The Harden's

Wow. Our neighbors will love this!

2012-02-12T07:57:00.001-06:00

Jared and porter went to mobile with Porter's super fast jeep yesterday and installed an air horn....

YouTube Video

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Porter singing to Stella this morning

2012-02-07T08:05:00.001-06:00

YouTube Video

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Happy birthday porter???

2012-02-06T17:42:00.001-06:00

He found this and says he is going to wear it until he turns 4 and has a party.

Then he said he was a unicorn.

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But a bad night

2012-02-06T05:59:00.001-06:00

Have you ever woken up exhausted? We took 2 steps back last night. Stella went from getting up once 2 nights ago, to getting up 3 times last night and being a little hard to get back to bed. *yawn*

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Better day today

2012-02-05T18:42:00.001-06:00

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Milestones

2012-02-04T21:09:00.000-06:00

Well the blogging app on my phone has not been working, so I had to break down and find time to get on the computer. The only way that happens is when two kids are in bed, bottles and pumping dishes are washed, new bottles are made, and laundry is done. That's why it's been a week since I've posted. Maybe more. I can't even remember when I posted. We have reached a few milestones I haven't posted. First was Stella's one month birthday. Here are a few pics from that morning--January 19th.

Next was Stella's six week birthday and her first day at "school." The first pic below is from the day before she was 6 weeks old. I put that one in because she was wearing a new dress for church. So cute...

These are from her first day of school. Porter was excited she got to come with him and wanted to escort her to her room. She did great! She went two days this past week, and is going 4 days next week. She has been staying with Nannie the days she doesn't go to daycare. I'm so glad Nannie has gotten to spend so much time with my children. And I don't know what I would have done without her in the last 3 years!!

Work has been unbelievably busy. Combine that with the work that a 6 week old is, and we are just stressed to the max. My house is a wreck, laundry has been neglected, and a lot of eating out or not eating supper at all. Stella likes to be "vocal" in the evenings. Sometimes for several hours. This is our least favorite stage. We just keep reminding ourselves that it is a short stage and we just have to get through it. I have to remind myself too that it won't be this crazy forever. I went back to work when she was 3 weeks old, and most people take 5 more weeks off. I went back to work when Porter was 8 weeks old, and remember that even when he was 8 weeks old, I was still very busy with him all day long. Soon she will be a little less "needy" and hopefully I will start getting to eat supper again.
On the up side, she is sleeping great!!! Once we figured out that she really wants to eat a lot in the evenings and go to bed earlier than I was putting her down, life after dark has improved significantly. This past week she started sleeping from 7:30-ish until 2:00. The beginning of the week she got up again at 4:30, which was tough since it was only 2 1/2 hrs later and I was just getting into a deep sleep, but by the end of the week she had skipped that one and was only getting up once. And last night she slept from 7:30 until 2:45!!! Since I have been working, there have been no naps during the day when she was napping, so I have really really REALLY enjoyed the sleep.
So why am I wasting all this time blogging?!?! I'm going to bed!! ;)

Porter and the "super fast jeep"

2012-01-28T12:50:00.001-06:00

Porter is having a fun weekend. Last night he stayed with nana and papa.

He and Sylvie got to play and had popcorn and a movie.

Today Jared asked him what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to ride his super fast jeep at Nannie and poppie's house, so that's what they are doing.

Stella is with nana today, and I am working. And what a busy few days it has been. I WILL rest and try to nap some this afternoon. I have been exhausted.

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Baby leg warmers

2012-01-25T08:16:00.001-06:00

I'm officially obsessed. Here are today's selection....
"I love my new leg warmers!"

"Maybe..."

"hmmm.... Let me think about it a minute."

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The little p pot

2012-01-24T11:00:00.001-06:00

She's in her "nest" this morning. For the last 2 nights she has eaten at 8:00pm, and then not gotten up until 1:45. That's great!! The bad part is trying to get her to sleep, which is full of crying and wide open eyes, and then the getting up every 1 1/2 to 2 hours the rest of the night. At least I'm getting about 4 straight hours of sleep. One time last night during the every 1 1/2 hours part of the night she cried and I realized I was in bed and didn't know how I had gotten there. I thought I was still in her room with her. Soon the delirium will be over. I hope. I guess porter has just been training is for this time.

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Sewing for Stella!!

2012-01-17T12:57:00.001-06:00

Nannie and I have been busy lately now that we have a new little girl to sew for!!!
I am in love with baby leg warmers, so we have been making lots of them out of womem's knee socks. And of course there are onesies to match. They are so easy and convenient!! No pulling pants off to change diapers.

I have to put in this pic of a shirt we did for a friend's little girl that is turning 3.

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Stella-lacka

2012-01-17T12:51:00.001-06:00

Jared calls cracker cracka-lacka, so porter does too. Jared has also been singing "The Name Game" song (porter porter bo borter...) to porter recently, so porter tries to sing it to Stella. The other day as we were getting in the car porter looks over at Stella and says, "hey, Stella-lacka" and then breaks out in the name game. Except it turned out more like "Stella Stella banana." So funny. He is such a good big brother. He is very gentle and kisses her all the time. He talks to her and likes to make sure she is covered up. And he always uses this high, soft little voice that is so cute. Here are a few pics of Stella from the last 4 weeks. She was 4 weeks old Monday, and will be one month old Thursday. Times flies when your exhausted and working.

Nannie and Stella have gotten some quality time lately. So glad they are getting to know each other.

Sylvie loves to "hold da baby."

Pic from first bath...

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Stella says ROLL TIDE!!

2012-01-09T12:52:00.002-06:00

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Porter and Stella

2012-01-07T10:31:00.000-06:00

Hint: Boys wear blue, and girls wear pink.

Stella's Birthday

2012-01-07T10:20:00.000-06:00

Here are pics from the big event. I was able to negotiate an "elective" 39 week induction with Dr Browning. I was admitted on Sunday and started the induction process slowly. Misoprostil on Sunday and Pitocin started early Monday morning. Stella made her arrival at 2:47pm. We both did well enough we were able to go home the next afternoon!!!

Porter was a little hesitant at first. He said she was too heavy for him to hold and wouldn't touch her at first. Actually he wouldn't touch me or get near me most of the time I was in the hospital. If there was anything attached to me he kept his distance. I had to put on a long sleeve top and hide my IV to get him to even sit on the edge of the bed.

He was ok with giving her a kiss, and he continues to kiss her every time he can.

I didn't get pictures with all our visitors, but one out of town visitor insisted on lots of pictures. Some of those pictures were specifically for taunting another special friend that hasn't met Stella yet. Abbie saw her first!!! Candi's got some catching up to do. ;)

Christmas Morning 2011

2012-01-07T09:57:00.000-06:00

Christmas with a newborn is crazy. Here are our pictures. I think I was holding Stella during all of this, so that's why she's not in any pictures, and also why the pictures are not that great. I wasn't really mobile

enough to get the "angle."

Big weekend plans

2012-01-07T08:59:00.001-06:00

Sike!!!

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What a good big brother

2011-12-29T09:03:00.001-06:00

That's the title of one of the big brother books we read before Stella was born. We are constantly repeating that now in hopes that loving to kiss and hold his little sister will continue.

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Stella

2011-12-24T08:08:00.001-06:00

Eventually I will get the pics of our "real" camera. Our laptop is in the shop right now, so I'm having to do everything with my phone. I will also post some comparison pics of porter and Stella--they are little clones. She looks just like porter.

Doesn't like the flash, but was liking her thumb!

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10 months to 3 years

2011-12-24T08:03:00.001-06:00

Compare this picture to the same one at 10 months old in the right side bar.

Porter still wants daddy to "fly him" by picking up the plane with him on it and "flying" around the house. They are very short flights these days. And there is a longer rest period in between.

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Daddy and the p-pots

2011-12-22T19:38:00.001-06:00

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Night night

2011-12-19T21:43:00.001-06:00

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Stella Grace Harden

2011-12-19T21:03:00.001-06:00

Arrived at 2:47pm 12/19/2011. 7 lb 6 oz and 21 inches.

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Today is the day?!?!

2011-12-19T04:41:00.001-06:00

I've been channeling the Mel Fischer theme (look him up) for the last week or so. I'm hoping that today really is the day!!
We are up and going!! The nurses got me up at 4:00 to get a shower and now I am on the monitor. I've been contracting some throughout the night, getting a little stronger and closer together. Nothing terribly impressive. Probably going to start the pitocin soon.
For some reason this old game comes to mind--"red rover, red rover, bring Stella right over." And I hated that game. Don't know....

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What are we doing???

2011-12-18T15:01:00.001-06:00

Well I'm sitting in a hospital bed, hooked up to monitors and waiting on the misoprostol to start working.
Jared is eating all of the snacks he brought with him to pass the time.
Porter is "helping" papa spread pine straw in the flower beds.

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Salt dough ornaments

2011-12-18T14:54:00.001-06:00

Porter's not much on the art projects, but I sure am, so yesterday we made salt dough ornaments. He does like helping me cook and do anything that's generally too much for a 3 year old or gonna make a mess, so this was right up his alley!!

