Christmas at the Porters

Chirstmas was wonderful! On Christmas Eve we went to David's parent's house and had a fabulous dinner. The kids acted out the nativity scene, Shira was Mary and Asher was Gabriel and a wise man. (Those pictures will come later from Grandpa's camera.) We went home late that evening and I told the kids that the first one to fall asleep would be the first one to open a gift in the morning. Shira was bummed because Asher is usually the first one to fall asleep, but they eventually went to bed and Shira fell asleep first! In the morning I was excited to tell her she was the first one to fall asleep and she could open the first gift. She came running up to me with a gift and handed it to me. She wanted me to be the first one to open the gift she got me!
Every once in a while my little stinkers do something kind and precious and remind me that they aren't just my children, but also children of our Heavenly Father.

Asher with his new car-nivores!

David and Asher with daddy's new push-up grips.
Asher trying out the push up grips after daddy took a turn.
Shira with her new puppet gloves.

After spending a few hours opening gifts, relaxing, and taking naps, we went back to Grandpa & Grandma Porters to open up even more gifts and eat more food. With all the food Angela put out on the table, you'd think the whole ward was coming over! But there were only 11 of us. Needless to say I felt sick that night....too much junk food! But it was great fun. We even had fresh snow on the ground for Christmas, something we were actually worried about!

Tomorrow the kids are going to David's parent's house for the week while I have to accompany David to Puerto Rico, who has to go for business. Poor us. I'll be sure to post some pictures of the beached whale laying in the sun while David works. I'm just over 31 weeks pregnant and I'm sure I'll be a sight to see.

Oh Christmas Tree!

This weekend we put up our Christmas tree.! Yeah! It was so much fun and nice to have David home for the weekend. We played Christmas music and put up decorations all over the living room.

Here we have Asher pretending to put up an ornament,

I got the camera out too late. :-)

Shira doing the same thing!
And here we have the two of them acting as if they never fight.

Much Needed Haircut

Asher's hair was getting ridiculously long, but David liked it and he is the barber in the house. I finally convinced him to cut it and he looks so handsome in his Sunday best now. He was looking so scraggely it was embaressing to take him to church.

Look at those sideburns!
Is he not getting so big!
He actually had a lot of fun during this haircut and couldn't stop laughing.
Shira was getting a little jealous at all the pics I was taking of Asher, so we took a couple shots of her while she 'posed'. This one was the funniest.

Snow at Last!!

It finally snowed here aound the middle of November. We enjoyed it while it lasted, which is usually six months, but about a week or two later we had a weeks worth of warm and rainy weather which melted what we had. Needless to say, our backyard is full of green grass! VERY unusual for us! I almost forgot it was close to Christmas without the snow. Here are some pictures of Shira enjoying the snow while we had it.

Here she is eating the snow, something both her and Asher LOVE to do.
Shira built a castle and was very proud of it. We had dinner at a friend's house and they have a little snowmachine that the kids LOVED to ride and get pulled on the sled. Of course as soon as we got home the kids started asking for a snow machine. Like that is going to happen.

Asher in Shaving Cream Heaven!

I got a list of 100 things to do at home with a pre-schooler, and here is the first one I tried. Asher had so much fun. You take a cookie sheet and put shaving cream on it, supposed to be roads and what not, then have them drive cars through and around it. Asher decided he had a car wash on his hands and put all his cars through the car wash. All his cars are buried in the suds. Just a heads up, use shaving cream that doesn't have a strong smell, or better yet, cover your cookie sheet with tinfoil. Mine still smells like David's shaving cream.....ooops.

Trunk or Treating!

I know, it's pretty scary. But here we are on Halloween trunk or treating at the church parking lot. It's cold, so we are all bundled up. At least there wasn't any snow! We've got, starting from the left, scary vampire with bad wig, butterfly, curious george, and Fancy Nancy (grandma). All in all we had fun and got lots of candy for mommy to eat....I mean the kids. :-) Next year David says he's helping me pick out a costume. :-)

Making Halloween cupcakes

For Shira's school carnival we signed up to make cupcakes for the cake walk. We made some with oreo spiders on top, that is as creative as I get. :-)

Shira showing off the cupcakes.

