Marching Right Along...

March has been the month of snow and sun and wind and rain. You never know what the weather is going to be like or how fast it will change! Brooke, Porter, and I all got the flu early in March. It was no fun and we were pretty miserable for a few days. Luckily we're all recovered, but unluckily all of us have a nagging cough that won't go away.

Blake: has spring fever and is thinking about buying a jeep for our family to take off-roading. We had a Polaris RZR, but sold it last year. There have been problems with the RZRs catching on fire due to a pinched fuel line and that made us too nervous with the kids all buckled in the back. 

Courtney:The young women and all the leaders in our ward learned the song "Peace in Christ" and sang it in Sacrament Meeting. It was beautiful! I'm so grateful to part of this amazing organization; this song has a beautiful message and will stay with me for a long time. I've been gradually increasing my running distance and am now at 8 miles! Slowly, but surely getting ready for the half-marathon in May.

Brooke: Finally passed off her multiplication facts! The goal for 3rd grade is to pass of 100 facts in 5 minutes. Brooke has struggled with math and she finally did it! We're super proud of her and her hard work!

Porter: We've been noticing some big changes in Porter lately. He seems to be maturing and growing out of some of his mischievous/destructive tendencies. He is learning how to be a good friend and be kind to others. He loves to work on crafts and do puzzles and has become quite the little reader and speller!

Grant: loves to tease everyone and wrestle with Dad. His two great loves are reading books with mom and being pushed in the swing at the park. He talks about his "singing class" all week (singing time at Primary) and loves going to church.

Grant showing us his muscles (I can't wait to bring this picture back out when he's grown up!)

 On March 10 we went on a little "staycation" to the city. We took the kids to Disney on Ice, out to eat afterwards, and spent the night in a hotel and swam.

 It looks like a skater is on top of the guy's head in the forefront of that picture!

Blake and I loved watching the kids' expressions during the show. Brooke especially loved all the skating.

Grant loves telling "secrets" to everyone!

Blake was so excited for Brooke to ride his awesome BMX bike he had when he was a kid. Brooke's purple bike will get a makeover and be ready for Porter to ride. Porter's little bike will get handed down to Grant.

 Brooke LOVES to sleep on the floor on the weekends.

 I tried to be festive on St. Patrick's day and help the kids decorate rainbow cupcakes. It was also the day that Blake decided we had to paint the front door. We took it off the hinges off to paint it and it was supposed to be this "quick" project. First we couldn't get the pain to mix right and kept having to go back to the store, then the weather turned bad and it was windy and cold and snowed all while we didn't have a front door on our house! Needless to say, we got it done, and Blake has threatened anyone not to scratch the new coat of paint!

 Reading stories before bed!

 This Coronet belonged to Blake's dad.

 Grant surprised me one day by cutting some of his own hair. He is my tender little guy and was so upset that I was upset with him!

 Then a few hours later he came down wearing Brooke's swimming goggles and made us all laugh!

And that's it for March! Getting ready for General Conference, Easter Weekend, the kids' spring break, soccer season, and hopefully some warmer weather in April!

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!