Adventures with The Porters

Backtracking

2011-12-22T07:45:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to play catch up on my blog! These pictures are from October when we went to Slide Rock in Sedona for Adam's 28th birthday :) We had so much fun. The weather was awesome, we found a spot to grill lunch, play around, take lots of pictures, then we went to Slide Rock and hiked around for a bit. The girls had just as much fun as we did! I love taking little family trips like that, just the four of us. While it's a lot of work since they're still little, it's so worth it :) Love my family.

Love, K

Another Blog

2011-12-15T21:16:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

I'm starting another blog. I'm going to continue this one as the blog for family and friends, but I am starting another about more spiritual things :) If you'd like to follow me on that one, leave a comment with your email address and I'll send you the URL address!

P.S. I really am going to update this thing! Sorry I'm such a slacker. Time gets away from me ;)

Love, Krystle

Enjoying the weather!

2011-10-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

The nice thing about Arizona is when the weather finally cools down, it's SO nice to be outside. We took advantage of our zoo membership this weekend and took the girls! Claire did great and didn't really fuss at all, and Ellie loved it through and through. Can't tell you how much I love those two sweet girls. They are the lights of my life- for reals :)

Gotta love Claire's tiny hat! Ha! It's all I could find that morning...of course later in the day I found the jackpot of hats that fit her :)

Daddy and his girls :)

That coke bottle entertained Claire the entire time! It's the little things- forget toys! Anyways, how cute is she?!?! :)

Ellie playing at the splash pad place- love this picture!

Sleepy baby girl...

My girls :)

Hopefully there will be many more zoo trips to come. Our goal to get out every evening as a family during this wonderful weather! I'm so happy it's fall. Can't wait for the holidays and to start new traditions with my little family...:)

<3 Krystle

Things to Remember

2011-09-20T10:03:00.001-07:00

Claire:

The perfect way to describe Claire is to say that she's definitely a girl. Very emotional. High highs and low lows :) Very different than Ellie. Ellie was very content 98% of the time. But I love their differences. I can't wait to see how it all plays out when they're older.

Claire BITES when we nurse! OUCH! Again, something Ellie never did. She's not crazy about the whole eating process in general. She only wants to eat to get it done and have a full belly. She doesn't linger, which is nice. But I love the sweet moments when she takes her time and her and I get to have a little one-on-one time.

She doesn't like food at all right now. She acts like I'm torturing her! Little stinker.

She has a few nicknames that she responds to like stinky & missy Lou! :)

Of all people, Ellie can make her laugh the most- melt my heart.

Ellie:

She is talking up a storm these days! I just love it. My favorite thing she says/asks is "What's that it is?"- translation- "What is that?" Haha! It is so cute.

Every night when I put her to bed, we have to re-enact the last part of the Tangled movie when Rupunzel and Eugene hug and kiss- too funny. She lays in bed and we both look at each other like we've never met and say "Eugene!" then hug and kiss. We always do it, no matter how tired she is, she always remembers :)

Just a few things I want to remember about this time in my life right now. Having kids is so much fun!

P.S. I'm already ready for another one! No joke.

A Little Bit of Everything

2011-09-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

This is short & sweet post. Here's what we've been up to!

At 5 1/2 months Claire started crawling! Almost EXACTLY when Ellie did! She also started pulling herself up and sitting within a week (that's exactly like Ellie!). We have to chase her around a little more, but she's so much fun and so happy to be independent :)
Trying to snag a family photo these days (well a decent one) is hard to come by...Ellie 3 out of 4 looking at the camera isn't bad :)

Ellie loves messing around with her daddy :) She is so coordinated...I love it! I hope I'll have a little gymnast or dancer on my hands!

Claire is teething...or at least I think so. She constantly has her hands in her mouth! No signs of any teeth yet though...

Ellie got a big girl bed- she loves it! We had a party when we got it...we turned on Tangled (her favorite movie) got her tangled sheets and a blanket, and sang & danced around. It was such a special moment...She seems so big in there!

Claire doing what she does best :)

Ellie scored this princess dress from her Nana- she was SO happy to have her very own princess dress and wants to wear it EVERY day. I would too if I were her! She looks SO DARN CUTE! This is her and her cousin Hana. So sweet.

Ellie is a huge fan of the pool! Excuse the no swimsuit- we couldn't find it, and plus, she's still adorable in just her swim diaper :) ...and now that I mention it, Adam is lookin pretty adorable too...Glad I get to look at them both every day!

We have started juicing! Some juices are gross, but this one was delicious! This is all the fruit needed to supplement ONE meal with juicing. Isn't that crazy!?!?! It was really good. And we're really enjoying it. We watched a few documentaries and really got some good info out of them. If you're ever bored, I'd suggest, Fat Sick & Nearly Dead, Food Inc, & Food Matters. Actually, not only if you're bored, do it anyways! Be informed about what you are putting in your bodies!!! Ignorance is NOT bliss people. Yuck!

We probably have about 20 different varieties of this picture. Ellie falls out of bed every night. It's super cute how she ends up in different spots on the floor and then continues to sleep there all night, no problem!

Until next time!

May 28th????

2011-07-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

Has it really been since May 28th that I last posted?!?! Wow, time flies. I know we've been busy, but not sure exactly with what. The girls definitely keep me on my toes each day, but they are absolutley wonderful. Love them soooo much :) We have been trying to get a lot of family time in lately, and our newest development is trying to figure out how we're going to pay off the rest of our debt (bloody student loans!) by the end of the year. Lots of our energy is spent planning and scheming :) We're really excited about it though. It will be so awesome to call into the Dave Ramsey show in December and scream "We're Debt Free!!!!"- Can't wait! Here are a few recent pictures of my sweet sweet girls... :)

Ellie at the park- Gotta love that smile :)
Don't pay attention to her blurry hand, but look at that squinty grin! So cute!

This picture just kills me! Too adorable. Such a scholar I tell ya!

My father's day card I made for Adam :)

Ellie & Daddy doing some gardening!

Hopefully I'll have more inspiration to post more soon. My brain feels pretty zapped of energy these days!

Cali Vacay

2011-05-28T22:57:00.001-07:00

We went to California last week to help out my best friend Heather. She was taking her finals and had no one to watch her kids, so we went out so I could pay my best friend "duties and obligations" (gladly of course!) and also made it into a mini-vacation for our little family. The girls did great in the car against all odds- thank goodness for travel DVD players! And we had a week full of craziness, with some fun mixed in too :) Here are a few photos of us at the beach...

This picture SERIOUSLY melts me......seriously.
Mommy & Claire- she's so alert in this picture- love it!

And we got to go out on a date! Yahooo! :) We had dinner in downtown Orange County and thoroughly enjoyed our alone time!

Love, Krystle

2!

2011-05-14T09:33:00.001-07:00

My first baby is turning 2 in a few days (th 17th)! I can't believe it. I have a two year old! Birthday party post to come, but I just wanted to stop by quick since I have totally been neglecting my blog. I have just been focusing on being a mom lately and having lots of fun :) TTYL!

Thoughtful Thursday: Follow up on Fear

2011-04-28T20:38:00.001-07:00

Oh man. It has been a WHILE since I have posted. Glad to be back tonight...writing posts is definitely theraputic and relaxing :)

I wanted to follow up on my post about Fear a couple weeks ago. Things are turning a corner and it feels SO much better. After writing that post, Adam and I had a long talk about everything. It was to a point where I was having mini-panic attacks and I felt like it was consuming me. The next morning, my sweet, godly husband wrote notes for me around the house for when I woke up (before he went to work). He put notes up telling me how much he loved me, and verses from the bible about fear and anxiety to encourage me.....and encourage me it DID! This wasn't the cure, but it was a huge step in reminding myself that I'm not alone, and that I always have Adam to lean on through the things that I struggle with.

From then until now, it seems that a lot of things have come up- Ellie got a really high fever (due to an ear infection), she hurt her leg and had a limp for a few days, and someone in our family had some not-so-good news. It all made me think that here on earth, we are not exempt from anything. And to add to that, I felt the Lord telling me that I should count my blessings right NOW and be thankful instead of worrying about what MAY or may NOT happen in the future. That was a pretty big deal for me. My prayer life has changed from prayers of worry, doubt, and fear- a sort of pleading with God, to prayers of thanksgiving, love, and humbleness that He is in control and cares for me. It's been wonderful. I am in no way healed from this, but I feel so much more hope, and I also know that God strength can take me through anything that may come my way.

Here is a verse I'm holding onto:

"Humble yourselves, therefore under God's mighty hand that He may lift you up in due time. Cast ALL your ANXIETY on Hum because He cares for YOU" - 2 Peter 5:6-7

Crazy

2011-04-23T18:59:00.000-07:00

Wanted to check in for a few moments to just say that life has been pretty crazy lately. Having 2 kids is surely double the work! And Adam and I have totally been feeling it. At the end of the night, both of us collapse. It has been great at the same time though :) I had Ellie watch Bambi for the first time this week, and she LOVES it! It's so cute. Claire has been smiling up a storm and growing like a weed!!! She is a way pickier baby than Ellie was...she likes to be held 24/7, only likes certain positions being held, and wants to nurse way more often! Maybe she knows that since she had to share mommy from the get-go, she was really gonna log-in her time in closeness :) It may make things harder sometimes, but I really do love it and wouldn't trade it. And Ellie is such a sweet big sister. Always smothering (literally) her sister in hugs and kisses. When she wakes up in the morning, the first thing she wants to do is peek in at her little sissy sleeping :)

In other news, I've been getting back to working out! Been taking Zumba classes and doing Jillian Michaels (from the Biggest Loser) 30 Day Shred DVD....here's to crossing my fingers that it'll work and I won't feel so frumpy! I hope to get back on track with my daily posts soon. I have just felt so exhausted that thinking about typing out a post and having it make sense has seemed almost impossible!

Until next time,
Krystle

Frugal Friday: Library

2011-04-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

We have found that we save a lot of money these days going to the library. It's free, they have activites for kiddos (storytime, etc), they hand out free passes to local places (Children's museum, the zoo, etc.), videos, and not to mention the main reason the library exists, books! We had netflix for a while, but cancelled due to the fact that almost EVERY video on our queue was at the library one day! So, we decided that we should do the free option instead of paying $10 a month. And it works! Sometimes, the DVD's skip, but most times, they're good :) I find that as a parent of 2, watching movies doesn't come as often as I'd like, so a random video from the library (or netflix for that matter) takes a while to get to. I don't want to pay money for something I may or may not get to watch! I also get lots of video's for Ellie there instead of paying to rent those as well. We try to go to storytime at least once a week, and Ellie really enjoys it. Even if the teacher is lame on occassion, she always enjoys the bubbles and songs! So, totally worth the $0 spent! So now, go become a member of the zoo, and get a library card and use it!!! :) Save money people! What are some things that YOU do to save money?! Lets help eachother out.........

Wordless Wednesday: Sleep

2011-04-13T09:07:00.001-07:00

Love, Krystle

Toddler Tuesday: Potty Training Day 1

2011-04-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

For some reason, my pictures turned out kinda weired (Ellie's mouth looks like super weird!) but ANYWAYS! Today is Day 1 of the 3 Day Potty Training Method by Lora Jensen! This is Ellie with her cup of Hansens Cherry Vanilla Creme soda (she LOVES sips of mine so it's her lucky 3 days!). She was really excited about putting the panties on. We have had 3 accidents already (1 poo & 2pee)-and she was pretty scared of even sitting on the potty. I'm aniticipating wayyy more accidents that victories today (and tomorrow) but wish us luck! I'll keep the blog updated as the days progress because it would be amazing if it really were to happen! :)

Ellie doing what she does best- Dancing!

And I had to sneak in a picture of Claire too...gotta love how chubby she's getting! :)

Love, Krystle

Monday Meals: Chicken & Rice Casserole

2011-04-08T18:04:00.000-07:00

This isn't my the picture of my casserole (forgot to take one...oops!) Chicken Rice Casserole Ingredients:

6 Tablespoons butter

8 ounces mushrooms, sliced (3 cups)

¼ teaspoon dried rosemary

½ cup all purpose flour

2 cups chicken broth

1 ½ cups half and half or whole milk

4 cups chopped cooked chicken

3 cups cooked rice

½ cup dry bread crumbs

2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1 Tablespoon melted butter

Additions: I added broccoli to my dish like the picture above to be sure we got a veggie in!

Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 baking pan. 2. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. 3. Stir in the mushrooms and rosemary, cook until softened (about 5 min.). Stir in the flour until well blended. 4. Slowly whisk in the chicken broth and the half and half or milk. 5. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook until sauce is thickened and smooth (about five minutes). 6. Mix in the chicken and the cooked rice, combine well. Pour into prepared pan. 7. Mix together the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese and 1 Tbsp. melted butter, stir well. Sprinkle on top of the chicken and rice mixture. 8. Bake for 25-35 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling and the topping is golden brown. 9. Serve with warm buttered rolls.3

This meal turned out GREAT! It was (fairly) easy to make, but worth the effort for sure! I will be adding this to my list of regular meals per my husbands request :) If you make it, lemme know what you think.

Love, Krystle

Frugal Friday: Zoo Pass

2011-04-07T15:13:00.001-07:00

Whew! Now that's a picture with a lot of flash on it :) Thanks babe! Sooooo it's Frugal Friday, and I'm posting about becoming a zoo member (if you live in phoenix- but I'm sure it's still a deal in other states as well). We became members about 3 weeks ago, and have gone twice! It has been a BLAST! They opened up a really cool splash pad area with a cavern type cave and lots of shade for the parents- this was defintely Ellie's favorite part! We're headed back to the zoo again tomorrow, and hopefully I'll take some fun shots of her water adventures :) Wondering how this is a definite deal if you have kids??? Wonder no longer! Here's the breakdown: If you go to the zoo and pay to get in it costs $18 per adult and $9 per child. Eek! That's $45 if both parents are going and you only have 1 kid. Pricey pricey. If you become a member, you pay $80 for the entire year! This includes 2 adults to get in and any children 2 years old or under. Plus they give you 2 free admission tickets for other guests. Score! Adam and I figured this was a good deal considering that Ellie is now interested & can really enjoy the zoo, and we figured we'd go at least twice this year. Thus paying for the membership completely! So instead of going twice, we can go anytime we'd like. Another bonus: You don't have to go and exhaust yourself by staying the entire day to get your money's worth! Both times we have gone, we have stayed 2-4 hrs and it was just perfect. We still had energy to do other things once we left and it wasn't overkill. Also, Adam thought I should include in here how we paid for this membership since there's no "become a member of the zoo" envelope in our budget. We allot ourselves $40 for "entertainment" each month. This is mainly for us to go out on dates (and that doesn't go very far if we spend it all on going out to eat and getting a full meal- which is why we either don't go out to eat, or do the appetizer thing!). ANYWAYS, we sacrificed our whole envelope in that category ($40) to pay for the membership, and used some money that Ellie & Claire's grandma sent to fund the rest- what a great way to spend grandma's money, aye?! :) Definitely worth the sacrifice on our part too, because he and I have been having a ton of fun on our outings. So there you have it. Go! Get a membership. Even though summers seriously SUCK in Arizona and you won't be seeing our faces anywere NEAR the zoo for those 4 months, there are another 8 months that you could literally go every. single. darn. day. if you wanted to! Here are a few zoo pictures:

Ellie & Farmer Jed (or Shed as Ellie says) She LOVES the farm area!!! Daddy and Ellie checking out the not-so-pink flamingos! Daddy & Ellie. Not sure why Ellie is looking so mysterious, but it's cute either way! Love, Krystle

Thoughtful Thursday: Fear

2011-04-07T08:49:00.000-07:00

I have been fighting this post for a long time for a few reasons; 1) embarrassed to admit what I think about day in and day out, 2) afraid to admit it, and 3) worried of what people may think.

But I'm just going to go for it. I am so so so afraid of something happening to my kids. Like, really afraid.

I think it's the reason that I'm a crazy researcher on everything and doing non-mainstream things like a home-birth and not vaccinating my children. To think that I could possibly inflict harm on them is something that I don't know that I could live with. With the vaccination issue, I continuously find myself torn. To not vaccinate is to not inject very harmful substances in their sweet new (innocent) bodies that could possibly do irriversible damage. But I find myself wondering what if they got these diseases. I have researched enough to know that at the end of the day, not vaccinating is actually what puts me more at peace.

Same thing with my home-birth and birthing center birth with Claire. No one actually knows how much epidurals and other inducing drugs will effect the baby. Not to mention they actually haven't been around for that long, and for that reason I don't trust it. I try not to treat anything as " a medical procedure" that shouldn't be. If I'm healthy, and my baby inside is healthy, then it makes sense to me to not expose them to anything that could be harmful at such a young age. This is not to say there aren't instances where it truly is medically necessary, but like I said, I tend to go the more natural way.

