HOW SWEET IT IS....

8 Months

2011-06-20T21:33:00.004-06:00

Lucy turned 8 months last week! Wow, is she a big girl!

Shes wearing 12 month clothes and drinks a solid 8 oz everytime she eats. She still only has two teeth (tooth #2 came in on May 13th) but I'm pretty sure the top two are working their way down. Shes not a very consistent sleeper but I guess we can't have 2 great sleepers..that wouldn't be fair right?
She has the Dadadada sound mastered and is now working on Nananana. She loves to sit in her bouncer and watch Mickey Mouse clubhouse and she loves to play on the floor with her toys. She sits up completely by herself now and has started showing the first signs of getting ready to crawl. She actually got up on all 4s the other day! Since she can't crawl she is content with rolling around EVERYWHERE.

Shes getting really interested in eating. If she sees you eating something she usually wants some too. She watched me eating a Hawaiian Ice the other day and started screaming until I gave her some. Oh my, did she love it! I couldn't get it in her mouth fast enough.

Lucy is such a cutie pie! She laughs all the time and has the cutest cheeser grin. Shes been doing this super funny thing with her tongue where she makes these smacking sounds. I need to get in on camera but its seriously hilarious.

She loves her swing and loves sitting in the grass. I put her in the swing today with the sprinklers on...she didn't like that much.

Loves her baths and has just started splashing alot. So cute!

She prefers her mommy to pretty much everyone which I'm totally fine with and she still thinks her big brother is the funniest thing ever!

I can't believe that in 4 short months she'll be a year old.
We're taking her on her first vacation to Lake Powell in a couple of days so I guess we'll find out what kind of a water baby she really is!

6 months!

2011-05-03T03:40:00.002-06:00

Lucy turned 6 months on 4/13/2011.

She weighs 18lbs 1 oz and is 80%
She is 26.25 inches tall and 70%
Her head is 44.5cm and 90% (My babies must have big brains to need a noggin that big)
Shes pretty much outgrown size 2 diapers and I just bought a case of size 3
Shes wearing 6-9 months clothes and sometimes, depending on the brand, 12 months.

Poor princess got 2 shots at her checkup

On 4/20/2011 Lucy started rolling over, ON PURPOSE. Around this same time she also started sitting up by herself for short periods.

Tooth # 1 came in on 4/25/2011, bottom left. The bottom right has been slooooowly working its way out for about a week. Hopefully it breaks through cause poor little baby girl is hurtin! She hasn't been sleeping very well and has been waking up in the middle of the night for more teething tablets or tylenol. Poor thing :(

Here are a few of her likes (and dislikes):
-#1 LOVES to be held!
- #2 LOVES her big brother! Seriously belly laughs at him all the time. Noone else can get her to laugh like he does. Good thing he loves her as much as she loves him!
- loves to sit in her highchair and watch mommy cook
- loves her bouncer
- loves her crinkly flower and crinkly fish toys
- loves bathtime
- hates getting dressed
- hates keeping her poo in her diaper (no, this isn't her fault but I'm pretty sure she doesn't like it)
- still hates loud noises. She'll cry everytime someone even laughs to loud.
- loves to swing outside on the playground
- loves walks in the stroller
- hates having the sun in her eyes
- loves story time and loves when mommy sings to her

Some silly things she's been doing lately
-screams just to hear her own voice
-sticks her tounge out the side of her mouth.
-rolls over and over and over all over the floor.
-when she gets mad, and I mean really mad she blows raspberries.
-loves being tossed in the air
-is getting better at eating solids. Has had cereal, oatmeal, bananas, avocados, carrots and pears
-is getting better at playing on her own for extended periods of time. Yay!
-last but not least, no more colic!

Happy 6 months Princess Pie!! Love you Sweets!

Avocados and Cereal

2011-03-26T19:15:00.002-06:00

I seriously didn't think it would happen but she likes them! Lucy L-O-V-E-S avocados! Oh, and she had decided to like rice cereal after several attempts with it :)

quickie

2011-03-19T21:45:00.002-06:00

Couple quick updates before I forget about them and their gone forever from my malfunctioning memory

Yesterday 03/18/2011 Lucy rolled over!
I seriously doubt it was on purpose but nonetheless she did it!
I layed her on the her blanket on the floor, turned around to grab the camera (like barely half a second) and by the time I turned back around, she was on her back staring at me like "what the crap just happened!" So cute!

On 03/17/2011 We attempted bananas. Lucy loved them! Since then she has been eating about an inch of banana a day. I'm pretty happy since the attempt with rice cereal was a complete bomb.

On 3/17/2011 We had Parker's SEP conference. He is doing so well! He's reading at a level E, can count perfectly to 100 and past it, has all of his homework in, and has the best classroom manners ever! I'm super proud of that little bug! His goals for the end of the year are to read 3 leveled library books per night instead of one and to work on writing all the letters of the alphabet correctly.

5 months

2011-03-13T05:32:00.002-06:00

My little 5 month old baby girl is getting so big! It was only a few weeks ago that I broke out the 3-6 month clothes and she's already to big for alot of them. I don't think shes even worn every outfit yet. Over the weekend I washed and hung all of her clothes up to 12 months....wow, she is gonna be a DIVA! her closet is fuller than mine :)

Not a whole lot has changed with Lucy since the 4 month update. She is getting stronger though. I think she'll be sitting up on her own and rolling over in no time.

Today while I was taking a quick nap before work, John came into the bedroom totally FREAKING OUT. He goes off on telling me about how Lucy has the worst poopy diaper he has ever seen and that its all the way up her back up to her neck, on her arms, etc etc and he has NO IDEA what to do. So, after getting about a 15 minute nap I got up, calmly (poop really isn't that big of a deal!) re moved the poopy clothes and diaper, got her cleaned up and bathed and in her jammies for the night. The entire time John is nowhere to be found. Seriously. He disappeared LOL. The man can gut an animal with best of them but when it comes to baby poo....NO WAY!

Lucy is such a talker! She coos and screams, yes screams, all day long. The screaming isn't crying is more like "Oh my gosh I found my voice and I'm gonna use it!" squealing. It's seriously hilarious and pretty darn cute!

The past couple of days she has been fussier than normal and today after I got to work John texted me saying she was burning up and had a fever of 102.5. After some tylenol and cool bath it was down to 101.9 by bedtime. John said she seemed to be feeling alot better when he put her down. I really hope so. I hate hate hate it when my babies are sick :(

Lucy gets prettier and prettier every day. It seems like her eyes are a different color every time I look at them. Sometimes they're all blue, sometimes mostly brown with some blue and on days like today they look green! I think she inherited her mommy's kaleidascope eyes!

The next few months are going to be soo exciting! I can't wait to watch her learn and grow and discover everything that this world has to offer!

Lucy said Dada!

2011-02-28T08:04:00.002-07:00

I know she didn't intentionally say it but yesterday morning while Lucy was hanging out in her swing, babbling away, she said "dada". Clear as day! John and I looked at eachother and we were both like "Did she really just say that!!" John was seriously grinning from EAR to EAR!!
Daddy loves his little girl :)

~4 months~

2011-02-25T23:28:00.003-07:00

LucyLu is 1/3 of the way through her first year. This month has been a BLAST with her. She is such a happy little stinker!
Here's her 4 month stats and a few things that she's been up to this month.

She is 25 inches tall, 14lbs 11oz, 42cm head. 75% all around.
-smiles and laughs so much these days!
-still sleeping through the night like a champ. 8pm-8am baby!!
-she is very interactive with her toys now
-chews on everything...mostly her fist but likes her toys and blankets too.
-we tried to feed her cereal on Tuesday but she wanted NOTHING to do with it
-consistently eats 5 6oz bottles a day
-we now have a daily schedule in place that has Drastically changed her little diva attitude. She has a bottle around 8:30, takes a nap with mommy from 9-11:15 when we pick Parker up from school. Then its home for play time and another bottle. For playtime she likes to lay on the floor watching her musical light up toy. She also LOVES watching her big brother play. At around 2pm she starts getting a little fussy, which is cue for 'I'm tired and hungry'. After a bottle is down for a nap. She usually sleeps for a good 3 hours during this nap, which is lovely for me since I work graves and the only sleep I get during the day is when she naps. After waking up she has another bottle and some more playtime until dinner. At around 8-9 she gets a bath, bottle and bed. And thats a wrap!
-she's mobile! While laying on her back she can turn herself in a circle.
-LOVES to snuggle....totally fine by me!
-loves being tossed in the air and swung around...she seriously belly laughs every time.
-loves to hold her hands or hold my hands
-holds her bottle by herself when it's not to full
-loves her big brother!! She watches him like a hawk!
-loves her daddy...he can make her smile everytime he looks at her. So sweet!
-looks just like Parker...not even kidding. Almost the spitting image
-going bald....I know, so sad! *sniff*
-has the absolute most cutest little thunder thighs ever! I love love love to squeeze them.
-has the most beautiful little face ever! Big dark eyes (can't tell if theyre going to stay blue or go brown) long dark lashes, cute little button nose...I could go on and on and on!
Love her!

Lucy wearing Parkers onsie...everytime I look at this picture I think I'm looking at Parker!

Happy 4 months (on 2/13) princess

(Yes, this is a couple weeks late :)

Winter ride

2011-02-25T21:13:00.002-07:00

Finally!! We got the horses out and headed up the hills. It felt so great to get out. I haven't ridden since I found out I was pregnant! I was a little nervous that Cyera was gonna try and throw me, but she actually did very well. I'm one super proud momma!

Me and Cyera

John and Park riding...um, I can't remember his name!
I swear my dad has told me his name probably 50 times and I still can't remember it. In my defense, I did just have a baby...mommy brain!

Watch out Titanic

2011-02-25T20:54:00.002-07:00

During the windstorm and the warm weather we had a couple of weeks ago the ice on Utah Lake broke up and was washed ashore...in HUGE piles. This is the west side of West Mt. The pictures do not do this mounds of ice justice. I've never seen anything like this before in my life! It was AWESOME!

John and P man getting ready to scale the iceburg

Bird Island...it has never been visible from Lincoln beach but, lo and behold, here it is. Covered in ice. Covered!

They made it! Now, hopefully then can get back down

~Silly Faces!~

2011-02-25T20:34:00.002-07:00

I have thee cutest kiddies ever!

LuLu Bell just hangin' out

First time in the high chair!

Peek-a-boo!

Parker made Lucy 'Queen of the day!'

He L-O-V-E-S his little sissy

Lovey Dovey Day

2011-02-16T19:37:00.006-07:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

My super cute tulips picked out especially for me by my sweet little Parker man

Parker's Valentine's cards for his class. We spent an afternoon doodling on the cards and making a huge mess with shaving cream and food coloring but they turned out awesome and the kids LOVED them!

Every year I buy one or two new decorations for each holiday but this year I couldn't find any Lovey Dovey Day ones that I liked so, what did I do? I made my own :) I think they turned out pretty darn cute.

This was by far the easiest. With the help of my handy dandy Cricut I whipped out this baby in abou 5 minutes flat.

Can I just say how much I LOVE how this topiary turned out? This project had dual purposes...the first to beautify my home and the second to keep me awake during a graveyard shift. Both missions accomplished! On a side note...how darling are my cute little birds?? I am absolutely in love with these little guys!

This project was also dual purpose, and so easy! All this one took was a metal hanger (lucky me, the hubs had a pink one :) and some fabric and VOILA...a cute VDay wreath. My fingers were a little tired by the end of the night after tying all those knots but it was worth it!

Alright, so this one is a little bitter sweet for me. I had actually just put the last piece of candy on the big one when there was an unexpected knock at the door and a man waiting there to tell me that my sweet little Moo was gone. I'm half tempted to chuck it since every time I look at it I think of my little Moo and how maybe if I hadn't been preoccupied with this stupid thing she may still be here. But, then again, I love having little reminders of her around the house, so I think I'll hang on to it for awhile. At least until the candy starts rotting. Anyone know the shelf life for a conversation heart??

