April 2010

A few more things to add....

In April, Porter was made Royal of the Week at school. He was happy to be honored at the Friday Flag Ceremony and receive his Crowne Hill Royal pencil!

As part of being the Royal of the Week he got to bring home Chester the Raccoon. He had to write in a journal about all the fun stuff he and Chester did over the weekend. This was a picture I took of the boys watching television with the Raccoon.

Sam planted a garden!!!!!

Oh, and I made some really cute signs to go in it!! =)

It is amazing how well it is doing in such a short amount of time. I love to see how excited Sam gets about it and on Sunday when everyone comes for dinner, he likes to show off his garden.

Carter and Anderson hanging out together. Anderson loves to be with his big brothers and man oh man, do they make him laugh!!

Porter and Carter had their first piano recitals and did such great jobs!! Porter played "Old MacDonald" and Carter played "Mary Had a Little Lamb".

Truth be told, i'm not so sure Sam really wanted to boys to take lessons, but after their recital he was so proud of them for going up there and performing after only a month and a half of lessons.

It was really sweet to see how proud Sam was of both of them, so I think that means they get to keep it up. Thanks Briar, you are doing such a great job teaching them!!

Spring Is In the Air

Blogger isn't letting me move the pictures around so this isn't going to be in chronological order.

Porter is playing baseball for the first time ever and absolutely loves it! Occasionally he gets to play his cousins Kyle and Joseph. Here is a cute picture I got of him and Kyle after a game that they played against each other.

Since we moved into my parents house I have been walking with Heather every morning. Tuesday and Thursday I have Carter with me cause he doesn't have Pre-K those days. This particular morning the walk started with Anderson asleep and Carter awake but ended in the complete opposite. Honestly, I think Anderson likes the company!

What is that big smile for you ask??? It's only because Carter was sooooo very excited to get the SIX shots he needed for his kindergarten registration. I honestly have no idea why he needed so many shots but he took 'em all like the little man he is.

We enjoyed a wonderful Easter/Conference Sunday with the family. Here are all the grandkids after they collected a ton of candy...how else were we supposed to get them all to smile!

Here is Anderson on his first Easter.

Porter looking for candy in the grass.

Carter taking a break from hunting so I can get a picture!

Anderson got his first taste of rice cereal. Don't worry that look is only because he was so sad when it was all gone!!

Porter and Carter started taking piano lessons from their cousin Briar. They are absolutely loving it and you wouldn't believe how often they are fighting to see who gets to practice. Okay, I'm kinda lying about that!

Dad, rejoicing over making it to another birthday!!

I'm only kidding but he might say he isn't. =)

We also went to the temple for his birthday as we do every year and it was my first time since having had Anderson. I was so happy!!!

Porter, Carter, and Kyle sporting mohawks!!!

Our third Baltimore night. I think we had crab cakes and shrimp louis salads.

A picture of a carrot that the boys found in the backyard before we moved. About a year previous, while I was napping, they dug one big hole and dumped like five different seed packets in there and this is what we had to show for their labors.

Megan and Kory at our second Baltimore night.

On the menu: Philly cheesesteaks, collard greens, shrimp salad, and gravy fries.

So this is a brief synopsis from the end of February thru the beginning of April,

which was very busy but full of lots of fun.

Valentine's 2010

Saturday night we went to dinner with our friends the Roberts but before dinner I gave Sam his Valentine present...a candy bouquet!

One of my favorite things about Valentine's Day is that it is also my nephew Aaron's birthday! Since he is up at BYU he couldn't make it to Grandma and Grandpa's for his birthday dinner so we hung up the poster (which was of him) advertising his most recent dance performance! Aaron, I hope you enjoyed your dinner cause I know that the rest of us did!

Sometime during the evening Porter got a hold of my camera and took a bunch of pictures of everyone! I love it cause he really is starting to become quite the photographer!

This is a picture of all his cousins hanging out in the kids room.

Briar and Leslie (his favorite Valentine's I'm sure!)



Michael and his friend Chloe

Deana and Dave






Heather and Amelia (poor Amelia wasn't feeling the love cause she was sick)

Greg and Charla (a little blurry but still cute)

Kevin and Marybel

Grandma and Grandpa (who just celebrated their anniversary on the 12th--28 years)

Me & Sam (there is a kissing picture but I didn't want to use that one)

I took one of Porter and Anderson together

We moved "Aaron" into the kitchen and sang happy birthday to him!! We even lit a candle. I hope your wish came true Aaron! After cake we played some games including the Newleywed Game which the Morgan's and Shreenan's tied for first in. It really turned out to be a great Valentine's Day! My favorite part was when my niece Chloe was eating a cupcake and said "This is the best Valentine's Day of my life!"

A New Family Tradition

So a few weeks ago Sam started having a little craving for something back from his mission--

UTZ Crab Flavored potato chips.

