Big Cedar Weekend

This weekend we took a 3 day weekend trip down to Big Cedar Lodge which is just south of Branson. We had a 1 bedroom suite connected to a studio and Abby thought it was the greatest thing to have her own room, her own fridge, bathroom, kitchen, broom, mop,....you get the deal. Then she had to share it all with Megan, which wasn't that bad either. I think The Little Mermaid played on her DVD all weekend. We managed to do some swimming, shopping, napping, and a little bit of walking around. Tim is still fighting a cold from last weekend so we were limited on our time out. We did have some extra pancakes leftover from breakfast so we went on a mission to see if there were any ducks left on the lake. Usually there are some down by the boat dock/bait shop. We walked all the way down to the last dock to find these 3 lonely and hungry mallards.


Abby enjoyed feeding them.

Tim gave Megan a piece to throw, but she ate it.

We made a trip out to the Outlet mall to use some gift certificates from Christmas. megan enjoyed rearranging and carrying the bags around for the rest of the weekend - I think we might have a little shopper.....

On Sunday we went to find the ducks again since we had a couple pancakes left and couldn't let them go to waste. The ducks were located on one of the properties inner ponds so we got out right on the bank with them. I threw some crumbs up on the grass and they were right at my feet. Abby wasn't too thrilled about that part. Tim actually had them eating out of his hand. They were quite tame. Abby thought they were going to follow us home.

Then of course Megan's first Valentine's Day. Just a little bib to celebrate the day. Couldn't find any My First Valentine's Day onsies in an 18 month. We really didn't do anything special for the day other than the long drive home and some playing when we got back to the house. Tim was pretty tired so they had to deal with just Mom who was also trying to laundry, cook dinner, and clean up a little all at the same time. Abby is pretty excited to go back to the "fancy hotel" and we'll be back down in the end of June for a week so it will be new to us to be there in the summer for once. We'll actually get to swim in an outdoor pool!

We hope everyone had a fun Valentine's Day. This coming weekend is Megan's first birthday. My how the time has flown by.

Soccertots

We decided to enroll Abby in Soccertots for a session to see how she would like it. This is her first "organized" group activity that's not related to daycare. She had a great time. This session is about working on balance, hand eye coordination, some soccer skills, and of course listening skills and follow the leader. She had a really good time and paid attention most of the time. The class is for 50 minutes with a total of 9 kids in it. She had no arguments about going to bed after wards at all. All the photos are from far away so they are pretty blurry. The parents are not supposed to interact or coach at all so we sit on the other side of the gym and give hugs and kisses when needed. She gets to go once a week for 8 weeks. The hard part was keeping Megan off the floor.

Surviving the Sleep Over

This Friday we decided to let Abby have her first friend sleep over. Tim however had to head over to St. Louis for the annual deer sausage making festival so it was just me and 3 girls. I was slightly out numbered. Abby's friend Carmen, our daycare provider's daughter came home with us Friday night and the girls couldn't wait to play Barbies, dress up, kitchen, house, and everything else they could get their hands on. They were actually really good and other than one moment when Abby fell off her bunk bed ladder the night was a success. My job was to cook, continuously clean up, and play with Megan when the girls didn't want to. They were very good to include her, as she was their "baby" with most of the pretend play. We ended Saturday with some play time at McDonald's. Got to love the playland! Megan can't wait to get in there herself.


Carmen and Abby posing as I hadn't taken any pictures at all yet.

This portion of the playland was right over our booth so they came and said hi.

This weekend we are taking a vacation day on Friday and heading down to Big Cedar on Thursday night. A fun filled weekend of swimming and some shopping for me. Hopefully a little relaxing as well. Maybe even a sled ride if there is enough snow.

Look who's walking!

We have a lot of things changing at the Schmidt house lately. Megan is doing new things everyday. Walking is just the first of many, she's "talking" constantly. Abby of course is our translator, and Tim and I are waiting patiently for which of our names will come first.

Here are a couple photos from Tim's phone that he downloaded last week.


Who doesn't love the Waffle House??

Getting ready to do some off roading.

This weekend we headed down to Springfield, MO to attend the wedding reception of Matt & Carrie Sims. We had already attended their wedding in Jamaica and this was the local gathering. They had a great slide show of our time in Jamaica so we got to relive the trip and were "those people" in the photos.

This was just the start to the crazy dancing late night. We won't be going back to Taco Bell at 2AM again. It was a little too scary for even our group despite the safety of the mini van.


And last but not least the video of Megan walking. Of course now that it's been a couple days since we recorded this she is walking much more so I'm sure we'll update another one later.

Theo's Baptism

This weekend we had 2 events, on Saturday was Tim's work Christmas party - which can be summed up in one word: Irish Car Bombs, and I will leave it at that.

Sunday we had our nephew's baptism in Collinsville, IL. It was a very nice afternoon ceremony that Fr. Henry Schmidt performed and then a lunch at Zapata's in Collinsville to wrap up the afternoon.


BJ, Betsy, and Theo.

Ann, Tim, and Theo. Tim is Theo's Godfather.

The grandparents with Theo.

The cake - I didn't quite get there fast enough, but you get the picture.

We ended up getting home later than expected and just jumped into PJ's, fed the kids, and crashed. Monday was here before we knew it.

This weekend Tim and I will be heading to Springfield, MO for the wedding reception of Matt & Carrie Sims. We attended their wedding in Jamaica and this is the local celebration.

One Final Christmas

This weekend we managed to finally make it to Collinsville, IL to celebrate Christmas with the Schmidt family and finally meet our nephew Theo! He is tiny and adorable, and quite a snuggler too.

Here are the Dad's with their kiddos

Abby with her first princess barbie of the night.

Daddy helping Megan get the paper started to tear. Hard to believe in a month she'll be doing this for her first birthday!


Abby helping Megan with her big gift - a Cozy Coupe!


Abby's big gift was a Tinkerbelle ATV - complete with brushguard!

No battery, no steering wheel, no problem! Megan had fun pushing.

Abby holding baby Theo for the first time.

Trying to get a picture of all 3 grandkids. It was WAY past bedtime and not a lot of cooperation.

This wraps up the final installment of Christmas for the Schmidt family. Now if we could only get the outdoor decorations down.......

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2010 - and did we bring it in with a bang!

This year we headed down to the Lake of the Ozarks where our friends have 2 lake homes that could house our crazy combination of adults/dogs/kids. The guys got to shoot trap (or at least attempt to), the ladies got to shop. We grazed and watched football on New Year's day along with frying multitudes of unhealthy foods that tasted way to good. We even got an adults evening where we got to go to dinner (yeah for eating steaks without an interruption!), then actually out to a bar - Hurricane Dolly's - this could be our new Lake bar of choice. They even let us boat race in it, unfortunately the guys won 2 out of 3, but it was fun either way.

Here are the ladies at Hurricane Dolly's - not pictured is Jess, she hit the road early on Saturday to shorten their drive back to Denver, it was a good thing she did because it started to snow that night......


Here is the front yard, you can see where Dave's truck was parked. Tim and Dave have gone to "save the day" at Scott's because people couldn't drive up the hill. They were pretty excited, once the tow ropes were located they headed out with both vehicles just in case one of them got stuck.

Here's the back deck, the cove is frozen out to the channel. I'd never really seen the lake during the winter so it was new.

Here we are attempting to keep the girls occupied as we were trapped without vehicles to go anywhere for lunch. We had plenty of leftovers, heat, and entertainment so Jenn and I were content if we needed to stay another night. The girls are playing Tuba-Ruba.

Happy New Year to all.