Megan is 5!

How did this happen??  Our little girl is 5?!

She's still as sweet as ever, giving hugs and kisses at just the right time.  She loves to play with her brother, can be very independent, enjoys Taekwondo, and loves to sing along with the radio in the back of our car.

She had three birthday celebrations this year: one with Granny and Grandpa and the Shripka's, one with Jeff, Tyler, and me, and a Team Umizoomi birthday party with her friends.  All were a lot of fun.  For more photos, click on the photo above.

Happy 8th Birthday, Ty!

8???? How is this sweet little boy of ours already 8?? He's still as caring, outgoing, and funny as ever, but with more confidence and even more awareness of how people are feeling around him. He makes us laugh in one way or another each day and we are so proud of him. As is traditional with his birthday falling right after a holiday weekend, we celebrated his birthday all week. This year he wanted a Minecraft theme so I did the best I could (although I still don't completely understand the game). On Tuesday he had the traditional birthday donut and present opening in the morning and that evening he had his TKD graduation (just by chance) and he got to do a birthday run through everyone in the class and we all went out to dinner.

On Saturday, we had his first out-of-the-house birthday party at TKD, with 15 of his classmates (from school and TKD) attending. They had a lot of fun learning TKD, self defense, and breaking boards (all while defeating Minecraft spiders and creepers at the same time).  Keeping with the martial arts tradition (which I just learned about), each child had to tell Tyler something that they liked about him when they gave him a gift.  I've never seen that done before, but it added something special to the time.  Mr. Cox did a great job with the party and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves.

For more pics from his birthday, click on the photo below. Since some of the activities require some explanation I added captions to many of them. Enjoy!

Megan is 4!

It's hard to believe that it's been 4 years already from the cold December day that came into our lives.  She's still a very sweet girl (well, at least about 85% of the time) who is really enjoying school and is slowly but surely coming out of her shell (on our airplane ride home for Thanksgiving, the people across from us asked if she always talked so much).

On her birthday, Megan enjoyed the traditional birthday breakfast (a donut with candles) and opened all of her presents.  She then got to celebrate with her friends at school before dinner with the family.

The Saturday after her birthday she and 3 of her friends had a Tinker Bell party complete with fairy wands that they decorated, a game of pin the star on Tinker Bell's wand, and a fairy treasure hunt with pixie dust (aka birdseed).  Everyone had a great time.

For more photos, click on the photo below.

Ty is 7!

It's hard to believe that our little boy is 7 already!  He still loves to make us laugh (as you can tell in the picture below) and is incredibly sweet to his sister (most of the time) and us. 

We had a great celebration on the 3rd with the four of us and then had his friends over for exactly what he wanted...a Lego Ninjago pool party complete with origami ninja throwing stars (or shurikens according to Tyler), a code to transform your name into a ninja name, an awesome ninja training course made by Dad, and of course, fun in the pool.  (Thanks to the blogger behind Craft Interrrupted for making the prep for this party so easy!) Click on the photo below for all of the pictures.

Happy 3rd birthday Megan!

Megan had a wonderful 3rd birthday focused on her two favorite things--Minnie Mouse and princesses.  She continues to be a very sweet and funny girl and has started to talk our ears off on a regular basis.

Click below for more photos.

Tyler's 6th birthday

How can he be 6 already??

As sweet and personable as ever, Tyler brings a ton of happiness to our lives. He loves to learn and use new phrases, like "for example" He plays sweetly with Megan (most of the time) and loves to spend time with his friends. He also adores his Dad and wants to be just like him.

He had a wonderful birthday with Granny and Grandpa in town for a Transformers birthday party. Click on the photo above for more pictures.

Happy 2nd birthday Megan!

It's hard to believe our little girl is 2! She is a sweetheart with a fairly laid back (most of the time personality) with facial expressions that make her seem much older than 2. She's definitely starting to come out of her shell. And she adores her big brother (except when he's sitting on Mommy's lap). Happy Birthday little girl!

5th birthday party!

Yesterday Ty had a wonderful 5th birthday party with 6 of his friends. We had perfect weather for a trip back to dinosaur times. Everyone played well together and seemed to to have a good time. It's hard to believe our little boy will be 5 this Friday!

For more photos, click on the collage below.

Volcano! from Teri Schmidt on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday! from Teri Schmidt on Vimeo.

Happy 4th birthday Tyler!

It's hard to believe just 4 years ago we were in the hospital in Lafayette, Indiana celebrating the birth of our beautiful little boy.

Just look at him now...still beautiful, not so little.

He acts more and more like a little man every day. He's so sweet, sensitive, funny, outgoing, and loving. He calms me down when I overreact and reminds me not to take life so seriously. We're so blessed to have him in our lives.

For more pictures and videos of the birthday celebration, including our trip to the National Zoo, click here.