Dad's at Work

*Warning this is a long post venting some frustrations. Proceed with caution.*

That's right, Dad is at work. Mainly I like to use this blog to show off my cute kids to their family members that just don't get to see them enough. Sometimes thought I feel like sharing other things. To warn you before I get too far, this one may be venting some frustrations about Stephen's work. More specifically the hours he works. Stephen is a service writer for Sage Creek Repair (just to refreshen anyone's memory). When he first begin (April 2007) his hours were 9:30 to 6:30. He was warned that "occassionally" he would have to stay late, but it was "rare". Boy, were they giving him a line there. After about a month of that they changed his hours to 7-6. His supervisor needed him there the whole time. I must pause and point out that he gets an hour for lunch. Technically his work week since that point should be 50 hours except in the fall when he was in school and didn't work as many hours. It has been a very rare occurance for Stephen to get off at 6. Sometimes he gets off by 6:30 if we're lucky, but rarely 6. Anyway, this week has been particularly frustrating because his supervisor is off to his second round of training (Stephen's is in the middle of June). That leaves Stephen to do his own work and his supervisors as well and to top it off it is the end of the month so Stephen gets to do all the month-end numbers alone. Here is a picture of what this week has been like

Monday- Holiday- woo-hoo!

Tuesday- Stephen home at 8:30

Wednesday- Stephen home at 9:30

Thursday- Stephen home at 10:00

Friday- Stephen home... well who knows since I'm writing this Friday evening and Stephen is working away, but let's just say that if he gets home before ten I will be surprised. We agreed though that he will work until he is done tonight so that he doesn't have to go in tomorrow!

Yes, this is an extreme week, but he has had other times when he has gotten home late for various reasons. The best part (feel the sacrasm here) is that Stephen is salary paid so he is not compensated for all the extra hours of work he ever does. (I won't go into that now, perhaps at a later date....) It is very frustrating. It's out of Stephen's hands so I can't even be mad at him! I know he wants to come home and spend time with they boys and I as much as we want him home, but situations don't allow. Thank goodness we now live in Idaho Falls and he comes home for lunch. I suppose in that aspect it is also good that the boys are early risers and get up a lot of times before Stephen leaves for work (except when he goes in early, which is often enough). I know lots of other husbands work long hours so I am not alone nor should I feel sorry for myself (right?), but it still stinks! I don't mind spending the day alone with the boys, I don't mind being alone in the evenings (I can find plenty to do), but I do mind not seeing much of my husband and I do mind that my boys don't see much of their dad. Thank goodness for the weekend!

Don't get me wrong, Stephen really likes his job and there are some great things about it. This training that they are doing is suppose to help them be more efficient and I am so praying that is the case so that we can see Stephen more. What do you know, a woman who actually wants to spend time with her husband! Go figure.

Aside from that isn't Vance so cute saying "Dad's at work." He's been saying that for a few weeks now. He says it so fast and randomly, but if you ask he'll always tell you.

Do you need something to make you smile?

Just looking at these pictures makes me smile. I hope it works for you too. Three guys, one Wii Remote? What is a lady to do?

Need a hug?
Tanner- "I'm going to tickle you until you can't breathe, Vance!"
Going in for a smooch!
What could be more fun than a splashing war in the bathtub?

Marker Face and Dandelions

That would indeed be marker on my baby and despite what your first thought may be, Vance did not draw on him. Tanner drew on himself. I put him down on the living room floor so I could get some clothes out of the dryer (Vance came with me so I know he is innocent). When I came back in the living room there was Tanner drawing away on his face. I snatched the marker and he naturally got mad at me. I'm actually quite impressed. He managed to find a marker, get the cap off, and draw on his arm, shirt, and face in just a few moments. I need to work on getting Vance to pick up after himself now that Tanner is more mobile.


Vance has discovered that it is fun to pick dandelions and Mom doesn't care if he does so that's what he spent his outdoor time doing today. He picked a bunch and only destroyed about half of them. The other half he wanted to put in a cup in the middle of the kitchen table (that's what you do with flowers, right?)

