he's six.

Porter turned 6. 
I can't believe it. He's getting too big, too quick.

Here is my birthday interview with him.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
A doctor, because I'd love to be a doctor and I've never been a doctor
What is your favorite food? Oatmeal, cereal and sandwiches. Which kind of sandwich? Peanut butter and Jelly and when I get older I'll love red tomatoes
What's your favorite dessert? Candy. What about cookies or cake or cupcakes?
Oh! I love all of those things.
What is your favorite animal? A horse Why? I love riding horses
What is your favorite movie? Turbo. You've never seen that movie. I know but I saw the picture of that movie when I went to see Despicable Me 2. What's your favorite movie that you've seen? The Croods
What's your favorite color? Blue. Not green? Yeah, not green anymore. Why ? Because my favorite color has changed, but my favorite flavor is still chocolate. So your favorite flavor hasn't changed? Yep, not yet... my favorite flavor never ever changes.
What is your favorite toy? Turbo
Who is your best friend? Courtney. What about Bridger?... nope, cause he's my brother. He can't be my best friend. But you love to play with Bridger right? Yes, but he can't be my best friend, he's my brother.
What is your favorite number? 9 Why is 9 your favorite? Because my favorite number has changed. It used to be 100
What is your favorite game? Chutes and Ladders
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with my new scooter
What is your favorite song? Umm... I'll sing it for you... I'm thinking...Book of Mormon Stories that my teacher tells to me...
What is your favorite book? My new Curious George book. I love all books.
Where do you want to go on your mission? Madagascar. That didn't change? No, cause that's my mission.
What can you do now that you are six? I can still like mashed potatoes. But is there something new that you can do now that you're six? I can go to kindergarten, but I have to wait until August.
Tell me five things that you are good at.
1. Not hitting and kicking
2. I'm good at asking you if I can go around the block... but sometimes I don't listen to you.
3. I'm good at reading.
4. I'm good at helping you with all sorts of stuff and helping dad too.
5. I'm good at running. Yeah, I'm faster than Bridger. 

Things that I want to remember about Porter now that he's six.

Porter is such a sweetie. He takes good care of his brothers and of me. He helps me out with everything that he can. 

He is very detail oriented and focuses on the little details in everything.

He's a little obsessed with bugs and catching them. He's really good at catching bugs without hurting them. He gets grasshoppers, flies and the most impressive that I've seen was a big butterfly down in Moab. He caught it and it was able to fly away when he let it go. He's very gentle with them.

He  loves to read. It calms him down. If he's getting frustrated by anything all I have ti tell him is to go take some time and read. Sometimes he'll be gone for 10 minutes...most of the time he'll go read for a couple hours. He loves it when I read him chapter books and the favorites so far are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. We are in the middle of The BFG right now and he's loving it... big Roald Dahl fans over here...

He doesn't like teasing or "joking" around. H gets very serious about this and doesn't like it when people tease him. He especially doesn't like it when someone says that they want to keep Ford. Ford is his brother and he is coming home with us... don't even pretend that you want to take Ford home with you.

He loves to tell stories and he'll tell Bridger at least one story every night. Most of the time it's a TV show he's watched and he will tell the entire episode, verbatim, to Bridger.

Porter's memory is scary... he can remember everything (except where he put his shoes :) He will rival his mom and dad in our ability to quote movies. We've cycled through all the Scooby Doo episodes on Netflix once (we've had to watch a few shows since the baby was born). There are 26 episodes. After about the first 10 seconds, Porter can tell you what happens during the entire episode, what the following episode will be and what happens in it and what the episode after that will be. He can tell you the order of all the episodes... it boggles my mind. 

There's so much more that I want to remember about this boy. He is so sweet and kind and smart. I know that there is more that I wanted to write, but this post has been a month in the making and I need to get it up! I'll post more when I get his birthday photos posted.

I love my Porter and I'm so glad he's part of our family.
Happy Birthday buddy!
 

one month

Ford is such a sweet baby. At one month...

He sleeps really well all day long. 

He can sleep through just about anything, noise doesn't bother him in the least.

Struggles with tummy problems a little bit at night, but it seems to be getting better.

