Our Newest Addition

...and No, it's not a baby- yet. This new addition comes after many years of dreaming of less wasted space and the desire to hide unsightly heaps of toys. Yes, it is our new CABINETS!!! Yeah! 2 Weeks ago while the Teeples were in town visiting, Matt graciously used up most of his time here installing the beauties. They look sooo good- and we couldn't be more pleased with the practicality of the new set-up. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Matt!!- oh, and Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Santa (Morgan) for the best gift EVER! You are awesome!

Oh, yes- and please notice our lovely bare light-bulbed lamp if you will. We finally replaced the hideous black one that was Morgans bachelor lamp and got us a nice brushed nickel one with a glass lamp shade the week before our cabinets were going to be installed- a feat (replacing the lamp) only about 6 years in the making. The day after the installation everyone came over while Matt was installing the hardware and lo and behold, it was not baby proofed enough. Baby Maggie was trying to get the stick horse from behind the lamp and CRASH!! There went the shade- so I guess it's time for a trip back to Home Depot- let's hope it takes less than 6 years to make it there!!

I know, I know!

I just realized that it's been a few weeks since my last post. We just got back from visiting California LATE monday night (don't get me started on that one), we have BEAUTIFUL new cabinets in our family room (hooray!!!- and thanks Matt!), we are officially 33 weeks pregnant (aaaaahhh!) AND my smart husband sold our 5,000 lb TV last night and got it officially out of our hair... it's been a GREAT month so far. Plus, with Thanksgiving right around the corner, it pretty much doesn't get any better. I'll post later tonight with some pictures of our home inprovements and our CA trip. See Emily, I'm totally up-to-date now!

Family Home Evening

We're racking up a great list of firsts in our family this last month or so. We held our first official Family Home Evening- or Family Game Night, as Porter prefers to call it- earlier this month. We decided to keep it pretty simple- 1. Start with a primary song- which was surprisingly enjoyable since everyone actually knew some of the words, then 2. a prayer- the boys always end up praying together since Seth is such a great parrot, 3. we then read a story out of the kid-friendly scriptures (pretty much just adds pictures)- then it's game time! We broke out the colored dominos that conveniently have 4 colored little trains and we each built train tracks. It was fun and Porter now looks forward to Family Night every week. It was fun to sit around and all play together with no distractions- I find Monday night is becoming my favorite night of the week as well!

Halloween- Boooo!

We decided- upon insistence by our pro-party-throwing Mother, that we would put together a little Halloween party in our garage- a throw-back to the GREAT ones that used to take place annually at my grandma's house when we were young. Unfortunately, the pro-party-thrower was in Houston at a quilt show- leaving behind 3 fairly lame daughters who were less than motivated (who knew?) and- to be fair, several of us had the flu that week- up until Thursday night...that's a good excuse-right? Not really, but ANYWAY, we DID at least have a party with our 3 families and it was SUCH a perfect Halloween night- totally unheard of around here. It couldn't have been cooler than 65 degrees- so our garage "party" was comfortable in addition to fun since no one was freezing. Emily made some delicious Chili- a Halloween tradition, and I made some cornbread and we had a Fishing booth and everything- so it was LIKE a real party. The kids LOVED dressing up( ...with exception of Jack, Beth's little boy, who we finally slapped a spare fireman hat on and called a fireman) and trick-or-treating was a huge success. Overall, a good night.

For Keeps...

I'll Keep Your Kiss Forever.
~Porter At Naptime Today

So- As for an Update...

Johnson Family Reunion- Eagar, Arizona

Heber House Playing- Summer 2008

Goofing- Off at Home- August 2008

Swimming- Veterans Park- August

Seth's 2nd Birthday- August 10th

Oh, Aren't we so Cute??? September- can you guess it's a BYU Football Game?

Notice, if you will, that John and Lily jumped into the background as well- what are we going to do with them????

Jack & Seth playing at the park in St. George. We went down to see Big River-

one word- AMAZING! Tuacahn outdoor theatre- if you haven't been-go!

Actually, the time between now and June really HAS been too fast. Currently, I am sitting at home during what ought to be my quiet time- oh, wait, it's called 'nap-time', and it's for the kids (yeah, right)- while waiting for Seth to decide to stop screaming at me from his crib to come back and put his blanket on him- which I did, about 5 minutes ago when I put him there for his nap. He has learned (from Porters good example) how to put off nap-time and bedtime. Since he sleeps in a crib and (thankfully) hasn't ever put his mind to figuring out how to get out of it- his distraction of choice is to keep me by his bed asking me to sing "I Love You" over, and over, and over and OVER again, or he tells me- everytime I turn to leave the room " I need something"- which of course, he doesn't. It is usually followed up by a request for cold water or to have me put every blanket in his bed on- then tells me that he doesn't want one, the other- or any of them at all... so usually, on these hard to distract him days it ends like this- I walk out- he screams at me about not meeting one or the other of his needs and in ten minutes finally gives up and goes to sleep. He is still my joy.

Porter is at preschool- his new favorite place on earth. He is addicted to people. He finds a new best friend- young, old or in between, everywhere we go and will do his best to talk their ears off. As my first to cross the line out of babyhood and into the big kid world, I often find myself at a loss at to what to do with him. I can no longer just state things as fact, and bark out orders and have them obeyed. He already thinks he knows better than me- and is sure that I just don't understand him. You should've heard our conversation a few months ago about why he couldn't give his friend, Jack Bluth, a kiss goodbye. He thinks- well, I give all my family kisses goodbye- and I really like my friend- too bad Jack about died when Porter came running after him trying to grab him so that he could bestow his farewell wishes on him. I tried to explain over the next few days that we don't kiss out friends- we give them a high five- and thank them for playing with us- he would have NONE of it. "No, Mom! I can kiss anyone I want!" he informed me- end of conversation. Slowly, I am becoming more patient and understanding. He gets really embarrassed and hurt when his behavior is called to question- so I'm relearning tact, and thoughtfulness- we'll see how I do. As for the past week- I've actually seen and HEARD him use his own good judgement which gives me hope that I am not going to ruin him. He is still my miracle baby.

Morgan and I are expecting our 3rd boy (BOY!!!) oh, boy oh, boy.... at the end of December. I tell everyone that the baby is due Christmas. First of all because I always said that having ALL boys was my worst fear- and second, that I would die if I had a Christmas baby- so this year is bringing to pass all my worst fears- and I guess I'll be living through them all. I just joined the world of mini-van mommy's (gasp- I know, I thought I would die before I saw that one happen as well...there's another one for you) but we love it. The boys LOVE it- are actually in LOVE with our movie-playing- magic door opening, more-room-than-either-them-know-what-to-do-with, mini-van. We got a 2007 Honday Odyssey with only 8,700 miles on it for 24,900- we were pretty stoked. It's practically brand new- and it will fit everything we need in it- including our new little guy. We just had a clear bra put on it yesterday and plan on lots of fun being had in it.

Shut- up

June 19th wasn't THAT long ago.