Christmas Update

Well Christmas has come and gone at the Schmidt house. I think it is now called the "Mine, mine, mine" holiday if you had to ask Abby. For a 2 year old she brings in quite the haul from Santa, grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and other family members. Of course she loves every present and we are thankful that we have the basement to hide her toy collection. Here's a little update from our festivities this past week.


Here is Abby helping Mommy make some molasses cookies. This is Great Grandma Papke's recipe and is a Papke family tradition to make every Christmas. As you can see we were making a little mess, and I say little because I didn't get to take any photos of her helping me roll out the cookies due to the amount of flour everywhere in the kitchen and on her. I am thankful for my cordless Shark and gets flour out in-between wooden floor pieces.



On Christmas Eve we had a new "Columbian" join our group. Lane Michael Monnig was born on Christmas Eve weighing in at 8 lbs. 11 oz and was 19-1/2 inches long. Abby enjoyed visiting him and Tim and I were reminded we would be there sooner than later and should really finish up the nursery at our house. Julie and Nick are doing great and are back home with Lane.

Here are some photos of Abby opening gifts from Santa at our house. She got some kitchen accessories to go with her kitchen from her birthday. We've been "baking" ever since.
Making cookies already.

And of course since Tim and I had a couple days off there was of course basement progress. Mostly due to my parents staying at our house Sunday night on their way down to AZ. So officially (minus the closet) the guest bedroom is back in service at Hotel Schmidt. We're very pleased with how it turned out, and have a little motivation to get the rest going I think.

One last photo of Abby with another gift from Grandma and Grandpa Papke, a harmonica. She enjoys her music and thankfully hasn't figured out how hard to blow on the harmonica to really make it work. But that day is not far off.

That wraps up our Christmas celebrations. We are very lucky to have had safe travels to all celebrations and to have received such wonderful gifts. Now it's on to a New Year's celebration with the college crew. Hopefully I'll be able to stay up to midnight!

Happy Holidays and Safe Travels

Merry Christmas and safe holiday travels to all. We hope this holiday season is as blessed as ours is. As you can see Abby can't wait for Santa to show up.


All was well after she got a sticker and a candy cane.

Putting up Christmas ornaments on the tree. Such the little helper! All the ornaments are on the lower branches and touching the floor due to the weight. Mom & Dad had to do some rearranging after she went to bed.

IA Deer Season

My Dad had a successful hunting season this year in IA. It had been a while since he had shot anything and he shot a good sized 10 point buck. Needless to say he's a happy camper and has a
"story to tell" on this one in person if you see him. I'll be thankful for the deer salami, jerky, and sticks from this lovely buck.

IL Deer Season

Another successful deer season for the Schmidt family, and especially Tim this year. He is quite pleased with a 9 point buck he shot. If you are lucky, in about a month or so you'll be able to see it hanging somewhere at our house, preferable the basement or hallway.


This was the photo Tim sent out after he shot it, he was pretty excited to say the least, boasting he already knew what he wanted for Christmas and his birthday.

The proud hunter.

Just a shot of all the bucks that were shot this season. They brought in some good sized bucks so I think everyone is happy about it. There are some nice 10 pointers in the bunch.

Now that deer season is over it's back to the basement and prepping for #2. The list of small tasks never seems to get shorter.

Abby's 2 year photo

After 1-1/2 hours at the Sears Portrait Studio, this is as good as it gets. It was the only photo they took and we said "Done!". I can only handle so much of the mall at one time.

Thanksgiving Holiday

This weekend we celebrated with both of our families and in 3 states. Needless to say we are very thankful for our safe travels and time spent with everyone. We were lucky enough to almost have everyone there for the celebrations as well. It wouldn't be a blog entry without some photos.



Here is Abby and her cousin Caroline playing in the leaves. Caroline lives in Florida so she is used to palm trees and beaches so the cold weather and leaves were fun.

They do look pretty cute and innocent here.












Here is Great Grandma Powers with her newest great grandchild, Ellis. He is only 2 weeks old. Abby is smothering him with kisses right now. She likes the babies.













Here is Great Grandma Powers with Ellis, Abby, and Caroline. Mackenzie was still taking a nap. So that wraps up the 4 current great grand children and #5 is about 11 weeks away. Yes Abby is wearing her cooking apron again. She has a small attachment to it.












After lunch Abby & Caroline, along with Tim, Joe, & Erinn headed out to the farm to check out the pond, which you can see part of in the back ground. Abby and Caroline were quite the pair holding hands and walking through the bean fields.












Next it was on to the shed to check out the tractors. Abby had been talking about them on the whole drive up as we saw some combines and tractors pulling wagons.












Here are the twosome again.














Here we are back in Iowa City. It snowed Saturday night and Abby was pretty excited about going and playing in it. Tim showed her how to make and throw snowballs so that was her mission.














Throwing snow at the dogs.













Poor Buddy got the most snow thrown at him.












All in all it was a very nice long weekend and we got to see everyone, eat way too much, and have a great time.

7 Month Update...
Yes it has been 7 months already. We're in the home stretch. I now go to the doctor every 2 weeks which will help time go by a little quicker, not that it hasn't already with all of our activities lately. Everything is still fine with the baby and my blood pressure. I had my glucose test and PASSED! No, it wasn't the 1 hour test, it was the 3 hour test. Since I have never passed the 1 hour we just went straight to the 3 hour to save a little time and insurance money. So I am very thankful that I passed and it's one less thing to worry about. With as different as this pregnancy has been I expected to fail. All is well, next appointment is December 9th.