He sampled the dough. Once. And then asked for something to drink.
We cut them out with cookie cutters and them they had to bake for about 5 1/2 hours. The recipe said 4-6 hours.

It was too late to paint them last night, so we did that this morning.

It started getting a little out of hand when he started painting himself, so we skipped to putting the lights on the Christmas trees. I had used his little index finger to indent the dough before they baked and then we used his finger again in the paint to make the lights.

Here are some other pictures. You can pretty much tell which ones he painted/picked the colors for. (purple snowman, orange Christmas tree....)

We did a handprint one..... I may be a little to heavy to hang as an ornament. We'll see.

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Today is the day!!!

2011-12-18T08:35:00.001-06:00

Well, maybe. It's at least the day we get the ball rolling on this whole L&D thing. We go in to the hospital today at 1:00 to start the process of induction. I would love to get it over with today, but I'm not going to get my hopes up. I've been doing that a little too much lately and been disappointed day after day because I haven't gone into labor. Unlike last time, I'm rested, and pretty much everything is ready. I've almost been bored the last few days. This is not normally how my life is, and I know it will be back to "normal" as soon as Stella arrives. Well, a new "normal."
This morning porter and I made waffles. Now he and Jared are gone to look for deer tracks on the hunting land, and when they get back, we are going to paint the salt dough ornaments we cut out and baked yesterday. Around naptime we are taking porter to nana and Papa's house and then off to he hospital. Will update!!

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Christmas party

2011-12-16T08:32:00.001-06:00

Today is porter's Christmas party at school. It is a pajama party. When I told him he was going to wear his pj's to school he told me in a very stern voice, "daddy said we don't wear pj's to school."
You're exactly right. So here is what he is wearing to his pajama party.

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Baby Jesus in a manger

2011-12-15T07:29:00.001-06:00

Porter made this last night at mission friends.

After he left he carries it around all night because he had to keep baby Jesus warm. He told my mom that if baby Jesus got cold he would freeze and then he would break. Good thing Mary kept baby Jesus warm all those years ago.
Here he is this morning enjoying some yogurt. Yogurt resting on crossed knee. With his "abominamal snowman" pj's.

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Porter talk

2011-12-13T20:08:00.001-06:00

Granddaddy longlegs spider = long daddy spider

Rice krispie treat = ricepy krispie treat

Toys r us = toy story store

Kirk herbstreit = Kirk Kirk kirkastreit

One day when we were walking into the hospital he asked if he could run. I said yes, and he told me to run to. I said, "I can't run." He said, "I can run because I don't have Stella in my belly."

One morning when porter first got out of bed he said, "Mama, I'm ready for Stella to come out."

Porter asked where his sit-n-spin came from. I told him that jack gave it to him for his birthday. He asked, "Did Jack make it with his machine in his room?" I said no, and then asked if he had a machine in his room. He said, "No, only Jack has a machine in his room."

This afternoon Jared got candy canes to hang on our Christmas tree. When Porter got home from school Jared took him to see them, and porter said, "Daddy, these are not decorations. They are for us to eat. Get them off of there."

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Wow! It's been a while...

2011-12-13T15:30:00.001-06:00

I think this is as long as I've ever gone between posting. Some people may think that's not a bad thing.
Anyway, here's what's been going on....
It's Christmas at our house!!!
As we have been driving around town lately, when we pass a house or business with lights and decorations, porter says, "it's Christmas at their house!!"
I asked him a couple of weeks ago if it was Christmas as our house, and he said no, and that for it to be Christmas at our house we had to have lights on our house. So we hung some lights around the windows. Then I asked him if it was Christmas at our house and he said no, because we didn't have lights inside the house. I told him we have lights inside on our Christmas tree, and he proceeded to go through the house and point to all of the walls saying he wanted lights here, and here, and here.

We started simple. Maybe we'll add to it next year.

We were in the car one morning and porter was watching a movie on his DVD player, but the sun was coming in his window and he couldn't see the screen very well. He said, "mama, I'm gonna ask God to turn the sunshine off so I can see my movie." I just said ok, but explained to him while God could turn the sun on and off of he wanted to, that normally the sun was "on" during the day, and "off" at night, and that's the way God liked it.
A few minutes later, I'm guessing after he had requested that the sun be turned off so he could see his movie, he said, "God didn't turn the sun off."

Porter had his 3 year old well visit last week. When I picked him up to tell him where we were going he had some questions because the last few times we have been he has been sick and they pricked his finger to draw blood. This time he said, "what's that girl gone do?" as he was touching his index fingers together over and over in a pricking motion. He is a whooping 29lb and 36 3/4" tall. He is still <10th percentile for weight, but slowly catching up in height, and is between the 25th and 50th percentile. Pretty good since he started out below the 5th percentile for both. He was able to get the nasal spray flu shot (yea!!) and had a nice chat with Dr E. Dr E asked him what he was doing with my iPhone when he came in, and porter said, "um, reading a book." He told him that Santa was going to bring him "somefing" and that when Stella came he was going to put a hat on her head. Then he started his exam and was looking him over from head to toe. When Dr E pulled his underwear down porter alerted him as to what he would find there by saying, "that's my weenie." I'm sure Dr E has heard worse.....

The sand box. We have finally put sand in the bottom of his playhouse to make a sand box. Even if we had done it earlier it wouldn't have made much of a difference because the Mosquitos are so bad in our yard that you can't go outside. Two weeks ago when we were out there playing I was still getting bit.

38 weeks and counting!!!! Today I had my OB appointment and I and 2-3 cm, 75% effaced, and could go any day. I have been scheduled for induction Sunday if nothing happens before then. Yea!!! It's almost over.

Christmas sewing projects:

Baby leg warmers made out of women's knee socks. I am in love with baby leg warmers and I had someone tell me you could make them out of socks. Nannie and I gave it a try and here is our first two pair. We'll see how they fit when Stella shows up and adjust our strategy accordingly.

We also did shirts for porter and jack, but I don't have a dedicated picture of either one of those. Porter has been wearing it in previous posts though. They are both the same appliqué as Stella's but with red gingham and with fuzzy material.

Ok, this post contains entirely too much information. I will not go this long again, and if I do, I'll break up the posts.

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Random recent pics

2011-12-03T16:20:00.001-06:00

Daddy's TCU visor...

He's a champ at the dentist!!!

Kicked back at Nana's.

Mission friends...

Nappin' with dog and tractor bits.

Porter helped daddy pick out the Christmas tree.

We could spend a fortune on riding things at the mall.

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Christmas parade

2011-12-02T21:39:00.001-06:00

No actual pics of the parade.
Porter at the big Christmas tree on the square.

Porter and jack. Soon to be neighbors!!

Porter and the reindeer.

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The big baby

2011-11-30T20:21:00.001-06:00

As we have been preparing for Stella's arrival by pulling things out of the attic, reassembling, and washing covers, porter has been re-breaking them in...

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How tall is daddy?

2011-11-27T17:05:00.001-06:00

And I quote, "His head is kind of little."

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Decorating the Christmas Tree

2011-11-26T21:24:00.000-06:00

When we opened the box with the stockings Porter asked if they were his Santa Claus clothes. And then he put them on.

Finished product...

And again he had to put on his "Santa Claus clothes."

"Is it poop?"

2011-11-23T13:25:00.004-06:00

Quote of the day from yesterday.
One of my friends gave us some books about having a new baby in the house. We have been reading them and talking about being a big brother a lot lately so that maybe the transition won't be a huge shock to porter's little world. Last night we were looking at one of the books that is more "graphic" and "scientific" than the others. No nudity or anything, but there is a picture of a newborn with its umbilical cord stump still attached. The book addresses it, so I did too. We haven't been just reading it because the language is above a 3 year old level. I just told him that baby Stella would have a little brown thing on her belly button when she first came home, but that it would fall off. He pointed at the picture and said, "That?" I said, "yes." He said, "Is it poop?"
Also big news at the Harden house.... Our elf has returned. Last year he was essentially unnamed and went only by "elf" but once he made his return this year Jared read him the book that accompanied our elf. In the book it talks about naming the elf and has a long list of names. When Jared asked him what he wanted to name our elf, porter pointed at one of the names in the book and said, "That one." Jared said, "You want to name him Markel (the name that porter had pointed at)?" Porter said, "Yeah, Markel" in a matter of fact voice. Like he had read through them all and picked that one. So Markel watches us and tells Santa every night if Porter was good that day. And porter watches Markel. He is constantly cutting his eyes over to see what he's doing while we are watching TV. One time he cut his eyes over at him and then looked at Jared and whispered, "He moved!" He also likes to talk to Markel and tell him what to relay to Santa. Things like he ate all his supper and he wants a jeep or gator like nana and papa has at their house. He looks for him in the morning and is so excited about finding him. Now I know why some people's elves show up around Halloween, or hang around after Christmas for a little while to get a head start for next year.

