Easter 2010

Sunday was Abi's first Easter. Since it was General Conference (or Pajama Sunday, as my mother-in-law calls it) it was a nice relaxing day where we didn't have to worry about teaching lessons, or baby-sitting rowdy Sunbeams, or keeping Abi from screeching or getting into stuff. It was really nice to just spend time as a family and listen to Conference.

It's kind of funny when it's your first child's "first" something-or-other. Everything turns into a big deal and you have to take a million pictures. All the while, your child is just sitting there looking at you like, "Why are you making me do this?" or "So, you want me to rip the paper off?" or "You're crazy." But we as the beaming new parents can't help but resist. And why should we? After all they're only this age once, right?



So, with it being Abi's first Easter she had to color eggs and do and egg hunt, even if she couldn't figure out why the heck she was doing it. After we colored eggs and Abi colored her sock yellow, we hid plastic eggs (because Abi liked to smash the hard boiled ones) around the house. Then Kevin walked her around and "helped" her find them while I snapped pictures. Kevin basically did all the finding while Abi just posed.

Yes, Abi's foot is scarily close to the dye-water...

and it's obviously intended- just look at that face!

"I found one!"

Abi was more excited about the dollar than the eggs

Her spoils from the hunt

Next week Abi is turning a year old and Kevin and I can't believe how fast the year has gone by. She has grown so much and has such a great personality. She's even walking... sort of. She needs a little help with her walking toy, but soon enough she by taking off on her own. That's actually kind of scary.

Yum!

St. George / Zion Trip

Kevin and I went on a trip to St. George this year for our anniversary. It's not very far away and we've done pretty much all there is to do down there before, but Kevin decided that we needed a get-a-way, and I agreed.

We arrived at St. George a week ago Sunday afternoon. It took less time that I remembered to get down there (only 4 hours, where I remembered it being 5 for some reason), but it was still a long drive. I read most of the time. It was either that or sleep for me, and I can't really sleep in the car. Though, I felt bad for Kevin. He was just as tired and had to stay awake to drive. When we arrived at our hotel, we decided to just take it easy. It was Sunday after all, and we had been on the road most of the afternoon. So, what better way relax than to hit the pool? We swam for an hour or two, then showered and watched "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" which had been released the previous weekend and I had bought it a few days after. (Kevin had forbidden me to watch it until we got to St. George.)

Monday, we decided to just hang out around town. I wanted to go shopping and the weather was nice, so it was a great day to be out.

Tuesday, we decided while the weather was still good we should go out to Zion National Park. We went a couple of years ago and did the horse trail, so we decided this time we would do the hiking ourselves. We only hiked two trails, but it took most of the day. First we hiked the Emerald Pools loop trail (which I've hiked before when my sister Mel and I took a trip to Zion) and we hiked along the Virgin River through Narrow Canyon. The weather was great and the views were beautiful. It was a lot of fun to be there together enjoying the outdoors. I even remembered the sunblock this time (last time I didn't remember and got FRIED) so I wasn't in pain for the rest of the trip. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in a ghost town called Grafton.

Zion National Park

Trail to the lower Emerald Pool

The trail is a little rocky on the way to the middle pool

Grafton Ghost Town

Schoolhouse/Church

Wednesday, the sky looked a little foreboding and the wind was blowing like crazy. We had planned on maybe driving out to Bryce Canyon, but after seeing the weather, we thought it be better to stay in town again. We shopped a little more and went for a drive around town. We learned where most of the roads lead and how to find pretty much anything in the area. We also went to Brigham Young's summer home (which we have seen a couple of times before, but it never really gets old.) For dinner that night, I wanted sushi, so we went to what seemed like a good place, but as it turned out, the food wasn't that great and it wasn't that cheap either, so it was a little bit of a disappointment.

Brigham Young Summer Home

Thursday, we checked out of our hotel, then went to the St. George temple to do a session. The weather was perfect and the temple was beautiful, of course. Then, after we got a bite to eat, we headed home.

