The New Look...Please share thoughts!

Ok, so I've been changing the look of the blog, and I would love to know what you think! I like the new header, but I would really like a cute mod/polka dot header background to match the colors of the blog with a pic of Caden off to one side with "The Porter House est. 2005" in cute letters in the middle, BUT I have NO idea how to do that...dare to dream! But PLEASE let me know what you think...even if you don't know me...if you stop by our blog, your opinion is valued! Thanks!

Let's start at the very beginning...

Goodness...I have a lot of pictures on my camera from the last time I updated the blog. So...we'll start at the beginning of the memory card and work our way forward. The beginning of the card is one of my favorite parts...Abbey's baby shower!! It was in Batesville last Saturday. My dear friends Abbey and Jeff are in the process of adopting an ADORABLE little boy from Taiwan. They have named him Reed. If you haven't already, you simply much check out their blog, Landlife. If you are wondering who the cute little boy is in the pictures below, he is known as Flat Reed. He is much like Flat Stanley (click the link to find out what Flat Stanley is...for those of you not in the world of elementary education), but he is Flat Reed complete with actual features of the real Reed! I think it is the cutest idea! You will be seeing more of Flat Reed in the next couple of weeks because Caden and I are going to visit him in Nashville next week! Here are some pics from the shower...

Here I am with Flat Reed and Abbey.

Flat Reed is thrilled to try out his new carseat...

The cutest baby shower cake ever!

Abbey opening gifts...

Here is Abbey showing us all of the features of the new exersaucer...she's so good at doing demonstrations!

Graduations...

Well, it's time for lots of graduating in my family...well, at least 2! I have one cousin graduating from Madison Central (Susan), and one cousin graduating from Coppell High School in the Dallas area (Brittany). It has been one graduation celebration after another for Caden. Friday night we went to a dinner for Susan at her house. It was a fabulous cook out, and Caden had a great time playing in their back yard...all the boy really needs is a large ball to chase around, and he's good for hours! Then on Sunday, Mom, Caden, and myself flew to Dallas for Brittany's graduation which is on Tuesday. Flying was quite an adventure, but Caden did very well. We are staying in a 2 bedroom suite hotel room, and Caden is in hog heaven. There are THREE tv's that he can reach to turn on. He just runs from room to room turning them on and off. It's really quite fun to watch.

Here's Caden on the swing on Susan's back porch.Caden and Mommy on the airplane...

Caden, Scrappy, and William (Brittany's brother) in Dallas. I'll be sure to get some graduationy pictures tomorrow!!

Ding Dong the Kids are Gone...

Don't get me wrong...I do love my babies at school, and I am TOTALLY blessed to work where I do, BUT there is just something exciting about when they go home for the summer!! Now, I still have to go to work today and tomorrow, but there are only adults in the building, so it's an entirely different atmosphere. Other IMPORTANT things to note: American Idol Finale tonight...I have no idea who I want to win. Jordin is my favorite, and I would love for her to win, but I'm cautious becuase the winner never seems to have as much longevity as the others. Blake is very talented too, so no matter who wins, it will have been a fair fight! But the most important TV news of the week is that my very favorite show EVER starts tomorrow night...SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE!!! I LOVE this show. I think it's because deep down somewhere I really can "bust a move," but let's just hope I never try! So I would encourage all of you to at least give this show a shot. They also have a tour of the top dancers (like Am. Idol does) when the show is over, and my grandmother and I have already decided that we ARE going this year...how much fun is that!
In other exciting news, Frank gave me an early birthday present last night! He wanted me to have it before I drive to Batesville on Saturday. My old iPod keeps freezing up, so my sweet husband got me this one...

Field Day and Supper Club...

Friday was a very busy day for the Porter family. First, we had Field Day for my school. It is always fun to bring Caden to Field Day...my babies get to see him, and so do the other teachers. It's a really fun day for all, and the weather could not have been better on Friday...it was BEAUTIFUL!!!

Family Portrait...

My baby with my babies...

Oooo...I want to touch the flag...

More of my babies...

"Hey, where's everybody going?? It's my turn to run relays!!"
Then, Friday night, we had supper club at our house. Our Sunday School class has supper club every month, and we did it at our house this month. This month we started incorporating a service project with it, and we brought things that Blair E. Batson Children's Hospital needed. We had lots of fun, and Caden was WORN OUT by the end of the day!!

Cute boys!!
(Our Sunday School can apparently only produce male children...the current count is 7 boys and 1 girl!)

More boys...running around the back yard...

Chillin' in the kitchen...

"So, from your legal perspective, how much time am I lookin' at??"
:)

A sweet, sweet family!

Hanging out on the back porch...
(Do you like the rockers I got for Mother's Day??)

More outside time...

Mother's Day...Uncle Paul...and the new additions...

Well, it's been a busy few days!! Uncle Paul (my brother) came to town for Mother's Day. He lives in Branson, MO. Caden had another one of his famous fever viruses this weekend, which meant that he and I didn't get to go to church this morning. He is happy as a lark...just running fever and has a viral rash. I'm just not going to be "that" mother that brings her child to infect all of the others in the nursery. We had lunch at Mom's today, and then Mom, Dad and Paul came over to our house for dinner. The big news around the Porter House today was the addition of 2 Plott Hound puppies to our back yard. They are really cute and sweet. I'm sure that Britney (our German Shepherd) will have them trained in the rules of our back yard in no time! You'll all have to come by and see them sometime.

Here's Caden after lunch at Mom's house...he then crashed for a 3 hour nap!Uncle Paul...Caden really loves getting to see him!!

My son does love to unpack a bag...

Daddy, Caden, and the puppies...Lexi is on the left, Cooper is on the right...

Sorry it's been so long...

Hello Bloggers!! I'm sorry that it has been so long since I have last updated. Those of you out there who are teachers can understand that May does strange things to the children...this, in turn, makes the teacher's brain turn to much. Thus we begin to forget things like blogging. But, on the bright side, there are only 9.5 days left!!! WOO HOO!! I'm looking forward to spending the entire summer playing with my little man.
I just finished making 250 sausage balls and 72 muffins for a Mother's Day breakfast at school...that is an insane number of balls. It was a new recipe, so I'll let y'all know how they turn out!
Caden is now the busiest little thing I have ever seen in my life...it's so cute! If he were left to his own devices, Frank and I would NEVER be able to find anything in our house. His favorite thing to do is to pick up an item and put it in a very random place in our home. For example, he hid Frank's deodorant under his crib...funny stuff!!! Here are some pics of the little rearranger (some of them are old, but I stumbled upon them and wanted to share)

Here he his looking for crumbs underneath the high chair...

Bald is Beautiful!!!

Poor kid!! It's rough to be Apple Annie's grandson...you have to go on display at the store!!