Overcoming the 'R' word

2011-02-04T05:17:00.004-07:00

Well, it's 5:20 am. Only 1.5 hours left of work. Here I sit hoping and praying that I can keep my eyes open until my relief gets here. Only 1.5 more hours and I can go curl up in my comfy bed and go to sleep.

At least, thats what I should do. But I won't. I won't because my sweet little princess will be waking up soon. 7:30, on the dot. I won't go to sleep because I miss her. I miss listening to her coo in her crib before I get her up. I miss her happy little morning self as she smiles and giggles for no reason. I miss snuggling with her while she has her breakfast. Rocking her and enjoying the peaceful quiet of the morning.

I won't go to sleep because I miss waking up my little man for school. I miss making him breakfast every morning..."toast and eggs please, Mom" I miss eating breakfast with him and talking about what the day might bring. These times go by way to fast, and I'm missing them.

Since returning to work these moments are very few and far between. I know that I should be getting some decent rest since I have to be back to work in 12 short hours for another long 12 hour shift but the guilt eats at me and I can't sleep. I feel guilty that I'm home but not spending time with my kids. How selfish of me to be sleeping while they wait for me to wake up to play. Selfish that I leave them with their Grandpa who has a million things to get done but doesn't do them so he can take care of my kids. How grateful we are for Grandpa!!

These feelings of guilt lead me to feel sad, then the sadness leads to anger. I'm angry that I have to go back to work instead of being able to stay home with my babies and watch them grow up. Anger turns into resentment. Resentment towards myself that I'm not a stay-at- home mom. Resentment towards my husband for not being able to 'provide' for us on his own. And then resentment back on myself for resenting my husband for something he can't control. Thats alot of dang resentment! Ugh, this is an evil evil cycle that I have no idea how to break.

The only thing I can think of is to sell our home and downsize, downsize, downsize. But then the selfish in my creeps back in and I don't want to give up my beautiful home or my awesome neighborhood. I don't want Parker to have to change schools. I don't want to move away from my family that are all so close. Enter resentment. Why do I have to be so selfish?? Is it wrong to want to live in a nice home with great neighbors in a neighborhood where I know for a fact that NOTHING EVER HAPPENS! A neighborhood where I feel safe letting my son play with all the other kids in the area. I don't have to worry that their parents are dealing drugs or commiting crimes or any of the other crazy stuff that I see happen on a daily basis.

So, for now, I'll live with these feelings and do my best to compensate for my absence. I'll squeeze in many more hugs and kisses and 'I love yous' when we're all together (including the hubs who doesn't get those things nearly as much as he deserves. He really is great!). I will resist the urge to say 'yes' to the overtime calls. I will not bring work home with me or allow it to alter my attitude at home. I will play extra hard and laugh extra long with my babies. We will snuggle, read, play, and snuggle some more. I may not be able to spend every waking minute with them but I WILL maximize every minute that we have together!

J, P and L... I love you to the moon and back!

15 weeks!

2011-01-26T23:45:00.002-07:00

As of today Lucy is 15 weeks old. Wow, where does the time go....

Couple of quick updates about how shes growing.
According to my bathroom scale she is about 14lbs...chunky monkey!
I just broke out all of her 3-6 month clothes. Some of her 0-3 clothes still fit but the majority of them don't.
She is so smiley!! I love getting her up in the morning because she just giggles and coos and is all smiles for mommy! It's so funny to listen to her through the monitor giggle at only she knows what.
She's drinking between 6-8 oz at one time now.
She wakes up at 7:30 ON THE DOT...seriously, every day, without fail. I think its because thats when the sun comes up and she wakes up when her room gets light. She'll have a bottle, play for about 30 minutes and then its down for nappy time. She only sleeps for about an hour at a time unless we're in the car...car rides Knock Her Out! Throughout the day she'll take naps but they hardly ever last longer than an hour.
She is starting to really love her swing and loves taking her naps in it. She's also really started enjoying her time playing on the floor. She loves to lay on her back and watch the lights on her toy light up. She has started taking interest in toys! I caught her swatting at one, making in jingle. Pretty sure she thought that was fantabulous cause she went at it for a good 30 minutes.
Lucy can hold her head up pretty much on her own yet and loves to play 'Big Girl' where she gets a death grip on my fingers and I pull her up to a sitting position. I think she'll be attempting to sit on her own here pretty quick.
She is not nearly as colicky as she used to be. I've even stopped giving her Prevacid for reflux. I stopped about a week ago and she's still fine so hopefully that phase is over and done with.
We had her blessing on the 9th. We just did it at our house and invited our immediate family. Lucy looked adorable in her blessing dress!! My dad blessed her for us...it was such a sweet blessing.

She has her 4 month appointment in a couple of weeks. She'll be getting, of course, more shots but I'm excited to see her stats and how much she has grown.
She is seriously such a sweet little angel and we are so so blessed to have her as part of our family!

2 Months!!

2010-12-14T10:02:00.002-07:00

2 months have passed since our little princess joined our family and we couldn't be happier!

Lucys checkup went well. She got 3 shots which was super sad :( but the Dr. said she looks great! She weighs 11lbs 8 oz (70%) shes 24.25 " tall (95%) and her head is 40.25cm (80%)
He prescribed her some Prevacid to see if it helps her tummy. Poor thing could use some relief!

Lucy has Finally started smiling!! Not alot, but enough for me :) She started cracking little grins about a week ago but now I can get her to smile a couple of times a day. It's pretty sad that 2 or 3 smiles a day makes me happy but she is seriously such a grumpy little thing that I'll take anything I can get LOL.

She ALWAYS sleeps through the night. I put her to bed around 10 or 11 and she'll sleep until 7:30-8:30ish. She'll wake up, have breakfast, and go back to sleep until 11:30. I am SO thankful that she is a good sleeper, even if it is only at night. And, I'm happy to announce that she is SLEEPING ON HER BACK!! Yay!

She rarely sleeps during the day. She cries when I put her down and if I'm holding her she has to be bounced or rocked. I can't imagine how bad her tummy must hurt if she can't even sleep during the day. I've tried so many different things to get her some relief but I don't know if any of it helps. I've tried changing my diet around, giving her formula, mixing formula and milk etc etc. I'm at a loss! But, this to shall pass right?!

On the tooth front, the Dr. said he doesn't think her teeth are breaking through but that they may be pushing on her gums enough that it causes her discomfort. Duh! I can feel them under her gums Doc. She's also started drooling ALOT! That was a huge indicator that Parker was teething so we'll see what happens.

She's completely grown out of her newborn clothes and is comfortably snug in her 0-3 month clothes. She'll be moving up before I know it!

She still really likes her baths and LOVES showers! She just really really hates getting out.

She can hold her head up pretty much all by herself now and shes got quite the grip! I can put a toy in her hand and she'll hang on for dear life. She really doesn't have any interest in them though LOL.

Lucy is such a cutie and so so sweet!! Happy 2 month birthday Lulu! Mommy loves you!

Speaking of teeth...

2010-12-04T07:47:00.002-07:00

update: The tooth vacated its residence on Dec 16th. Yay Parker!

Parker has his first loose tooth!! Its his bottom middle tooth and it's already got a tooth coming in behind it...weird! He's super excited for the tooth fairy experience to start :)

Teeth!!

2010-12-01T09:29:00.002-07:00

Yesterday was a pretty hard day. I went shopping while Parker was at school thinking Lucy would sleep the whole time. Boy was I wrong! She cried from the minute we walked in until we left, cried all during the drive home. The only time she wasn't crying was when I was holding her or she was sucking on her binkie. So while I was holding her she spit out her binkie and started crying. As I went to put her binkie back in her mouth I saw this little white dot on her gums. I didn't even think about it being a tooth at first cause she's only 7 weeks old. Honestly I had no idea what it was. I stuck my finger in there to get it out. Needless to say, it wasn't going to come off LOL. No wonder she was so grumpy! she has this little teeny white tooth poking its way through her gums. She didn't sleep ALL DAY! She was awake from 8am until midnight last night...and let me tell you, I was EXHAUSTED! But surprisingly, she did sleep all night and woke up around 7:30. And now, guess what?! She's taking a nap! I have a feeling today will be much better than yesterday :)

6 weeks!

2010-11-24T10:40:00.002-07:00

Happy 6 weeks birthday Lucy Lu!

Here's a couple of quick updates on how much Lucy is changing:

She can cry REAL tears! Sad huh! A couple of days ago I left her crying in her crib while I was getting dressed and man was she MAD! When I went in to get her she had little baby tears streaming down her face and her eyes were all red and puffy. I felt so so bad but at the same time it was kind of a sweet moment...getting to see someones first tear drops :)

This past week has been kind of a nightmare. Lucy cried all day for two days. If she wasn't being held she'd cry. If she wasn't being held the way that she wanted she would cry. She wouldn't sleep. She was throwing up all of her food after every meal. I was at my wits end and wanted to run away! So I was trying to figure out if my milk was causing it. I fed her formula for a couple of feedings and , what do ya know, she kept it down and went to sleep! HEAVEN!! So I started doing some research to figure out if maybe she's allergic to my milk. Everything I read said babies cannot be allergic to their moms milk BUT that she may be having a reaction to the cows milk that I drink. Either that or nuts causes alot of issues for newborns. Since I don't eat nuts I figured it must be the cows milk....I seriously drink like 4-5 glasses of milk a day. And thats not including my milk and cookies snack. So yesterday I cut all dairy out of my diet and, guess what!? It worked! She slept like an angel yesterday and slept 8 hours last night! I hope that as she gets older I can gradually work the milk back in to my diet but we'll see.

She HATES laying on her back. She screams and flails her arms around like shes falling. She does love laying on her tummy though! It makes getting her comfy at night hard. They say babies should sleep on their back. So what do you do if your baby WILL NOT sleep on their back?? So, I'm gonna get the Mom of the Year award for this, but I let her sleep on her tummy. I know, I'm gonna go to hell, but she's gotta sleep right?! At night, in her crib, she sleeps on her boppy, kind of in an upright position but during they day it's all tummy time! She curls up in a little ball with her feet tucked under her and her arms under her head. So cute!! Tonight I'm going to try to raise her mattress up at one end so she's not flat on her back...hopefully that helps!

Speaking of tummy time, her little neck is so strong! She can easily flip her head from side to side and can hold it up for a good minute or so at a time. When shes laying on my chest on her tummy she'll hold her head up and just stare at me. It's the cutest thing ever!!

She's doing much much better nursing and really only gets bottles when we're in public and when she wakes up for the first time in the morning. I'm so glad cause I was seriously losing my patience with the whole thing and was thinking about just quitting altogether.

Lucy has pretty much outgrown her newborn sized clothes and its fitting into the 0-3 months. And, as of about a week ago, she upgraded from newborn to size 1 diapers. Wow! She weighs about 10 lbs and is as cute as ever! She still gets the hiccups alot and has started cooing :) Last night I could have swore she smiled a little too.

Love you Lucy babe!

Pumpkin Carving and Halloween Fun

2010-11-14T20:54:00.002-07:00

For Halloween this year Parker chose to be a dragon from How To Train Your Dragon. He is a Deadly Nadder...scary! I seriously hate these stupid cheap costumes from Walmart but with a new baby in the house I really didn't have time to make him one. Oh well, the mask is pretty cool! Lucy was a little Pumpkin since that has been her nickname since we found out we were having an October baby. I did make her costume since Icouldn't find an infant sized one. I tye dyed a onsie orange, made a bow and a tutu and called it good :)

The Deadly Nadder and Lil' Pumpkin

A couple of nights before Halloween we finally got around to carving pumpkins. Park had a blast!

I think Dad did too :)

Lucy Marie Robbins 10/13/2010

2010-11-03T16:35:00.008-06:00

Ok, Ok, I know I'm only about 4 weeks late with this post but here it is :)

Baby Lucy's birth story

Wednesday Oct 13th started like every other day. It was my first official day of maternity leave and I had A MILLION things to get done. We were planning on going to Lake Powell for a few days for a little relaxation and we were leaving late that night.