St. George Temple

Night shot of the temple

We were excited to see Abi again. When we got home and she saw us, she threw up her arms and started shrieking. She missed us too. That was pretty priceless.

Fondue Night

Last night we had our monthly Schmidt family dinner and, as promised, we had fondue. Now, call me sheltered, but I've never had fondue before. So, naturally I didn't really know that much about it, other than you dipped stuff stabbed on pokers into hot cheese. I was in charge of the cheese and we each were in charge of bringing our own stuff to dip (we would all share, of course). We had one pot with oil to cook the meat, two with cheese (one I did and one my mom did) and two with chocolate (one dark chocolate and one white).

All in all, it was a lot of fun. There were a few minor drawbacks, though. One, we only had one oil pot and there were twelve people, and with meat coming out of the pot one bite-sized piece at a time, some people had to wait a few minutes to eat their meat. Not only that, but someone had to constantly tend the pot (Charles and Tim got the honors by way of seating location). I personally didn't mind, because the less meat I ate the better I would feel afterward (I have this tendency to over-indulge), but some others may have felt differently than me. Next time we do it -that is if my mom can convince my dad; this kind of thing really isn't his cup of tea- we definitely need another oil pot. Other than that I think it went pretty smooth and, from what I could tell, everyone had a really great time.

And wouldn't you know it, I forgot the camera. Oops.

As much as I would love to continue on about food, other things have been going on besides mealtime. Kevin attended his school's foreign language fair last week and it turned out to be a great success. The students had their boards on display, there was a Mariachi band that came to play, and a Chinese dancer who performed. Kevin came home gushing with pride for his students. Very cute.

Aerobics is going well. I taught my second full class today which was a ton of fun. I even got some compliments from some of the patrons, which was very cool.

Abi will be one year next month and I can hardly believe it. She's doing a lot of cute things lately, like howling like a dog and when I say, "so pretty" she pretends to comb her hair. Also very cute.

My three-year wedding anniversary was this last week and Kevin decided that we needed to take a trip as a couple, so this weekend, we are headed to St. George for a few days. It'll just be the two of us, so it should be really fun. Although, I am a little sad to leave Abi. I know, she'll be fine. I just need to suck it up and have a good time. I will, but I'll still miss her.

This month, so far...

So I have been really terrible at getting this blog updated. I want to blame it on me being too busy, but it would be a lie. Here's what we've all been up to.

The school year is starting to wind down for Kevin. He's getting anxious for the year to be over, as I'm sure are the students. This week there is a Foreign Language Fair at the school where students pick a place to make a display board and oral presentation about. Sort of like the science fair, only with the foreign language department. Kevin asked me to judge his classes' boards to determine who will go to the school-wide competition. It's hard to judge. you could tell that some of those students worked really hard.

Kevin's also losing more weight than me, even though he's not really doing anything. For example, last week he decided to cut back on soda pop and he lost 4 pounds. What?!? I have been going to the gym to water aerobics classes for the past 2 1/2 months and have lost maybe 2 pounds, but only after I gained 4. It's just not fair.

Speaking of water aerobics, the fitness center where I go to class had some open positions for instructors. During class they were encouraging people to apply. I thought, "why not?" So I applied, had an interview last Friday, had an audition (I basically taught a live class for 15 minutes) on Saturday where they were so impressed that they hired me on the spot. Cool, huh? So I'll be teaching 2 classes on Thursdays.

Abi is still growing every day. Tomorrow she'll be 11 months. It's kind of hard to believe that next month she'll be a year old. Time goes by too fast. She cruises around the house on her hands and knees and walks around along the furniture. She sometimes stands up in the middle of the room when she's not paying attention, but as soon as she realizes that she's not hanging on to something, she chickens out and sits down.


Tomorrow is also Kevin and my 3rd wedding anniversary. He's going to take me on a trip to St. George at the end of the month. Happy anniversary sweetie!

