My view of today

This is Klane on Christmas Eve Eve at his parents house. My view today looks similar so I'm posting this since I don't have a camera at the moment. The view is a little different in that we are at Michael and Sara's apartment and Michael is also playing a war game with Klane.

Klane's favorite gift of Christmas: a gift card to Best Buy which he applied toward the purchase of a Playstation 3. Heaven help us. The sound of gunfire abounds in our house.

My highlight of the trip to Best Buy: running into the Wrights in the checkout line. I had never met them in person but I love checking their blog to see the amazing pictures Leah takes. Meeting them in person was so awesome! Maybe it is weird of me, but I was so excited to see these people who I blog-stalk, in real life. The kids are so cute! The pictures on their blog are adorable, but in real life they move and talk and fuss and pull on their dad's sleeve saying "daddy!" over and over. And don't worry, I actually have a connection to these people... Klane knows Geoff, he took a class from him. So i'm not completely creepy. Really, I'm not. But, it was the coolest thing ever!!! Check out their blog, it's a winner.

Here's to a brand new year, a fun party tonight (pictures to come), and hopefully not too many more days of watching the boys play Call of Duty. :)

winter wonderland

we were crazy enough to drive up to the cabin at 10:30 Christmas night in a total blizzard, but we felt adventurous.

this is how deep the snow was up there

my dad was kind enough to dig us a path to get into the cabin. That is his head poking up through the snow

and in the morning the storm had passed and all was calm

Justin is crouching in the path my dad dug through the snow so we could get inside. The walls are like 4 feet tall!

the pond in front of the cabin

and the boys snowboarded down the roads. yes, the same ones the cars were supposed to be able to drive on. Hooray for winter!

From our Christmas to yours

Get ready for some pictures... this is Christmas morning with the Hardings:

Opening "fresents" as Ethan would say.

Ryan was more interested in the paper than the present inside.

This is Tessa's "don't touch my present" face.

Ryan's favorite present: Tessa's music-playing jewelry box

or maybe Tessa's stroller...

Luke with the 1000 piece puzzle we finished at 1:00 am. Poor Santa had to wait for us to go to sleep

My man, manning the grill

Christmas breakfast chefs: Klane on eggs, Mike on bacon, Sara/Angie on pancakes

Merry Christmas from the Hardings to you!

(Klane hates this picture. I'm sorry babe, it was the only one of the two of us!)

You know you're getting old when...

you forget how old you are. This is the conversation we just had:

A: how old am I?
K: uh..... 21.
A: are you sure?
K: yeah.
A: oh, good. I was worried for a second that I was 22.
K: i'm.... 24 right?
A: yeah. (thinking, "If he's 24, that means I'm.....") Wait, I AM 22!
K: oh, yeah.
A: DANG it!!!

How did this happen? My mother had a baby and a half at my age! What am I doing with my life?!

This is us in Hawaii right after we were married. I was young and chipper at age 20. Wasn't that just a month ago or something? Hmm...

Porter Christmas Party: the pageant

The annual Porter family Christmas party took place last night at the Magleby's house. The highlight of the evening was either the delicious food, great company, having all 9 Porter children (with families) present, or possibly the Christmas nativity pageant. With something like 40 grand and great-grandchildren, there were many costumes to wear and parts to be played. A good time was had by all and we were able to remember the true meaning of Christmas: celebrating the birth and life of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

preparations for the pageant...costume-picking, halo-straightening, chaos in the dressing room

tess liked her angel costume and paraded around showing everyone her beauty

shepherd luke

can't get enough of these little angels... this is Sydney and Olivia

and then Santa came and all heck broke loose after that. We never knew Santa was capable of such leaping, heel-clicking and high-fiving, along with his rousing HO HO HOs. Great job, Santa.

The things we do for love... and WICKED

Last Thursday night I did the craziest thing! I stayed up all night in the freezing cold on the streets of SLC, waiting for Wicked tickets to go on sale. It was COLD, it was tiring, at times it was frightening... but actually it was kind of fun! I went with my mom and little bro Justin. We brought treats and blankets and hot chocolate. We stayed awake all night talking. We met creepy Wicked-obsessed fans and some normal fans too. We were on the news, shivering in our camp chairs at five in the morning, and we got a picture with a "witch" from the radio station that was there in the morning. We waited for eight hours in the cold dark night and we were 140th in a line of over 1000 people. And we were victorious! We scored 24 tickets for various family and friends. It was definitely a night to remember. Thanks mom for thinking to bring your camera. We are so wicked!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

We put up our tree this week and it's quite festive. There's nothing like turning on the Christmas tree lights, curling up with a cup of peppermint hot cocoa and... studying for finals. :) I can't wait for that last part to be done, which it will be in about a week. Then it's on to enjoy the Christmas season with not a care in the world. We're excited to have some time to spend with each other and with family and to enjoy the spirit of the season.

About this time last year my mom was diagnosed with cancer. It was a difficult time for me and my family, to say the least. But through the darkness and fear came light and hope. We found it in the true spirit of Christmas, the kind that comes from the love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for Him. I have seen His miracles in the lives of those close to me, especially over the past year. I will never forget one December evening just after my mom's first chemotherapy treatments, when my family answered the door to find the entire ward (and then some) on our front lawn, singing Christmas carols. I felt such overwhelming love from these surprise carolers for my family. Their love communicated to us the love and hope of the Savior. His image truly was 'engraven upon their countenances'. It was so touching, and with tears and smiles and "thank-yous" we tried to express our gratitude. So many people showed Christlike love through our time of trial, and so many times we saw how people in tune with the Spirit became an answer to our prayers. Thank you to all who offered help and prayers in our behalf, I now know how real it is that you can feel the prayers of others giving you strength.

Here we are a year later and all is well. Thankfully my mom will be around for many more Christmases to come. I hope to always keep the Christmas spirit, Christ's spirit, with me during this season and through the year. I hope I can be someone's Christmas miracle or an answer to prayer. This Christmas season, spread the Savior's love. Seek out those who are in a time of darkness, and let in the Light.

Yes, He Is

Klane is awesome. I just can't get over it. And he just keeps getting more and more awesome. This post is to tell everyone that he got in to the New York/Chicago internship program for this summer!! We won't find out for another little while which city they'll place him in. But we are excited! I started making a list of all the reasons I find Klane absolutely amazing, but i got carried away and it's 2 1/2 pages long and I won't make you read that. One of the many reasons is his dedication to delivering great work and his amazing creative ability. This is a poster he designed for his Media Literacy class; they were supposed to promote themselves as a presidential candidate. This one looks very similar to an Obama poster (click to view the original). I like the one with this handsome face on it a lot better!