It's A Girl

On February 19th at 12:39 pm we welcomed our second daughter, Megan Rae Schmidt. She weighed in at 8 lbs 15 oz and was 20-1/2 inches long. She looks like a smaller version of Abby when she was born. We were expecting a bigger baby. The C-section went just fine and we were released from the hospital on Saturday afternoon and have been home enjoying the girls. Megan is sleeping and eating well and we just love her!!

Megan after she was cleaned up. She was already just chilling.
They sign (with balloons) that Tim put in the yard to let the neighborhood know it was a girl. Everyone was anxious to know if Tim would get his boy.

Big sister Abby helping feed Megan before bed time.
This was the first bath at home, as you can see Abby was there to help.
Abby giving Megan a kiss good night.
The beautiful flowers that OCCI and Homedepot.com sent us. Pink was the theme for sure.
"Princess Abby" holding Megan again. She can't get enough of her.
Our first family photo at the hospital when Abby met Megan for the first time.

This week, my parents are here to help and getting some extra Abby time. We've had a great time and I am enjoying a couple extra naps and not having to clean or do laundry. Team Papke is keeping the house spotless. Unfortunately they leave on Monday and Abby will be back at daycare and Megan and I back to our routine.

Megan is a very good baby and it's funny how similar she is to Abby when she was a baby, both in looks and in mannerisms. I'm hoping it keeps up!

Baby & Basement Update

We'll start with the important info first. Is there a baby yet.....nope. Are we even close......not yet. I have one more appointment on Tuesday to check to see if I have progressed at all and even have a chance for a VBAC. Otherwise Hotel Schmidt will have a vacancy on Thursday one way or another. I think Abby, Tim, and I are all ready for the baby to be here. We are ready for the baby other than the little things in my head that I need to get done still that are probably more related to nesting than anything. Abby will be heading to Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt's house on Tuesday and I think that will be rougher on me than anything as I'll miss her quite a bit. She'll of course have a great time and will be back on Friday probably to visit her new brother/sister.

I haven't updated any basement photos for a while and we really didn't make any progress this weekend due to some visitors and a Black & Gold visit on Saturday night. This is how it looks for now though.


This is the great room on the "adult" side. It's across from the tv. We had been watching some movies and relaxing most of the afternoon. Our new improvements are window sills and blinds (Home Depot of course). The couches are the goldenrod ones from my parents (circa 1970s) but with some donated couch covers from my cousin look pretty good.

Here is the "office/bedroom". It's basically where we hide things right now. We did purchase a desk and futon this weekend for this room so it will look different in a couple weeks. It also has a new window sill, blinds, and a lovely ceiling fan (insert Home Depot plug again).
Ahhh...the tv. My day after thanksgiving purchase. After 3 visits from mediacom we finally have working cable downstairs. The surround sound is great and I love it! This is also on the "adult" side of the greatroom across from the couches.
You can't have a post without some Abby pictures. We also have purchased a treadmill as to assist with some post baby weight and 2009 goals. As you can see it's working quite well in the box that Abby is using as a table. Abby is now anti-shoes, socks, and pants lately. She can take them all off herself so expect future photos to look similar.



This is "toy central", or the other half of the great room. It doesn't look that bad right now but is a good area for Abby and her pals to play and "cook". The kids also get their exercise running from one side of the room to the other.

This was my weekend project. The bathroom is cleaned and fully functional. Basically our shower had been used as a storage area for the last 2 years so there was some grime to clean out. The mirror is also new from previous photos. We just need to seal the grout on the tile.
This is the hallway outside the bathroom with a lovely Home Depot wall sconce.
Base of the stairs with another lovely flush mount Home Depot fixture. We're not too sure what we are going to do with this space just yet. It's just nice to have.
This is Tim's space. The antler sconce is actually a fixture that Home Decorators sells. So it was fitting to be in the "Hall of Dead Animals" as I like to call it. Above it is Tim's 12 point rack, and above that will be his full deer head mount when it's completed in April.


That pretty much wraps up what we have going on at the Schmidt house. We'll keep you posted with some baby news this week sometime.

