The Glass Onion Giveaway

Aren't these gorgeous!?

Enter to win these or others on this site!

Don't you just love giveaways?

Multnomah Falls

If you've never been to see these falls, you should go. They are gorgeous.

We decided to make a quick stop to see them since we were going to hit Portland's rush hour as we were driving home.

I'm glad we did.

Here is what Porter thought:

...on the first bridge

...near the second bridge.

As you saw, he became more comfortable. In fact, it got to the point where he wasn't even paying attention to the waterfalls anymore...but to my necklace!

Ball! Oh joy!

On the way back down, Porter didn't even want to be held!

In fact, he kept running away!

Every corner we got to, he wanted to go back up...or the opposite way...

I think this was the longest walk he's ever done...especially since he did parts of it twice.

We eventually made it back to the car...

With a little encouragement from our side.

So, from all of us and some random lady at Multnomah...

Have a good one!

Father's Day #2

I can't believe I didn't take any pictures this Father's Day! What a slacker I've become...

We were still in Twin for Father's Day. Seth enjoyed a very relaxing day...he only had to change one diaper. I'd say that's a pretty good gift! I also got him two cute cards. I'll have to scan those and put them on here...one was signed by the cuteness himself...I'll definitely have to add those later.

I sure hope every Father out there got to have a great Father's day! Especially ours! Loves!

Sierra's #23

I was lucky enough to spend my birthday in Twin Falls with my cute family and friends! I haven't been home for my birthday for three years. It was very nice.

It started off with hanging out with two of my favorite people ever, Chelsea and Kellie. We went to the mall like old times. It was awesome and I got some pretty sweet shirts and jewelry.

Mom and Missy made my cake...Love it!

Porter wanted to help me blow out the candles...Seth got a great open-mouthed pic...

I had a great birthday!!

The whole time we were in Twin, Porter loved playing with the Rockband Mic...

I think he wanted to have me sing in it most...It was too cute.

Jensen Family Reunion 2009

Seth and I went to the Jensen Family Reunion in St. Anthony, Idaho. We stayed at a place called Great Peaks Lodge. It was a really great place to stay because it had a bunch of things for the kids to do inside, and since it was rainy most of the time we were there, this was perfect!

This room is where most of the kids spent their time...big and little kids.

Porter loved this bike...

In fact, if we couldn't find him, this was usually where he ran off to!

My kid is so cute...

the goose egg on his little face is from falling down a concrete stair at the awesome house in Boise, poor kid.

Porter and his second cousin, Lance, played very well together as well. It was always so cute to watch.

Too cute.

We also went shooting...I was the only girl :) It was kinda nice being the only girl with a bunch of Jensen gentlemen. I had a lot of "gentlemanly" help while going through the bushes and shooting the gun. I felt very special.

Seth's a pro and hit practically every one of his. This was my second time going and I hit 6 out of 10...not too bad :)

Seth let the little ones shoot his 22 so they could shoot guns too.

After we were all done, the guys when out and gathered the clay pidgeons we missed...

As you can see, there were a lot.

We actually filled a whole other box worth!

We had a great time with the family! We miss you guys already...especially Porter does...

Check this House Out!

My sister, Savanna, was house-sitting a home in Boise when we were coming down to Idaho for a Jensen Family Reuion, so we decided to house-sit with her...and here is why:

This house is AMAZING! Talk about dream house, people. I took pictures for future reference... ^.^

This house is huge. It has: two kitchens (one up one down), three dishwashers, two fridges, a ton of cabinet space not being used, a theatre room...

...an indoor gym...

...heated pool, exercise house, jacuzzi...

...huge room for music performances (Vanna is their daughter's violin teacher), a backyard with a whole soccer field, a toddler play area under the steps, a huge master bedroom with the biggest bathroom I've ever seen and a HUGE walk-in closet that goes around a corner, three kids rooms that all have their own bathroom and walk-in closets, a hidden panic room where they keep a source for music that plays all over the house, vaccums in the walls that connect to a huge house vaccum...I could keep going!

A little to big for me, but it has definitely given me lots of ideas!

It was so much fun to stay in for two nights!

Janet Contreras Petition

Read this letter written to Glenn Beck.

I am so happy that someone has finally said the things I would like to say myself.

If you feel the same, please sign this petition

Punishment for Intelligence

Okay, I am only going to state the facts in this situation. I tend to start to go on my redheaded rampage when I talk about this, so facts only...here we go.

While Seth and I were living in the {A} Apartments, we used community washers and dryers, and Porter looked like this:

Please note the red blotches.

We took Porter to the doctor, and Dr. {M} diagnosed him with baby eczema, and suggested we use Aveno baby soaps and lotions while bathing him. We were already using the baby detergents.

So, we started using Aveno, and Porter continued to look like this:

Red blotches not as noticeable, but there's some on his forehead and he constantly had little bumps all over his little body that you can't see...but they're there. They just never turned pink.

I asked Dr. {M} if this was normal for eczema, and she said yes.

So, I thought, since community washers are used by so many people, not all the soap that is irritable to Porter's skin is going to be washed out. Maybe that's why he still gets breakouts. We should get a portable washer and dryer!

