snow

We were all surprised to wake up to it snowing Tuesday morning. Porter especially.

I absolutely love the snow (minus the whole driving in it thing). But, it just doesn't seem like Christmas to me if there isn't snow covering the ground.

And there' s definitely some snow covering the ground, and more and more seems to keep joining it. It started snowing on Saturday...snowed a ton on Tuesday...and snowed some more last night. We probably have over 2 feet on the lawn. Oh, and it's supposed to snow some more today. There's so much snow we don't know what to do with it.

Wait, that's a lie. We know exactly what to do with it...especially Porter. This boy was made for the snow. He loves putting on his coat and socks on his hands (there are no mittens to be found in the stores...we'll have to search when we're up north this next week). He hates having them taken off...even if we aren't going outside, he loves to keep his coat and socks on (always be prepared, right?).

Porter's at home in the snow. The cold doesn't bother him one bit. He could stay outside until his fingers freeze and he wouldn't care one bit.

But, eventually we have to come inside and when we do, Porter can be found here... staring out the window at the snow.

"Wow wow wow!"

toy aisle

A couple of days ago we took Porter to Walmart and decided to let him just roam the toy aisle. It was so much fun to watch him play. He went from toy to toy, and shared with any kid that came near enough for him to shove his current toy in their face.

He walked up and down the back hallway pushing buttons and dancing to music, it was so fun for all of us.

My favorite part...

Kyle found a little Lightening McQueen recliner and pulled it off the shelf. Porter climbed right into it and laid back. He knew what this was for. Even better, he had an idea.

He quickly sat up and looked back to the big toy shelf he had been going through before. He jumped out of his seat and proceeded to carry the chair over to the toy wall. He got the chair within a foot of the wall, climbed in and reclined back... loving the view.

He then started pointing at everything, talking up a storm about whatever he was pointing at.

I really wish I had had my camera on me. I loved the image of the little boy pulling his chair up to the wall of toys sitting back and soaking it in.

a Christmas kick-off

This past weekend we had a decorating celebration at our house...it's really beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!

We made a fabulous dinner of Chicken Carbonara, had a couple of pies (Kyle and I hadn't had enough over Thanksgiving...I needed pecan and Kyle was dying for more banana cream) and we watched "Charlie Brown Christmas", "The Grinch" and "A Christmas Story" all night.

Oh yeah, and we decorated... a lot.

Porter was enamoured with the tree. We always get a real tree and I love it... so does Porter.

I love the smell of pine in the house, and our tree smells delightful. I couldn't stop smelling it the night we put it up and Porter started trying to smell it as well. The only difference is that he makes the "mmmm" noise before he sniffs, this kid makes me laugh.

Porter helped out with the night as much as possible.

He helped me make pies earlier in the night...he can stir very well.

He helped Kyle tighten the screws to hold up the tree.

He kept checking each one.

He helped get rocks to put in the bottom of the tree stand to hold our tree up. He then got a little distracted by how cool the rocks were and started putting them on the floor instead of the stand.

So, we distracted him with the ornaments.

Porter loved trying to put the snowmen on the tree. His attempt was more of him just chucking the snowman at the tree, but it's the thought that counts. He couldn't figure out why they wouldn't stay on. I had to help him out a little.

He was obsessed with the lights and now has to have them turned on whenever he sees that they're off. He walks towards them with his hand up saying "hot, hot, hot" over and over again.

Then he tried to kiss the tree. I've tried to reinforce why this is a bad idea...with the sharp needles I think he's catching on to that one.

It was a very fun night... a tradition we'll have to continue.

(Yeah, so I think I bumped the camera while I was headed over to sit with the boys...possibly why we don't have the tops to our heads.)

Pregnancy update:

Why did I think that I had a belly at 16 weeks? That's no belly when compared to this one...

It feels like there's a basketball under there.

25 weeks and counting. Everything is going really well.

momma

It's been several, SEVERAL months since Porter said his first word..."hi". He still says it, and several other words have slowly joined in the mix. Porter will say Dadda and Daddy, hot, wow, there and a few random others. But, those words pretty much make up this kids vocabulary. We've been working on Momma or Mommy for months and a few months ago one slipped out...haven't heard it again. It wasn't used in the context it should have been and I'm sure that it was a mistake because he never uttered the word again.

Yesterday we were sitting around going through Porter's body parts; he knows where his nose, eyes, ears, mouth, hands and tummy are. He also knows where his baby brother is (I don't think he knows WHAT a baby brother is, but he knows where he resides)... don't know how he picked up on that one, but one day I asked him where his baby brother was and he came over, lifted up my shirt and pointed to my tummy. If you ask him to show you his baby brother and he isn't close enough to me, he'll lift up his own shirt to show you where his baby brother is... it's darling.

Anyway, going through his body parts I stopped him and asked where his Daddy was to which he immediately ran to the kitchen pointing to Kyle. Kyle, in turn, looked at him and said, "Good job, now, where's you're Mommy?" Porter proceeded to lift up his shirt and say, "There!" repeatedly.
"No, no...that's your tummy, where's you're mommy." Porter lifted his shirt up again to show his tummy. We died laughing...such a funny little kid.

So, we worked on it. We changed it up a bit asking him where his Mom or Momma was, (hoping that Mommy and tummy just sounded too alike) but without fail, I always got a flash of a cute little belly as his response.
We started asking him to say Momma or Mommy and all we got his sweet little, "huh?" everytime. It was a lost cause. If there's one thing I've learned with this kid, it's that he can't be rushed...when he decides he's good and ready for something, he'll do it, but not a moment before.

This morning when Porter woke up, Kyle went in to get him and he came and laid Porter next to me. Porter nuzzled his cute little face right up next to mine and said, "Momma?"
He hasn't stopped saying it all day long...it's my new favorite word.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend down in Moab. We were able to spend time with all of Kyle's siblings (minus Brennan, of course). We watched movies, played games and ate... a lot. We also headed out to go Christmas tree hunting on the weekend. It was a perfect Thanksgiving.

Love that tradition. Kyle and I have hunted for our trees for the past 3 years and I think it is one of my favorite traditions. We found a beautiful tree this year and I'm so excited to get it up and decorated later this week. Putting up the tree is always the point where it really starts to feel like Christmas... I can't wait.

I always realize after I get home and start looking through pictures that I never took quite enough. I need to keep my camera by my side all the time...I should have learned this by now!

But, here's one to satiate the gramma's for a little while...

We found railroad tracks while hiking around for a tree...Porter loved them.