Terry's wonderful gift!

Terry promised me when I got my new house that the first theing he would do was refinish the free piano we got from his cousins. He did just that and sacrificed his whole week of spring break to sand it down and paint it for me. It was hard work getting the swear words sanded out that were carved in it, but it turned out beautiful. I love it! My mom and little sister Marianna helped me refinish the bench and now it looks wonderful!

Liddy's Blessing

Liddy and Porter

Liddy was blessed on April 12th.  It was Easter and a beautiful day too.  The sacrament meeting was wonderful because of course the talks were specifically on the resurrection and atonement of Christ.  Terry had to speak in sacrament meeting so it was a big day for him, but he did great.  What a wonderful blessing it was to see the priesthood power at work.  The blessing was very sweet and brings peace to my mind of the blessings that are in store for her.

The blessing dress was made by mom and was beautiful.  I loved it!  Thanks again mom!

One month later!

Yes, I have survived the first month of adjusting to my new life with 2 kids. It has been fun, but has had it's moments. How can you stay frustrated for too long with this little face.Thanks to Terry and family help, we are doing great. Liddy is now 8 lbs. 4 oz. She is a great eater and will take a bottle now too. We were even able to go out to a movie while Alida and Aaron watched the kids. She also sleeps okay at night, not as good as I would hope. I let her sleep next to me a lot of the time. I know that it is bad, but I am so weak when deprived of sleep.

We had Marianna here for a little while and Porter loved having her around. He got spoiled with her around.

We did have a little mishap. Porter fell off of the counter. I wish I could say that I was busy with Liddy and trying to manage many other things when it happened, but I can't. I was standing right there and turned my back for one second and heard a thud. He has fallen before and really didn't think anything of it, but when I pulled him back from crying on my shoulder I was surprised to see that my shoulder was blood covered and Porter's lip had already blown up to twice its normal size. I freaked out for a minute and had to call Terry for help. He was able to come home and after evaluating the extent of injuries headed to the dentist rather than the emergency room. We felt so blessed to find out that everything was okay. There was not going to be any permanent damage done to his teeth or gums. The skin that connects the lip to the upper gums was cut, but unable to be reconnected. The dentist said that with a lot of children that skin needs to be cut anyway to allow the teeth to grow in correctly. So, all is well, but it was pretty scary at the time. Porter's first dentist visit was not one that I invisioned to have pictures taken and scrapbooked, but am grateful that he was okay.

Welcome little Liddy!!!!!

Well we have done it again. This last Saturday we had really nice weather and had made plans to be outside with various warm weather activities. About noon Bethany looked at me and said. "I have been having contractions and there are about 30 minutes apart." I really didn't think much about it because she has had them for a while off and on through the last part of the pregnancy. Well about 5 o'clock she said they were getting closer together, but not getting stronger. We went to watch the high school perform "Fiddler on the Roof" and she kept timing herself. We got home and they were about five minutes apart. We went to bed and about 1:30 a.m. she woke me up and said they are getting stronger and closer. Bethany got up, packed and took a bath. We went in about 5:00 a.m. By the time 9:30 had rolled around she was at a ten and ready to push. At ten o'clock on the dot of March 8th 2009 Liddy Tlustek was born. She weighed 7 lbs. 11 ounces and was 21 inches long. What is really funny is that she has hair, quite a bit of it too. Even more funny is the fact that it is dark. Mom and baby are doing wonderful and we are set to go home from the hospital anytime. Here are some pictures and videos of the events of the past few days.

A good contraction picture, Can you see the intensity?

Liddy a few seconds after birth.
Hello Liddy!!!
The weigh in.

Bethany and Liddy.

Terry, Bethany and Liddy.
After the bath

Marianna has been a big huge help with everything.

Porter Loves his new baby sister.

5 Addictions tag

Well I have been tagged by my sister on five addictions, so here goes nothing.

1. I have a newly aquired addiction, "Heros" the t.v. show. I had never watched one single episode until a week ago. I always thought it looked interesting, but never bothered to watch it. We had some friends over for dinner a week ago and the topic came up. Our friends had the first season on DVD and let us borrow it. Here it is a week later and we have almost finished the first season. Its not a small season either, we are talking 20 some episodes. I want to catch-up to the current season by the end of the month.