With those issues out of the way, there is still something even deeper. If one of my kids even gets a tiny cold, I am SO worried. I'm in to check on them like a billion times a night. My mind always goes to the worst places- is this something bigger, are they going to develop and infection from this, is there a chance they could die? (This is honestly where my mind goes at least once a week) I have only been to the ER with Ellie once for Croup and hospitals just get me nervous when I'm (or my family) is the patient. I feel so out of control.

I have experienced death. Both in my family, and to others around me who I love. It's unbearable to watch and experience the process. I just feel like I don't know if I could take it if it happened directly to me. I'm not sure though that anyone feels like they are ready for something like that to happen to them.

I recognize though, that as I spiral out of control in thinking about the worst, that God gently reminds me that I need to start telling myself the truth more often. I have so much hope in Him. I don't need to worry, and as the bible says, it won't add a single day to my life, or my family's. I need to remember that I am certainly not in control and that He is in control. I need to remember that I may not be able to make it through if something were to happen, but He can help me make it through. He equips us with the strength we need when we ask for it. I think it's a daily struggle of giving up my fears and starting to trust Him with every area of my life.

I follow this blog (also on my sidebar The Sullengers). It scares me so much to think about what they are living through, but gives me so much inpiration and hope at the same time. They are truly relying on God to get them through their situation and it is so encouraging and challenging.

Okay, now that I put it out there, please tell me that I'm not alone. That's a reason that I'm so afraid to admit it- in fear that no one else will relate and think I'm crazy. So, if you been in my shoes, please tell me about it. It's nice to know that I'm not alone.

Wordless Wednesday: Friends/Reunited :)

2011-04-06T10:49:00.001-07:00

Random: Thoughts on being FRUMPY!

2011-04-05T16:08:00.000-07:00

I was hoping this picture would blow up a lot bigger, but I think you get the point! Ha! Feeling Frumpy? I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I find that when you are a mom, it's SO SUPER EASY to get the "mom" look. Loose pants, a t-shirt, hair thrown up, no make-up, etc. It's really hard to be motivated when you change stinky diapers all day, get food on your clothes from all the meals/snacktime clean up, or are just busy cleaning the house and doing the daily duties. Since having Claire, I have found that anytime I go out, I want to feel my BEST. I have done my hair so much more, and even though I'm not at the weight I'd like to be at, I'm still wearing nicer clothes that give me a little "grace" in the belly region :) I think I'll go out on a limb and say that never getting ready is probably a mild sign of depression. I'm using "depression" lightly plus adding the "mild" so please don't leave any mean comments! I just know that from my experience, the times that I have had no motivation to really look good or go places, has generally been a time when I've been down. Also, I think that it can contribute to down in the dumps feelings if you are down! I think they go hand in hand. Do you??? Not to mention, it's probably nice for the hubbs when they get home to not see their ladies a slobby mess (ok, I feel the need to give lots of disclaimers in this post! This is not to say that there aren't days where that all you can do! Believe me, I have a lot of those). But in being a mom, I still have to remember that I am a wife. At one point all Adam came home to was me and I had no one else to be responsible for- I'd like to think that we still have that kind of spark in our marriage and all the beauty and good-looking-ness isn't gone! This post is to inspire me (and hopefully you!) to say NO to being frumpy. Do some things that make you feel good about you. Take you hair out of that bun-jump in the shower- put some mascara and lip gloss on- take the stretchy clothes OFF and put something more flattering ON! Do a little dance in the mirror to make yourself smile, and stand a few inches taller! :) I'm motivated! Haven't showered today- see what I mean about having "those" days? But I'm going to. And I'm gonna do my hair and leave it DOWN! What are your thoughts on this topic?? I'd love to know! Love, Krystle

Toddler Tuesday: Art

2011-04-05T09:01:00.000-07:00

During the time I was breastfeeding Claire, THIS happened! Hahaha! I ran to grab the camera to snap a quick picture, then it all went downhill from there. Ellie was covered in paint, even her hair (which you can't see here, it's on the other side), and then my dog ran in and put his paws in the paint...needless to say there was a big mess to clean! If there are ever moments you really feel like a mom, this is definitely it! I did get a good laugh about it though, and Ellie was super proud of herself!

Oh my sweet girl. Since my last postings, Ellie's whining has REALLY improved. I think her understanding that it does nothing for her has changed things. She has been so much fun lately! She's really taking more of an interest in playing independently, which has been SO NICE for me :) And it's a lot of fun to just sit and watch her do her thing! Lately she is really into singing & dancing- just like her momma! :) I love it.

Toddler Tuesday: Claire

2011-03-30T21:54:00.000-07:00

Seems that as of late, Claire and my "special time" has been between the hours of 9:00pm-12:00pm. The little peanut is just not interested in sleep during those hours! We bounce, we nurse, I sing, etc...nothing seems to soothe her. She loves to trick me though and close her eyes to act like she's sleeping, but as soon as I lay her down, she opens up those eyes as wide as can be and doesn't act tired at all. Hence why I am writing this blog post- I'd love to be asleep, but alas I am awake and figure I should probably do my Tuesday post even if it's a day late :)

Some notable things about Claire at 4 weeks:

She is cuter and cuter by the minute...no doubt about it (Anyone watch the Bachelor recently and hear Brad say that line like a million times throughout the season?!?! Just thought I'd ask ;).

I don't know how much she weighs- I haven't been to the doctor again yet- shame on me!

Adam and I both agree that she is still a mystery! We haven't figured her out yet. We don't really know what she likes and doesn't like- seems to change day to day, minute to minute. Ellie wasn't that way at all!

She's a superb sleeper once she's asleep. She is sleeping about 4 1/2 hour stretches at night which is super awesome :) I feel way more rested now that I did those last few weeks of pregnancy...wonderful!

She is easy-peasy during the day, and her fussy time starts promptly at 7pm and lasts through whatever time she decides bedtime is. She really doesn't cry a ton through this time, but just seems generally irritated.

She LOVES the birthing ball. If either Adam or I sit on that and bounce her, she is in baby heaven :)

She doesn't seem to mind Ellie's occasional accidental torturing :) She's a tough cookie at such a young age...thank goodness! The other day, I caught Ellie with the "booger sucker" (as we call the syringe thing) up her nose- Claire grunted a little, but held up well. I on the other hand totally freaked out, but what's new?! I am an easy freaker-outer.

Some things about me:

Second time around mommy-hood seems WAYYY easier. I am so much more calm and collected. I don't really mind when things start to get crazy and find myself having a lot more patience with Claire as a newborn and dealing with a bit of sleep deprivation.

I love being a mommy of two. There are so many moments where I just feel completely overwhelmed with LOVE. And of course there are moments where I feel like the world is crashing down, but the good FAR outweighs the bad :)

I'm still trying to find my groove. The newborn stage of breastfeeding is tough on me & on Ellie. Poor sweet girl just wants to play, and I'm stuck on the couch trying to entertain her. She holds up pretty well, and I'm trying to be more disciplined in being prepared and having a nice routine to my days to help things out.

My recovery this time around is so much faster! Wahoooo! I have only had 1 close encounter with a breast infection, but I caught it way early and nipped that sucker in the butt- or boob- hahaha! I feel like I am my normal self and have felt that way since pretty much a week after her delivery. Such a blessing.

Some things about Adam:

Can I just brag for a moment?? God has seriously blessed me with an amazing husband & best friend. Seriously. He is SO great with the girls and helps me out a TON! It has been a pretty big transition getting use to having 2 kids- I'm still not sure we're totally adjusted, but close to it I think. But, if I didn't have his constant support and help, I would have never felt as good as I have through this process. And no one prepares you for how incredibly ATTRACTIVE it is to see you husband be a father- and a GOOD one. Watching him put sunscreen on Ellie, or bounce Claire on the birthing ball while practically falling asleep may be one of the hottest things around ;) Definitely a perk of baby making!

Love, Krystle

Monday Meals: Easy Lasagna

2011-03-29T16:30:00.000-07:00

Okay. So, I forgot to post yesterday...bummer! But here I am with a recipe that is currently in my oven making my house smell wonderful! Enjoy :)

Easy Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground beef 1 (32 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce 32 ounces cottage cheese 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese 2 eggs 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese 2 teaspoons dried parsley salt to taste ground black pepper to taste 9 lasagna noodles 1/2 cup water

Directions:

In a large skillet over medium heat brown the ground beef. Drain the grease. Add spaghetti sauce and simmer for 5 minutes. In a large bowl, mix together the cottage cheese, 2 cups of the mozzarella cheese, eggs, half of the grated Parmesan cheese, dried parsley, salt and ground black pepper. To assemble, in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish evenly spread 3/4 cup of the sauce mixture. Cover with 3 uncooked lasagna noodles, 1 3/4 cup of the cheese mixture, and 1/4 cup sauce. Repeat layers twice. Top with 3 noodles, remaining sauce, remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Add 1/2 cup water to the edges of the pan. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F(175 degrees C) oven for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

My Substitutions: I don't like cottage cheese, so I used ricotta instead. And I bit less than what was called for, but it seemed to all work out :)

Look for another post tonight for today's post...trying to catch up and stay true to my word!!!

P.S. I stole this recipe from All Recipes- I have used a lot of their recipes before and have never been let down!

P.S.S. Does anyone else post recipes on their blogs?? I'd be interested to use them :)

Love. Krystle

Frugal Friday: Eating Out

2011-03-25T13:06:00.000-07:00

Last night I was hanging out at friends house, and she mentioned that her husband was picking up some take-out for dinner. I found myself being super jealous! A night off from cooking sounded sooo good.

But,as you probably know, Adam and I LOVE Dave Ramsey. We have taken his Financial Peace class, and went on to teach it at our church. It has been beyond a blessing, and truly changes how you feel and think about money. With that being said, sometimes it gets hard to stick to the plan. Right now the goal is to finish paying off our student loans so that we can be debt free! And if you have ever listened to his show, you better believe that by about this time next year, Adam and I will call in and scream "WE'RE DEBT FREEEEEEE!", and we will record it and everything! We are so excited about it!- Dorks I know....ANYWAYS, his motto is to live like no one else NOW, so that later you can really live like no one else (meaning not having loads of debt, and having lots of money!). What that looks like for us is truly living out the saying that "we aren't gonna step inside a restaurant unless we're working there" while we're working hard to pay off this debt.

Now we do make a few exceptions here and there. For example, we allot ourselves a certain amount of money for dates or entertainment each month- And with that money we can do whatever we want with. But we did modify it so that when we do go out, it's only for an appetizer or dessert and we eat a little something at home before we leave. This way, we spend less and make our money stretch out longer, but still have the eating out "experience".

One of the MAIN money wasters that we see and saw when we taught the class was money spent on eating out. That was one of our downfalls too. If you think about it, that one $30-$40 meal at the restaurant could've been half a weeks worth of groceries! Ahhhh! When we mostly eliminated going out to eat and started on a much more strict budget, our food costs for the month went down at LEAST 50%! Crazy, huh??

Some tips on Eating Out/Groceries:

Meal plan meal plan meal plan!!!!!! I can't stress this enough. So much money is wasted when going shopping without a plan. I know Rachel Ray says to shop when you're hungry, but that can cost you a ton of money too. Buy what you need for your meals, plus a few extra snacks (I said a FEW!) and eat simply.

Like I said earlier, when you do eat out, go for the experience. Eat a little something at home, then just go, sit, and enjoy yourselves over an appetizer and drinks. Or if you are eating out for the whole meal, be sure to order water- drinks can totally add up! This is a hard one for me specifically- I love my drinks!

If you want more info on our plan that we follow, go to Dave Ramsey's website. You can listen to his show on there, and learn about his plan. And while this may sound a little over the top for some of you, I'll tell you something that really is- having your student loan so long that it becomes part of your family picture- or having your student loan so long you have to throw it a birthday party every year - or having your student loan so long that it qualifies for AARP :) Haha! I crack myself up! Well actually, Adam cracks me up because he came up with those! Nice babe.

Love, Krystle

Thoughtful Thursday: Love

2011-03-23T15:36:00.001-07:00

One of our Engagement Pictures!

Look at me go! Day 3 and I'm still going strong with my posts :)

I have been working on being a better wife. During pregnancy, I felt like I had a big break from wifely duties- things like cleaning, cooking, at times my attitude, amongst other things. Well, now that I'm back on my feet, and my hormones aren't raging, I really want to get back on track. I LOVE my husband. He really is so good to me and deserves the extra effort on my end to show him that love. There are a lot of times though where I feel like I lose my way and just do a generally crappy job at showing him. Here are some things I'm doing in trying to be BETTER:

Be Pleasant. By the end of the day, I'm at the end of my rope. I take pride in making sure the house looks nice, dinner is made, and things are going relatively smooth- but my attitude doesn't always scream peaceful or "I'm glad to see you honey!". And lets be honest, sometimes we just have bad days, and believe me, I KNOW that's okay. But if every day I strive toward a good attitude and friendly demeanor, I'm bound to only miss the mark occasionally- and occasionally is good :)

Be interested in him. I know that as a woman, I can surely rattle on about my day and all the things that have irritated or frustrated me, along with all the good things. But sometimes I forget to ask about him. Was his work day good? Did anything cool happen? Is there anything I could do for him to make his night more relaxing? It's easy to make things all about me, so it's these things that I need to be intentional about.

Take interest in what he likes or is excited about. What this looks like for me, is getting on board with him. One practical example is our budget right now. We are pretty fired up about paying the rest of our student loans off, and he gets excited when we have a little extra money left over from our budget to make our debt pay off for that month even more. I'm pretty loose when it comes to this- I'm just happy if we stick with our budget in the first place! But recently I have tried sacrificing a little more- not making a stop at a fast food place even though I want to and have the money, or figuring out what I already have in my fridge to make dinner with and having to buy one less meal. And I already know that this makes him really happy, but I have to admit that I have actually really enjoyed it too! Makes me feel like I'm really contributing. Funny how God made it work that way- when we try to do things that make our spouse happy, it makes us happy as well :)

Affection. This looks like a lot of things. More smiling, more hugging, sometimes affirming words, or a nudge in our bedrooms direction ;) Sorry mom or dad if you're reading this! - But all of those things are super important to keep at the forefront of my mind. I know that there are definitely days where I feel completely drained in every way from taking care of daily stuff, but I think that it's really important to keep the fire going! Trying to capture the same admiration and love that we had for eachother when we first fell in love and continue to just make that grow :)

Those are just a few things that I'm trying to stay focused on right now. It's crazy how this is just one compartment of my life. There's also being a mom, a friend, a sister, a neighbor, a witness, a daughter, etc...each one seems like it should be a full time job to master! There is always something to work on :)

Love, Krystle

Wordless Wednesday: Bubbles

2011-03-23T10:38:00.001-07:00

Toddler Tuesday: Whining

2011-03-22T18:27:00.000-07:00

Whining, crying, screaming, & tantrums are what we have been dealing with lately. Call it what you want- terrible 2's? Sure. But man has it been tough!

I think that as a mom, the BIGGEST task is to not lose your patience. I wish I could say that I was better at this, but alas- I am not. I have really good days and really bad days- just like Ellie does. Adam and I read To Train Up a Child books, and have implemented a lot of it with Ellie. It all sounds so simple- pretty cut & dry when you read it- but when you're actually in the situation, it's way tougher. It helps a lot that Adam is naturally really patient and really never gets flustered about things- balances me out for sure!

In dealing with the whining, our #1 rule is to not reward it. We urge her to stop whining (or crying) and tell us what she wants and to say please following it. If she doesn't do that we just walk away and let her work it out- which usually turns into a little tantrum- but eventually she'll comply and calmly come tell us what she wants. Yesterday was SUPER tough. It seemed like she just whined ALL DAY. I tried to stay as consistent as possible, and while it seemed to have no effect yesterday, today was a little better :) That made it feel worth all the effort - baby steps people, baby steps.

I have a feeling though that as she continues being able to better communicate what she wants, we will butt-heads a lot. I try to remember that it's always tempting to just give in to her in that moment because it temporarily relieves the stress of the situation, but it's WAYYYY worse in the long run. Each moment I give in takes me one step further away from the goal of training her how to be respectful and how to obey us, which in turn makes her happier & us happier!

What are some things that you do to address whining in your house? I could use the help while I'm in the thick of it :)

Love, Krystle

Keeping it Fresh!

2011-03-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

I have been super bored with my blog lately- and I'm running out of things to post about! Well, at least I feel like I am. So, I'm gonna try to do something new to inspire me! I'm gonna try to write about something specific each day. I think I'll post Monday- Friday and take the weekends off (I act like it's my job or something, but really blogging can feel like work when you're uninspired!). The schedule will be as follows:

Monday= Monday Meals ( I will post a recipe of a meal I am making that week in hopes that some of you other mommas can use some new ones). And feel free to do the same on your blog! I'm always looking for new recipes.

