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 :)

Happy 4th Birthday Abby!

First - yes, Tim shot a buck Saturday morning out at the Pollard's farm. It's technically a 12 pointer due to a couple nubs on close to the base of the horns. He also shot another doe and button buck so he is quite happy.



It's hard to believe that 4 years ago we became parents for the first time, but here we are with a 4 year old now.

This is still one of my favorite pictures. Abby was a very happy baby, just had to keep her fed and changed and life was good. If only it was still that easy.....




I decided to make a gumball machine cake. Abby is obsessed with getting gumballs when we are out or chewing gum when we are home. It's a new privilege that she enjoys, especially since Megan can't do it.


We kept things small scale this year - no bounce houses or 30+ people at the house, just plain and simple.
Abby had chosen her outfit for the evening - pajamas!

Blowing out the cake - thankfully not lighting her hair on fire.

Enjoying mostly the frosting with the M&M's.

Megan hasn't met a cake she didn't like yet.



Neither has Lily!

Opening some presents - a new hair kit for getting ready in the morning - which she used this morning with me of course. We now have to factor in more time for her hair and make up before we go somewhere. She is such a girly girl - I have no idea where she gets it from.

The present from Mom & Dad - what could it be?

Reinforcements have jumped in to assist in the unwrapping.



I think Megan was just as excited as Abby was.


But it's an empty box???

Doesn't matter - just as fun to plan in. Megan is already fully inside.

This is Abby looking downstairs for the dollhouse - she was in motion so there is the blurry effect but the hands on her hips and saying "Hey, you tricked me" was priceless.

Checking out the furniture. The Barbies moved in shortly after that.

Overall it was a very nice, quick, relaxing evening. Abby is happy and can't wait to play with everything when she gets home. She is having cupcakes at pre-school today so the birthday bonanza is continuing.

This week my friend Colleen is flying in from NC and we are headed south to Rogersville, MO to visit the Cowan family and their new addition Allison. Abby & Ashley will be reunited again - only 4 more sleeps!


Abby at 4 Years Old

• Still loves anything Disney Princesses - Can't wait for Tangled to come out!
• Loves Hannah Montana songs and the movie
• Is slightly obsessed with make up, which goes nicely with the dress up obsession as well
• Loves her sister
• Dislikes her sister
• Is the queen of stalling before bed time
• Still likes to deer hunt
• Is a Tiger and "Keye" football fan (Hawkeye) - loves the MIZ - ZOU cheer but it's more UOU
• Still eats better than her mom does
• Wants to be a cheerleader when she grows up
• Is ready for Kindergarten next week because she is 4!

Catching up

I have been traveling quite a bit and then wrapping things up with busy weekends and the cycle keeps going. So here I am finally with about 5 free minutes so here you go!

Here's our Halloween girls - this is the after the tantrum photo from Megan but it was a cute starter out photo of the family.



This is Megan trying on her costume the day before Halloween - not happy, not happy at all.



Costume off and we are working diligently at carving our pumpkins and listening to Mizzou get stomped by Nebraska.



Our final products - Abby's is Dora's and Megan has Swiper.

We actually got quite a few compliments on the pumpkins. That is if you watch Nick Jr. like we get to :)

Strawberry Shortcake is ready to go get some loot!

Post pumpkin carving and enjoying a sucker together on the front steps - Megan's new favorite thing is suckers.


Here we are ready to hit the neighborhood. Megan has calmed down since she now understands she will get candy for her bucket and we have some glow necklaces/bracelets to wear.


I love my Pooh!

This past weekend we had a Friday night wedding of two of Tim's co-workers. "Dave the tall guy" as Abby calls him and Stephanie. Lovely wedding, great reception - plus we got to stay in town!!

Our good friend Chris Zweiner also got married this past Saturday in Lincoln, NE - so we want to wish him all the luck and we were sorry we couldn't be in two places at once.


Saturday we headed to St. Louis for Tim's Grandparents 55th Wedding Anniversary dinner. Which also ended up being a little birthday party for Abby as well.

Here is her cupcake cake that she picked out - Tinkerbell this time.

