Christmas Pictures!!!

So I'm working on my photography skills, in hopes that some day in the future I'll be able to star doing it as a career? How fun would that be. So I embarked on my annual Christmas picture taking for the year. The kids did pretty good as far as sitting still, and doing their best to look at the camera. They are less than cooperative with my practicing anymore.

We were also able to get some good family shots in! We had fun taking on that task, for sure.


But my most favorite of all the ones I took, which is making it's appearance on our Christmas cards! They look SO adorable. Maddie and her sweet and innocent face and oh so precious smile, and Ethan with his very handsome face. He's becoming such a big boy!


Merry Christmas from the Porter family, and a VERY happy New Year!

The Porter's take on Christmas in the Grove!

As an annual tradition that we are trying to keep up on, the Porter's made their way out on a cold Saturday morning to visit Christmas in the Grove. This year was not it's best for turn outs, considering it was the same day as the Civil War, but we did our best to have as much fun as possible. We started with the "Sleigh" ride through Forest Grove. Horse and carriages carried us through the streets of old town Forest Grove. The kids were able to pet the horses, and looked forward to their wonderful winter adventure! Maddie LOVED riding in the carriage!



Then we headed out to some of the local stores who were participating, and were able to make some fun Christmas arts and crafts projects. At a local wine shop, they were making Reindeer out of wine corks, and pipe cleaners. Super cute, and super fun to make. Ethan LOVED making these. Amazingly enough it has not been destroyed, and he is still playing with it as we speak.


Then we headed over to the local scrap booking shop, where they got to make fun little "note" books that spell out the word "Love" - - I think grandma and myself had more fun making these than the kids actually did.

We also got a frame matte and crayons from a local framing shop, for the kids to decorate. I have some fun ideas of what we're going to do with that!

Later that night, we headed out with Grandma Christopherson and cousin Kellen to watch the annual Christmas Light parade in Forest Grove. It was so cold and crisp, that we had to bundle the kids up! Ethan and Maddie rode in their Radio Flyer, covered in layers and blankets, and enjoyed having the parade participators walk up and throw candy in their wagon. It was a very sweet gesture of so many of them to do. Then, about half way through the parade we headed back to Grandma Monica's house, watching the remainder of the parade as it passed by us, wishing all a very Merry Christmas, and enjoyed a wonderful dinner of pizza and salad with grandma. All in all, I'd say it was a great day of Christmas celebrations.

Other events that we have in store, Zoolights, Winter Wonderland at the Portland International Raceway, and hopefully Storybook Lane in Dilley, if it's open this year!

Two years ago, around this time in the morning, I woke up with contractions, after being sent home from a failed induction at 1 am in the morning. I thought nothing of it, considering they had started while I was still at the hospital. Throughout the day, they kept getting stronger, and more apparent, but I still just went about my day. Wall*E was coming out on DVD, and we just HAD to get it for Ethan. So we took a trip to Fred Meyer, then we stopped by Allan's parents house to grab some chords for extending the Internet in to our room for the PlayStation 3. Then we made a stop over to visit my mom who had taken time off work since her granddaughter was supposed to have been born by then. The contractions just seemed to get more and more uncomfortable, but it didn't matter, I knew it didn't mean anything. Allan's brother and wife had decided they wanted to bring dinner over for us, and visit, so we prepared for that. Ethan and I sat downstairs in the bonus room, watching Wall*E. I even dozed off to get some rest, which was nice. When I woke up, our guests were there, and the contractions getting slowly harder, but I still pressed on. We decided to watch Wall*E yet again, because Lilly (Ethan's cousin) wanted to see it. I decided that I needed to go sit in the tub with some hot water, thinking it would make me feel better. I decided I'd try to start counting my contractions as well, since they seemed to be making progress. But yet again, as I remembered from when I tried that with Ethan, it's very difficult to do on your own. So for about an hour I sat in there, while Allan and his brother were climbing up in the attic to run the chord from the router to the PS3 in the bedroom. I decided to get out, and go back downstairs to join the rest of the people at the house. Allan and Ryan, after finishing their task, decided they wanted to play some Little Big Planet, and so we watched as they did that. And my contractions just kept getting stronger, and harder, and almost breath taking. Holly started helping me time them, and applying pressure to my back in their most painful moments, because it helped them to feel better. So finally I decided to call the nurses at the maternity line, to explain what was going on, and they asked Allan and I to come in. So we RUSHED to the hospital, and sitting in the car was one of the most painful experiences of that day. We had to go through the ER, so Allan sent me in on my own so he could go park the car, and that was such a task in it's own. They sent me through, without offering a wheelchair or anything. It didn't take Allan long to catch up with me, as my waddling was taking FOREVER. They finally got me in, did their checks, and told me I was already at 9.5 centimeters. They also made a point to tell me if I had waited too much longer, I probably would have had her in the car. From the moment I got there, until the moment she was born, things didn't take long at all. And at 10:45 pm, on that November 18th night, my little Miss was born! So perfect, so precious, and with MORE hair that you could imagine. And every day has been blessed since!

I am so happy that on this day, Miss Madelyn, we can wish you a HAPPY HAPPY Birthday! I hope this day, and this week, has been the best you could have imagined, and that it only gets better from here!

Dad, mom, and Ethan love you VERY much! We wish you the happiest birthday of all!

Coffin Cakes!!!

