My Husband is Awesome!

So my husband is pretty much awesome. I wish I had pictures of the awesome shelves he made or the amazing dinner we just enjoyed that he prepared, but instead I guess I'll just tell you all. He is awesome! He can pull 6 miles out without exercising for a month, build anything (if only he had the time), survive on minimum sleep and wake up at the crack of dawn to go to work and then school and not get home until 10 at night and still have the patience to take care of Porter when he wanders in at 3 am. He is an awesome cook and loves doing it. Who doesn't love a man who can cook? He can figure anything out and loves to research everything. And despite how busy he is, he always manages to be the on-hand handy man to help anybody solve any problem they have. Ok, enough of that, here are a few catching up pictures:

Here is my little boy exhausted after a week of potty training (yes he sure did have an accident at Nanny's this day, as soon as I heard the door to the playroom slam I knew it was over as that is usually his choice of pooping places) In the words of Candace Flynn (if you don't know how that is, don't worry about it): "Sick of it! Totally sick of it. Sick! of! It!" We still have not mastered this aspect of potty training so basically I have to deal with dirty pants every other day! Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated!

We've been making lots of Halloween treats lately. As you can see from the pictures above (this photo is taken when I came down stairs looking for Porter after a shower) Porter loves frosting as he bites or licks the tops of the cupcakes off and puts them back.

In other news, we did in fact survive last weekend which unfortunately was the weekend everything was going on. We did the homeshow for Mr. Sandless starting Friday. Tom and I took the Friday evening shift ending at 10pm. I went the next morning with Trent until 1 while my mom watched the kids because Tom was helping his dad with a special project, after which I ran home to get to a baby shower for my visiting teaching partner. We then had to be at the Stake at 4 with a pot of chili and rolls to set up for The Stake Activity that I was partly in charge of. It went over fairly well. At the last second I had to enlist Trent to be the entertainment as everyone else bombed. Luckily I have a talented brother who can perform on the fly! The night was a pretty huge success with the exception of the Sumo Wrestling injury (the activity I was in charge of) as one of the Sumo Wrestlers fell out of the ring and landed on a little girl who now may have a broken arm. Of course there were the old ladies who then proceeded to criticize whoever it was that set it up there and why they weren't more careful (they being me!) We then had to clean up from the Home Show and by Sunday evening we were exhausted! So glad its over!

Being a Mom is Exhausting!

By the end of the day I feel like I have run a marathon. I give props to all you mom's of more than two children because mine are exhausting. Between potty training, Shabby Apple, preschool, gymboree, Mr. Sandless, the big stake activity this weekend, and the everyday mom stuff, and trying to fit in mom time, I feel like there are not enough hours in the day. At least children provide some comic relief! Porter is a chatter box that never quits, even in his sleep! Yesterday he rudely pointed to the woman passing by us in the aisle and said, "you stinking cod fish!" It was all I could do not to laugh, but don't worry, I did inform him that this was inappropriate. And today while at Walmart, he insisted on talking to the checker. Here's how the conversation went: "Hey lady, I watched Sleeping Beauty today. And do you know the name of the evil mean witch lady? Her name is Maleficent. And do you know what she does? She says, 'touch the spindle touch it I say' and Sleeping Beauty pricks her finger on the spinning wheel and dies! And then she turns into a scary dragon. Did you know that lady?" The checker just looked at him blankly, obviously not understanding a word he said.
The kid seriously cracks me up, although sometimes I wish we could just have quiet time for like 30 seconds. We're happy to report we have almost completely crossed the potty training hurdle. He has only had two accidents in the last almost 2 weeks, however, both of those were number two because he adamantly refuses to go in the toilet! Any thoughts from you experienced mothers out there? He has also picked up the horrible habit of coming into our room every night and wanting to sleep with us. The other night I rolled over to find Porter between us. I asked Tom when he brought Porter into our bed and he informed me that he didn't. Porter had climbed into our bed and nestled in between us and slept there for I don't know how long.
Jack, on the other hand, has given me little grief the last little bit except for the spitting up. I love that little chunker!
Pictures will eventually make it back on to this blog, I just haven't completely recovered my Mac yet so my iphoto isn't up to date.

6 MONTHS

So I have definitely neglected the photo department lately, but I will make up for it next week when Jack will have his 6 month photo shoot which I am totally excited for. Tomorrow I'll add some pictures. But Jackson is officially 6 months old and here are his stats:
20.5 lbs. (92%)
28.75" (99%)
and Head: 18.6" (folks, that is over the 100%!)

He is a crazy ball of energy and would love nothing more that to be standing upright and bouncing. He is a pro at rolling over and can scoot backwards quite well. When he tries to crawl forward he ends up swimming by kicking his legs and smacking his hands against the floor. He is still a MAJOR puker so he is not getting better with age. He loves to bounce in the johnny jumper which usually results in a lot of projectile puke. He has started on baby food but doesn't care much for it and after about half a jar he is done. He is in love with Porter and thinks everything he does is hilarious. He is such a giggler but still is totally bi-polar to the extreme. His little laugh is my favorite thing. He has sprouted two bottom front teeth and is apparently working on the next set. He loves his walker and could play in it for hours. His all time favorite thing in the entire world is PAPER. Yes, he loves how it looks, sounds, and would love to taste it as well. We love our little butterball and cannot believe it has already been 6 months. As for the statistics above, I now have to go buy a completely new wardrobe because instead of being 3 months off season of Porter, he is more like 6 months different. The child is wearing 12-18 month clothes now!

