Our little Portia Roo is one year old today! Let’s talk about how fabulous she is!

Once upon a time, Portia was no more than this:But we loved her a lot even then!

Then precisely one year ago she was born and we loved her even more!

And she just kept growing! And we love her more and more every single day!

Josh made all the pictures look great! He’s the best ever. Just sayin’.

Anyway, here are some of the reasons we adore Portia!

• She is beyond thrilled to greet you in the morning, even if–like this morning–she was woken up before she was really ready and still has serious sleep in her eyes!
• Portia will eat just about anything she finds interesting. Today she enjoyed eating dirt, bugs, and grass while we were playing outside.
• Even though we’ve been dealing with her torticollis for 10 months now, she is a good sport about all the treatment we have to do for her, and none of it slows her down!
• She’s stinkin’ cute!
• She loves to rock out to music–especially Life is a Highway by Rascal Flatts.
• She just loves and loves and loves! She smiles at everybody in the grocery store. She gives everyone at church snuggles and loves. She really doesn’t usually refuse to let people hold her (much unlike one of her other siblings…).
• If she has a blanket, she immediately snuggles into it, pops her thumb in her mouth, and coos in elation. If you haven’t seen it, you’re seriously missing out. Maybe I should video it…
• Even though she is the baby, she totally holds her own with her siblings–especially when favorite toys or ice-cream cones are on the line.

Anyway, Portia is seriously a fun girl! Here’s a taste of her birthday.

Happy Birthday, Portia! We are looking forward to many more wonderful years with you!

There’s not a whole lot on my mind right now–except perhaps the refashion project I just finished that didn’t turn out very well…–but I wanted to share some snippets of our simple day at home.

 

Also, this picture is just to make you smile.

The month of February has been busy for us! We have been at our house for approximately 35 hours since February 7. The first week, we babysat Jordan and Crystal’s cute kids while they partied in Curacao for a week! Now we are hanging out at Mother and Daddy’s house with the two at home while they party in Australia!  It has been fun!

We were super grateful for the nice weather last week which allowed the six children (all under the age of 9) to get out of the house and enjoy themselves! Besides playing outside, we played games in the house, watched movies, and even went to lunch with the whole crew! One lady asked if all the kids were ours. I should have told her yes. 🙂

And now we are missing the little brunettes, but enjoying hanging out with Mary and John. Fay and Carter are loving Grandmother’s assortment of toys! Portia is loving exploring and getting held.

We had a fun Valentine’s dinner! Mother wasn’t here to decorate the table and make fancy food, so I did it on her behalf. She had all the stuff, though, so she really does get credit for it!

Also, in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I want to acknowledge my forever valentine who is the most joyous part of my life! I’m so delighted to be sealed to him for time and all eternity!

This week, we had the enormous privilege of being invited to Kathryn and Steve Lyde’s home for a Valentine’s Day Party! It was a super-fun party with activities for the whole family and many elaborate and delicious foods to eat!

One of the activities was a photo shoot with a Polaroid camera! Most of our pictures are not digital (WHAT?!), but this one was commissioned by Fay after the polaroid pictures were all used up, so it had to be taken on my boring old phone. Alas.

The food was seriously so fancy and yummy! There were cheeseballs and crackers for hors d’oeuvres, which were delightful! Then after some activities, we each got to decorate our OWN fruit pizza (with all the fancy berries and even the oh-so-nutrient-dense kiwi!) And THEN there was this chocolate raspberry cake business with frosting I could eat forever! Delicious and festive!

Carter and Portia also enjoyed the cake.

It was such a delightful party, and such a pleasure to see Kathryn and Steve’s new home and feel the love therein! Not to mention, it was super fun to get into the Valentine’s spirit! I think I should kiss Josh extra this month!

The next notable thing in our lives is that we are currently house/children sitting! We will be doing this for a very long time. We’ll be in Orem through Saturday and then in Bountiful for the rest of the month. Our adventures never cease!

 

This year, as I mentioned in my New Year post, I have been working on worrying less and delighting more. Some days go better than others on the worrying less, but I think I have made some actual headway in delighting more in my daily life!

One thing I have done is remove the pinterest app from my phone, and consciously try to leave my phone in my room during the day. I’m not perfect at being present with my kids, but I think I am making progress, and that is delightful to me! I do get my phone out to take pictures, though, and that is the primary reason I wanted a smart phone in the first place, so I think it’s good!

