Ashley's Birthday & Easter #1

This weekend we made an over night trip to visit some friends for a Birthday party and then spend some time with Tim's family since we'll be traveling for Easter next weekend.

First stop: Ashley's 4th Birthday party. This is Abby's Best Friend so we couldn't miss this celebration! We did learn one new thing.......

Megan likes ribs! She just chewed the meat right off when I helped her, then enjoyed finishing the small part off the bone herself. Who would of known?


Here is our birthday girl Ashley with Abby, it wouldn't be normal if they didn't have some dress up clothes on at some point in the visit.


Ashley's birthday cake


This may look funny, but it's the hugging/jumping celebration of Ashley blowing out her candles. Abby and Ashley were quite happy about it. Or they are just happy they get to have cake and ice cream now.

All the kids with their cake and ice cream.

Stop 2: Fairview Heights, IL at Tim's grandparents house for our Easter celebration.

We had to wake Megan up from her nap for the indoor Easter egg hunt. She just wasn't that in to it and would have rather sat on mine or Tim's lap to wake up a little more.


Here's the one egg that Megan got. Abby helped even out the egg count otherwise.



Abby showing some of the goods before throwing them in her basket.


Trying to find that last egg......

The Bovee family opening some Easter bags.

Megan, Abby, & Theo

Abby being cheesy. It's not easy getting a photo of 3 kids 3 and under. Our little nephew Theo is getting so big!


This weekend we'll be heading up to IA for a baby shower and Easter celebration with the Powers family. I'm sure there will be some basketball watching in there as well......

So much help

As spring is rounding the corner (minus the snow that is expected this weekend) we are getting motivated to finish many of the "smaller" projects that are either halfway completed or just didn't get started but parts have been purchased. You'd be surprised with how many that is!

Among the projects for Tuesday night Tim finally tightened up our pull down faucet. The handle still rotated for some reason, it doesn't anymore, probably all due to the help he had :)


Megan was very interested on what Daddy was doing, and climbing on his stomach which Tim appreciated.

Abby of course had to help as well and climb on poor Tim too. It's rough to be loved by your kids so much.

So, faucet project......check
I'm sure we'll have more from this weekend as it looks like we'll be stuck inside.

St. Pat's Survived!

The final cup/coffee cup/sippy cup has been found.
All the sheets and towels are clean (one last load in the dryer to still fold).
The house is somewhat back in order.

Yes we have survived another St. Pat's Celebration, and as the men declared on Sunday as they finished the keg - we've still got it.

Our festivities started on Friday night with the annual fish fry due to lent. We had some delicious catfish and other fried goodies. Then continued to drink the night away - boat races and car bombs included. The majority of the ladies retired around midnight because we knew we were the ones that were going to have to get up with the kids Saturday morning.....oh - and don't forget the fireworks from our neighbors at 2 AM.

Here are our two early risers helping make green pancakes, or as Ashley said, guacamole.



They are taking turns stirring, which actually worked out pretty well.

It may not look that great now, but the kids loved their green pancakes, even a couple adults did as well.

Due to the rain on Saturday we took the older kids to Bonker's. It's an indoor fun zone. This was the only picture I got of them and Aidan is behind the pole. The majority of the time they were about 20 ft up in the air climbing/sliding around. It worked out well for Wendy, Jenn, and I as we just had to sit and wave every now and then. Where is Megan you might ask - at Hooters with the guys. Apparently she is a waitress magnet.

Saturday was mostly recovery (as usual) from Friday. Boondock Saints 1 & 2, The Hangover (very appropriate for the day) and then corned beef for dinner. We had a very laid back Saturday evening and I think the latest someone was up was 11 pm. So everyone was nice and somewhat rested for Sunday and their travel home. Our house was cleared out by noonish, and Tim and I started the cleaning. It actually went pretty quick and we have found most of the toys that were missing pieces, pacifiers, puzzles, etc. that had been lost.

Have a Happy St. Pat's on Wednesday!