2. Coaching. I always think about the time that I could use doing other things if I wasn't coaching, but then when you have a succesfull meet or a swimmer swims a crazy good time that they have never even been close to before. It gets addictive. We have three weeks to go in our current season, but already we are talking about plans for the next two seasons and what we want to try and how we think we will fair out.

3. How I fold my laundry. My friends find out that I still do my own laundry and they laugh. Sometimes bethany does it, but 80% of the time I do my own. I have a specific way I like my socks and t-shirts folded, and how my clothes are hung up. Its not rain man obsessed but it is pretty bad. I don't make Bethany do it when she does my laundry, I just make sure and do it when I do.

4. My cell phone. I don't use it any more often then I need to, and I don't text. I just think that the reason I have it is so people can contact me easier and if I don't have it with me then whats the point.

5. The best for last, my family. I love the mornings when Bethany our I have nothing to do and Porter wakes up and we all sit in our bed and watch cartoons and then go down and make breakfast and eat together. I love spending time with them and it just gets better and better.


I tag Bethany, Jared Crace, Brad Wynn, Olivia Oldham and Larry Eaker.

Happy Birthday to Bethany

Well Bethany turned 26 this last Friday. So I thought I would say a few nice things about Bethany.

1. Bethany is a trooper. She does so much with Porter, work, and me being gone for all my coaching stuff and being pregnant.

2. Bethany keeps me smiling. I am thinking about keeping an audio recorder next to the bed to record the hilarious things she says when she wakes up at night. For instance, last night I woke up and looked out the window and it had snowed alot I was thinking about school being canceled and said out loud, "oh no I think school is going to be canceled," Bethany sat straight up and said loudly, "UH-OH Spaghetti-O's." I laughed so hard and so did she and quickly she fell asleep.

3. She has such passion when she teaches the young women. All the girls in the young womens at some point have come up to me and told me how they love her lessons and her spirit. I tell them "I do too, thats why I married her."

4. She absolutely loves to laugh at goofy things. Sometimes the dumbest things will happen and both of us will just bust out laughing, just ask her about the flight attendant's smile.

5. She loves and takes wonderful care of our son and soon to be daughter.

For her birthday I got Bethany a new Scentsy and she was very surprised with the fact that the smells I picked and the warmer were her style. Also We have exciting news. We bought a house. Thanks to the hurting housing market Bethany and I were able to afford a VERY nice home for a fraction of what they originally asked for when it went onto the market this last summer. Here are some pictures I took when we went to visit it last time. Also, here is the link to the realty listing. Go to the link go to "listings" and put in the number 10055087 for the MLS number the address is 4 Rose lane Bedford Indiana http://www.tuckerobr.com/public/AllProptySearchResult.asp

The outside

The Outside

Looking at the front door

the kitchen

Master Bedroom

Master Bath, there is a shower and toilet behind the door to the right

Basement North Side, there is the third bedroom door

Merry Christmas

We headed to Idaho to celebrate Christmas. We were going to be there for a week and were so excited to see everyone. We were very blessed and everything went as planned. We had no delays even though the weather wasn't the best. Thanks to Monica for picking us up at the airportand driving us to Pocatello. My mom picked us up there. We did a little christmas shopping and have decided we will never do that again. There were more people in WalMart than on the day after Thanksgiving.

We spent Christmas Eve at Aunt Shellie's house. She made prime rib and baked potatoes. It was delicious!! The climax of course was the nativity scene that the grandkids performed. This was the first time we had done that. It was precious! Mary whipped up all these costumes and they all looked so cute. Of course the best part was when Shaylon got her dad, Sam, to be the donkey. She rode in on him while Grandpa Clark read the story from the scriptures. Porter was a wiseman and was not very patient and cooperative. He had had enough. We did a $5 gift exchange and he definitely perked up when he saw that his present was a ball.

Christmas morning was great. Porter was the center of attention as he opened all the gifts. It took him a minute to get a hang of opening presents, but by the end he was willing to open every single one of them under the tree. Porter got a Woody doll from Toy Story, his favorite disney movie and a few other toys from that movie too. He loved it and was soon saying "woody." Which we were so surprised at, given he can only say 5 other words.

