happy birthday mama chewners!

my mom turned a-certain- age-where-it-may-be-viewed-inappropriate-to-mention-at-this-point this past saturday :) mark and i went out to celebrate with mom, dad and allie to the rusty scupper in baltimore. my mom is a huge fan of their cream of crab soup, so of course we all had to get our own bowls- and i must concur, it was quite yummy! after lunch we retired back to the chewning house for a bit to hang out and eat some of the delicious pumpkin caramel pudding muffins i made in honor of mom's bday :)

happy birthday momma!

happy belated birthday to a princess!

last friday, princess alana turned 5 years old! we heard that she had a cowgirl/cowboy party with six shooters, cowpeople hats and a horsey cake, we just wish we could have been there :)

happy birthday alana!

us with alana this summer at the beach

so many updates!

it has been quite a while since i've updated the blog, for which i profusely apologize! a lot of changes and events have kept the mr. and i busy since mid-august. mark dove head first into his mba program and i haven't seen him since :) in all seriousness, mark does spend quite a bit of time working on homework, meeting with groups, studying, doing extra activities and attending club meetings- but he's enjoying learning and maybe he will one day learn to relish in the extacy of 5 hours of sleep a night. maybe. one day.

my new job at the Holocaust Museum has kept me very busy during the days, for which i am extremely thankful! being busy and wrapped up in a number of things helps the days go by faster and brings a sense of accomplishment (usually!). since i'm a little past the one month mark, i'm starting to take ownership of certain things, which i love.

although quality time with one another has lessened quite a bit from the amount of we got to spend during our "summer of unemployment," we've managed to make some great friends through work and school and have gotten to hang out with them on (super fun) occassions and there will certainly be more of that to come!

also, in other, wonderful and beautiful news, alexandra olivia schmidt was born on sunday, september 14th! lexi's parents are mike (mark's older brother) and diane (awesome sister in law) and her big (5 years old this friday!) sister is alana (best. princess. ever.). congrats to the fam!

Morgan-mania

this past week we were SO lucky to be able to spend some time with mark's sister, susan and her husband shawn and their 5.5 month old son, andrew! although it was a whirlwind tour for susan and shawn, we felt like we were able to see them quite a bit, and enjoyed every minute of it! the main reason for their trip from hawaii was that it was time to get andrew baptized in the church. plus, a little pool time never hurt anyone :) below are some photos from the week:

mark and andrew upon andrew's arrival in town

uncle mark lovessss to play airplane

some kisses from daddy shawn before pool time

mamma susan and andrew

family portrait, and andrew's first time in a pool!

i had to sneak some baby boy time in the pool, he's just the coolest kid ever

susan and andrew right after andrew's first time under pool water- he's gonna be a swimmer like mamma

mark and shawn setting up the grill after pool time

dad schmidt enjoying some sleepy baby love

at the schmidt's for some time with family and friends

the baptism, with Godparents, sebastian and amy

mom and dad schmidt with andrew after his baptism

mark and i with susan, shawn and andrew

mark with andrew after lunch in annapolis

andrew with mom schmidt

the cutest nephew i've ever had

i told you uncle mark loves to play airplane

mark, me, susan and shawn before they headed out of town back to hawaii :(

Working Girl

Hooray! After a few months of being unemployed and near the point of stressing out about it, I got a wonderful job offer with the Holocaust Museum this afternoon! It's the job I REALLY wanted and I think it's going to be a wonderful experience and opportunity. It's certainly a step in the right direction, as I've wanted to get into the museum world for a long time and I'm hoping to get into a graduate program for next Fall. Everyone in the office is very upbeat and extremely nice and welcoming, so I'm looking forward to working with them. It's been fabulous having the summer off and just hanging out with family, friends and Mark, but I am so thankful to be getting back into the "working world" in a few days! Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers during this transition period for Mark and I, we're grateful to you all!

puppy time!

i got a call from my mom on tuesday afternoon. her and my dad were going to go pick out a puppy. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! my parents had been talking about getting a 2nd lab for a while, a playmate for their awesome and amazing yellow lab, buddy. they have gone back and forth and been seriously talking about it for a couple of weeks. they found a breeder north of baltimore whose puppies had just turned 8 weeks. they decided to get a black male lab, and name him "moose," which i think is adorable and certainly fitting. below are some photos...of course i had to go over and check out the new chewning addition!

with moose and buddy before my sisters got home from camp

gettin' some puppy hugs in

puppy kisses are the best, and moose dishes them out like a pro

my dad came out of the house once the girls got home and surprised them, this is allie learning that they just got a puppy!

