Stockings and Snow

Not only was I excited to get a package in the mail, but I got to open it before Christmas. And the best part of all was that the package contained these fun stockings from my mom. She made them. I was so excited to get them and consider them one of my prized possessions. I have been waiting all year for them, because we picked the fabric out together last year during black Friday at JO Ann's Fabric. They turned out wonderful! Thanks again Mom!!
It snowed!!! YEAH!!! I was worried t wasn't going to snow before Christmas, but it did. We got up early to go take some pictures and play in it for a while because I knew that it wasn't going to last very long. Porter didn't know what to think. He just touched it gently then licked his fingers.

I saw Mommy kissing Santa Clause

We went to our ward Christmas party. We had a special visitor come and guess who it was Santa!! If Porter could talk he would have told you that he saw mommy kissing Santa Clause, because it was Terry that dressed up. He was so excited to be Santa. Especially with Porter. It was the first time Porter saw Santa. He loved it!! He wanted to grab that white beard and pull.
We have been trying to be on the ball and send out our Christmas cards with pictures in them. Every attempt has failed. I just haven't been happy with the pictures that we have taken. This was one of them and as you can see Porter's face is blurry. Hopefully we'll get a good picture sent out before Christmas!
We had to take a picture together with Santa. Don't worry Porter's not mad because he's sitting by Santa. He's mad because I won't hold him right next to him and let him play with his beard and fur coat.

Candy Shop

Anita Horn and Diana Megnin from the ward invited me over to have a candy making day with them. We made a whole day of it and made all different kinds of candy. We dipped turtles and peanut butter balls, baked sugar cookes and bar cookies. We made about 10 different types of things. I was so grateful that they included me in the fun. What a way to get into the Christmas spirit both by being included and by making the Christmas candy favorites!
They sent me home with a whole bunch of it. What a treat, now my treat plates are done and I look like such a homemaker.

Porter loved it too!! His favorite as you can see from the picture were the 3 dogs that they have. Porter LOVES dogs. They will keep him ocuppied for hours. He pets them and talks and laughs at them. These little dogs loved him too, they wouldn't leave him alone. They kept licking him and pushing him in his walker. It was so funny to see.
We listened to Josh Groban's new Christmas CD and talked and laughed all day long.
There were a few recipes that I already knew, but some were new to me and will become a family favorite!!

The Fun Begins

In all my excitement to spend hours surfing the net, I have neglected Porter a little bit. The other day he was just playing away in his new walker one minute and then the next thing I knew it was dead silent. The cute little guy had fallen asleep mid play.
Caught red handed. I didn't think that I was going to have trouble with him this Christmas. I didn't think he was good enough at his army crawl to get to the presents. I was wrong and we have practically the whole month left to keep him from eating them or ripping them open!
I scooted him back and he got right back to them!
As you can see from the video he is unstoppable now. The moving has started!

Merry Christmas!!

This is our family photo in front of our Christmas tree! You can even see our piano in the background. It looks from the picture like we are finished unpacking. Looks can be deceiving!! I don't have anything up on the walls yet and am looking forward to doing that. Terry couldn't believe me when all I could think about was getting the christmas tree up amidst our chaos of moving. It was the first thing I wanted to do. He is happy now though. He has to admit it looks really good and is getting us more excited for the holiday season.



Porter is 7 months old today!! Yeah! His next step is crawling. It's amazing to see how they go through the process of learning how to do it. He has got the army crawl/scoot down. He can get his knees up into position, but he just sits there in the crawling position. You can almost see him thinking "now that I'm up how do I get to that paper I want so bad!" They learn fast though. He also is just a talker. During Relief Society yesterday someone was holding him and he was just playing with some toys and talking away. If it were me I would have put his pacifier in his mouth so that he wouldn't disturb anything, but all the sisters loved it. They were just smiling at him like crazy. It is fun to hear him wake up in the morning and just be cooing away in his crib.

Highlights of Moving In!!

