Interesting Video/Article

The following video is about a 90 year old man who fathered 50 CHILDREN.  In the article about him (if you Google "90 year old with 50 children" it pulls up several articles about him!) His 2nd wife says that his "only hobby was making love".

Copy the link and paste in your browser to watch the video...

http://www.aol.com/video/man-fathers-more-than-5-children/1170747129001/

All I have to say is, what does this teach his children?  One of the baby mamas said that he never mistreated them and they never wanted for anything, but how is that being responsible by bringing 50 children into this world?  He even admits that he can't remember all of his children's names and he doesn't know how many more children are out there...wow, thanks Dad!

Wish Me Luck....

I try to be crafty.  Some would think that I am super crafty, but I put myself in the very minimal of minimal when it comes to being crafty.

I love taking pictures (not very good at it, but I still love pictures!).  I love looking back on pictures of Byron and I dating and throughout our relationship, getting married, our first house we bought together, trips we've taken together, our children, etc.  Thank goodness for digital cameras.  I am pretty organized when it comes to the pictures on our computer, so it's fun to look through them; they are all in one place and it's super easy to look through the folders to find what I want.  But sometimes, it's fun to go through a photo album and see the fun paper, the pictures, and the fun little stories that go along with those pictures to really remember that experience.  Not to mention, when our kids grow up and move out of our house, this is something that they can take with them and share with their families (this whole family of theirs thing isn't going to happen until they are 40 but it has to happen at some point)

Ever since Haylee was born, I have wanted to do photo albums of the kids life - well, here we are 5 years later and I haven't started hers; and since I haven't started hers, the idea of having anything of Carter's done is laughable.

Enter this week.  Since I am home recouping from surgery, and my work won't let me come back yet, I started working on Carter's 1st year photo album.  I decided to start on Carter's because I feel like if I get his done, and get going on the second album, I won't feel as far behind.  I can say that I'm only a year behind on his life, not 5 years like I am with Haylee!

I took some pictures of my "crafting area".  Thanks to my wonderful husband for letting me do this.  It is quite expensive to make a photo album, and he has been great in me shopping while at home.

Stack of pictures to go in the book

That's a LOT of paper!

Wish me luck!  My goal is to have made a considerable dent in getting his book done by the time I go back to work on Monday.

Pre-K

Miss Haylee began her last year at Little Lights on Tuesday, September 5th - she is in Pre-K.  This to the adults means she is still in preschool, but you wouldn't dare suggest to Haylee that she is in preschool.  She is now at the top of the school and is in Pre-K.  She is so excited to be in Pre-K.  I don't know if she realizes that this is her last year at Little Lights and that she will be in Kindergarten next year.  

Haylee has grown up so much while at Little Lights.  I remember when she used to cry and chase me into the foyer at the school asking me not to leave her.  Now, I barely get a good-bye kiss from her as she runs off to play with her friends.  Haylee has great teachers this year, and one in particular - Miss Margaret, has been with Haylee from the beginning - all year round.  We are so happy and thankful that we found this school.

Byron and I need to start the registration process for public school Kindergarten in January!  That's only a few months away!

Here are Haylee's first day of school pictures!

Why can't we camp?!

Two years ago Byron and I purchased a cute little pop-up camper.  Our thought for that was that it would be easier to go camping in a camper with younger kids than it would be in a tent.  We haven't used the camper all that many times, and I think we have only had 1 successful camping trip in it.

Once again, we decided to try and go camping with the kids.  Because of our trip to Illinois in July and then other weekends being full of other stuff, we made a plan to go camping on August 16th.  Now that we had a date, we needed a location.  Because we haven't had success in the past, we wanted a place to camp near a house or hotel if we needed to bail on the whole camping thing.  We decided on Hoosier Pass.  We had been hiking up there a few years ago and knew that there were some great camping spots near lower Crystal Lake, so  our goal was that.  And if things went south, we were literally 5 minutes away from my parents house.  We couldn't make it to the lake, so we found another campsite close by.  We set up our camper, the kids were great.  It was a little chilly, but not terrible.  I started to make the fire and that's when it happened.  The sign of - pack up and leave now or you're going to regret it.  It started to sprinkle rain.

I looked at Byron and started laughing....what the heck?!  It hadn't rained in so long - WHY does it have to start now!?  Why on the one camping trip of the year does it have to rain?

We loaded the kids up into the camper and had dinner.  The kids had fun.  We played card games and then turned on our DVD player and watched a movie.  Because it was raining when it was time for the kids to go to bed, B and I went to bed too.