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I am the very proud wife of a doctoral student in nurse anesthesia!!!!!

2011-11-14T10:40:00.002-06:00

Jared has been accepted to anesthesia school in the doctorate program at TCU and will be on the Pensacola clinical campus!!!!

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Bye Bye Bouncy

2011-11-13T21:55:00.000-06:00

We had to pack it up and take it back to "the bouncy store" this afternoon. We had one last hoorah before it was over. And to clarify the we--Porter and Jared jumped. I observed and took pictures. I did get in the bouncy, but did not do any bouncing.

Ok, no more bouncy pictures. I promise. But seriously, we will find a reason to rent again, especially if we are able to keep it for 2 days.

Bounce, bounce, bounce

2011-11-13T21:36:00.001-06:00

Porter slept for almost 4 hours after his party!!! When he finally woke up it was dark, but not a problem. Turn on the flood lights and fire up the bouncy!!

iPhone doesn't take great action shots....
Later he tried out all his new toys, including his hot wheels wall tracks set.

He had such a good birthday. We will be renting a bouncy again at some point. He enjoyed it so much.
He was bouncing at 7:00 this morning.

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Happy 3rd Birthday Porter!!!

2011-11-13T21:30:00.000-06:00

Our little fireball turned 3 on November 12th!!! We had a big backyardigans birthday blowout with a bouncy house, and had friends and family over to celebrate.

We only had one adult bouncy crasher (during the party)..... Katie got her workout for the day!!!

Porter was obsessed with his cake. During the party my mom caught him inside trying to pull at the box. We almost had a cake disaster....
He wanted cake, but he did not want anyone singing to him. He is very shy about that, and pouted while we sang.

His cake was specially designed by the wonderful Sugar Rush Bakery. It's theme is "Chichen Itza Pizza," which is a backyardigans episode that we have seen a time or two (hundred). The cake is regular vanilla, with caramel icing on the top layer, and cream cheese icing on the bottom layer. It. Was. Fabulous. And still is! Of course I ordered for more than we expected. ;)

We had a Pablo pull-string piñata. Swinging large sticks when little boys are involved is not the greatest idea. Because of a piñata experience at Sylvie's birthday party a couple of months ago, Porter is under the impression that most everything is filled with treats. Porter was convinced that the pumpkin that we carved for halloween was going to have candy on the inside when we cut it open. It is a wonderful idea that most things we stuffed with candy, but unfortunately he has been disappointed many times by reality.

And let me just say, while we are documenting this party, that I am 34 weeks pregnant, and feel every bit of it. I look huge!!! And apparently it has not gone unnoticed by almost everyone. And I'm so lucky to have such honest family members that tell me how big I am. ;)

Porter insisted that he did not have cake on his face.....

Mr Rudy and Mrs Jonelle (our neighbors) were able to celebrate with us. They are such wonderful people. We couldn't ask for better neighbors, and Porter adores them. He loves to go visit their house all the time.

Porter wanted to stop after opening the first gift and play with it. He didn't really have any concept of having multiple things to open (at least in his short memory), but he caught on very quickly. We are set on Cars and Hotwheels merchandise. But he has certainly enjoyed all of them.

Conversation before this pic: "Porter, if you say cheese I'll open that car for you."
Oh, and he still said he didn't have cake on his face.

Thanks so much to everyone that came out to celebrate Porter turning 3. He was truly surrounded by the people he enjoys and I know that was just as big a deal as any cake or gift he received. When we were talking about having a party, the people that were going to be in attendance was what he was most excited about. What a great day!!!

Whew! It's over!

2011-11-10T17:51:00.001-06:00

Now the waiting begins again. He will know by November 22nd, if he was accepted, and if so, what clinical campus he will be assigned to. We are hoping it will be pensacola.

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The waiting has begun

2011-11-10T14:07:00.001-06:00

I dropped Jared off for his interview at 1:00pm. His official interview time is 2:00pm--right now. I am so nervous for him that he doesn't need to be nervous at all!! I am waiting for him at the TCU Barnes and Noble. It is on the campus. I feel very old and very pregnant. And the the thought of being in college again comes to me.... It was fun, but I don't want to go back.
The building where Jared is interviewing is basically across a small parking lot from the horned frogs stadium. It is junior sized compared to the sec stadiums we are used to.

Ok, so I'm just sitting here. Waiting. Got my phone. Got a book. Waiting. Nervous!!!!

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In fort worth

2011-11-10T07:12:00.002-06:00

We flew out from Pensacola yesterday. It was pretty much a whole day of travel. We arrived at dallas/forth worth at 4:30, picked up our rental car, spent an hour in rush hour traffic getting to the hotel, checked in quickly, and then ended up at Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse.

Unbelievable meal. We had a great time. We had shanghai style calamari for an appetizer, filets and jalepeno bacon Mac and cheese for entrees, and banana nut bread pudding, del's delight "milkshake," and white chocolate cinnamon Cree brûlée for dessert. Glad we made reservations because it was packed. Wonderful time.
Now on to the interview!!! The reason we are here is for Jared's interview at TCU for nurse anesthesia school. It's at 2:00pm, and then we will be headed straight to the airport to come home. Hopefully the interview will go smoothly, as well as the travel home. Keep Jared in your prayers today for his interview!!!
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More mother goose

2011-11-08T18:38:00.001-06:00

New favorite mother goose club nursery rhyme.

YouTube Video

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Desperate times call for desperate measures

2011-11-05T20:27:00.001-05:00

We save the playdoh for when we reeeeeeally need it. It's getting us some peace to watch the game.

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Storage solution and monsters under the bed

2011-11-05T13:41:00.001-05:00

There are toys running out of out ears. As we collect new ones, we haven't done a great job of putting old ones up for the next baby or donating them to the daycare. This week we finally sent some to daycare (visions of toy story 3---poor toys) and needed a better way to organize and store the things we have. There are trains, cars, Legos, and potato head parts all over the house and all mixed in together. Porter is just getting to the age where he likes Legos so I knew this would only get worse if we didn't take action. I had looked at several different toy boxes with cubbies and compartments, and found this at Walmart yesterday. It was the perfect size and the buckets had enough room to hold what we had, but with a little extra room. I still need another one for potato head parts and tools, but his is a great start.

Our sleeping problems are somewhat better, but now we are battling monsters again. He is scared to go in his room by himself and wakes up several times a night screaming and scared, not to mention waking at least once to go potty. He tells us every night when he goes to bed that he is not going to cry that night, but always wakes up one hour after going to bed, and then at least once more after that. He tells us that blue eyes, red eyes, and yellow eyes watch him at night from under his bed and they wake him up and scare him. He said they are just playing. This has been a consistent story for the last few days and Friday afternoon he was very clingy and didn't want to go in his room. He started talking about wanting to sleep with mommy and daddy or mommy sleeping with him from the time we got home from school, and constantly said he didn't want to go to bed. I guess it's a phase, but I really hope it is short lived.

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Final Disney thoughts, opinions, comments, and advice

