Happy Birthday Dan~A Quarter of a Century Old!

My step-son, Daniel turns 25 years old today. Here he is with his wife, TerriAnna and their son, Hayden. They live in Portland, OR. Dan does construction out there. Like father, like son.

When my kids and I met Ray and his kids, (almost 10 years ago), my son Joel told me I had to get together with this guy because then he'd have a really cool step-brother. That first Summer the two boys were pretty much inseparable. They'd answer the questions in unison, and everything they did became a competition. EVERYTHING. We used to refer to them as "the twins". Joel is 7 months older than Dan, so at the moment, we have two 25 year old sons. How about that, their ages together add up to mine.

Dan came to visit us this Fall, with his son Hayden. He and his dad had the opportunity to work together again, for a couple of weeks. Ray was thrilled to be able to spend time with his son for a little while, and I think Dan enjoyed spending some quality time with Dad too. Can you tell they're related by the above picture? Like I said, "Like father, like son". The funny thing was, they accidentally wore very similar shirts that day.

Have a great 25th birthday, Dan!

Happy 1st Birthday, Hayden!

I don't have any really recent pictures of Ray's son Dan's little boy, Hayden, but here is one of him taken while they were visiting us in September. Today is his first birthday! They sent a video about a month ago of him, not just walking...but running around at 11 months old! We figured it wasn't going to take him too much longer, he was almost walking back in September already. He's such a little cutie-pie and we miss him very much. I wish he could be here for Christmas. Maybe next year.

I'm working on getting a birthday/Christmas package out to Dan, TerriAnna and Hayden in OR. I have Hayden's presents all ready to go, but have nothing in the box for his parents' Christmas present yet. Obviously, they will not receive this package in time for Christmas, but I'll get it sent out as soon as I can. I'm really bad about those things. I always intend to get them sent on time, but I always want to add "just one more thing", so it's coming...

While I'm at it, I should send a belated Happy Birthday to my sister, Connie (who's birthday was on Sunday), and a Happy Birthday to my brother Dan, who shares a birthday with Hayden today. Yes, I have a brother Dan, a step-son named Dan and now a step-son-in-law, also named Dan. It gets a bit confusing around here at times.

Cyber Shower Party Post For Sassyfrazz

Sassyfrazz is due to have baby number 4 soon. As a guest at her shower, I'm going to play some games here to see if I can win:

The First Choice of Prizes will go to: The sweetest picture
of Daddy's first picture with their new baby. This can be a picture right at
the hospital/in home birth, or just a few days/weeks old of the baby.

This is a picture of my oldest son, Jeremy and my oldest grandson, "AJ". It was taken almost 6 years ago. I can't believe how young my son looks here. He has this picture entitled "My first whole day as a dad" on his MySpace page. I think that's pretty sweet myself.

And just in case that one isn't sweet enough, (and to be fair to my step-son, Dan and his little guy, "HD" that was born just before Christmas last year), here's one of them too. This was obviously in the hospital after a very, very long night.

The Second Choice of Prizes will go to: The person who guesses the correct
birth weight of my second child, Caleb, who is now 3 1/2 years old. He was 3
days overdue, and I was induced with him. Those are the only clues I will give you.
:)

Hmmmm.... I think he was pretty big, but I don't remember the exact stats.
I'll guess 8 lbs 13 oz. Am I right?

The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Choice of Prizes will go to: The most creative creation of a baby and/or a pregnant Mom made out of play-doh. That's
right...time to get creative, regress to your childhood days, and have a blast making your masterpiece. Yes, you can ask your kids to help with this one. I am all about having fun with your kids!

I think I'll pass on this one, I don' t believe I even have any playdoh in the house. Congratulations, Sarah!

