Typical play-date.

Porter is 3

Porter's birthday always lies around Labor Day, which makes is hard, yet fun to plan parties. Since we just had Henry's party and invited the family, we didn't want them to have to come to another one, so we had a low-key friend party this year. And, just like Henry's, it rained. At least we were able to party, though.
My mom and dad and Tea and Ryan came Sunday for Porter's favorite dinner-spaghetti, and we opened the family gifts.

Monday (Labor Day) we invited some friends and their families to come to a water party. We bought a water table, had the slip and slide going, and bought water guns for all the kids. It was overcast and perfect. We all hung out under the tents and ate hot dogs and had cake and ice cream. It was wonderful, as you can see:

3 yr stats:
31 lbs
39 in
You have been such a joy to have in my life. You answer all questions with a full sentence: "yes I am," or "yes I do". I am amazed each day at your intellect. It seems you are far too knowledgeable for your age. You are beginning the "why" stage. You have such a methodic mind. You love to put puzzles together. It takes you once with help, and you can do 24 pieces in a few minutes. I love watching you talk to yourself while you do an activity. You are beginning imaginative play. It is so neat to watch you start playing with other kids and make up stories. I LOVE IT! You are a big helper around the house, and you are understanding that work brings rewards. You are good at obeying and you always stay close. I don't remember when you were too little to do that!  Thank you for all your goodness and your fun. Life would be so dull without you in it. Thanks for making me laugh each day, and for always reminding me why I love being your mom.

Outdoors in August

In August we also went to the family cabin site-affectionately called The Pines for a little getaway with nature. The boys love it, and since there's indoor plumbing now , I love it too. Here we are at Meek's Cabin Reservoir:

Here's Porter at the bottom of the Y. I hiked it with him when a friend and her family came to town to visit. Its funny how the hike always seems shorter than it is-or maybe it's shorter when there isn't a 2 yr old climbing it with you.

And canning. Lets not forget canning. My sister came over the middle of July to can so jam with me. She had never done it, and I wanted her to learn how. Instead of a monthly craft, we learned a useful skill instead. These are strawberry and raspberry jam, all from our garden! This summer I've also done beans, beets, and salsa. It's my dream to put in a canning kitchen in the basement when we finish it someday...

We went to Boise, ID in August for Evan's family. His big sister Linda, had 3 kids with big events. We're grateful they squeezed it in in one weekend! Her daughter was baptized on Saturday, her son had a mission farewell sunday, (first grandbaby AND missionary in the family, and we are so proud of him) and a baby blessing the same day. Talk about crazy! She handled it all very well, and we ate ourselves silly. We headed to Salt Lake that night where we slept soundly until monday, when we hopped a plane and arrived in Washington D.C. (yet again). This was the first time there that we didn't see any historic sites, monuments, or parks. (We did stop in at the Air and Space Museum the last day, for Evan) We spent our days in the hotel room, which was treat enough for the kids. Eating out-YES PLEASE! and doing a lot of walking and riding the metro-as usual. It was great to see Evan during our time there, since we hardly see him during the day on business trips. It was like a real family vacation! Thanks again to Evan's company for the wonderful accommodations and putting up with our kids during meals!

Me and Henry at the Nationals baseball game

At the Air and Space Museum

Henry is 1

From the stress of having strangers in my home, keeping it clean, and worrying about a birthday cake, we had a pretty low-key celebration this year. If you remember Porter's shin-dig for his 1st, (click here) it was nothing like that. We didn't even buy him gifts. We had some hand-me-down from a cousin that were put into a box that he opened. I threw the cake together that morning, sunday because the dancers were supposed to be gone, and it was a good day for a family to get together for a BBQ-our favorite thing. We had our families all here and ate well and played well. We sang, cut the cake, and opened presents. Pretty much a perfect day. I love my family!

At one year you are:
21.5 lbs
38 in.

• you are so busy! I follow you around most days and pick up what you've scattered around the house.
• you have the highest pitched scream I've ever heard
• you love to copy whatever Porter does
• you beg to be held all day long, and scream and cry if you don't get your way
• you are super independent and won't let us feed you anything you can't eat by yourself
• you are starting to run, and climb on EVERYTHING!
• have the cutest smile that melts my heart
• still let me cuddle with you and sing to you at bedtime. 
• you go down to sleep easily and have learned to fall asleep on your own
• have 8 teeth
• love to be outside

Shalom Israel

We had the opportunity to be a host family for some Israeli folk dancers for the Springville Folk Fest this year. We went back and forth about it, but decided we'd wanted to do it. Last year, the date fell over Henry's due date, and we couldn't have THAT mess to deal with...but our neighbors did it last year, and wanted to do it again, so we hosted together, which turned out FABULOUS!
We were put with Israel last-minute when our Aremenian dance team canceled a few days before hand. We had a good time with our dancer-men, and got to see some pretty cool folk dancing too! Our neighbors hosted 2 men, and we hosted 2 men. It wasn't what we originally planned on, but we were glad to help. If you personally know any Israelis, then you might have a clue as to how our week went...if you don't, then I will just leave it at that. It was an experience to say the least. They LOVED our boys, and Henry especially LOVED them!

Henry with Ofir

Henry with Aviel

Since Henry celebrated a birthday while they were here, we hosted a big BBQ (somewhat kosher) for all the dancers and their host families. We sung happy birthday and he was showered with attention, of course.

Summer chaos

What! How do our summers slip away from us? We wait and wait for it to get here, then we run ourselves ragged trying to make the most of it, and when it's over, we collapse. I feel like my summers are spend packing and unpacking. That's where I find myself at the end of this summer, and I finally found some time to sit down and write about what we've done.
Here are some things that have happened since the Holiday:
We were loaned(?), (given?) (lent?) a bike trailer from Evan's sister for our family. It has been wonderful. We use it several times a week. She even threw in little helmets for the boys. Porter enjoys it just as much as we do!

Here he is pulling Henry around

We've spend most of our summer outside playing around with the neighbor kids, and heading to the park when the weather was cool enough. Henry decided to show off at 10 months by climbing up the rock wall and sliding down the slide with NO HELP! What are we to do?

Here are some pictures of the kids playing around:

Here we are at the Spanish Fork Fiesta Days 24th of July Parade. It was pretty cool. Cooler even, that we got to ride our bikes to the parade route, and home again. Jig-a-Dee-Jig!