2011-11-01T21:35:00.001-05:00

Take it for what it's worth. We are not Disney experts as we have only been on three trips so far, but we have learned a few things along the way. Hopefully somebody will find it interesting if not helpful.
1. Resort choice--I think we have decided we can mark the contemporary off our list. At least for now. It is also a convention center, and was not very cozy or family friendly. We happened to have our trip coincide with the Florida democratic convention, an the hospitality suite was just down the hall from our room. Close enough that the crowd could easily be heard outside our door late at night. It just seemed very corporate and not easy to navigate. We were staying in the garden wing, which is a separate building, and all of the hotel services were on the 4th floor of the main tower. It was a long enough walk to fill up your resort drink mug that you could drink it all and need a refill by the time you made the trip back to the room. Out of the 3 deluxe resorts we have stayed at so far (Polynesian, wilderness lodge, and contemporary), we prefer the wilderness lodge. The theme is great, everything is in the same building and on the first floor. Transportation to and from the parks was just as good/fast as the contemporary, which is also within walking distance of the magic kingdom. It is within walking distance, but we mostly were not into making the walk. We did enough walking every day in the park.
The only thing I could thin I would want to try at the contemporary is staying in a room in the tower with a magic kingdom view. You could see the fireworks from your room every night and be closer to the amenities. Not out of the question for the future.
2. Dining plan--the verdict is still out on whether this saves any money, but it certainly makes dining worry free and more enjoyable because you aren't worried about how much dinner is going to cost. It is paid for in advance. That is also an advantage. You have already Lao for it, so it's not like you have to take a huge unknown chunk of money with you to pay for food. You already know exactly how much it's going to cost to eat the whole trip because you paid for it in advance, and it's done. We did not use all of our snacks, but we cashed in our extra snacks on the way out this morning for several Mickey mouse rice krispie treats. Score!! They are delicious!! We worked out our meal credits just right and use our last two for breakfast this morning.
I will say that the deluxe plan is a lot of food, because you get appetizer, entree, and dessert at every sit down meal, and it's not likely that you will want that at lunch and dinner every day.
Another plus to the deluxe plan is that you CAN book sit down meals three times a day or have counter service (fast food type meals) three times a day. The advantage of this is that you can do a character breakfast and only use one dining credit. We ended up doing 3 character meals and didn't pay extra for it. This made the deluxe plan really worth it for us.
If you do a character breakfast it is a huge buffet, which was really very good at every place we dined. We were not even close to hungry at lunch, so we ended up canceling our sit down reservations for lunch two of those days.
I enjoyed each of the restaurants where we dined, and would go back to any of them. They are:
Liberty tree tavern--MK
Chef mickey's for character breakfast--contemporary
Portabello--downtown Disney--very good. Probably 2nd fav of the whole trip.
Hollywood and vine for character breakfast--Hollywood studios
Sci-fi dine in theater--hollywood studios. Great atmosphere. Cool concept.
Le cellier steakhouse--Epcot. Signature dining experience. Good, but not that impressed--have been there twice now.
Tusker house character breakfast--animal kingdom.
California grill--contemporary resort Signature dining experience. Jared says this is the best food he's had in Disney so far. I was pretty impressed myself. The service was above and beyond. And to top it off we had an unbelievable view of the magic kingdom and fireworks.
The wave--contemporary. Theme is healthy/green restaurant. I enjoyed it very much. Jared not as impressed. I would still go back there.
I guess this has turned into more of a dining at Disney topic..... Next, make reservations!!! If you want to eat somewhere, make reservations. I made our reservations well in advance and still had trouble getting the time we wanted at a couple of places. If we had waited until close to our trip, or once we had arrived, we would have never been able to get a table at any of the places we went.
3. Extra magic hours--verdict is don't do it!! We found that the days the parks had extra magic hours were more busy than days that did not. Translates to longer waits and more people to weave through, so it doesn't do you any good to get there an hour early.
4. Rain at Disney--no problem. You're not there to win a beauty contest. You're there to have fun with your kids and family. Forget about how you look and throw on a poncho or whatever and go ride. We made it to almost every ride in the park that we wanted to do in one morning because nobody else was there. Barring extremely cold weather or torrential downpours, just go have fun. It's just rain. You can get dried off later.
Hmmm. That's all I can think of for now. Here are a few pics from my phone that didn't make it into other posts.

Love this one. I AM crazy about special lighting. I know this.

Buzz lightyear super "grabber." yea.

California grill menu.

Blurry buzz lightyear ride pic.

Porter loves steak!!

All gone. He really eats that much steak.

Downtown Disney...

Buzz at the Lego store.

More California grill pics:

Loved his fruit plate app.

More steak!!

Steak gone. Watching a movie.

Trick or treat!!!

I just think this is cute....

Ride home. He took two naps. Slept for a total of 3 1/2 hours of the trip home.

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Not So Scary Halloween Party 2011

2011-11-01T11:31:00.001-05:00

We had such a great time at this event last year that we wanted to do it again, but it didn't start out so great. Porter refused to put on his costume. We would try to put it on him, and he would take it off. Nothing worked. We bribed, we threatened, we gave pep talks. So off to dinner we went in his clothes that he had worn during the day. We told him he couldn't have candy or trick or treat if he didn't wear his costume. We pointed out other little kids in their costumes, and we even let him see another child trick or treating in our resort while we waited for dinner (they were handing out candy all over the resort). We told him he could put it on over his clothes, that he only had to wear it for a little while--while he trick or treated--but nothing. We packed it in our stroller and off we went anyway. When we got to the MK I went to the restroom and tried one last time to get him to go with me and put on his costume and he refused. When I got out and we were about to head out into the park for who knows what because we had told him he couldn't get candy without his costume, it's like the clouds parted and rays of sunlight streamed down and this little STUBBORN child was ready to put on his costume. And he even put on his pirate hat complete with dreadlocks and beads to complete the Jack Sparrow look.

Hard to get good pictures of night scenes without a tripod. Oh well, I still like the pictures.

Here he is! Mr Jack Sparrow. Ready to trick or treat. Finally.

The hat didn't last long, but no big deal. He was in his costume.

He would even say "Trick or treat" and then turn around and tell me, "hey mama, I told her trick or treat!" He was so proud and did so good. And of course, he loved the end result too!!!

I can just hear him saying, "Trick or treat!" He was so sweet... The last 1 1/2 hours of costume trouble had been forgotten....

He wanted to ride the "horses."

And the "ghost house!!!" Yes, he really asked to go back to the Haunted Mansion. Got a great spooky pic of the haunted mansion too.

More spooky lighting on the castle...

Couple of fireworks pics.

And last of all, the Boo to You parade. We stayed for the late parade this year, which was at 10:30 eastern time. We were tired, but it was worth it. Porter loved it!!! Here are some of the highlights. Not all the pictures of the floats turned out.

After the parade we made our way down main street for the last time this year. We were all exhausted when we got back to the room and slept in this morning. What a fun halloween night for us! We are on the road headed home. And right now we are having to endure listening to a buzz lightyear gun shoot at the evil emperor zurg. A lot. Wow.

Last day at disney

2011-11-01T10:33:00.001-05:00

I have to post this one from my phone because it was raining and I had to try to keep my camera dry. It got a little wet, but was fine. It literally rained all morning and stopped right when porter fell asleep and there were blue skies as we were walking back to our room for a nap. Oh well, there was nobody in the park and we got to ride anything we wanted with no wait. We rode winnie the pooh 3 times in a row.
Headed out in his boo! Halloween shirt--custom made by Nannie and I. :)

Sooo glad the rain cover for porter's stroller just happened to be in the bottom of it. He wasn't happy about it so much, but I did keep him dry. I still ended up carrying him under my umbrella most of the time anyway.

This is us in the "doom buggy" at the beginning of the haunted mansion. Porter did ride with us, but got cut out of this picture. It's one of those hold the camera up in front of you things and it is a great pic of Jared and I, and porter is just a little top far to the left to make it in it.
He did great on the haunted mansion!!!

Nobody in front of us....

Nobody behind us....

Quick pic of liberty tree tavern restaurant. Loved eating there our first evening. Will go back there.

He agreed to watch mickey's philharmagic 3D movie again. The funny thing about this picture, aside from the glasses, is porter demonstrating how he "cheeses." Lots of times during the trip he would cheese and pull his shirt up like this.

He wanted his own seat this time. He made it about 1 minute before he was in my lap. An throughout the whole movie he kept looking back to see if Donald had gone through the wall yet. That only makes sense if you've been in this attraction. We got a laugh out of this one and all the funny stuff he did.

Waiting to ride the tea cups/p pots.

One of my favorite pictures from the whole trip. He looks like such a big boy.

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Animal Kingdom

2011-11-01T10:16:00.000-05:00

We started the morning with another character breakfast--Donald's Safari breakfast. Porter said this Donald was nice. He was really excited to see the other characters too. By this point in the trip he rarely asked for one of us to hold him to get his picture made. Progress....
This is the picture where Donald tried to eat Porter. Not really. But it looks like it. :)

Ready for Kilamanjaro Safari. Our favorite ride at Animal Kingdom. It was cool, so there were lots of animals out and about. Got some good pics. I feel like some of these pictures are repeats from last year, and really they are, but I never get tired of seeing them.

White Rhino.

Some sort of rare bird.

Hippos.

Beautiful giraffe that was right by our "jeep" and stood perfectly still the whole time we rode by. It was like he was trained to pose for pictures.

We have never gotten to see the lions this well before. They are usually fairly well hidden because they are in the shade, or just sleeping out of view.

This just shows how close we were. Not like they could jump in the vehicle with us, but pretty close. Really fun ride...

Warthogs. Porter said these were baby hippos. Couldn't convince him that they were anything else.

What we called the vine lady. She just wandered through the park and would "perch" on things and pose. When she was being really still you couldn't even tell she was there. Just blended in with the surroundings. Porter was mesmerized.

Riding the dinosaurs. Animal kingdom version of dumbo the elephant, which is one of Porter's favorite rides.

Porter asked to have his picture made with pluto and goofy. He did so good.

After nap time we went back over to the Magic Kingdom for an hour before dinner. Porter wanted to ride the pirate ride again (Pirates of the Caribbean) and not only did we walk right up with no wait, but we got a boat all to ourselves!

I snapped a couple of pics on the way out of the park. We had to leave at 7:00 because they were starting another Not So Scary Halloween party, and already had the castle with spooky lighting.

Love the fall decorations everywhere...

See ya real soon...

We left there and went right back over to our resort for dinner reservations at California Grill. I posted a few pics of the fireworks that I had taken with my phone that night. California Grill is on the top floor of the Contemporary and we had perfect reservations. We were finishing our dessert when the fireworks started so we walked out on the observation deck to watch.

