Little Miss Dancing Queen

*I uploaded the video of Brooke's performance to youtube. To see Brooke's dance to "Cruella DeVille" click HERE

*Porter also wants to show off his dancing skills. To see them, click HERE

This summer, Brooke was able to take a dance class from June-August. She just had her dance recital last Saturday (August 17). Brooke's teacher was Ms. Marcy, the same instructor that we took classes from last summer, so it was nice for her to have a familiar face and some of the same girls in her class. It's an exploring dance class meaning that Brooke learned tumbling, ballet, modern, and cheer. It was a good combination for a bunch of 4 year olds that have a little attention span. It was fun to go back and look at last year's blog post and compare big/old Brooke looks!

somersaults

backbend

ballet

practicing their dance routine

 On the day of the performance, Brooke was very excited. She showed me some new tricks she's learned this year

bridge

table

ready to dance!

I was so proud of Brooke when she finished! I was not very diligent about having Brooke practice her routine outside of class, so she learned it all on her own and did such a great job at her performance!

Moments that made up our Summer

Along with the bigger trips and activities we did this summer, there were plenty of little moments I want to document. Some of ones not pictured were playgroups at the park with friends from church, going to the walking park with mom in the mornings, and storytime each week at the library.

I can never leave anything on my kitchen table--Porter will climb up and just help himself

 Blake spent 2 days chopping up our woodpile for this winter. The kids had fun watching

 Halfway done:

 Lots of backyard fun (yes, we are always in our jammies at our house)

 I found both my kids reading one day..it was the cutest thing!

 More fun at the splash park

 Brooke makes friends wherever she goes

 Blake built shelves in our garage to give us some more storage. Then we realized we don't have that much and they are empty. I'm sure we'll find stuff to fill them!

The finished woodpile

 Playing on the horses at CAL-Ranch

 My friend made this cute bike carwash from plans she found on Pinterest. The kids loved it.

So-long summer! It was fun!

Fair Favorites & Work Picnic

I can't believe we've come to the fair already! This is usually our "so long" summer activity. 

 This is the 4th year I've taken Brooke to the Little Red Barn at the fair. This is Porter's second time coming. It's our family favorite and a great tradition!

plating seeds

the piglets were my favorite

 Brooke got to help spray the fire hose

About a week later was Blake's work summer picnic. Have I said how much Blake is enjoying his new job and how much our family loves it too? Well, we do. And these perks like summer picnics are just a few of the resons why! The picnic was in a meadow with a bounce-house, climbing wall, and several of those inflatable slides to play on. They fed us a BBQ lunch and let us climb on some of the heavy equipment they use (ones that cost millions of dollars--crazy!)

 They had face-painting for the kids and Brooke was so excited to be a kitty

 As soon as Porter saw the trucks, he got very excited and pointed and said "vroom-vroom"

As I look at the calendar and see that there is only a week and half left of summer vacation, part of me is ready (I am getting SO TIRED of cleaning my house over and over each day, and Brooke and I are starting to butt heads big time), but the other part of me is not ready to see it go. There are several activities I still want to with the kids. I'm going to squeeze every last drop of fun out of these last few weeks of freedom!

18 Months

Holy Cow! A year and half goes by so fast when you're as busy as this little guy! And that's exactly the word I would use to describe Porter at this stage. He is constantly on the move and if I am not right there watching him constantly he gets into all sorts of mischief. He gets into the garbage all the time, pulls the DVDs from the shelves in the TV room, pulls books from the bookcase, gets into the cupboards in the bathroom while I'm showering and scatters cotton balls or Q-Tips everywhere. He can open the front door since it has a lever for a handle, so we have to make sure it's locked all the time. If we don't know where Porter is, you can bet he's getting into some kind of trouble. His new thing is to climb inside the cupboards and hide. He thinks he's so funny.

 I love that Porter still loves to snuggle and will let me hold and kiss him as much as I want.

He is also a big-time climber! As soon as my back is turned he is pushing a kitchen chair out to use to climb up on top of the table. 

 He's also very curious about everything. He couldn't figure out why he was having such a hard time getting a drink from the sprinklers.

Oh how I love this boy of mine and his contagious smile!

Porter's Accomplishments:

Can sign: milk, more, water, finished, please, thank-you--he can also shake his head no and is starting to shake his head yes. He's also very enthusiastic about waving :)

Can say: Ma, Da, vroom-vroom (does this for any kind of car, truck, tractor, or heavy equipment), woof-woof (for dogs) and can say "yes" (sometimes), "uh-oh", and "hot" (sounds like ot). Porter is really good to try to mimic words and sounds. I've had him saying "thank-you" a couple of times, but not consistantly.

Sleeps: Goes to bed at 6:30 each night and waks up around 7am. Takes one nap now around 10:30 and will sleep until at least 12:30 usually, but sometimes will go as long as 2 or 2:30.

Eats: everything!! Loves food, especially snacks. He likes frozen peas and corn (not frozen), fruit, real meat (not lunch meat), hot-dogs, breads and cereal. He's a little thief too. If you have food, he expects you to share with him.

Loves: books, his toy cars and trucks, to wrestle with daddy, to play peek a boo (will cover his face), and hide and seek (loves to hide from us and giggle when we find him). He also enjoys being outside. Each morning he will bring me his shoes and wants me to put them on him so he can go right outside first thing. I have a feeling it's going to be a LONG winter. He's not afraid of the slide. He can climb up the ladder and go down all by himself. 

And probably his biggest accomplishment right now is that he's walking!!! Last Sunday Blake took him out because he was being loud during sacrament meeting and got Porter to take some steps on his own. Then during nursery (we took him a week early) I came in to check on things and I look down and see him walking towards a toy in the middle of the room. It was so exciting!! We have been kind of worried at how reluctant he's been about not wanting to walk at all. It's been almost a week, and each day Porter gets more sure of himself and walks more during the day instead of crawling. Way to go bud!