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    Archive for November 2007

    Happy Thanksgiving!

    Tuesday, November 27, 2007

    We had a great Thanksgiving week! Mike and I were lucky to get the entire week off of work to stay at home and relax and to get a head start on our trip to Illinois. I celebrated my 29th and last birthday on Monday and though it was a little early, we decorated our Christmas tree on Tuesday, which was a blast! Benjamin still says, "WOW! Beauuuutiful" when he sees it! On Wednesday we made the car trip down to my Mom and Dad's house for the holiday. On Thursday morning Mike and I woke up early to drive into the city for an 8k Turkey Trot race. It was a blustery and snowy morning, but the race was still enjoyable. While we were out running, Mom, Dad and Benjamin were busy cooking turkey and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. That night we all stuffed ourselves with turkey and other goodies! Benjamin was treated to a special Breakfast with Santa at Macy's on Saturday. It was a very neat event that we will no doubt do again. It was held in a small room with only us and four other families there. Santa, Mrs. Claus and the Nutcracker all came through the room while we were eating to talk to each child individually. This was great because it really gave the kids time to warm up to the man in red before they had to sit on his lap. Benjamin wasn't sure about him at first, but he eventually warmed up to Santa. He climbed right up onto his lap and told him exactly what he wants for Christmas, it was adorable. On our way home on Sunday, we made a stop in LaCrosse to visit the Rotary Holiday Lights Display, which we see every year. They really put together an awesome display this year and we all enjoyed it! Benjamin is still talking about seeing the lights! What an awesome end to a great holiday!!

    Cousins

    Thursday, November 15, 2007


    Coffee Time!
    Originally uploaded by Joe, Jen and AJ Schmitt.
    Just had to include this adorable picture (from Jen's flickr) of AJ and Benjamin playing together. They had so much fun laying all of the plates out for their meal and drinking coffee together!

    Mike and I met with Benjamin's head teacher at daycare today for a Parent-Teacher conference. She had nothing but great things to say about him (of course). She is very impressed with his skills, especially his ability to hold conversations with the other (older) kids, which is unusual for his age. Sitting there, at the little table with her, made me think about all of the future school conferences we have to look forward to! Our little guy is growing up, which is hard, but it is also exciting to think about everything ahead of us!

    Nutcracker Suite

    Tuesday, November 13, 2007

    The Mommys and boys at Macy's
    It is an annual tradition of ours to go to the Macy's Auditorium holiday display with Joe, Jen and AJ. We try to go the day it opens, as the lines into the event are usually much much shorter. Last year we had to wait until sometime in December because Benjamin was in the hospital the opening weekend, so we ended up waiting for over an hour to get in. We were much luckier (and healthier) this year! We only stood in line for about 15 minutes this time, it was great! This year's theme is The Nutcracker and the scenes were very neat. The boys are finally at an age where they are interested in these kinds of things and can atleast somewhat appreciate what Christmas is all about. The end of the walk through the displays is a visit with Santa Claus. We were all unsure of how the boys would react to the man in red this year. They both have been talking about sitting on Santa's lap and asking him for presents, but when put face-to-face with the guy, they might just break! Luckily, they were just a little freaked out, but we were able to get them close enough to take a couple of pictures (while sitting on Daddy's laps).

    The boys and Dads with Santa (they didn't want to sit on his lap)


    I think the experience calmed Benjamin a bit because he didn't want to leave Santa! Now he is talking about how excited he is for Santa to come to his house, haha.

    I recently finished up my 6 week Intermediate Cake Decorating class through Community Education. All of the students had to make a cake for our final class and decorate it in 2.5 hours. I decided to try my hand at a mini-wedding cake.

    I am happy with how it turned out, but since I was pretty limited on time and didn't want to spend a bagillion dollars on supplies, it wasn't exactly what I feel I am capable of. Now I'd like to take some more classes on some of the techniques that we only touched on.

    Kids say the darndest things

    Tuesday, November 06, 2007

    Two of our new favorite Benjamin stories:

    Mike: What is your full name Benjamin?
    Benjamin: Benjamin Thomas
    Mike: That's right - Benjamin Thomas Schmitt. What is Daddy's full name?
    Benjamin: Daddy Thomas Schmitt.

    Little did he know how true that was!
    (For those of you who don't know, we passed Mike's middle name onto Benjamin when we named him.)
    ______________________________________________

    Last night Mike put Benjamin to bed and comes to sit with me in the living room. Benjamin is making no noise, so we figure that he's fast asleep. A while later Mike gets up to go to the bathroom and when he comes back in to the living room again, I hear a faint little creak in the hallway. I look over and from where I am sitting on the couch, I can see Benjamin's little head peeking from around his bedroom door. I walk over to him and say, "Benjamin, what are you doing up out of bed?!" His reply: "Hide and seek, Mommy?" I just imagined him in his room that whole time, counting and waiting to come out and find us! Too funny!

    Trick-or-Treat!

    Thursday, November 01, 2007


    Ready to Trick-or-Treat!
    Originally uploaded by Familie Schmitt.
    I think Benjamin's sugar-high has finally subsided and his candy stash is well hidden!

    Halloween was a blast this year!! The day started with a party at Benjamin's daycare in his Multi-Age room. Most of the parents were there and all of the kids had their costumes on. The kids had decorated cookies earlier in the day and they were able to share them with us at the party. We went to The Olsons's for trick-or-treating with Benjamin's buds, Sidney and Reese. Our little cowboy really enjoyed going from house to house to get "MORE CANDY!!!" He never really got the whole "Trick or treat" saying down.
    Instead of that, when he'd get up to the door of the houses, he'd say "I want some candy!!" Then after he got his candy, he'd just stand at the door, probably waiting for more. The funny thing was, sometimes the people would give him more! Haha. Looks like he's got his technique down!

    This past weekend was quite a busy one for us. On Friday night I performed in a murder mystery fundraiser at the Plummer House mansion which was called Death by Chocolate. I played an anti-chocolate campainer called Hazel Nutt-Whirl. The entire play revolved around a chocolate theme and local restaurants donated chocolate cakes and candies. Participants were able to sample the chocolate and wines while wandering around the house attempting to gather clues to solve the murder. It was a lot of fun, but very exhausting! There are pictures on our flickr account.

    Saturday morning we drove down to Illinois for my Grandma's 80th Birthday bash. The party was at a very nice restaurant and it was fun to see everyone. Afterward, Mom and I joined a bunch of family at a casino where nearly everyone brought winnings home. The birthday girl won almost $1,500!!

    I also added some various pictures from the past couple of weeks onto our flickr account, including pumpkin carving, so check them out!