What's been going on... and too many pictures!

Ok, so prepare yourself there are too many pictures in this post.

A few weekends ago Melissa came in for a night. She decided to come because she said she wanted to see Addison before her birthday party otherwise she would not want to share her at the party... Melissa helped Addison practice her cheerleading moves!!

I also made some burp cloths for some the the coaches wives at Melissa school. I thought they turned out cute, the track shoe one is my favorite!

Kanyon came over and we had to get a picture of them both in their Converse All Stars! I wish that you could see that hers are tie-dye!

Addison loves giving Chutch a treat now! She stretches her arm out and says "Dog" and he comes running! He's very careful though, he doesn't get his mouth on her hands!!

Addison came running down the hall the other day with the new toys she found in Mommy and Daddy's bathroom. She cried when I took these away, I told her I just wasn't ready to have that conversation yet...

BUBBLES!!! I finally got pictures of her playing with bubbles... she loves them!

This is one of my new favorite pictures of her!

Keep your eye on the ball... she'll make a great softball player one day with these skills!

Ummm, I wonder where she got this look from...

The Friday of Labor Day weekend we headed up to Paris to play on Jaymie's parent lake/pond.

Kory took us down to feed the fish on Saturday morning.

After Addison got over the fact that you are suppose to throw the food in the water and not eat it she thought the fish were sort of neat.
Hanging out on the dock with Buddy

"Dad, I can do it. Let me go"

We had to drive about 30 min. to get to Jay and Gay's land, and that was the only nap Ms. ABC took ALL DAY! Too many people to nap.. When everyone was there there were 10 kids and the oldest turned 2 in July...

Hanging out with Daddy in the water

Then got passed on to Jaymie...

Then Eric. She loved Eric! Friday night when we got to Paris Eric and Amber were still at Jay and Gay's within about 15 min. she was sitting in Eric's lap reading a book

All the girls in the water, minus a few babies. I didn't stay in long, if you didn't keep your legs moving fish would come and nibble at them. I never got bit but couldn't stand the though of it so I had to get out.

Addison hanging with some of the boys. Kanyon, Kory, Chris, Addison, Adam, Caden and Eric.

Addison talking to her new friend Roselyn. The picture was through the screen door. I felt like they were telling secrets of their curly hair!

Anyone that knows me well knows that I would LOVE to be a sports photographer... these are as close as I have come lately!!

See Jaymie, I didn't put the crazy one on here!

Chris on the wake board

I love this one with all the water splashing.

Flipping off of the diving board.

Addison's attempt at knee boarding.

Hanging out with Kory.
Blake and Mallory came over Monday night for some Chili's To Go... I promise they started the night with their clothes on... This is how it ended! Mallory was trying to have a dance party, Blake joined in, but Addison was having none of that

I'll leave you with this little tickler for the next post (hopefully coming soon)...

Where do you think Addison went today???

Should have thought this through

She loved the spaghetti she had for lunch today. Only 1 problem that I should have thought through a little better...




I knew she was a little tired, and I knew that she rubs her ear when she's tired.

I didn't think about the outcome being like this...

Needless to say, we had a VERY early bath today!

Super Buddy Time

The last few weeks Addison has been playing a lot with Kanyon! We are so happy that he is home and without tubes and can come over and swim and play.

A few weeks ago at small group Kanyon and Addison were having a talk. He's listening so intently!

Last Wednesday Kanyon came over to swim. While they were getting lathered up they decided to hold hands!

Addison loves belly buttons! She found Kanyon's, he wasn't too sure what to think about that.

Addison was trying to help Kanyon bounce in his bouncy seat. Made me a little nervous, the combination of his amazing bouncing skills and her help got him going pretty good!

She got distracted by his paci

Addison liked playing with this basketball, Kanyon was just excited to hang out.

At first she though about sharing the basketball.

Once Kanyon got his hands on it she changed her mind.

She eventually got it back... I guess we need to work on sharing!!


Kanyon: "Ummm... not sure what to do here, HELP mom!"

Jaymie pulled out the bubbles and Addison loved them!

We've been hanging out with Kanyon so much that Addison decided that she wanted to try his hair style... I think he pulls it off a little better!

Yesterday Blake came over to play while Mallory went to the ACA Olympics. Addison didn't know he was coming so she decided to sleep almost the whole time he was here.

When she did wake up they shared a picnic snack. Addison ate hers so nice and lady like, and Blake, in true Porter male style, just shoveled it it!

Then they decided to share the chair!

