When I Grow Up I Wanna Be...

Most kids want to be astronauts or firefighters when they grow up, but not Kyle. The last couple of months he has been telling us what he wants to be when he grows up. He wants to either be a food tester, video game tester, or a comedian.

Happy Birthday Kyle

William and cousins Sophie going down the hill.

Sledding all down together

Matt watching the sledding

Kyle sledding

Kyle and his rocket ship birthday cake

Blowing out his birthday candles

Opening Birthday Presents

Decorating his cupcake at birthday party

Making aliens out of paper cups.

December 26th 5 years ago, that is when our favorite 5 year old Kyle joined our family. This year when we talked about the birth of Jesus Christ we mentioned how lucky Kyle was to have his birthday so close to the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus. His face lit up and he was really excited that his birthday was the day after Christmas. Kyle has a little birthday party with his friends the week before his birthday. His choice of themes, "Aliens". We had a lot of fun with his friends making aliens, flying saucers, decorating their own cupcakes and gift bags, and making space ships from boxes to fly around in. On Kyle's actual birthday we went sledding with cousins and to the children's museum. His cousins from Virginia, were here for Christmas and were able to celebrate with us and help eat his rocket ship birthday cake.

Some of my favorite things to remember about Kyle this year are his kindness he shows to his little brother William, trying to make him feel better when he is sad, and the fact that William can't sleep unless Kyle is in the room says a lot about how much they love each other. Kyle is always silly, and it is difficult to get a serious picture of him. He is always making silly noises, doing funny movements and is always looking to make people laugh. He is so proud of his art work that he brings home from preschool. A couple weeks ago Kyle started reading, each time we read he picks up on more and more words. Kyle also enjoys being carried up to bed so he will often pretend that he has fallen asleep so Dad will carry him up. The one thing that is memorable but I wish didn't happen this year was his broken arm, poor little guy. We are so glad that Kyle is a part of our family, with his bright smiling face and personality.


Kyle's Favorite Things at 5 years old

Favorite Food: Macaroni
Favorite Color: Army
Favorite Toy: Trash Truck
Favorite Holiday: Christmas and Easter
Favorite Sport: Swimming
Favorite Treat: Now and Laters
Favorite thing about school: Playing

Christmas 2008

William following his train around the track. He loves his trains, and has even slept with them.

Brad opening a present

Matt seeing What Santa left for him. He is so excited, can't you tell?

Kyle wearing Spy Gear night vision goggles Christmas morning.

William enjoying a couple of his presents

Look what Santa left.

Matt with Santa

Brad with SantaWilliam with Santa

Kyle with Santa

Christmas morning came very early for us. Bradley walked into our room at 4 am ready to go downstairs and see what surprises had been left by Santa. His brothers were still asleep though so we told he would have to wait until 5 to wake up his brothers. He climbed in bed with us and you could feel the excitement just radiating off of him. About 4:20 William woke up so we let Bradley go wake up Kyle. Kyle told him that he needed a couple more hours of sleep and went back to sleep. Bradley slumped back into our room. At 4:45 it was apparent that William was not going to back to sleep so Bradley made a second attempt at waking Kyle, which was much more successful. From the moment they were up they excitement and smiles were abundant. We let Matt continue to sleep because there was no reason to wake a sleeping baby. Brad, Kyle, and William gathered in our room to where were able to spend a few minutes talking about the birth of Jesus before we headed downstairs. Santa had indeed come that night and left a presents galore for the children to have. Kyle couldn't stay in one spot and kept running around making sure his brothers hadn't missed something they had received, all the while not looking at many of his presents. He finally was able to contain himself enough to look at what he received. Brad, said it was the best Christmas ever, and William won't let the trains out of his sight, including sleeping with them. Matt, well Matt was so excited he slept in, and then I put a new outfit on him just to satisfy myself.

Going to the Lodge. . . Great Wolf Lodge

We have been planning a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge since last spring. We were orignally going to go in October during a break from school, but Kyle broke his arm so we called and changed the days for when we were going to go. After weeks and weeks of anticipation we headed down to Kansas City to go to the Great Wolf Lodge. The Great Wolf Lodge is a hotel with a water park inside of it. We arrived about 1 o'clock and checked into our room. As soon as we were in our room we changed and headed down to the water park where the boys played until dinner time. We had to go and change into proper dinner attire so we could go eat. We went and ate and as soon as we got back they wanted to go back down to the water park. So we changed back into suits and down we went until bedtime. The next morning we ate breakfast, checked out, and then went back to the water park until about 1 pm. The thrill on the boys faces was great. They were so tired by the time we left and got back home from all the fun they had while they were there. William has still not let us cut off his wrist band to get into the park. Here are a few, okay a lot, of pictures from our trip.