Another thing I want to do more of is schedule fun. So, instead of just wondering what we are going to do during the day, I want to have a plan like put puzzles together or go to the aquarium or have a story-reading marathon, etc. The kids really don’t crave fancy, expensive outings, and Fay and Carter are super playmates and entertain themselves quite well. But I figure if I premeditate things we could all have fun with together, and we all look forward to them together, I’ll just enjoy being a mother that much more! We’ll see how it goes.

Another way I’ve decided I can delight more in my life is just have more quality time with my man! Nobody delights me like he does, so the more I’m with him, the more I delight in all the things! So, Josh, do you want to hang out sometime?! (or all the time?)

There are always hard things going on in the world. And sometimes I let the worry take over my thoughts. But I know that isn’t how Heavenly Father wants me to approach life. He wants me to have faith that through the Atonement of His Son, all the outside things will be taken care of as long as I take care of the inside things. AND He wants me to enjoy the blessings He gives me–especially my beautiful, delightful family!

 

 

There were so many things in this past week that filled me with so much joy, and they were all just little things that don’t seem like they would have as much joy-power in them. But life is made of those little simple things, and if we don’t find joy in them, where are we going to get it on a regular basis?

Anyway, here are a few of the simple and sweet things that made this past week such a joy!

One evening this week, Josh came home and said he had a surprise activity for everyone! After dinner, he announced that we were all going to Disneyland! First, we each decorated a ticket to get us in, then we each got ears to wear, and our picture taken!

While at Disneyland I got to meet Belle–though when she came out Fay was nowhere to be seen…

We also met Tigger, but Carter disappeared for that part… The kids got to go on a couple rides–one where they rode around in a car (atop a diaper box) and saw different Disney Characters (you can see Mickey and company behind me and Belle), and one roller coaster where Josh found a video of a roller coaster and held the kids up and moved them around with the movements of the video. Alas, I was too big for both rides. But it was still super fun!

On Friday, Josh decided we really needed to do something fun after such a long week. So we declared an evening with no rules. We went to the store and I had the enormous privilege of saying “YES!” to the kids when they asked for a new toy! (Do any other moms get tired of being responsible all the time?) Then for dinner we ate pizza and donuts! Josh made a slide out of a folding table which was enjoyed by all! And finally, we all watched The Lion King! It was all just so fun!

Then yesterday, I went to the temple!!!
That was wonderful in and of itself, but when I got home, we all went to play in the snow together. We made snow-angels, snow-balls, and a snowman! Carter loved eating all the snow, though we tried to encourage him to eat the fresh stuff instead of the stuff on his boots…

Then we were all freezing! So we came inside and warmed up!

Life can be so delightful!

 

 

The other day I saw a pin on pinterest which said something to the effect of “Foods to not eat if you want to lose weight” and then it proceeded to name exclusively delicious foods. Nobody ever tells you to avoid black-licorice and hard candy when trying to lose weight, they only tell you to not eat the super yummy things like ice-cream and fries! Lame. No wonder people have such a hard time losing weight. They look at what you should give up and think “Hmmm… be a little skinnier in 3 months, or actually enjoy my life every day of the next three months? That’s a no-brainer!”

Well, I am no dietician, but based on my own experience, I am a firm believer that we can eat delicious foods and still be healthy! So here is my (non-exhaustive) list of delicious foods you CAN and totally SHOULD eat to lose weight and actually be happy while you’re doing it!

Oranges
Kiwis
Strawberries
Pineapple
Bananas
Blueberries
Raspberries
Blackberries
All of these are super yummy in fruit salads and smoothies too!

Ratatouille–you could seriously eat this deliciousness all day every day and never have to feel one iota of guilt! It’s just pure delicious comfort-food nutritious bliss! And over couscous it is heaven!
Veggie Chili–You basically just unload your fridge of anything that might be good with chili powder and cumin on it into a pot and it’s another delicious comfort food pot of joy!
Mushrooms–if you don’t think they are delicious (especially cooked), you may want to rethink your life.
Roasted Veggies–every vegetable tastes even more delicious roasted!!
Veggie Pasta–You make pasta like normal, except that you, again, unload your fridge of every vegetable that might taste good with tomato sauce and basil and mix it in your sauce!
Salads that have as many add-ins as lettuce–I think we all get tired of lettuce after a while. So you make sure lettuce is equal parts with the tomatoes, and the chicken, and the cheese, and the peas, and the carrots, and any other delicious thing you want to add!

Like I said, I have literally zero background in nutrition education, but I think sometimes it’s obvious what is good for you and what isn’t… And just because something is healthy doesn’t mean it has to be flavorless and/or joyless. And for the record, I also eat ice-cream and fries…definitely more than once a month…and they enrich my life!

