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.