Wii Fit

Here is Vance demonstrating our new Wii Fit. Actually, this was his first and so far only time on it. I let him try out one thing on it, but really it is for people much older than him. We bought our Wii Fit on Saturday and are loving it so far. I think Stephen and I are like most people. We want to exercise, we mean to exercise, sometimes we even start a routine, but we always fall out of the routine over time. I think the Wii Fit is a great way to motivate people to get going. I don't think it is really for those hard-core exercisers unless they just want something fun or quick to do. Anyway, I'm really enjoying it. It keeps track of your BMI and weight. It also keeps record of how well you do in all of the activities so you can see if you have improved and you can try and beat other people that have profiles on your game. The areas are yoga, strength training, aerobics, and balance. I don't know if it because Stephen is more athletic, a bigger gamer, or a combination of both, but the only thing I can do better than him are the yoga ones. Go figure! I'm not trying to get you all to go out and buy a Wii or a Wii Fit, but I just thought I'd let you know that we are enjoying ours. Hopefully, it can continue to motivate us to work out in the long run.

New Header

Take a look at my new header...as if you could miss it. What do you think? I was tired of the boring header. It just didn't match the rest of the blog very well. I also have been looking at other people's blogs that have such cute ones (Mandy just changed hers, very cute) and so I made one of my own. I did call myself a little lady, I don't know... I'm still very short so I guess I can still pass under that title, right? Anyway, I hope you like looking at my page a little more with a cuter title. :) Wow, this is kind of a lame post. I will try to post something more exciting later.

Memorial Weekend

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Memorial Day Weekend. We did. Stephen's parents came to visit and they came with gifts. My mother-in-law made the boys these cute balls. I love them and so do the boys. Here they are showing them off (Tanner is indeed eating his toes). We all enjoy having Stephen around an extra day for holidays. Stephen and I even went out without the boys for the second time in a month! I know, you should all be proud of me and impressed. :)

Names

Vance started saying some of my family members names recently. This post is for them so they can hear it. He can say Rose and Glen pretty good. I have no idea what he is saying for Eric's name but he says the same thing everytime I tell him to say Eric. Vance can also say his cousins names (Luke and Jilly). He attempts to say grandma and grandpa as well, but I haven't got him to try any of the other names. (sorry people, you work with what you can). Anyway, I guess this video is for Glen, Rose, and Eric. I'm not sure if they ever look at my blog so someone will have to let them know.

Hairdo

I trapped Vance this morning and put somse gel in his hair. I was trying to get it to look like his dad's, but he wouldn't hold still for me. Of course, it didn't take long before the gel was out of his hair from playing and whatever else, but I thought it was cute while it lasted.

I'm So Glad when Daddy Comes home...

especially when he brings toys! Stephen made it home even with his two hour delay in Salt Lake City this afternoon. He finally arrived at the airport at 5. Vance ran to him and gave him a hug and Tanner was eager to smile at him. What's more, Stephen brought the boys these cute gifts. Can you believe that Stephen bought these particular gifts? (Not hard to believe, I know.) We are so glad to have him back even if we are turning around and doing it all over again next month. Vance thinks both of these toys are his. I believe he went to sleep with them as well or at least tried. I'm not sure, because Stephen put him to bed not me! :)

Eight Months old

Time just keeps flying by. Tanner is a whopping eight months old today. Here he is with his silly, upside down cousin, Jillian. Yes, he does indeed look huge next to her. He is three and a half months older than her though. We had a great time playing with Holly and Jilly. We hope we can visit them again soon.

Cousins

We are having a great time with Holly and Jilly. Here's a picture of the cousins. Jilly and Tanner were way tired, but still were good for a picture. Holly stood behind me and made faces and did silly things which got Vance happy and excited.

Goodbye Dad

We took Stephen to the airport tonight. He is flying to L.A. for two days of work training. He will return to us Wednesday afternoon. Then next month he gets to do two more days of the same thing. Vance was not happy when he realized that Stephen was going through the fun gates (security) and up the cool stairs (escalator) and we were not. I'm not sure if he was more upset about his dad leaving or missing out on the fun it looked like his dad was having. We will say the first since it is sweeter. When I say not happy, I mean he was screaming and crying loud enough for everyone in the airport to hear. I'm really not exaggerating, it isn't a big airport. In fact he was still crying five minutes later when we got home. (we live real close to the airport). Fun times for me. We are excited for Stephen to get some more training to help him be better at his job, but we will sure miss him. We are use to him working 10-12 hour days, but we will sure miss him at night. Holly and Jillian are coming up to visit us tomorrow so we are really looking forward to seeing them soon.