That is all.

P.S. Here are some pictures of my kids. Because they’re cute.

 

 

This week Portia has suddenly grown up, it seems! She has taken off with her mobility! She still isn’t at the point where I would say she “crawls,” but her army crawl has evolved to include pushing off with her toes, and she can fly across the ground! She also picks up a fair amount of whatever is on the ground as she goes. 🙂  She has also become more adventurous with where she chooses to go. She has crawled up the small flight of stairs without assistance once, and crawled up a single stair countless times. And all of this began this past Tuesday or something!  She also gets herself into funny places.

And as Portia gets more mobile and adventurous, the kids seem to include her a little more in their play. She’s not a full-fledged play-mate for them yet, but they do have more fun with her now that she can chase them around.

Portia is also rather enthusiastic in the use of her teeth.

And for the record, I am loving this stage with Portia and with the other kids! They told me she would get into all kinds of stuff once she was mobile, and she TOTALLY does! They told me she wouldn’t want to snuggle as much, and that might be somewhat the case. They tell me they will all grow up far too fast and I will miss the tiny baby days, and that may yet prove to be true. But I can’t help but love how all three of these cuties are right now as they are in the process of growing!

This next picture doesn’t really have any sort of explanation to go with it. It just makes me happy that the kids insisted on this arrangement for breakfast the other day.

 

 

Also, this past week, we held the luau party that was Mom and Dad’s Christmas gift. We had kalua pork, macaroni salad, rice, fruit smoothies and shave ice to eat! We also learned a Hula (curtesy of Rosie!) and shared lots of memories from our trip to Hawaii! I think everyone had a good time! But most importantly, I think Mom and Dad had a good time. 🙂

 

Also, as a final note: There have been many days in the past little while where I have looked out my window and inwardly rejoiced at the fact that I am not a goose.

 

Christmas is always great; but this year was extra special because I got to take the Sacrament on Christmas day! It is nice to have Christmas on weekdays, naturally, as you have more freedom to play with all your new things, but I absolutely LOVED having it on the sabbath this year!

But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to Christmas Adam (as the Monsons like to call it). The Friday before Christmas we had a games day at our house with Josh’s family. Josh had a new game called Rocket League he wanted to try out and we played all the other games we could think of! (My personal favorite games include Carcassonne and Say Anything.) We also ate lots of delicious things including, but not limited to: pizza, chips, and cookies!

Christmas Eve was spent with my family. We did our traditional breakfast (thank you to Crystal for all the deliciousness!) and a movie. We saw Moana again and the kids loved it even more the second time around! That evening we had our fancy dinner and nativity at my parents’ house! We have quite the production when you get all of us together!

When we got home from the family festivities, we opened Christmas Eve gifts. The older kids got slippers. Portia got snuggles.

Then it was time for Santa to come! Josh and I somehow managed to get a picture of everything he brought right after he flew up our invisible chimney!

I genuinely had a hard time going to sleep on Christmas Eve, even though I was quite tired, because I was so excited for the next morning!  It didn’t disappoint when it did finally arrive, though! The kids had so much fun opening gifts that Josh and I waited to give our gifts to each other until after they were done and off playing with their new things. I don’t know if we’ll do that every year, but it was fine this time.

After Christmas morning at our house, we had Christmas morning take 2 at the Monsons’! This is the good part where we got to go to church! I seriously loved it! Much more than I expected I would. I thought it was going to be troublesome to go in the middle of all our festivities, but it wasn’t. And what was super cool (besides the Sacrament) was that their ward saved their choir and primary Christmas program for Christmas Day! We did ours the week before, as I’m sure many others did, but this ward had the whole shebang for us to enjoy on Christmas! They even sang my favorite Christmas song (I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day)! It all just added so much to the joy and spirit of the blessed day of Christmas!

After some more playing at the Monsons’, we headed up to the Muhlesteins’ to talk to my missionary brother, George, and have Christmas morning take 3 along with lots of visiting, eating, and playing. We were each so blessed and loved this Christmas, and we hope that others felt our love too!

 

Since Christmas, we have been mostly just kicking back and relaxing. Josh took most of this past week off to play, and on the days he did work, he got home early. We have been getting excited for some new projects that are in the works, but mostly we have just loved taking a break from everything.

We also had a fun time bidding farewell to 2016 last night! I say that rather than welcoming 2017, because we were all asleep at midnight. 🙂 Josh planned the festivities for New Years Eve. We all went to Discovery Gateway together, which was tons of fun! There wasn’t a single section of the museum that the kids didn’t love! We’ll probably have to go back sometime.