A picture of the water park

Bradley getting ready to head down yet another slide.

William, Joe and Matt going to play up in the house.


William playing with a water wheel


Kyle just getting out of a slide and floating in his tube.

One of William's favorite places to play.


Yeah I thinkKyle had fun!


William catching water


In front of their cabin in the hotel room.

William and Kyle on a raft after going down a slide
Kyle still getting out of his raft when going down with Bradley.

Family Picture right before a huge bucket of water hit us.

Snowing in the lodge. Bradley getting snow all over him.

Joe and his boys

Bradley getting water dumped on him.

Kyle and Bradley coming down the slide.

Final Great Wolf Lodge poise before we left our fun adventure.

Cousins

Cousins eating lunch together at Burger King

Matthew trying to get Natalie to look at him

"Noooooooo, I'm related to kid with the bad comb over!"

Teri and her family came to Omaha for Thanksgiving, so we got together with them along with Tim, Amanda and crew. The kids had fun playing together while the adults visited. It was great seeing everyone.

Porter Family Christmas

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

We had so much fun making last years we thought we would make another one this year. We hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas! Do we make better Disco Christmas Elves or Christmas Country Elves? Tell us what you think.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is such a great holiday! Not only do we get to stuff our mouths full of food and be with family, but it gives us a chance to reflect on every blessing that we have. Here is what we are some of the things we are thankful for.

Brad:
1. My Room - so my brothers can't bug me.
2. My Family - because they give me toys.
3. My Dad - He gives me bull rides
4. Food to eat - because some people don't have food
5. My Birthday - because I don't have to do any jobs

Kyle:
1. My Dad - Because he gives me bull rides
2. Shelter - Because some people don't have shelter
3. Wii - because I can play it
4. For the movie store- so we can watch movies
5. For Grandma's- because they love me

Janette
1. My Family - because they me laugh and I love them
2. The Gospel - because it helps me through every day.
3. Sleeping all night - because it feels like someone is always waking up usually Matt or William
4. Hugs and kisses from my boys - because they won't want to do that forever
5. Showers - because the noise is drowned out and I can think and ponder.

Joe
1. Janette - because she is the love of my life
2. My boys - because I have a basketball team now
3. My job - to help support the family
4. The Gospel - because it helps me be good
5. Jesus - so can we can live with Heavenly Father again

Happy 7th Birthday Bradley

Bradley turned 7 years old on the 14th. Wow! He was so excited for his birthday. He was up at 6 in the morning to open his presents. He had a great day at school. Mom went to go help out in his class so she got to see him in his birthday crown. After wards they met Dad and had some lunch during his lunch break. Bradley took doughnuts to share with his class as a treat. No homemade treats can be taken to share with the class, its a district rule.

Bradley was given the choice of having a birthday party with 7 friends or going to the Pizza Machine with 1. He chose the Pizza Machine, a restaurant similar to Chucky Cheese. So we picked up his friend Peter and headed off to the pizza machine for dinner and games. Everyone smiled the entire time. They rode bumper cars, played games, got tickets, and then of course at the end they got to pick out there prizes that they had won.

We are so blessed to have Bradley as a member of our family. He is such a good big brother to three little brothers. He is a great little reader and really enjoys his first grade class.

Favorites at 7

Favorite Food: Steak
Favorite Cartoon: Tom and Jerry Tales
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Toy: G.I. Joe's
Favorite School Subject: Recess
Favorite Sport: Football
Favorite Treat: Now and Laters
Favorite Holiday: Christmas

Matthew Eating his First Bowl of Rice Cereal

Before Eating

After Eating


William and Dad feeding Matt


Kyle taking turn


Bradley Feeding Matt

And of course I had to give him some to eat as well.

Open up because here comes the airplane. Matthew got his first taste of real food. Yummy! Everyone got to take a turn giving him a spoonful. Each spoonful took about three times to really get it in. He is already four months, we can hardly believe that the time has flown by so fast.