superbowl bound: miami, here we come!

We are going to the superbowl!  I still cannot believe it--maybe once I'm not so sleep deprived it will finally sink in (between being too nervous Saturday night, and too excited last night, I think I'm going on about 8 good hours sleep the last three days)!!

Ryan interviewed with the Saints exactly one year ago today...obviously at this time last year, this is the last place we thought we'd be!   And growing up a Saints fan I can honestly say, this is the last place I thought the Saints would be!  Lucky for us the waited until the perfect year for the Hollern's ;)

The game was AMAZING...My throat still hurts, and my ears are still ringing (and hurt too), I am mentally/emotionally drained and physically exhausted!  But it is so worth it!! I took almost 200 pictures at the game, but here are a few!!

what 71,000 ecstatic people look like:

my dad is a LIFELONG (and ok, sometimes suffering) saints fan.  since Ryan was at the Sr. Bowl in Mobile, and wasn't going to be able to make it back in time for the game, he got to go with me!  I am so glad I got to share this moment with him!  we had a BLAST!!

i heart garrett hartley (I take back all the bad things I said about you almost one month ago)

game winning field goal in OT

"bring the wood"

Porter is ready! Go Saints!!

NO WAY!!

Ok, that was pretty much my response to my conversation this afternoon with the Rouse's checkout girl:

Rouses girl: I just found out I'm 34 weeks pregnant, and I didn't know it...
Me: smiling politely (thinking , how far along did you think you were?)
RG:  ...and I just found out TODAY
Me: NO WAY!! How in the WORLD did you NOT know you were  8 1/2 months pregnant!!?
RG: Well, I didn't have any cravings like I did with my first two kids...
Me: You mean, you've been pregnant TWICE, and ya still didn't know!?! (silently thinking, "cravings" were you number one symptom to "look for",  not the probably 5 pound or so baby (at this point) kicking you in your ribs)

At this point, I am probably was definitely staring unpolitely slack jawed at her! I mean, I've been pregnant (obviously) and at that point you definitely feel the baby move, and should SEE the baby move!  This girl was not overweight, and should have definitely been feeling her baby MOVE and KICK!

She went on to tell me, she thought the movement was "gas" and she literally had NO symptoms, and had only gained about 10 pounds in the last few months (where she gained 50-60 with her first two pregnancies).  At this point, I was really thinking this girl was CRAZY, but to give her the benefit of the doubt, the girl did NOT look pregnant (much less 3 weeks from being full term), AT ALL!

one step closer...

We're just one game from going to the superbowl!  Go Saints!

The dome was LOUD last night...I have a feeling it'll be even louder next week!  It was very exciting, and even more exciting to think that one more win and we'll be in Miami in Feb! 

 

can you hear me now??

Porter LOVES talking on the phone to people (sometimes..it HAS to be his idea!)

We took Porter to Pop's house the other night to spend the night...he was so excited when we picked him up from school and told him we were going!  He wanted to call "lolo" and let him know he was on his way!

 

it's growing on me...

well, I shouldn't say it's growing on me, but I'm coping a lot better with THE haircut!  I guess I've gotten used to it!  And it does seem to look a little better every day!

Porter could care less =)

Ryan has been doing a lot of "film" work from home the last week or so...I'm thinking Porter may have a future as an NFL scout!  Ryan got up and left his "station" and Porter quickly hopped up in the chair and said, "I do film! I like football game too!"  Speaking of which, he now responds to everything with, "I like (insert anything) too!"  Ryan had a piece of gum, and Porter thought it was candy; when Ryan told him, it's not candy it's gum, Porter's matter of fact response: "I like gum too daddy!" =)

(please excuse the fact that Porter is NOT wearing pants...he takes them off as quickly as he can!)

 

"i don't know about this guy, dad!"

I shouldn't have left the house...

It is COLD today, really cold (well for the deep south anyway).  So why did I insist that I had to bundle all of us up and take Porter to get a haircut??  He needed one. Badly.  But not this bad:

Kinda reminds you of this, doesn't it:

At least Ryan can laugh/smile about it.  I was almost in tears!  I'm sure one day I will see the humor in this, and know that every child has to have at least one really bad haircut!  But for now, I'm trying to figure out how to cut Porter's hair the next time it needs it (which looks like at least 6 months).

i LOVE my new camera...

