Little about us

I didn't realized how behind the times I was by not blogging. I hope to stay up to date with this. I'm thinking to will be easier than my website, but only time will tell.....

So for my first blog I would like to tell you a little about our family. My husband Mike and I started dating each other time 10 years ago this week, yes we did know of each other in high school, but I would have never dated him in high school - I didn't think he was my "type". After 2 1/2 years dating we were engaged and 6 months later to the day we got married(mar 2000). During our 6 month engagement, we also decided to build a house. It was definitely a very busy time and stressful at that for those of you who know what is involved with building a house. Our first house was on Bennigan Lane in Zeeland. That's not the only house we built or remodeled. We built a second house 2 1/2 years later, while we lived with my parents. This house was also in Zeeland in Townline Estates. We are now on our third house in 7 years and I will telling that building a new house is much easier than remodeling. I love to do the interior decorating stuff, but what I didn't like about remodeling is you don't know what could go wrong. And believe me plenty went wrong.

After being married just a short while 1 1/2 years, We had our first son, Brendan (dec 2001) And a few years later we had a few more boys, twins - Austin and Lucas (mar 2004). We had our youngest son, Connor in August 2006. I certainly have a houseful of boys and they are definitely a rowdy bunch, but well behaved so I have been told.

We moved from Zeeland, MI to Freeport, MI in December 2005, after my husband quit his computer programming job to be in business with my dad, two of my brothers, and a cousin. He's now in charge and has 25 employee under him. The major challenge is the language barrier. He took german in high school and that doesn't help when you have mexican employees. The farm in Freeport in one of four farms that Scenic View Dairy owns, the others being in Fennville, Gowen, and Zeeland. The farm in Freeport milks about 2000 cows three times each day - it's a 24/7 business.

While Mike is out managing the farm, I(Cara) stay home with our four boys. I have an online business in which I sell bags - beach bags, diaper bags, totes, & hangbags I think there is 5 different size in all, plus I am working on a kids messenger bag. I started making them when I could find a fun and hip bag to use as a diaper bag when Connor was born. I had done the traditional diaper bag with my other three and wanted something different. You can view the bags at www.thevandams.com/carascreations. I also enjoy photography and scrapbooking - I do my scrapbooks on Shutterfly.com. The photo books they have are awesome and you don't have to have all the scrapbooking supplies on hand.

It was quite the change for us. I was used to the grocery store and the gas station being less than a mile down the road and Meijers and Target were 7 minutes away. Now the closest gas station is 7 miles away, and Meijers and Target are 25 minutes away. So I can't run out quickly anymore. Now I have to plan my trips a little bit better and plan ahead.