Happy Birthday Porter

We celebrated Porter's first birthday yesterday at my sisters house. What a grand time! I guess Porter didn't like all the attention; he had a few meltdowns. Happy Birthday baby!

Christmas in the nighttime sky

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we drove to a nearby town to have chili, stand by a bonfire, listen to music and watch fireworks. It's the official kickoff to the Christmas season. There were a lot of people there this year, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We love the Christmas season!
Ben and Porter watching the fireworks... well, at least Ben was. It was past Porter's bedtime and he wasn't too happy to be out in the cold.

"Dancing King"

I was making dinner tonight and had some music playing. When I turned around, Porter was just dancing away so I got a little clip of it. He does this whenever he hears music.

Park in the Fall

Porter's walking! Well, he's up to 4 consecutive steps.

I wish Porter was looking at the camera in this picture. Haha - I forget how small his head is or maybe mine is just really big.

You can see his two bottom teeth pretty good in this one. This morning we found an upper one coming in. That makes three!

I thought Porter looked really old in this one. He's wearing big boy shoes.

Wood for Winter

We recently purchased a wood burning stove to help on heating costs this winter and in an effort to make ourselves more prepared. Ben has gone out the last couple of weekends to get wood. This is what our backyard looks like. Now that it's all here, we just have to cut it up!

Porter likes to help too!

New Tricks

Porter mimics very well and is now clapping and can sound like an Indian. He even attempts to do both at the same time. Believe it or not, he is even taking steps! Our baby will be walking any day now. AH! Porter just got his first two teeth. They came in at the same time. He's changing so much and talks nonstop all day long. We love it all!

Porter at bedtime

Porter and I took a little trip to Montana this past week to visit my parents. He did okay on the trip - he really doesn't like to be locked up for very long. We had a great visit except my dad had injured his shoulder and couldn't really play with Porter. You can see from this video he got some good laughs out of him though. Porter loves his grandparents and even adapted to Kipper (their puppy). Thanks mom and dad for letting us stay with you!

Straw Maze

We went with a couple families to this straw maze and had a blast! There was creepy music, spider webs and chasing... oh my! It was pastPorter's bedtime so he wasn't the happiest, but he was a good sport and fell asleep as soon as he was in the car.

Halloween!

Ben surprised me with a date night a couple weekends ago and we carved these FABULOUS pumpkins. It was really fun! Neither of us had carved pumpkins for many years. They're not very artistic (as neither of us were blessed with those talents), but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.

New McDonald's Commercial

Whenever the new McDonald's commercial is on, Porter will stop whatever he is doing and just stare at the TV. It is hilarious! The song on the commercial is pretty catchy (It's called "Love" by Matt White - I added it to my playlist so it should be playing on this website right now). I think we have a music lover on our hands. My wonderful aunt Kathie, who watches Porter once a week for me, has played the piano for Porter since the beginning. We don't have a piano at our house, but he is VERY aware of what the piano sounds like and will stop to listen whenever he hears the piano in a song. It's very sweet.

Ben's Great Adventure

This past weekend, Ben and his good friend, Derek, had a "man's weekend" full of fishing, 4-wheeling and boating. They had a grand time and luckily escaped the many bear and moose that are in this area. (Ben said to me when he got home "It's probably a good thing you didn't come.") Here are a couple of pictures. I can't believe the leaves have already changed!
THE camping spot. This particular spot was "discovered" and Ben was very excited to camp here.
The mighty hunter in full uniform.

Porter is 9 months!

