Porter's Birthday May 2013





The Birthday Boy





Porter has turned three years old and I can hardly believe it still. Where does the time go. He is officially potty trained now and it has been such an accomplishment for him and us! I have heard boys are tougher to train then girls, and even through I can't compare, I can attest to the difficulties and challenges of training boys. He is agreed to have a Curious George birthday party this year, and we are celebrated with extended family again like the precious birthdays. We went swimming at the kinsmen pool with Uncle Nick, Aunt Jacie, Dexter, Know, Auntie Erin, Josh, Taylor S, Emma, Robbie and Grandma. Of course, Dad, Bailey, and Brody were there too. It was a lot of fun, and Dexter even went ahead of his Mom and raced down the slide, Jacie has to fly down after him. He even jumped off the diving board. He sure has a lot if courage! Porter and Brody just struck to the mini slides off the side of the shallow end, and loved going again and again. After swimming we went back to our house for BBQ Henley's hot dogs, fruit kabobs, veggies and dip, and strawberry mint infused water. Then for desert of course was a Curious George birthday cake I made myself. Porter had a great time playing in the backyard with his cousins, although they are twin still learning to take turns and play nice. We love having family over to visit. Then we we

nt to play at the park because the weather was so nice. It was a wonderful celebration over all!





Cute Party Hats and Blowers







Monkey Munch for our guests







 

Decorations





  

















Porter and Brody both got their first stitches already. Porter got his stitches on November 12, 2012. His accident happened in the bathtub, he was stomping around and pulled my decorative metal soap holder into the tub and stepped right in the sharp edge which split the cease of his big toe. We were quite panicked because it was the first time we dealt with something like that. Craig rushed him to the after hours emergency clinic while I stayed at home and put Brody to bed. Porter got 2 stitches and was such a brave boy. He beamed about getting a juice box and cracker snack from the nurses. Brody's happened May 24, 2013. Brody's stitches were a result of Porter's aggressive behaviour as they were bouncing on my bed and Porter pushed Brody off my bed and he hit his eyebrow on the corner of my dresser. It was durning the day so Craig was at work and so I took Porter to the neighbours then drove Brody to the walk in doctor and he got 1 stitch. He handled it pretty well considering they had to put a drape over his face. He didn't like that much. We have taken extra precaution since those accidents and hope it can be prevented in the future. Our bedside dressers are dangerous because the first incidence was when Brody was 1 and he took a tumble off my bed as he was trying to climb and he hit his mouth on the corner, cutting his lip and bending his front tooth back, it was quite crooked for a lot time, but has finally straightened out! I decided to put pool noodles over the corners of the dressers to avoid any incidents in the future! Brody has a nice scar by 

his eyebrow now, which makes him look tough.

Well half the summer if 2013 was great! The other half was awful and devastating! Stay tuned for more on my next post....

To be continued.

March 1, 2013

We are already a couple months into 2013, hard to believe. I haven't been very diligent in updating my posts, but hopefully I'll stay on top of it this year. We celebrated our little boy's first birthday on December the 12th. It was a froggie themed birthday and all my family came to celebrate with us except Nathan who is too far away. We had lots of fun playing minute to win it games followed by a movie to pass sometime while we prepared soup and bisquits. Then a cute froggie cake and cupcakes and finished the evening with presents. We are so lucky to have such a great family. The following weekend we celebrated with Craig's family and kept it nice and simple. Can't believe he is into toddlerhood now and saying a bunch of words like, cheese, juice, mama, dada, gingie (our cat), car, soo-soo(for soother) cup, nana, apple and I think that's about it. He is growing and developing more and more each day! I love his sweet little personality! He loves carrying around stuff animals especially his froggy, and kisses him lots. He adores our cat Ginger, and follows him around everywhere, sometimes I find them hiding under Porter's bed together! It's so cute. I look forward to the weather warming up so we can play outside. It will be a fun summer!