On the Porter Potty Training front: 3 days, no accidents, and finally after a bit of worry, a movement. We are quite happy on this front. Although, this child has most definitely inherited my childhood temper tantrums and after reading a few child rearing books, I am still at a loss of how to handle it. Unfortunately for me, the tantrum is usually directed at me and always at least once during the tantrum he informs me that he doesn't like me and wants me to go away. It's been tough to develop a thicker skin and not take it so personally because 10 minutes later he will be telling me how much he loves me but I do have to admit it has made me cry a time or two. How my mom handled this and how I survived childhood are still a mystery to me.

The Mac Died

Well, for all you mac users, just in case you were wondering, when your computer screen goes blank and then the screen flashes with a folder with a question mark in it, that basically means your hard drive is shot! Lucky for me I had just recently transferred all my photos to my external hard drive. Unlucky for me, I had spent a few hours photoshopping some pictures for work and spent hours on a letter to Porter that I have been writing him about his life, both gone! Hopefully they can possibly be recovered but so far Trent has had no luck. Oh yeah, another lucky for me, Trent is a Mac genius! So luckily the mac itself will still be of use to me. He happened to have an extra mac hard drive lying around (who has that?) and has installed it into my computer and reinstalled everything (even a pirated copy of photoshop as I no longer have my discs, yikes!). And all it cost me? A pizza! I guess I must jinx things like when I dreamt that Tom would loose his job. I was just saying that my mac was probably going to die soon and that there was no way I would be able to replace it. And of course, the next week it was gone! Sad day, but at least there is an upside, right?

On a different note, Porter has successfully completed day one of Operation Potty Training with a 5 for 5 record and no accidents! We even went to the grocery store and visited my mom's house. He is now in bed so here we go!!

Catching Up Again

Our "Rocket Ship"

Hanging Out with Josh and McKay

Pony Rides at Thanksgiving Point (yes as a pirate)

HAPPY BABY

As a side note, let me just tell you what a bad morning sounds like. The boys both had horrible nights last night as Porter has developed this new awful habit of wandering into our room at all hours of the night because he wants his daddy and he knows he doesn't get very much time with him. So already I was out of sorts from 3 nights of this. I then proceeded to take the garbage out. I have had to start locking the kids in the house so that Porter doesn't wander after me. Well as luck would have it the keys in my hand snagged on to the garbage bag as I threw it in the dumpster. Yes, I indeed had to jump into the dumpster (freshley showered and dressed) to get them out. I then proceeded to take the kids to the dog park so Miko could run around. Well, lucky us, the black dog was there that inappropriately mounts dogs so we didn't get to go in. We came home to the next door neighbors having their carpets cleaned which for some reason the company sounds like a jack hammer which continued for some time! (they were here last night too! For the love!) But we survived the morning and now the kids are napping on my bed next to me while I award myself with a quick break from working. So never mind the morning, its been a good day!

Lessons

I hate being humbled by your children. Last week I took Porter to the park. He is in this pirate phase right now and insists that he wear his pirate hat, patch, and belt everywhere and he runs around screaming argh! When we pulled up to the park, I recommended that he take his hat off because it is kind of weird. He said to me quite matter of factly, "It's ok to be weird mommy. It's not a big deal!"

Last week we were at my mom's house and she was watching my brother's dog for him. He was being quite overbearing and needy (he is a golden) and so she finally let him out to run around. He never leaves the yard. About an hour later she realized we hadn't let Dodger back in. We called for him and looked all around the yard but there was no trace whatsoever. She jumped in her car to go look for him while Porter and I stood at the window on the look out. I asked Porter if he remembered what his books told him about losing things. He told me we should pray about it. We said a prayer and immediately looked up to see Dodger bounding up the stairs towards us. (thank you for the perfect teaching moment for a 2 year old that needs immediate results!) I tried to call my mom to tell her but she wasn't answering her phone. Porter proceeded to inform me that we needed to pray to find "mana" and immediately said a prayer, "Heavenly Father, please find mana and bless her to get home safe and be ok; name of Jesus Christ amen." I love that little boy!

Our Summer

Since I have been severely slacking in the blogging, bare with me as I present a chronicle of our summer. We have been beyond busy with family, friends, work and activities, so here goes nothing!

The LeBaron Cabin

June-Tommy's Ragnar Race

Tommy and Porter at the Finish Line

July 3rd- The Oakley Rodeo with Carrie, Joseph, the kidlets, Bobby and the Smiths.
July 24th: Hiking Dog Lake and the Rocket ShipDog Lake

Porter's Buzz Lightyear Rocket Ship
"Pat Pat Pat, 1-2-3 Blast Off!

August 4th- August 8th-Lake PowellFailed at taking hardly any pictures!

August 10-August 14th San Antonio, Texas

My parents and I took the boys down to my cousin Hayley's wedding. Lucky for us, Texas was having a heat wave. Can I just say I hate humidity which unfortunately limits me to like two states I can live in in the US!The TemplePorter's Dance Partner Jamie-Lynn (his second cousin) Porter had a ball with his second cousins at my Aunt Wendy's House. He cried everytime we had to leave.Rocking Out with Grandma English
(yes they did have glow sticks for the dancing! I didn't let Porter wear a hat and half way through the night he decided he needed a pirate hat made out of a napkin)

Sea WorldHappy Boy Despite the Heat
Feeding the "Dolflins"The Alamo

And finally, this was our kids at the end of Sacrament a few weeks ago. As you can see, we have exhausted ourselves! You wouldn't know that this is a picture of a 2 1/2 year old and a 4 month old!