Fall Carnival at Shira's school

Shira's school had a Fall Carnival the Saturday before Halloween and we had a blast with the kids. There were all sorts of games, a few highlighted below, and even a mechanical whale! It was so fun to watch the kids play all the games.

Here is Shira the princess butterfly & Curious George.

Daddy helping Asher golf.

This is rope swing bowling. The kids both did it, much to my surprise, and knocked over all the pins with their feet.

Shira is fishing in this picture.

Here is Asher shooting pumpkins off a fence.

Both kids hit them! What talent!

Here is the mechanical whale....a very serious ride where you get bucked off.

Asher was holding on for dear life. Here is a demonstration of just how tight Asher was holding on. We couldn't stop laughing at him.

Halloween...a little early.

My sister-in-law had this great idea to dress the kids up early and take pictures so you don't have to do it in the snow by the time Halloween is finally here. My kids didn't mind putting on their costumes and playing around. Shira picked out her costume, she is a princess butterfly fairy. Those are stickers on her face. She's a hoot. When Halloween comes we plan to paint a big butterfly on her face, but stickers worked for the moment.

Princess Butterfly Fairy deep in thought.
Asher picked out Curious George. So here is curious Asher....looks more like a puppy, but he's still cute.
There is the monkey!

kids

Just a nice moment when Asher & Shira aren't fighting with each other. I love these moments.
Asher was upset with me the other day because I wouldn't let him unwind all the toilet paper....I'm so mean. Here he is pouting on the toilet.

Camping at Ladasa

Ladasa is about a two hour drive north of Anchorage and it's owned by the church, usually used for scout camp, girl's camp, and ward campouts. But when it's not booked, we can book it. This year we did it the end of August with David's cousin, Brady and fam, and David's parents. We had a ton of fun and spent an afternoon at the lake, which we had all to ourselves. The water was very chilly. I think everyone got in except for me, Angela, & Jaben....the smart ones. Below you can see all the fun they had in the water. We also went canoeing and it was gorgeous. The train tracks run next to the lake so we would always run out with the kids to wave to the train and have the engineer blow his whistle. Way fun.

Becky got wet, accidentally, up to her waist, so decided to just dive in!

I love the kids cheering her on.

Good ole' grandpa showed up in dark shoes, blue dress socks, red shorts, and a maroon flanel......Gotta love grandpas!
But he was very brave and jumped in the lake!
Even Kenny jumped into his daddy's arms.
Brady relaxing on a sinking dock.
Becky & Brady in the cold water.
Shira holding onto daddy for dear life.

Asher and daddy trying to stay afloat.

What is a camping trip without Asher going potty....but in the lake,

come on dad!

David, looking thrilled again, with Shira canoeing on the lake.

Asher grinning on the canoe.

Becky, Katlyn, Kenny, and Brady.

Alaska State Fair 2007

The first week of Sept. we went to the Alaska State Fair in Palmer with Grandma & Grandpa Porter. We had so much fun eating yummy food, watching the kids on the rides, playing games, seeing all the big veggies and livestock, and spending too much money. We can't wait to do it all over next year.

Shira taking her annual pony ride.

Asher had konked out by this point.

Daddy took the kids on their first 'big' ride, the ferris wheel...ohhh.
Daddy was obviously thrilled to be on the merry-go-round with Asher.
The space ship ride.
And finally the train ride.
Who can forget the huge cabbage.

Shira' First Day of School!

Shira started school the end of August. She was so excited! It's fun to see her growing up and being so brave. She loves her class and teacher and is doing really well. She is a seal, thus the statue next to her. It's been an adjustment for her to be gone all day, but she is hanging in there. I get to volunteer once a week for a few hours and it's so fun to see her in school. I signed up with some ladies in the stake to do co-op babysitting. Twice a week I have a place to take Asher for three hours and get some stuff done I couldn't normally do with him, like volunteer at Shira's school. Then every fifth week it's my turn to watch all the kids. It's working out really well.

Right before she entered the school.

Shira concentrating at her table.