the Paul + Emily blog

More Kaden Pics

2012-01-29T22:58:00.001-07:00

This little Kaden of ours is seriously so adorable. I don’t know how we were blessed with 2 absolutely handsome and perfect little boys!! And I think they look so much alike. Just wanted to post some cute pictures of our new little boy! Enjoy!

Little Porter was such a great big helper and was pushing little Kaden in the swing.

My heart is seriously melting. Isn’t he just too cute for words!! I love him!

Kaden Johan Craven

2012-01-28T23:15:00.001-07:00

Our little Kaden is finally here and he is absolutely perfect!! It feels so good being able to finally be a family of 4. It is amazing how quickly we bond with these sweet little spirits that enter our family. We are just so in love with our little boy. I feel so bad that it took me so long to write his birth story, but I guess better late than never.

So we were planning on being induced last Monday the 23rd, but then the day before after church, I noticed that my feet and legs started swelling up super bad. My thighs even started turning black and blue from lack of circulation we think. They got so bad that I called my doctor and he decided to induce me Sunday night instead. The doctor told us to make it to the hospital in an hour if we could. We called my brother Teddy to come and stay with Porter at our house, packed our bags, and headed to LDS hospital were we would deliver. That is also the hospital that I was born at so that made it kind of special. I was a little anxious, but Paul was as calm as could be which really helped me. We got to the hospital around 4:45 PM. When we got to the hospital it took us a while to get checked in and to get the paper work done and everything. Here is Paul and I right after getting checked in to the hospital right before everything was started.

My Mom and my sisters Natasha and Donna were all there to see little Kaden born which was wonderful. And my brother in law Geoff and my Mother in Law Cheryl also came to visit during the labor. I love the support that my family shows.

At around 6:00, they started hooking me up the IV’S. They started the Pitocin and my contractions started right away but weren’t painful at all. The anesthesiologist was called in to help with a c-section so they asked me if I wanted my epidural before he left in case the contractions got harder quickly. I said sure. I thought it was pretty amazing that I had my epidural even before any pain was felt..haha. Completely different than what I experienced with little Porter. After I received my epidural, the upped the Pitocin level and everything seemed to be going great. It was pretty fun watching the intensity of my contractions and even though they were at the highest intensity I was having a great ‘ol time watching Monsters Inc. with my family..haha. Kaden was such a busy body that they had a hard time keeping tract of his heart rate. They kept having to readjust the heart rate straps. Finally at about 9:00 PM they broke my water and then decided to insert an internal heart rate monitor where they inserted the monitor right next to his head. No matter where he moved, the monitor would stay by him.

At around midnight, they noticed that Kaden’s heart rate would drop to extremely low levels every time that I would have a contraction. It was so scary watching his heart rate start in the 150’s and drop to below 50 sometimes in the matter of seconds. The nurse ended up turning down the Pitocin level’s every half and hour or so until she decided that his heart rate was too low to even let me have any more contractions and she turned the Pitocin completely off. She also put me on oxygen for a while to see if that would help.

Once my contractions stopped, his heart rate returned to normal. They decided that it was probably the cord wrapped around his neck that was tightening with each contraction. The nurse then tubed water back inside my uterus to see if that would help the corn to float and move away from his neck.

After a couple of hours of monitoring his heart rate, we realized that the only way to get this little kid here safe was to have an Emergency C-Section. Here is cute Paul dressed up and ready for this baby to get here.

I bawled like a baby when I found out. I was scared to death and having a c-section was definitely not in the plan book. But I am so incredibly thankful for modern technology and that we had amazing doctors and nurses and that we were able to get our beautiful boy safely here. Our doctor that delivered him..Dr. Ward, was absolutely amazing. He was so sensitive to the situation and worked quickly and professionally. Paul sat by me during the C-Section and held my hand the whole time. It only took them about 5 minutes to get little Kaden born, and then about 20 minutes to stitch me back up. We found out that Kaden had the cord wrapped tightly around his neck and that his head was also facing up instead of the floor which prevented me from birthing vaginally.

The minute I heard his little cries, I just started bawling again. It was so wonderful hearing him and knowing that he was finally here. He is our miracle baby.

He was 6 lbs 13 oz. and 21 inches long. He had a little black fuzz on his head, tall and skinny, dark blue beautiful eyes and he was perfect as perfect can be. And I think that he looks exactly like Paul. Such a handsome little guy.

From the moment that I first held him, he had such a feeling of calmness and peacefulness surrounding him. He is such a special little boy and I know that he will do many wonderful things in his life. He already is such a blessing to our family. I am so thankful for our little Kaden and I just know that we are going to have many amazing times and moments together. I am so thankful for the opportunity that I have to be a Mother and I am so blessed for the two sweet little spirits that Heavenly Father has entrusted to me. Here are my handsome boys. I am so incredibly lucky.

Our hospital stay went quickly and we were well taken care of. Here is where Paul slept.

Thank you so much for all of our friends and family that came to support us while we were in the hospital.

And thank you so much for all of you that have visited us since we have been home and brought meals. We are so thankful for all of you and love you so much. You are the best!! The last night before we went home, Kaden tested at High Risk for jaundice, so they wheeled him away and made him sleep in a bili bed.

The next morning They said that his jaundice levels had gone way down but we need to get tested again in the next couple of days. We will keep you updated.

Here is cute little Kaden bundled up all ready to make his journey home from the hospital.

What a beautiful little boy. We love you so much Kaden!!

Pneumonia

2012-01-27T19:16:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Porter suddenly woke up in the middle of the night coughing so hard that he sounded like a barking seal. He was also having a lot of trouble breathing. Porter has had a couple of friends that he has played with recently that have had the croup, so we were for sure that is what it was. The next morning he wasn’t any better so we took him into get checked. I almost died when they told me that he had pneumonia. They said that the majority of the pneumonia was in his left lung and that he would have to be placed on antibiotics. Porter seems to get sick a lot, but never with anything this big. He ran a fever of 103 for about 3 days before it broke. He was so sick and this is how our days were pretty much spent.

And he had never been on antibiotics before. After being on the antibiotic (amoxicillin) for about a week, we noticed that he started breaking out in horrible rashes all over his body. He was so uncomfortable. I called the pediatrician and were told to cover his rashes with hydrocortisone cream and to give him Benadryl. They were pretty sure that it was an allergic reaction to his antibiotic. Poor little Porter. We switched him to a new antibiotic and the next 3 days his rash would seem to clear and then in the evenings it would come back full force.

