Painting With Porter

We have an artistic little boy on our hands who LOVES to paint. Give him a paintbrush and some paint and he could paint for HOURS and HOURS. I discovered these awesome washable paints that makes it super easy for Porter to paint. And the best part is that the mess cleans up super easy afterwards. He loves them and it is so much fun to watch him paint. And I love his super out of control curly hair in these pictures! What a sweetie!!
I think this will become a weekly activity for us!! :)

Elsa is 1 Year Old!!

On April 14th, my adorable little niece Elsa turned 1 years old. The Saturday after her birthday we celebrated her birthday. They had her party in the back yard of their church and it was perfect. They had a tea party theme with lots of yummy treats and Dara made beautiful decorations and the yummiest carrot cake ever. The weather was absolutely beautiful and everyone had a wonderful time. Little Elsa was so stinkin cute in her little birthday dress. I can't believe she is already 1 years old. She started her life in the NICU for quite some time, and now look at this precious little girl. She is so happy and doing so well. Time flies so quickly. Here's the cute birthday girl!Here's Elsa and her Mommy. And Elsa and her Daddy. Here's Elsa, her Mommy, and her Grandma Magee. Here's me with the birthday girl. I am such a proud aunt. She is just such a sweetheart. And here's some pictures of the guests having a great time.
Elsa got some super fun presents. The funniest thing was when she opened her wooden puzzle sets and she was so excited and put the pieces in her mouth like a binky..haha!!The carrot cake that Dara made for Elsa was fantastic. I would love the recipe Dara!! Elsa couldn't get enough of it. She was so cute eating her cake. When we sang Happy Birthday to her, Porter sang every word and so loud. He was so adorable. I wish I would have got that on tape.Porter had fun helping his uncle Erik put away the tables when the party was done. He loves his uncle so much. He follows him everywhere!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELSA!! We love you so much and are so proud of you!!

Owls

A couple of months ago, Paul had Porter on his lap and was showing him some clips on the internet of owls. Porter was absolutely fascinated and a bit scared of them as well. Ever since then, he talks about them all of the time. We will be playing with his toys and all of a sudden he will say, "Mamma...shhhh..listen, I hear owls" or he will say, "Owls under blanket, owls in closet, owls behind couch, owls under the bed, etc. etc. etc." And then we will have to go and look everywhere to show him that there are no owls. Or sometimes he will start scaring himself and get a serious look on his face and run up to us and say, "Mamma, Daddy..owls coming." He'll be playing with his friends and all of a sudden he will stop and say, "listen, I hear owls." His friends look at him like he is a little bit crazy.. poor kid. We have started saying that the owls aren't here, they are at their homes with their Mommy and Daddy to help him feel better, so that has helped a little bit. But anyways, we finally decided to buy him a stuffed owl to help him get over his fear. So here he is with his new owl.
We were afraid that he might be scared of his new owl, but he loves him and plays with him all the time. He even sleeps with him at night. Hopefully the fear of owls will soon be gone! :-)

Porter loves Norwegian Grøt

Norwegian Grøt is basically a thick white sauce that is also used as a snack in Norway. All children in Norway eat Grøt. I remember my Mom making it all the time for us when I was younger. We ate it many times as an evening snack before we went to bed. It is the one thing that we have found that Porter absolutely LOVES and will eat any time. We discovered that he loved it for the first time when we were in Norway. My Norwegian Grandma made it for him and he couldn't stop eating it. He loved it! So every evening when Porter hasn't eaten very well through the day, we make it for him before he goes to bed. It's actually pretty good, you should make it sometime.

Here is the recipe for 1 serving
4 tablespoons butter
3/4 c. milk
2 heaping tablespoons flour
Sugar

In a saucepan, melt butter on medium high heat. Add flour while mixing. Continue mixing until a paste is formed. Remove from heat. Sprinkle sugar on top and serve. I also sometimes mix in fruit, add yogurt, and/ or sprinkle some cinnamon on top. Yummy!!

I'm a Big Boy Now

So for the last couple of months or so, Porter figured out how to jump out of his crib. The past week or so, it got really out hand and he would jump out and then back in like 20,000 times before he would fall asleep. Paul was convinced that it would just make matters worse by putting him in a toddler bed, but I somehow finally convinced him that Porter was definitely ready for a toddler bed, and it was better to face the inevitable. So last Friday, the 22nd.. we bought Porter a toddler bed. The whole evening while Paul was setting up his bed, we kept talking about how he was getting a 'new big boy bed' and he seemed pretty excited about it. When it was finally set up, he jumped right on the bed and played for a while. He was so happy. That night he fell asleep super easy because we put him to bed way past his bedtime. Since then, it usually takes him a little while to fall asleep..but he is doing much better than we thought he would. Here's cute little Porter on his 1st night with his new toddler bed.And here's how I found him when I went to check on him after he was asleep..haha!

In other news, last Thursday, the 14th, was Porter's 1st day wearing 'Big Boy Underwear'. We had bought some a couple of weeks ago, but he wasn't interested whatsoever. Then out of the blue, he asked me if he could please wear his 'Buzz and Woody' underwear. He grabbed them and even put them on himself..haha! We have been putting them on him every day after his nap. We aren't too concerned to get him potty trained as soon as possible, but we are just getting him used to the idea. When he wears them, I stick him on the potty about every half an hour until bedtime and he does great. He has only had 1 accident since wearing his underwear after naps. We have been giving him 1 mini M&M for every time he goes pee in the potty, and 2 M&M's for every time he goes poop in the potty. It's so funny because when he first figured out that he got a treat for going pee, he would go to the potty over and over again and sit there and just squeeze as hard as he could until just a little drop would come out and then say, "mommy..M&M please"..haha. He's a smart little cookie. Hopefully soon I will get the courage up to put them on for full days. What a cute big boy bum! :)
I can't believe how many changes my little boy is experiencing right now. He is just growing up so fast!! I love watching all of the new things that he is doing and learning. But part of me gets sad that he is so quickly moving away from the 'baby' stage. I have the most adorable little boy in the world!! I hope he knows how much we love him!! He just melts my heart every day!

Sis Cerra Visits From Arizona

My sister in law Cerra was here on a business trip last week and we got to spend some time with her. It was so good seeing her again and catching up since she lives in Arizona and we don't get to see her very often. Her work set her up in a fancy suite at a hotel, and I was so excited that she invited me for a sleep over on her first night there. I didn't know what to do with myself since I haven't been babyless for over 2 years at night..haha! We had so much fun drinking tons of chocolate milk and chatting the night away that we ended up getting only about 2 hours of sleep..but it was so worth it. The next evening, we had a family pizza party for Cerra at my brother in law Bill's and his wife Julie's house. It was a lot of fun spending time with family. Porter doesn't see Cerra very often, but he warmed up immediately and couldn't stay away.Porter also hadn't seen his cousins for a long time so he had so much fun playing with them. Aren't they so cute!!The last night that Cerra was in Utah, she was brave enough to stay with us! It was so much fun having her here with us, and Porter was in heaven!! He thought it was the best thing ever to have his aunt around. When Porter went to sleep, we got a little crazy and took hundreds of pictures of us hanging out on the couch..haha!! It sounds a little silly, but it was hilarious and so much fun..haha!! Here's a couple of our 'photo shots'!It was so much fun catching up with you Cerra and thank so much for making time for us while you were here! We love you so much and hopefully it isn't too long until next time!!