The Porters

Winning!

2012-02-10T11:08:00.001-08:00

With each contest, Ben and I have tried to prepare Mia if she loses, which we always tell her there is a good chance, because there are so many people who enter. Mia struggles with defeat. She hates losing. At home, it is very difficult to play a game with her because she is so competitive and always wants to win.

There's lots of tears and a lot of frustration from everyone.

We went to Xander and Mia's Science Fair last night and Mia scored 2nd place again! I kept telling myself that it would be good if Mia didn't win again. Other kids should have the opportunity and Mia could learn how to deal with not winning.

But when the moment came, in my heart I was cheering her on and hoping she would win. I think that as a parent, we should be cheering our children on and not hoping that they will lose so they can become humble and learn how to deal with defeat. There will be plenty of opportunities in life to do that.

I've decided that I am past the part where I prepare Mia for a loss. I'm just going to enjoy in this girl's achievements and when a loss comes, then we will help Mia deal with it.

And then there is Xander.

Mr. Shy boy.

Each student has to present their project to the judges and explain what they did. Since Xander can be super shy at times, I thought he was going to bomb the presentation.

I was volunteering in the class when he left to go present his science project. When he came back he looked calm and happy. I asked him how it went and he said very cool, "Good."

And that was that.

So each grade level came up on the stage when it was time to present the awards. When Xander gets shy, he makes these weird faces where he sticks his tongue out on the side and then he hunches over like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

That's what he did when they called his name for "Honorable Mention".

If his expressions had words, they would say things like, "What? Did you call my name?" , "I have no idea what you are talking about." , and "I'm so clueless as to what is happening this very moment."

Both Mia and Xander owe their Dad lots of hugs for doing both projects with them. I told Ben that it was his job to do the Science projects because, #1 he is better when it comes to science and #2 I did the Reflections contest with them #3 he is better.

It was a ton of work and Ben was a champ helping both the kids. They love doing projects with their Dad. One thing we have learned, having two kids doing the same projects is definitely double duty. I told Ben to just wait until we have 3 kids in elementary!

It was worth it though seeing our kid's get excited about their accomplishments!

This girl. . .

2012-02-05T13:00:00.000-08:00

This girl is sweet. She is like a warm ray of sunshine. You can always catch her with a smile on her face. When I'm gone, she welcomes me home with a hug and an, "I love you." and "I missed you."

This girl always has food on her face. You can find her most days in the cupboards and refridgerator looking for something to munch on. Even with locks and duct tape, she can still find her way in or know just the right moment when I forget to lock the fridge. She is like Hansel and Gretel when they leave a trail of bread crumbs. That's how I know where she's been.

This girl is becoming potty trained. When we got back from Utah, I decided she was ready to start the potty training. After a week, she had gotten the hang of it. She wears panties all day! Her potty training is not a 100% but she is getting there.

This girl likes to play. She loves playing games with her family. She is starting to play independently and it is entertaining for me to watch her use her imagination. I'll see her make a picnic for her stuffed animal friends or take care of her "Toy Story" babies (Woody, Jess, Buzz and Bullseye). I'm always amazed at how motherly little girls are naturally.

This girl loves to read and be read to. She'll bring a book to me and say, "Read me?" I'll read her a book and then she'll read me one. When she reads it, it is all jibberish, but it is so fun to hear her. She's got the intonation down.

This girl loves to sing and dance. She will ask me, "Play Just Dance?" She loves singing, "Sunbeam" and can't sit still while singing it. She'll grab Mia, who is her dance partner and hold her hands and dance in a circle. The newest song is, "Popcorn Popping". She doesn't know all of the words, but she does the actions and it is so cute.

This girl is super active and busy. Zoey is on the go, always. She bounces, literally, from one thing to the next. I think she is coming out of her "must destroy or take apart" stage which is somewhat of a relief to me.

This girl is also funny.

inquisitive. . .

and likes to do art. . .

Our family is complete with THIS GIRL!

Family Goals

2012-01-29T13:12:00.000-08:00

Each year, we set goals as a family and individually. This year, we chose 3 to work on.

Our first goal is to memorize a scripture each month. I was trying to think of where I could post the scripture and I came up with this idea. . .

Each month, I will print out the scripture and put it in the frame. It's in a great location in our living room where everyone passes through or hangs out. We also repeat it after scripture study.

Today in church, CJ told me that someone quoted our monthly scripture and recited it incorrectly. She knew it because she had already memorized it!

Our next goal is to visit a museum each month. This year is the "Year of the Museums". If you are a member of the local library here, you can go online and print off free or discounted passes to museums in the bay area. There are of course, only certain days in which the discounted or free passes work, but there are so many to choose from, that we will be able to find something.

Also, many of the museums, have a free day like the first Wednesday of each month. I'll be on the lookout for deals like these because it can get pretty pricey when you take your whole family to the museum!

Our last goal we set is to "Think of Others". The kids are quarreling more these days and we thought that by setting this goal, it will help lesson the tension and hopefully strengthen our relationships. It will also be good for Ben and I to focus on this. There are many times during the day, where I just want to complete something for me and many times I push aside the child who is pleading with me to stop and play with them, because I just want to get what I am working on finished.

I've also been thinking about the love languages. While I was visiting teaching, the books on love languages was brought up. To me, it makes perfect sense that there are different ways in which people communicate their love. Some show it through actions, words, touches, and even gift giving.

And since we each communicate in a different way it is important to know how your loved ones communicate. I want to show my family that I love them in the way that they understand. I also want to be able to communicate better with them and learn to understand them better when they come to me with their frustrations.

I love setting goals and I hope that my children will too and that it will become a habit in their life. I hope that they will see the benefits that come from setting goals and be proud when they accomplish them. And most importantly, that goal setting is a positive way to make ourselves better.

Mia goes to State!

2012-01-22T15:12:00.000-08:00

Mia's photography entry titled, "Color of Us" went to the District level for the Reflection Contest. Yesterday we arrived late because we thought it was a open house where we got to view the pieces that were chosen.

What we didn't know was that it was an award's ceremony and they announced names and the child got to go on the stage and receive an award. We barely made it in time before the ceremony was over and even though they already announced Mia's category, they arranged it so she could have her name announced and receive her award.

She was so elated! We found out that her entry will also be moving onto the state level!!

I couldn't be prouder of this girl! Mia is self driven and knows what she wants. She knew from the beginning that she wanted to do Photography and that she wanted to do something with color. Then, she was so clever to title her piece, "Color of Us". In essence, her description described that there are many different colors of people in this world and that we are all special. I'm sure that won the hearts of the Californian judges who bask in this state's diversity!

Go Mia!

Finding out about myself. . .

2012-01-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

When my parents came to visit me for Christmas my Mom brought me some things that she had from Michigan. She gave me a file from what I gather are documents and notes gathered from the social worker.

I found it so fascinating as I scrolled over these notes and tried to imagine myself as this 1 1/2 year old. Here are some interesting facts that I learned about myself and some things that are still true to this day.

I was admitted to Holt (the adoption agency) on December 21, 1978. That means I was probably about a year and a half when I was abandoned. They recorded that my weight and height exceeds average age level.

This is probably because in the notes before it talks about how I have a really good appetite and that I'm not particular when it comes to food, which is still true today. I'll eat anything!

I was shy around strangers but warmed up to people I saw more often. I was placed in a foster home with a family that had 3 boys ages 8, 10, and 12. It says that they loved me and took good care of me.

I also preferred boys better. Which is true even today. I'm not a super tom boy, but I have always gotten along with the boys and hung out with them. Sometimes I will find with friends that I enjoy talking to the husband more than the wife.

This next thing surprised me. They said I was mischievous and does errands in the room. My mother told me that I could keep myself entertained and play quietly.

They also said that I spoke many words and understands well. Not always saying real words, but I said, "um-ma" for mama, "ab-ba" for papa, and "neh" for yes. I think "neh" is actually Korean. I don't know about the other words.

Their last notes were, "Soo Ah (that was my Korean name) is physically healthy and sound, and is developing well. She is cute and lovely looking little girl ready for adoption."

This is a picture of me of what I looked like on my flight to the United States. I call this my refugee picture.

I analyze many things. One thing that I analyze quite often is what attributes did I get from my birth parent and which ones from my adoptive parents. I probably think about this more than I should. I think that it is just on my mind because I'm trying to figure out myself.

This is what I have concluded. I think that I have attributes and behaviors that are due to genetics and I also have behaviors that stem from the environment I grew up in. But I also think that some things about myself are just who I am and that no matter where or who raised me, I would still have the same qualities.

It's a testimony to me that we existed before this life and that we will exist again after this life.

Another thing that I have a testimony of is priesthood blessings, that the priesthood holder giving the blessing is the mouthpiece. That the words spoken are from our Heavenly Father. In the folder I also found the words from my name and blessing that was given to me.

As I read over the words, it felt familiar. It felt like my patriarchal blessing. It's my Heavenly Father speaking to me in a way, that there is no doubt that he knows me. That I am special to him. That I am important.

Some people who are adopted struggle with the "unknown". I have never been one that has struggled. I've never wondered "why' and "what if". I've always been so grateful to have the life that I have and even with this little bit of information that I have received, I don't feel any different.

I also know that in the next life, I will get to meet my birth parents. And you know, the first thing I will say is, "Thank you for giving me a better life!" and I will embrace them.

I think my Mom and Dad so extraordinary to have adopted 5 children and given each one of them a better life! I will be forever grateful.

(This is a picture that was taken of me when I became a citizen of the United States. I was in 5th grade. It took so long because my birthdate was incorrect on my birth certificate.)

Porter Utah Tour 2011

2012-01-04T18:14:00.000-08:00

Our friends in Utah call our visits, "The Porter Utah Tour". Makes us feel like movie stars. We left for Utah, 9 p.m. Monday, the day after Christmas. We arrived around 8:30 a.m. in Utah after driving straight through the night. I don't think I ever caught up on sleep the entire time!

Porters don't just sit.

They move.

Even if it is just moving our mouths-we move.

Moving our feet.

My favorite move was when Andy, who was on the ground on her back, took the ball in between her legs and flung it in the opposite direction. Wish I had a picture of that!

Moving our bodies.

Hannah and Abby are awesome when doing charades. Abby acts out inside stories and Hannah gives dialogue to every ones actions. The best part is that they always guess the right thing no matter how "out there" the word is. I want them on my team!

Mouths move (but not lips).

Ben cannot do this game without drooling. Next time, I would suggest a cup maybe to catch the drool?

Dance moves.

Who knew we would have so much fun with this? The girl cousins were so cute dancing-why didn't I get a picture? Abby and Kam are superior dancers and Mom and Dad busted it pretty hard too-future dance off?

Moving with Trax to Temple Square.

We visited the museum on temple square which had a Book of Mormon kids exhibit. It was alot of fun and they had many activities for the kids to do like helping Nephi build the boat, planting food, and learning how to do some mexican dances.

Ringing in the New Year!

We got to ring the New Year with Ben's family! This was my favorite trip to Utah and I don't know why, they are all super fun, but this one I just loved. We visited all of Ben's Utah sibling's homes, visited with Grandma/pa Porter (whose Christmas gift of homemade fleece blankets were super loved the whole trip), Ben made his famous pizza, made trips to DI and pawn shops, listen to Caleb sing and play his ukulele (oh yes Caleb, I heard you when you thought no one was listening! ha! ha!0, and just hung out.

The kids loved making the polymer clay boxes with Grandma. Mia told me it was her favorite thing about the trip. CJ loved making the quilt wall hanging. Xander loved the I-Pad. And Zoey loved her cousins or "my cousins" as she says it.

Can't wait for the "Porter Reunion"!!

Adventures with the Andersons

2011-12-09T17:02:00.000-08:00

Betsy, Russ, and their kids joined us for Thanksgiving. We had SO MUCH FUN!! I loved seeing how much their kids have grown since the last time I saw them. They also have the best manners-ever! After they left, I told my kids how the Anderson kids had such good manners. We have been trying ever since they left to work harder on our manners. Mia has been working hard at saying, "May I. . ."

Ben and Russ set out at 8 a.m. for a Turkey bowl game only to come back an hour later because only one person showed up. How lame! I talked to the Elder's Quorum President wife and she says that he has to call everyone individually or the day of to get them to come out. Unfortunately, we didn't know that and our Elder's Quorum President was out of town. I wish I had a picture of Russ and all of his Flag Football gear. He was so decked out and looked like he was a walking advertisement for Nike. I was sad we couldn't give him a game.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was excellent! I had planned on a 1:00 dinner and it was pretty much right on the nose. I was worried about the turkey not being done on time, but it all worked out so well and wasn't very hard with all the helpful hands. I like cooking for people. Thanksgiving is so much better when you have family.

Mia and I made name cards and napkin holders. I thought it would be fun craft for my kids but Mia was the only one excited about it. Luckily, the Anderson kids helped out.

We squeezed everyone into our living room and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Everything tasted great! I even took a stab at making homemade cranberry sauce.

We enjoyed playing Ripple (Ben loves this game since he learned it from Abby), and Settlers.

Ben took them to Pixar. I don't know if Russ was impressed with the Pixar campus now that he works at Nike. I hear the Nike campus is pretty sweet. Pixar is still awesome though. We've got John Lasseter, all the free cereal that you could ever want, and the "free shelf"! So there! Ha!

We also took them to Adventure Playground. I still feel bad about not taking Andy and Joe when they were here. In fact, I think I feel so bad that I have implanted a false memory in my brain. I told Betsy, while we were there that I remember Ben and Joe building an addition like Russ and Ben were currently. After we left and almost a day later, it occurred to me, that Joe was never there. In my mind, I even pictured Joe and Ben building. It was Ben's Dad who we took one time, not Joe. Oh well, all white people look alike to me!

Here they are with the addition that they built. I wonder if it is still there? I guess only if it is structurally safe:)

I also got to take some family pictures for Betsy and Russ. I love taking pictures especially when it is family! Thanks again for coming, we're coming to your house next year!!

Family Pictures

2011-11-20T14:46:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Ben and I were driving around and I spotted this really cool building. Turns out it was a vacant bank. I loved the structure with the arches and the bricks. I'm always on the lookout for new locations to shoot.

We hurried home and dressed all the kiddos. I dumped a gallon size ziplock bag of stolen Halloween candy (yes, I stole Zoey's candy-all for her well being keep in mind) into my bag. I'm not ashamed to say that I bribe my kids. In fact, I like to bribe my kids when the moment counts. All parents with young children know what a chore it is to get everyone dressed and hair done for pictures-all the while hoping that they don't get their outfit dirty before it's time.

Phew! We made it! Until next year. . .

Chabot Space and Science Center and Mia the Photographer

2011-11-12T16:19:00.000-08:00

Since the kids had Veteren's Day off, we went with some friends to the Chabot Space and Science Center. It's just down the street a ways from the Oakland Temple.

I decided to get a year pass because just with the 3 little kids (CJ was at a friends) and I it would have been $40. So I paid $99 for a year and the whole family including Ben can go. It works out nice since I have already dubbed next year the "Year of the Museum".

Mia took my camera for awhile and took pictures. Here are some of her pictures.

Since Mia entered the Reflections contest a month or so ago and entered a photography piece, she has been really interested in taking pictures. It was so fun to teach her how to use the camera and how to adjust her settings.

