April 2010

Wow! This month has been a great month! Full of lots of things to do and get done. As well as enjoying TIME together as a family. Yep that's right, the first of the month Patrick was busy finishing off tax season and then once the 15th rolled around we got our Dad/Husband back! With Patrick having more time to be home, the kids have been enjoying their special time with him. Porter is always so excited for the day when Dad is home and how he gets to go outside and PLAY! Dad has a rough time at work now-a-days because he realizes what he could be doing if he were home, playing with his kids, making them(and him) smile and laugh! We also took one day where Patrick built some shelves in our Garage to help with storage. We have absolutely no storage in our home and so we've had to improvise. Now that our family has grown to 4 we are realizing we are growing and need more space. More space for what we already have and for more growth. We told ourselves we were building the shelves to help with space not to free space for new things! Anyways Patrick did a wonderful job with the shelves and we are very proud of him and his skills.

The beginning of the month we started out with Easter!  Easter was such a fun day for us. We woke up and saw that the Easter Bunny came to our house!! The bunny was very kind and left Porter for a good hunt for eggs! As soon as Porter heard there was stuff inside the eggs and then opened them and found candy...of course he had to eat all the candy in the one egg before he could move on to the next. It was too funny to watch.We had so much fun watching him! It was especially fun watching him get the egg from the clock.
The second weekend of the month, my niece, Maddi, got baptized and confirmed. Because it was still tax season I took the kids down to Utah County alone, w/o Patrick.  It was an enjoyable weekend, and I was able to make the 2 hour drive by myself with a 2 year old and a 3 month old alright! Friday night we arrived at Grandmas and Brandon and Holley came to hang out and have dinner with us! I was really excited about that! We had tons of fun being with them and enjoying some of our last moments together before they move. Brooks is such a cute kid and growing up so quickly. Brandon was very kind and entertained Porter and Brooks with the Legos for about 30 minutes!
The next day was the baptism. It was a wonderful baptism and was lots of fun seeing family. It was the first time many of my family got to see Kinley. We enjoyed the lunch after the baptism at the park. Even if it was a bit chilly. Porter's cousins were great to entertain him and play with him! Especially Bryce who took Porter over to the Basketball hoop to shoot the Football, yes! I said football! Everyone was so confused when Porter would go up to them and point and say shoot. Because to them it sounded like he was saying ZOO haha what a funny kid!
Then to end the month Patrick and I were able to go to the 2010 MBA Graduation Banquet with the guest speaker, Elder L. Tom Perry. We were blessed to be able to go shake hands with Elder and Sister Perry and have a small little chat with them! He really is a TALL guy! Amazing how he's almost in his 90s and he can stand as tall as he does and also have the mind and speech capacity that he does! It was really neat to have that special opportunity. My first time shaking an apostle of the Lords hand. Dean Anderson compared Elder Perry to the Wellsvilles. The Wellsvilles are the extremely tall snow-capped mountains that I get to see everyday out my bedroom window. Dean Anderson not only compared the tall, snow-capped part about the mountians to Elder Perry, but also the steadfast and immovable constant man he is! It was great and I will forever remember that.

March 2010

This month seems to have flown by for us! I honestly don't know where it went and how it went by so quickly!?! I guess I need to better prepare myself for the month of March each year and understand that OF COURSE it's going to be busy and fun filled with 3 birthdays in just our small family of 4!

We celebrated Patrick's birthday by eating a nice dinner and then going to Hollywood video to pick out a free movie that we could watch. Patrick ended up picking Star Trek and it was a pretty good movie. Even for someone who isn't a treky(Sp?) We got back and I made Patrick blow out his candles and then open his present. I had made him some hot/cold rice packs for his sore "old" body. And he was able to go buy him some more clothes which he needed.

The next day was my birthday and we had plans since it was a friday night to make it a date night and go out to eat. Well our babysitter got sick and ended up not able to watch the kids. A lot of people have said OH bummer! But really it was the best thing ever! Why not celebrate your birthday with your family?!? I don't know just a crazy idea I guess! haha. Anyways...I had planned for us to go to Texas Roadhouse. We had never been there before and I was excited to go. So we ended up taking the kids and having a BLAST! Porter loved the atmosphere there and was getting up and dancing and he got a cool cowboy hat, also he loved the food! Patrick gave me a pampered chef rice cooker. I'm pretty excited for it! It cooks more than just rice. Imagine this...Baked Potatoes cooked  to perfection in the microwave in 3 minutes? AMAZING!! I love it!

The next weekend we celebrated Porters 2nd Birthday. We didn't do much on his actual birthday. We just had some friends over and let Porter and his buddy Brayden play. We opened presents and had Ice Cream and we watched some March Madness games. For Porters birthday we got him a Tool set/ Work bench, a kite and some chalk to play with outside and some clothes.

