest addition...baby Elizabeth Grace (pics below)! We spent a few fun hours catching up...it was great to see them! From there we went to see Shane's grandma, Phyllis and Uncle Joe. We couldn't stay long, but they were happy to see us! After that we headed to Janice's (Shane sister). Emma was able to play with her cousins, Mady and Parker for a little while. We then made it back to Heather and Jon's for supper. After supper, Shane's brother, Tanner came over to see us for a little while. Sunday morning we got up, said our good byes and headed to meet my mom and dad at their hotel. My dad drove my mom to Lincoln to meet us to go home with us for a week. After spending some time with my dad, we headed out of Lincoln. We had to stop at Gretna again so Shane could sand and put the final coat of paint on Lindsey's mantel.
We had a great weekend, and were able to see a lot of family and friends in a little amount of time! We so enjoyed our stay with Heather & Jon, they will be moving back to Indiana at the end of the summer, and I will really miss having them in Lincoln!

Baby Elizabeth Grace

Shane, kt, Emma, Elizabeth, Kristin, Jon
(for those of you that don't know, Shane and Jon roomed together in college, and Jon was the best man at our wedding)

Me, Emma, Heather (& baby Hughes)

now you can see that cute baby bump of Heather's better

Nana, Emma & Papa

Nana, Emma & me

Shane, Emma & me

the fireplace mantel...this isn't the finished product, its just after the first coat of paint, but I had to get a picture of it before we painted it again, so that the blue tape wouldn't be in the picture

So we were blessed enough to have my mom here for a week....ahhh, I love those times! She was a huge help with Emma while I sewed. I didn't get as much sewing done as I would have liked, but we ended up tackling some other projects that I needed to get to. One was going thru all of Emma's baby clothes and her entire closet. Upon opening up the totes of Emma's little newborn to 6 month clothes, I found tons of yellow stains on all of them...turns out that spit-up that you thought you got out of the clothes, actually turns yellow when stored. So we treated and washed everything that had the stains on them, and then dried them in the sun (the sun is suppose to bleach out the stains). It worked great!

I couldn't resist getting a picture of the clothes hanging on the line...it was so darn cute!

Nana and Emma 'typing'

Nana, Emma and me

Nana, Emma, Papa and me

Papa and Emma

My dad drove out and got my mom this past weekend. As always we were sad to see them go, but are so thankful for the quality of time we get together! We will get to see them again in June! And my mom was nice enough to clean my house (even scrub my shower) so that all I had to worry about was sewing this coming week!

Its been hard to get back in the swing of things around here! Here are a few pics from the week so far:

Emma and I fell asleep on the couch this afternoon...

Is this not the sweetest, most beautiful face you ever saw? Gosh, I love this kid!

Last, but certainly not least....some of you may have noticed Emma's shirt in some previous photos that said 'big sister'...well, no its not a hand-me-down...its new and its true...

On Easter, this was Shane's Easter present from Emma and I...a onesie that says 'Little Engineer' wrapped up with a positive pregnancy test!
Pictures below paint a picture of Shane 'getting' the news:

We woke Shane up and here he is opening the present and reading the onesie...

Shane has read the onesie, thinking this is cute, but has not seen the test yet, nor is 'getting' the message (come on, like Emma can fit in that onesie), I tell him there is more...

Shane sees the test and the light bulb goes on! I love this picture, it is priceless! Shane was shocked and not expecting it (neither was I, we weren't trying to get pregnant)! (Shane said this is his 'does this mean what i think it means' face). He was happy and excited to hear we are having another baby!
This surprise blessing has definitely changed some plans, but we are excited and very thankful. It was so nice to achieve pregnancy without all the problems and heartache we went thru trying to conceive Emma.
We had our first OB appointment on April 12th. We had an ultrasound, and right now my due date is December 6th. Since the baby was too small to measure yet, they measured the yolk sac (we could see the heartbeat tho!!!). We will have another ultrasound at my next appointment and will get a little more accurate due date. We are also planning to NOT find out the gender of this baby, until he/she arrives!
So far I am feeling extremely exhausted, nauseous (but no puking, yet), and food no longer tastes the same.
So with baby #2 on the way, means time to move up to the much saved for minivan! (I know, I am crazy for wanting one). So we are officially in the market for a good used Honda Odyssey (in case anyone has one they want to sell).