Here are some of her "bokeh" pictures. The theme was "Diversity Means" and she wanted to do something with alot of color.

I had to take a picture of her taking pictures. She looked so cute.

She was also so excited to take pictures that she went outside and took some pictures of flowers and this one, which I thought was pretty cool.

We may have another photographer on our hands!

Goodbye Halloween!

2011-11-09T13:32:00.000-08:00

I'm SO DONE with Halloween.

School parties and parades-DONE.

Family parties-DONE.

Trick or Treating-DONE.

But I noticed I didn't post any pictures of my cute kids and their costumes, so I guess I am not done.

It almost hurts me to type the word "Halloween", I have driven it out of my mind. Halloween is the only holiday where I am so excited for it to come and just as excited for it to go! And when I say go, I mean it has to go away fast.

I take the decorations down the very next day, almost before I even shower for the day.

The candy must go too! I have successfully made several bags magically disappear!

I can't wait for Ben to come back into town and take down the graveyard because everything must go!

I'm ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas now! Bring it on!

Halloween Par-tay!

2011-10-31T10:53:00.000-07:00

We had a Halloween Party at our house last weekend. We invited a bunch of families and made Halloween Movies.

Ben and I collected random items and costumes that we had to use for the movies. Ben created titles and story starters for the movies. Titles like, "Children of the Candy Corn", "Nursery Rhyme" and "September 19th- A Pirates Revenge."

We split the group of about 40 people into 3 groups. They had a choice between 2 movie titles to choose from. From there they got to choose props and costumes from the random stash that we had-which was a ton!

Next, Ben gave them each a bag with some more random props. These had to be used in the movie somehow. The other rule was that everyone had to be in the movie at one point.

We had about 45 minutes to come up with a story and make a short 5 minute movie. Then we all met back at the house.

I made some light refreshments (didn't get a picture!) and had name cards like, "Mummy Dogs", "Haunted Cheese Ball", "Freaky Fruit Dip" and so on. It looked cuter all together. Anyways, while everyone was getting something to eat, Ben got the movies ready to show.

We set up blankets and chairs outside and watched the movies projected on the back of our house. I thought it was going to be a cold night, but it was absolutely beautiful. No one even needed jackets!

The movies were hilarious! It was so fun to see what they came up with. We handed out awards and prizes for the movies and then had a dessert feast.

We asked everyone to bring a creative Halloween themed dessert. We also had card for them to name their dessert. Everyone was so clever!

We made some "Monster Eyeballs" from the left over chocolate I had from Ben's birthday cake balls. Ben also made his brain jello. I didn't get a good picture because it got gobbled up so quickly. This year Ben decided to make his brain jello look less real-you know minus the blood oozing off the brain. That was the key, because everyone ate it.

Here are some of the others:

I Can Do Hard Things!

2011-09-25T14:17:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago, I was still pregnant with Zoey. It was January and I was serving in the Young Womens. They were making a time capsule and writing down their goals for that year. I had put down that I wanted to do a triathlon. It was something that I was interested in, yet had no idea how I was ever going to accomplish it.

First, I did not know how to swim. Let me clarify. I never had lessons as a kid, yet somehow I learned how to tread water and recreational swim (float, do flips etc.). But to be able to swim consistently for a distance, I would not be able to do. Plus, I have trouble breathing on land because of my asthma, how in the heck would I be able to breathe in the water?

Second, I had no bike. While living in Alameda, my bike along with Ben and CJ's were stolen. I had not yet replaced them and kinda didn't want to while I was living in Alameda. I had no place to store it and was afraid, it would be stolen again.

So you can see how easy it was to forget about ever trying to achieve this goal. It was always in the back of my mind, but I never had enough motivation to make it happen.

When we moved to Concord, we moved into a house with a garage! Oh what happiness it did bring! Slowly, I began replacing our bikes. I got CJ one first and in the meantime was looking around for bikes for me. I had a Diamondback bike before and have always loved mountain bikes. They are my type of bike.

I have a few friends who were very active and were doing triathlons. It got me very excited and I started to think, "What would it take for me to do that?"

Thank goodness for the money I was making in my Photography because there is no way I would have spent what I did otherwise on myself. I have trouble buying myself socks!

Slowly I began to get what I needed. Aquiring new hobbies is expensive. Once you get one thing, it always leads to another thing that you need to buy. For instance, I bought myself a bike for my birthday and of course, what I needed/wanted next were bike shorts and then a shirt and then some gloves and so on. . .

The next big thing I needed to do was to learn how to swim! My friend Jane took me the community pool one morning so I could see what I could do. I was pathetic! I couldn't even swim 25 meters (that's the short lanes in the pool). It was so hard!

A recent highschool graduate from my ward was doing swim lessons during the summer. I think she had only taught children before, but I asked her if she would teach me.

So I took swim lessons-which were fantastic! She taught me swimming techniques how to breathe, the breaststroke, and form. After the lessons, I went to the pool 3'xs a week. I always felt a little embarrassed because out here everyone and their grandmother are awesome swimmers. I thought that if I didn't look or talk to anyone they would do the same. They wouldn't look at me!!

By the end of the summer, I graduated myself from the 25 m to the 50m and I even talked and smiled to a few of the people there.

Race day arrived and I went with a couple of my friends which is always nice.

We met up with some other friends and racked our things up by them.

I was nervous about the swimming up to the time I had to actually do it. I didn't know if I could swim continously. Jane told me to stay towards the back and off to the side so I wouldn't get clobbered by the rush of bodies. I started off that way chatting to the other ladies who were in my shoes before the race started.

When they sounded the horn, the competitive side of me, rushed off with the other ladies.

"What was I doing?" I was supposed to hang back, right?

I kept to the side and swam with everything that was in me. I wasn't the last one out of the water, but I was definitely towards the end, I think.

Transitioning from one event to the next wasn't hard at all, especially in a tri outfit. Biking was next and was surprisingly my favorite event that day.

I don't know if the women weren't trying hard or if I am really pretty good on the bike. I booked it like it was nobody's business because I knew I was behind on the swim.

I passed so many people, maybe about 30? I only had 2 women pass me and I could tell they were serious bikers.

It was exhilarating! I almost fell off when I dismounted because my legs were like jelly.

Running was hard. Running never feels easy for me. By the 1 mile marker I was thinking, "I only ran a mile so far?" It felt like I had ran more than just a mile.

I started to pick up the pace in the last mile and crossed the finish line feeling like a champ!

I looked down after a man just snapped a photo of me,to see that my shirt had risen and I was showing a good deal of my tummy-what a great picture I'm going to have!

I came home to find the kids had made this sign on the garage for me!

I'm so lucky to have such a great family and a cute bunch of kids!

Ben was also so supportive. I was working out almost every day and he encouraged me and would always ask me how my workout was.

This was a very hard thing for me to do, but I loved the challenge. I love pushing myself because it always makes me a better person. I'm already looking forward to next year and seeing if I can improve on my swimming.

I CAN DO HARD THINGS!!!

**A side note. Sharpie marker makes you feel tough when you write on your body with it.

Ben is 35. . .I mean 36

2011-09-22T15:10:00.001-07:00

The kids and I could not get it right. We thought that Ben was turning 35. I don't think Ben minded at all. In fact, he declared from this time forth he will be 35 forever.

I worked all week making cake pops that he requested. I surprised him with Pixar themed ones. You can check my other blog for a tutorial.

I delivered them to work and ate lunch with him. I only had Zoey with me. It was so weird to not have as many kids attached to me. I felt a little lighter even.

We had pizza, of course, for dinner and we sang "Happy Birthday" to Ben as Zoey blew out the first batch of his candles.

After dinner, I took Ben out for a game of lazer tag. We dominated the game and won!

Well. . .we dominated an 8 year old and his dad and won.

We decided to celebrate a little longer and went to see "Cowboys and Aliens". Ben loved it.

As for me, it had aliens in it, which I am not a big fan of aliens. Aliens and real animals that talk are probably the only two things about movies that bug me.

All in all, a great day! Happy Birthday Ben!

One Stinkin' Good Summer!

2011-09-08T14:09:00.000-07:00

It's true, we've had one stinkin' good summer! We squeezed quite a bit into a few months. Our favorite part was definitely having family visit us, but here is what else we did. . .

SWIM LESSONS

The kids each took swim lessons this year, even Zoey! She cried and screamed the first 3 days but finally decided that she liked it. She is such a water baby! Mia, Xander, and CJ continued to improve their skills. Xander and Mia were challenged and kinda scared to do some of the things that they wanted them to do, but they did their best. This is probably CJ's last time taking lessons. She told me she felt too old.

BEACHES

We hit more beaches this year than we have in past years. The "Year of the Beach" has been a great motivater. We've visited Capitola, Point Reyes, Stinson, Pacifica, and Oceanside. Pacifica beach was our last one before school began. The kids love the beach no matter what the weather is like. I tried for the first time, baby powder to get the sand off of the kids. Works pretty well. Can't wait to hit the beach again!

JELLY BELLY

I was pretty depressed about my leg and ankle injuries this summer. I couldn't go swimming and had to take it easy on the physical activities. It was killing me! This was a spontaneous visit and Mia got to bring a friend, Emma along. Friends always makes things more fun!

FRUIT PICKING

This summer we've gone cherry, strawberry, peach, and plum picking. So much fun! This was a first for me and the kids. I had to keep an eye on Zoey. All she wanted to do was pick up the fruit and chuck it. Thanks to Erin for inviting us and for canning some peaches with me. If you want to feel domestic for a day. . .can something.

SUMMER READING PROGRAM

During the summer, I try to keep the kids' brain somewhat functional and ready to return to school. I do little activities here and there with the kids. I had CJ working on vocabulary words and their meaning. Mia was working on telling time and reading chapter books. Xander was working on letter recognition, sounds and handwriting.

We also participated in the summer reading program at the library. The kids got prizes for reading a certain amount of minutes. Even Zoey got rewarded. She, by the way, loves to read and be read to.

Speaking of reading, we finished our first book together as a family, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. After going to Disneyland with Sarah and her family, I was so impressed with her family of readers and how they read chapter books together as a family. I got excited and wanted to do the same. I read picture books to my kids but never thought of doing a chapter book together because they are all at different reading levels. This turned out to be a great and successful family activity!

FATHER/SON CAMPOUT

Xander and Ben went on a Father/Son Camp Out to Borges Ranch which is just in Walnut Creek. There are alot of advantages to camping close by especially since it was for only one night. This is Xander's first campout with Ben. In Alameda, they did a Father/Daughter one, which Ben thought was weird. Xander had a great time and I can't wait for them to do it again next year! I heard from a friend that she and her daughter do a Mother/Daughter outing when the boys go to the Father/Son campout. Sounds like fun! I may try this next year!

ART LESSONS

Thanks to Hannah for sharing her art lessons from Pineapple Paintbrush! I got some friends together and we each took turns teaching a concept of art. The kids loved it and got to make so many pieces of art. My favorite is the flower painting that they did. I framed them and they are in my office.

Ben also took time to give the kids an art lesson. I love that he can teach our children how to use their artistic ability. I also love that he thought of this idea himself. The kids adore their Dad!

GIRL'S CAMP

This was CJ's first year at camp and mine as a leader. I am so impressed with Girl's Camp in this stake. They don't stay in cabins, they sleep outside underneath the stars. From Level 2-4, the girls actually hike in the mountains and sleep overnight or for several nights making their own latrines, food, and so on. Real camping. Tough girls.

I helped out with the Crafts. To be honest with you, I had a hard time being excited about going to camp. First of all, I was in crafts and I prefer to be with the girls. And second, I wanted camp to be CJ's thing.

Turns out, Girl's Camp was perfect. I still got to chat and get to know the girls as they trickled through the craft area. And. . .CJ and I grew closer. That was the best part for me! It was a perfect situation. She got to be with her friends and leaders but I still saw her a ton! I got to share in the spiritual experiences with her and just watch her have fun! I also didn't embarrass her with my wild craziness that tends to comes out. In fact CJ gave me a huge hug one day and thanked me for making her popular! YES! I haven't ruined her life. . .yet!

NEW CARS

Both of our cars needed to be replaced within 2 months of each other. Uggh! Kinda frustrating, but in the end everything worked out and we got ourselves a Chrysler Town and Country and a Mercedes (old, of course). What a coindience that all of our vehicles or mode of transportation this year turned out to be white. Not planned at all, just what we ended up with.

Remember my bike?

We bought Ben a bike off of Craigslist. Check out the color.

And both of our cars are white!

FUN TIMES

Most of all, we have had some very fun times this summer! We finally have bikes for everyone and we bought a bike trailer for Zoey and Xander. I love going on bike rides with the kids. We are teaching Xander how to ride his bike without training wheels. He is getting really close!

We also have fun hanging out with each other. In the picture above, we were playing a card game for family home evening and afterwards we decided to have a contest to see who could keep their card on their forehead the longest.

We danced with them on and even did cartwheels. Guess who won? ME! Everyone else's cards stayed on, but I was the only one who didn't cheat. While I wasn't looking everyone taped theirs on.

Come on people, don't you know that "Cheaters Never Prosper"?!

I guess I have a super greasy forehead!

We had one stinkin' good summer!

Back to School Stats

2011-09-02T15:52:00.000-07:00

GRADE: 7
FAVORITE CLASS: Art
FAVORITE TEACHER: Mr. Grose
FAVORITE OUTFIT: Grey shirt with black lace on top with skinny jeans
HOW WAS YOUR FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL: "I think things went really well. I know all my teachers and I thought Mrs. Ohno was going to be mean, but she's not. Only when someone does something they shouldn't."

MIA

GRADE: 2
TEACHER: Mrs. Tang
FAVORITE THING TO DO AT SCHOOL: "Write in the morning because I write the whole page."
NEW FRIENDS: Allison, Jayda and that's all.
HOW WAS YOUR FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL: "Good. I was a little shy but it went well. My favorite thing that we did on the first day was watch a movie."

XANDER

GRADE: K
TEACHER: Mrs. Reams
FAVORITE PART OF SCHOOL: "Um, we play in the playground."
FRIENDS: "Mia, what's his name again? Emron. Claire and Alexandra too."
YOU HAVE A FRIEND NAMED MIA AT SCHOOL?: "Mia sits right here and I sit right here. We sit by each other while we eat."
HOW DID YOUR FIRST WEEK GO: "Good, because the teacher didn't talk to me and she picks me sometimes."

ZOEY

AGE: 2
FAVORITE MOM: "I gully."
FAVORITE THING TO DO AT HOME: "Circle. Icecream. Andy. Joe. "
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT MIA, XANDER AND CJ GOING TO SCHOOL?: "Good."

Xander had a Birthday- Shout Hooray!

2011-08-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

For about a month now, Xander has been counting down until his birthday. He would look on the calender that his grandma and grandpa made and look for his name and then ask what day it was. A few days before his birthday he said, "Only a two more days till Scott's birthday." Then on Scott's birthday, he had to call him and wish him a happy birthday because that meant only 4 more days until his birthday.

The count down continued until the day of his birthday. He was so excited when it was "his" day. He got some really fun things for his birthday. His favorite has to be his Gameboy Advance.