Hollywood Studios

2011-10-31T15:44:00.000-05:00

It has been an off and on rainy trip, and our morning at Hollywood Studios was a rainy one. We saw Woody and Buzz and waited AN HOUR for Toy Story Mania, which was a great ride. That's the longest wait we've had and we probably wouldn't have waited that long if we knew it would be an hour. The sign at the front said 45 minutes. We enjoyed it anyway. I would have loved to do it again. We saw the Muppet Vision 3D movie, which porter liked much better than the Philharmonic movie at Magic Kindgom. He's still scared of Donald duck....
First we had breakfast at Hollywood and Vine with the Disney Junior characters--Handy Manny, several of the little einsteins, and Special Agent Oso. Porter liked this character breakfast the best. He was very excited about seeing these characters.

Moment of toddler behavior....

Green army man from Toy Story movies....

Mr potato head entertained us while we waited to ride Toy Story Mania.

We did a lot of character meet and greet this day. Porter really liked doing this after the first day or so. He would tell me he wanted to give whoever a hug and a high five, and then say cheese and get his picture made.

He was still a little afraid of Mickey wearing this hat, and Donald, due to the 3D movie.

Lunch at the Sci-fi dine in theater was really cool. The whole restaurant area was made to look like an outdoor drive in theater and you sat in cars to eat. It was dimly lit and the cars all had lights on. Great atmosphere.

Riding the p pots again!!

2011-10-31T11:31:00.001-05:00

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California grill

2011-10-31T08:04:00.001-05:00

Fireworks as seen from California grill last night. The camera on my phone has a little delay, so the fireworks look less than spectacular.

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Raining in the magic kingdom!!!

2011-10-31T07:52:00.001-05:00

Oh well. We won't melt.

Not so scary Halloween party tonight!!! It is supposed to be cleared up some by then. I hope so. The fireworks and parade are so good!!
I do have lots more pictures to post, but we have been too busy. Plus, Mac and the blogger website don't get along very well and it takes a super long time to load pictures on it. It took almost two hours to load the previous post. I have a long ride home to work on it tomorrow.
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Naptime in Disney

2011-10-30T15:58:00.000-05:00

We're in the middle of Day 2, in the room for Porter to nap. Since I have a little more time that last night, here are a few thoughts on our trip thus far.
1. Liberty Tree Tavern for supper was awesome!!! I was very pleased with everything there. We had salad with strawberry vinaigrette dressing (could have used a little more dressing, but at least the lettuce was fresh) and bread for appetizers. The dinner itself is served family style and included roasted pork loin, carved roast beef, and turkey breast. The sides were herb stuffing, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, and steamed cauliflower. All that was just for Jared and I! We had tons left over. For dessert we had some sort of apple/raisin brownie type thing topped with a scoop of ice cream. It was very very good.
2. I think last year was easier with Porter. It may have just been that he was very tired yesterday afternoon, so the verdict is still out. He is definitely more "opinionated" about things and has meltdowns/hold-outs more. However, this year we have not had to take a bag in with us--no diapers, juice, or other things to carry. Everything we need fits in the back of the stroller in a small pouch. Now, today we could have used a spare pair of shorts and underwear for Porter because he had a tee tee accident while we were on Tom Sawyer's Island. I think he was just too busy playing and waited too late, and about the time he told me he needed to go he was pretty much going. We took off his underwear and dried his shorts a little, but they were still yucky. We tried to find a pair of shorts to buy in the park, but there were none, and by the time we realized there were none, he was asleep, so we just cancelled our lunch reservations and came back to the room for a nap.
He is a little more scared this year and more vocal about what he likes and doesn't like. He says things like, "I can't wait!" and "I want to do it again!" and actually names rides he wants to do. I think his favorite ride so far was the Buzz Lightyear ride, and I don't know about least favorite.
The funniest thing he said today, was when Jared pointed out the tea cups and said, "Do you want to go ride the tea cups." He said, "Those are p pots. That is where I came from!" Well I guess that answers that question....
Here are some pictures from today.
Breakfast at:

The best Porter would give us. He was a little sleepy and unsure of this process.

The magic kingdom!!! All decorated for fall....

Hanging out with Zurg.

Buzz lightyear is a favorite!

Driving a race car at Tomorrowland Speedway.

He got over a little of his shyness.

Chef Mickey's for breakfast

2011-10-28T07:29:00.001-05:00

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Disney day one

2011-10-27T20:13:00.001-05:00

We are all tired. What did I expect, right? We got up at 3:30am, drove down, checked in, and went to the magic kingdom. I guess the short version of our day is that our little fearless daredevil has turned into a scaredy cat. We went to mickey's philharmagic 3D movie and it was going very well to start. He had his glasses on an was drawn right into the movie. Then the first thing that came "at you" he ducked to miss it and was done. He was all over Jared after that and would peek at it some after that. He was also scared of pirates of the Caribbean (I told jared he wouldn't like it), and even a little unsure of Peter pan's flight. He did request to "watch the movie" again when we passed it later, but hid his face as soon as it came on. He did watch more of it the 2nd time though. He didn't get a nap today and we really
got started in the park about the time he would have taken a nap, so it just wasn't really in the plan. The result was definitely some cranky, tired moments. We ate supper in the park and he was eating a roll with his eyes closed when he finally just said he needed to take a nap and crawled in Jared's lap and fell asleep in about 5 seconds. He slept all through supper and woke up for us go in a few more rides before heading to the room.
We had a character breakfast right and early in the morning so we are headed to bed. Here are a few pics from my phone (didn't take my good camera today):

2nd time at philharmagic. Those glasses are so funny.

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We're here!!!

2011-10-27T13:01:00.001-05:00

We've checked into our room and made it to MK. we have risen dumbo and now we are at mickey's philharmagic 3d show.

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4 hours in

2011-10-27T07:28:00.001-05:00

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Up and going!!

2011-10-27T04:48:00.001-05:00

We pulled out of the driveway at 4:17 am. That's pretty good I think. We didn't have to turn around to get something, which beats last year. Porter woke up easily and was excited. It is now 4:45 and he has yet to go back to sleep. When we were headed out of andalusia going toward Opp we saw some lights and signs at about the John Deere place and he asked if that was disneyworld. He has asked no less than 10 times since then.
"Mama, is THAT disneyworld?"
Maybe he'll go back to sleep soon.

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Disney eve!!!

2011-10-26T21:20:00.001-05:00

We leave dark and early at 4:00am. We are excited!!! I plan to post pictures along the way and we're taking the laptop this year so I can load pictures from my "real" camera. I better get some sleep!!

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Blog press app

2011-10-26T09:18:00.001-05:00

This app has not been working the best since I got my new phone. It's been a transition to say the least. So here are some random pictures I haven't been able to post.
The fair..... Porter and Caroline waiting to go on a ride.

This is from the night porter had 2 whole grilled cheese sandwiches and 2 whole apples for supper.

Porter helped himself to some eyeliner and eyeshadow one morning while I was getting ready. Sometimes it's better to let him play in my makeup than have to wonder what he's getting into in some other part of the house where I can't see or hear him.

And new sewing projects....

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The nursery so far

2011-10-26T07:32:00.001-05:00

Bumper pad ready to be assembled....

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NikeiD

2011-10-20T18:34:00.001-05:00

I have been looking for a new pair of tennis shoes for the last couple of months. I am not impressed with the choices in the stores these days. I don't really want fluorescent pink and yellow shoes, or anything shiny. I finally decided I just needed to try on a bunch of different Nike shoes and decide which ones it the best, and then design my own through the Nike website. NikeiD allows you to choose the different fabrics and colors--some have more color options than others. I designed a pair of Nike free 2.0 and they arrived today. I am super pleased withe the result. They fit just like the ones I tried on, and are much less flashy than any I have found in the stores. I will certainly be a repeat customer. The extra cost is minimal. Very worth it.

Tara
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Our pumpkin

2011-10-16T20:29:00.001-05:00

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Sleep, iPhone 4S, and fruit basket turnover

2011-10-16T20:09:00.000-05:00

Sleep: I guess you could say we are over the insomnia. The melatonin does work like a charm for getting him to sleep, but he always wakes up in about an hour.... For the first time.... We are back to our regular getting up 4-5 times a night. I think some of it is that he is a little scared of being in his room by himself because he tries to find a reason to get in bed with us. He usually has to tee tee at least once, and then the other times I don't know what is up. I really thought we had the sleeping thing licked this summer. He was sleeping all night without a peep for about 2 months. I felt so rested then.

iPhone 4S and iCloud: We are loyal apple customers and always go for the early upgrade on our phones. Last year when we upgraded we were able to sell our existing phones on ebay for what the new ones cost, which makes it feasible. We certainly plan on doing the same thing with our current phones, and research prior to getting the new phones shows that we should at least get our money back. Our transition has not been great. Actually it has been miserable and is still in progress. The initial backup to the iCloud took Jared almost 24 hours and we have been trying all weekend unsuccessfully for my phone. The iCloud sounds good in theory, and maybe we will get it to work eventually, but right now we are not really fans. I don't think any of our iPhone transitions have been seamless, and it gets worse every time we get a new phone because of the amount of information we store. Between contacts, movies and tv shows for Porter, photos and videos, and all kinds of apps, we had each used up our 32gb and got 64 gb phones this time. If we fill up the 64gb before the next upgrade, we will have to make the iCloud work. Well, apparently we have to make the iCloud work this time, but it is painful.