I got a new camera for Christmas (actually, it was both Ryan and my gift so technically he got one too ;)), and I love it!  My new lens came today (after dark, so I couldn't get very many good pics with no light!) and I had to try it out...

Porter was quietly playing in his room so I wasn't going to disturb him by taking pics of him (again), but I quickly realized Ryan was NOT going to cooperate with me...

 

speaking of Porter playing in his room...it has been a goal of mine for awhile for Porter to have some alone time playing in his room--well I got what I wished for!  he loves playing in his room now--and by playing I mean dumping out all of his toys and making a complete mess!

 

I thought I would sneak up on him to snap some pics, but he saw me (with camera in hand) and IMMEDIATELY grabbed his camera...he thinks if I have mine, he has to have his =)

 

I knew I could outlast him and he'd eventually get tired of taking my picture...

 

Porter needs a haircut (in the worst possible way)

I promise I ok Ryan will take him tomorrow

 

Porter also loves cereal for dinner...it's a new favorite

 

 

 

 

sadly, eventually Porter got tired of all the picture taking too! 

 

Making myself accountable...

So, Porter is still NOT potty trained...I really thought he would be by now.  It's not that I'm rushing him, but he seemed so ready at such a young age (before age 2--around 22 months or so)--letting me know he was wet, waking up dry, using the potty, asking to get out of the bathtub during bath time to use potty, etc.  Well all of this has been going on for several months and we just can't seem to get it!!  I've started potty training a couple of times, and it seems he does good for a day or so and then totally loses interest--meaning screaming, crying and NOT wanting to do anything on the potty.  Then I just give up thinking he's "not ready", and put the diapers back on him! I really think being in school is also hurting us...I just don't think his teachers encourage potty use from him, even though I told them we were trying to potty train (both times I've picked him up early, I've seen them get him up and immediately take him for a diaper change, and not bother with the potty).  So I've decided to do the 3 day potty training method by Lora Jensen.  I've seen this method EVERYWHERE lately and a  quick google search showed lots of  blogger mom's that had success with it!  We started last week, with another (reward) method--which it similar to the 3-day method but the 3-day method is much much more intense.  We were only wearing underwear and getting a small ($1 toy) reward when he went.  It worked but I don't see this being a long-time training (he's had a few accidents and only seems interested in getting a toy...and we had LOTS of tantrums for more toys).  So we're going to wait a couple of more weeks, and when Ryan goes to the Sr. bowl in a few weeks, me and Porter are going to spend a long 72 hours together getting potty trained!! (I figured Porter would do better without daddy around)  Now, just by looking at it, I don't completely agree with everything (this method is also somewhat reward based) BUT I'm going to follow it to a T and hopefully have great results!  I am blogging about it to hold myself accountable and I'll blog about the results when I'm done (and hopefully have a potty trained child!!)

I almost forgot...

Once I got my new camera, I forgot about the pictures that I had on my old camera!

Lolo (Logan, my brother) has a big nice 4-wheeler that Porter LOVES!  Well, Lolo went out and found the EXACT same 4-wheeler in a battery powered version for Porter for Christmas.  Needless to say Porter loves it!    Logan, Lindsey, and Brycen came down the day after Christmas and brought Brycen's tractor for the boys to play in the back yard!  Neither boy is very good at steering right now, and they both seemed more interested in riding the other's toy!  It was rather challenging supervising both boys in our small backyard--they did run into the fence a few times =)

Porter and Brycen in the tractor:

 

The boys on the 4-wheeler (Porter wasn't too happy about stopping to take pictures):

Brycen wanting to multi-task:

 

After Christmas, we went to Pop & Mimi's for a few days and took the 4-wheeler--Porter had a lot more fun with the big yard!  He also had fun riding with Lolo!  After about 5 minutes though, he stopped and told Lolo he wanted to switch and ride the "big bike" ;)

 

 

 

 

I had to include this picture too--Porter wore Pop out on Christmas morning and he fell asleep on the couch...Porter had no interest in sleeping himself so he saw Pop and put his blanket under him!

this is how we brought in 2010...

ok, so maybe this was more like 8:00 the night before...but had we stayed awake this is how we would have brought in the new decade year...I've been informed this is not a new decade (confusing, huh?)!