We went to Chucky Cheese to celebrate! We've been telling him since last year, that we would take him to Chucky Cheese for his birthday. I think Chucky Cheese is a magical place. Everyone, including the grown ups had fun playing games and getting tickets.

Why must we try to get as many tickets as we can even if it means playing the same game over and over? And in the end, no matter how hard we tried to get as many tickets as possible, we can still only afford a laffy taffy.

Chucky Cheese is where a kid can be a kid and where and adult can act like a kid.

Xander requested a jelly bean cake for his birthday. I have no idea where that came from. But, when you are the birthday boy, you get what you want. In fact, Xander worked this all day. If he wanted something or wanted to go first he would add, "Because, I'm the birthday boy. . ."

I love this little man of mine and love that he gets to go to school like his big sisters this year!

Mia's First Sleepover

2011-08-17T14:57:00.000-07:00

This year I told the kids I was taking a break from parties. Mainly because I don't know how to do a little. If something is labeled, "party" I feel the need to go all out.

Inevitably, everything gets called a "party".

Last year, I had a bunch of kids over and we watched the Polar Express. I served hot chocolate and cookies as they watched the movie and gave the kids their own bell at the end. My kids kept calling it a party and I insisted it was just a "get together". No matter how much I pushed labeling it as a "get together", all the kids called it a "party".

I told Mia that this year I wasn't going to do a "party" for her but would let her have her first sleepover. Over time, this "sleepover" was called a "party" and I found myself wanting to do more and more for this little sleepover.

When girls began to arrive, CJ turned her room into a saloon and did all of the girls hair.

We picked up some pizza and movie treats. After eating pizza, we made butterflies out of coffee filters. You can check out my other blog to see how to make them.

After the butterflies, we made hair things using felt pieces. CJ and I made these at camp and I thought it would be fun for the girls to make.

The girls watched the new Tinkerbell movie while pigging out on popcorn and candy.

Finally, it was time for bed and the girls all squeezed onto the futon. I gave them glow sticks and it served well as a night light. About an hour later though, one of the girls could not sleep and so I put her in Mia's bed.

Around 3 am, Ben got up because all of the girls were up all bright eyed asking, "Is it the middle of the night?" They were super excited that they had woken up in the middle of the night.

In the morning, we made waffles and the girls played "Sing it" thanks to CJ for sharing!

I had a blast just listening to them talk and sing songs. One of the girls, while in our van said to Mia, "Ooooo you have a slider car! Mine is just an "Open" one". All the girls chimed in, "Yeah, I have a slider car too." I figured it out that a slider car is where the doors open and the "open" car is where you have to do it yourself.

There was laughter and tears and lots of good times!

On Sunday it was Mia's birthday and she got to open her presents. She got many presents like Moxie girls and a bracelet making kit, but her favorite present was her doll. She has a salon chair and a change of clothes.

I found her doll doing everything that Mia was doing. Writing in her journal, directing the music in sacrament (I gave in and let her take it to church!), and once when we were out, Ben took a picture of the doll playing twister! She is so cute with it and sleeps with it.

Our friends invited us on a bike ride and so we decided to take Mia's cake to the park. I had to light the candles near the ground because the wind kept blowing out the candles. Mia had to pause because she had to think about what she wanted to wish for.

We love Mia and can't believe it has been 7 years already since she was born. My how time flies!

Visitors

2011-07-29T13:34:00.000-07:00

We have been so lucky to have family come and visit us this year! In March we met Sarah and Scott and their family at Disneyland.

Then in June, Hannah and Kendall and their family came and stayed with us a few days during a work trip in San Fran for Kendall. The arrived on a Saturday, only minutes before CJ and I kidnapped Hannah and took her to a Justin Bieber concert.

A 12 hour drive for Hannah and then another couple hours to the concert. Boy was she a trooper! I probably would had fallen asleep during "Baby, Baby, Baby oh!". The men were left home with 7 children to take care of.

They were triumphant and amazing!

The next day, Hannah and Kendall came to church with us and Hannah got to go to Young Womens as Ben introduced CJ to the Young Women (it was her first Sunday). Everyone came home from church and the kids played while the men slaved away in the kitchen.

We took them to Newhall Park and fed the ducks, played tag, had races, and tried to do cartwheels and backbends. By the way, Kendall can do a wicked backbend. You should ask him to do one for you!

Hannah and Kendall explored San Francisco the next day on their own. We met up with them on the following day at Golden Gate Park. Pretty much the funniest park around! The kids rode the carousel, slid down the cement slide and climbed the spider web.

I loved hanging out with Kendall, Hannah and their boys.

Dodge was so tiny and cute.

Everytime I tried to take a picture of Brigg, he would make a silly face. I must have caught him off guard in this picture.

Luke amazed me with his, "I wonder. . ." thoughts. "I wonder how this works. . ." "I wonder if I do this. . ." and so on. I think he is going to be an engineer someday.

Sam is the big brother and leader.

All of my kids had a ton of fun with the Andersen boys and couldn't stop talking about them for days! I hope they come visit again!

And a month later. . .

We were blessed to have Andy, Joe, and their kids come out to visit us. Woops, I should also include Reggie, their dog. She definitely was a highlight!

They arrived on the evening of Livy's birthday! What a fun birthday gift! A trip to see her favorite Asian aunt, and movie maker uncle. We made cupcakes for Livy and sang "Happy Birthday" to her!

The next day we went to San Francisco. We did the favorite Golden Gate park.

And carousel.

We then headed to Oceanside beach.

Watching the excitement of Joe and Andy's kids as they played in the water was entertainment for me! They had never been to a beach before and were having a ball!

The next day, we took them to Muir Woods to see the Redwoods. I think the walk from the car to the park was longer than our walk inside the park!

The next part, was probably the favorite for everyone!

Stinson beach was magnificent! It was a beautiful day and we spent hours playing there (and I guess an hour finding parking! JK). I loved watching Ben and Joe, two big tough guys playing in the waves.

It was seriously a perfect day at the beach!

We were going to go to Adventure Playground the next day, but we were not prepared and so the men decided to make marshmellow guns for the kids.

We took the kids to the park and had a marshmellow fight and then ended with a waterballoon fight.

The next day, Ben gave them a tour of Pixar and we ate at Burger King which was a first for the Joe Porter kids! Later that evening, the kids put on a talent show. It was darling to say the least!

I think Jes' talent should've been this:

I love each of their kids!

I wanted to record Mira's little voice. It is the cutest thing to hear! I loved hearing her speak.

India is a little sweet girl! She has got such a cute personality.

Addie worked her magic and knew she could ask me for anything and I would just give it to her. How do you say "No" to her?

Jes is the man! His IPOD touch was a hit with my kids and they keep asking me for their own now.

Livy is the kindest most geniune kid around! I WANT TO KEEP HER FOREVER! If I want to feel good about myself, I just need to ask Livy to say the family prayer. She'll thank you for everything!

We hope you come visit us again!

My Scars

2011-07-12T20:54:00.001-07:00

This is what I looked like on the Fourth of July. Within minutes upon arriving in the Marin Headlands to hang out with some friends, I tripped over a horseshoe pole while catching a frizbee and tore up my leg. It didn't even hurt, and felt more like a scratch. In fact, I didn't even look at it and continued to play. When I decided to look at my leg, I was surprised to see my flesh hanging out.

Literally.

I've never cut myself so deep that I could see the flesh. I wish I had taken a picture. I could have made some of you reading this faint. Ben looked at it and said to me, "You are really a banana. Yellow on the outside and white on the inside." Leave it to Ben to be cracking jokes!

Luckily, everyone who was there had their first aid kits handy. I mean, I have one in my car, but for some reason everyone brought theirs to the picnic area. One of Ben's friends' friend was a Resident and cleaned my wound and patched me up with butterfly bandages nicely. He said I didn't need to go to the hospital that I would be fine and that I could go see the doctor the next day.

I told Ben I could just go to the hospital and he could stay with the kids, but he insisted that the whole family should go. I didn't want the whole family to spend the Fourth of July in the ER and so I took comfort in knowing that I could see the doctor the next day. It didn't even hurt or give me any discomfort.

I called the doctor the first thing the next morning and no one answered. I continued to call all day and finally decided to actually go there and see if anyone was there. The door was locked and so I called the Urgent Care telephone number.

The woman who answered the phone told me to call the doctors back after 2:30 p.m. and if no one answered still, that there was an on call doctor who I could talk to after 5:00 p.m. So I called at 2:30 p.m. and no one answered. I didn't think this was an emergency now and so I waited until 5:00 to call the on call doctor.

I never got the call from the on call doctor that night.

So it is the next day and I am surprisingly emotional. I just want to talk to a doctor! I call Ben's mom, who is a nurse and ask her about it. I take pictures of it to show her what it looks like. She tells me it is too late for stitches and that it looks healthly.

I call Ben and tell him what his Mom says and start to get emotional! Why am I crying??

This wound is causing me absolutely no pain, why am I so upset?

I pull myself together and think about it. I'm upset because I am going to have yet another scar on my poor leg! Getting stitches would have helped it look better and I missed the chance to get them!

For some reason, I scar very easy. I can get scars from a mosquito bite. And for some other reason when I fall, my right leg takes the hit.

I've always liked the shape of my legs and that they are strong but ever since I was young, I remember trying to hide my leg because I was so embarrassed of how it looked. It is darker than my other one because of the amount of scars that are on it. If I were sitting down, I would put my good leg on top of my ugly one. If I were standing I would stand sideways so no one could stare at my leg.

I've actually made it worse since being an adult if you can believe that! Some of my biggest scars are from roller blading, rock climbing, and other activities like that. I could tell many stories and use my leg as a visual.

I've gotten better at no worrying about others looking at my leg as I have gotten older,but I am still self conscious about it. I will probably always be.

I'm finally over my leg and the scar that I am going to have. I'm still a little bummed, but whatever, right?

Now, I am just waiting for it to heal so I can continue my training for my triathlon. I was on such a roll: swimming, running and biking, that I can't wait to start again!

I wonder if they take pre-orders for the Resurrection. I would like to pre-order beautiful looking legs with no scars!

And while I'm at it. . .I think I'll order size B boobs!

Two, but Three.

2011-07-07T12:36:00.000-07:00

Zoey turned two on Monday but if anyone were to ask her how old she is, she would say that she was "three". I think that is her favorite number.

Zoey's birthday is always filled with activities that I don't even have to plan! I love it!

We went to the ward breakfast in the morning and played with friends. After her nap, Zoey opened her presents.

Favorite?

Water table.

Best invention ever.

We then headed up to the Marin Headlands to hang out with some of Ben's friends from work. Zoey did surprisingly well and stayed in the area we were in.

We ate, played horse shoes, Kubb, and shot waterballons with a slingshot at Jacob, whose birthday is on the 4th too! I guess every year they do this and they never get him! If you look in the picture on the right, my kids had to get in on the action. Instead of running away from the flying balloon, my kids did the opposite and tried to get wet.

While her older siblings were trying to get hit by balloons, Zoey yelled at them to come back. I didn't catch it on camera, but she cups her hands around her mouth while she yells. It's so cute!

We sang "Happy Birthday" to Zoey and she sang along. It was the cutest thing! She sang, "Happy, happy, happy" over and over.

There were some old army bunkers that we played around in for a little. It was beautiful to watch the sunset.

When it got dark, we headed up into the mountains to watch the fireworks. My kids had been bugging me all day about seeing fireworks. I'm so glad we were able to come through for them.

I just took Zoey to her 2 year appointment. She is 38.2 inches tall and 28.6 pounds! She's as all as a 3 1/2 year old. She has grown 5 inches since her last appointment and has only gained a pound! The doctor always gives me advice on how to fatten her up!

I love that she is putting words together to make phrases. Just the other day she told me, "Don't want too." I would have fallen out of a chair if I were in one. Zoey has usually just said one word at a time and to say 3 out of nowhere was cool to hear.

We love you Zoey!

Lucky

2011-06-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

We are so LUCKY to have this man as our father and husband!

LUCKY, because he loves his children so much!

LUCKY, because he loves to spend time with his family.

LUCKY, because he reads Harry Potter to his kids.

LUCKY, because he brings home flowers to his wife and girls.

LUCKY, because he does fun projects with the kids.

LUCKY, because he plays games with us.

For Father's Day, the kids made him oodles of homemade cards and gave them their gift that they made in Primary which were picture magnets of themselves.

I bought him a tool chest so he could organize all of his tools. I also took him out and he got some new clothes-which he desperately needed! Check out his cute pants!

I made pizza for him for dinner. I had to buy it because, he is the pizza maker in the house and I didn't want him to have to make it.

I did make a yummy dessert for him which combined two of his favorite things-oreos and brownies. Check out my other blog for the recipe.

Zoey told him that she wanted to dance with him. She loves to dance!

We love you Ben and feel LUCKY that you are OURS!

I had to include these last pictures of Ben's new discovery. . .

Grilled Pizza!

We found out tonight that you can grill a pizza and it is much quicker than baking it in the oven. It was also very delicious! Leave it to Ben to discover this!

"Baby, baby, baby oohh!"

2011-06-13T15:14:00.000-07:00

Ben came home from work one day and told me that he had tickets to a Justin Bieber concert. CJ tried to hold her excitement to a minimum because her Justin Bieber status this whole year was, "He's not cool, but I like his music."

I, being the Mom, and all knowing knew that that meant,"I secretly really like him but because all of my friends don't like him, I have to do the same, or I will look uncool."

CJ got to invite 2 other friends who like her, had the same Justin Bieber status.

Hannah and her family were coming to visit us and were coming in the same day as the concert. Ben asked her anyways if she was interested in going.

She, unlike, 6th graders, fully admitted that she liked Justin Bieber and was excited to go!

As we waited in line, the girls noticed other girls who had matching purple(Justin's favorite color) t-shirts that they had made. They were bummed that they didn't think about doing something like that. So they got out a ball point pen and wrote on their faces how much they liked him.

The concert was a benefit one and was held in a smaller outdoor ampitheatre. The tickets we got were in the middle section about the 2nd section back. The best seats I have ever had at a concert. This is a view from where we sat.

Before the concert, they had complimentary food like wraps and sliders. We had hunted around town before we arrived for a food place and regretted just eating when we saw all the food!

They had the FXD dancers who I thought would perform some awesome dance number, but ended up each showcasing some of their moves.

When we sat down, there were complimentary Justin Bieber t-shirts on our seats for us! Could this be any sweeter?

The girls by now, including CJ were so excited they couldn't stand waiting another minute for Justin. I guess they had Bieber Fever! One of CJ's friend kept asking me every minute what time it was.

Finally, Justin came on the stage.

My first impression?

"He's so little and tiny."

And then I heard his voice, "What a little boy!", I thought.

I did tell Hannah halfway through the concert, that 20 years ago, I would have been all over this! He's like what New Kids on the Block were to me.

Before many of his numbers, he would introduce it by talking to the audience and cleverly putting the title of his next number in his sentences like this. . .

"So the other day, I was playing soccer and tore my hip flexor, so tonight, I'm only going to be giving 90%. I really want to give 100% because when you smile. . ."

He paused, and no one said anything.

He said it again, "When you smile. . ." The crowd, caught on and said, "I smile"!

