New Pictures of the kids taken at Daycare

Parker's New Haircut

On Saturday, I took Parker to get his haircut at Sports Clips.   Jen had trusted me to "make the right decisions".    So I dressed PBR up in a Suh Jersey, it was the NFL draft after all, and we headed out the door.  Parker did a great job.  He initially started to get scared when cape was put around his neck, but stylist, Jessica, did a great job calming him down.   She gave him a sucker and talked him through the whole thing.   Each time she did something, she did it on his stuffed dog, Blue, first, which put Parker’s mind at ease.   Below are some pictures of the process.   There is the before, some during and an after. 

Happy Easter!

It was a beautiful weekend to celebrate. The kids had an Easter egg hunt on Sunday. We had 130 eggs for them to find. Yes, Darin thought it was a bit much. "Jenn, that's 65 eggs each." After the hunt we open Easter baskets then went on a walk to Sonic. The weather was amazing and we had a great weekend!

Parker Bennett

Parker had his two year appointment on Thursday. He is 24.5 pounds and 36 inches tall. We had a great birthday celebration last weekend. Here are some of the photos.

Happy 2nd Birthday Parker Bennett!

We had a wonderful celebration on Saturday. Both sets of grandparents were here to spend time with the kids. It was Parker's Birthday celebration. The theme was airplanes. We enjoyed singing to him, playing balloons and ball, going on walks, chalking, bubbles, and eating of course. Both kids were sick (fever) earlier in the week, Madison on Wednesday and Parker on Thursday. We were so thankful to have our neighbor take care of Madison on Wednesday. Then on Thursday night, I drove to Mount City, MO to pick up Grandma Hanson, so she could watch Parker on Friday. We are so grateful for the assistance. Based on how the weekend went, you would not have thought the kids were sick or had been sick at all! =) I think they are sick now, they miss the Grandparents. Madison turned to me and said, "When are they coming back to visit?" and Parker said, "Yepp." We hope they will come visit us again, very soon! It is so amazing how quickly the two years have gone by, Parker is growing into a little man with his specific opinions. We love him so much. Happy Birthday Buddy! We love you!

House for Sale

This weekend we put our house on the market.   It has been a great house.  We loved our family room downstairs, the patio out back and have had several great neighbors.  Our kids started their lives in this house.  There will be a lot we will miss.  But there are times when its best to move on and we made that decision last week. 

Once the house is sold, we'll begin a new chapter in our life.  There are a lot of great communities in KC.  We are excited about our new adventure.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Madison and Parker would like to wish you a very Happy Valentine's Day!

Sesame Street Live

Saturday morning, we took the kids to Sesame Street Live at the Sprint Center. We arrived at 9:00am for the meet and greet characters, to our surprise it was Elmo and Zoey. Then we went to the play zone where the kids colored, played the piano, danced, sat in big birds nest, and etc. We had great seats, we were in the first row, seats 1-4. Parker was in amazement during the show, he clapped but sat quietly. Madison sat and danced next to Dad.

Planes, Boats and Automobiles

Last week I was in Canada on business.  We knew some storms were coming into the area, but nobody was really concerned.  This part of Canada doesn't receive a lot of snow and when they do get snow, it isn't much.   The first two days in Canada it didn't snow at all.  In fact, Sunday was a very nice day.  But Tuesday, it snowed all day as we met with our client.  By the time we left for the hotel at 6pm, it had stopped snowing and we were under the impression that the multiple inches on the ground was all the area was going to receive.  The plan was to leave for our 9am Wednesday flight at 7 am.  The drive is normally 20 mins, but in case the roads were not perfectly clear, we wanted some extra time. 

Waking up Wednesday morning, we had a little surprise.  It started snowing at 4 am and it was coming down harder than the day before.  The roads were covered with packed snow, ice and fresh new powder.  So we drove in our front wheel drive Chevy up and down hills to the airport.   It took us almost 50 mins.   But we made it without any scares.  Once through security we sat down for some coffee only to hear them announce some flight cancellations.   As the read off the list, our flight was named.   They were going to shut down the airport. 

So we hurried up, grabbed our luggage from baggage claim and grabbed one of the 4 cabs sitting outside the airport.  We had the driver, who was from NY, take us to the ferry.  The plan was to take the 9am ferry to another city and try to catch a flight out of Canada so we could get home that night.  We had 30 mins to catch the next ferry... to take a normally 10 min ride... in the snow.   Twenty five minutes later, I jumped out of the cab to order ferry tickets as my companions grabbed luggage and paid for the taxi.   To tell you how close we cut it, only one person got a ticket behind me.  Then the closed the doors and told everyone they'd need to wait for the 11am ferry. 

The hour and a half ferry ride was better than I had anticipated.  The food was decent and it was a relatively smooth ride.  I had cell phone reception so I was able to make new reservations and plans.  After docking, we took another quick cab ride to the airport and proceeded to our gates.  We all had separate plans to get back to KC.  For me it meant flying to Denver, switching airlines and then flying back to KC.   Instead of getting home at 6pm, I landed after 10.  Despite not knowing how I was going to get home for most of the morning, it all worked out in the end.  But those are the joys of traveling on business...

Snow on the dock

Inside the Boat

Looking out the front of the boat



coming off the boat





A bar where I hung out to stay warm.. this was not on the boat, but it is a very cool bar



Cherish the memories...

Please do not read on if you are offended by my bluntness.....Cancer SUCKS! Today, an angel was sent to heaven, Ms. Emily. She is such a beautiful person, friend and teacher, whom we had the honor to know for about 3 years. Her vibrant smile could light up anything including a entire room. We know she is at peace, but she will be deeply missed.

On Friday (Jan 13), I heard her prognosis was declining. Ms. Emily battled Stage 4 breast cancer and won the battle once, just not this time. With that, Madison and I attended a benefit for Emily at Buffalo Wild Wings in Liberty, MO. I was in ahh at the number of people she knew and lives she touched. The event was 2 hours long and it that time they raised over $8,000..tells you how amazing she is...Throughout the weekend, I kept up with facebook posts from family, friends and other teachers to find out her status.

Times like this, you further embrace your Heroes, Family and Friends. I reached out to Grandma Johnson (my grandma) to tell her how amazing Emily is...and that you must meet her. Grandma is and was my hero. I took the kids to school this morning, talked to the teachers, gave hugs, and shed some tears. (very heavy heart as I got in the car after dropping the kids off). I did not move but 50 feet from the CernerKids sidewalk but a bright red Cardinal flew right in front of me, sat in the tree to my left and starred straight at me. (For those of you that do not know...a Cardinal was my grandma's favorite bird and I saw one the morning she passed away on 5/1/2010). Grandma, thanks for always being there for me. I really needed it...love you!