I started the day bright and early at 7:30. I got Parker ready for school and got a load of laundry going. While Parker was at school I went to the grocery store and got all the shopping for the trip done. After picking Parker up from school we came home and I got to cleaning. I did both bathrooms, cleaned my room, did more laundry, dusted, etc etc. I have this huge issue with leaving my house messy while I go on vacation. What can I say, I like coming home to a clean house :)

After I got the majority of the dirty work done I got myself cleaned up. I still had a few errands to run so I was rushing and pushing myself alot more than I should have been. After I showered and got dressed I went to switch the laundry again. It was about 2:30 and I was moving the clothes from the washer to the dryer when I dropped one of Parker's little socks. I bent down to pick it up and SPLASH!!! Gross right?! I sat there for a couple of seconds kind of shocked then said "Oh shit!"

After I came to terms with what was going on I got moving again. John got that dreaded call of "Honey, we're having a baby." So, while he was on his way home I put my makeup on and started getting my hair done. I couldn't show up at the hospital looking like a drowned rat right?! So, John got home and wanted to go right to the hospital. I, on the other hand, had a ton of stuff to get done before we went. However, it was slightly uncomfortable doing ANYTHING while feeling like every time I moved I was peeing my pants!

I didn't have my hospital bag actually packed but I had made a very detailed list of things we would need. So, I got John started on the list while I finished my hair. Then I realized that Parker needed somewhere to go, so I called my mom and dad and neither answered. So I kind of started freaking out at that point. I mean, seriously, of all days for this to happen it HAD to be today. She couldn't have waited three days to let me go on vacation. She couldn't wait until I was all the way ready for her. Nope, my kids ARE NOT patient.

So anyway, my dad finally called me back and said he'd come get Parker. I got my bag all packed and I got the rest of the laundry done. I had been yelling at Park all day to get his room cleaned. As my luck would have it, he didn't clean any of it. Not one little bit. So, I went in and got it semi straightened up. I know, I'm kind of psychotic. It drives me CRAZY to come home from vacation or whatever to a messy house. I wanted to get the floors vacuumed and the kitchen floor mopped but by this point it was already 4:30 and John was getting really, and I mean really pissed off that I wasn't ready to go yet. Not to mention Dr. Nance told me to go straight to the hospital when my water broke. So, we finally got Parker and Maisy off to Grandma and Grandpas and we left for the hospital.

As we pulled into the hospital I took one look at the parking lot and started refreaking. There were so many cars there! And here I was looking like I had peed my pants! I had to walk all the way from the parking lot to the labor and delivery unit with John walking behind me so noone would see my 'accident' LOL.

We got all checked in and settled in our room by 5:15. The nurse checked me and I was at a whoppin 2 and 90% effaced. I wasn't having any noticeable contractions. Dr. Nance wanted to induce me but I really didn't want any Pitocin. I wanted to start labor naturally but he decided that since my water had broken 3 hours earlier and I still wasn't having any contractions that he wanted to start me. So, they started me at 4 of pitocin to see if that would get me moving along. I had them do the epidural at 6:20 since when they started me with Park I went from a 1 to a 10 in an hour. I didn't want to be caught without it. At 7 I was checked again and was about a 3. So, a couple hours rolled by with very little progress and still no noticeable contractions. I was starving, thirsty and SO uncomfortable from the epidural. I had tubes coming out of my hand, my back, and two tubes up my yoohoo! The nurse checked me again at 9:20 and I had upgraded to a freaking 3. I was seriously almost in tears. I was wishing I hadn't even had the epidural cause it was causing me so much stress and discomfort. Around 10pm John headed down to the cafeteria to get some dinner. I was laying there, by myself ten minutes later when I started feeling hard contractions. After about 15-20 minutes they started getting more and more intense until they were coming every minute or so. I was in SO much pain so I tried to push my epidural dose button but the damn thing was nowhere to be found. So, I tried to call for the nurse but the damn nurse calling thing was nowhere to be found either. I couldn't move from the waist down so I was feeling around everywhere trying to find those damn buttons! I gave up and just laid there. Miserable and alone. Waiting for my husband to come back from his dinner run. I assumed he was going to get his food and come back to the room and eat it, but no...he stayed in the cafeteria to leisurly eat his food while I laid there, alone and in pain!! He FINALLY came back about the same time the nurse came in to check on me. At 10:40 she checked me and I was FINALLY at a 10! She had given me my epidural button to push but told me it would take at least 15 minutes to start working. I pushed that sucker like there was no tomorrow!! She had the anesthesiologist come in and give me an extra dose of epidural at 11:00. Dr. Nance called at a quarter to 11 and said he was stuck in traffic. CRAP! But at about 11:10 he FINALLY made it. He took one look at me and said "Get ready, you're gonna have a baby!" Seriously, why does everyone say that? Do they think I don't know?? So, he gets all situated down there and about 1 minute later tells me to get ready to push. I pushed 6 times through 2 contractions and little Lucy was here!! She was born at 11:22pm weighing 8lbs 9 oz and she was 20 inches long and absolutely perfect!!

While they were getting her all cleaned up the weirdest thing happened...I started itching, like crazy! All over my face, neck and head. I seriously could not scratch my head hard enough. The anesthesiologist didn't know why but gave me some benadryl. It only lasted about 20 minutes and then stopped. Weird!

Finally at about 2am we got all settled into our room and we finally got a little rest!

During our time at the hospital Lucy's blood sugar levels were low so they had to test her every three hours. Her poor little feet were so bruised :(

Finally on Friday we got to go home! When we left the hospital she was down to 8lbs 1oz but was doing fantastic.

Her first couple of weeks she was such a good sleeper! She would sleep all day and only wake up to eat. She would sleep for 5-6 hours at a time.

At her 2 week checkup she was up to 8lbs 11oz (64%) 22in (95%) and her head was 37.5cm (83%). I have a feeling shes going to be tall and skinny like everyone else in the family, except me! I'll be the short chunky one in all of our family picutres LOL.

Now, at 4 weeks, shes starting to show that she has quite the attitude! She is still sleeping really well at night. Anywhere from 5-8 hours. But the daytime is a completely different story. She loves loves loves being held and she cries if I put her down. Needless to say I don't get a whole lot done during the day. It's ok though. I forces me to slow down and relax and enjoy my time with her. Lucy is a super good eater. She eats every 4-5 hours during the day and once during the night, usually about 5 oz at a time. She gets the hiccups after almost every feeding, just like when she was still in my tummy. I knew she was gonna be a hiccuper LOL. Shes started making eye contact and she LOVES to stare at my face. She also really likes to be on her tummy which is completely opposite from Parker. He hated tummy time! Lucy is super strong and can turn her head from side to side while shes laying on her tummy and she can hold it up for a couple of seconds while shes laying over my shoulder. She still has a ton of dark curly hair and her eyelashes seem to grow longer overnight. Oh, and weird thing that I totally did not expect, she has BLUE EYES! Huge, gorgeous blue eyes. We are definitely gonna have our hands full with this one!

On a side note, Parker has done great with transitioning to big brother instead of only child. He was a little jealous at first but is completely over it and LOVES to help out. He loves to hold her and 'pet' her head. He loves to help mommy by getting diapers, blankets, burp rags etc. I do feel bad that I don't have as much time with him as I used to and I tend to have less patience. I think its been harder for me to deal with having another child in the house than it has been for him. However, it has been hardest on Maisy. She gets so jealous of Lucy and she has to be touching me wherever I am. She'll even sleep on my foot if I'm sitting on the couch with my feet on the floor. She seems to be getting better and is accepting the way things are now but it was really very sad for the first couple weeks.

I'll end this post before it becomes a novel but I'm going to try and do weekly posts so I'm not so overwhelmed :)

What a gentleman!

2010-09-19T11:36:00.002-06:00

This morning while getting ready to leave for work, Parker and I were walking out the garage door. He opens the door, pauses, then steps aside and says "Ladies first!" as he waves his hand at me to walk ahead of him. Seriously, how cute is that?!?! Love my little man!

Funny story!

2010-09-13T08:22:00.002-06:00

John and Parker are sitting at the kitchen table reading magazines. John's looking at a hunting magazine and Parker is reading the latest issue of Oriental Trading, the Halloween issue. He's perusing the costume section when he says "Dad, that girl is cute!" pointing at a picture of a little girl wearing a genie costume. It consisted of a top and bottoms with the girls belly button showing. Anyway, John says "Why do you think she's cute?" And Park says as casual as can be "cause she's showin' some skin!" I seriously about died!! Don't ask me where he learned that but needless to say we had a long discussion after that about girls being pretty when they AREN'T "showin' skin".

Dove Hunt 2010

2010-09-09T14:19:00.003-06:00

The dove hunt started on Sept 1st. John always likes to get out one or two times so he and Park headed over to Santaquin that night to see if they could find anything. Sure enough, they came home with their limit. Parker had an absolute blast! Like father like son I guess.

Heres Parker all decked out in his camo

And the crap load of doves they brought home

Parker is so lucky to have a dad who loves hanging out with him and teaching him how to do all sorts of fun 'guy' things....cause lord knows mom would never teach him this! LOL

First day of Kindergarten

2010-08-31T16:41:00.003-06:00

My little man started Kindergarten today!

**sniff sniff**

I wanted to start a fun school tradition so I decided that each year on the first day of school eve I would get a small gift. After work yesterday I ran to Walmart and got Parker his first Bionicle. Holy cow, he was so excited! He stayed up for an extra half hour with his dad putting it together. What a smart kid....he put it together almost all on his own.

This morning Parker woke up about 3 hours earlier than he usually does (he must have been really excited). I made him his favorite breakfast, Cream of Wheat. And, I added a little special something to mark the occasion, fresh raspberries and blackberries. He was in heaven! After breakfast he got dressed in the outfit he picked out all by himself. I think he did pretty dang good!

Off to school! As we were walking into the building I started tearing up a little bit. I know, I'm such an emotional wreck when it comes to this kind of stuff. Thank goodness for sunglasses! I was seriously fighting back the tears the entire way into the school, while Park hung up his backpack, found his name tag, and started to play. I was fighting back tears while I forced him to give me a goodbye hug (yes, I'm one of those moms that makes my kid hug me in front of his friends) and I was still fighting them back as I walked out the door and drove home.

While I was busy being a complete wreck, Parker couldn't get into the classroom fast enough. I'm so happy that he's growing up to be such an independant little person, but at the same time it makes me sad that he doesn't need me as much anymore. I'm so proud of my little man and I'm so excited for him to start experiencing all the things he'll be exposed to in school. I'm especially excited for him to learn to read! If he's anything like his mom, once he learns how to read he's going to have his nose stuck in a book every spare second.

Parker, Mommy and Daddy are sooo sooo proud of you and the sweet, handsome little guy that you're growing up to be. We know you will have so much fun in school, learning new things and making new friends. We love you so much!!

Ready for school to start

Hanging up his backpack

How studly does he look??

Love you Bug!!

Lil' Pumpkin EDD 10/29/10

2010-08-31T16:27:00.002-06:00

I had a 3d/4d ultrasound done last friday. Seriously one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

I almost didn't get these done but I am SO glad that I did! She must not have to much room in there cause she was seriously bent in half. Both of her feet were right next to her face and man was she movin'! I can already tell she is gonna have a huge personality and I can't wait to meet my little princess in person!

29 down-11 to go

2010-08-16T18:21:00.002-06:00

We went to our 29 week appt on Aug 13th. It's our last 4 week visit...that means we're getting closer to DD! I have to say I am so proud of my weight gain so far. Only up 9lbs! My nurse said the average at this time is about 19lbs so I'm pretty excited that I haven't let myself go like I did the first time around LOL.