Work: I survived my ER heavy week. I worked Monday night, Thursday night, and Friday night of this week, including managing a fairly regular day time schedule with surgery and clinic. Throw in the insomnia with Porter, and I would say exhaustion is just an appetizer. Oh, and we moved furniture all morning Friday instead of me sleeping (i'll get to that). Sleeping in spurts of about 3-4 hours has never worked well for me. I really need a good 8 hours, so I am surprised I did as well as I did. I think the only way I made it was that the ER Thursday and Friday was really slow, so even though I was awake, I was kinda resting? I actually got to sleep about 4 hours Friday night, which is just unheard of.

Nursery transition: Friday morning when I got home from working the ER, I gave Jared instructions about moving furniture around when I got up. I gave so many instructions, and more instructions when he came in the bedroom right after I laid down to go to sleep, that HE thought we should just do it then. Before I slept. But I guess I was retarded enough to get up and do it. The furniture in Porter's room is the nursery furniture, and we are just using some of the furniture in the guest room for Porter for a while--until we get him his own big boy furniture (might be when he goes to college). So we broke down both beds and swapped rooms with the stuff and reassembled the crib in Stella's room. We took everything out of Porter's "dresser" aka the changing table, and moved it to Stella's room. We reassembled the bed frame from the guest room in Porter's room. We moved the dresser from the guest room to Porter's room and put his clothes in it. It is also doubling as his bookshelf, so the entire top of it is now covered with his books. We moved his bookshelf into Stella's room too. The cedar chest in the guest room/Stella's room was moved to our bedroom. We had to do some other general rearranging to get things where they needed to be, but for the most part the furniture moving is done. The nursery is far from finished, but at least it's started.
Then I went to bed. When I woke up Friday afternoon I paid the price. I was nearly in tears when I left for the ER because I was sore all over and felt like a zombie. Very thankful for the 4 hours of sleep that I was able to get.
The rest of Saturday was devoted to a big grocery trip, football, and red beans and rice. So boring, but so much fun.
Oh, and of course I'll post pictures of the nursery and our (my mom's) sewing creations when it is complete. A non-traditional girl's nursery, but "I wike it."

Porter funny: And finally, I must share the Porter funny of the weekend. We were driving home from the grocery store and met a krispie creme truck coming from the opposite direction. Porter said, "Hey, it's the doughnut truck! It takes care of the doughnuts!" Yes it does....

Progress

2011-10-13T09:30:00.001-05:00

Well the melatonin wasn't the miracle I was hoping for, but we did have a better night. It worked great for getting him to sleep, but he woke up after an hour crying and talking about things that didn't make any sense. He seemed disoriented and restless. We had a rough hour of crying and gibberish talk before I gave him some benadryl too. It helped a little, but he still woke up a lot between 10-1:30. I stayed in his bed during that time to constantly remind him to lay down and close his eyes. After 1:30 he slept pretty good. He was up at his usual 6:00am acting normal, so I guess the melatonin and benadryl aren't lingering. It was good to get some sleep but I hope tonight is even better. Unfortunately I won't know, because I am working the ER for the next two nights. I am struggling to make it through this week. I need the weekend bad.

Tara
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Possibly very important information

2011-10-12T21:02:00.001-05:00

If you haven't been following along for the last 24 hours, read the posts below....
So I called the pediatrician today about our little sleep problem. He informed me that amoxil can cause insomnia because of one of the dyes in the liquid form. He told us we could stop it and that if that is the problem it would solve our problem in about 48 hours. 48 hours?!?! I can't wait that long. I asked him what we could give him to promote sleep, and, of course, he suggested benadryl. Normally that would be fine, but he failed benadryl therapy last night. I asked about melatonin and he said that it was ok to give. Woo hoo!!! We have dosed porter up with the recommended amount and I am happy--elated--to report that he is alseep already. About 30 minutes after he took it. It comes in liquid form, which is also handy. We did have to mix it in a small amount of juice (2oz) to get him to drink it, but it will be worth it's weight in gold if this works. He's currently asleep in the recliner with Jared and we are just letting him get in a good sleep before we move him to his bed. I'm so excited he's asleep I'm not sure I can sleep. Ha! Whatever. I am so exhausted, and I even got a little nap today. We all so need this to work. Really really bad. Will update.

Tara
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Monsters?

2011-10-12T11:16:00.001-05:00

After discussing the events of the last few nights, all Jared and I can come up with is that he is scared. He has talked about monsters and being scared. That's all we got. Can being scared of monsters keep him up ALL NIGHT?!?!?! Anybody have any thoughts on this one???

Tara
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Got sleep?

2011-10-12T07:08:00.001-05:00

Nope.
At 2:45, 2 hours after porter got benadryl, Jared finally went and got in bed with him. If we all went to sleep right then, we slept for 4 hours total last night, but I know Jared and I were so out of our minds trying to figure out what to do that I was still awake for a while. I took a half of a benadryl myself. Porter woke up about 7:00, which is unheard of. I asked him if he was tired this morning and he said yes, and why he didn't sleep at night and he said because I don't want to.... Ought to make for an interesting day at school for him.

Tara
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No joke

2011-10-12T01:18:00.001-05:00

It is 1:00am and we are all up. I did work all day Monday, took a short nap and worked a 12 hour shift in the ER Monday night. I slept for a few hours Tuesday morning and worked Tuesday afternoon. I was pretty tired when we went to bed around 9:00pm, but porter had already cried several times by then. I do not think he has been asleep for more than an hour total since he went to bed at 8:30pm. The longest stretch he was quiet was from 10:15 to 11:15, but I don't think he was asleep all that time. This is the 2nd night in a row it's been this bad. Last night I was at work and Jared was with him and he said he finally went to sleep sometime around 1:30am, and got up at his usual 6:00am. I am completely at a loss for what to do and on top of that I am about to lose it from lack of sleep. Talking about sleeping doesn't work, death threats and taking away privileges doesn't work, corporal punishment doesn't work, letting him cry doesn't work. At some point you think he would just get tired and go to sleep, but here we are at 1:00am and that's not the case. 4 1/2 hours later we are up. Jared and porter are in the den talking. We have given him benadryl as a last resort, but I'm still skeptical. He sleeps ok when he's had it, but it definitely doesnt just knock him out. I'm up for anything and we may be looking for an "expert" on the matter. Regardless of how we have dealt with sleep with him in the past, this is not normal. It's not like he's sleeping all day either. He sleeps for about 1 1/2 hours at daycare for nap during the week and maybe 2 hours for nap on the weekends. We have always had trouble getting him to sleep, but it has gotten worse. He did sleep all night for a couple of months before all this started, and he has gradually gone from that to tonight in about 4 weeks. It's just ridiculous and something has got to give..... So off to laying in bed listening to a toddler cry and talk I go.

Tara
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Tidbits

2011-10-09T20:11:00.001-05:00

I'm at 29 weeks today. I hope I have 9 weeks left. We'll see. I have gained a lot of weight this time, but I'm pretty much at the same spot I was last time. This time I was probably 10 lbs lighter than where I started when I got pregnant with Porter.
Nine weeks left!!! It's getting close and we have done nothing to get the nursery ready except for halfway clean out the closet in Stella's room. This afternoon my mom and I did get started on the bedding and other things--diaper stacker and organizer/caddy thing.

Big BIG news.... Jared has an interview at TCU in Forth Worth, TX on November 10th for anesthesia school!!! So proud. We will both be flying out the day before, and headed home the next day after the interview. Excited about this possible next step for Jared and our family.

Funny from this morning.... After porter had been up for a fee minutes and had time to wake up good, our conversation was as follows:
P: "mama, I want a stick."
Me: "what stick?"
P: "a stick with sauce on it."
Me: "what kind of stick with sauce? I don't know what you mean."
P: "a stick with sauce on it from my bucket."
Then I figured it out. The bucket he was referring to was the Halloween bucket porter had gotten from my parents last night that had assorted candy, which included the fun dip he enjoyed while at their house.... The stick with sauce on it was his description of a fun dip. See post below....

Tara
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It must be genetic

2011-10-08T21:05:00.001-05:00

The love of fun dip. It's one of those special gifts from above for Porter and I. We have finally found something that trumps nerds.

Tara
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Why I love Dimples daycare

2011-10-01T23:06:00.001-05:00

Today porter saw a paper stuck to the fridge at our friends house that he recognized. It was Morgan's, who apparently uses the same cirriculum at his school. He broke out in song then and has been carrying it around the house randomly today singing his song to anybody that would listen.

