HAPPY THANKGIVING

This Thanksgiving, we have so much to be thankful for. I am so thankful for so many things. Here are just a couple of things that I am thankful for:

~My amazing husband Paul who does so much for me and for our little baby.

~My beautiful baby boy Porter who has brought so much happiness and joy into our lives.

~My wonderful friends and family who have been there for me through all of lifes challenges.

~The gospel (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) which has given me such great hope and brings peace and comfort into my life.

We went to my Mom's house in Pleasant Grove to celebrate Thanksgiving with all of my siblings (except Donna's family). Even my Mom's cousin Kjetil and his wife and daughter were able to come over to spend Thanksgiving with us. We had a wonderful evening. My Mom is such an amazing cook and cooked lots and lots of incredibly delicious foods. We had turkey, ham, 2 kinds of stuffing, rolls, delicious salads, yams, potatoes and gravy, cranberry bread, fruit and vegies, and pies and cookies for dessert. I ATE SO MUCH and it was worth every calorie!! It was so much fun celebrating Porters 1st Thanksgiving. He was so cute dressed up and wearing his little Thankgiving bib. His favorite foods from the Thanksgiving dinner were: The jello, the rolls, the stuffing, and his all time favorite were the yams. He ate so much!! We had tons of fun talking and hanging out with family. Thanks so much Mom for all of your hard work in preparing such an amazing Thankgiving for us all. We love you!! HAPPY THANKGIVING EVERYONE!!

PORTER IS 9 MONTHS OLD

Yesterday our little guy turned 9 months and boy is he growing up!! We are just so in love with this baby boy. I can't believe all of the changes that he has experienced in just the past month. First of all, he started crawling. It is incredible how fast he is able to get wherever he wants to go. He also started holding onto ANYTHING and lift himself up to a standing position. He also recently started walking alongside the front of the couch a couple of steps while holding on. Probably his favorite hightlight of the day is bathtime. He just plays and plays and has so much fun. He is getting too big for his bath chair and tries to crawl right off it. It is getting kinda crazy keeping him safe in the bath because he tries and tries to stand up and just wants to move all around in the bath tub. I know one of these days, he is going to bump his head pretty hard. He loves opening and closing drawers and emptying what's inside them. He loves singing songs and his favorites are: 'Intsy wintsy spider' (he tries to do the actions..soooo cute), 'patty cake', and 'If you're happy and you know it clap your hands'. He is so cute when he tries to talk. He still says "HI DAD" so well and very often and it is so cute when he says it. About 4 days ago he said "MAMA" for the first time...FINALLY...YES!! :) It is so much fun listening to him put syllables together. He still isn't liking to eat his cereal very much. We have started making him "bottle shakes" a couple of times a day with the left over cereal (and meat, fruit and veggies) that he didn't finish for his meals. At least now we know that when he doesn't eat well during meal time, he is still getting the nourishment that he needs. He loves finger foods. His favorites are macaroni noodles, bananas, mashed potatoes, bread pieces with jelly, and cut up carrots. It is so adorable watching grab the food with his thumb and index finger in his 'pincer grasp' when he picks up his food. He also loves drinking out of his sippy cup.
We took him in for his 9 month checkup last week (about 6 days before he turned 9 months) and he weighed 18 lbs 5oz (15th%) and was 27 1/2 inches (25%) and his head was 44 (15%). The doctor said that he is reaching all of his milestones very well, and again the doctor couldn't believe how strong he was. Luckily, Porter doesn't have to get any more shots until he is 12 months. HAPPY 9 MONTHS PORTER! We love you more than you will ever know.

To celebrate his 9 month birthday, Porter and I went to 'baby music and story time' at the library in West Jordan. We had such a great time. It was full of lots of fun baby stories and cute songs and puppets. The kids even got their hands stamped with turkey feet. Porter absolutely loved it. It was so much fun to see how incredibly social he was. He went and sat by the other kids and crawled all around looking at everything, not shy at all. He even started clapping his hands during one of the songs. It was so cute to watch.

Pictures of Porter

Here are some cute pictures taken of Porter the past couple of weeks. Isn't he growing up so fast!! I love him so much and am so thankful that I get to be his Mom! I never knew that being a Mom would be this wonderful!! ENJOY!

Porter in the Snow

It finally snowed today and we were so excited to take Porter out to play in it and see how he would react. We weren't outside for too long because we still haven't bought him snow boots and it was FREEZING outside. But he absolutely loved it. He sat there and kept trying to eat the snow. He loved the way that it felt and kept kicking his legs through the snow. What a cutie!! Enjoy the pictures!!

Porter Vids

The last couple of weeks, Porter has really figured out some awesome tricks. About 2 weeks ago he started crawling and can get anywhere he wants to go in just a couple of seconds. It is so cute to watch him go. This video is of one of the first times he ever crawled..he is so cute. Last week, he also started waving his hands for 'good bye and hi'!! Soooo adorable. He also has started being able to hold on anything to get himself to a standing position. He pulls himself up so he can stands up holding on to the couch, his crib, tables, chairs, etc. He is growing up so fast. Before I know it, he will be a toddler and not a little baby anymore. We hope that you enjoy this cute video of Porter. I was going to add a couple of videos, but I keep making them too long so they won't let me put them on here! I will remember to take some shorter ones next time!!

Fall Catch up!

WOW.. it has been a while since I have blogged, so here I am playing catch again. Just to warn you..there are tons of pictures on this post. We have really enjoyed the Fall season this year. I love everything about Fall. I love taking long walks in the cooler weather, I love wearing sweaters and jackets, cooking soups and stews and baking pies, celebrating Halloween and I especially love the changing colors of the leaves. This Fall, Porter and I have spent a great amount of time playing in the leaves. It has been so much fun watching him touch the leaves and listen to the crackling sounds that they make. Here are a bunch of pictures of Porter playing in the leaves.

We also found out last Monday, that we would be moving to a 4-plex in Bountiful. We found an awesome deal and moved 5 days later. Talk about stressful!! It is a lot harder to pack and unpack when you have a small baby. But our apartment is almost set up to how we like it. Living up here will be so much better for Paul making him much closer to his work and to school. We had been living with my family for a long time and will miss them a lot! We really appreciate my Mom for letting us live there for so long and for all that she did for us while we were there. We also really appreciate all of those that came and helped us move. Thanks so much everyone!!!

We had a WONDERFUL Halloween and I can't believe that it is over already. We had a very fun Halloween party at my aunts house a couple of weeks before Halloween and then celebrated on the 31st with my family. My Mom made an incredible Halloween dinner which included delicious Cream of potatoe and broccoli soup (served in a pumpkin), breadsticks (shaped like bones), yummy dip (with carrots 'fingers'), apple scary teeth, a cheese, meat and cracker platter, chips, and an awesome drink with 'fish' and 'fish eggs', etc. After dinner, we put Porter down for the night and we all watched 1408. It was super scary and perfect for Halloween night (even though I hated the ending.) For Halloween Porter was an adorable dragon. He was SUPER cute in his costume. Paul and I were supposed to be a knight and a princess to match Porter, but when we went shopping for costumes Paul saw a Wheaties box and had to be it for Halloween. (MEN..haha) So I found a "Lady of Versailles" costume.. and none of us matched..whoops! But we still have fun. And yes, I do know that my hair is showing in the front of my wig..haha! :)