Last week in pictures

A church Halloween activity (which is why Jayda is wearing makeup and looks like something from that show Toddlers and Tiaras!

A trip to the Washington DC Temple Visitors Center.

little Bella's first bath with her new chair. She loved it!

Good times had by all!

Flour Fun

Most of you know me well enough to know that I don't cook or bake. I warm things and order things and that about covers my cooking career.

Interestingly enough, I married into a family of cooks. My mother-in-law rocks at cooking and my sister-in-laws are equally impressive. I remember being a newlywed at a family bbq and having Renee (my sister-in-law) ask me to cut the watermelon. Total panic! How does one cut such a large piece of fruit? Then my other sister-in-law, Ronda, was putting together a killer salad with all sorts of fun things like craisins, cheese, etc. Who knew that all salads didn't come premade in a bag?

Anyway, the Roth family is very talented in the kitchen and although I have learned some tips on how to cook, I have not learned to love to cook. In fact, I hate it. Like truly hate it. I'd would honestly rather wax my armpits or wear too small stiletto heels for 3 hours walking up stairs than cook a dinner or bake something. However, I have a 3 year old who enjoys baking cookies. I blame my mother-in-law for being an amazing cook and spending sweet moments with my little Jayda in her kitchen. Now Jayda thinks that I will spend time with her making similar memories. However, last time I really cooked with Jayda it was using her easy bake oven and I burned the cake and melted the Easy Bake utensil. So, I will leave the true cooking expertise to my sweet mother-in-law, Rosemary, who puts all other cooks to shame. It's hard to compete with someone of that caliber anyway. She's pretty impressive in the kitchen...and on a sewing machine, but that's for a different post!

So Jayda wants to bake cookies one rainy day and I feel obligated. I really do want to spend time with her. She's super fun to be with. However, I don't want her to have memories of her mom burning things and tasting crap that's supposed to pass for baked goods. So, I decided to have some real fun and hope that she remembers that as opposed to my lack of culinary talent.

Besides, food fights are waaaay more fun than baking!
PS: The cookies actually ended up being really good!





(getting daddy involved without prior warning was the most fun part!)

www.Lori-Porter.Com

My mom is an artist. She's good. Really good. Not like "pretty good with a few cool pieces to look at"...more like "blow your mind, holy crud someone can paint that" good. Granted I'm biased, but she's done over 1000 projects in the past 20 years and I'd have to say that everyone agrees with me. Her God given talent to bring art to life is pretty amazing.

She has painted every room I've ever lived in---which is why as an adult I have an unnatural fear of plain white walls. So, if you too are white wall phobic, or want something special painted in your home, business, school, church, etc...then call the best...AKA: My Mom.

If you're in the giving mood during this pre-thanksgiving season, do us a favor and add my moms button, or a link to her site, on your blog. You can show all of your friends how hoity toity and artsy fartsy you are by knowing a famous Orange County artist (who is and is not famous is totally subjective, right?) Maybe if she gets a job from your blog button she can paint your face hidden in her next mural??? (Ha! Just kidding...that would be massively creepy!)


She's ready and willing to paint some killer murals or canvas pieces...so keep her in mind when you're in the mood for an interior make-over!

Love ya mom. And yes, I'm fully expecting a painting on canvas for this free advertising.

Potty Talk

When Jayda poops she always yells to me "I love you mom."

It's not just any "I love you mom." It's the grunting, breath holding, intense moan of "I love you mom" as she poops. She's always done it. She does it every single time. No matter what restroom she's in (our house, friends, stores, etc) I hear the declaration of affection while she's making her deposit.

She had some issues with her urinary tract when she was really little so it often hurt her to use the restroom. I remember holding her hand as she sat on the pot and cried and I'd cry with her and tell her "it's okay baby. I love you" as I'd try to offer up little words of encouragement as she suffered. Poor baby.

I can only imagine that those words of encouragement left a mark on her little brain and now she doesn't know she can poop without yelling that she loves me. That's okay though. I love hearing those words, even if she's sending them from her smelly, porcelain throne.

Annie are you okay? Are you okay, Annie?

I hear Jayda's feet hit the floor as she jumps out of bed in the morning. I can sense her tip toe past her sisters door so she doesn't wake her up and I finally see her walk down the stairs with droopy eyes, crazy bed-head hair, and a big yawn. My heart melts. She is sooo sweet and cute. I love this kid.

I sweep her up in my arms and I whisper in her ear, "good morning bubba. I love you."

She replies, "Michael Jackson videos please."

Yes, the first thing out of my daughters foul breathed little mouth is a request to watch more Michael Jackson on youtube. She kills me.

The above is just one example of the craziness that is Jayda's pure obsession with MJ. She loves him when he was normal, not so normal, slightly crazy, and full blown commitable.

Throughout the day I hear little Jayda singing: "Annie are you okay? Say Annie are you Okay? Are you okay, Annie? You've been hit by a smooth criminal..." Ha!!!!!Actually, she can often be heard singing the following greatest hits in her room, or while she plays, or when she's reading books...or frankly anytime she's awake: Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal, Bad, Say Say Say (duet with Paul McCartney), Remember the Time, The Way you Make Me Feel, PYT, Wanna Be Starting Something, Rock with You, Black and White, Dirty Diana, and They Don't Care About Us. Many of you may immediately notice that some major songs are missing - primarily Thriller. Come on people - there is a limit to my bad parenting...that video would scare the poop out of her!