YouTube Video

Tara
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Pull apart cinnamon sugar pumpkin bread

2011-10-01T13:18:00.001-05:00

Ok, so I have broken down and entered the pinterest world. It is pretty neat, but can be frustrating to use sometimes. I've already found some great recipes and "pinned" some activities I want to do and craft ideas. Since it is fall and we are pumpkin lovers, we have tried two different pumpkin recipes. The first was adult pumpkin pie milkshakes. Basically pumpkin pie milkshakes with a little bourbon. Reminded me of real egg nog, but pumpkin-y. They were great, but you can't be trying to diet and have one of those. This morning I made pull apart cinnamon sugar pumpkin bread. It looked so good in the pictures I had to do it myself and bought all the stuff before I reviewed the recipe. I didn't look at it because I consider myself handy in the kitchen and haven't ever run into a cooking challenge I couldn't handle. Well, let me warn you. It is an involved recipe. It is true baking--proofing, rising, punching down, rolling out, etc... It took a good bit of time to do, but I was also doing this in an unfamiliar kitchen. I think it would be easier at home, and it will certainly be easier now that I've done it once. Here are a few pics...
The dough.

Ready for the oven.

Glazed and ready to eat!!

I will post the recipe at some point, or you can find me on pinterest and get it from my food board. And if anybody else knows how to find someone on pinterest that you aren't already following, let me know.
Tara
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Football weekend!!!

2011-09-30T19:41:00.001-05:00

We are in mobile this weekend staying with friends and gearing up for a good Saturday of football. Daran and Sissy are both Florida grads (and former floria cheerleaders), so what better weekend to get together and watch football than the Alabama vs Florida game. We also have big plans for cooking and grilling. Can't wait!! The boys have been playing hard since we arrived. Now they are fresh and clean and settling down with a movie.
Porter and Morgan sharing a bean bag...

Porter, Morgan, and Jennings...

Tara
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Hoping for a thumb sucker!!!

2011-09-29T21:05:00.001-05:00

Swung by ultrasound for a quick peek and shot some 4D yesterday. Little Stella was sucking her thumb at one point. Wouldn't be too disappointed if she was a thumb sucker. Can't take it away later, but sure can't ever lose it in the middle of the night and have to go find one to put back in their mouth either. We have a lot of thumb suckers in the family, and I am an alum. Odds are she might be one too.

Tara
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Hickory dickory dock

2011-09-29T19:09:00.001-05:00

Porter loves watching the mother goose club videos on YouTube. Here is the resulting video:

YouTube Video

Tara
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Mr independent

2011-09-28T15:37:00.001-05:00

If I don't find a way for porter to help do almost everything, there will be a meltdown. Sometimes finding that little thing can be difficult, but he is a very enthusiastic little helper and will do his task like his life depends on it.
He wanted to carry the basket at the grocery store the other day and did not want any help.

He let Jared help him carry it only when it got too heavy.

Tara
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Roll tide!!!

2011-09-28T15:29:00.001-05:00

We went to our first Alabama football game in four years this past weekend. I can't believe it has been that long since I have been able to go to a game!! The last game we went to was when I was a 3rd year resident. We picked a good one to go to. The weather was great, and we had seats on the press box side so we were in the shade the whole game. The only downside was that I had worked a night shift the night before, so I was a little tired by the end. I have never been so happy to see my bed.

And of course, part of the reason I like to go is to see the band...

Tara
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Sewing again...

2011-09-23T13:50:00.001-05:00

Today's creations....

Another shirt for Disney.

And farm attire. Porter is obsessed with Monk Monk and Jerry Ward and now he has the right shirt to go visit.

Tara
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The end of swimming lessons

2011-09-22T21:16:00.001-05:00

Today was our last day. I thought it was Wednesday, but we actually didn't finish until today. I am so glad we were able to do it. Porter had a rough couple of weeks to start, not so sure about learning these new skills, but now he loves going every day and squeals and giggles during his lesson, requesting to repeat certain skills. Yesterday Jared got in the pool with him and today he just had one more good lesson, and he made it a great one.
Pics... (sorry, my phone doesn't take good action shots)

Being silly...

One last video...

YouTube Video

Tara
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Rewind and fast forward

2011-09-22T21:05:00.001-05:00

Rewind about 1 year and we were still waiting on our shower to be finished and using the extra bathroom for showers and our bathroom for everything else. We are still waiting for the shower door to be replaced so we can begin using it again.
Rewind a couple of months and we were pulling our hair out trying to figure out how to make porter sleep all night. And we are there again. He's been slowly and steadily working his way from waking up once a night to last night's recent high of three. Loud reprimanding and door slamming was involved twice, with one episode of contact encouragement.
Rewind about 3 weeks and cracker was off to a new home and we were a one dog household. Now he's back. He was neutered yesterday and we are going to give it one more try. He's not a bad dog at all. He's just more energetic than we need around here right now, and concerns Blue more than us. Cracker pesters Blue and when Cracker is around Blue doesn't get the freedom that he normally does. Blue can be trusted in the house out of his crate, but Cracker can't. We'll see how he does now that he has been neutered. But that still doesn't solve the problem we may have in a year if Jared gets in to crna school. It would mean he would be living away from home during the week, leaving me with 2 kids, 2 dogs, and call nights. Not going to be easy. We'll see....

Now, this summer seems like we have fastforwarded more than just a couple of months. During the course of this summer we have gone from having a toddler to a big boy. Porter was potty trained in the spring, and we are still doing well with that minus a rare wet pullup in the mornings. He goes to the potty by himself sometimes, including emptying the tee tee from his little potty and flushing. He's pretty much mastered big boy utensils and cups, and we recently put the booster chair in the closet. He asked for several days where his chair was, but enjoys sitting at the bar. He goes to "school," brings home papers every day, and is constantly singing songs about letter sounds that that are learning. Alexander alligator, a, a, a (short a sound), and connie cow, c, c, c ("c" sound). He walks more than he is held, and holds my hand and walks with me in a store well on short trips.
We are working on the biting and pinching, and haven't had any episodes this week, but I certainly don't think that we are past it. If only we could work out the sleep issue. AGAIN!!! :/
Sitting at the bar eating cereal...

Tara
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Near the end of swimming lessons

2011-09-20T17:37:00.001-05:00

Today is the next to last day of swimming. Porter swam fully clothed today to simulate a real life scenario. He didn't like it at all. It was harder than just in swim trunks.

He cried during his lesson today. It was harder to watch today and gave me a sickening feeling in my stomach thinking about a "real life scenario." I am glad for this opportunity and hope that he never has to use his skills.
Tomorrow is the last day, and we can get in the pool with him. Hopefully we will be able to continue with once a week maintenance lessons to keep his skills up. But it will be nice to have our evenings back too.
Tara
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He's baaaaacck!!!

2011-09-20T17:30:00.001-05:00

Our minor bump in the road over the weekend was the return of Cracker. Let's just say he didn't enjoy Atlanta. He did enjoy sleeping in the bed with his new owners, which is why he made our weekend less than perfect. He was returned Sunday evening and barked, whined, and scratched in his crate all night long showing his disapproval for his new/old sleeping arrangements. Guess that's why he was so tired Monday.

He's going to get "scootered" tomorrow to see if that helps his "enthusiasm."

Tara
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Decent weekend and the week is looking good

2011-09-19T13:46:00.001-05:00

Well, I am happy to report that our weekend was much better than the end of the week and so far this week is starting out good, with just a few minor bumps.
Saturday morning we slept til almost 8:00!!! That's a fantastic way to start if you ask me. Porter agreed to go lay down in mommy and daddy's bed when he got up at his usual 5:45 saturday morning, and then he went back to sleep, so we did too. :)

We helped Sylvie celebrate turning two and watched some football. Saturday night Porter spent some time at Nana's house and Jared and I enjoyed some yummy Sugar Rush for dinner.
Sunday morning we slept in again and then went to church. Porter *quietly* played on his iPod on the way to church. So funny that he can work that thing better than some adults.

We had lunch at La Paz in destin before coming home and napping.
Today has been pretty productive. I got all my cases done and ran some errands. And our shower is already done!!! We can use it tomorrow night. Unbelievable!!! It took months to get it done the first time, and the redo took less than a week. Hopefully this addition will finally be completed soon!!