Tuesday= Toddler Tuesday. This one will consist of all things Ellie & Claire :) Training, discipline, fun, activities, struggles, joys, etc. I realize Claire isn't a toddler yet, but the name for the day was so fitting!- And I do have 1 toddler.

Wednesday= Wordless Wednesday. Okay okay, so I'm bad at being wordless, so there may be the occasional sentence of explanation, but I promise that's all I'll do!

Thursday= Thoughtful Thursday. This day is for me. I will post things that have been on my mind that week. This may be a super random post day just to warn you!

Friday= Frugal Friday. Adam and I are back on track with tackling our debt and sticking with the Dave Ramsey plan! Yaahooooo! This day will be dedicated to tips and things we are doing to trying to live as budget-friendly as possible.

Sound Good?! I hope so. I'm excited about it, and if you have been following my blog long enough, you'll notice that I brought a few things back :) Hopefully I can actually stick with it this time! I will start tomorrow since I don't like putting 2 post up in one day. Until then.......

Back to Work!

2011-03-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

Adam went back to work today...huge bummer! It's been so much fun having so much family time together- we are all crazy about eachother and I honestly never feel like I want him out of the house! What a great feeling to have, aye? :) Anyways, like I said, we've been having loads of fun and thought I'd share some pictures of our time:

We went to the zoo, and I'm pretty sure that the water fountain was Ellie's favorite attraction! Haha! :)
My 2 girls in pink: Yes, I am definitely gonna be a matchy matchy mom!

My sweet first baby- she's such a big girl now...sniff sniff :)

My new baby: Precious.

While nursing Claire at the zoo, Ellie QUICKLY got into my mascara- any guess as to who she is imitating here?! Our very own little Hitler!! We just had to take a picture before we wiped her off :)

My main squeeze and Ellie's hair actually done- she pulled it out after about 10 minutes...dangit!

Mommy & Claire on a walk at the park

Love this picture!

Claire's Birth

2011-03-13T18:24:00.000-07:00

I'm currently sitting on my bed with Claire next to me sleeping, and I can't believe a little over a week has passed since I had her. The time has really flown by. I think it's partly because she is such a good baby! We are very blessed. Our birth this time was much different than with Ellie. Wayyy faster, in some ways more relaxing, and in other ways wayyy more intense! Let's start from the beginning:
Here I am right before we left to go to the birthing center. This was around 7:30am, but lets back up a bit. Around 5:20 I woke up and felt my water break. SO MUCH DIFFERENT than what you see on T.V.! I didn't really know if my water had broke for sure because it wasn't this huge gush that you would expect (I'll spare you any more details as I know I have a few male readers!). I nudged Adam and said that I think my water broke, and I have NEVER seen him jump out of bed faster! Hahaha! He was ready to jump in the car and head to the birthing center right then...it was really cute :) I hadn't had any contractions yet, but I called my midwife and she told me to be sure to eat a big breakfast, take my time getting ready, and then head down to the center. Contractions didn't start until about 7:15am.

We got to the birthing center, and while we waited for my parents to come get Ellie, I walked around having mild contractions and hanging out with Adam and Ellie inbetween each one :) It was a really fun experience to have her there for a while and see her- sort of- understand that Claire was coming! She kept saying "Claire Claire" the whole drive there! Shortly after she left, I jumped in the tub...that was SO nice. It felt like my contractions were so much less painful and I wondered if I was regressing- my midwife assured me that I wasn't and I spent almost the majority of the rest of my labor in the tub. Around 11AM, I was 9 cm dilated and started having some REALLY painful contractions. Up to that point, I was able to have a contraction, then laugh and talk with everyone else inbetween- it was so great! Adam didn't think I was as far along as I was because I wasn't in the apparent pain that I was in with Ellie. With her birth, I couldn't even talk inbetween- I was SO focused. Anyways, if you read all the natural birth stuff, this is the time when most women start "backing out". Saying things like- I can't do this, when will this be over, I can't take the pain, I don't want to do it- and I'm pretty sure that I said everything in the book! Between some contractions I would just sob my eyes out, and poor Adam said that he had to look away because he coudn't bear to see me in that kind of pain :( And it's a good thing that I wasn't in a hospital room with a ton of other pregnant/laboring ladies down the hall because I'm pretty sure they would be totally freaked out by all my yelling! I surprised MYSELF! That was the only thing that made the pain a little better. After about an hour of super painful intense contractions and pushing, Claire graced herself into the world at 11:55AM. Each and every contraction was worth every second of pain when I saw my baby :) I kept saying; "Oh thank God!- "Praise the Lord she is out!"- I was praising God she was out because I was SO done with being in labor! Haha!

She latched onto breastfeeding about 2 minutes after I delivered, and has been such a sweet angel baby. I couldn't have asked for a smoother transition or be more in love with her. It's so true what everyone says- that the love is just there- we don't know where it comes from (well, we do, it's God for sure) but every parent just receives this extra compartment of love they never knew they had. It's amazing.

I already love being a mom of 2, and have already been thinking about baby #3! I think it can be kind of addicting when you have 2 precious kids and too much love to go around. I find that I feel so much more content and complete now. What the bible says is so true- Every good and perfect gift comes from God. The gifts that He gives truly fill our hearts with joy and contentment, and I can't think of a better gift than a precious baby.

We left the birthing center that same day around 5:30PM. This is all of us with my midwife Mary. She is awesome and I am so grateful that she has been there with us to peacefully and lovingly bring Ellie and Claire into this world. Both my pregnancies and births have been so wonderful and it's a huge thanks to her!

Love, Krystle

Claire Rebekah :)

2011-03-10T15:59:00.000-08:00

Claire Rebekah Porter

March 4, 2011

7lbs 11oz

It has been almost a week now since Claire made her entrance & I haven't blogged! Oops :) I have been in baby heaven since she was born. She is so mellow-tempered & content. She has been sleeping GREAT at night, and rarely ever cries- if she does it's because she needs her diaper changed or she's hungry. I love that she looks a lot like Ellie did when she was born, but she definitely has her own thing going on too- I'd say that she's a little "squishier" than Ellie :) She latched on breastfeeding after about 2 minutes of being alive and has been going like a champ ever since! Total night and day from Ellie who wouldn't latch on for 2 months! Sheeesh! And man o man does that make a huge difference in recovering for me. She is a dream and nothing short of it. I'm in love with being a mommy of 2!

Ellie has been doing pretty well with everything. There are still times where she wants mommy and I'm nursing or doing something else with Claire and it makes it hard, but she has been having so much fun with Adam and it has been keeping her very happy & distracted! She is so sweet with her and wants to kiss her, hug her, hold her, etc. She definitely LOVES her little sister already :) I'm not quite sure if she has grasped that she's staying here for good or not, but I'm sure she'll get it very soon! Next post is my birth story! Until then...

Love, Krystle

Sometimes you're up...

2011-02-26T12:32:00.000-08:00

AND SOMETIMES YOU'RE DOWN!

Man is that ever true in those final hours of pregnancy! Hormones galore, crying, yelling, being nitpicky...you name it. I think I have been mostly down lately. A few things I have been hearing that make me feel like jumping off the cliff some days:

1)" I hope that your baby stays in there longer so you can see what I went through being late with my baby!"- Seriously??? And don't think just one person has said this- multiple people have! While I know it's all love & jokes, my volcano of rage feels like exploding! Haha! - If you read this, and you have said this, I still love you :)

2) "Have you had that baby yet??"- Let us note that while the person is asking me this question, my belly is probably showing some cleavage from my shirt not covering the huge mass! - Yes, I had the baby person, I'm just really fat now. UGH!

3) "Anyday now huh? Looks like you're ready to pop!"- Thank you. Wait did I say thank you already? Ok, thank YOU for reminding me that I look like a whale! Not only do I feel like I weigh a million pounds, but now you have made it obvious that every insecurity I feel is true- I AM HUGE!

Those are just a few...a small few of many frustrating comments. These poor people mean well. I know they do- just trying to strike up conversation, or keep things funny. And that is very sweet. But when your emotions are at unspeakable highs and lows, you gotta be careful or pregnant lady hormone rage may just come after you! My poor husband and mom get the worst of my whining and complaining- they definitely deserve a metal- or at least a really nice thank you card- something!

I wrote this post to make sure that my blog stays real! My last post was picture perfect reminiscing of birth and being so excited, and that is definitely one of those really nice highs....but today, well, today is for real. It gets ugly around here people. I'm sure that once this baby makes her arrival, EVERYONE will be happier :)

Here's to keeping it real....

Love, K

Reminiscing- Ellie's Birth Story

2011-02-23T13:24:00.000-08:00

I am getting so anxious to go into labor and meet this little girl. I seriously can't wait. I'm getting so close, but yet it seems SOOOO far away. If Claire were to be born when her sister did, she would be here this Saturday- she will come a different day though, in her own time I'm sure :) I'm gonna try to recall everything I can as accurately as I can- not that you asked for my birth story again- but it somehow feels right to recount those memories and prepare my mind for what's to come!
This picture is Adam and I at our friends Justin & Samantha's wedding! I was a bridesmaid and had been having contractions all day. My contractions started around 10am that morning. By the time this picture was taken, I was having contractions as close as 3-5 min apart, but didn't want to go home because I wanted to keep my mind distracted!I was afraid that I woudn't handle the contractions as well just being at home- thankfully a good friend/mentor from my church saw me contracting and forced me to go home :) Thanks Karen! We were super excited at this point though! Our baby was coming!!!!

This is my best friend Heather and I right before I went home- we were both so excited! Can you tell?!?! I ended up calling her to make her come over and help set up my house for my homebirth, clean my house & do my dishes!! What a friend :) She gladly obliged and spent a long time making my home just the way I wanted it- there are only a few people in the world that I trust enough to see all my nastiness and she is definitely top o' the list! I'm so sad that she lives in Cali now and won't be here to see Claire's entrance, but she will be getting lots of weepy (good & bad weepy) phone calls post-partum for sure, so she won't feel too left out ;)

By this point, I was home, and spending most of my time in the birthing tub- the water took so much pressure off the contractions but eventually I spent the last few hours sitting on my toilet in the bathroom! Haha! As far as I was concerned, it was the BEST spot in the house to keep focused- weird, aye? But you gotta do what sounds good in those painfully intense moments. I remember my doula sitting in there on the bathroom floor in one corner, and Adam by my side on the other...such troopers! Everyone was so tired, but giving me encouraging words and advice along the way...so sweet.

Adam was such a good partner- that sounds like a wild west term, huh?? Ha! No, but really he was. He was doing his best to not fall asleep and be with me each step of the way. I love him so much. He is honestly the best husband and I'm so looking forward to what this birth will be like together :)

My sweet, precious Ellie Grace just minutes after birth. She weighed 6 pounds, 15 ounces, and was about 19 inches long. We had a long, hard trial with breastfeeding, but she eventually became a champ. She was a mommy's girl then and continues to be, if not even MORE of a mommy's girl today. Adam asked me the other night if I could handle if Claire was as much as a mommy's girl as Ellie- to that I answered that I didn't know! It's a lot of work having someone love you so much ;) All joking aside though, I would be thrilled if little Claire loves me like Ellie does. It's a true gift & blessing. And of course she loves her daddy too! They are so sweet & silly together in ways that her and I aren't.

I can't wait to share Claire's birth story soon! It'll be much different this time around- I know what contractions feel like, I'm having her at a birthing center instead of home, and I'm already almost 3 cm dilated and ready to go into the full throws of labor! It will be very similar though also- I have my same midwife (who is super awesome), my same doula (who is equally as awesome), and Adam (do I really need to say he's awesome too?!). So, same difference- I hate that phrase- that's why it's fitting to use it!

Here's to crossing my fingers and praying to meet my baby SOON!

Love, Krystle

Claire's Nursery FINISHED!

2011-02-21T18:53:00.000-08:00

Deeeeeeep breath out.....it's finally done! Claire's nursery has been finished for a few days now and I couldn'tbe more pleased :) It was lots of hard work, but I am so happy that her little space is done and just waiting for her arrival- clothes washed, sheets clean, diaper and wipe bin is full- now all I need is her. I forgot to add a before picture, and really don't feel like looking for it, so if you wanna see one just go back a few posts :)

Pre-curtain: I love how the light looks coming in :)
Post-Curtain: I thought it would block out wayyy more light, so I'll probably have to do something about that!

This is a view from our room looking in :)

This is kinda random, but I scored this tablecloth from Target for a mere $4.98 and thought I'd share since it was such a steal!

Love, K

Maternity Photos- Baby Claire :)

2011-02-11T08:42:00.001-08:00

Once again, my friend Jennifer totally exceeded my expectations! She took some awesome family photos this past Saturday and I just love how they turned out. She captured such sweet moments, and I'm so thankful that I actually have some GOOD pictures of being pregnant this time around. If you are looking for a photographer, look no further- not to mention she is really fun & one of the sweetest people you'll meet too :)

Whew!

2011-02-10T12:57:00.000-08:00

Is it really only Thursday?! It seems like 2 weeks have passed since Monday...where to start??? Well, Ellie and I both got a terrible cold (maybe even a mild case of the flu according to my mom) on Sunday night. By Monday, I was completely out of it and getting dehydrated. I started having TONS of Braxton Hicks contractions and a few normal ones too, so my midwife asked me to come in to her office to get checked and make sure I wasn't in labor. When she checked me, she said that I was 2 almost 3cm and dilated and my cervix is SUPER thin- but not in labor yet. She told me that I needed to get better and basically lay in bed for the next few days to get my body healthy and ready to have this baby not being dehydrated. So, I had to stop watching kids this week and take some time to rest it up. I'm feeling great now, and there was nothing like a little scare like that to kick mine and Adam's butt's into gear to make sure that EVERYTHING is ready for Claire to come! It's a horrible feeling to feel so unprepared, and that's exactly where I was at on Monday. ANYHOO, we (Adam) has been making some great progress this week, and I just wanted to document where we were at!

BEFORE: Our tiny useless back patio- literally good for nothing except that storage closet
ALMOST AFTER: Still lots of finalizing to do in here, but it's coming along! Floors done, door & window installed, a few baseboards & fan. Can't wait to see the final product!

Claire's Crib: Isn't it SO tiny?! It made me laugh after we put it together :) But it's just perfect for our tiny space. By the way, my color scheme is gray & pink, and I think it already looks good together!

A view from our room

Claire's letters that will go above her crib :)

Me: Almost 37 weeks. Feeling huge, but it's so worth it.

Ellie came at 38 weeks and 2 days, so I'm hoping that her little sister will get the memo and come early too! That would be SO awesome. There is something about getting a nursery set up, and imagining a little baby in there that gets me feeling SO anxious, excited, scared, ecstatic, etc....I was so pumped about it last night! I'm so thankful for this amazing blessing that the Lord has given me already. I can't believe that she is already complete inside my belly and is just growing. I wish I could see what she looks like- I know I can get one of those 4D things, but I just wanna wait to see her in person :) Come baby come baby baby come come!

Crossing my fingers that she will be here next time I post...probably not....but I can always dream!

Love, K

Family Fun!

2011-02-03T15:47:00.001-08:00

I know that I put "Family Fun" in the title, but I thought I needed to document this photo! These are all the kids I watch during the day (well I watch Ellie everyday of course!). This is such a cute/funny picture of all of them. I have started the countdown...well, I officially started it like a week ago, but only 7 more days of watching kiddos for me! Then it's time to let my body chill out and rest til my little girl gets here :) So exciting!

From Left to Right: Sienna, Ellie, Scarlett, Noah, & Jude
Ellie posing in front of the christmas tree...our tiny tiny tree! It was perfect having all the kids in the house though- no one could pull it down on themselves and ornament touching was at a minimum!

The 3 of us at our church's Christmas Eve service :) Can't really see my belly much, but it's there!

Just being silly- my sweet girl.

Ellie out & about at the park!

Getting SO close!

2011-02-02T09:50:00.000-08:00

Thankfully we finished our room in plenty of time thanks to good friends :) I'm almost 36 weeks and getting so anxious & nervous about having everything DONE! I had Ellie a little after 38 weeks, so I feel like it is definitely crunch time around here. Here are some of the things we've been up to lately:

Our new comforter in our new wood floored room :)
A picture of our room bare- Out that window is where the nursery will be :)

So irritated this picture is the wrong way, but here are a couple of the walls painted in the nursery. Were going with a gray & pink them...I figured that gray would be the much more calming color on the walls!

We painted the paneling also...made it look so much cleaner & brighter in there! My next post will have the before shot so you can see the dramatic difference :)

A Closer view :)

I'm gonna try to get all my room postings done this week! Hope everyone is healthy and staying away from sickies! Ellie had a little stomach bug on Monday and that was NO FUN AT ALL!

