I am so thankful that one holiday is over and only one more this year to get through.  Sad that I think that way, but I’ve never really enjoyed holidays.  I enjoy spending time with family, really, but I hate the shuffle, the house-swapping, the multiple dinners, the trying to fit everyone in and spend as much time with everyone as possible.  Kind of takes the fun out of what holidays are supposed to be about.  So, while I’m so thankful for the great husband and son I have, our wonderful families, our home, our jobs, our accomplishments…. I’m also thankful that this holiday is over.

We did have a great time with everyone, though. It was so great that we got to spend time with both families, and Porter got to spend time with all his cousins.   For the first part of Thursday we spent it at my moms house with my grandma, my sister and niece, Aubri.  We had yummy food, played outside for a bit and just hung out.

Then we went over to Ryan’s parents house to hang out with his  parents, his uncle, and his sister, her husband and their three little girls. 

Its so crazy what night and day cousins Porter has. On my side, Porter is the loud, rambuncious crazy kid–
Aubri (almost 18months) is a very reserved child and she really doesn’t like Porter- she is, in a way, scared of him. She has her favorite people in the world, and everyone else she kind of keeps her distance. 

Now, his other cousins, Lia (3), Shae (2) and Brenna (15mos) make Porter look like the quiet child- at home he’s so loud and vocal, but over there he just got lost in the hustle and bustle of happy little girl land.  The girls were sooooo fun to be around and see Porter interact with.  They roughouse, laugh, jump, play, giggle and are pretty much just a bunch of crazy kids.  We hadn’t seen the three girls since September at Brenna’s birthday and Porter was 6months old and had just started scooting around.  So, their iteraction was limited at that point. Now that he’s crusing furniture and getting around so well, they had a blast. 

Brenna was fascinated by him once she realized he could MOVE!  She kept getting right in his face, following him around and they even played at the toy "kitchen" together.  Lia kept telling me she was going to teach him how to walk. Shae loved on him a bit too, gave him a hug and kisses.  We even managed to wrangle the 4 munchkins and get a picture of them together.  Hopefully in the spring/summer we can get a picture of them thats set up a little better than our spur of the moment snapshot.  I was surprised we got all 4 of them looking at the camera!

This cracked me up….  Lia was being a horsey for Shae…

Going down the step….

CRASH!!
 

and back at it again…

***NOTE*** Family who wants copies of these pictures… I’ll be adding them to my Mpix account this weekend, along with a bunch of other pictures.  If you need the login and password just shoot me an email.  You can order any copies you want from my account. 

The highlight of today (Cathy, Lori and I went to some resale shops in Ann Arbor) was finding this……

I have been searching all over for this at a good price.  Its normal price is $39.99.  I don’t want to pay $40 for a stupid toy that Porter probably won’t play with all that much after a month or two.  I’ve stalked Amazon, eBay, Target and Toys R Us. I’ve watched for sales, searched for free-shipping codes online…all in hopes to get this for under $30 (I’ve found it online for under $30, but once shipping and tax are added its close to $40).  Now, the first resale shop we went to, Once Upon A Child, I didn’t find much in clothes for Porter, but found a few small toys.  And, as I was waiting in line to checkout, I browsed the shelves above the racks of clothes for big toys, and what did I spot?  YUP!  The dinosaur.  I tracked down an employee and asked how much it was.  "Oh, I think $15 or so"  I said "I’ll take it!"  Sure enough, it was $15.  She said they JUST priced it and put it up there, and said to eachother "That’ll go quick".  Yes, yes it did.  It was fate that I was in line at that moment.  YES!!  So, I got my $40 toy for $15!!!

Some other good deals I got…

LittleTouch LeapPad for $12.99 (retail $29) {Saving this for his birthday}
Peek A Block Shape Sorter for $4.57 (retail $16)
and a few stocking stuffers and two shirts for him also.  Pretty successful day, if you ask me.  The dinosaur was the highlight, though.  Definitely.  What a deal!

So much for Porter just getting the train table/set for Christmas.  Before we had kids I heard a little poem from Amy Stultz on Scrapjazz… she used this poem for the gifts she got her kids gifts….

Something you want
Something you need
Something to play with
Something to read

I always thought that was so neat.  Kids seem to get so lost on the meaning of Christmas.  I know soooo many people who overindulge their kids… spending hundreds, close to thousands of dollars on them for Christmas.  NUTS.  So, we decided our kids would get to put their "wishes" into those 4 categories and they’d get 4 gifts from mom and dad.  And Santa would bring their stocking and one toy/gift that sits beside it (the stocking and one toy was kind of a tradition I had when I was little).   We’re also going to, starting next year, have Porter go through his toys and donate 5 of them to charity before Christmas.  That’ll help weed out old toys and also teach a little bit of giving too.  Anyway… back to the subject.  Right now he has sooo many baby toys… rattles, teethers etc.  Not many "play with" "learn with" toys.  So, he’s getting a bit spoiled this year, which is ok with me because he won’t remember it.