Aidan's 2nd Birthday Party

This weekend we took a day trip to St. Louis for Scott & Wendy's son Aidan's 2nd birthday. He has a certain addiction similar to Abby's with Blues Clues so that was the theme of his party.


The Blue's Clues Cake.


Here is Aidan getting ready to blow out some candles.
The kids are enjoying the cake and ice cream.

The present opening has begun. If you watch Blue's Clues like the lucky ones of us who get to see it daily, there is a portion where Mailbox brings Steve/Joe a letter. So Aidan was all about getting his "letters". It was very cute.

All the kids are helping of course unwrap as they usually do.



Abby's favorite part was the ice cream.





We went to the mall Sunday after church to check out some treadmills and return a few things and of course Abby conned us in to a ride in one of the toys. If this is an indication of her driving skills, look out!

Baby Update: Still nothing happening. Another appointment tomorrow afternoon, but I expect a big "See you next week".

Abby Weekend Comes to an End

This past weekend was "Abby Weekend". We decided to devote some quality time with her before #2 shows up. So we planned a 3 day weekend down in Branson and Big Cedar. Of course there was a little outlet mall shopping for Mommy and a Bass Pro stop for Daddy. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries after the Bass Pro stop so these are the only pictures. We happened to arrive during the fish feeding which Abby enjoyed quite a bit. There were mostly rainbow trout in the tank but they were pretty large. As you can see Abby gave us some cheesy poses for the camera.



Our weekend started off with snow on Friday morning which Abby loved. Too bad none of it stuck to the ground. We had a late lunch with some Harry & David cookies that Abby picked out for dessert. After dinner we hit the swimming pool and Abby had a blast. She went down the slide and played on the stairs for about an hour. We ended the evening with renting Alvin & the Chipmunks, or The Munks as Abby likes to call them and watched it for the first of about 5 times this weekend.

Saturday we headed down to the Branson Landing, more shopping and eating and playing. The sun was out so Abby got to play on some outside toys. She picked out Daddy a St. Louis Cardinals camo hat that she really likes and Daddy picked her out a camo Bass Pro hat. Mommy passed on the camo. We had lunch at Waxy O'Shea's which is one of our favorite Irish Pubs and then back for naps and more swimming. This time we had purchased some water wings for Abby and she could swim by herself. Mostly just with kicking but she was figuring out the whole arms thing by the end of it. A couple trips down the slide, and most of the time on the stairs. We also ran in to Tim's sister Betsy and her husband and in-laws who were enjoying a weekend there as well. We ended the night with some Madagascar as we had to return the Munks.

Sunday we headed back and surveyed our shopping damage. Abby is definitely set for spring and next fall/winter unless there is a crazy growth spurt. Tim did some more work on the basement and now all the ceilings are finished. There are still small things to finish of course and hundreds of nail holes to fill. We will hopefully work on these this week and then do some shopping for a futon and desk this weekend. Everything is coming together. I'll update with more photos probably after this weekend.

Baby Update: Nothing's happening. Not dilated or effaced at all, so everyone who was thinking the baby would come early can just keep on hoping. I think #2 is holding out until mid-February.

Happy New Year

2009 is upon us and it's been eventful to say the least. Our year started off with a family loss unfortunately. Tim's grandmother, Doris Schmidt, passed away on New Year's Eve. It was quite a shock to all and she will be greatly missed. We are thankful for the time we had with her and that we got to spend this past Christmas with her.

On a happier note, our college group of friends flew in and drove in for New Year's Eve celebrations. We didn't get to spend that much time with everyone but had a good time with the short time we spent. Below are some pictures of the Magic House. Abby had a small fall that resulted in crying in to a nap so the photos are limited.

Here are Abby and Ashley teaming up on their tower. You would never guess that their parent's were engineers.


Abby and Ashley in the kitchen checking out what there is to cook.
Here is Casey changing out a muffler on the toy car. I'm not to sure who had more fun at the Magic House, Casey or the kids......
Abby thought she would check out Casey's work.

We're looking forward to 2009. We have a couple weddings that will add a couple more members to both the Schmidt and Papke families and will be adding some babies as well to both sides. It should be yet, another busy year.

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.