Abi also likes to dance. Here's a video.

"Iron Chef" Family Night

Every third Sunday of the month, my family gets together to have dinner. Last year, we had the traditional Sunday dinner. Roast, lasagna, turkey or ham (or both) for the holidays. This year we decided to do something different every month. This month my mom decided we would have an "Iron Chef" competition, loosely based on the Food Network TV show. The idea was that everyone (each couple, really) would create 2 two dishes that incorporate a "secret ingredient." The only rule is to be creative. The "secret ingredient" for this occasion was cheese. Here are our creations.

Team Schmidt (Mom and Charles)

Cream cheese flan

Chorizo quesodillas

Mozerella w/ tomatoes

Team Tucker (Mel and Tim)

Pecan tassies

Turkish Borek

Team Armitstead (Kevin and Me)

Sun dried tomatoe and goat cheese profiteroles

Italian cucumber salad

Team Fellows (Dorthy and Rory)

Ham, cheese and apple melts


Canoli cups

Team Schmidt/Peterson (Sarah and Jordan)

Broccoli and cheese souffle

Fruit sushi w/ cream cheese

Everything looked and tasted great and everyone tried something they've never had before. After we tasted and voted on each others' dishes, the judges (Dad and Justin) tallied up the scores and handed out the awards.

The judges handing out awards

"Best Taste" went to Team Fellows

"Most Original" went to Team Tucker

"Best Presentation" went to Team Schmidt/Peterson

The rest of us got "Honorable Mentions"

We all had a great time and are excited to do it again. Next month: fondue.

First Tooth

Abi cut her first tooth today. It's about time. She has two teeth on the bottom that have been going up and down under the surface of her gums for the last two months. Finally today one popped through. The past few days she's been really miserable with a stuffy nose and a cough because she's been teething, so she's also been really cranky. That means her naps have been short and few. Today she crashed. Here's some pictures Kevin took of her with our fancy new camera.

Catching Up

Well, since the beginning of the year I have been a real slacker at getting this blog updated, which is a bad thing seeing as that was one of my resolutions this year. So, I'm not off to a very good start. Some other resolutions I made are:

1. Lose weight & excercise (but honestly, who doesn't make this one?)
2. Scrapbook (I haven't even begun this one yet)
3. Read more often (scriptures, books, everything)
4. Stick to a budget
5. Be a better person- all around improvement.

So far, I've been pretty good about a few things. I have been going to a water aerobics class at least 3 times a week. I'm trying to watch what I eat, but in all these weeks that I have been doing it (about 5 weeks) I've only lost 2 pounds. Sad right? Oh, well. I'm going to keep it up and see if it gets any better. The budget thing has been pretty good. Kevin and I set one up and decided to keep track of every penny we spend. We've been good so far, but just received our tax return and are trying to resist the temptation to spend it all in one month.

Last month we celebrated Kevin's 25th birthday. Happy Birthday! I tried my hand at cake decorating for the 2nd time. It turned out okay for an amateur, I guess. Much better than my first cake. You don't want to see it, trust me. You do? Are you sure? It's hysterical.

Yikes, I know. I had many fatal flaws in this monstrosity, but it was so hilarious that I had to take a picture.

See this one's much better.

I used melted chocolate chips to pipe words and designs to stick on the cake after they had set up again. (Thanks for the idea Dorthy) Though the cake was still a little lopsided.


The next week was Jon's birthday.

(Maybe the month of cake didn't help my weight loss plan very much)

The biggest event was also the biggest surprise. My brother, Charles, who had been serving a mission in eastern Europe came home from his mission last Thursday. The reason it was a surprise was the we weren't expecting him to come home in April. He's been sick and was almost done anyway, so it was decided that he would be released early so he could get some good medical attention. Here's a video of us meeting him at the airport. I hugged him with the camera on so, sorry if it make you sea-sick.


So that's whats going on so far this year and I'll try to be better at keeping this thing updated. Here's some pictures of Abi being cute.