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.