Memorial Day Weekend - Chicago

This weekend we packed up and headed to Chicago to visit my brother Tony and his wife Colleen. They have a lovely home in Wrigleyville and are within walking distance to many things. We ate great food, played at some fun parks, and enjoyed the sites and of course time with them. We'll definitely be back again.


Here is Abby and Megan (in the car seat) with Tony and Colleen on the train. This is Abby's second time to Chicago so she's been on the train before, but this was Megan's first trip.

Here is Abby at Millennium Park playing in the water. This is while she was still dry. By the end she was soaked in water.
Here we are at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Abby is in to the Lion King lately so we were visiting "Simba". The lions and tigers were one of her favorites.
Here was one of my favorites. This polar bear was swimming right up to the glass wall. He just kept doing circles. It was pretty cool to watch.
What trip to Chicago wouldn't be complete without paying homage to the Cubs and Wrigley Field. We walked down here on Monday morning to grab some Cubs gear and brunch then headed back to the Papke's house to pack up and head home. The girls traveled very well, however we were all ready to get out of the truck by the time we got home. This weekend is a trip to Carrollton for a wedding so we'll be on the road again. It seems like all we do is pack and unpack! As for Megan - she is working on rolling over so I'll get some video of that when she gets a little closer. Right now she scoots in circles a lot and pushes herself around with her feet.

Megan is 3 Months old!

Well the 12 weeks of maternity leave finally ended unfortunately. They went by too quickly and it always seems when you are having the most fun with your newborn it's time to go back to work. Megan is now 3 months and is doing well at daycare (it's only day 2 so far). She is still busy blowing bubbles, lots of smiles and cooing, plus now drooling. Her hands are grabbing everything and most things go in to her mouth. You can catch her toss the pacifier and put her hand in her mouth quite a bit more lately so we'll see how that turns out. Here are some pictures I had taken of the girls at Sears. They turned out great so we're happy with them as well.

Megan @ 3 months old

My girls: Megan 3 months, Abby 2-1/2

Sisterly love

Abby cheesing for the camera as usual.

Of course Abby needed her own photo and had to have flowers.
You'll notice that is a theme in all her photos to date pretty much.

Abby did this pose all by herself and the photographer snapped it.

All is well in the Schmidt house - busy but always a good time. Tim's new job is in Memphis, TN so he's been there often but enjoys the 2 less hours in a plane that he had to fly when going to Houston. Maybe we'll get a trip in to Biel Street yet. This weekend we head to Chicago for the weekend so we'll have an update after that trip is recovered from.

10 weeks and counting....plus the newest Schmidt Family member

Megan is now 10 weeks old and has mastered blowing bubbles and scooting 90 degrees with her feet while on her back. She is starting to sleep longer at night so hopefully the 8 hours will stretch more to 10 hours. Tim and I are hoping someday to get to bed before 10 pm like the good ol' days. My return to work is creeping up on us. Megan has been working on sitting up a little bit and will sit in her Bumbo seat and lean up against you on the floor quite well. You just have to hold her up or she'll nose dive on you.

Hanging out in the Bumbo.
Having some floor time. She has definitely discovered her hands and is grabbing things left and right along with shoving her fists in her mouth and sucking on them. Looks like we might have another thumb sucker on our hands.

Our little cutie.
Working on some tummy time and blowing bubbles.
This weekend there was also a carnival in town with rides so of course we went. Here is Abby and Tim on the rug slide.
And with any carnival there are games. We played the game where you win a goldfish if you can throw a ping pong ball in the little bowl. We were 0/35 but they gave us the fish anyway. So Abby now has a fish in her room, named Nemo of course. She has been doing really well potty training so we didn't have a problem with getting her a little reward. It will be nice to have only 1 in diapers hopefully soon.

Introducing Nemo Schmidt.

2 Months & First Cubs game

Megan is now 2 months old and is sleeping through the night. Tim and I are both thankful for that, me more than him I think :) She has also started smiling but I haven't been able to get the best picture of it. Below is as close as I have gotten. My camera isn't fast enough.
But her smiles are precious, she definitely knows Tim's, Abby's, and my voice and will react to it. She had her 2 month appointment and was 12 lbs 2 oz (90%), 23 inches (75%), and her head was 15-1/2 in. (75%). Since Abby was never on the charts it's a new thing for us that Megan is. She doesn't seem that much smaller but I guess she is.

Another attempt at a smiling baby.

Our newest form of cheap outside entertainment. Abby loves her bubbles and we got tired of blowing them, so this lovely machine provides all the fun now.

A little sisterly love before bedtime.

Yes we know they are cute.

After church, Megan wasn't so happy.