Then he sang the song, "You smile, I smile".

Okay, this next one is my favorite.

He comes out saying, "How many of you ladies are single?"

Loud screams emerge out of the crowd.

Then he goes on, "How many of you ever get lonely?"

The crowd screams louder.

"Well tonight. . .there's gonna be one less lonely girl."

He sings, "One less lonely girl" and they bring out a girl from the audience and sit her in a chair as Justin gives her roses and touches her face as he sings to her.

The girls in the crowd scream again each time he touches her face and the girl in the chair is shaking like crazy.

CJ and her friends were beaming all night and dancing and screaming like they were true Justin Bieber fans their whole life!

After the concert, Jenna, CJ's friend says, "I can't believe I wasted all of those years not liking Justin Bieber!"

I think it is safe to say that they are all "Bieb"lievers once again!

Thanks Jenna for sharing the pictures. They only allowed point and shoot cameras. No SLRs allowed. Boo hoo!

So CJ had a birthday and I am so late getting this post out. I took her to the mall and she got to go to her favorite stores and pick clothes out. She was in heaven!

We celebrated with the family and I made her a funfetti cake, which she requested. As we were ready to sing "Happy Birthday" to her, the phone rang and it was her grandma. It was perfect timing and we put her and everyone else who was at her house on speaker as we sang to her. Check her face out. She was so excited!

I also made her babysitting business cards to hand out to potential customers and signed her up for a babysitting course which she will get CPR certified. She's way excited for that one!

CJ now gets to go to Young Womens too! On her birthday, which was on a Sunday this year, the Beehives came to Primary to kidnap CJ and take her to Young Womens. The Primary sang to her and then she was gone.

The next week, Hannah and Kendall were in town and so Hannah and Ben went into Young Womens to spotlight CJ and introduce her to everyone. In sacrament, they acknowledged her for completing her Faith in God requirements and the Bishop had her recite 2 Articles of Faith in front of the congregation.

I missed it all! I had told a friend that I would take herand her family the airport (they were moving) a few weeks ago. Little did I know, I would miss so many neat things for CJ!

In other news about CJ, she received an award for having a 3.1 GPA all semesters! That may not seem significant to some, but to us, it is amazing! CJ struggles with keeping focused on her work, finishing things she started, doing her best. . . It's been like pulling teeth over the past 5 years doing homework with her from the time she gets home until the time she goes to bed.

Just recently, CJ has been doing her homework on her own, and asking for help when she needs it. She doesn't complain about reading and just does it. I couldn't be prouder of her and her individual accomplishments!

I can't believe CJ is 12! It is amazing how time flies and how quick your kids grow. CJ is a beautiful girl inside and out and I am so happy I get to be her Mom.

Definitions

2011-06-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

When I think of a "cherry picker", I always think of this:

cherry picker-"In sports, someone who prefers to take only easy shots. Mildly disparaging.

A common example comes from basketball, in which a "cherry picker" is a person who favors short shots, but especially a person who sits in the back court by the basket waiting for an outlet pass on a change of possession, enabling them to score easily before any defenders can reach them." (Urban Dictionary)

The kids and I along with some friends and became "cherry pickers" for the day. Not the above cherry pickers, but this kind:

cherry picker-"Someone who pays money to pick cherries off a tree that they do not own. They have to practice self control and only PICK and not EAT the cherries." (according to me)

We went to Brentwood to with some friends on a furlough day. Such a funny word, furlough. Sounds like a type of fabric that is furry. This is what it is really:

furlough-"Employee furloughs are mandatory time off work with no pay. Used as an alternative to a layoff, employee furloughs can occur in both public and private sector organizations when revenue or projected revenue fails to match expenses" (About.com)

We also went strawberry picking. I had to whisk Zoey away at one point because she couldn't help but eat every one she touched. You can't blame her, look at these babies!

They were the most delicious strawberries I had ever tasted. When you put one in your mouth, it's just melts with the yummiest juices.

After, our child labor-"the regular, full time employment of children under a legally defined age. . ." (yourdictionary.com) activities, we went for a swim at our friend's parents' house.

What a fun-"musing, entertaining, or enjoyable" (wikipedia.com) day!

Adult Prom

2011-06-05T20:04:00.001-07:00

Last night Ben and I attended, what I call, our "Adult Prom". We dress up, we go to a party, and we are kid-less for one night! I look forward to this night every year.

The kids were watching inside as we took pictures. Do I have the cutest piglets or what??

This is the first picture we took. What a dork Ben! I had idea what he was doing!

We had a blast as always. I had fun coming up with my outfit. I found it month's ago at Target on clearance for 19.95. What a steal I thought!

Then it rang up at the cash register for 13.98! What an even better deal, I thought! This must be my lucky day!

I bought my shoes on clearance for 9.99 and then made some fabric flowers to match the extra fabric I had to sewn in the chest area.

The jewelery were the most expensive pieces, but were way fun to buy!

Can't wait for next year! It's always more fun when we get to see a screening of the movie that Ben has worked on. I personally think, movies that include Ben's work, are more supreme!

I have to add this last one. All of the employees at Ben's work got to put their names in the new sidewalk that they were building. Pretty cool!

Preschool Graduation and School Projects

2011-05-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

Xander graduated from preschool the other day. I'm still deciding if preschool graduation is more for the child or the parent. I for one, love having an occasion where I can adore and celebrate my child.

This is Xander and Manny. Xander has talked about Manny all year. One thing I didn't know was that Manny could tackle Xander in a heartbeat. Are they really the same age?

Xander is very excited to go to Kindergarten next school year. He's all ready to go! He's had his Kindergarten shots, which he talks about and tells others often. And, we have already gone to his preassessment, which he aced. Smart kid!

CJ's has had a ton of projects at school. It seems like all year long there has been a project she has been working on. This one, is extra credit. I'm so happy she did it because, Ben was so thrilled to do it with her. She had to make an ancient egypt artifact.

Guess what she chose?

Equipped with little golden artifacts inside.

Mia had a project to create an animals from materials that she had at home. I loved watching her mind work. She knew exactly how she was going to create it and had it all planned out.

Summer break is only days away. I hope I don't break out with a bad case of KHAS (Kids Home All Summer) disfunction.

This is the Shed that Ben Built. . .

2011-05-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

These are the pieces.

This is Ben, who bought the pieces.

These are the friends, who helped Ben, who bought the pieces.

This is the box the pieces came in and a kid of one of our friends, who helped Ben, who bought the pieces.

This is the wall that goes to the shed, that came in the box the pieces came in and a kid of one of our friends, who helped Ben, who bought the pieces.

These are all the walls, the wall that goes to the shed, that came in the box the pieces came in and a kid of one of our friends, who helped Ben, who bought the pieces.

This is the door. That attaches to the walls, the walls that go to the shed, that came in the box the pieces came in and a kid of one of our friends, who helped Ben, who bought the pieces.

This is the shed that Ben built, that has a door that attaches to walls, the walls that go to the shed that came in the box the pieces came in and a kid of one of our friends, who helped Ben who bought the pieces.

It was so nice to have friends come and help us put it together. The missionaries even showed up which was great! Thanks for everyone who helped!

Here are some other projects we have been working on.

ROCK LANDSCAPE

The girls, their friend and I tackled the side of the house while Ben was at work. We finished more than half. I told the girls they were so strong and bought them slurpees for payment.

PLANTER BOXES

Ben made the planter boxes and we filled them(this was after finishing the rock landscaping) with some yummy topsoil. We'll we hope the plants think it's yummy. Afterwards, Ben and I wanted to pass out.

This was the marathon day where I did fifty million things. I woke up early to grocery shop, ran a 5K, bought a bike, went to yard sales, finished putting the rocks in, conducted the music at a baptism, filled the planter boxes with topsoil, and went to a birthday party!

Many of our plants died from our old yucky soil and so we planted some new ones.

GRASS

I give all props to Ben being able to grow grass. This has been the longest project ever and it is still not done.

We began in October of last year. I dug most of the trenches by hand, because we wanted to use the pipes from the old system, that did not work. We also wanted to check to see if there were any leaks in the pipes.

Ben put the sprinkler system in and had the faith that grass would grow from seed.

I had my doubts. But you can see here, that yes indeed, grass can grow from seed.

It's not perfect and there are still holes everywhere that we are trying to patch. Also a big chunk by the kids play area, we had to kill with Roundup because they were all weeds. We are going to rototiller the area and start from scratch.

Yard work is hard work but making improvements in your yard also brings a sense of satisfaction and happiness. We still have a ton more to do, but we are proud of what we have done so far!

34 ain't that bad!

2011-05-17T11:20:00.000-07:00

I've been 34 for a couple of days now. 34 feels like 33. 34 even feels like 25. I guess 34 feels like how I feel which isn't bad at all.

I've decided that age is just a number. Take my Mom for instance. For the longest time, every year on her birthday she would tell us that she was celebrating her 21st birthday. I would giggle adding, "Yeah for the 20th time!" or "Yeah for the 30th time!".

My Mom also taught me that you are only as old as you feel. If that is the case, I am easily still in my 20's!

My birthday was filled with cards. . .

A new bike. . .that I bought with the photography money I have been saving.

New running shoes. . .I told my Mom what I was buying with my birthday money and she remarked, "I knew you would buy something practical!" Practical or not, I still get excited! My MIL told me to buy cute shoes. Do these pass?

Red velvet cake. . .We invited friends over for birthday cake. I'm so blessed with such good friends!

Dancing time. . .Since it was my day, I decided that I could make everyone do what I wanted. The kids entertained me with a dance contest. Of course I had to jump in!

It was a great weekend! Ben took me to see the new and not yet released Pirates of the Carribbean at his work and dinner at the Can't Fail Cafe (which is owned by a member of Green Day). Very fun and delicious!

My rose bush even honored me with roses this weekend!

I guess 34 ain't that bad!

M&M's all for MEEEEE!

2011-05-10T10:15:00.001-07:00

I remember when my MIL, had a giant glass container filled with M&M's. "Why did she have to live 12 hours away?" I whined. I was so hoping that when I visited her in June, that there would be still M&Ms. Luckily, her container was so enormous that they lasted for months and I was able to have some for myself.

Guess what I got for Mother's Day????

M&Ms all for MEEEEEE!

Ben brought home this really cool glass bowl that I have quite figured out what I was going to do with. He filled it with regular M&Ms, peanut butter filled ones, pretzel filled ones, and my favorite, ALMOND JOY ONES!

He even made a heart for me on the side.

Heaven!

I also got 2 dozen flowers which I love! Too bad they don't stick around as long so I can enjoy them longer.

Yesterday, CJ brought me home chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate covered pretzels that Ben bought from the Young Women for their camp fundraiser.

Then. . .

Today the kids and Ben made me breakfast in bed with blueberry waffles topped with whipped topping and fresh blueberries, bacon and eggs. The kids showered me with homemade cards and gifts.

Mia asked me a long time ago to print pictures off of me. Little did I know she was making me a very cool box with her treasures in it. Treasures like, shells, glittery stones and tattoos.

I had to immediately put on my My Little Pony and flower tattoos and wear them to church!

At church, the kids showered me with these precious tile necklesses.

Mia was bummed because I got to see what they were because I am in the Primary Presidency and helped put them together. She loves surprising me and felt jipped that I already knew. A friend of mine, who is also in the presidency told her on the way out that I never saw them that she put mine together!

And if this all wasn't enough, my friend invited us over for dinner and I didn't have to cook! Yay!

Best day ever!

Year of the Beaches

2011-05-07T21:13:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Spring Break and a wonderful way to kick off our "Year of the Beaches". We have had the "Year of Discoveries" and the "Year of the Hike". Both, very good and adventurous years.

This year we are hitting the beaches. We went to Point Reyes on one of the days Ben had off during Spring Break. He had taken some days off to go with the Priest on a High Adventure and had an extra day. We snagged that one up in a heartbeat!

Here is a beautiful view. You can check my other blog out for more pictures.

We hiked to the lighthouse, which happened to be closed on the day we went, but enjoyed the scenery nonetheless. We also hit Drakes beach.

Zoey was afraid of the waves which worked for us. She played in the sand and stayed next to me. Usually, Zoey is drawn to the water. I think she maybe part mermaid.

The bigger kids had a blast playing in the sand and chasing the waves.

We all wrote our names in the sand and CJ had to write her and the boy she has a crush on in a heart in the sand. Ben wrote "gross" underneath!

I love the shacks that people build out of wood. It became the kids' playhouse. I also asked Ben to take a picture of me. I'm beginning to think I need to document that I was there too.

If that wasn't enough, the next day, I took the kids to Capitola Beach. We went with some friends which always makes an outing more fun!

This time,the waves didn't scare Zoey away. There was this stream of water that flowed out to the main body of water. I was had to constantly stay by her. Even though the water wasn't deep, there was a little current that would knock her over. I would try to get her to play in the sand and she would fight me so hard. Finally, I just gave in and let her play in the water and stood by her to make sure she didn't fall in.

My friends helped me out and gave me a break which was relieving. This age is so exhausting for me! We had a wonderful time and enjoyed the beautiful California weather!

Later that week, we went with a friend and her kids and hiked around Lafayette Reservoir. We only had one casualty. Mia feel down and got a pretty good gash on her knee. She was a trooper and made it through the rest of the hike.

Can't wait to hit some more beaches this summer!

Easter

2011-05-03T14:01:00.000-07:00

Each time I blog, I think to myself, "Hmmm what creative title can I give this entry?"

And each time, my brain is mushy from all the resizing of the pictures that it just ends up being something simple like this. . .Easter.

We decided that we would try a community Easter Egg Hunt. In the past, Ben and I try to avoid these. From experience, the kids end up with one egg or one piece of candy. But, since we have moved to California, we have had nothing but pleasant experiences. I told Ben maybe it is because most families only have one kid here versus Utah where, well, they have a little more. We went down to Heather Farms and even arrived early!

Being early wasn't fun for Zoey especially since all the candy was in hands reach. In the last picture above, Ben decided to give her plane rides because she was getting too hard to contain.

This was CJ's first time where she was too old to participate. You can see her happy face on the first picture and then after, check out her face! She wants to be grown up most of the time, but sometimes, I think she misses being a little kid. Don't we all?

They had little minature ponies for the kids to pet. Zoey was excited because it looked like a giant dog to her and she loves dogs.

Easter day, Zoey woke up like this.

A reaction from the antibiotic she was taking for Strep. I guess Zoey is allergic to Amoxicillin.

The kids had fun finding their baskets and the hidden eggs.

Goggles were the biggest hit!

The kids in their Easter clothes. . .

Xander

Mia

I didn't get any of Zoey. I was lucky to get some of her with the rest of the kids. She is constantly on the go, go, go!

Many times when Ben and I are giving Family Home Evening lessons, we are doing it while there is screaming, fighting, and constant chaos all around us. That was exactly how our Easter lesson went. There was screaming and constant running after Zoey. Even though, life is chaotic, I still think that something sinks in and that the kids do learn something.

Family Twista' and a Buzz

2011-04-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

For Family Home Evening tonight, we played Twister. Funniest thing to watch ever! Let's start with my favorite picture of the night.

We split the girls and the boys up and took turns. Xander did surprisingly well and Ben, well, he lost.

