First ever Porter Snowman!

Owen's First Field Trip

It was a big day in our house yesterday; the first ever field trip in our family.  I went along to help and to document the momentous occasion.

Little Russets went to Broulim's Bakery to learn about baking since the book of the month in class was The Gingerbread Man.

Owen getting onto the 'bus' aka his teachers mondo van. 

 Excited about the cookies they got for being good.

The cake they watched get decorated. 

Three weeks before Christmas

Three weeks before Christmas and all through the house
the Porters were getting all bundled up to see Santa Claus.
They were so excited we hoped it'd go well

Just see for yourself. . .

 We had one little screamer who despite of herself would not take the candy canes, from the jolly old elf.

We don't need a mouse to get a little cheese ball. She smiled so big you couldn't get any good pictures. 

Or hear her one wish a baby doll. 

We had one little winner who loved it all.  He smiled, he talked, he surprised us all.  His one wish to Santa was train tracks.  Santa suggested he add an actual train to that list. 

HALLOWEEN

A little bug

 I am so very thankful for my little love bug Lily Elizabeth.  Lily loves with her whole self and is not afraid to hug and love.  Today she found a little girl Clara in nursery who wanted and needed as much love as Lily could give. For the whole hour and a half Lily and Clara were hugging and snuggling. It was adorable.  She has so much love to give.  When she smiles she lights up a room and just gives her all to you.  I love her so much and am so thankful to have my lovely little girl.

Just a little crazy

Wednesday was the beginning of the end for us here in the porter house.  We meet with our cabinet maker (a wonderful man in our ward Troy Taylor, definitely my new favorite person) and he gave us a little timeline and we realized that we needed to get our bums rolling if we were going to be done in time for the base cabinets to be installed.  In the last 3 days we have gone from a little bit of demolition to complete demolition of our kitchen. It is finally taking shape THANK GOODNESS! There are few things in life I wouldn't wish on anyone one; my pregnancies two; a kitchen remodel.  With Chet's work schedule being that he can't really do anything on the days that he is working, it pushed us to move.  When all is sad and done I will post pictures as of right now I can't even think straight because it is all consuming.  I didn't even realize I had almost missed 3 I'm thankful days so heres a recap.

Thurs- I am so very thankful for Owen. Owen is growing so much each day with Preschool.  I can't believe how much of a helper he is becoming where it finally isn't making things worse that he wants to help.  During this whole mess here he has wanted to do so much and when he gets to do something he gets so excited.  Today he even pulled out all his tools so he could help daddy.

Friday- So very thankful to have a bathroom sink. When the remodel took away my dishwasher and kitchen sink a new appreciation came for the lowly bathroom sink.

Saturday-  I am so thankful demolition is over and Chet is back at work for the next 4 days we get a bit of relaxation!  I love my husband so much and I hate that he is gone so much but today when we got to take all of the tools back out to the garage and clean up.  OH! It felt so good to sit down. Although since the last few days have been consumed with the kitchen I get to spend the next 4 days making up on cleaning the rest of the house and laundry.  But now that stuff seems so easy.

Thanks!

I am thankful for croup!  I know that may sound a little funny but last night Taylor was cranky sounded nasty couldn't breathe right so I took her to the doctor today.  His response was well it either croup or she has something stuck in her throat I would like to get an x-ray just to be sure.  My first thought was an x-ray wont be that bad but I forgot the putting her on a table hoping she help still part.  Well, she was mad just to be there so I put on a super fashionable lead apron held Taylor and in between us they put the x-ray board.  This made her even more mad because she couldn't put her arms around me so when that didn't work they brought in this guy who went behind me wrapped his arms around both of us and held her head in place. I'm shocked and amazed we only had to do one.  But the first on turned out and we got to go home.   Little did I know the doctor had a no news is good new policy (not our regular pediatrician).  Finally after 6 hours of waiting they finally called and said everything was clear! Thank goodness it was 'only' croup.

In honor of Thanksgiving

I'm trying to be thankful for those things in my life I can control and get over the things I cannot.

For yesterday I am thankful for a husband that even though he worked all night made sure I took a nap first after being up all night with a sick child.

Today I am thankful for modern medicine.  Turns out that Owen has a double ear infection and that is why he couldn't sleep Sunday night.  After taking him to the doctor and starting an antibiotic he fell asleep without a problem last night at 6:30pm and slept until 8 am!

