Christmas #2

So I got a message this morning on the answering machine... (guess I had that music turned up a little too loud) Anyway it was from my next door neighbor asking if I wanted to buy 1/2 a pig!! We had already talked to him about 1/2 a cow which will come in a couple more weeks but his other guy bailed on him so he called me! He is headed down to the farm right now to pick it up and I am so excited!! Pork, sausage, ham, bacon... 80 lbs of meat at a fraction of the price. Fresh! Oh my goodness its like Christmas all over again. Jumping up and down over here! YEAH!!!!!

Merry (belated) Christmas

So I'm a few days late. I'm enjoying my vacation - alright?? Christmas was great. As you can see we have a white Christmas. It was just the 4 of us and I enjoyed every minute of it. The boys loved their toys and are playing with them even as I sit here typing. Eli got a remote control car from us, a dinosaur and sticky hands from Santa, and a scooter (similar to a Razor) from Grandma. He is in heaven. And Mom and Matt - yes those are the same Superman pajamas he got last year from you guys. He still wears them ALL the time.

Nathan got this ball twirling thing that is actually kind of cute and some magnet blocks. He didn't get into the whole tearing the wrapping paper, but once the toys were out of the box, he was having a great time. I guess he had fun pounding on the boxes too which was what he was doing in this picture.

And I got a wheat grinder!!! I'm so excited, but I'll admit I'm a little scared. Now I have no excuse not to make my own bread. I want to talk to some girls in my ward before I get too carried away and maybe have them come over and do it with me. I need a little hand holding... I also got my Veronica Mars seasons 1&2. YEAH!!! Here is our little mess when we were through with presents. I'd say we made out pretty good!

The rest of the day was made up of me cooking spinach triangles, pie, ham and sweet potatoes... etc while Chris and Eli were making this snowman. Unfortunately it started to snow the next day and the face got covered up. Oh well. I have to laugh, the mouth is a green bean from dinner...


Anyway, overall we had a great time. Merry Christmas everyone and I hope you had as good a holiday as we did. (and Kyle, yes those bacon mints were BY FAR the worst part of my holiday) ...thanks...

6 days and counting!!

I can't wait for Christmas!! The holidays always make me happy and it'll be especially nice this year because my sister will be here and it'll definitely be a WHITE Christmas. I don't mind it when its not, but when it is it just feels right. you know? I think I finally got my shopping done and now I need to wrap. I SERIOUSLY need to wrap. Actually I take that back. Shopping for presents is done. I still need to grocery shop for Christmas dinner and a few other essentials while Erin is in town. I guess grocery shopping doesn't really count, but I swear to you those stores seem to be more crowded than Walmart at this time of year. Understandable, but it makes me dread going. Maybe I'll go tonight to avoid the Saturday rush...

Things with us are good. We are all happy and healthy and doing well. Eli has been obsessed with counting the days till Christmas and asks over and over and over when it'll be here. He is going to be bored to tears though because school is out for the next 2 weeks. Guess I'll actually have to entertain him... hmm... Nathan is doing good as well. I've found his aversion to milk was merely a temperature thing (thanks to a conversation with Erin) so I think we have a way to finally get him off formula when he is ready. yeah!! He isn't walking yet, but he can balance when he stands up by himself. I'm not ready for him to walk. It almost makes me sad. He is still such a baby to me. I'm not ready!!! I actually meant to do this back when Nathan turned one, but I never did. I was going to compare my two boys at the same age. Well this is both of them at (or around give or take a month) a year old.

Eli


Nathan
Hmmm.... are they brothers?? I love that. I'm just looking through some of Elis old pictures and its not that they look exactly alike or anything, but looking at the pictures of Eli remind me of Nathan. I don't know. I'll have to take some of Nathan wearing Elis old Christmas outfit and compare those two pictures. :) I actually forgot I had his old Christmas outfit. Good thing I found it so I could take the one I bought this year back. Is it sad that Nathan is going to wear the same outfit Eli did while Eli was only 6 months old and Nathan is 14 months? I'm sure it won't fit exactly the same, but nevertheless... I'm almost positive it'll fit. Whatever am I going to do with him... My 22 lb chunker baby who is painfully short. I just love him. :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! We love you and we hope you enjoy your holiday.

Giggle monster

When people ask me if I'm liking being a stay at home mom, I always answer yes. Its true. My life has changed since I've gotten to spend this extra time with my kids. My house still isn't where I would like it to be, but they have been so much fun to be with. Little moments like yesterday (in this video) are the main reason for my answer in the affirmative. Nathan was supposed to be eating his lunch, but I guess he was done because he started throwing food over the side for the dog to eat. Usually I try to tell him to stop, but he was laughing so hard I figured a video would be better. ;) Unfortunately about 4 hours later he had a temp of 102° and was feeling a little less happy.

First blog in weeks! nothing to report...

Well I wish I had an excuse for my lack of blogging. Usually its because you're crazy busy but to be honest, in the last couple weeks its the opposite. We haven't been doing anything and that has just included blogging. We had a great Thanksgiving, we went and saw Santa Claus (at the mall), my sister came out here and we went to see Twilight again (better the 2nd time), we had some friends over for Family Home Evening and now we're headed straight for the Christmas season. Its snowing outside pretty good today... first snow since I think around Halloween! I think I'd rather have it in the 50's like its been though. We've been able to enjoy the outdoors much longer than normal. A few of the girls in my ward and I were out with our strollers and the older kids were riding their bikes. We all laughed saying we were the stroller parade - and in December no less. Here are the kids when we took them to the mall. Unfortunately the camera wasn't picking up the light so all the pictures were dark but this one... and its blurry. Oh well, better luck next year.


