One Year Ago...

Happy Birthday Porter!!!

Just a few minutes old

Porter Tullos Hollern

the "stats" on his hospital door hanger

May 29, 2007 3:56 pm

7 lbs. 8 oz

19in Long

Today is sweet Porter's FIRST Birthday! This year has FLOWN by and we have had so much FUN with Porter! We are so blessed and thankful that Porter has had a healthy and easy year!One year ago today I was at the hospital waiting to meet Porter--thinking it would be that night but he was ready to come out and meet us at 3:56 pm!

We're having his birthday party on Saturday and I know there will be LOTS of pictures posted later of that!!

The beginning of Labor (I was huge and swollen!!)

Ryan on phone--telling everyone the good news!

Ryan holding Porter for the first time!

first day home from hospital

We LOVE you soooo much and are excited to see what you learn and how you grow for the next year!

I was so lucky to have the easiest labor and so far Porter has been the easiest AND best baby!!

That'll probably catch up to us soon =)

Porter will KILL me for this one day...

BUT I just had to post this cute picture!

Along with a few others from the last few days!

How cute is that?!?

Showing off his awesome dance moves!

What in the world are we going to do with this hair??
It stood up like this ALL day--nothing I did to it helped!

We met Mimi (my mom) and Nana (her mom) in Jackson for lunch today when Mimi flew in from AZ!

Porter and Mimi

Porter loved lunch but didn't really want to take pictures, but would gladly play with Nana's necklace =)

Porter and Nana

Speaking of Nana--she went on a cruise a while back and brought Porter back some shirts from all the places she went. Well I saw "guatemala" in the drawer tonight and decided to put it on him (for the first time) , NOT a moment too soon!! This will probably be the only time he wears this one--it's Tight!!

future male model? maybe?

Porter Tullos Hollern --The 1st year (some of my fave's)

Since Porter's Birthday is TOMORROW (wow!) here are some of my favorite pictures over the past year!

(click to enlarge)

I still can't believe he's ONE YEAR OLD (almost), it makes me happy and sad at the same time just to think about it!

Time has flown!

Enjoy!!

Oldies BUT Goodies!!

While cleaning out and organizing my pictures I came across some collages from Christmas and Haloween last year and I couldn't resist posting!

Thursday is Porter's birthday and I just can't believe how much he's grown and changed since these were taken!!

Pool Fun!

Porter is going to be a fish!

He loves the water...hopefully we'll be able to spend some more time in the pool for Memorial Day if the weather is good!!

Fun at the park!

click to enlarge

Here's some pictures of Porter at the park recently! He always has so much fun at the park--especially eating mulch and whatever else he can find (see post below) !

What goes in, MUST come out!

If Porter sees ANYTHING new or interesting to him it goes straight to the mouth!

This has been going on for awhile now!

This invariably leads to me sticking my fingers in his mouth many times a day, including constantly at the park!

This happens so much that he knows when I'm going to get something out and he shuts his mouth as tight as possible and usually tries to run away!!

I really hope he outgrows this soon!!!!

More park pictures...

so happy to be outside

going down the slide was so much fun, Porter thought he'd try going up

Trying to run away from Mommy--this happens alot when we're outside!

The favorite at the park--SWINGING

Going back to the swings

Look at those curls =)

Porter hair is getting longer (in the back at least!) and now is starting to curl!! So Cute!

Porter did not get his curly hair from me or Ryan! Must be the Terry Tolar gene coming out ;)

Bye Bye Bottle!!

Porter enjoying his "last" bottle after swimming in the pool!

Porter has given up the bottle! I was hoping to ween him off of it at his first birthday so I started given him milk in his sippy cup a few days ago, thinking I would do it slowly! But now he won't TAKE the bottle at all (which is great because if he still wanted it I would be out buying formula right now)!!

I really didn't think it would be too hard because he's been taking it less and less but I really didn't think it would be this EASY!

We are so lucky and blessed that Porter has been such an easy baby and adapts to changes so quickly and easily!!!

Porter Loves EBAY!!

Summer short outfits by Katie's Creative Creations

Daddy's probably not going to like these outfits ;)

I LOVE Ebay!

I have sold most of Porter's clothes (he's outgrown) and I constantly sell mine too and now I've bought almost ALL of his spring/summer clothes on Ebay including his Birthday outfit, Picture outfits, and his next years Christmas outfit and most of the time for a fraction of what you would normally pay!

Today we got some new clothes that I bought on ebay and they're so cute!!

Porter is ready for summer with his new cute clothes!

(more pictures to come in his new clothes =))

Couch Potato

Porter loves to sit on the couch just like we do now! Especially with the remote in hand!!

***Click on collage to make bigger to see pictures better!

Beach Baby

Ok, so it's not really the BEACH but Porter is having alot of fun in his new baby pool!

We're just jealous because Daddy is at the Real Beach this weekend!

How things have changed...

Porter is almost one year old! I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by!! Here he is from newborn (just two days old) to almost one!!

Swinging!

Porter LOVES to swing (actually he just loves to be OUTSIDE period)! We found this out when we went to Charlotte to visit Matt, Liz, & the girls! They have a swingset that has a baby swing and Porter loved it!

