And the Winner Is...

Congrats to mom and Tara for winning the gingerbread house contest this year with their version of "Santa's Workshop."

Winner!  Santa's Workshop by DJ and Tara

Santa's Reindeer Ranch by Brad and LA

Old MacDonald's Farm by Blair and Cara

Gingerbread House Contest 2011

Every Thanksgiving mom and dad host a gingerbread house contest.  This year was by far the most competitive!  We spent over 5 hours decorating our houses and by the end of the evening we all felt like we were going a little crazy!

We need your helping deciding who the winner is!  Vote for your favorite gingerbread house in the sidebar to your right.  Voting ends this coming Sunday, December 4th at 5:00 PM.

Santa's Reindeer Ranch

Old MacDonald's Farm

Santa's Workshop

Pumpkin Winner 2011!!!

The winner of the 2011 Pumpkin Carving Contest is...Super Mario's World!  This pumpkin was created by a good friend of ours, Chris McDougald!

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

My nephew, Grayson, turned two on Friday and we were all invited over to his birthday party! Everything was perfect and was filled with so much Sesame Street fun...I think I enjoyed the party just as much as Grayson did!

Everyone wore party hats...adults too!

Pops and baby Sullivan!

Grayson's birthday cupcakes!

Elmo Oreos!

Cookie Monster Blue drink!

The Sesame Street gang!

Happy Birthday, Grayson!  We love you!

Pumpkin Carving Contest 2011

It's that time of year again for the annual Porter Pumpkin Carving Contest!  The entries are in and we need your help in deciding our winner.  Vote for your favorite pumpkin!  The voting ends Wednesday at 5:00pm.  Vote using the poll in the right sidebar.

Sir Winks-A-Lot

El Tigre En Fuego

Super Mario's World

Nothin' Says "I Love You" Like a Dremel

Most ladies get flowers or chocolates for Valentine's Day from their sweethearts.  My sweetheart knows me all too well...he knows that I'm a "project" kinda gal who doesn't mind pulling her hair back and getting sweaty and dirty.  Well, this past Valentine's Day, my sweetie surprised me with the most romantic gift a man has ever given a woman...a dremel!

For the past month I've been refinishing an old china cabinet and hutch that I bought for $95.00 at the Habitat Resale Store.  It is beautiful, but definitely needed a little TLC and a fresh coat of stain.  I've been working really hard at stripping the old stain off, but was having trouble getting to all the little nooks and crannies of the detailed wood work.  Come to find out there is this little tool called a dremel that is made just for that specific purpose...detailed sanding!  I can't wait to see how the china cabinet turns out!  And...thanks sweetie for the dremel...you are so romantic ;o)

Rub-A-Dub-Dub, Six Men In A Tub!

A great Porter tradition is to run around the house barefoot at the first snowfall of the year.  I don't exactly know how this tradition go started, but I do know that my husband, his dad, and his dad's dad have been running around in the snow barefoot for as long as any of them can remember.

When we were visiting my family in NC over Christmas, we got to witness about 6 inches of snowfall!  In keeping with Porter tradition, Brad made my family run around barefoot in the snow!  After the run, we all piled into the bathtub to warm our tootsies back up again.

Here are some pictures of the great snow race of 2010:

Cara and Mia only made it about 10 feet before turning around!

Brad and I are finishing the run...I was actually crying because
my feet were so cold!

Blair trying to stay warm!

Mama and Gracie rounding the corner!

Brad, LA, Cara, Mia, Blair, Mama, Daddy