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.

Christmas Recovery

This year was a Papke Family Christmas. I had some extra vacation days to use up before the 29th so I headed up to Iowa before Tim to spend time with my parents and brothers. Abby was especially excited because Iowa City had SNOW! She got to make a snow man with her Grandma Papke and throw snowballs. Why am I not in the pictures - because I caught Tim's flu bug. He was kind enough to share it with me, both my brothers, and even a cousin. In return he got it back again. We have had a hard time kicking this flu bug from our house and have still yet to meet our nephew because we've been sick. We had to cancel our Schmidt Christmas on the 27th due to it as well, so Christmas is not over for us yet.


Here is Abby playing in the snow with Grandma Papke. I managed to drag myself out of bed to take a couple photos.

Here is Megan traveling around the living room. She managed to take a couple steps this past week, but her greatest entertainment was - drink coasters. She played all week with them.

This is Rebekah Papke trying to give Megan a bottle - Megan was not cooperating.



Abby & Megan watching the DVD player. Abby is getting more and more frustrated that Megan wants to be where she is and do what she is doing. She has a lot of things to learn.....



Aunt Colleen and Uncle Tony playing the Go Fishing game with Abby.

Christmas Eve - Santa managed to find Abby and Megan at the Papke house while we were at church. Although Abby did say she called him to let him know we would be there. On the way to church she said Santa would be at the house in 15 minutes.

Abby and Megan getting ready to open a couple of gifts before dinner because they were having a hard time waiting. Abby got to pick 3 - which turned into 4.

The Papke Family reindeer photo.



Megan opening some gifts with Daddy. These were her first gifts.

Pajamas are on and playing with our toys (or a coaster for Megan).

Christmas Day at Great Grandma Powers house. Here are the Power's ladies - 4 generations. Megan is a little squirmy. Lately if she does not want to be held she'll let you know. She's all about being everywhere.

My cousin Jessica with her son Ellis and Megan. Ellis is 3 months older than Megan. You can see they were checking each other out.

And yes, Santa managed to leave a couple presents at the Schmidt house as well. You can see Megan is a little happy. I think she is getting used to opening presents.


This weekend we are heading down to the Lake of the Ozarks to celebrate New Years with our college friends. It will be a weekend extravaganza with plenty of photos I am sure. Then we'll have one more Christmas with the Schmidt family on the 9th to wrap up our holiday season.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Chad & Whitney's Wedding

This weekend we headed down to Branson to Silver Dollar City to attend the wedding of Chad Smith and Whitney Crow. It was very cold, the majority of the people there were in carharts, overalls, snow pants, you name it. Then there was all of us in our dresses and nice clothing.

They were married at the Wilderness Church in the middle of the park.


The groom patiently waiting for his bride to show up.


Chris and Jill - newly engaged as well - Congratulations!


This is Kale, Chad, Whitney's father, Whitney, and her sister. Again - it was very cold!

Chad and Whitney saying their vows. We weren't allowed to use flashes so the photos aren't so great with the window in the back.

The newlyweds heading out of the church.


The best view I could get of the back of Whitney's dress. It was very nice and she looked beautiful in it.


They had a carriage ride around the park announcing their wedding.

Cutting the cake.

The after party at Waxy O'Shea's, an Irish Pub on the Branson Landing - my favorite. We hung out there until about 11. Chad and Whitney also got their first dance compliments of Jenn & Dave so that was nice and we think they enjoyed it. There was an Irish band there that was good entertainment.

The other half of the table.

The party headed on to the Piano Bar after that however Tim and I returned to the hotel to crash due to not feeling all so great. It turned out to be a good idea as Tim still has the "sickies" as Abby likes to call it.

This will probably be the last post until after Christmas. We'll be starting our Iowa/Illinois tour for visiting the relatives. Abby is pretty excited about the snow in Iowa.

Happy Holidays to everyone and safe travels.

Our nephew has a name!

Please welcome:
Theodore Benjamin Bovee to our family.

Happy Birthday Tim

Last night we celebrated Tim's birthday a little early. His birthday is not until Sunday but we will be doing a lot of traveling that day and possibly wouldn't have the time to have dinner as a family. So we celebrated last night with dinner at Lone Star and then cake and presents at home. Abby of course helped me make the cake and decorate it.

Tim with his girls before we did the singing.

Abby's handy work. We had to carry over some of the molasses cookie decorations. She thinks everything needs sprinkles right now. She helped squeeze out the frosting as well.

Happy 32nd Birthday Tim!

Still no news our on nephew's name. We should hear something today hopefully.