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!