WHAT THE CRAP??? WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME THIS WAS UPDATED!!!
As you can tell, this is Orson writing instead of Lisa… We’ll see how long it takes her to figure out that I have decided to hijack the blog! Bwhahahaha

So, as you can tell we don’t update very much. Seeing that the last thing we posted was Isaac eating solids I figured I would write a few words since then.

Currently I am in ABQ for a TDY and the only journal/memory jogger that I have is my phone. We got our nice new phones in April, so that is where I will start. Sorry March, I really can’t remember you right now.

So in April, according to my phone, we had Lisa’s brother, Chris come out and spend his Spring Break with us. It was fun and we went and visited Legoland. Chris thoroughly enjoyed and loved seeing all the animals made out of legos and the buildings too.

May rolled around and Lisa and I were able to go to Youth Conference. It has been quite a few years since we have been, so we thought we should go again. Ike even went with us. We had a good time with all the YM and YW. Also in May Lisa got LASIK for her birthday. No more contacts/contact solution/glasses, etc! Wahoo.

June then came and went, but not before I was able to get LASIK too! Sweet glasses, eh? After I got LASIK we had the chance to go over to San Francisco and visit Lisa’s best friend out there. We were able to spend a day with them to visit. After that we went home and luckily Lisa's brother was house sitting for us and was able to watch Penny.

During the summer, Lisa’s brother, Chris, came out and stayed with us between his junior and senior year. We had a lot of fun while he was out here and we even go to go to the La Brea Tar Pits!!!

In July, we announced we were going to have another kid. A girl! Wahoo. She’ll be coming in February sometime. Did anything else happen in July? I'm not really sure. I didn't take any other pictures at that time. Shucks, eh?


In Aug, Ike turned one! He had his first cake. And I went off to Space 100 to learn everything about space assets. So much fun… Lisa got to go back to Utah for a little while to spend sometime with family while I was stuck at school. But, she was able to come back and we also got to go Solvang! It is a little Dutch settlement in California.

In October we took a Space Available flight on a C-17 over to Germany to visit my brother Paul and his family. We had a great time. After all that we got to spend a night in the Baltimore Airport.

In November, we were able to have Aunt Nancy and Mel visit us. It was a great Thanksgiving and we were happy to have family come out.


In December, Ike finally decided to freely walk by himself. Also our car decided to die after an oil change and rotating the tires… weird how that happens. So for Christmas we are buying a new van! Yay. And here is Ike putting his first ornament on the Christmas tree! Oh how cute!

So how was your year?

Isaac's First Solids

Today Isaac turned 6 months and the long-awaited day to try solid foods arrived at last! He thoroughly enjoyed his rice and kept going for more :) He loved holding a second spoon until he gagged himself a few times and Dad tried to distract him in other ways. I'm excited for this new phase of babyhood and having our very own little person who can actually eat at the dinner table with us. I pulled out our food processor and am excited to try new things in the weeks to come!

I actually snuck him a tablespoon or so of rice last Friday while we were in Saint George, but this is his first full out in-the-high-chair-and-everything experience. And Daddy did a great job helping Ike keep most of the food in his mouth. Surprisingly the bib was actually pretty clean, although his face wasn't. He was pretty cute. Yay!

Submarines and Sun!

The rain finally let up and Saturday was a stunningly beautiful day here in L.A.  We all got dressed up for the decommissioning ceremony of the USS Los Angeles, which was really cool because it's not every day you get to see a submarine!  It was fun to see a lot of veterans and active duty members in various uniforms and Orson tried to educate me on everyone's ranks. There I was finally feeling like I had a grasp on what means what in the Air Force, then I was thrown into a Navy ceremony and I had no idea what anything meant! 

After working for a few hours at the house, we took a stroll along a few miles of the coast underneath where our house is over to the Korean Friendship Bell.  Well . . . Orson and Penny ran, and I speed walked with the stroller, but you get the picture.  It was a gorgeous well rounded day in my book!

Flood/Mudslide/Tornado Update

It's days like today that make me feel lucky to be warm and dry.  Southern California has been hit by 4 major storms this week and the last two days have been a little scary at times.  I took Mel to the airport yesterday and was glad I avoided the interstate because later on the news I saw pictures of the I-405 in Long Beach flooded.  I had to take a few detours because of the flooding, and slowed down to 12 mph in some places when the rain was downpouring, but I felt safe overall because people were being really cautious.

This video is up the road from us on 25th Street in San Pedro!  Driving the trucks looks fun, but not the other cars!

The Air Force Base forwarded some information about a tornado warning in effect and I loaded some blankets, coats, and food in an interior room just in case.  Down the road from us in Palos Verdes there are a lot of mudslides (in the fire areas from last summer), but we are safe here.  On the other side of San Pedro there has been some major flooding, but we don't know anyone effected by it yet.  The other ward who shares our church building covers that area so I hope everyone is okay.  I'm amazed at how many people on the news are staying in their houses despite mandatory evacuation areas around some parts of LA where mudslides are a threat.  I know it's inconvenient but personally I'd want to leave just in case.

This is a lot more extreme than most areas but there are pockets like this around town.  We live in a great area, and we were lucky to have our roof patched Monday morning after a Sunday leak in the dining area.  Good thing it happened when it did because the rain hasn't let up since Tuesday!

