Kate's Baptism

We headed over to Geneseo the first Sunday in December to celebrate our first niece's baptism.  Kate is just adorable, and we love having another girl in the family!  The drive over was a quick hour and a half from my parents since we were already there for Andy's hunting season.  Besides Hannah getting sick in the car on the drive, and me having to sprint through Walmart to find her a new dress since hers was puked all over, it was a great trip!

Heidi, Nathan and Kate

Schmidt Fam

Deb, Kate and Nathan

Best buds goofing off behind the scenes.

Bad Blogger

All - I've been a terrible blogger - I know.  But I do have some good reasons - first most is that I tried to post some pics and Blogger told me I'd ran out of storage, so I tasked myself to figure that out.  Now that I've looked into it - I think I got my storage increased, but my problem was that I wasn't opening up Blogger in Chrome, and it wasn't letting me upload pics in IE.  So NOW I should be good to go.

The other reason is that I'm pregnant - yep - that is my excuse.  I've had no energy, been nauseous all day long, and sleeping by 8:30 the past 5 weeks.  I'm FINALLY feeling better, I think it was last week, Tuesday night that I stayed up until 10pm.  Andy was shocked, and didn't want to get his hopes up that I had turned the corner, and he possibly could be getting more help at bedtime, but after a week of constant energy, I can say I've turned the corner!  It's been a brutal 5 weeks - but the great news is this is the LAST first trimester I will ever have.  That has been a common theme so far.  I keep saying 'This will be the last NYE I'll be pregnant', 'This will be the last, etc, I'll be pregnant'.  I begged and begged for this third baby, so I'm so very thankful and feel so blessed, but I'm also older and this growing a baby thing is tough work!!

So hooray to our precious 3rd baby, who is already loved so much and has no idea how crazy of a family he/she is entering into, and cheers to only 6 more months of pregnancy and having our family completed!! 

Like Father Like Son

Henry loves playing sports these days, especially football.  For the past month or so, every night when he comes home from school he goes right upstairs and changes into his football jersey, gets his football, and wants to play catch.  He will play for hours.  Andy said that is exactly how he was when he was little, he just wanted to play sports all of the time, which I think is just great.  Growing up in a family where sports were a big part of our life, it is important to us that we raise our kids to love being active and play sports that they love.  It is so fun to watch him improve every day on his catches and throws.  I recorded him the other night, and finally got him catching the ball on camera! 

Throwing the ball with daddy.

Catching the ball!!

And lastly - I had to add this video.  Hannah throwing the football may be one of the cutest, funniest things I have seen!!  Henry usually says to her - "Hannah - you be my cheerleader", but of course, she wants to do everything just like her brother. 

Baths These Days

Part of our nightly routine has always been baths every night.  It calms the kids down, makes sure they are clean, and gives Andy and me 10 to 20 minutes to hang out while they have fun splashing around.  Henry doesn't mind water in his face at all, but Hannah HATES it.  She has to have her mommy do it, she has to stand up and look at the ceiling, and it has to be the same little blue cup that is used every night to wash her shampoo out of her hair.  If any water gets in her eyes or ears she freaks.  I have the pattern down, but nights that Andy does it causes for a little stress, but she deals, and as soon as the two kids are wrapped up in their towels they lay on our bed next to each other and do this:

It's these moments that I just love!!

Hawkeye Basketball

To break up our drive back from Moline, IL to Des Moines on Sunday, we took the kids to their first ever Hawkeye Basketball game at Carver Arena.  The game was at 1pm, which is usually melt down hour before nap time, but the kids did surprisingly ok.  Henry LOVES sports, and liked sitting and watching the game with his dad.  Hannah on the other hand was a little more antsy.  We walked around and got hot dogs, ice cream, and went to the bathroom a few times to occupy our time.  She loved seeing Herky.  They made it through the first half, and then got into a fight over the iPad, so we made our exit with two screaming kiddos.  The awesome part was, the slept the entire.drive.home = awesome ride for mommy and daddy. 

Watching all of the excitement while Daddy parked the car. 

Loving the awesome, huge, ice cream cones at Carver!  Check out Hannah's new adorb Hawkeye bow. 

Welcome Kate Johannah!

Saturday morning we got the text had been waiting for - Heidi was in labor!!  Her due date was this Friday, November 9th, but baby decided to come early.  Heidi and Nathan decided not to find out the gender, so we were all very anxious to find out if baby was pink or blue.  I was secretly hoping for a girl, so we could even out the cousins and Hannah could have a girl cousin to play with, but of course, we all were just hoping for happy and healthy.  So when it was announced a girl had arrived, I went down to the basement and went through all of Hannah's newborn pink stuff to see what would work for Kate.  Hannah was born in the summer, so not everything lined up with the current season - but we brought over two bags stuffed with pink and purple.



Uncle Andy and Kate.