Eli is already begging to go ride his sled down the hill at the park. Mind you there is only 1/4" of white stuff on the ground so far and my guess is that it'll be gone by this time tomorrow... This is going to be a seriously long winter. But I'm excited for Christmas at least. Erin is going to be out here and... Erin, Eli is already asking when you're going to get here. :) I feel like there is still so much to do!! I have to send some things - I really better get a move on and I have Christmas cards to mail (if you've moved - let me know). Eli is usually my easy one to buy for, but this year I just don't know what to get him! We got him some pajamas and a dinosaur, but I'm at a loss as to what else. I guess thats probably all he needs. I would like to shift it so that Santa brings only one toy so he doesn't expect a ton of things every year. He is young enough its probably a good time to start. Mommy and Daddy got Guitar Hero World Tour for Christmas... which we opened like 6 weeks ago. ;) Excuse our messy family room (and me in my pajamas). This is the family band - ok, so Eli is usually replaced with Chris but someone had to take a picture.

Eli playin' the drums

Nathan playing the drums too.

Hmmm... Twilight

Well I went yesterday. And BOY was that an experience. Now I don't consider myself as old... as I am not yet 30, but I felt it. Man, did I feel it. I went with a group of 4 and sitting just to the side of my group was this little girl. (I'm thinking 13 or so) I seriously thought we were going to have to sedate her at some point. She was shaking! For the full 2 hours, she shook. My friend who was sitting next to me kept leaning over to me saying to look at the girl and she was making these facial expressions that were just hilarious!! (while she shook of course) LOL! And of course, when Jacob came on screen and Edward and Carlisle and every other decent looking male the audience erupted into screaming that you missed their first few lines. And the kissing scene you couldn't even enjoy because there was a hum of anticipation and then more with the screaming...

So I don't know if my review is based more in my prejudice against my fellow Twilighters in the theater or the actual movie itself, but I was kind of sad. I liked the movie - I really did, but I didn't feel the connection between Edward and Bella (which I guess you could say would be KEY to the whole movie). They just seemed cold and forced like they weren't really enjoying each other. They acted the part where they had to be careful around each other, but they never seemed to smile and be happy they were in love! I don't know, maybe they did and I was too busy watching this hilarious 13 yr old sitting next to us. :) (very possible)
I'm glad I get to take my sister on Monday so I can see it again hopefully with a new perspective. The 13 year olds will be in school and I already know the plot changes, so I won't have to try and figure it out. I can just enjoy it as a movie. I have tons more to say on scenes that they left out or did wrong, but for the sake of people who haven't seen it yet - I will hold off. All I can say is that even though Alice had only half a dozen lines, she was great and I can't wait for the next few movies because something tells me she will steal the show. I just love Alice.

Happy Birthday Chris!!!!

Yesterday was Chris' birthday. My wonderful husband is 32 years old now. What a good man to put up with my craziness for the last 7 1/2 years.

We didn't do much, but we went out to eat at a Mongolian BBQ place and came home to eat cupcakes that Eli and I made in the afternoon. As you can see, we all got candles in our cupcakes and we ended up singing to both Chris AND Eli... I swear to you, the kid loves birthdays.


Sorry honey, I just had to share this gem... Can't tell whether this guy is the 32 year old or the 4 yr old in the family. You decide. ;)

And the happiest one of all. Nathan enjoyed a cupcake as well and loved every bite. Too bad he still woke up at 5am this morning. ugh.

Very very tired

You reach a point where "tired" becomes a word that doesn't mean anything any more. Nathan has gotten up at 5:45 every morning this week. I've tried to go to bed a little earlier, but its never been before 10:30 unfortunately... and with as long as it takes me to fall asleep - lets just say 5:45 comes very very early. I think the worst part of it is that he is ready for his first nap by 9:30 or so and sleeps the rest of the morning which in turn throws off his afternoon nap. Its a vicious circle!! Oh well, I guess there isn't much I can do but don't worry about calling me early in the morning.
I'm up.

2 days left!

::sigh:: Twilight...
Is it wrong that I find the actor who plays James better looking than Edward? Hmmm.... there is something very wrong with that.

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Slackin'

I have no excuse except that I don't like the women in my ward very much... they keep giving me books to read and I can do nothing else while I read. I seriously have a hard time putting them down at all.

Anyway, Saturday was Eli's first pinewood derby! And wouldn't you know, he came home with 3rd place and Chris got 1st. Chris thinks it probably should have been the other way around, but thats a whole other conversation that you are never allowed to bring up in his presence. LOL! Whatever. It was a fun night and Eli had a blast. Chris made a spiderman car for Eli, and he let Eli paint his car... a very interesting combination of black, orange and yellow. They both came home with a chocolate bar, so it makes Momma proud ;)

Chris got 3rd place in the 'anything goes' race. I don't remember what it was really called, but they didn't worry about weighing the cars. His was under the regulation weight and still made the top 3. Not bad honey!!

I've still been reading. I guess I feel the need to make up for the last 10 years of not reading in a single month. Yes, I'm crazy. But I will admit that I have had more fun in the last month than I have in a while. I just finished another book called "These is my words" by Nancy Turner. Excellent. Its set in the 1880's on the Arizona frontier and is written like its her diary. I'm pretty sure its based on a true story, but I don't think its an actual diary. Anyway, Carrie has a couple more books that I need to read to finish up the Goose Girl trilogy and then I'm going to take a break. I really want to buy the Twilight series for Christmas, so maybe my break can last until then and I will reread Twilight at the beginning of next year.
Only 11 more days until the movie comes out!!!!!!!! And yes, I'll be there opening day.

