Christmas Memories

As seems to happen often, December flew by in a flurry.  We decided to visit family in Utah before Christmas this year so we could see Scott's sister and her family who were visiting from California at that time as well.  It was a bit hectic trying to get everything ready to go.  I wanted to leave Thursday after school and go half-way so we'd have more time with family before we had to come back home.  The weather became ominous the day we wanted to leave--luckily I was able to get everything ready and we left shortly after the kids got home from school--just as it started to snow on our route.  We had an hour or so of snow on our path, but we were able to get ahead of it and make it safely all the way to Moab where we spent the night in a hotel.  Hotels are always fun--for one night.

We didn't bring our camera to Utah--one of the things we realized shortly after we left, but with the imposing storm we didn't feel like we could turn around.  Luckily, Kaitlyn and Brynn both got their own camera so hopefully they will help me capture 2011 memories.  Here are some of our Utah highlights:

• Seeing the reindeer and lights at Thanksgiving Point with my family.  For those of you there with us you know the truth--not worth the effort, except still nice to be with the ones you love!  There were two reindeer who stood in the middle of the corral and didn't move.  After buying some food from a little candy machine to feed them Brynn remarked, "That was the biggest waste of a dollar!"  The reindeer were obviously well fed and turned their noses up to our offering.
• Porter family Christmas Eve.  We always draw parts from the Nativity to act out.  We get just a few minutes to run around the house and come up with a costume.  Scott was a sheep, and I loved his creativity.  He draped a Kleenex over each of his ears to mimic sheep ears--it was pretty good.  My mom got a present for each of the grand kids to open.  As much as Scott and I try to teach that it is better to give than get--getting is always so much fun.  When we asked the kids their favorite thing from Grandma Porter's house several of them announced it was opening a present from Grandma.
• Cousins!  Cousins!  Cousins!  Seriously--they are the best!  Whenever we visit family the kids run off together with all the cousins, and they love every minute of it.  We got to meet my sister's newest, Dodge, too.
• Having lunch with my Grandma and Grandpa Porter.
• Sledding with Grandpa Esplin.  Of course, no sledding could take place until Grandpa Esplin had cleared the driveways from snow of just about everyone in Provo with his four wheeler. What a great example of service he is.
• Shepherd's dinner with the Esplin's.  Grandpa wanted to make the experience more genuine, so he cooked up some lamb.  Our bunch wouldn't have made it well as real shepherds with the taste buds we all have.
• Bowling at BYU.  My kids love doing this every time we visit Utah.  This year was especially nice, because it wasn't very crowded.  Jared loved bowling and smoked even the big kids.
• Granny B's tour.  I've been wanting a tour of Granny B's since Jeff bought the company.  It was amazing to watch the production line of all the pink frosted cookies.  And seriously, they are the best tasting too--so go buy some now :)

I love to visit family, and always feel a bit melancholy when we leave.  Some of the kids left teary-eyed as we drove away too.  We feel so blessed to be part of such wonderful families.

Parent/Teacher Conference

Last week I went to parent/teacher conferences for Kaitlyn, Brynn and Jared.  I came home beaming, and feeling so grateful that my kids are doing so well right now.  Each child's teacher spent the time telling me how wonderful they are.

Kaitlyn's teacher says she is extremely responsible, and always on task.  She said she is very strong in math and language arts, but she especially shines in her writing.  Her teacher was impressed with the voice she has in each writing piece.  She was one of the only students to score very high in both math and language arts on their DBA test. 

Brynn's teacher thinks Brynn is so funny.  She said she is also always on task, and a very good leader.  She is able to help others, and can explain things so the other kids can understand.  Brynn's Enrichment teacher said Brynn is the most responsible second grader he's ever taught. 

Jared's teacher thinks he is one of the sweetest boys.  She showed us his journal and the darling pictures he is drawing.  He has improved so much since the start of school!  He is kind to everyone, always attentive and on-task too. 