It's happening! Our little man continues to grow, much to our disappointment (we wish he'd just SLOW DOWN), but what a joy he is. At nine months, Porter is perfect. He weighs 19 lbs 4 oz, which only puts him in the 26th percentile for his weight. Surprise, surprise! Those cheeks are deceiving! The doctor says he is ahead on his motor skills. Porter can successfully pull himself up to anything and walk around. Just recently, he has started to let go and can stand all by himself for about 15 seconds. He is fearless - just like his daddy. He babbles constantly and loves to respond to us now. He seems to understand when we tell him "no" and eventually leaves the situation without any damage done. We'll see how long this lasts! It's no secret... Porter loves his daddy! Not that he doesn't love mama too, but there is definitely a different reaction when Ben appears. It's so sweet to witness. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks. Enjoy!
If Ben and I both happen to be up in the morning, we like to bring Porter into bed to play. He's so happy in the morning. It's a great start to the day.

Porter loves to be taller than everyone else. If you hold him on your hip, he WILL climb up you.
I used the sling a lot while we were camping and Porter didn't seem to mind.
Porter and mama trying to get warm by the fire.
We didn't want to let Porter crawl around outside because he's notorious for finding the smallest of parcels and putting them in his mouth, so I left him in the tent for a bit so he could be free. I checked on him a few minutes later to find him just laying there... then daddy peeked in.

Here's Porter with the Gerber baby (aka Claire, my sister Kellie's little girl). They are less than two months apart. So cute!

Our Yearbook Pictures!

Haha - there's this great website "yearbookyourself.com" where I obtained these lovely photos. Don't we look great?

Pure Tragedy

It finally happened... my wonderful car broke down on our way home from Utah. We had recently paid it off so I new it was only a matter of time. Luckily we were following Ben's parents back to our house so we had some rescue close by. It turns out, there were some belts that needed to be replaced at 100,000 miles and my car was closer to 120,000... oops. Those owner's manuals really know what they're talking about! Scott and Ben worked very hard all day long and fixed it up just like new. What brilliant men! Even Porter got in on the action and jumped to encourage them on.

The work was intense, as you can see.

Day Trip

With Ben's parents and sister in town, we took a little trip south for a few hours to enjoy the summer weather. This is a meteor hole (per the map we were looking at). The picture really doesn't do it justice. This hole was MASSIVE and incredibly steep.
The mighty hunter! Ben's new passion is spear fishing. He made his own launcher that you can see in this picture. As you can imagine, he was very excited to try it out.

I was enjoying myself watching Ben and his dad attempt to get some fish. The scenery was gorgeous and just a tad on the windy side.

Wedding

We spent last weekend in Provo, Utah for the wedding of Ben's younger brother Sam and his new bride, Jess. We had a really good time, despite the heat and trying to take pictures outside directly in the sun. Needless to say, I had a nice burn by the evening.

Porter is a hot body like me and got quite uncomfortable a couple of times so we dipped him in the fountains to cool him off. If only I could have done the same....

The happy couple!
Grandma and Porter at the reception. It was the perfect weather for this outdoor reception in Jess' family backyard. We enjoyed food, music...
...and a bit of dancing!

Porter's Many Faces

Mountain Adventure

A couple Saturdays ago, we went up into the mountains for a hot dog roast. Unfortunately, this particular area is an open range and the cows weren't very willing to share their spot with us. Ben shewed them away when we first arrived, but within minutes they came back. It was a fun little adventure nonetheless.

Crazy Daisies

We completely re-did this flower bed last year. As you can see, everything is THRIVING especially the daisies. They've tripled in size! It's a good thing they're my favorite.

New Baby Sounds

Porter is making the cutest sounds these days. Here's a precious glimpse.

Together again!

On our way home from Utah, we stopped in West Jordan and visited an old friend of mine, Claire, and her sweet family. Here's Porter with Claire's daughter Elle. So cute!

Car Crazy

After a few hours in the car...

Random Pictures

At the Parade

We didn't have a very good view of the parade so again... Porter wasn't too interested. As you can see, he was asleep when we got there.
He still loves to bite his bottom lip. We hope it won't cause any permanent damage!

Hot Air Balloons

At 6:30 am on the 4th of July, we got to see the take off of these hot air balloons. It was so neat! Porter wasn't too interested because they were too far away. Grandpa tried to give him a closer look, but the loud, blowing fire scared him pretty good.