Emergency!

Emergency at the Porter house. We're fine, no harm done, but the CO detector was going off all last night. We left at 1:30am to go to a hotel and Nathan wouldn't go back to sleep. Lots of fun. Chris took him on a drive, but still he only slept an hour or two. I'm hoping we can all sleep in today. Anyway, we came home this morning and called the gas company. He found no CO in the house, but whether that was because it had aired out or there was never a problem - he wasn't positive. He found a couple potential problems that could have caused it - mostly because of the pressure in the storm we're getting right now. We'll just have to change a vent and bore a hole through our house... no biggie. ;) I'm grateful that we called him so we can get it fixed. I swear the whole 'home ownership' thing is just a learning curve. So much to learn.

But for now, we're fine. We can turn the appliances back on when the storm passes. For now the biggest problem will be taking a cold shower.

Happy Halloween

Finally got around to uploading some Halloween pictures. Eli was a Ninja Turtle this year (Raphael to be exact). He had a blast. We hit the trunk or treat and a bunch of houses and he started complaining that his bucket was too heavy. I guess that means he made out good.


sorry... this one is blurry...

the "man" behind the mask.

Political Funnies

I don't know about you, but the more I talk about the upcoming election and videos and news out there... it just gets meaner and meaner. Thank goodness it'll all be over in a matter of days. So to hopefully lighten the mood, I have some links for you. ENJOY!!! And every one of these are not meant to be serious at all. Please don't think that I get my actual news and information from such things. I just needed a day to smile. ;)
**disclaimer: the last one has a few off color jokes. Please don't watch if you're easily offended**

http://www.palinaspresident.us/

Bush on Global Warming

Obamas Experience level

Negative Obama Ads

Sarah Palin and the "Gender" card

I've missed a lot!

Alright, so I thought I would start and maybe recap this last week. It doesn't seem like much has happened, but its just my life... so of course it isn't that interesting. ;) And of course things happened in the middle of my reading, so this is my attempt to catch up before all the Halloween posts come.


I got to volunteer at Eli's preschool last week which was of course lots of fun (ahem). I honestly don't know how teachers do it. I would go insane having to take care of all those kids day in and day out. I enjoy my nursery calling - but that is once a week. I can do once a week. Anyway, back to the point. Eli has a new teacher! Her name is Ms. Fatma. I'm not exactly sure what country she is from, but she has an accent. She is very nice and I think Eli is really going to like her. I like that she has started making them journal everyday. His last teacher mentioned it, but that first day Ms. Fatma was there they had never been cracked. Oh well. Unfortunately Eli is going through an anti-camera stage, so he isn't interested in pictures being taken of himself. That is going to have to change for Friday what with Halloween and all. Gotta get my "Ninja Turtle" some good camera time. :)

I also took the kids to Black Island Farms with some of the other moms in my neighborhood. What a fun time!!! There were huge slides and a corn maze and a little cow train made of 55 gallon drums, a corn husk launcher (potato gun), a sandbox with corn kernals, a large pumpkin moon bounce... it had EVERYTHING! They took us on a short ride out to the pumpkin patch and pulled some carrots right out of the ground for us and fresh onions that were the size of a softball. Then we got our pumpkins and headed back. Of course I couldn't leave without buying some of their produce. The cabbage... I need to take a picture of it. Enormous. and only $1. Can't beat that.


Nathan is of course wonderful. He has been slightly cranky this last week which I am still unsure is because of teething or uncomfortable ears. I took him back to the doctor wondering if his ear infection had gone away (he started running a slight temp) and the doctor was concerned. He said the infection was gone, but the eustachian station tubes (had to google it) weren't functioning properly and he didn't know if it was because of a chronic problem or if his ears were still healing from the last infection. All I know is they weren't responding to the air the doctor was pumping into his ear. Its still a wait and see kind of thing. I REALLY don't want to go the ear tube route, so we're just praying it clears up completely.

As for me, I'm still trying to find the energy to clean my house. My friend and old college roommate came up to stay last week and then we went to the temple. It was so fun to see her again! It just reminded me of my life pre-marriage and kids. How different it was to stay up late and just play all the time. Ahhh... those were the days. LOL! Its too bad though Dana, we just got the new Guitar Hero (with the drums and microphone) would have been fun to challenge you!!
I started reading another book yesterday... well, I started reading Austenland and I finished reading it during naptime (it was short) and now I'm going to take the boys to the library and see if I can find a few more by the same author. Who would have thought I would become a reader?? Ok, so I probably won't, but its nice to see that (1) I haven't forgotten HOW to read and (2) I can enjoy fun, easy books as much as the next person. All of you who have those "What I'm reading right now" posts... I'm going to be paying closer attention (Chrissy) ;) Its funny how my tv time has taken a serious hit and I don't seem to care. I started watching Greys last night and just turned it off after about 5 minutes. I wasn't in the mood... Eli Stone however. I was in the mood for that. ;)
Anyway, I think that about covers it. I'm off to make my list of things to do for the rest of the week. My main goal is to scrub the bathroom floors. eeeewwwwww....