1. Visiting teachers and sisters of the church in general are awesome!! It was only them and us that showed up to help us move on Tuesday. They were such troopers. They helped us move all the stuff acrossed the street to our new duplex and even started to help get stuff organized. I am so grateful for that.

2. I love new things. We have been putting Porter on the ground with no fears. If he falls over he won't crack his head open, nor will he get as dirty.

3. I can't live without the internet. We just got it installed today and it is so fast. It takes like one second to go to the next page. I haven't had internet like that ever in my home. I know that I am going to get a lot more done now.

4. I love visitors. I don't know what it is about a new home. It might be because it is so much more homey and inviting, but we have a lot more visitors now. I am so grateful for that.

5. I love to play the piano. A cousin of Terry's gave us their old piano. YEAH!! It is like an early Christmas present. It is really old and worn, but it is a treasure to me. It reminds me of that poem about the touch of the Master's hand. I've cleaned it up a little and sounds so sweet when you play Christmas music on it.

6. Terry's favorite is Space. We have so much more room than before. It is small compared to our giant dream home, but for now we are living in the lap of luxury.

He's sitting up!!

This past weekend Porter has been perfecting the art of sitting up. He can do it for a long stretch of time, but eventually gets off balance and falls. It's quite an accomplishment.

Porter's other great accomplishment is falling asleep on his own. YEAH!!! I just lay him in his crib and he puts himself to sleep. What a blessing it is and I don't even know how he started doing it. I have decided that I can't complain about him not sleeping the whole night. This makes up for it. I don't have to sit there forever trying to help him fall asleep because he does it on his own now. He ends up in crazy positions like this sometimes though.
Porter loves his pacifier. It has become his favorite toy. He is always trying to succeed in stuffing the whole thing in his mouth. I don't think it will fit, but he gets most of it in by putting it in sideways like you can see in the picture. It is so funny.

Our Family Photo

This is a little late. We took it in July, but thought it would be fun to have on our blog.

California

Well this last weekend I fullfilled a long time dream of going to California. I left home Thursday the 8th and returned on the 11th. Some old roomates and myself got together and kind of had a last hooray because the last of us is getting married in January. We picked this time to do it, because everyone's schedules fit perfect. Thursday I flew into L.A. and met up with my friend Jared who had flown in from Colorado. Our other friend Keldon who lives in L.A. picked us up and took us to his place for the night. That night the three of us sat up until about two o'clock in the morning talking about anything we could think of. Friday morning the groom to be, Ryan came and picked Jared and I up and brought his fiance Larissa. It was awsome to meet Larissa, she is a great person and ryan and her fit very well together. Keldon had class that day and so he was unable to hang out.
Ryan's parents and brother Stuart and his family were all in town also and because Stuart is in the Air Force he was able to purchase really cheap tickets and we all went to Knotts Berry Farms Theme Park in Orange County. It was alot of fun riding the rides and just being able to hang out. It was during this time that both Jared and I wished we had had our wives and kids with us. We talked all day about how our wives would have loved this or that, or would have loved to ride a certain ride. That night Jared and I stayed with Ryan at his house. Ryan lives with seven other guys and the place was a total bachelor pad complete with aluminum foil on the attenas and stains in abundance on the carpets, it also had a very "guy" smell to it (if you know what I mean). It was at this point again that Jared and I both were greatful we were not still single and had wonderful wives that liked to make our homes very crafty and homey and smelling good.
On Saturday morning Larissa invited us to go surfing with her sister Pam and brother-in-law Mike. Surfing is something I have wanted to try since I was a kid and we all jumped at the chance to go. Keldon drove down to Seal Beach where we were and joined us for the day. We had a blast. I have been told time and time again that surfing is not easy and guess what? It wasn't easy. It was, however, very fun. I got all the way up on the board three times, rode in on numerous waves and tumbled in the surf for the rest of the time. It was tough, but was alot of fun. We surfed for about three hours then cleaned up and went to eat with Ryans family. We were beat to death. After we ate Jared and I rode back to L.A. with Keldon.
That night Keldon took us to Santa Monica and showed us "The Promanade on 3rd." 3rd street in down town Santa Monica is shut off from traffic and is a big strip mall. they had all sorts of cool stores. We got to the end of the strip and went to poke around in the Barnes & Noble there. I was standing there with both Jared and Keldon and Jared pointed out a man that was looking at some books and said, "hey isn't that guy famous?" I looked and there was the actor Donald Sutherland. Jared kept trying to get me to go say hi to him and after some convincing I went and stood next to him and quietly asked him if he was who I thought he was. He informed me that he was, I introuduced myself (as if he really cared); shook his hand and asked if I could get a picture with him. He said "no" but was very polite however. The next morning we got up, had some breakfast and flew home. I had alot of fun in California, but I missed Bethany and Porter and knew it was time for me to get home. Let me tell you, any ideas that I ever had about wanting to live in a big city like that were gone. I like my small towns and lots of space.

