Acting out

Porter has entered into his terrible twos finally, and it came on like a hurricane. Oh my goodness. The first day he threw a tantrum that made every other tantrum look like nothing. Kicking and screaming and punching and thrashing around, I was ready to cry, wondering where my sweet boy was at. I just loved him the whole time, telling him that his actions were not okay and that I was just going to rub his back until he calmed down. I finally had to walk away and let him cry it out until he fell asleep. Phew. I don't know what to do anymore, though, he's just a grump alllllll the time. He's constantly scowling and making the famous Gentry angry face. I spend all day on egg shells worried he's going to hate me, while trying to help him deal with his emotions in a healthy way.
Anyone out there? Any advice? I feel like hiding all day right now and waiting for it to end. This kid is crazy.

Happy Easter!

An Easter day blog? I thought today would be packed full of stuff to do with Porter, but really it's been pretty relaxed, aside from all the eggs and candy in this house it doesn't really feel like a holiday at all! Porter's pretty hyped up right now and keeps taking sips, or "little ones" as he calls them, of my coffee without asking. So since today hasn't been very full of anything I decided "what the heck, I'll work out today too!" and for some reason decided I should do even more then I normally do. My candy and coffee belly did not appreciate that very much inside, but hopefully outside it will. I was so beat! I did like 200 donkey kicks in less then five minutes! I think there is something wrong with my brain. And you know the craziest part? Now, half an hour later, I am not feeling it at all, I think I need to do 100 more jumping jacks or something. Jeeeeeze. I have to admit this though, I cannot do push ups anymore. I could only do like 10 today, my arms are so weak now, they shake like crazy and threaten to collapse at any moment. Little by little, I keep telling myself. I can do sit ups and bicycle crunches like crazy, but push ups killllll me. I have found the biggest pros and cons of working out at home this week, too. Pro- Porter is a GREAT weight on my legs for leg lifts or for my arms or whatever I really need a weight for. And con- Porter is to funny for his own good. He makes lots of jokes while I try to work out and shows me how it's done the whole time. As funny as it is, I end up not doing what I set out to and have to stop before  I want to. Also, sometimes it makes me very self conscious. 

Now I am sitting here asking myself why I wrote this blog.... Hummmm. What there a point? Maybe not.... Well, Happy Easter, I'm going to go do some more chalk drawing with Porter!

Spring break and on

So the major lesson I learned while my husband was on spring break? I get much more done when he's gone! Haha. So now the spring cleaning can start, and I have developed a nice little list. I'm looking at this years spring cleaning as a good time to also start better routines of cleaning, making a better schedule for things so I don't overlook them or scramble to get things done. Once my plan is complete I will get it posted for all the world to see and then I'll probably stick to it otherwise suffer Internet embarrassment. The biggest project I have right now, and one I'm starting today, is to go through all Porters clothes and figure out which are to small (which is a lot since he's growing so much right now) and start to figure out how to reuse them for other clothes! It's really a task I don't want to do right now but I know it will pay off. So, here goes nothin!!! Happy spring cleaning everyone!

Get this belly fat gone!

I know.. I know... We should love and accept our bodies, not talk down about ourselves and not give in to societies idea of "beautiful" but it really boils down to this: My doctor told me for my height I am considered borderline OBESE! I know, it's crazy, and I don't really feel or look like it, but it's the truth. Next month I am changing everything though, eating habits, exercise routines, and drinking. I really need to get my body on lock. When I look at my pre-pregnancy weight I wish I could just wave a magic wand and be there again. A lot of people say to me "oh it's fine! you just had a baby!" well my baby is now closer to three then two, so save yourselves, I don't need to hear it because that is just not an excuse anymore! I've downloaded a few work out apps for my iPhone, I am going to try to go to the gym here more frequently, and next month I am going to be making a lot healthier meal. I read another blogger that had a bunch of crock pot freezer meals so I am going to attempt that, but I have a bunch of other meals planned out. A lot of her meals were a little to bland for me, I need more vegetables then that. I also think I am going to help my family move into being vegetarian again, or at least eating very little red meat. Porter wont mind, he usually doesn't eat the servings of meat we give him anyways.

On a side note- speaking of Porter eating!! Holy jesus! This kid can eat and eat and eat! I think he's going through a massive never ending growth spurt, because he eats non stop yet still looks like a twig. Freakin' A.

Okay back on track. I really want to be in good habits, because I have baby fever so bad and I really want to have a little girl, but I don't want to do that while I'm this weight. When I was pregnant with Porter I gained 62 lbs, if I gained that again right now I'd be over 200 so pregnancy is just not happening. I also want to be in healthier eating habits already, and I want Jeff and Porter to have them in place so while I am pregnant I will not be tempted to eat junk by their bad habits haha.

Well, now that it's 3:30 am I think I might actually try to sleep!

