The Christmas aftermath...

Merry Christmas! Another Christmas has come and gone and I am sitting in my living room wondering if all this stuff is ever going to get put away! The time we had with our family this past week was wonderful! Marshall is at such a fun age for Christmas and Reagan just wants to eat the paper:)
We actually had four Christmas'...yes four. One with Matt's dad, one with my parents, one with Matt's mom and one with our little family early Christmas morning! I am sad it's over but excited for the new year. This year has been a wild ride for us. I can't believe that we were living in a one room studio apartment with Marshall at the beginning of this year! Then we moved into our rental house. Next came the moving of our church to a fantastic new location. Then came Reagan:) Then a little bit of peace...then we bought a house and moved in! Then we hosted Thanksgiving and a party on Christmas day night!
I am so thankful for the fullness of our life. We have a lot going on but we love it. We are so privledged to serve with the people that we do and that God has called us to the life we live. I pray that this year I may come to know the fullness of Christ even more and that it may become more evident in my life than ever before.
These pics are totally out of order but they are here none the less. We went to the Zoolights with my family and it was great! Lots of people but so fun...the boys are in LOVE with trains this year.
Hope your Christmas was full of joy!

Marshall's first electric drum kit. It comes with headphones:) Praise Jesus

Sweet Reagan...she loves Marshall's new truck in the background.

My parents grandkiddos!

Waiting in line for the train and the Zoo!

Matt loves pictures!

Marshall in his pj's!

Thank you uncle Dave for the super annoying machine gun toy:)

Ahhhh!

December happenings...

Well we're as busy as bees over here in the Porter household! Trying to get your house set up with two little ones cruising around definitely takes some effort. I'm so thankful that they nap at the same time otherwise I'm sure I'd never get anything done!
So we got our Christmas tree last weekend and also took Marshall to the OMNIMAX Polar Express Movie. He loved it...got a bit scared and cried during a few parts but for the most part did really well. He sat on my lap for the entire movie (which I loved)! It's the first time we've taken him to the 'big screen' and I wondered if it would be a little scary as it's pretty loud in there...all in all he did great. Then we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Matt's Grandma was in town and she wanted to take us all to do something special!
I am so thankful to be in my own home this Christmas season. A full week of family gatherings is in store for us next week...I better finish my shopping!
Just a few updated pics!

Reagan happy as usual...seven months on Friday!

I painted my room and brought all my bedding out to the couch. Marshall snuggled right into the middle of it:)

Yay for the balloon man! We'll take a train balloon please!

Family tree hunt!

My men on the gator...Marshall was obviously in heaven!

So much to do, so little time to blog...

...such is my life as of late. I LOVE it though! I am having so much fun getting our house set up. It takes a lot of time and work to get things functioning smoothly though. I've been painting, cleaning and working on curtains. I thought I would take a minute while both the kids are sleeping to update the blog since it's been forever!

I did also decide to brave the black friday shoppers this morning, well at like 9! It was so much fun and I got some great deals. Being in a home that is our own brings with it a sense of desire to start traditions for our family. Tradition #1 - black friday shopping is fun with friends! That's the only tradition I have so far, I need to work on more!





First pic in front of our new home!



I hosted Thanksgiving this year...yes you do see fourteen settings! It was so much fun!

My sweetnessThe living room before we painted. Forgot to take a pic of the fireplace before I painted it but you can kind of see it on the left in this pic.

Post paint! I love my colors. Also that horrible looking gas insert in the fireplace is coming out soon so we can use it as a real fireplace! More pics to come!

New house and halloween update!

It's official...we signed papers this morning! Now we are just waiting for keys...could take a couple days unfortunately. My house is torn apart but most of it is in boxes and I can't wait to get into our new house!
We had a great halloween! Lots of trick-or-treating with friends! The kids had a blast and I already can't wait for next year!
Cousins...Marshall, Lola, Deakan!

Shoveling taco soup before we head out to trick-or-treat

Reagan and mama

My awesome SIL Holly!

Johnny Jumper...Reagan's new friend!

Paint and the Pumpkin Patch

This is a little glimpse of my life these days! Paint samples, fabric and BHG magazines! We are moving in less than two weeks and I'm so excited! I can't believe we are getting our own house! Quite the milestone for us.
Last Monday we headed out to EZ Orchards in search of the perfect pumpkin for Marshall:) He picked this gourd type pumpkin out right away. It's totally not carveable but that's the one he wanted and he would not put it down. I told him he could get his 'own special pumpkin' so all the way home he held his pumpkin and called it his 'special own pumpkin'. Never new an .89 pumpkin could provide so much entertainment! He ate dinner with it that night, ate breakfast and watch Seasame Street with it the next morning! He's played with it so much this week as well!

