Lil Husker

Here are some of Parker's pictures from March 24, 2010. This is the day we came home from the hospital.

Pictures of Parker's first day

Parker Bennett is born

Parker was born at 11:05 today. He measured 20 inches long and 7.9lbs. Mom and baby are doing well. Pictures will be coming later tonight..

Easter Egg Hunt

On Saturday, Madison's school (CernerKids and Innovations Kids) held an Easter Egg Hunt. Madison's hunt began at 10:15 am. The event started at 9:00 am, so Darin kept Madison busy by participating in the various activities they had, such as movies, coloring, face painting, meet the Easter Bunny, eat animal crackers, drink water, eat animal crackers, relax and eat more animal crackers. Darin took some great pictures. Unfortunately, she really did not love her Easter hat.

39+ weeks and counting oh my...

Well here I am at 39 weeks, as ready as can be...

Dr. Suess...reading across America at Target

Madison has already developed her love for Target. Well mostly because on Saturday, February 27, (Yes I am a little late with the post) Target had a program called Reading Across America and with Madison's love of books, we just could not miss the event. Once we got there, Madison was not sure what to do. However, once the clerk started to read books to her, she was quite intrigued. And for Madison, it was not limited to one book, she wanted all six to be read to her. The clerks even went back and grabbed two more books for her, which was very exciting.

My love of Target is not related to books, but I am glad Madison loves Target and the books!

Jen's new Toy

NEWS....

Good news for Darin. He has been promoted to Senior Director of Operations. What a wonderful accomplishment. He had done a great job in the six years that he has been with Cerner and he continues to look forward to the future years. We are very proud of him.

A Full Moon....

Well tonight is a full moon and I am hoping little Parker is getting ready to see everyone. I guess he'll be ready when he wants. It's getting tougher and tougher for me to sleep and move around. I've had quite a few contractions over the past few days, however they are not consistent. My next doctors appointment is Monday, so hope to hear some good news. It's amazing how an extra 30 pounds can effect my mobility. Parker has been very active (kicking) throughout the pregnancy. He is starting to slow down a bit as he is growing more and more and less room to move....Whahoo...good for me. Maybe the full moon will be on my side and I hope its not just Madison mooning me. Otherwise it will be 24 days to go and counting.

Frostbite 2010

This past weekend I flew to Detroit to join some friends in the 2010 Frostbite golf outing. I arrived Friday night and went to a friends house where he was having a kickoff party. The next morning we woke up at 7:00am to pack and drive north to Harrison Michigan for the golf event. Harrison has a winter celebration during the weekend which includes ice fishing, chili contests, a parade, kids activities, auctions and of course, winter golf. There were 5 of us driving from Detroit for the 2 1/2 hour ride north.

When we got to Harrison we ate at a local diner, met up with some other people who were part of our larger group, checked into our hotel and got dressed for a day on the ice. I was shocked to find how nice the weather was in relation to KC. It was in the mid 30's but plenty of sun. I only wore a hooded sweatshirt and my ball cap. I had gloves, but never used them. Most around us were in light jackets. It was perfect day. The hotel was on the lake so we were able to walk across it to the register for the tournament. It was about a 1/2 mile walk. For the tourney, we were able to bring one club and with our registration, we got a numbered tennis ball to use for the day. I was #60. I know we had a # 98 in our group, so there were at least 100 people on the ice that day. At 1:00 the golf tourney started.

The lake had about 14 inches of ice and another 6-8 inches of snow on top of it. What the event organizers did was take a small plow, create anywheres from 20-50 yard fairways by moving the top layer of snow and then created a circled "green" doing the same thing. The hole was actually cut about 8 inches into the ice so the ball would stay out of the water, but still have a place to drop. The whole was about 6 inches in diameter as well. Doesn't sound like much, but fairways were only about 2-3 feet wide and hitting a tennis ball on ice adds to the complexity and makes this more challenging than one would think. Snow tracks, snow chucks and ice that is not smooth gave us a lot to talk ...and brag about. My team of 3 ended up tied for first out of our larger group. We shot a 4 under for the day. I had a lot of fun and made 2 great shots. The first was the 2 shot on a par 4. I was in the snow, popped the ball into the air and it hit a snow pack, bounced off and went into the hole. On the last whole, I had a 20 yard put that stopped with a small portion of the ball hanging over the edge of the cup.

After the game we got a rid on a snow vehicle back to our hotel. (btw.. there were people driving cars on the ice. It's amazing how solid 14 inches of ice can be..) Everyone was hungry so we grilled burgers and hot dogs before we changed to go to the bars that night. We ended up playing a lot of pool while watching the Olympics and bragging about the days events. About 1:30 in the morning we left the bar to go eat some breakfast. A diner was on the way to the hotel, so along our mile walk back we stopped and had a bite to eat. Diner food is always great.

The next morning I woke at 7am, got ready and we hit the road by 8. The group drove me back to Detroit so I could catch my noon flight. It was a quick weekend, but I'm ready for next year already. I've enclosed some pictures of the day, including a shot of the lake from our hotel. I also enclosed a picture of the plane wing once I landed in KC. I wasn't sure I would make it back with the storm we were having in KC, but we landed. By the time we got to the gate, the wing was covered in snow.