The Black Whole Story

Snowed In

2012-01-28T15:50:00.000-08:00

We were snowed in last week and we loved the days we got to spend with Daniel! He has started his second to last semester of his Master's Degree and gone nights doing school and homework. Everything was canceled and we just had time together!

+++

A dream Daniel has had since High School is to someday own a kiln and a pottery wheel. We didn't think this was a possibility for a long while, but someone gave us a kiln this summer and Daniel found a wheel for a great price and we picked it up after Thanksgiving Break when we went down to Utah. He's quite artsy fartsy now and I love the things he's created! Not all of them have worked out after being fired in the kiln, but here are some of the things he's made:

He made plates for the kids to paint. We made stencils for them and glazed them last week. They love eating off of them!

He's made these gorgeous vases and dishes. I love the way they look un-glazed too. The clay is grayish, then when it is fired it turns white and I love it!

We had fun with the glazes! Daniel said the blue &red splotchy one looks like the sick witch on Sword and the Stone.

This is a project that I did for a Relief Society activity. It is our family tree. The tags have the names of our family tree members. I want to get their pictures on there too, eventually. The branch was pruned from our peach tree and I love it's perfect shape!

Jesse is 2!!

2012-01-18T13:41:00.000-08:00


Jan. 9th 2010 -just 2 short years ago- we were in the hospital with this baby.	I can't believe he's already 2!!

We love this boy! His spunk, his sweetness. He loves puzzles, balls, trains, cars, coloring...pretty much anything that Eliza and Porter like. He's right beside them all day and is so sad when they go to pre-school! Daniel jokes that I should make him a coat of many colors because he's everyone's favorite person in the family! He's so quick to share, hug and say sorry! He pretty much potty trained himself! Love this boy!!

Christmas Fun

2012-01-02T14:00:00.000-08:00

Went to Beaver Bark to see the Reindeer and Santa

Christmas Eve - Nativity

Christmas Eve - Snowman Attire

Christmas Sunday

Happy Marriage Birthday!

2011-12-16T08:21:00.000-08:00

Happy 6th Anniversary to my one and only!

As I was explaining to Eliza what an anniversary was yesterday, I told her it was like a birthday of when we got married. Being married is like a rebirth of a life, instead of me and mine, everything turned into us and ours Forever! I'm so grateful I've got this life with him forever!

Late last night I had just finished cutting Daniel's hair, he had just jumped in the shower and I was cleaning up in the kitchen when I heard pounding at the door. It scared me to death! I thought we were going to have a break in or something. I didn't answer and went and hid in the room. 3 minutes later, the same pounding on the door. 5 minutes later again it came. Finally Daniel went to the door and saw his seminary students quickly driving away in their car. They had decorated our porch with hearts and streamers. The seminary council organized all of the periods of seminary to write us happy anniversary notes. It was quite a surprise, so thoughtful and I was so glad it wasn't a robber or killer :)

Hello & Goodbye

2011-12-01T10:18:00.000-08:00

HELLO: Mums. They finally bloomed in late November and we knew the -2 degree at night was going to kill them, but we came back from our Utah trip to these beautiful full flowers.

GOODBYE: Blue Denim Couches. We received you from some friends the week before Eliza was born when we moved into our new apartment. They came to us in pretty good, but tired condition and have seen a lot in our little home. They have become so nasty and I was done scrubbing them and washing off crayons, chocolate, milk, desitine, etc. Little tear, big smile "goodbye"!


Notice the brown couches in the background...so much better! We are getting excited for Christmas and starting the craft projects already :) Jesse looks mad, but that is his "cheese" smile.

Christmas Card Family Pics

2011-11-17T15:41:00.000-08:00

My amazing friend has done it again, she took our family pictures last Saturday and the kids were really good. It helped that I had some leverage with the lolly pops. Excited to start on the Christmas cards now!

Halloween Costumes 2011

2011-11-02T09:37:00.000-07:00

We were Toy Story Characters this year. I put together the costumes for very inexpensive compared to what the online prices were. It was all mostly made out of Fun Foam. The only picture we got of all of us was at our Trunk or Treat, so hopefully that turned out!

After our Trunk or Treat I was combining all the candy and found a leaf. Then Daniel told me that someone had a chest of candy and fall leaves and you had to dig through the leaves to find the candy. Daniel was helping Jesse choose a piece of candy, but he didn't want it, he wanted the leaf. Just one more reason why I love little kids, they love & appreciate the simple and beautiful things in life. So I think my favorite treat they got was the leaf too!