Tara
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I bit him back

2011-09-16T21:57:00.001-05:00

It's been an interesting 2 days at the Harden house. I'm really hoping tomorrow morning brings something better. Better luck if nothing else.
Yesterday morning right after I dropped of porter at school I was waiting to make a left turn to go to the hospital. There was one car in front of me and I happened to look in my rear view mirror just in time to see the car behind me rear end me. All it did was crack my bumper in a couple of places, make me late, and aggravate me. I wasn't hurt and the bumper can be fixed, so we move on. It did throw my day off a little so I had to work hard to get back on schedule. Everything had just about fallen back into place when I got a call from the daycare that porter had bitten and pinched and was generally not obeying his teachers, so I made a detour by the daycare to provide some "parental guidance" that is not provided by the school. I left porter at the school to continue my errands. I went back to get him when my errands were complete and in time to go to swimming lessons. Once at home things finally calmed down to our normal evening routine. We watched the lsu vs miss state game and went to bed.
This morning I got up at the regular 6:00 and shortly after went to get in the shower. It was taking an awful long time for the water to warm up so I sent Jared to check on it. Jared went outside to see if the pilot light had gone out and quickly returned to break the news that the entire area under the house where the water heater was located was flooded and water was spilling out into the backyard. Awesome. I packed up porter and I and we went to my parent's house so I could shower and get porter ready for school. I couldn't get my parents to answer any phone at their house, so when I showed up they thought something was wrong. And it was. We had no water. We got ready and out the door without being too late and Jared took to the task of pumping the water out from under the house. He called me soon to let me know the water heater had sprung several leaks, accounting for the flood and the lack of hot water. He was on it as soon as business hours came around and we had the SEAGD guys working to install a new tankless hot water system that was finished and ready for use around 3:30pm. At least something good seems to have come from all this. However, we must back up to about 8:00 am, which is when I got my first call of the day from the daycare. Porter had already struck for the first time. He bit a classmate. I dropped what I was doing and was at the daycare in about 5 minutes and met Porter, his teacher, and the daycare owner in the front office. I have never bit him, but today I did. In the same spot he bit the other child. Something has got to make an impression and so far nothing else has. Time out is a joke as is just explaining to him that it hurts or making him apologize to his victim, which we do all of every time he bites. Plus some. :) So after I had gone through the routine, adding a bite from the mommy, I went back to work. I didn't like biting him and I could tell it shocked him that I would do that and he cried, but it's just not acceptable to us to pass it off as a phase and not do anything about it.
About two hours later I got the next call. He had pinched the same little boy and he drew blood. Seriously?!?! I hope this phase is short because if not we're going to have to look for a new daycare. This time I sent Jared to deal with him and I waited at home for the gas district workers. Jared took his turn with him and then I was able to get back going with my day. Once again, late in the afternoon things seemed to be getting back on track. We had gone to the homecoming parade and had a good day at swimming lessons and had just sat down to eat a barbeque plate at the football game when I began to notice something warm on my right butt cheek. I thought my cell phone ha gotten hot in my pocket, but quickly realized it was warm and wet, and porter was kneeling down right beside me. Just when you get comfortable and feel free because you don't have to take a diaper bag anymore, he wet his shorts, and my right butt cheek. We were able to get Nicole to swing by our house on her way to the game and pick Porter up some dry clothes and continued to the game.
Life happens? My mom said, "welcome to adulthood." I guess all I can do is just shrug my shoulders, go to bed, and see what happens tomorrow. I'm not in control anyway, so who am I to question it.

Homecoming parade...

Tara
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New boots!!

2011-09-13T08:49:00.001-05:00

Tara
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The shower saga

2011-09-12T19:22:00.001-05:00

Remember our wonderful shower that took forever to complete??? And how much we loved our beautiful shower???
Well, here it is now....

Yes, that is the outside world you can see. The short version is that it leaked. Jared and his dad had planned to do the siding on the house, and due to several delays from injury and a death in the family, it was many months before the siding project was begun. They got part of the siding done and noticed that some of the plywood was wet at the bottom where the shower was. They cut away part of the boards the find wet insulation and mold. So I guess the delay in the siding turned out to be a good thing. :/
Now it is being torn out around the bottom and the entire floor has been ripped up.
In the time since we added the shower and now one of the tiles used was discontinued, so that also makes it interesting. Hopefully we can enjoy it again soon!!!

Tara
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Swimming "gwessons"

2011-09-12T18:29:00.001-05:00

YouTube Video

Tara
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Weekend fun?

2011-09-12T14:44:00.001-05:00

I worked a 24 hour shift in the ER on Saturday. Not fun. Jared and porter played in the woods with Scott, checking on all the deer stands. I think Porter had a lot more fun than me.

On the way home...

Tara
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ATLS for me, Nana's house for Porter

2011-09-10T09:20:00.001-05:00

Thursday and Friday of this week I had to travel to Huntsville to get recertified for ATLS. Jared went with me, so Porter stayed at Nana's. Jared was bored hanging out by himself all day for 2 days, I was bored by ATLS because of my immense trauma background, Nana wasn't bored for a minute taking care of a busy little boy, and I don't think porter has ever slowed down enough to get bored!!!! I think he had a pretty good time despite wanting to be home in his bed at night--he's a little home body like his parents.
He played outside....

Ate spaghetti...

And went to the AHS football game Friday night....

We picked him up from the stadium on our way in last night and all crashed after we got home. It was a wild week--fun to have a little time away, but we missed the little p-pot.

Tara
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Disney crazy

2011-09-06T10:15:00.001-05:00

I'm loving the Disney designs I've found and all the people going to Disney so we can sew!
Here are 2 shirts we did yesterday for Presley.

Tara
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Porter playing in the rain

2011-09-05T10:39:00.001-05:00

YouTube Video

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Porter's new house

2011-09-04T14:14:00.001-05:00

Thanks to the walmart clearance aisle, we have a zillion stickers to decorate it.

He just told Blue, "Don't get in here. I'm not done yet."

Tara
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Cheesing for Miss Angie

2011-09-03T20:23:00.001-05:00

Porter dressed in his football best for school Friday, but would not let me take his picture. He let Miss Angie take his picture at school, and he even gave her a big Roll Tide!!!
If you can't tell from the picture, those are houndstooth shorts. :)

Tara
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Eating at the "no fire place"

2011-09-03T20:20:00.001-05:00

Porter recently told Jared that the no fire place was his favorite restaurant, that his favorite thing there was the steak, and that he wanted to sit and watch the fire next time we went.
He chickened out. We sat at a booth.
But he loves the soup.

Tara
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Yesterday's sewing creations

2011-09-01T20:48:00.001-05:00

Nannie and I got some work done yesterday afternoon. We did a couple of shirts for porter in preparation for our Disney trip in October. We will be there over halloween again and go to the "Not so scary" Halloween party at the magic kingdom on Halloween night. We had a blast last year. Anyway, here are the pictures...

And we have several more designed and ready when I get a few more shirts.
Stella didn't get left out. We didn't get much done while I was there, but I put some things together and Nannie worked on them after I left.

So far I think we have made a burp cloth to match every onesie we have done.
More to come I'm sure.....

Tara
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The big rock rock and cracker

2011-08-30T21:13:00.001-05:00

Last weekend when we were in mobile we stopped by the la-z-boy store to look for a chair for stella's nursery. The one best purchase we made for Porter was the small la-z-boy recliner that I used for nursing and still use today for reading books at bedtime. It is super comfortable and just the right size for me. Leather was also a good choice and there were many times I would see dried "something" dripped down the chair and I could easily wipe it up. I intended on getting something similar for stella's room and was very excited to find the perfect chair, and even more excited about the price. It's small, comfy, and will match the nursery perfectly. The only difference is that this chair is corduroy and not leather. I don't even think it is a negative feature or a downside because I like the chair so much. Here it is in the store....

(It's now in what will become stella's nursery, but right now it looks like a guest bedroom with random crap laying around and a chair in the middle of the room.)
Jared has been complaining about our other la-z-boy that is in our living room since shortly after we purchased it. He is too tall for it and it won't stay reclined back just a little--it falls all the way back if he leans back any. So he claims. I, on the other hand, have no problem with the chair. I didn't ever think I wanted a recliner in my own house, but I have been quite happy to rock porter in it, and nap in it on occasion. So, while we were at the la-z-boy store, Jared picked out a chair for himself. We are now the old couple with dueling recliners. His and hers. Just put us a couple of prescription pill bottles, magnifying glass, and a set of dentures on our little table between the chairs and we are set. It looks exactly as you are picturing. Ha ha. Ha ha.
Here are porter and jared breaking in the "big rock rock" tonight before bed.

Well, poor little cracker went to a new home tonight. We are not those people that get dogs and give them away. We are dog people, so it was hard for us, but was really the best thing for everyone involved. We got cracker last Christmas, before Jared decided he wanted to pursue crna school, and before we had intentions of a second child. We were really at a difference place in life when we decided to get another dog. But life changes, and we had to make the decision to give cracker a better home. He is going to live with a young lady that can give him all the attention we would not be able to give him. We don't like giving our dogs away, and have done it twice since we moved here. I think we will make really sure we are ready for another dog when that time comes. It will be a long time. Blue is once again an only dog, and I think he will be a little relieved, as cracker was a little more high energy than blue prefers to be.

Tara
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ISR week 3 and 4

2011-08-30T20:36:00.001-05:00

Last Friday was the first day we were allowed to video and take pictures at "swimming gwessons." I understand why too. The first 2 1/2 weeks were a little difficult for all of us. It was hard to watch porter cry and not enjoy it, but something snapped at the beginning of the 3rd week, and by the end of the week he was excited about going and very happy during his turn. Here are a few short videos of his progress so far.
Last Friday.....

YouTube Video

This afternoon....

YouTube Video

Tara
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