So Random

I have a smart phone and having a camera that close is at times too convenient. Instead of taking pics with my nice camera a lot of times I just take them with my phone thinking oh I'll post that and don't. These are all my phone snaps as of late.

{Blurry, but Porter loves to dust with the dusting mitt! So do I, it makes my least favorite chore bearable. It's great that wanting to be like Mommy & Daddy can lead to tear free labor.}

{Cucumber love!}

{Our new favorite chip, Tostitos Artisan Recipe. Letting Porter eat chips on the sofa, not a favorite!}

{This cup (the nosy cup) is helping Porter make leaps and bounds in learning how to drink independently from a regular cup. He can see the fluid coming at him and it makes a huge difference.}

{Porter's best buddy Braxton! We got to have Brax come play one afternoon and I can't get enough of these two together, SO CUTE! I can almost hear Braxton saying to Porter, "Why does your Mom keep saying our names? Can you get her to let us eat in peace?"}

{Now if you feel the need to turn us into child services for this one I understand. It's sad, yet I laugh. Aaron and Porter were playing like every morning and Aaron decided to see if Porter would fit down his pant leg. Porter did quite well until the fun of shimming down ended and he was stuck.}

{Then there was this and me yelling, "Stop taking pictures and get him out of there!"}

{We got to go to the children's Museum because Braxton's grandma had some extra tickets and invited us! Braxton's Mom Kristen saved my life, no way I could haven't kept up with Porter without her help.}

{This was Porter's favorite. You pushed these and they played different music.}

{We were there for at least 30 minutes!}

{Porter loved this. The little girl standing next to him kept stealing his drum stick and finally got frustrated enough she took it and hit him in the head with it. AH! It was unsupervised children's day at the museum. Oh and there was an irresponsible mother's support group going on out in the lobby. "I don't even know where my children are right now!" It bugged me, obviously. I shouldn't be so judgmental maybe I'll get there one day when I've got 4 and it's summer time.}

{Aaron's Father's Day Gift... told ya I'd get it to him. Cologne... what were you thinking?}

{Napping in Priya's carseat at church}

{Priya napping with Uncle Landon Bear after church.}

{Priya was crying and Porter was trying to comfort her through the monitor. Sweet and clever boy!}

{Hangin' with Auntie Rach while Mom slept off a migraine.}

{Indian Style... after gym class. Love it!}

I'm always saying it's the little every day moments the bring me the most joy and these are just a handful of them. Everyday, we live life everyday! I'm so grateful for it.

Bear Lake

We can't afford to take a big long family vacation this summer so instead we decided to take several mini weekend vacations. When the chance came up for us to go with our ward to Youth Conference up in Bear Lake we decided to make it one of the vacations.

We left Thursday morning and the plan was to stay until Saturday afternoon, but we left Friday night because I didn't get much sleep between the 2 kids the first night.

We had a great time! I don't have a ton of pictures because there was lots to be done and with 2 kids in the great wide open our hands were always occupied. This trip showed me that I really am comfortable camping with the kids, it just has to be a lighter form of camping. :) Our camp grounds had bathrooms and easy access water.

The highlights:

• Seeing the youth's excitement to be there. We had Felicia, Jaden, Brooklyn, Zach, Jade and Spencer come.
  
• Zach eating a triple double decker at Angie's... 2lb of beef in one burger... nasty.
• Setting up and hanging out at camp. {Aaron doing a stellar job tending the children}
  

{She loved lounging under the trees}{Porter scoping out the grub}

{Ready for bed but it was still light out. Love the dinosaur pjs and cowboy boots!}

• Waiting for dinner to cook around the campfire and the amusement of hungry, tired people. 2 truths and a lie, most embarrassing moments, and ghost stories written by the group (I was in bed for this but heard the laughing).

{Campfire and a full moon}

• Eating dutch oven dinner at mid-night. I prepared it without any experience cooking in a dutch oven without solid instructions and the nice thing about the miscommunication about dinner was that everyone was so hungry by the time we ate it tasted like Heaven. Who knows if it was actually any good.
  
• Getting to know the youth and ward members. GREAT people I tell you, all of them!

Day 2:

• Watching Audrey freak out when she discovered the earwigs in our bagels. It's alright we still had plenty to eat.
  
• Porter fist pounding with everyone.
  
• The youth getting to know Porter and playing with him constantly. I've got a pool of new babysitters for date night! Sweet!
  
• North Beach- Porter loved playing in the sand as usual.{Beach Baby}

{Happy in the sand}

• Boating, oh my body hurts, FUN! We went out tubing and even took Porter with us. He was a little unsure if he should enjoy it or not and would spontaneously giggle then get right back to uncertain. We took him back to the boat and went faster without him. It was fun, totally outside my comfort zone, and left us soar but happy. Aaron went out with Bishop Winn and the Young Men's President Bryan while I headed back to camp with the kids. It's my understanding that they mocked Ryan (it's was his boat and he was driving) to the point that he declared war on them and brought a world of hurt to the 3 cocky tubers. They never fell off but had to hold on for dear life and I can't speak for the other 2 but Aaron has a bit of whiplash from it. He doesn't care though it was right up his ally and he had a ton of fun. Poor Brooklyn turned green after the crazy boat maneuvering and the group headed back to camp ASAP because she was so sick.

{Porter climbed in and said, "Go vroom, vroom, GO!"}

• We all wore tie dye shirts and I got wet in mine, my belly is still blue and pink.
  
• Getting back to camp and finding Bryan's tent annihilated by the wind. So sad. The bottom tarp was still staked into the ground but the tent had ripped away from the bottom and scattered every where.
  
