Easter Sunday

I neglected to finish telling about our Easter weekend. We didn't take any pictures on Sunday, so that's why I forgot.
Sunday was Stake Conference for church, and the Apostle L. Tom Perry came to speak at it. Since we knew there were going to be a lot of people there, Matt decided to stay home with the kids and let me go by myself. It was a great conference, with many talks about Jesus Christ and his Resurrection (of course since it was Easter), and I actually got to listen instead of chasing kids around. It was really nice.
After church we drove up to Matt's sisters house in Littleton and had a relaxing Easter dinner with their family. It is always fun to see them, and even though we live so close, we never get to spend enough time with them.

Happy Easter!

I hope everybody had a great Easter weekend, because we sure did over here!
It started a few days early when we got a box of Peeps as a gift. Cadence has decided that they are her new favorite food!

On Saturday morning, the kids and I attended our Wards Easter egg hunt. It was Cadence's first egg hunt, and she did pretty well.

The missionaries talked a little bit about the meaning of Easter before the kids were let loose. You can see Keegan right in the middle of the crowd.

Cadence sat and listened too.

Here they are on the move!

Here they are examining their loot.

Me and my kiddos.

After naps my parents and my brother and his fiancee came over for dinner.
Cadence loves her Grandpa, and will sit with him all day, if she can.

Tom & Brittany, to be married in June!!

After dinner, Matt and I snuck outside to hide some Easter eggs. Keegan caught on and started peeking outside.

And then he started jumping around, pointing and saying "bunny eggs! bunny eggs!"

It was time to hunt, and this time Cadence knew what to do.

They both, had basket-fulls!

Another surprise for Keegan was a bag of goodies from Matt's boss which included this awesome Star Wars blanket. He hasn't slept without it yet!

Matt found this funny suckers with rabbit teeth on them.

They make for a great family picture!

... and when we tried to get one with out the bunny teeth, Cadence was not happy.

My Mom's birthday is later this week, and since we were all together, we celebrated her too. I ordered a gluten free chocolate cake from a friend of ours who is a professional pastry chef, and who has perfected his own recipe for gluten free cake. It was really good.

My future sister-in-law is a chocolateer, and she brought some other yummy treats.

Do you think that's a fair price?

My Mom and I were shopping on one side of the store while my dad wrangled the kids on the other. We turned the corner, and this is what I found!! He was in Pillow Pet heaven!

A Harem

In high school, Matt constantly had a Harem of girls around him ...

... so, last night at dinner, I was teasing him about that fact and Matt says "I wonder if Keegan will ever have a Harem?" And Keegan, who hears everything, didn't skip a beat and said (pointing at his head) "I already have hair!"
Silly guy.
Other fun Keegan-isms right now:
After everything I say he says "What you said?"
Whenever he sees something that he wants he says "I want some-some of that."

Have I told you how much this girl loves shoes ...

Porter Family Letter

Each month the Porter family sends out a letter made up of the individual families monthly activities. Since I am "in charge" of our blog, Matt is "in charge" of the family letter. I think he did a really good job capturing what we are all up to right now. Enjoy!

Keegan: Our baby boy surprises us each day with how much he is growing up. He had his third birthday last month and still talks about it today. He has become very interested in superheroes recently, so we had a Batman themed party for him. Jeanette used her Cricut to make some very impressive Batman and Joker banners and other decorations and Keegan got a fair amount of superhero toys. About every day he comes up with an idea for the theme of his next birthday, usually it is Spiderman. We put off trying to push the potty training thing until his third birthday for a few reasons, but since we started, he has only had 2-3 accidents. One of his favorite things is to do while we are out is to see the restrooms of every place we go. Though spending a lot of time in public restrooms is kind of gross, we are just glad that he is not afraid or reluctant to do his “business” away from home. We even had a plumber in the house the other week (for an unrelated incident, I promise) and Keegan was bragging about how his restroom exploits and accomplishments. Fortunately the plumber was also a father so he just smiled and congratulated Keegan.

Cadence: To quote one of the speakers in the Sunday session, Cadence is proving to be a “blessing” recently. She is doing her best to help her parents perfect their patience and charity. For the past while she has not been herself; she is generally fussy, refuses to eat anything, and likes to wake up screaming several times every night. We took her into the doctor a couple of times, but she could find nothing wrong with little Cady. Our best bet is that her molars and a few other teeth are coming in and she is just uncomfortable. On the up side, she gets more words everyday and is pretty funny to watch (when she is in a good mood). We decided that if she was an animal, Cady would definitely be a cat. She can show affection, she can talk, she can do funny dances or sing, but only IF she wants to and on her terms. She is the complete opposite of Keegan who will do anything for approval. She idolizes Keegan and will follow him around and try to mimic whatever he does. Our favorite thing recently is when she gives kisses. She makes a face that looks like she is trying to swallow her own nose and plants a big sloppy one right on the lips. Abby continues to be her favorite individual in the house. A lick from Abby never fails to bring a giggle or smile to Cady’s face.

Jeanette: Jeanette has been asked by her employer to cover for a coworker who is out on maternity leave for the next 3 months. She now works twice as much as she previously did and gets to actually go in to the office a few times per week. She comes home very tired, but she enjoys the time with other adults. Being primarily a stay-at-home/work-from-home mother, I am the closest thing she gets to adult interaction on a regular basis (and that is a stretch to say the least). In March, Jeanette took the two kids (on her own mind you) to see her grandmothers for a week in Minnesota. How she managed to wrangle out two kids through an airport on her own twice is beyond me. On top of that she is serving in the Young Women’s Presidency of our ward so she has those additional responsibilities too. I have my suspicions that I married Super-Girl’s mild mannered alter ego.

Matthew: I was lucky enough to be asked by my company to go back to China and Hong Kong to audit another one of our manufacturing plants there. This time I went to the city of Shenzhen which is right on the border of Hong Kong. It is a huge city compared to the last place I went (and about double the population of Denver), so it was a totally different experience. This time I vowed to be more adventurous and brave about what I ate. Many of the people I worked with took this as a challenge apparently. I ended up eating frog (just tasted like fatty chicken), cow stomach (really strange texture), large and small intestines from a sheep (not too bad if you could forget was flowing through them the previous day), and chicken feet (again, tasty, but our time on the farm in Loveland gave me the unfortunate knowledge of what those feet walked in). I just figured that if millions of Chinese people eat this stuff every day, why not at least try it? My trip went very well with the exception of a cab driver trying to rip me off in Shenzhen and getting my pocket picked in Hong Kong. I would love to work and live there someday (though Jeanette would take some serious convincing for that to happen).

Wishing the best to everyone.

Matthew, Jeanette, Keegan, and Cadence.

Zoo!

Kissy Face