October Happenings

2011-11-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

My boys (and Eliza) love to take off their shirts and play "Nacho" and wrestle... most times it ends in tears.


Day before Elder Draper went home. It was the same day we found out the gender of our baby #4. We told the kids what gender it was by sonic slushies. One red for Eliza, Blue for Porter and Jesse and the 4th slushy was...BLUE!

We went to the circus with some friends and during intermission Porter took pics

Pumpkin Painting Family Night

Kids wearing their cute Halloween shirts from Mimi

Caught Porter mid-yawn, but we made Frankenstein Faces for letter F preschool and the boys all did such a cute job!

Fall Preschool Field Trip - Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-10T15:12:00.000-07:00

If you live around here, the Country Mercantile Pumpkin Patch is a must-visit this time of year! We had so much fun there picking pumpkins, running around in the hay maze, climbing the hay pyramid, seeing the animals and having cookies and punch! Afterward we stayed for some lunch and tasted so many of their delicious samples. It was amazing how it was raining all morning and when we got there the weather was great. Then, while we were inside eating lunch it was a complete down pour! What timing!

Preschool

2011-09-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

Eliza and Porter are both in Preschool this year and loving it! Here are their first day pics, even though they didn't start preschool on the same day.

Addition

2011-08-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Daniel! Daniel is adding one more year to his life - the big 27! He is the best husband and dad, and I'm not just saying that because it is his birthday! I really appreciate his selfless and cheerful demeanor.

As Daniel is adding another year, we thought it good to start sharing that we are also adding to our family! Baby #4 will be arriving beginning of March! What a great life!

Recess Monkey

2011-08-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

Last week we went to the Recess Monkey's show at the library. It is our 2nd time that we've seen them and we had a great time. They are school teachers from Seattle that have toured our libraries in the summer and entertain these kids with their fun & creative music! Porter and Jesse were dancing fools, Eliza got into by the end too! Thanks Kristin for keeping me in the know about when they perform each year! We love 'em!
You can here a lot of their songs on their site here.

Summer Pics

2011-08-01T16:18:00.000-07:00

My boys (and first picture with Daniel's new camera*)

Porter and Daniel fishing on Papa's boat

Sunrise on Independence Rock

Rock Creek, my favorite spot on our trip

Had to include a picture of this little muffin!

Fort Laramie

We had a great trip and it was so fun to spend time with family! A huge thanks to my Mom & family and Mike and Em for watching the kids while we were gone!

Chimney Rock

*also a huge thanks to Papa & Mimi for the camera!

Porter is 3

2011-06-16T21:51:00.000-07:00

Top 3 things I love about Porter:

He is such a softy, always first to say sorry and give hugs

Loves to hug...sometimes a little to tight...to little girls...in nursery

His one-liners are classic:

"Whoa, mom take it easy"

"Ooh good job, that's amazing"

"fanks mom"

He calls Jesse and other little kids buddy.

There are many more, and I'll have to add to the list as I remember them.

I love this kid!!

First year of preschool

2011-06-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

Eliza loved her first year of preschool. She learned a lot! We were lucky to have such good moms in our group that really put time into preparing and teaching these kids!

Friends

2011-05-23T12:28:00.000-07:00

Although we have our fair share of unpleasant scenes here in our house

I sure do love when I see them getting along and loving each other!

Mother's Day

2011-05-09T21:10:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. I really know that I would and could not be happier being anything else but my children's mother. I love watching them grow. They are each so unique. Jesse loves to help me unload the dishwasher, every time he hears me open it he comes running to be my little assistant. Porter loves to do hard work outside with his dad. If there is a shovel or tool involved he's there and will stick with it until the end. Eliza is our little artist. She will imitate my stick drawings exactly and she could color for hours, which has become a very nice thing during sacrament meetings!

As I heard of a baby that passed away this morning and another friend giving birth to a baby boy almost at the same time, my heart was very grateful for the blessing it is to be a mother, to bring God's children here and be able to help them grow. Oh, but they are helping me grow soo much too! I looked at them a little different and was a little softer today, the way I want them to remember me being.

