Decorating the Christmas Tree

Lena and Hanne waited fairly patiently while Mommy got the lights on the tree before they began to decorate with a vengeance. I had flashbacks of us kids being banished from the living room while my mom strung out all the lights in the middle of the floor, trying to find that ONE bulb that was making the entire string not work!

This year I had a section of lights on one string that flickered just a bit as I was putting them on...and then of course didn't work at all after the entire tree got decorated! Where was this patch of darkness on our tree? Right on on the front! Oh well, it has since been redecorated many times over with paper snowflakes, bits of wrapping paper and curling ribbon that our pack-rat daughters deem to be lovely ornaments!

Lena's Birthday Party #2

We had a second family birthday party and of course just had to bake a cake AND more cupcakes to make sure we would have plenty! Case enjoyed all the attention from aunties, uncles, grandpas & grandmas! He did his best to steal the show!

Lena's Birthday Party #1

We decided very last minute to have a casual pizza party with friends...Lena loved having all her little buddies over and we sure enjoyed some good visiting with the other mommies and daddies!


Every time I turned around, Hanne was working on another cupcake!


One very tired little brother!

Lena's Birthday Breakfast in Bed

Lena's Birthday was back before Thanksgiving, but I have some catching up to do with this blog so here we go! We have this tradition in our family of giving a special breakfast-in-bed on your birthday. But I am generally on the phone with guys at the shop starting around 5:45 AM so when the Birthday Girl woke up at about the same time - Mommy & Daddy had to scramble! All the kids woke up...I told the guys to give me 15 minutes and Anthony kept them entertained in our room until I could quickly frost a cupcake and light a candle! Whew! Tradition saved!


What five year old doesn't enjoy cupcakes for breakfast? Now, how do we get our kids to sleep past 6 AM?

Halloween

Well - its official. We are bad parents. We (fake) tattooed our six month old little boy with a couple of barbwire tats to authenticate his cool punk rocker Halloween costume. Don't you love the Mohawk! Thanks Auntie Beth for the idea!

So Case was a cute lil punk rocker; Hanne was a little red "strawbaby" with her beloved tutu & tights and Lena was one cool cat burglar complete with a pillowcase full of jewels and loot!

Auntie Beth helped us do some fun trick-or-treating in town with friends (note the pink rubber boots-it has been raining!)

We also made yummy sour cream spice cookies today and had fun frosting and decorating. I bet Hanne got about the same amount of frosting in her mouth as she got on her cookies!

Porter Pumpkins

We made two trips to the pumpkin patch this year! Mommy combined business with pleasure on the first trip; visiting a pruning customer's pumpkin patch and World's Largest Corn Maze where we got some really great warty pumpkins and unusual gourds.

Our second trip was just the day before Halloween to our local pumpkin patch to get good carving pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns! Check out Hanne in her jack-o-lantern hat she made at preschool!

Daddy did a great job helping the girls carve 'em up!

SURPRISE!!!!!

Guess who is tagging along with Ashley to visit the Texas relatives!!! The Porter kids and Mommy!! Surprise, surprise!! We are so excited and can't wait to see the Reed Family!

Lena wanted to keep the suitcase out and start packing tonight...she also told Daddy that she wouldn't be going to school tomorrow because we needed to go to Texas! She was quite disappointed to find out that it was "more than 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 days?" away!

Old Lady Shopping In Small Town

We were absolutely needing food in our house - the girls have had PB&J two meals in a row - so I went grocery shopping at SavMor tonight. I loathe this over-priced, under-stocked establishment but it happens to be 5 minutes away from my house and with 3 kids...it fits in the schedule!

So I go in around 9:30 PM after the kids are in bed and Anthony is at home. I'm wearing jeans, flip flops and a scrubby old t-shirt, my hair isn't that bad but no makeup. I bought Anthony this yummy looking 6 pack (that I can't even drink-still nursing) along with the rest of the groceries and THE STUPID CHECKOUT GUY DIDN'T EVEN ASK FOR MY ID!!!

I was insulted! This is the first time this has happened to me! I AM OLD! Granted - I don't believe that I've purchased alcohol since way before Lena was born, but still...have I aged that much in six years? Apparently! So I came home and ate a large bowl of ice cream!

Messy Girls

Last week Lena stayed home from Sunday School because she was sick...but not too sick to get completely dirty playing in the backyard! She dug around in the dirt and made a picnic with little piles of dirt, rocks and grass. Here she is sampling some of her food.


Hanne was helping Mommy make chocolate cupcakes for Daddy's birthday earlier this month. This insane fondness for chocolate must come from Mommy's side of the family!

Lena's School Bike-a-thon

On your marks, get set, Go!


Is everbody passing me? Lena did get passed a few times but she never crashed!


The cheering section: Daddy, Hanne & Case (Mommy was taking the pictures).


Lena with her "Big Buddy" Domin from the sixth grade. They get to spend time with their buddies every Friday.

Great Recipe!

I've been making these yummy and healthy bars for quick breakfasts & snacks for the girls & I! So here you go Heather, Ashley & mom!

Fruit & Oatmeal Breakfast Squares
•2 eggs, lightly beaten
•3 cups quick-cooking oats
•1/2 cup brown sugar
•1 Tbsp honey
•1 cup fat free milk
•1/8 cup vegetable oil
•1/4 cup applesauce
•1 mashed ripe banana
•1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
•1 cup raisins/cranberries/dried chopped fruit, soaked in juice or water & drained (I've been using Sunsweet's Antioxidant blend from Costco)
•2 teaspoons baking powder
•1 teaspoon salt
•1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•1 tsp allspice

1.Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Pour into a greased 9 x 12 baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes. Cut into squares.

Shaking Prune Trees

Here is an ENE shaker and receiver harvesting in our orchard!

Prune Harvest

Dad's machines moved in and had our place finished in just over a day. The girls had a great time watching Papa's "sheenes" run and Case was content to ride around in the mule and eventually fell asleep around the noise of the equipment!

I just love the sweet, ripe smell of prunes in the air, the loud revved up whir of the bincarrier whizzing by, the vibration in the ground as a tree is shook, the thump-thump-thump of fruit falling on the decks, rows of full bins in a loading area and the smoosh of overripe fruit under your feet. Ahhh...harvest!

Now back to reality - loads to schedule, farmers to call, fruit to test, fields to check!

Case

Case found his voice (or should I say squeal?) last week and is busy sharing his opinion with the rest of us. He must have teeth coming in because he spends most of his free time chowing down on his fingers.

Who are we?

We are normal parents who daily pray for wisdom and patience in this adventure of raising our kids! Lena is almost five years old, Hanne is two and a half and Case is four months.

We thought blogging would be a great way to keep our family and friends updated and share pictures of our cutie pies!

Anthony owns a welding and fabrication company (porterswelding.com) and Hilary works for her parent's agribusiness (eneinc.com) and the kids work their hardest to drive us nuts! On real fun days I've been known to tell the girls that they are turning me into a walnut. Or an almond. Or a pistachio. Or all of the above! That seems to help calm the chaos and start the giggles.

We love to include the kids in what we do...so Lena often helps Auntie Beth in the office at Porter's Welding and Hanne just loves driving forklift with Daddy. Since prune harvest is almost here I've been checking fields with my little entourage of helpers and they enjoy doing their own version of fruit testing: taste testing!

More to come!

A Week of Firsts

Monday was Lena's first day of Kindergarten and boy was she excited! She told us that "Some of the kids cried after their moms left, but I didn't because I'm a tough kid."