Star Wars Obsession

So, I don't know how this whole obsession started, but it seems like Porter goes through phases as to which toys he likes the best. First it was the movie Cars, then it was Ninja Turtles, these past couple of months it has been Star Wars. Porter's cousin Tanner loves Star Wars too, maybe that's where it started. Now that's all he will play with. He wants to play computer games with Star Wars, and he has collected quite a few characters to play with. Down below are pictures of Lynn, Porter and Peyton playing with Porters Star Wars toys.

Happy Anniversary...on the 26th of April.

Our 5th Anniversary

Happy Anniversary!!!! Five years has flown by super fast! This year we wanted to do something special, so I tried to think of something totally fun for us to do. I had a list of things like massages, Annie tickets, a river boat tour, and many others. Lynn told me that I would have to be the one who planned it this year because of finals. When I got back from California Lynn told me that he had it all planned. We had a baptism to go to that night, but before we went there we checked into a theme suite hotel room. It was tropical themed with a whirlpool tub. I was totally surprised. Lynn said that he wanted to give me a good nights rest with not having to wake up with the baby. What he failed to mention was that he really wanted to watch the Jazz game at 9:30 pm and we don't have cable. It was very relaxing and fun. Our good friend Jami stayed the night at our house with Porter and Peyton. Lynn went and got the boys in the morning to come see our room and Porter wouldn't talk to us because he was mad that we left him. He eventually got over it and started talking to us again. We had a great time and I was very surprised at Lynn's ability to plan a very romantic anniversary.

Lynn's Last Final!!!

We are so excited that today was Lynn's last final of his Junior year. He has worked so hard and has put in so much study time to get the grades that he did. I just can't believe that he is going to be a senior in a week or so. Time has flown by so fast. I am just so happy and grateful to have a hard working and dedicated husband like him. He is great!

Wednesday Night Volleyball and Zoo Walks

Every Wednesday night the gals have been getting together in Council Bluffs at the Stake Center to play volleyball. It has been so much fun for me to be able to get out of the house and do something I really love to do. I seriously look forward with anticipation for Wednesday nights. I think it has helped me get through this past winter so well. Sometimes there is 20 people and sometimes there are only 4, but we have a great time anyway. Tonight we played the last game tall people verses short people. I was on the short team and we had all of the setters on our team, so naturally we won because the other team couldn't set each other up as well. It was pretty funny.

Since the weather has been sunny, Alicia, Chelsea and I and the kids have made frequent visits to the zoo to go walking. The layout of the zoo is really a great walking path and makes for a great workout as well because of all of the steep hills. I unfortunately get the best workout because I have two kids to push instead of just one. I guess that my legs will be better toned than everyone else's. I also think that I am traumatizing Porter because I will only let him see one exhibit in between laps. Today he asked to stop and see the goats, and I wouldn't let him because we were in the middle of a lap. I'm mean, I know. I should probably let him see more or else he will never want to go to the zoo again.

My little American Idol fan

Porter loves to watch American Idol with me. It's the funniest thing. I even changed the channel during one of the songs and he flipped out on me because he wanted to watch it. He said, "Mom, turn it back to American Idol". It's fun to have someone else around who enjoys it as much as me. I am getting a little worried about letting him watch these shows with me especially any of the ones that have to do with dancing because the women are usually dressed in very revealing and immodest costumes. He always says, "Mom she's showing her belly." He used to be really concerned about it, but the other day he told me that he likes it when girls show their bellies. I thought, oh great, he's already starting to figure out what he thinks is attractive about girls. He's only 3! I really need to do something about it. I should definitely stop watching those shows with him.

FHE and the Holy Ghost

Tonight for Family Home Evening Lynn gave a great lesson about the Holy Ghost. He put a cloth around Porter's head and had him walk around by himself and he would run into things. We then had him put the blindfold back on and I acted like the Holy Ghost and whispered to him as to where to go and he made it with out bumping into things. Lynn told him that I was like the Holy Ghost who whispers to us to know how to make right choices and to protect us. When we asked him what he was grateful for today he said, "For Mommy and Daddy and Peyton and for the Holy Ghost." It was very sweet. He is learning so much about the gospel. I love this stage. He is very teachable. Another funny thing Porter does is he choses Jingle Bells as our closing song every Monday. He loves it!