The results from my gestational diabetes test came in at 104. My Dr. said anything under 140 is good. I was a little worried about it since right before I went in to take the test I downed a double chocolate cupcake. Don't judge me, I have no willpower when it comes to chocolate right now. Anyway, blood pressure is still great, hovering around 106-60. Little Lucys heartbeat was strong and just fluttering away. Looks like we're well on our way to welcoming a healthy little girl into our family in just a few weeks.

The past week or so I've been getting alot of Braxton Hicks contractions. I never had them with parker so when they started I wasn't sure what they were. Thank you Google for always answering my questions. The contractions feel like my entire stomach tenses up into a big ball, holds like that for a couple seconds and then it relaxes. It doesn't hurt at all but it does feel pretty dang weird. It's getting alot harder to fit any food in my stomach cause there is seriously, no room left in there! Makes me kinda sad cause I really really, and I mean really, like to eat. I feel so full after eating even a small amount that I can barely move!

Oh, I finally got my quilt ordered for the nursery! It's not the one I was thinking about getting. It's MUCH cuter! I'll post pics as soon as it gets here. John and I started stripping the antique dresser over the weekend. We got the 2 small drawers done. 7 coats of paint stripped away and underneath is a gorgeous oak! Not to mention, we uncovered some fabulous little keyholes on each drawer!

Next update....32 weeks :)

25 week update

2010-07-19T07:20:00.002-06:00

Since I'm about a week behind I figured I'd better post an update.

I had my 25 week appt on 7/16. Good news, the little pumpkin is doing GREAT! BP is still looking good, weight gain is on track (only a 7 pd gain so far!!) and babys heart rate was perfect! My Dr. still thinks she sounds like a boy when listening to her heart rate. I have to get my glucose test done in 2 weeks, not looking forward to that! That stuff is disgusting!

Update on my To Do List:

I did get the nursery room cleared out and all of my office stuff moved downstairs. The desk is still in the nursery (waiting on the hubby for that one) but other than that its ready to get started. I found a super cute dresser that I plan on refinishing for the babys room. I haven't started on that yet but hopefully this weekend. Great news, we cleaned the basement!! We went through every box we had and threw away a ton of stuff and got a huge flatbed trailer full of stuff to sell at the yard sale. It was a huge pain but I am sooo glad it's done. It's so refreshing to let go of old things that we'll never use again, making room for new things! I have to admit, I teared up a little bit while going through all of Parker's baby clothes and baby toys and even some things from my childhood but I did save the things that I was most attached to. Now that our basement is basically empty (aside from holiday decor, things that go in the office, and a couple of storage containers of miscellaneous items) we can start finishing it! Speaking of empty, John and I went through our dressers and closet and got rid of so many clothes! I seriously cannot believe how many clothes we had that we NEVER wore. I got rid of so much that I no longer need a dresser LOL. So, I sold that at the yard sale too :) Now I have plenty of room to buy a new dresser, that I actually like, and new clothes to fill all that empty space in my closet.

After all that hard work of sorting through things to throw away and things to sell, we had a multifamily yard sale with my parents and my brothers. Wow, I cannot believe the amount of stuff that we all had! My parents driveway is pretty dang big and it was PACKED with stuff. We had a great turnout, most people wanting everything for nothing, but we still made out ok. Almost $400 dollars later we were done!

So, to sum up my progress on the checklist from 4 weeks ago:
Basement cleaned out-check
Nursery cleaned out-check
yard sale done-check

I don't think John's going to have time to finish the basement until this winter so that's going on the back burner for now. I still need to order my top window blind for the nursery and I decided I'm not painting the nursery until the baby quilt gets here (hopefully in the next couple weeks). I need to have that so I can pick coordinating colors.

25 wk To Do List:
order crib
finish dresser (will post before and after pics when it's done)
wait for quilt
paint nursery
and,if I can find one, install antique chandelier in nursery

How did this happen??

2010-06-29T10:07:00.005-06:00

Where did the time go?? How is my baby 5 years old already?!?

The invite!!

We had so much fun planning this years birthday bash. We had a Monster Jam theme complete with racing flags all along the flower beds around the entire yard, a balloon arch, monster truck picture, monster truck pinata, tattoos and monster truck themed games.

A special thanks to Mother Nature for allowing great weather (perhaps a little on the hot side) and a very special thanks to my awesome hubby for helping me get everything together and not complaining about it to much. Love you babe!

The party guests got to draw their own Monster Truck and get a Monster Truck tattoo (or 2) they were awesome! We played 'Pin the license plate on Grave Digger' complete with personalized license plates for each guest. Then we played Grave Digger dash where the kids split into teams and had to fill a shovel with dirt, run back to their team and dump it in their team bucket until it was full. We played 'Hot Wheels' which is hot potato, just with a Monster Truck and we played 'Red Light, Green Light'. Each guest got their own pull back Monster Truck toy and we had Monster Truck races. Then we finished off with a pinata and cake and ice cream. We had so much fun!! But, I gotta say, I'm glad it's over!

Here's a shot of the balloon arch and the flags. By the time I took this picture a bunch of the balloons had popped due to the heat.

I decided not to stress this year about making a special birthday cake. Thank you Macey's bakery for the super cute cake that Parker loved!!

The decorations turned out dang cute!

This is most of the kids that came to the party. A couple had already called it a day by the time I got this shot. Thanks everyone for coming and making Parker's birthday so special!!

Lake Powell 2010

2010-06-29T09:43:00.004-06:00

This year we got to spend 5 GLORIOUS days in Lake Powell. Me, John, Parker, Mom and Dad and Jenny and Matt all headed down early early Friday morning. A group was just getting ready to leave our spot when we got there so we didn't have to go searching for a new one. Lucky us! As usual, the wind was pretty strong during the afternoons but the temperature was perfect and the water was awesome! The fishing got better and better everyday! I seriously did not want to come back....I would have been perfectly content staying there for the rest of the summer :) I had so much fun relaxing and doing nothing I didn't get very many pictures. Here are the few I got for your viewing pleasure.Parker driving Grandpa's boat....spoiled! I don't even get to drive Grandpa's boat ;)

Little stinker Maisy tried sneaking onto the houseboat. Our association rules state NO DOGS. We brought all three of them with us, but did a pretty good job keeping them out of the boat.

My little fisherman-his daddy is so proud!

Parkey learned how to do a cannonball!

My kids chillin' in the shade.

I was so surprised my big dogs did such a good job sticking around camp! They had so much fun and were exhausted by the end of the first day :)

We had such a good trip and I cannot WAIT to go back in July!!

Holy Shamoly! Only 20 weeks left!

2010-06-14T10:45:00.002-06:00

Yay!! We're at the half way point!! In 20 more weeks I get to meet my baby girl. This pregnancy is flying by so quickly...I have absolutely nothing done and I'm feeling so very unprepared :(
I've been working A TON of hours lately, trying to get some OT so I can pay off some debts and get some extra money in savings before I go part time. I just got done with an 80 hour week and am jsut beginning a 78 hour week. I'm so exhausted already! But, the checks will more than make up for it.
As far as the pregnancy goes, I feel AMAZING!! The only complaint I have right now is my pants don't want to button up anymore. Which means, yup, you guessed it...SHOPPING! Dang it ;) I can feel this little pumpkin moving all the time now and, man, is she a mover! I don't have any strange cravings yet...mostly just fruit, veggies and pasta. Lately I haven't been a fan of red meat. The texture of hamburger makes me want to vomit! I feel almost vegetarian due to the mostly meat free meals I cook throughout the week. I think John's getting a little tire of it :)

I had my 20 week ultrasound done on Thursday June 10th. While the Dr. was doing her heart measurements he did an EKG and noticed a little bit of an arrhythmia. It kind of sounded like her heart was skipping a beat. Needless to say, I was FREAKING OUT! He said that a slight arrhythmia at this point is fairly common and it usually corrects itself by birth. I calmed down slightly after that but I was still really worried. He checked all her measurements starting with her heart, them moving to her brain, spine, abdominal cavity, face (no cleft palate), appendages(10 little finger, 10 little toes!) and then rechecked her gender. Yup, she's still ALL girl!! She was so dang cute during all of this. Her little legs were folded up against her, then she'd stretch one out for a second then fold it right back in. She kept her left hand over her chest pretty much the entire time. I guess she's going to be pretty patriotic. While the Dr. was trying to get a good profile shot of her he says to me "Oh, well, that explains it!" I'm like, "What?? Explains what??" She had the hiccups! It was the cutest thing ever!! And that, of course, explained the arrhythmia. After she stopped hiccupping he did another EKG and, sure enough, perfect heart rate! Her heart rate was measuring between 126-132BPM during the ultrasound. Anywhere from 120-160 is normal. The old wives tale says a fast heart rate is a girl and a slow heart rate is a boy. I guess she proved that wrong :)
Dr. figured she was about 13oz and measuring at about 20wks 1 day instead of 19 wks 6 days. He estimated her due date to be Oct 28th at 0700. I think he thinks he's pretty funny.
At my 20 wk appt with Dr. Nance I weighed in at 167(ugh). I had just ate a big lunch at Sizzler so I'm taking 1.5lbs off due to that(don't judge! :) So, I'm saying I'm at 165.5lbs which means a weight gain of 5.5lbs. BP still around 110/65. I talked to Dr. Nance about limiting my stress and trying to get full term this time around. he said that it would be a good idea if I keep my stress level to a minimum(Ya right! Obviously he's never been a dispatcher)and to not add anything in to my daily routine that would create more stress. So I have to talk to my training supervisor at work to see if I can opt out of this next training session of new hires. I doub't she'll be very happy but it's for the well being of Little Pumpkin so I really don't care.

One of my pregnancy goals is to have everything for the baby completely ready by the time I'm 32 weeks. Wow, that's only 12 weeks away! I can't believe how fast time flies! I'm going to be making 'To Do' lists in 4 week increments. And, here's the first one.
To Do list for the next 4 weeks:
Clean out basement
Finish office room in the basement
Have a yard sale
Clear out and paint the nursery
Order top window blind for the nursery

I seriously cannot wait to start checking things off of this list and starting a new list for my 24 week point!
Wish me luck!!

Updates, Updates and more Updates!!

2010-05-26T16:06:00.002-06:00

We've been so busy since my last post! Parker had his final choir concert for the year and did such a good job! What a good little singer he is...even if he has a hard time holding still ;). I'm so proud of him for learning so many new songs and making so many friends!

Parker also graduated from Preschool! I seriously cannot believe how fast that went by. It seems like such a short time ago that he was 3 years old and starting to go to school. He has learned sooo much in the past 2 years. I'm amazed at how smart he is! He can identify every letter of the alphabet and knows what sound they make. He can spell most of his colors. He can count to 30ish (he loses track of where hes at LOL). And he can read simple 3-4 letter words. He can do alot of other things but I won't keep going cause I don't want to seem like I'm bragging LOL. I couldn't be more proud of all the things he has accomplished in his 4.5 years of life. He is such a special little guy!!

As most of you know we are expecting our second child on Oct. 29th.

I finally had my first ultrasound yesterday, and it's confirmed. We're having a girl!! I'm so excited and still kind of in shock.

I was told by a friend that if you eat something really sugary before an ultrasound the baby is pretty active. So, on the way up I ate a package of donuts and drank some coke. Well, it worked! She was all over the place!! she would reach down, grab her feet, pull them up to her face and let them flop back down. She did this over and over and over. Her mouth was opening and closing the entire time. I think she may have been trying to suck on her toes or something. Cute, right?! When the sonographer turned on the 3d machine it showed a full head of dark hair. Even though she still kind of looks like an alien, she is absolutely beautiful! We are in some serious trouble if she looks anything like her brother :) I can't wait to meet her! Hopefully, she is more cooperative than her brother and she stays in there for 40 weeks. She's measuring about 12 cm from head to bum. She wouldn't stretch her legs out long enough to get an accurate measurement but she looks to be on track for her age.