katelyn holding moose for the first time, it's true love

brothers, checkin' each other out

a little doggie butt sniff never hurt anyone...

there were a lot of friends that wanted to see moose, so he tired out quickly and learned fast that the only place where little hands can't reach you to pick you up is under the minivan, so he tried to catch some shut-eye

my dad let it go for a little bit, but he needed some more playtime/male bonding with moose

after almost everyone was gone, we brought the crate inside and moose mosey'd on over and was so tuckered out that he didn't even care that his little bum wasn't in the crate before he fell asleep

4 animals and the zoo

this past weekend mark and i decided to have my little sisters over. we thought a fun time would include a trip to the national zoo, a dip in our community pool, some dinner and a netflix. obviously, we didn't feel the need to photograph the pool, dinner and netflix, but we had a great time with the girls and below are a few fun photos from our zoo trip!

it was a hot day and the panda's were all inside, lounging

katelyn, toucan sam and allie (i was starving, where are my fruit loops?!)

in her spare time, allie also screeches like an eagle.

"come and knock on our door..." oh wait, katelyn is too young to know that tv show...

looking up at a sleeping porcupine whose teeth need some serious attention

the three of us crazy ladies

a HUGE hippo in the water

the meerkats took some time out from the manor to pose for this photo

golden tamarin with it's baby on it's back

i'm pretty sure we posed with almost all of the bronze animals around the zoo

a cuban croc who liked to show off it's teeth and yellow-ish mouth

posing before we leave- the trademark lion photo

a 14th birthday

on july 19, 1994, my little sister, katelyn, was born around 9 am. and i saw the whole thing. seriously. everything. it's a day i'll never forget, for various (obvious) reasons. this year she turned 14 (ah!) and is about to start high school (double ah!). mark and i were lucky enough to be able to spend the day with the chewning clan down at a family friend's home on the severn river. we spent the day on the dock, swimming, eating and taking turns enjoying the sea doos! at one point, i took katelyn and allie (my 11 year-old sister) out on a sea doo. i was a little nervous that i might throw them off or something if i went too fast, but eventually we ramped it up a bit and had a great time. once we decided to turn around and head back, the sea doo started acting funny and then katelyn uttered the worst words of the day, "jenn, i think we're in the grass." i looked down and realized she was more than right. the one warning we had gotten from our family friend was, "don't go in the grass, if you do, you could ruin the sea doo. you have to turn it off and pick the grass from the engine." we weren't anywhere near the coastline, so i was confused how there was so much grass as far out as we were. none the less, i had to jump down and try to pull the sea doo farther into the center of the river. the grass was weedy, thick and not so pleasant on my legs- i tried not to think about what was living in it. after a couple of minutes, i asked kate if she wouldn't mind helping since i couldn't do it alone. she was SUCH a trooper and jumped out and we pulled the monster to safety while allie supervised. after a long time of picking out tons of grass, we made our way back. everything turned out fine, but it was not the best part of the day...

after cake with everyone, we went out the dinner to celebrate! good times had by all :) here are a few photos from the day:

allie, down by one of the sea doos and the dock

allie, swimming in the riva'

all of us with, ready to dive into some delicious birthday cake!

beach vacations

i apologize for the lack in postings lately, but for part of the time mark and i were lucky enough to spend 2 weeks with our families at a couple different beaches. at the end of june we made our way down to fernandina beach, florida with mark's parents and mark's brother's family to visit some more extended family down there. the weather was perfect and the beach waves were awesome! it was nice to spend a little over a week with everyone :) on our way back up the coast, we stopped in myrtle beach to stay with my parents and sisters for about 4 days and enjoy the sun and surf some more and we even watched 4th of july fireworks over the water, which were beautiful (and also the anniversary of mark's proposal last year!).

check out some of our photos from the trip below:

we visited my nan in micanopy, fl on a side trip while we were in fernandina- she just turned 85!

mark and his grandma on uncle willie's tour boat of amelia island and part of georgia

princess jenn and princess alana on the tour boat :)

us in fernandina before we went downtown to tour the shops and eat some ice cream

i finished knitting my 1st scarf while we were on vacation!!!! yay, now i'm ready for winter (but not mentally!)

dad schmidt and alana in the waves

dad schmidt and mark wading in the water

us at fort clinch

us on the beach for the 4th of july fireworks

mom and dad chewning waiting for some fireworks on the 4th