Since it has been awhile since I have posted anything, I will just do a quick overview of all that has happened in our lives over the past two weeks.

Last weekend Mike went fishing with has dad and bother Timmy. Since the guys went up north, my sister came to hang out with Kendal and I. I don't have any pictures since Mike had our camera and Kendal or Mandy misplaced Mandy's camera; which is still lost to this day. Sorry Mandy.

Monday night was Jason's 30th birthday, so I picked Maddy and Kendal up from Karen's so that Jaclynn and Jason could go out alone for Jason's B-day. Two kids is a lot harder than one, especially by myself. Sarah and Ben came over to help me out, because the girls wore me out quick. Maddy and Kendal enjoyed mac and cheese, green beans, and pancakes together for dinner. I had to get rid of all the leftovers from the weekend. Boy what a mess. Maddy seemed to like the feeling of rubbing cheese all over her body (video below explains it). I gave them both baths after dinner, it was extremely hard to grab two wet naked running babies to get them into their jammies, thank god this was when Mike came home from golf and helped me out.

Friday we packed up and headed up to Mancelona to go camping with the Kreiders and the Abbotts. We were praying for better weather then the rainy cold weekend we had last summer. We got really hot days and freezing cold nights. At least we were better prepared this summer. All the babies had a blast running around and hanging outside. We spent Saturday afternoon at the pool, it was so much more fun with the kids this year, screaming and splashing around. After the pool we spent the evening playing bad-mitten, Schmidts 2 Kreiders 0. I think this is the first time ever that Mike and I can actually say we smoked the Kreiders in a sport. We all enjoyed talking around the late night campfires while the kids were all snuggled up in the tents. The ride home went pretty smoothly and we are all unpacked and ready to start another week. This summer is flying by.

Kendal is talking a lot now, some of her favorite new words are kitty kitty, NO, and night night when she is ready to go to bed. That has to be our new favorite thing she does. She usually gives us a clue by walking up to the steps, shaking the gate and she softly says,” go night night." This kid is just too cute.

A couple videos below.

Maddy likes cheese!

Maddy takes Ben's pacifiers...

Kendal makes music and smacks Jaclynn

Our favorite moment of the trip... these two are like sisters!

Enjoy some recent pictures below.

New favorite sleeping position

Don't mind the mess, look how cute Maddy's hair is

Timmy's first fish of the trip

They sure do bite in the rain

Mike said it seemed like Timmy caught one of these every cast

Grandpa Schmidt did catch a few :>

Another

Last fish of the trip...

Celebrating Jason's 30th Birthday

The chow line, feeding the kids camping

New favorite food, blueberries

Maddy tring to pick up Kendal

Kendal stealing her fathers hat

I know you can see us holding them on the rock

My hair is sweet!

Kendal is actually wearing her hat, Good Girl

Playing in the baby pool

Who's having more fun, Dad or Kendal?

Forget the freeing cold baby pool, I am a big girl in a baby float

Kendal was scared to death of BoBo the Bear at the campground, at least Mom got a popsicle out of it

I LOVE watermelon

The three amigos, ready to pack up and go home

I am going to pimp this car out when I'm 16!

The Schmidt's 7/22/07

What a nice weekend... it got really hot today, but still better than snow! Kendal and I spent some quality time together this weekend since Marnie had to work. We had fun, did a lot of practicing saying new words. She now knows: Mommy, Daddy, Hi, Bye, Uh-Oh (everytime she drops something), Tiggy (one of our cats), Cheeto (our dog), Ball (new one), and a few more that I can't remember now. I asked her how old she was yesterday and she lifted up one finger and said "one". I have been trying to get her to do it again, but with no success so it may have been a fluke. Karen (our daycare provider) said she did it for her too though.

Last week, Jaclynn, Jason, and Maddy went to Kensington Metro Park with us for a picnic on the beach and a bike ride around the lake towing the kids. The hills don’t look too bad, but it is over 8 miles and by the end Kendal sure started to get heavy. I think our new hobby may stick. We will see.

