Aidan's 2nd Birthday Party

This weekend we took a day trip to St. Louis for Scott & Wendy's son Aidan's 2nd birthday. He has a certain addiction similar to Abby's with Blues Clues so that was the theme of his party.


The Blue's Clues Cake.


Here is Aidan getting ready to blow out some candles.
The kids are enjoying the cake and ice cream.

The present opening has begun. If you watch Blue's Clues like the lucky ones of us who get to see it daily, there is a portion where Mailbox brings Steve/Joe a letter. So Aidan was all about getting his "letters". It was very cute.

All the kids are helping of course unwrap as they usually do.



Abby's favorite part was the ice cream.





We went to the mall Sunday after church to check out some treadmills and return a few things and of course Abby conned us in to a ride in one of the toys. If this is an indication of her driving skills, look out!

Baby Update: Still nothing happening. Another appointment tomorrow afternoon, but I expect a big "See you next week".

Abby Weekend Comes to an End

This past weekend was "Abby Weekend". We decided to devote some quality time with her before #2 shows up. So we planned a 3 day weekend down in Branson and Big Cedar. Of course there was a little outlet mall shopping for Mommy and a Bass Pro stop for Daddy. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries after the Bass Pro stop so these are the only pictures. We happened to arrive during the fish feeding which Abby enjoyed quite a bit. There were mostly rainbow trout in the tank but they were pretty large. As you can see Abby gave us some cheesy poses for the camera.



Our weekend started off with snow on Friday morning which Abby loved. Too bad none of it stuck to the ground. We had a late lunch with some Harry & David cookies that Abby picked out for dessert. After dinner we hit the swimming pool and Abby had a blast. She went down the slide and played on the stairs for about an hour. We ended the evening with renting Alvin & the Chipmunks, or The Munks as Abby likes to call them and watched it for the first of about 5 times this weekend.

Saturday we headed down to the Branson Landing, more shopping and eating and playing. The sun was out so Abby got to play on some outside toys. She picked out Daddy a St. Louis Cardinals camo hat that she really likes and Daddy picked her out a camo Bass Pro hat. Mommy passed on the camo. We had lunch at Waxy O'Shea's which is one of our favorite Irish Pubs and then back for naps and more swimming. This time we had purchased some water wings for Abby and she could swim by herself. Mostly just with kicking but she was figuring out the whole arms thing by the end of it. A couple trips down the slide, and most of the time on the stairs. We also ran in to Tim's sister Betsy and her husband and in-laws who were enjoying a weekend there as well. We ended the night with some Madagascar as we had to return the Munks.

Sunday we headed back and surveyed our shopping damage. Abby is definitely set for spring and next fall/winter unless there is a crazy growth spurt. Tim did some more work on the basement and now all the ceilings are finished. There are still small things to finish of course and hundreds of nail holes to fill. We will hopefully work on these this week and then do some shopping for a futon and desk this weekend. Everything is coming together. I'll update with more photos probably after this weekend.

Baby Update: Nothing's happening. Not dilated or effaced at all, so everyone who was thinking the baby would come early can just keep on hoping. I think #2 is holding out until mid-February.

Happy New Year

2009 is upon us and it's been eventful to say the least. Our year started off with a family loss unfortunately. Tim's grandmother, Doris Schmidt, passed away on New Year's Eve. It was quite a shock to all and she will be greatly missed. We are thankful for the time we had with her and that we got to spend this past Christmas with her.

On a happier note, our college group of friends flew in and drove in for New Year's Eve celebrations. We didn't get to spend that much time with everyone but had a good time with the short time we spent. Below are some pictures of the Magic House. Abby had a small fall that resulted in crying in to a nap so the photos are limited.

Here are Abby and Ashley teaming up on their tower. You would never guess that their parent's were engineers.


Abby and Ashley in the kitchen checking out what there is to cook.
Here is Casey changing out a muffler on the toy car. I'm not to sure who had more fun at the Magic House, Casey or the kids......
Abby thought she would check out Casey's work.

We're looking forward to 2009. We have a couple weddings that will add a couple more members to both the Schmidt and Papke families and will be adding some babies as well to both sides. It should be yet, another busy year.