Daddy and big brother are so happy to be adding a little girl to our family. And I couldn't be more ecstatic! On the drive home John told me how much trouble we are in and how he's going to be the most protective daddy ever. Parker told me he wants to teach her to play, and jump and swing. What a lucky little girl to have a daddy and a big brother that love her so much already. When we got home we had Parker call the grandparents. He told my mom "my mommy has a wittle girl in her tummy. Her name is Wuci(luci)!" What a cutie :)

This weekend we are heading down to Vegas, just the 4 of us, so John and I can retie the knot. I'm debating whether I want to do the Elvis package where Elvis performs the ceremony or if are going to go through the drivethru.

I'm totally kidding! We aren't sure what exactly we're going to do but I can assure you, we will keep it as far away from redneck as possible LOL!

I'll update with photos when we get back :)

Happy Mothers Day!

2010-05-09T12:31:00.001-06:00

Dear Lord, It's such a hectic day
With little time to stop and pray
For life's been anything but calm
Since You called on me to be a mom
Running errands, matching socks
Building dreams with building blocks
Cooking, cleaning, and finding shoes
And other stuff that children lose
Fitting lids on bottled bugs
Wiping tears and giving hugs
A stack of last weeks mail to read
So where's the quiet time I need?
Yet when I steal a minute, Lord
Just at the sink or ironing board
To ask the blessings of Your grace
I see then, in my little one's face
That you have blessed me
All the while
And I stop to kiss
That precious smile

Random Pictures

2010-04-07T07:58:00.001-06:00

Pics of my Valentine's Day lillies

Easter 2010!

2010-04-07T07:33:00.006-06:00

Easter was so much fun! Saturday we went to the Spanish Fork Easter Egg Hunt. It was freeeeezing cold but Parker had a blast. His egg hunting skills have improved since last year when all he did was run around chasing people LOL. On Sunday we spent the morning at home. Parker found the basket that the Easter Bunny left for him. It was filled with candy, books and toys. He got Toothless the dragon and was SO excited! Sunday morning/afternoon was spent making Easter eggs and cupcakes. We went to Santaquin for lunch and Easter egg hunting then we headed back to Spanish for dinner. The weekend went way to fast but it was super fun!

Parker enjoying an egg

I love Easter Eggs! They're so pretty after they're peeled.

We have some mad decorating skills, right??

Park's Easter basket

The Easter Bunny came to town!

Patiently waiting for the Easter Egg Hunt to start

Robbins cousins

Parker and I had so much fun making Easter cupcakes

And oh, were they yummy!

Happy Easter everyone!

Happy Birthday!!

2010-03-25T09:59:00.003-06:00

*~*Happy Birthday Maisy*~*

Now that you're 2

there's no more going poo

inside the house

or I'll smack you!

Oh, my sweet little Mater Moo

I think you're a shit

but I still love you!

Valentine's Day

2010-02-16T13:54:00.006-07:00

My sweet hubby gave me this huge bouquet of lillies. He did such a good job! Love him!
Lillies are absolutely my favorite flower of all time. Not to mention I've had a blast taking pictures of the blooms. I've got some really good shots that I plan on framing and hanging in my bathroom.

We had a fun filled weekend planned for Balentine's Day (as Parker calls it). One of the main activities was trying to get Parker to enunciate his 'V' when saying Valentine's Day. I had no idea how excited he was to celebrate. He kept telling me all day "Mom, it's Balentine's Day!" or "Mom, we can't clean my room! It's Balentine's Day!" He used it as an excuse to get out of EVERYTHING! Man, he takes after his dad so much! LOL. (just kidding babe :)

On Saturday we went to Monster Jam. That was my gift to my boys. Saturday evening we had
a little get together with awesome friends and great food! Love you all!

Sunday we had plans with both my family and John's. We headed to Santaquin for a late lunch. After some yummy Sloppy Joes (extra sloppy of course :) and desserts we passed out Valentine's between the kids. It's our tradition to give a holiday book to our nieces and nephews along with their treats. I hope they enjoy their books as much as Parker does.

Afterwards, we headed back to Spanish Fork to spend some time with my family. I made Bleu Cheese Burgers and mom made her yummy potatoe salad. The kids had a blast playing together and most of the adults, with the exception of my crippled dad, my sick pregnant sister in law and my party pooper hubby, played a few rounds of cards. What a fun Balentine's Day!

Boys Love Trucks

2010-02-16T13:18:00.008-07:00

Especially MONSTER TRUCKS!!!!

For Valentine's Day I surprised my boys with tickets to Monster Jam.

We had awesome seats and the show was great.

Gotta love the smell of exhaust in the afternoon!

Can you tell that he's excited!?

Patiently waiting for the Monster Trucks

The popcorn in the background was to die for!

My hot hubby!

Monster Mutt-Parker's favorite! Parker loved that he won the racing competition.

Grave Digger

Madusa-Girls driving Monster Trucks rock!!

Grave Digger after rolling at the end of the show during the freestyle competition

See the video below for all the action!

Like Father Like Son

2010-02-16T09:33:00.003-07:00

John and Parker have been doing ALOT of ice fishing this winter. Below are just a couple of pictures of one of their outings.

Like father like son LOL

Parker's big catch

Welcome Home

2010-02-16T08:12:00.004-07:00

The night we got back from Denver was quite the experience.

After driving home from the airport in a blizzard, we picked Parker up from my Mom and Dad's and finally headed home. By the time we got there it was about 10pm. We unloaded the truck and put all the suitcases in our room. First thing I did was turn the heater on since it was a balmy 45 degrees in the house.
John was outside taking care of the dogs while Parker and I were changing into our PJ's. Parker was in his room and I was in mine. There I am, down to my skivies when all of the sudden....PITCH BLACK. My first thought was, WTF? Then this blood curdling scream comes from Parker's room. So I go running to his room, wearing nothing but my undies. He's running down the hall, completely freaking out. As I scoop him up and try and calm him down John comes bursting through the door. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED??" he screams. He said while he was outside he heard a huge 'BOOM' and a big flash of light coming from just southeast of our house.
Having worked in dispatch when something similar happened, I immediately knew what was going on.
On the main road through our subdivision there is a fairly tight turn. On a nice day with normal driving conditions you have to take the turn at about 15-20 mph. Just on the outside of that turn are some utility boxes. These boxes supply power to other boxes in the neighborhood. That night was NOT normal driving conditions. It was a BLIZZARD! Apparently, some person (I have several other names but I'll stick with the nicest) driving a tow truck came around that turn like a bat out of hell and smashed into the power boxes knocking the power out through most of my half of the neighborhood.
Anyway, I hand Parker (who is still freaking out) over to John so I can get some clothes on. Being naked in a 45 degree house is not fun! I grab a flashlight and head to my room. We spent the next 15 minutes or so lighting candles and gathering flashlights. After we had the house pretty lit up we realized that with the power being off the furnace wouldnt kick on. So, we were heatless. Thank god for the gas fireplace! We ended up having a campout in the family room in front of the fireplace. We set up Parker's tent and sleeping bag and got him all settled. John and I (and Maisy) curled up in our sleeping bags and after quite some time we finally fell asleep. Around 5am we woke up to all the lights suddenly popping back on and the heater going nice and strong.
Although it was not an ideal way to spend our first night back from vacation, it ended up being a pretty good memory that we can look back on and laugh.
About a week later I was driving by and noticed some city workers installing two HUGE boulders in front of the utility boxes. Thanks to the city for realizing that was a crappy spot to put utility boxes and thanks for doing something to fix the problem. Parker really appreciates it :)

How High?

2010-02-16T07:30:00.011-07:00

Back in January John and I had the opportunity to go to Denver. I was asked to go to a public safety conference for work. John decided he wanted to tag along. Not really, I literally had to BEG him to go :). But, being the wonderful husband that he is, he agreed. Although we missed Parker very much, it was nice to go somewhere on our own. Considering we have been together for 10 years and this was our first actual vacation alone, I think it was well deserved! We had a BLAST!! The architecure was amazing! I could have walked around the city for hours looking at all the incredible buildings.

This is the airport guard horse. He's stationed at the top of a big hill just outside the airport. This guy is big, blue and has some seriously creepy glowing red eyes.

Another sample of the amazing things they have around the city. This big guy is peeking into the convention center. Isn't he cute?

Since I was in class 8 hours a day, John had alot of time to himself. I think he enjoyed the alone time. Anyway, he took a little taxi ride outside the city to Bass Pro Shops. He said this one was 10x's better than the one in Vegas. He found Parker a cute souvenir t-shirt while he was there.

This cute little place was across the street from our hotel. It's called Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. During a break in classes we headed over for lunch. This place was AWESOME. The food was great and the decor was hilarious! It's decorated entirely in Forest Gump memorabilia.

The drinks were fantastic! And so pretty!

Here's John ready to dig in :)

I love the saying hanging on the wall behind us. It's so true!

During our 4 day trip we did alot of relaxing, alot of walking, alot of eating and alot of just being together. Thanks for coming with me, Babe! Love you!

Oh the things kids say...

2010-02-02T21:39:00.002-07:00

Dinner time conversations are my favorite part of the day. We turn the TV off and the three of us sit down at the table and enjoy each others company. Parker is our nightly entertainment. This kid ALWAYS has something crazy and off the wall to say! Here are a few excerpts from the past couple of nights.

Last night:
Parker: Mom?(shoveling food into his mouth in between sentences)
Me: Yeah, bud?
Parker:I was thinking about something... (shoveling more food)
Me: What was it?
Parker: I don't know (shrugs and keeps eating)

RANDOM!!

Tonight: Parker is in the processes of eating a plateful of greenbeans.
Parker: I love green beans!
Me: I'm glad! They'll make you big and strong.
Parker: Yup! They'll make me big and strong so I can be a dad someday. I'm gonna have a son. And his mom will have 3 babies in her tummy. I don't know their names yet though.
Me: (John and I trying so hard not to laugh) Really? Who's your wife gonna be?
Parker: Abigail (the little girl next door)
Me: Does Abigail know that yet?
Parker: No, but someday she will!

RANDOM RANDOM RANDOM!!

My handsome little man

2010-01-15T10:38:00.003-07:00

It only took almost 2 years but.....

2010-01-15T10:21:00.003-07:00

It's DOOOONE!

Finally, Parker's room is completely finished! I think it turned out pretty cute and Park just loves it!

I found these storage cubes at Ikea. They hold all of Parker's toys (with room to grow). I think they make the room. Love them !

2009-11-03T08:47:00.004-07:00

This past weekend we took the boat up to Deer Creek for the last time this year.
It's WINTERIZED! :(
We had a great time and even caught a couple of fish for dinner.

Parker and I with THE SOW
(biggest fish of the day)

Bubba and his fish

He didn't want to touch it so we left it in his net

Cheese!

Lake Powell '09

2009-10-07T15:10:00.000-06:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Backyard Fun

2009-09-01T12:09:00.003-06:00

The kids had so much fun just hanging out and Grandma and Grandpa's house. There is so much to do there, the kids never got bored. Parker and Keizya getting ready to go down the slide
Riley, Jen, Parker and Elyssa striking a pose. Check out the muscles on Jen, Holy crap!

Elyssa, Parker and Riley

Chloe...aka Miss Photogenic

Keizya giving me the 'Leave me the heck alone!' look LOL

Ry Ry

Parker and Chloe in the pool. I can't believe any of them got in. The water was FREEZING!

l Elyssa pigging out! Sorry Lys, I had to add to add it! :)Chloe going to town on her PB&J

All the girls!

Horsin' Around

2009-09-01T11:21:00.003-06:00

Our Kansas family FINALLY came to visit a few weeks ago! The next few posts are a compilation of everything we did for The Hunstman Family Reunion '09. We did so many fun things and had such a good time together. Here's a few pictures of my nieces doing some riding. Gotta say I'm loving that they love horses. Aren't they cute! The twins, Chloe and Riley, riding Cyera.