• La Beau's Raspberry shake on the way out of town.
  
• We packed up what we could and headed home. It was sad to miss out on the fireside by the Bishop and his wife but my children were happy to be home. A 3 hour trip took 5 with our colicy little Priya. But we made it safe and sound, considering how exhausted we both were that was a major blessing.

I love my calling with the Youth; at times it seems like a lot of work but I love all of them and it's such a blessing to know them!

I posted!

I posted about the 4th it's just showing up below the previous post because I started it on Saturday and am now just finishing it.

Scroll down to see it. Glad I got something up.

Summer Time=No Time

Here is my lame weekly update from my phone, in the car on the go. Because we never seem to be home long enough to do any blogging... which is kinda sad because that means there's a lot to blog about... I'm taking a sec to formally apologizing to our Grandmothers. There are stories and pictures to share and I hope they'll get done soon, but who knows. I'm sorry. :(

If any one still reads this and has been camping with either a toddler and/or infant I'd love any comments with your tricks and tips to a safe and happy experience.

Happy Summer! Hope you're lovin' every minute of it!

The 4th

We spent the 3rd at my parents house visiting with my siblings including my two brother's Couper and Landon who we don't see as often. There was yummy food, lots of laughing and we watched the sunset on the back lawn. It was so relaxing.

We got up early on the 4th to rush to Aaron's parents for the traditional activities. It was a nice and very busy day.

{Porter's first parade, he really enjoyed it.}

{Priya cuddled with her grandma}

{We were surprised to see my sister on this float. She was pretty embarrassed, not something she considers a perk of being and ambassador for her school.}

{the boys did some swimming}

{and splashing}

{Porter made this dessert for everyone. It was so fun to do with him. He made the jello the day before. He had to taste it of course and added two new words to his vocabulary while working on it HOT & MESSY. Adding the final touch of whipped cream was probably his favorite part.}

{the complete product}

{He would finish one, clap for himself and look around to make sure everyone else was clapping for him as well.}

{Proud Porter. He passed them out, giving each one a good squish in the process.}

{After all the really good food was eaten there was a wiffle ball game. This is Porter's first at bat. His daddy helped him get a hit.}

{They ran to first together}

{This is Porter leading off... in the wrong direction. :) He had fun but he's got a short attention span, it's like he's 2 or something.}{Porter playing in the puddles. I like that you can see his reflection in the picture and Karli rounding 3.}{This is my fireworks picture. I stayed in with Priya because I didn't want to over stimulate her or upset her. She sat in my lap and Toby (my puppy-in-law) sat in Priya's lap. Porter didn't like the noise of the fireworks so we drove home and watch all the different shows across the valley.}

Very good day indeed!

Little Gym-- We're Being Brave

Lately, I have been struggling to keep Porter engaged at home, especially when dealing with a fussy infant. He has embodied everything I've ever heard about 2 year olds. Now I don't want to give you the impression my kids are "Bad or naughty" they're just children. Priya is a fussy baby, she has days where I can't put her down unless I'm willing to listen to her terrible screaming, she cries herself horse in a hurry. I am beginning to think combined with the reflux she does have colic tendencies. Then you add in a 2 year old who is working hard to discover his boundaries and I've got my hands full. Right now I feel like I'm programing Porter. His mind works in IF...THEN... logic. I know that if I do my job correctly delivering correct consequences and strong boundaries I'll be a much happier mother in the long run. I am determined, but that doesn't mean it's easy. So, I spend my time giving warnings, using my firm voice, watching my toddler out of the corner of my eye so I can put him back in time-out when he tries to get up before he's done the time. Just when I think we've reached a solid boundary we leave the house and he has to learn it again for the new environment. My weariness at home has lead to something good though. Getting Porter Out of the house and Out of my hair. We enrolled him in Little Gym last night after a free trial class.

As a special needs Mom I've really hesitated to put Porter into community type activities because they can be very uncomfortable for me. Before we go out I worry, "Will other's accept him? Can his instructor handle including a child with special needs? What if someone says something ignorant? Can I keep from going ballistic on them if they do?" Then there's always the staring, people don't do it to be mean but it's hard to tell what's going through someones mind when their transfixed on your child. Well, with a little push from Porter we just did it and decided we were willing to deal with our discomfort for his good. We want and expect Porter to be included in society and that starts now.

I'm pleased to say we were pleasantly surprised. The instructor was a little awkward at first but she treated Porter just like any other kid and by the end of class she was excited to have him. She's working on a degree in Early Childhood Development so this experience is good for her. Some parents stared, but even the rough and tough Dad who was a little scary in appearance rushed over to keep Porter from getting hurt. Then there were parents that it didn't even phase, love them.

A friend of mine refers to Little Gym as Gross Motor preschool.

I took the pictures far away and through a window so they aren't great. Porter is running in the big circle with everyone.

Getting ready for his forwards flip. He loves doing them, just needs more practice.

Dancing & following directions with scarves.

exploring the beam

On the beam, he was a little nervous.

So much moving and so much fun. Even through the wall I could hear Porter yelling out of excitement. His Dad reported that he loved it and had a ton of fun.

Priya slept like this until the last 5 minutes of class. I didn't know what to do with myself, I kept checking facebook on my phone, read a little and even put my feet up while I watched. Then Priya woke up screaming so I picked her up and she pooped out all over herself and me. That ended the mommy break pretty quickly.

I'm excited to share more about Porter's new class with each week!

The Back Yard Just Got Cooler

That's right a POOL! Not only that but a pool shaped like a whale that sprinkles on you! Special thanks go to Uncle Tim & Aunt Megan for a Porter Perfect birthday gift.