Only two weeks left till vacation. If you haven't heard Mike and I are going to Mexico and Kendal is going to Cleveland. Sorry Kendal, we were too cheap to pay for a passport for you. It will be hard to be away from her, we will just make sure to drink enough tequila and Corona's to help with being so sad without her there.

Mike has been very busy working on the basement. The drywall is all done, the walls are primed, and we finally agreed on colors to paint the walls. Thanks for the help with the colors Greg, Sarah, Jaclynn, Jason and Maddy.

Tonight we had dinner with the Kreider's and the girls got to play together for a while. It was kind of funny to see the girls chasing each other around.

Kendal has started to walk along furniture; Mike will have to post the videos since I haven't figured that part out yet. New pictures are below. Enjoy.

Kendal and Maddy playing

Maddy enjoying a french fry

Kendal's sweet hair after waking up from a nap when it was hot outside

Kendal in her new hiding spot, under her exersaucer

Yup, today we called it offical! Kendal is crawling! She has been very mobile over the last month or so, but today she was up on all fours tearing across the living room. We got some of it on video. Click the links below to watch.

Kendal crawls

Another of her crawling

Kendal crawls to Daddy

Kendal claps

Kendal playing with Tigger

Other than that, things are going well. The basement is coming along nicely. All the mudding and taping is done, only the sanding needs finishing before it is ready for primer.

Some recent pictures of Kendal are below:

Basement update: Drywall is up in Kendal's new playroom! Pics below. We cannot wait until this project is done since we all have spring fever! Yesterday was so nice (76 degrees!). Marnie took Kendal outside during the day and she rode her Fisher Price car on the sidewalk 3 houses away! When I got home from work, Greg and I went to the driving range for a little pre-season golf warm-up... everyone must have had the same idea because it was packed. In the evening, we went over Greg and Sarah's for a cookout. The Kreider’s came too and we played a little "Testy Toss"... yes, it is a yard game and not something perverted! All 3 kids were so good; we are really enjoying watching them grow up together. Life is good.

Well it has been a busy weekend. We have spent the past 2 days traveling all over Michigan looking at furniture. We finally made the big purchase today. Thankfully, the old couch fit down the basement. Kendal is enjoying all of the wide open space in the family room. She was driving her truck from one end of the room to the other until she went to sleep tonight. While she was playing, Mike and I decided to start spring cleaning. Now we have clean carpet, windows and blinds/curtains to go with our new furniture which will arrive later this week. A few pictures from this week are below. Enjoy.

Look at all of my new chompers.

Hanging out with Dad.

I got your hat Dad, and your CD for my truck stereo.

Marnie and I uploaded some video we took over the last few weeks... Enjoy!

Kendal and her Dora truck. Click the link

Kendal pulling Maddy across the living room. Click the link

Maddy walking! Click the link

Kendal doesn't like the camera... for once! Click the link

Below are some pictures of what I have spent most of my free time on over the last 6 weeks... Kendal's new room in the basement. It's not going to actually be her bedroom, but we got the idea to make a playroom since she has so many toys and we don't have the room upstairs. I think we wanted our dining room back anyway. The room downstairs is really one big room consisting of a 15x15 an 7x7 and a 4x6 area. Kendal gets her own little cubby, then theres an area for our PC, and the main room will have couches and a TV. Drywall is next, anyone wanna help? We actually may hire someone to do the drywall since it is my least favorite part of the project. It should all be done in the next few months before Kendal's 1st birthday party!

Well, Kendal is nine months old today! She is growing up so fast... it feels like yesterday that Marnie and I were spending our weekends hanging out with friends and going to the bar. Times sure have changed... all for the better though! Kendal has got to be the best baby we could ask for... she is always happy! I can't even begin to explain how it feels to come home from a day at work to see the funny grin on her face when I walk in the room. She truly has turned me into a wimp; I'm OK with it though. Her leg is definitely all heeled up like it never happened. She is very mobile now... not walking but a combination of rolling and half crawling makes it much harder to keep an eye on her.

We finally started to baby proof the house since she seems to be amazed by outlets on the wall and the strings hanging from the blinds. Marnie put the covers on door handles too... a little pre-mature, but she says I better get used to them! Not only can I not open doors, I can't get the covers off the outlets without a set is vise-grips. Another reason for me not to vacuum!

Kendal has 4 teeth fully in now, with 2 more stubs and a lot more action going on in there. Her hair is getting much thicker and long (in her eyes). She seems to be growing taller by the day, but still skinny. She has her 9 month appointment this week so we will see for sure. Other than that, Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt visited again this weekend so I could work on the basement (Kendal's new room) some more. That's twice in 2 weeks they drove up here! It's Kendal’s beautiful smile that keeps bringing them back! Some recent pictures are below:

Who’s going to clean up this mess?

I can stick my tongue out too!

Who bought me this goofy hat!

Look at my bunny ears!

Push faster Maddy!

Big Ben!

All kinds of babies!

Jaclynn and Greg celebrating their birthday… the leftover cake made it almost a week surprisingly!

Maddy with the bunny ears!

Kendal on her truck

Kendal on her bouncy horse

Please get rid of these bunny ears dad!