Just a weekend at home

This past weekend we just spent at home working on the house and cleaning. Nothing really exciting. Abby did her best to help clean and help Tim in the basement. She also got to ride on the lawn mower with Tim and get some outside playing in on her swing set. Just a normal weekend at the Schmidt house.

Abby's Halloween costume came in so I tried it on her to make sure it fit because you never know with her sometimes and sizes. The hat was snug but the bottom is plenty big. This wasn't the full ensemble so there will be more to come for the actual Halloween day. She wanted to be a duck and Tim was hoping it would be more like a mallard, but they don't exactly make those. It was funny because she didn't want to take off the bottom piece. She just looked like a fuzzy yellow M&M running around until I finally made her take it off.

Abby is not exactly Beethoven but she really enjoys playing the piano. Little does she know piano lessons are in her future and she'll probably grow to dislike the piano but for now it's still fun. You might notice the black eye. It was Abby Vs. The Nightstand and the nightstand won. Needless to say she now has a CD player in her bedroom so she doesn't use our alarm clock to play her CDs. Less tripping over the dog beds that way.
Just reading some notes.

This weekend is the Roots & Blues BBQ Festival in Columbia so hopefully we'll make it downtown to enjoy some music and BBQ during one of our basement breaks. We went last year and it's a good time, plus downtown Columbia is always fun to walk around with all the small shops. Then Mizzou plays Nebraska at 7pm on Saturday, and our church has their Oktoberfest celebration on Sunday afternoon so it will be a busy weekend if we hit all the festivities. Hopefully some good photos to come from that.

Jessica's Baby Shower weekend

This past weekend Abby and I headed up to Iowa City to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa Papke a little bit and also to attend a baby shower for my cousin Jessica who is due November 8th with her first child.

Abby and I headed up Friday afternoon so we arrived prior to dinner which was nice so she could unwind and run around a lot after being in the car for so long. She has gotten very good at calling my parents Grandma and Grandpa. I think I heard their names almost as much as Mommy over the weekend as she wanted to show them things and know where they were at all times.

Grandpa Papke is in "catch and release" mode of small rodents in the back yard. He had caught a chipmunk when we arrived so Abby and I went down to watch the release part of it at Kiwanis Park which is south of our house. We were hoping to see him jump in to the creek below but he took a hard left to the bridge instead.


Saturday we headed to Clinton, IA for my cousin's baby shower. Jessica's sister-in-law, Stacy Powers, hosted the shower for both the Powers and Ivy sides of the family along with some neighborhood friends. As you can see Jess had a good group of presents.
Abby of course had to help write everything down with Stacy. She was a little too much help so we had to get her own pad of paper to write on.


Here is Jessica with more presents and Abby is checking out some of Baby D's loot.

This present is the first of the Power's family gift. A lovely dual baby monitor set.
This is the second part of the gift, it is a stroller that fits the Graco carseat in it. Abby helped a little with the wrapping paper.
Last but not least, the cake. As soon as Jess put the cake down Abby wanted to see it but couldn't see over the cardboard so she reached in and came out with a handful of frosting. Kids!

A little interesting family fact for you that some of the ladies pointed out at the shower. Jessica and I are only 1 day apart in our birthdays. She was born October 25th and I was born October 26th. Abby was born on November 14th (due date the 10th) and her first baby is due November 8th. So both of our first children will have similar birthdays if not closer if she is overdue. Just like their mothers.

Other than the Hawkeyes losing by 1 during the shower it was a very nice gathering. Baby D is now a little more supplied for his/her arrival in about 6 weeks. I'd say there are quite a few anxious relatives and friends ready to meet him/her when they arrive.

Our Little "Helper"

This weekend was full of rain. Of course we still have plenty of inside projects going on so we stayed busy none the less. With Abby being stuck inside we also had to entertain her quite a bit so we had some special projects to help get through the day.


Our neighbors, Barb & Frank, always seem to have some sort of dessert waiting for us when Abby makes her almost daily visits so we decided to make some cupcakes for them. Here is Abby putting on the sprinkles.
Here's the finish product. Abby also put in the pumpkin toothpicks as well. Our small attempt to welcome fall.
Of course she had to enjoy the fruits of her labor for her snack. She just eats the frosting pretty much.


Here Abby is helping Daddy mud one of the last closets in the basement. Yes we have been dry walling for weeks it seems and Tim is finally realizing why you pay other people to do this part.

Just mudding some other sides. This could be her closet some day!
Finally Daddy shares the ladder with Abby!
Here we are all worked out. Plus she has gone up and down the stairs about 20 times, but apparently it never gets old. She can now walk up and down them like a big girl so she is pretty proud of herself.

All in all it was a good weekend. I think I have finally cleaned enough upstairs to feel bug free finally. The basement is progressing slowly yet surely and is still somewhat on track to be finished by Abby's birthday. Both Mizzou and the Hawkeyes won so it was a good football weekend. We'll see how they do when they get some real competition, although it's always nice when the Hawks bring home the CyHawk trophy. Now if I could only get the Big Ten Network in MO.......hopefully someone from Mediacom will read this.

Weekend of Bugs

This weekend had a small turn of events due to some uninvited bugs that showed up in our house Thursday evening. Thankfully we were scheduled in for the house to be sprayed for Friday afternoon to take care of them. However that resulted in Abby and I needing to find a place to crash while the house aired out. Abby had not seen her buddy Ashley for a while and the Cowan's were nice enough to house us for the evening. The girls just entertain each other and wear each other out so it is a win-win situation for everyone.


Here we are Friday night at Fritz's after dinner. This was actually Abby's first ice cream cone and she did pretty well. The girls were running around and squealing and having a great time.
The next day our St. Louis Mom's had planned on going to the zoo so Abby and I tagged along since Tim was still in Texas and I wasn't looking forward to cleaning up dead bugs just yet. Here we are outside the Penguin house. If you know how much Abby likes Happy Feet and "Mumble" this was like heaven to her and she was very excited to say the least.
Here the girls are inside the Penguin house. They were quite the hand holding pair, and it was so cute to watch.
Here are the three toddlers: Ashley, Abby, and Aidan. Not as easy as you think to get all three of them in one area for a picture. We are looking at Chimpanzees I think (they were all monkeys to Abby) and they put the food right in front of the glass so the kids could see them up close.
Here's the Mom's on the train. We ended the zoo trip on the train to see some other sites that didn't involve walking to them. Ashley and Abby are in the seat with me, they enjoyed the tunnels the most. After that we headed to McDonald's for lunch and of course it had a playland so it was an opportunity to get rid of that last piece of energy before nap time. Abby and I headed back to Columbia after lunch to tackle the house.
Tim returned Saturday night and Abby was very happy to see him again. We went to the Waffle House after church and they gave Abby a hat to take home. We all crashed with naps shortly afterwards.

4 Month Update

Many people keep asking for pregnancy updates so here you go!

Yesterday we had our 4 month appointment. Everything went fine. #2's heartbeat was around 150 and my blood pressure was just fine. Tim and Abby attended the appointment so they got to hear the baby's heartbeat. I think Abby was more entertained with playing with her tractor. She did get Dr. Jones to talk on her Princess cell phone, apparently he had a call.

I am feeling much better now. The evening sickness is pretty much passed. Brushing my teeth on the other hands still gives me some issues but nothing as bad as it used to be so I am very thankful for that!

Our next appointment is October 2nd and that is the big ultrasound so we'll have more pictures of #2 to share with everyone. We're looking forward to that visit quite a bit.