Last night was "Parents Night Out" at our church. That means a night with no kids!! They hold these evenings once a month at our church to raise money for the youth group. Chris and I try to do them as often as we can. We dropped the kids off and went out to eat at CRAVE,this really unique restaurant in Mt. Pleasant. It was awesome! The restaurant was really cool, the food was great! - I had seared sea bass and mashed rutabaga! Chris had a steak and creamed spinach (okay, I ate most of the spinach, it was aw-some!) We also each had a glass of wine which we usually never do, but we both agreed we need to drink a glass of wine more often! Its amazing how much more relaxed we were!  We both have "Type A" personalities and we are always DOING something. Chris has been working A TON and I am always busy with the kids and the house. It was really nice to just sit and talk and relax. We need to do that more.

  Yesterday I was a super "green"woman. As in I helped out the environment. I rode my bike to the grocery store (about 8 miles round-trip) and took my cloth grocery bags so I didn't need paper OR plastic.  Chris was busy yesterday too. I owe him at least $300.00 because he changed my front AND back brakes on my van and also located and rectified that annoying rattling sound coming from the trunk door. And all of this on one of his few days off.

   Wednesday I was lucky to get to help out with Sophie's class at her school. Her teacher needed a helper and I was glad to volunteer. We painted all the kids hands and feet for a craft project. I hung out with Sophie's class all morning and got to see what a typical day would be for her. She was so excited and proud to have me there.  I have to saw, her pre-school is run like a well-oiled machine. In the 3 hours that I was there I got to experience chapel, snack, music class and of course craft time where we painted hands and feet.  It was fun!

Our neighbors and friends the Emersons welcomed their 3rd baby on Tuesday- Baby Ashton was born Tuesday eveing and weighed 9lbs 6 oz. Chris and I watched their other two kids while they were at the hospital. Their son Drew is almost 6 and is a friend of Joey and their daughter Anna is almost 3 and is a friend of Sophie and Vangie so everyone had a fun time. We were so glad to be able to help them out in this exciting time! When you are in the military and live far from family your friends and neighbors become like your family.

Check out the NEW PICS page, I added some new pictures.

Today I painted Sophie's nails light pink with extra sparkles. I also did her blond hair in a Partial  Up-Do with lots of beautiful hair clips.  She had school this morning and likes to look beautiful.

Yesterday I took all the kids to the theater on base while Chris slept. We saw
High School Musical 3 . Everyone liked it. Sophie liked all the Cheerleaders and Joey liked the Basketball Players. Vangie just likes the movies because she gets to eat candy and popcorn!
I rode my bike there and back- Joey and Sophie sit in the bike cart and Vangie sits in the baby seat. This was a very difficult ride because the wind was blowing at me with huge gusts, PLUS on the way there is more up-hill. It is like pulling a parachute!!It was a grueling workout. On the bright side getting back home was super-easy because the wind was at our back.

Happy Friday everyone!  We really love our Fridays here at the Schmitt house. Friday usually means MOVIE NIGHT! We make a HUGE bowl of popcorn and drink soda while we lay on the floor on a bunch of pillows and watch a fun movie. I bought popcorn at the store today and Sophie saw it and said " I know why you bought popcorn, tonight is movie night!" 
  
Also, Joey was selected as the STAR STUDENT in his music class this week. Yeah Joey!

Chris and I have decided that Evangeline is indeed much more spoiled than our other two children. She just seems to get away with anything and she can usually get whatever she wants!  It is because she is the baby. Chris and I burnt out our tough parenting skills on the other two and so now we are much more laid back. How unfair is that?!? 

I guess she really doesn't "get" any more than the other two, she just "gets away with" more! She is always getting into my makeup or climbing the pantry shelves to get to the stash of candy. Yesterday I went to wake her up from her nap and she was under her covers eating all of Joey's Valentines candy! She looked at he and said very innocently "Mommy, Mess!" And it WAS a mess, she had powdered sugar all over her self and the bed.......   I could see myself getting upset if that had been Joey or Sophia. But I just had to laugh!! 

I guess the great part about have a few kids is you HAVE to be laid back.

Chris had yesterday off from work so we had "Family Fun Night". We ate an early dinner at the Olive Garden and then walked around the Mall.

The Kids want to THANK their WONDERFUL grandparents for the Beautiful Valentines Day Cards they received in the mail. They get SO EXCITED to get mail now. Thank you so much for sending cards!  They are each saving their 5$ for something special.

Joey received a certificate for his own personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. He got this for reading 100 books in 100 days, Go Joey! So last Thursday night we all went to Pizza Hut. They just remodeled the one closest to our house and it is really nice. Joey got sausage on his pizza and Sophie wanted black olives on hers. Vangie just ate a bit of everyones pizza so she did not get her own. 
  
Chris had his 4 days off over the weekend. We stayed busy and did lots of fun things.  On Saturday we drove to Columbia, SC and went to the zoo. We say a big gorilla, grizzly bear, lions and zebras, elephants and some cute turtles. We went for a long nature hike to some very beautiful botanical gardens. The weather was perfect and it was a really fun day. 

On Sunday after Church we rearranged the furniture in our house. We moved Vangie in to Joeys room and turned Vangies old room into our new office! This is really great because now it frees up a lot of space downstairs where the kids can play.  I forgot how difficult it is to move furniture around!  Sunday afternoon we took the kids to the base theater to see "Beverly Hills Chihuahua". They really enjoyed it.