Have yourself a MERRY little Christmas!

Merry CHRISTmas Everyone!

Here are just a few funny pictures of Porter & Santa at our ward Christmas party!

(Who are you, get me outta here!)

Birthday PARTY!!

Opening presents! Porter didn't really care about opening presents, witch I totally expected. His friend Madelyn had fun helping him. Once they were open he had a lot of fun playing with them. Jason wanted to rush through and open all the presents at once, but I wanted to make it last so we would open a present, play, and then open the next. I don't know who had more fun with the blocks Jason or Porter?

On to the cake........... that one didn't go as I thought it would. First of all let me say that Porter is just getting over a cold, so all he has wanted to eat the last week or so, is really bland food. He didn't want anything to do with his spaghetti dinner (witch I usually can't scoop into his mouth fast enough!) So when it came time to do the cake he freaked out as soon as we put the cake on his tray as you will see in these pictures. First is the picture of him freaking out (if Porter doesn't want something he will stick his hands straight out in font of whatever it is.) Second, we gave him a taste and that was okay. Third, he freaks out AGAIN. So at last while everyone else is enjoying cupcakes and ice cream, Porter enjoys some teddy grahams. SILLY BOY! But I do have to say he is feeling better and last night he did enjoy a cupcake after his dinner.

Happy 1st BIRTHDAY Baby Boy!

Oh Porter, you are so BIG I can't stand it. Happy Birthday little man. You have made your Mom and Dad happier than you will ever know. This past year has been the best. I love to watch you grow and to watch your silly little personality!! Thanks for letting me be your mom. Love you!

December 2006

December 2007

You will have to stay tuned for some fun present and birthday cake pictures to come!

Christmas and Birthdays!

Christmas List...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? On Christmas, wrapping paper all the way.

2. REAL OR FAKE TREE? Both please.

3. When do you put up the tree? The day after Thanksgiving. I can't wait.

4. When do you take the tree down? Ideally, the day after Christmas.

5. Do you like eggnog? That stuff is NASTY, but if you do like it my Mom and Brother like to mix in some Sprite.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? American Girl doll (or was that my B-day.)

7. Do you have a nativity scene? I love my Willow tree nativity, we also have the Little People nativity that sings Away in a manger (love it too!)

8. Hardest person to buy for? My Mom, there is no way to suprise her!

9. Easiest person to buy for? Porter Jones.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever got? No such thing.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? I love getting cards in the mail

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas, Elf, and The Grinch(cartoon version)

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever, I buy the bulk of it the day after Thanksgiving.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Christmas Wreaths, they are silly but my family loves them. They are just rice crispy treats with corn flakes, green food color, and red hots. YUMMY!

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear, I think the colored ones are tacky.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Amy Grant's Breath of Heaven, and all the Christmas Hymns.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Where ever family is. This year we get to go home to Utah!!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? DUH, yes!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? STAR!!

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? There are a few traditions we open on Christmas Eve (pajamas) but I say Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Driving on the snow covered roads.

23. What I love most about Christmas? Being with family, and all the yummy food.

This is just a shout out to our little friend...

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY KAITLYN!!!

We LOVE you!

P.S. Sorry Porter looks constipated and cross eyed, but it is the only picture I could find. Kaitlyn looks cute though!!

Apartment? Hotel?

I'm not sure what we live in. By the look of these pictures you would think it was a hotel. I have never seen apartments like this until we started looking at law schools. We saw some really gross ones in Denver that stunk really bad. And I told myself then that we would never live in one like this. Never say never!! Most of the time it is not so bad, but there are days where you can smell (in the hallway) what everyone is making for dinner. And for some reason, on those rare occasions you can smell it in our bathroom. Our bathroom wall is up against the hallway and somehow it eeks in GROSS! Anyway these are just some cute pictures of Jason and Porter Man outside our door!

P.S. Jason just read this and said it sounds like I don't like our apartment. I LOVE our apartment it's the hotel I really don't care for. Once you walk in our door it feels like home and it smells GOOD too!

