Float like a . . .

We are anxiously waiting for these caterpillars to finish their work . . . so that the butterflies can get all the publicity! This was Porter's 1 year birthday present. Derek and I are definitely getting more out of it than him. When I try to show him the caterpillars,  or now the cocoons he just tries to hit and shake the cage. Don't mind my iPhone photo documentation-too lazy to get a real camera.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!

This is Porter's best friend in the whole wide world Dezi! They are a month apart so they are sharing their 1 year birthday together, which is going to be fabulous! My sister in law and I had such visions of grandeur for their birthday party invitations. The two cutest boys in the world smashing up cake with the biggest, gummiest, cakiest grins. I imagined they would be laughing back and forth at one another, and maybe even sampling each other's cake.  Instead all we saw was hysterical tears! We couldn't help but crack up ourselves through out the entire process. Picture number three sums up their distress. If you blow it up you can see soft little tears on both of their cheeks. Silly boys.

Front Porch living

It's a little happy/sad over here on Hollywood Ave. We put our house up for sale Easter weekend and within a few weeks we thankfully had offers. Now everything has gone through and it is safe to say we sold our home.
Home is such a loaded word. With all the memories, smells, tastes, and hard work that goes into them it becomes harder than you think to say goodbye.
 Hollywood Ave was mine and Derek's first home together. It is where 'we' started four years ago.
Most of all we will miss Porter's sun porch. He climbs from furniture piece to furniture piece commanding the neighborhood from his domain. Yelling at all the passersby and waving fondly at anyone who dares make eye contact. He sneakily sidles up to our potted plant- when we've stopped paying close attention- to grab as much dirt as those little hands can hold to shove in as much dirt as that little mouth can hold.
It's a small front porch but it can hold Porter's whole world

Latest Happenings

You know what? I hear it all the time -and occasionally the truth of it will hit me- that life happens fast. The wittle man is now 11 months old and eating all kinds of food, getting haircuts, and wiggling up a storm. I have to ask myself when did this newborn baby grow up into an almost 1 year old?

Big sigh. Head shaking side to side. 

His bangs have now been cut into a nice roman hair style (new haircuts always need a week before they look right) and I left him over night for the first time. For 5 days! Leaving a baby is such a bitter sweet feeling. Part of you is jumping for joy at the idea of sleeping in and the other part is yelling that you are missing something really great! What if he giggles today and I miss it? 

Truth be told though I had the most incredible girls trip to NYC and it really was a once in a life time trip. My mother in law surprised me by graciously letting us stay at her incredible home.  I can't thank her enough for giving us such a great view. We all felt incredibly lucky to be able to wake up to every morning to it.

Of course this year has been the year of 'firsts' for us as parents and for Porter.

So, here is Porter's first Easter.

Kauai

I had to post two versions of this pic so you can see how hard it is to take a picture with 7 squirmy kids! Even when you are shooting pictures on Sports mode they are wiggling in between every second.

A lot of beach racing occurred this trip

Fighting over the truck...

Here is TuTu who can amazingly host a house full of people along with watch gaggles of little pitter pattering feet running all around.  Thanks for the fun memories and newly made family videos that we can watch years down the road when another rainy day occurs.

Porter-vision

I wasn't able to load the video straight to my blog but click on the link below to see our family's progress.

9 month old Porter just found out that our breakfast nook is a jungle gym!!

Our Newest Porter-vision Video

St.George

Well the wittle man and I just got back from St. George with a fun group of mommies. My cousin who came is a blogger as well,  and since I am a little lazy about blogging-especially now that I've seen hers (which she did a great job documenting).  I figure I'll just direct you to "it". Assuming you are interested in a bunch of moms hanging out with their wee ones... maybe you are more interested in seeing the wee ones with big gummy grins!