I'm going to re-emerge

Well, I'm going to take my nose out of the books I've been reading and reemerge... I think. The reason I say "think" is that I thought I would be done after I finished the small portion of Midnight Sun - but all that did was fuel me to reread Twilight where she had left off trying harder to imagine Edwards thoughts in all of that. Dang... if she could have just gotten to the part in the meadow. Thats the part I wanted to really see through his eyes. Click Here if you want to read the first few chapters of Midnight Sun (from her website - not pirated)

So my last week was as follows... I started last Friday night and finished Twilight and New Moon by Sunday night. I started Eclipse Monday night and finished Tuesday night at which point I picked up Breaking dawn and finished Thursday morning. Then I read Midnight Sun Thursday evening into this morning. I don't even want to count how many pages that was and how many hours I spent. Can I just say that I LOVED these books?? Breaking Dawn was by far the best because it seems thats when everything happened!! Everything I wanted to happen and didn't want to happen... everything I could imagine happening and didn't have a freakin clue... I seriously want to reread that one a little slower. I feel like by that point there was so much going on, I was just reading too quick just to find out what would happen next. I'm sure I missed a ton. I would like to wait a month or so to try and recover from what little sleep i've been getting, but we'll see if my will power is strong enough for that. ;)

For now, I'm going to be excited along with the rest of the country at the movie. ::sigh:: Here is the link to the movie trailer... I couldn't find it on youtube. http://www.twilightthemovie.com/
I always pictured Edward a little more broad and with a square jaw for some reason. Oh well. If its mildly entertaining (which it looks to be) I'll be happy.

I have a new obsession

I started this book last night... I'm 3/4 through it and New Moon is thankfully sitting on my counter ready to go. I will admit that I have TRIED to avoid these books. I don't know why. Everyone keeps saying they're good, and fun... but I'm usually not much of a reader. Ok, not much of a reader AT ALL. A few friends from Salt Lake were going to get together to go see the movie next month and asked if I wanted to come along. I admitted that I had never read the books and wondered if I would even enjoy the movie. They said - ah, you have a month. Then after Girls Night out we went to Barnes and Noble. It was over. It took a day to pick it up and evidently another day to finish it. :) I'll probably be MIA for the next... ok, maybe 4 days? (4 books, 4 days) LOL!

Food storage and coupons

Ok, so I got a blog post comment a couple weeks ago with a food storage website. It took me a couple weeks to get around to looking at it, but I finally did... hello!!! They make it sound so doable! I need to start having nights where we just eat from food storage. I have book that says if you eat it twice a week, you'll have a years worth rotated in 3 1/2 years. ... I might start with once a week. My next task though is to buy all these gadgets. Ok, not so much gadgets as necessities. A wheat grinder, both electric and manual, a decent bread making mixer (aka Bosch), and I would like a food dehydrator and one of those Victorian sauce makers that I used to make applesauce. That's only $1000 worth of equipment. Kill me now...

Anyway, this website has re energized me into thinking that it is possible. Then I look around at our ward and realize that I am SURROUNDED by people that do this already. I knew we moved to this area for a reason. I've decided though that I need to start writing down all my questions because the more I learn the more questions I have. If anyone is interested its http://safelygatheredin.blogspot.com/ I haven't spent too much time on there, but I clicked on the recipes and looked through those. She posts every Friday a recipe that uses food storage. Its like she read my mind...

So another thing that I've been (trying) to do more of is couponing. I don't think I'm very good at it though. For one thing I can't ever make it to the store when the sales start. This area is HUGE with coupons and so, for example, this last week Green Giant vegetable steamers were free if you had the coupon. You could be sure that those veggies would be sold out by Thursday morning. Don't even bother trying to go Monday morning (which is when I think about grocery shopping) UGH!!!

My question for any couponers out there is how do you stop? How do you tell yourself that you have enough cereal and even though its $1 a box you don't need it? I end up spending more money on groceries using coupons because I buy what I need then I buy the coupon stuff. And it is stuff that we use, but its not something I've always planned for. I need to start merging my meal plans with the coupons. Oh well, I just started...

My day in review

This is a post about yesterday. I got to go down and see my old friends from JUB. It was so good to see them (and see that nothing has changed). They're still the same great people I worked with just 2 short months ago. Man, has it been 2 months already? I guess some days it feels like a week ago and some days it seems like a year ago. I certainly don't miss waking up everyday and dragging the kids to Julies, fighting traffic and sitting in my cube for hours but I do miss some things. I guess its to be expected. Anyway, it was fun and I hope they'll do it again with me. Heck, we met up with our old co-worker Griffin for a couple years and I'm not sure we even liked him. (just kidding of course) Griffin, if you're out there - we love you.

Then on my way home I took Legacy Highway. Does it make me a total nerd if I got goosebumps driving down a road? But this isn't just any road. Its a brand new road that is multi-use. This was the 2nd time I took it. The first was the Sunday of conference weekend between sessions. I guess that was when the goosebumps happened. I was just thinking that if anyone were to ask what it is that I do (and we do in my old company) I could say the Legacy Highway. No, we didn't have any part of it, but designing a road with the slopes and alignment and superelevation... the guardrail and bridges, the box culverts and fences... and then I saw it... the trail. And not just any trail - a trail being used!! There were bikers and people walking on it. I even saw a biker who was taking a break on one of the benches. I've designed a couple trails - they're "fun". (right Gary?) LOL! Then I drove a little further and there was a lake. There were people spending time with their kids at the lake. It was just so perfect. It was like a break from the world. There are no trucks on this road and the speeds are a little slower. It was just so peaceful and calm. Then I got dumped on 215 and reality hit. I had to remind myself to speed up and be an aggressive driver again. Oh well. at least it was a nice break from the everday.
Ok, I'll go take my nerdy self and sit in the corner now.

