Traveling Down Memory Lane

One of my goals for the new year has been to go through my tubs of stuff in the garage and get rid of things.  It has been fun to go through everything and travel down memory lane.  I took a picture of a few things.

Once upon a time I went to a Lakers game at the Great Western Forum for $24.50!

A couple of wonderful letters I wrote to my mom as a kid.

My parents' wedding announcement.

These are the scripture scholar awards I earned during seminary.  I finally threw them away.

The requirements for the awards.

My trophy for being the most outstanding 8th grader.  Also thrown away.

Why in the world is Amy wearing this shirt?!?! Mom, please do explain!

In a few years I'll go through it all again and hopefully throw away more stuff!  I think I have hoarding tendencies!

Snow, Snow, and More Snow

The amount of snow we have had since Christmas has been unreal.  I've never seen this much snow in all my 18+ years now in Utah.  It is really dumb and I'm really over it.  Anytime it snows, James basically is M.I.A.  He has to be out at all the properties he oversee making sure the snow removal is going.  It makes for some really long days and nights.  We are ready for spring already!

Post shoveling the driveway look.

Go away snow!

Happy New Year!!

We rang in the new year with James' family this year.  John and Wendy and the kids were in town, so it was so great to have so much of the family together.  We ate lots of yummy food and played games.  We even made it to midnight.  About 15 minute before the clock stuck midnight, people started setting off fireworks in the neighborhood.  It sounded like it was literally happening outside the window of the the room Porter was sleeping in, so he woke up of course.  He was able to ring in the new year with us before we packed up and headed home.

Happy 2017 everyone!  I completed zero things on my bucket list in 2016, but that's okay because I have a lifetime to complete them!  Life is a little busy these days!  I can't even pee in peace let alone do all the awesome things I have on my list.  Some day....some day!  There is a time and season for everyone and right now my time and season is full of my favorite kid.  Here's to an amazing 2017!!

Porter Antics - December

Here are all the random pictures from December...

One of my favorite pictures ever taken.  He loves his bear and blanket!

We visited the dinosaur museum one morning with Amy and Luke.  A picture must always bet taken by this "soy-your".

Because sometimes you need to read the scriptures with your swimming hat on.

Taking Huddy buddy for a test drive.

This is what happens these days when I won't let Porter have candy for breakfast or watch Mickey Mouse all day.

Porter loves his dips just like his momma!

Playing with Sadie and Ruby

This is Porter's favorite thing at Costco, and this is his favorite picture ever taken.  He will look at it forever with the biggest smile on his face.

The only thing that slows this boy down...his shows.

Sometimes you choose to learn about a legend for your bedtime story.

And there you have it folks...a year of Porter antics...with many, many more yet to come.

Christmas Day

Our Christmas day was not what we expected it to be.  With James' new job, any time it snows, he is pretty much M.I.A.  Of course it started snowing late Christmas Eve night.  James left around 1am to go check all his properties and get his crews started on snow removal.  I got up with him so we could see what "Santa" had brought us.  I was going to keep our tradition of watching a movie, but I thought it was pretty silly to do by myself, so I headed back to bed when James left.  James got home a little before 6am.  It was just in time for Porter to wake up and to open presents. 

Just waiting for Porter to wake up!

When we finally heard him making some noise we ran upstairs to get him.  We were so excited for him to come downstairs to see all the presents and to open them.  He immediately saw his gift from Santa...a night light that projects stars all over his room.  We found the candy in his stocking too, and then he was pretty much good to go.  He didn't have much interest in opening presents.

It became like pulling teeth to get him to open a present.  He just didn't have the attention for it.  He did love his new broom and dustpan though!

We couldn't even get him to hold still for a family picture, hence his is blurry!

We had to go to church shortly, so James and I quickly made our traditional Christmas bacon and threw it on a yummy breakfast bagel.  Then we got ready for church.  I had to speak in sacrament meeting, so that was on the back of my mind all morning.  Talk about putting a little damper on Christmas morning!

Post-church family Christmas picture

Christmas outfit

I can't be more excited about my new shelf for the laundry room and my new BYU hoodie!

Immediately after church, James headed back out to work, and Porter and I headed up to Amy's.  We played and ate and played and ate all day.  I'm so grateful Amy was in town and so close!  It would have been a real bummer to sit at home alone all day!

A Christmas IBC cream soda!

James finally got to Amy's a little before 7pm running on about 3 hours of sleep.  Poor guy!  And the forecast does not look good for snow for the next 10 days...booooo!  Luckily, James has a great boss who is promising they will have comp time for all these hours worked.  In the meantime, Porter and I are keeping busy with our new presents...

My gift from Santa was a dot-to-dot of cityscapes.  So awesome!

We completed Porter's Babylit book collection.  I'm obsessed with these!

Deeds, Kimmy, and Lynlea got Porter this fun bath toy.

Hopefully Porter will be more excited about presents next year and hopefully it won't snow!  He wouldn't even open his last 3 presents so those are up in the closet awaiting his birthday.  Haha!  One thing I did love was going to church on Christmas.  It was a great way to focus on what was most important about this day!  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

We had our annual Taylor family Christmas Eve party and dinner Saturday night.  We had a delicious dinner, read Luke 2, exchanged gifts, and read the Polar Express.  It was wonderful to be gathered with family to celebrate this season.

I can't remember what this grumpy face was about.

Matt, Liz, and Max got Porter the cutest little rocking horse. When he opened it, he said, "Apples!" 

Porter had a front row seat for The Polar Express

We played a couple of fun games.  One involved rolling a pair of dice and any time doubles were rolled, that person had to put on the Santa hat and the oven mitts and tried to open the Christmas present.

Another game was trying to hook as many candy canes as possible in one minute.  James was the big winner!

Porter had lots of kisses for baby Wren.

Love this family of mine!

'Tis the Season!

We are busy doing all things Christmas around here.  I could hardly wait to decorate our house and get our tree up after Thanksgiving.  We have nearly Porter proofed the tree.  He can only reach the bottom few branches!

Decorating g-thug style!

Checking out all the ornaments on Nana and Papa's tree.

James and I were able to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert and see the lights.  I failed to take a single picture. A few days later we continued our gingerbread house making tradition.  We upped our game a little this year and already have grand ideas for next year...a small village perhaps?!

 

 Tickets were super cheap to the BYU basketball game earlier this week so I tagged along with Ryan and Kara since James had meetings.  Porter was 150% exhausting (never sat still, up and down the bleachers, down our aisle, trying to take everyone's drink around us, up and down, up and down, up and down) but it was fun and Kara scored us a bunch of In-N-Out gift certificates afterward so it was totally worth it.

 

 

 

  

 

I seriously should strap a Go Pro on this kid and just hit record.  It is unreal how busy he is!  James and I finished all our baking for our friends and neighbors, and now we are all set to celebrate and enjoy this wonderful holiday!

Can't wait to consume this!!