She talks to MJ as if he's in the room with her, she bounces her ball off the back of the chair and when it comes back to her she acts as if MJ threw it, she saves him dinner, reads him books, and holds his hand when she's walking around. Creepy does not begin to cover this situation.

Russ and I are so sick of hearing about Michael Jackson. We told Jayda that he is a freak show and that she probably shouldn't talk about him all the time, but that didn't work. I heard her apologizing to MJ for her daddy and mommy calling him rude names. We told her that he is no longer with us and that he died and that he now lives in heaven. We thought maybe that would stop the obsession. Nope. Now she just tells him she'll have to wait to see him until she lives in heaven too.

She does all his dances in the living room and has now officially declared that she wants to be MJ for Halloween. Okie Dokie. I guess I just have to remember that I'd rather hear and see her sing and dance to MJ than Barney or Raffi.

Jayda also loves picking out her own clothes, cuddling with her sissy, reading books, playing with her friends, talking to her Grammy on the phone, making up stories, helping cook, eating snacks ALL DAY LONG, snapping (she's still mastering the skill), hugging her mommy, wrestling with her daddy, playing with her dolls, going to primary (church class for kids), picking up worms out in the front lawn (she totally gets this from her grammy (my mom) because I'd rather have a root canal than play with worms), putting on makeup, wearing my high-heels, and laughing. In fact, when something is really funny - she cries. She tears up and says she's crying because she's so happy she gets to laugh.

I truly - truly love this kid. I'm about as obsessed with her little face as she is with Michael Jackson... and that's saying A LOT!

YOU NAMED ME WHAT???????

Our sweet baby girl was blessed this past Sunday. Russ gave a beautiful blessing and spoke loud enough for us all to hear...which was hard since Sierra cried quite boisterously the entire time!

Baby blessings are a beautiful LDS custom. Russ gets to place his hands on his little daughters head and bless her with all of the things any parent would hope for their child. Others are invited to participate in the blessing. We were so lucky to have my dad (Sierra's PaPa) come from California to help give her this blessing. It made it so much more special having him there. We also had some good friends of ours help cradle her as the blessing was given.

In the blessing, Russ asked that she be watched over throughout her life, that she will know how much her parents and her Heavenly Father love her, that she will be close with her siblings, that she will be an example to others around her, that she will eventually marry in the temple and have children of her own, that she will be mindful to those around her and help those in need, and that throughout her life she will always go to the Lord in prayer. It was beautiful. It was perfect.

Mere seconds before Russ was to walk up and give the blessing we didn't know what her name would officially be. We had our top three names selected, but I wasn't able to make a commitment. Silly me. I like to think that she's just so special that I can't pick a special enough name...but whose kidding who...the problem was that I'm mildly crazy. Russ took the bull by the horns so to speak and just went with whatever came out of his mouth. I think it was a great decision.

He blessed our sweet baby with the name: Sierra Isabella-Mae. We will call her Sierra with an occasional Bella or Izzy Mae thrown in there. We call Jayda the following names: Jayda, Jayda Grace, Grace, and Gracie. Whatever comes out of our mouth at the moment is what she responds to. So, we figure an extra long name giving us multiple options is great. Some may think it's too long or too much, but the name really gives us what we wanted. It gives us the name Isabella Mae (we love calling her Bella and we wanted to name her after my grandma), but we also love Sierra. So why not have it all? Celebrity babies get 3 names all the time!

Thanks to those who voted on our poll. Your help was appreciated.

We will call her Sierra, but you can call her Sierra, Bella, Izzy, Izzy Mae, or "cutest baby in the entire world." Any of those will work.

Name our 6 month old ---- PLEASE

As many of you know, we have never been happy with the name Sierra Bella.


I'll give the reasons we don't love her name in a future post.

Some of the time we call her Bella (which is great), but most of the time we call her "baby." The poor little thing needs a name.

We are frustrated not being able to decide and we are embarrassed it's taking us this long.


So, PLEASE take the poll on the side bar and help us pick a name!


Even if you don't normally leave comments - take our poll! We need help.

Here's a little bit of extra info to help or hinder you in your decision making...

Mae was my grandma's middle name. Virginia Mae Porter passed away the same day we found out we were pregnant. I adored and admired by grandma so the middle name "Mae" would be a tribute to her.

If we keep the name Isabella in there somewhere than we can still refer to her as Bella as we have for the past 6 months. Or we could call her "Izzy" which is super cute too!

Isabella was the 2nd most popular name the last two years in a row (this could be seen as good or bad - you decide).

I like the name Brooklyn - but I don't like "Brooke" or "Lyn" for nicknames (even though my middle name is Brooke).

Does Chloe sound too much like Cori or is it okay?

Anywhoo-this info may have helped or hindered or at a minimum sheds some light on why we are undecided (other than the fact that we are lame).

So, please cast your vote, leave me a comment if you'd like (please don't offer up new name ideas - I may go postal if I have to consider anything else...my brain can't take it!) and check back later for our decision.

We are blessing our sweet baby on Sunday, September 20th so we will have picked a name by then.

So, what will this little buggers name be?