Easterish

2011-05-02T12:46:00.000-07:00

We kind of got Easterish this year. We went to our ward's easter eggstravaganza and had a blast. On Sunday we didn't get Easter Sunday pictures as a family because it didn't happen before church and after church {some} kids didn't want their picture taken and {some} kids were asleep... But here's what we got:

Spring Break 2011

2011-05-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

For Spring Break we went to Oregon. It was such a nice trip. We went to downtown Portland to see the big City of Books bookstore. It was everything I dreamed it would be and the kids LOVED the children and education section. They sat for an hour and read book after book. I could live there. The kids favorite part was going back to the hotel to swim of course. The next day we went to the Tilamook Factory and tasted delicious cheese and ice cream. After that we just drove up the coast stopping at the different beaches and lighthouses along the way. The next day we went to the zoo. It was a great 3 days and we would definitely love to take any family coming this way to visit there. It is totally worth the drive!!

Some Family Pics

2011-04-05T20:37:00.000-07:00

We went to Utah recently for a special wedding and had a wonderful time with our families!! We took advantage of other people's nice cameras to get some family pictures. We really treasure the time spent with our families now that we live far away!

Now that's using your brother

2011-03-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

I walked into the living room the other day and saw that Eliza was stepping on Porter's head to get something off the top of the piano... He was a willing footstool. What a brother!

Butterfly Pillow

2011-03-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

Eliza saw me working some new pillows for our room and she really wanted one too. So I gathered some scraps and remembered this blog tutorial and made this:

++four++

2011-02-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

Eliza is four today. What a girl. I know she came to us to teach me so many things and to love her brothers and dad like only she can. We are so much alike, and so different. Her sassy-ness from me, but not her perfectionist side. Her ability to laugh and love from her dad.

+ + +

As I've been subbing in her sunbeam class I saw her crossing her legs like a lady.

I thought it was funny and then I saw that she was mimicking my same pose.

+ + +

She has always seemed very grown up in a lot of ways, but she'll always be my baby girl.

Happy Birthday Eliza!

*it was only fitting that her best friend's brother was born on this day too. happy birthday baby will!*

Jesse is ONE

2011-01-19T18:42:00.000-08:00

Jesse turned ONE on Jan. 9th- this post is a little belated...

I love this playful little guy. He's always ready to laugh and play a game.

My baby boy...

walking+talking+feeding himself

Birds and Bananas

2011-01-19T13:13:00.000-08:00

Eliza is so silly while she tells this story. She loves to tell stories, last night she told me her own version of the Little Mermaid and the princes name was Blare. I like it!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-10T08:50:00.000-08:00

ABC Bingo

2011-01-07T15:38:00.000-08:00

So I taught preschool this week and I love it! I didn't have a specific letter, but was assigned to review a cluster of letters. My good friend gave me some great games to play and her set of ABC Bingo. I knew I was going to want one for future purposes (plus my kids love playing our animal Bingo game) so I decided to look online to see if there was one I could print off. No, there wasn't. At least not the kind of ABC Bingo I wanted to have, so I decided to crank up Power Point (yes, I wish I had photoshop) and make one up. So this is what I came up with- very simple, but the kids loved coloring it and then placing M&Ms on the spaces as they were called. You can click on the pictures and copy it into a Word document to print off if you want. Happy Bingo Playing.

5 Years

2010-12-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

While Daniel & I were engaged he was building homes down in Blanding and would call me every night when he got home. He told me the words to a song he had heard while working one day. He said they were "I love you half as much as I did yesterday and twice as much as I will tomorrow" He realized he said it wrong and we had a good laugh about it. At that time, you could not have convinced me that I would love my husband 5X as much as I did then, but I really do. These five years have been stuffed full of amazing experiences that we've shared together. Daniel has taught me so much about loving others, forgiving, learning to laugh at myself and at all the things that happen in marriage and parenthood. He's loved me when I've been hard to love, hugged me when I was huge and hard to hug, and been cheerful through it all. I love this man and feel so blessed he is mine and has been for the last 5 YEARS!

Happy Anniversary Daniel!

Christmas Disco

2010-12-12T20:44:00.000-08:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Christmas Card Teaser

2010-11-16T11:36:00.000-08:00

++We had family pictures taken last Saturday++

Our talented friend did a great job of taking them despite the wiggly bodies and runny noses!

If you are looking for someone to take some family pictures that is creative and does a great job with the little ones check her out here. Thanks again Haley!!

An Incredible Halloween

2010-11-01T22:04:00.000-07:00

Pat-a-cake

2010-10-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

Ponyo Power Dancing

2010-10-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

It was a shock to the system to see our little girl break out these dance moves. She feels the beat and lets loose. Porter and Jesse get in to it too!Oh yeah, and we happened to catch Jesse crawling in the background.

