Help!

So, yesterday I was contemplating changing my blog layout, and while messing around with new ones... I lost my blog list!!! OH NOOOO!!! I have no one to stalk now!!! So, if you are a reader of this blog and you know I read yours, PLEASE leave a comment so I know what your blog address is! Even if you think I know it, there were WAY too many to remember, so help a sistuh out! That means YOU!

Cheerio, Dahling

An Afternoon in St. Augustine

My brother Doug surprised his wife, Brianne, by bringing her up to St. Augustine for their anniversary a couple of weekends ago, and they were sweet enough to invite me to have lunch with them. We ate in the Lightner Museum Restaurant, which is in what used to be the deep end of the largest indoor pool in the world. It was delicious and pretty awesome thinking about people swimming around in the sulfer water where we ate! Fun!

Uncle Doug was awesome and fed Porter his lunch so Mommy could eat hers uninterrupted! Doesn't his food look yummy? It was! I tried it!

This picture makes me laugh. I took literally ten pictures of Porter and Brianne, and every single time her eyes were closed. Naturally, my brother decided to help out. This was the only one with them open!

How sweet is this??? Porter hung out with Aunt Brianne the whole afternoon, and he loved it. :)

After lunch, we went into the courtyard of the museum to feed the coy in a pretty little coy pond. We tried to get Porter to feed the fishies, but the bread went right in his mouth. Surprised?

St. Augustine continued...

Loving on Uncle Doug.

This was taken in front of "Execution Wall" at the Castillo de San Marcos. Believe it or not, they posed like this. Weirdos.

What is it with my family members drinking out of sippy cups? (Granny!?!) Brianne looks nauseated by the act of immaturity.

They look exactly alike. I don't care what anyone says.

Thanks for sharing a fun afternoon with us, guys! Porter and I had a blast hanging out with you and learning all of the creepy things that you guys heard on the ghost tour the night before! I know Craig wishes he could have spent the afternoon with us, too. Happy 5th Anniversary! We love you!

Will Crawl for Food

Well, sort of. Porter will book it from wherever he is to make it to the fridge when we open it. He loves it! He is crawling so well now!

Chicken Noodle Soup

I made homemade chicken noodle soup! I am quite proud of myself... I've never made soup before! I got this recipe from a visiting teaching conference I went to about 3 years ago and I've been wanting to try it, but was too chicken (ha ha! chicken...get it?!) to try it...so, I recruited my bestie Suz to come over and make it with me. She is an awesome cook, so I knew we could pull it off together. It was easy and delicious! Suz made homemade sourdough soup bowls to eat with the soup and it was quite the dinner. Yum!

First Haircut

On February 12th, Porter had his first big boy haircut! Knowing that I would completely ruin my sweet boy's locks by trying to do it myself, Craig and I went to the professionals... and it was worth every penny! We took him to a cute little children's salon and boutique called Doodle Doo's. They were equipped with 2 staff members for our noonie, a hair stylist and an entertainer. Awesome. They had bubbles, toys, and a dvd player all set up with Baby Einstein. Pretty smart! He didn't pay a bit of attention to the dvd, but a smart idea nonetheless. They were ready to hand him a new toy every time he looked bored with the old one! They were wonderful, and they did a great job with his haircut!

Here he is sitting in the cute little boat! His little bare feet sticking out the bottom was the best thing ever. He loved holding on to the steering wheel. You can see how his hair was hanging over his ears in this picture. I was constantly tucking it behind his ears, so I knew it was time for a cut. He did not love the cape, so that went bye-bye pretty quickly. Cute, though!

He did SO well while she cut his hair! He didn't fuss at all! They were quite impressed with him and they wished every baby getting their first haircut was as well-behaved. :)

Here is a shot of the back when she was all done.

All finished! Don't I look handsome?!


They took a picture of him getting his spiffy cut and printed it for us before we left. They also gave him a "first haircut" certificate and a little keepsake box with locks of his hair. Pretty good deal for $15! Thanks, Doodle Doo's! Our boy looks gorgeous (and SO BIG!)

Porter's First Word!

Here is a video of Porter saying "mamama." He says it ALL the time now, and I LOVE IT! Usually it is when he is upset, so excuse the sadness.

close-up of the peggies

For some reason the pictures in my last post aren't going to full-size when you click on them, so I edited this picture so you could see his little toofers coming in. Ouch!

A very busy two weeks!

These last couple of weeks have been so very busy! I have had a very hard time finding the time to blog, so we have lots of catching up to do... Porter has made some of the biggest milestones of his little life in the last couple of weeks! It is so much fun to watch him grow and discover what he is capable of. He is such a sweet boy, and we continue to fall deeper in love with him every day!

My mom, Porter's Nana, came to visit us last Monday through Friday. It was SO wonderful having her here! She was super helpful and we had such a great time together. She snuggled on Porter a whole lot in effort to tide him over with "Nana love" until next time :) We love you, Nana! Thanks so much for making the trip to come see us, and thanks to Papa for letting us borrow her for a week! xoxo

Sorry this first picture is sideways. Blogger and I aren't getting along very well right now. Anyway, Porter has been very busy growing TEETH in the last couple of weeks! He has had a hard time, but he has been such a trooper. We love frozen washcloths and sippy cups with cold water. Motrin has been a lifesaver for the little pumpkin, too. He has really struggled getting those little bad boys through his gums, but now that they are through he seems to be much happier! So sad, huh?!

Click on this picture to make it bigger and you will see what has been giving our boy such a hard time! Poor baby! Teething is evil! Those little peggies are dang adorable, though!

While he was working so hard on pushing those little ivories through his gums, he unfortunately got a cold. After a while I took him to the doctor just to get him checked out, and what do you know...an ear infection. Double whammy. Poor baby again! He has definitely been very sad and clingy, but ever-so-sweet. He has also learned to say "mamama" when he is sad or upset. It is literally the sweetest thing ever and I love it! I have a video that I will attempt to post.

On a happier note, our little explorer figured out the proper way to crawl! He has been scooting around for quite some time, but finally figured out that he can move while he's up in that hands-and-knees position! The funny thing is that he only does 3 or 4 "steps" and then its back to his scoot...it's faster! I haven't gotten it on video yet, but I'm trying!

He has also learned how to pull himself up to standing! What a big boy!

Because of the aforementioned crawling and standing, we knew it was time to make some changes around the TerBlanche household. Daddy Duty #1: cabinet locks. These are the world's most frustrating but necessary evil. Those who have installed these know what I'm talking about. Anyone out there who can design an easier one will be a millionaire, guaranteed. Here is a picture of Porter helping Daddy fix up our kitchen cabinets.
Daddy duty #2: lowering the crib! I don't have a picture of it lowered yet, but this was taken just a few days before it was changed. Mommy doesn't like it because the bedding doesn't look as cute and I feel like he is in baby-jail now that the rails show. I actually almost cried when I saw the finished product. Plus low mattresses mean you have a big baby in there! My baby is getting SO big! Boo hoo!

Speaking of our big boy...he turned 8 months old an February 10th!!! Here is his monthly picture of him with his puppy! We didn't get the most fabulous of shots this month because he wasn't in a very happy mood. He does LOVE to be naked, though, so that usually makes him a little more cooperative. Love this chubby baby!

He has also learned to help Mommy with the dishes! Okay...not really, but he loves hanging out by the dishwasher! One day, little boy, you will want to get as FAR away from the dishwasher as possible :)AND, believe it or not... through all of this craziness in the last little while, our sweet noonie managed to get EVEN CUTER! Can you believe that?!