Just a little MONO-vation

I was going for a little play on words because my story of having mono is not like any other story because its mine.  Weeks ago I started feeling so tired.  I blamed it on not ever getting to sleep through the night EVER! (Thank you Lily Elizabeth). It didn't get better so I blamed it on Chet switching to work straight nights.  That's gotta mess with your sleeping habits right?  Well that didn't go away either and then I got a rash.  Not anything gross I was just speckled red.  My throat was kind of scratchy and then I got REAL itchy.  I went to the doctor and he told me I had an allergic reaction to something and gave me some pills for it and we called it good.  It really wasn't good though because the rash didn't get any better and I still could barely make it through the morning without wanting to take a nap.  By this time I think I am a wimp I just need to go to bed earlier and get on some sort of schedule so I can start getting things done around the house again.

Three days after seeing the doctor the first time and everything isn't better yet I got back to get a better answer.  They draw blood and I test positive for mono.  Chet laughs, I'm shocked and we head home hoping that the 3 weeks to 3 month time frame we where given was going to fare closer to the 3 weeks.  I tried to do as little as humanly possible with 3 kids but well thats laughable.  Thank goodness I lived through 3 weeks of mono without even knowing it.  After another week I was feeling great again.

Once I started feeling good I got on top of the kids rooms, sorted out clothes they had out grown.  Organized closets. Organized the pantry, cleaned the basement carpets and all. All it took was feeling like I was amazingly lazy to become amazingly motivated to get things done.  

Real confusion in real time

Owen is having a blast going to preschool.  He loves Miss Misty and loves having something that he gets to do on his own.  Our only problem is having a conversation about it.  Owen isn't much of a talker at all.  His first day of school when I picked him up this was the conversation . . .

Mom: What did you do at school today?
Owen: It was preschool.
Mom: No, what did you do?
Owen: PRESCHOOL!

So, I gave up that day and we have been trying to get him to open up and talk about whats going on.  This was a conversation we had last Thursday.

Mom: What did you do in school today?
Owen: Colored.
Mom: What else?
Owen: Colored, MOM!
(Yes he has a bit of an attitude when he thinks I'm not listening)
Mom: I understand you colored but what else did you do?
Owen: Oh, a coptune.
Mom: What's a coptune?
Owen: A coptune.
Mom: What do you do with a coptune?
Owen: A COPTUNE MOM!

I gave up.  Talked with his teacher on Tuesday and asked her what a coptune was.  She had no clue.  I thought I would never know.  Until today.  I went mega-shopping without the kids and Owen was helping me get stuff out of the car and all of a sudden he starts screaming 'MOM, YOU GOT ME A SPIDERMAN COPTUNE!' Why yes I did Owen but it's called a 'costume.'

Looking back his teacher did know what he was talking about because she told me how cute Owen was on Thursday when all he wanted to do was wear a Viking helmet and a Batman costume.  

Private not so private . . .

I went private and then I saw that Google had a stats tab.  Once I looked that over I decided the people who came forward admitting to being blog stalkers matched the page views that I was having and so I opened back up again.  The only thing I ask is if you have a link to my blog please remove it.  I would like to know whose looking at my blog not coming from yours to see mine.  

My Tough Preschooler

I can't believe I have my first kid in school.  When we first had him oh so long ago it seemed like light years would pass by before I actually got my half day mom break.  I also assumed back then that I would probably have only one more kid at home thinking about the third but well as we learned in church today Heavenly Fathers timeline and our timeline don't always match up but in the end we will find happiness.  

This Little Chunk Monker is now . . . 

My tough guy getting ready for his first day.  This was the first picture we took.  I don't know why he's all GRRR . . . but isn't he cute.  

OK much better.  This actually shows some of his excitement for the whole thing. 

Lily wanted in on the picture action.  Aren't they adorable. 

A few more birthdays

We had this up for a bit (Artistic styling by Owen and Lily)

To celebrate this handsome devil turning 28!!!

But it didn't last long because someone turned . . . 

Aren't they so cute.  They have gotten a lot of practice at the Happy Birthday song this last week.  For daddy's birthday we got him some new fishing stuff and celebrated with his favorite foods for dinner.  And well since I do the blog and its my birthday I have to show off what we replaced the banner and the dinky clock with . . . 

Isn't it fabulous.  It's 24 inches, so its huge, you can see it in the living room, kitchen and down the hall. Which I LOVE.  I hate not knowing what time it is and now, problem solved.    