My Boys

2010-09-25T22:40:00.000-07:00

Eliza's Preschool Pic

2010-09-19T14:12:00.001-07:00

Eliza is loving our Mom Co-op Preschool. She came home the first day knowing how to snap her fingers?? So many things to learn!

Finger Puppet Theater Tutorial

2010-08-19T13:12:00.000-07:00

Go check out Savvy Mom Saves, a great blog with reviews and giveaways almost everyday. Today I posted a tutorial for a Finger Puppet Theater that you can make with your kids. Do you have a fun project you've done with your kids this summer?

Little Toes

2010-07-05T08:15:00.000-07:00

A new camera and still children...not found here

2010-07-02T15:26:00.000-07:00

Super Porter's Birthday

2010-06-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

It was a great birthday:
-Picnic @ the park along the river
-Delicious naps for all
-McDonalds chicken nuggets and play place
-Super Hero Presents
-Porter-picked chocolate cake/rainbow icing
with starburst letters & icecream
-Robin Hood

Couldn't have been better!

Porter's 2 today!!

2010-06-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

Jesse's 5 months

2010-06-16T16:19:00.000-07:00

Give Away

2010-06-14T15:01:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I was asked to model some beautiful hair pins and broaches for a fabulous give away from the ladies at My Favorite Things and {Dandee}, who is so creative! (you can also buy these in her shop)You won't want to miss a chance to win some accessories!

Sunglasses

2010-06-06T18:11:00.001-07:00

Updated Smiles

2010-06-06T15:19:00.000-07:00

As my children get older, I love seeing more of their personalities come out.
Here are just some photos to update some far away loved ones.
I got the idea for Smiles Live Here from her cute art work!

Mother's Day

2010-05-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

+++ what makes me happy +++
it was a good mother's day

Jesse's 4 months

2010-05-11T20:05:00.000-07:00

Goodbye Mop Top

2010-05-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize how crazy Jesse's hair was until I put these Before and After pictures side by side. I shed a few tears while Daniel cut it with the clippers, but now I see it looks much, much better!

Wind, Wind go away...

2010-04-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

3 month Jesse

2010-04-10T19:45:00.000-07:00

Baby is sleeping from 9:30pm-6am now... I'm a happy well-rested mamma!!!

A Sad Story Turned Happy

2010-03-23T16:34:00.000-07:00

A sad story turned happy:
Daniel's parents came up to watch our kids while we went to Seaside. Marcia brought up her really nice camera and was taking pictures all week, we made sure to take a lot of pictures on Jesse's blessing day. I was starting to download all the pictures she took and I didn't notice Eliza take the memory card. She brought it to me a few minutes later and I noticed that it was all wet. She had been chewing on it. All of the pictures were lost. I cried. But thanks to my Mom's advice and a dear friend, we took some pictures the next Sunday. Tears turned to smiles and laughter over the whole story.

First visit to the coast

2010-03-15T21:34:00.000-07:00

Growing Jesse

2010-03-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

He is still sleeping through the night... Yes, I am a much more pleasant mom when I get 6 hours of sleep!! He is smiling and cooing and loves it when Eliza and Porter sing to him!

Eliza's Birthday

2010-02-22T10:32:00.000-08:00

To Do and Shopping List download

2010-02-19T16:49:00.000-08:00

Here are some things that are helping me stay organized, now that I have lost memory brain cells with having our third child. If you click on them and copy and paste, you can use them too.
What are some things that help keep you organized?

Eliza is 3

2010-02-10T14:51:00.000-08:00

One Month

2010-02-10T11:27:00.000-08:00

Jesse is a really good baby and I am so grateful! He's been congested with a stuffy nose, but still sleeps from 11:30pm - 5am most nights. We love this little guy!

Introducing...

2010-01-11T10:57:00.000-08:00

Jesse Perkins Black
1-9-10
9 lbs. 3 oz.

Everything went great and we are so grateful to have this handsome healthy boy here!

A very Merry Christmas

2010-01-02T15:28:00.000-08:00

We had a very merry relaxing Christmas! Friends and Family were all too generous. We missed being with family, but it was fun to do our very own Christmas as a family. We homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve and they were ready for the oven the next morning. Here are some pictures of the day.

I made these dolls for Eliza, they are called Black Apple Dolls and you can get a free pattern and tutorial from the Martha Stewart website. They are cute and easy!