We had fun having all the cousins over every day. Porter loved having play mates there all the time. We did spend a lot of time lounging around and loved it.

Thanks to Olivia we got a temple time set up where Terry and I, Liz and Ruffin, Olivia and my mom went to a session. The cool thing about it was that we went when my grandpa was working. It was special to be in the temple with him he thought so too and it made me so happy when he came up to us and said, "this was a special experience for me." We all went out to eat at Craigo's after and that was delicious.
We went up to the cabin by warm river and spent a night. It was so cool. I loved it. We had fun playing games, talking and eating. Definitely an experience that people pay good money for and we got to enjoy it for free. We felt so high class in that nice cabin. Thanks to Sam and Mary and Jed and Amanda!!

We headed down to Utah to spend the night with Marthea and Jeff and their boys the night before our plane left. It was good to see them. Porter had fun playing with those two little twins. It definitely made a difference in our trip having already done one of the legs of the trip the day before. We sure had fun and 7 days went way way to fast.

I had to leave the Wii comments till last because I wanted to add a video of the best Wii performance in history by my mom and dad. Santa bought a wii for Christmas for the family to enjoy and boy did we enjoy it. I don't think it was ever turned off the whole time we were there visiting. We sure had fun figuring out how to play it while laughing at each other. We are definitely out of the loop when it comes to video games and it took quite a few tries to even get the basics down. Our favorite of course was the boxing and as you can see below we sure had fun. This video is priceless as you watch my dad with great skill execute punches and my mom laugh as she just moves her arms back and forth. Well, skill was not the key factor here because as you can see my mom wins. It was so funny!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Can't wait for more fun next year!

The First Snow!!

It is now beginnning to look a lot like Christmas around here in Indiana. We had our first snow fall and I forget how beautiful it is to look out and have everything covered in white. It was wonderful!! Porter was tentative at first wondering what snow was and didn't really want to touch it, but quickly warmed up to the idea that you could pick up that fluffy white stuff and eat it. I wish we would have had time to go sledding. I am sure he would have loved it. Anyway, I am very excited for Christmas now.

I am way behind on my blog and have to give an update on our fun fall adventures. Here is a random sampler of the past few weeks.

We took our annual trip to a local state park to see the beautiful fall leaves. This park has many look out towers that allow you to see the fall colored trees.

We have broken down and become those parents that put their kid on a leash. Just kidding we were playing with a dog leash. It was funny to see Porter try to get away.

We really did have fun carving pumpkins this year. We didn't carve them until the day before Halloween, but that didn't stop us from keeping them out on our porch until Thanksgiving. White trash I know. We had to enjoy them though. Porter didn't like to stick his hand down into the pumpkin, but once the pumpkin guts were out he had no problem getting them everywhere.

This is what the average picture that I try to take of Porter looks like these days. He is definitely past the stage of posing for me to take the perfect picture. The second he sees the camera he wants to see it to, so by the time I get the button pushed and my slow camera take the picture this is the close up head shot that has been taken. I do so wish for a new camera for Christmas. Hint, Hint Terry :)!

18 months old!!

Porter just turned 18 months old and I am loving him more and more. His little personality is starting to shine. He makes me smile and laugh often with his changes in facial expressions and the little quirky things he does. Sometimes as we watch Porter play or do something interesting, Terry and I look at each other and smile thinking of how cute and wonderful he is.

