New Years Plans!

I didn't want to call this post resolutions because that only means to say intentions.  Yeah you can intend to do a lot of things but that doesn't mean it's going to happen.  So, here are my plans because I really want to implement these things into my life.

1. Couponing:  I have been putting this off because I have to take 3 kids to the grocery store and its hard to concentrate when you have to do that so I try to be as devoted to getting out of the store as quickly as humanly possible.  Now that Taylor is almost 18 months old and Owen is in preschool I think I can try it.  Or I'm just going to leave my sleep deprived husband with 3 blood thirsty kids so we can save some money.

2. Cleaning:  It's not like we live in a pig sty.  Give us a few minutes and we can have the house clean any given day, but I want to be able to not freak out when people show up unexpectedly.  So that's the cleaning goal that dusting, windows, and the laundry room floor make it into the normal cleaning rotation.

3. Projects:  We have big plans for our house this next year.  I know we always have big plans but this year I swear the bathroom downstairs is getting finished.  The second I get our tax return we will be calling our favorite family plumber with our list of parts to get the party started by hopefully the beginning of February!

Here's to 2011 where we will have a 5, 3 and 2 year old be married 6 years with a son in Kindergarten! Oh goodness.

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.