So we kept giving him the cream and Benadryl and eventually it has seemed to clear up.

He is still coughing (2 weeks later) but is feeling much better.

Sledding with Daddy

2012-01-15T22:14:00.001-07:00

Almost every morning this winter when Porter gets up, he runs over to the window to look outside to see if it had snowed. We have had such a mild Winter so far and poor little Porter wanted to go sledding so bad. Finally last week (January 7th), we had our first awesome snow storm. We were so excited that there was enough snow to go sledding. We all bundled up nice and warm, headed outside to first shovel the walks, and then headed to a nearby park that has some awesome sledding hills.

I wasn’t much fun and couldn’t really go sledding in fears that our baby would be born on the hill..but Paul and Porter had tons of fun together.

Paul made these awesome ‘stairs’ to make climbing up the hill much easier for them. Almost everyone at the park started using them. Go Paul!

This little guy has no fears. He just sat on the sled and went down every hill he could. Every time Paul pushed him down he would scream “Buzz Lightyear..to infinity and beyond” He was so cute!!

Paul discovered that his snow pants were extremely slippery and perfect for sliding down the hill..haha. It looked like so much fun. Here Paul is taking a break at the top of the hill before sliding down.

Paul made a huge snowball and Porter thought it was the coolest thing ever.

We had such a fun afternoon! I love my cute boys and I love the snow!!

37/ 38 Week Update

2012-01-15T21:30:00.001-07:00

Our sweet little boy is almost here!! I can’t believe it. I am getting so excited to finally meet our little guy. Just thinking of being able to finally hold him in our arms just makes me feel so incredibly happy. I am already so in love with him!! I am about 38 1/2 weeks today, but wanted to do a update on 37 weeks as well. About 3 days in a row leading up to our 37 week appointment, I hadn’t been feeling our little guy move at all. It made me so nervous because he has always been such a mover. At our 37 week appointment, I told my OBGYN and he decided to hook us up to monitor our little guys heart rate. They laid me on my side propped up with pillows, strapped the straps to my belly and started monitoring. About 5 minutes after it started, I started feeling EXTREMELY dizzy and nauseous. I thought I was going to pass out. I tried moving around to get more comfortable but no matter how I moved, I just kept getting more and more queasy. I had Paul grab the garbage can for me and then I started puking for like 5 minutes straight. Paul ran to get the nurse and she readjusted me and I felt much better. I have no idea what that was all about, but it was so embarrassing. Luckily, everything seemed completely fine with the baby’s heart rate and the doctor was guessing that the baby is probably just getting super big and a little too cramped to move around too much. At 36 weeks I was dilated to a 2, and then at 37 weeks I was still only dilated to a 2. Here I am in all of my glory at 37 weeks! Don’t you just want to pick me up and roll me? Haha! This kid is going to be HUGE!!

Last Friday, we had our 38 week appointment. Everything looked great and the doctor told us that the baby is measuring almost 8 pounds. WOWA! That is 4 pounds more than Porter was. I also spoke with my doctor about getting induced. I have been getting nervous about making it all the way to LDS hospital in Salt Lake from here since Porter came so quickly (15 minutes after we arrived at the hospital). They say that you can usually cut the time it takes for the baby to be born in half with your second child and that would give me 7 1/2 minutes. The doctor said that he would induce me next Monday or Tuesday (23rd or 24th) if we wanted him to. So we will have to think about that. I have been feeling extremely tired and lazy the last little while and it has been extremely hard to get around. I sit on the floor to play cars with Porter and am basically stuck for a while before I can manage to get myself up..haha! I am quite a site for poor eyes. But I am so thankful for the chance that I have to be pregnant even though it has been hard. My humongous stomach just means that there is a beautiful little boy that will soon join our family. We are so blessed. Porter has been getting excited for the new baby as well. We have spoken lots and lots about him so that it won’t be a surprise for him. The other day we were talking about names (since we haven’t found one yet) and Porter said DUH..you like DUH?? haha..we started laughing so hard. He has also mentioned Jenny, but I don’t think we will go with that name..haha!

Family Christmas Party

2012-01-14T20:03:00.001-07:00

Even after Christmas was officially over, we still continued to have some Christmas fun. We met at my brother in law Bill and his family's house for our annual Christmas party the Monday after Christmas. We ate a delicious dinner. My sister in law made the yummiest turkey I have ever had. It was so moist and tender. I couldn’t get enough. And it was so much fun catching up with everyone, especially my cute nieces and nephew.

And we all definitely got spoiled with fun presents.

Porter LOVED his Lion King toys from Grandma and Grandpa Rasband.

What cute cousins! Porter and his cousin AJ.

And our cute little Porter in front of the Christmas tree.

Thank you so much Bill and Julie for throwing such a great party. We love you all so much.

HAPPY NEW YEARS

2012-01-13T18:51:00.001-07:00

Happy New Years everyone!! I am so excited to see what wonderful things 2012 has in store for all of us. Porter has been on a crazy sleeping schedule ever since he stopped taking naps. He is usually down for bed at around 6-6:30. I know..it’s pretty crazy early. So we have had a hard time being able to go anywhere in the evenings without Porter being super cranky and fussy because he is so tired. So we opted to get Porter to sleep first, and then have a New Years party at our house. We sure missed celebrating the New Years with Porter though. We were so excited that my Mom and Donna and Geoff and their kids could join us. We love them so much and had so much fun spending New Years with them. Here’s the gang enjoying some New Years dinner.

After dinner, we headed outside to do sparklers and light off some fireworks. Paul always finds any excuse for some firework fun. Thanks babe, it was awesome.

And here’s Paul and I ringing in the New Year..haha!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012 EVERYONE!!!

Christmas Day

2012-01-05T14:37:00.001-07:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Sometimes it is hard to remember the most important aspect of Christmas. I found this message from the LDS First Presidency in the ensign from 2009 and I loved how it explains the true meaning of Christmas, so I wanted to share it with you.

The Reason for the Wonder

The Christmas season is one of the most wonderful times of the year. However, it is not the gifts, the trees, the decorations, or the food that make this a season full of wonder.

It is when we remember the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that the Christmas season becomes truly special.

As we strive to remember our Savior, our desire to live like Him will grow. It is no coincidence that Christmas is the time of the year when people are the most loving, the most giving, the most kind, and the most grateful.

As we try to follow Christ’s example this season and do our best to live as He did, let us find ways to lift up those around us. Let us celebrate our Savior’s birth by being followers of Christ in word and deed.