When I was a teen-ager I remember after showing my report card to my parents my dad would remark something like he was proud of my good grades, but then he'd say he'd love me even if it wasn't filled with straight A's.  One time I asked him why he always asked me that.  He said he didn't want me to think his love was contingent on a perfect report card.  I did (and still do) tend to be a people pleaser, but I had an intrinsic desire to do well.  And really, I don't remember that it was very hard to get good grades. 

My dad proved he meant what he said when after my first summer semester at BYU, I called home crying with a {gulp} 'C' in American Heritage.  (For the record, that was my one and only blemish on my BYU transcript).  My parent's weren't upset, and even offered comfort!  It was great to know that my parents did in deed love me--even though I wasn't perfect.

Now, as a mother, I have the same feelings as my dad.  I sure love to go to conferences and hear that my kids teachers can see how special and neat they are.  And I am proud of their success.  But, I also want them to know that even if they are not perfect (since none of us are), I love them no matter what.

Birthday Boy!

This sweet boy is one—and I don’t know how it happened so quickly! As I prepared for Thanksgiving this year, I couldn’t help but reflect on what I was doing “last year” at this time. The memories are so vivid, that it is hard to believe it was already a year ago. I spent Thanksgiving last year in a hospital with a warm newborn cuddled on me, and a plate of leftovers from the meal my mom prepared for my family. This year, that little baby sat on my lap munching on his own roll while we ate.

We celebrated Nate’s birthday by going swimming together at Scott’s work. He had pumpkin pie for his first birthday cake. Don’t worry—he can have any kind of dessert he wants on his birthday as soon as he has an opinion. For some babies, their first cake or other sweet is given to them on their first birthday. Not so for Nathan. He’s already sampled his fair share of cookies and cake! He loved the pie!


 

  

Some notables on Nate:

• Nathan LOVES to play ball! When he was only seven months old he was watching Scott throw the football to Jared and started bouncing up and down while making baby noises. I told Scott that Nathan wanted a turn, and sure enough when Scott threw the ball to him he grinned from ear to ear. And then he picked it up and threw that ball right back to Scott! He throws and chases footballs and basketballs all over the house.

 • Nathan also loves cars—or anything with wheels. It is so cute to watch him push cars all over the tile floors. I often find him clutching wheels he’s rummaged from Jared’s stash of Legos.

• Nate has never really “crawled.” He gets around with a funny gorilla-type scoot. It’s hard to explain, but we have some good video footage for memory sake.

• Nathan has been taking several steps at a time for the last couple of weeks. He is so proud when he does it and looks around with a huge grin on his face making sure we see how big he is.

• Nate is attached to his blue silky blanket that Grandma Asay made. Every time he sees it he giggles like he hasn’t had it for years.

• He loves to turn off the TV while the kids are watching it. It drives them all crazy, but it’s hard not to laugh at the same time. He pushes the button off, looks around at everyone and starts laughing like he is the funniest thing!

• Nathan has never slept through the night.

• Nate brings such joy to our family. I love how everyone rallies around everything he does. They love every new accomplishment and I often hear one of the other kids exclaim, “Mom, guess what Nate just did!” He loves to play with the big kids, and lately he has taken quite a liking to Kaitlyn. He loves when she takes him outside or lets him play the piano. We love this boy!

Words of Affirmation

I'm a "Words of Affirmation" kind of a person (from The Five Love Languages) so imagine my delight when after telling the girls how Scott and I met, Brynn responded, "Oh yeah, I can totally see why Dad thought Mom was catchy!"  That comment is still keeping me going.  Thanks Brynn!

I Can't Decide!

Scott is mad at me for the family picture I posted on my heading--he is accusing me of choosing it because it is one of the better pictures of me.  Can you believe it--would I do something like that?  I think all the family looks good.  But, I will post some of the other favorite family pictures.  I really wanted family pictures with our New Mexico scenery.  It's hard to get seven people to look good all at once.  I wish I had the awesome talent of my sis-in-law who can photoshop pics to really make them stand out.  Which one do you like?

