Happy Birthday Porter!

AWE!!!  Our very first baby is 6 years old today!  No way!  I can't believe it!  In honor of his special day, I thought I'd post some pictures of him through the years!  One of my favorites is the picture of Porter all covered in baby powder after him and Britten got into a bottle of it!  But.....my very favorite is the one of Porter and my dad.  I have always loved that picture.

I just want to take this time to tell Porter how much I love him, and how much I desire for him and his future.  He is such a special boy, who, more than anything, wants to make me happy -  - - and that is priceless.  We have high hopes for him and know he will succeed in anything he does.  He has a WONDERFUL example in his daddy to follow, and make good choices in his life.  

WE LOVE YOU PORTER!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's day to all the special men in our lives!  You all deserve a day to rest and be pampered - and to grill!  Brandon was out of town all week, so he's tired and thrilled to have a day of pampering from us.  It's just our luck - all three kids are sick!  So, we're all just taking it easy today.  Tess and Owen have double ear infections and Porter has a bronchial viral infection.  We're just crossing our fingers that Brandon and I miss the little bugs in the house.  I'm doing my usual constant cleaning to help kill the sick bugs!  

As you can see from the above picture, Brandon is making the most of today wisely!  He's got jetlag from his trip!  He went to Kansas City, MO, Baltimore, MD, Safford, VA - and a little sight seeing in Washington D.C.  I'll post some pictures from his trip in my next post.  The kids were so excited to see him after he was gone for 6 whole days.  I'll admit, I was pretty darn excited to see him too!  He got the kids T-shirts from his stay and they have both informed me they want to wear them all week long!  Porter and Owen's swimming lessons start this week.  That should be a fun experience.  We'll take lots of pictures and video clips to post on the blog.  

The highlight of my week has been tracking down some friends from my mission.  I had the opportunity to talk to a gal yesterday for almost an hour.  She was one of the young women in one of my wards, and is now all grown up!  She spent several years in London for schooling, so it totally threw me for a loop when talking - she sounded British!  I love you Diana!!

Well, I think we finally have a child whose attached to a blanket!  Baby Owen has been carrying his favorite soft blanket around the house all week.  It's kinda cute and kinda dirty at the same time.  I'm gonna have to steal it from him when he's sleeping to wash it!  It reminds me of Adam when he was little.  He had this yellow blanket that he took EVERYWHERE.  It got all ratty, and my mother just had to cut strings off as it unraveled (it was knit).  I'll never forget one day my mom decided to wash his blanket when he was up, and he was literally hanging on the washer screaming for the whole cycle.  He simply couldn't live without his blanky!  Boy, how he's grown! 

Porter and Tess had fun this week making a Father's day gift for Brandon.  They made a coat of arms type of thing.  I'll attach a picture.  They picked out stickers of all the

 fun things Brandon likes to do and put them on it.  It was a lot of fun.  We had a hayday with the glitter glue.  I'm still finding "sparkles" on my skin!  For those of you who don't know, we have a family tradition that Brandon started last year, where just before Mother's day and Father's day - we take the kids to the store and let them pick out whatever they want to give their parent for a gift.  It's funny to see what they buy.  Tess is still picking out things that she wants, Owen gets help, and Porter is getting better about thinking about what his parent would want!  So, this year, Tess got Brandon a pink Disney princess playground ball - Porter picked out a cool mesh bag with racket balls in it for when Brandon plays racket ball.  Owen picked out a T-shirt and hat that said #1 Dad!  All in all, Brandon loved his gifts.  

Well, we hope everyone has a great week!

Summer is Here!

Well, it's official - it's Phoenix - it's in the hundreds - and summer has began!  It's time to brace ourselves, cuz 100 degrees is low!  Although, I've found that once it hits like 107 - it all feels the same.  After living in up North for most of my life, I'll take the heat anyday!  I hate rain and I hate snow.  It's pretty - but that's about it!  My tan has never looked better than since we moved here!

We've just been up to the usual summer activities here at the Mitchell home.  We spend lots of time at the sprinkler pad and swimming out back in the big kiddie pool.  Every morning, after breakfast, I take the kids on a walk before it gets too warm so they can practice riding on their bikes, and Owen can cruise in his new stroller!  Our goal is to get Porter off his training wheels this summer.  Tess has been dying for some roller skates, so I think we'll buckle and buy her some this week and get her started on that!  That should be fun.  

Just one more week until swimming lessons start, and we're all getting anxious.  I'm curious to see how Owen does.  He loves getting in the pool in his floatation device.....so, we'll see how he does when he attempts to put his head under the water!  The kids are doing well and loving playing together and making messes faster than I can clean.  We're having a ball and hope everyone has a fantastic week!  Happy Birthday, Uncle Kevin!  We love you and miss you.

Kindergarten Graduation

Well, I finally pulled the pictures off the camera of Porter's Kindergarten celebration.  Here's Porter with his teacher - who we adore!  We had a great time, and Porter was really excited to participate in the program with his classmates.  They sang and had a slide show.  The evening was finished off with treats.  In the slide show Porter said his favorite part about Kindergarten was Science!  He is having fun at home, and is already asking when school starts again!

7 years of marital bliss!

Apparently, according to society, Brandon and I are supposed to be "itching" and heading for the door!  We hit 7 years in our marriage yesterday, and I know I speak for both of us, when I say - we've never been happier.  Marriage is all about learning and growing together, and we feel fortunate that we've grown in the same direction.  We both laugh at how we've changed and concede that we, indeed, have changed for the better.  We've had our ups and downs, as everyone does, but are loving our time together, and are looking forward to many, many ,many more years as a couple and a family.  It's crazy how time has flown, and now we have 3 fantastic, and super cute, children.  They mean the world to us, and we're trying our hardest to provide a happy and healthy home for them. Of course, like any other parent, we are re-living our childhoods through them as well!  We've hit the ground running with parenthood and are loving it.  We'll be the first to admit, we make mistakes, but we are trying.

