Birthday Bliss

So I know this is late and I really wish there was a viable excuse, but.....there isn't. Really I like to blame it on illness, efforts to get organized, Thanksgiving, blah, blah, blah. In all reality, I just keep forgetting. So here you go.

Adie had her first birthday recently. For those of you who are thinking, "Wow, that went fast", you have no idea. This year has blown by for us an our little girl is getting big fast. (Not to mention her older brother.) She is such a happy girl most of the time but knows how to try to work over her dad. Mom is a little less sympathetic. But she has the funnest sense of humor.

She didn't really know what to think about her bithday party. She didn't really want everyone to sing to her and of course had no idea what to do with the candle. But she did want the whole cake for herself.


She is such a dainty eater. Porter had is everywhere, and Adie just had it on her hands and a little around her mouth. But she did eat the whole thing (slice that is).

Porter liked it to...he even learned the Happy Birthday song to sing to his sister. It was so cute.

I have to say I was proud of the cake. It turned out just like I wanted for her ladybug party. And now Porter talks about it all the time.

All things Halloween

We had an exciting Halloween this year as Porter is starting to talk more, can say trick-or-treat and understands what candy is. He still wouldn't stick his hand inside of the pumpkin when we were carving but it was fun just the same. We have a problem here where if you put out pumpkins, a neighborhood squirrel likes to come and eat out the seeds, or just eat the pumpkin. So this is how we painted one just so we could get this picture.

And this...

We had a lot of fun going trick-or-treating at the mall again this year. It is nice to have somewhere safe and inside to do this with your children. It only costs a dollar and the proceeds go to helping kids get off and keep away from drugs. So this is Adie after eating her frozen chocolate banana (given away for free at trick-or-treating).

The Porter LOVED his ice cream that he got to eat before lunch. Luckily, he had pooped in the potty that morning so it was his "big treat".

We also had a ward Halloween party. It was a lot of fun to have the kids run around and play games. Porter is such a timid child that when other kids ran in front of him in line, he would just step back. Which I am glad that he wouldn't fight and cry, but he almost didn't get to play some of the games because he would let all the other kids in front of him. I just love him though.

We went to the Great Pumpkin Farm for preschool the week before Halloween and it was so much fun. There was a petting zoo. Adie and Porter fed goats....

and lamas, a pony, a calf, and a really mean turkey.

They also had this ginormous playground with really fast slides (there was even a sign telling us so.) And this cute wooden train that the kids could play on (as long as they didn't climb on top). So this is them playing on the train.

PUMPKINS!!!

A tradition in my family is to ice sugar cookies before every holiday. So we carry out that tradition. We made some Halloween cookies, and Porter got to ice some this year. He really just liked licking his fingers and wanted to eat every cookie after he was done.

But it was a lot of fun...here are the finished products.

Halloween was full of fun meals. For breakfast we had pumpkin pancakes which were absolutely delicious with sausage and eggs.

The for lunch we had grilled ham and cheese pumpkin sandwiches.

Then for dinner we had spiders covered in bloody ears, topped with eyeballs, leg bones and swamp juice. (Halloween pasta, pasta sauce with mushrooms, meatballs, breadsticks, and sour apple soda)

This is Porter's costume, inspired by his everyday playing. He was a fly that was being eaten by a frog.

Adie was our little ladybug. I was very proud of their costumes.

This is the newest happiness in my life. Adie can now have pigtails. I love it. It took forever to do it because she is not used to it, but looked so cute. Then she took them out.

New Batteries

Well it is time to catch up with everything that has gone on. So bear with me. This is definitely going to be a long post.

First off on one of Eric's days off we went down by Orchard Park to the Eternal Flame. To those that don't live around here, it is a natural gas leak underneath a waterfall. When it gets lit it will burn until the waterfall puts it out. Thanks to friends with hiking backpacks for kids, we were able to hike along with Porter and Adie on our backs. It was beautiful as you can see by the pictures. Unfortunately everyone else and their dog was there that day too. But we still enjoyed it. Next time, we will actually wear tennis shoes.

I thought this was a really cool tree that I saw right down by the falls. I was impressed.

