Valentines Day

Okay I know Valentine's Day has been over for awhile, but since it's one of my favorite holidays I had to post about what we did and a new tradition I want to start.

Valentine's Day at our house is about our whole family since Bo and I try to have a date night every week. Of course we write a special note to eachother, but it's fun to have everyone included. This year I thought it would be nice for each member of our family to make a valentine for every other member. Then we'd read our cards at dinner. In the afternoon all of the kids decorated their valentine's and one at a time went into a room with me to secretly tell me what they wanted on their card. They were so cute.

We decided to go to Pizza Pie Cafe' for dinner. (I took the camera, but Brayden was not too happy so i totally forgot about that...sorry.) Since we were out to dinner, we read our cards in the car while driving (next year we'll do it before we go.) The kids loved it and you could see how special they felt when they heard what everyone wrote to them.

Oh, I just love Valentine's Day and my family I get to share it with!

Brayden at 4 months

Brayden went to the Dr. today for his 4 month check up. Here are his stats:

16 lbs 7 oz (80th percentile)
his height was the 80th percentile also, but I can't seem to find my paper with the number at the moment.

Brayden is a very happy baby and just started giggling the last couple of weeks. I love it!
He's not to interested in moving yet and is content to just stare around. He rolled over once last week.
He is a pretty good sleeper for the most part once we get him to sleep. He fights every night.
It's been fun to watch him grow.

We love you Brayden!

blessing collage

I thought it would be fun to put this together. The kids are all about the same age in the pictures. Hailey top left. Conrad top right. Jackson bottom left. Brayden bottom right.

I just love how Conrad looks like a little temple worker. :)

Brayden's Blessing

Bo blessed Brayden on Sunday, January 2, 2010. It was a nice blessing and a nice day. Thank you to all of the family and friends that we able to make it. I don't have Bo's phone with me so I just have the pictures from JCPenney. I got these taken a couple of weeks before when he turned 3 months.

Happy New Year!

Well since I was horrible and didn't get my Christmas cards out, I thought I'd at least say Happy New Year to all of our friends and loved ones!  We hope you had a great Christmas!

Here's our family newsletter for 2010:

Our biggest news from 2010 is the birth of Brayden E Porter!  He was born September 15 and he is happy and healthy.  He is such a sweetheart.   This little man fits in perfectly with the family and we just adore him.

Jackson is now 2 and busier than ever.  We have to keep a gate up in his doorway so he won’t get up and wander the house at night. At about 2 in the morning one night I caught him on the counter top in the pitch black getting a snack out of the cupboard.  Then and there we decided we’d better lock him in his room.  He never stops going.  He eats everything in his sight.  Gratefully, we’ve only had to call poison control once. :)  Jack has such a fun personality and loves playing with anything on wheels.

Conrad is 4 and LOVES Spiderman.  He would want toilette paper if it had Spiderman on it.  He wanted to be black Spiderman for Halloween and we got the costume about a week before.  It has been glued to his body ever since. Con is so sweet and makes sure everyone is happy and doing what they need to.  He is excitedly awaiting Kindergarten next year.  This summer he also played on his first t-ball team.  It was tons of fun for everyone in the family.  It’s so fun to watch little kids play sports.

Hailey’s is 6 and her big news is finally being able to start Kindergarten.  She LOVES it and still can’t wait to go.  When school first started she would wake up super early thinking she was going to miss it or be late.  She is doing well and loves to learn.  Her favorite part of school is art.  She wants to be an artist when she grows up.  We are good friends.  She is a great big sister and is always happy to help out.  She got a Journey Girl doll (American Girl) for Christmas and said it was like she had a new sister.  Well, if you can’t have one, invent one. :)

Bo is happy at work.  He is still doing his Ecommerce business: Foxwebstores.com.  They are always busy with new ideas some great and others we’ll call learning experiences.  He loves it.  He gets to work with great people which is always nice.  They bought a ping pong table a few months ago.  It has been a big hit and everyone, even some friends, have been having tournaments at breaks and lunch ever since. (They even keep track of it on paper with charts and all.)

Well, I am just feeling grateful for a happy healthy baby and feeling happy and healthy myself.  It’s now been a year and 3 months since I went gluten free and I feel great!  I feel very blessed that I don’t ever crave anything with gluten (I believe it to be a tender mercy of the Lord).  I am happy with the food I get to eat and that my family likes it too for the most part.  I’ve picked up a new hobby of reading the past couple of months and I love it.  I just wish that I could devour a book a day.  It’s more like a month. (My new years resolution is to read at least a book a month).

We pray that your new year will be blessed and filled with great memories.