Happy Birthday Theo & Tim

It has been a week full of birthdays for December. First our nephew Theo turned the big "1" on December 16th so we were in St. Louis on the 12th for his party. As you can see, he knows how to take down a cup cake.


It was a nice party - minus the snow/ice that made for complicated and lengthy driving. Abby and Megan enjoyed Theo's presents, and hopefully he did too once we left and could actually play with them without all the "help" from his cousins.


Betsy, Theo, and BJ

This past weekend we headed up to Carrollton, IL for the Schmidt Family Christmas. Always a good time with good food and a little bit of crazy on the side with all the kids there are now.

Megan is ready for the "little kid exchange"

Abby is excited as well of course.



Here's a shot before the madness of opening of gifts - which all happened at once because you know little kids can't take turns when half of them are under the age of 5.


Megan with her Rockstar Zhu Zhu Pet "Pax"

Abby has a box of books and games.


Some classic games are back too that I love to see! Abby with Eli playing Rock'm Sock'm Robots, how cool!

And last but not least, a Happy Birthday to my husband Tim who is now the ripe old age of 33. We had just dinner with the family and of course cake that the girls decorated. There would probably be more colored icing on the top if they wouldn't have eaten as much as they did while decorating.


Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Monnig Family this week as our friend Nick lost his father, George to cancer. He will be greatly missed.

Buddy ~ 2001-2010

Buddy Schmidt
September 1st, 2001 - December 10th, 2010

It is with a heavy heart that I have to report that we put our dog Buddy down this past Friday. Right before Thanksgiving we found out that he had cancer. We tried strong doses of prednisone to shrink his tumors however it did not work. Prior to the 10th he had not eaten or drank for about 3 days and the tumors were affecting his back legs and mobility - so very much not the dog we have known and loved for the last 9 years. So Tim and I made the very difficult decision on Thursday night that it was time. We were both with him on Friday and he went quickly and painlessly. Although it is still difficult to think about him, we know he is better off.

Thank you all for your kind thoughts and calls and happy hunting stories. We are grateful that so many people loved him as much as we did.

We miss you big guy!

IL Deer Season, Part 2

For the 2nd IL deer season Tim took Abby up to Carrollton, IL so it was just Megan and I this past weekend and we packed it full! Friday night we went to the mall - a place I dread around this time, but it had to be done so we went, and conquered. I think Megan is a better shopper than I am. She's very content to browse clothes.

Saturday morning we have Breakfast with Santa Claus at Rockbridge High School. If you like a little "crazy" with your Saturday morning feel free to go next year - we won't be there! There were over 400 people.


We started off with our breakfast and coloring at the tables.


The big man himself shows up!



We started doing some crafts before getting in line, as recommended by the Elfs - little did we know....


Here's Megan with her bag for her crafts - we made a lot of ornaments. She was happy to just have a bag.

Here we are waiting in line and they have given the kids lists to make for Santa. You can see Megan is hard at work.


Biding our time while we are STILL waiting in line! It was somewhere between 45 minutes to 1 hour and we were even moved to a line that was a "short cut to Santa". I swear we were the last ones leaving the school almost. And if you know how my kids love Santa, here's how it went.


Here's Megan squirming and crying, she was in the sled for 30 seconds, we got some pictures and grabbed the candy cane and book and left. I had never been happier to leave.

Megan and I went back home and both needed naps! We ended the weekend with baking some cookies and some "Christmas Activities" which is all I can say without giving away are present surprises. We're actually getting crafty!

This weekend is my girl weekend with the Carrie/Carey's and Theo's 1st birthday party. Never a dull moment for us.


Also - our thoughts go out to the Gordon family in IC. They lost their father in a car accident. Tim, Erin, and Katy ~ we are thinking of you.

Thanksgiving

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We did, although as usual it was too short. This year we headed up to Iowa City for Part 1 of 3 Thanksgivings. The Papke family will not be getting together for Christmas this year as it's an "Outlaw Christmas" as we like to call it so we all gathered for Thanksgiving.

We had this little surprise on Thanksgiving morning - yes the head is attached to the neck!


As my Dad would say "Save the neck for me Clark!"


Then little did we know it was also Christmas this year at Thanksgiving as our parents surprised us with our gifts. We'll be a little more prepared next time!

Andrew and Rebekah opening their gifts.



One of our family traditions is to make a hot chocolate mix from scratch. It was my Aunt Arlene's recipe and is delicious! So I got out the 20 qt pot so Abby could "make" it herself with out a big mess. She was quite proud of herself.

The almost finished product.

Here with the dinner table all ready for the food.

And the first official Papke kid's table for the girls. Grandma Papke volunteered to sit with them and one of Abby's first comments was "Grandma, you need some wine!" and that pretty much sums it up.

The next Thanksgiving was the Cousin's Thanksgiving in Cedar Rapids, IA which had a good number of the Power's cousins, aunts, and uncles. Another good meal and good time with family. Look out for Okoboji this summer!

The final Thanksgiving was in Onawa, IA but we didn't make it as far as we hoped as Abby got sick in the truck which required us to return back to Iowa City for a bath and cleaning of the truck. We ended up heading back to Columbia later that day so we could recover Abby at home and in case if anyone else got her bug. Thankfully we didn't.

Now it's on to Christmas shopping and traveling every weekend until after New Years! Just a normal Schmidt month for us :)