Silent Night

The Porters 2011
Happy Holidays from all of us!

This year we want to start by letting you know how much we love all of you. We are grateful for all of our friends and family. We are so blessed. We love our Heavenly Father and Savior. The atonement has made it possible for us to be together forever.

Aaron started a new job as an IT project manager at Nu Skin this year. He is much closer to home now and has eliminated about 30-45 minutes each way off his daily commute. He is able to use his education and talents at this job and is enjoying what he is doing.

Helen
started back to work in April. She is managing a retail store called My Oil
Business, which supports doTERRA essential oils. She loves what she is doing
and has made a huge impact at the company. Helen is still in school and will
graduate next summer with a BA in Business. The highlight this year was going
sky diving in Moab. It was amazing!

Mariah
is a freshman this year. She is in several honors classes and is excelling in
all of them. She loves to sew and can make just about anything she sees.

Alyssa
is officially a teenager this year complete with make-up, a clothes addiction,
and a crush on her classmate in band. She is in advanced band this year and can
play the trumpet proficiently. She had a part in Fiddler on the Roof at school.

Caitlyn
hangs out with her best friend every chance she gets. She loves to perform.
After spending 5 months practicing with her friend for the 4th grade
talent show, she is already planning for the 5th grade talent show
that will happen next May! She is involved in 4H, choir and activity days at
church.

Andrew
is a typical 1st grade boy. He is wild, loud, silly and crazy. He
has an amazing talent for annoying everyone all the time. He has figured out
what little thing bugs each of his siblings and then does that only to them. We
need to harness that skill for other areas! We often find Andrew staying up
late in Parker’s bed reading books to him.

Parker
still has everyone wrapped around his little finger. At 4 years old he has
managed to skip the terrible toddler years. He is so much fun to be around. He
has had the opportunity to spend time with his cousins this year and tells
other people that he has cousins, but they are also his friends. His favorite
toy is his little baby doll that he has named Porter. She is his little sister.
He changes her clothes and gets her dressed. Good thing he is happy with a
pretend baby sister, since he is not getting a real one!

Have a very Merry
Christmas and stress free holiday season.
Love, the Porters

Halloween with the Porter Hospital

Right before Halloween Parker had a little accident with his tonka trunk. It got a little carried away and zoomed right over him.

No problem! Our house had just gone through emergency training. Surgeons Aaron and Mariah took him in right away and fixed him up. He is now being monitored by Dr's Caitlyn and Andrew. Nurses Helen and Alyssa are making sure he is comfortable.

No fears. We prescribed 1 hour of trick or treating and 2 lbs of candy for our patient Parker.

We were right! By morning he was just fine.

Witchapalooza

The girls and attended our Young Women's 2nd annual Witch-A-Palooza. We had a crazy mixed up dinner and had table topics. It was fun to spend time together.

Alyssa's concerts

Last week Alyssa had both her band and choir concert.

Alyssa is in advanced band and plays trumpet. They band did great in their Halloween concert. (Do you see the boy on the right of Alyssa? That is her not so secret crush) Shh don't tell her I told you!

Alyssa has choir as school this year. I was not able to hear her sing, but I made Aaron take the camera and get a few pictures. I am sure she did great. I am so glad she has more musical talent than me.

Arches National Park - Part 2

More hiking. This first picture is actually at the end of our trip. By the balanced rock the kids found this great dead tree. My kids are so cute!

Best buds.

Andrew in one of his may poses.

Aaron doing what he did most of the trip. I think this is probably what i looked like.

Teenagers. Moody or tired? You guess.

More of the monkey boy.

Caity and Parker.

Can you find Andrew? Hint: look for the blue dot.

Alyssa didn't climb as much as the others. I think she was just taking in her surroundings.

Cailtyn is queen of the rock.

Can you find Andrew now?

I couldn't resist this picture. Alyssa was playing with my camera and snapped this one. I love my wondeful husband.

Sweet siblings. I was so happy to see them take care of each other all weekend.

Mariah was taking in the amazing view while the other kids climbed up, down and all over the sandstone.

Ignoring Parkers smirk you can see our entire family in one picture.

Most of the kids. This is near the end of the day and some of the kids had enough. Overall they were great.

Love the view.

Clayton imitating me. I need to get his copy of me!

A happy Alyssa!

The kids climbing up. Do you see them?

Clayton trying to get Alyssa to smile.

I couldn't resist sharing this picture. Isn't she adorable?

My sweet baby boy.

Cousins and friends. I love seeing the kids spend so much time getting to know their cousins.

This is what it looks like when you hike with a handful of little tiny ones.

Moab was great. We loved spending time with our family and seeing part of Utah. We ate, played games, talked, hiked, picnicked and had a great time. Next time we need to get the entire family together. Love you all!

Family Time in Moab

These first pictures are just random cute pictures. The entire family stayed for 4 days in a 2 story, 8 bedroom house. It was fun for the cousins to play and be silly together.

Ben and Parker squeezing into small places.

I loved seeing these 2 together. They had fun all weekend.

All the kids got together and put on a play Mariah wrote and brought costumes for. With just a little practice the did great.

Another activity we did was inspired by my girls camp days. The kids were put into 3 groups and were given 2 rolls of toilet paper. They had to make an outfit for one of their group members.

Hole N" The Rock is on the South side of Moab. It is a 5,500 sq foot home built into the rock. We went on a tour and the kids played in the collection of items around the outside.

The 3 boys are in an old Twirly Whirly car. They each took turns flying and then all climbed in together.

The group waiting for our turn for the tour.

Who do you want to be? The Mine Boss or the Miner?

There was even a "Mater" car.

Arches National Park - part 1

During our stay in Moab we spent a good part of two days at Arches National Park. This was our first time there. It was beautiful. October is a good time to spend there since it was cooler. We did a few different hikes. These pictures are from various places.

The family at balanced rock.

mariah and Andrew were my brave climbers. They would scury up each spot and get as high as they could.

Mariah loves to climb. She had a hard time only doing the little hikes. Since we had so many little ones we were not able to do an all day hike like her and I like to do on our vacations. We will have to back another time.

Alyssa was a good helper with Parker. He loved hiking, but as a little kid, he also loved being carried.

I think this is from the North Window. All of my lovely kids.

I even managed to have a few pictures taken of me. I actually like this one!

Mariah and a few cousins sitting on top of the window. They are quite high up.

Andrew has over 50 pictures just of him. Every chance he got he would climb a little higher and make a pose and tell me to take a picture. At one point he told me I should save all the pictures and give them to him when he gets older so he can have memories. Good thinking little man!

Caitlyn is growing up into a beautiful young lady.

Parker is my little cheeser. The kids kept telling him he was at Archeese National Park. He loves to smile. :)

Aaron with his eyes open and a smile. That does not happen often.

Aaron and I together with Delicate Arch in the background. I love that we could do this as a family.

This picture cracks me up. Parker and Taitt were taking some great pictures when baby Edynn decided she needed in on the action. She walked over and plopped herself in the front, got herself posed and gave a great big smile.

Before our first hike to the overview of Delicate Arch.

A Panoramic shot of part of Arches. It doesn't do justice, but you can see a little of what we saw.