We played four rounds to get our fill of this game. We learned that Mia is flexible, CJ is not, Xander does pretty well knowing right and left, and Zoey plays with no rules.

Rules or no rules, Zoey had fun joining in the game.

As for the "buzz". You'll have to watch this video to see what we are talking about.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Springin' into Spring!

2011-04-21T14:11:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhh.

April.

Spring time.

Allergy time.

Easter time.

Since Xander was the only healthy one of the young ones, he went to the Easter Egg Hunt all by himself. Along with these other kids too.

Did I tell you that Mia and Zoey got Strep too? Oh yes indeed it is true! What's a virus if it can't be spread amongst family members?

Guess who did not want to be in the picture?

Spring is also time for planting flowers and lots of them!

Remember our house when we bought it?

We'll, we are coming along. The grass still needs help, but it looks a ton better!

Spring time is also outside time! When it is cold and rainy here, we don't go outside as much, but when the sun is shining, we can't help but be outside!

Crazy kid time! I took this picture as Zoey was running away from me. That is basically what I do when I let this kid out.

I chase Zoey down the street.

I chase Zoey out of people's front yards.

I chase Zoey away from people's front doors.

I LOVE SPRING!

Xan is the Man!

2011-04-12T13:09:00.000-07:00

I signed Xander up for Kids Love Soccer. This is a great program to get kids excited about playing soccer in a non competitive environment. They play fun games and even scrimmage each other. Out of all my kids so far, Xander seems to enjoy soccer the most.

When Xander met his coach, to my surprise, it was the same person who coached Mia when we lived in Alameda 3 years ago! Almost an hour away and 3 years later, we met up with Coach Chad.

He was great with the kids and knew how to make them laugh.

Xander learned that the most important rule in soccer is. . ."NO HANDS IN SOCCER!" You must yell it when you say it!

Xander is very coordinated and has a great spacial sense. I think we'll be doing soccer or maybe even basketball in the future! Maybe I'll even coach his team??

On another note, this is what poor Xander looks like. Last week he was complaining about a sore throat. He had a fever the first day of his complaints and had lost energy and his appetite. The next day he went to bed at 4:00p.m. Poor guy!

A couple days later, we noticed red sores on his face. The sores looked like zits to begin with and some began to crust over.

Xander acted fine and almost himself. It was Saturday and we had no idea what was going on. We kept him home on Sunday from church and a friend mentioned that I should look up Hand, Mouth and Foot disease.

I looked it up and read a couple of articles on it. It seemed like there were alot of similarities like tiredness, fever at first and then a couple days later the sores would appear. The big difference was that the sores were only on his face not his hands, mouth, or feet. The pictures I saw looked just like Xander's face and he complained that his mouth hurt even though I couldn't see any sores. The articles also said that we wouldn't necessarily see sores on all his hands, mouth and feet.

Ben and I were convinced he had it. I took him to the doctor on Monday and they said he had Strep throat and that on his face was Impetigo. He must have infected his face somehow. Now he is on an antibiotic and hopefully on his way to feeling healthy.

Love this boy!

General Conference Weekend

2011-04-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

Chocolate chip pancakes made?

Check.

General Conference Primary Packets printed?

Check.

Dancing to the Mo-Tab?

Check.

Kids engaged for at least an hour?

Check.

Wonderful and inspiring talks heard?

Check.

Other things. . .

Weeds pulled? Check.

Bushes planted? Check.

Drip system installed? Check.

Fertilizer distributed? Check.

Back aches? Check.

Slurpee run? Check.

Lounging in PJ's for most of Sunday? Check.

Sunday walk with friends? Check.

Pictures with Mia? Check.

(You can see some other ones here)

We had a great weekend! How about you?

I'm Not Afraid of Anything. . .Not Even Chucky!

2011-03-22T21:03:00.000-07:00

It may be hard to believe that this is a Disneyland entry from the title, but it is. That is what Xander exclaimed after riding all the rides at Disneyland and California Adventure.

How did we get to that point you ask?

Well. . .let's start from the beginning shall we?

We begin with our trip down to Anaheim. We got a late start because I had forgotten to mail Ben's parents birthday package the day before. I wanted to make sure they got their present on time so I made my way to the post office. I had decorated the package with stickers of flowers and sorts. The post office worker admired my work while he typed in the zip code. Seconds later, it came back as invalid.

Invalid? What? Didn't I used to live in the same city for 4 years?

I had to call Ben to get the right zip code and because the post office worker didn't want to ruin such a beautiful package, he so delicately crossed out the zip code making a cris cross design. After making the design, he shuffled through his drawer and pulled out some stickers to place on the crossed out zipcode.

What a nice man! I think this was the same post office worker who told me last Christmas that I needed to refridgerate my stamps. I believed him only to find out he was pulling my leg! Come on, I know what you are thinking. . .but he was pretty convincing.

Back at the house Ben was following his list of things he made the night before. I chuckled when I saw it.

Look at the last thing on the list.

Phew! Good thing that was there.

7 hours later. . .

We arrive at our hotel around the same time as Sarah, Ben's sister. They traveled from Albuquerque. We popped over to their hotel to swim, since their pool was better. I was so surprised at how warm it felt. I think it was in the mid 60's but it felt so much warmer than Concord. I think the sun shines warmer in So Cal.

The next day. . .

Love how Zoey is squirming out of my arms. That was how she was the entire time. She just wanted to run around everywhere and being held was not an option! Mia was slightly disappointed that I had not packed her something green to wear since it was St. Patrick's Day.

Duh! What was I thinking? The Irish in me always forgets this day.

Sarah and Scott's family didn't forget the green. It was a sweet reunion for the cousins. Everyone paired off: Kaitlyn and CJ, Brynn and Mia, Jared and Xander. Waiting in line was never better!

I couldn't believe how many people had decided to come on Disneyland the same day. It always amazes me when I am on vacation how many other people in the world decide to go on vacation too! We didn't have to wait too long on the rides, although, Ben pointed out that several rides were shut down temporary and that each time Sarah was standing in line. I just think he likes picking on Sarah because she is his younger sister which brings me to this next thought.

Ben told Xander that we were going to Disneyland with Sarah and her family and that Sarah was his younger sister. He looked at Ben, and chuckled with disbelief saying, "No she's not, she's a Mom!". We just got a kick out of that and a couple times during the trip we pointed out that Sarah was Ben's sister and he just giggled and shook his head every time!

Sarah and Scott treated us to pizza for dinner and we watched the "World of Color" at California Adventure.

The following day. . .

California Adventure!

The highlight? It was this ride:

Last year when we came, Xander was a quarter of an inch too short. He was so disappointed that the worker gave him a card that he could bring next time when he was taller. Xander was looking forward to this ride since we mentioned coming to Disneyland.

He loved it and got to ride it twice! Notice how Sarah is shivering?

Both Sarah and I got soaked the most!

We had fun going on Midway Mania, Soarin' over California, Turtle Talk, Monsters Inc, the swings, and the rides in Bug's life but the highlight of the day for the kids was. . .

Cracker Jacks and Disney Channel back at the hotel!

The kids were pretty exhausted from two days of walking everywhere!

We said our goodbyes to Scott and Sarah who were off to visit Scott's brother.

Our last day in the parks was packed! We didn't mind because we were taking it easy.

Finally the part where the title comes from. . .

We headed to the "Tower of Terror" because we didn't ride it the day before. I took the girls and Xander while Ben waited with Zoey. The "Tower of Terror" is a hotel. You sit in the elevator that takes you to the top and drops you while bounce up and down a couple of times.

I heard screams from the girls, but nothing from Xander. I couldn't tell if he was scared or if he was just fine.

After the ride, the girls had no interest in riding the ride again. I asked Xander if he would go with his Dad and he said, "OK I will go."

Let's rewind a little. . .

Recently, Ben had shown an image of Chucky to CJ and Xander happen to glance at the picture. From that day on, Xander was scared of everything and scared to go to bed at night. He continued to say that he was scared and so we didn't let him watch anything that could be scary.

Ben and Xander went on the ride and after, Ben talked to him about being brave. He told Ben that he wasn't afraid of anything, not even Chucky.

Since returning from Disneyland, Xander reminds me that he's not scared of anything and can watch his favorite shows again.

Apparently Disneyland cures scaredy cat-ness.

All in all, a wonderful trip! The weather was great and didn't start to rain until the day we left. Thanks Sarah and Scott for inviting us to come with you!

OK family, who's next??

The Incredible Bendable Girl

2011-02-24T12:59:00.000-08:00

Ben stayed home from work yesterday and so I got to take Mia to gymnastics all by myself. Normally, while Mia is doing gymnastics I'll take the little ones for a walk or go to a nearby store because Zoey wants to run around on the mats.

I was so excited that I brought my camera. I was having tons of fun taking pictures from the sidelines until one of the teachers told me I couldn't use my flash. Dang it! I still got some good ones though.

They sort of do this circuit training where they go to different stations. Today Mia jumped on the trampoline, dove into the pit (a hole filled with cubed foam), practiced handstands and doing a backbend using the wall.

On the other side of the gym, they practiced balance on various balance beams. You know how you watch someone do something and for so reason, you have the foolish notion that you can do it too? I went home and tried to do a back bend because back in the day, that was cake for me. We almost had to call 911! It was so tough and my body was so stiff. I couldn't even go half way!

SCIENCE FAIR

I love to give Ben the assignment of helping the kids with Science Projects. He always does such a good job and the kids love doing it with him. Mia chose to do her project on fingerprints. She learned about the different types of fingerprints. Then, she took each member of the family's fingerprints except Zoey's. We did try to get one from her, but it was almost non-existent.

After taking everyone's fingerprint, she practiced her skill of identifying each one as an arch, whorl. double loop or loop. Our house then turned into a crime scene where each member of the family touched an identical mug. Ben put the person's name on a folded piece of paper inside the cup so Mia wouldn't know whose was whose.

Mia then dusted the fingerprints with graphite and using packaging tape they removed the fingerprint. Ben laid out the fingerprint from each cup as well as the fingerprints from the very beginning. Mia then guessed whose fingerprints were on each cup. She got all of them right!

Mia was so excited to take her Dad to the Science Fair. On the way she told him, "My teacher is a fan of you and so is Ava and. . .she went on listing everyone." Apparently, Mia told her class that Ben works at Pixar.

We had told Mia beforehand that she may not win anything and to not be upset because she did a wonderful job. We hoped that preparing her beforehand would help any disappointment that may come. Mia has a hard time losing. We've been trying to work with her on that.

We enjoyed walking around with her and especially looking at her project. The moment came where they had all the kids and parents gather around the stage because they were going to award ribbons to the science projects.

I was all prepared mentally on how I would console Mia when she didn't win because, really, what are the chances? I thought to myself that this would be a great opportunity to teach Mia about being a good sport.

Then, all of a sudden I got really nervous because, deep down, I really wanted her to win! I hoped that she would just get an honorable mention. She has talked and talked about the Science Fair and was anticipating this night for days.

Her friend Mason's name was called and he got a 3rd place ribbon. And I got even more anxious for Mia! Why was I feeling this way? What is wrong with me. . .? Am I becoming an obnoxious parent??

Then, they called Mia's name for second place! I was so happy for her!

I guess we'll teach Mia how to deal with disappointment and being a good sport another day.

If she would only stop winning. . .

Zoey and her Best Bud

2011-02-23T11:35:00.000-08:00

Our Gifts for Val-Day

2011-02-15T19:03:00.000-08:00

Ben and I have made the tradition of making gifts for each other for Valentine's Day. Last year you may remember the tie cake I made for him:

Not straying much off that path, I decided to turn this mess:

Into this:

I made everything myself. I even used the drill press for the first time with success! I organized Ben's ties by putting the ones that I thought were ugly up high hoping that he will just grab the ones that are easier to get to!

Ben was hoping that he could use the Anniversary music video as my Valentine gift too. No such luck is what I told him. No rollover gifts! Here is what he made me:

Check out the heart:

He also included a ticket for a free day where I can do anything I want! I love making gifts for Valentine's Day!

Goals

2011-02-07T15:52:00.000-08:00

Along with millions of others, Januarys get me into the mood for setting family and individual goals.

The mark of a new beginning.

A time to start over, to start anew.

Ben and I were discussing goals that we would like to set with the family. One of mine is to read a General Conference talk with Ben every Sunday when the kids go down. I feel like I miss quite a few talks while tending the kids during Conference and thought this would be good time for us to catch up. We've done it for a few weeks now and I really enjoy it.

Ben wanted to have the family write in their journals together. Sarah's family does it every Sunday and I've always thought it was neat. Ben said that his family used to do it when he was younger and that the only journal entries he has are from those times.

We've tried it a couple of weeks now and I hope we get into the habit. It always seems hard at first but if we can do it consistently, we can make it stick.

One of my personal goals is to read my scriptures better. I always read it at night and I am always tired. One thing I have tried is reading my scriptures out loud at lunch time to Xander. It's been hard to remember to do it, but when I have, it has been so much better.

Watch out 2011, here come the Porters! We will be triumphant!

Photo Blunders

2011-02-01T10:21:00.000-08:00

Ben and I celebrated our 9th anniversary by going on an Alcatraz Cruise. We listened to an auto tour while wandering around the cell house. The escape stories and history of the island were fascinating. I brought the big mama camera because I wanted to get some good pictures. I normally leave it home when I am on an outing with the kids and need all hands on deck. It's giant and too hard to carry and take care of kids at the same time.

I put it in my smaller camera case, checked the battery which was fully charged and giggled with excitement.

I took some beautiful pictures of the outside of the buildings which were aged perfectly, the cells, San Francisco at night, and anything else that stuck out to me. Half way through the tour, my camera died. I didn't have the spare battery because I left it in the giant bag. I thought I would turn the camera off and on and see what would happen. I did it and it battery came back to life.

I took more pictures and then we were on the boat to go back to San Fran when the screen went black with the words, "CF card unformatted." Unfortunately, when I switched the on/off switch I unformatted the card and lost ALL of the pictures! AHHHH! I was so sad.

No pictures to document our fun date. Bummer!

I was using my new flash and I think that drained the battery faster than I expected.

We still had a great time and tried out this diner off of the Embarcadero called Fog City Diner. The food was good but way overpriced for what was served. Ben ate his first 17.00 burger! It was fun to just go out. We don't do that very much.

I commented towards the end of our date, that Ben and I hardly talked during most of the date's activity. Ben says it is sign that we are comfortable with each other.

Since, I have no pictures from Alcatraz, I thought I would leave one with you that might make you pee your pants. Ben may kill me for posting this, but I'm willing to take the chance.

It Works!

2011-01-27T14:25:00.000-08:00

Ben found a way to post the video, music and all, using my domain.

Pretty cool.

Check it out to see the cutest kids in the world!

Anniversary Music Video

Happy Anniversary

2011-01-26T10:20:00.000-08:00

Last week I posted a video that Ben made me for our anniversary. It was only up for a little bit because the music was disabled by You Tube. Anyways, if you want to look at it and listen to the song, "Just the Way You Are" by Bruno Mars you can check out myAnniversary Music Video.

This year Ben and I are celebrating our 9th anniversary! Time flies when you are having fun! I thought it would be fun to post some pictures from when we met to now.

