4th of July

This year we stayed home for the 4th and although we missed our traditional visit to Huntsville, we had a great day. We started the morning heading out to Hurricane to see the parade out there. Our cute niece, Ellie, was in the parade and we wanted to watch her. She was as cute as can be, and pretty much the one and only highlight of the parade, it was the lamest parade ever. We were really missing Huntsville at that point. Despite the lameness, Pierce had a great time playing with the Hall and Eves cousins.

Just look at this handsome grown up boy!

We loved showing Jensen off, he was as cute as can be in his very patriotic outfit.

I wanted to get a shot of Madi in her special 4th of July shirt...

...this is what she thought about the lame parade and the lack of candy.

In case you didn't quite get the full effect...

These pictures just make me laugh! But, isn't her festive shirt cute?

I can't really blame her too much. The parade was a disappointment for sure.

After a quiet and cool afternoon at home, we headed to the Hall's for the evening. The kids played outside in the sprinkler and slip n slide and had a ball. We all enjoyed a delicious dinner and of course some All American Chocolate cake. Good thing we had plenty of leftovers.

We headed out for fireworks that night and met up with The Woodburys. More fun was had and we enjoyed the fireworks with our great friends, great cousins, and our great Grandma. Great as in great! Not Great.

Matthew, Pierson, Grant & Harrison

Matthew, Pierce, Brooke and Harrison

The kids were completely worn out when we got home, 3 hours past bedtime! We had a great day and were happy to spend it with so many that we love! How thankful we are to live here in America the Beautiful!

Thirty

Well it happened. I turned 30. Even though I just turned 24.

30, it just seems, old! I know, I know in the grand scheme of things 30 is very, very young. (Especially now that 30 is the new 20!) But still, it just seems so weird, like a real adult age. I'm sure I would have handled turning 30 much better if I could say I was "thirty, flirty and thriving", but all I can really say is - I'm thirty, dirty and surviving. You, know - the newborn stage, dirty because I may or may not have had a shower by evening and I have been getting peed on pooped on and spit up on a daily basis for the last 2 months. And surviving because, well, newborn stage pretty much sums that up, and newborn stage in the summer with 2 older kids at home....ya, we have been surviving.

Even though I wasn't thrilled to turn 30, I had 3 days of celebration (one for each decade I suppose) I didn't get many pictures (shocking I know) but I want to write down a bit about the wonderful people who made me feel so loved...

My birthday fell on a Sunday so Ryan and I were planning to go out Saturday night. Since we were going out Saturday, Kathryn invited me and the kids over for a birthday lunch on Friday, and so started the 3 days of partying. If Kathryn does something it's wonderful, we enjoyed a yummy lunch together, along with Lyndsi and her kids. The kids had a great time playing and we enjoyed a fun afternoon just hanging out and talking, something we hadn't been able to do for a while. She also made delicious Boston Creme cupcakes and they all sang "Happy Birthday" to me and we really, really enjoyed the delicious cupcakes! A great time was had by all.

Saturday night JoAnn took Pierce and Madi for a sleepover and Ryan and I went out for dinner. We enjoyed dinner and some shopping only to go home and find a surprise party waiting for me - waiting for an hour while I shopped! Trit had planned a little party for me and had coordinated with Kathryn to invite my friends - they all parked away from my house, so I was totally clueless and walked in to "Surprise!", confetti flying everywhere and Kathryn, Kendra, Jana, Lyndsi, Annette, Kara and Trit ready to party. Trit had gotten my favorite, All American Chocolate cake from Costco, and even had a high heel pinata for us Moms to hit! (3 of which are pregnant) Thanks girls, even though I was totally embarrassed, it was a fun night! I love you all!

Sunday morning I got to stay in bed for a bit (after getting up to feed Jensen, of course) while Ryan picked Pierce and Madi up from Grandma's. As soon as they got home they were excited for Mom's birthday and Madi came in with a picture for me saying, "Mommy, I present to you..." During church I had to laugh at Madi, nothing was stopping her excitement and I watched her walk into primary and sit down and tell her teacher, "today is my Mom's birthday!" That evening we enjoyed a great dinner which Ryan made (thank goodness for crock pots), I was happy to have yummy food and happy I didn't have to make it. After dinner we enjoyed my second All American Chocolate cake from Costco. Yes, we ended up with two of these in our fridge. Obviously Ryan couldn't spoil the surprise by telling me Trit was already buying one when we went to Costco on Friday! But don't worry, none of it went to waste. Even though I was a little bummed to be turning thirty and not be "thirty, flirty and thriving" I was totally spoiled by my wonderful friends, sweet husband and cute kids. I guess being thirty, dirty and surviving is ok, I do have the cutest baby on the planet to show for it.

