The Schmidt Family: What a year, 2011!

I see it's been a while since I've updated the blog! Most of you follow us on Carepages so you know how crazy our year got after my last post. In a nutshell: Ellie's open-heart surgery, over a month in the hospital, kid vacation to Sesame Place, sold our house, Katelyn's 1st birthday, Ellie's 4th birthday, moved in with Grandma in Elkader, Heart Walk, Ellie's heart catherization, a little time to breathe, Halloween, moved into our new home (love it!), Thanksgiving, Christmas and here we are! To say we've had a crazy year would be the biggest understatement. We are very thankful and blessed at the way our year has turned out. We're going for a fun, no worries 2012! We have some amazing plans coming up to start a great year.

Honestly updating a blog was the last thing I wanted to be doing over the last six months. Now that we are settled into our home and back to a typical routine I'm ready to share some pics from the summer that you've missed out on!

Our year and a half with Katelyn has gone by so quickly! Just before turning one she started taking steps on her own. She hasn't stopped since then! She is a very lively girl that keeps everybody on their toes....as she runs across the couch, tries climbing on the kitchen table, unrolls the toilet paper and plays in the toilet water. Yeah. She's busy! We love her so much and life would just be boring without her.

Katelyn's 1st birthday, better late than never right?

Summer fun at Grandma's house

Now that she is 18 months old, Katelyn has turned into quite the little jabber box (mostly talking about her boyfriend, Elmo). Katelyn almost talks as much as Ellie at her age. Two chatty little girls?! Look out, Daddy!

Katelyn in her favorite hat, she wears it all the time. Who has seen Despicable Me...the middle child?

Katelyn keeps Ellie running, too! The two of them really play together now that she has gotten a little older. They love to play kitchen, dolls and read books.

We were excited to explore playgrounds in our new neighborhood and actually got a chance to do it...in January! Who knew it'd ever be in the 50's in Iowa in January, we love it! Our move into the new house went smoothly and we love our new space. Here are a few pics of the house and playing outside: