Welcome Back to Indiana, Here's Your Tornado!

So, only a few hours of getting the moving truck unloaded, it started getting really dark and a big storm front was moving in, and there was a tornado watch for Battleground, IN which is about 5 to 10 minutes from our house. At about 7pm, the sirens all go off and it gets really calm and we all go outside and look up, and the clouds start to circle directly above our house like in the above photo which isnt' ours but looks exactly like what we saw. Some college kid comes running out of the house across the street freaking out saying, "I've heard that they sound like train whistles right before a tornado!" and he gets in his car and races away. We had Amanda's little sister Hannah with us and if you know Hannah and her history of freaking out during thunderstorms, she fell apart, started bawling and hiding in our closet. All the kids started wondering why their Aunt was crying and freaking out, luckily Hannah pulled it together after we said a prayer and started singing primary songs with the kids. It was pretty intense, luckily it moved away from directly over our house, but geez, what a welcome back to Indiana, this never would have happened in Philly.

Diei Memoria

As this is Memorial Day weekend, I wanted to share a few pictures I took while at a ceremony that celebrated the arrival of Old Glory at Independence Hall. I guess I just wanted to convey how grateful I am for the sacrifice of others in our defense. Thanks Big Lare. Thanks Jer-Bear. I thank you for your bravery in battle, and for your support in times of peace. Thank you for being righteous examples of the Priesthood to me.

On another topic, today is my last day of work at Olin Partnership. I am going to miss it, I have learned so much in this short year that i've been on my internship here in Philadelphia. I am excited to get back to Indiana and I know Amanda is too, but we really have enjoyed Philadelphia and all the friends we and our children have made. We are going to miss our friends.

Epilogue

Do you remember those days when you were a kid and you stayed out as late as you could playing on bike ramps or making forts or playing barbies and you'd come home so exhausted that you fell asleep in the middle of whatever make believe game you were playing. Ah, those were the good ol' days.

Maya's 4th Birthday Hoedown!

Today was Maya's birthday party. We all had a great time (I think Cowpoke has been my favorite theme yet!). The ground was a little wet but it was a beautiful day and we played lots of fun cowgirl type games. We played feed the ponies (bean bag toss), practiced our roping skills (Hula Hoop toss to catch a Pony-on-a-stick), read a story about cowpokes, dressed like cow folk (we wore paper bag vests and bandannas), ate scrumptious food cooked over an open flame, and (the hit of the party) raced our stick horses!

The invitations

The Cowgirl

The Anticipation and the Cake that caused it.

Cookie, the cowpokes and the grub

The surprise visitor (a rider happened to be walking on the trail and stopped so the kids could feed him and take pictures with him. we couldn't have planned it better!)

The wrangling'

The Big Race

She is just perfect

What a fun 4th Birthday!

What we're up against

No, it's not a rivalry as big as Superman vs. Lex Luthor, maybe not even as big as Mothra vs. Godzilla, but these two are still considered our arch nemesis (plural pronounced nem-e-sees).

We found Cockroachera plotting it's evil, dastardly plan of laying millions of eggs in our qtip box where we'd unsuspectingly place them in our ears and they'd grow and incubate, and then when the time was right, come spilling out of our ears to consume our man flesh.

COCKROACHERA

Maus, (pronounced with a throaty, guttural noise, Mouwze) was found in the bottom of our trash can after he fell for our peanut butter trap. Peanut Butter is the rodent Kryptonite in case you have the same problem we have. Due to Maus's furry and cuddly nature, he did not hitch a ride on the Porcelain Express like Cockroachera did, but found himself flung into the community trash can to await his sentence of "Maximum Compaction." Sorry PETA, no mercy here.

MAUS

Happy Mothers Day Peggy

You know how people like to make mother-in-law jokes? Well I like to turn those all into father-in-law jokes because I adore my mother-in-law!