Daddy got doughnuts for my birthday breakfast because I said all I want for my birthday is a day off.  And since daddy didn't have the day off he bought breakfast (we so didn't need anymore cake) and took us out to dinner.  After dinner Owen asked whose birthday is it next?  It's Lily's in February thank goodness we get a birthday break.  Although now that birthdays are over I have to start planning for Christmas!!!! 

Friday the 13th . . .

A year ago on the 12th I was sitting in the doctors office annoying the nice man by saying this baby is coming and I'd rather it be on my anniversary then have her have Friday the 13th birthdays.  Low and behold he had other plans and didn't break my water until 8 am on the 13th and I had her moments later.  

She was so prim and proper with the cake at first.  1 little finger touched the frosting and she put it in her mouth. Once she tasted it, it was all over for that giant cupcake.  

We did a combo Party with Taylor's cousin Jace whose birthday is on the 16th and he had a pinata.

Watch out!

Five years ago today. . .

I was doing this . . . 

and celebrating with all these wonderful people . . . 

Thanks to all those who were there for our beginning.  We have had 5 wonderful years filled with so much happiness that the hard times (pregnancies) have been washed away.  Our family has grown from a terrific two to a fabulous five.  We have lived in Portland, Idaho Falls and Shelley where we have found a home.  We have been truly blessed from the beginning.  I can hardly believe it was five years ago that I met a wonderful man and he became mine for time and all eternity.   I can't wait to see how much we grow and develop over the next five.  Stay tuned to find out :) 

Straight up CRAZY! (Family Reunion Part 4)

Lily is the first niece in a LONG time in the Porter family and the fact that she knows and loves her hair products made her a perfect doll for the older girls.  

It took them about an hour but they straightened Lily's hair.  She was not impressed that I HAD to get a picture.

  

Thankfully I got a much better one before she jumped into the big pool and her hair went curly again. 

Review of Campfire Marshmallows (Family Reunion Part 3)

Campfire Marshmallow (as modeled above by Coleton and Owen) are about 4 times bigger than your average mallow.

As with any food you must pray before consumption.  

 

Fluffy Bunny becomes a game where you see if someone can fit 1 marshmallow in their mouth. 

But MMMM. . . are they good! 

They make excellent goggly eyes even if it doesn't create a reaction from the crowd.  

Overall I think we had much more fun playing with the mallows then eating them.  As a toy good fun, for S'mores pretty junky.  They don't melt right and it far to much mallow to create the perfect chocolate-graham-mallow ratio.  Sadly even the kids complained of this fact.  

It was a BIG fish (Family Reunion Part 2)

Owen caught his first fish at the lake during the family reunion! He did it all on his own with his very own Batman fishing pole.  

He was out fishing with Chet and he usually has Chet cast it out and then he immediately reels it back in.  Well it had been a while since Chet had cast it for him so he went to check and Owen's trying to reel it in but it wasn't moving. Chet thought it was caught in the weeds so he wiggled it and shook it around and realized that Owen had caught a fish.  I was walking by when Chet figured out that he had a fish so I ran and got the camera in time to document him reeling in his first whooper!   

Porter Family Reunion (Part One)

We have given up on telling our kids in advance that we are going to grandma and grandpas house because it becomes a nut house just trying to get ready after we have mentioned it.  Leaving for the Porter Family Reunion this year was no different, within moments of telling Owen we were going to Grandpas house I walked into his room to find this . . .  

He was packed and ready to go.  Upon further inspection of the suitcase we found that he only packed PJ's and underwear.  Hey it works that would have gotten him very far.

Day One of the reunion we went to the lake.  My water babies were in heaven.  It amazes me how much entertainment my children can get from water. 

 

Taylor however stayed on shore and for the amount of time she spent in the pack "n" play she did great. 

 

Day Two we stayed at Cliff and Nancy's house and they had enough play equipment to keep us busy all day long.

 

The kids jumped for a while.

 

Posed for kissy face pictures.

 

And played in the water (some more). 

It was great fun while it lasted.  I can't wait till next year when Taylor is going to be running around with all the kids.  

Happy 4th!!!

She is so stinking cute but this is what happened when I put her bow in and wanted to take a picture.

10 months already

I cannot believe my little baby is 10 months old.  This time last year we were thrown for a loop and who knew what was going to happen next.  This little sweetheart that caused so many problems before she was born has turned into just the sweetest little angel we could have ever had.  

Isn't that just the cutest little fishy face.  She is teething right now and she chews on everything including her cheeks and lips.  Makes you just want to kiss her.