Thought I'd share one of our fun projects from Halloween this year! Aren't they the cutest!!! Allan has some amazing talents every once in a while. We just made your basic coffee cakes in a mini loaf pan, and sterilized and added some small skeletons as if they were breaking out of the ground, and created little crosses out of black candles, and black post its. Very awesome! We made these for Allan's sister's pumpkin carving party. Everyone got a kick out of them!

The Porter's visit the Pumpkin Patch

Well, we started a tradition for Ethan's second Halloween that we'd start going to a local pumpkin patch in North Plains. What started when we were just a family of three, grew with us as we became a family of four. We had an amazing time this year, accompanied by amazing weather as well.
I've learned as my children are in this stage right now, that it is impossible for me to get them both to look at the camera at the same time. Which for this mom who is trying to work on her photography skills, is quite the challenge. But we didn't let that get us down. We embarked on our adventure to find the GREAT pumpkin!
Something new that we did this year, was the pony rides. Now that both of our kids are big enough, we thought we'd give it a shot. They both LOVED it. The man who was walking with Maddie kept saying she was a natural at riding a pony (so what if he says that to all of the parents, haha) - - and I truly felt like she was. She would sit there, with one hand holding on the saddle, relaxed, just enjoying the sunshine. Guess we know what we'll have to buy her in the future (yeah right!). Ethan did great as well, and really enjoyed his moment of being a real cowboy.

We were also privileged to go to the pumpkin patch with grandma Porter, grandma and grandpa Christopherson, uncle Dain and Aunt Angie, and cousin Kellen. We got to ride on boats, trains, and walk through the patches looking for pumpkins. We even got our trusty wheel burrow and found the most PERFECT pumpkins as you can see!
I think these two were the best pumpkins in the patch!

Ethan always has a wonderful time riding on the boat. He was especially lucky this year because he got to go to the pumpkin patch just a few days before with his preschool class, and then he got to go again with mom, dad, sister, and family to enjoy the sunshine. He also loves riding the train on the way back.
Another thing we did this year was the face painting. Last year Ethan wouldn't let them paint on his face, he got it on his hand, so this year we told him he needed to get it on his cheek. He was hesitant at first, but ended up really enjoying having his bat on his cheek. Maddie was too fidgety to get one on her face, so we decided to get her a "kitty-kitty" on her hand. Of course it didn't last long, because before we could get it to dry, she was slamming her hand on everything she could find. But it was still fun to take part in that fun aspect of the pumpkin patch as well.


Ethan also got to partake in his most FAVORITE thing at the pumpkin patch. Riding the Centipede! He has adored this ride since riding it last year. He has recreated it with his Lego's, and any toy he can find that connects. It's so wonderful to see his face light up when he crawled in. I would love to some day buy land where we could make things like this for him. Dreams of course.

Well, the Porter family Pumpkin Patch trip was a success. We had a great time as always. I love the Halloween season. It's a real treat for us!

A Nature Walk... I do love nature!

I can never miss an opportunity to take some nice outdoor photos of my family. Especially when they are all so photogenic!

Allan was teaching the kiddos about how moss grows on still water. Ethan seemed to be fairly interested, but hey, he's only 4! I got some good photos out of it anyway!
Maddie was trying to be like her big brother, and stand on the rails of the bridge!
There were so man wonderful pictures to be taken on this afternoon. I'm so glad we made it out and got to spend some quality time talking, dreaming ,and exploring the world around us.

We decided to take a family nature walk at Jackson Bottom Wetlands a couple weeks back, and while out, I remembered about my passion for nature photography. We had such a good time walking through a lot of the loops, and seeing God's creation. It was really beautiful. If you haven't made it out there, I recommend going when you do have a chance. It really has a lot of nice nature to look at!

Our very own DIY project...

But then again, when aren't we in the middle of our very own DIY project?

One of the things I have ALWAYS admired about my husband, is just how handy he is. Growing up, he had to help his parents on a lot of work and projects on updating the house he grew up in, so he's done many amazing things around our house as well because of this reason.

When we got married, I had originally thought that I wanted a platfom bed, which Allan made for us with no complaints. And after years of bruised shins, scraped legs, and just a complete overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction, we deicded to get rid of it. For months now, our bed has been sitting on just the box springs on the floor. And finally, after plenty of time has gone by, I have decided that since we have been married for five years, and we have two children, it's probably not a good time to start living like we're college students. So I have been after Allan for months about getting a bed frame. But the truth of the matter is, we just don't have the money to buy a whole new bed set. So Allan decided, that since we had PLENTY of boards left over from when we built our deck last summer, he'd just build one out of the boards we had left. So I started looking for designs online. I knew I wanted a bed that was completely enclosed around the bottom (because I'm sick of all the dust bunnies, sippy cups full of juice, milk, and who knows what, and socks being found under it). I also decided I wanted some drawers put in, because I don't like our dressers, and I want to get them out of our room. I also knew that I wanted a headboard for our bed (which is something we've never had) and I wanted it to have shelves on it, to replace the nightstands, which I also am sick of looking at. Nothing in our room matches, and I'm ready to have a "grown up" room. So here's a look at the bed we made! It's not COMPLETELY finished, but it's very very close!


The truth is, I really enjoy how it's turning out. All we have to do is add some extra width to the headboard to be able to put our books, lamps and alarm clock on. And the "wood" backing for underneath the headboard, and that same backing will go behind the headboard so that the wall doesn't show through. And this week, we start PAINTING! I am so excited. Soon, I will have a nice getaway room, that won't be holding any more storage in it, and that will make me feel overwhelmed anymore! Once everything is finished, I will update for sure.