Loves to be swaddled.

Smells divine.

Will suck his thumb if he can find it.

Takes a pacifier really well, unless he's hungry and then he wants the real deal.

Is very content until 11 at night when his little tummy starts to cause trouble, again, hopefully getting better.

Possibly has allergies like his Daddy. The last few days Kyle's been congested and so has Ford.

Has a really strong grip and is making his mommy consider chopping her hair.

Smiles all the time when he's asleep and is starting to smile when awake.

He's starting to get some chubby little cheeks; he's a good eater!

He's just growing out of newborn clothes and newborn diapers.

His brothers adore him... sometimes a little too much...

 and his mommy and daddy adore him too.

This is the first smile to be caught on camera. Ford is such a sweet baby and we're so excited that he's here and a part of our family.

 I can't believe how quickly time flies, and how much this little guy has changed in the past month.
I don't remember which blog it was (or else I would reference it... I'll have to find it again) but I remember the mother took a picture every month of her little one next to the same stuffed animal to show how much he grew over the year. I love the idea and since my mom got this adorable little stuffed terrier for Ford, that's what we'll do!

tidbits of my day

-I took Charlie into the groomers today (his hair has gotten quite long and I wanted it trimmed all off). The cute girl who checked us in asked if it was okay that she spelled Charlie "Charley" instead of with an 'ie'. I told her that was just fine, didn't make a difference to me. He'll respond to Charlie no matter how it's spelled.
She responded that she now spells Charlie with an 'ey' because she got yelled at one day by some lady that she had spelled her dogs name incorrectly. So now she spells all 'Charlie's' the same way, just in case the woman comes back.
People can be so sensitive about the silliest things.

-While talking to the groomer about how I wanted Charlie's hair cut (short, all of it short) two men, with matching schnauzers and matching shirts (each of their shirts matched the shirts on their dogs) came in and wanted to talk to the groomer...apparently they were not satisfied with the style of cut that 'Snuggles' had received.

I laughed a little bit.

- My card was declined today. I had the cashier run it 4 times because that couldn't be possible. She had been overly chatty with me and doting over Ford and as soon as it was declined she was very short with me.
I have never had that happen. And I don't know if I've ever been so embarrassed.
Kyle and I use a cash system most of the time. But with the baby, things have been thrown off the past few weeks. But I always pay the card off each week, we don't carry a balance so there's no way we were maxed out.
So I called my bank, and apparently on Monday at a Best Buy in Minnesota, someone tried to use my card. Then tried to use it this morning at 1:30am at a gas station in California. The lady at the bank asked if that could have been my husband using the card... but I'm certain I know where Kyle was at 1:30 last night ;) Kyle and I both still have our cards in our wallets...how does that happen?

Oh and I care enough about what other people think of me, that I was very tempted to go back into the store and tell the cashier why my card was declined. Having to haul all 3 kids back into the store was my only deterrent, but it was a good one.

-I heard "Put your hands in the air or I will shoot!" and I turned around to see this...

 I shot back, but it was just with my camera... how is a girl supposed to defend herself when faced with a pop gun, a light-saber, a bow and arrow and those baby blues? A girl doesn't stand a chance.

-I have found that organizing your day is paramount when you have a newborn. I forgot how that worked. Porter and Bridger are big enough now that timing errands around feedings hasn't been a problem for years...
I didn't plan so well today and so we found ourselves at Walmart at the time that Ford was supposed to eat again. I had him in a wrap (don't know how I would tackle this whole thing of having 3 kids without it) so I was able to keep him content, finish my shopping and get out to the car before he started crying.
On our way home, in the midst of the crying, I hear Bridger pipe up. "Ford, there will be no whining in this car!"... I wonder where he's heard that before.
As we made it a little further, and Ford didn't stop crying, Bridger tried to troubleshoot what was going on and why he was crying so much. "Maybe he had something sour to eat. I cry when I have something sour to eat!"

-We spent our evening playing soccer. Kyle, Bridger and Ford vs Porter and myself. It was quite entertaining, I wish there could have been someone videotaping it. I like being a family of 5.