Love, K

Keeping it Simple

2011-01-15T09:19:00.000-08:00

I came to a realization the other day. I realized that I have changed in the last few months. I use to really like being busy- just going going goin- and I called it "being flexible". But come to find out, flexibility doesn't mean leading a life of craziness and chaos. It means being willing to adjust your schedule when need be- not every day for any reason. So, I have decided to tone things down a bit. Not drag my daughter out in the middle of what should be naptime to meet up with someone, to then make her miserable and overtired, and pay for it all when I come home. I have been trying this out lately, and wow does it make life SO much more simple. I have felt so calm.

On another related note, Adam and I have decided to do the same thing with our date nights- or outings depending on the night. Instead of choosing multiple things to do and trying to cram in so much "fun", I thought that we should pick just 1 thing we'd like to do for the night or evening, and let that be it. That way, we're not out and about going to the mall, then trying to decide if anything else sounds fun, and hey while were at it, lets go spend $30 on a dinner that I could've made at home for $6! For example, last night Adam wanted to spend his Sears gift card from Christmas, so that was the plan. Go to the mall, he shops for his stuff at his leisure (all alone! Hallelujah when you don't have your child speeding up the process), while Ellie and I hang out in the play area. We DID contemplate eating out after that, but decided to stick with the plan and just go home...and it was great!

I'm totally on the train of looking for any budget friendly cut-backs too. By avoiding eating out, we probably saved about $25 last night. Call me weird, but I was really excited about that! And now, we can go use that $25 a different time, when what we want to do is go out for a simple dinner together and have a nice time chatting it up since we won't have other plans to go along with it- ya know, keeping it simple!

Wow, I feel like I just rambled & rambled about something that none of you may find the least bit interesting! Hahaha! That's okay. But just to sum up in case you feel lost as to where I was going:

Trying to make life simpler
Not going out in the name of "flexibility" and making my day harder than it needs to be
1 track mind date nights & outings
Saving money when I can to make it stretch longer

There you have it! We're having a nice relaxing weekend...hope you are too!

Love, K

Week 32

2011-01-11T08:47:00.001-08:00

Can you tell Claire is totally on the left side of my body here?! Crazy.

I am so happy to be in my 32nd week of pregnancy. I'm big & sometimes uncomfortable, don't sleep very well, and at times can be "all touched out" (notice Ellie intrigued with my belly here), but I LOVE being pregnant! I love to feel Claire move and do her thing.

Some things to note:

1) I have not been as good with keeping up with my nutrition this time around- shame on me! But I'm all over it now! Lets get this baby healthy :)

2) I'm carrying WAY lower than with Ellie- which I really like. It feels different- I feel heavier- but it feels right.

3) I haven't gained as much weight this time around! Woo hoooo! I have gained 17 lbs so far, and only have 8 weeks to go- crossing my fingers for 6 weeks though :) If she comes when Ellie did, I'll only have 6 weeks. But we'll see...I still have plenty of time to pack on the pounds :)

4) I can't stop thinking about what she is going to look like. Will she look just like Ellie, or totally different?! I can't wait to meet her and find out!

5) I'm anxious/excited about the birth. I feel like I know what to expect, but I just wonder if I can hack it! Labor pain is pretty intense to say the least, but I think it's time for a major refresher on all the comfort techniques and little sayings I put in my mind before Ellie's birth like- "It's only a day of my life- I can do ANYTHING for a day".

6) All of Claire's clothes 0-12months have been washed, folded, organized, and are just waiting for her little body to crawl into!

7) I am still nervous about being a mom of 2. I told Adam last night that I feel like I have a really good routine down from the time my day starts to the time Ellie goes to bed, but that's about to all change once Claire comes. I have to redo the whole process! Whew! Pretty overwhelming to think about.

8) I have also started to re-explore my breastfeeding/sleeping routine method. Babywise or Demand Feeding? I kinda waivered and had my own style with Ellie. Sometimes I felt she needed a strict schedule and she was happier that way, and sometimes I felt like she just needed me there with her to help her fall asleep and just be cuddled. Hmmmm...we'll see!

9) Ellie still LOVES my belly. First thing she does when she wakes up is get into bed, pulls up my shirt and lays on my belly, rubs it, kisses it, says baby...and she needs a good 15 minutes of doing this in order to feel ready to get out of bed! It's so cute. The only part that's not as cute is when were out in public and she thinks it's fair game to pull up my shirt and rub my belly! Eek!

10) We have yet to start on Claire's room as you can tell. Hoping for this next week! I want to have everything done by Feb 10th so that I can just chill out and let my body relax and be ready for her to come.

- K

95%

2011-01-10T08:46:00.000-08:00

So, my wish came true! We (Adam) was able to get 95% of our room finished! Hallelujah!! That's record time compared to Ellie's room :) But first, remember this photo from my last post?? Well, I decided that it was time to get a new comforter to freshen things up! So, I finally got a nice new comforter set! I can't wait to put our bed back in our room and see the completed look, but here's a sneak peak of our new comforter, and then our flooring in our room:

BEFORE
AFTER! ( I hadn't bought my king sized pillows yet in this pic, so we just laid the pillow covers over the current pillows, but you get the idea :)

The guys working! Thanks to Ben for all your help :)

Our room w/o baseboards- Adam is putting new ones in tonight. Can't wait!

Sleepover!

2011-01-08T19:48:00.000-08:00

We are having a sleepover with Ellie tonight :) We have ripped out the old musky smelling carpet in our room, and are in the beginning stages of installing the wood flooring! Yippee!!! Thankfully we have some friends coming out tomorrow to give us a huge helping hand, and we are still crossing our fingers that we will be 95% done by the time Monday comes around. I'm actually really excited to bunk up with both my babies tonight (well actually all 3 of my babies including Claire!) :) Ellie will be SO excited to wake up and see us in her room...plus it was a lot of fun laying in her room on our bed reading her bedtime stories...makes me kinda wish we could do this more often!

A king size bed, a crib, and a bunch of toys shoved in the closet and corners make this arrangement in a 10 X 10 room possible!

And this is the current state of our bedroom! There are so many secrets to be unlocked in our little condo...it all began with tearing away a goudy (spelling?!) mirror in our living room to discover walls upon walls of mold...remember that?! Well, maybe you don't since I was such a terrible blog slacker at the time, but it happened, and I'm sure I at least wrote about it once :) And today, when Adam was tearing out the old carpet in our closet, he discovered this yucky, cafeteria looking laminate flooring! We would soon find out that it covered the entire room! Haha! It is SO stuck on the floor that we are just gonna give it an immaculate clean, then lay the wood right over it...what were these people thinking?!?! So ugly.

Anywho, I will be back to report of our progress soon! Stay tuned...

Love, Krystle

Pony!

2011-01-07T08:09:00.000-08:00

I have waited SO long to put Ellie's hair in a ponytail! It's just so short- people ask all the time if she just got a haircut...Ugh! Well today, while distracting her with Elmo and crackers, she let me put it in a little ponytail and I think it looks so cute! The pictures aren't great, but I needed to take a few just for proof that it actually happened :)

Done & Done!

2011-01-06T07:41:00.000-08:00

So my estimated time of being done with this room was WAY off! Haha! But that's okay. It will be considered our "practice" room, and I'm sure our bedroom and Claire's nursery will go much much faster! I have to add though, that Adam did ALL of the work. I just made sure that Ellie wasn't in the way. He has become such a handyman since getting our condo- You are the BEST babe :)

Laying the Floor
A view from the closet- if you look out that window, that will be where we are making Claire's nursery...pictures to come!

Ellie walking (or wobbling around) on her new wood floors!

Getting all the toys out of the living & back in her room- Hallelujah!

Finished!

Our next project, which we are starting on tonight, is the wood in our bedroom. We can't wait to start and keeping making this little home our own :)

P.S. Hopefully we really will be DONE by the end of the weekend and I will post 2 blogs in 1 week! Crossing my fingers :)

-Krystle

In Progress

2010-12-16T10:13:00.000-08:00

Today is Day 1 of project "Install Wood Flooring & get crappy carpet OUTTA here!". And I couldn't be more excited! I realized today that I have never shown a picture of what Ellie's room looked like when we first got the place, so here it is:

These aren't terrific before shots, but you get the idea- terrible paint color, old crappy crappy crappy (did I say crappy? It was paper thin!) carpet, and me remembering visions of touring the place before we bought it, and seeing a mattress on the floor, JUST a mattres, with no sheets or anything, and a crumpled up nasty comforter in the corner. Oh, and a pillow with no pillow case! YUCK! So, I don't think I need to even say that getting rid of any visions of that day is good- Very good!

I'm bummed that I didn't get a picture of Ellie's room fully equipped with the carpet, her rug, toys, and rocking chair all complete in it, but at least you can see that we repainted a wonderful girly purple- the color was called "Playful Purple"-very fitting.

This is it with just her crib, so she can still nap through the process, and the carpet out. Hopefully tonight I will be able to post pictures of her room totally complete! That would be really awesome. Crossing my fingers!

Love, K

P.S. It just started raining here....finally some sign of winter! At least for us Arizonans :)

Middle

2010-12-13T09:45:00.000-08:00

We have come to a decision ladies & gentlemen (although I'm not too sure any gentlemen read this!). We have been trying to decide on a middle name for Claire for quite some time, and Rebekah was the first one that we chose. For whatever reason we backed out on it, but now we're super happy with it! :) It's nice to feel like my little girl has a complete name now.

Today I am tackling all of Ellie's newborn clothes through 6 months..what to keep and what to toss! I feel like I still have a good amount of time to go, but since I'm working a lot, keeping up with my own kid, and pretty tired all the time, I figured I'd better get started!

We're also working on installing our wood flooring in Ellie's room this week :) Lots of before and after pics to come!

Love, K

Mini Crib

2010-12-10T18:43:00.001-08:00

We just ordered our crib for Claire off of Ebay! We are super excited. It functions as a full size crib, but is considerably smaller (about a foot). So it is going to fit PERFECT in our little space we have for a nursery! We also bought our wood (laminate) flooring from IKEA, and think we have come pretty close to choosing our paint color. All of this spending is getting me SO excited to meet my baby. I can't wait!

Pregnancy Updates: I'm in my last trimester now! WOO HOO! 28 weeks and going strong :) I am feeling great, and just love love love this time of pregnancy...I can feel her little limbs and can make out a little body a lot of the time when she is moving around. And she is so sweet (I already know :)) because she chooses to move around when I am finally relaxing for the day (or when I wake up), and it's this special time between just her and I. I love her so much already. I feel skinnier this time around. I think it's because I feel like a shark...constantly moving, never able to stop! Gone are the days of being pregnant and lazying around when you already have a baby (not to mention 3 or 4 other kids to look after in my case). It's a good thing though. Keeps me busy & distracted. Some days I wanna cry, but most days I do pretty well ;) Oh, and Ellie is just OBSESSED with my belly. She thinks its hers- she kisses it all day long, lays on it, rubs it, you name it! It's SO precious.

I promise to post pictures of the nursery once we get started. I hoping it will be a huge transformation! Hope everyone is getting pumped for the holidays! I know I am :) Christmas is my favorite time of year. Until next time friends...

K

Trying to Stay Calm

2010-11-09T12:52:00.000-08:00

It seems like life has been so busy for me these past few months. Between being pregnant, a mom, a wife, a full time-babysitter, maintaining a (semi) suitable home, and anything else that randomly comes my way- it has JUST.BEEN.BUSY.

Last night Adam and I were talking, which led into arguing, but we'll stick with the talking part for this post :) We talked about being a parent, and how crazy it was for us to think about having 2 kids. My question to him was," When will I have time to rest?". His response was "You won't." True, very true babe.

Which made me think, life doesn't really "slow down" does it? It seems to just get more chaotic. Lovely! But in all seriousness, that really challenged me. There are days when I feel like Adam can't come home fast enough, or I am so overwhelmed and totally feel like throwing in the towel. I think it's in those times, I need to remember the constant rollercoaster of life. It doesn't really stop, it just keeps going- winding around, turning upside down, and occasionally it goes on a straight path that's pretty low key- but not for long.

Keeping that in perspective, it has challenged me to ask myself- "How do I stay calm?". I don't want to be a person that flies off the handle, or cries too often, or gets overwhelmed by silly things. I heard something on a christian radio show that said:

Expectation- Reality= Disappointment

So along with "How do I stay calm?", another thing to ask, is "What is my reality?".

My reality is that I'm a mom, I'm a wife, I'm a home-maker, I'm a worker, I'm a friend, I'm a daughter, I'm a sister...and the list goes on. THIS is my reality. When one thing ends another begins. When Ellie goes down to bed at night, my mothering stops (well, kind of) and I focus on being a wife and friend to Adam. When I close the door and the last kid I babysit is in their parent's arms, I focus on home-making and try to put dinner on the table.

So when do I rest? Now, hardly ever. The more I think about when I will have the chance to rest, the more anxious I become about resting. Does that make sense?

My resolve- Soaking in precious moments. Letting Ellie help me load the dishwasher even though it seems to take a million years. Cleaning in the moments when I know I can handle it and it won't stress me out. Smiling more. Laying on the floor playing more. Taking lots & lots of deep breaths. Sneaking in a 15 minute bath here and there. Reading a few pages of a book before falling asleep. Painting my toenails while the kids are playing contently. Waking up and reading a scripture to motivate me for the day. Throwing some bobbypins in my hair when it looks greasy instead of constantly being disappointed when I look in the mirror. Sneaking in a little nap when the kids are napping......these are the things that will keep me calm. THIS is my reality. It's not about figuring out a specific "time" in which I will rest- it's about finding times in the moments of chaos to breathe and pull yourself together.

To end, Adam came home last night and turned off my christmas music as I left the room. I came back in and asked why he had turned it off- I explained to him that it was helping me relax while I made dinner. He asked" That really relaxes you?", and I said yes. He was fine with that. But it made me think- it's really those small things that keep us going, keep us calm, keep us SANE.

What are your small things that keep you going?

Vaccine Awareness Week: Nov 1st-6th

2010-11-02T14:58:00.000-07:00

DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMER (PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU READ ON!):
I am in NO way judging other people who decide to vaccinate their children. I am simply going off of the research that I have found, and I have SO many friends of mine who do vaccinate and feel 100% peace about that decision. This is an extremely personal thing, and since this is my PERSONAL blog, and it's awareness week, I thought I'd put in my 2 cents. So please, no hateful comments. Know that this is where I stand, and I respect where YOU stand. Heck, if you decided to write a post on being PRO-vaccine, I would give you a high five! I like when people say what's on their mind.

The National Vaccine Information Center is dedicating the first week in November to Vaccine Awareness. This is something that is SO close to my heart. I have stayed up very LATE many many times, reading books, looking up articles, reading ingredient lists for vaccines & their effects, in order to figure what to do with this important decision.

My oh my is this a controversial thing! I'm a little nervous to even write it on my blog and make it a public thing, but the truth is, I really am passionate about it. You know how you just have to share a good thing when you know about it?- Kinda like sharing the Gospel to unbelievers?

Well, sadly I think that the effects that vaccines can cause to our children is an issue that gets swept under the rug, and that people think you are a TOTAL weirdo for not just doing it. For me though, I just haven't seen anything out there that has convinced me that I SHOULD vaccinate. As I read ingredients lists, and what each of those things can do to our children's bodies, and the MINIMAL, I mean MINIMAL research done to prove that these things are not harmful or cannot forever damage our children, it scares me to death. There is WAY more money going towards the promotion of vaccines, rather than the RESEARCH to make sure that they are safe. And in most cases, symptoms and side effects that children DO have from the vaccines, go unreported- doctors attribute these symptoms to other possible illnesses rather than a side effect. SCARY again. For now, we have decided to not vaccinate our kids. A few people have told me before, that chances are Ellie won't get anything anyways because she will just be "piggy-backing" off other kids who are vaccinated. Well, this isn't true either, because if you look at REAL medical reports, in some cases up to 75% of children WHO HAVE BEEN VACCINATED get the disease. So no, I don't think that I'm "protected by the herd" or "piggy-backing", I think I'm going off of my principles that I wouldn't let Ellie drink toxic chemicals right out of a cup, and likewise, I won't allow that to enter into her body in the form of a shot.

But don't take my word on all of this- I'm not a medical researcher, nor am I a doctor. But I have read lots of things from people who are, credible people, that have opened my mind up. If you want to know anymore about this, here are a few resources:

Go to Mercola.com- He is a naturopathic doctor that has an incredible website with SO many resources for finding out the real 411 on vaccines.

Also, "Shots in the Dark"- this is a documentary and you can find it on You Tube for FREE just by typing that into the title line. It's over an hour and FULL of information to help you see what is in the vaccines that is so harmful, and REAL life stories of people who have been harmed or had their lives taken by vaccines.