My sister made comment on the last post... Yes, Addison is walking. She started on Saturday and is still going! It's so fun to watch! Last night he almost ran from the coffee table to recliner to get to Christopher. I'll have pictures soon. We kept trying to get a video, but she can get the camera must faster crawling so that's what she does.

Lesson learned

ALWAYS check to see if the deodorant and hairspray bottles have switched places in the women’s locker room before attempting to squirt hairspray on your hair to revamp the curls that fell while you were working out…

My hair will not sweat today!

oh man...

Something I never thought that I would Press and Seal for...


Christopher has been really into golf lately. But this was the latest result. I call it, good thought plus not thinking plus bad shot = broken window.

Luckily all the windows in our house have several different panes so when Chris decided to try and hit a whiffle ball OVER the house and had a bad shot, it wasn't too much of a big deal. Except for the fact there was glass all over the living room (if you've been in my house, it was all the way to the love seat on the back wall under the crosses.) I said "I just don't understand how you think it was a good idea to try and hit over the house." His response, "I don't understand how you can back into a house." ouch... that's fair I guess, the different in costs of us not thinking things through... only $905.

I've been told "I need to see pictures of that baby" Well Chisolm, here you go...

As for Addison well she has been up to...

She now brushes her teeth! She has always loved watching Chris and I brush our teeth, she laughs, now we give her her toothbrush in the bath tub and she starts scrubbing! It's so funny!

She can climb on so many things now, she tries to climb out of the bathtub when I ask her if she's ready to tell the water bye-bye.

Like I said, she likes to climb. It starts on the jumper like this...

Then we end up here...

This somehow she winds up in this position. Don't worry I was there to offer support if she started to fall, but I was more curious to see how she was going to get herself into her jumper. She did a pretty good job right? She actually played like this for a while, then I got nervous about the circulation in that bottom leg and took her out, about 30 seconds later she was right back in the same position.

She files her toe nails! Can you tell she's seen me do this to her a time or two??

We make bubbles in the dishwasher door. She loves them and just laughs!

She wears all her bows at once. I was making a new bow holder, which she broke in about 5 seconds, and I decided to put as many bows on her head as I could. I think she looks cute!

She took them off and tried to give them to her dad.

I got her this rocking chair for $10 at a garage sale down the street. I was so excited. When we got it home I realized that she can climb in and out of it very quickly. So we learned just as quick that you have to keep your bottom in the chair, it was a struggle at first, but now she climbs up and immediately sits!

She's been drinking from her sippie cup for a while, but... now we are ONLY using a sippie cup! She hasn't figured out the tipping up of a real sippie cup so we have to use the straw cups. Our pediatrician likes for babies to be off of a bottle by 1, so we started working on more sippie cup and less bottle and it just went from there. I hope potty training can go as easy at the transition to finger foods and sippie sups!

I just love this picture of her and Christopher

She likes to walk around the house holding your hand, won't do it on her own yet.

THE END

In addition to yesterdays post...

This is for all you East Texas girls out there. Not to build on my / our (as I have discovered) fears. Just wanted everyone to be aware. This was an email that I received today. Apparently it was reported in the Marshall News Messenger on July 21.

As I understand it, this occurred a week ago Saturday night, July 19, on Hwy. 449 between Hallsville and Marshall, approximately 5 miles from the loop in Marshall. A 17 year old girl was returning home from a babysitting job in a subdivision in north Hallsville. I'm not sure what time, but judging from the boldness of the attackers, I would think it was late. For those of you who don't know, 449 is a curvy FM road, with a scattered population of homes, and most are back off the road. There are stretches that are pretty desolate. The young girl stopped because a car was completely across the road, blocking her way. Immediately two other cars came up behind her, one in each lane parked at an angle, in a V shape, blocking her from every direction. The Black males literally pulled her out of the driver's window, forcing a "date rape" pill down her throat and viciously tried to assault her. Something spooked them and they fled, but not before they had torn her shirt and bra off, broken her arm, and pulled patches of her hair out. Other injuries were mentioned, but I was too stunned to remember all the details. It's obvious what their intentions were, but they got distracted, thank GOD! She drove herself to the hospital in Marshall, still without her clothes. What a tough little cookie she was! I was told there was only a very short article in the Marshall paper, with not much attention given to it at all. Harrison County is handling the case. Just wanted to alert all of you who travel some of these back roads at night (like I have). We never think it will happen to us. This type of crime could target anyone, young or old, so pass this along to your mothers, daughters, sisters, granddaughters, nieces, and anyone who might need a wake up call like I did. It sounds like the attack was well coordinated, probably by cell phone. My guess would be that one probably passed her and got far enough ahead to block her, and the other two were probably talking back and forth to him, following her all the while.