The 4th of July was sweet; we went down to Greg's parents place on the lake to relax for the day. Thanks for the invite Mr. and Mrs. Abbott! The weather turned out beautiful and we had a great time. I tried to wake board but just could not figure it out, I tried so hard that I banged my knee up pretty bad and my back is terribly sore still. Didn't stop me from golfing on Friday! Thanks Jaclynn for watching Kendal and taking her to daycare!

On Thursday last week, we had a couple really nasty storms roll through that did some damage in the area. When they hit Marine and I were on our way to a Toby Keith concert... I'm surprised the Scion did not blow away! The concert got delayed a few hours due to a power outage (how ironic since the concert was at DTE Energy Music Theater). We made the best of it and had a great time. Thanks again Jaclynn and Jason for watching Kendal. Geez, it seems like we just keep pawning Kendal off, huh! In reality, this is rare, but it is nice to get away every once in awhile.

Still have not had a chance to get Kendal's one year pictures... bad parents, maybe Monday, but Kendal has another doctors appointment to talk about her kidney reflux that she got diagnosed with last week. Antibiotics for a year… boo! The doctor said she should outgrow this is the next few years. Let’s hope so.

We finally sent out some thank you notes from Kendal's parties... sorry for the delay. Look for them in the mail early next week. Take care everyone... back to work tomorrow. Recent pics are below:

Kendal on the 4th

Maddy, Ben, and Kendal

Who took my shirt? Kendal and Maddy on the beach...

Esser and Christina had there baby girl today! Get this... Kadence Esser was born on 7/7/07 and she weighed 7 lbs 7oz. Pretty neat huh. Congrats guys! Camera phone pic below:

Kendal had extra fun this week with Grandpa and Grandma Schmidt! Some pictures are below:

This past weekend was Maddy's first birthday party as well as a surprise get together to celebrate Jason's 30th a little early. The weather was great and Kendal was too, as usual. Saturday night she struggled a little going to bed as she was running a fever. We spent a portion of Sunday as the doctors... this time it is an ear infection. She is being a trooper but does not like her antibiotic. Seems like Kendal is always sick huh.

This week my parents are coming to visit for a few days since they have not seen Kendal since her party. We plan to get her one year pictures done soon as well, but whenever we get ready she seems to tank and get a bruise on her face or run into something and get a scratch. Soon enough, we promise. Pictures from this weekend are below:

Kendal fell asleep drinking her sippy cup

The birthday girl, Kendal and Ben

I'm going to do something bad...

Kendal playing with her new friend Breana

Maddy likes cake!

Nice glasses Ben!

Jaclynn, Jason, Maddy, and there friends Brooke and Brad.

As promised, here are some of the pictures/video we have compiled over the last two weeks from our cameras and friends/family.

First are more pictures from Kendal's Ohio Birthday Party!

Kendal and Cousin Andrea

Kendal beating her Dora pinata

Mommy giving Kendal her first cake!

I don't like it mom...

Kendal and Grandpa Taz

Come to me!

You eat the cake!

My bottle!

Kendal and Aunt Mandy

Below are videos from Kendal's Ohio party:

Kendal beats her Dora piñata!

Now it’s Dylan’s turn… nice swing buddy.

Daddy breaks in Kendal’s new tricycle.

Kendal’s first cake… then Marnie makes her cry :< (56K Beware)

Now, videos from Kendal's Michigan party and over the last week:

Kendal wants nothing to do with cake again...

Kendal feeds Maddy!
(56K Beware)

Kendal and her popper toy!

Kendal attacking one of her stuffed animals!

Kendal and her bean bag!

Finally, pictures from Kendal's Michigan party and over the last week:

I like to warm my butt by the fire...

Look at my new bug!

I see you...

Let me out please!

I like corn.

Maddy too!

Let's go!

Do we really have to do this a third time!

Maddy's first beer.

I forgot to mention that Jaclynn did a great job updating Maddy's blog just after Kendal's party in Michigan. Thus, click the link here (or click the link on the sidebar) for a better update on the party than mine below. There are also a few good Kendal pictures at our Father's day lunch. Enjoy. Thanks Jaclynn!