Deakan came over yesterday for the afternoon...we had so much fun reading and building a fort!

Like father like son...

Love her sweet smile...isn't she getting big?!!

Family pic in the cornfield!

Marshall's special pumpkin!

One of my favorite pics of all time...

Dinner with the pumpkin...

Breakfast with the pumpkin...

...and Seasame Street with the pumpkin:)

Happy fall...Christmas will be here before we know it!

Top 5 things happening in my life...

# 1 - I am recovering from turning 30:) I actually feel no different so there's hope for all you youngsters who are turning 30 next year! Can't wait for you to join me!
#2 - My sweet Reagan girl is getting so big! I put her down on the floor tonight and within a few minutes she had moved all the way accross the room! She's only 5 months tomorrow! Scary...

Sorry Reagan I wish I could tell you this will never happen again but I think this is only the beginning of life as the baby sister of Marshall:)

#3 - Marshall is at such a fun age right now. Well all of his ages have been fun...they just keep getting better. His vocabulary is so great and you can really have small conversations with him now. I cut my bangs the other day (kind of by accident...the length anyways) and when Marshall saw me he said, "Mommy, what's wrong with your hair?" Wonderful isn't it?:)

He's loving his fireman jacket and snow boots as of late. I used to see kids in public dressed like this and think, "Why would their mother let them go out like that?" Now as a mother I think, "Well as least he has clothes on." (Not that the outfit is necessary that bad but we're a little early for the season. When he took that coat off the other day his head and arms were covered with sweat...)

#4 - We just started a 10 am morning service at Outward and it's going great! Matt gets to come home in the middle of the day for a bit now and it's wonderful! www.outwardchurch.com

And finally #5 - The biggest news of all...we bought a house!!! We got a sweet and I mean sweet deal on a great little 3 bed 2 bath house! It's got a fenced backyard and a double car garge which I am really looking forward to with all the rain that's been coming down! We're still waiting on all our paperwork to go through but the plan is to move the first part of next month! It really hasn't hit us yet but we're so excited! God has truly provided a great little sanctuary for us! And yes the color of the house is light turquiose so according to my husband painting the outside will be one of the first things to happen! I've got paint on the brain and packing to do...which is probably what I should be working on instead of blogging...all in due time right?:)

Please join me in welcoming my thirties...

It's true. My twenties are over. Wow do I sound old? Today I turned 30. A new decade to begin. I'm actually doing quite well with it despite how morbid I might sound :)
One makes so many life changing decisions in their twenties and it seems like the thirties is where life gets played out...I've been doing some real soul searching as of late and I think it's been good for me!
My wonderful hubby, along with my sister and the rest of my family planned an awesome surprise party for me on Monday night! It takes a lot to surprise me apparently because I'm so nosy...I just like to know that I'm going to be surprised:) Can anyone else relate to me or am I just nuts??!
Anyways Matt and I went to dinner and coffee and then one of the guys from the church called and told him that they had broken a sprinkler head down at the church building and that water was everywhere...we had to get down there immediately Matt said. I was fully expecting to walk into a room full of water but when I walked in the place was decked out and tons of people yelled surprise when I walked in the door. Pretty sure I almost peed my pants. I was seriously shaking a bit because it literally scared me...good job guys! I am so thankful for my friends...
So here we go...a new chapter in my life, wish me luck:)

Updates!

Hello after a little absence in blogging! Of course it's busy with two kiddos but that's no excuse:) We've had a few things going on around here. We're hoping to buy a house befere December so I've been looking like crazy. I think I know something about every available house in Salem, in our price range at least! We found one that we loved but it didn't work out so we'll keep looking! We also took the kids to the fair and it was Matt's birthday last weekend and I was able to surprise him with tickets to the Keith Urban concert in Portland! It was a great concert and we had a wonderful time. We got a sweet deal on some amazing seats!
Can't believe we're half way through September!!! It's going to be Christmas before we know it.
On another note we have been having Outward's service on Sunday evenings but starting on the 27th of this month we will be adding a 10am morning service! We're so excited.
Ps - I can't wait to get some colder weather going on! Sorry to all you sun birds but I love jeans, boots, scarfs and extra hot lattes!





Me and Reagan...thanks Aunt Heidi for the 'baby legs'!

At the fair waiting for the chinese acrobat show to start. It was a pretty great show and Marshall was trying to do acrobat moves for the next few days!

Just loved the pen behind the ear:)

Waiting for Keith Urban to play!

Keith Urban...he's actually pretty short! He is an incredible guitarist and Matt LOVED the concert. Yay for a great present!
Actual view from our seats...no zooming. Pretty sweet!

Blue eyes...

Matt and I both have brown eyes! No idea where my blue eyed children come from:)