A Little Catch-up Blogging

Because it's been awhile since I had a fully functioning computer at home and a working digital camera, I've decided to post a few random pictures I've taken recently. Here ya go~

Here's one I just had to take of Ray and his son Dan. They almost look like they dressed alike on purpose. Nope. They just accidentally wore very similar shirts that Sunday. Can you see any other resemblance between the two of them? Ray has recently lost almost 50 lbs, and apparently Dan has been enjoying his wife's cooking lately, because he's not the skinny kid he was when he left for Oregon a few short years ago, which makes them look even more alike.

This one was taken at the Olive Garden. Ray's kids, Dan and Sarah and her hubby Brad, decided to take us all out to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. Also pictured are my daughter Molly, our grandson, Hayden (in the high chair), his daughter Ruth and her new husband, Dan D.
Here's a close-up of Hayden at the end of the table. As you can plainly see,

he was showing everyone that he was "so big"! What a cutie-pie.
These two are at my dad's birthday party last Sunday. We had planned on going on an old fashioned hayride. But alas, the weather did not cooperate, so we just partied in the garage as usual. Maybe we'll reschedule the hayride one of these days when it's nicer out.

The last picture here, doesn't do justice to the brilliant red color of the leaves on the tree in my front yard. I just thought it was interesting that of three maple trees in the same yard, one was bright yellow, one looked like a flaming torch of yellows oranges and reds, and yet another was still green. God is such a talented artist, isn't He?

Hangin' With Hayden

Dan and Hayden arrived late Monday night. Dan stayed home on Tuesday with Hayden and me, but the last couple of days he and I have been hanging out alone, doing a little bonding while Dan is helping out his dad with a construction project. It didn't take Hayden long to start crying every time I got out of his sight. To me, that means that he has accepted me as one of his (temporary) primary caregivers. I also get a big smile from him when I come back into the room. We went through all of this with my grandson, (CJ), when we had him for extended periods of time too. When Mom is around, they generally prefer her to anyone else of course, but in the absence of Mom or Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, (or even Auntie Molly), will do. Here are 3 generations at the airport: Dan (oops, he blinked), holding Hayden, with Ray by his side. Can you tell Dan belongs to Ray? Actually, if you look at Grandpa Ray's baby pictures, there's a bit of a resemblance between him and Hayden too! Here are a few other snapshots I've taken of the boy since he's been here. We've been having a lot of fun with him. Here he is just being cute:

And here, as you can see, Auntie Molly actually got him to go to sleep!

I guess Grandma shoulda washed his little face before taking this one, but he's still pretty cute.

And here...still with a dirty face after supper...he's showing off his two front teeth. Actually he's got four of them already, and appears to be working on a few more at the moment. We're having a great time with him, and in case his mom is checking this blog from Italy, everyone says hi T!...and we'll give your little boy a hug and a kiss for you.

Happily Ever (Before and) After

Just a little over a year ago, my step-son, Dan married his wife, TeriAnna out in Oregon. Here is a picture of what Ray and I looked like then, at Yellowstone National Park, on our way out West for the wedding:

Weren't we cute??? Actually, we are standing in front of the Upper Falls in this picture, my daughter, Jessica was supposed to get that in the picture too...but apparently we were just too fat! Well, she was trying to hold her son, CJ while taking the photo too, which may have had something to do with it.

Now, almost exactly one year later, my step-daughter Ruth and her fiance, Dan decided to put their marriage plans into fast-forward, and had a small civil ceremony last Saturday. This is not a great picture of Ray, since he's somewhat hidden by his Aunt Marilyn, but I think you can see how he's lost weight even in his face. I look quite a bit smaller than I did a year ago myself...but I've still got a long way to go. Others in the pic are (l to r), Sharon, (Dan's mom), his Grandma Mary, Dan, (the groom), Ruth, (the bride), and my daughter Molly next to Ray and me.

To date, I have officially lost 33.2 lbs, and Ray's got somewhere around 40 lbs gone. Not bad for about 5 months of "losing it". Congratulations and best wishes go out to the happy couple for a wonderful marriage!