Mel's Cali Trip

Orson's sister Mel came to visit in January and we had so much fun we teased that we weren't going to take her to the airport so she'd have to stay longer!  I'm going to refer to Orson as Sam because that's who he is when Porters visit . . . so don't worry Grandma, this isn't my "other husband" ;)

Mel flew in to Long Beach on Thursday and we headed over to the boardwalk where we took pictures of the Queen Mary and coastal birds and sea creatures stuck to the dock.  We had a fun time exploring the shops in the area, where we took pictures of us with crazy hats, random mannequins of indians and pirates, candy displays, and arcade games, etc.  Sam and I have visited the other side of the port a couple times to go to restaurants, but it was a special treat to explore a little more.  We love visitors because they force us to branch out and be touristy!  The whole week seemed like a vacation for us too, even though we live here :)

That night we packed a picnic basket and enjoyed the sunset at the Royal Palms State Beach that's right behind our house.  On Friday we drove down to San Diego where we played at Sea World all day!  Isaac was in a great mood and I decided Sea World is the most baby-friendly place I've encountered so far.  We were able to take him to almost everything and there were lots of other babies packed away in Baby Bjorns and strollers.  The park seemed empty without all the summer festivities, but in a peaceful rather than barren sort of way and it was nice not to have to fight crowds.  We all really enjoyed the Pet's Rule and Shamu's show . . . we realize how smart animals can be now so we expect some new tricks from Penny :)  We all loved petting the bat rays and playing with the star fish (in frigid water!)  Mel and Sam seem to be quite the experts now and were able to point out on a mailer we got a few days later that a picture must have been staged because the star fish wasn't relaxed and was above water.  Sam and Mel chose a Mexican place on the Garmin . . . and when we got there it just happened to be facing the San Diego LDS Temple, which was so beautiful lit up at night.

On Saturday we survived the interstate drive up to North LA.  The view from Griffith Park was gorgeous! From the observatory we could see the Hollywood sign and all of LA down to the hill in Palos Verdes (we live on the other side) and out to Catalina.  We'll have to go back to hike around sometime and bring Penny.  Then we went Hollywood Blvd and the Hollywood & Highland complex where we saw the Chinese Theater and the Walk of Fame.  We took pictures with the sidewalk stars and noticed how small a lot of celebrities must be.  My hands and feet were barely smaller than Robert Downey Jr's . . . and the women looked like they had child-sized feet (or like they had been wrapped ancient-chinese-style as children). We drove through the Beverly Hills area to the LA temple, then on route to the Santa Monica Pier at Venice Beach.  It was a long day but lots of fun!

On Sunday we drove home from church along Palos Verdes Drive to show Mel the view of the coast.  We decided to grab Penny and took her for a stroll to the Dog Beach, which is behind the Trump National Golf Course down the road from us.  It started raining so our walk was cut short, but Mel pointed out a few dolphins not too far out and it was a great relaxing Sunday afternoon.  

Monday was rainy too, but Sam and Mel played with Penny at the Dog Beach while I stayed home to keep the baby dry.  They had a lot of fun . . . and saw a dead seal larger than Penny that had washed up on the rocks.  Luckily it cleared up enough in the afternoon to drive around San Pedro.  We went to the Korean friendship bell, but since it was almost closing time and wet, we just drove by some other things we'll have to visit later, like the military museum, a little trolley car, mini light show, museums, aquarium, beaches, port sights, fish market, etc.

On Tuesday it rained even more and we heard on the news the week was going to bring the "storm of the decade." Apparently several piers were closed, but by 3 pm or so it had cleared up more so we picked Sam up from work and hit Redondo Beach. We love a Mexican place there with an awesome view so we took Mel after playing on the beach.

We had so much fun! Looking forward to Mel's next visit, or any of the rest of you who want to stop in and say hi. We have an extra guest room, so come visit us if you're in the LA area!

I'll be home for Christmas . . .

The two weeks we spent in Utah for the holidays were absolutely wonderful.  We all enjoyed the break, albeit a lot colder vacation than most people may opt to take.  Isaac saw his first snow and Penny enjoyed romping through piles of it.  We had a great time with both families and even some friends and we can't wait until we'll be able to make the trip again.  We love you and will miss you all!

He has his daddy's calves!

We just went in for our first ultrasound today and my premonitions were all right . . . we're having a boy!  I've felt fluttering movements for about 6 weeks now so it was fun to finally see what he was up to . . . kicking away and keeping the ultrasound tech on her toes.  It looks like we're going to have a lot of activity on our hands come Labor Day!  

It was very satisfying to find out, especially since I've had this gut feeling from early on that it was a little boy named Isaac.  I guess the reading could still be wrong, but fortunately that was one of the few poses the baby held still for so the tech and the doctor were both very confident.  I guess we'll have to wait our turn for girls! (or buy dresses and bows for other people's babies)  It will also be fun to have two Ballard boy cousins within 5 weeks of each other.

I was surprised we were able to see so much detail during the actual ultrasound, the only one I had seen before was when I was 9 and my mom was about to have Chris. I was relieved to find out there was just one head and that everything looked healthy.  (This is a picture of his leg, it was this or an image of his face that looks like Skeletor through the ultrasound!)