More Birthday Pictures!

Porter and his friends at his party. I think I can see more ribs than muscles. He thought it was pretty cool that all four of them were six years old.

Porter takes a pinata bashing very seriously. It's tradition to let the birthday child go first, and then you just cross your fingers that nobody else breaks it before the birthday child's turn comes around again.
This was my best attempt at an Indiana Jones cake. I think next time I will just fork over the money and order one, and save myself the stress. I worried so bad that it wouldn't be what he wanted, but in the end it was good enough for him.

Happy Birthday Porter!

Porter's 6th birthday was yesterday and we had such a great day! Allen usually takes the day of work on Porter's birthday and we go swimming, but he was unable to this year so I let Porter invite a few friends over for swimming and pizza. Because we are new in the area, we only knew of a few people to invite, but it was still a lot of fun. They had a great time swimming, slip-n-sliding, and having squirt gun fights. Allen did come home a little early so we could take Porter out to dinner. We told him he could choose anywhere he wanted because it was his special day. I thought he'd choose pizza, but he chose Wendy's, of all places. Then we came home for a party with our family at our house. We had cake and ice cream, opened presents, and had a pinata. The clouds threatened to move our party indoors partway through, but they only produced a few claps of thunder and then moved it. Porter got tons of cool presents, including a Build-your-own Lightsaber, clone trooper gun, Indiana Jones legos, Star Wars legos, etc. We will now spend the next few weeks trying to assemble and figure everything out. We are so grateful for Porter. He truly is an amazing child and we can't imagine life without him. Happy Birthday Porter!

A Day at the Dam!

First off, we owe a big thank you to Tim and Celeste for inviting us to go on their boat with them. We had an absolute blast on the water! It's been a long time since Allen and I have been waterskiing and it was good to try again. I emphasize the word try, because that's all I could muster was a good try. I never quite made it up on the skis, but Allen did pretty well. Before I got in the water, Allen said to me "it's just like riding a bike, once you've learned, you never forget." Well, I have to disagree with that theory, because I did once know how and I sure didn't remember how this time. It's amazing how sore you can be when you didn't even get up on the skis. The kids had a great time on the inner tube, especially Hannah. She didn't want to stop. Thanks again, Tim and Celeste for a great day!

Porter felt very in charge when he was able to work the orange flag.
Although I couldn't waterski, I gave the tube a try and it was a blast. Luckily there's not much skill involved on staying on a tube. Basically, you just hang on for dear life, especially with Celeste's crazy driving.

Baby Cooper!

I am so unbelievably excited to be an aunt again. For all of you that don't know, my brother and his wife were able to adopt this little angel. They have been waiting so long for a baby and now they have Cooper and he is so amazing. He came into the world with a bang and he is going never going to be lacking in attention and love. Check out Ryan and Hayley's blog @ www.ryanhayley.blogspot.com to read his amazing birth story. It really is worth the read. Anyways, we are so excited for those two and for the wild ride of parenthood they have ahead of them. They will make amazing parents. We love you Cooper (oh, and you too Ryan and Hayley)!

Ouch!

What I didn't mention about the Fourth of July was Porter's knee injury. He was jumping on a trampoline with some bigger cousins of his when he came down wrong on his left knee. He immediately started screaming and we ran over to get him off. We couldn't tell what was wrong, but we knew he was hurt because he generally doesn't cry like that. We decided not to take him to the doctor, because it was so late on the 4th and to see how his knee looked in the morning. Well, he woke up Saturday morning in a lot of pain so I took him to the Instacare. The doctor examined his leg and then told me he thought his femur was broken and that he would need a full leg cast and would potentially need surgery. Of course, all this came before the X-rays. The doctor gave me just enough information to sufficiently freak me out. To make a long story short, the X-rays were negative for a break, just some straining of the ligaments on the back side of his knee. The doctor got us some crutches which Porter loves to walk on and he's getting pretty good. We just have to keep the knee wrapped, steady Ibuprofen, and lots of rest. Porter's not doing so well on the lots of rest part. It will definitely be a long few days for him. We really hope that the strained ligaments is all it is. He woke up this morning, Sunday with a left foot that is very swollen. We have been icing it all day, but we hope that the doctor didn't miss anything. I guess we'll watch really close the next few days and hope that the swelling goes down and that this is the end of it.

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a great Fourth of July (aside from Porter's injury). We had a great time at the Riverdale parade with our good friends, The Shaffers. We were also able to spend time with both families and other friends as well. We definitely missed Grandma and Grandpa Archibald. Grandma's patriotism is contagious and was really missed. We hope they had a good day at the Visitor's Center in Oakland where they are on their mission.

So Sweet! (when he's asleep)

Tate is growing up way too fast! I can't believe he is already 19 months old. Where did my little baby go? He is getting so big and doing such cute things. He can also be a terror and a major handful. The picture of him asleep may be my favorite picture of him. He looks so sweet and innocent. Then he wakes up and the fun begins. The other picture is Tate staring at his little friend Daniel. Tate loves this baby so much. He is so sweet and gentle with him and loves to see him.