Look Ma! Look what I did!!

I canned. I am a virgin canner (and it showed) Note to self, next time you want to try something new, enlist someone who has at least an IDEA of what they're doing. LOL! Chris has canned a few times in our married life, so we have not been without the tasty delights, but I had never gone near it. In fact if you had told me a year ago that I would be canning for 2 days I would have called you a mental patient. Alas, we are now the proud owners of 35 pints of applesauce and 6 quarts of apple pie filling. I did pints for the applesauce because we are still a small, young family that don't go through most foods very quickly. I was merely thinking of usefulness. At least I got something right!!

So the good news is that I borrowed a friends 'sauce maker' which is the only reason that I am still mobile. I didn't have to core or peel the apples because it did it all for me, and yet I am still growing blisters on my fingers from cutting. Go figure. I did this for 2 days. Now had I been a seasoned veteran, these 35 pints might have taken a day, maybe a day and a half. For a novice such as myself, I'm lucky it didn't leak into day 3.

So after all this, I have compiled a small list for any novices out there who might be just learning themselves. I have also been thinking about a list comparing canning to having a baby... but I'll spare you on that list. LOL!

1. Buy all cans BEFORE starting and have them washed and sanitized - ready to go.
2. The canning water takes a good hour to boil. You might want to start this process before you are actually ready for it
3. Pack the kids a day pack of things to do. You will not be seeing them during the canning process. Playdates would be nice too.
4. Don't wear clothes that you like. You may not see them again either.
5. Keep bandaids close
6. Have a step stool nearby so that you can sit while washing or cutting. If not, wear your comfortable shoes... your VERY comfortable shoes.
7. After a long hard day, don't bother cleaning. Rinse the really bad stuff and leave the rest.
8. Don't invite friends over that night. They might accidentally walk in your kitchen
9. Accept the stickiness. Embrace the stickiness. Everything washes. And when in doubt, you can wash it twice
10. I wouldn't suggest learning to can in the summer. Your kitchen gets really hot and sticky. Although the sticky might be from the apples. Only time will tell.
11. Again, invite someone over who knows what they're doing
12. 8 hours of sleep. No less. 8 hours..
13. Plan something fun when its over for the kids to re-get to know you. For us, it was a "FUN" trip to Costco. (no really, thats where Eli wanted to go)
14. Last of all - don't look at another apple for at least 72 hours.



This is most of it. 2 of my apple pie fillings didn't seal (sob) and I had given away a couple applesauces.

Apples, Apples, Apples for sale

ok, not for sale - just TAKE THEM!!!! They are canning apples as about 40% of them have worms - and you never know which ones have bad worms until you cut into them.
Anyway, if anyone likes to can... PLEASE take them off my hands. They're golden delicious, so they're very tasty. I'm making applesauce as we speak (blog post to come on that subject later) but I haven't even made a DENT in the pile of apples outside. Its insane. Feel sorry for me... :sniff, sniff:

TAG! You're it.

8 TV shows I LOVE to Watch:

1. Veronica Mars
2. Gilmore Girls
3. The Office
4. Reaper
5. Eli Stone
6. Men in Trees
7. Dancing with the Stars
8. Desperate Housewives

8 places I LOVE to eat:
1. Ruby River
2. Cracker Barrel
3. that Italian restaurant in MD... Meredith help me out with the bread and the olive oil
4. Costa Vida
5. Chop Stix
6. Market Street Grill
7. Training Table
8. Papa Johns (at home)

8 things that happened yesterday:
1. Went to Sills for breakfast with Chris' parents
2. Found out Nathan has a double ear infection (and is 21 lbs)
3. Went to Eli's soccer game only to find out my limits as a parent
4. Spent a lot of money buying winter clothes because Eli had nothing
5. Picked apples from the branches that had been cut off our apple tree
6. Laughed when I realized that we weren't the only ones who watched Kimbo Slice
7. Brushed Elis teeth without him crying for the first time in weeks
8. I went to bed at 9. It had been a long day

8 things I look FORWARD to:
1. Watching my boys grow into men
2. Going back to work
3. Being financially stable... no debt... lots of reserve... no worries
4. Being food storage competent (have 1 yr and USE it)
5. Spring and warmer weather
6. Nathan waking up. He almost always has a smile on his face
7. Eli learning how to read
8. Going to sleep every night. :)

8 things I love about FALL...
1. That spring will come back eventually?
2. That somewhere in the world, the trees are turning beautiful shades of red, orange and yellow and staying that way for more than a weekend
3. General Conference
4. Nathans birthday and Chris' birthday
5. Thanksgiving
6. ok, I can't think of 8 things... I really don't love fall. Its the time that it gets cold and all the swimming pools close. LOL!

8 Things on my WISHLIST:
1. A wheat grinder!!!!!!!
2. For my boys to make good choices throughout their life
3. that Nathan would sleep 12 hours at night instead of 10 (yes, I'm greedy)
4. a room dedicated ONLY to food storage
5. paying off the house would be nice
6. that I could eat anything and it wouldn't be added to my hips
7. for our garage to be cleaned out before the snow starts.
8. more time to catch up on my tv shows (may be linked to #3)

8 People I'm taggin...

1. Anyone reading this

21 pounder

Yes, my chubs is officially 21 lbs. (and 27.5 inches short) This makes him 20% for weight, less than 3% for height and 90% for head (shocker). On the down side he has a double ear infection which I guess has been in there for a long time. The doctor seemed concerned, but we'll go back in a few weeks to make sure everything is healed. Lucky us!