-Porter weighed in at 21 lbs. 11 oz. at his doctor appointment.
-He is 31 1/2 inches tall
-Takes 2 naps a day. One from 10-1 and then from 4-5:30 or 6. I love it and can't believe that he still is doing it and sleeping through the night.
-He loves to eat anything with noodles, peaches, drink milk and eat yogurt. He loves to feed himself with his little fork and spoon and is doing pretty good with drinking from a cup. It is usually when he is done that it becomes a mess because of course it is playtime then.
-He is becoming quite the cuddler. I didn't think that he was a very warm little boy, but has recently loved to just lay by me and snuggle or come up to me and give me a big hug. I love those moments!
-He is a boy at heart and loves to play ball, hiss with his little plastic snake, and ride his horse. I am not ashamed to say that he also loves to put on necklaces and carry purses too. It is so funny. He is beginning to love to try on everyone's shoes and has yet to really be able to walk in many that he has tried on. It is interesting to note that when given the choice in my closet of shoes that he picks the highest of heels that I own to put on. They must just look the most interesting.
-If he could he would live outside. He would play and play all day out there and not whine a bit. I think most little boys are like that though.
-He can say baby and no, it does take a little stretch of the imagination. He does jabber like crazy and acts as though he is speaking words that you can understand. He will look straight at you and say jibberish with such intonations as if he were truely saying a coherent sentence. It makes me laugh. I am sure the words will come soon enough.
-He has started nursery.YEAHHH!! I couldn't be happier and I know that he loves it too! No crying, no looking back nothing. He practically ran into the room with joy! I am so glad he loves it and as of yet exhibits little seperation anxiety.

It's A Girl!!

Face profile

This is the picture to tell us the big news that it's a girl. Good thing we trust those ultrasound techs because there is no way I could have been able to tell from this shot.

We found out yesterday at our ultrasound what we are having. I am so excited to announce that we are having a girl. I can't wait to buy pink and frills. Terry is also so excited and teared up a little at the great news. It is always so fun to see that little baby sillouette on the screen and know that it is so real. Terry also felt her kick for the first time yesterday. She looks good the doctor said, "healthy and whole." Which is always great news! We took Porter to the ultrasound and thought he would enjoy watching it and sharing in the moment, but he was more preoccupied by all the other things he could get into or climb on in the room. Up until she let us listen to the heart beat for minute and had to record that. Porter stopped dead in his tracks looked at the screen for a minute and then started to dance. It was so funny! The ultrasound technician kept the heart beat on for quite some time just to watch him dance. We were able to have the ultrasound recorded on tape. We didn't get to have that with Porter. So we brought it home and everyone came over last night to watch it and find out the good news. Porter did repeat his funny routine of dancing to the loud heart beat. We all got a kick out of it again. Anyway we are so happy and are already trying to get Porter to say sister. No luck yet, but I think he has started saying no. Surprise, surprise that it would be one of his first words. hee, hee.

Happy Halloween

Terry was Hagrid off of Harry Potter, I was a witch and Porter was a bear (thanks mom for the costume!)

Whoever invented the idea of trunk or treat is a genius. We had our annual trunk-or-treat for the ward last Wednesday and it was wonderful to only have to walk a little and see everyone. I have been so excited for Halloween this year because it is the first holiday that I think Porter was able to really be involved in and I was excited to see all the reactions he would have and the things he would do. I was surprised when he wasn't scared of Terry after putting on his wig, but he definitely was afraid of the fog maker by one of the cars. His favorite thing of course was getting the candy. He is no stranger to that and can already pick out the things he likes best. The suckers of course. His idea of trick or treating was a little different though. He would rather go get a piece of candy, eat it, then move on to the next one. It was a very hard concept for him to grasp that he had to leave it in his bag and eat a few at the end. One funny thing was how he would walk around and steal other kids candy. He was the Halloween theif for sure. It was so cute to see him so innocently reach into their bag only to pull out one of his favorites as the unsuspecting victim was looking the other way. A few kids caught him and did not think it was funny at all. We even got him to play a few carnival games that were going on inside the church. Throwing the bowling ball at the pins and then giving himself a nice round of applause was his favorite. I wish I would have gotten a video of that. I have definitely got to video things more. I know I will forget these special moments.

This is Alida and Aaron at the party we were invited to. He was a hick and she was barefoot and pregnant. Last friday we were invited to a Halloween Costume Party at Mike and Anita Horn's. No little kids were invited. So Terry and I had a wonderful night of fun to ourselves. I wonder if that was my favorite part about it. Anyway, it was soo fun. Everyone had wonderfully creative costumes. The refreshments were all about halloween, i.e. eyeballs in the punch, popcorn frankenstein heads and tons more. We got there and hung around for about a half an hour then we were split up into teams to go on a scavenger hunt where you use a video camera to tape the things you've done or find. We had a time limit and when we got back we watched each others tapes and laughed our heads off at the funny things we'd done. To top it all off our team won and we got gift cards to the movie store.