Here is Ben and I at a single's dance. My friend Eric was really into Halloween and every year he would get a group of people together to dress up. We won 1st prize and I remember Ben being a big hit! I think he even won a prize for his outfit. I remember the ladies flocking around him.

This is one of our engagement pictures. We thought it would be neat to include CJ. We even had CJ announcing the wedding on our invitations. Isn't she so cute?

The happiest day of my life is next. We were married in the Bountiful Temple by his grandfather. I wore tennis shoes with my wedding dress and I LOVED my hair! Ben looked so handsome in his tux and CJ was the minature bride.

I thought it would be fun to post the next picture. 3 of his sisters weren't married at the time and everyone looks so young. His now 16 year old brother was only 7 and Andy and Sarah who have 1 child in the picture now have 5 kids each!

This is Ben and I shortly after we were married at one of his Advanta Christmas parties. Ben worked at Advanta for a year or so after we were married, until he decided to go back to school. He was a valuable asset in his department. He was just someone who answered phones and somehow ended up being sent to Philadelphia to introduce a new program to the company out there.

In 2005, after many struggles, a bad thing turned into a good thing and we were able to take CJ to the temple and get sealed. I also was able to adopt her. This is the second best day of my life!

On a side note, this past year while looking at CJ's birth certificate that I ordered after I adopted her, we realized that I changed the way her middle name was spelled. It used to be "Jayde" and I spelled it, "Jade". So now it is legally Jade and Ben says that just fine because CJ kept spelling her middle name without the "y" anyways.

This was taken a few months after Xander was born. Ben wore his glasses all the time because he worked at UPS and it was just easier for him to keep them on.

This was taken a few weeks after we bought our first house in California! Ben was going through a "I want to grow my hair out as long as I can" stage and I was going through a "I bet I can grow my hair out to the middle of my back" stage. Neither Ben nor I made it. We both cut our hair within months of this picture.

The most recent picture of Ben and I together. We've had a wonderful 9 years with so many good things that have happened to us. We've been through many struggles and tears that have made us stronger and better.

Can't wait to see what adventures are ahead! Happy Anniversary Ben!

"I'm not a Sunbeam. . .I'm a Rockstar!"

2011-01-13T21:11:00.000-08:00

WARNING! This is a bunch of random thoughts I just wanted to write down since I use my blog entries for our Family Yearbook.

Xander came home from the first day of Primary this year saying, "I'm not a Sunbeam, I'm a Rockstar!" I didn't think I would enjoy being in Primary with my kids as much as I do. You know how your kids act worse when you are around them sometimes? That's what I thought would happen if I were there with them in Primary. When I first was called into Primary, Xander was still clingy and I thought that it was going to be a problem, but it never has been. I also like the fact that I get to hear what they are learning and that is a great discussion prompt at dinner time.

CJ and I went to "New Beginnings" the other night. I can't believe I am old enough to have a daughter who is going into Young Womens! They spot lighted her and the other girls who are coming in this year. She even gets to go to camp. I am so excited for her. I'm kinda sad that I am not in Young Womens anymore. It is my most favorite calling to have.

The other night, I was thinking that it would have been so fun to be in Young Womens with CJ, but then a thought occurred to me. I can be very hard on CJ and I think that it is probably a good thing that I am not in there with her. For instance, at the "New Beginnings" night each table was in charge of doing a skit on a particular value. CJ and the other girls were just goofing around and playing with the props instead of planning a skit. I corrected only CJ. I think it is better for CJ if I am not there and that she gets a break from me.

CJ is also getting taller! She is taller than her Grandma Porter. Whenever I am around her, I feel like I am shrinking. We have even swapped clothes! Me more than her, of course.

I just took these pictures tonight. Xander and Zoey have been playing more together. They were spinning on the chair when Xander told me, "Mom take a picture of us!" I love how Xander tells me to take pictures of him when he is doing something cute or creative. Xander and Mia are best buds and I think that pretty soon, he'll have another buddy. Zoey just needs to learn how to talk more.

Here are some words that she knows: mama, dada, CJ, Mia, kitty cat, go, down, peek a boo, hot, more, dance, thank you, banana, nose, uh oh, and eye. She's said some more these past few days, but these are the words she says consistently.

I took Zoey to the doctors the other day for her 18 month check up. They told me that she is in the 50% for weight and off the charts again for height. A tall skinny girl is what I have. Everyone is always amazed at how tall Zoey is. She is 35 3/4 in. Almost 3 feet! I asked the doctor how tall she thought Zoey would be. She said it is hard to say (of course, i just wanted her to entertain my thought) but if she kept growing at this rate she would be 5'8" or 5'9"! I thought that was great! She asked how tall Ben was and told me that I was tall too. I've had a few people lately tell me that I was tall. Is 5'5" tall?

Zoey cracks me up at how much she likes to dance. Every night we have a dance fest. I turn up the music and she bust the moves. She has also figured out how to dance in the car. Bobby her head used to be all she could do until she figured out her hands and arms could move too. Now when the music is on in the car, I turn to look at Zoey and she is bending her arm up and down to the music. It is seriously the cutest sight.

Zoey also loves the water. She loves taking a bath and has no fear. In fact, I have to watch her like a hawk. She loves throwing her body backwards in the water and just lays there until she decides she wants to flip over on her tummy. Maybe this girl is going to be a swimmer someday.

So these pictures I took tonight, I used my new flash. I got a Canon Speedlite 430 EXII. It's something that I splurged on with the money that I have earned from my photography. I've never liked my pictures that I take indoors, especially when the lighting is not good.

Taking pictures with a flash is an art of its own. It's not as easy as your would think. I'm excited to learn how to use it. The hardest thing I am finding this year, is finding time to do things for me. I don't know what it is, but I find myself completely exhausted every day and thinking, "What did I do today?"

Mia has been in gymnastics for about 9 weeks. I was so elated when I got her into this facility. The price is right and it seems to have great programs. I waited in line for 2 1/2 hours to get her in. She has enjoyed it every week. This past week, one of her teachers approached me and told me that Mia is very talented and she would like her to be tested for the Pre-Team. That sounded really wonderful until I found out how much they practice. Two hours, Three times a week! I don't know if I am ready for her to be that serious yet at 6 years old. I also don't think I am ready for that kind of commitment either. I think we might just pass this time around and hopefully she will have another opportunity down the line.

I have made more of a commitment lately to sit down and read with Mia. She is such an independent girl, that it is so easy just to let her do it on her own or read it out loud to me while I do something else. But, I realize the importance of taking the time and sitting with her. I want to push her to reach her potential. I just put a sound wall up today on our door above our word wall. I am grateful for the knowledge that I have with teaching kids to read. I wish I could figure out how to do more one on one time.

I think that you make time for the things that are most important to you. I also think that the key is to make sure the things that are most important to you are the things that should be important.

I love the feeling of a brand new year.

It feels fresh.

The ABC's of Christmas

2011-01-02T00:22:00.000-08:00

A is for Arizona

We went to Arizona for Christmas and visited with Grandma/pa Armstrong.

B is for Bokeh

Bokeh is the blur effect that you can do with your camera. This is an experiment that I have been wanting to try. Make a lens cover out of paper and use a punch out of any shape hole puncher you have and you can create something like this:

C is for Cristus

Grandma Armstrong took us up to the Mesa Temple and Christ is what this season is all about.

D is for Dancing

Zoey is our dancer. If there is music playing, a tune to be heard, this little girl cannot control the urge to DANCE!

E is for Eucre

Ben and I play Eucre ALOT when we are with my parents. I'm a little competitive and got this trophy to give to the winner at the end of our visits. Last year, my parents were the reigning champions until. . .NOW! Boo-yah!

F is for Fentons

Grandma/pa Porter came from Utah to visit us after we got back from Arizona. Fentons is a Porter tradition!

G if for Gifts

The kids were showered with gifts from Grandparents and their Aunt Darcy and Uncle Dustin. On top of that, they earned gold coins for two weeks by doing service and good deeds. The gold coins were traded in for cash and they used that money to buy their sibling a gift. Xander worked so hard for Mia and bought her 3 presents!

H is for Hearts

We played card games a ton this break. Hearts was a game that I haven't played forever. It was fun to learn it again.

I is for IPOD Nano

CJ got an IPOD Nano for Christmas! Her biggest wish came true!

J is for Jelly Belly Factory

While Caleb and Grandma/pa Porter were in town, we visited the Jelly Belly Factory. With it being the holidays, we waited in line for at least an hour! The wait was worth it to the kids as they got a designer Jelly Belly hat and free Jelly Bellys to eat at the end of the tour!

K is for Karaoke

Mia's favorite gift is her karaoke machine and her keyboard. CJ gave her her old IPOD and Mia can hook it up to her karaoke and sing the day away.

L is for Lights

This season we saw the lights at the Oakland and Mesa Temple. The Mesa Temple grounds were covered with thousands of lights; it was amazing!

M is for Mines

We went up towards the Lost Dutchman Mines while we were in Arizona. They have this really fun old western town. The kids got some fools gold and that was about it! Everything else was so expensive!

N is for Nativity

At the Mesa Visitor Center they had a creche display. Nativities from all over the world were displayed.

O is for Ornaments

We kept the tradition of making ornaments this year. We used teeny tiny boxes that Ben got off the free shelf and everyone had to made it into something. This is always a lot of fun for the kids.

P is for Polar Express

We had a Polar Express party at our house. This is something I have thought about doing for years, but never had a big enough place to do it. All the kids came dressed up in their pjs. We watched the Polar Express and had hot chocolate and cookies. When they went home, they each got a candy cane with a little bell to help them to remember to "BELIEVE".

This also was fun for me to help the Moms out by giving them a couple hours to last minute shop or do whatever. In the end, the kids couldn't keep focused on the movie and really, all they wanted to do was play!

Q is for Quilt

My mother in law had a blog giveaway for all the girls. She had several quilts that we all got to choose from. She randomly picked names and I was last. But look at this quilt! I'm still a winner!

R is for Receiving cards/letters

One of the best things this year for me was to receive Christmas cards with pictures I have taken on them! One of my friends sent me one and Betsy and Russ did too! Thank you for making my day! Also, the kids got a letter back from Santa. It was addressed to the PORKER KIDS! Hilarious! Is Santa trying to give my kids a complex?

S is for Swimming

The kids swam everyday while we were in Arizona!

T is for Trailor

My parents live in a trailor during the winter months in Arizona. We found out what the maximum capacity was for their trailor. It can fit 2 comfortably and 8 is pushing it!

U is for Umbrellas

Aunt Darcy sent the kids a gift card to Target. Mia was very careful in her selections and came home with a giant black and white zebra umbrella, a black purse, and black and white flowered pants. See a pattern?

I got a rainbow one that is so big, I can fit all my kids under it.

V is for Visits

2 visits with 2 sets of grandparents, 2 visits from Santa and 1 visit from Great Grandma/pa!

W is for Waffle Cones

Betsy and Russ got us a Waffle Cone maker for Christmas. We have used it several times already. Tonight we tried making chocolate ones. Delicious! We love it!

X is for Xander the Iron Man

Xander got an Iron Man mask, Iron Man hand that lights up and shoots darts, and an Iron Man arc reactor. After years of loving Spiderman, Xander has branched out to a new superhero.

Y is for Yummy treats

Ben made these giant cookies on a stick at one of his many work parties.

Z is for Zoey's car

Zoey's biggest gift and I mean that literally, was a car of her very own. Thanks Uncle Dustin! She loves it.

Whew! If you made it this far, you are a blog champion! Thanks for sticking around!

I'm getting there!

2010-12-08T20:46:00.000-08:00

Since moving to Concord, I have felt like a failure in my photography. I'm not a good business person. I'm not pushy and I don't like to bug people. I don't know how to sell myself. So needless to say, I didn't have many sessions at all.

Thanks to my friend Jane who let me take pictures of her family in March, which gave me a boost. Then a big drought for 6 months where I desperately tried new tactics like a "Model Session" where I had kids come and be my model and as a thank you, give an image of their parents' choice. I thought that was an awesome idea, but only got 2 families.

Then I tried a Student Photo Session because the schools charge way too much for school pictures. I only charged 25.00 and gave them one image and copyright. I contacted friends who did preschools and told them with only one booked session, I would give their teacher a free class picture. No one was interested.

Thank goodness for my other friend, Stefanie, who booked a session with me and I ended up taking her family's picture too!

I also tried to get some Fall Sessions because that is when everyone is doing their Christmas cards right? A friend awhile ago suggested I put my Photography on Facebook. No way did I want to set myself up for some more failure and rejection. I finally gathered enough courage and I made a flyer and sent them to everyone I knew on Facebook who lived in Concord or Alameda. That was a big deal for me. Then. . .I waited. Then. . .Nothing.

Defeated, I finally accepted the fact that maybe this wasn't for me and decided that I just needed to be happy with taking pictures of my family. Turns out, I really missed taking pictures of others. I love making people happy with the photographs that I take. I also LOVE processing them and bringing them to life. So then, I decided that I would do some more of my "Model Sessions" and do it, because I love it.

So finally after I thought I had things figured out, that's when things started to pick up. Doesn't it always happen that way, when you least expect it?

Another friend (Hallelujah for friends!) asked me to do some Senior pictures for her daughter. My first ever and I have to say, I absolutely loved it!

My friend posted her pictures on Facebook and I sent a Senior Session flier out to people she suggested might be interested. Since then, I have had several people ask me about getting pictures. I have two more Senior Sessions to do and 3 of my friends from Alameda have asked me to take their pictures.

Four Sessions scheduled this week!

One thing I learned is to not set such high expectations. If I look back at my attempts, each time, I got at least one person to respond. One person should be counted as a success, right?

Have I figured things out yet? Nope. But I am getting there.

Made to do Good Things

2010-11-14T12:34:00.000-08:00

For your viewing pleasure, some before and afters of my kids. . .

MIA

Today Mia told me as she skipped through the kitchen, "Mom, I was made to do good things! Some people aren't, but I am!" I LOVE that! I love how this girl thinks. She is inquisitive about everything around her-wondering how things work, or why things are the way they are. She is the type of person that is going to succeed in many things in her life. You know how some people are just good at everything? That's Mia. First place in a race and most recently, I got a call from the school saying that her Reflections entry is moving onto the next level. She is very stubborn and demands that she can do it by herself. I think it's that stubborness that pushes and motivates her. Like when she was teaching herself to ride her bike without training wheels. She cried and cried but never gave up and pushed just as hard.

XANDER

Xander told me the other day while we were reading scriptures, "We read all this, we go to heaven." I was so proud of him. He's been fascinated with heaven lately. While we were shooting hoops, he said, "Heaven's a good place, wight? You walk on clouds." The other day, I lost my patience with him and was upset. I was too hard on him and I apologized. He said, "That's okay. We're still buddies!" Xander is learning to write his name. He's pretty much got all of his letters in his name down and can even spell it. It's the writing part that is difficult. He writes the letters of his name randomly on the paper. Out of all of my kids, he's got it the worst with learning 6 letters. His sisters only have 2,3, or 4 letters in their name.

