New Motivation!!

Although, I have been close to a complete failure on updating my loved ones on my life this past year or two. I now have a renewed sense of self with my new canon rebel at my side. It is nothing super fancy, but compared to what I did have I love every picture I take. I hope to now take more pictures and in turn do some more posts!!!

June 2010, by Bethany Tlustek

I'd like to share my Walmart Digital Photo Center photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Trip from Bedford, IN 47421 to Cincinnati, OH

Trip from Bedford, IN 47421 to Cincinnati, OH

I'd like to share my Walmart Digital Photo Center photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

oct.-nov 2009, by Bethany Tlustek

I'd like to share my Walmart Digital Photo Center photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Summer Fun and Family Update

We have fit a lot of fun things in this summer and are feeling so blessed that we had so many people come visit us here, clear in Indiana. I am so grateful too that I survived my trip to Idaho. It was wonderful while was there, but definitely a hard trip getting there and back.


My little baby has turned 6 months old. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. It has gone by a lot faster than I remember with Porter. She has brought a calmness and a joy to our lives. She is so sweet and mild mannered. We love her so much.

Liddy is now eating cereal and loves it. She had her 6 month appointment and she weighs 15lbs and 9 ounces and is 26 and 3/4 inches long.

During our trip to Idaho we were lucky enough to be there when little Madalyn (sp?) was born. Liddy and Porter also got another girl cousin on the Tlustek side. Her name is Jane.

I had to put this picture up. We went to the water park and Sam had to fulfill his mean brother now mean uncle duties and torture poor little Porter. I think Porter loved the attention though.

Our little Liddy is quite the cruiser. She is crawling everywhere and pulling up on anything she can get a grip on.

Aren't these the cutest kids around. I loved taking pictures of all the cousins lined up and smiling. We just got done riding the carousel.

Porter sure loved Mary while we were in Idaho. I'm sure it was her kidness and attention she gave to him, but a little of it was that he wanted to do whatever little Ashlon was doing. Ashlon and Porter have a love hate relationship. I hope with the next visit it will be all love.

We had to go camping while we were in Idaho even if it meant a whole lot of work to just stay up at Warm River less than 24 hours. We had a lot of fun. We even floated down the rapids. I can't remember the last time I had done that. It was still as fun as we remember.

The kids sure had some fun swimming with us. I was so happy that Porter was brave enough to float down the river on a tube with me. He and Shaylon were the only ones brave enough to do it.

I love that my dad loves to be a part of my kids life. Even though there tempermant doesn't permit it at times. He loves to hold them and win them over. Liddy is pretty mild mannered and just sat there with them as they enjoyed the fire together.

Here is my pretty little girl sitting up all on her own. She also loves to sit in her walker and scoot around.

This picture makes me laught, but it is a rare occasion when all of them are looking, plus we have a smile from Liddy and I guess you could call it a smile from Terry.

While we were in Idaho we got together with Liz, Melanie, Julie and Shawna and all their kids. It was perfect and I loved it. All the kids played and played while us girls just chatted under the pavillion. I sure wish we lived a little closer for times like this.

Here are all the cuties again on the famous couch in my mom's kitchen. I feel like we always take pictures of all the kids on that same couch. Anyway, I love getting pictures of all of them together. Porter, Liddy, Kolby, Shaylon, Ashlon and Max (just days before little Maddalyn was born)

Here they are all eating lunch together. Gracee, Shaylon, Kolby, Emme, Ashlon, Max and Porter. It was a wonderfully healthy meal of Ramen noodles. They all loved it though and we had to make like 5 packages.

Liddy 5 months with Lucey 3 months.

Liddy with a cute little smile.

Of course that gator was a hit with Grandpa. There were even seat belts for the kids. The loved it and could have ridden around for hours on that thing.

Liddy at 5 months.

Liddy, Shaylon and Ashlon with matching pajama pants from Grandma Clark.

Grandma Clark and Liddy at 5 months old.

Porter and Liddy August 2009.

I put Liddy down for a nap and when I went to check on her this is how I found her. It was so cute! She hasn't done it since though.

Marthea and Jeff and their family came and stayed with us for 3 weeks over the 4th of July holiday. We loved having them there. Porter especially loved having playmates to wake up to each morning. This picture is from the 4 th of July parade. Adam, Jake, Adam's cousin, Zach, and Porter.