It was AWFUL!  It poured down rain.  There was lightning thunder; let me say it again, it poured down rain!  At one point I asked Byron if he wanted to just put the kids in the truck and drive down to the house, but we decided to wait it out.

That was the worst night sleep ever!  Carter didn't stay in his sleeping bag so every time I moved I felt his face and his cheeks and nose were like ice cubes.

Here's us shortly after waking up - we all look like one hot mess!

We got up in the morning, had breakfast in the camper and then decided to try and hike to Crystal Lake.  It was sunny and not a cloud in the sky!  Again - WHY must it be like this when we try to camp? The hike was great and we had a good time.

Once we got back to our campsite, we started packing things up and trying to dry out the camper.  Once that dried out, we headed down the pass to my parents house to hang out at for the rest of the weekend.  B and I have decided that IF we get the itch to go camping, we are going to find a touristy place in Colorado that we haven't been, rent a hotel room and go that route.   Once the kids are older, we can try the camping out in the "wilderness" again!

Happy Birthday Carter

My little man is 2!  Holy cow, my youngest child is TWO YEARS OLD.  It seems like it took forever for Haylee to turn 2, but Carter is there!  We had his birthday party on the 13th of August and we had so many family and friends there to help celebrate. We had a sports themed birthday party.  And I must say, coming up with themes for boys is WAY more difficult for boys than it is for girls!

Here are some pictures from the party!

As always, Byron did a GREAT job on the birthday cakes.  I said this is what I would like,and poof, Byron makes it happen!  I take no credit in how awesome our kids cakes turn out!

THANK YOU to everyone for coming to help celebrate Carter's 2nd birthday!  

So Proud....

I have been forcing my mom into athletic events all year long - the Stair Climb in February and then the Outdoor DIVAS triathlon in August.  She has been a great sport in this, and still talks to me, so I don't think she is too upset with me for signing her up!

On August 14th, it was time for the Outdoor DIVAS triathlon.  I was so excited, and more for my mom than for myself.  I was so excited for her because I know that she had been training and I wanted her to see how physically strong she is and can be.

I picked her up bright and early and off we went to Union Reservoir.

Thankfully, awesome Toni Wehman was already at the race and had saved us a spot for our bikes.

The three of us before the race.

My mom had a HUGE cheering section - my dad, two brothers, cousin Meredith, Grandma, Kimberly and Raleigh and then Byron and my kids, and of course MVC (most valuable cheerleader) Andrea.  Such a great turn out to support us women as we did the race.

No laughing - NOBODY looks good in wetsuits or swim caps!

We got dressed in our wetsuits and then headed down to the beach.  I was in the first wave, Toni's wave was 4th to go off and my mom's wave was last.  Sorry - I don't have any shots of Toni during the swim part.  

I couldn't find my bike once I get into the transition area, so that slowed me down.  Off on the bike we go!

I was coming in on my bike when mom was leaving.  It was so nice that I was able to see her on the bike.  I cheered her on as she pedaled off.   Here we are starting our run/walk!

I saw Toni on the run so we high-fived each other.  Toni did great!  Here is a shot of the three of us crossing the finish line!

I am so proud of the three of us for finishing this race.  I am most proud of my mom though.  She did great in training for this triathlon, but actually doing the tri with the events back to back to back is such a huge demand on your body.  She never gave up.  She finished every part of this race and I am so proud of her!  She said that she wants to do this Tri again next year so she can better her time.  I am game for that!  I think that I have a new tri buddy!  Here's to next year!

Back to Illinois

Because this is old news, I won't go over the details of our trip back to Illinois and Wisconsin.  We had such a phenomenal time while we were there and my Aunt and Uncle are amazing people.  My Aunt is so organized, thoughtful and wonderful.  Byron and I got to sleep in, go out on the boat and jet skis while she watched the kids for us.  Let us go out on a date night when we were back in town.  It felt great to just sit and enjoy and play with the kids and not have to worry about anything!

I thought that I would share some of my favorite pictures from the trip!  Thank you so much (more than we can even say) to Tom and Diane.  You are so important to us and we can't thank you enough for everything that you have done for us.  You are great role models for Byron and I and we love you so much!

Can't wait for our trip next year!

Where has the summer gone?!

I have been absolutely terrible in keeping up with the blog this summer!  We really didn't do much this summer for me to have a good reason for not keeping up with blogging.  So, over the next week, I will have updated everyone on what we did this summer!

Check back for the next post!