If you are reader, I would suggest, "Childhood Vaccinations" by Lauren Feder. A really good FACTUAL book including each and every vaccine, each ingredient in the vaccines, and the side effects of each. She is a nationally recognized physician who specializes in wholistic health.

One quote from her book that I will leave you with, that I think is so right on, is this:

" In light of the current vaccine controversy, the goal of this guide was to provide you with a well-rounded view on vaccinations. Because most of us were raised with the mainstream pro-vaccine point of view, I feel it is important to become knowledgable about both sides of the story."

Only in Arizona...

2010-10-26T12:03:00.001-07:00

Can you play outside, just a few days shy of November, in your swimsuits! May seem crazy, but I DID use warm water and the girls thought it was great!

Ellie & Scarlett

Sweet girls :) Look at both of their blue eyes!

After almost 5 yrs...I have a headboard!

2010-10-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

Adam and I have never had a headboard our entire marriage. Our room ALWAYS got the short end of the stick- not too many decorations, and it always had our randomness from other parts of the house that we didn't know what to do with! We would really like our room to be somewhere we like hanging out...besides to sleep of course! So, we decided to slowly re-do it as cost effectively as possible!

Operation Bedroom Phase 1: Make a headboard!

Materials: Wood, Staple Gun, Electric Drill, Screws, sturdy Board, Upholstery Batting, Fabric

Total Cost: $19 Wood
$8 Staple Gun
$4 Batting
$0 Fabric- We already had it on hand
= $31!!!

BeforeFrame is done!

Covered it with a sturdy board: Not pictured is me putting tape down the middle so there was no gap.

Staple gun the batting over the front, and then staple the fabric (We used an old comforter that we had)

After

I am really pleased with the way everything turned out! For a $30 project, it makes a HUGE difference in our room. We may end up covering it with something else down the road, but this will do for now :) We have so many more cheap home renovations to share with you! Can't wait...

-Krystle

Nursery Fun

2010-10-22T08:23:00.001-07:00

I am getting SO excited to start adding (well enclosing) our room for little Claire! I think I have the color scheme I want to work with, and I'm really gonna have to get creative because she is going to have a small room! It's like a 6 x 6 foot space....tiny! But, she is a baby, and it'll be perfect for her. I'm not super high tech & don't have a scanner to scan in our ultrasound pictures, but I wanted to post a picture of the picture (he he!) so you all could see our sweet little girl!

Claire (Enter Middle Name) Porter :)

Alright, so onto the nursery. Here is what I have come up with so far...there is still time to completely change the whole scheme, but I think I'm pretty set. Ellie's room is painted a really pretty purple and is very colorfully decorated...I'll post pictures of her room once it's clean!....so I wanted a different color for Claire and I'm SO LOVING yellow right now:

I'm pretty decided on pink and yellow. Very girly, and not purple like her sister :) Since it's a small space, I was thinking that I lighter color on the walls would really make it feel more open. Yellow here I come! With the husbands approval of course :) And I like accenting with the rich pink (is rich pink even considered an acceptable term?!?! ha ha! It is now...) I love it love it love it!

And once i saw this awesome wall decor, I was sold! I like it that the flowers pop out, and it's not just a wall sticker. I also think that it could add some nice character to the room...make it feel like less of a tiny box.

And now to the circle crib. The reason I am thinking of going this route is that it seems much more space efficient. Cribs are stinkin big and take up a lot of space in the room! So, I thought of this as a good alternative. Set this baby in the corner of the room, and not only will you have more space to walk around, but maybe I could even put an extra piece of furniture in the room now!

More ideas & photos of our space to come!.....til next time....

-K

Phoenix Children Museum- Family Time!

2010-10-21T12:20:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago we went to the Phoenix Children's Museum :) We had SO much fun taking Ellie around and letting her explore. She would've never left! It's $9 a person, but worth every penny! I think that's actually pretty reasonable considering you can be there the entire day. Here are some pictures of our trip:

Ellie in the split pea scooping section of the little grocery store :)
Ellie & Daddy playing with the cool colored sand!

Making paper leaves in the art room...

Climbing down the crazy contraption they just built! Boy is that hard to do when your'e not 2 feet tall!

All 3 of us at the top (did you notice we are all looking & smiling?!)

It's another one of these!!!....

2010-10-19T09:41:00.000-07:00

Yep, we're having another GIRL!!! I am soooooooooo excited :) I knew that I wanted a girl all along but couldn't bring myself to admit it in the case that it was a boy because I didn't want to feel disappointed...not that having a boy is less exciting AT ALL- it would probably be even more so because it would be new to me- BUT I just wanted Ellie to have a little sister :)

We are pretty decided that her first name will be Claire. Don't ask what her middle name will be...completely stumped! Any good suggestions that flow with Claire??? I just texted Adam a couple I though of, to which he responded, " I don't like either of them, keep trying." Bummer! So, help a girl out!

I am 20 weeks along as of Monday, and feeling great! I feel like this pregnancy is FLYING by. Which is a good thing :) I'm not the most patient person I know, and I'm already getting so anxious to meet my new little girl. I wonder all the time what she will be like, look like, how she will be different from Ellie,...all of that good stuff.

On another note, we decided to go with a Birthing Center this time around instead of the home birth route. Not because I feel uncomfortable doing it at home- one of the BEST ways to give birth if you are low-risk in my opinion- but because or insurance covers it! Woop woop! We paid all out of pocket last time, and that was quite the penny, so we are looking forward to just having this baby and not worrying about saving up a ton and stressing ourselves out :)

I would HIGHLY (did I say highly????.....ok, HIGHLY suggest you check out this birth center! It's so exciting that we finally have a birth center in the valley again, and I couldn't believe in the people that are working there any more than I already do. Not to mention it has all sorts of birthing classes, yoga, pregnancy message, ...all things pregnancy. So cool. It's called Blossom Birth Center and it's right across the street from Phoenix Children's Hospital- to appease those of you who start to hyperventilate at the thought of not giving birth at or near a hospital ;)

Well, once again, I am SO SO SO behind on posting. We have been doing ALL SORTS of home renovation, and are about to start adding on the extra room to our condo to make Claire's nursery :) Not to mention, Adam and I both had our birthday's recently, and my child is growing and changing SO much every day. I'm also doing a study called Mending the Soul, which is very intense & HARD to say the least, but I'm dying to write about things I'm learning and how God is working. He is so Good! Until next time friends....

2010 Camping Trip! FINALLY!!

2010-10-07T10:08:00.001-07:00

This was our campsite! Beautiful, eh?! We went to the same exact spot last year & loved it, so we thought it fitting to give it another go around :) We even had the tarp to keep us dry in case it rained- it didn't, but it's always a lot of fun to watch the guys struggle to put it up- he he!

We had a bit of a smaller group this year- just 4 couples. But it was nice :) This is the guys before going on their traiditional Man Hike- guns, walking sticks & all! They had a good time as usual and even got to shoot their guns a few times.

Ellie hanging out by our inflatable boat we took out on the lake. Adam and I went on a little "date" for about 5-10 minutes trying to explore the lake on this thing- unfortunately, we had to come back after those 10 minutes because little ol' me wasn't feeling too hot- pregnancy woes! But we tried!

Ellie taking a bath in the wilderness! This was her, happy...before she experienced the cold water and hated it! Poor thing! She also ended up getting an ear infection while we were there- and we were pretty camped out- so we packed up early and went home :) So did everyone else though, so we didn't have to be the party poopers! P.S. It was definitely quite as challenging to have a toddler camping as I anticipated! Naps were non-existent, it was warm, and she was EVERYWHERE! I'm sure next year will be a little better- I hope!

The only picture we took of all of us! I love my family :) I have so so so so much life to catch you up on! This trip was the first weekend in September, and tons has happened since then. One of the MOST EXCITING things is happening tomorrow since we are finding out if our little baby is a boy or girl! To say "I can't wait!" is simply an understatement!!! It's 23 hours away!!!!!!!!

Love,

Annual Camping Trip: Year 3!

2010-09-03T07:43:00.001-07:00

My friends and I feel pretty official about calling our camping trips "annual" now...it's our 3rd year this year, and each year seems to just get better and better! A bunch of us couples get together, bring lots of food, games, books- all relaxing material- and just have a good time. I think one of my favorite things to do when camping is sitting around the campfire talking about randomness :)

Also, each year seems to have some sort of big lifestyle change for Adam and I...let me explain:

About the time this picture had taken place, I was pregnant with Ellie! Got pregnant ON THIS trip! Ha ha! Gotta love tents :)
The next year we went, we had this little bundle of joy to take with us! She was SO good...oh remembering the easy days where she didn't want to get down to touch and explore EVERYTHING! This year should be interesting :)
This is just a super cute picture of Adam and Ellie..My favorite one I took on that trip :) Adorable baby, handsome lumberjack husband...doesn't get better than that!

And now to this years trip; I am pregnant with another little Porter and my baby is turning into a little girl- Oh how the years go by so fast! I can't wait to post pictures of this years trip. We always have a blast. The guys usually choose one day to go have a "man day" and they go hike until their feet feel like falling off. The girls stay back and play games pretty much the whole time- although this year I have a feeling I'm gonna be chasing Ellie around!

Wonder what next years will look like.........:)

Love,

Pink : 13 & Almost 16

2010-09-02T10:56:00.001-07:00

Me: 13 weeks Pregnant- Finally popped out a little!-Wearing PINK :)
Ellie: Almost 16 Months-Such a BIG girl!- also wearing PINK :)

Me:

This is technically the last week of my first trimester! WOO HOO! Morning sickness is starting to ease up a bit....A BIT! But hey, it's better than nothin' right?! As the days pass, I'm getting more and more excited :) I'm so happy to be pregnant during the Arizona winter. It'll be so nice! I'm a "wear flip-flops all year round" kinda girl, so the weather in the winter is perfect for that! Still having some pretty intense hormone changes- if you don't believe me, just ask Adam! Poor guy. I seriously do feel really for him! We are going to be adding a little addition onto our condo for a tiny nursery. That'll be a fun post! I can't wait until we get it all finished.

Ellie:

Oh my sweet, strong-willed, stubborn, FUNNY, precious girl. She is so much to handle but also SO much to LOVE! Her personality has really been coming through in the past months, and it's such a joy to watch :) She can do all sorts of signs; monkey, ball, more, elephant, train, airplane, apple, flower, all done....there are a few more, but I can't name them at the moment. She is talking lots more these days too....her all time FAVORITE word and object is Ball. Her and ball are pretty tight. She spots them everywhere we go. She also loves to tell us "bye bye" as she is leaving a room, and gets excited to go to bed just to say" night night". So sweet. She aslo says "no" for everything. No means yes, and yes means yes. It pretty much all means yes. The only time we know she doesn't want something is when she gets mad and yells at us! And man o man is she a climber! Freaks her poor mom and dad out, but she is incredibly coordinated, so we try not to worry as much- in a split second she is on the dining room table, laughing, being so proud of herself- it's too cute! We are OVERJOYED to be her parents. It's not so much fun when she's throwing tantrums, or screaming because she's angry, but you take the good with the bad and love it all :)

Love,

Ellie Grace Face

2010-08-24T15:19:00.000-07:00

Doing what she does best- balancing & climbing

Trying on Dada's shoes...how CUTE is that?!

Trying out her new chalkboard for the first time!

Upset about me putting the hood on her! How could I resist though? Come on.

Watching her show on the couch & eatin' some mac n' cheese

We went to a place in Gilbert called Joe's Farm, and it was SO cool...got a nice summer shot of Ellie there :)

Swinging at the park!

Post-swimming at Granma & Grandpa Bartine's (that makes my parent's sound SO old!)

Love,

AP vs. BW

2010-08-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

I'm doing it. I'm tackling it. I'm addressing it.

Attachment Parenting vs. Baby Wise (or any scheduling book for that matter)

These 2 things have kept coming up in my thoughts/conversations lately. And honestly, I feel like I'm over it. Well, not OVER it, because I wouldn't be writing about it, but I'm just really frustrated about it.

It seems like between most moms, there is a battle (or rather, a competition) for how we raise our children. Can I hear a hollar or an Amen?!

I remember when I was pregnant with Ellie, my best friend had just read baby wise and had implemented it with her daughter and I thought it was wonderful! She had such a great baby....so content, really happy, seemed very well rested, and to top it off, my friend seemed well rested and happy too! That looked like a GREAT combo to me.

But I will never forget when my midwife came over to set up things for my homebirth (about 4 weeks before my due date), she saw baby wise sitting on my end table. She asked if I was planning on doing that, which I responded "yes"- the conversation following that just about tore me to shreds. She had the BEST of intentions- don't get me wrong! She has had 10 kids for goodness sakes...she has been around the block and I totally respect her- which was why it was so hard for me to hear. But the jist of what I heard was that I was going to create mistrust with my baby if I let her cry herself to sleep. And I was showing her that her needs coudn't be met- a sort of abandonment feeling. She encouraged the attachment parenting method by Dr. Sears. More of an on-demand way of doing things. You are prompted by your baby's needs and wants, you anticipate cries before they happen, constantly carry them around with you to encourage closeness and create a strong bond. ALL OF IT DID SOUND SO GREAT, don't get me wrong. But I had experienced first hand, what my best friend had going on, and that way seemed just as gentle to me. Content baby, content momma.

Since that conversation, I have thought about these things a lot. Of course I would NEVER want to deprive my sweet baby of attention & affection, nor would I want them to feel abandoned! But in my heart, I do feel a certain balance that I feel like needs to be met. Just as a baby needs love, affection, attention, all of those things- a mom needs sleep & rest!

I am NOT one of those people who forms an opinion without looking at all of the options. That is something that really irritates me. Like when people say that Baby Wise is the devil, and have never even cracked open the book to take a look for themselves! So, I went out and bought the 800 page Baby Book by Dr. Sears, and spend FOREVER reading and reading. Again it sounded great. And there were some things that I definitely wanted to implement with Ellie to promote that bond and closeness.

The first few months, I stuck with baby wise, and seriously, Ellie was THE HAPPIEST BABY I had EVER encoutered. She was on a 3 hr schedule, really NEVER cried, fell right asleep, and was such a go with the flow baby. It was so wonderful. As she got older, she had a harder time falling asleep, and so I started nursing her to sleep. At this stage in life, THIS worked wonderfully. She loved it & so did I. A few months passed, and she started taking AT LEAST an hour to fall asleep while nursing or rocking...she was so irritable. Adam and I decided that it was time to let her cry it out a little. We knew she was so tired, and it wasn't good for her to not take naps...she wasn't a happy baby when she wasn't sleeping! Babies NEED sleep. So, we tried it for 1 day. She cried 16 minutes her first nap. Then it was 5-10 minutes at the most, for the rest of her naps. About 2 days later, I would sing to her, tell her how much I loved her, cuddle her & kiss her, then lay her down and she was OUT! She does it the same way to this day and has an incredibly hard time if there is ever a circumstance where I HAVE to hold her to go down for a nap...like if I forget the pack n' play at a friends house or something. This is what she loves now. She takes 2 really good (at leat 2 hr naps) a day, and wakes up so content and happy.

All of this to say, does it make me the devil that I don't attachment parent to the T? Am I depriving my daughter of love somehow? I was reading a blog not long ago (and not on just this one but others have done it too), and it said something to the effect of - " All of you attachment parents, tell me what you think about....." and I thought, well, I'm not an "attachment parent" so, can I not respond? Is my mothering somehow not good enough to give you a response of worth? I also don't consider myself a "Baby Wise" mom. I consider myself a "do-what-your-insticts- and-logical-thought-tell-you-to-do" kind of mom. Or an "Ask-the-Lord-to-give-you-wisdom" kind of mom and I know he'll be faithful to answer! Just like I'm not the same everyday, my baby isn't the same everyday. We are constantly changing and needing new things.

Another blog friend (Sarah) put on her blog about how she was going to try letting her baby cry-it-out, and that as far as she was concerned, the attachment parents could burn her at the stake! I thought that was hilarious! But it really made me think about how much of an issue this is, and how insecure it can make you feel as a mom.

I know it may seem like I'm downing Attachment Parenting-please hear my heart, I'm not. I think it's wonderful. But I also feel it's a bit of a cult if you are an AP parent. And same goes for BabyWise. I say Love & Accept people. LOVE & ACCEPT. God made EVERY single baby different, and every baby is will require different things. So, lets not make it out to be a my style vs. your style kinda thing. I think that we should give up the competition, and trust that each mom really does generally know what the BEST is for her baby.

There it is. I addressed it. What have you guys encountered with this issue? Anything? Ever feel inadequate with your parenting skills because of competition? I'd love to know that I'm not alone in this!!!

Glory Baby

2010-08-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

This morning I looked at my blog & something made me SO sick. I didn't even realize I did it, but once I did, it was like a train hit me.