We testify that as we do so, the desire to follow Him that grows within us at Christmas will continue to develop throughout the upcoming year.

I want you all to know how incredibly thankful I am for my Savior, Jesus Christ and for this wonderful day that we have to remember his birth.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. I swear that Christmas is so much more fun when you have a cute husband and a cute little boy to shop and get excited for. It is always just so much fun watching how excited little Porter gets with all of his new presents. When he first woke up, we came into our room and we asked him if he thought that Santa had come to bring him presents. He didn’t want to go and check because I think that he was a little nervous. But we talked him into going out into the living room to check things out and then he saw all of the presents and got so excited.

I am so excited to use my spa gift certificate. I will definitely be saving this until after Baby Craven #2 makes his arrival!

After our morning Christmas fun, we headed down to my Mom’s house again for her annual Christmas morning breakfast!!! Yes, my Mom is amazing and yes it was absolutely delicious to say the least. Also, all of my siblings and their spouses, and my sisters kids were able to be there so that was so much fun!! Look at this food.. I think Christmas needs to come more than just once a year!

We all had a wonderful afternoon opening presents

Porter and Elsa both got one of these awesome easel's from my Mom and they loved playing with them. So cute!

And we had so much fun just being together on Christmas. Isn’t my little niece Elsa just too adorable for words?

And I love this picture of Donna and Porter. Porter is making the exact face that Paul makes all the time. So cute!

I love my family so much! Thanks so much everyone (especially Mom for all of your hard work in making Christmas so incredibly wonderful). I love you all so much.

After spending the afternoon at my Mom’s house, we spent the evening at Paul’s Mom’s and step Dad’s house. She made her famous Clam Chowder and chili which she makes every Christmas which we all LOVE!! So incredibly yummy!! I think I could eat 20 bowls full of each of them. Delicious!! Porter loved the clam chowder.

And here is my Father in Law and I showing off our bellies. Haha!

And here is cute little Porter in front of their Christmas Tree in his Christmas jammies. He is such a poser. What a sweetheart!!

Thank you so much Clyde and Cheryl for such a special evening. I hope that all of my friends and family had a very Merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve

2012-01-01T20:16:00.001-07:00

I can’t believe that Christmas has come and gone so quickly. I swear that the older I get, the faster time goes. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve. Here is cute little Portie all dressed up for the evening.

And here is Paul and I and our little family. Paul is so handsome!!

Every year we go to my Mom’s house for Christmas Eve dinner and every year she goes all out on our dinner and making everything so cozy. I appreciate her so much for that. Just looking at the pictures of the food makes me so excited for next years Christmas dinner. And I love the pictures of Paul and Porter standing by the yummy food just waiting to be able to dig in. Like father like son..haha.

Here is everyone enjoying their delicious Christmas Eve dinner.

Porter ate almost everything on his plate. He LOVED the food. And I think that Paul and Porter would agree that their favorite was the white German Sausages that my Mom special orders every year from Siegfrieds. They are to die for. Yummy!!

Every year I am so sad when I finish Christmas Eve dinner. It makes me so sad that I have to wait a whole year until the next time. Every year as part of the dessert, my Mom makes Norwegian ric krem (which is rice pudding). It has a delicious red sauce that she pours on top that is sooo good.

The Norwegian tradition is to put an almond in the rice and whoever finds the almond in their bowl wins a prize. Teddy was our lucky winner this year.

After dinner we were all SO FULL but who could turn down yummy Christmas treats? I made these Norwegian Christmas donuts that I remember my Mom making all of the time when we were younger. They are called smultringer and they are absolutely delicious. I overcooked mine a little to much so they didn’t taste as good as they should have..but they were still fun to munch on.

We then played a fun game where my Mom had wrapped a present in layers and layers of wrapping paper. We all then had to wear gloves and had 15 seconds to try and open the present one layer at a time. Whoever managed first to open the present won whatever was inside. Here we are playing..it was a lot of fun.

We let Porter try without his gloves. He was so cute.

And guess who won the game?? Teddy of course. He won everything tonight.

We had such a wonderful evening. I love my family so much and we sure missed the members of my family that weren’t there this year.

I love this picture because it is a picture of Porter coloring on a little stool that his 3rd great grandpa (I think it was 3rd) made. How neat is that?
Porter was pretty tired at the end of the evening.

So we hurried and got him home and to bed. Paul and I had a fun night wrapping presents and getting everything ready for Christmas morning. Here is how it looked before we went to bed.

Thank you so much Mom for all of your hard work in making our Christmas Eve so incredibly perfect and cozy. We all have so many wonderful memories over the years and they are all thanks to my Mom. You are the best Mom. Thank you so much!! Happy Christmas Eve everyone!!

Lights at Temple Square

2011-12-28T22:30:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is seeing the Christmas lights at Temple Square. They are just so absolutely beautiful. There is always such a peaceful feeling there and I think it is so cozy seeing all of the cute families all bundled up enjoying the lights and the beautiful surroundings of Temple Square.

I love the Salt Lake Temple. This is where Paul and I were married, and it is definitely my favorite temple. It looked extra beautiful with the Christmas lights surrounding it.

Porter had a lot of fun running around looking at all of the lights. We got a pretty late start so he was pretty tired and didn’t last very long before he was ready to head home to bed.

But we still had a wonderful night. I hope we can squeeze in one last trip to see the lights at Temple Square before the season ends!

Here Comes Santa Claus

2011-12-28T22:10:00.001-07:00

Porter was actually super excited to see Santa Claus this year. Over and over he told us that he needed to go and visit Santa so that he could tell him that he wanted a hammer and a saw for Christmas..haha. So Paul and I decided to take him to Thanksgiving Point to see Santa. Here is cute little Porter all dressed up ready to go and see Santa.

We procrastinated and went the last night that they had Santa there. We were told that the line would be around 45 minutes, but it ended up being about 2 hours! Way too long. Thank goodness that there was a little boy behind us that was around Porter’s age that played with Porter a lot of the time. Last year Porter wanted absolutely nothing to do with Santa so we were excited to see what happened this year. When we finally made it up to Santa, Porter just bounced up to sit on his lap.

Porter had just gotten over a cold and made sure Santa knew that his tummy hurt and that he was a little bit sick..poor little guy. Then Porter started getting nervous and almost started crying. He jumped off Santa’s lap and ran towards us. But then he was fine and so excited that he had sat on Santa’s lap.