Here we are, this is one of many cool little videos I have.

Here are various pictures of surfing and the steam train at Knotts Berry Farms

Fall is here and so are the Sunday drives!

We went to Brown's County State Park this past Sunday. We had fun going to all the look out towers and looking at the changing fall colors. We were a little early because there were still a lot of trees that were green, but it was still very beautiful.


Here is our Fall photo of the family.

This is Porter and I at the top of one of the look out towers. You can see the infamous southern Indiana view. All you can see are leafy trees for miles and miles. One of the signs said that on a clear day you can see for 11 miles.

Terry and I

We all went to get our eyes checked and we are sad to report that Porter had to get glasses too. Just kidding only Terry and I got new glasses, but as we were looking for ones for ourselves we couldn't believe these cute glasses and that they were so small. We tried them on him and he looked so grown up just like a little kid.

Porter tried on my new swim cap. I'll have to get a photo of me in it and post it later.

7 habits of a semi-effective person

Well Bethany tagged me. This is the first time I have ever written on this blog. I should make it more of a habit though. Well here are my 7 things.

1. I love facial hair. I know this causes complete and utter disgust from my wife but I just love it. I hate having to shave and any chance I can get to not shave at all or as little as possible makes life that much easier. I know Bethany can't stand it, but I ask her all the time "do you shave your legs every day?" Plus, besides loathing shaving, it makes me feel manly, as stupid as that may sound. I didn't get to the point where I had to shave every day until I was 20 years old and now that I have it I guess you could say that I appreciate it.

2. I am a complete dork. This will not be a surprise to those really close to me, but I am a fantasy/sci-fi dork. My favorite movies include Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and X-files. I don't think I have to write anymore about this topic because if I do I will only further exemplify my dorkiness.

3. I have a tinge of OCD. Not with cleanliness or anything useful like that. I have it when it comes to routine. I lay my clothes out the same way every night for the next day, I have to get dressed in the same order every morning. I eat the same thing every morning. I have to have my classroom the exact same way everyday before I leave. Its not like I will go "Rain Man" on myself if things get out of order, Its just nice to not have to worry about the inconsistency of certain things under my control. Like I said, just slight OCD... very slight, yeah definitely very slight, definitely very slight.

4. I love to be active. I know, I know, my stature would tell you other wise but I love to be out and about playing sports of all kinds, Preferably in the water. But, I do love baseball, basketball, football, rugby (when I get to watch it), I can get into anything I can understand. This is probably why I have yet to really like hockey, I've tried but its just too discernible. I LOVE to hike and camp. I know some would say this kind of takes away from my dork credentials but hey I am what I am.

5. I met "Slash" the guitarist from "Guns and Roses." Its a cool story ask me about it some time.

6. I love politics and history. This one should be kind of obvious since I am a licensed social studies teacher, but I have to mention it. If I could I would spend all day; in a library, museum, archives, special collections, watching history channel or talking to people who experienced history it just completely fascinates me to no end. I mean, isn't life about social interaction? I also love being politically active. I have for the most part lost faith in our political system. However, I try to be involved and slow down the continued digression as much as possible. I know this will set some people off but......... I am a registered Democrat.