A Little Bit of Excitement

It wouldn't be a normal weekend without a couple projects and a little bit of chaos at our house.

Saturday morning started off like any normal Saturday morning. Abby woke up, Tim got to sleep in, and we started making pancakes - pink pancakes, because those are for girls you know. Here is my helper, who didn't make that big of a mess. Megan was still sleeping thankfully.


All is well as of 7:30........

About 4 hours later the chaos started with Abby crying saying her head hurt. We finally got her settled down and a babysitter was at the house because we had tickets to the MU game so we left for some adult time. Babysitter called about an hour later, Abby's head hurt still.

Needless to say after a consult from Grandma Papke and our pediatrician's 24 hour line Abby and I headed to the ER on Saturday night at 8:30. Interesting place to be on a Saturday night. Abby did really well and answered all the doctor's questions, it turned out she had strep throat. What a relief to Tim and I. This was her first time having it and we really didn't know what to look for. So they sent us home with a prescription and some Motrin to get Abby through the night. We returned home just before 11 pm. You'll all rest assure that Abby is doing much better, got to have a day at home with Mom on Monday and helped her work during some conference calls. We are no longer contageous!

Since the Abby situation was under control on Sunday Tim decided to take care of a slight closet upgrade for me. We've had the parts for a while, just haven't put them in. So I'm airing a little clean laundry with the photos for the before shot.


Really not that bad......

The empty version - I'll spare you the picture of the clothes on my bed. However I did donate 5 bags of clothes to Goodwill, even though the after photos won't really show it. I'll get some pictures of the finished project. It is done, just didn't take pictures of it.


Tim's other project (among the many he completed) that was photo worthy was putting together Megan's Cozy Coupe that she got for Christmas. It was warm enough to take a spin in it. She doesn't quite have the feet part figured out yet, but looks pretty boss just sitting there.


I think she likes it......and we need a bigger garage.

This weekend is St. Pat's. I expect it to be pretty low key compared to previous years. We're older and have more kids now so we're not as fun, it's to painful.

Megan's 1 year photo & Abby's 3 year photo

I forgot to mention that Megan had her 1 year appointment last week as well and she is happy and healthy and growing like crazy. Here is her one year photo, and her stats:
Height: 31 inches
Weight: 24 lbs 4 oz
Head: 18-3/4 inches
Surprise surprise - she's in the 95% on all things.


Abby's 3 year photo was a little delayed just so I would only have to take pictures once. As you can see they both did fantastically.


Abby's turned into quite the little model for photos.

It's March already?

This past week was extremely busy for us (big surprise I know).
Monday - photos as Sears (Megan 1 year and Abby 3 year). They turned out really good and I hope to get some scanned in to share. Of course there was a ride on the "toys" afterwards. Abby was kind enough to share the firetruck with Megan.


Tuesday - Taxes and Megan trying to rearrange everything on a shelf 3 ft. and below.
Wednesday - Soccertots

Unfortunately on Thursday Tim's Grandfather Joseph Schmidt passed away, he was 88. So we headed up to Carrollton, IL for the visitation and funeral. The Knights of Columbus did a nice presentation during the visitation. Then due to Joe's military service there was an American Legion group that did the color guard presentation at the burial and 21 gun salute - Megan's gun shy we found out. It was a pretty rough weekend on all, but as one cousin put it, it's somewhat reassuring that Joe is up in heaven playing cards with Doris now.

We got back in to Columbia late Saturday night just in time to grab some dinner with our friends and bridesmaids dress shopping on Sunday.

Abby also had a pretty big day. She was riding her tricycle and her knees were hitting the handle bars so we decided it was time to get a bike. She picked it out all by herself and here's some video of her "practicing" at the store. As soon as we got home we had to go put on our helmut and ride over to our neighbors house to show them. She is still pedaling like it's a tricycle and wanting to go backwards but now it's brakes on the bike. As long as the weather stays warmer we'll be outside after work riding.