Happy Birthday Nathan!!!!!!!

Well yesterday was Nathans 1st birthday. What a day. Chris took off work to be with his parents so we spent 98% of the day sitting around asking... 'What should we do today?' and 'Where should we go?'. Chris' mom made a pancakes, eggs and bacon breakfast which was great, but after some eggs for Nathan he ended up throwing up. Fun times. I felt really bad, he was in his crib (trying) to go to sleep and he kept crying. I thought it was because he had dropped his pacifier which he ALWAYS does. (he had by the way) but then after his nap I see he had thrown up... bad mommy. :(

He sprung right back though and was fine the rest of the day. We played a little mini-golf and then came home to get ready for the family. Actually, first I took the boys up to buy some birthday balloons for Nathan. When we left the party store, Nathan was in heaven. He LOVED the balloons. We were getting into the car and Nathan was bouncing them around everywhere Eli said "this is his best birthday EVER!". I had to agree with him. His only other birthday was his actual BIRTH day, and I'm thinking that wasn't such a great day for him. Getting ripped from your warm, dark, quiet home to the cold, loud, bright world where they stick you with needles and you get hungry all the time. Must have been the worst day of his life. :) And one of the best days of mine. He has come so far from that day and so many things have happened. I can't believe it was a year ago. I still feel pregnant with him sometimes (which by the way also reminds me how awful it was) but it couldn't have been that long ago if I still remember. I guess I still remember Eli inside me too. Maybe its just something a mom doesn't forget. I don't know. All I can say is that I'm so happy that I have 2 wonderful and healthy children.

So back to our day. We had everyone come over last night to have dinner and spend time with Chris' parents and to celebrate Nathans birthday. Tacos and cake. yum! Thank you everyone for coming up.

Eating dinner

These are Chris' parents and his sister Mary
Nathan eating dinner
Nathans birthday cake. Covered in whipped cream and blueberries. (he loves blueberries)
Not quite sure what to do.
ok, so he likes the whipped cream part.
his finished product.
presents!!!

My new favorite song

I love this song and I've been cleaning to it most of the day. I'm going to admit that I've been dancing around the house most of the morning as well. LOL!

Scrub scrub

(thats what I wish I was doing) but I'm not. I'm posting a blog while I make lunch. :)
Chris' parents get into town tomorrow and I would like my house to be a little cleaner than it is at the moment. I haven't been feeling well the last couple days so my house has fallen into disarray. Serious disarray. Much like it was when I was working and just didn't have time... I have a list of stuff I would still like to get done, and there is a very small glimmer of hope that its possible. Otherwise, I'll have to live with the fact that I had the best of intentions.

So one thing that I haven't mentioned yet is Eli. On Sunday, he was in his very first Primary Sacrament meeting. He did so good! The little sunbeams were all in the first row looking so cute. He sang maybe 30% of the songs, but he gave his line "Jesus Christ Loves Me" right into the microphone - no problems. He was also excited too that he got to eat popcorn and watch a movie for sharing time. There is a little girl in his class who actually sang a solo as part of the Sacrament meeting. She sang the 4th verse (which I don't even know) of I am a child of God. It was so cute and so touching. To just see this little 4 yr old all by herself. so sweet. Well, lunch is ready. Wish me luck!

Nathan updates

Go Nathan!! I'm very excited to announce (no he isn't walking) but he is walking along furniture!! I don't have to go to his 1 yr appt and say he doesn't do that. I was so dreading it. Last time it was about 70/30 of things he doesn't do to things he was doing by 9 months. I was afraid the list for his 1 yr appt would be equally bad - but I don't know. Maybe it won't?

He is also climbing stairs - much to my chagrin. He was up 2 stairs before I even noticed today and climbed all 7 with no problem. The worst part is that he has to climb with you behind him without him knowing you're behind him. Does that make sense? I have just noticed that as soon as he realizes there is someone behind him, he wants to turn around mid staircase and sit down. Unfortunately stairs are not that wide... No falls yet, but there will be many. It just changes everything now. When we were downstairs we didn't have to worry. Well, let the worrying begin!
(sob)

And this is just a video that made me laugh. Little brothers for generations have been picked on. I guess this one is no different. Yes, I did put him in the bucket, but just because he looked like he would fit. Eli put the toys in. Poor kid...

Note to self

Don't go a full week without reading blogs or email. It takes way too long to catch up.

Simplify

Do you ever wonder in a given day how many things you do that you could more simply? I always seem to do things the hard way and then keep doing them that way just because thats how I've always done it.
My example is this... bath time.
Since Nathan was born, he has been in a baby tub. We've always had separate bath times for the kids and its worked out just fine. I'd bathe one kid, bring him down to Chris and give the next one a bath. Why I kept doing it this way for so long is beyond me. I understand that at the beginning Nathan needed to be in a baby tub... he couldn't sit up. But for months now I"ve kept it up just the same. So a couple nights ago I put them both in the tub together (mostly because I was exhausted and it was getting late). WOW!! SO much easier!! They play together, splash and have a great time and then they're done. Both done. I can put Nathan in his pajamas while Eli gets dressed in his. No shuffling or dealing with where to put the other kid... I've been doing it the hard way for so long just because its how I've always done it and I've never thought about simplifying my life.