Kangaroo Zoo

2011-12-08T23:09:00.001-07:00

Our great friends Sara and Cameron invited Porter and I for a fun afternoon at Kangaroo Zoo. It was our first time there and PORTER ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT. Those 2 boys bounced for hours and had a blast. They were so much fun to watch.

Porter and Cameron had absolutely no fear. You should have seen them climbing up on the huge bounce houses and sliding down face first on their stomachs. I couldn’t stop laughing it was so funny.

This is definitely an awesome place to take your kids if you need them to get a lot of energy out and to take a long nap! Thanks so much Sara and Cam for such a fun afternoon. Let’s go again soon!!

Dinosaur Museum

2011-12-08T22:28:00.001-07:00

Porter has been to this Dinosaur Museum a couple of times before, but this time was the best time yet. I think his age right now was perfect because he was so interested in everything. Every time we would see a dinosaur he would say, “Mommy..whisper..shhhh.. I see a dinosaur coming, WOW..Oh my gosh”. He was so excited he could hardly stand it. What a funny kid! It was so much fun to be there with him.

I love how interactive and hands on this museum is. They have a really fun place where you can dig in water and sand and build your own little dinosaur village, they have a place were you can build your own dinosaur out of a ton a different pieces and at the very end you can dig for dinosaur bones.

We spent a good 3 hours there and had so much fun. The rest of the day all Porter talked about was the big huge dinosaurs that he saw at the museum.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

2011-12-06T22:34:00.001-07:00

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE AND ALL OF OUR OTHER DECORATIONS ARE UP!! This is the earliest in the history of my life that I have had Christmas decorations up and it feels SO GOOD! We had a super cozy evening setting up our tree. Porter LOVED the lights. He thought they were the coolest thing ever. He was so cute helping Paul put them on the tree. I love my boys!! Porter thought it was neat to see all of the ornaments on the table before we hung them up.

Porter was SO CUTE putting the ornaments on the tree. He was so careful making sure that they were on the tree just right. We have this cute little baby Jesus lying in a manger ornament. And Porter LOVED it. He kept saying, “I love baby Jesus, he is just so cute”. It was so sweet.

And here is our Christmas tree all decorated and lit up!!

It’s amazing how much Christmas spirit is brought into your house after your tree is up. It is so cozy and it made me excited for Christmas super fast!! We ended our Christmas tree decorating with yummy hot chocolate and cookies.

Face Painting

2011-12-05T22:56:00.001-07:00

Porter LOVES to paint and so I thought it would be fun to try face painting. We used white face cream and mixed in different colors of food coloring to make our paint. We set Porter in front of our big mirror and let him go to town. It was so much fun watching him paint his face and see how creative he got. He had fun painting my face too. What a cutie!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-12-03T23:02:00.001-07:00

I can’t believe that another Thanksgiving has come and gone. The holidays came so quickly this year. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my Mom's house. It was a lot of fun to have all of my siblings and their spouses there. I love my family so much. Like normal, my Mom totally outdid herself and we had TONS of delicious food. We are so blessed.

And of course there was delicious pie for us to stuff ourselves with after the dinner. I think little baby Craven #2 was very content after all that I ate!!

Porter and little Elsa were so cute playing together. I am so glad that Porter has a little cousin that is so close in age to him. She is just 1 year and 3 months younger than him. He just loves her so much. And my Mom got a HUGE fishtank that Porter and Elsa just love. Porter was by that fish tank almost the whole night. He LOVES fish.

My Mom made this cute little Thanksgiving Tree where she had everyone write one thing that they were grateful for this Thanksgiving Day and hang it on the tree. I loved that idea. It was such a great reminder to see the tree and be reminded of what Thanksgiving is all about.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. I have so much to be thankful for. But this year, I am especially thankful for my amazing husband that works so hard for Porter and I. He is just the best Dad and husband that anyone could ever imagine. I am also thankful for my sweet little Porter. He just brings so much happiness and joy into our lives. He amazes me everyday. I am thankful for my little boy in my tummy and can't wait to meet him next month. I am also so thankful for the rest of my family and for how much support and love that they show us. I am thankful for wonderful friends and I am thankful for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I love it with all of my heart. Those are just a couple of things that I am thankful for. And next up.. CHRISTMAS.. I can't believe it! :)

Light up the Night

2011-12-01T15:39:00.001-07:00

Last week, we went to the Annual ‘Light up the Night’ at the Gateway. It was a lot of fun. We were entertained by Jon Schmidt and One Voice Children's Choir. They did a fabulous job. We were able to see all of the lights at the Gateway light up for the holidays, we got to sing holiday carols and they had complimentary hot chocolate and cookies. The best part of the night was when they lit up the HUGE Gateway tree that had over 100,000 LED lights! Porter loved standing by the big fire pits that they had to keep everyone warm. And he was absolutely amazed by all of the Christmas lights. It definitely helped us to start feeling the Christmas spirit! I love this time of the year.

Week 32

2011-11-30T23:51:00.001-07:00

We are already at week 32.. can you believe it? I cannot believe how fast time has flown. Before we know it the holidays will be over and this little guy will be here with us. We can’t wait. Our little man is SO INCREDIBLY BUSY! It’s like a big huge party going on in my tummy all the time. Sometimes I am worried that he never sleeps..haha. But I absolutely love it and it is so reassuring for me to feel him constantly moving. I love just sitting still, watching my belly move when he kicks and punches. I am just so amazed that this little guy is in there moving all around.   Every time I eat or drink he starts kicking like crazy within like 2 minutes after I start. It makes me laugh every time. I know that they get a constant flow of food, so I wonder how he knows I am eating..but it is just about every time. Funny little kid.
All of my visits have been great so far. The last 3 weeks or so, our OB has said that I am measuring about 2 weeks ahead so I am excited about that.   Hopefully we get him here a little early. At our last visit (31 weeks) we were told that he measures over 5 lbs. and is about 17 inches. That is already a pound bigger than Porter was at birth. That just blows me away. But I am so glad that he is growing so well.
We still haven’t been able to think of a name. Paul and I don’t even talk about it because we just can’t agree..haha. So hopefully one of us will have some inspiration soon and this little guy will have a name.
It is absolutely amazing to me how much you love your little babies before they are born. I just think of this little boy all of the time and am more than excited to meet him. Porter asks to kiss his baby brother all of the time and then kisses my tummy. It is so sweet and I know that he already feels a strong connection to him. Porter is going to be such a wonderful big brother. I can’t wait to see them together. I am so thankful for the chance that I have to be a Mother and for the blessing that is that I am able to be the Mother for a second time.   I can’t believe he will be here so soon!! We can’t wait!!!