Porter swinging in Charlotte (Feb. 08)

I had been looking for a park in Starkville that had swings but never could find one!

Well one day as I was driving to the tanning bed (yes, bad I know! but i really need to be tan for The Bahamas!) and I see a PARK with a swing and it had a "baby" swing!! So the next day I loaded Porter up and we headed to George Evans Park to swing! Needless to say Porter loved it and we were going almost every day! Then a couple of weeks later, Ryan took Porter to swing while I was at the tanning bed and found out the baby swing was BROKEN! I was so mad (someone had obviously broken it on purpose) and called the parks service and of course they said they would "look into it" and to this day it is still broken!

Swinging at George Evans Park (Apr. 08)

So last week Ryan went to reserve the Park pavilion for Porter's birthday party and came home with a park brochure that they gave him, and I saw that Moncrief park had some new stuff since the last time I'd been (I used to work there as a lifeguard at the pool) so we decided to check it out and sure enough they had a baby swing too! So now we have a new swing to go to, even if it is across town! Porter loves it!

swinging at Moncrief Park (May 08)

What is Porter up to??

Here is what Porter is up to these days:

(probably boring unless you're family :))

• Walks Everywhere (doesn't crawl at all anymore)!



• LOVES to sleep--12 t0 14 hours a night and 2 naps during the day (usually in weird positions in his crib--see pic below)!!



• LOVES to eat--everything!



• Gave up Paci this week except for at bedtime (did great-hasn't missed it yet)



• We'll try giving up bottle next week, which shouldn't be too hard since he is taking it less and less



• Loves to go outside to swing, swim, or just to walk around



• Is VERY independent and when you're outside with him he tries to run away from you (could cause problems later on ;))



• Says "mama" "dada" and babbles constantly



• Tries to say "book" "elmo" "dog"and "c'mon" (i think--I'm always saying "c'mon Porter" to him whenever we go upstairs/downstairs/outside etc. and now he tries to repeat it!)



• Loves his books and knows what they are, understands what "go get your book" means



• Also knows what "Elmo" is--he loves his chicken dance elmo



• Loves to watch Baby Einstein (particularly First Sounds)



• Likes all music and dances to it when it comes on



• For some strange reason likes all the stupid local commericals that come on!! Like the Carl Hogan Crocodile Hunter, George Sherman, Dave's Dark Horse, and the Cellular South Asteric Commercials (if you live in starkville you'll know these STUPID commercials!!)



• Knows what "cookie" means and he loves his "cookies"



• Throws stuff out of his Crib and jumps up and down in it when he's ready to get out! (the first time he did this, I almost died!! I thought he had fallen out, it sounded awful up there!)



• Drags all of his toys out from their baskets--only for me to have to put them back every night!



• his favorite "toys" are keys and cell phones



• Loves to look out front window and knows Ryan's car when he pulls up and gets real excited!



• Likes to give things to me and then take them back!



• HATES to have his diaper changed and will fight it sometimes!



• Loves baths and cries when it's time to get out!



• Likes to see pictures of himself on the computer--he smiles and points at himself!



• There is a gate blocking the kitchen and he will throw his toys over on the other side and then point at them like he needs to get on the other side to get them--he thinks that's his way over there!



• If he can't reach something (like our keys) he will try to find something to stand on to get to it!!



• will give "kisses" if you ask



• never meets a stranger and likes everyone =)



• loves to see babies and children whenever we're out

One of His many weird positions of sleep!

Can you believe it??!

Porter is (almost) ONE!

This is Porter's birthday invitation! Pink ink Boutique has the cutest invitations!! Jenny does such cute work (you can see her blog here)! She also did Porter's Birth announcement last summer and now she is doing photography! AND she will be at Porter's birthday party taking pictures!!!! I am so excited about that!

We're also excited the Kensi & Erin will be coming to the party! We haven't seen them since our trip to Charlotte in Feb. so we can't wait to spend the weekend with them!

(this is Kensi, Porter, & Erin the last time they were in Starkville--July '07)

Mimi is also flying in from AZ and we cannot wait til she gets here!

Why Blog?

I just finished Porter's Baby Book (well almost finished I should say, since I need to add his Birthday Party to it) for his first year!

Big Day Books "Baby Book"

My mom bought me a GREAT Baby Book! It is so easy--you do it all online: pictures, first's, month by month, etc. (they even send you reminders every month to do it) and then print it out on the paper it comes with! It really kept me on task to get it done :) Well my subscription was almost up (you get 18 months from the first time you log in but I logged in before Porter was even born!) and I didn't really want to buy more time or paper and I wanted his baby book to be for just his first year. So then I saw in a magazine a book made out of your Blog! So I thought that would be a great way to keep Porter's "baby book" going without it being an actual baby book!

And now everyone can keep up with what Porter is doing (which is great since almost ALL of our family is far away!)

It will be great to look back on later and see what all Porter did and when, and to have all of his pictures to go along with it!

First Post

We recently had Porter's first year and family pictures made! It was supposed to be raining, but the weather was beautiful BUT windy! Libby and Eddie did a great job and you can see all our proofs here!!