We also wanted to welcome our two newest college crew kids:
Allison Joy Cowan - 11/29/10
Reagan Suzanne Resnik - 11/30/10

Both families are doing well. We met Reagan yesterday and I neglected to take any photos - but she's tiny and cute and has dark hair. Abby enjoyed holding her. Megan did not enjoy me holding her. That's how it goes.

This weekend is Abby's 4th birthday and the last home game for Mizzou. We have no idea what we're going to do as Tim will probably be deer hunting if I had to guess. So girl time!

Mizzou Homecoming & ESPN Game Day

This past weekend was MU's Homecoming and also a big day for football in Columbia as ESPN Game Day came to town for the game. They estimated 18,000 people at the Quad for the broadcast. We watched it on TV - it was a little bit calmer. The game was not until 7 - so we started our marathon tailgating around 11. This year was the first time we have gone to the parade. The girls loved it. We came prepared with candy buckets and they made quite a haul.


The girls always love the MU Golden Girls - they would have walked with them if we would have let them.


The band - a little loud for Megan, but she held her own. We snuck up front after the band went by so they could get some goodies. We had these very nice (and loud) MU alumni by us who found it their mission to yell at anyone with candy to give it to the girls. They did well.



Here we are in the front now saying goodbye to Game Day.


We purchased some Tiger ears and a Tiger tail for the truck at the bookstore. The tail actually roars which we didn't know until Abby showed us. She then showed everyone in a 20 ft. radius as well. She was quite social. We to mix the Hawkeye top with the Mizzou bottoms. By the way the Hawks played we maybe should have worn Mizzou.


This is as close as Abby will get to Truman the Tiger. It was a new addition to our tailgate group. In the parade Abby hid behind Suellen when Truman and Baby Truman came by. Megan then attacked the blow up Truman and took it off it's stand so it was done.


Megan was busy making the rounds and eating cheese as usual.

This is her version of washers.

Somehow the kids managed to last all the way until 6:15 when we headed back home for those of us that didn't have tickets. It made for a long night, but worth it. I think we are still recovering.

This weekend is full of Halloween festivities. Parties, bonfires, hayrides, oh and candy.

Plus we will be welcoming a couple new babies this week - a Cowan and a Resnik. We're waiting patiently for their arrivals.

Shryocks Corn Maze

This past Sunday we took a trip with friends out to Shryocks Callaway Farms
This was our pumpkin gathering trip as well. They are already picked so there aren't many photos from that as Tim and I were the judges of what to pick out, the girls just wanted to run around.


Some forced photos as we had everyone dressed up for Halloween photos.


A family shot before the maze.

If you go on the website you can see the design of the corn maze. This years theme was Around the World. There is actually a trivia quest with 8 check points with questions at each check point. As you can see we were being lead by two 3 year olds so we were lucky to find the 2 check points we did. After all that walking it was time to make our way back to the front of the maze.

A little sisterly love at a check point stop.



We did not bring a stroller so Tim had to step up with some transportation for Megan, she was getting a little tired.


Our presidential girls.

We had to have some fun too!

Inside the barn there is a huge gum ball coaster as they call it. You can buy a gumball for $.25 then watch it try to make it's way to the end. From what we saw it usually gets off track so we decided to invest our money in some Tiger Tracks ice cream after trekking around the corn maze.

One last family photo with one of the scare crows.

This weekend is the MU vs. OU game and ESPN game day will be in Columbia MO!! It is going to be an extremely crazy weekend, and it's Homecoming on top of that. I think our attempt to go to the parade will be challenging with the traffic issues, but we'll see how it goes.

Everyone Loves a Parade

This past weekend was Homecoming for North Callaway High School so they have a parade through Auxvasse. Abby's preschool class also had a float in the parade so we got our first taste of Homecoming.


The parade was a long Main Street in Auxvasse so Megan and I walked up from our babysitter's house. I don't know if Megan really had a clue what to expect, but was excited that there were all these people and wanted to be standing with them.


Megan wasn't too fond of the band, but about marched off with the high school cheerleaders! She was clapping along and started walking after them - that's why there is no picture of them as I had to go retrieve her.

The T-Bird Preschool float! Tim and Abby are up front throwing candy.

Abby is trying to throw candy to her friends that were with us from daycare. Just to point out - Tim is in his matching T-bird preschool shirt as well.

It went by pretty quickly - but as Abby said later "It was the best parade ever!"