COCOMOTION CHRISTMAS!

Thanks to our good friends Erin and Brian we have the best Hot Chocolate machine EVER! It makes the frothiest, yummiest hot chocolate. Plus it does all the work for you, you put in the ingredients and it will heat and mix it all for you! I swear we use the thing at least 4 nights a week. I know lots of people like marshmallow's in their hot chocolate but as for me I love to stir in a peppermint stick!

And here is our Dollartree Christmas. Since we are in Law School and have no money, I went to the dollar store and found what I think are some awesome finds to make our home all warm and full of the Christmas spirit. This first picture I got the idea from a Pottery Barn catalogue.

You may not be able to tell by this picture what book is set up on my table. But I have to tell anyone who will listen about this book. It is called The Christmas Miracle of Johnathan Toomey It is by far one of my favorite Christmas Books (along with probably most of my family) It is a story about a gruff wood carver who was asked by a mother and her son to carve them a Nativity set. It makes my cry every time. I just love, love, love this story!! And so of course I have to show a picture of my AMAZING Nativity that I am so blessed to have. I just love Nativity sets and would love to collect as many as possible over the years. But this particular Nativity I thought I would not have for many years to come. But to my overwhelming happiness it is the first one I have ever owned.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

These are a few of my favorite things!

I don't know whether these are Porter's favorites or Mom's favorite things he loves to do. I can not believe how fast he has grown up, in two weeks I will have a one year old. So here you have it some of Porter's daily toys.

I Know that a sippy cup is not a toy but he loves to drink out of his sippy like a big boy. And I love watching him. I also love to watching him put his binki in all by himself. I am also really glad he has mastered the sippy, because on December 16, bottles disappear! (Look at those teeth, 4 in a months time.)

Of course his silly little dollar stacking cups are a big time favorite. At the begining he wouldn't let us even start to stack before wanting to knock it over. But now it is so fun to see how patient he is for it to go up, and the anticipation in his eyes and the growl he makes as the tower goes up.

And then there is our little puppy dog. For Chirstmas this year we got an awesome deal on a really nice suit for Jason. And since he is going to be a Lawyer and all, we thought he should look the part. Anyway... while we were at the store and the tailor was measuring Jason, there was our little man reaching so hard for the lady's ruler. Well who can resist this adorable litte guy, so guess who got his ruler! The funny thing is he likes to put it in his mouth and crawl around making him look like a puppy. (This makes mom a little nervous at times.)

Holy Cow!

HOLY COW, Porter is walking (with the help of his cow.) For about the last week all Porter wants to do is hold our hand and walk around the house. Well the other day we remembered that we bought this silly cow on sale at Walmart for like $7.00. So we got it out and he has not left it alone since. He loves it, the first day he kept running into walls and getting stuck. That didn't last long he has already figured out how to back up and change directions. (Sorry about the bags in this pic. We had a lot of fun spending money we don't have on the BIGGEST shopping day of the year!)



(Okay, so I was worried that in this first picture Porter's eyes were closed, but if you click and inlarge it. I love the smile he has on his face.)

Of course his favorite thing to walk up to is the tree, and hey check out the hair, I cut a good inch off about 2 weeks ago and it is growing like weeds.

(You can actually see in the last picture how short I cut it.)

I feel like it has been a while since the last post but as you can see in this picture. All I get when I pull out the camera is a little boy who does NOT cooperate. And when I do get him to look it turns out like this, can someone say grump!

"Mad" Cow Disease & "Porter" Potty

This is one of Porter's cute little girlfriends Madelyn. Madelyn's parents are our good friends from church. Madelyn's mom and I go walking every morning and hang out ALL the time. Porter and Madelyn play really well togther she is 3 months older than Porter but they are both at about the same stage, however Porter towers over her in size. She is very petite.
If anyone knows Jason they know he likes to make up really silly nick names. So Madelyn's dad calls her "Mad Mad" and Jason has turned that into "Mad Cow Disease" and Brandon in turn has given Porter the name "Porter Potty" but it's all in love.

