Guess Who's Birthday it is?

This person has red hair and blue eyes.
He is one of five males in our household.
He walked in graduation last weekend for his MBA (pictures will be coming).
He says he is 5'10 but we have agreed 5'9 is probably closer.
He grew up in Washington, the state, not the capital.
He has four boys that absolutely look up to him and admire everything he does.
His favorite activities include fishing, playing sports, playing with his boys and taking naps.
Every year he request a carrot cake made from scratch for his birthday.
He is terrific Dad, does diapers, baths, feedings, you name it he's probably done it.
Any guesses?

It's My Wonderful Husband Joe.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE!!!

Growing up and I'm not ready

This is a picture of Bradley's blanket. From about the time he was 9 months he would want this blanket and no other. When he could walk, he would carry it around with him. It was his cape, it was his best friend. It helped him get through his anxiety nursery, and comforted him when he was sad. Once we left it at Grandma and Grandpa Fredericks' house when he was five, and I thought his heart was going to break. He could not sleep with out it. He was so cute carrying around that blanket. This week I went to the linen closet and inside was Bradley's blanket all folded up nice and neat. I asked Bradley if he had put it in there and he said that he had and he didn't need it any more. I guess I didn't realize how attached I had come to it, or at least what it represented. Bradley is growing up, slowly he is starting to put away some of the childish things as he continues to get older. Now it will get packed in box of things to remember.

Keeping up with the Times

2009, already . . . oh wait not only is it 2009, but it is already a month over. Here is the news around the Porter household, and no, we are not pregnant, it isn't that type of news.

New Piano
We got a piano off of Craigslist for a really great deal. The piano is in pretty good shape. The bench had broken and they tried to fix it, not such a great job, but until we get a new one, there it sits, or rather there we sit. I have started to teach Brad and Kyle the piano. They really enjoy it so far. I don't have to remind them to practice they just do it because they want to. Sometimes William tries to help them make music on the piano while they practice but for the most part he does pretty good letting them play and then taking his turn. It really isn't a very good picture, but you get the idea at least.

Sleeping
What does having four boys do to a man? Well Joe can tell you, they make you very tired. Too bad he doesn't get to do this as much as he would like to. Joe taking a deserved break. Don't worry those four boys don't let him do this too long they always want his attention.

Matt is 6 months
This cute baby, has grown so much. Wow, 18 lbs already. Apparently the poor child needs more pictures taken of him and his new tricks, this is all we have since Christmas. He can now sit, roll all over the place, and jabber up a storm,. He enjoys any food you give him, but prefers fruit. He had his first drink of juice today and was so excited that his how body was shaking. Matt loves bath time and can really make a big splash. He loves to cuddle when he is sleepy, but other than that he wants to be in the move.

William and Matt in the bath tub.

Trains, Trains, and More Trains
We have a small obsession going on around our household. William has discovered his undying love and loyalty for trains. It started really when he started watching The Polar Express! He got a train for Christmas on Christmas Eve from his brothers. He slept with that night, and carried it around everywhere with him. No one could touch it, and if he lost you better watch out. He got another train on Christmas Day. He loved that train too. Now everything in his life revolves around trains. If he wears his train jammies to bed, good luck getting off the next day! Trains come with us in the car, the store, to Grandma and Grandpa Fredericks', and they sleep next to him in his bed, which of course is trains sheets and a blanket. They sit on the couch with, and yes they come in the church bag to church, hey they keep him quiet, so why not. His favorite books are you guessed it, about trains. So what do you do with a boy that loves trains so much? You encourage it of course. He is building his laungage skills by talking about them, and he is building his imagination by playing with them and having to build tracks. Not to mention the patience getting better because he has to be more gentle and careful so they will stay on the tracks. His brothers have also remembered that trains are fun and play with him and help him build tracks. Best of all playing trains help entertain him all day!

William Playing under Matt's excersaucer.

New Sunday Duds
Brad and Kyle really like wearing suits, I don't know why but they love to wear them to church. So this year Santa found some for them. William and Matt and thrilled to wear just a sweat or sweater vest, they really have no opinion on the matter. They had fun on there first day of there new classes at Church. William continues to struggle going to Nursery, and spends a lot of Sundays either in the primary room with Mom or in priesthood with Dad. Matt just smiles at everyone or spits on the people behind us, sorry Johnson Family for the shower you get sometimes on Sundays.

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.