Playing with Photoshop

Two of my sister-in-laws, Mandy and Erin, got me Photoshop Elements 5.0 for my birthday so I've been playing with it some. I am still figuring it all out and what not so I'm not very good at it, but I thought I would share one picture that I've played with. I changed a few other things besides the background. Anyway, it's fun. Like I said, not very good at it yet so don't judge too closely. Oh, the picture is of Glen and I after "Annie" last Saturday. (hence, the tux)

Big Boy

Tanner thinks he is such a big boy standing up with just the support of the chair. He loves it. I told him that maybe he should work on crawling first.

First Crushes Never Die

I have debated about making a post about this, but it just seems like the time. I heard a long time ago that The New Kids on the Block were making a comeback. I also heard that the rumor was a lie, but a little over a month ago they made the announcement official on the Today Show. I don't get any tv stations so I try to keep up to date on the news and such through the internet and I noticed today that the Today Show had the New Kids perform so I watched the videos that were on there http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/24583744/. My heart fluttered when I saw Jordan Knight performing. I guess your first crush always has a place in your heart. Stephen need not fear though because I don't know if I could ever listen to a Boston accent all day long. I was a young New Kids fan being only in first grade or so when I first heard of them. For the record I had another crush around that time, Robin from the television series "Batman".

Stopping to smell the roses

We don't have any roses, but I did tell Vance to smell the flowers and this is what he did. Close enough, right? He did act as if he was sniffing even if he was no where close enough to actually smelling them.

The Look

My mom has always given me a hard time for giving people "the look". So I just have one question for you Mom...is this what you meant by that?

Brotherly Love

Vance is into giving Tanner hugs and kisses at times. I never know when it it going to happen so it is hard to capture it on camera. He also likes to pat Tanner's head, but sometimes it is a little too hard for anyone elses liking. Tanner has become quite a talker. I think he jabbers a bit on here. They have fun together sometimes.

Home

Whew... after a very quick trip to Washington we are back home. We had a great time even with me forgetting Stephen's suit pants for church and having to borrow a pair of pants from the neighbor. (No one's pants in my family were going to cut it for those long legs) I made a couple of different posts about our weekend so be sure to scroll down and check it out. Here is a picture of Vance waving to people in the parade and one of Tanner playing with Uncle Eric.

Zillah Community Days

When you are from a town that is smaller than some high schools they have traditions they do every year to show their town pride. Community Days is one of those traditions. There are various different things goin on. We just took part in watching the parade this year. I thought Stephen needed to see it. :) Tanner watched the parade intently and Vance had a good time. No one even got upset of the loud sirens.

Annie

Stephen and I went to "Annie" on Saturday night and saw Glen and Rose perform. They both did a wonderful job. (Not that I'm biased or anything). It was fun to be back since this was the first play I've sat and watched since before I was in high school. I took a bunch of pictures of Glen and Rose. The first one is a picture of all of us minus Holly. (We love and missed you, Holly!) It was taken after the show.

Glen was a Chorus member and he was on stage a ton! I wonder how many costume changes he had. I'll have to ask. This was my favorite character, Wacky the ventriloquist dummy. He was hilarious as this part. I wish the picture did justice to how funny and cute he was.

Rose played Lily St. Regis, who is the con-artists girlfriend. Who knew she could play a bimbo so well... :) Rose also had some chorus parts. Do you like her blond wig? This last picture was probably my best attempt at getting one of them on stage at the same time, but it wasn't from lack of trying! We had a great time seeing the play. Good luck this week!

Playmates

Okay, I know I haven't really posted things about the boys lately and I know that is why people come to my blog. All of April and so far this month we've just done whatever Vance wants to do (within reason). I haven't planned any structured activities for him because he was getting tired of it. I will again, but I thought he needed a break. He's been enjoying his toys especially his legos, cars, and barn. He also is gradually realizing that Tanner is pretty fun afterall. Vance wants to play with him, give him hugs and kisses, smile at him, and things like that more and more all of the time. He still ignores him plenty and bullys him some, but they are becoming better playmates. Tanner adores Vance for the most part. Here's some pictures of them.

More Theater Info.

One of my aunts asked if any of the rest of us overlapped with the plays we were in so I thought I'd just make it a post. Holly and I were in two plays together her senior year, my freshman year. Here's a picture of us with the gifts our parents gave us when we did "Peter Pan". Holly was Tinkerbell. I was a Lost Kid. (yes, I mean kid not boy) The other play we did together was "The Matchmaker". Holly had the lead, Dolly Levi. I was a waitress named Monique. Actually Rose and Glen did this play in the fall and Rose was a waiter! (I am thankful I didn't have to play a boy). I don't have pictures of Holly and I in our costumes together.

