When Mom tags, you answer!

I was tagged by my sweet Mommy today, and even though I just did a tag very similar to this one, how could I turn down my own Mom?! This one is the sixth picture in the sixth folder...and how appropriate?! It's our adorable baby boy on his SIX month birthday!!!

Keeping my Whits

My sister has a blog!!! I will take credit, even though I'm not sure I deserve it. I have been nagging her for a while now, though! I'm so happy that I get to see more pictures and hear more stories about my sister and her family! Visit their blog here!

A little out of hand

Things got a little out of hand at dinner tonight. I'm usually pretty anal about stuff getting on Porter's face and hands, but with those little teether biscuits there is no hope. So we added squash and green beans and this is what we got! (click on the pictures to make them full size...it's even better!)

He looks misearble, huh?! He actually does have a pretty nasty cold right now, but sitting in his high chair with a wheat teether biscuit or a sippy with water always makes him happy. This is definitely one of those times when there was more on him than in him!

Aunt Jenny's visit

My friend Jennifer drove up from Bradenton to visit us last weekend and we had so much fun! We shopped and ate, then shopped and ate some more! There was quite a bit of laying around going on, too, which is also a quality activity. She is great at making Porter laugh! Can't wait to see you again, Jennifer! Thanks for coming to see us!

Almost crawling

Here is a video of our little man getting around in his own little fashion. He is getting quicker!

Seven Months Old

It's that time of month again! I know I always say this, but I can't believe how fast the time has gone! I feel like we were just taking Porter's five and six month pictures. I barely get them on the computer, and it is time to take another round! Our sweet baby boy is growing so quickly, and learning and doing new things every single day. He is such a joy and there is never a day that passes that we don't thank our Heavenly Father for our squishy boy! We are more in love with him today than ever before. Here are some things our noonie has been up to...

~He is now pushing up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth. He hasn't figured out how to move his hands yet, but once he does, he'll be off! Babyproofing, here we come.
~He can now go from the sitting position to the crawling position.
~He is sleeping much better, day and night. He goes to bed between 8 and 9 pm, then wakes to eat usually between 4 and 5 am, then gets up between 6:30-7:30 am. He is also taking much better naps! Yay! Usually two of his three naps are at least an hour. Yay! Did I say that already? YAY!
~When he gets excited, he gives a big smile and then sucks in air before he gives a big laugh. Easily the cutest thing ever on this planet.
~He says "da, da, da" and, of course, he is still obsessed with his tongue. Out and in all day long! He will always smile at us if we play with our tongues, too.
~He has definitely found his voice and our normally quiet boy has taken to screeching and screaming a lot (in a good way!). Also ridiculously cute.
~He has started eating much better, his meals including winter squash and apple/blueberry- his favorites, and also peas, green beans, pears, apples, and bananas. He had his first bites of real banana today and he did great! He also eats those little Gerber wagon wheels and he does wonderfully!
~If he is sitting up and I am sitting nearby, he will lunge himself forward and try to crawl up in my lap. I LOVE THIS! He loves his Mama :)
~He has started fussing when Daddy leaves his room at night after family prayer. It is so cute, because he loves his Daddy so much! I really believe he is the happiest when we are all three in one room together.

Some things Porter loves:
~The telephone. This can stop crying anyday, anytime. He loves to hold it and push all the buttons.
~A sippy cup with water. Also a go-to for crank elimination.
~The globe night light in his room. It lights up when you touch it to three different levels of brightness, and it never fails to get on of those suck-in-first-until-you-have-to-cough smiles. Maybe he will be a geographer when he grows up?
~Splashing in the tub. He also loves to try to catch the water as it comes out of the bottom of those bath cups with holes in the bottom. It is too funny to watch him try to grab the water.
~Looking in the mirror (and why wouldn't he?! He knows cute when he sees it!).
~Playing with Mommy's hair. He is so gentle and sweet. Usually.
~Kisses! I pretty much suck his delicious cheeks off all day long, and he thoroughly enjoys it. I promise I just lay him on the floor and suck his face to death and he lays there and smiles. What a boy.

Baby's first Christmas

For Porter's first Christmas, we were blessed to be able to fly out to Castle Rock, Colorado to visit Craig's mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, and two neices. We had a blast! We did a ton of fun things, but our favorite part was just hanging out with the family. There were lots of games and laughter (particularly Scrabble where Craig scored and 80 point word! Woo hoo, babe!) and lots of just hanging out watching the kids love on each other. It was a great trip, and lots of great memories were made. It was probably my favorite Christmas so far because it takes on a whole new meaning when you have a little one! He had such a fun time being with his family! He was kissed a whole lot and of course was spoiled rotten.

