Laila is going to be a big sister!

We are SO thrilled to announce that Laila is going to be a big sister! Baby #2 is on the way!!!!

We feel so blessed and thankful, and we're so excited for the adventure that lies ahead. Thank you to all of you that love us and pray for our growing family. Please continue to keep us and the new baby in your prayers. We hope that those of you that don't live near or that we don't get to see as often as we'd like, will continue to enjoy following our journey through this blog with Baby #2, just like you did with Laila. We'd love to hear from you as well! Send us an email or leave a comment when you stop by to visit. We love you guys! Hopefully we will be updating soon with Baby Schuck #2's first photos!

Summer Loving!

June and July have been filled with so many fun memories! From Laila's first day at school, Father's Day, beach fun, the 4th of July, swim lessons, our first time at Aquatica, and fun with family and friends, we have had a blast! Enjoy the slideshow!

Sophia is here!!!

Our good friends Lisa and Eric Petersen had their little baby girl and she is absolutely perfect! Sophia Marie Petersen was born on July 15 at 5:12 PM. She weighed 8 lbs 7 oz and was 20.5 inches long! We can't wait to meet her in September! Congratulations again Lisa & Eric! You guys are going to be amazing parents and we are praying for you on every step of your journey. Love you both!

Cocoa Beach 2010

We had a blast this year at Cocoa Beach! Laila and I got to stay over there with Ammy for the whole week in June, and Daddy and Papa came back and forth from work as they could. Holly and Scooter got to hang out a little too, and we got a chance to meet up the Moss Family for dinner one night as well. It was such a fun week, and the weather could not have been more perfect! I'm so thankful for times like these that we get to be with our family, take a break from the day to day grind, and get refocused and reenergized for all that lies ahead. Hope you enjoy our pictures! Click the play button below to watch the slideshow!

Laila turns 2!

It's hard to believe just 2 short years ago I gave birth to our first daughter, Laila Grace! They have been an amazing 2 years! She is definitely the greatest blessing from the Lord we have ever received! Before you have kids people always tell you how fast time goes by, but I think you don't realize how true that is until you actually experience it yourself. It's amazing to think how much Laila has grown these past two years and how much we have experienced with heralready. A thousand memories we share with a million more to go! When you get a chance, check out how much Laila has grown these past two years by clicking on the right side of the blog under "How big is Laila? So big!".

June 2008

June 2009

June 2010

The slideshow below has a few pictures of Laila's actual birthday on June 2nd. This year was Laila's Golden Birthday...she turned 2 on the 2nd! The rest of the photos are from Laila's Luau!!! As you can tell from the pictures, we had an awesome time celebrating Laila's 2nd birthday with family and friends!

Catching up!

I cannot believe I have been so horrible with keeping up with my blog! It has been about 6 months since I last updated it. I'm so sorry to those family and friends that like to keep up with us through this and that are not on Facebook to see recent pictures and updates. I'm really going to try to be better at it in the months to come! So, here I go....highlights from January thru May 2010 in a nutshell!

To start off 2010....

-we got to see horses with Oma, Aunt Susie, and Aunt Bekah

-we celebrated Papa Schuck's birthday

-our good friends from Tallahassee the Garcia's came for a visit and we had fun at Sea World with them

-Laila, Mommy, and Grammy went for to visit family and friends in Tallahassee

February 2010....

-Laila had fun at Lake Eola with Oma

-Mommy & Laila had fun with friends at our playgroup

-Great Papa and Great Grandma MaryAlice come for over for dinner

-Valentine's Craft and playdate

-Isaac and Laila spend Valentine's Day together!

-Family fun at Lake Eola

March 2010....

-we had fun with friends and family fun at home

-Laila, Mommy, and Grammy attend a Baby shower for Laura and baby Gracyn

-Isaac's 2nd birthday party

-Mommy's 30th birthday

-Easter crafts and playdate

-Laila and Mia at Lake Eola

April 2010.....

-we had lots of fun this month with friends and family

-on Easter we went to church and had lunch and an Easter egg hunt with family

-we had a fun beach day with Aunt Susie & Aunt Bekah and then afterwards Laila got to visit Isaac

-Family picnic at Lake Eola

-Mommy & Laila had fun with friends at Gatorland

-Laila's first pedicure :)

-Laila met Lulabelle for the first time

-We had a blast in North Carolina with our best friends!

May 2010....

-Laila went on an airplane for the first time on our trip to New York (a 30th bday present for Mommy from Grammy & Papa!)

-Laila went to Disney for the first time with her friend Caroline (thanks to the volunteer for a day program from Disney!)

-We had fun at Sea World with our friends from Tallahassee on Mother's Day and enjoyed a nice dinner with family afterwards

-We helped throw a shower for Lisa to celebrate baby Sophia

-Fun times with family

-Beach day with Papa Schuck

-Laila went in the potty for the first time this month (no pictures of this) haha :)

-Although we had lots of fun this month, this was also a very tough month for our family because Laila's Great Papa Phelps was in the hospital. On May 14 Papa fell and broke his C1 vertebrae. He was in the hospital for about 4 weeks and has recently been moved to a specialty hospital that is helping him get off the ventilator. The doctors are calling Great Papa "the miracle man" because this injury is almost always life threatening or causes paralysis. We are so thankful that God has made Papa a strong man and has given him the extra strength to get where he is today. We know he still has a long road of recovery ahead, but we know he can get through this with God's help and the support and love of his family. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

As you can see, we've been very busy these past 5-6 months of 2010, but it has been a blast! We are looking forward to seeing what the rest of this year has in store for us! Pictures from June and Laila's 2nd birthday party coming soon!!! :)

The most important things in life aren't things!