HALLOWEEEEEN!

 Posted by Kaitlyn and Brynn

Halloween was on Sunday so we handed out candy and did not go Trick- or- Treating.  But we still went to the carnival at our church that is held every year.

Kaitlyn was an angel. She’s so cute with her angel costume that mom got at a garage sale.  She really didn't need to dress up in the costume, because she is an angel everyday.

Brynn was a black cat. Look at the awesome makeup! Our dad did it.  Mom made the tail and the sequins ears.  And since we're talking about it, Brynn made the rest of the costume from things in her drawers.

Jared was a Lego. He won a prize for the best “building block” at the carnival.  Mom made his costume. She used glue gun to write Lego on all the popping out circles.



Look at the AWESOME family!



Ellie was a clown. Unfortunately we didn’t get a good picture of her makeup, because she kept rubbing it off.

Nathan was a pumpkin. Unfortunately his costume got wet and he became a frog. Have you ever seen someone as cute as that?!

Mom was a witch. She had an awesome costume, and some pretty awesome hair, but you can't really tell from the picture.

Dad was just dad. I think?

We also carved pumpkins.  We had four, but for some reason we only have pictures of these two.  Go Cougars!

A Wise Boy

 The kids each have a night they are assigned to help me clean the kitchen after dinner.  Tonight Jared asked whose turn it was.  I told him I didn't have a helper tonight so I'd do it myself.  He sweetly replied that he would help me tonight.  As we did dishes together he asked me if he could get money for helping me.  Before I could respond he quickly said, "Actually, some people only care about money.  I don't want to be one of those people so I don't need any money mom."  He is a very wise, very tender-hearted five year old.

From Jared's journal entry on Sunday:  My friend's wanted to spy on their neighbors.  I wasn't sure it was ok so I told them I wouldn't.  They said I wouldn't be in the club if I didn't.  I said that was alright I just wanted to do what was right.

I am proud of Jared for his strong desire to choose the right.  I'm pretty sure his friends were not doing anything wrong, but I'm glad he had the courage to stand up to his friends anyway.

After a couple hard months, this little boy has conquered his Kindergarten fears.  He is thriving at school and now says his worst thing of the day is leaving school.  He likes to come home from school and write words and sentences for me.  His major accomplishment has been that he's let Scott drop him off at the drop-off in the morning and walk into the Kindergarten area himself.  He told me he'd do that more often, but that sometimes Dad would walk him to his classroom just for fun.  "Maybe we'll do a pattern mom.  Like, drop-off, drop-off, drop-off, Dad, drop-off, drop-off, drop-off, Dad."  I smiled at my cute little boy and all that he is learning.

Jared loves to be read to.  His attention span is amazing as he sits mesmerized listening to stories without pictures.  Recently Scott read "Where the Red Fern Grows" to the kids.  Jared loved listening about Old Dan and Little Ann.  His imagination painted a vivid picture of each scene, and he often related to us the details of how he pictured the boy and his dogs.  He also listened to "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and loved it too. 

Jared is always up for snuggles and loves...if only we could figure out how to keep him in his own bed at night!  He invariably ends up in bed with us or we find ourselves in bed with him (usually Scott takes Jared duty, since I am still up with Nathan at night) every night.  Jared told me one night after I challenged him to stay in his own bed, "I just can't help it mom.  You guys are just so snuggly and warm!"

Then and Now

 OCTOBER 8, 1999

Bountiful, Utah

  

 Exactly 11 Years later

OCTOBER 8, 2010

Albuquerque, New Mexico

T-shirt Designer

Brynn's teacher named their class the "Owls."  They wanted to have a shirt to wear on their fieldtrips, so each student got to draw a design.  The class then voted for their favorite one to be printed on the t-shirt.  Brynn's cute design won! 
 

Isn't it cute?  Way to go Brynn!

