Twilight Before Christmas

Check out this link my sister Jodi sent me. I loved it! If you have not seen the Twilight movie, then you won't get it and you'll think it's lame. But if you have seen the movie, then I hope you enjoy this parody as much as I did...

http://www.take180.com/s/ep5l7

Annual Porter Family Christmas Eve Party (that wasn't on Christmas Eve)

Saturday night was our annual Porter family Christmas Eve party. Normally we have it at David and Jill's house but this year with 85+ people in attendance they decided to have it at a church instead. Not really sure why it wasn't on Christmas Eve, though. Oh well, we had a good time anyway. I took my time to scrub the kids down and dress 'em up nice.

This is Ameliah after she was ready. I blow-dried her hair (which she didn't care for much) and curled her hair so it flipped out. It turned out super cute!


Looking at her new pink boots.

Kissing brother for the camera.

These are my beautiful kids. Doesn't Cannon look cute in his new argyle sweater? What a stud!

Cute and happy posing for a picture. They managed to stay clean and looking nice through the whole evening. What a proud moment for me!

I hung out with the Phoenix Suns yesterday!

Honest to blog! Yesterday my mother-in-law asked me to come paint a Suns event with her. I have painted plenty of Suns games and figured we would be standing at the entrance painting little kids as they came in. But, when we got there it was a different story. They told us to take some stairs and they would lead us right to the court. So we get down there and the woman in charge told us to go sit on the bench. That's right, I sat on the bench-well it was actually luxurious black cushion chairs-where the Phoenix Suns sit during games.

I didn't know that there were actually going to be Suns players there until I saw Steve Nash waiting in line with kids that wanted to get their faces painted. He looked right at me so I smiled. He never made it to the front of the line because he was constantly being swarmed by people wanting his autograph. I asked a kid there what the event was for and they said that they were there with their halfway house. From what I gather, there was some kind of toy drive and some foster children and half-way homes were invited to come have lunch with some of the Suns players and practice basketball with them.

I am ashamed to say that I don't know many of the Phoenix Suns players anymore. I don't watch basketball. Here is a list of the following players that Mom and I got to rub shoulders (well not really shoulders because most of them are huge-except Steve Nash who was surprisingly shorter than I thought he would be).

Obviously I recognized Steve Nash. You don't have to watch basketball to know Steve Nash.
This is Robin Lopez #15. I had no clue who he was. In street clothes he just looked like a guy with huge hair.

This is Louis Admundson #17. He was walking onto the court at the same time we were. I honestly thought he was like a custodian there. Sure, he is tall like a baller, he just seemed so young and, well...normal.

This is Grant Hill #33. I recognized him right away, but I didn't know what his name was until I looked on the Suns website.

Dan Majerle was there. I didn't know he is an Assistant Coach. I did recognize him from way back in the Barkley days when I did watch some basketball with my family.

This is former Suns player, Cedric Ceballos. He DJ'd the event.

This is Assistant Coach Alvin Gentry. I painted his face! Each Suns "celebrity" was assigned a group of kids. We walked around to their tables to paint while they ate. He wanted to have each kid get their face painted and he did too. I had no idea while I was painting him who he was.

This is Alando Tucker #29. He talked to me and Alvin while I painted everyone at Alvin's table.

After it was over I was talking to my Mom about how these were just a bunch of guys to us, but they are stars to others. I wished I had my camera with me, but who takes their camera to a face painting gig? Crazy day, huh!?

You're a mean one, Mrs. Grinch!

Okay, I'll admit it...I don't feel the Christmas spirit this year. It just doesn't seem like Christmas to me and I have been in denial that it is actually happening. Maybe it is because I am still trying to get settled after our move. Whatever it is, it needs to stop. Ameliah is old enough this year to understand more about it and I need to get my act together and create some fun Christmas-time memories. So, last night we took the kids to see the temple lights. Ameliah loved it. Her favorite part was that big one that looks like a blue water fountain. We looked at the manger and explained Jesus' birth and why we have Christmas. Last week we started putting up Christmas decorations. Now anytime Ameliah sees anything related to Christmas she says, "Look Mom! A Christmas!" What a cutie. I hope I can get my act together and make this a fun and special Christmas for her.

My mom and Dad are on a mission right now in Galapagos. In their weekly letter they included this poem that I enjoyed...

The Simple Nail
It’s Christmas time at our house and we’re putting up the tree.
I wish I could find one simple way to remember Christ’s gift for me.
Some little sign or symbol, to show friends stopping by,
the little babe was born one day but He really came to die.
Some symbol of his nail-pierced hands, the blood he shed for you and me…
what if I hung a simple nail on my shinning Christmas tree?
A crimson bow tied round the nail- symbol of His blood that flowed so free
to save each person from their sin and redeem us for all eternity.
I know it was his love for us that held Him to that tree,but when I see this simple nail, I know he died for me.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

I'm on the road again...watch out!

Joy and joyness....after a month and 1/2 without my van (blue van car as Ameliah calls it), I am celebrating it's return. We had to replace the transmission. Todd did a lot of research and found a place that did it for just under $1,700. That's a good deal, but still dropping that kind of bank right before Christmas, not so much joyness. I shouldn't complain...because I am on the road again! Todd and I bought a Chevy Cavalier with cash in October because we found a steal. I have been driving that for most of the time my van was broken, but 2 weeks ago I released it to Todd so he would have his own car to drive. Yikes! These last 2 weeks have been miserable! I don't like to feel stuck. I went absolutely stir crazy! It was actually a good way to do it because spending the money to get my van back didn't seem so bad after that. So, I picked up my van yesterday morning and came home and did this...