By the way. Thanks to those of you that have commented on my "Fears" blog. It makes me feel a little more normal with this fear and Christopher is realizing that I'm not as crazy as he thought!

Fears

Sunday night at our small (actually very large) group Clay asked the question “What is your biggest fear?” We’ll I didn’t share mine, but I will now. My biggest fear, being attacked/kidnapped. This is a fear that influences many decisions I make on a daily basis. Today for example, while going to get candy to teach my CPR class to little kids I parked so I can walk straight to my car upon leaving the store and can see if there is someone around me in or under my car, the pool sounded like it needed water but it was already dark and I didn’t want to go and turn the water on in the dark. That’s not too bad for me, only 2! Usually its like 4 or 5. Sometimes I feel like this fear, almost obsession, is out of control.

A few of you know that I used to not take a shower or dry my hair if I was at home alone. If those two things are going on how will you know if someone breaks into your house? I would rather hear them coming. I a parking lot I have to park where I can walk straight to my car, no walking around for this girl, seriously, I’ll circle the parking lot for 15 minutes if I have to. This started after a girl was kidnapped from a Wal-Mart parking lot while she was about to get into her car. This use to not be as big of a fear, but a few months after that incident happened I was walking around my car and there was a man walking towards me and was by my door. I started backing up, he assured me that everything was okay and all he just needed some money for gas. I didn’t have any cash, I hardly carry cash, so he went on his way. I watched from the middle of the driving isle until I felt like it was safe to return to the car. Really, who would approach a women that is alone for money in between cars… CREEPY! I also won’t go run by myself anymore, not even on the running trail in Longview. I have to be where Chris can see me and would know if something were to happen to me. That’s the other part about my fear, if I know that someone knows where I am or if there is sort of a timeline for the day, I’m okay.

This drives Christopher absolutely bonkers! I really don’t know what and how to change this. Once when I decided I was going to brave it pushing Addison on the running trail Christopher was on his way back ,from the end of the trail, and caught up with me and asked me if I was scared and I said yes, but I just prayed for bravery the whole time, it worked.

I really have no idea why I’m like this, where it came from, or when it started. I think that I have a pretty detailed imagination and it can start to go wild sometimes with things that could happen in certain situations. Almost to the point that I feel like it’s real and that something is about to happen. I used to watch crime shows and somewhat scary movies. Can’t do that anymore, it only feeds the imagination and things that could happen. Christopher and I used to watch criminal minds, loved that show… not now, it only makes it worse.

Well, there you go… I spilled one of my secrets. I guess that I’m hoping that writing this all out is going to be a healthy, helpful step for my fears. Not sure what to do with this next…

Two weeks worth of... FAMILY!

another two week (or more) update.

Friday, July 4
We went to the fourth of July celebration that our church has every year. It was fun! Addison wasn’t sure what to think about the fireworks. Here is what she did during the fireworks: thought they were neat, then was surprised, then clapped for them, then bored and wiggly, then played with the people behind us, then thought they were funny, then tried to go to sleep, then played with Amanda sitting next to us, then watched them again.
Can’t remember right now what happened the next week. That’s no good for keeping tabs of Addison. At some point, I don’t have my calendar for the date, she started taking a few steps. She’ll only take 2-3 at a time; she’s more interested in talking.

One of my new favorite pictures of us. We are ready for the fireworks, like the firecracker bow I made her?

Saturday, July 12
Christopher’s birthday!! His friend from ACU, Neil Chadwick, got married so we went to Dallas for the wedding. I stayed with my Nana and Papa while Chris went to the wedding and stayed with some of his friends. We all had a good time. Nana and Papa really enjoyed getting to see and play with her! Several things she did with her great-grandparents: played in the pool (in her cloths, she decided to sit while we were taking pictures!), walked down to the creek, sat in the swing with Papa, laid in the hammock, played in pots and pans, took a bath in the BIG Jacuzzi tub (Nana really wanted a picture of this since I was the first grandchild to take a bath in that tub when I was 8 but I didn’t get one), played with all the toys, and last but not least threw up! That last one… awesome… I was worried since she had been on real formula for two weeks at that point and that is when Dr. Neff said she would start showing signs if she were still allergic. It went all over me and kept coming. The next day Addison must have decided that she left bad for throwing up all over me so she decided to grace Christopher with her “baby juice” while we were at Taco Bueno after church. So we went back to the Neutramgen.

