"It"

We have been planning Christmas for months and had worked out all the details so it would be a Christmas to remember (the good kind). Phillip's little brother flew in a week before Christmas and his parents were headed in the day after. We had decided to celebrate on the 29th because that would give us a few days to rest once everyone had arrived. The house was decorated, presents were bought, and good food was ready to be devoured. Perfect right? And then it hit; I don't know what "it" is, but it hit hard...

Porter got sick, really sick. The kind of sick were he wanders around crying and being miserable and making sure he makes everyone else miserable with him. Uncle Andy caught the sickness and if that wasn't bad enough, then the storm came. My in-laws got stuck in Denver because ALL flights into Boston were canceled until the middle of the week :( Yep, Christmas was canceled. And if that wasn't a big enough bummer, Porter just got worse and wanted nothing to do with presents so I didn't even get my happy Christmas pictures. Seriously?!?! I sure hope 2011 starts better than this year is ending...

Stranger Danger

So I like to think that I am a pretty decent mother who knows her child fairly well... I know Porter is not the biggest fan of people, any people. So I anticipated he was not going to be a fan of a big jolly man in a red suit with only his eyes showing. So I began prepping him for Santa before Thanksgiving.

We read books about Santa, we watched movies about Santa, we looked at pictures of Santa, we sang songs about Santa; long story short, Santa has been a BIG part of our lives for the last month. And what do I get for my hard work?

On the positive side when he saw him he yelled "SANTA!" so I know he recognized him...

Why I don't blog more...

 I know "not having enough time" is a pretty bad excuse because let's face it we make time for the things that are important to us, but we have been busy lately with a bit more than usual...

The end of October passed in a blur. We spent a day at the temple getting to see three amazing families from our ward sealed. One family in particular is special to us because we had the opportunity to be at their last sealing in Utah when they adopted their first and now the family is complete! That night we hosted a party for the families and had a great time with friends.

Then Halloween came and that meant the ward Halloween Party which I've heard went great. (I honestly don't remember much I was running around like a chicken with no head.) But I do have this one picture to document the day. Poor Porter was so ornery from the crazy day setting up that I didn't put him in his costume. However, he did eat an amazing amount of cheese puffs and that seemed to make the party worth it for him.
The next day we had the missionaries and a few families over for a Halloween dinner that turned out surprisingly good. (I am not an amazing kind of cook but I got lucky)

 

Just a week later we started planning our Thanksgiving extravaganza. It will be our first away from home so we have to make it big, right? And of course a week after Thanksgiving is the Ward Christmas Party. Don't worry, I learned my lesson from Halloween and will not start planning until a week before :) 

In between all the parties I have worked on a few projects; here are the completed ones: 

 And no post about what we have been up to would be complete without a few pictures of my delicious baby. PS It is nearly impossible to take him seriously in this coat and hat!

Off hold

Well I decided if I waited for everything to go back to "normal" before I posted, I would never post again. So here is the update. Phillip has taken the LSAT and now we anxiously wait for his score. I have a growing passionate hate for law school applications but we are making progress and should be done by the end of the month.

Porter is getting more into the "I'm a big boy" stage which is a blessing and a curse. It is so nice that he listens and understands but he is as stubborn as an ox (or as stubborn as his father). He is learning the actions to songs now because I ran out of signs to teach him. Watching him try and keep up to Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes keeps a smile on my face...

I have been planning our ward Halloween Party since September thinking I'd get ahead of one thing in my life. However, the Universe conspired against me and last week our ward boundaries changed so the plan must be revamped to take into consideration the 17 new families (with 40 new children) we got. Don't get me wrong I am ecstatic about having new families in the ward; I have just decided procrastination has a positive side.

Fall is in full bloom and Porter LOVES to be outside. He loves to dig in the driveway and throw dirt at nothing in particular. I love that boy!  Here are new pictures so you can enjoy what I get to enjoy everyday.

 Phillip took the last few pictures of Porter before we left for family pictures (practice makes perfect I hope). I will post the new family pictures as soon as I get them back. Cross your fingers that one of them turned out!

On hold

Well it is definitely time for an update but I'm afraid a monster called "pink eye" has come to visit our house so I will put an update on hold just like everything else right now...

3 Years of Bliss...

I could say it has been the best 3 years of my life but anyone who knows me already knows I hit the marriage jackpot. So here is a post for my best friend who I tricked into marrying me.

I don't know what our future holds but I do know with Phillip it will be amazing...

Help!

I am out of ideas and in way over my head! I am doing more laundry, bathes, and floor cleaning than is healthy.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves but if I can't fix this soon, I'm going to go nuts...