7. I saved the best for last. I love my wife and son. They make life completely worth living. If I didn't have anything else in my life that I believed in or enjoyed doing and still had Bethany and Porter I would be still so happy. I look at Bethany often, even though she may think I don't, and wonder how on earth a guy like me got a women like her to marry me. I sleep so easy at night knowing that she will always choose the right and never go against what our Heavenly Father asks of us. Also, Porter is amazing. I can stare at him for hours and just wonder how amazing he is. Of course I hope that starts to subside a little when he gets older, it might spook him out if I stare at him all the time.

Anyway, that is my list. I hope you enjoy it and the spelling and grammar was correct. I tag Jared, Anya, Ryan, my mom, dad, Porter and Marthea.

7 things about me.

I've been tagged (thanks to my friend from colleg Fern!). Here are the rules:
A. List 7 habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
B. Tag 7 people to do the same.
C. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag whoever wants to do it.

1. I'm a copy cat at heart. Anything cute I have is because I saw someone have it and I liked it so I had to get it! Sadly enough it is because I have to admit that I am not creative at all.

2. I have recently gone to the dark side and purchased a swim cap and goggles and am taking swim lessons from Terry and the head coach of the swim team. I am not very good, but I have been going out to the high school and swimming with Terry's sister Alida. It is a very peaceful and relaxing way to exercise I've found out.

3. I miss speaking spanish!! I am sad to say that I have been forgetting a lot of words that I have had to look up. I need to practice more, but it does make me nervous. I hate to make mistakes. I have been talking to Terry more and more in spanish. He doesn't seem like he really wants to learn though. I wish I had enough commitment to teach Porter. I wish even more that there was a bilingual school here like Tania has in Washington that would teach him spanish for me.

4. I love to go to church! I love the ward that we are in. I love my calling in the Relief Society as Secretary. It is helping me learn how the presidency's of the organizations work. All of this is attributed to the amazing feeling of peace, love and joy of the spirit that you get when you are at church. It is irreplaceable. The church is true!!!

5. I could live in a messy house and not let it bother me one bit (as long as no creatures came because of the mess!) I am sad to admit it, but I am sure that some of you who read this I have lived with and can remember my room and how messy it was. I am happy to report that I work against this tendency very hard and my house is pretty clean most of the time!!! (Terry helps too!! Aren't husbands great!)

6. I love breastfeeding! I would recommend it to anyone as the best diet I have ever been on. Since I have been breastfeeding I have lost all my baby weight plus 10 lbs. Yeah! I feel so good and look okay too! I need to work out a little more and have been doing that too, but I have been eating like I usually do and the pounds just slowly came off.

7. I love Porter's smile. It is so addicting. I could just sit there and make him smile back at me for hours. I find myself doing it a lot, because of all the time I have at home with him. Sometimes I look over and he is just smiling away even if I'm not paying attention to him. Lately, I just have to laugh which makes him smile even more as I am trying so hard to feed him some cereal and all he wants to do is smile. I feel frustrated and then he smiles and I just crack. I know that there are more of these moments to come when you shouldn't smile, but have to because the kids are so cute.

Well, I am glad that is over. It took me about a half an hour to think of just 7 things. I don't think I am up to the "100 random things about myself list" yet! It was fun to do though. I tag Terry, Alida, Kaya, Ruffin, Bret, Mary, my mom and Marianna. I am excited to see if you all do it!!

Trunk or Treat

We went to the ward Trunk or Treat. It was crazy because that is the first Trunk or Treat I have been to since it was invented. It was a cold fall day, but really fun. Porter looked so cute and he did so good. I thought that he was going to get sick of the hood to his costume, but he was so happy. Terry thought of his costume last minute and it turned out to be a highlight. He looked good dressed up in his dad's German clothes. I was maid marion, but not very unique. We'll have to coordinate better next year and not do it last minute. Happy Halloween.