Felt Farm Playhouse

2010-01-02T15:11:00.000-08:00

Back in November I decided I was going to make a farm playhouse for the kid's Christmas. I bought around 10 yards of felt in assorted colors and got into a 50+ hour project. I couldn't have done it without her blog and the patterns on it.There are bendy flowers you can plant, vegetables to pull, apples to pick and feed to the horse, and the Piglet puppet show theater. The whole playhouse fits over a card table and we just leave it up in Eliza's room now. It's been a fun new piece of furniture to have!

Random

2009-12-02T20:54:00.000-08:00

This was the day after Thanksgiving, it was beautiful outside! So we took advantage of it and went to the park. It was so fun to see Eliza and Porter so independent on the playground!

A little girl in one of my singing groups asked me why the one on the end was blank...
we seriously cannot decide on a name for baby brother.

They love the Christmas tree and ornaments.... a little too much!

A "Moo"velous Halloween

2009-11-02T20:48:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Old McDonald's FarmEliza got pretty good at telling everyone what we were going to be for Halloween. She would say: "Eliza be a horsie, Porter be a cow, Momma be a pig and Daddy be a Farmer had a dog." (We've been singing the B-I-N-G-O song and so all farmers have dogs now.) We had a blast at our ward's Halloween carnival night and Trick or Treating on Halloween night.

Our Backyard Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-19T06:47:00.000-07:00

Daniel and I had no idea what we were doing with our garden this year, but we were able to get 5 pumpkins out of it before the hard frost a few nights ago. (Eliza wouldn't let the Cheetos bag go for anything, Daddy brought it home as a surprise from work.)

Bill and the Train

2009-10-10T20:24:00.000-07:00

Bill is our good friend from the Southridge Seminary. On Saturdays he volunteers to drive the train at the Columbia Park. The park is right along the river, it was fun.

A Wii little problem

2009-10-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

On Labor Day we decided to rent a Wii game from Blockbuster. We brought it home to find out that we could not get the Wii to take it. We emailed the company and they paid for us to send it in. We got it back exactly one week later with this note saying that the following was found inside the Wii. Oops. They still payed for the repair, but said they wouldn't pick up the tab if it happened again. It would have been $75 . We now unplug the Wii and put it up high when it is not in use.

Primary Singing Time

2009-09-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

Eliza singing Child of God.

Porter doing the interpretive leg dance to Follow the Prophet (sung by Eliza).

Fun Dip Fun

2009-09-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

This is as exciting as it gets around here. Eliza sharing the fun dip treat she got from the "Paci Fairy". She gave her paci's away and got a treat at the door for them. She asks for her paci when she is sad or tired, but we just remind her she gave them away. Now to get rid of Porter's before baby #3 is here...

Now our pictures are paci free!!

When's Dinner?

2009-09-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

You know your kids must be hungry when you see this...

The Family Photographer

2009-09-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

Eliza loves finding our camera and has figured out how to snap pictures. She gets a kick out of seeing us on the camera screen. Some of the pictures she's taken are funny because they are pictures I would never take, but little pieces of our life. These are also the only pregnant pictures we have so far...
Porter is about to eat something off the ground...

Making dinner

Porter playing in the kitchen with his car, he likes to drive it up and down the dishwasher.

Laundry...

Vinatge Paper Doll Craze

2009-09-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

I love paper dolls. I always have. When I was in Jr. High I made a magnet paper doll of myself and all the clothes in my wardrobe. I cut them out, lamenated them and Daniel laughed when he saw them in a zip lock bag, years later, after we were married. Well I just stumbled onto a paper doll gold mine thanks to this site. I immediately printed them off and I plan on spending the rest of my day cutting them out for Eliza (...and me). She'll probably rip them up, but I hope she loves them like I do!

Eliza's new hobby

2009-09-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

She's been doing this lately

So I made her this...

This blog has an amazing tutorial, and I love the velcro waistband!!

A "Hoppy" Birthday

2009-09-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

Daniel is a GREAT father! When we got back from Utah it was a challenge getting the kids to sleep in their own beds again. Danie came up with a story about a frog named Hopper, and he used a golf ball to be the hopping frog that would bounce from Eliza's bed to her head. She loved it and they both are sleeping great in their beds. What does this have to do with Daniel's birthday? Well, Eliza and I decided to paint some golf balls green and turn them into "Hoppers". We gave them to Daniel to decorate his Seminary Office with. I also made Daniel a book. It was a great relaxing birthday!

It's a...