CJ poses qualities that make her a wonderful person. She is very forgiving and has no problem letting go. Another quality which I admire about CJ is that she is very loving and thoughtful. CJ has a huge heart. It's natural for her to love and help those around her. When I need help, CJ is the first to volunteer (unless it's emptying the dishwasher :) I can learn alot from CJ! CJ's classmate just moved in next door. It's been so much fun for CJ to have someone to play with all the time!

ZOEY

Zoey is the happiest baby you'll ever meet. All you have to do is say, "Hi Zoey" and she will give you the biggest smile. She loves to dance. Whenever and wherever music is heard, you will see Zoey dancing and doing her favorite bobble head move. She also loves to read books and explore. This is the hardest age for me because she is EVERYWHERE! I have to put all of the chairs on their side because if I don't, Zoey will be on top of the tables. She is very active and on the go. She is talking more each day. Just the other day she said, "thanks" and "I love you" to Ben. Some of her other words are: Momma, Dada, Hi CJ (she says it together), kitty cat, down, and more. Everyday she is looking and acting more like a toddler than a baby. I keep thinking, "Slow down!" She is probably our last baby and I just want to enjoy and remember every minute.

Sometimes, I think the roles are switched and my kids are the teachers and I am the student. I learn many things from them. I think my kids are wonderful and I'm not the only one who think so. I kid you not, every Sunday at church, someone says to me or Ben how "cute" our kids are or how they have so much "confidence"or my favorite, how "well behaved" they are. I agree. I think my kids are pretty wonderful and that they are all MADE TO DO GOOD THINGS!

A Trip to the ER

2010-11-04T19:09:00.000-07:00

Xander was having a playdate with his buddy Hudson and I was in the office with Zoey. Zoey started whining, so I stopped what I was doing and said, "Let's go play something." As I was leading her to the kid's room, she continued to whine. She does that alot because she is learning to talk, so I really didn't think anything of it.

We went to the other room and I started to lay her down to change her diaper when I noticed CJ's earrings in her mouth! That was why she was whining. I'm sure it was poking her mouth. At first glance, it looked like her tongue was pierced by them, but as I looked closer, they were just laying in her mouth.

At 16 months, Zoey is very active and doesn't like to stay in one place very long. I managed to get one of the earrings out and as I tried to get the other one out, she was trying to kick herself free and started to lay back.

Frantic that she was going to swallow the other earring, I quickly pulled her up which resulted in her swallowing the earring! I screamed! All I could think of was the pointy tip of the earring, hoping it didn't do any damage on the way down.

After she swallowed the earring, she acted totally fine like nothing happened. I called the doctor and they told me to take her to the ER. I was trying to think about what to do with the kids because school was going to let out soon.

I called my friend Jane and she came over and watched Xander and Hudson. Ben decided to come home early, I'm sure because I freaked out. I tend to do that when I'm stressed. I'm not very good in stressful situations.

Anyways, at the hospital, Zoey was EVERYWHERE! She kept wanting to go out the front door, which was automatic and of course, just obliged. She wouldn't let me hold her and would squirm out of my arms. As I followed her around, evidence of her destruction was left and I couldn't put things back because she was so fast.

Finally they called us and we went back and had an X-ray taken.

You can see the earring clear as day! The earring was in a good place and not in the trachea. So now we just wait and check her poo to see if she has passed it. What a crazy day!

The End of Halloween 2010. . .finally

2010-11-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

There were school parties. . .

A ward party with a trunk or treat, 2 other Halloween parties, and trick or treating at Ben's work. . .

Dressing up a zillion times. . .

Ben impressing everyone with his costume, which no one knew exactly what he was. . .

Ozzy Osbourne??

Mad Hatter?? Oh well, he still nabbed the "Scariest Costume" Award.

And then there was Valerie who like Ben, no one knew what she was either. . .

Until she told them she was a Harajuku Girl which still didn't mean anything to anyone. She won "Most Original Costume" award because she looked so weird.

Adieu Halloween, until we meet again next year.

The Amazing Race

2010-10-31T13:50:00.000-07:00

Mia came home with a flier about a race that was being held on the Saturday (which is uncommon here) before Halloween. I was needing some motivation, so I signed up for the 10K. I also noticed that they were having a 1K Kid Fun Run too. Mia runs everywhere. If we are on a walk, she has to run the entire way. So I asked Mia if she wanted to run in a race with me. She was excited.

We went on a practice run one time before the race. I wanted to show her the distance she would be running. I had to take the little ones with me. Mia did not enjoy running and complained. I wondered if she was going back out of the race or if she was just not having a good day.

The day of the race came. I drove myself because my race was first and Ben was going to meet me there towards the end of my race. My race was great, I think mostly due to the part that I ran with someone the entire way! Her and I were going the same pace and I thought about passing her, but I didn't want to wear myself out, especially at the beginning of the race. I just started chatting with her and we ended up talking and running the whole time.

She was a great motivator and I finished with a time of 57 minutes. I was happy because my goal was to finish in a hour. Forgive the cheesy smile. Why I smiled like that, I don't know. I invited my new friend, Vanessa to come and play indoor soccer with me next week at the church.

I had about an hour before Mia's race. This race, costumes were encouraged. Mia dressed up as a ballerina and my friend Emily, made me a tutu to wear. She made it to match my shoes. Thank you Emily!

Mia was so excited to run she kept asking me when it was time. The person who was supposed to blow the horn was having problems. I think Ben started the race. He yelled "Go" and everyone took off.

I ran with Mia to help motivate her. She was awesome. She ran so fast and had to stop a couple of times and then just sprinted off. There was only one boy and his Mom in front of us. I told her, don't let anyone pass you!

Mia was the first girl to pass the finish line and received a trophy for first place for ages 6-12. She was so excited. When we were waiting in line for the lunch they served us after, Mia said, "Is this a dream? I can't believe this is real." People kept taking pictures of her and one lady told Mia that she was going to make Mia famous with the picture she had just taken. Mia was on cloud nine and kept talking about how everyone was congratulating her.

I was so proud of Mia and that she did her best. When we got home, I was so touched that her big sister CJ wasn't jealous but proud of her little sister. I overheard her bragging to a friend who was visiting, that her sister got first place in a race.

Halloween Celebrations!

2010-10-25T12:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend, our friends had a Halloween party. We were so excited to go! We had originally planned on doing a party this year, but with digging up our yard and Ben making decorations, we didn't feel like we could this time. I'm so glad the Michaels invited us to theirs!

We all dressed up, which is always fun to do. Ben was bummed that he hasn't had time to make himself a costume and had to resort to his Captain Jack costume again. Our friends here have never seen it so it was great.

We ate yummy food, carved pumpkins, ate smores and visited. The kid's played pin the spider on the web. Ben made brain jello which was pretty realistic and gross looking that we had a ton left over. Check out my other blog this week, if you want to make your own!

I learned while talking with the Michael's friend, Laura, that I taught school with her mom! What a small world.

The kids had fun dressing up for the second time already. Last week was the school's Fall Festival and it was so much fun. The games were great and CJ even won a cake from the cake walk.

We still have a ward Halloween party, Halloween itself, and Pixar's after Halloween trick or treating. I hope I survive!

Xander's Field Trip

2010-10-22T08:40:00.001-07:00

I got to go with Xander on his field trip to the Clayton Valley Pumpkin Farm. We had so much fun together learning about the life cycle of the pumpkin. We also got to see many different types of pumpkins. Xander learned that cows have 4 stomachs and got to practice milking a pretend cow. He also got to grind corn into cornmeal.

One thing I learned about Xander that I didn't know was that he is not afraid to participate in large groups. As a child, I never raised my hand unless I knew for sure my answer was correct and even then, I was afraid I might have the wrong answer. Not Xander, he raised his hand for EVERY question and gave an answer. One time as he was answering a question, he burped the answer out. Everyone laughed.

Xander and I got to pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. I thought it was amazing that he knew exactly which one he wanted. It was one of the smallest ones and when I tried to get him to look at other ones, he told me he already found the perfect one.

The kids were sitting and waiting for their snack. Unfortunately, whoever was supposed to bring the snack had forgotten. Luckily, a parent had some juice boxes in her van and gave them to the kids. They were totally fine.

We played in the "Playland" which had a tunnel of straw, giant tic tac toe, giant pools of lima beans to climb and play in.

I'm so glad I got to go and spend time with Xander. We're buddies!

General Conference Notes

2010-10-03T11:13:00.000-07:00

I usually make General Conference packets for the kids, but today I decided to teach them how to take notes. They did a great job and I was so impressed with them. They each were able to take notes on their individual levels.

Xander drew a picture of Jesus, Heavenly Father, and him. After drawing this, he spent the rest of the time creating his own game of bowling and practiced some soccer moves.

Mia took notes upon notes upon notes of notes! Ben kept feeding her more paper and Mia would fill up it with things that she heard and saw. The middle picture is of an "elf", I don't know when she heard that!

CJ did an awesome job organizing her notes. We talked about the theme of each talk and how to identify it. I loved how CJ recognized Bible stories that were shared because of what she has learned in Primary.

It was a great Conference and since Zoey slept for part of it, I was able to listen to most of it! It has been a great Sunday so far. During the break we are getting our Halloween decorations out and our kids are thrilled to pieces! I wonder where they get that from?

Hidden little "Treasures"

2010-10-01T12:58:00.000-07:00

We have begun a huge DIY project of installing a sprinkler system. When we bought the house, we thought it already had a working sprinkler system. It looked like it did, but when we turned it on, nothing happened.

After awhile, we noticed that in the backyard, their were PVC pipes just sticking out of the ground. Whoever installed the sprinkler system, did a horrible job.

So. . . here we are now.

Digging up the old sprinkler system, hoping we can somehow use some of it and install a working sprinkler system.

I've just begun digging yesterday and have already found, what Mia calls, "treasures". We know all about these "treasures" because while prepping our garden we found many of them. Treasures like glasses, plastic bags, broken glass. . .

Pretty much what you would call, garbage.

Now, this is a time where my Dad's saying, "One man's junk is another man's treasure" doesn't apply. Whoever's junk we have been finding, is not a treasure, but simply, garbage!

Garbage. Garbage. Garbage.

Is our house built on what used to be the Concord Landfill? That is what it seems.

As I am excavating the pipes, I have found these so far:

I haven't saved everything that I have found, but decided to start, just for pure entertainment.

Wouldn't it be great to find a real buried treasure, say gold or something in that category? I only hope that I am not going to stumble across a dead carcass of any kind!

Random Things in my Brain that must be Emptied

2010-09-21T16:06:00.000-07:00

Xander said this while shooting hoops outside today,"I love my home. I love my Mom and Dad. I love my sisters. I love my family."

We got a little kid basketball hoop and Xander wants to play all the time. He asked me the other day, "Can I shoot some hoops?" Ahhh. . . A basketball star in the making.

Xander went to the Halloween store with his Dad last night and has not stopped talking about it. Nothing scared him until he saw the animaltronics. Today, he was, for the second time, telling me about his adventure and how he was scared and he said, "I was so scared. Look at me Mom (I was painting)." I look at him and he is showing me how he looked when he was scared. He was shaking and his shoulders were raised and he had a scared expression on his face.

Xander also loves Michael Jackson. Here are some funny things he has said about the King of Pop:

"When I grow up, I'm gonna look like Michael Jackson."

"Mom. . . can I do the moonwalk?" "Uh yeah," I reply. He proceeds to moonwalk. Well the kid version anyway, which is jumping up and down.

After coming home from preschool, "Michael Jackson is in my class. He's got really poofy hair." And then he shows me how much hair this Michael Jackson has with his hands.

Xander is amazing at picking up lines in songs. I will hear him singing songs we listen to all the time. In the car, I see him trying his best to sing along. I will hear him singing Justin Bieber or church songs. The other day in the car he was singing, "I too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt". Over and over.

I must add some things that Mia said. Ben was talking about how something was "Made in China" and Xander repeated. "Made in China?" and Mia yelled, "DON'T TALK ABOUT PAGINAS!"

She also asked Ben while he was tucking her into bed, "How do you know Jesus is true because I don't know if he's true?" Ben told her to pray about. She told me the next day, while I was volunteering in her class that she prayed and knows that Jesus is true. I asked her if she felt good inside and she held her heart and said she did. I love how this little girl thinks.

Mia came home from a playdate and while giving her a bath, Ben noticed she had a tatoo on her butt. Apparently, her and her friend went into the bathroom tatooing their body. She had one on the middle of her back and arm too!

After being scolded for telling her Dad, "No!" and that is not okay to say that to her Mom and Dad, Mia replied, "If I can't say, "No" than I'm not a real person!" I told Ben later that that was a profound statement.

We were talking at the table about our nationality. CJ said she was Hawaiian and Anika said she was Japanese. Ben asked Mia, "Do you know what kind of Asian you are?" Mia replied, "Your kind of Asian!"

Oh Ben! (say it with a southern accent)

2010-09-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

Ben celebrated his 35th birthday this past Thursday. He called in sick on his birthday because, he was indeed, sick. "Awww sick. . .on your birthday ?" you say.

Don't feel bad for Ben. He still had a great day. After dropping Xander off at preschool, Ben, Zoey, and I went out to breakfast. We tried this new restaurant that had high ratings. It was delicious and filled our tummies to the max. We didn't eat again until dinner.

I just gave Ben money to spend on Halloween decorations. During many moves, we had to get rid of alot of our decorations. Now that we have a house and a yard, Ben is so excited to get more decorations. He's planning a graveyard in our front yard. I'm sure it won't disappoint.

Ben told Xander that after preschool, he could go with him to a Halloween store. Xander told me on the way home,"I told my teacher that I so cited I get to go to the Halloween store!" Xander loves Halloween just like his Daddy.

Dinner, was of course, pizza and Ben chose an Earthquake Cake this year. The cake is pretty simple to make and yet, so mouthwatering, especially if you like coconuts, pecans, and tons of sweetness!

I love Ben's triumphant fist in the air as he blows his 3+5 candles out in one sweep. What a champion!

These two, I also would like to call Ben's presents. We got them just a few days before Ben's birthday. Ben is such a cat lover! I caught him taking a nap on the floor just so he could be close to the kittens. These kittens are the same age as the kittens we had that died. We've decided that there is no way, the kittens we had were as old as we were told. The size difference is crazy. I would say these kittens are at least 3 X's the size of our other ones. I think our last kittens were too young and weaned too early.

The kittens are slowly getting used to us. They have hidden themselves most of the time but have recently been getting braver. The black one is a male and has the loudest meow ever. The gray one is female and is the bravest of the two.

Check out these awesome pictures that Ben took with my Canon XTI at the Oakland Temple.

Ben is awesome in every way!

Inspiration Point

2010-09-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

On Labor Day, we woke up early and joined the ward in a hike to Inspiration Point in Tilden Park. We've been to another part of Tilden Park that has the train and little farm. The kids were great on this 5 mile hike. The longest we have ever made it with the kids! I think that it helped to have a ton of people hiking too!

At one point, there was a "shortcut" that a bunch of people were taking. We thought we'd try it too! The shortcut turned out to be a long cut. Instead of going straight over, it curved around and by the time we made it to the bottom, we were now at the end of the pack. Sometimes, shortcuts are not worth the hassle!

There was a point where we were uncertain as what direction to go next. Many decided to turn around and go back but we decided to trek forward.

Good thing we did because not too much farther away, was the lookout point.

