Welcome McKinlee!

McKinlee Porter was born October 29, 2008 to Justin and Brittney at Banner Baywood Hospital in Mesa. She weighed in at 10 lbs. 11 oz. and was 21 inches long. She is such a cutie and both mom and baby are SOOO glad she is here! As soon as she was born she stretched out and hasn't been seen in fetal position since then. Rumor has it she walked back to the nursery from the delivery room :-) We are so glad the birth went well and both Brittney and McKinlee are doing well. Now if she will just learn to sleep through the night . . .



Madasin is such a great big sister. She loves McKinlee and helps mom as much as she can.

Congratulations JP & Brittney -- we are so proud of your choice to bring one of Heavenly Father's most precious spirits into the world. We know you are great parents and can't wait to see this little one as she grows up.

And so it begins...

I just loved this picture of Rusty and Carolyn. Rusty, we'll miss you! We're sorry

that we can't see you today or off at the airport tomorrow!

Take a good look Rusty, they're going to change so much while

you're in Italy! You may not recognize them when you get home!

Hee hee! Had to sneak a funny one in!

Rusty,

We will miss you but know that you'll be on the Lord's errand. Good luck and remember to always have faith in the Lord's plan. Have a great two years in ROME!!! We love you so much!

Alissa, Joe and the gang

Halloween fun

So we finally signed in so that we can post here. We had fun this Halloween. I recycled a couple of costumes... Allen was Spiderman for the second year in a row, Carolyn was Shirley Temple (Cami's old costume). Brian, a vampire, Jaci a 50's girl, Robert a scarecrow (Could he even scare a fly??), and Cami was a little Dutch girl, with real wooden shoes (gotta love ebay). That's the costume I made this year. I had a ton of fun making hers! I decided at the last minute to be a cave woman... I can rat my hair really well! Joe went as the invisible man... or at least he wished he could, he really didn't want to go or dress up!

SO WE MADE IT 2 WEEKS SO FAR, AND LIFE IS GREAT. THINKING BACK TO WHEN MADDIE WAS A NEWBORN, THIS TIME AROUND IS ALOT DIFFERENT. SHE SLEEPS ALL THE TIME ONLY CRYS WHEN SHE'S HUNGRY. THATS WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU HAVE A 10 POUNDER. MADASIN IS THE BEST BIG SISTER EVER. LIFE IS GOOD

~BRITTNEY

A Finder Halloween

Ok - here are our costumes. Basically, I had little motivation this year, so I didn't do ANY sewing (which is unlike me). I didn't spend as much either... most of it is recycled costumes.

Kael, of course is Spider-Man black suit (thanks, Mom for that costume), Oran is a "Vampirate", Ethan is a regular pirate (we couldn't do the make-up due to his face being swollen and rashy from poison ivy!), Hana is an elf.

They had a lot of fun, as usual. Too much candy, as usual. And, out too late, as usual -- but it was a good time - we went to Sonic after all the trick-or-treating, and that was an even better treat for them. And, it wasn't TOO cold, either. :-)

Halloween Fun

I thought it would be fun if everyone posted their Halloween pictures on the family blog so we can enjoy all of the fun costumes. TJ suggested that we dress up as the Scooby-Doo gang this year. I thought it was a great idea and we had a lot of fun putting the costumes together.

Our Trunk-or-Treat party was lots of fun and we came away with way too much candy. Afterwards, we visited our Grandparents and didn't get home until 10:30. For our family of early-to-bedders, that was super late, but we really had a great time! Thankfully Halloween was Friday night this year!

We ran out of Scooby-Doo characters so I had to be the monster. The kids didn't like mom as a mummy but I had fun!