2009-08-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

BOY!!
We are so excited to have another boy. Porter was such a good baby, we hope this little guy takes after his older brother!! These were the best pictures the technician got. We'll take any name suggestions!!

Happy Birthday Daniel

2009-08-22T10:01:00.000-07:00

Daniel will turn {25} tomorrow! I picked this picture because it is Daniel all the way, smiling through adversity. He is always happy! We love you so much Dad!!
More pictures of birthday fun to come...

P.S. We find out the gender of our baby on Monday @ 4:00. Get your guesses in.

Porter, Porter Zucchini Hoarder

2009-08-04T08:03:00.000-07:00

We were only gone for 9 days. Our zucchini's were not that big when we left for Utah, but now they are the size of little slugger baseball bats. I've made bread, lazagna, and even some zucchini babies, any suggestions on what to do with them now?

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

2009-08-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

Among many of the fun things we did while we were in Utah, we went to the Open House for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It was beautiful and so neat! The last temple Open House I remember going through was the Bountiful temple, and I think that was clear back in 1993. This was definitely a high light of our trip!

Our Silly Girl

2009-08-04T07:43:00.000-07:00

Eliza loves to give kisses. Last Saturday she was giving Daniel and I some good kisses, and after one that was especially wet I wiped my mouth and said, "Ooh, that one was slobbery!" Eliza said "Yeah, slobbery shortcake". You see we had just finished watching Strawberry Shortcake on the Saturday morning cartoons earlier that day. So now we sing the theme song like this "Slob-b-b-b-berry, Slobberry Shortcake".

She was smiling so silly for these pictures, by the end I was cracking up.

Expecting again, Due in 2010!!

2009-07-03T08:59:00.000-07:00

This pictures was taken 9 days before I had Eliza.

Yes, we are expecting again and really excited. We decided it was time to start announcing since we've been to 2 Dr. appointments and everything is looking and sounding good. Here are some answers to some Frequently Asked Questions during pregnancy:
FAQ
*How far along are you? 12 Weeks today
*How are you feeling? I've only thrown up because I had the flu a month ago. I've felt pretty good compared to my last 2 pregnancies. I'm really tired and I'm on a good nap routine with the kids.
*When are you due? January 16th 2010. This means I will have 3 kids under 3 for one month before Eliza turns 3.
*Who's your Dr.? Dr. Samra and the Lourdes clinic right by our house!!! *Have you had any cravings? I could eat cereal any time of the day. My stomach is not okay with fast food.
*Are you going to find out the gender? Yes.
*Do you want a girl or boy? The only reason I want a girl is so Eliza's baby clothes will be the right size for the right season. Otherwise I would love a girl or boy!!

NOTE to my family: If any of you fall inlove promise me you will wait until after the baby is born to get married, I've already been huge and pregnant for 2 weddings.

Porter is ONE!

2009-06-22T10:41:00.000-07:00

Porter Black is ONE!
His birthday was Tuesday and despite some illness it was a great one!!

I'm so grateful Porter came to our home when he did, he is our ray of sunshine! He always wakes up happy and is content to chase cans or balls around the kitchen floor! We love you Ports!

Some water fun with Eliza, Porter and cousin Brock.

An Amazing Family

2009-06-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

This family is amazing.
They joined the Church in late Feb. and moved here and have truly been an example to our family. Reyes is a boxer going to Nationals this weekend. The local news is following him around today at work to get the whole story.

Way to go guys!!
YOU CAN READ AND SEE VIDEO OF HIS STORY HERE.

A Peek-a-boo Game

2009-05-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

Eliza loves to play this little peek-a-boo game with Porter when he's in his high chair. She has to scoot the high chair across the whole kitchen first before they can start their game, so that is why they are next to the pantry... that is not where I feed him. It is fun to see your kids get to the stage where they play together.

Random Pictures from last week

2009-05-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

Walking along Columbia River - Memorial Weekend

Porter chillin' outside

My Handsome Boys

We're Falling In Love

2009-05-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

I'm in love with these kids...
(Mother's Day Pic)

Eliza's fallen in love with the phone...
(she is talking to Mimi)

Porter has fallen in love with dirt...

Eliza has fallen in love with Barbies...

They have fallen in love with Mom and Dad's bed in the morning hours...

A little young to be falling in love this way...

Daniel put her arm around Tanner to be funny, but she kept it there a little while. She got a few weird looks from Tanner.