More Fun in the Leaves

2011-11-29T23:32:00.001-07:00

We just cannot get enough of playing in the leaves this year. We have had so much fun!! And we have absolutely LOVED having our backyard to run and play in. It makes such a difference to open the back door, run outside and have lots of fenced in room for playing.

These next 4 pictures are my absolute favorite. This little boy just melts my heart everyday. Look how handsome and full of life this little guy is. What a beautiful smile he has. I love this little boy so much. He just makes me so happy.

Porter is such an independent little guy and always has to do what we are doing himself..with no help at all. I was raking the leaves and of course Porter wanted to as well. I think he actually did pretty well. He did it for a long time. I am so impressed by him.

Fall Fun

2011-11-29T22:45:00.001-07:00

Porter and I went to spend some time with our friends from Bountiful a couple of weeks ago. It is not fun living so far from them now. Porter misses Cameron like crazy. We just need to make it more of a point to see them more often. They played in the leaves for the longest time. It was so much fun watching them have so much fun together again.

Thanks for such a fun day Sara and Cameron.

First Snow

2011-11-27T22:20:00.001-07:00

When we got back from Norway, we were so shocked and excited to see our yard covered in snow. Porter couldn’t wait to play in it. The day after we got back we spent playing in the snow and we even built our first snowman! Porter was so excited and kept telling everyone that we built Frosty the Snowman in our front yard. We were so sad that the next day Frosty was gone and all of the snow had pretty much melted. We are looking forward to many more ‘snowy fun days’.

OUR NEW HOME

2011-11-27T21:41:00.001-07:00

While Porter and I were in Norway, Paul was busy moving us into our new home in West Jordan. What an awesome guy huh! He is amazing and did such a great job. Thank you so much to all of those who helped Paul move. I can’t even imagine how it would have been if Paul had to do it all by himself. Here is our home. I still can’t believe that we are homeowners..how exciting is that?? We will post pictures of the inside as we get it more set up and decorated!! We are loving our house so much. It has been so nice having more room to move around in. I love having a big backyard that is totally fenced in for Porter to run around in. Our main bathroom has a Jacuzzi tub which has also been so nice. I just can’t believe how blessed we are! More pictures to come!

Trip to Norway 2012

2011-11-25T23:21:00.001-07:00

I am so thankful that my Mom, and all of my siblings (except 1) were able to go to Norway for my Grandma's funeral. We were so blessed to be able to be there. I can't believe that this was Porter's 2nd trip to Norway in the last year and 2 months. Porter did wonderful on the trip over to Norway. He LOVED pushing the carryons and was so strong. He would push them and push them and would never give up no matter how heavy they were. What a trooper.

And here's some picture of the rest of the gang in the airport. It was so much fun traveling with my cute family.

It was definitely the hardest trip that I have ever taken. When we first pulled up to my Grandma's house (where we stayed during this trip), it felt so incredibly empty without my Grandma there. Everywhere we turned in the house we could picture Mish there. It was so empty without her. It really hit me how much I am going to miss her and what a beautiful spirit she brought into her home. But little by little, her house started to feel again as home, and I am sure that she was there with us, comforting us. I still haven't grasped the concept that my Grandma's house will have to be sold and that won't be our home away from home in Norway anymore. We have spent so much time there it just feels so strange and sad to think we won't be able to stay there anymore. I will just have to talk Paul into buying it somehow! :)

Here are some pictures of my Grandma's beautiful home.

And here is some pictures of us hanging out there.

This is the absolute best icecream in the world. It is called krokan ic.. mmmmm... sooo delicious!! And the best food in the world. Lungemus and farse kaker.

I can't even describe to you how beautiful the area where my Grandma's house is located is. Her house is completely covered with beautiful Norwegian forests. Porter LOVES playing in the forests.

And during our trips we took lots and lots of walks. Askim, Norway is incredible. Our favorite walks are through the forests, down to the river Glomma, Lokkekroken, and up to Askim. Here we are enjoying them. Here's Lokkekrokken..absolutely beautiful.

And here's us down by the river Glomma and the surrounding forests there starting with Teddy pushing Porter down to Glomma, and Porter walking home. :)

Here's Tasha, Porter and I on a walk to REMA..one of our favorite grocery stores on the way up to Askim! :) It was freezing so we bundled Porter way up. He ended up falling asleep on the way home because he was so comfy! :)

My Grandma's funeral was absolutely beautiful. I think it was just what she would have wanted. This is my sisters and I at the cemetary where my Grandma is buried. It is such a beautiful and a peaceful cemetary. My Grandma and Great Grandparents are also buried there along with lots of other family members.

It am so thankful for my Norwegian family. It was so much fun spending some time with them. It is so hard when we don't see eachother very often, but I love them so much. They are the kindest people in the world and we have so much fun together.

And this lady is my Mom's aunt (My Grandma's older sister) Ragnhild.

What a special lady she is. She is probably the one that has taken the death of my Grandma the hardest. They were the best of friends until the very end. Ragnhild lives in Spydeberg which is just about a 30 minute walk from my Grandma's house and my Grandma would always take a bus to Spydeberg to do her shopping and then would always stop at Ragnhild's house on the way home. They always went to each other's doctors appointments together and talked on the phone every single day. She is going to be so lonely without my Grandma, but I think she will be ok. We are also forever grateful for Ragnhild because she is the one that introduced my Mother to the church.

My Mom ran away from home when she was 19 to Ragnhild's house. She lived with her for a couple of months and Ragnhild and her first husband Roald invited her to church. My Mom went and said that from the moment that she was introduced to the church, she knew it was true. So if it wasn't for her, my Mom could have never found the church. It was so much fun hearing her tell us about that time when my Mom lived with them and her conversion story. We love her so much.

We had so much fun spending an evening at my Uncle Per (my mom's brother) and Aunt Jeanette's house in Drammen. My cousins Sebastian and Ferdinand are growing up so fast I can't believe it. They are such great kids. So glad we could spend some time with them.

Porter kind of had a rough trip while we were in Norway. So much was going on. It had been a little bit stressful at our house trying to get everything ready and packed so that Paul could move us into our new house while we were away. And then all of the emotions of having my Grandma die coupled with being in a new place with new surroundings, jet lag, etc. Poor little guy didn't have it easy. I don't know what I would have done with my siblings and my Mom there to help. My Mom is always so patient and calm and helped me so much with Porter. She is such a wonderful Mom and Grandma and I am so thankful for her.

