birthday shout out

today is my sister-in-law, jennie's birthday! jennie is one amazing woman. she is: a wife, the mother of 6 kids, watches other people's kids on a daily basis, always has a clean house, cooks dinner for her family daily, volunteers at her kids school, does craft projects, has 6 quiet entertained kids at church, has a calling in her ward, lets her husband have like 10 pet snakes in their basement... and... always has a positive attitude (really- never complains!). the rest of us in the family wonder HOW SHE DOES IT? please share your secrets. i know that i feel blessed to have jennie as my fun sister-in-law.... as an example of a great mom... a friend... and the reason for 6 GREAT KIDS that porter adores. he knows ALL your kids by their names. i hope your day is great-- we love you!

video

thanksgiving point

friday i took porter to thanksgiving point, where we checked out the farm, the discovery garden for kids, and the gardens. porter said "hi" to each individual animal- i heard some chuckles when someone heard "hi chicken", "hi horsey". but what he enjoyed most was the discovery garden for kids. it began with a water area that kids are SUPPOSED to get into. he played in the water for quite some time, and then spent the rest of the time running through the rest of the park. he loved making music and sung twinkle twinkle to his tune. we finished off at the gardens which didn't last quite as long since porter was pooped by then. he kept telling me to go home. we were definitely thinking of grandma mickey since this was basically her "backyard". she loves all the flowers at thanksgiving point, so we are "sending" some her way.

sundance + ER

14 hours in the ER
yesterday in the middle of the night, jared woke up with a bad stomach ache. he couldn't get comfortable, and drifted from the bedroom to the couch, and back. in the morning, it still wasn't better. awake, and more aware he quickly was realizing that it wasn't a normal "stomach ache". the sharp pains in his stomach were constantly there, and were at times unbearable. we decided that he needed to go to the doctors office. we took porter to our wonderful neighbor who is always coming to my aid, and started to head to the doctors office. as i started to drive, jared told me to go to the ER instead. he said that he knew something was really wrong. we arrived at the ER around 9:30am, and they thankfully got him right in. the doctor quickly diagnosed what he thought was the problem- appendicitis. a blood test, and CT scan would later confirm the diagnosis. some morphine was given and for the 1st time, he started talking and was coherent. i learned then that talking had been painful, so that was why things were slurred and incoherent. the meds made him drowsy and he slept away most of the afternoon, until they wheeled him away at 5:30pm to prepare for surgery to have his appendix removed. surgery went well, and after some recovery we finally were able to take him home after 10pm. a big thanks to my neighbor terra, and my sister-in-law lisa. because of them, porter had the time of his life. he woke up this morning and asked for austin and mac, and then after breakfast told me "maylee's house". jared has been feeling good today, he claims that they took the pain out of him. other than being sore, and drowsy from medicine, he is doing great- up an walking around, at the computer, acting like himself!

date night at sundance
fast forward 24 hours later, and jared takes me on my much anticipated date night up to the sundance ski resort to see the fantasticks performance. we have never gone to see a play before, and i have to admit it was a bit cheesy, but it was a lot of fun to do something different. i loved being up in the cold mountain air with my husband, one of my bestest friends, and her hubby. all cheesiness aside, i had a great time, and am so grateful that jared did all of that for me, especially right after his big ordeal. this morning i didn't think we were going, and he said "of course we are going". what a trooper.

deals, you're welcome

the following deals = more date nights! if you eat at any of the following restautants, than head over to City Deals where you can purchase $25 gift certificates for $12.50. limit 1 per household. (and just to clarify, chuck-e-cheeses would be better on family night rather than date night. :) )

canyon fun

last night while jared went to the temple, porter and i headed up the provo canyon for some fun. he loves throwing rocks in the river. i love he fact that i live 5 minutes away from the beautiful mountains, and that we can go enjoy a picnic, or a bike ride any evening. last weekend i discovered that they do an outdoor theatre up at the sundance ski resort in the evenings. that is going to be our next date night, i can't wait! it looked like so much fun. here's some snapshots of the handsome fella.

a full house

i quickly learned the past couple days that 6 kids are a lot different than 1. in many ways it was a lot easier. they all played together, and everyone was entertained with only a little encouragement from us. in other ways it was more difficult- leaving the house had me counting non-stop to make sure that all where in view. and two cars were required to get from point a to point b. but overall i would sum it up as "a ton of fun!" these nieces and nephews of mine are pretty dang special, and they are nothing short of being "thrilled" to have a new baby brother. little jacob is just precious, we can't wait to get to know his little personality. porter loved having his cousins around, i wish we could just adopt a few of them.

back in the day...

i saw this cute little picture of us, and thought "oh how sweet and innocent we were" ...... and then i came across the 2nd picture and thought "uh, yeah that's more like it" i guess the sass started soon in our family...

swimming with the friends

today we had one of my best friends and her kiddies come over to play. we set up a pool and a slip-n-slide in the backyard and let the kids cool off. the three boys were all about the same size and they were cute together. then we took the kids to mc-d's for lunch and more play time. i wish they lived just a little bit closer, but i am glad we are close enough to get together like this on occasion. summer time, please don't end...

big boy painting

my little boy is getting so big, and is becoming so independent. i was amazed today when i took him to lunch and pulled a high chair up to our table. he CLIMBED into the high chair, turned around and sat down in it all by himself. it is fun to see, but hard also... hard to see him growing up, and hard to LET him grow up... i feel like my heart rate speeds up so easily these days from being nervous.
the other day i let porter do some finger painting. he was having a blast until he looked at his hands and realized he was "dirty". after that he wanted nothing more than to clean up.

the newest couple missionary made it safe...

things have winded down a little bit since my last entry. jared's parents, mickey and steve, left on the 31st of july and have arrived safely in honolulu, hawaii to serve their 23 month mission. we all got together for a big family dinner to see them off. it is strange to think that when they come back my little porter will be nearly four years old... robby and jennie will have baby #6... all the kids will be older, including savannah who will be in young womens by then! it is just crazy. but i am glad that they will have this experience, i am sure it will be one of the main highlights of their lives! i have to admit we are thoroughly enjoying being pressured into coming to visit, and have every intention of doing so. :) aloha!

gearing up for potty training

i have gotten really pumped up about potty training, even if it doesn't work the 1st time around. i bought the little potty, some big boy underwear, and am reading a potty training book. i haven't put the batteries in the potty yet (oh yeah! it has ALL the bells and whistles!) but i did put it out for porter to "explore". he is now comfortable lifting the lid, sitting down, taking some tp, wiping his bum (well more like his hip), and putting it in the potty, closing the lid, and flushing. the book i am reading is all about a huge potty party that lasts all day, and is supposed to have them trained by the end of the day. sounds great, right? i'm not getting my hopes up. so there is a lot of "preparation" for all the activities and cool drinks they have planned for the potty party. i need to gear up for the "BIG DAY". oh, and i think i am pretty clever, but i have lovingly named the little potty, "Porter Potty"! :) he even tried on his new big boy undies the other night, he wore them for about an hour and had no accidents but then we put his diaper on since he was going to bed.