3!

Dear Porter,

Today you turned 3 years old. I can still remember your sweet baby angel face the moment you were born. I had only caught a small glimpse of you when the nurses whisked you away to weigh and measure you, but I immediately fell in love with you. You had the roundest, baldest, hugest, head with this adorable bald widow's peak. Your face was so kissable and sweet I just wanted you back from the nurses so I could hold you and love on you. Then I hear, "Congratulations! You just had a 2 month old!" Weighing in at 8 lbs and 12 oz and 21+ inches you were a big boy, but it was the size of your head that really bumped you up into the big category!

Okay enough of the trip down memory lane. Fast forward to your 2nd year of life. Porter, you are one of the coolest, most easy going children I have ever known. You go with the flow. If I ask you and Paxton "who wants red and who wants blue" and Paxton says red you automatically say blue.

You love your brother more than anyone in the world. You look up to him. You use him as a crutch. He is your best friend. You love your baby sister too, but you look up to Paxton. Luckily, he is a good role model! And you guys get along so well. You have your sibling spats, but they are short lived and usually not over anything significant. Paxton loves you so much, too. He was invited to a birthday party for a kid in his class and he wanted you to come too. He wants you to meet his friends and loves to have you there.

You are are a great eater, a great sleeper, you know your numbers and your letters and you speak perfectly (other than your little lisp that I love!!). You are all around exactly what you would think a perfect little 3 year old boy would be.

You try to act tuff, but you are so sensitive. Thomas the Tank Engine makes scared and sad and angry faces sometimes. It makes you cry. When Charlotte is fussy or upset you try everything you can to make her laugh and happy. When you see or hear something that scares you, you cover your ears. It is precious.

You are kind. You are sweet and caring, however, you're not really a kisser. If I ask you for a kiss you say, "no I will give you a hug." But if I ask really sweetly you will give me kisses just to humor me.

You are strong and fast and really coordinated. You are really good at gymnastics, throwing and catching a ball, and are a great runner. You learned how to ride a bike with training wheels when you were 2 and a half. You are going to be an athlete.

Porter, you are the sweetest most amazing "medium boy" in the whole entire world. You are my little buddy. I cherish the time you and I spend while Pax is at school and Charlotte is taking a nap. We eat snacks play games and read books and watch tv and snuggle. I love this time we get to spend together and look forward to a whole year before you go to school yourself.

I love you more than anything, Porter Pie.

xoxoxo,

Mommy

Favorite things right now: macaroni and cheese, "cracker sandwiches," Go Diego Go, Hats and Shoes, gymnastics, riding your bike, music, video games, action figures, playing "go to sleep"

Thankfulness

Today Charlotte stopped up the toilet when she tried to flush an entire box of Kleenex down it. Paxton let me know that this had happened after the fact. A day late and a dollar short, I guess.

I took the kids to Sam's to get my stuff to make my Thanksgiving contributions. Of course they didn't have sweet potatoes. So I took Charlotte and Porter home, and Pax and I went to Target. After getting all my stuff we loaded back up and went home. When we got home I realized that I had left my purse in the basket at Target. So I leave Pax and grab Charlotte and head back to Target. Thankfully, a good Samaritan turned in my purse and it was waiting for me at Customer Service. I say thankfully not because of my money or credit cards, but because all of Paxton's medicine was in the medicine bag I carry with me at all times in my purse. Hours later I finally had everything I needed to make mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, and cookies.

I was putting the laundry from the washer to the dryer. You know what I pulled out of the washing machine that had been run through the cycle with the clothes??? An ab roller.

*Just in case you weren't sure what an ab roller was!*

We let the kids watch a movie in Scott's office tonight before bed. I cleaned and cleaned and got everything all spotless to put up our Christmas decorations this weekend. Then I took snacks up to the kids. Grapes and pretzels. It was dark in the room because they were finishing up watching their movie. When I turned the light on later, I noticed Charlotte had chewed up and spit out about 1oo pretzels all over the carpet.

These are just a few of the happenings at the England household today. I say all of these things not because I am complaining, but because I am THANKFUL! Thankful that I married Scott almost 8 years ago and we had these 3 perfectly amazing and rambunctious children. That my children are healthy and happy and able to make these beautiful messes. That we have a home to get dirty, and food to spit out all over the floor, and medicine to panic about being lost, and each other to laugh at all of these things with. I am thankful for these things and for all of God's gifts and blessings. I love that Thanksgiving is a day to celebrate all the things we are thankful for, however, I don't feel any more thankful this day than any other day of the year. I know everyday is a gift and try to count my blessings every day of my life.

