February Favorite

A week after Porter's birthday, I turned 34 and Blake I celebrated by leaving the kids with his mom and heading up in the mountains. It was almost 60 degrees the day of my birthday, so we hiked a trail that is right next to river and enjoyed the beautiful day and scenery. After we were done, we ate a late lunch at the lodge. Then went back to get the kids, eat pizza and cake, and watch opening ceremonies of the winter Olympics.

Brooke has been working hard all year to earn her "cursive license" at school. She had to complete all of her cursive homework and have it approved that it was legible and she was doing all the letters in cursive correctly. Now she can write in cursive on her regular assignments at school.

 I caught Grant playing doctor with his horse (he calls horses "neigh-neighs"). It was really cute.

 Grant also decided he wanted to wear a pair of Brooke's high heels. These shoes have a funny story behind them. A couple years ago, our neighbors were having a yard sale. They have 4 grown girls and these shoes were for sale. Brooke LOVES yard sales and wanted to go over and see what they had. Our neighbors are so nice and told Brooke she could pick out something for free. Of course, she picked out a sparkly pair of high heels! They don't even fit her, they are like an adult size 8, but Brooke was smiling so big when she showed me. She's even been allowed to wear them to church a couple of times.

 Valentine's day was pretty low-key at our house. Blake had to work and didn't get home until later in the evening. Rather than try to fight the crowds for dinner, I went to Cafe Rio and got us a couple of pork salads and brought them home.

 Valentine's Day is the anniversary of Blake and I's first date (a dance at Snow College) and our first kiss! This year marked 15 years since that happened!

I'm not even sure I took this picture, but here's Grant holding Porter's nerf gun, which I'm sure he wasn't supposed to have and hurried and threw it down as soon as he heard Porter coming.

Happy 6th Birthday Porter!

Porter turned 6 on February 2 and he was so excited. When he first got out of bed, he came into our room and said, "Did you know there's a 6 year old in the house?" 

He got to bring treats to school for his class and his teacher gave him a crown to wear. After school, Porter rushed home to get ready for his friend-party that afternoon.

The theme of the party was PIZZA, so when his friends came, each one made their own chef's hat and decorated it with stickers and stamps.

 Then the boys made their own paper pizzas.

 Next it was time to make their personal pizzas with all the toppings!

 While we waited for the pizzas to cook, Porter opened presents.

 Then it was time to feast their homemade pizzas and rootbeer!

 The circus happened to be in town the night of Porter's birthday, so his present from the family were tickets to the show! The kids were so excited and loved every minute of it!

We sure love having Porter in our family! He loves to tell jokes, play tricks, and is very task oriented...give him a job to do (like bringing in firewood) and he's perfectly content! He loves the outdoors and it's when he's inside and bored that he usually gets into trouble. Porter is learning how to be a good friend and good student in his kindergarten class. His teacher sent me an email praising Porter on helping a little boy (whom Porter didn't even know) during recess when the little boy fell and broke his arm. Porter was very calm and knew he needed to get a teacher right away.  Happy birthday, buddy! We sure love you!

January in a Nutshell

In January Porter started bringing home books to read! We're so proud of him and how much he is learning! Porter can be really difficult and has a very stubborn personality. Before school started, I was actually dreading working with him on reading because I thought it would be a constant fight to get him to do it. But he's surprised us! He enjoys reading to us and has learned quickly. 

No more nursery! In January Grant became a Sunbeam! He knows all the words to "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" (or sunbeemp as he pronounces it) and was excited for his new class! Kind of a bittersweet moment for mom and dad--no more babies in the nursery at church!

A robot Porter made from playdoh that he wanted me to take a picture of.

Grant likes to pretend that he's a big boy and reads from the books the older kids get from their school library.

Apparently Porter stole my camera and took this picture.

We didn't have much snow at our house in January, so we headed up on the mountain for a day of sledding.

Porter and Grant both got cold and headed back to the truck to get warm. It was so cute when Porter held Grant's hand to help him walk up the hill.

After sledding we had a fire and a hot-dog roast to get warm.

We don't subscribe to any cable or even local TV channels, so our kids think it's a special treat when they get to watch a kids show on the kindle!

And that was our January!