He went on-line and decided to order some, just a few!

He ordered a few other flavors but most of the bags were of "The Crab Chip" which aren't really crab flavored chips but are really "Old Bay" flavored chips that Sam grew a major liking of while he served in the Maryland Baltimore Mission.

Well this "Crab Chip" hype led to another one of Sam's bright ideas which was to start having Baltimore Night where he or we would try to recreate some of his favorite meals from his mission. Our first Baltimore Night dinner included homemade fried chicken, macaroni and cheese and collard greens. For the record, I made the greens and they were really good.

Our friends the Beaches joined us for our first Baltimore Night and I think they were pretty impressed with Sam's fried chicken. We went through almost a whole entire bottle of "Crystal" hot sauce to go along with all the chicken wings. It was really fun and the boys absolutely love the idea of a regular occurence of our newest family tradition!

What We're Watching

Lately I have been enjoying the fact that Porter and Carter are growing up and share some of the same interests in television watching as I do. What I enjoy most about it is that we can spend a little bit of down time together while doing something we all like.

One of the shows we have all enjoyed watching is American Idol. I know that Carter loves the comic relief it provides with all the crazy people they show trying out. He has even made comments a few times about the really bad contestants saying "They don't really think they are good, right mom? They're just trying to be funny." To which I reply "I don't know Carter, sometimes I just don't know what those people think!"

Well the best was the other day we were watching and Porter said "You know the guy who has hair like mine?" I said "Are you talking about Simon?" He said "Ya, him. Well you know he's actually kinda pathetic really?" Laughing at his comment I ask why he thinks he's pathetic and Porter replies "Well he just doesn't ever think that anyone is good enough and you can't just think that about everyone!"

Another show that Porter and I really have fun watching together is America's Next Best Dance Crew! He thinks it is really cool when performers do flips and all the other cool tricks they do. It's the best when he tries to get all acrobatic and flips around the room while he watches it.

The last thing I wanted to add is that Carter is really getting into watching the old Batman movie. He asked me to record it one day while it was on and I've turned it on for him quite a few times since. I watch it with him, not really seeing the appeal, and ask if he really likes it. He doesn't just like it...he loves it! It cracks me up the way they take to certain things.

I Just Don't Get It

Carter ate this cookie and left it sitting on the table. I asked if he was going to finish it and he said "No--I don't like the crust."

He did the same thing with his bagel that same morning.

Hail?!!??!! What?!!?!?

So, we are all well aware of how crazy the weather was here in socal last week with all the flooding, hail, and tornado warnings but here is just a little idea of what we got out of it!

Yep, that right there in Sam's hand is a hail snowball!

I took the boys to the doctor on Friday and on our way out to the car it started hailing....big time! I was shocked to see that the hail was sticking to the ground and was amazed at the winter wonderland that was left as a result. I wish we could upload the picture that Sam took of our putting green in the backyard cause he said it was covered in hail and from the looks of the picture you can't see a bit of green through all the white.

For all you out there who live in the snow, this post is not for you, but for the Rath family, all this torrential weather offered a bit of excitement!

Our Little Giggler

So last night Grandpa Ken was playing peek-a-boo with Anderson and it sent him into a giggling fit. We got it towards the end and you could tell he was actually getting a little tired from laughing so much. It cracks me up to see how stone cold his face would get inbetween giggles.

How We're Surviving the Rain

So not only have we been stuck inside with all the rain, but Carter hasn't been out of the house since Tuesday because he has been sick with a cold and a little fever that comes and goes.

The boys got a hold of my camera while I was making dinner tonight so I thought I would use the pics to explain how we're surviving being "shut-ins".

Porter and Carter take very good care of Anderson. Although it has been absolute torture trying to keep Carter and all his coughing away from the baby all week long.

Thank goodness for cool little toys like this that keep Anderson entertained while Porter and Carter are doing other things. But can I tell you how sick I am of hearing Old MacDonald over and over again?

When he isn't busy asking me when Porter will be home from school, Carter has had a lot of time to play with Legos. I think he would be smiling if he didn't feel so crummy!

And this. This is a picture I took. Porter and Carter have been getting a ton of wii time. It probably is a bad thing but at this point i'm just not sure I really care. This wii gives me a great break in the day...that is when they aren't yelling and screaming at eachother while they play it.

Mother & Son Rockstar Night

Tonight we went to Mother & Son Rockstar Night at CHES. It was so much fun to see how excited Porter was to go. I'm not quite sure his excitement was because he wanted to have a little date with me but I will just go ahead and pretend that was why anyway.

We ate some yummy dinner with all of our rockstar friends!
The rockstar moms posed for a picture!

Our sons were totally rocking the stage with their air guitars.

As we were walking on our way out to the car Porter looked up at me and

said "We Rock!"

I couldn't be more happy to be this little guy's mom.