Happy Birthday William

Blowing out his candles.

Front of train cake.

Look at that cute face with his cake, how could I say know.

He was so excited to get this package from Grandma and Grandpa Porter, and he wasn't disappointed by what was inside.

William turned three on the 24th. He was so excited for his birthday and his cake! He requested months ago a train cake for his birthday and almost everyday since then he has talked about his birthday and his cake he was going to have. How could I deny such an excited little boy the cake of his dreams. So I stayed up until 1 to finish his cake, mostly because I didn't want little hands helping. He went and had lunch with Dad yesterday at work. He LOVED getting all of Dad's attention.

William at 3 Years Old
Favorite Food: Hot Dogs, Milk, Pancakes
Favorite Color: He says blue, but every color is blue right now. When he points it is pink.
Favorite Toys: Trains and Tractors
Obsessions: Trains, Tractors, and Fish
Favorite thing to do: Cook with mom, play with trains, Play with Candy (our dog not the food), help Dad mow, follow his big brothers around, and help with Matt.

What Mom and Dad love about having William apart of our family: William has the funniest personality. He can scream like a banchee, but he can also laugh harder then any of my other boys. He loves it when he can make us laugh. He is very observant, and is always watching his big brothers, the tv, and Mom and Dad are doing. He is scared of thunder and loud noises, but that is about it. He will try just about anything else without hesitation.

It took him a little longer to decide he wanted to walk, but Matt is walking at 13 1/2 months!! Hurray for Matt. Kyle took this video of Matt walking as well as the pictures.

Flag Football

Brad running his route

Kyle playing lineman

Fixing the flag

Kyle playing offense



Kyle on offense again

Brad and Kyle are playing flag football for the first time this fall and their first games were yesterday. It was fun watching both of them out there. Brad was a little tentative at first as the kids ran by, but then he was more aggressive as the game went on. It was fun watching Kyle and his team. No matter what if they were on offense or defense they were going after the flags. Even it meant going after their own teams once in a while.

1st Day of School

Kyle walking into the school

Bradley started 2nd grade today and Kyle started Kindergarten. We have to boys in school. It was another hard year to say goodbye to 2 boys now! They were so excited. Brad is in a class with two boys from church so he already knows a couple boys. Kyle has one little girl in his class from church and a boy that he played with while Bradley played baseball. Kyle is a little nervous

Camping Trip 2009

Brad and Kyle went fishing with Dad. Hmm, good thing they didn't bring their new shoes!

Campsite

Matt waiting for his dinner in his swim diaper.

Kyle got a baby fish with his bare hands

William ready to go fishing with Dad

Kyle caught a frog on our hike

Bradley taking his turn

William after swimming

Brad eating a S'more

William roasting marshmallows. He didn't want to get to close to the fire.

Kyle not so happy about his marshmallows.

Trying to roast marshmallows

With baseball, every weekend was taken up with games until August. Luckily for us we were still able to squeeze in a camping trip before school started, unfortunately it also happened to be the hottest days of the summer so far. We headed north to Willow Creek and pitched our tent. Then we headed over to the lake and swam in the lake for a while, which really cooled us off. We walked back to our campground and made a fire and cooked our tinfoil dinners in the fire. S'mores galore followed. The boys loved mainly just roasting the marshmallows, it took them a few tries to figure out you don't put it in the fire you put them above the fire. William came to me and asked if I would drive him around so he could go to sleep about 7 o'clock, so I did. Matt and he fell asleep within minutes and back to the tent they went. Joe went fishing, and Brad and Kyle road their scooters for a while. Unfortunately the people next to us got really loud about 8:30 and woke Matt up. So he joined us for ghost stories with the two older boys. William woke up when Brad and Kyle went to bed, and so we drove around until 11:30 until they fell back asleep. This camping trip was like most for the amount of sleep I get. I ended up sleeping next to Kyle who smacked me across the face numerous times with his arms as he slept, hopefully he will out grow this before he gets married. At 4;30 I finally took William, who had woken up, to the van and we slept in the van until 6. So do the math, yup that is an hour and a half of sleep. At 6 I got William breakfast and about 6:30 the rest of the crew woke up, they ate breakfast and we headed off for a little hike and some fishing. Afterwards we roasted hotdogs for lunch, and I took the boys to the park while Joe packed up the van. It was a fun little trip, and we will most likely check out Willow Creek again.

Summer Days Count Down to School

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With nine days and counting until the first day of school. Here is what we did today. I can't believe first of all that all the summer stuff is on clearance, lucky us. It didn't take William long to figure out what to do, actually it took him no time at all he was the first one down. Brad and Kyle of course showed him a few different tricks like going on your knees and rolling. They had a lot of fun! Can't wait for tomorrow.

Bradley Playing Baseball

YMCA Cubs

Sammy with Bradley

Bradley ready to bat

Big Swing

Bradley playing first base

Joe coached Bradley's baseball team this year. It was fun watching the team improve each week. Joe owes Bradley a steak dinner. One of Joe's baseball coaches told them that when they played their coach would buy them a steak dinner if they knocked the pitcher out of the game. Bradley hit this line drive up the middle and hit the kid right in the mouth. Joe, being competitive yelled "run", while everyone else was checking to see if the kid was alright. Thankfully, the kid was alright. Just a little shaken up, so he went and sat on the bench. The improvement of the team was amazing. Brad can really hit the ball. Joe gave the kids all a trophy at the end of the season. It was fun to see their expressions. One of the little boys was polishing it with his shirt. We are looking forward to next season.

Camp Pokamoke

Bradley as a window viper

Bradley and the window vipers

Kyle and William at the top of the hill

Last week Bradley went to a Paleontology Camp through the YMCA. He had a lot of fun and was really worn out and dirty each night he came home. At the camp Bradley dug for dinosaur bones, went swimming, hiking, did an obstacle course, archery, and other fun things. Thursday night we were able to go up to his camp to have dinner with him and then he and his group put a skit on for us. He played a window viper.

Bill and Family Come to Town

Bradley, Sammy, & Kyle feeding ducks

Ben, Lisa, & William feeding duck

The kids swimming in the pool

The kids playing on the spider web

Kyle in the Hippo

Bradley on the Hippo

Bill and his family came out to Omaha during his summer break. We had a fun time visiting and playing with them. We went to the Children's Museum, the Zoo, Coco Key Water Resort, feed ducks, and hanging out.