Look at all those candles...

sweet picture of Papa and his first great granddaughter
this was right after she sat in the water, I love this face "what have I just done"

The next week when I went to work I had her checked again for the milk protein allergy... NEGATIVE. Those two were just coincidental throw ups! YEAH!!! So she has had a few new foods this past week that she loves: yogurt, ice cream (thanks Tony), shredded cheese, Gerber yogurt bites (these things are NASTY, but she LOVES them!).

Tuesday, July 15
Christopher’s parents and Mimi have a HUGE garden and we get to reap the benefits of the extra harvest. We had purple hole peas in our refrigerator for a week and finally decided to shell them. I usually don’t like Ranger games so I told Christopher that if he would help me shell the peas I would watch the game, not knowing at the time how long BOTH would last. We started watching the game in the 7th inning 2 ½ hours later both were still going, close to over, but going. Oh my, I didn’t realized how long it would take to shell all those peas. Of course, the competitiveness came out in me and Christopher and half way through we decided that we were going to measure our bowls at the end to see who shelled the most peas. He won, 9 cups to 8. We both had sore and purple fingers for a few days.
Wednesday, July 16
Addison and I left for Ft. Worth to stay with Melissa, Mary Beth joined us also so we had some sister / aunt and niece time! It was fun. We swam, went to Target, Olive Garden, the mall, went for a walk around the canal and Addison had the most fun playing with Melissa and Mary Beth on the air mattress. It was high enough that she could easily crawl up on the couches and then back down, she was all over the place! Helping Aunt Melissa do what she likes to do best, read magazines about famous people and as you can see by Mary's face in this picture she loved watching Addison play!

Thursday, July 17
We made a trip up to Callisburg to see Tony, Carol, Brad and Jacob Strickland. It was a fun trip! Tony had seen Addison before but Carol and the boys hadn’t. This family is so very special to me and I’m sad that I don’t get to see them as much since my parents are no longer in Callisburg so it was great to see them! The boys are so grown up. I hope Addison doesn’t grow up as fast as they did… I’ll put a picture on here later of Brad holding Addison. I met Brad when we was about to turn 6 and he used to sit in my lap and we would watch wrestling… now he just graduated from high school?

Friday, July 18
Mark had a horse show in Athens so on our way back home we stopped to see Uncle Mark! Addison says “dog” when she sees a dog, so she said “dog” when she saw a horse. It was funny. At first she wasn’t sure what to think about them and didn’t want to pet them, then once Melissa got her to touch one of their faces she just wanted to pet them. Later Mark was sitting on one and we put Addison up there with him and she LOVED it! She would lean forward and touch the mane and try to grab the reins too. We took her down and she did not like that. She literally was trying to climb up the gate to get back up there with Mark. He had so much fun with her! I got some really great pictures of that! There is one picture in particular that I know that my dad is going to LOVE, she is on the horse by herself, with Mark holding her, and she has perfect riding position, its great!

getting some love from Uncle Mark

Figuring out the reins! It was a tough, notice the sideways bow!

I think she's got it (love her curly hair in this one!)

sitting on the gate, wishing she was riding instead of watching

Told you she naturally had perfect form! I know my dad is so proud!

I'm pretty sure that only my family will get this. Title for this picture is ...

"She's coming... and she's standing in the saddle!"

Saturday, July 19
Russ’s Birthday. Kallen and Kelsey came in so Saturday morning Christopher and Kallen went to play golf and then we all went to Elysian Fields. We had fun playing Wii and just watching Addison play. It was a good end to the week. Addison got to see ALL her aunts and uncles within a 4 day span, that’s impressive. Russ enjoyed his birthday, I think. Kallen and Kelsey got him a new bible, large print. I asked him if that’s what he needed since he’s getting so old… he just gave me a funny look. Hey, I thought it was funny! I’ll have to take a picture of what I have him to put on here. I think that it turned out really good. It was a picture thing of Addison, Christopher, him, Mimi and Great-Granddad. We drove to Austin to take these pictures when Addison was just 5 weeks old since we were sure how much longer Great-Granddad would live, I can’t remember the date but I think that he died less than a month later. We are so glad to have those 5 generation pictures. Those are memories and pictures that you can never get back, so I wanted to make sure that Russ had something with those in there since his grandparents we so special to him.

Okay, I think that’s long enough for now. I’ll update this post with pictures later.