Happy Father's Day!

Despite the dreary weather, we had a wonderful Father's Day!  It started with me waking up to play with Jack at 5 so Tommy could keep sleeping.  However, I can't complain because that meant Jack slept through all of sacrament which is an incredible blessing!  Porter loves any kind of celebration so we have been making decorations for the last week including a tie banner and these cute cards:

Our menu was fabulous if I do say so myself.  It included onion and blue cheese stuffed burgers with sauteed mushrooms.  Delish!  We had a great berry salad with poppy seed dressing, pineapple and corn on the cob since it is my dad's favorite!  And finally the dessert:  Maple Bacon Cupcakes and 2 kinds of homemade icecream: Cinnamon (which btw is AMAZING!!!) and Peanut Butter.  As you can imagine we all probably gained 5 pounds just today, but sometimes the splurge is worth it.  Tomorrow feels like a detox is coming on!

I feel so blessed to have such an amazing father in my life.  I have always been a daddy's girl so my father holds a very special place in my heart.  We have a unique bond and look out for each other.  I try to keep him in line with his diabetes and he gives me advice about almost everything.  He has always played an important role in my life and even in the lives of my friends.  "Papa English" as he is fondly called took the time to learn the names of everyone of my friends and all about their lives and truly looked out for them as a second father.  (I even remember him having to discreetly buy sanitary supplies for one of my friends on Concert Choir Tour when she was in desperate need of them, and that is saying a lot!!) He is great with kids (which must explain why at least 15 years of his church life have been spent in Primary and another 10 spent in Young Men's) and it has been great to see what a great grandpa he is.  My boys love him to pieces and I would venture to guess that Papa is Porter's best friend.  It has been really hard to see my dad have to close his business, but the silver lining for me is that I got to have my dad back.  For the past couple of years he was working so hard he could barely pay attention to anything else.  And now he has time to talk and go on walks and enjoy life with me and my boys.  I love my dad.  He is a great example to me of hard work and determination.  He taught me how to save money and budget things.  He shares my love for lists and organization and order.  (although we both obviously must do it wrong or else we wouldn't have to keep organizing again and again)  My dad has a positive outlook on life, despite the many trials he has faced and his testimony doesn't seem to waver.  I love my dad and feel blessed to be raised by such a great man.

And in honor of Father's Day I cannot forget to express my gratitude to Tommy.  He is an INCREDIBLE Father!  If I had to choose one word to describe Tom it would be patient.  He has exceptional patience and with kids like ours that is hard to come by.  He will drop anything to play with his boys and they love him for it.  He plays legos and superheros for hours on end, takes Porter to the hardware store with him every chance they get, and in case you didn't know, Tom is an awesome story teller.  I use to think that my boys seemed to prefer Tom over me because he was more of the novelty as he was gone so much of the time.  Since he has been out of work I have realized that is not the reason.  They still prefer him over me!  I feel blessed to have a worthy priesthood holder be the head of our family and am so grateful for the influence and example Tom is setting for our children in all aspects of his life.  He is a hard worker and has a positive outlook on life.  He never says no to helping people, even though sometimes I wish he would!  He fulfills his calling and is ready to substitute for any one at church, even when he realizes after he said yes that it was the chastity lesson or when he had to speak in sacrament and sub Gospel Doctrine in the same day!  His example, I'm sure, will help set a precedent with his children of the importance of service help influence their testimoney.  I feel blessed to have such an incredible man raising our children and couldn't ask for anyone better! 

Lake Powell, Captain America and Praise to the Man

Well, we survived Lake Powell!  I was hesitant to leave Jack with anyone considering his sleep habits and craziness, but if anyone could do it I knew my Aunt Jenny could and would!  She said he did quite well, he is completely crazy and must have a death-wish the way he climbs things, and had some rough nights.   But he obviously loved it.  I mean, who wouldn't love being an 8 year olds personal Baby Alive?  To be doted on and entertained by 5 kids isn't such a bad deal.  When we went to pick him up, he would have chosen to stay with my Uncle John had I let him.

As for us, you may wonder why we would possibly go to Lake Powell when we don't have a job?  Well, the truth is, my parents have awesome friends!  The Redd's let us stay on their house boat and fed us who can pass up a trip like that?  Porter was in heaven as well.  With 16 adults who take turns entertaining him, who wouldn't?  The day we got down there Haven Redd (age 8) promptly asked me where Porter was in his dinosaur learning.  Hmm, um well, he's not.  She then informed me that she quite conveniently had the Dinosaur Encyclopedia with her so she could further his dinosaur education.  And that she did.  She would sit across from Porter on a stool with her legs basically trapping him in and read to him verbatim out of the Encyclopedia!  He would start to show a painful look of boredom on his face after a few sentences and then would start singing, "Praise to the Man" (more on that later).  But still he would sit.  It cracked me up to watch, but every once and a while I would need to intervene to save him.  His favorite activity?  Paddle Boating to find pirate treasure in what he named "Masagna Cove".  Some change buried in a plastic cup made the perfect treasure!  Oh how I love his sense of adventure and awesome imagination!

The water was FREEZING in Powell, which is to be expected at this time of year, but the weather was a welcome 80 plus degrees during the day and I ate it up!  The first few nights were beautiful down there sleeping on top of the house boat, the perfect temperature to sleep under the stars.  However, Saturday night was MISERABLE!  I have never seen a wind storm down in Powell like that.  Alan sat up all night being sure that our anchors were secure to the rocks, the boys got up more than once to re-tie the ski boat to the houseboat, pillows were flying, sand was blowing, everyone was fighting to sleep, and Porter, he was fast asleep and had no idea!  We are taking 30 mph winds people!  It shouldn't surprise me when the child can sleep just about anywhere.  Case in point:

However, even Jack has managed to fall asleep in quite odd places.  I guess that is what you get for not sleeping at night and being crazy during the day!  He has done this on a few occasions where he will be crying as he pathetically crawls across the floor (yes he can walk) and all of a sudden, mid cry, he basically passes out.  Is that normal?

Well, back to Powell, it was fun and a welcome break, and nice to not have to face the reality that is mine for now.  And as you can see, we totally slacked and didn't take one picture.  Remind me why Tommy has such an awesome camera again?  

No news on the job front for Tommy and me being crazy busy with work, Relief Society, and mommy.  The one upside to Tom being home?  He makes awesome pancakes and waffles and feeds the boys every morning.

And now let me introduce you to Captain America, whom we refer to as Cap and who Porter will inform you is really Steve Rogers.  This boy loves his comic book heroes!  Unfortunately his mommy is not allowing her 3 year old to see all the new movies coming out that he is dying to see:  Thor, Captain America, X-Men, no matter how many stickers he earns on his chart.

  Thank you Justin for getting him hooked!

As for "Praise to the Man"?  Porter is learning that song in Primary and has taken it upon himself to learn the entire thing.  A few nights ago Porter asked Tom to tell him the story of "King Shalleck".  Tom was so confused until Porter further explained that King Shalleck killed Joseph Smith.  WHAT?  To make a long story short, Porter was referring to this song, "Praise to the Man" and King Shalleck isn't a King at all, but rather the phrase, "kings shall extol him and nations revere."  As for killing Joseph Smith, well, we have now corrected that.  We sit for hours on end watching youtube videos of the Tab Choir singing it as Porter mouths the words and he is now obsessed with the "Hero Prophet" Joseph Smith and wants to know all about him.  How cute is he?