Meet Dexter Fisher Schmidt

Born November 7, 1999 Dexter was a healthy red-eared slider weighing 0 pounds 7 ounces. Born on an island in southern Tahiti he found his way to the main island where he was obtained by a boy named Fisher. Fisher lived with his family raising sliders on his own to send to this great nation as infants. Fisher only raised pure bread show sliders with hearts like champions. Before sending this fascinating fresh water cooter to the big island he fed him nothing but greens and proteins.

Dexter's parents Maximus and Cleopatra were champion guppy hunters. Only bearing one child they put all their eggs in one basket. After losing their son in a strong current they had an overwhelming feeling that he would end up in a good home.

Upon arrival in the United States D. Fisher wound up in Miami along with many other hardbacks. He soon showed his superiority in the mandatory athletic testing in the annual Terrapin games of Southern Florida.

For Dexter's seventh birthday he won a trip to Salt Lake City, Utah where he found his permanent home. He was adopted by an older couple for several years opening their home to him where he picked up many talents and a few bad habits. Eventually the old couple was past the point of being able to care for dexter so he was sent to the Animal Ark in Orem, Utah.

On Dex's tenth birthday Jory and Sarah Schmidt can into the Ark and fell in love with him at first sight. They knew that he would be a perfect match and a great baby sub for a few years until they are ready for a real one. Although Dexer cost them a whopping $16.99 other supplies for his tank was where he hit their pocket books. The tank was borrowed from the Sargents but they purchased: a filter, water heater, tank background, turtle resting blocks, cover, UV light, small tank for feeder fish, tank stand, etc. More and more was purchased in order to create the optimal home for Dexter.

Now that Dexer has settled in we love to watch him enjoy his tank. It took us a few days to figure out how to feed him. After many studies of of this interesting reptile we learned that he needs to eat in the water. Now that his stress levels have dropped he is really starting to come alive and enjoy his surroundings. Dexter loves swimming into the corner of the tank. He also spends much of his time climbing onto his rocks and diving furiously into the water. Dex is growing up to be a strong adult snapper that has a good 25-30 years of life left.

Finally - more photos of Emma & hospital

I am finally getting to it - more photos downloaded. Hopefully not so slow this time. - OK spoke to soon. Will try again this weekend at Mike's work. I already saved them to CD while waiting to download.

Dealing with sleep deprevation. I occationally have my moments of lucidity, but mostly a zombie. I fall asleep when I sit for more than 5 min somewhere - on the couch watching TV, eating dinner, almost always when nursing, sometimes even when carring on a conversation. Mike is also falling alseep the moment he sits down at home. He will sleep from 5 ish to 8 or so, then wake up, bathe the boys, watch some TV, sometimes crash doing that or stay up until 1 or 2, then come to bed. Our bodies are just to old for this!

Loving every minute, when we can stay awake enough to realize how precious & tender she is.

People often ask me what the biggest difference is. Pink! & diapers. Emma often wears blue at home & only pink when we go out since there is not much pink or girl colored clothes yet. It shocks me a little to put her in pink - such a new color to me. When I change her diapers is also a shock. All those folds to clean & nothing protruding - very odd. A friend who finally had a boy after all girls said she is afraid to clean her little guy because she is afraid it will fall off! We laughed in the mother's room at church about the differences between having a boy & girl after many of the opposite gender.

Emma With the Boys

These are the photos we took of Emma with pink clothes we gave her. The bright, colorful blanket was made by Marion. The one outfit is a watermelon Halloween costume, but she didn't like it.

Noah is the best tender, willing to take her when Mom is busy. Jacob wants to hold her often. Kade never asked until the day we left. They are all very good with her.

Baby Emma is HERe!

I tried to post photos but my eternally slow dial-up is very slow on Sundays. I will try photos again tomorrow.

Emma Delight Stevenson was born October 26th at 11:01 AM. She was 8 lbs 11 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. Labor was only about 3 1/2 hours & I only pushed for 5 min. Thankfully since I was not allowed drugs of ANY kind!
Jacob wants to hold her constantly and helps to put in her binki whether she wants it or not. Kade is mostly oblivious to her. Noah thinks he should be paid for "babysitting" her if he sits on the couch and holds her for 2 min while watching TV.
Emma shares her birthday with her big sister MaKayla who turned 15. MaKayla was not excited about sharing "her day."
The boys are all very excited and are being very "helpful."

When I went to the Dr. on Friday & he still wouldn't induce me I was very angry! So I decided I needed to do things to induce myself. So I decided to strip all the wallpaper off in the only working bathroom & repaint. While Mike was taking down the 2 huge mirrors he asked if he could rip off the pink & blue tile backsplash. I said the only project was to repaint but let him try to take off just 1. It popped right off & I said take it all down! It took 3 min to take down & load in the garbage. So it was almost all painted when Mom & Dad came.
After a few days of Mom & Dad here I asked Dad to take down the panelling in just the hallway to see how the walls looked. There was only a few minor patches & asked if he (& Mike) was willing to do the entry also. The entry had a major wall that had no sheetrock at all! Most of the space had orange peel & Dad skim coated the entire thing to make it look nice. So with drywall dust coating everything from the hall to every surface in the house we are trying to survive. We will paint after they leave on Tuesday. Finally we are starting to make this house ours after 4 1/2 years!

Halloween Is HERE!!

I found these pictures from a few years ago & thought you might like to see, that never a time occurs that taking pictures is easy, but oh so fun to look at the results for many years to come.

Emma Delight Has Arrived

The baby girl has 'landed'. Emma Delight was born today, October 26th. It's her sister Makayla's 15th birthday. She's 8lb 11 oz. Mom & dad are happy to have her here & all is going smoothly. We'll add pictures when we get them.

And the Mystery Couple Is!

On a dark new moon night someone knocked on our door & asked us to take their picture. They were headed to a masquerade party. After spending all day custom designing masks, they couldn't wait to be crowned the most elusive couple at the party. I give them a 10. Tell us what you think.