So how else can I apply my new lesson? I've been thinking about chores and cleaning and I haven't thought of any other ones yet... but its probably because I can't see the forest for the trees. oh well. I guess I'll enjoy my extra 10 minutes every evening. :)

As for how we're doing all is well. Chris is painting our kitchen. RED. We nixed the yellow and its going to be a very dark deep red. It has some orangish tints in the swatch, and I'm very curious how it'll turn out on the wall. I'm also very curious to see how on earth I'm going to get my house clean for game night. We're having a game night at our house on Friday and with everything in the kitchen torn up for the paint... well its a tornado in here! I'm sure everyone will understand if its not perfect. (right??) ;) I'll clean next week when Chris' parents come to town.

Then there is Nathan who is sick or teething or something. He screamed for 2 solid hours today. He would stand up in his crib and scream... so tired he would almost fall over. I think he had a stuffy nose and every time he laid down he wouldn't be able to breath. who knows. He seems fine now, but a little warm. ugh. I guess we'll find out tomorrow if he is sick or not. Why does he have to get sick now? He already has an appt in a week and a half for his 1 yr old checkup. It seems like such a waste to have to go to the doctor twice in 2 weeks. you know? I'm sure he is fine. ok, so I'm not sure, but I hope. I hope he is fine.
So thats it for us. And if you have any thoughts on other things you have found that help simplify your life - let me know!! I'm always up for suggestions.

No more CNN for me

I've officially banned myself. It just makes me upset and ends up ruining my day. Nathan was up a little early this morning and the channel was already set to CNN (and I didn't change it). So I listened for about an hour or so of how awful our economy is and how the stock market has been crashing these last few days and how all these major corporations are getting bought out by the government and what this means for us. Oh goody.
Somebody please tell me how we got in to this mess in the first place? I know that economy's are cyclical and everything that goes up must come down and it will go up again but this seems worse than downturns we've had in the past. I have to say that its very nice of these other countries to be feeding us more money that we can't afford but really! In the last couple weeks we're over $300 Billion more in debt from just company bailouts alone. I guess my question is - when is our government going to declare bankruptcy? Who is going to bail it out when it realizes there is no where left to turn? We're building ourselves a house of cards that will collapse eventually. It just scares me. Maybe I'm just a pessimist and everything will turn out ok, it just seems to me that we're putting a bandaid on a broken leg.
My favorite line this morning was some reporter lady who was on the stock exchange floor who said that this major downturn over the last few days was supposed to be a 'message' to Washington that they wanted leadership. Both in the White House now and in the coming election. Ummm.... who exactly is that going to be?? Economic leadership??? who has the understanding to run a company? balance a budget? hmmm... none of them? Our candidates are Senators. They are not Governors or CEO's. Some of them I agree with a little more on how they spend money, but I'm not going to get in to that right now.
Sorry for my ranting. Now you know the reason for my new rule: Not allowed to watch CNN before breakfast.
...ok, editing to add something. A friend pointed me in the direction of this post. Its just a random person commenting on a news article so take it for what its worth, but its exactly how I feel, and he makes some excellent points. It also makes me scared to death. (especially the end of the 2nd to last paragraph) yikes!!!!!

All these bailouts are tantamount to robbery of the American people by our own Treasury. It is the greatest rip off in history being done right under our own noses and no one is saying anything to stop it.

All the bailouts will fail. The debt bubble is too large and will deflate no matter what the Fed, the Treasury and Congress do. Bush is such a coward he would not even have a press conference yesterday after getting updated on the situation. He is so stupid he probably didn’t know what to say anyway. This administration is largely responsible for what we are facing now by ignoring domestic issues in favor of a needless foreign war. Don’t forget that when you vote in November.

The bigger question is this: WHO WILL BAIL OUT THE USA? Our debt (government and private) is so large it is impossible to repay. So my thinking is the government will continue to bail out companies like AIG just to buy time. After all, the numbers have become meaningless.

Here are some basic facts that dictate why there will be no housing or economic recovery anytime soon.

1. Our society is consumer driven to an absurd degree (70-80%). Less than 10% of our economy is manufacturing based and is shrinking daily. We do not have the manufacturing means to support ourselves. We must import just to survive.
2. Unemployment is growing and is substantially higher than government figures show. The use of the birth/death model has completely understated unemployment to make the economy look better than it is and this was done by design by our government.
3. Incomes have not grown for the average American in real terms in decades. We are already getting poorer.
4. We have used up ALL our credit. Home equity loans, car loans, credit cards, etc. Nothing is paid for. We not only borrowed against current and future earnings but also equity that no longer exists.
5. We, as consumers, have saved nothing for years and therefore have no cushion to fall back on in hard times.
6. Pensions are either nonexistent or under-funded.
7. The economic boom in the USA from 1982 to 2006 was achieved through inorganic growth. That means through mergers and acquisitions and stock buybacks rather than product development and innovation, which is organic growth. Organic growth is self-sustaining while inorganic growth is not.
8. By displacing jobs overseas, our companies depleted our own economy of the consumers it desperately needs to sustain itself.
9. Our government is completely out of touch with reality and has failed the American people. Moreover, their excess spending crowds everyone else out of the credit market.
10. There is no accountability.

All of these issues must be addressed before a sustainable recovery can begin. Our system is fundamentally broken. The virtuous circle created by Republicans Greenspan and Reagan is now the vicious circle. As the famed Austrian economist Kurt Richebacher said a few years ago warning about this calamity to come, “Every market excess must be followed by a market correction of equal or greater magnitude.” The recent market excess was the biggest in history.

We know the credit crisis is far from over. Hang on to your cash, sell your stocks and get out of debt. No one knows how it will play out but these 3 precautions will help you survive.