Xander flirting with Claire! Just kidding, he's probably telling her a fantastic story about skeletons and superheroes.

Proof that I was there!

On the way back, I pretty much gave Xander a piggyback ride the entire way! The kids were great and we had a fun time hiking with the ward.

Dear Russ,

2010-09-13T12:16:00.000-07:00

Dear Russ,

Thank you for working at Nike. So women get excited about stilettos, I get excited about these. I love my new shoes. I want some more.

Sincerely,

Valerie

Oh yeah. . .we went to Disneyland

2010-09-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

We went to Disneyland the weekend of Mia's birthday but only recently found Ben's camera that had the pictures on it. Ben thought we left it at Dan's house and I had a sick feeling that we left it somewhere in Disneyland.

We went into Disneyland and California Adventure for 3 days this year. Every year, we seem to go earlier in August because of school. It was very busy and had to wait awhile for some of the rides. Next year, we are going to experiment and try a different month.

We stayed with our friends Kori and Dan. Dan and Ben went to BYU together and were in the animation program together. It was fun catching up with them. Kori and I went running together one morning, which was great! She is doing a ton of races with a half and a full marathon scheduled for next year. Go Kori! I thought she could help motivate me-I'm almost there. Almost.

Here are some highlights:

-We had fun watching the Pixar parade, which if you can believe, we have never seen.
-The kids got to spend their money that they have been saving on anything they wanted. Cotton candy was first on everyone's list. I think CJ spent most of her money on food. Mia bought herself a cute Mickey Mouse ear hat. Xander, of course, had to buy swords.
-Since Ben has a silver pass, it is easier to use it at food vendors. I still had a heart attack even after 35% off seeing how much the food was.
-Xander could ride almost everything. He rode the Tower of Terror and wasn't scared at all.
-Zoey was great and even took some naps.
-Favorite rides: Matterhorn, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Toy Story Mania

The best story. . .

Ben and I had to split up quite often while the other watched Zoey who couldn't ride all of the rides. There was a rollarcoaster in Toon Town that Ben took Mia and Xander on. The cars could only fit 2 people. Mia didn't want to go alone because she was scared so Ben asked Xander if he would ride with Mia and help her not to not be scared. Xander, the brave and fearless little man, saluted his Dad and said nothing else.

How precious is that?

We had a great time. Thanks to Kori and Dan for letting us crash at their place.

Xander's in Preschool!

2010-09-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

I was so excited for Xander to start preschool. I just love it when my kids start school. I kinda get excited with them-the new teacher, making new friends, and learning all sorts of things.

Xander is so funny lately when I try to take pictures of him. He's always making goofy faces. Check out Xander's versatility when it comes to posing for a picture.

THE "I'VE GOT SOMETHING TO SAY" LOOK

THE "WINK WILL DO THE TRICK" LOOK

THE "LET'S TAKE A BREAK SO I CAN PICK MY NOSE" LOOK

THE "I LOOK LIKE MY SISTER MIA" LOOK

THE "I CAN MAKE A FART NOISE" LOOK

I can't wait to hear about his day! He told me that he was going to make some friends today. I always think he's like Mia where new situations make her super shy and she sometimes cries. Xander is a little shy at first, but when I dropped him off, there were no tears!

Xander said that school was good and that he made a friend. This is his teacher Mrs. Sonya. From what I have heard, she is a great teacher.

Xander was asking me when he gets to go again. When I told him "Thursday", he wanted to know if it was tomorrow. I'm glad he is excited to go again!

A Lil' Stroll

2010-09-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the year, I dubbed it, "Year of the Hike". I was optimistic and hoping that we would go on many hiking adventures, maybe even once a month. Yeah right, we've been on three this year but I am hoping to make up for it, with another one on Labor Day. Our ward is going on a nearby hike.

As a family, we discovered this trail right behind our house. It's not anything spectacular, but it was fun seeing our house in relation to everything around it. I knew there was a creek behind our house but didn't know how far it was from the fence. Turns out, it is right on the other side of the fence.

We also checked out people's backyard. One neighbor made a bridge across the creek and used the other side for storage, since it is technically their land. I can't imagine doing that to ours even though we own it.

Found somethings to photograph along the way.

I thought these were unique. I have no idea what they are. They almost look edible.

In Loving Memory of Friday

2010-08-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

Friday

July 3, 2010-August 29,2010

This morning, we found that Friday had passed away and joined his brother. We think these kittens must have been sick before we got them. Friday had been eating really well for the past few days and we felt hope and continued to give him lots of love and attention. We had no warning signs that he was near death. We suspected that he may be sick like his brother but didn't expect him passing away so soon.

Friday loved to play outside with the kids and lay in the sun by the patio door. He was very playful and loved to lay on you.

CJ has taken this lost the hardest. She couldn't understand how Friday could have died with all the love she had been giving it. Wouldn't it be great, if all that was needed to sustain life, was love?

Mia drew a picture during church about the cats and heaven. There in heaven is Jesus, a 100 year old person, a girl she doesn't know and Friday and Thirteen. I love that she thought that Friday was an asian cat!

We are going to try to get another kitten (or 2, if Ben has his way) but we are going to be smarter this time. We had gotten these kittens from Pittsburg, and for those who are not familiar with the area, just think of Oakland-it's pretty similiar. I remember after getting the kittens feeling an urge to run to my car, get inside and lock it!

We will probably try to get the kittens from a better area and maybe even a Pet place, although, Ben has already looked into getting one at a shelter and there is so much red tape. You have to bring the whole family in, sign adoption forms and answer questions. Then, they will decide if you are fit enough to be the owner of the kitten. Ben has also said, that lots of places think that the best environment for animals are ones without kids! That's California for you!

We will also get an older kitten. We think these kittens were a little young and maybe weaned too early.

Even though, I am enjoying the bathroom being free of liter and smell, I am hoping that the kids and Ben get another HEALTHY kitten soon. Friday was my favorite of the two. He seemed good natured, fun and playful.

We will miss you and I will miss you, Friday!

In Loving Memory of Thirteen

2010-08-27T20:55:00.000-07:00

Thirteen

July 3, 2010-August 27, 2010

Thirteen was our black kitten whom we found this morning had passed away during the night. We just got him on Sunday and a few days later noticed that we had not seen him eat or drink. We continued to monitor him and Ben tried different types of food and even last night was feeding him by putting the food into his mouth.

Thirteen had no desire to even try to eat and it was like he had given up on life. We think he was weaned too early. We are sad that he is gone. All the kids cried a little this morning. I think this was the first time they had seen anything die, I guess besides the spiders I kill. They have all taken it well and we talked about death.

We had a little funeral and buried him in our backyard. The kids each took a turn to say something they liked about Thirteen. It was precious.

I felt bad for Friday who lost his brother. When I came home after dropping Mia off at school, I checked on Friday and he was laying in his bed with his head resting on the edge looking so sad. So sad, that I, the non animal lover, loved that little kitten. I gave him loves all day because I felt so sorry for him.

When Thirteen was alive I would often catch him and Friday snuggling together like this;

We will miss you Thirteen!

Back to School

2010-08-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

The girls started school yesterday. Mia and CJ picked out their new outfits for school and were so excited. Mia's got a little "punk" in her. Ben had mentioned this before, but I wasn't convinced until she picked this shirt out.

CJ is figuring out what she wants her style to be. On the way to school, she went on and on about she looks so much cuter this year than last year and she wondered what her friends would think when they saw her.

This one of Mia cracks me up because of the way Mia is holding her backpack is how someone would hold smelly socks away from their body! Maybe it's because the backpack doesn't coordinate with her super punk outfit!

CJ is wearing a women's size 8 shoes! I can't believe it myself! Her feet are almost as big as mine. She constantly measures herself against me to see if she is as tall as me. She's about 5 feet right now. I told her that I hope she gets to be 5' 7", my dream height!

I noticed that when I was leaving, Mia had tears in her eyes. She also told me that she cried at recess because she didn't get enough sleep. Mia has a hard time adjusting to change. I have to cut her some slack, she is at her 3rd school and in 1st grade! When Mia came home from school, she told me that there are so many rules and she got to help make them. Her rule was no playing "guns". I think she had a fine day afterall.

CJ came home with a stackload of notes, all from different teachers. It literally gave me a headache reading through all the different notes from the teachers and their expectations and grading scales and. . .and. . . all that stuff! I can only imagine what the homework is going to be like this year!

I think the girls are going to have a wonderful school year! Mia has her church friend Mason in her class. CJ also has many friends and is walking to school with a neighbor friend. Xander will be joining in the fun in a couple of weeks!

Spidey X-man!

2010-08-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

Meet Spidey X-man, one of the newest additions to the Superhero League. At the wee age of 4, he has learned that with great power comes, great responsibility.

Real Name: Xander Porter
Occupation: Crime fighter
Group Affiliation: LDS
Base of Operations: Concord
Height: 3' 4"
Weight: 35 lbs.
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Brown

Favorite phrases: "That's cool" and "Yucky" (which is really the word "lucky")

Powers: Counts to 10 and sometimes higher if enemy is near, has a spidey sense for candy, climbs all things with the power of a spider, writes the letters of his name out of order but nonetheless,all letters are accounted for, receives extra power from cereal, has the power to use the "Y" sound as a substitute for other letters.

Spidey X-man celebrated his 4th birthday with civilians, who just happen to be related to him.

He had a wonderful day being sung to in Primary and giving a talk.

Spidey X-man got to choose what was for dinner and even got a couple of kittens on his birthday that he has promised to control his super strength when holding them. The black one is Thirteen and the tabby is Friday. Get it? Friday the Thirteenth?

Although, still loyal to the spiders, Spidey X-man requested a Batman cake. Afterall, they do fight on the same team!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SUPERHERO SON!

It just makes me smile when. . .

2010-08-17T22:53:00.000-07:00

I find things like this. . .

I was helping Mia clean her room and stumbled across this notebook I had given to her at the beginning of the summer. I called it her journal and encouraged her to write in it. She wrote about going to Utah and her grandma's house.

It just makes me smile when. . .

I get a glimpse of what goes on in their little heads.

This page is my favorite. I have to say, Mia is a fabulous artist, it was like I was looking into a mirror.

It just makes me smile.

Super Star Birthday

2010-08-09T08:25:00.000-07:00

It was Mia's turn for a birthday party this year. After brainstorming several ideas, Mia told me that she wanted a "Star" birthday. I went online to get some ideas and all the ideas I found were about "Rock Star" or "Star Wars" birthday ideas. I had to create my own, which is easy when you have a theme.

The invite was fun to make. I really like making announcements in Photoshop. I turn it into a JPEG image and send to to be developed in a 4X6 photo. I pay like .13 just like a regular photo. Much cheaper than buying them as an announcement!

The kids decorated their treat bags with stars. . .

Made star headbands. . .

Star photo frames. . .

That they would get a group picture to put in it. . .

They tried to pin a star on Earth. . .

And they shot off balloon rockets trying to hit the star bullseye. . .

The funnest part was probably "shooting stars" where they shot the "star" (waterballoon) and tried to hit the target star. Towards the end, everyone wanted to be in the target!

The kids ate some "starrific" food. . .

And smashed a star pinata, which was tons of fun to make!

Check out my other blog later this week and I will show you the process.

The yummiest part was probably eating the star cupcakes and singing "Happy Birthday" to Mia.

Mia loved all of her presents from her friends and giving a hug to everyone! She got a couple of dress up outfits and a couple of outfits that make her look so cute! Polly pockets to play with, beads to make necklesses, Barbie pages to color and paper butterflies to make!

We are SO lucky to have so many good friends! Thank you for coming to Mia's party!

Jelly Belly Factory

2010-07-30T09:47:00.000-07:00

For most of July, I have had what seemed like PMS, but turns out I had KHAS which is, "Kids Home All Summer" disfunction. Apparently, PMS and KHAS have the same symptoms. Previous summers, I have planned out the weeks making sure we did something each day like going to the park, library, bike rides etc. It was exhausting, but my kids loved it.

It was my solution for CJ, who constantly needed someone to do anything with (Ben says that's ADD for you!). The only thing she seemed to do on her own was watch TV or play the computer. When I would try to get her to read a book, she would cry and give me the hardest time. It was a battle.

This year, CJ has been awesome occupying her time. I find her reading on her own, all the time. When she is bored, she trys to think of something to do. Since she has been so awesome, I have become more lazy. And since I have become more lazy, the kids fight all day. And since the kids fight all day, I am grumpy and unpleasant.

I am such a "all or nothing" person. I either do it all or I don't do it at all. I've decided one field trip a week will be great for the kids and not too overwhelming for me. Heck, if they are going to fight all day, why not do it in a fun place? Maybe I can get people to stare at me and wonder "What kind of Mom let's her kids cry in public?" It can be my own little secret game.

Really, the kids are somewhat better when we do something. Our field trip this week was visiting the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield. They give free tours of the facility and yummy samples along the way. I forgot to bring my camera (uggh!) and so I found some pictures online.

We got to wear these awesome hats throughout the tour. Xander had a jacket and hood on during the tour and was so funny because he wore his hat on top of his hood. Man, I wish I would have remembered my camera!

At the end of the tour, they give everyone a small bag of jelly bellys. That, of course, was the best part of the tour for the kids! Down in the store, you could buy belly flops, which were jelly bellys that were the wrong size, disformed, or connected to another. I thought that was cool.

So little field trips may cure my KHAS disfunction, but what would really do the trick is if we lived in a subdivision with a ton of kids. I would love that!

Next week, we'll be going to the zoo and the week after, it's Disneyland! This summer is flying by so fast. I can't believe it's almost August! The kids start school August 25th. It feels like the school year starts earlier each year!

Swim Lessons

2010-07-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

Since moving to California, I have felt the importance of learning how to swim even more. Last year when we lived in Alameda, I put CJ and Mia in swimming lessons. I was so proud of CJ and how brave she was jumping off the diving board. This year, the area that we live in, everyone swims. It seems like everyone has a pool in their backyard or community. Swim team is also pretty big here.

I was able to put Xander, Mia and CJ all in swim lessons this year. It was awesome! Xander cried the first day. When I say cried, I don't mean shedding little tears, I mean screaming his head off where I'm sure there were parents thinking, "Someone take that child away!"

He had a wonderful teacher who endured his screaming and helped him anyways. By the next day, he had no problem getting into the water thanks to his teacher! I thought it was adorable that he would put on goggles. No one else in his class wore them and I'm sure his teacher didn't make him either.

I was so happy with his progress, that I wish I had the money to keep him in lessons all summer! He was great!

Mia is a fearless tough kid! She is also very stubborn and wants to do EVERYTHING by herself! This is the girl who taught herself how to ride a bike! I debated on what level she should be in and to play it safe, put her in a Beginner class.

After watching what she could do, I decided that I could have put her in the next class up. It would have pushed her to try harder but the class that she was in was also fine. She learned how to swim under water and use her "ice cream scooper" arms. I was so proud of her and what she could do.

CJ also did a wonderful job! She was able to increase her swimming skills and techniques. I was secretly listening to the tips her instructors were giving her hoping that I could learn something too. I'm not a great swimmer at all. I never learned how to properly swim and breathe. I love that my kids are learning, makes me want to take a class!

We will be definitely taking swimming classes next year!