Update

It appears Porter is trying to eliminate the competition.  He has attempted to give Jonas HONEYnut Cheerios.  Honey is one of the absolute no no's for children under 1 because it can cause botulism.  

Porter is also teaching Jonas wrestling moves.  Body slams, the jump up high-land with your knees on your opponents face and the kick them while they are down maneuver.

Human Sponge

Porter is our human sponge.  We are realizing more and more that he picks up on everything.  Things we taught him over the past two years are all coming out of his mouth.  It's quite amazing.  For so many months he loved to have me sing "Latter-Day Prophets" while pointing out all the prophets in the gospel art book. Well yesterday he sang me the whole song...that's pretty hard.  David doesn't even know it.  I was in awe.  That's a lot of names to remember.

We also rearranged some pictures in our house.  There was a large picture of an Asian woman that we moved.  He was not happy about the move.  He told me, "Don't like it."  Then while pointing to the old hanging space he said, "This one."  He has quite the opinion.  We also moved another picture of some temples in the office.  When he walked into the office he noticed it.  I asked him if he liked the new place.  He said, "Yes."  

Later I caught him hanging up pictures.

These pictures were old pictures of David and I.  Porter had a few comments while looking at the pictures.

Porter saw a picture of me from before we got married and he said "no way" that was not me, it was a "new one". Then he saw two different pictures of David I and he said "same, matches".

If Porter has the option between two things are getting one out of a bunch of the same thing he can often been found saying "Both" while folding his arms across his chest.  I caught him in the act when he was telling me he wanted the whole bag of fun fruits, not just one.

 

This little guy wanted to sing all the verses to "Book of Mormon Stories" and hold up or point to the cards with the corresponding people. I'm sure he'll be singing this song soon:).

Maybe Jonas will pick them up too even though he was drifting off to dreamland.

It'll be a miracle if he survives...

Yesterday while I was taking a shower I heard Jonas screaming.  I ran out of the shower to check on him and Porter was standing over his bed in what looked like an attempt to feed him Cheerios.

Later that morning Porter "shared" his spoon of peanut butter with Jonas.  Fortunately it appears he has no allergy to peanuts.

And yet later, Porter wanted to sit next to Jonas and take pictures.

Here is Jonas by himself:

Here are both boys together:

I promise you Jonas is there... You just can't see him since Porter is on top of him.

Those are just a few of yesterday's highlights.

35 Years

Yesterday I celebrated my 35th birthday.  The first present came in the form of a decent night sleep.  Jonas still woke up a few times to eat, but he went right back to sleep after eating and didn't have his "witching" hour in the early am.  The next gift was David letting me sleep in until 7:30am.  Porter and David decorated the front porch, gave me serving dishes and David has been teaching Porter the song, "You Are My Sunshine".  Porter sang me the song...melt my heart.  He is my sunshine with his bright smile and twinkling eyes.  

Scott, Katie and Betsy Curtis brought dinner over and Amber Hogan came to hang out too.

At church the entire RS sang Happy Birthday to me.  

I wanted to get a picture with me and my boys all dressed up for church, but it didn't happen.  Next week.

Brotherly Love

Porter is saying, "Baby Jonas touch dinosaur."

A few randoms and the "cage"

He was riding the elephant repeating over and over again "baboon" and "Hogle Zoo".  

Testing out Mrs. Potato Head's lips.

Playing hide and seek in the box.

We have wanted to get a gate across our driveway since we moved in so that Porter could play in the yard and it would be fully fenced.  The final product was completed today and it looks awesome!  There are all sorts of other projects on our list, but this might have been #1.  David calls it our cage.

He knows

This was a conversation between Ashley and Porter when she was putting him to bed last night.

P: truck hiding under bed

A: I don't think so. (Then she looked under the bed and saw a truck way back in the corner)

P: told ya

Today happenings

This morning David could tell I wasn't doing great and he let me go to the gym to run.  I need that release to keep me sane.  I was so grateful for David!

Today was beautiful so the boys and I took advantage of the nice weather to head to the zoo.

Porter loved it as always.

This evening Aunt Ash came up and Uncke Kenny was in town so they both came to dinner.  It was fun to see them and Porter was in heaven.

This is Porter getting tools to help the guy working on our gate.

David was so thoughtful and had cupcakes for my birthday and they sang to me.  Porter had to have candles in his cake to blow out and he did it a few times.  He's getting pretty good at blowing them out.

Porter sang, "Praise to the Man".  Pretty much the whole first verse and chorus.  David has been singing it to him for months.  Looks like he's been listening.