Wedding, Whinning, and Wonderful Times

What a fun time we had in California. We had a mini Ballard family reunion practically. The airplane trips went well despite waiting an hour in the airplane while they fixed the breaks, but I was blessed because Peyton was asleep while we were on the ground and then woke up when we got into the air. Porter just played with his toys while we waited and then when we got into the air he fell asleep. I couldn't have planned it better myself. Peyton made friends with everyone around him and the flight attendant even took him back to his station and Peyton didn't cry, he loved it! He's a charmer. Everyone said, "Wow, look at those big beautiful blue eyes".

In Placerville we got to go out to Shang Hi, which is my very favorite Chinese restaurant and they have the best sesame seed chicken. It was way better than I remembered. We also were able to attend Becky and James' first time endowment, which was so nice especially to see so much family in the Celestial room. I have a feeling that is what it will be like in the life to come. We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory after wards at like 9:30 pm with everyone who went to the temple with us.

Thursday we went to Fairy Tale Town with mom and Kim. Porter thought it was really fun. It's great how it has stayed exactly the same since I've been there last in Kindergarten. Porter loved the Shoe slide the best. That night I went out to Lucille's BBQ with all of the Skinner boy cousins and Kristina. They were very entertaining and we had a great time together. We got home around 11:30 pm.

Friday we went to see Tarrah, Nick and baby Taven. He was so cute. It was very weird that that was the only time I saw Tarrah the entire trip because usually she planning all of our activities together. She was in so much pain with the C-Section and Mastitis, she could hardly move. Porter played a lot with Shawn's son Jefferson and loved it. The gals went to get manicures and I was going to come, but Porter didn't want me to go, so we were going to take him with us with grandpa too. He decided to stay home, but not five minutes later he flipped out and wanted to go to the store with grandpa. He cried and screamed for 20 minutes. Oh so much fun. We also went out for a girls night bachelorette type thing. Kim, Becky, Kristy and I went to dinner and shopping while the kids stayed home with grandpa and grandma.

Saturday was the sealing. It was very beautiful. I cried of course and my nose ran the rest of the time. I didn't have a tissue, so I kept trying to hide my runny nose. Kinda embarrassing. After the wedding we took pictures and then went to Uncle Glenn's house with Gaylene, Judie, Mom, Dad, Amber, and Kim. Betsey had snacks for us and Porter played outside. We then went to Tahoe Joe's so Mom could get her deep fried artichoke hearts she had been talking about for days. We then went to the church to take some more pictures and Porter had more fun playing with the cousins. We saw a lot of people from the old ward including Jard Swarbrick and his wife and kids, and Aaron and Rachel Vonasek and their baby boy. It was fun catching up on old times with old friends. We were ready to come home when we did and Lynn was ready for us to be home too.

Chicks for brunch

Today we got together with Jami, Chelsea, and Alicia to celebrate Jami and Chelsea's birthdays. We went to The Farmhouse Cafe for brunch. It was delicious and very reasonably priced. Jami told us a funny story about her sitting on a broken chair and falling in Sunday school. We had a great time. If we could, I would want to do that once a week. It's good to get together with other women. The kids came too, of course, which made it very entertaining. Porter was whining about how he thought he needed to go to McDonald's. He cried for almost 10 mins. Everyone in the restaurant was staring. Good times, good times.

Fun Firsts

Well, there is a first for everything. Thanks to the many bloggers out there who recommended this craziness, I decided to start my own. I am a first time blogger. I guess we'll see how this whole process goes. My main reason for starting this blog is for journal keeping purposes and to keep track of fun memories that might have originally been forgotten if I didn't write them down.