Trip to the Spindlers

A few weekends ago we made the trip to Fishers, Indiana to spend some time with our good friends Brooke and Brad, and their daughter (our goddaughter) Rylee. Some other college friends of ours, Josh and Annie, joined us. The six of us college friends used to get together a few times a year at each other's house, but it has gotten more difficult over the past few years. Having it been over a year since we all got together, we were way over due. It was so great to hang out and visit with the girls and of course I loved getting to see Rylee again. I had to share her with Josh and Annie though since it was their first time meeting her so I didn't get my total Rylee fix. Maddy and Rylee were both great the whole weekend. Maddy of course loved Rylee, a bit too much at times. It is always so much fun when we get together... I hope we do it again sooner rather than later.

I unfortunately didn't take many pictures from the weekend, just a few of the girls. It seems like this always happens when we get together with the Spindlers. We must have too much fun to remember to get the camera out. Here are the few that we get.

Welcome Hayden Nicole Schmidt

Almost two weeks ago already we welcomed a new member to our neighborhood, Hayden Nicole Schmidt. Our neighbors and close friends Mike and Marnie gave birth to their second daughter making Kendal a big sister. We have been waiting patiently for Hayden to arrive...we just couldn't wait to meet her and have her in our lives. It'll be so much fun to watch her grow up as we have with all the other neighbor kids. Its so weird how I always had this picture in my head of what she would look like. Basically I imagined another sweet, beautiful little Kendal with lots of long dark hair. To our surprise, Hayden looks nothing like Kendal did...she had a teeny, tiny bit of blonde hair and she is a little peanut weighing almost a pound and a half smaller than Kendal. She is absolutely adorable and we're in love with her already. Congrats Schmidts...you make such perfect lil' babies!

Isn't she sweet!

Another Daddy's Little Girl

What a great looking family

Maddy giving Hayden a kiss

Jason with baby Hayden

Since I work right next to the hospital I was able to run over there soon after Hayden was born and hold her. I was spoiled to be her first visitor. Sarah joined us with all the kids after work and we spent a few hours visiting with the Schmidts and their family until Jason was able to join us. After he got his Hayden fix we went to the Pizza House for some yummy Chicago style pizza with all of Hayden's visitors. It was a great meal with wonderful company, celebrating a special birthday.

Potty training is still going pretty good for Maddy. She has her good days and her bad days, but we are sticking with it in hopes that it can only get better. She does really good at home when we are in the house but our biggest two struggles are when she is outside and when she is at daycare. We are very proud of her and how good she is doing. Its been nice not having to change poopy diapers...that's for sure.

Shrek Night

A few weekends ago, the neighbors and I took the kids to Castaway Cafe for Shrek Night. We had so much fun. The kids loved playing on the slides and climbing the steps, especially Maddy and Kendal. Unfortunately, the kids weren't as thrilled with seeing Shrek as we had hoped for. In fact, Maddy and Kendal were pretty terrified of Shrek and Ben was cautious. It was a fun evening with friends, none the less.

Kendal and Maddy on the slides

Kendal braving the big one

Maddy walking the tight rope

Ben don't look so sad

Maddy, scared to get too close to Shrek and Puss

"Where did Shrek go?"

Does it even need a caption???

Jason decided not to join us for Shrek night and instead stay home and work on the basement. When Maddy and I got home at 9 pm, we found the dogs outside, all the lights in the house on, a hammer laying on the kitchen floor, and the TV in the basement on, but Jason no where to be found. So I checked my voice mail and found a message from Jason that he was on his way to the ER. He shot himself in the thumb with the nail gun.



Since it was late and I needed to put Maddy to bed, our good friend Greg offered to go and stay with Jason at the hospital. Thanks Greg! He got to watch the PA pull the nail out with a pair of rusty pliers. Ugh!

Update...Jason is starting to feel better now (two weeks later) and saw a specialist who said it looks like it will go on to heal 100%. He has a hair-line fracture, but other than that no nerve or soft tissue damage. He is so lucky! Thank the good lord for watching over him because it could have been so much worse.

Easter Day

Maddy in her Easter dress

Happy Easter!

I know a little late...sorry. The following pictures show how we spent our Easter day. We started out the day looking to see if the Easter Bunny visited???

The Easter Bunny's Delivery

Maddy found her basket under the table

Maddy loved all the presents she found in her basket.
Her favorite was her new Shrek electric toothbrush, followed by her big girl Dora underwear.

After we found the kids' easter baskets, we got dressed and rushed off to church...without time for breakfast. Once we got to church we quickly discovered that we would be spending the entire service playing with the kids in the nursery.

The cousins making a mess in the church nursery together during Easter service

My sister Aundrea with her daughters Lexi and Izzy

Auntie Jaclynn and her sweet niece Izzy

After church we were all starving so we went out to eat with the family for a nice brunch before we all had to get on the road to get back home. Our trip home took forever...almost 10 hours. First of all we had to turn around to get my coat, which I left at the restaurant with my wallet and work key and ID in it. That took over an hour. Then we had horrible weather on top of it. Ugh. All in all it was still a very nice Easter day.