This past Friday I was lucky enough to get Tim's work's baseball tickets for the Cardinals vs. Cubs game. Tim had to take the P.E. exam that day and had a date with a bar that evening so I packed up the girls for St. Louis - of course in Cubs gear. Abby didn't go to the game, she spent the evening with her buddy Ashley and her Grandma. Apparently when they went out the eat they got a lot of stares at the kid with the Cubs outfit.

And last but not least, here is Megan with Jenn and Wendy at her first Cubs game. I'm of course in Cubs gear as well. Too bad we didn't get a picture of me with both girls, but there will be two more St. Louis series for that. Megan did great during the whole game. She would get startled when there was loud clapping but other than that just took in the scenery. She stayed up for the whole game and fell asleep on the walk back to the truck. Unfortunately the Cubs lost 4-3, but it was a good game to watch.

Only 3 more weeks of maternity leave left for me and then I'll be back at work. Time has flown by!

Easter Weekend

This weekend we made the trip to Delmar, IA and Carrollton, IL to visit the Powers and Schmidt families over Easter weekend. We were in Delmar first on Saturday to visit my Grandma Powers. We have more pictures from the weekend, we just need some people to email them to me....hint, hint.

just another picture of Megan in her Hawkeye's outfit, she's getting too big for it so this might be the last photo in it.
Grandma Powers wanted to hold Megan right away when we got there.
Abby was being a little shy, but at least she is in the photo.
One of the activities was Easter egg dying for the Easter bunny. Laura and Christine showed up for lunch and I'm not sure who had the most fun dying eggs.
These eggs also had a sparkle paint for them, so Abby enjoyed decorating.


After that Tim wanted to take Abby fishing with her Sponge Bob fishing pole, so here they are practice casting and reeling.
Of course Abby said "I do it myself" within 2 minutes.
Here they are out on the pond with Pat. Abby's form of fishing is just reeling in the bobber as soon as it's cast in, so not a lot of opportunity for fish to bite.
There were fish in the pond though, this was a nice sized blue gill that Tim caught.
Abby is still trying. She fished for about 30-45 minutes. Not bad for a 2 year old.


Sunday morning the Easter Bunny remembered Abby was staying at the farm.
Next we headed to Carrollton, IL for the Schmidt Easter gathering and bridal shower for Tracey Young who is marrying Tim's cousin Phil at the end of May. This is Lucas and Abby. Lucas is a couple months older than Abby.
They had an Easter egg hunt for just Lucas and Abby and they had a good time.
Abby was all over the eggs. She had 23 before we made her start giving them to Lucas. She had done hunts before and this was Lucas' first time so she needed to share.
Still gathering - basket is overflowing.


Later we headed back to Columbia and ended our whirl wind weekend travels. We were exhausted but glad to be home and the kids traveled extremely well so we couldn't have asked for more. Next on the agenda is Tim's P.E. exam so there will be quiet at the Schmidt house so he can study. So who knows where I'll be going with the girls.......stay tuned.

Also - congratulations to Jim and Bridget who are pregnant with their first child.
Good luck!

St. Louis Scrapbook weekend

This past weekend we made the trip to St. Louis to the Cowan Hotel to spend the weekend with our college friends. Every April there is a scrapbook convention that my friends come in for. Since I don't do the whole scrapbook thing I just hang out with the guys during the day but get my girl time in the evening. This was also the first time a few of my friends had met Megan so she got a lot of attention and holding.

For Saturday we had planned to go to an Easter Egg hunt. We showed up at 10 AM when it was suppose to start and it was already over! So we made a bunny house and played at the park instead.

The finished Bunny House.

Abby, Ashley, & Aidan all worked together to decorate the house.

More teamwork, surprisingly no fighting at all and with 2, two year olds and a three year old that could be a small miracle.

Here are the kids at the park on the motorcycle.

The kids on the merry-go-round. No one fell off thankfully.

Ashley steering the boat.

Abby & Aidan enjoying the ride.

Ashley in the playhouse.

Abby in the playhouse.

Brave Aidan about to attempt the "big" kid slide. It didn't work out that well.

Last but not least, here are some Megan pictures. We were doing a little tummy time and this is how is started out......

Shortly afterwards, this is how it finished. Apparently Megan is very comfortable on her stomach and can fall asleep quickly. She'll enjoy that more when she can roll over I am sure.

Next weekend we are off to Iowa and Illinois for Megan to meet the Powers family and Schmidt family along with a bridal shower for Tim's cousin's fiance. It will be a busy weekend but then everyone will have had a chance to meet Megan. I'm sure there will be more photos from next weekend - fishing, Easter, and tractors of course.