Crawling

I FINALLY got videos of Nathan crawling. I wanted to get one of him army crawling before he started 'regular' crawling (which he is starting to do). And I did!!! He is still in the transition phase. He still gets around much quicker army style, but he is figuring out the regular crawl (albeit a little wobbly) very fast. It should be said that when Eli was this age - he was still immobile. LOL!
And to give credit where credit is due - the background music is thanks to Danas blog. ;)

This is his new 'trick'. He can crawl like the regular kids!! Mommy is thankful, because it'll save the fronts of his shirts from becoming as dingy and dirty as they have been.



Nathans special way of crawling. He can zip around on the gym floor at church... just ask Daddy.

Zodiac signs

Ok, so I'm not an astrological person myself (at all) but I saw a Baby Story recently where they actually wanted a certain sign, so they tried really hard that month and they got their wish. It was just so strange to me, because I have never thought about horoscopes or any of that when it comes to my kids. Anyway, it got me curious as to what my kids were and if it 'fit'. Here are my findings... (found from Wikepedia)
Eli is a Gemini. It says that characteristics are straight forward, open-minded, friendly, outgoing, playful but that they are self oriented, superficial, insensitive and vain. I'm going to have to wait on that one. At the moment I'm going to say no. He is a helper and a giver. He wants nothing more than to be there for someone. (this is why I don't listen to horoscopes)
Nathan is a Libra. This one actually made me laugh. He is easy going, sociable, peace loving, sensitive, fair and cheerful. But in the physical characteristics... it says that they have a 'trademark' dimple. Crazy huh?? Maybe there's something to this astrology stuff. LOL!

Anyway, just thought I would share. BTW I'm a Cancer who is widely thought to be compatible with Scorpio (which is what Chris is)

Veggie Tales and other updates

This is Eli's new favorite thing. He is - shall we say obsessed with veggie tales?? He would watch them ALL day if I let him. As it is, I've limited it to 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the afternoon. Thanks to Grandma Gillie, we have a bunch in the house so he is able to rotate through them... thank goodness. Last night we went down to the Utah State Fair where they had a Veggie Tales program. They had life size vegetables on stage singing a bunch of the songs from the different shows. The actual story line and acting from the people in the production was awful, but Eli enjoyed it and especially when they started singing songs that he was more familiar with - he was having a blast. Even as I am sitting here writing, he is asking to go again.

In other news, Eli still loves preschool, I have 2 bags of peaches on my counter waiting to be cut up, and I have finally organized Nathans baby clothes. He had a pile of clothes on his closet floor from winter that are now too small, so I went through them today (it was seriously getting out of control). Pile for getting rid of and a pile to keep. I'm impressed with how much I got rid of. I really didn't feel the need to keep that much. Unfortunately, that also came with bringing out the winter clothes (for this coming winter), so they are now strewn all across his floor at the moment. I'm hoping that I can tackle one clutter pile a day and get my house organized a little better than its been. Its overwhelming when you're at home staring at it all day.

Oh, and I can officially talk "Veronica Mars". I am finished with all 3 seasons. (and Chris is almost done with Season 1) Is it just me, or did the 3rd season not really end????? It was shorter than the others and it didn't have any finality to it. I was sad. Although on the last disk they had what season 4 would have been had they picked it up again... looks like it would have been a really good show. It would be her first year in the FBI. New characters, new look, new everything. Oh well. I guess the creator wants to do a movie or something in the next couple years, so hopefully I can get another 'fix'. He said something about picking up while still in college so that all the characters can still be there. I think I might even try to watch Moonlight this season just to see Jason Dohring. ;) He's so cute... Although I don't know how cute he'll be with fangs and vampire eyes... oh well.

Soccer Time!

No more firsts!! I can't take them anymore. I guess its fun to see Eli doing so many new things and today was no different. It was Eli's very first soccer game. He is on the team with his friend Jeffrey, and 3 other boys. Jeffrey's mom Windy is the coach. (by the way, Great job Windy)

I think Eli had a good time, but the field was right next to the playground, and you could tell the team would have preferred to play on it instead. Actually, one little boy ran onto the slide during an out of bounds ball. Eli threw a fit when it was his turn to go play and he couldn't go on to the playground. Oh well. They are still so young, but if today was any indication - soccer is not his sport. LOL! The good news is that he wants to play again next week and he says that he had fun. Yeah Eli!!!

This is a picture of one of his teammates Dax. Dax was the "power forward" shall we say? He made a few goals, but not all of them for his own team.


Eli throwing the ball in. It took a minute or two to actually get the kids to watch the ball. They were a little distracted...

All done playing. Go REDS!!!

My babys first day of preschool

He is so grown up. Today was Eli's first day of preschool. He had a great time (I think). He didn't say too much. They went outside, drew some pictures and sang a song about a fish and a whale? We signed him in and there was kind of a lot of commotion going on with all the parents, so I walked out of the room and hung out in the hallway for a few seconds. I looked back at him and he had this worried look on his face like he didn't know where to go or what to do. So I went back in, showed him where the toys were and then left. They seem very routine oriented, which is great for him. He does really well with order and routine. If he goes in and knows what to do every day - he is going to have so much fun. Anyway, here is my little guy all excited for his big day.

Family

We got to spend the evening last night at Chris' sister Marys house. Jo Ann was in town taking their daughter Camie to school, so we all hung out for a few hours and had dinner. It was nice and all is well. This picture is a few of Chris' sisters. Actually, its 1/2 of the Porter children. He is the youngest of 8.