 

Then we came home and had gourmet burgers (Josh knows what I like!) and pie with ice-cream! Plus, Josh made balloon animals and hats and we had glow-sticks galore! We had a dance party and karaoke! It is so fun to have a family to party with!

And now we have a brand new year with brand new possibilities! I am super excited for 2017 because of my new year’s theme! Instead of doing a list of resolutions (which I have done in years past and thoroughly enjoyed) I am trying out having a one word theme for the year. The theme I chose is delight. I want to delight more in my stage of life, in my children, in my husband, and especially in my Savior! I decided to turn the mantel (you were waiting for it, I’m sure) into a reminder!

Happy New Year!

The Christmas season officially begins for us on Thanksgiving. Josh’s family has a tradition of running a 4 mile race in the morning, and Josh has a tradition of dressing up as Santa for the run (because he can). Fay got wind of that and needed a costume of her own. Carter wanted to use his Olaf costume once her learned Fay was going to wear a costume. So then it was a family costume affair.

I made Fay’s costume, and I was quite pleased with how it turned out! Especially since I spent less than $3 on supplies (I used some stuff I had left over) and less than 3 hours working on it.

Then we went to my family’s house and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner! My favorite part was the gravy. Instead of a last helping of food, I had a cup of gravy! It was so good! No regrets!

After Thanksgiving dinner each year we try to decorate for Christmas while listening to Christmas music. But it had been an early morning for Carter with no nap during the day, so he fell asleep in the car and had no interest in waking up to decorate. So we did a little that night, but saved most of it for the next morning.

Since the Christmas season began we have enjoyed many activities including:

Going to the mall! We like going to the mall at Christmastime, even if we don’t buy anything because there’s lots of decorations, energy, and other excitement! Plus it’s all inside!

Going to the Festival of Trees! The Festival of Trees is my favorite ever! I could explain all the reasons why, but you’d all get bored. It’s just a lovely blend of everything to love about Christmas!

Decorating Christmas Cookies! Josh found a super delicious recipe for sugar cookies and we decorated them with fancy piping bags (because why do it at all if you’re not going to go all the way?!)

Seeing the lights at Temple Square! Growing up, my favorite family Christmas outing was when we’d go to the food court at the mall (where our parents would send us in groups of two with $20 to buy fast food! So many good memories of buying all the foods we possibly could with $10 apiece!) and then go see the lights afterwords. We did the food court before lights last year and it was super fun, but this year I was in the mood to eat something healthy. It didn’t make sense for Josh to come home from downtown on the train and then go all the way back up, so we brought our dinner with us and ate it at the foodcourt. I felt a little silly then–we had a pot of soup we carried through the mall and then ate at the food court–but I feel pretty cool about it now.

Gingerbread houses! Josh made a working cuckoo clock! (Well, the clock didn’t work, and the cuckoo had to be manually sprung, but it was still pretty great!)

Ugly Sweaters! So our ward had an ugly sweater contest at the Christmas party this year. Josh told me about how excited the guys in Elders’ quorum were about it, but we didn’t really talk about doing one. Then one day we decided we had better win the thing! So, Josh went to the dollar store and got a ton of sparkly gold stuff to put on a sweater. I was looking up ideas about ugly sweaters (there are some pretty stupid/inappropriate/irreverent ideas out there) and found this sweater that has a little pocket that looks like a fireplace and you can stick your phone into it and have a fire video playing. I thought a live fire would win us the contest, but I thought it would be more fun to have a bigger one. So we decorated a cereal box to look like a fireplace, cut out a hole to show the screen, and hot-glued it to the back of Josh’s gaudy gold sweater.

By the way, there was another sweater very similar to Josh’s–though silver instead of gold–and the competition was quite close. But in the end, the fireplace put Josh’s over the edge! We won! Such a proud moment!

One last thing Christmas calls for is, of course, decorating the mantel! (Seriously, what did I do with myself before I had this thing?!) I’m a little bit particular (a lot particular) about what mantel looks like, so when Fay gets super excited about helping me with it, I sometimes have a hard time giving her the sort of jobs she would like. She wants to decorate the whole thing and put anything she wants wherever she wants. I want her to place the thing I tell her in the precise location I tell her. But this year, she figured out a way to get everything she wanted. She designated the bench in our entry as her mantel and she gets full reign over it. It works well for both of us.

Christmas is very busy and lots of fun!