These pictures are from the other night when we got to babysit Madelyn. She is such a beautiful baby with the most amazing eyelashes you have ever seen and tons of hair.

P.S. Today is Porter's 11 month birthday, I can't believe he will be 1 year in just a month. It is amazing how time flies. It is bitter sweet, I love to see him grow and learn new things but I always wish he could stay small forever. He is such a blessing in our lives and these last 11 months have been the best ever. Love you Porter!

Happy Jason, Mindi and Porter!

Thanks everyone for your concern for Porter. I am pleased to announce that Porter is our happy little sleeper again! I have been told by lots of people that it takes 3 days to break the habit. How true that was for us. The other day after our walk at the mall we had to go and return something to Toys 'R' Us, while I was there I thought I would walk around and check out all the fun Christmas stuff. Well Porter kept moving around in the cart all funky, so I put my hand out to him and this is what happened almost immediately!

Poor Porter :(

Porter used to be the perfect little sleeper. We used to be able to put him down with a big smile on his face. Lately, he has had the hardest time going down at all. Porter is not much of a cuddler, and since about last Thursday the only way he wants to fall asleep is in our arms. We will have him in our arms asleep for a good 15-20 minutes and as soon as we would go and set him down he would be wide awake and crying. To add to it ,once he is finally down at night he wakes up around 2:00 and wants to be cuddled again. Frustrating to say the least, Jason and I have lost quite a bit of sleep. Well since last night we have said forget this (to our defense we tried this at the begining) we were determined to just let him work it out in his crib. Last night was no fun, it took about an hour and a half. - Checking on him every now and then - (so sad) Sticking to our guns has worked though because tonight it only took 30 minutes YEAH!

Now that being said, he pretty much stands in his crib until he can't fight it any longer and falls into this sad little slump.

Bath Time Please!!!

Porter loves the bath! When ever he sees or hears the bathroom door open he B-lines it to the bathroom and stands right up to the tub, wanting to get in so bad.

This is one of Porter's favorite bath toys, it's a cloth like crab and he loves to suck all the water out of it.

Ribbit!

Happy late Halloween! Here is the cutest frog you have ever seen. (I didn't mean to have that rhyme.) For Halloween this year we had our friends Brandon, Mary and Madelyn over for some of mom's delicious chili, and to play games. Here are just a few pictures of Porter playing out on our deck that afternoon.

I think this is a fun picture, since you can't see his face it looks like there is really a little frog sitting there!

Thanks Carli and Tamara! NOT (love you!)

Ok, so I was tagged by both Carli and Tam, so here it goes!
6 things about me...

I. I am in love with little girls clothing and accessories. I don't have a little girl yet, but when I am in a store and I am done looking for Porter, I go and look at all the little girl stuff.

2. I am a horrible speller!

3. I dislike Halloween, I love all of my family traditions and seeing cute litte kids dressed up. Other than that I think the world has made it very evil. I hate anything scary!

4. I love avacados even though I think I might be allergic to them. After I eat them I get a really bad itch in the back of my throat. Watermelon does the same thing, but I love them both too much to stop eating them.

5. I really enjoy doing laundry, It is such a good feeling having empty laundry baskets. And for some silly reason I like doing Porter's laundry the most, I just love folding his itty-bitty clothing.

6. I love watching Jason and Porter play together, Jason is always making Porter laugh. I will try and do exactly what daddy does and never get the same reaction. I love the bond they have and the way Porter lights up when he plays with his dad.

Oh, and anyone reading this, TAG it's your turn!

I'm a BIG boy now

Porter just wanted to show everyone his BIG boy carseat.

P.S. This last picture isn't the greatest, I just love how BLUE his eyes look in this picture!

Porter, Porter Pumpkin Eater!

Porter's first pumpkin! It's too bad he paid more attention to the leaf we gave him to sit still! It is getting harder and harder to make this little man smile for pictures without making a fool of yourself. So you will notice in these pictures he is not smiling at the camara but at Dad behind me making silly faces.