What we've been up to....

Well, this post is just going to be a hodge podge of all the things that we have been up to this summer.
The highlight for us this month were the special visitors we were able to have. My grandpa Clark and his new wife Janis came to visit us along their way to Pennsylvania. It was a wonderful visit. I was so grateful to get to talk with Grandpa and get to know Janis so well. We had a fun time going and visiting the Amish with them.


This spring we debated back and forth on whether or not to do a garden. We finally decided to get the ground tilled and now we are seeing the beautiful fruits of our labors. It is so fun to see and are excited to have fresh vegetables later this summer. It has been hard work though.

Our little Liddy baby is growing like crazy. She has not stayed a little newborn for long. She is holding her head up pretty good, rolling up on her side, sleeping at least 6-8 hours throughout the night and smiling with all her dimples. She weighs 11 lbs. 4 oz. and is now 3 1/2 months old.

I had another first time experience here in lovely Indiana. Stephanie my sister-in-law invited me to go blueberry picking at a local little blueberry patch farm they have. We picked blueberries all morning. The blueberries were huge and delicious. We left with our bellies full of blueberries because you could eat all you wanted for free while you were there, but had to pay by the pound for ones that you took home. It is fun times like these that help me feel more at home here. I definitely like huckleberries more, but my bucket got filled 20 times faster with these quarter sized blueberries.

Porter is definitely becoming a good big brother. I know he loves little Liddy so much and wants to be a part of whatever is going on with her. He always wants to be in on the action.


I pull out the camera to take a picture of Liddy and here comes Porter mimicking the exact position or action that Liddy is.He has started wanting to hold her a lot and pick her up. He can hold her pretty good, but it is the picking up that is a little scary. He about pulls her arm off trying his best to get her up. There has been a lot of teaching going on in our house in the past few months and being a good example has put on a whole new meaning.I sometimes wonder if their little jabbers and coos are understood between the two of them. Because like in this picture and the next I just find them talking face to face like this. Porter will often cup her face in his hands and just talk to her so sweet.

A little piece of heaven for me when I see this. Everything seems to be calm around the house and I am able to get so much done. Terry thanks for all your help and being such a great dad!!

Another fun thing we have done this summer is take Porter to his first movie in the theater. The local movie theater here in town has free kids movies every Wednesday morning. We wondered how our little Porter who is such a tornado would do. He surprised us because he did great as you can see in the picture above he was glued to the big screen. He is following in his dad's footsteps. He loves movies. The movie was Horon Hears A Who. It was a pretty cute movie.

Porter got a little swimming pool for his birthday. We blew it up and Porter jumped in the freezing cold water and loved it! He played for as long as we would let him and then of course cried when he had to go in.

Our smiley little girl is starting to be able to sit in the Bumbo. She is always so smiley in the morning after a good nights sleep and a full belly.

Porter sporting his hot new boots. This picture is definitely going to be good blackmail.

Porter and Liddy

Liddy at 3 months old.

I just had to take a picture of this. I was getting in to my car after being at Walmart and came out to see an Amish cart in the parking lot. I thought it was pretty unique.

Porter takes care of Liddy and of course wants to give her anything he has. Like sharing his food. He got a new little woody doll that has a parachute on it and has been playing with constantly for the past little while. One day I was on the computer and had Liddy laying on the boppy when I was done I was surprised to see that Liddy had a very precisely placed friend laying on the pillow next to her. It was so cute. Porter had put his little Woody doll there to keep her company I'm sure.

CHICAGO

Terry decided a couple of months ago that he was ready to take a road trip. I was definitely up for it and really wanted to go to Chicago. I had never been and it is only 4 1/2 hours away. So we started planning and found a fun exhibit to see at the science and industry museum. It was all about Harry Potter. Terry was really excited and of course it was really neat to see a lot of the actual props and costumes that were used in the actual movies. My favorite thing was the car that Harry and Ron drove to Hogwarts.Here I am standing in the replica of Hagrid's shack. I am standing in front of Hagrid's clothes. He was a giant.

We stayed in a hotel right along the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. It was beautiful and a wonderful vacation.We walked down Navy Pier and took a picture next to Lake Michigan. It was beautiful, but looks and feels more like an ocean. I forgot my camera and had to just take pictures with our camera.

Terry was able to go fishing with some of "the boys." This is a picture of his prize winning fish, a mere 4 inches long.