Chloe posing with Ebony

Chloe Givin' Ebby loves

Elyssa riding Dodger

Ry Ry riding Cyera

Update

2009-07-13T02:17:00.002-06:00

The past few weeks have been oh so busy. Parker turned 4 on June 26th. We had his party that day and then left for 5 days on Lake Powell the next day. It was a very busy couple of days but we survived...and in the process we made some unforgettable memories. 1012 (standby for those of you who don't know 10 code) for more details and pictures. Hope everyone is having a safe and super fun summer!

Hello...we're the neighbors

2009-07-06T01:08:00.002-06:00

***Caution*** This post is pretty gross and proof that I am a mom of a little boy...read at your own discretion :)

The house next door to us has been vacant ever since we moved in to our home last June. Over the weekend we had some new neighbors move in. We hadn't had a chance to meet them yet until this past Friday. We had just gotten home from a long car ride and John and I needed to potty pretty badly. So, I get Parker out of the truck and he hops on his scooter. I run in the house, let Maisy outside and then book it to the bathroom. I'm in there for seriously less than 3 minutes. I hurry back outside to get Park. As I'm walking out of the garage I look over and see Parker standing next to a strange woman who I'm assuming is our new neighbor. She's holding a grocery sack and some tissues and Parker is cleaning up something in their all dirt, no landscaping yard. My first assumption is that Maisy did her 'business' in their yard like she has done for the past year. So, I go walking over (kind of miffed shes making my kid clean up dog crap) to see whats up. Here's how it went down.

Me: Hello, whats going on?
Neigbor: We're just cleaning up poop.
Me: Dog poop?
Neighbor: Nope, his. (pointing at Parker)
Me:(jaw hits the floor) WHAT?!?!
Neighbor: Yup, I looked out the window and saw him squatting over the dirt.
Me:(jaw still hitting the floor)
Neighbor: I asked him what he was doing and he said he didn't want to go inside.
Me:WHAT?!?!
Neighbor: It's not a big deal.
Me: I'm soooo embarrassed!
Neighbor: Really, it's not a big deal. I would be mortified if it was my kid too, but really its not a big deal.
Me: (gee thanks) I'm so sorry! Let me get a hose!
Neighbor: By the way, my names Bethany. Whats yours?
Me: (god kill me now!)

TRANSFORMERS-REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

2009-06-23T13:01:00.003-06:00

I'm sure most of you are aware that we at the Robbins house are HUGE Transformers fans. Well mostly me and Parker but John likes it sometimes. Parker loves it for the wicked awesome robot battle scenes and I love it for the wicked awesome cars!

I've always been a Chevy girl and have loved loved loved Camaros since I was a kid but when I saw the 2007 movie I was in LOVE! I didn't think there was every anything that could compare to the concept Camaro aka "Bumblebee". That is until I saw the 2010 model they were bringing out in the new movie...WOW!!! Check it out.For the past few weeks I've been googling Transformer images (so I could see 'Bumblebee' in all of his hotness) and I came across this.....scroll down to see the picture below...and try not to poop your pants ;)

2009-06-23T12:52:00.003-06:00

Folks, meet Swideswipe!!

OMG is this the most gorgeous car you've ever seen or what?!?! They should have named it Orgasmic or something along those lines LOL. Let me tell you about it while you're wiping away the drool. This is Chevys new concept Corvette...should be coming out in 2012ish. Corvettes have always been really sexy looking but this tops them all! Its sexy italian stallion meets all American muscle. Words cannot express how much I love this fricking car!!!

MY LITTLE BABYS ALL GROWN UP AND GRADUATING PRESCHOOL

2009-05-28T15:44:00.005-06:00

My little Parkey 'graduated' from Preschool last week. He is actually going to go again next year but he still got to 'graduate' this year too. I can't even describe how stinkin cute it was but I'm sure the pictures will help tell the story.

All the kids came in wearing their 'America' hats then they said The Pledge of Allegiance and sang The Star Spangled Banner.
The dancing bird song...my little guys first dance with a girl *sniff sniff*

The Dinosaur Song-obviously Parkers favorite. See how much he's roaring compared to the other kids? He even added in a couple of extra roars through out the song.

Elephant Noses

Monkey See Monkey Do :)

Saying the Pledge of Allegiance

Parker with his completion certificate.

A LETTER TO MY SON

Parker, your dad and I are so proud of you and all the progress you have made in the last 6 months at preschool. Congratulations! You are such a little smarty pants. You can identify all your numbers and most of your letters and you can spell your name. You are so close to being able to write it out aaall by your-self. You are drawing shapes like a pro! Drawing shapes on everything...including the side of the house and my truck. Good thing you're so stinking cute, I can't get mad at you. You have such a vivid imagination and you say the FUNNIEST things. You make me laugh everyday. I can't believe how expressive you are and how large your vocabulary is. I love that you love to read! You have no idea how happy that makes me. It's so important to enjoy reading. Keep your love of books strong as you grow up. Your favorite book right now is The Big Wide Mouth Frog-which you and I know by heart and role play daily. And we still sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star every night at bedtime, I hope that tradition continues for years to come. Parker, I love you so much. You're my little shooting star. You make not only my world ,but the whole world, a better place.

Love you mostest,

Mommy

Randomness

2009-04-15T09:02:00.004-06:00

I just had to post this picture of Maisy. John was being mean and stuck her in Parkers pajamas and then stood her up and danced her around. She totally looks like a Muppet!!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-15T08:34:00.005-06:00

Huntsman Cousins

Freezing our fannies off at the Easter Egg Hunt

Robbins Cousins

Parkers loot from the Easter Bunny

What a good lookin' kid!!

I love Easter! It's one of my favorite holidays, right up there with Christmas and Halloween.

On Saturday we went down to Santaquin for the city easter egg hunt. Parker was so funny! Instead of picking up eggs and prizes he tried to outrun everybody to the end of the field. It was awesome LOL. On Sunday I sent him to church with Grandma and Grandpa in his new suit. When I picked him up I asked him what he learned. He said "I learned about Jesus and that he had nails in his hands and blood and it was sad" and then he laid his head on my shoulder and sighed. It brought tears to my eyes. Then he told me the rest of the story about how Jesus had nails in his feet and blood on his sides and he died for us. In all my years of hearing the story of Jesus' sacrifice for us I have never felt so moved as I was the day my baby understood the story enought to tell me about it for himself. It was a very special moment.

The rest of the day was so much fun. We had a BBQ and Easter Egg hunt at Grandma and Granpa Huntsmans. Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Robbins and had another egg hunt. We have enough candy at our house to last us until Halloween!

Happy Easter everyone!

Happy Birthday to me! I'm half way to 50!

2009-04-15T08:09:00.004-06:00

Happy Birthday to me, I'm 25! (Not today, almost a month ago. See how bad I slack off?) I'm officially no longer in my 'early 20's'. It's sad to think that I'm closer to 30 than to 20 but at the same time I'm so excited for the future. Its truely bittersweet. I have a great life with awesome family and friends. Thanks to everyone for the Birthday Wishes. Love you all!!!

POOR BABY :(

2009-04-15T07:57:00.003-06:00

My poor little monster had a serious hive break out last week. It just appeared one day on his bum and then the next day it was covering his entire body! Three different doctors opinions later it was concluded that he was allergic to the cold virus that was going around. My poor baby was so miserable :( Towards the end of the week it was so bad on his feet and ankles that he couldn't walk. It's the worst feeling in the world to have a child in pain and not being able to do anything about it. Thankfully after a week it went away. Now hes good as new!

2009-04-15T07:35:00.002-06:00

Alright everyone, prepare yourselves for 2 months worth of posts...I know, I'm a slacker

2009-03-16T16:23:00.007-06:00

The joys of working as a dispatcher...

Yesterday was one of those days when EVERYTHING seems to get on your nerves
Here are just a couple random things that happened during my 4 hour shift

1-woman wants officer to come to her home for an unruly 13 year old. The child was being rude and running around ringing the doorbell. When he was told to go to his room he then threatened to spit on her (GASP!). This made her extremely upset, enough so to call 911. Seriously???? Your kid THREATENS to spit on you so you call 911. WOW, and we wonder what is wrong with America
~SIGH~

2-Winner #2-misuse of the HOV lane now qualifies as a 911 emergency-thank you sir, the county is safe now

3-Question of the day (asked several times by said minor) Is it legal for a restaurant to give a minor an aspirin? Hmmmmm...ponder that one for a while

2009-03-05T01:44:00.002-07:00

Well, I think I've calmed down a little bit since my previous post. Everyone can sleep good tonight, I am not giving my dog away lol. I'm entitled to be able to threaten it every once in a while though, right? I decided maybe she is like one of those women that you see on those commercials who just ALWAYS has to go. Maybe she just can't help it. Anyway, she is staying. I haven't given up on her. I have decided that if I'm going to be gone for more than a couple hours at a time she can go outside in the kennel with the other dogs. I will consider that her exercise since she can't stop playing with them when they're together.

Ok, everyone can resume living their lives as normally as possible now :)

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!

2009-03-02T15:32:00.003-07:00

Ok, so I totally need to vent about my little poop problem. My dog, Maisy, will be a year old this month and she is STILL not potty trained!!! She is constantly pottying in her crate and she still sneaks off and pottys in the house. I have contacted the breeder that I got her from and asked her to take her back. I cannot handle the poop anymore! I was pretty torn about what to do with her but yesterday was the final straw. After taking her out to potty in the morning around 8:00 am I put her back in her crate so I could run some errands. About two hours later I walked in the door and the smell of feces about knocked me over! Seriously....you can't hold it for two freaking hours Maisy?! I haven't actually taken her back to the breeder yet so if anyone has any suggestions please help! I am at my wits end.

Frosty the Snowman

2009-02-04T03:55:00.006-07:00

This is our attempt at a snowman. I know, its pathetic but we had fun. Maisy has gotten into trouble a couple of times for trying to eat the poor things nose. We have saved it from her evil clutches more than once LOL.

Parker's First Field Trip

2009-02-04T03:46:00.005-07:00

Parker's preschool class took a field trip to Jumpin Jacks. This was Parker's first school field trip and he had so much fun. They had pizza and played. Parker is such a sweet little boy. He loves school and he loves his friends. He is growing up to darn fast. Does anyone have any suggestions on slowing their growth down for, oh, maybe 30 years?

WALKING WITH THE DINOSAURS

2009-02-04T03:13:00.006-07:00

Parker's big Christmas present this past year was tickets to see Walking with the Dinosaurs. It was absolutely incredible! Parker was fascinated. He was telling me all of the dinosaurs names throughout the entire show. He is such a smarty pants.

I didn't get any pictures of Parker looking at me :( He was to mesmerized by the lifesize dinosaurs walking around in front of him to be bothered to turn around for a half second snap shot. I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to convince him that those dinosaurs were just really really big toys and not really alive LOL.

Here are a couple shots of Parker's favorite dinosaurs.

Torosaurus

Stegosaurus

Brachiosaurus

Parker's all time favorite

Tyranosaurus Rex

Arizona Road Trip

2009-01-05T13:42:00.004-07:00

Lake Powell

Me and Parker

John and Parker

Glenn Canyon Bridge

As most of you know my dog, Brandy, went missing at the end of August. She turned up at the Maricopa County Animal Shelter the week before Christmas. Some woman decided to steal her...but don't get me started on that. Anyway we were going to drive down and get her but one of my coworkers family members lives down there and offered to take her home until we could come down. So we agreed to that...how nice right! We were very grateful. So we made the long 11 hour drive down to Phoenix on Friday, stayed in a hotel for about 7 hours to get some sleep, picked up Brandy and drove home on Saturday. The drive is actually very scenic and the weather down there was a balmy 60 degrees! We stopped at the Glenn Canyon Dam on the way home and took some pictures. We are so happy to have our family all back together now. Brandy is a little thin and pretty tired but just in the past two days that she's been home she has already put on a couple of pounds...lots of eating and sleeping. We are so grateful to have our little girl back home where she is safe.

Sledding 2009

2009-01-05T13:12:00.006-07:00

Parker getting some huge air...fearless I tell ya!