We packed up Saturday night, stayed in Shuey with my dad, and then Andy and I headed over to Moline on Sunday morning to meet her and see Heidi and Nathan. 

Such a perfect little bundle.

Our Schmidt family holidays will sure be fun with all these little ones!!  So exciting!!

Waukee Library Halloween

Last night we took the kids to the Waukee Public Library for their Halloween event.  Very cute event for kids.  There was a great turnout, which made it a little chaotic, but the kids loved it and enjoyed listening to story time, making a craft, and running through the rows of books!

Before the event we all met up at Peyton's house for some dinner.  Erin made us all french toast, sausage links, and oranges for dinner.  The kids did well eating together, and then playing in Peyton's play room.  I asked Henry what his favorite toy was, he said 'All of them'. 

Hannah, Henry, Georgia and Peyton.  They all smiled so well for the camera!

Goofing around.  Hannah kept stepping on her princess dress - we came close to a few face plants. 

Listening to story time.  Check out Henry's cowboy boots - he wears them any chance he gets and is not a battle I am going to fight!  There was a big stuffed hippo there called 'Hemmingway'.  Hannah is typically terrified of stuff man sized creatures - but she shockingly went right up to him and pointed and smiled!  I couldn't believe it. 

Craft and cookie time. 

Brother and Sister, or Belle and Spiderman. 

Good, short, event, which will be even better after the library completes their addition so the kids can have more room!

Night Eyes 2012

As most of you know, we are big fans of the Des Moines Blank Park Zoo.  We especially love Halloween event they hold each fall called 'Night Eyes'.  It is such a great family event, and with the weather in the mid 70's yesterday, it was the perfect day to attend. 

Henry is all about pirates lately.  His favorite show being 'Jake and the Neverland Pirates'.  So of course, he wanted to be a pirate.  We made his outfit from scratch, and it turned out pretty well!  Andy found an eye patch kit at Walgreens the other day that he couldn't pass up, and I found a pirate hat on sale at Gymboree Friday night, so his outfit was complete! 

Henry cooperated so well when Andy put on his face paint.  He acted a little too serious at times, and did not talk on the entire ride to the zoo because he did not want to mess up his costume.  It was too cute!

Henry cooperating so well for Daddy! 

My all of a sudden photogenic little pumpkin.

At the zoo they have different props placed around the different areas.  This one was the favorite - a pirate ship!  Lucky for us, the pirates the zoo had hired to stand guard were on a break because on our way back through they were standing there and the kids were a little scared.  Especially when they saw that Henry was a pirate and yelled 'Arrr Matey!'.  Henry grabbed on tight to Andy's leg...

The favorite train ride.

Hay maze

Hannah having a melt down because I wouldn't let her open up every piece of candy after she got it.  "Mommy - open!"

Henry and Humpty Dumpty. 

Kids after playing in the inflatable zone. 

And of course - the tractor ride.  This year Hannah could pedal it all on her own!

We ended last night with a trip to Cici's, which we haven't been to in years!  The kids loved it and ate pretty well.  A great weekend at home enjoying all of the fun family events Des Moines has to offer!

Mexico 2012

Back in July, on our Schmidt Family Vacation I mentioned how I had the vacation itch and wanted to get something booked.  Jill and Adam mentioned they were going to Mexico in October and that we should come with.  It didn't take much to talk Andy into it and we had tickets booked a few days later!  Then in August my sister Danielle had the same itch, so she booked flights too!  My parent's had an extra week vacation to use through RCI, so we were able to book an additional 2 bedroom unit at the same resort.  It ended up working out perfectly, and we had such a great time. 

The funniest part was two days before we left, at Henry's 4th birthday party, we found out that we had a little miscommunication on flights...I accidentally told Danielle the wrong dates, so her and Brian we booked to fly out one day before we left.  Not funny to Brian, but it ended up working out perfect as they were ready to leave after 5 days in the sun.  Just couldn't believe we found out about it just 2 days before we left!

Here are some pictures of our fun in the sun in Mazatlan, Mexico:

View from our balcony.  The mountain in view is Deer Mountain, which we climbed up on the 3rd day of our trip.  We started out our days on the balcony eating breakfast each morning.

Sisters poolside!

The resort, The Inn at Mazatlan.

Adam in the pool enjoying the waterfall.

They had a 'Official' Senor Frogs store every few blocks.

The first night we walked across the street and enjoyed 'Gus and Gus' and had our first plate of seafood and enjoyed a live band singing 'A Horse with no Name' and watched Monday night football.  The second night, we walked down the beach and found a great seafood place right on the ocean.  We got ourselves some more seafood!

Our third day we were escorted by jet ski over to Deer Island.  We had a very interesting hike up the mountain.  What was supposed to be an 'easy' hike, turned out to be a not so clearly marked path up a pretty big hill. 

But we made it all the way to the top!

