June-SummaTime!!!

Once again I have to say What a GREAT month it's been for us. The beginning of the month was a little iffy because of the rain, but soon enough the sun has decided to shine and brighten our days with it's warmth. We've been able to enjoy camping and playing outside.
Our highlights this month are:

We went on our first camping trip of the summer! We had tons of fun doing that with some of our close friends. Porter did great and loved being free to roam and explore outside. Patrick took him fly fishing and Porter loved catching fish. He'd shout ISY-More! And now whenever we go near a river/stream he thinks of catching fish.We were also able to use our new tent for the first time and boy do we LOVE it! It was great because we had ours set up by the time everyone else was laying their tents out flat getting ready to set up.

We were also able to enjoy a wonderful evening of BBQ with our friends the Tuttles and out to  a concert in the park with Jon Schmidt and after wards some fireworks to celebrate the city Nibley.  Porter was a little ill that day so he was a very mellow kid that night. Yet, he loved the concert and would bop his head to the music and say NANO! He also found it fun to clap and cheer and share his excitement of listening to the music. The best was when he did it all on his own and nobody else was clapping or cheering. He all of a sudden clapped and said "WOOHOO!" I think everyone in the park heard him! It was so cute!

I was able to take the kids down to visit family and go to a good friends wedding one weekend. We celebrated Fathers day and Porter sang I'm so glad when daddy comes home to him, even though he was super sick! He did a great job. So as I mentioned Porter was sick, he had a double ear infection AND strep throat on top of that. He was miserable! He's never been so sick before and it broke my heart to hear him come to me and say "Mommy...hurt!" And because it was all just the flu symptoms of sweats and chills and the aches there really wasn't much I could do to help him. We did a lot of cuddling and watching movies on the couch.

We've also been enjoying the nice warm weather, Finally, in the pool. Porter loves to play in the water! I don't think we've ever heard such a tantrum from him when it was time to come inside for dinner. He LOVES playing in the water outside.

Kinley turned 5 months old this month and has learned how to roll over! She can only roll over from her back to her front on the left side, but it's still a milestone being reached. Right now we are working on sitting up on her own. We've started her on veggies and she gobbles those down. She really likes the Green beans! Everyone tells us she is a feminine little Porter! We agree! She has such a contagious little laugh and a smile that could brighten anyone's day!

May 2010

May is yet another crazy full month for us. At least this year it has been. With Graduation, our Anniversary, vacationing, and all of the fun things to do now that summer time has come around we have been busy!

This month we started out by celebrating Patrick’s Graduation. He Graduated from Utah State University with his Masters in Business Administration.  We are so proud of him and couldn’t be happier for him and this major accomplishment.  Bragging rights are that he graduated with a 3.9 GPA! He put so much time, hard work and effort into his schooling and has done a marvelous job.  Lots of family came to the Hooding Ceremony to support Patrick and this great accomplishment.  We thank them for coming and supporting Patrick through his school years.

We also had the opportunity to go with some great friends of ours to their Ranch in Aurora, UT.  We  spent about 3 days there and had tons of fun. We went hiking, 4 wheeling(mule riding with Kinley), Patrick and Porter went horseback riding,  to the sand dunes, and we got to shoot some guns with clay pigeons and still shooting.  We had such a great time while we were there and enjoyed our time with our friends and getting to know them better. 

Over Memorial Day weekend we spent our time with family.  We took some flowers to London and My Dad’s Graves.  Had a bbq with the Christensen family. Everyone was there – Brandon and Holley =( That was real sad, but also great to be with everyone.  Then we spent time with the Munson side of the family.  Played outside and played games. We just had a lot of fun relaxing time over the memorial weekend. 

Patrick has gotten our garden all planted and is doing well to take care of it! We’ve gone to feed the ducks up the canyon. Had lots of Picnics and block parties and played at parks. Patrick also took Porter on a Father and Sons Camp-out. Sadly it rained on them the entire time! They came home FREEZING!  Kinley and I stayed home and did our own girl things! Haha! Even at 4 months old Kinley and I bonded that night!

This month has been a wonderful month! Full of lots of fun with family and seeing where our life is taking us!

Deserves Its Own Post- Rather than in the Monthly Update!

Yes! My amazing husband did it! He graduated from College! More specifically he graduated with his Masters in Business Administration(MBA) degree. That's quite the accomplishment! I/We(family) are all so proud of him and the hard work and effort and time he put into accomplishing this very thing. Watching him and even listening to him I'd say he did it with such ease, but I know that even if it was easy for him he put a lot of time and work into it. And came out with a 3.9 GPA!  Graduation day was a wonderful day! Porter didn't get a nap because the hooding ceremony was at 1:30. Yet he sat there for a whole 2 hours quietly in his seat. Thankfully there was family around to help me with the kids. I had to go feed Kinley in the bathroom, and yes! I did sit on the toilet to feed her. Patrick thinks I'm crazy for doing that! But the bathroom was actually really clean! Kinley would just jump everytime someone flushed the toilet and get this frightened face. After the ceremony we took some pictures and then went to Fredricos-a pizza place up close to campus.Then after came home and relaxed. It was a great day!

LOOK OUT LOTS OF PICTURES!!!

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!