...That's right, I hit a car. Luckily it was in my driveway and it is my Dad's van that he is getting rid of anyway. But still, I feel terrible and embarrassed! I walked into the house already in tears and told my mother-in-law what I had just done. She was so understanding and sweet. She told me that she didn't care about her van, but wanted to come see mine. She grabbed a rag and was able to wipe off a lot of the white paint on paint. It looked like this when she was done. Still noticeable, but a vast improvement. Luckily it only dented a little and it is only cosmetic. I can handle that. How terrible would that have been to have caused mechanical damage right after getting it back.

I was so excited to have wheels again, that I got Ameliah done up and we went and did some errands. I bought those boots for her dirt cheap at a second hand store and she loves them! The first day she wore them we went to Walmart and she showed them to every stranger that passed us by.

Did you know that you can buy ribbon for like 25 cents a yard at Walmart? I bought her 5 yards of ribbon for under $1.50 and cut them into little strips for her hair.

For this outfit I combined black and pink and just made little bows. It turned out super cute!

Isn't she a doll? She sure felt special getting dressed up. It is amazing how confident she was knowing she was cute.

Ameliah's Haircut

My little girl has curly hair. With the exception of the time she cut chunks out of her own hair, she has only had 1 small trim. Her hair doesn't grow super fast, and it is still pretty thin so I decided to cut her hair to see if that would help it to grow faster. I was also hoping that it would take some weight off it so that the top would curl better. She has beautiful ringlets, but the top doesn't seem to want to curl. I have been putting her hair up in piggy-tails every day because it does not look as good down (plus, I think the piggy-tails are darling). I am normally a scaredy-cat when it comes to trying new things, because I don't want to be bad at them. However, as I am getting older I am trying new things because I'll never know if I don't try. So...I cut her hair...by myself...without any supervision-or any idea what I was doing! I just made it up as I went.

This is a picture I took of it right before I started cutting.

Here is the finished product. It ended up shorter than I was expecting because the curls got tighter having the weight off. I still don't know how straight I got it, because the curls hide it. So, I am calling it a success!

Here is the front view. I love her big grin.

I told her to give me a princess pose for this one and this is what I got. What a beautiful girl!

Cannon saw Ameliah moving her head all around for different poses and he wanted to pose, too. He walked up to me doing this, so I took a picture of him. What a cute, silly boy! He always wants to do what he sees his sister do.

Don't eat red bananas!

This

+ This

= This

So two nights ago the kids were playing in the backyard. After a while, Ameliah came running in the house pointing at her mouth. She wasn't saying anything; she just had this look of panic on her face and kept pointing into her mouth. At first I just thought she had tried to swallow a little stick or rock and it was caught in her throat. So I look all around in her mouth and there is no sign of anything stuck or lodged. So, I figured whatever it was was far enough down that she should just wash it down with some water. So, I handed her a cup and made her drink. By this point, she had escalated into screaming. I asked her "Ameliah, tell mommy what you put in your mouth. What did you eat?" To which she replied, "A banana". I thought: That's strange, there are no bananas outside. Then I saw the chili plant. I immediately knew the fire that she must be experiencing. It was so sad, but at the same time, I couldn't help laughing!

She was fine as long as she had a cracker or milk in her mouth, but the second it was gone, the screaming would resume. That went on for about ten minutes and then she seemed to calm down. I don't know if you can tell from the picture above, but her little lips were bright red. When the fire was gone and she was still a little teary she said "Sorry about my face, mom." Bless her little heart!

My Personal Brand of Heroine

So...I finally saw it! I feel like I am the last person in the world to see Twilight. I have been working soooooo hard this week peeling wallpaper and getting the kitchen ready to paint. That is a HUGE job when you're doing it all by yourself. Yesterday I moved the computer and all of it's accessories upstairs, cleaned out my desk, took the door off the hinges and pushed the desk all the way to the door by myself. That was a lot of work for a little girl like me. I was trying to get the desk out the door by myself, too, but who am I kidding? That thing is heavy! So, needless to say I was tired. I literally did not go anywhere since Sunday. Three days cooped up in the house doing hard work, and I needed a night out. My poor husband realized that when he got home and the dumbest thing made me cry. He dropped everything, asked his mom to babysit and whisked me away to the movies.

We both really enjoyed the movie. He knew the story already as I explained every detail to him as I read each book. I must admit that at first I was mad at who they chose to play Edward, but he grew on me as the movie progressed. I am already dying to see the next three even though I have no idea when they are coming out. I am addicted to the Twilight series. Vampires and romance...what else could you possibly need?

Our Thanksgiving

On Wednesday night, Scott and Tracy had a Pre-Thanksgiving Pig Pig-Out Party. We all hung out, watched the Suns game and ate lots of goodies. We had a good time. Tracy mentioned that they might make it an annual thing. Sounds good to me! For Thanksgiving, we just hung out all day. We didn't have a set dinner time, we just had yummy Thanksgiving food out all day. It was a nice, relaxing holiday and we really enjoyed it.


Here are some pictures of our Pie Pig-Out Party...