This last week was a huge milestone for Porter.  Thursday was the last day of school - and he's now officially done with Kindergarten and on to First grade in the fall!  He's so excited to call himself a first grader now.  Now, if he could only master tying his shoes!  We'll get there.  It  was sooooo hard to say good-bye to his Teacher, Mrs. Encarnacion.  She was AMAZING and the best teacher we could have ever hoped or prayed for.  In fact, I've convinced Brandon to commute to the east side for work so we can stay in Surprise, so Tess and Owen can attend Kindergarten with Mrs. Encarnacion.  Let's hope she's still teaching for at least 5 more years! We'll see how his commute goes, and then start house shopping again.  

Tess is thrilled to have Porter home during the day, although today, I'm debating on wether she likes playing with him or simply bugging him!  (how's that for a run on sentence!?)  Tess continually amazes us with her little personality and her likeness to the old Dennis the Menace books or today's David Gets in Trouble book.  She is CONSTANTLY getting into things.  She is the most curious child I have ever known.  We love her dearly and know we are in for a big ride with her being our only girl and the middle child to boot!

Big Cheezums - aka - Owen, is doing well.  He has been in heaven since yesterday afternoon when Fafa and Punkin showed up!  They were on their way home to Tucson from Vegas and spent the night with us.  They had gone to a wedding there.  We always love having them in our home, even if it's just overnight.  We went to their house last weekend, so we've been spoiled this month!  We'll probably head back down there in July sometime.  Now that Owen's head is buzzed he's looking more and more like Porter everyday.  He's cutting some new teeth right now, so he's not too happy about that.  He has been really cuddly, which I love!  Bring on the teeth!  

Everyone is getting excited for swimming lessons that start in a couple of weeks.  We'll keep you posted on how those go!  We love you all and hope everyone is doing well.

Owen Got Buzzed!!

Well, as family tradition allowed, Brandon got to Owen's head before I could stop him this evening.  I felt a flashback to a cold winter morning in Rexburg, when Brandon took Michael's clippers to Porter's head!  This evening, armed with his own new set of clippers, Daddy took on his fatherly role to my sweet Owen.  He has now been officially inaugurated a Mitchell!  For those of you wondering, yes, I did save a pile of his hair in an envelope for my scrapbook!  He took it like a champ and didn't start fussing until the very end.  What a cute little boy!  My baby doesn't look like a baby anymore.  Honestly, he looks more and more like Porter everyday.  He is, literally, days away from walking.  He's trying so hard, so keep watching  - anyday now, we'll have video to post.  Cross your fingers!

Porter is in his last week of school.  He has done so well this year, we are so very proud.  This Wednesday night he has a special Kindergarten celebration.  I'm assuming it's somewhat like the Kindergarten graduation I participated in some 26 years ago!  He's been practicing one of the songs he's singing all day.  "Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today - - I'm gonna be a part of it - - First grade, first grade!!"  Our major goals for the summer are to master tying his shoes (he's struggled with that), and to read as much as possible!  He's excited to get registered in the summer reading program.  He's also informed me that he wants to do as many projects as we can all summer!  It's Arizona, soooo, we'll spend some quality time inside doing homework if that's what he wants.  

Miss Tess is excited to have Porter home during the day.  She has really missed him.  She'll have fun working on projects and coloring as well.  She will participate in the summer reading program too.  I can read to her and we can count those minutes.  I signed up all three kids for swimming lessons in June, and Tess is probably the most excited out of all of them.  This will be her first year in lessons and she can't wait!  

As most of you know, I quit my job and will now be home full-time with the kids again.  We are all excited to have mommy home all the time again.  Owen really missed his mommy, and has been in heaven since I've quit.  I'll admit, I've been in heaven too!  You don't realize what you have sometimes until you are gone for awhile.  I feel blessed to spend my days with these kiddos!  They are a ton of fun.  

Brandon is FINALLY just about finished with the Mayo clinic building.  He should be on to his job in the office as a Project Manager in just about two weeks.  Everyone at Okland says this project has been fraught with more architectural issues than any other they have done, so anything he does after this should be a breeze!  

We look forward to a summer full of free movies at the local theater, splashing at the sprinkler pad, and trips to the library!  We'll keep you posted on all of our happenings!

Long Live Baseball!

Well, we're right in the middle of T-ball season here in Arizona, and we're confident in saying that Porter has found his new passion.  He loves baseball!  We're excited that he's found a sport that he enjoys immensely.  He lives in the best state for play fields, so this should be a fun journey for him.  I was able to get today off to attend his game and took lots of fun pictures!  School is out on the 22nd, so he's a bit sad at the prospect of not having class everyday for awhile.  He has loved Kindergarten.  

Tess is doing well and trying to be the head cheese here at home, which is no surprise to those who know her.  She is her mother in another body.  She wants to be in charge and have things her way!  She's loving that Owen is more and more playful each day.  She loves going to her best friend's house for day care 3 days a week.  She has also found her first crush - her sitter's husband!  As we were leaving yesterday, she made a point to yell out to him and tell him she loved him!

Owen is doing fantastic.  He is getting more confident in standing and walking alongside things - sooooo - hopefully he'll walk before he enters Kindergarten!  He'll be 14 months old on Monday, but we're not worried.  He's progressing!  He loves playing and wrestling with his siblings.  

Brandon and I are doing well.  We're both way stressed at work, and feel privileged that family life is going well to offset all the chaos at work!  We hope everyone is doing well and happy, and I promise to post more often - it's just been busy!