Sorry about the two week gap between posts... we really have no excuse since everything is going great… I could have come up with some good excuses, but we want to teach Kendal that lying is bad. :>

Kendal's 2nd party in Michigan went great as expected. Clearly not as big of a turnout as her first party in Ohio... still just as much fun though! She did great again and actually ate some cake this time! A dip in her pool was all she needed to clean up. She got plenty more presents to add to the wonderful selection of toys she has. Thanks everyone! This kid is clearly spoiled. Thank god we built a room in the basement or we would have to start stacking her toys to the ceiling. Believe it or not, her favorite toy so far is... a bean bag, yup a simple little pillow of foam balls. Since she is walking now... she gets going as fast as she can (not too fast) and takes a dive head first into the bean bag laughing hysterically the whole time. It makes my day every time she does that. Her other favorites were one of the many balloons she received at the Michigan party. The last one is just about to die, but everyone sure got there monies worth out of them.

Other than the party, things have been normal around the house. We can never keep up with the cleaning, but we get by with the essentials. We finally got outside to tidy up the landscaping and add some flowers. I got my brick pavers project done so they finally go all the way around the house. No more edging!

Kendal is still amazing us every day with something new. This kid is unreal! She has got to be the happiest kid alive. We wake her up at 6am everyday (most days :>) where we are immediately met with a huge smile on her face. Most nights she dozes off in peace with that same smile. All day long she is content in whatever is going on. Her laugh resembles that of a clown, almost scary. I think she gets that from me as Marnie always says I have to stupidest most annoying laugh.

Since we got Marnie her bike for Mother’s day and the bike trailer for her birthday she has been doing a lot of riding with Kendal. It’s hard with the extreme heat we have had lately, but Kendal is getting better. I have been borrowing a bike to tag along when I could so Marnie got me a bike as well for Father’s day. Thanks hunny!

Since its lunchtime and I’m at work I don’t have our cameras to update the latest pictures/video so look for that this evening or later this week. Hope all is well with everyone. Thanks again to everyone that made it out to the parties; it’s nice to have so many great friends and family to share our lives with.

We had a blast this past weekend. Kendal enjoyed all of the family and friends that came over to the Schmidt's House for Kendal's First Birthday Party. She was very social smiling and going to anyone that wanted to hold her. She had fun playing with all her cousins. She is starting to blend in with the big kids now. She got TONS of loot. And if we added correctly, I think Kendal's first year of college will be paid for by the amount of money she received for her college fund :) There is a tie for Kendal's favorite toys so far. The new tricycle and this crazy ball popper toy. I will have Mike post videos later this week. Just like her mom, Kendal wanted no part of her birthday cake. She stuck her hands and kind of mashed it around and eventually started crying. She would smack my hands and turn her head away from me when I tried to put cake in her mouth. I guess we should be happy that she doesn't like sweets yet.

The ride to and from Cleveland stunk. Kendal cried most of the way there and finally fell asleep when we got off the highway and were about 10 minutes from Mike's parent’s house. Then she must have thought she had slept all night, so she decided to stay up till after midnight. I was hoping that would mean she would sleep in a bit, nope not my kid she was up at 6am on the dot and ready to party.

The ride home she was better as long as I kept passing her baby cheetos to eat, but we got stuck in a bad thunderstorm and could only drive about 25-45 mph for about one hour so it made the trip even longer.

We made it home safe and sound, unpacked the car, and then Kendal must have found a caffeine pill or something. The kid just wouldn't stop. She was crawling all over the place, playing with all her toys, screaming and laughing as she discovered something new. It was pretty cute but we were exhausted after the long weekend.

A few pictures below from the weekend. We kinda forgot to keep the camera with us, so if anyone has good pictures send them our way. Mike will have videos on later this week. Thanks again to everyone who helped make Kendal’s first birthday so special. It was great to see everyone too.

Kendal and Daddy at her new picnic table

The Party Girl

Kendal playing with Justin

Kendal on her new bike

Passed out after the party, or so we thought