Porter Post

 It's 10:30pm on the dot and I'm breaking my get-to-bed-on-time streak, but I just feel like writing. It's probably part excitement over setting up my new iMac computer and part bottled up writing energy. Jayce has been gone since February 15th for his deployment in western Africa so that puts me at 2 months and 5 days since I was crying in the car on the way home from the airport. It wasn't all bad, we definitely stopped by Dunkin' Donuts on the way home and the boys had a teacher work day so we played away the rest of the first day.  A couple of experienced military wives had told me, "Just know that when they're gone, everything breaks." We laughed about it and I knew that surely something annoying would probably happen while he was gone, but I wasn't ready for a whole list of grievances within the first week and half of him being gone.  Grievances of the First Week-and-a-Half: There was a drop in water pressure in the kitchen sink. (Troubleshoo...

Something big arrived in the Porter Family early in the morning on September 29! He's big, he's blonde, and he has kisses all over his chunky cheeks...welcome to the world Aiden Titus Porter!  He was my second largest baby weighing in at 8 lb 10 oz, his abundance of blonde hair is reminiscent of Cameron, he's the 17th grandchild on the Porter side and the 14th on the Terry side and he came into the world fast and furious like his next-older brother, Spencer. He also completes the Porter basketball team. Summer Olympics 2032, here we come! Now where's a coach?    The Story The week of my due date my goal was just to stay relaxed and not get fixated on when Aiden might/might not arrive. The "Anything happening in there?!" questions are always well meant (and I totally ask them of other preggos too, it's just too exciting when someone is about to deliver!) but they make me feel like I should have control over something I do...

Seeing Benson sit down mid run home from the neighbor's house looking defeated and grumpy... Me: "Hey Benny Boo, what's up?" Ben: "Jack and Cam said that the last person home was pig's poop. And I'M pig's poop!" Me: "Well, you're not the last one. Want to have a race and we'll see if you or me ends up as pig's poop?" Ben looks up at me with his twinkling grin and nods his head. Then he gets up and bolts it. Jackson: "Mom, where did you guys put the Halloween candy? I looked up high in all the closets and I climbed up and looked on top of the dryer and I can't find it anywhere!" Ben calling out to brothers: "GUYS! I JUST SAW MOM FEEDING AIDEN OUT OF HER UTERUS!" via GIPHY

Recorded these during the summer and never posted them. Cameron was "having a hard time falling asleep" and came out to lay down next to me on the floor in the hallway. I was reading the Ensign out there in an effort to help the boys stay calm and fall asleep. I read him a story from the Ensign that compared the Tuskegee airmen to the Holy Ghost in the way that they helped a particular squadron on a mission in Europe. Then he ran into his room to get his new Articles of Faith printout that he was given in Primary so that he could read them next to me and start memorizing (he's pretty excited about the prospect of a piece of candy from the Primary Presidency every time he passes off an Article of Faith). We talked about the first one and then the conversation turned into discussing the resurrection. At one point he said, "Maybe then I can see Jesus! Because I've always wanted to see him in real life, not just like in pictures like this one (pointing to the pic...

We got free tickets to Stone Mountain through our gas company again this year, score! Last year we all left the park with that happy, warm, tired feeling and the boys were very excited about going back. Sadly we couldn't find that magical day when our free passes and Jayce's days off worked, so in the end I decided to take the boys to Atlanta myself. We had a wonderful day, but we all longed for Jayce Face too. Our "we made it and all is well" picture for Daddy.  Loving the slide. Ben normally exits with style. He's also very into rolling onto his carpet square at Joy School, such flare can't be taught. The boys have taken up the tradition of creating pressed pennies on our family excursions, which I enjoy. Each of them had a goal to earn money to spend at Stone Mountain (read the cable car lets right out into a gift shop and I wanted to be prepared for it this time) and they all deemed this worthy of .51 cents. Their chosen spoils. ...

CAMERON Cameron very excitedly asked if he could push Spencer in the cart when we went to Home Depot a couple of weeks ago. He felt very adult-like walking into the store. Cameron had a vision for his gingerbread house at his class party, and he went at it when that frosting got passed out. Note the chimney smoke, the candy cane forest and the (attempted) snowman. He also discovered that he does not like red hots (like mother, like son!) but proudly told the girls at his table that he ate one.   Cameron's class did a Gingerbread Man skit. On another occasion when I went to his class for a parent's breakfast, the adults were getting ready to leave and we noticed that the kids had gathered to take turns reading to each other. I wanted to take a picture because it was sweet but when Cameron noticed me he started running over to give me another hug. Cameron also finished up his Karate classes. I loved watching him in Karate and he did well in that envir...