Our dear first born Porter is almost 3 and I'm having a tough time trying to decide what theme to go for his birthday. He isn't really obsessed with anything right now, and when I ask him he doesn't seem to interested, so we shall see. He has been doing so well with potty training. And has been in big boy underwear for 2 months now day and night! I'm so proud of him, it was tough at times and the # 2 was a but more challenging then #1, but we are definitely getting closer to accident free! Such a liberating feeling. He talks so well, and loves to chat to people on the phone. He'll say the prayer, with help of course at mealtime and bedtime, and enjoys going to nursery at our church. He loves helping Daddy with the garbage and recycle duties once a week, and helps me with supper sometimes. He is growing like a weed and his clothes seem to be getting smaller and smaller all the time. We go to a couple different play gyms often and have play dates to keep him entertained otherwise he goes stir crazy! And then I go crazy. Lol so it's important we get out of the house during these long winter months! I love his sweet, intuitive personality, and his ability to keep me smiling.

Craig has been super busy with work, doing double shifts to keep everything afloat. He is their main troubleshooter for the ORCA program at the Fort prison, and is definitely feeling the stress of being in such demand. Soon he'll get a little break because we are going to Banff for a work conference. So hopefully he'll get some downtime. It will be nice for the kids and I to get out of the house for a little while and visit the mountains.

The time has come for me to go back to work, so I have recently been set up with 4 shifts this month. 2 days and 2 nights. The boys and I will sleep over in Wetaskiwin the night before the dayshifts, and they will spend the day with Craig's parents one day and my Mom the other day. I'm so grateful that they are willing to help me out, because I'd much rather leave them with family than anyone else. The nightshifts will be on weekends so Craig will be home. I'm a bit nervous to get back into it, but I'm sure it'll all come back soon enough. At least I'm blessed not to have to work full-time, because that would be so hard! I have a lot of respect for women who work full-time with young children!

Well that's our lives as of current. Lots going on, but I wouldn't have it any other way! Love all my boys, and hopefully baby #3 is a girl so I'm not so outnumbered. If not, that's ok too!

Summer to Fall 2011

It has been a great summer. Porter was at a really fun age where we could get out and enjoy the sunshine. We were able to go on bike rides, walks to the park, and swimming in the backyard kiddy pool. With Craig's work schedule of 6 days on, 3 days off, then 6 evenings on, it was hard to always spent time as a family. Porter, Bailey and I were able to go to Fairmont B.C. with my family, but unfortunately Craig had to stay home and work. We really missed him and it was sad that he couldn't make it. Porter was able to play with his cousin Dexter and they had a lot of fun. It was great to see them interact with one another. After a nice week of great weather and wonderful memories it was time to head home. Porter played shy with Daddy at first when we got home. He has been quite the mama's boy the last few months because of all the time we spend together.

Now the summer has come to an end and we have enjoyed a fairly nice fall season so far. There have been some really nice days that we were able to get outside and enjoy the outdoors. Craig is enjoying his job and had the opportunity to work as an acting case worker on the units. He interacts one on one with the inmates and plays a part in fulfilling their requests on their path to a better lifestyle. He hopes to continue working at the Fort Saskachewan prison, because they will be sending a big number of employees over to the New Edmonton Remand Center. He believes his chances of staying where he is put, are good. He has recently decided to take up the hobby of building mini motorcylces out of old watch parts. He got the idea from Bailey who happened to show him some pictures off the internet. They look really neat all assembled! He also joined a men's basketball league for fun, but there wasn't a great turn out. Let's just say that he was the only one there under 60. It was good for a laugh anyways.

Porter is turning 18 months old on the 4th of November. He is learning lots each week. His vocabulary is expanding to about 10 words now and we love hearing him say the word "please". He leaves out the "l" so it sounds like "pease". Just the cutest thing when he asks for something politetly. He has really starting testing us with throwing tantrums when he doesn't get his way. It is getting more difficult to take him places because of his sparadic tempers. Perhaps I have been catering to his wishes a little too much. This early "terrible twos" thing better pass quickly because it really wears on both of our patience. On a positive note, he seems to love looking at little babies. The other day he pointed to my belly and said, "baby." It was so shocking, I guess he understands more than I think. I am 32 weeks along now, and we are having another baby boy. It will be nice to reuse all of Porter's boy clothes. The due date is December 6th, and it is fast approaching! We are excited and nervous for the big change! That's all for now.