Christmas 2009 was a time was a special time for our little family! We are so thankful for all the Lord has given us, and we realize now more than ever that the most important things in life aren't things. We got to experience a lot of fun things this past holiday season, but by far, the best part about those things were the people and seeing God's hand in each situation. Nate and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on December 11th! We feel so blessed to have each other and to have a beautiful daughter that is most definitely a gift from the Lord. We are thankful for our awesome family, and for the friendships He has given us as well. 2009 has brought some hard times for us just like it has for so many others, but the Lord has been faithful and has continued to grow us in so many ways. We are looking forward to seeing what all He has in store for us in 2010!

Hope you enjoy the pictures of all the good times we had in December! I haven't been doing a good job at keeping up with the blog lately, but I've still been taking lots of pictures, as usual! :) Enjoy!



Here is a slideshow of miscellaneous stuff we did in December!






Below is a slideshow of pictures of our two trips to Seaworld in December!






This next slideshow is of our Christmas activities! We had a wonderful Christmas this year with Laila and all of our family! Unfortunately I didn't do a good job of getting pictures of everybody, but the time spent with our family and the memories we made were awesome! For those of you we didn't get to see this Christmas, we missed you and look forward to seeing you soon!

Happy New Year!!! Pictures of our first few weeks in 2010 coming soon!

November 2009!

From birthday parties, to sporting events, to play dates with friends, and Thanksgiving, November has been a very fun-filled month! It amazes me everyday how fast Laila is growing up! She is doing so great, and we feel blessed beyond measure to be her parents! I have taken tons of pictures this month, so I separated them into slideshows to make it easier on myself. Enjoy!!!

This first set of pictures is just random stuff we've been doing throughout November!

The next set of pictures is from Laila's Great Grandpa Lail's 75th birthday celebration!

This next slideshow is from a surprise party we had for Laila's Great Grandpa Phelps' 77th birthday!

The last slideshow of pictures is of Thanksgiving. I didn't do a good job of taking pictures this day of everyone, but I did get a few cute ones!

The videos below are pretty random, but I thought they were cute and decided to post them!

Laila having fun with Oma, Aunt Bekah, and Aunt Susie on our Game night!

Laila being silly at Papa and Grammy's house!

Discovery Cove

On November 17th we took our first trip to Discovery Cove! We went with Nate's mom and sisters, and it was a blast! Joy's cousin, Melissa, is a trainer at Discovery Cove and she got to show us all the behind the scenes stuff and introduced us to Rose, the dolphin she was working with that day. Although the water was a bit chilly at first, it was a gorgeous day out. Laila did great! We made a lot of wonderful memories that day! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Pumpkin Patches and Halloween Fun!

This first set of pictures is from a Pumpkin Patch Laila and I went to with our Mommy & Me group at the beginning of October. It was a beautiful day and lots of fun to watch the kiddos running around checking out all the pumpkins!

Look at all these choices!

Laila kept signing and saying "ball"!

Laila and her sweet friend Avery!

Avery checking out Laila's hair!

Laila found a pumpkin just her size!

Mama, I want this one!

Giving a pumpkin to Avery!

Sweet girls!

Taking a break for lunch. Laila loves bananas...this was her 2nd of the day!

Laila must have been worn out from looking at all the pumpkins! She just wanted to be pushed around in the stroller with baby Chase. I seriously couldn't get her out of it without her throwing a fit!

This next group of pictures is from a Fall Festival that we went to with our friends at River of Life church. Laila hung out with a few friends there and had a blast! It was so fun to see all the kids in their cute costumes!

Our little Pebbles from the Flintstones!

Addie and Laila checking out each other's costumes!

Avery the Angel (this was after she took off her wings and halo), Laila as Pebbles, and Addie as a Salsa Dancer!

Trying to get a good picture of our girls all looking at the camera wasn't going to happen tonight!

Enjoying her first lollipop!

Madison as Wonder Woman!

They were in deep conversation!

After the Festival we stopped by Papa and Grammy's. Laila kept making this funny face and then laughing at her self!

On Halloween morning, Nate and I took Laila to another Pumpkin Patch at Sanlando Methodist. We got some cute pictures of her trying to find the perfect pumpkin!

Laila thought she was strong enough to pick this one up!

These two were more her size and a little easier to carry!

Laila measured at around 31" this fall!

Pocahontas!

Mama and Laila posing with the scarecrows!

I guess her little pumpkins got too heavy for her! She wanted to pull them in a wagon!

And then she wanted to get in with them!

We are definitely thanking God for her every day! Like I always say, she is the greatest blessing from the Lord we have ever received!

Later in the day on Halloween, we were invited to a party at the home of the Moss Family! We enjoyed some good food and then took the kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood! Laila didn't quite understand what to do with the candy that was given to her at each house. She just wanted to take it out of the bucket and hold it all in her hands! In the end though she kind of got the hang of it and was having a great time!

Fireman Isaac to the rescue!

Pebbles and Fireman Isaac

Trick-or-Treat!

Take two...trying to get her to look at the camera is impossible!

Love her!

Laila with another Fireman, Jax!

The Moss Family (Baby Luke will be here soon!)

Isaac giving Laila a high-five!

Another family shot!

Our little Pebbles had a blast this Halloween!

Below is a video of Laila, I mean Pebbles, dancing at the Fall Festival!