We sure missed Paul while we were gone and were so happy to be with him when we got home. But I am so thankful for this time that we were able to spend in Norway and that we had the chance to attend her funeral. It was very good for some closure with the death of my Grandma I think. We all miss her so much and think of her everyday. So thankful that Families Can Be Together Forever.

South Davis Spooktacular

2011-11-19T13:31:00.001-07:00

Since we were going to be in Norway for my Grandma's funeral on Halloween, we wanted to do something Halloweenish with Porter before we went so he could have some Halloween this year. We decided to take him to the Halloween 'Spooktacular' Party at our Recreation Center. He was so cute in his little fireman costume and he had a lot of fun.

We rode a canoe through a haunted swamp, hidden beneath a huge tent and populated by creepy and crawly creatures.

Porter decorated Halloween Sugar Cookies, and participated in lots of carnival games and activities.

I think Porter had a super fun time! :)

Solveig Irene Schjerven

2011-11-16T21:48:00.001-07:00

My Norwegian Grandma Solveig Irene Olsen Schjerven (who we called Mish because we couldn't pronounce her name when we were little) died on October 21st, 2011 in the late afternoon in her home in Askim, Norway. I can't even describe the feelings that I had when I found out that she had died. Porter and I were on our way home from spending the morning at Mueller Park when my Mom called to tell me. It was completely unexpected and she was only 73 years old. Even though we lived so far apart..I just miss her so much and am still in complete shock. It's amazing the things and the people that you realize that you have have taken for granted until they are not there anymore. I have so many regrets. She had called me just a couple of days before she died, and my phone card had ran out and I hadn't bought another one to call her back yet. And so I didn't get to talk to her 'one last time.' I think about that everyday and I just get sick to my stomach. I also had a big pile of pictures and some other things that I wanted to send to her that I never did. I guess we can all plague ourselves in these kinds of circumstances but I guess it won't do us any good. I just feel so bad and I hope that she has forgiven me. I am so incredibly thankful for my relationship with my Grandma. Even though we lived across the world from eachother, she always was there for us. She always remembered birthdays, christmas's, and other special days. She was just such a beautiful person both inside and out. Here are a couple of pictures of her younger years. Isn't she so cute!!

Here is Mish and her parents and her Grandma and her sister. She is the littlest girl in the picture.

Here is Mish and her older sister Ragnhild. They were best friends up until the day that Mish died.

And here are some more pictures of Mish in her younger years.

Here is Mish with her father Johan.

And here is Mish with her children. My mom was the only girl out of 6 children.

Mish always made us feel so incredibly special. You can definitely tell from these pictures what a wonderful grandma she was and how much she cared for and loved her grandchildren.

I love this last picture of Mish and I. Mish always thought it would be so much fun to go swimming in December. We talked about doing it all of the time. Then about 4 years ago, we finally did it. We went swimming at Deer Creek for a couple of minutes. It was so incredibly freezing..but we had so much fun!!! :-) We were so blessed to see eachother at least every 2-3 years growing up which is so incredible when you think about the long distance seperating us. Here are some pictures from some of her trips to the USA.

In 1994, my whole family had the opportunity to live in Askim, Norway at my Grandma's house for 7 months while my Dad was in Copenhagen, Denmark working on writing a book for his dissertation. I am so incredibly thankful for this opportunity that we had to get to know my Grandma better during this trip and for the memories that we shared during this time.

Here we are in 2000 when we visited Mish after spending 7 months Study Abroad in London, England.

The 4 years in a row that I went to Russia (2002-2005), I was blessed enough to visit my Grandma after all but 1 of those trips. It was so wonderful getting to spend some 1 on 1 time with my Grandma that we didn't get too often. I treasure those times so much. We would always make sure to watch the Norwegian series 'Gutter på tur', and the Norwegian soap operas..haha. Mish was a member of the Salvation Army. I had many wonderful opportunities of attending with her. She had so many wonderful friends there and everyone loved her so much. At the end of the meetings there, they would have a raffle where people would donate money to the Salvation Army to enter the drawing to win all kinds of gifts. Mish was always so cute and would give tons of money for me so that I would win. I always came home with tons of stuff.

I remember my last trip to Russia in 2005. I had planned a couple of weeks in Scandinavia with some friends towards the end of my trip where I was going to end up with about a month at my Grandma's house in Norway. Last minute, the girls in my group changed plans and wanted to travel from Finland back to Russia instead of visiting the other Scandinavian countries. I had already been to Finland, Sweden, and Denmark 3 times in the last 4 years so instead of spending the 2 weeks there like I had planned, I hopped on the earliest train from Sweden to Norway and randomely showed up on my Grandma's doorstep without her even expecting me (2 1/2 weeks early). When she saw me on her doorstep, she started laughing so hard and told me how excited she was to see me so early. She invited me in and fed me delicious cake right away. She was so sweet.

I am especially thankful for our big trip to Norway that we took last year for my Uncle Ole's wedding. This is when Porter was able to meet my Grandma for the first time. We were lucky enough to stay with her for a whole month. When I look through the pictures that we took from this trip and think about the special times that we spent together, I just can't believe how incredibly blessed we were to share this time so recent with my Grandma. I have so many wonderful pictures and videos of Porter with his Great Grandma that I know he will treasure forever. I can't even tell you the many hours that my Grandma and I spent talking in the kitchen, and going through pictures and recipes on this trip. I think about these moments every day and I am so incredibly thankful for them. Here are a couple of pictures from our most recent trip.

Whenever we stayed at her house, she made us feel like royalty. She always decorated with beautiful decorations and used her finest china dishes. She always bought tons of expensive and delicious Norwegian foods and treats for us. When I think of my Grandma Mish, I think of a completely selfless person. She was always going out of her way to do service for others. She would never rest. It was like she would always come up with something to do for someone. She was also the best cook I have ever met. Her cakes were absolutely incredible.

I think that most of us would agree that our favorite was her Rom Kake. Mmmm..just thinking about it makes my mouth water. Paul loved her apple cake best. She taught me how to make Norwegian Grøt last year for Porter and he loves it. Here is some of her handwritten recipes.