At the bottom of the mountain we had fresh lobster prepared for us by the only occupant on the island.  It was an awesome experience having the entire place to ourselves.  Andy enjoyed a drink out of his first coconut.  Our friend 'Eddy' picked it fresh off the tree and hacked the top off right in front of us. 

Me and the hubs on our balcony before dinner. 

Night out on the town.

The next morning we decided to hike again, sending my legs into serious soreness.  Especially since I decided to take a detour gone bad....  After our hike we ate at the Shrimp Bucket and shared some serious shrimp buckets and Brian and Adam had the best burritos they've ever had in their lives. 

We made it back to the pool in time for our daily happy hour.  Loved me some Pina Coladas! 

Danielle and Brian's last night in town.  We ate at Ernie Tomatoes, out on the patio with the beautiful sunset behind us.  Andy and Adam had the biggest burritos ever. 

We went out in style - it isn't a real vacation without some karaoke!!

We got to the airport on Saturday in time to watch the Iowa game from the Dish Network app on our iPad.  Of course the game went into double ot, so we missed the ending, but at least we had something to keep us busy in the airport for 2 hours. 

Such an awesome trip!!  It was the perfect amount of time to be away.  The kids were so excited to see us, and we were ready to see those crazy kids.  Thank you Jill and Adam for letting us crash your wonderful Mexican vacation!!

Field Trip Volunteer

I knew Henry's preschool class was taking a trip to the apple orchard this fall, so the second I saw the sign go up that volunteers were welcome, I jumped on it.  Working full time I miss out on some of the stuff they get to do, but I am so fortunate to have a flexible job that if special occasions come up at school I can block off my calendar, get away from work and attend.  I wouldn't work full time if I wasn't able to do that, and I make it very clear at work that my family is and always will be my first priority.  Plus, I've been around for quite a while now, so most people know that about me.  So today I finished up my meetings at 10am and drove up to Center Grove to meet 40 other 3/4/5 year olds at the apple orchard. 

Henry's favorite - the tractor ride!

We walked around and saw and learned about different animals.  Our tour guides name was Kaye and she did a great job keeping the kids entertained.  And aren't those matching green shirts just hilarious??!!  Henry's was a dress on him!  They had Kids Company on them with their phone number - very smart. 

The huge jumping pillow.  This one made me a little nervous with 24 kids jumping on it!!  Only one kid got a minor bump to the chin, which is pretty good considering how close they had to jump next to each other!

The kids loved the corn pool the most.  They had so much fun running and swimming around in it.  It is so much fun watching these kids grow up together - Henry has been with the same kids for almost 2 years!!

The Turtle room.  Audrey, Nathan, Henry, Aiden, Dylan, Charlie, Kaitlyn and Kota.

I even jumped in for a short while. 

Corn pile.

All in all it was a great time.  The weather was super hot, and some of the kids had long sleeves and pants on and were just dying of heat.  The other thing was they were all so thirsty.  So note to self for next year - pack Henry a water bottle not just a juice box that he drinks and lunch and throws away.  Another lesson learned was talking to Henry about what my plan was for the day instead of just surprising him and showing up.  Andy and I talked to him last night about how I was just meeting them up there and not riding the bus, so that way when I went to leave, he knew I wasn't riding on the bus back with him.  It worked well, and though he came close to a crying breakdown, he held it together and was so strong!  So proud of my big boy.

Potty Update

Big update on Hannah.  She went to school in panties today, and came home in the same panties and pants, which means - no accidents!!  She goes on the potty each time we have her go, but is not telling us when she needs to go yet, so still working on that.  She is also holding it for longer periods of time, around 2 - 3 hours.  We are getting so close!!!

Iowa's Superbowl

The week of the Iowa vs Iowa State game is one of my favorite weeks of the year.  It is fun to look back over the past years to see how much these kids have grown.  Here the kids are just a year ago HERE.  And check out two years ago HERE when Hannah and Georgia were just a few months old! 

The rivalry between the two schools is so serious, yet so much fun!  I wear black and gold all week long, and also dress the kids in Hawkeye gear all week long.  On game day, we hosted and had some of our favorite friends over.  Even though one of our, not to be named in this post -Kelly Eagle - is a fan of the Cardinal and Gold team, we still allow her to come over on game day:) 

With game time at 2:30pm, we knew we were going to have to be very creative about tackling nap time.  Andy and I took our kids up and got them both sleeping, then Erin got Peyton asleep in Henry's bed (Henry was not in his bed, he was in our bed), and then Kelly got Georgia asleep in our guest bedroom.  All four kids slept through the first half!!  It was awesome and couldn't have worked out better.  The kids woke up ready to play through the second half and into the evening. 

How cute are these friends??!!

Henry refused to get in the picture with the girls - he wanted to be in a picture "All By Myself"!

Young love??!!

Family pic.  Still somewhat happy after the Hawkeye loss.  Love football season!!