Genius!

I looked off craigslist for a portable washer and dryer and found these beauties:

A washer that connects to a sink and a dryer that works from a regular outlet. Perfect! Plus, the people selling them lived at the {GG} Apartments we were moving into! Even more perfect!

We moved into the {GG} apartment and moved these right on in with us.

Porter started looking like this:

Even less blotches! Nothing on his back and he rarely broke out. Problem solved!...or at least mostly averted.

Now, after we moved in to the {GG} Apartments, we have had the owners, the maintenance, and the managers in at least 8 times before the most recent time. And, they saw the washer and dryer and never said a word to us about them.

Until about a month and a half ago.

The manager and the maintenance man came in for a "quarterly inspection." It just so happened that I was doing laundry that day, and the washer was connected to the sink. (When I did the wash, it took about at day and a half if it was big, but when I was done, Seth would push the washer back into the third bedroom.) The maintenance man saw the washer, looked right at me, and said, "you can't have that." Um, what? "It says in the rules that you signed that you can't have any appliances in the apartment." What? I think I'm going to check that. "Okay, you do that, but you can't have those."

I was totally taken aback, and, truthfully, upset. So, I looked at the house rules sheet they gave us and this is what it says: Appliances cannot be added to or removed from the apartment.

Well, these are portable, so they're not added to the apartment. We're not breaking any rules.

Seth came home at this point, and I told him the situation. He went over to the manager and the regional manager, {K}, and told them, The washer and dryer aren't added to the apartment. They're portable like a TV or a microwave. But the argument didn't "work." So, he told them the reason we had them at all, which was because of Porter's skin condition. When Seth told {K} that, she said, "Well, why didn't you say that in the first place? Write a letter to the owners explaining that, get insurance on them, and I bet you'll be able to keep them."

So we did.

About a month later, we were called back into the office and given a form for Dr. {M} to sign. We took it to her, and she said she couldn't legally sign it because Porter's skin condition cannot be labeled as the "disability" the form required. But, because Dr. {M} wanted us to keep the W and D since it helped Porter, she wrote a note to the owners that said that.

We came back to the office with that note, and {K} told us, "The note isn't good enough. You can't keep the W and D unless the doctor checks the two boxes on the form saying Porter has a disability and she recommends we change our policy to accommodate it. After the form is signed and checked, then we would want her note explaining." Why are you adding things every time we come in? "We're not. It's been this way the whole time"

Uh huh.

Well, we would like to speak to the owners, please. "You can't. You can only go through me." We would like to speak to them so we can explain Porter's health in our words (we thought maybe {K} thought we were pulling their legs) "I don't care about the health of your son. Get the form signed and checked, get the doctor's note, and you can keep them."

And now, I will take a break so I don't go on my rampage.

Moving on...

We waited until Porter's 15 month appointment to bring it up with Dr {M} again. This time, we were wondering if what Porter had was really eczema. Every other child we've seen with eczema looked similar to each other, but not to Porter. They didn't get little bumps, just redness, so we thought maybe he had some form of a contact dermatitis. She stuck to her eczema...checked only one box of the form, and signed it. I'm glad she signed it, but it wasn't good enough because she didn't check both boxes.

So, we didn't even turn it in, and we posted our W and D on Craigslist, giving up hope.

And now, Porter's got a major breakout all over his body...and I don't think I've ever disliked someone so much before in my entire life.

But, I'm trying to let it go. Especially since I can't do anything else about it.

New Moon Fan-made Trailer

This is a preview for "New Moon." It is fan-made, and makes me excited to see it. (Still not obsessed, but excited) I have to say, though, Jacob...wow. That is all. Haha.

Latest Happenings

Sooo, I think this is the longest I've gone without blogging for a while...

Well, nothing really happened until the garage sale we were a part of last Saturday.

We sold a whopping $3 worth of stuff, but I had a good opportunity to try to sell some crafts :)

I made these...

Got the idea from my cute cousin who has some similar characters in her boy's room. I will do the whole alphabet...anyway...

I also made a few hand-embroidery items...which I don't have pictures of at the moment...so will post those later.

I decided to start my own "business" of sorts and sell my art and crafts. As soon as I get everything from home, I'll post those on my other blog as well as a way to purchase these if you like :)

You're welcome to go check them out!

In other news...
Porter had a quick stomach flu bug last week and a doctor's appointment. The flu was a few days long, which was hard on us, but he's definitely bigger! 98% in his head...26 ish % weight...60 something % height. I should write it down next time, but I definitely remember the 98% head. Crazy.

Tooth 15 and 16 have arrived.

Porter says: balloon, ball, please (said this for a while but I dont think I told you)

He has his own jibberish he speaks all the time...loves reading books.

He's caught the ball a few times while playing catch

He's the biggest mimick there is...

Sorry this is shorter...Porter's on my lap and trying to kick the keyboard away...

Have a good one!

PS: *more of a reminder for me than anything* I need to tell you the Washer and Dryer dilemma we had...ridiculous. Another time!