-Ashley

Some Easter egg tips!

So this is my fool-proof way to make perfect hard boiled eggs! Jeff and I have tried this many times and it always works, we are very picky eaters when it comes to our eggs, but I have never had a green ring or icky yolk!
You will need:

• Eggs
• Pot with lid
• Some water
• Your favorite egg-removing tool, mine is my ice cream scoop!

How to do this magic:

1. Put some water in a pot, doesn't really matter how much just make sure the eggs are covered, and will stay covered when they start to boil. So like an inch or two higher.Turn your burner on to your desired heat, I usually just do high so they start boiling faster.
2. Add your desired amount of eggs, the water doesn't have to be boiling yet
3. Bring to a rolling boil. Don't know what that means? Just watch as they start to boil, you will. 
4. Cover your eggs and turn off the burner, DO NOT REMOVE FROM THE HEATED BURNER! I feel like that is important sometimes, maybe I am crazy, but I like that little bit of fading heat while the burner cools down. 
5. After ten minutes pass you're good to go! Remove lid and put eggs in a nice ice bath to cool them off. I never really rush them out of the pot and sometimes forget to take them out until like 12-15 minutes, but they've always turned out great. 

Good luck and I hope those eggs turn out great!

8 months, 2 weeks

It has been way to long since I updated this blog, especially because I wanted to update it a lot more. But, I did lose internet for awhile. Porter and I moved! We moved out of my mom's house December 31st, and stayed with my dad, Lori, Ellie and Reid. It was so much fun and by the end I didn't want to move out and my dad wanted me to stay forever! Porter got to spend some quality time with his grandparents and aunt and uncle, it was awesome. Reid got to read to him at night, which was some of the cutest bed times we've had. But, it only lasted for a few days =( we moved into our apartment in Sellwood January 9th, and have loved it. It's so nice having a place with just us. Jeff, Porter's dad, lives here with us and our friend Josh stays here a lot. He love's Porter like his own, it's pretty cute.

Development's with Porter:

• He sleeps through the night! Yes!! He only wakes up one or two times during the night and it's just to eat then he's asleep again. That started around 12/13 weeks
• He sits up all on his own. Some times it's better then others, but he's pretty good at it now. That started around 6/7 months
• He crawls!!! Yeah! He started with rolling hardcore, and really he got around faster rolling. It was like he was crawling places. Now he does this cute army crawl/scoot thing and he's gotten really good and really fast. This started around 7/8 months
• He eats everything. All sorts of baby food, baby mum-mums (rice cake things), biter biscuits (gerber), tomato slices, banana chunks, sucks on honeydew melon, really any food he loves. He stopped breast-feeding (by weaning himself) at 12/13 weeks and has been eating baby food+ since 4 months

I know, pretty exciting stuff!!

In other family news, Jeff and I are getting married! We have tentatively set our wedding date for October 10th, 2010, but it is subject to change. Although, if

we change it we will know within the next week, so save the date! I don't have a lot of my families addresses so if you're close to me, send me yours! I would love all my family to come... Amber, my sister, might be the one making the wedding cake, too! Awesome!

Anyways, it's getting to late now, and I need to go to bed. Woohee, 11:30 and I'm so worn out! Man, I am getting old already ha-ha. But first, here's a couple pictures for y'all, just so you know how we're lookin' these days =)

This is Jeff, Porter and I just one afternoon, playin on photobooth

This is Porter in his little baby walker, we took this picture on my computer with photobooth using one of the many fun effects. Porter loves watching the baby on screen!

This last one is a photo shoot I did for Holly Andres when I was pregnant. My mom, Amber and I all posed for a few different shots with different outfits for her, and this is the one she emailed me. It was, hot, fun, and my cousin Simon got to tag along!

6 Weeks

Yesterday little P hit the 6 week mark.

He's been smiling more at things that make him happy, and laughing more at what he thinks is funny. Most of yesterday was spent playing and laughing with me and Jeff. He also got to meet his Aunt Bonnie and cousin's today. Bella really loved him, and I got some cute pictures, I'll post them once uploaded.

Yesterday Jeff's dad Dennis came and met Porter and took us out to dinner. He drove here from Redding and got into town in the afternoon, and spent some time here. This morning they both left at 6 am. He drove Jeff to Bend, where he's staying with his friend Lily and her boyfriend Patrick's for a few months. His dad drove back to Redding.

Yesterday was my friend Logan Mattox's 19th birthday. He recently left for basic training and it's the first year I haven't spent his birthday with him since we were 10/11! I talked to his mom, though, who is like another mother to me. I wrote him a long letter that hopefully he gets soon, just about how crazy it is that he's 19, that he's in the army and I have a baby. Just how much different our lives are now then they were 8 years ago.

Anyways I know it's a short post but it was mainly to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOGAN! I love and miss you and can't wait for you to come home!