Park Fun

We had a free afternoon and we decided to go to the park Porter had fun playing on the toys with the cousins Katelynn, Michael, Sam and Adam. We were just about to leave and saw the perfect size swing for Porter. We put him in and he loved it. Adam loved it too because he could push him.

Fall Break

We had wanted to go camping during Labor day weekend and weren't able to so we have been planning a fall camping trip. I know it is crazy to think coming from Idaho weather that you could possible go camping in the middle of October, but we did and the weather was great. We started of early Friday morning. It was cold and cloudy out, but it never rained all day. We got to the covered bridge festival and were there until it closed at 5 pm. There are covered bridges throughout Indiana and this festival of selling goods is centered around them. There were all kinds of booths for almost a mile stretch. We walked by most of them and enjoyed looking at all the different things. We didn't buy much because we didn't have room to take it back with us, but we got away with a few cheap ties for Terry, a five dollar Disney movie of the Incredibles, and a souvenir mug. Of course there was carnival food that was fun to eat. Terry's favorite was the inch and 1/2 thick pork chop sandwich as you can see in the pictures. We went to a camp ground that night and spent time setting up our tent and talking around the campfire. Terry had the bright idea to bring our huge air mattress. Sadly enough it didn't quite fit in our tent. We tried to make it work, but halfway through the night we just had to let the air out we were feeling a little claustrophobic. The next day we went hiking with Porter in tow. I didn't think it would be that bad. The trail was marked "very rugged" but I didn't think it could be that bad. I stand corrected. I think they should start marking the trail as "extremely rugged-caution if you have small children and think you can make it turn around and go back!!!" We had to go through ravenes and climb steep rock areas, avoid water puddles between rocks, and climb up and down hundreds of stairs. It felt good to have made it when we got done, but my calves and thighs are sore still. We spent the night again and then on the way home went to a branch in greencastle for church. It was a really fun weekend and we hope to do some more camping.

Happy Birthday!!

Terry is 28 years old. He had his birthday on October 18th. He didn't have to go to school that day so that was a great present in itself. I had a fun day planned of going golfing and going to dinner. It was rainy and Terry didn't really want to go. When I asked him what he did want to do he picked going to the Army Surplus. We went there and walked around. He loved looking at the guns, but I don't know if I was very good company. I certainly didn't have the reactions he was looking for when he shot off the fancy names of the guns from world war II or the type of sword remake from the Civil War. He had more fun doing that than anything else. We went to dinner that night at Texas Roadhouse his favorite place to eat. We sure love him and hope he has a wonderful year of life filled with joy!!

Porter is growing!

Porter had his four month check up (we were a little late because he is now 5 1/2 months old). Just wanted to update everyone and tell them that he is a big 14 lbs. 12 oz. boy. He is 26 inches long. He also got some immunizations and did great! Still smiling like crazy

What a wonderful 2 weeks

I got home just fine and Porter did much better on the trip home! I made it home with all my crafts and purchases without having to pay the overweight charge at the airport. It was a stretch though and I had to carry 2 bags through the airport but it was worth it!

Highlights of the last 2 weeks:

1. The hotel was fun and we spent three days there. I had some good babysitters!

2. We also went to a water park and spent all day there. It was indoor and that was wonderful. Porter does so good in the water and slept for a good portion of the time so that I could get some water slides in :0)

3. There were so many of us there. We went out to eat at Tomato Street. What an adventure that was!

3. Marianna did wonderful at Junior Miss. We were so proud of here that she was there and having so much fun and that she was one of those very talented girls. I enjoyed attending every one of the 3 nights. The girls you could tell were the best of the best. Listening to their talents was like going to a professional concert/ballet.

4. My mom and I were able to go to a special luncheon with Marianna Saturday before the final performance. She told us little backstage stories about how neat all the girls were.