Porter's new favorite hat which actually inspired his halloween costume. You will see soon what he is. I am really excited for it.

These were some fun cupcakes that I made for a baby shower. The theme was about frogs, snails, and puppy dog tails. I was really happy with the outcome.

Adie turned 10 months old and has actually been walking for a month already.

The kids are getting big (as you can tell by the strain on Porter's face) and are really having fun playing together. It is a lot of fun to listen to them laugh most of the day.

Poor little Porter woke up last Tuesday looking like this. I thought it was a little humorous thinking he just bumped his face until I found a couple of other body parts that were completely swollen. In a panic I called the doctor, a urologist that is in our ward, and any one else I could think of, wondering if I need to take him to the hospital. Come to find out it was a random allergic reaction (we still don't know what to). By the next morning he was pretty much back to normal. Then on Thursday he woke up and his face was swollen again along with his hand that looked like a blown up doctor glove. So this time we tried Benadryl, stripped his bed and washed everything, and Eric gave him a blessing. It hasn't happened since.

The kids ready to go on a walk in the cold to get the Benadryl. It really was cold enough to dress them up this much. The wind was freezing that day and we didn't have a car.

Then Adie turned 11 months. I can't believe she is getting so big. My little girl is really growing up. She is starting to say some words as well, it is so much fun.

This was Eric's (rather sad) effort to grow a beard. I want to say it was like 4 weeks of not shaving. I have to admit I like him much better clean shaven.

This is Dada holding his babies, holding their babies. It was so cute. Adie also learned how to burp her baby today. It is so cute to watch her "take care" of her baby doll.

Please hold....

Sorry it has been so long posting again. The batteries in our camera are dead. So when I finally remember to change them, I will update our blog again. And there will be plenty of pictures of our wonderful children to look at.

9 months and counting

An exciting thing is that Adie turned 9 months old. She is getting so big and is actually walking already. She is not too sturdy but can get from place to place and is starting to prefer walking as her sole mode of transportation. I can't believe how big she is already.

This has become one of Adies favorite things to do lately. I have always kept my baggies in a drawer in the kitchen probably because that is what my family has always done. Well, unfortunately the drawer is not baby proof and she likes the feel of the bags. So she pulls the bags out one by one until the box is empty. Eric thinks it is funny, takes a picture, then leaves it for me to clean up later. Silly guy.

Porter has started to build trains out of everything. His legos, toy people, cars, goldfish crackers, you name it. And he freaks out if anyone touches them which makes it hard on Adie a little. He has actually gotten really creative with it so I had to take a picture. You can see how much he consentrates on it.

Porter loves to do this with Eric. Moms and grandma's don't look. We took this picture because Eric wanted to see how high he was actually throwing him. He was pretty impressed with himself when he saw how far up there Porter was. And don't worry, Eric has never dropped him. The best part is you should see Porters face when he gets to the peak and starts to come down. It is sheer terror, but always wants to do it again.

Adie has learned how to climb the stool in the bathroom. Her next step was to find her toothbrush. She makes her dada proud. And yes it was cold enough here a little while ago to get out the winter jammies. Its not anymore.

Obviously a lot of the things that Porter and Eric do together require elevation. He loves to be able to touch the ceiling. This is Eric laying on our bed legs up against the wall and Porter sitting on Eric's feet. He laughed the entire time.

Porter also likes to dress up in dada's clothes. This is Eric's belt wrapped around him I think about 3 times. It was pretty funny and really reminded me of 80's clothes.

That is pretty much all that has really happened lately. Although there are more pictures to come soon, along with videos.

Other Randomness...

In no particular order....

I was proud of how this fruit pizza turned out. Unfortuately the cookie was really thick underneath which wasn't the plan at all.

These were fun cupcakes I made for a baby shower. They turned out pretty cute.

This is our neighborhood watch system.

Adie loves bath time

My friend from high school stopped by to see the family. Thanks for coming Kama, we enjoyed having you here.

Porter graduated from shape school. He wore this hat all day long and part of the next day. It was so cute.

The first of our harvest this summer.

This is what our garden looked like for a while.

Adie turned eight months old

The biggest marshmellow I ever saw.