Top Ten Things I Love About

Margaret Susan Wilder Elmer (Peggy)

10) I love that she is willing to do anything to serve the Lord, and proved it by going to Peru with a choice son of God to serve as Mission President's Wife (I'm sure she'd love any prayers you can offer on her behalf. My father-in-law thinks that he is Speed Racer. )
9) I love that I can say "Oh I always love eating (name a dish)" and she will say "How do you make that? Is it the one with (this ingredient) or (this ingredient)?" I swear she has the recipe to everything she's ever eaten memorized!
8) I love how she always has a great book to recommend (even if it is The Red Tent which made her blush while reading it aloud to us on our trip from Rexburg to Indiana)
7) I love all the wonderful stories Casey has to tell our kids about what a fun Grammy they have (today he told the the one where she pretended to hammer a nail through her nose and tricked all the boys real good)
6) I love how she can converse with and make anyone feel comfortable
5) I love that she wants so badly to be with my kids (even though she can't right now)
4) I love the great gifts she sends (and the skill with which she shops e-bay)
3) I love that she is such a great mother that the Lord decided to send her to Peru to be mother to all the special missionaries there.
2) I love that I feel comfortable in her family and enjoy being with them
1) I love that she took the time and energy to raise the most wonderful husband a girl could ever want!

I love you too! -casey

Happy Mothers Day Kathy

Last year for Mothers Day I was addicted to Bebo and my siblings and I wrote a memory of our mom each day leading up to Mothers Day. My mom still talks about how much she loved that. This year I read someone elses blog where they did a top ten list of things they love about their mom so I've decided to copy that briliant idea!

Top Ten Things I Love About

Kathy Jane Johnson Porter

10) I love how she likes giving people advice (just ask the millions she's helped on mommasource)

9) I love what a wonderful cook she is (my best recipes come from her)

8) I love that she is so giving and out of the blue will help each of her kids out with whatever she sees they need/want

7) I love that I can call her and tell her I feel crappy and she makes me feel better without making me feel guilty that I needed my ego stroked.

6) I love how much effort she puts into things (especially church callings)

5) I love how much she loves my kids. She always sticks up for them and reminds me how lucky I am to be blessed with such great kids.

4) I love that she LOVES planning things. Anything...a concert trip...a youth activity...a family reunion...grandparents camp (you name it)!

3) I love that I can call her for help on ANYTHING, ideas for a church calling, tips for getting my baby to sleep through the night, recipe advice, nursing, house cleaning, moving info, tricks for replacing a water heater, (the list goes on and on).

2) I love how she is the first one there to help when help is needed (and how she always seems to know just how to make it better)

1) I love how she makes me feel special just because I know she loves me and likes me just the way I am!

Ahhh Curses Foiled Again

I'm sure that is what the little mouse is thinking since he is sitting at the bottom of my trashcan as we speak (type). I set up the trap again last night and he fell for it (the little dummy(hopefully it's the same little dummy and not another entirely different dummy). Now comes the tricky part, finding him a new home (any takers?).

Eek I mean squeek

I saw another mouse last night so I set up our ingenious little mouse trap that I blogged about previously (I'm still amazed at the cleverness of that trap). And lo and behold I caught the little booger. Casey was pretty excited too and asked Porter if he wanted to see the mouse, but when Casey tilted the can to show off our prize disaster struck. Quicker than a wink the little vermin skedaddled up the slightly inclined trashcan and flew (yes flew) through the air and scampered under the dishwasher. Casey claims he was trying desperately to recapture him before he could vanish but didn't succeed (I have my doubts as to how hard he really tried, but would have loved to have seen it).

D.C. or BUST

We had a great trip to DC while Malerie was here. We got to go to the temple which is always beautiful!

We got to play around in the grass

We got our feet wet

and despite the way it looks we all had a lot of fun (the kids were imitating the statue in the background)

Even Bennett wanted to play in the grass and get his feet wet

"Help me out of here"

"All these national monuments just look so comfy"

Showing Mally around Philly

We had a great time showing Aunt Malerie around Philadelphia. We even broke down and went to the star wars museum that we've been dying to see since it first opened here. We went to Redding Terminal Market and had cheese steaks and desserts from the 'Flying Monkey' (yummy)

It was a beautiful day to be lost in the big city (yes, with me as a tour guide we spent a lot of time lost)

Somebody's getting very sleepy

Who's excited to go see the star wars exhibit at the Franklin Institute?

Porter in front of Lego-delphia. The whole group surrendering to the storm troopers.

C3P0 and Jenga Fett (I think that's his name)

Can you guess who these little goobers are?

Sno Cone

Bennett was pitching a fit about Aunt Malerie's Sno Cone