This oughta hold ya

2009-05-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

Having a hard time finding {making} time to go through the process of:
-Downloading pics onto Dan's laptop (when and if he brings it home)
-Then putting them on a memory stick
-Then from the memory stick, downloading them on our home computer.
Writing it down makes me feel that it shouldn't be that hard, so why is it?
So I promise I've been taking pictures and will post them soon... Maybe...
In the mean time this oughta hold ya over {Mimi}.

EFG

2009-04-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

This video is EFG (Especially For Grandma's)
Eliza is getting to the fun stage of pretending and playing with Barbies, and any stuffed animal or doll and pretending they can talk. We even have pretty good conversations with my hands (this started when she was in the beginning stages of potty training and boredom struck as we were sitting on the toilet all day). I know I am probably the only one who can understand Elizanese, but subtitles weren't an option with this video. Enjoy.

We've been doing {this} a lot:

2009-04-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

{Playing at the Park}

{Watching movies}

Last Saturday Daniel decided we should have an Outside movie night. It was so fun as we all cuddled together to watch our favorite Horton movie!

This is Eliza being the mean kangaroo that goes "Humph".

Our Peterson friends watching Jonah (Veggie Tales).

{Falling Asleep}
Porter has started falling asleep all over the place. His little body is getting worn out from all that crawling!

{Taking Baths}
Lots of dirt when we play outside all day!

{Falling Down}
Brought Porter to bed with me after a rough night of teething and he moves so much now, he fell off the bed onto our night stand and the bottom drawer was open, OUCH! He looks a lot better now.

Confessions of a Potty Trainer

2009-04-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

Potty training Eliza has really not been too bad. I mean, it definitely could be worse (knock on wood because we have only been doing it over 2 weeks). I’m just happy I don’t have 2 kids in size 4 diapers anymore! There are some journal worthy stories that must be documented, and I confess that maybe it was me that needed Potty Training training. This experience has not been without accidents! We went to the park last Tuesday and Eliza had an accident. I knew she would, but she wouldn’t go before we left for anything and in the rush out the door I didn’t bring anything but our picnic lunch. Eliza wouldn’t keep her wet panties and shorts on so I carried her home on my hip while pushing Porter in the stroller. I was a sight to see and it was the longest walk home from the park EVER! I hope someone got a good laugh over it. A nice friend called me after and said, “I’ve been there!” Thanks!!
But the best story so far is definitely our Easter Sunday. We all woke up excited and ate breakfast and got dressed so we could start our “Eggcellent Easter Scripture Hunt”. I let Eliza play outside for a minute while I curled my hair and she came running in saying “potty toilet”. I put her on the toilet only to find that the deed had already been done and there was “stuff” all over her and her dress. “That’s fine, it happens” I told myself and Daniel and I cleaned up the mess and put her in a bath and Daniel fixed the clogged up toilet while I threw her dress in the wash, I was determined she wear her new Easter dress on Easter! Finally, her dress was washed and dried so we started our hunt. All was well, she was finding the eggs and eating the candy. Then again the cry came “potty toilet”, this time the mess was a little more watered down, if you know what I mean, and yes, it was all over her dress. I looked at my watch and I still had enough time to wash and dry it again before church, so we did. She finished the egg hunt in a pull-up and she had it on for the rest of the day and did not have another accident! Eliza had a really hard time at church too, I don’t know why she hates it, even Nursery now. Any suggestions would be wonderful! But it may go down in our family history as the “worst Easters I ever had” :) (I hope there are some Nacho Libre fans out there).

This dress had been washed and dried twice before this picture!

Random Pictures from last week

2009-04-13T14:50:00.000-07:00

This one is for you mom, thanks for the Raid idea!

Spring Break Fun in Spokane

2009-04-04T20:59:00.001-07:00

We had a great time during Spring Break! We went to Palouse Falls (about 1 1/2 hours from Pasco) then up to Spokane. The miracles of the trip were: the pool opened just for us and the next day it was snowing and raining, but it stopped just long enough for us to walk around Riverside Park to see Spokane Falls. It was a wonderful break! Thanks Daniel!!

Sunny Days

2009-03-30T09:13:00.000-07:00

Hooray for warm weather!! We have been outside all weekend.

Doritos Fingers
(Porter is wanting to lick them off)

Porters 1st time sitting and feeling grass, it was dry and pokey so he wasn't a fan.