5. We only got to talk to her through notes and phone calls, but the last night we got to hug her and love her.

6. We drove to Kennewick after it was over and visited Bret and Tania. It was only a short time but we got a little fun in with the boys while we were there. Miller amazed me at how much he understood in spanish when we went and visited his class!!

7. I couldn't have a trip to Idaho without a cousin craft (we missed one important member-Olivia). Our little craft ideas turned into big projects though and a little time turned into a few days worth of working on them. We made church books and painted block signs. The best part was being together and talking with just us girls and of course the kids!

8. My most proud achievment was sewing Porter his first Halloween costume. I can't believe I got it done. My mom helped with a few hard spots and I thank her for that. Stay tuned for the official Halloween picture of him in it. It's really cute!!!

Home Sweet Home

We made it!!! We are excited to be here and to be able to see so many people. The flight was long and Porter did okay, but I hope to never have to do it again without Terry. We had a few set backs and got off late with our first flight. Porter cried a few times and it was very uncomfortable. We then missed our second flight and had to take a later one. We finally got to Burley around 8 pm and began our fun.

When we woke up the next morning it was a precious moment to see all these loved ones come out from different rooms in grandma's house that we didn't even know were there, but the house was full. Lisa and Jason, Jarom, Aunt Anna Maria and Jim, Monica and my mom arrived just a few minutes after we had all gotten up. We had some good talks and memorable times throughout the weekend with everyone there.

Also on Saturday, September 29 we woke up to SNOW!! Can you believe it?!! It was 39 degrees outside. I couldn't believe it because we were still having pretty warm days still in Indiana. Usually in the 80's. As we drove around that afternoon we saw that a few snowmen were made . That's how much snow there was!

Jerrica's reception was beautiful and so was she. She looked just wonderful and so happy. Her colors were fall colors and I loved that. I went back many times to dip more things into the chocolate fountain.

Monica's talk in sacrament meeting was wonderful. She looks so great and exudes the spirit like crazy. I feel like she hasn't skipped a beat. She is still that wonderful Monica that I love so much. She told us many wonderful stories about her mission and it was fun to talk to each other and share stories.

Sleep. Who needs it??

Well, I have to say that this week has been a week of trial and error. Porter has not been sleeping well and we are to our limit of sleepless nights. We have tried everything. Baby Wise(book on sleeping patterns) doesn't work, yes Porter can scream at the top of his lungs for 30+ minutes without falling asleep nor does keeping him up for a long time before we put him to bed, even if his eyes droop as we try everything to keep him awake. Just today we had him take his first bites of rice cereal. I am not sure he knew what to do. He didn't make a sour face, but I don't think he got anything down. He would just keep sticking out his tongue and drool the rest of it out. I just kept scooping it back up and feeding it to him, but I don't think it helped. I guess we'll just have to keep trying our best and being patient. Hopefully, he will grow out of it and sleep through the whole night. Wish me luck :0)
Other things that have happened this week were going to Stake Conference. I hate to admit that this year was the first time that I had gone to the adult session. I decided that I had been missing out. It was great to be there with just adults, so quiet, good topics, and of course the spirit was very edifying and inspiring. As the saying goes you don't realize how blessed you are until you don't have it and miss it very much. That goes for a stake building just around the corner. I have always grown up with the stake building less than 5 minutes away in every place that I have lived. Not here though, the stake building is in Bloomington about a 30 minute drive from my house. I guess I have to say that I am even blessed in that because some of the people in the stake have to drive about 2 hours to get there. It was worth it though. The stake presidency was wonderful to get to know. One is convert from california and also a spanish speaker. He came up to me and talked to me in spanish. It was so special to me. Hearing someone's sincere thoughts in spanish always make the feelings of love from my mission come back.

Family Photo

The neices and nephews. I am posting this a little late and I can't believe how much Porter has already changed!

My parents- Frank and Barbara Clark

Just wanted everyone to have a picture of my beloved family on my blog. I just copied it from Tania's blog. I'll send more when I go to Idaho and get the rest.