We actually really celebrated Porters birthday when we had everyone up for Kinley's Baby blessing. We ended up turning it into a Birthday Blessings party. We blessed Kinley at the beginning of the month. Patrick gave her a wonderful blessing! After church we had a luncheon and had cake and ice cream plus opened some presents from other family members. It was so wonderful to have as many people as we did come and support us and enjoy in our celebration! Thanks to all who came!

This month also included well-child visits to the Doctor. Kinley had her 2 month visit and is almost 12 lbs. and 23 1/2 in. Both of which are the 80%. So she's a healthy happy baby! As for Porter. he is 30lbs and 36 12 in. He is in the 80% for weight and 90% for height. The doctor told us that Porter is getting his 2 year old molars which really explains a lot!

February 2010 Recap

This month for us has been full of health problems. It started out with Skye, Porter and Kinley all getting really runny noses and being pretty congested. We took Kinley into the Dr one day after she'd been suffering from symptoms of a cold for a full week  and I was getting worried. I had read in the Parenting Magazine that RSV can look like a common cold, so I really started to get scared. Of course once we got into the Dr. my motherly instincts KNEW all was well and she was A.O.K. It's not at all in her lungs, she's eating great and from her weight gain which jumped a whole 3 lbs in 3 weeks showed us she's doing fine.After the whole month went by and Porter was showing no improvement, and started to cough I decided to call the Dr. to see if there were any medicines we could give him. Once I said he'd been sick for 3 weeks they said let's get him in here. So We took him into the Dr and they determined that Porter had an ear infection and gave us some medicine to get him better! Kinley on the other hand is doing really well and has seemed to overcome the battle of the cold. 

Also to add to health issues; Patrick has been playing church ball lately and I kid you not when I say he has come home every saturday with some part of his body injured in one way or another. Luckily it hasn't been anything too serious. The most damage done has been to his back, of course, and that takes a toll on him for a few days. It's been fun going to watch his games and supporting him. Porter sure loves to go and cheer for his Daddy! "YES!!" 

Also this month Patrick taught the Relief Society Activity. The topic being on budgeting. He did a Wonderful job! All the women came up to me and told me what a good job he did and how grateful they are for his teaching them new things. Some key points he taught were to number one PRAY as a couple before you talk budget and finances! He taught how we need to gain a testimony of keeping our finances straight and budgeting. He gave tips and told women about a few resources they could use to help them.  It was awesome! 

As we all know February is the month we celebrate Valentines Day. Patrick and I never really go all out and do things big for each other. Mostly it's just dinner together and I love it! This year Mom and Dad and Kelsey came up to visit us that weekend. They watched the kids so Patrick and I could go out on a date! It was so nice to be together as a couple without the kids for a couple hours.  It was much needed! Patrick and I also got to go out on a date later that weekend. We went to the church and played basketball. We had fun with a few shooting games.  Then afterwards we went out to eat. We had Subway! It was  a wonderful time together AND cheap if you ask me! Sometimes the little things are better. Plus it helps to have  access to the church building! 

Last but not least an update on life  for the kdis in this house. Porter has been showing a lot of interest in his little sister, Kinley. He is always trying to pick her up when she is crying! Which he’s strong enough to get her legs and bum off the ground, but not strong enough to pick her up by himself which scares me! I have to remind myself that it’s a sweet thing and so cute that he’s trying to help and love her! So we’ve been trying to teach him that he needs to ask if he wants to hold her. It didn't really work on one occasion and he picked her up and because she's not strong enough to hold her own weight and she's so limp he dropped her. It was terrifying to me, but all in all he’s been doing a great job and holds her a couple times a day! It’s super sweet and tender! We as parents can see the immense love and bond our children have with one another! It's Adorable! 

Well, that's it for the month of February! Hope y'all enjoyed! Til next month! 

P.S. The pictures from this month are from the latest Posts I've put up! Plus the one up top of Porter and Kinley!! So don't hate me for not adding pictures to this post. Please!

Kinley's Room In Progress

I finished the big  projects in Kinley's Room about 4 weeks after she was born! YAY!! I'm still working on the decorations that are going to go on the Hutch, but that could be a while. So I decided I'd post these not so amazing pictures of her room so many of you can see what I've done and what  I'm very proud of! Her room, in my opinion, is absolutely ADORABLE! It fits her personality perfectly too! I'm excited and trying to be very patient for it to be completely finished! ENJOY!

So you walk into the room and this is what you see

 

I made these wall hangings to help with adding color to the room since we can't paint! Then Patrick's sister Lacy painted these paintings! They are PERFECT! Isn't she so talented and AMAZING?  Thanks Again Lace, We LOVE them!!

Then to the left is the window...

 

Then to the left is the crib.

 

Patrick and I made this mobile/chandelier the week before Kinley was born thank goodness! It took a lot of time, but well worth it!

Kinley

Above: 5 Weeks Old

Below: 6 Weeks Old