On my little sidebar there, I put on the countdown that we were waiting for Porter Baby #2. I felt like I had completely discounted my other precious baby that I never got to meet. Just because that one didn't live as long as this one has, doesn't mean that it wasn't a part of us, and wasn't truly our 2nd baby. We refer to him/her as little sibling and still talk about them often.

I'm crying as I write this because it's just crazy how so long can go by, and then suddenly the pain of your loss hits. So many what ifs. I'm not quite sure what to do about the sidebar counter. I'm still going to think about it. But I wanted to acknowledge it. Acknowledge our Little Sibling that we loved SO much and only knew for a few weeks. This song brings a lot of encouragement to me when I think of him/her....

Sunday Sermons

2010-08-15T17:28:00.000-07:00

What's so good about the Gospel???

That is the sermon series that our church will be working through for a while. We are going through the book and Romans, and I'm SO excited about it. It's been a long time since I have actually applied what I am learning on Sunday to my everyday life- sad, huh? Totally embarrassed to admit that! Sorry Pastor Bob.

The truth is, the sermons are always (did I say always??) yep, always good. Really challenging. But my lazy butt has been too lazy to apply God's word to my life. So, today I decided to take action. I laid on my bed after church, and said a prayer something like this- " Hey God, ya it's me. Better late than never right??" Short and simple but very exciting. I think He liked it too :)

This week we talked about how the Gospel transforms us. We learned about Paul, and how he went from a position of authority & power, livin' the high life in Rome, and gave it up to be a bond-servant to Christ. Pretty powerful stuff. Paul is definitely the man. I mean, he wrote some of my favorite books in the bible, and was an apostle for goodness sakes. Byt the way, can you name all 12 apostles?? Off the top of your head? Some friends and I were watching Sister Act this weekend and that was a question on there at the beginning of the movie to the students- we racked our brain and could only name 9! Lame!----ok, whoa! Total sidetrack!----- ANYWAYS, it helped to remind me of when God transformed my life from a sinner to someone who was forgiven and redeemed. Changed me from someone who deserved death to someone who was given the grace of eternal life. I rememeber the day that I believed and how I was just sobbing with indescribable joy...a memory I will never forget-- my life was forever changed that day.

But it occurred to me today, that this "transformation" that we speak of is really not a one time event- it's a constant transformation. God continually doing His work in us, and reminding us of the sacrfice that he made through the Gospel.

The question burning on my mind today- and one that I will focus on this week until next Sunday when I learn something new is: " What does it look like to live a transformed life???"

Some thoughts I had for myself were:

Work a little each day this week on being more joyful & positive
STAY IN MY WORD! READ MY STINKIN' BIBLE!
Thank God for the transformation in my life often
Try to have my conversations be focused more around Christ

Now, that is a weak list I know, but it's a start. Let the transformation begin! Wondering what passage we went over today? Should you feel the need, crack your bible open to Romans 1:1-7.

Love,

Cravings

2010-08-10T11:12:00.001-07:00

This last Saturday, I told Adam I was going to take a nap. I laid down in bed and was feeling pretty bad...I COULD NOT fall asleep for the life of me! THEN, I had a sudden urge to eat Top Ramen (Chicken Flavor). I tried to just tell myself that I didn't need it and to just go to bed....I tried that for like 20 minutes! Once I gave in to the craving, I got up, went to Basha's and got me some Top Ramen or RAYMEN- however you say it....how do you guys say it anyways? I say ra(short a)men. Funny part is, I always feel so ghetto when buying that kind of stuff. It didn't help that I was in my PJ pants and a big t-sirt, no make-up on, and my hair thrown up! Ewww! I was trying to be in and out of there as quick as possible! Ha ha! A part of me wanted to go back later all done up and buy some fruit & veggies or something :)

All that to say....... totally hit the spot.

Tips on Staying Positive

2010-08-09T11:30:00.001-07:00

Anyone have any??? Haha!

Well, I have been really down in the dumps lately. I just can't imagine what it would be like to have some sort of chronic illness. This pregnancy sickness has really been getting me down. I wake up and feel terrible, and lay down to sleep at night and feel terrible. Since I love people who are actually honest and don't sugar coat everything, I'm just gonna tell you like it is-

I have been feeling SO guilty lately that I'm not super excited about this pregnancy. I felt that since I had a miscarriage last time, that I would be over the moon to get pregnant again. But the truth is, I'm not. I have so many fears; will this baby be ok, how am I gonna keep working with all this sickness, is Ellie gonna feel like she is robbed of affection, will she be jealous, am I really good enough to be a mom of 2??...and the list goes on.

I feel like what it really comes down to is that I'm sick of being sick. And worried. And fearful.

The other day, I had a revelation, and thank goodness I did! I felt like the Lord was telling me to STOP wallowing in my self-pity, and remember what in the world I'm even doing here on this earth. Everysingleday is a new chance to serve Him. Just because I feel terrible doesn't mean that I get to slack off on being a child in His kingdom, or that I get to just lazy around all the time. I think that the real deal is that I have given myself the grace (sometimes its good sometimes its not) to be lazy. I feel like my closeness with the Lord is something that I'm really missing and it makes me so frustrated. In turn, it effects every area of my life. Thus making me negative, slumpy, dumpy, and mean. And man is that a horrible combo! Poor poor Adam!

So, it's time to get my rear in gear and do something. It may not be deep cleaning my house, or making an awesome dinner, but I think that giving my husband a nice smile & kiss when he walks in the door would be nice, or maybe not complaining about how bad I feel to him and instead telling him something that encouraged me during the day. Maybe even praising God in the moments that I feel bad for the amazing miracle that he has given me to grow and take care of. Just a thought.......... :)

Happy Friday!

2010-07-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

The most recent picture of all of us- I haven't been good at taking pics lately :(

So, what's been going on here ? .....

Nothing too exciting. In the picture I posted, we were all headed to Adam's basketball game. He joined a league for the summer, and I'm sad to report that they didn't win 1 measly game! It was a lot of fun going to watch him play though :) Ellie loved cheering on #7 and was really sad when she saw him play and couldn't go out to the court to see him.

This past week Ellie got a double ear infection! Poor baby! She had a high fever one night and I called my pediatrician, and he said that if she still had a fever that lasted for 3 days then to come in....well it just kept getting worse(104-106 temps!!) and low and behold, it was in both ears! I felt so bad for her. She is such a tough little girl though. Still SO happy even though she was SO sick. Gotta love that :) She is on the mend though, thank goodness!

I am still plagued with pregnancy sickness and might I say that it has been INTENSE this time around! Some days it lasts from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed at night :( I'm 8 weeks on Monday, so I just keep telling myself that I need to last 4 more weeks....Seems like forever!

A lot of my anxiety is gone about this pregnancy. I just feel really good about it. And I feel God constantly telling me to trust Him. So trust I shall! I feel like I have been seeing a ton of babies lately and it's getting me REALLY excited :) I love the newborn stage of checking out their environment, eating, then sleeping. Such a simple life. And one of the easiest times (in my opinion so far) of having a baby. I'm glad that part comes first!

Have a great weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-07-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

I'm Baaaccckkkkk!

2010-07-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

(Ellie being goofy with her sunglasses on our camping trip :)

Well, soul searching didn't quite go as planned. Turns out that the Lord wanted me to chill out for a bit because I was about to find out that I am pregnant again :) I'm probably only about 6-7 weeks right now.

I have been a crazy fanatic about taking care of myself. Every SINGLE day, mulitple times a day, I am fretting over having another miscarriage. Truth is, I'm terrified of it. It's something that I need to work through with the Lord. This past Sunday a pastor at our church did a sermon on worrying and man did I need that! I keep telling myself that I just need to trust God and roll with the punches. Life serves you lemons all the time.
I have been feeling incredibly sick though....which is a wonderful thing to me! I wasn't sick at all my last pregnancy and that really freaked me out- turns out my gut feeling was right about the pregnancy feeling really off. But this time, I feel the exact same as I did with Ellie, which makes me feel like this force is strong with this baby :)

I feel so blessed to be able to grow another baby. It's kind of intimidating thinking of having 2 kids. But SO exciting at the same time. There are days now that I struggle with wondering if I am a really good mom to Ellie....am I attentive enough, do I play with her enough, am I teaching her all that I should be, am I being a good example, etc? So many things to consider. So the thought of doubling that is pretty intense.

Right now, I'm just trying to wrap my mind around this pregnancy. Trying to embrace it rather than be scared of it. I felt like I needed to blog again to just put my thoughts down on paper (or computer). If you guys could just pray for patience that would be awesome. I feel like I'm in a waiting game until my 12 weeks is up. Again, I just want to focus on enjoying it....not playing a game.

It's good to be back.

Hiatus

2010-06-07T14:14:00.000-07:00

Hello out there to all of you who actually still read this :)

I'm leaving for a while (leaving the land o' blogging that is) to do some soul searching. Well, my soul has been found and claimed in Christ, but I am feeling the nudge that God wants to do some work in me and wants my full attention. Between being a mom, wife, daycare, home-maker, and many many other things, there isn't too much time to spare. I am distracted WAY too easily and blogland doesn't help that! My life needs a little refresher :)

I plan on resurfacing sometime....it may be weeks (probably not) or even months, but when I do I plan on revamping my blog and making it into somthings much cooler....even if that just means a much more awesome ME! I may keep the same address, or I may move somwhere else....oh the possibilities!

If you want to continue to follow me, leave me a comment and gimme your email so I can let you know when I re-emerge from my searchings....

Just to REcap on all of the RE's that will be happening:
REfresh
REsurface
REvamp
REemerge
Sounds wonderful.

Until next time friends,

Adam says....

2010-05-26T22:37:00.000-07:00

that HE is going to stop following my blog if I don't post something new....HA! So here I am. Back again. Nothing too exciting, and definitely nothing to report that's noteworthy. This is what I've been up to in the weeks I've been MIA:

Going on a date with the hubbs

Watched Ellie play and LOVE the beach :)

Before we had breakfast on the Pier at Ruby's...so fun!

Babysat kiddos and watched my own sweet girl

Made my mom mother's day magnets w/all our names on them :)

Cheap but effective!

There are 2 types of moms out there......

2010-05-06T21:51:00.000-07:00

One's that complain and ones that don't. The more I encounter it, the more I realize it. Lets compare:

Non-griping Mother

Usually has a smile on her face
Doesn't say things like, "just wait until they are (fill in the blank) age, then you'll really wish they were still a baby!"
Loves on her kids, loves on her husband
Laughs a lot about funny things her kids do, or laughs at a frustrating moment instead of sighing
You can't help but feel encouraged when you walk away because you feel refreshed that there can actually be someone that just adores their children...I mean come on, how often do we see that?!
Talks to their children as if they matter, keeps her patience, doesn't wigg out because someone spilled their juice-stays calm!

Griping Mother

Sighs......A LOT!
Talks to her children in a high pitched, whiny voice, pleading with them to just do what she says
Seems like everyday is a "bad" day
Says lots of comments like, "Just wait til they crawl, or wait til they walk, or wait til they can talk, or wait til they get attitude, or enjoy it while you can, or ........etc, etc, etc! You've heard it! I know I have!
Usually acts like the kids are more of an inconvenience than a blessing

I could probably make both of these list a few pages long each, but I think you get the point. I feel like I have been from one spectrum to another with this issue. I really, really, really, enjoy being around non-griping mothers. Like I said before, it is just so refreshing. Women using their motherly, nurturing, God-given nature that flows and seems to ooze out them effortlessly. It's really captivating. And I haven't only been around mom's with one kid, I have been around moms with anywhere from 4-8 kids that have just blown me away. I wish I could just go up to them, give them a huge hug, and just say thank you!

The reason it's so captivating to me, is that it is a concious choice. When you are a mom, I think that there is at least 1 point everyday when you just wanna loose it. Whether it's just cleaning up to turn around and see everything a mess again, just changing an outfit to find it soiled with poo, going to the store with a crying baby and people looking at you, going out for a nice dinner & forgot you left a little too close to bedtime, or just simply wanting a moment to yourself when you realize that you are never alone when you're a mamma! But despite all this, to be able to keep your cool day in-and day out is admirable to say the least. There are so many reasons to be a Negative Nancy. So many. But it takes dedication, diligence, and integrity to choose to stay positive and be a wonderful example to your children.

So, my hat is off to all you cool mammas out there who try to keep a smile on your face and try to be as close to a Positive Partricia (like that one?? Ha!) as possible. I write all of this because there is one person on facebook that never fails to encourage me with just her status updates. So simple, yet effective. I think I am going to wrap this up and send her a message to say thanks :)

Home Project: Kitchen Pantry Remodel

2010-05-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I say Pantry Remodel, but I think that's a little misleading considering our pantry was left over boxes from the move :) It served it's purpose, but it was one of those areas that was sure to be hidden when guests came over! Adam has seriously become quite the handyman since we have lived here, and I'm SO proud of the things he has done to make our litle condo a home :)

Ellie & the "Old" Pantry
In Progress...

Painted & Polished!

Food items stored.....it's the simplest things we take for granted :)

SO happy to have a fully-funcional pantry! Thanks babe!!!

There have been so many little home projects that I haven't posted yet......I'm trying to get better!

P.S. Tomorrow's post: "My Favorite Things!"

Love,

Breastfeeding & the Family Bed

2010-04-27T14:04:00.001-07:00

Disclaimer: Now, concerning breastfeeding, I do not mean to offend. I know that everyone comes from different places and circumstances which do not permit breastfeeding. This is purely my opinion on the matter. Take it or leave it :)

Breastfeeding has been one of the biggest joys & biggest struggles in being a mom thus far. Let me give you some background info....

Before having Ellie, I was SO set on breastfeeding. I knew that it was the simply the best for my baby. I wondered how anyone couldn't do it. It's giving your baby something so natural, so perfect, so nutritious to their tiny bones. To me, it didn't matter if I had leaky boobs (or that the one she favored would be a considerable amount bigger than the other! ha!), had to wear terrible nursing bras that were made to make no woman feel sexy, or just have the pure inconvience of always being "available" to my baby. It just felt so right. And as a matter of fact, not opinion, it IS so right. When you look at what is better for your baby, all the doctors/researchers/etc, all agree that the "breast is best".

All that to say, the first 2 months of my life after having Ellie were the absolute hardest. She just couldn't figure out how to latch on. She would cry so hard, I would pump and feed her the milk with a tiny tube that I taped to my finger, so she wouldn't get nipple confusion. Eventually after many long weeks of that, I gave in and gave her a bottle. Man did that make life easier! Meanwhile she still didn't nurse I proceeded to have SEVEN breast infections in EIGHT weeks! Talk about misery. Somewhere around when Ellie was 8 weeks, she finally latched on...I laughed, I cried, I called Adam at work, and laughed and cried all over again...it was exactly what I had been hoping and praying for! She has been a breastfeeding champ ever since then. She is now 11 months and still going strong. I love it that she is so interactive with me during the process of nursing...she will stop and smile, play with my hair, hold my hand,...bliss.

I have been reading so many articles on when to wean from breastfeeding. I definitely don't want Ellie to nurse til she's 2 or 3 by any means, but even the little I have tried weaning her doesn't seem to be sticking. And for some reason, it feels unnatural for me to just quit cold turkey. Ellie loves it! Some articles say that babies will wean when they want to, and to just let it happen naturally, but again, if that wasn't til she was 2 or 3 I think I would be a bit weirded out...I also have lots of friends whom I respect and love quit at a year and their babies seem to take to that wonderfully....hmm, decisions decisions! I have read that some mom's felt like they were robbed from sweet time with their babies when the doctor told them to quit at a year. They said that they weren't ready, and the baby didn't seem to be ready, and they really regret it. Do any of you who breastfed have any thoughts on this??? I'd love to know.

Ok, now to address the sticky part. I have heard a lot of women who either decide to not breastfeed because of the inconvenience, or they try for a couple of weeks and give up because it was "too hard". Since nursing Ellie, I have a huge passion about stuff like this. I always think, "Well, welcome to parenthood woman! It's hard. But don't you want to do the best thing for your baby?!...or is it more about you???". It just makes me wonder what the baby would say if it had a choice between momma's milk or the local formula farm. I am by no means saying that it's not hard work, and that it would be easy to give up when your nipples are raw and have sores all over them! Sheesh!!! That is some pretty terrible stuff....but just like anything else, things get better with time. So I guess my statement or rather, my challenge would be for ladies to stick it out with their babies. It's so so good for them. Or if you do wanna give up on having them on the breast, how about pumping?! As long as it's YOUR milk, you are doing wonders for that little soul! I know it's a very sensitive subject, and maybe I have it all wrong as to the reasons why most women don't do it, but I'm hoping that by posting this, my mind will be opened up and able to understand better from women who have experienced this first-hand.