Porter sayings:

Happens

No

Perspective

Porter has gone potty a couple times on the toilet over the past few weeks.  He has peed and pooped.  Tonight he went poop and he was so excited!  We even picked out some Thomas the Train underwear.

The other day, he pooped and he looked over his shoulder and tried to check his diaper and said, "Porter check diaper.  No poop."

David sent me a text tonight while I was at RS.  This is what it said:

Dad: what do big brothers do?

Porter: no touching, no hitting. Pat the back, make him burp.

Jonas and I during nap time. The boys' naps coincided so that meant I got a nap too. I needed it!  Jonas has been getting up every 11/2 hours to 2 1/2 hours the past few nights and generally closer to every 2.  Ugh!  This phase is hard.  Thank goodness he's so cute.

More Porter sayings

This morning we went swimming at our friend Gayle's and then had lunch.  Gayle and Porter were having a conversation in the kitchen.  This is all I heard:

Gayle: You can have 3.

Porter: No, 5.

This afternoon we drove down to Provi to meet up with Ashley and Keara to go to the Bean Life Science Museum at BYU.  When we first walk into the museum Porter says, "All kinds of stuff."

One of the exhibits in the museum is one animal biting baboon's tail.  He saw this and said, "Biting.  Not nice.  Time out."  (He may have heard something similar to this a few times.)

Yesterday during lunch Porter wanted to sit on a chair without his booster seat.  He then proceeded to say, "Be careful.  Sit down.  Clean up."  Also somethings he may have heard a time or two:).

Just a photo David sent me yesterday with the caption, "Doesn't get better than this."

Sweet baby Jonas.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a pretty low key day together.  David and Porter decorated a tree for me while Jonas and I made a breakfast of red heart pancakes and eggs.

The weather was beautiful so I took a run and tested out pushing Porter in a jogging stroller.  Wow!  That's hard work getting him up the hills around here.  It's definitely going to take me some time to build up.  But, hopefully it'll make me a stronger runner and be something Porter and Jonas will enjoy too.

We had Stake Conference in the evening, so we went out to dinner with friends and then to Stake Conference.  They discussed the need to hold a family council and to hasten the work.  There was a quote referenced from Elder Maxwell in regards to fellow shipping about providing "organized love".  They also showed a video representing a family going about their lives providing simple acts of service and friendship along the way.  These acts led to friends and acquaintances being taught the gospel and eventually baptized.  It was a reminder of loving others and just being a true friend and neighbor.  Missionary work is not something that requires overwhelming efforts or extreme measures, it is the day to day acts of kindness, being aware of the needs around us and reaching out lovingly without expectation.  We can all perform this work.  I see it done by others all the time and know I can do it too. It's not being too busy to serve.  I was so grateful for this reminder.

Happy Birthday Porter!

 

Things he loves:

Tools

Trucks

Play dough

Coloring

Tickles

Hide and seek

I Spy

Being outside

Swinging

Singing

Reading books

Hearing stories

Secrets

If Porter doesn't know the answer to something he usually nods his head and says, "Uh, huh".  Then he'll come over to you and lean his ear in while saying, "Secret".  This means he wants you to tell him.  It's adorable and hilarious.

Playmat Time

Mimi got Jonas a new play mat and he's pretty thrilled to play on it.  Porter quite enjoys it too.

Check ups

On 2/10, Porter had his 2 year appt and Jonas had his 2 month (even though he is only 6 weeks).

Porter stats:

Height- 34.25 in

Weight- 28 lbs, 14.1 oz
HC- 18.5 cm

Jonas stats:

Height- 21.3 cm

Weight- 9 lbs, 11.4 oz

Head circumference- 14.41 cm

The appt was quite entertaining with Mr Busybody himself.

Sneaky

Porter found the Oreos and proceeded to help himself to not one but 3!

He's pretty proud of himself.

The past few days

We have enjoyed having Mimi here.  She has been a huge help.  Basically a sanity saver.  We have done fun things and seen old friends.

Playgroup at the church:

 Mimi has snuggled Jonas a lot.  He's going to miss her.

My boys with their very tired Dada, but he wanted to take time to snuggle them before bed.

My best friend growing up in California lives in Lehi, UT.  Her mom just moved here too, so we took a trip to see them.  I haven't seen them since I was probably 12.

Nicole (LaBonte) Lasueur and her youngest, Vivian.

Making Porter's birthday cake for his party tomorrow.

Porter now sings and does the motions for:

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam

Popcorn Popping