Ellie-isms

Ellie's school picture proofs came back the other day.  Surprise, surprise...she was not smiling.  She asked me if the words said, "Ellie not smile."  I told her they didn't say that, but since we were talking about it, I asked her why she didn't smile.  She replied, "My smile batteries runned out."  Oh!  That explains so much--I'll have to figure out how to recharge them! 

Later that night she didn't want to say her prayers.  I commented that saying her prayers was a way to show Heavenly Father that she loved Him, and for her to thank Him for all the things He has given her.  She said, "No, Mom!  He not give me things--I give Him my prayers!"

This Little Muff of Mine

We had family pictures a couple of weeks ago.  We had them taken at Elena Gallegos, a park nearby us and by the Sandia Mountains.  Little Muffy did NOT like the idea of pictures.  Whether she was nervous of the photographer (who is a friend of mine, but Ellie doesn't know), or she was just being a stinker--I don't know.  Probably a little of both.  Here are a few individual shots of her.

Even with me next to her, she refused to smile!

She couldn't help herself on this one!

Once the photographer left, Ellie became her normal self and Scott got the next two shots with our camera! 

Silly Ellie!  Now why didn't she do that earlier? 

Brothers

Nathan and Jared already have a special "brothers" bond.  Nathan gets excited everytime he sees Jared.  He likes to hit on Jared and crawl all over him--his wrestling version I'm sure.  Jared, of course, adores Nate too.

 Someone to play ball with.

I love these little boys!

Swimming Champion!

We had a great swim-team summer again this year.  Both Kaitlyn and Brynn seem to have a great time, and both girls improved considerably from last year.  Brynn swam her fastest freestyle at the district meet, and we were proud of her for doing her best and always having a great attitude.

Kaitlyn qualified to swim in the City meet in 25 yd freestyle, 50 yd freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly.  At the City meet she placed second in the two relays she participated in, and took 3rd place in the 25 yd freestyle.  There was a bit of discrepancy on her time in the backstroke since her lane timer stopped working.  According to our calculations, she should have placed 3rd in the backstroke, but they had her placing 4th.  I was proud of Kaitlyn for not making a big deal of this.  She also placed 4th in the 50 yd freestyle and cut 5 seconds off her district time.  She came away with a ton of medals.  Way to go Kaitlyn!

We had a great time watching and cheering on Kaitlyn and Brynn this summer.

Grown Up Girl

 Ellie started her first day of preschool just a couple of days after the big kids started.  She is attending the same program as Jared did last year so she is a peer model for a developmental preschool.  When the teachers last year asked if Ellie wanted to be part of the three-year-old program, I was a bit hesitant.  The preschool is four days a week, and I hate to push my little three year old out of the house so much.  The teachers told me I could send her as little or as much as I wanted.  I couldn't argue with that, and since we love the program and teachers I decided to do it.

 I was a little worried about how Ellie would do.  Ellie is a girl of extremes--she would either hate it or she would love it with no in-between.  Apparently, this little girl has been craving a chance to be just like everyone else in her family and have something of her own. 

The day before her preschool started I went to the school to fill out papers.  Ellie came up to me and was whispering something at me with a very mad expression.  I thought she was telling me she wanted to leave, but she was telling me she wanted ME to leave and her to stay by herself!  That was a good sign.

 On the first day of school funny Ellie refused to let me take a picture of her in front of the house.  I brought my camera to take a couple of pictures at the school, and as you can see she refused to smile or look like she was enjoying herself at all.  She immediately found the babies and busied herself with their needs. 

 She told me to leave, and so I did.  She loves to talk about how she just "marches" right up to her preschool all by herself.  In the past month she has grown-up so much.  She dresses herself, gets her teeth brushed and tries to fix her hair every preschool morning.  She can buckle her own car seat, and she continues to be a big help with Nathan.  It seems like I have such grown-up conversations with her too. 

She loves everything about preschool.  She especially loves the songs she is learning, and I have heard her singing them to Nathan on several occasions.  She definitely has no problem being away from me!  I sure love this girl and am glad she has something she loves to look forward to.