Thanksgiving at the England's.

Thanksgiving at school.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera at Thanksgiving with my family. Booooooo! I will have to get some pics from my sis.

Halloween!

Paxton was "Superhero Wolverine" and Porter was Flash for Halloween this year. Don't ask me why they picked these costumes because I don't believe either of them knows who these characters are, but this is what they wanted so this is what they got. They didn't have either of these costumes at Target and that was as far as I looked, so my awesome mother ran ALL OVER TOWN trying to find these two specific costumes.

Knowing good and well Charlotte was going to wear her costume for all of about 30 seconds my mom just picked her up some butterfly wings and a tiara and wand. After seeing the costumes I think Porter wanted to be the fairy princess more than Flash, but whatever.

*This was the best picture I could get of Charlotte in her costume which proves my mom's theory was right!*

We went to the Aquarium on Thursday night for a little trick or treating. The boys had a ton of fun. Charlotte ran around like a complete maniac, as usual. There was trick or treating, an enormous bouncy house slide, another bouncy house, games, etc. It was awesome.

Not sure Porter liked the mermaid!

And the best part was that meems went with us!!!

It was a good thing that we went and had some Halloween fun on Thursday night because by Friday morning Paxton was running a fever. This means that he had miss his big Halloween party at school. Total bummer. And he ran a fever all weekend and just felt overall crummy. On Monday at 530 he was asleep on the couch. Not cool. But he perked up and we went trick or treating!

Paxton was loving it. Porter was into it for the first few houses, but he started to go down hill fast. By the time we got home him and Charlotte were running a fever. We had Charlotte strapped in the wagon and were letting her eat candy after candy to keep her still and not sprinting down the street. She kept getting pieces of candy out of Porter's bucket and saying "stuck, stuck" because she couldn't get the wrapper off.

Porter jumped into the wagon at one point and wasn't doing any more trick or treating. I asked him if he wanted to go to the next house with Pax and he said, "no thanks, it's making me nervous." I'm not quite sure if he really knows what that word means exactly though since this morning when Pax was singing this song over and over Porter said, "Pax stop singing that song. It's getting on my nervous." But who knows. He didn't feel good, but he did feel good enough to down a couple pieces of candy before jumping in the bath!

All in all it was a successful night. Fever's past and present, everyone had a blast! And Scott and I scored on some candy!

Pumpkin Carving

I broke down and we did pumpkin carving this year. I do NOT like pulling the guts out of a pumpkin, I don't like the way it feels or smells (I know, I'm weird), and I am always afraid Scott is going to slice his hand open with the knife (I already said I know I'm weird), so I try and avoid this holiday festivity if I can, but you know Paxton wouldn't let it go. Soooooo.......

Gross! Pumpkin guts!

(Clearly this is not the best photo of me, but I had to put it in there for Scott's benefit. We have about a million photos of me with this nasty face when I am grossed out. Which happens often, apparently.)

The finished product! We go old school over here and just free hand it. No kits involved people. Can you guess who wanted the nice pumpkin and who wanted the scary pumpkin?

And let me add that I carved the scary pumpkin, which is much more high quality than the happy pumpkin. Just sayin'.

Oh, wait! You know you've got to give your pumpkin a kiss, right?!?!

And if Paxton does it, then you know Porter is going to put the moves on his pumpkin too!

Unfortunatley, these pumpkins went rotten in about 2 days. All that slaving away with the pumpkin guts and we didn't even get to keep them that long! But the boys loved it so I guess we will have to add it to the fall festivity list! Maybe next year we will get with the times and get better tools. I mean I know my scary pumpkin looks professional, but Scott's could use some help. In his defense the kitchen knife we were using was pretty dull. :)

Three Little Peas in a Pod

These 3 are best friends. They love each other so much it is heart melting. That doesn't mean they don't fight and argue and get on each other's nerves, but above all else they are thick as thieves.