(He is wearing 18 month clothing)

-Eliza escaped from Nursery twice yesterday, she ran to the sacrament meeting pulpit and grabbed the loose microphone (it was not on) and started singing Twinkle, Twinkle.
-My Favorite Blog for FHE ideas is Here!! There is a really cute one for Easter!!

Good Odd Goings On

2009-03-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

Eliza loves blowing on bellies, especially Porter's!

Eliza loves Cinderelli, she sings the song all the time, but when she's being recorded she just wants to watch herself.

Porter is just itching to be mobile!!

Tickles

This post is EFG (Especially For Grandmas)
We love and miss our families!!

Good Odd Goings On II

2009-03-16T10:06:00.001-07:00

These last few weeks have been fun and busy. Daniel and I had the annual Husband and Wife Conference. It was great. The highlight definitely being able to do sealings in the Columbia River Temple. Thanks Chelsea and Haley for watching the kids!!

Eliza is all about the dress ups these days and is very opinionated about what she wears every day. She has started looking in my closet now for her "Princess Dresses". This is a shirt of mine she is wearing, it works pretty good as a dress for her too.

Eliza has fallen in love with popsicles, even though it has not been warm enough to eat them. She will either ask for a popsicle or a hot dog first thing in the morning. (Don't worry, I don't let her have either for her breakfast)

Eliza knows how to open all doors, even the refridgerator door. She snuck into a hot dog and I found her like this hiding at the end of the hall.

Porter knocked out on the floor

Eliza knocked out on the couch (stink bug style as my dad would say)

Daniel and Eliza's daily date to go get the "Postage"
Eliza says "postach"

Watch for Taylor

2009-03-03T14:42:00.000-08:00

I just found out that my Aunt's niece, Taylor Vaifanua, is one of American Idol's top 36! She is from Utah and performing tonight. I hope she does well! And I think she might just get me to vote. (I just usually spectate, not vote).

Some Silliness

2009-03-01T20:27:00.000-08:00

Family Fun Balloon Night:
a contest to see who can be hit on the head with the balloon the most times
Daniel's the man down

Big Boy Porter and his 2 bottom teeth

Eliza found the swimming goggles

Eliza's time out chair

Birthday leftovers

2009-02-17T09:17:00.000-08:00

Eliza had a great 2nd birthday!
I teach Makayla's boys in my music class and trade in return her domestic skills like making this beautiful princess dress that Eliza requests to wear every day now! She had to wear it first thing on her birthday!

For dinner we went to McDonald's!!

Eliza enjoying some pudding painting time.

My happy family
(if picking both nostrils with your fingers makes you happy, pick on Eliza)

He is still a dream of a baby, he was sick this last week and got two teeth in, still such a good baby!!

2 Years of Eliza

2009-02-10T08:55:00.001-08:00

FREE Love

2009-02-04T11:45:00.001-08:00

Really cute, right? Well it is free. All you have to do is go to this website, add it to your cart and they will quickly email you a confirmation with the FREE download in it! I just love stuff like this so I thought I'd pass it on. Only 10 days until Heart Day!

A Downgrade

2009-02-02T13:11:00.000-08:00

Do you remember this post, then I think you'd have to say that Porter has definitely been given a downgrade version of his car-seat ride.

(I think he can "scents" it)

The Answer, The Winner

2009-01-29T07:25:00.000-08:00

We have been watching
Singin' in the Rain
a lot lately (at Eliza's request) and she will go around the house singing the main song and Good Mornin'. This has always been one of my all time favorite movies and Daniel even likes it too (exept for the long Gene Kelly dance-a-thon section). If you have not seen it, go to your local library I'm sure they have a copy for you to get cultured with.

Now the winner of the More Than Air CD is
the Curtis and Kristin Black family
(I will mail it to you, if you already have it I will send you another CD!)

Guess that movie

2009-01-26T09:21:00.000-08:00

Guess the movie? Make a comment and I'll put all of those who get it right into a drawing to win one of my favorite CDs you can check it out here and listen to samples. I'll post the right answer and winner on Thursday.

Family Clay Night

2009-01-20T10:21:00.000-08:00

I guess you could say that one of Daniel's loves is using his hands to mold clay. He made a lot of pots and bowls in his Highschool ceramics class and someday we are going to build him a shed just for his pottery wheel and stuff. Anyway, once in a while we have Family clay night and this is the first one Eliza could get in to.
She is really starting to cheese it for the camera.

Yes, I just became one of those moms who can't resist taking bath-time pictures and then showing them.

P.S. Has anyone read any good parenting books on how to deal with the Terrific Two's?