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!

Update:

November hasn't been my month to blog. We have been busy and haven't taken many pictures, so I haven't thought of posting. But we are still alive and well. My 22nd birthday came and went, with much celebrating, eating out, cake and ice-cream, surprises, presents, and the traditional shopping trip with mom. After the big movie premier and associated girl's night out, Twilight has been a main topic of conversation, which Klane is loving I'm sure. :) We travelled to Southern Utah for Thanksgiving and had a great time catching up with family who we don't see nearly enough. (I had great ambitions of taking lots of pictures but didn't pick up the camera once. Darn!) Two weeks left in the semester and then it's on to Christmas break (!!!) and then our last semester of college (!!!!!!!!!), which is awesome. We will find out soon where our internship will take us. I will keep you updated.
Sorry for the blog drought. Life is crazy (but good).

Two Families at the Cabin

Graf family + Harding family + the cabin ... all of our favorite things in one evening! Everyone got together this weekend for a very fun night. We love spending time with our families and to have everyone together was so fun! We had a yummy dinner, played with the kids, had a few rounds of catch phrase, enjoyed delicious dessert and just generally enjoyed each other's company. I feel so blessed that we have such great families on both sides. We love you all!

Click Ethan's picture to see a few more, if you want.... Klane took them... they're cool.... Also, scroll down, there's another post under this one!

He's still alive!

This is Klane on the beach with Santa Monica Pier behind him. On his quick trip to LA he was able to visit and tour four of the top advertising agencies in the world; now he's thinking he would love to work there after our internship. Possibly at Deutsch or Chait/Day (those would be dream jobs).

You blog-readers may feel like you haven't seen much of Klane lately... well, neither have I! He has definitely been a busy guy these last few weeks with multiple school and work projects, plus church responsibilities and such. He has successfully designed two websites for different companies (click and appreciate the beautiful design ;)), entered the Loreal Brandstorm competition, completed his portfolio for internships, done work at the Ad Lab for Nike and Burger King as well as many other companies, built a video and travelled to LA for a company called Hydrorain, completed several solo and group projects for classes, and most recently he was on a team that concepted and filmed a commercial. There have been many all-nighters and busy days... and somehow he has survived! I love Klane and I'm always amazed at his integrity in his work and at how much he is able to accomplish with his time. Here's some pics of the commercial shoot yesterday.

It was a creative idea; I will just explain that they're using headphones as defibrillators for this guy, who is about to die from listening to such awful music. The commercial is for an online music site, I think.

Marriage: Between a Man and a Woman

I don't usually like to post about politics, but I am glad Proposition 8 passed in California. There has been so much controversial conversation going on about this, both with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and nonmembers, and I wanted to clarify for anyone out there that is confused about the Church's stance on same-gender attraction. This article states exactly where the Church stands, and I stand by it 100%. The issue isn't about gay rights, it is about protecting the sacred institution of marriage between a man and a woman.

This quote comes from an article published today by the church news and gives an accurate description of the true stand on the issue:

"Allegations of bigotry or persecution made against the Church were and are simply wrong. The Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage neither constitutes nor condones any kind of hostility toward gays and lesbians. Even more, the Church does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches."

DANG IT.

(insert picture here of Barak Obama) 

At first I posted an actual picture but I couldn't stand to have that face on my sacred blog. Hopefully I don't offend anyone, but I am genuinely afraid for what may happen to our country. Not that either candidate was really such a sparkling option... i am bummed out overall. The next scary decision of today? Prop 8. We are really hoping it passes, as i'm sure many of you are too.