Unfortunately Porter did not do very well in the dry air and high altitude, but he was a trooper and was happy during the day! The nights were very difficult. He was up at least every two hours, usually more, the whole time we were there. Granny helped out a lot and took him during the night a few times so I could get more than an hour's sleep at a time. That portion of the trip was a little stressful, but once we were up in the morning we were energized for a new day and had a great time, despite his 20 minute naps as well. About the eighth night I started to realize how tired I was getting! We didn't want to come home, but it sure is nice to have a sleeping baby again! We can only figure that the altitude bothered him tremendously. Who knows?

It was my first Christmas that I have ever spent away from my family, and if I had to be with anyone else, it would be Craig's family! We shopped and played and ate more than I care to admit. It was a wonderful vacation. Thanks, Mom and Dad for such a great trip, and for spoiling us rotten. We love you!

Here is our trip in pictures!

Here is Porter on the loooong flight out to Denver. He did great and was very well-behaved, but Craig and I were both saying "Are we there yet?!" We landed at the Denver airport about 2 hours before that plane crashed. Glad we missed the chaos of that, and of course that everyone is okay!

Sweet Abby and Porter sitting at the table with their new Christmas dishes from Granny.

Aunt Shannie giving Porter "I haven't seen you in three months" kisses!

Uncly Craigy and Abby girl. I think she was happy to see us, but thrilled to see Porter!

I love this sweet picture of Granny and her "Porter-chops." She sure does love him! She was showing him the gorgeous view from their house. There was snow on the ground and the rooftops, but it only snowed for about five minutes while we were there. It was chilly though!

I love this picture because you can see how intently he was listening to her. He loves his Granny!

Daddy and Baby Claus.

This was Porter's first time sitting in a restaurant high chair. I know, I'm crazy for taking a picture of that (actually Shannon took it at my request!) We were at one of their favorite restaurants called "Noodles" and it was delicious!

Grandpa and Abby at Noodles

Granny and all her grandbabies! How cute is that?!

Our little Christmas baby in front of the tree.

He loooooved touching the branches on Granny and Grandpa's tree. If he got fussy we would just let him touch the branches and he cheered right up! 

An aerial view of our traditional Christmas Eve jammie opening! We all changed into our jammies and then had a delicious Christmas Eve dinner. We had such a cozy and fun dinner, and we even had little holiday crackers to pop open with a little gift inside at each of our place settings (another TerBlanche tradition). Then we got to eat all the leftovers on Christmas day! Yum!

Sweet Lissie and Abby helping Porter open his Christmas jammies.

Surprise! Here comes Grandpa Claus down the stairs with HUGE bags full of toys for the little ones! The bags even had their names on them. So cute!

"It's what I've always wanted!!!!!"

Here are the sweet kiddos on Christmas morning! Porter, Alisa, and Abby.

Mommy and Porter having snowman shaped pancakes for breakfast (well...only Mommy). Thanks Chef Michael!

Our little paper monster!

Shannon made her girls tutus for Christmas and it had to be the cutset thing ever seeing them run around with them on over their jammies! So cute!

One of my favorite pictures ever! You can see how much they love him!

Porter loves his Aunt Shannie! She was even sweet enough to watch him one night (when he was very cranky even though she says he wasn't!) so we could go out to a nice dinner with Craig's parents. Thanks, Shannon!

After breakfast and opening presents on Christmas morning, we headed to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and we had a blast! Unfortunately, Shannon and her family weren't able to go with us because they had to go to Mike's family's house, but we still had fun!

They have an exhibit where you can feed giraffes and it was SO much fun! Here is Porter putting a cracker on this Gerry's loooong sticky tongue!

Click on this picture to make it full size and you'll see that he was sticking his tongue out just like the big Gerry!

Daddy and Porter! 

Getting some big kisses from Granny in the nice, warm ape house.

A fun bath back at Granny's house. It was such a great day full of wonderful memories!

My friend Hailey, who lives in Michigan, was in Denver visiting her family and we were able to catch up while we were there. It was so fun seeing how big her boys have gotten! I haven't seen her since Grant was 2 weeks old! I especially love how Jackson is holding Porter's leg in this picture. When I gave Jackson a hug goodbye he said "I will miss you" in such a sweet, sad voice. I don't even know that he remembers me, but it melted my heart!

Saying goodbye to Granny at the airport. We miss you already!

I had to add this picture just because it's funny! The air wasn't working for part of our long flight home and it was HOT so we let everyone enjoy the awesomeness of our naked baby for a while. At this point he was way over all his toys and we resorted to a plastic cup. Whatever works, right?!

We had SUCH a fun trip! We can't wait to see you all again!