Change is in the air

The summer is coming to an end and our fall schedule is about to start. School for Ella, bible study for me, new things at church for Ben and a morning out with just Mommy for Drew. With all this change I have decided that the blog must come to an end. I know, I know, you all will miss the plethora of entries a week from our household and won't know what to do with all the extra time you will have now that you won't be reading my blog every day (ha ha). That my friend is the very reason I am closing down. The blog thing is just not me. To be honest it stresses me out and I actually feel guilty not updating. Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous but it's true. So....how will you see these precious moments in the porter house? Well, I am going to try something else. I will upload all my months pictures to kodakgallery and email them out once a month. SO....this is where you come into play---if you want to receive these picture emails please leave me a note with your email, facebook me, email me whatever means you choose to let me know you want to get our picture update. Who knows maybe someday I will come back to the blog world but for now kodakgallery here we come. Cheers!

Drew's One!

Our little man is one! He is all boy and we love it. There are no baby dolls, no tea parties. There are balls, trucks, shovels and climbing on everything. The little guy has no fear. He has started to take a few steps and we are convinced he will be off and running within the next couple of weeks. My favorite thing about him? His smile. It will always melt my heart. We love you Dru-dru.

Waffles and candles for breakfast--our family tradition.

He was so worried we were not going to let him eat it.

He "nursed" it for all of it's goodness.

Such cuteness

Cars & trains

Ok, so I had to include this shot. Ella helped me make Drew's cupcakes and all day as they cooled on the counter and sat iced she would pull her stool over and smell them, look at them and remind me that she was going to be able to eat one after dinner. My girl loves her desserts!

Tunnel Fun

My sister brought the kids a tunnel that they love to play in. Here are a few fun shots taken one afternoon after naps.

Peek a Boo

Sister time

Last week Ben headed to Florida to attend the big PCA general assembly so I decided this would be a perfect time to have my sister out to spend the week with me and the kids! We had such a great time together. Sarah and her husband are moving to South Korea in August to spend a year teaching English. I am going to miss her so much so I wanted some good quality time with her before she crossed the seas.
We took the kids to the zoo....

We almost got the giraffe to eat grass out of our hands....almost. Does anyone know why giraffes have purple tongues? It's because their tongues spend so much time outside of their mouths that if they were not purple they would get sun burned--who knew?!

Ella and her Tani Sarah
Of course we had to get ice cream. The weather is killing us here! It has been in the 90's-100's the past two weeks--ugg. But some good Ted Drews frozen custard definitely helped.


We spent a morning at this great water park/pool.

This is what Ella spent almost an hour playing with. She would sit down on the stair and just put her feet on the water shooting up. It's so funny that this place had a water slide, water sea saws, water swings, etc. etc. and all Ella wanted to do was play with this one small water fountain. Or she wanted to sit in the beach entry part of the pool and play with all the toys other "prepared" moms thought to bring along. Sarah and I of course couldn't complain. We loved just being able to sit in the water and get some sun.

Drew chill'n it up!

the girls.....

Sarah and I also got to spend an evening out just the two of us. I set up a babysitter and we headed to downtown Clayton to have dinner at a great tapas restaurant. We got a table outside where we were able to listen to the live music and eat some great Spanish food. It was so refreshing to be able to spend a couple hours talking about this last year and the year to come. Both of us have gone through a lot of transitions and it was great to be able to challenge and love each other as we listened and shared. Thanks for coming Sarah! I love you!

Our little singer

Ella loves to sing although we can rarely get her to perform for the camera. But for some rare reason on this night she didn't care that daddy was "spying" on us. I know in just a few short weeks she will have the words to these songs down pat and will not make up her own sweet ways of saying some of the words. I wish I could just pause her in life right now! I could sit and listen to her sing any hour of the day.

In this first video you can simply stop the video after she finishes Jesus loves me. There isn't anything else worth listening to, I just don't know how to edit down a video.

Jesus Loves Me

ABC's

A few weeks ago I decided that I would try having a picnic on the front porch because it was so beautiful outside. I wasn't quite sure how Ella would handle the freedom of eating on a blanket but she did great. She loved watching every little 'lady bug' (she calls all bugs lady bugs) crawl across the blanket in hopes of making it up onto her plate. When flys would land on her sandwich she would scream in excitement and say "shoe fly". Now everytime we are getting ready to eat she asks if we can eat outside on the porch. So we often find ourselves lining our porch with food, toys, blankets and chairs for lunchtime. If you are ever in our area around noon stop by and join us!