She had the best laugh out of anyone I knew. She would laugh with all of her soul. I am going to miss her so much. I don’t think anyone is ever ready to lose someone so close. No one can replace our loved ones. But I am so thankful for the comfort that I have because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I sincerely believe that she is happily reunited with family and friends. Mish had some health problems and some pain and it fills me with so much joy to know that she is not in any pain or suffering at all anymore.
I don’t know how I would handle such loss without the knowledge that there is life after death. It’s not the end, but the beginning of so many amazing things we can’t even comprehend. Still, it seems like such a long separation when we lose someone so wonderful. But I know that we will see our Mish again. I am so thankful for all that I have learned from her. So grateful that she is my Grandma.

Mueller Park

2011-11-16T20:54:00.001-07:00

Porter and I love driving up to Mueller Park! It is so beautiful up there and even more so now with the beautiful Fall leaves. It is just so good for the soul. Whenever we are up there I get mad at myself for not going more often. Sometimes it is too easy to forget the beautiful places that we are surrounded by.

I think Porter could spend all day up there throwing rocks in the river, playing with sticks, hiking, and looking for bugs.

And I love seeing him play in nature. He is just so relaxed and it is so peaceful.

Porter Van Gogh and Cameron Da Vinci

2011-11-16T20:15:00.001-07:00

These little artists had so much fun painting. And their little conversation cracks me up so hard. I couldn't stop laughing. I thought it was so funny to see how Porter was so messy at the end and Cameron didn't even get one spot of paint on him. These little guys are so cute and have so much fun together.

Pumpkin Carving/ Painting

2011-10-16T21:13:00.006-06:00

One of my favorite things about October is carving pumpkins. I LOVE IT!! We decided to buy some finger paints for Porter to paint his white pumpkin with instead of carving it. At first Porter was so careful and used 1 little finger to put a few dabs of paint on the pumpkin. He also had to wipe his hands on his rag every couple of seconds to get the paint off..haha, silly boy.

but soon he got the hang of it and soon his pumpkin (and him) were completely covered in paint. But I think he had a lot of fun. He kept calling his pumpkin, 'The Scary Halloween Pumpkin'.

He also had fun helping Paul and I take the pumpkin seeds and gunk out of our pumpkins.

Here is Paul and his silly pumpkin carving faces. And here I am busy carving my pumpkin.

So I totally wasn't thinking and I had already packed all of our lighters and our matches for the move. Thank goodness for Paul and his creativeness because he turned on the stove to high, put a piece of paper to the burner and lit our pumpkins in no time. I think they turned out so cute. Here they are. I love Paul's pirate pumpkin. We had such a fun evening.

Porter and Friends

2011-10-15T22:45:00.005-06:00

Porter's cute little friend Cameron had a little Halloween craft/ cookie decorating party last Wednesday. It was so much fun. Porter loved it. They all made a cute little candy corn magnets to hang on the fridge, and then they decorated Halloween cookies. SO MUCH FUN!! Here's Porter working on his craft, and here is his cute little magnet when he was all done.
And the kids had SO MUCH FUN decorating the cookies. There were tons of fun Halloween sprinkles and lots of frosting...yummy!!

Watching little 2 and 3 year olds frosting and decorating cookies was probably the cutest thing I have ever seen. So much fun!! Thanks so much Cameron and Sara for inviting us!!

Pack's Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-15T21:24:00.006-06:00

We were so excited about going to the pumpkin patch this year. There is a very fun little pumpkin patch in Farmington that we found last year called Pack's Pumpkin Patch. We love it there. It has a cute maze for the kids, a huge tractor to ride on, lots and lots of pumpkins to choose from, and HUGE pumpkins to play on. Porter had so much fun running through the maze. He just thought it was the funnest thing to chase Mommy and Daddy through the maze. When he found a dead end part, he would duck down and hide from us. He was so cute! And he got SO EXCITED when he saw all of the pumpkins. He wanted them all. He was so cute picking out the pumpkins that he wanted. Paul had a blast choosing pumpkins for us too..what a handsome guy!! :) Porter thought that pulling the wheelbarrow was the coolest thing ever and pushed it for such a long time. He is such a little toughy. We finally talked him into getting in the wheelbarrow with me and Daddy pushed us for a long time. So much fun! I felt like a little kid again! :) We had such a fun afternoon at the pumpkin patch! I just love this time of year and I love my cute little family. I can't wait to carve our pumpkins tomorrow! :)

I WON A 16GB iPad 2

2011-10-10T23:38:00.004-06:00

I just won a free 16GB iPad2 from a contest I entered on facebook with Delicious Buying Group and Castle Creek Homes. Over 1,000 people entered and there was only 1 winner. These usually go for more than $500! Yippeeee!! :) We are going to have a lot of fun with this one! Can't believe I actually won. I never win anything. I'm so excited!! :) Today when I went to go and pick it up, they made me take a whole bunch of pictures with some of the head honchos of the company. It was pretty funny!! Now I just need to decide if I will keep it, or if I will cash it in for the money instead..hmm..!! :)

Microwave Puffy Paints

2011-09-27T16:59:00.008-06:00

So Porter has been sick with a cough and runny nose for the past couple of days, and was getting pretty frustrated that he couldn't go and play with his friends, so we desperately needed some fun indoor activities. I found this art activity for Microwave Puffy Paints and tried it with him and he had so much fun with it. I think we painted for almost 1 1/2 hours. We will definitely be doing this again soon!
Recipe for Microwave Puffy Paints:
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
food coloring

Mix first 3 ingredients together and add water to make a smooth paste. Poor mixture into a couple of separate containers (we used cups) Add different colors of food coloring to each cup. Apply mixture to cardboard squares. We used paintbrushes and Q-Tips. Microwave the design on high for about 30-45 seconds until the paint puffs and it's all nice and dry.
After you microwave it, it dries very hard. So neat! And here is our finished projects. Porter played with the textures on the paper for quite some time. Awesome!!Can't wait to do this again!

Ultrasound 22 weeks

2011-09-26T20:24:00.010-06:00

We had our HUGE ultrasound last week at 22 weeks along where all of the major organs, etc. were checked. I was pretty nervous for this ultrasound, but everything looked fabulous! Our little guy is doing so well! He is measuring at 12 inches (a foot already..wow) and 15 oz (almost a pound) so he is growing perfectly! This little guy has been such a busy body so far. He is ALWAYS kicking and punching and moving all around. Sometimes I wonder if he ever relaxes!! It is such a relief to be able to feel him so much. :) It was kind of funny because yesterday at our appointment with our reg. OBGYN, we listened to the heartbeat and again it took the doctor forever to find it because our little guy was so busy moving all around. Then once he found it, our little baby would start doing flips and we would have to find the heartbeat again in a totally different place..haha! The doctor couldn't believe how busy this little guy is. So fun! Here are our pictures from our ultrasound!!
I felt so bad because both of our little boy's legs were completely tucked underneath him during the ultrasound and it looked so incredibly uncomfortable. Poor little kid. The ultrasound technician tried to wiggle him to move his legs but he must have liked them there. Silly little kid. I can't believe that we just have a couple more months until this little sweetheart joins our family. We love him so much already and can't wait to meet him!! So incredibly exciting to think that we will soon be a family of 4!! YAY! :) And we are so excited for Porter to have a little brother. We are so blessed!!

