Merry Christmas!

We wish you all a Happy Holidays and a Very Merry Xmas

Jake (1994-2008)

We had to put Jake down this past weekend. His health was failing and we've been putting off the unavoidable for awhile now. Every move seemed to cause him more pain so he spent most his days simply laying around.

Who would have imagined back in 1994, that 6 week old teeny tiny mutt would bring so much love and fun for 14 years. It's weird to think about but he was a big part of our lives for 14 years. Heck, we've had the kids for less than 9.

Here's a picture of jake at 8 months old and one when he was about 12

We'll miss you

November

This month has been a crazy month. Soccer finally ended with Cole's team losing in the playoffs. He ended the season on a high note, scoring the team's last goal.

As soon as one activity ends, another seems to pick up.. Here's a picture of Cole at the Scout Calvalcade zip-lining

Halloween 2008

October 2008

October was an extremely busy month. Every weekend was filled with Sporting events, scouting events or other things that we had to do.

We did find some time to take a mini-vacation, thanks to our friends Alan and Elizabeth, who got married in Keystone, Co. We took advantage of the little time we had to cram in as much as possible. We toured the town of Golden (home of Coors), rode the Georgetown Loop (old mining train), visited the Loveland Pass, toured Breckenridge and Vail. Dad also got some time in for some very unsuccessful fly fishing.

Check out the Aspens in these pictures.

Noah's 5th Birthday

Noah's 5th Birthday Party was this past weekend and it was AWESOME! He got to take 2 of his best buddies - Matthew, Bridger and their dads to a Braves Game!


They had a Great time. As you can tell by the pictures, they got their fill of Peanuts, CrackerJack, Hot Dogs, Cotton Candy, Pretzels and Ice Cream.

It was the last Home game for the Braves this year and it was against the Mets.

Around the 5th, with the Braves down, we let the kids run the bases to burn some energy.
Well in typical Mets bullpen fashion, they choked and the Braves had an awesome comeback to win the Game.




All in all it was a great day!!

Busy September

September has kicked into full gear and the activies have kept us busy.
All 3 are playing Soccer.
Jordan and Noah are on the "Gold" Team - Noah is turning into quite a "ringer" He is still one of the smallest on the team but 3 games into the season leads the team with 10 Goals.
Jordan is getting into the action this year as well. She is playing awesome and has scored a few goals herself.

Cole is on a traveling team and although they have not won any games thus far, his team is improving. He is definitely one of the bright spots on the team and it is a lot of fun to watch.

September is also good for FOOTBALL. Cole and I were lucky enough to go to the Falcon's home opener. We had a great time seeing Matt's Ryan's 1st NFL pass go for a long Touchdown and Michael Turner set a team record, Rushing for 220 yards.

Here is a picture of Cole and of the Biggest American Flag I had ever seen. This one covered the entire football field.

Tourists in our own backyard

It's been awhile since I have updated the site so wanted to provide a quick note.

Laura's Aunt Pat recently came to visit for a few days. In addition to watching the kids Soccer games (Noah and Jordan each scored 2 goals in a 6-4 victory), we decided to go downtown.

From SchwartzCentral

We headed to Atlanta and played tourist for the day. Our first stop was the CNN Center Tour. This turned out to actually be pretty fun. The tour itself lasted about 55 minutes and I think we all learned a lot.
Laura got to play Anchorwoman and read the evenings Top Story. The kids thought it was awesome to see Mom on TV. Cole was picked from the crowd and the Tour Guide used him to explain how the Green Screen process works. What was great was that Cole had on a Green Shirt so when they displayed the Weather Map, he looked like a Floating Head across the TV Monitor. He was very excited.

Along the way Cole commented "This is really Fun". The Security guard said it was the first time he had ever heard a child say "this was fun"

On the way home we visited The Varsity. For those of you not familiar with The Varsity, you are greeted with a "What'll ya have? What'll ya have?"
Of course we had the world famous Hot Dogs, Chili Burgers and of course A Frosted Orange (kind of like a creamsicle shake) - Yum

Jordan is 6 !!!

Jordan's party this year was at The Clay Cafe. Jordan is still very much art-minded and this year she and a few of her friends got to paint pottery. As you can see, they selected little Flowers. All the girls had a great time.

First day of School

School started early this year. August 11th 2008 was Jordan's 1st day of Kindergarten! The kids have to be up pretty early to catch the bus (6:59 pick up)so getting back into a routine will be a challenge. As for the kids, they loved it!

Jordan did awesome. She got on the bus as if she was doing it for years. Big brother Cole was a huge help. He made sure she knew where to sit and even walked her to her classroom.




Both kids, ended up with very nice teachers and are looking forward to a great school year.

June Updates

It's been a few weeks since I updated the site so am trying to catch up a bit. I am currently at home for at least a week as I have had my tonsils removed yesterday. If you are really interested, you can click the Health Link in the Links section. But I digress. Now that I am home and have some time I wanted to update the site with some happenings.