 So to all you moms out there with way more experience/patience than I have: How the heck do you teach them to feed themselves without losing your mind?!? Or maybe I am just feeding him the wrong things but I swear he can make a mess with AnyTHiNg! 

I didn't think it would be this hard to let him turn into a big boy..

Can't Wait...

It is official. We bought tickets home for over Labor day! I am giddy like a school girl!

June Part 2

The rest of June was spent recovering from our trip and enjoying the beautiful weather (this was before the humidity set in).
Father's Day was wonderful; we had awesome food with awesome friends and I don't think it gets better than that! Phillip is the world's best dad (even if we didn't get a perfect Father's Day picture). The picture thing was my fault. I forgot to get one before church and Porter fell asleep in the car after church so it wasn't until right before bed that I remembered. Of course at the end of the day Porter was exhausted which equals ornery, mean, sad baby. He took 1 good picture and fell apart. So I did what ever good mother would do and stopped taking pictures. O wait, no, no I didn't. I gave him a lollipop and said "smile". I know I have a long way to go...

I remembered my camera on a play ground trip and we finally got Porter to the pool. He hates the sand box and was not digging the pool either. But I was insistent that he love the pool so he wouldn't break his father's heart (Phillip was a big swimmer)  and after about 10 minutes of him trying to get me to pick him up he gave in. When it was time to go I had to drag him out. I finally won a battle with my one year old!! YEA!

June was a great month and July has started off pretty good as well. Hurray for summer!

June Part 1

We celebrated Porter's first birthday on the 1st and it was a bust. Phillip was in Cambridge for work that day and so he didn't get home till 7 (darn Boston traffic!). I kept Porter awake so he could have his moment and cupcake, unfortunately he wanted to go to bed at 5. Looking back I realize I should have given in...

He cried through us singing to him and looked at us like we were lunatics when we said to eat the cupcake. Needless to say dad fed him about 2 bites, I took 5 pictures, and we put the kid out of his misery and let him go to sleep. Good parenting 101 : A one year old does not care about their birthday!

The next day we flew to Utah to watch Audri's kids for 2 weeks while she went to France. It was a trip for sure. Side note: 2 babies is OVERRATED! Any one with twins you are my hero. Seriously.

We had a week in Idaho with my parents (who saved my life, or the kids lives depends on how you look at it) and then my in-laws drove down to visit for the weekend. It was great to see everyone and it reminded me how blessed I am to have such great parents (including my husbands). We went to the park, had picnics, I went on a date a night with each one of the kids, and got to see old friends that I miss horribly.

Porter and Max playing together at Grandmas. Poor Max kept falling in the toy box :)

 At the park with Grandpa and the kids. Clayton made it all the way to the top of a random pole to rind the bell and stayed up there till I had taken his picture. Quin and Jack were so funny on the teeter-totor; Jack is 3 Quin is 7 but it seemed pretty even as they went back and forth. No wonder we call him fat Jack :)

 Aunt Cheri and the cousins came to visit and I can't believe how fast they are all growing! This is Cheri's baby Troy, who is definitely not a baby anymore.
 

Porter had a great time playing with Grandma and Grandpa Wulf and Joseph.

A big thank you to everyone who we got to see! Ben and Karin for helping with kids, Amanda for drinking soda with me, the girls for going to Cafe Rio, and family for making time for us! It was a great trip and my biggest thank you goes to Porter for being SO nice on the planes. He was an angel; so unlike him but I'll take it :)

May

I know I have pushed procrastination to a whole new level when it is almost July and I'm just posting about life in May. I should win some kind of award; I'll look into that soon (so sometime in October).

At the end of May I had a cousin from St. George visit so we finally took some time to visit some of the wonders of New England. A big thank you to our great friends the Becksteads for hitting Boston with us, the amazing Palmers for showing us Cambridge, and of course Shelly for visiting.

On Harvard's campus.                                        

                                                                                                                                                           

   Porter now has a thing for baby pacifiers. Too bad he gave them up at 5 months! 


    In front of the Charles river that separate Boston from Cambridge. Phillip went sailing that day and loved it!

On the water taxi in Boston. Porter was trying to jump overboard the whole time we were on the taxi and while we waited at the dock he watched me and would make a "run" for it if he thought I wasn't looking.

 

Porter's first trip to the ocean! Newport Beach in Rhode Island is beautiful but has freezing water. Porter was not a fan of the 0 degree water and he was ok on the sand until the water would wash it out from under his feet.

It was a great week of good food, friends, and fun. I already feel like I need to do it again...