Welcome to our blog!

It seems like people are always asking, "What's new with your family?" "How are the kids?" and "What's new with work?" "What's Natalie doing now?" I certainly don't mind answering these questions...there's nothing I like talking about more than my beautiful children. I just realized one day that I rarely get a chance to do much writing, and that, combined with a large number of family and friends scattered across the country, led me to create this blog. I thought it would be nice to give our loved ones a place to come to catch up on our lives, find out what the kids are up to, and see pictures and video that we've captured. It seems like they say or do something every day that makes me think, "I wish I kept a journal so I could write that down!" Well, now I can!

Don't worry, you won't have to listen to me ramble on all the time. Harold will be contributing to our blog once in awhile too (although I've imposed a strict 500-word limit on his posts...hee hee). And when Matthew is old enough to do some typing, you might find a little insight from him now and then too.

We have a fun and busy summer planned here. We are planning to take the kids on a little mini-vacation in July to a place up north called the Maumee Bay Resort. It's inside a state park and has lots of family-centered activities. We will hit the Toledo Zoo one day while we're up there, do some hiking, swimming, and shell-hunting on the shore of Lake Erie. We are really looking forward to getting away for a bit and know the kids will just love it. It will Natalie's first vacation (outside the womb, that is!).

Matthew has finished school for the summer and is officially a 1st grader! He had a fantastic report card (2 E's and 5 S's) and the teacher's only complaint continues to be Matthew's inability to finish things in a "timely" manner. We are working on this. Grandpa Schreck will be happy to know that Matthew is very good at math, although the teacher said he rarely checks his work, leading to simple mistakes at times. We will be working on this too!

Ryan is about to turn 4 in just six days! He is very excited for his Transformer-themed birthday party that will held this year at Grandma Jessie's house (per his request). He has finished preschool for the year and has "graduated" to the next class (Turtles). He is very proud to be moving up. It is hard to believe that in just a little over a year he might be starting Kindergarten! He continues to be a very energetic, imaginative, yet affectionate little boy.

Natalie is now 8 months old and doing great! This past week, she began crawling! That has led to a whole new world for her. She is exploring and trying to pull up on things once in awhile (no success there yet). We had to lower her crib mattress so that she wouldn't start trying to climb over the railing. She is so cute and sweet and we can't believe how big she is getting! Her birthday will creep up on us before we know it.

Well, that concludes my first entry on our brand new blog! I may not update daily, but I will try to get on here a couple of times a week to catch everyone up and post some pictures of the kids. I hope you are all enjoying the warm (or HOT, in our case) weather. Please feel free to leave a comment to let us know you've visited! We appreciate all the messages from our friends and family.

Love,
Melanie