Our Handsome Boy

2011-09-22T20:39:00.004-06:00

Just thought I would share some more pictures of our handsome little boy! Don't you just want to squeeze and kiss this cute little face? I am just so in love with this boy!

Thanksgiving Point Discovery Gardens

2011-09-18T14:06:00.004-06:00

Last month, our wonderful friends Shirley and her cute little boys Ryan and Brady invited us to go and visit the Thanksgiving Point Children's Discovery Gardens. This was the first time that I met Shirley's cute little son Brady! He is such a handsome and good natured little boy! Such a little sweetheart! Look at this little cutie! And it is always so much fun to hang out with Shirley and cute little Ryan! I feel like we don't get to see them enough, but it is always so much fun catching up with them when we do. The boys play so well together and it was so much fun listening to their cute little conversations together. What cute little boys. This was our first time visiting the Discovery Gardens and they were really neat. We wandered around a little bit and the boys had so much fun together.

I think their favorite part was definitely the Noah's Ark complete with a pool and water fountains to play in. So much fun!! And after a hot afternoon playing in the sun, we ate some yummy lunch. Thanks Shirley, Ryan and Brady for such a fun day. Let's get together again soon.

Foxboro Splash Pad

2011-09-15T22:35:00.004-06:00

It has been so incredibly hot this summer, so we have have tried to find everywhere possible to cool down. Porter's cute little friend Cameron invited him to play at the Foxboro Splash Pad a couple of times in August and it was a perfect way to get wet. We have tried a couple of other splash pads, but Porter didn't like them because the water shot too high. This one had perfect Porter sized fountains. Porter had so much fun. Cameron is just 6 months older than Porter and they always have so much fun playing together. I love watching them. And here they are enjoying their lunches after an afternoon of playing in the water. Thanks so much for inviting us Cam, we had so much fun!!

Porter Update

2011-08-30T20:47:00.019-06:00

I am so many cute picture and videos, and Porter is doing so many cute things, that I had to do another update on him. He just blows me away with his adorableness everyday. Here are some of Porter's favorite things to do. HE LOOOOVES BUGS! I can't even explain how much he loves them. Whenever we are outside, that is the first thing that he looks for. He can search for bugs for hoursI cringe when I see him picking up his 'wildlife', but I have to turn the other way and let him be a boy I guess..haha. I mean, look how proud he looks with the little potato bug he found.
And this day he played with this little lady bug forever!!
Another thing he loves is playing cars and dinosaurs. EVERY morning he wakes up, come in our room and says, "Mamma, Daddy get up. Let's play cars", or "let's play dinosaurs." It is so much fun watching him play. He has such an imagination and is so creative. This particular day, he lined up his dinosaurs all in a circle to read them a story..haha! He is so adorable!

He LOVES water

He loves playing outside, especially at parks. This is favorite park because it has dinosaurs to ride on and lots of sand. He also refuses to ride in the baby swings anymore and has mastered the big swings. I can't believe how fast he is growing and learning.
He loves being creative and doing fun arts and crafts activities. It is so fun to see the fun projects that he comes up with...even if it is getting into my purse and putting on my makeup while I am in the bathroom..haha! Here he is playing with our homemade play dough. He loved it. I found a very simple and awesome recipe for play dough. Let me know if anyone wants it.
And here he is playing with bubble bath paints. He has a beautiful little voice when he sings, and is the bestest most entertaining dancer any of you have ever seen!

This little guy just cracks me up.

The big news about this post is that Porter is now potty trained except at night. Yippee!! The minute I started being consistent with putting him underwear all the time he did fabulous. He is always so independent and proud when he goes to the potty and washes his hands by himself. He is such a big boy!!!
Porter is such a sweet little boy. A couple of days ago he asked if he could give the prayer. He then put his hands on my head to say the prayer. It was so cute. He must have remembered when Paul had given him a blessing.
Porter has these play glasses. The other day he got them out and put them on. He sat on the couch and said, "now I need a big book". He then went over and got Paul's Physics book from when he was in college. Haha. I guess he knows that smart people wear glasses and read big books..haha! Paul and I were dying. So incredibly cute!! H Here is a couple more cute pictures of our little Portie.He still rock and cuddles his stuffed animals, and carries around his blankie to snuggle with. He is so good at sharing, and caring about other people's needs. I love how sensitive he is. If I look tired or rest on the couch, he comes over and rubs my cheeks and tells me to rest and close my eyes..how sweet is he!! When I tell him I love him he always says back, "I love you too Mamma." It just melts my heart. He is going to be such a wonderful big brother when our 2nd little guy gets here. He is also such a perfectionist (definitely not from me..lol). We came home from the park the other day, and I kicked off my shoes in the front room. Porter kicked his off, then picked them right up and said, "Mamma..we need to put our shoes away in our rooms." Haha.. the things you learn from a 2 year old. And he is always so good at helping to put his clothes and toys away. I just love this little boy more than words can say. I am so thankful that I am able to stay at home with him and watch him grow and learn. We are so incredibly lucky to have this little bundle of joy in our home. We love you so much Porter.

IT'S A .....

2011-08-26T16:52:00.004-06:00

We had our 18 1/2 weeks appointment today and were told that we are having a boy!! YAY!! We are so excited to meet this beautiful little guy!! And how fun to have 2 boys in a row! I am sure they will be the best of friends. It has taken a while for us to get this little boy here and I think he will be one special little boy! It took the doctor a while to figure out that he was a boy because he was completely asleep with his legs together. The doctor had to keep shaking my stomach to make him wake up. He also looks exactly like Porter did on his ultrasound picture and so it will be so much fun to see when he is born, how similar they look. Here's our little guys profile and cute little arm sticking up.
And here he is looking right at us.I feel so blessed to be pregnant and to be a Mom to my little boys! I love this little guy already so much and can't wait for him to join our family! :)