Christmas Candies

Some people bake cookies, others make fudge. I make truffles and candy.

I tried my hand at a few different recipes this year.

I made:

Dark chocolate truffles

Mint truffles

Raspberry truffles

Lemon truffles

almond roca

toffee

buttermints

turtles with homemade caramel

toasted almond clusters

peppermint bark

oreo balls

mint oreo balls

peanut butter balls

I was very happy with the results!

Christmas Letter

The Porters 2010

Another Wonderful Year

We have settled into our new house in Utah and love our opportunities. Our neighborhood is great, the schools are good and we have found wonderful friends. We especially love being near our Utah family and have the opportunity to see them often.

This year Mariah and Alyssa both participated in plays. Mariah was a Who in the school play Suessical. Alyssa played several supporting roles, including a Winkie, in the Wizard of Oz put on by our community youth theatre group. Alyssa also had the opportunity to sing with the school choir at a Utah Flash game. Both girls have found friendship and support in our neighborhood. They have also discovered make-up!

Caitlyn was a finalist as she represented her 3rd grade class in the school spelling bee. She did great! Caity is our girly girl. She loves dresses, wearing flat and painting her nails. She is learning to make jewelry this year after school and has made some lovely pieces.

Andrew started Kindergarten and has started to read chapter books. He still loves Spiderman, playing the Wii and bulding with his Lego's. His favorite foods are spaheti and broccoli.

Parker is 3 and is our big boy now that he is potty trained. He loves jumping, tumbling and just being a boy. He makes us laugh everyday with the things he comes up with.

Helen was laid off in September and is loving this surprised blessing of being able to stay home. The days are spent running kids to school, cleaning house and getting things organized. She also went back to school in August. She expects to graduate in July 2012 with a Bachelor's in Business Administration.

While Aaron loves the rewarding work he does at UHIN he does not enjoy the hour long commute (or longer when weather or traffic are bad). But we are thankful that he has a job! Aaron co-authored a book on project managment titled Project Pain Reliever. The book is currently available for pre-order on Amazon and is expected to be released in January. He has also written and published an article. He stays busy with his writing and his position as Vice President of Education and Certification for the Northern Utah chapter of PMI. When he has time Aaron loves to cook. This year he is perfecting sushi!

We are so blessed to have family; both immediate and extended, near and far. We have friends! We have the church. We have peac. We love you all!

We wish for you a year of happiness and peace.

May the important things in life be in abundance.

Christmas Cruise

For family home evening we took the kids to Provo to go on a River boat cruise. The cruise was only 25 minutes but it was a fun experience. While on the river Santa came by on his canoe (he fell out of his sleigh!). Parker thought that was the best and got to give Santa a high 5!

Winter

The girls couldn't wait for the first snow. Mariah spent several days building forts, castles and even snowmen.

She built these snowmen in the front of the house. Can you tell which one Aaron is?

Family Pictures

The last time we had family pictures taken was when Parker was a baby. We were overdue a photo session! We used Cheapshots and had these taken at the Salem Pond. I LOVE them! I am very pleased. The photographer took over 400. I am amazed that with 7 of us she could get any good ones!

These are a few of my favorites.

Welcome to the Circus

If you know us then you know we LOVE do Halloween as a family. Last year I missed out since I was sick with pneumonia. This year I planned ahead. We went as the Porter Circus.
The kids were perfect. Even Parker got into character and growled and people.
The lion and the lion tamer.

Mom as the fortune teller.

Dad as the lion tamer.

Parker the lion. He loved trick or treating and saying thank you. His favorites were
the houses with dogs. He was ready to go inside and play with all the puppies.

Andrew the strong man could lift 1000 lbs with ease!

Caitlyn was our silly clown! It is hard to tell but her hair is in 4 pony tails with each one sprayed a different color.

Alyssa was our mismatched clown. He rocked the colored hair and super big bow.

Mariah was the perfect clown. When she decides to get into character she does a great job.

Dress up day at school

Caitlyn and Andrew got to dress up for Halloween at the Elementary School.

Caitlyn is a clown. It is hard to see in the picture but we put her hair in 4 ponytails and spray painted them orange and red. I think she looks great!
For our family theme this year Andrew is going to the strong man but for school he wore an old pirate costume. He was excited to dress up a few times this year. ARRGH!!