P.S. Go made our bodies to produce milk, so why not use them for the purpose in which they were created? Why go against nature?!

Gollie! That was alot of writing....the Family bed will have to wait for another time. That's enough to chew on :)

Til next time,

Rethinking

2010-04-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

I have pondered about my blog a lot lately. I feel it is getting a little too "fluffy". I know that family updates & pictures are always fun, but it has turned into something that Ihadn't intended it to be. Originally, I was going for honest, real life-stuff, struggles, my welcomed (or un-welcomed) opinions. I think its good for me to not know who reads my blog because it makes me scared to post things when I know who is reading...I have not posted many a-blogs because of that very reason. So, all this to say, I'm gonna start saying what on my mind. Controversial or not, I'm not gonna care...I have a right to my thoughts....right?! And I figure if people don't like it, they don't have to read it. So there you have it- my disclaimer for future entries. Consider yourselves warned, and I hope that we all remain friends after you discover the dark corners of my mind that wander aimlessly :) Tomorrows, or tonights topic if I get around to it......Breastfeeding & the Family Bed.

Wishing you all a superb Monday afternoon! Only 40 minutes til Adam gets home....Can't wait!

Love,

Trip to Sierra Vista

2010-04-21T07:29:00.001-07:00

Before the traumatic events of Sunday night, we had a great visit with my brother and sister-in-law in Sierra Vista :) They just had a baby (see post below), and we wanted to go help them out! Gollie, I remember the days of being exhausted and needing just a mere 6 hours of sleep, and that being extremely hard to come by! They have got Cole on a wonderful schedule, and he is such a sweet baby! So good. He hardly cried the whole time we were there :) Ellie loved being with her cousins, and we can't wait to see the whole fam and baby Cole again!

Adam, Krystle, Cole
Ellie w/Uncle Jay Jay and Hana for storytime before bed :) Don't you love that chair?!

Us taking some after bathtime pics!

Ellie & Hana soaking it up! I seriously think the water was brown by the time they got out! Eww..so gross!

Daddy and Ellie...such a cute picture :)

Love, Krystle

Quote

2010-04-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

"Your hopes and dreams for that little life begin the moment you know they exist."

Gosh. That was said to me in an email a few minutes ago from a very close family friend. It is exactly how I have been feeling, but I haven't been able to put it into words. I wondered with this pregnancy if there was ever even a baby, but honestly, it really doesn't matter. To me there was, and my hopes and dreams had started soaring the moment I found out. I know that there will be more pregnancies to come, but I am definitely grieving the loss of this baby. We really wanted this baby. And I know that by the time late November and early December arrives, I will be wishing that I could meet my sweet baby. I'm so grateful that I will be able to meet him/her in Heaven. That is very uplifting.

Thank you for your prayers. I can feel them helping me through this hard time :)

Love, Krystle

Baby

2010-04-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I think (99% sure) that I had a miscarriage last night. I'm not sure why I'm blogging about it already, but my mind is just racing and I think I need to get some thoughts out. Adam and I are really sad. We really wanted this baby. I know that there will be more pregnancies to come, but we will always wonder what this one would have been like, and what kind of baby it would have been. I'm definitely grieving for my loss today, and last night and today has felt very surreal. I wish I could just take it back. I'm not mad or angry. I think that our body has a way with things, and for some reason, this one just didn't hold. But I am sad. So thankful that I have Ellie though to cheer me up...she is really good at that :) Adam also stayed home with me today and has been really supportive, loving, and encouraging. He is such a good comforter. I am still going to go to the hopital today to confirm everything...I will keep you all posted. Your prayers would be greatly appreciated right now. We have a God who gives and takes away. He is also our comforter & our shelter in our time of need. I know that through this, He will make me stronger and make some kind of good out of it. He is already at work by sending a dear friend from California (Heather!) out to me to just spend some time to just sit and hang out with me. Just so happens she has gone through this 3 times, and knows the perfect things to say (or not say) to help. I've also had so many people just sending out love and prayers through calls or texts, so thank you everyone! I will end with these verses that I'm holding in my heart right now:

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." -Philippians 4:8

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." -James 1:2-4

Love, Krystle

Ultrasound

2010-04-16T23:29:00.000-07:00

Random picture of my little painter ;)

I had my ultrasound today. Apparently I wasn't far along enough to see the baby or a heartbeat. I think I'm only 5 weeks along...all that was visible was a sac. Not gonna lie, it totally freaked me out. Just the mere thought that a baby could possibly not be in there is totally heartbreaking. The ultrasound techinician kept saying that at this time there is nothing to worry about and to just come back in a few weeks and we should be able to see something....I think the mom in me is what made me worried! I called my mom crying, and she said to not worry, it's totally normal to not see anything this early, and a few others confirmed the same thing also. I even typed it in on yahoo to see if others had experienced this too, and they had! Now I just need to calm down and trust in the Lord, and not get worked up over nothing! Hopefully in a few weeks, I'll have some great news and pictures of our little baby and it's little heartbeat :)

Baby Cole

2010-04-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

My little nephew Cole made his entrance into this world on Monday morning :) We were all SO happy to finally meet him!!! At first glance, I think he looks just like my brother....he weighed 8lbs 13oz, and was 22 inches long. Big healthy boy! I got to go to the hospital a few hours after he was born, and then later that night Adam and I went to the hospital to walk around with him so that my brother and sister-in-law could sleep....oh I remember those days of pure exhaustion! Here he is!:

Baby Cole with Auntie Krystle....I LOVE holding babies :)
Cole with his big sis Hana

Ellie & Cole

An exhausted Jay, Hana making a goofy face, and Cole

And I had to leave you with a cute picture of MY baby!

P.S. I have an ultrasound tomorrow evening to tell me how far along I am! So exciting! I'll keep ya posted :)

Love,

Krystle

Then there were 4.....

2010-04-09T20:06:00.000-07:00

I am sooooo happy to say that Ellie is going to be a big sister!!! I just found out a couple days ago that I'm pregnant! I think I'm about 5-6 weeks along, and my due date is probably around November 27th :) I have an ultrasound this week to give me an real due date though. Adam and I are SO happy and feel so blessed that the Lord has given us another life to love on! It is truly a gift. Nausea has totally set in, and I'm feeling a bit sick at the moment, but here is our life lately in pictures!

Adam and Ellie in her purple room
Isn't this the goofiest face??? She's so funny!

Ellie at the play area in the mall...she loves it!

Ok, I'm not a bad parent...Ellie loves doing stuff like this! She even gets our dogs leashes and puts them around her neck!....it sounds worse than it is! Ha ha!

Adam and I on Easter....we didn't snap any good family photos! Bummer.

New bookshelves...I love the way they fill up the corner.

My sis-in-law Amanda and I...she is past her due date and we are soo excited to meet baby Cole!

Adam, Ellie, my brother Jay, and niece Hana

Ellie & Hana....not sure why Ellie looks cross-eyed ;)

Ellie and daddy outside on the swing

Our new rug & Ellie watching her little show :)

I just LOVE this picture. This is so Ellie. Climbing on EVERYTHING all the time. She has superb balance. Not bad for a little girl!

Love, K

im officially high tech

2010-03-24T15:20:00.000-07:00

That's right. I'm officially high tech. I'm posting this blog via my blackberry, and I have never been cool enough to have the internet on my phone until now! You may be asking yourself, how cool does she feel now?!? My answer is very, very cool. I'm not sure what ill do with all of this unlimited I internet feedom, but I'm sure ill find out! It sure is handy to be able to check nie nie's blog whenever I want... Not that the rest of yours don't count, but ya know...well, I'm off to see if I can download a picture onto this post... You'll find out as soon as I do! Peace.

Thoughtful Thursday

2010-03-17T23:42:00.001-07:00

Warning: Random Overload
This post has no meaning really. Just thoughts, even a couple happenings...

Just found out today that my dear friend who is leaving me and moving to California soon is having a sweet, precious baby boy. After 3 miscarriages, she is growing more & more beautifully pregnant each day. It is such a gift from God.
I'm laying in bed right now typing this and Adam leaned over to tell me that I needed to go to bed. My response " No I don't...I can do whatever I want." He rolled over and went back to sleep.
I'm packing my house this week to move. Lots of work. Hard work.
I am yearning to be pregnant again. Oh to feel a little life moving inside of me! I almost forget what it feels like. Thinking back on my homebirth, it was just as perfect as can be. So peaceful yet chaotic. I wasn't ready, or so I thought, but she came at the perfect time on the perfect day. I thought I'd want to listen to music the whole time, but I didn't. It figures because the day that I thought I was pregnant (and was) listening to music made me feel like throwing up....should've seen it coming.
Ellie screams a lot. Not out of anger or frustration. Out of excitement! It's so cute but so LOUD! It feels like my eardrums are gonna blow. But I love it.
She also climbs a lot. Today she worked her way onto my rocking chair & that thing is pretty high off the ground! Kinda scary, but kinda awesome.
I got an 84% on my Anatomy & Physiology test. I feel okay about it. I didn't study as hard this time around. But I still have an A in the class, so that's good.
Had some good fellowship with another dear friend tonight. God spoke to me and told me some things to share with her. It was wonderful. So awesome to see God working in someone's life, and even more awesome to be a small part of it :)
I want to join some kind of league....maybe volleyball. Anyone know of any programs around Phoenix? Momma needs to work some weight off!
I can't belive that my baby is gonna be 1 soon. She is beyond precious. She just gets better and better with each day. I am soooo blessed.
We painted our bathrooms brown in the condo. We are calling it poop brown. I hope people don't think the same thing when they come over!
I can't believe that tomorrow is almost here. It came too fast. Time to go to sleep, then get back to the grind. Goodnight!

Love,

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-17T15:57:00.001-07:00

Before & After: Kitchen Cabinets

2010-03-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

These babies took a long time! But I think that they turned out nicely :) Adam has definitely been my little handyman, and has been doing a mighty fine job! We will eventually put handles on them, but here is step 1:

Before: yucky, nasty wood laminate
After

Before: Even yuckier, nastier, wood laminate...can you say 80's??

After: with a little smudge of the paint we chose for the kitchen + our new fridge :)

We are hoping to move in in (I hate when you have to say a word twice!) 2 weeks...keep your fingers crossed!

Love, Krystle

A Day in the Life of ME!

2010-03-10T22:21:00.000-08:00

There is nothing too special about me lately other than mastering the art of being extremely busy. For example, tonight I didn't even get home until about 10:00, didn't put the baby in bed til 10:45, and my mind is so wound (spelling?!) up that I can't even go to sleep. Anatomy & Physiology ON THE BRAIN. Would anyone like to know about Intramembranous Ossification?? I'll tell you all about it :) Just to mark it in history, I'd like to recap my days this past week:

7:30- Wake up, feed baby
8:00- Get ready for school (Mon, Wed, & Fri)
8:30- Do some last minute studying or homework
9:00- Take Ellie to Heather's to be babysat
9:30- 10:20- Math Class
10:30- Pick up Ellie & other baby I watch & come home
11:00- they take naps, I do more homework & studying
1:00- Babies awake, I feed them, change diapers, etc
1:00-2:00- Get some good play time in
2:00- 3:00- Give them some independent time & review some flash cards
3:00- Naps again and I do MORE homework
4:00- Wake up, feed, change diapers, etc
4:30- Scarlett is picked up, Adam gets home
4:50- Last minute dinner prep or take a shower!
6:00- Go to school
7:45- Come home & try to hang out with fam for a bit & eat dinner
8:30- Put Ellie in bed
9:00- Study again
Pass out at some point after that...
Whew! My hand hurts from just typing all of this...seriously....I wrote out around 500 notecards this weekend alone and it gave me tendonitis! Ha ha! Embarassing to admit!

Can't wait til things start slowing down and I get some free time!

Goodnight,
Krystle

Are you serious???

2010-03-05T22:10:00.000-08:00

We found more MOLD in our condo. Yep, more. I hate mold. We went to our condo tonight to start the fun stuff...ya know, cleaning, painting, making it look clean & new....but no. We are back to square one...ripping out drywall and repairing. Basically making our home look worse. For the freakin love!!! Come on universe....go easy on us!

On a happier note, the paint colors we chose totally rock. I am VERY pleased. Pictures soon,

That's all for tonight. Short & Sweet.

Love, Krystle

Thoughtful Thursday

2010-03-04T11:02:00.001-08:00

I was looking at Beth Moore's blog, LPM Blog, and got so encouraged today. For so long now, I have felt like a have just been at a plateau with my faith. Little things have been happening here and there, but I have felt like I haven't had sweet communion with the Lord for quite some time. The thing is, it wasn't really anything that Beth Moore had said in the particular video I watched, but it was more about just hearing who God is that made me come alive. I was talking to Adam on his lunch break from work, and I was telling him that it really did feel like my bones were coming alive! I just had this huge desire to meet with God. A desire that has been greatly missed.

Anyways, in the video I watched, she was talking about Hebrews 6:10-12:

" God in not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised."

We do not want you to become lazy. Wow. That really stood out to me. If I could sum it all up into one word, it would be that I have become lazy. It depressing to admit-but it's also really refreshing. Kind of a kick in the rear!

I am a part of a life group (small group) at our church called Experiencing Christ. Each week that I go, I am sad to admit that I really don't have much to share. I will this week though! God has spoken to me and told me through his word that I have become lazy (in the most graceful way, of course). Even though He is revealing something that makes me not look so good, I don't care at all. I am just SO pleased to hear Him.

So, here's to not being lazy! I am going to put this verse on a notecard, hang it on my mirror & in my kitchen, and remind myself that God is here with me, He has a mission for my life, and to be careful not to be lazy. The reality is, it's not God that is missing out, I am missing out on what a joy it is to have such a special relationship, and get to serve the God who saved my life. That is just perfect :)

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-03T10:53:00.000-08:00

From Left to Right: Steve, Sophie, Scarlett, & Ellie

My 4 babies. They may not all look the same, but don't be disillusioned, they are all babies. I have to clean ALL of their butts from time to time. Yes, ALL OF THEM. I'm not sure how I got them all to stay in one spot while I took this picture, but it's pretty darn cute! I know this is wordless wednesday, but it deserved a few words :0)

Love, Krystle

Picture Overload!

2010-03-02T08:34:00.001-08:00

It has been a while since I did a post with lots of pictures! Today is your lucky day :)

Ellie & Mommy at the Suns game...dressed in our purple! Go Steve Nash!!
Ellie & Grandpa at the Zoo w/the Giraffes :)

Adam spray painting our kitchen cabinet hinges...they were a nasty old rust color!

Ellie on Valentines Day <3> Just has to throw this one in there....she looks too cute :)

A trip to the park

Ellie & Mom checking the mail at our new condo

All of us on a family hike for Jacob's 9th birthday

Adam ripping out drywall covered in mold! Ewwww! Thanks babe!

Another really cute on of Ellie!

love, Krystle

Time flies when you're BUSY BUSY BUSY!

2010-02-23T12:04:00.001-08:00

Whew! Seems like all I'm doing on here lately is long updates....well, here's another one just to keep the cycle going!

Ellie

* Turned 9 months on Feb. 17!

* Only likes pears & sweet potatoes....her favorite "food" is still breastmilk!

* She is crawling, standing up on her own, and is SO close to walking.

* Dada can make her laugh the most....it's sooo precious :) Makes my heart melt!

* Totally a mommy's girl. It's the best. Simply the best.

* She loves to spit.

* She is finally sleeping in her own bed at night...tear :( I miss her, but it's the BEST thing for her....or at least that's what I'm telling myself! Ha!

* She is super independent and loves to crawl around and explore. It's so fun to watch her.

* She is a total night owl! Her bedtime is anywhere between 9:30-11:00....at least she sleeps in to make up for that!

* She is currently asking for a baby brother or sister.....well, that's what she would ask for if she could talk :) I'm sure of it!

* Currently in school taking my last 2 classes to finish up my prerequisites for nursing school.

* Proud to say that I made 100% on my first Anatomy & Physiology test!

* Love Love Love staying home with my baby. Most rewarding job on the planet. Pure bliss on even the hardest of days :)

* Trying to have baby #2! Well I put this under my category, but really, I suppose Adam is involved as well ;)

* I can't wait to move into our new place! Such a work in progress, but Adam is being quite the handyman and getting stuff done...so proud of him!

Adam

* Got a promotion at work about a month ago, and is busier than ever!

* Spends ALL of his free time working at the condo and doing a mighty fine job, I must add!

* Is such a great dad to Ellie. Like I said earlier, it just melts my heart when they play and laugh together. One of the best sounds a mommy can hear :)

* He has also been having to pick up the slack around the house with all that I have going on, and I'm sooo thankful for it!

That's us in a nutshell! Til' next time.....