High-fiving Dad

FINALLY!

coming to a stop

landing the jump...not very gracefully

Going off the jump

These pictures are backwards...start from the bottom and work your way up. This one is the top of the hill

So since Sunday was such a nice day and we were all so bored of sitting around the house we decided to go sledding for a little while. Oh my gosh, it was so much fun! Parker has found his new passion. He is so fearless it scares me! There are a couple of jumps that we went on and we all got some wicked air! Check out the pictures, they speak for themselves.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009-01-01T10:01:00.002-07:00

Happy New Year everyone! Our New Year's Eve was a blast! Parker was at Grandma and Grandpa's celebrating with his cousins so John and I visited a few friends. First we stopped at his mom and dads and had a delicious dinner...holy cow that was good pork salad! Then we headed over to Darrin and Celeste's house to get the grand tour. We hung out there for a little while then we headed back to Spanish Fork to hit Dan and Steph's house. We did some backyard snowdrift sledding and stuffed our faces somemore. At midnight we yelled 'Happy New Year', kissed, shot the fireworks and then called it a night. I have the coolest friends in the world. Love you all to death!

On a more serious note...I have to be honest, I am so happy to see 2008 come to an end. The past couple of years have been very difficult and I am looking forward to putting it all behind me and moving on with life.

I'm usually not big on making New Years resolutions but I think I'm going to give it a shot this time. There are a few things that I want to do better and make more time for.

1-Lose my dispatch weight! This extra 20 lbs I'm packing around sucks! LOL
2-Make more time to actually get out and play with Parker. He's growing up so fast. Before I know it hes gonna be graduating high school and moving out :(
3-Pay off my debts..financial freedom never looked so good.
4-Food storage. We didn't have a garden in 2008 so my canned food supply is getting really really low, like scary low. I only have one more bottle of spagetti sauce! I want to get to the point where we can be totally self sufficient for at least 3 months in case one of us were to lose our job or something like that.
5-Get my yard done! I can't wait to have grass in the back yard.

Ok, I better stop right there. That list is getting overwhelming!

I hope you all have a happy and healthy 2009!

SANTA STOPPED HERE...THE ROBBINS MUST HAVE BEEN GOOD THIS YEAR!!

2008-12-29T12:30:00.007-07:00

Parker and Aunt Angie playing in Grandma's Cricket boxes
Christmas at the Robbins house

Parker's new 'shotgun'

Thanks Uncle Matt!

Christmas morning after the madness

Santa's cookies and Parker's letter

Parker's Christmas PJ's

Christmas Eve before the madness

This Christmas was so great. John and I spent it together with our little Parky. It's so great being able to live so close to all of our family. The only one missing is my brother Mike, who has decided to live in Kansas, far far away :( We miss the heck out of him and his family.

On Christmas Eve we did our annual tradition of opening one present, which always happens to be PJ's. After we got in our Christmas PJ's we made cookies for Santa. We left them out with a super cute letter that Parker wrote to him.

Christmas morning we woke Parker up and told him that Santa had came. He was so excited! We went out to the living room and he had his very own brand new chair sitting by the tree...covered in dinosaurs and cars. He also got an ice fishing pole from santa and a big Megatron Transformer and a 4wheeler helmet and goggles from John and I, along with several other gifts like clothes. John got new seat covers for his truck, Guitar Hero for the Xbox and a couple other things. John got me a super cute new purse, a very sexy cast iron soup pot and some lia Sophia jewelry. Santa also brought me a new ice fishing pole, a pink Uglystick! Santa even remembered the dogs...Tank got a giant bone and Maisy got a new winter coat!

After we finished at our house we went to my Mom and Dads for the annual Christmas Morning Breakfast. As always, it was absolutely delicious! Then we opened more presents. After we got done there we went to John's Mom and Dads. We had a yummy lunch of roast beast aka ham and, yup you guessed it, we opened MORE presents. All in all we had a wonderful Christmas! Thanks to all of our family for making it one of the best Christmases ever! We love you all and wish everyone a Happy New Year!!!

COX FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY

2008-12-29T11:55:00.006-07:00

Parker's white elephant gift....a talking Moses doll

You can tell hes excited right LOL
Everyone getting in to the gift wrapping for our Sub for Santa family

My little brother Matt

Parker with his Great Grandma and Grandpa Cox

My beautiful sister in law Darcy and handsome Quinn

Pretty princess Amarie

little sis Jen giving John a hard time

On Monday we had the Cox family Christmas party held at Lori's house. WOW!! That place was packed! It was so good to see everyone. It's been at least a year since I've seen all of them. Even family from Alaska and Montana made it down. Lori and Misty did a great job with dinner! We also did a Sub for Santa for a family that lives in the apartment above my cousin Amy and her husband. The family had 10 people living in a 2 bedroom apt. The parents slept on a twin bed and they didn't have a car. There were 6 kids, a grandmother, and an aunt that also lived there. Amy got the ward to donate a car to the family and we took tons of gifts to them. It's so awesome to be able to help a family that is less fortunate. And aside from all the 'abuse' we all endured from someone who will not be named, it turned out to be a pretty fun party.

ROBBINS FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY

2008-12-29T10:58:00.004-07:00

Parker getting ready for his big debut
Taylor doing her oh so cute dance

The annual Robbins family Christmas party was so much fun! The food was delicious and the decorations were SO cute (thanks Ang and Liner)! There is always a talent show. Each family has to do something. Our family sang 'The 12 Pains of Christmas'. Even though we all griped and moaned about singing in front of everyone it turned out really funny. The kids all did cute little parts too. Aubrey played the piano, Taylor did a really cute dance and Parker sang his little heart out to Jingle Bells. We discovered that he really likes being in the spotlight...after 3 verses of Jingle Bells I had to pry the mic out of his hands. All the while he is yelling into the microphone "My name is Parker and I'm 3 years old!" Gotta love it!

Parker's Preschool Christmas Program

2008-12-18T11:29:00.002-07:00

Parker's Christmas program was on Wednesday. It was seriously SO cute and he had so much fun. They sang a couple songs that they had learned throughout the year and then a few Christmas songs. They had little instruments and a costume change between each song. All the kids were so cute and did such a good job! There were alot of proud parents and grandparents there. Parker just loves Preschool and I am so glad I decided to get him started early. He is so smart! They did such a good job even Santa heard them singing and decided to stop by. The kids were so surprised! It was so funny to watch the looks on their faces as he walked in the door. Good job kids!

Bobbing for bath toys

2008-12-18T07:53:00.002-07:00

The other night while Parker was taking his bath, Maisy decided to get in on the action. She got up on the side of the tub and started sticking her face in the water trying to get the toys. Every time she stuck her face in the water and the toy would get away she would look up at me, beard soaking wet, with this sad look on her face, Parker was laughing hysterically the entire time. Then he decided he would help her get a little more wet and he started dumping water on her with a cup. That's when she decided she'd had enough and went to warm up by the fire. Its amazing to me how much the two of them act like siblings. I guess I don't ever need to have any other kids since I have a little boy and a little girl ( sorry everyone!)

Thanksgiving

2008-12-03T13:03:00.002-07:00

I know I'm a little late posting for Thanksgiving but I figured I better do it before I start doing any Christmas posts.

First of all I have to say that I have some of THE BEST co-workers anyone could ever ask for. A few of them teamed up to take my Thanksgiving shift so I could be with my family. I love you guys! Seriously, the friendships I have with all the girls (and guys) I work with are priceless and I am so thankful for you all!

Secondly, I am so thankful for my family. I would be nothing without the support they give me. I have an incredible husband. He is a wonderful father to our son and he works so hard to support us. He is my best friend and I am so eternally thankful for him. Parker is the light of my life. He keeps me going when I don't want to go anymore. He is my shooting star. I have the best family (immediate and extended) and I love you all!

I am also extremely greatful for this country and the freedoms that we enjoy. I'm thankful for the armed forces and the sacrifices that they and their family's make for our country.

I am thankful for a stable job in this failing economy. I feel so lucky that I have the ability to provide for myself and my family.

And last but not least, I am soooo thankful for Thanksgiving dinners. Its the one time of year that all of my family gets together. We always have so much fun and the food is always DELICIOUS!!!

There are so many more things that I am thankful for but I will leave the list at that.

Happy Thanksgiving (and soon Christmas) everyone!

To Keep In Your Prayers...

2008-11-10T12:57:00.002-07:00

Officer Skinner with North Salt Lake City PD passed away this week as a result from injuries obtained during a high speed chase. He left behind a wife - And twins, born just four weeks ago. Please keep he and his family in your thoughts and prayers. The poem below was left as a comment on the KSL article. I included the link to the article as well.

The policeman stood and faced his God,which must always come to pass. He hopes his shoes were shining just as brightly as his brass.
"Step forward now, policeman. How shall I deal with you? Have you always turned the other cheek? To my church have you been true?"
The policeman squared his shoulders and said,"No Lord I guess I ain't. Because those who carry badges can't always be a saint.
I've had to work most Sundays, and at times my talk was rough...And sometimes I've been violent because the streets are awful tough.
But I never took a penny that wasn't mine to keep...Though I worked alot of overtime when the bills just got too steep.
And I never passed a cry for help,though at times I shook with fear.
And sometimes, God forgive me, I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place among the people here.
They never wanted me around except to calm there fear. If you've a place for me here, Lord, it needn't be so grand.
I never expected or had too much,but if you don't... I understand."
There was silence all around the thronewhere the saints had often trod, as the policeman waited quietly for his judgement of his God.
"Step forward now, policeman. You've borne your burdens well. Come walk a beat on heaven's streets. You've done your time in hell."
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4739391

RIP Black

2008-11-10T12:37:00.003-07:00

I was just looking through my blog drafts and noticed that I never accepted this one. It's a couple months late getting up but that doesn't make it any less important

Sunday morning Nov 9th my dad went out to feed the horses. He found Black laying in the barn obviously very sick. He refused to get up and was breathing rapidly. He fought for his life all day and all night. When dad went out to feed this morning he was up walking around and looking better. When he went out about an hour later to check on him he had passed away.

Robins Spanish Bar-April 1979-Nov 2008. He was a racehorse in his younger years and after retirement he went on to be a great family horse. He had a ton of heart and could do anything from pony rides for little kids, riding lessons, queen contests, game packing and everything else in between. Black was loved deeply and will be missed by us all.

**RIP Black**

Parker's first day of Preschool

2008-11-10T11:07:00.004-07:00

I can't believe I am writing this post because it seems like just yesterday we were bringing Parker home from the hospital but now he is in Preschool. He started on Friday at Active Learning Preschool with Miss Karen and Miss Amy (my aunt and cousin). He is going Mon, Wed, and Fri from 11:30-2:00...I haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to get him there since I work during those hours but lucky for me I have an awesome Dad that has a flexible schedule! Here are a few pictures of the big day...and yes, there were some private tears shed but at least I know he is in good hands and has cousins that he already knows in his class. Happy first day of Preschool bud! I love you!!!

Halloween slide show

2008-11-05T17:10:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, when you view the Halloween slide show make sure your volume is up.

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

Election results

2008-11-05T17:02:00.003-07:00

I have to admit that when I heard Obama had won the presidential election I wanted to pack my bags and move to Australia...but now that the results on Prop. 8 are in, some of my faith has been restored in the American people.

IMHO I do not have a problem with gays...that is the way they want to live their life, who am I to say they can't. But God has said marriage is between a man and a woman and I think that should be respected.
On a side note, I think I would have to beat the crap out of any teacher who took it upon him/herself to teach MY CHILD about homosexuality.

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, LETS LET OUR KIDS BE INNOCENT FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE!

***end of vent session*** :)

Pheasant Hunt

2008-11-04T12:02:00.002-07:00

As some of you probably know Saturday was the opening day of the Pheasant Hunt. John, Stan, Jason and Tank went out that morning for a few hours and despite the depleting pheasant flocks they still managed to get three. Tank was pretty dang proud!

