Porter Post

Jack and Ben say both "yes" and "no" plenty, but Ben makes me smile most with "yes" and Jack makes me smile most with "no." My favorite times when Jack says no are when he's too tired to fight us physically before bed, but too stubborn to let us put him in his crib right away without throwing a fit. I cradle him in my arms with his blanky all wrapped around him, I rub our noses together, I kiss his cheeks, and I whisper to him.  Me: "Jackson, I love you..." Jack: (Keeps eyes closed but knits eye brows into a scowl.) "No!" Me: "Jackie Boy, are you so sleepy?" Jack: "Nnnno!" (Eyes closed and eye brows scowling, with added wrinkled nose and lip curl.) I rub noses and kiss his squishy rosy cheeks. Jack: "Noooo!" (Scowl gone. He thinks about smiling because he can tell I'm smiling.) "Nooo." Me: "I'll be right here sweet boy. I'm just going to lay you do...

I don't think that I will ever really miss dried yogurt on my kitchen chairs or walking into my bathroom to find the entire box of q-tips all over my bathroom floor, but there are plenty of things that I will miss from this phase of the boy's lives and I want to make sure I write them down so I can remember them later. Cameron He loves Octonauts right now. That means that we have taken a drive around the neighborhood in our guppy, being chased by a colossal squid (which according to Cameron have huge eyes so they can see in the dark and claws in their tentacles). While on said drive we ran into a sperm whale (an approaching car) and decided to follow it in the hopes that the colossal squid would lose interest. It also means he has a new found love of whale sharks because their mouths are (holding out arms as wide as he can make them) "THIS BIG MOMMY!" I'll miss him asking me to give him butterfly kisses and then eskimo kisses (it has to be done in that ord...

I don't consider myself an extreme neat freak, but I do really enjoy a clean house where everything has a place. I like order and I feel peaceful at the end of the day when the house looks clean and organized. I feel accomplished. Good thing I have three messy, squishy toddlers running around the house, right?! It just so happens that a pristinely organized house at the end of the day is an extremely rare occurrence with three toddlers. Probably just when you have children in general, but I'm trying to convince myself that the light at the end of the tunnel will come before I'm about to be an empty nester. Even if it's false hope, I'm clinging to it! Over the last month I've tried to take pictures of the mess which is our home. My hope with this is that it will be something to kick back and laugh about later. "Oh, the days when I felt like I was cleaning the house every waking minute of the day! Remember the funny messes they made dear?!" Thin...

Our lives in pictures spanning that last 9 days:

I love the mountains. People are probably very tired of me saying that, but I can't help it. They just blow me away every time I look at them. I love them. I'd marry them if Jayce wasn't cooler. One of my favorite things where we live is being able to go on a run and see this:  Am I right? I just can't get enough. They've even surpassed fireflies for me. (But just by a hair!) I can officially say that I have also come to love running. It took me forcing myself into 1 marathon, a half marathon, and a 25k to reach the "I actually really love this" stage, but I'm finally there. If you have toyed with the idea of signing up for a race--DO IT! I went from zero running experience to training for a race. You can do it! This is the first time that I've kept up with running after finishing a race. I'm not even signed up for anything and I'm running! That's a big milestone for me. :-) One thing that I've recently co...

Jayce did dinner one night while I was out (either visiting teaching, or grocery shopping, or a RS activity--I don't remember) and told me that all of the boys were just downing water at dinner and kept asking for more. We are glad they have a healthy appetite for H2O, but we saw the repercussions through the night and into the morning! Cameron wet the bed TWO times that night and Jackson and Benson both woke up wet. Benson woke up after Jayce left, so I got a picture of him to send to Jayce so Jayce could have a laugh. I've gotten into the habit of making pizza every Friday night. (Shout out to Aubrey and Jed Alvey for the fabulous dough recipe!) Cameron once loved it, but now not-so-much. Last Friday I called everyone to the kitchen to come eat and Cameron walks in and says, "Mommy, I just want the plate with salad. Just salad and no pizza." Also, Jackson often has a hard time completing his words. This has been particularly humorous when tryi...

Since Christmas, Squigz have lived up to their claim of being "fun little suckers." Cameron likes them, the twins like them, and even I get satisfaction out of the popping sound they make when they break suction. After they learned this little trick from Grammy and Grampy, there was no going back. Any time Ben sees a squig on the ground he picks it up and says, "On." "You want it on your head?" "Yes." Then he gives me a cheesy grin and excitedly puts his hands together and rests them in his lap while I smack one on his forehead. Jack doesn't like the Squigz on his head, but I caught him looking through a book by himself..! I realized the other week that at this age with Cameron I was doing 1 or 2 more crafty learning activities a week. Coloring, painting, putting stickers on paper, playing with play dough, shaving cream in the tub, etc. I hardly ever do that stuff with Jack and Ben. Let me rephrase that, I al...

Thank you to Jayce's pediatric rotation for having great hours. Dr. Nochel works three days a week, which has made this the most fun rotation for me and the kids. Jayce still studies on the off days, but at least he's home and when he takes breaks he just comes upstairs for a bit to hang out with us. A bonus is that I've been able to use nap time to run errands or to go for some runs. Either way it gets me out of the house, which is something I gotta make sure I do enough in the winter or else I turn into a hermit. Needless to say, the kids have loved the extra time with Dad too. They like baking, reading, and dancing around in the kitchen with Mommy, but when it comes to just straight up running around and being thrown around, Daddy takes the cake. Right now their favorite game is "Batman". It has absolutely nothing to do with the superhero, so I'm not sure how that came to be, but they all love it. Jayce throws a big brown blanket over him and walks arou...