Love,

Krystle

Winter In Arizona

2010-01-16T19:29:00.001-08:00

2010

2010-01-13T13:36:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Oh, and Merry Christmas :) This is our christmas photo this year. Ellie is now almost 8 months! I can't believe it. The time has truly "flown (spelling?) by"...so I guess what all the random passerbyers say in the grocery stores is true! Ha ha! It's funny how people always feel the need to give you a little piece of "wisdom" when they see you have a baby.

I vow to not make any "New Years Resolutions" this year, since most years they don't seem to matter after the first week, but I will write down some changes this year brings :)

As my last post states, I will be a part-time student at a local community college. Fun fun! Going back to school for nursing...these are my last 2 courses and I'm totally pumped to go :) I get to apply to the nursing program after this & that will be a dream come true for reals!
I have been doing this for some time, but will continue into this year as a nanny/babysitter for a little girl named Scarlet (aka-the Scarlinator). Her and Ellie are about 2 1/2 months apart (Scarlet is almost 5 months), and when going out people ALWAYS think I have twins and say "looks like you've got your hands full!" while not offering to open the door for me...Ha! It's so cool though that Ellie and her get to be around eachother all the time. Her mom is a good friend of mine and I think the whole arrangement is totally a God thing :) Ellie mostly likes to eat her feet.
Adam and I bought a condo in phoenix, and are currently "fixing it up". Sounds pretty harmless until you discover that popcorn ceilings are WAY more work than you expected, find mold behind the bathroom going almost to the laundry area, and realize that in "fixing something up", it seems to look more terrible than when you first got it! Ugh! BUT, we are SO happy and SO blessed to have it. Hopefully I will be posting pictures of our progress along the way :)
December 2010 will mark our 5 year anniversary! Super exciting. I feel like 5 years is something...don't you? Each year has been VERY different so far, and I'm really looking forward to what this year will bring....hopefully a new addition to our little Porter fam! If only my periods were more regular! TMI?? Ok, I'll stop. :)
Ellie will turn ONE! My sweet little girl. She is more of a joy than I EVER imagined. I never thought motherhood could be so wonderful...I mean, I had an inkling, but until you meet your own child, you have no idea!
We will be going into our first year without little Jacob. I realize I haven't written much about that since it happened. Truth is, it's just too hard. I'm not sure when I'll be ready, but he will for sure be greatly missed. I wish I could see him turn 9 this year. But I praise God for the time we had with him, and look forward to seeing him again.

That's about it...it's a lot though! Hope everyone is having a great start to a new year :)

P.S. I cut my hair off! This picture looks NOTHING like it...will post new "do" soon! :)

Love, Krystle

Back to School!

2009-12-13T10:22:00.000-08:00

(a picture to brighten your morning!)

Yep. It's back to school for me! I couldn't be happier. I wish that January 19th was already here! I have decided to go back for a few reasons:

I am 3 classes away from applying to a nursing program! It seems like if I don't, it would just be wasted time...and that would stink!
I am all about natural childbirth. I know that it can be so challenging to do that in the hospital setting, and I'd love to be of assistance to women who want to do that & be supportive...as well as others who don't :) Having a child is so incredible, and I just want to be there for those special moments.
Adam already has his degree and I want to have mine too. I really want to set an example for Ellie. I think that would be really encouraging to know that her parents both did what they hope she will do too :)
I just want to! I think it would be a huge accomplishment!

So, there you have it. Starting January 19th, I will be a part-time student, part-time babysitter, part-time catering server, & full time momma! Busy life here I come!!!....but I couldn't be more excited!

Love, Krystle

Dinner & a Video Game?

2009-12-03T17:55:00.000-08:00

Yep. That's right. I'm making dinner, and my husband is playing a video game with my little brother. We are also listening to Primus per request of the husband. I give in because he has to work with what he calls "Mervyn's Music" (He use to work there).... ya know like Savage Garden, Backstreet Boys, Celine Dion...you get the point. Not my ideal night, but hey, I embrace what I'm given to work with :)

If I could have it my way, it would probably be light Christmas music, candles lit, tree lights on, & a hot cup of tea while I make dinner.....mmmmmm....if only......

For now, I will be happy with Medal of Honor in the background & the sound of happy boys and a happy baby! Not to mention I'm making Creamy Mashed Potatoes I found from this blog and I can't wait to try them! Thanks Vanessa! By the way, if you ever want a good recipe or are stuck on what to make for dinner, hop over to her blog and she will definitely make your mouth water :)

Just wanted to kill some time while my broccoli is steaming....Hope everyone is having a simply spectacular Thursday night!

P.S. I just found out today that my local grocery store Sunflower Market (Love it!) gives out FREE back massages on Thursdays between 10 & 2 pm! That definitely made my Thursday fantastic!

Love, Krystle

My Heart is Pure Mush

2009-12-01T20:22:00.000-08:00

For this little girl.

I can't even handle it...
Can you?! :)

Happy 1st day of December to all of you!

Love, Krystle

Not Me Monday!

2009-11-30T12:46:00.000-08:00

Ok. So I'm trying this out. I got the idea from this blog, and it's so fun! I however will have an extremely SHORT one, but here goes!.....be nice to me.....it's my first time!

....(you post about things you aren't too proud of).......

It was definitely NOT ME that cleaned a nasty NASTY toilet COVERED in pee and who knows what yesterday! I swear, the people that lived in the place we just bought DID NOT clean for even 1 second....I'm absolutely convinced. I wore clothes over that I could just cut off of my body...yep, it was definitely NOT ME cleaning other people's bodily excretions....not me!

It was also definitley NOT ME who put down a teenager's imprisoned father....this is how it went down....I was taking one of my brother's friends home from school, and I was asking what his parents do (you know, one of those conversation starters), he proceeds to tell me that his mom worked for intel or something like that, and that his dad didn't live with them. I then asked what he did, and he said that he was in prison.......and it was DEFINITELY NOT ME who said this.......

"Oh, well I guess he doesn't do anything then." - GASP!!!! Slap my mouth , hit my hand, & shame on me! I felt really terrible. Actually, no I didn't....because it was NOT ME who did that ;)

Last night after I cooked my husband chicken noodle soup (and might I add, Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup!) it was definitley NOT ME who decided to not do ANY dishes and leave my kitchen a bloody mess! My husband did not call me today and make fun of me by saying that I would still be working on those dishes by the time he came home 6 hours later.....Nope, NOT ME!

P.S. Ever wonder why God made men to not be able to handle sickness??? So weird. I mean, put em' out in the woods and they'll shoot something, chop down a tree, want to stay over night with just a blanket, but let them have a little stuffy nose, and you would think the world was crashing down! ha ha! Okay okay, ....I exhaggerate.....but you get the point!

Alright! There it is. Any of you have a NOT ME monday post I should check out? Do it!

Love, Krystle

Ahhhhh.....It's Christmas Time!

2009-11-29T08:55:00.001-08:00

I love this time of year. I wish it were colder, and maybe snowing, but I'll take it! I am going to put up our tree today, listen to christmas music while doing it, and maybe drink some hot chocolate. I'm also skipping church this morning so that I can keep Ellie on a good sleeping schedule :)

Now that I'm back, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that prayed for little Jacob. We really appreciate it. I know that I have felt all of those prayers carrying me through this hard time.

Well, here is an update on Ellie!

She is 6 months and about a week! I can't believe it.
She has slept through the night for a long long time now- about 4 months! Woo hoo!
She doesn't like any food- not even cereal. I'm gonna try and break that by buying every kind of baby food I can and tying them out on her...we'll see!
About a week before she turned 6 months, she started crawling AND sitting up! Ever since then she goes everywhere. It's so awesome.
About a week ago, she also started pulling herself up onto things...Adam walked at 10 months, and I think Ellie is well on her way!

I am making a lot of presents again this year! And I will be posting my makings along the way...it feels so much more meaningful to do that. I just love it.

Speaking of "making", the best christmas present for me this year would be for me to be pregnant again! Keepin' my fingers crossed :)

Love, Krystle

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T07:54:00.000-08:00

Recap of our life lately in pictures! I hope everyone is having a wonderful thanksgiving morning!! Adam is currently in the kitchen making us a HUGE thanksgiving breakfast...Yummmmmm!!! So happy to be back on the blogging scene :)

Checking out the awesome golf club doorbell we inherited when we bought our first home!
Adam and Ellie on a hike :)

Ellie and Mommy right before I left for work at my new job as an on-call catering server!

The 3 of us at the Ravi Zacharias Event....Awesome!

Adam's birthday dinner at The Keg

Vacationing in San Diego

Camping Trip with our friends

Ellie making a hilarious face!

Heeeeellllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooo!!!!

2009-10-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

I miss blogging. Like, REALLY miss it. Currently, we are unable to "steal" internet from innocent, unsuspecting neighbors, and to keep budget costs low, we have decided to not have the internet. Consider this a formal apology to all of my friends for using the internet at their house instead of hanging out...

AND, Can you BELIEVE I missed Nie's appearance on Oprah?!?!?! Come on! Talk about being really irritated. If I could have followed her online more closely, this tragedy would have never happened...did anyone out there watch it? How was it?? Please fill me in!

Currently, Adam and I are vacationing in California. So far today we have slept in, I called my moms to tell them we got in okay, fed Ellie some rice cereal, and watched a car chase in Dallas, Texas for about an hour...and liked it! Ha! It cracks me up that they call that "Breaking News" here in California. What in the world does that have anything to do with us? It is really funny though to hear the newscasters struggling to find something to talk about that whole time!

We are headed to the beach soon. Lots of pictures to be taken. Ellie is pretty stinking cute these days...I wish I had pictures to post now, but I'm not at my home . Soon my friends, very soon.

Hopefully our internet will be up and running next month (cross my fingers), then my posts will be more regular. Until then, enjoy the randomness :)

Jacob William Porter

2009-09-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

Jacob went home to be with the Lord Friday night, September 11, 2009 around 10:30pm. Praise God for our hope of heaven. Praise God for the resoration & healing that heaven brings. Praise God for loving Jacob more than any of us could ever imagine. Praise God for 8 years of being around one of the sweetest, most unique little boys I have even been blessed to have such a close relationship with. Praise God for so many precious memories his life has left behind. Praise God that one day, we will see him again.

Thank you for your prayers. All of them were answered. Jacob is happy & healed as I write this.
Our God is good.

Late Night Thoughts

2009-09-03T00:06:00.000-07:00

(I was looking for a picture of us to post...I stole this from a friends computer. They are both asleep and don't know that I stole it...Ha! Thanks Alexa!)

I'm back.

The me that gets all deep sometimes.

My mind is racing tonight, so I thought I might share some thoughts with you.

As I sit here and type this, Ellie and Adam are sleeping next to me. I'm typing on a friends computer, which feels weird since I just opened up a word document and wrote a few pages of some of my deepest, most secretive & real thoughts on just a minute ago. Something in my spirit was just in need of some good writers therapy.

I miss normal life.

I am so jealous of the people who don't have a little brother with a brain tumor. Who get to go to sleep at night knowing that things are safe & sound...not waiting around for a call to say that someone needs you to come just in case things take a turn for the worst.

I won't tell you all of my thoughts that I wrote down, as some are too selfish for the world to see, but this I will share...

When I was younger, I would ask the Lord to test me. I wanted to know how strong my faith really was. I wanted to know that in my darkest moments I would turn to Him. Well, some of them have come. I'm happy to say that I have still clung (is that the right tense? Ha!) to Him through this situation (definitely not all of them). If there is no hope of Heaven and restoration, then there is no hope at all. But man. Why ask for such tests? It's silly really. We live in such a broken world. We should expect heartache around every corner. But for some reason, when it comes, we act surprised.

Tonight, I'm praying, thinking, & meditating about hope for Jacob. I want restoration . As I type these next words, know that my fingers hurt & my stomach aches for how badly I want this...I want to see Jacob run again. I want to walk in the door & have him greet me himself with his big smile, I want to see him play his legos, and beg us to play games with him-and this time, I never want to refuse. I want him to give me a hug voluntarily, and kiss my hand like he use to. I want to see him watch himself in the tv while it's off (we called it "The Jacob Show"). I want to see what kind of uncle he will be to little Ellie. I want him to meet our other children when they come. Most of all, I want him to be really alive again. Happy.Well.

Tonight I'm still praying for our miracle. Would you please pray with me?

I could keep writing forever, since I'm not tired, but I won't.

Love, Krystle

P.S. We are headed off to go camping tomorrow! We need this time to sort of re-coop and get some much needed energy to come back and be able to be the best help we can. If I could ask for another prayer request, it would be that Jacob would be okay while we are gone. Thanks everone :)

Pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-08-17T17:10:00.000-07:00

Ellie Grace Porter

3 Months & 1 Day.

Happy.

Beautiful.

Lovely.

Sweet.

Precious.

I love you baby girl.

- Mommy

Hello Out There!

2009-08-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

Sorry to leave you with the last post and then NEVER update! Things included/not-included in this post:

1) Jacob
2) Ellie
3) Breastfeeding
4) Lack of new pictures! Ugh...I haven't been home too much and my mom doesn't have any good ones! Dangit!

Jacob

Since we found out a little over a month ago, Jacob has been doing fairly well. Adam's parents decided to do a naturopathic treatment on Jacob and it seems to be taking. Most of his days are spent in bed since he isn't up to running around, so most days Adam and I are over there just hanging out, playing games, and watching re-runs of Gilligans Island! I forgot how funny that show was :) We are hoping to get another MRI done sometime in the near future to see if the tumor has shrunk any. Supposidly (spelling?) the stuff that he is on should be able to reduce the tumor after 6 weeks of using it...so please pray that his body will respond to this treatment! We have people asking all the time about ways that they can help. Adam and I have decided to be very frank about that. It feels weird to do, but right now it seems totally necessary. Adam and I have opened an account for his family to recieve anonymous donations. We are basically trying to raise enough money so that his parents can get by for a few months and solely focus on getting Jacob in a better state and develop and solid routine. If anyone is interested, feel free to send me an email :) Other than that, we feel encouraged. The Lord is definitely among us, guiding us through, keeping us sane (to the best of our abilities anyways) and has been so gracious by showing us small signs of healing already. Praise God. But WAY MORE than money, we would be so thankful for your prayers. We know we have the great Healer on our side, and that he can make miracles. And since He can do that, we are asking for it.

Ellie

Oh my sweet precious girl. Words can't even describe the joy she brings to my life. I am glad to report that little miss is sleeping through the night! Well, she has been for a while now...about 4 weeks! People always come up to me and say "You must be SO tired" ( do I look it or something?!) and it's so cool to say that I'm actually really well rested! She isn't a crier...only if she is hungry or tired, and those things are easy to fix. All in all, we have a awesome little girl! And as soon as I possibly can I will upload some pictures!

P.S. Since Ellie is such a good baby, Adam and I are ready for our next one...I mean REALLY ready...as in we are not preventing it from happening......Whoo-hoo!!!!!

Breastfeeding

Bloody breastfeeding. You were NOT my friend- in fact my enemy for a long while. You cost me 2 ENTIRE months of 7 breast infections...but I was determined and SO glad to say that I won the war!!! About a month ago Ellie started breastfeeding like she'd been doing it her whole life. Little stinker. But boy is life a million times easier now! No feeding , then pumping, then feeding, then pumping....half of my day has been given back to me. It's awesome. Now I'm just hoping that my milk stays in...

So there you have it friends, my life, in a TINY nutshell. I haven't been able to even touch on emotion...you know I like to that...but it will come. Thank you for your prayers and hopefully I will be blogging MUCH MORE frequently in days to come!

By the way, did anyone see Julie & Julia and think it was as AMAZING as I did?! I was inspired to go through a cookbook myself after that!

Love, Krystle

Bring the Rain

2009-07-12T15:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a while again. There is so much to say, but today I'm going to keep it short & sweet in light of the circumstances. Adam and I have been through a really rough & terrible week. On Tuesday night we found out that his 8 year old brother has an in-operable brain tumor. I don't think it has all settled in yet, but we know that our hearts are heavy and burdened. We still remain completely hopeful though. We have a great Healer on our side. Jesus. And I am confident that He is completely in control and will guide us through this storm.

All this to say, we humbly ask for prayer. Prayers for healing for little Jacob, comfort for all of us, patience to get through the good days and bad days, and most of all that our God would be glorified through this situation. This is not the world He intended for us- it is broken & sick- and right now we are longing for the restoration and hope that heaven brings.

Adam and I are also moving to be closer to the family this upcoming weekend. It's a REALLY hard transition for us. We're moving away from our church family and the part of Phoenix that we love and have lived in since we've been married. It's all happening so fast, so I won't be around too often in the next few days. But these are the times I need my blogging family! So, I will be sharing my thoughts and updates often.

Thanks for your prayers.
Love, Krystle

P.S. The title of my post is "Bring the Rain". It's a song my MercyMe that is really comforting to me right now. Check it out :)