Well, there you have it...you are up to speed with the Struckmans. God Bless!!!

More Emma Video

Emma & her hopping bunny

Here is a little video of Emma and the hopping bunny her Nana & Papa sent her for Easter...the noise you hear in the background is me sewing (i didn't know Shane was videotaping).

Happy Easter!

He is risen, He is risen indeed! Happy Easter everyone! I pray that you all know our resurrected Jesus!
We had a very good weekend. Shane had Friday off, so he we went to Oxford for a chiro appointment for me, then on to the outlet mall! We spent a few hours there looking for Emma some summer clothes, pj's, swimsuit and shoes. She came home with lots of clothes, a swimsuit and only 1 pair of shoes, her size is very hard to come by! On our way home, we stopped off at the mall and Target. We found Shane a few shirts for work, me a pair of shoes, and Emma some more clothes. I also picked up Emma's Easter basket stuff while her and Shane went and got ice cream! We made it home just in time for me to put everything away and vacuum real fast before our friends came over for cards, they also brought dinner and dessert...it was such a blessing! Emma didn't have one moment of crabbiness all day long, and sat in her high chair and 'played' cards while we did.
Saturday, we just relaxed and hung out at home most of the day. Then today, we went to church. When we got home, I went into the house first and put eggs around the house and set Emma's Easter basket out. When Emma came in, I handed her her little bunny bag and told her to find the eggs...you didn't have to tell her twice, she went straight for the eggs and started filling her bag up. When she got to her basket she was super excited! We then fired up the grill for the first time this season and grilled hot dogs and brauts...very yummy! We all played for awhile, then Emma went down for a nap. I then worked on some sewing, while Shane headed to the basement to work on some stuff. It was a very good day, we enjoyed just being together! Below are some pictures from the week and today!

Emma 'camped' out by my ironing board while I worked. She was reading a book, on one of the pages is a duck, so she had to get up and go find some of her ducks!

Emma looking so grown up and beautiful!

Emma 'putting' her coat on

Emma 'measuring' just like daddy! Its cute, every time Shane gets out his tape measure, Emma runs to the junk drawer and wants mine so she can be just like daddy!

Emma sitting with daddy while he tries to catch a few winks...

Saturday morning, Emma played 'fashion show' while we tried on all her new clothes to make sure they fit. Last to try on was her swimsuit, and good thing, because she didn't take it off for over 2 hours!

It has cute ruffles on the butt!

Saturday, while Shane was browsing craigslist, he came across in ad for a white kids table with 4 chairs, we have been looking for one. He called the number, and the lady was actually only a couple of blocks away, so he went and checked it out and bought it for $25...it was a great deal! It shows some wear and had lots of markings on it, but all of the markings came off and the table looks great! Emma is really enjoying it! She definitely got spoiled this weekend!
I had to tease Shane that God has a funny sense of humor, because just 2 days before, Shane showed me an ad on craigslist for a wood kids table with 2 chairs that was the light wood color for $35 in iowa city, and I told him no, I didn't like that color and would prefer white, and that we needed 4 chairs, not 2...he told me I was way to picky when it came to buying used and would never find exactly what I want...ha ha!

Emma finding her first egg!

She was so happy!

Emma filling up her bunny bag!

Emma's Easter basket. It was filled with a little puppy that looks like our neighbor's dog Rusty that Emma just loves! As soon as she saw it in the basket she grabbed it and screamed 'Rusty'! She also got candy, a wood puzzle, 2 Berenstain Bear books, and play jewelry.

Emma finding 'Rusty'

Emma trying on her jewelry

Looking like such a big girl in clip-on earrings!

The jewelry set was the Little Mermaid, and the necklace had a button that when you pushed it, Ariel would sing...this is Emma singing along with it!

Me and Emma (Emma is singing in this picture as well!)