Christmas and Porter's Birthday

Christmas was so much fun this year.  We were excited to actually be able to get our kids some things that they wanted and things just for fun instead of just what they needed.  Even though we are still far from family we have started to make some good friends here that we enjoy spending time with.  We spent Christmas Eve with our friends the Fosters and some others from the ward, that we were able to get to know better.  We did a nativity with all the kids which was a little crazy at times but fun.

Adie was a shepherd, Lottie was a sheep, and since Porter was the only boy (older boy I should say, there was a baby boy), he was Joseph.  It was a lot of fun.  Here are all the kids in their outfits.

Here is Porter getting his hunting/fishing wii games.  He was excited, but now he keeps begging Eric to take him out to do the real thing.  And it was funny, about 3-5 days before Christmas he started asking for Santa to bring him a fishing pole.....well, Santa didn't come through on that one.  I guess it was just to close to Christmas for that.  But birthdays are coming.

I wish we had pictures of the girls.  Adie just wanted to play with a couple of toys in the princess tent she got from Santa, and Lottie just wanted to look at all of the books that we already had.

On another note, Eric had the best Christmas EVER it seems.  He got a compound bow with arrows and other things to go with it.  Now when he is home from work early enough, he is out in our "backyard" shooting it because you can do that here.  He hasn't missed the bag once.  Now he just has to find a place to go hunting so he can really use it.

We also had Porter's birthday party.  He has been begging for an Angry Birds birthday party for 6-8 months.  So I figured we should stick with that.  It was so much fun.  It kept me busy especially having sick kids the whole week before.  Luckily everyone was mostly healthy on the day of his party.  We made sugar cookies as thank you gifts for all the kids.

And since Porter doesn't really like cake, he wanted cupcakes.  I don't really understand the difference, I would prefer cake that has layers and a filling throughout but whatever, he is his fathers son.  But they were fun and easy to make.  And I think they turned out pretty good.

Here is his table of "treats" and snacks for all the kids.  Thanks to so many people for the ideas and whatever for this.  Stephanie Sams, thanks for the banner.  Natalie Dayton, thanks for the lime slushie drink that my family can't get enough of and can be dyed any color.  Thanks for whoever decided it should be National Popcorn Day on my sons birthday so we will always have his favorite popcorns at his parties.  And thanks to pinterest for the pig watermelon idea.  That was a huge hit in itself.

The kids were excited about everything....boys are fun!  And I am glad that Porter doesn't cry anymore when people sing to him.

They played "Pig Stomp" where they had to stomp on each others King Pigs.  Poor Adie had a hard time getting into this game with all the rough boys.

And I did venture to make a pinata.  Of course I forgot to take a picture before they started whacking it.  But all my fears about it not lasting long were put to rest when we had to bring in Dad to make the initial crack so they could do the rest.  Way to go paper mache, you held up to the test.

It was a lot of fun and good to meet the kids that Porter talks about all the time.  The kids from school that he likes a lot have all invited him to their parties, but they hold them on Sunday's and we just don't do that.  So I am glad that they came to his.  And he did get a fishing pole for his birthday.

I have made a new year's resolution to update this once a month.  So here is hoping I will be able to do that.

Everything

The great thing about living in Oklahoma is that we have big trees that loose all their leaves.  The kids have had the time of their lives raking up all the leaves into a pile so they can jump into them over and over.  Lottie needs a little help jumping in but they all have a blast.

 

We were going to have some friends over for dinner so we decided to make a black forrest trifle.  It had cut up brownie, chocolate pudding, cherry pie filling, fresh whipped cream and some chocolate swirls.  It was so good.  Unfortunatley, our friends had to cancel, so we took it to Eric's work meeting the next day to share with every one.  We got rid of most of it just because it was too much for our family.

Lottie can fit most of her hair into a ponytail now.  I was so excited.  It was super cute!

Isn't she cute?

 

 

Porter had to disquise a turkey for school so they would be safe for Thanksgiving.  He decided on an army guy.

 



 

We finally got Eric's diploma from dental school and it is finally spelled correctly.

 



Adie had her 4th birthday and she wanted to have a Little Mermaid party.  I racked my brain trying to figure out a cake for her.  I finally figured out what I wanted to do and unfortunately started late doing it the night before and was up until 2am finishing it.  Lottie kept me company until 1 then I was on my own.  Even though it took so long I really liked how it turned out.

 



We have a fire pit in our back yard and the kids LOVE to go out and build fires.  And eat s'mores.  So we do it on a fairly regular basis.  Can you tell they are having fun?

 The other day I was looking for Lottie because she had been so quiet.  I found her on the side of the couch like this, fast asleep.  Poor baby, mom and dad don't put her in bed when she is tired.

My cute kids

Lottie is getting so big and is climbing on everything.....and I mean everything!  She is also running now everywhere she goes.  She is in the 88th percentile for height, and in the 12th percentile for weight.  We decided today that she has the Ricks genes and will just always be tall and skinny....lucky girl.

Porter and Adie love each other.  My favorite is their embrace after school every day when Porter gets off the bus.  They really do miss each other throughout the day.

Lottie loves it when Porter pushes her around on the tricycle and she smiles the whole time.  Aren't they cute?

And this is what happens when your 10 year old digital camera gives up the ghost.  The shutter speed is now so slow, there is no way to capture pictures unless we did like they did in the early camera days with posts behind them to help them hold still until the picture was taken.  (Apple Dumpling Gang is what I picture in my mind).  So we don't have any more pictures and won't until we are able to find a camera that we want.  Sorry, I have already missed some great moments that I wish I had pics of.

You know you are in Oklahoma when....

Well, first things first.  A was invited to her first birthday party of someone we didn't know before.  I am glad we went as we were the only ones who came that weren't family.  Anyway, it was a My Little Pony birthday and so I decided to make a necklace for the little girl.  I am quite pleased at how it turned out.  Yeah for me and the help of my wonderful hubby!

A has been getting lonely without her brother home and gets sad on and off.  But the good thing about it is that her and L have really had some good bonding time and really like each other now.  What a blessing because they used to just tolerate each other.  Anyway, so one day she was really sad so we decided to make spiral cookies.  They were hard to do and took way too much time in my opinion, but she sure did love them and actually just asked to make them again.  They were good though.

I walked into my kids room the other day to help clean up so I could....so P could vacuum and this is what I saw.  AAAHHH IT'S A GIANT POTATO BUG EATING CINDERELLA!!!!!  I was laughing pretty hard.

And to the title of this post.  I just looked outside our front window and this is what I saw.....our neighbor across the street practicing his bow shooting as hunting season is just around the corner.  I thought that was funny.  If Eric wasn't working I think he probably would have gone out and talked to the guy to ask him where to go hunting and if he can tag along.  He was a pretty good shot too, or at least it looked like to me.  I think most people here do bow hunting and Eric doen't have a bow yet.  Someday.  Anyway, I thought it was funny.