Developmental Milestone

2008-11-04T09:33:00.002-07:00

Parker has hit a HUGE milestone in his development. He can now recognize the first letter of his name..."P"! I got this great idea from a child literacy class I took that my Mom teaches. Its called Cradled In Literacy and its offered free throughout the district. It teaches you that YOU are your childs first and best teacher. In one of the sessions they talked about having a day that revolves around a letter of the alphabet. I decided to start with P. So one day we did all sorts of "P" things....we played with "P"laydough and ate "P"eanut butter sandwiches with "P"ineapple and "P"apaya and we talked about "P" all day long...and I am PROUD to say he knows what a P looks like! HURRAY PARKER!!!

And one more

2008-10-20T10:09:00.003-06:00

One last post for today....Last night John was giving Parker a bath. John was filling the cup full of water and then quickly turning it upside down onto Parker's head. He would hold it there for a few seconds and then he would lift it up and the water would go cascading down Parker's face. He thought that was so funny. So, again we had to see exactly what this new camera could do. Here a few photos of the results....simply amazing.

Fall Photos

2008-10-20T10:00:00.004-06:00

As I stated in my previous post, I got a new camera. FINALLY!!!! Its a Nikon D60 SLR. I also got the 55-200 zoom lens (which is how I got most of these great shots). This has been on of THE BEST investments ever. If you have kids and you don't have an SLR camera, I highly recommend getting one. The pictures are PHENOMENAL and you will never have to pay someone to take your childs pictures ever again. Added bonus, I am now calling myself an amateur photographer lol. Here are some pics of the "weeds" from our Sunday drive.

Cousins

2008-10-20T09:51:00.002-06:00

Amarie and Quinn came over to play the other day. Although there were a few bumps and bruises (Quinn fell down the stairs and Amie hit her mouth on the coffee table) it was really fun. Parker just loves to play with his cousins. They got to play outside in huge dirt pile and they all thought that was a great time. I'm going to have to talk Darcy into bringing them over more often (eh Darc?);)

Happy Birthday John!

2008-10-20T09:48:00.002-06:00

I know I'm a little late posting this but....here it is.

Happy Birthday John!

John turned 27 years old on September 29th. We had a big party with a bunch of friends and then a smaller party with family. John is such a wonderful husband and father and we are soooo lucky to have him!

Love ya babe!

Sunday Afternoon Outing

2008-10-20T08:38:00.005-06:00

Since the leaves are almost done being colorful and winter is almost here we decided to take a drive to see the leaves. It was a multi-functional trip since it's also the deer hunt and John wanted to do a little scouting. We started at the bottom of Mona Pole and came down through Payson Canyon. We stopped at the mines on the way up and got some awesome pictures. I recently became a big spender and splurged on an incredible new camera. I was completely enthralled with taking pictures of weeds and some of them turned out really cool! As we were coming out of the canyon we saw my family's deer camp. So we stopped to say hello. Everyone ,except for Grandpa Huntsman, was out hunting. We talked to him for a bit and I took a picture of my brothers deer. Way to go Matt! Matt got his first deer on Saturday. Its a 4 point with a cheater. John's pretty darn proud of him. Mom had made Sunday dinner but by the time we got out of the canyon they had already ate without us. Oh well, it was still sooo good. Thanks for always cooking dinner for us mom ;)

Family Pictures

2008-10-19T07:17:00.003-06:00

Hey everyone, we got our family pictures done over the weekend. Take a look at them and let me know what you think. I hate picking pictures, I think I have to buy them all :) ....So some feedback would be greatly appreciated. The password is parker

http://isaacallenphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/6286124_XNTYj/1/396420876_A
LGy2#396420876_ALGy2

TAG

2008-10-15T15:09:00.006-06:00

I am...Sitting at work (as usual)
I think...my job has turned me into a cynical person
I need...to do laundry (the pile just keeps growing)
I know....what I want to be when I grow up
I want...way to many things, a girl can dream right?
I have....much more than I deserve :)
I miss...my Parky and my hubby
I fear...for my son. The world is a tough place.
I fill....my truck with gas way to much
I need....more money!!!! (who doesn't)
I hear....phones ringing...and ringing, and ringing and ringing
I smell.....something cooking down in the jail, not very appetizing
I crave...FRENCH FRIES!
I cry...All the time. When I'm watching a movie, reading, sitting alone thinking, whenever. I cry alot. Its good for the soul.
I search...the internet for everything
I wonder....about what the future will hold
I regret...2007...bad year
I wish...Maisy would quit pooping in the house
I love...John, Parker and all the rest of my family
I care...about some peoples children more than they do. There are some things in life I will never understand.
I always...tell my husband and my son that I love them
I worry...about everything!
I am not...going to call in sick tomorrow....I PROMISE! (I really want to though)
I remember...not very much. I have a horrible memory
I believe...in family
I sing...in the truck
I don't always...listen very well
I argue...about stupid things. I'm stubborn, I'll admit it (thanks dad)
I write...don't write. I type. Bad handwriting
I lose...right now, money. The stock market is HORRIBLE! There goes my retirement.
I listen....not very well
I don't understand...how good people get hurt and die and bad people live
I can usually be found...in dispatch or at home
I need...coffee
I forget...pretty much everything
I am happy....when I'm home with my family

TAG-ANYONE who reads this gets to do it!

FLAMING GORGE MAY 2008

2008-08-25T10:57:00.004-06:00

We took a little fishing trip to Flaming Gorge at the beginning of May. We stayed in the cutest little cabin that was out in the middle of nowhere. We didn't catch much of anything the first day but the second day we fished off shore and caught a ton. Parker made Daddy proud by casting and reeling his own pole.

Parker and Amarie

2008-08-25T10:50:00.003-06:00

BEST

FRIENDS

Parkers Birthday

2008-08-25T10:22:00.006-06:00

On Parker's birthday we had a leak in our sprinkler system that was causing a huge sink hole on the side of the house. Thankfully, Brian and Jeff were working a job just across the street from me so Jeff came over and helped John dig it out and fix the line. This left a huge pile of sandy mud for Parker and Maisy to play in. This turned out to be one of the best B-day gifts ever. At first he was a little hesitant to get in and play but we convinced him to try it and he loved it! He went in with his clothes on at first but that wasn't very comfy so we stripped him down and let him have at it. After he rolled around in the mud buck naked he decided to rinse off by jumping on his 4wheeler and driving through the sprinklers.

Lifeflight Training

2008-08-25T10:04:00.002-06:00

We had the opportunity to do a training session with LifeFlight. They came down the the Sheriff's Office and did a Landing Zone presentation. They also brought one of their helicopters down and let us take a look inside. Some of us even got to get in.

Mommy's new baby

2008-08-25T09:25:00.004-06:00

We added a new member to our family when we bought our new house. Maisy is a platinum silver Miniature Schnauzer. Maisy and I share the same birthday along with a couple other family members, my Grandpa Huntsman and John's sister Angie. Maisy is 5 months old. She is a FIRECRACKER! It's so funny to watch her and Parker play and fight like siblings. She is such a good puppy. She knows how to sit and lay and she does great sleeping in her kennel. I just wish she would quit pooping in the house! It'll be so nice when we finally get the backyard finished so she doesn't track dirt into the house. Maisy loves to play with our two other dogs, Brandy and Tank. Brandy is a 10 year old German Shorthair and the sweetest dog you have ever met. She is also mommy to our other dog Tank. Tank is 6 years old. John will tell you he is the best hunting dog ever! While I'm talking about our menagerie I guess I should also tell everyone about our other pets. Cyera is my horse. She is a 4 year old dapple grey Quarter Horse. Ive had her since she was a weanling (when she was taken from her mom) and she is a sweetheart. I haven't had a whole lot of time to ride her since I was preggers when I got her and having a toddler running around a horse is a little scary. But since Parker is getting older and can ride with me now we can start riding alot more. BTW, Parker is doing AWESOME riding Dodger all by himself. Our last little friend is Hobo. He is an orange tabby cat who wandered on to my front porch last year. He was an extremely sick little kitty so we kept him and got him healthy again. When I took him to the vet to get neutered he was diagnosed with FLV or Feline Leukemia Virus. The vet believes that his mom had it and passed it on to the kittens. Hobo is very resilient and is holding up to it really well. Since there is no way to treat it we just have to watch him and make sure he is eating and drinking. Luckily for Hobo I don't like cats in the house so he gets to live at my dad's on the farm. Well, there you have it. That pretty much sums up the rest of the family. Eventually I'll get pictures posted of everyone.

Seven Peaks!

2008-08-25T08:57:00.003-06:00

We finally made it to Seven Peaks for the first and last time this year. We only stayed for a few hours but Parker had a blast. While we were playing in the kiddie pool Parker found some friends. My Aunt Karen and my cousin Amy were there with all the kids. It was nice for Parker to be able to play with kids around his age instead of just Mom and Dad.

2008-08-14T16:47:00.001-06:00

It was a rough day at work this morning....This is what we got to deal with.

Sheriff's sergeant dies during traffic stop
August 14th, 2008 @ 11:52am
By Randall Jeppesen
A Wasatch County sheriff's sergeant is dead after he collapses during a traffic stop.
In Provo Canyon, just below the Deer Creek dam, Sgt. G. Scott Hathcock was pulling over Grace Waitt for speeding. She says everything appeared normal as he asked for her license and registration.

"I was looking for my registration, and when I turned around, he had collapsed onto the ground," Waitt said. Other drivers, like Mark Shaw, pulled over when they saw something was wrong. Soon after, Hathcock stopped breathing, and they started CPR.
"We tried with what equipment that we had, you know, tried to work on him," Shaw said.
A medical team later pronounced the Hathcock dead at the scene. The medical examiner will have to determine if it was a heart attack or something else that killed the 48-year-old sergeant.
A trust fund for Sgt. Hathcock's family has been set up in his name at Zion's Bank

HOW SWEET IT IS....

8 Months

6 months!

Avocados and Cereal

quickie

*5 months*

Lucy said Dada!

~**4 months**~

Winter ride

Watch out Titanic

~*Silly Faces!*~

Lovey Dovey Day

Overcoming the 'R' word

15 weeks!

2 Months!!

Speaking of teeth...

Teeth!!

**6 weeks!**

Pumpkin Carving and Halloween Fun

Lucy Marie Robbins 10/13/2010

What a gentleman!

Funny story!

Dove Hunt 2010

First day of Kindergarten

Lil' Pumpkin EDD 10/29/10

29 down-11 to go

25 week update

How did this happen??

Lake Powell 2010

Holy Shamoly! Only 20 weeks left!

Updates, Updates and more Updates!!

Happy Mothers Day!

Random Pictures

Easter 2010!

Happy Birthday!!

Valentine's Day

Boys Love Trucks

Like Father Like Son

Welcome Home

How High?

Oh the things kids say...

My handsome little man

It only took almost 2 years but.....

Lake Powell '09

Backyard Fun

Horsin' Around

**Update**

Hello...we're the neighbors

***TRANSFORMERS-REVENGE OF THE FALLEN***

MY LITTLE BABYS ALL GROWN UP AND GRADUATING PRESCHOOL

Randomness

Happy Easter!

Happy Birthday to me! I'm half way to 50!

POOR BABY :(

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!

Frosty the Snowman

Parker's First Field Trip

WALKING WITH THE DINOSAURS

Arizona Road Trip

Sledding 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

SANTA STOPPED HERE...THE ROBBINS MUST HAVE BEEN GOOD THIS YEAR!!

COX FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY

ROBBINS FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY

Parker's Preschool Christmas Program

Bobbing for bath toys

Thanksgiving

To Keep In Your Prayers...

RIP Black

Parker's first day of Preschool

Halloween slide show

Election results

Pheasant Hunt

Developmental Milestone

And one more

Fall Photos

Cousins

Happy Birthday John!

Sunday Afternoon Outing

Family Pictures

5 months

~4 months~

~Silly Faces!~

6 weeks!

Update

TRANSFORMERS-REVENGE OF THE FALLEN