Summer Vacation has been in full swing since school ended. The kids have been at the pool nearly every day. Jordan has turned into a little fish. She decided early on that she did not need here swimmies and without lessons has become quite a little swimmer. We are very proud of how courageous she is.

Laura has been keeping everyone busy with activities as best as she can. They have been seeing movies, puppet shows and are planning a few trips early next month.

Thus far, the highlight of June was driving to NJ for Cousin Joel's Bar Mitzvah.

Although we were only there for 3 days, we managed to cram in as much as possible.

Thursday we got up early to visit Papa Norm gravesite. It was really nice to see the Military headstone. We then headed over to spend some time with Mimi and went out to lunch at Noah's favorite place, PF Chang's. That night we headed down to Mindy and the Michael's where the kids really needed he time to be out of the car and just be kids. They had a lot of fun.

Friday, we headed into NYC. We did not have a lot of time to do everything we wanted so we decided to go to the Musuem of Natural History and Hayden Planetarium.
Afterwards we grabbed some street vendor pretzels and hot dogs (YUM) and walked a bit in Central Park.

Cole really wanted to see Rockefeller Center so we boarded the subway and headed downtown.

That night we headed over to see Eddie, Joanie and the boys. This was the most relaxing time we had because we were able to just be ourselves and hang. The kids had a blast playing with Aiden and Daily.

Saturday was Joel's day - He was awesomene - We could not have been more proud of him. The kids absolutely loved the party. Not only did they spend some time with their cousins but also got to meet others from the Samson side. Kudo's to Debra and Jack for a great day.

That night we headed back to Mindy's and saw Aunt Deanna, Uncle Les, Cindy and her new baby.

The entire trip was a whirlwind but in hindsight is was very cool because Cole didn't realize we had so much family in NJ.

Sunday was Father's day and what better way to spend it then hitting a NJ Diner, fueling up and driving 13 hours home - Awesome.

Seriously, it was a lot to do in little time but well worth it especially when it is on a positive note.


As always you can check out all previous updates here http://www.schwartzcentral.net

May Continued

The hectic month of May is finally coming to an end. The past 2 weeks included Cole's 1st Communion, Cole's 8th Birthday (Indiana Jones) , Soccer games, Baseball playoffs, Jordan's Dance Recital and Graduation.

School is ending and the kids are ready for the pool to open.
Here is a small sample of the past 2 weeks

Pre-School Graduation

Time really does fly. Jordan is now officially a rising Kindergartner!

Here she is walking to the aisle to accept her diploma.

Lime Soccer

The season has ended and the Lime Team was awesome. Here are few pictures our our favorite superstars

Cole's 1st Home Run

Although Cole has been having a really good season this year, the stars seemed to align at last nights game. Cole played his tail off and this was by far the best game of his life. In the 1st inning, he ripped a drive into left field for an exciting inside the park homerun capped off with a sweet slide at the plate. In the field, he showed unbelievable range at Shortstop killing a rally by the Giants with a great stab and flip to 2nd base for the out. He continues to be consistent at 1st base and had another solid game.
He tripled in the 3rd and with the score tied 8 - 8 with 2 outs in the bottom of the 5th he drove in the winning run. Cardinals 9 - Giants 8.

He ended the night 3 for 3 with 2 runs scored and 4 RBI's.

Soccer Superstar

After seasons of watching the grass grow and running her little heart out, Jordan scored her 1st GOAL! - She has been getting better and better every game and you can see her confidence level increasing.
Even though the team was down by 4 or 5 goals, when Jordan scored, you would have thought they won the world cup. Everyone cheered!!

Spring Break 2008

We took a few days off during spring break to head to the beach. Although the weather did not cooperate everyday it was great to get away. We tried a whole bunch of new actvities. Cole and Dad went Sea Kayaking. On a cloudy day, the kids went for Pony rides and all kids continue to show prowess as successful fisherman. Noah caught his first crab!!!

Even on the not so sunny days, we hit the beach around sunset and they had a blast

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was a lot of fun. On Saturday, the kids went to an Easter Egg Hunt where 6000 eggs were colleted in 2 minutes 15 seconds. Pretty impressive.

The Easter bunny took pretty good care of each of them.

Zoo Pals

It's been awhile since I've updated the website so am throwing up some recent photos of the kids.

Laura and the kids had a rare day off so whe decided to take the Jordan and Noah to the zoo.

Soccer Season Begins - 2008

After toting him around to Cole and Jordan's games the past few years, the day has finally arrived. Noah's 1st official soccer game. Officially, he missed the cutoff by 3 weeks but we could not bear dragging him around for another season and not have him play.

We "petitioned" the league and fortunately he was allowed to join Jordan's team.

The Season opener was March 1st. We informed the coach that he was a "gamer" but were not sure how he would do. He could run around and have some fun or because he's much smaller than the other kids or he would clam up and stay back.

Well, it didn't take long to find out... The pictures below do not do it justice but within the first 5 minutes, he drove the ball down field and scored a goal. The Lime team never looked back , finishing with a decisive victory.
Jordan too had a great game and is turning into a little Mia Hamm herself. It was a lot of fun to watch.

We are looking forward to a great season