Aren't these funny pictures? Mike's family and I went on an Alaskan cruise six years ago. (I can't believe it's been that long!) Someone thought it would be a good idea to take our picture on the deck of the boat. Little did we know that the wind was blowing about 100mph. Okay, not really, but it seemed like it. I'm going to frame these! 
It's hard to believe it's the end of March. Spring and summer will be here before we know it. We're so ready for the change in weather! The kids have yet another cold. I think they've been sick more this winter than well. I hope we can kick all the sickness! I want my happy non-crabby kids back! Ethan and Mia are still doing well in preschool. Though, Ethan's teacher called today because he was kind of crying and wouldn't cooperate at all. She asked if he was crying when he left this morning, and I told her he was. I had a heck of a time trying to get him dressed. He (and the girls too) want to pick out everything they wear down to their underwear and socks. I finally got him dressed and then he didn't want to wear his winter coat. He wanted to wear two hoodie jackets. Fine. He went to school in a navy shirt, black and green sweatpants, and two hoodie jackets. He didn't match one bit. But I didn't really care at that point. He then didn't want to wear his hat or gloves. I couldn't find his other hat, so he was throwing a fit about that. When Brooke arrived to pick him up, he decided all of a sudden he wanted to eat his breakfast. I couldn't let him sit down to eat it because he had to go. That really through him into a tizzy. And then, he wanted to sit in Mia's carseat. Mia was all ready sitting in it and was buckled in. He started crying even more. When I told his teacher that he has a strong personality, she says, "he does?" He obviously is very well behaved in school. The teacher then said, "he must be getting used to us then because he was like this on Monday too." Oh great. I really hope he doesn't start misbehaving in school! When he got home from school, Ethan took off his socks. I realized that one of his feet was yellow and one was orange. I thought that they must have done footprints in school. And then I remembered that I had painted his toenails a bright red color. Great. I wonder what the teachers think. :) Mia has been diaper free for the last couple of months. I'm guessing she could have done it sooner, but I was being cautious. It is beyond great not having to worry about putting diapers on her. She's only had one accident and that was when she had RSV and pneumonia. She does so well with it! Ethan still needs a diaper when he naps and at bedtime. He thinks he doesn't and will take his diaper off. We've been washing his sheets at least 3 times a week! Riley is still plugging along with potty-training. She does really well but doesn't tell me when she has to go. I'll find wet spots if I forget to put her on the toilet. I'm switching to every 4th weekend. Hooray! I job-share with a co-worker. It basically means that we share one full-time position. So, I work every 4th holiday and every 4th weekend. I was doing all the weekends because we didn't have daycare, so my coworker was doing the week-day shifts. (She had the best schedule on the unit!) The kids will have to go one extra day in a two-week period, so not bad at all. We're going to switch in May. I can't wait! 
Mia's boyfriend, Brody, is in the white shirt.
Ethan and all of his battle wounds from Mia. 
Ethan's interesting outfit of the week. We took him to Petsmart and Worldmarket looking like that. We only got a few stares! 
Mike's shrimp had babies. They are all the little white things at top. It was pretty neat until the fish started eating them one by one. It was kind of disturbing but there was nothing we could do. 
We had a fun-filled weekend. My ENTIRE family came. Those of you who know my family, you know how chaotic it can be. But it's fun and never a dull moment. My dad turned 57 on Saturday. Happy Birthday Dad! We also celebrated Riley's 2nd birthday, and Amber's bachelorette party. My sisters and I all went and had pedis and manis on Saturday. It was a lot of fun and we were able to catch up on things. We then went and had lunch and did some shopping. Later that evening, we went to a popular restaurant where some of Amber's friends met us. We rented a party bus (and by party bus, I mean a ghetto school bus that was spray painted) and then went out on the town. Amber has all the bachelorette photos. I'm not sure if I'll post any of them or not! :) On Sunday, we had everyone over to our house for barbecue pulled beef sandwiches, salads, and birthday cake. It was a great time and the kids were completely wiped out after the weekend. Mike's parents took us out for dinner that night at a steakhouse. It feels like all I did was eat this weekend! 
A gift from Grandpa and Grandma Schmidt 
A present from Riley's friend, Brenya. 
A present from Uncle Mark.
I asked my dad to change Riley. She came out looking like this. The front was just as bad! :) 
My Mom and Aunt Jenna 
You can't really see it in this picture, but Aunt Amber put mascara on Ethan and Riley. 
Noah 
Jude, always so serious. 
The birthday cake. I had them do carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Yum. It was almost eaten in just that one day. I think I'll start doing that from now on.
My sisters fixed her hair. 
Aunt Kelly Here is the second video. It wouldn't let me upload it to my original post. Enjoy!
Ethan and Mia had their Spring Program today. Mike and I arrived 15 minutes early and got front row seats. I brought three cameras with me, which Mike was making fun of. I figured at least one of them would either have a dead battery or a full storage card. And I was right! One of the cameras had a full storage card, so it's a good thing I brought another!
The program was beyond cute. They sang four songs. Mia did pretty well with following the songs. Ethan did well the first song, and then he was in his own little world for the rest of them. The really tall boy by Ethan is the one that is singing along. You can hear him really well.
The little boy that has a crush on Mia is named Brody. He is standing right next to her in the white shirt. I guess he goes home and talks about Mia every day!
Happy Birthday to our St. Patty's day girl! Wow! 2 years old all ready. Where has this last year gone? She's getting to be such a big girl. She's becoming very independent and is quick to tell me that it's, "my turn." That's her favorite phrase right now. She learned it from her older brother and sister. She jabbers quite a bit. Some words are very clear and some are a work in progress. She really has been talking a lot more since going to daycare.
A round of kisses for everyone.
I actually caught Ethan giving a kiss to Riley on camera! This is very rare.
The kids love their Uncle Nathan.
Can you see Mia's little fingermarks in the frosting? I caught her a couple of times licking the frosting off. Riley picked out the funfetti frosting. You can see some of my cabinets in the background. I need to take some more pictures of them.
Blowing out her candles. She singed some hair doing that.
A present from her friend, Lillian. The girls fought over it all night.
Letting Mia play with it.
Modeling the coat. He insisted on wearing Mia's purple and black boots too.
You can tell by Mia's expression just how thrilled she is having to share her coat.
When we went to Ethan and Mia's preschool conferences, the teachers told us to start letting them use scissors. Ummm....okay, do we really have to? I don't care if my kids don't know how to use scissors. I actually prefer it that way! :) We did a couple of school projects that needed scissors, so we used my huge gigantic ones. Ethan and Mia sat there for a good 20 minutes cutting little chunks off of construction paper. I thought it was probably time to buy them some kid scissors.