Eric and I were in three plays together. My junior year we did "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and we were short on guys (small high school) so they asked a few 8th grade boys, Eric being one of them, to be involved with the play. Eric was Mr. Bixby and a suitor and I was Alice. The other two plays we were in together were "The Crucible" Eric was Giles Corey and I was Elizabeth Proctor. The last play I did Eric was my daddy. It was "Pirates of Penzance". Eric was the Major General (he stole the show, by the way) and I was Mabel. Here is a picture from that play. Doesn't Eric make an adorable old man?

Z Center Stage Theater Co.

Little did Holly know what tradition she was starting when she tried out for her first play in the spring on '95 (Correct me on the year if I'm wrong, Holly.) Since then each of my siblings and I have been part of the Z Center Stage Theater Company. Minus the first play Holly could have tried out for and didn't, each Porter child has been in every play that was possible for them. What kind of legacy is that! Mrs. Brant, the director has had a Porter in every play since '95 minus the year after Eric graduated since Glen was only in eighth grade at that point. Assuming that Rose continues to do every play she can there will be a Porter involved in the theater company until 2011, when she graduates. (Minus the one year of course). I thought this might be an interesting tidbit of information, but I always wanted to say how exciting I am because this weekend we are going to Washington to see Glen and Rose in the musical "Annie". This will be the first play that I have seen from Z Center Stage since before I was in high school. They have a new performing arts center, which I'm insanely jealous of. We are actually just going for the weekend because Stephen wasn't able to get work off (I won't go into that). Anyway, wishing those two luck this week! Oh, the picture is the only one I could find with all my silbings and I with anything to do with plays. If you couldn't guess it was when I was in Snow White (hence, the nasty black wig on my head!) Oh, Glen and Rose were such babies! Break a leg, guys! We all love you and are happy that you are carrying on the tradition!

Shorts and stuff

I thought this was funny so I'm going to share it with you all. These shorts are a pair of Stephen's that he has had since he got home from his mission (six years ago this summer). He has been wearing this pair and another pair he got at the same time since then. Needless to say it was pasttime. So we headed to Kohl's and found some shorts that will work great. We've looked before, but since he has such long legs he has trouble finding long enough shorts. Well, we bought those new shorts just in time because later that day while we were in the processing of buying a car these pants to the left ripped as Stephen sat down. You can see the rip by the bottom of the zipper if you look closely. Thankfully it was in a spot that was easy for Stephen to cover up, but it made me laugh and he found it funny as well. Now we need to work on getting new shirts for Stephen to wear. Sometimes he gets some as gifts (thank you to everyone who has done that!), but mainly he has the same shirts he has been wearing since I've known him.
On a different note Stephen took this other picture of the boys and I last night. When I looked at it my first thought was, "Hmm... how many laws do we appear to be breaking in this picture?" I haven't counted, but there are plenty. By the way, Vance is such a good driver he doesn't even have to use the pedals. :)

New Addition

We've been thinking about trading our car in and getting a minivan and we finally did it yesterday. It is a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan. Stephen has family that own a Ford dealership in Afton, WY. and they worked on trying to convince Stephen to get a Freestar. We test drove one but I thought it was a lot like their Windstars which I'm just not a fan of (no offense to any Windstar lovers/owners). The Grand Caravan just seems a better fit for us. We are excited to have more room. We are also glad that our monthly payments will only be $100 more than we were paying on the car. Anyway, here it is.

Happy Birthday Kimberly!

Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law, Kimberly. I pretty much have realized that the majority of pictures I have of extended family members is with one or both of my children. Here is Kimberly holding Tanner when he was still a squishy newborn. We all hope you have a wonderful birthday! You are a great aunt and sister. :)

Oh The Places You'll Roll

I know my last post about Tanner had to do about rolling around, but that is what he is doing a lot of these days. Here he is hanging out under the computer desk.

Cookie Monster

I bakes some cookies today and I let Vance have one. Then he decided to sneak another one.
I couldn't help but take a picture of the naughty little boy hiding under the table with his chocolate face. That is one of his hiding spots for doing things he isn't suppose to do.