They hardly ever want to be without each other. Every day when we turn down the road that leads to Paxton's school Paxton will say, "Porter, I'm going to miss you." And Charlotte starts to cry when he gets out of the car and we drive off. And then when we go to get him he immediately gets in the car and says, "What did you do while I was gone?" And before I can even ask, Porter will ask, "Did you have a good day at school, Bubba?"

When we started gymnastics Porter was a little nervous. They are in a 3 and 4 year old class so they let me stick Porter in there with Paxton even though he is only 2. He cried the whole entire first class and wouldn't participate at all. When Pax and I were giving him a pep talk (of course Paxton LOVED it from day 1) before the next class I asked him what he was scared of. Porter told us he was scared of the "marshmallows" (the foam pit) so I told him he didn't need to do that part. He only had to do what he thought was fun. After the class Porter runs out and says, "I had so much fun mommy! I even did the marshmallows!" We get in the car and I ask Porter what his favorite part of the class was. His reply, "the trampoline." When I asked Paxton what his favorite part of the class was his reply was, "when Porter did the marshmallows! I was so proud of him!" Be still my heart!

Charlotte has turned into a chatterbox lately. Her favorite thing to do is tell knock-knock jokes. This is how it goes EVERY SINGLE TIME, "knock knock" "whose there Charlotte" "blah blah" "blah blah who" and then you have to fake laugh like you think it's funny. She does this probably 500 times a day. And if you don't do your part (the whose there part) then she will start to scream "KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK" over and over and over until you acknowledge her. This gets old by about 8 o'clock in the morning. Paxton is the only one who will play this game with her all day long. And he doesn't just fake laugh like the rest of us. He will drum up a really sweet sounding laugh to please her. Paxton also says about 100 times a day how cute Charlotte is and how he "loves her so much it's unbelievable."

If I get onto Paxton, Porter will get mad at me. "Don't get my brother in trouble." And if I have to send Paxton to time out, Porter will intentionally do something to get himself put into time out so he can be with his brother.

Sometimes, when the mom and dad guilt starts to kick in, Scott and I will wonder if every one's needs are being met emotionally. Since they are all so close in age and there has always been a baby in the house we are always concerned about everyone getting the proper amount of one-on-one attention. When we start to have these concerns we always remind ourselves that they love each other as much as they love us. They will be much better off in the long run for having each other than a fraction more attention from me or Scott. There is no sibling rivalry yet, and we are doing our best to keep it that way. We love how much they love each other.

Porter-isms

Porter talks exceptionally well for an almost 3 year old. He also says some of the funniest things.

We pulled up to the dry cleaners drive thru window one day and he says, "Mommy, I want french fries. And juice. And beeth (beef)."

"Um, Porter, we are at the cleaners."

"What, I can't have french fries? Can I just have some beeth then?"

"Porter, we are not at Arby's honey, we are at the cleaners getting daddy's clothes."

"Well can I at least have juice?"

"Porter, they do NOT have food or juice here!"

"Well then let's go to Arby's and get some beeth?!"

These are just a few things that transpired today.

He was singing:

"If you're happy in your nose clap your hands. If your happy in your nose clap your hands. If your happy and you nose it then your face will surely show it, if your happy and you nose it clap your hands!"

I mean, it kind of makes sense if you think about it!

We were in the car on our way to shop with Aunt Karla and she turns around to him and says, "Porter, do you want me to buy you lunch?" He says, "No thanks! I don't want you to buy me lunch, I want you to buy me a TOY! A truck. A green truck. Okay?!"

"Bubba, did you have a good day at school? Did you sing the Wokie Pokie?"

Paxton has learned quite a lot at pre-school, one of which happens to be potty talk. Porter comes up to me and says, "Paxton called me poo poo ice. I said thank you! Because I go poo poo and I like ice! See, we ARE being nice!" This obviously makes no sense to me at all, but I did find it comical that he thought they were playing nicely together by making sense of the nonsense.

And here are a few words that are mispronounced ever so adorably!!!

tecause = because

wobe = love

cheeth = cheese

I know it is wrong on so many levels, but I perpetuate mispronunciation! I LOVE the way he talks and I don't want it to change just yet!

Sweet baby girl

When did this sweet, precious, tiny, helpless, adorable baby...

Turn into this rambunctious, talkative, climbing, running, knock-knock joke telling, pizza eating toddler???

More to come on my darling daughter's entry into toddler-hood!