And if you haven't seen 13 Going on 30, you wont think I'm funny at all, and if that's the case, you really need to watch it!

7 Weeks

Well of course now that I have this darling little boy in my arms instead of my belly, the time is just flying by! Some how a month has gone by since I posted any pictures of his sweet little face and he is 7 weeks old! I am, however, determined to keep up on my blog! I've realized over the past few years that I will always be playing catch up on my kid's scrapbooks, (by a few years at least!) but that my blog is the one thing I can actually keep up on. I wish I would have had blogging when Madi was a baby, she'd be so much better documented! We've had a few fun events I need to blog about, but before another week gets away from me, here is the latest of Jensen...






































Can you believe this round little face? He is getting so big and already growing way too fast!


This isn't the best shot of them but I love it because this is SO how Madi is. Refusing to look at the camera, ignoring me as best she can, but adoring her baby brother completely.

Can you tell just how much Pierce loves his little brother? He is so sweet, always wanting to hold him. I love it. And the funny thing is, in both cases of these photo ops, Pierce asked me to take a picture of him and Jensen. So cute, and talk about making Mom happy! This kid is smart!

Madi decided to join in, after selecting an outfit of her dance costume sailor hat and her winter sweater, on 100+ degree St. George July day.


And last, my favorite! No words needed. I love these faces more than I can say.

Our 2 Week Old Boy & Our Dancing Girl

Wow, time is flying by! Baby Jensen is already 2 weeks old! He is already changing and has put on almost a pound! He had a check up at 4 days and was down to 6 lbs. 13 oz. (from his birth weight of 7.7)And yesterday at his 2 week check he was up to 8 lbs. 3 oz.! He's obviously eating well!

We are all so in love with this boy! He wont be hurting for attention that's for sure. I knew Madi would be so into the baby, but wasn't sure about Pierce. It has been really fun to see how much he loves him! He is so sweet with him and has surprised me by being the one who wants to hold him all the time! He is loving being a big brother to a baby. They both want to kiss him and talk to him all day long!

Here's Jensen at 2 weeks...


































Proud big brother! One thing that is fun for Pierce is when I put Jensen in his old outfits and tell him about it. He loves finding his baby pictures of him wearing the same thing. This was one of my favorite outfits of Pierson's so I had to get a picture of him holding Jensen in it.


































We usually see this sweet sleeping face, so it's nice to see those eyes once in awhile!

And in other news, Madi had her Spring Dance Recital last week. She has had fun doing tap and ballet again this year and loves taking dance with Annie. This year it has just been the 2 of them in their class and they love it. They danced to "Lollipop" and they both did such a cute job!


































Madi & Annie - It doesn't get much cuter than this! Madi loves getting dolled up in Mom's "grown up" makeup!

Here are a few action shots of her in the dance... I love watching her, it makes me laugh and smile. She is just so dang cute.

She couldn't wait to perform for Daddy and Brother and was so excited for the recital. She also loved having Grandma, Aunt Deli and Jackson and Hannah come to watch her. She had a great time performing and was excited to go for a special treat after wards. With a little hint from Mom she chose glaciers from Frostop, good choice Madi.

The "Story", First Week, & The Culprit Revealed

WARNING: This post contains material which may be inappropriate for children, or men who are not my husband. In other words, if you don't want to hear about labor and delivery, just scroll on down to the cute pictures!

Well we've made it, we have survived our first week of the "Newborn Phase"! (Almost 2 now!) Before too much time flies by I wanted to write down a little about Jensen's big arrival day. Which we have to start with the week before....
Along with being totally uncomfortable I was getting nervous about when the baby would decide to come. Pierce came 9 days early and Madi came 10, perfect. I was really expecting about the same timing with this baby, so I had been hoping for a delivery as soon as school was out, giving me Ryan home for the Memorial Day weekend, and school being out. Then I found out Dr. Lunt was leaving town the day after school got out, the day I was really hoping to deliver (which was 10 days before my due date and quite likely). This was totally throwing off my plan, so I just started hoping that the baby would come a few days earlier and would arrive before the 26th. And in reality, I was so miserable that everyday for the last 2 weeks of the pregnancy I was hoping that today would be the day, everyday. There were several days during the week before I delivered that I was having regular contractions for a few hours, and I'd be hoping they were the real thing, then they would stop. After being checked on Wed. the 19th, (and being dilated 3+ and 70% effaced) I had regular contractions for several hours that afternoon. As much as I was hoping it was real labor...Pierson had his piano recital on Thursday evening and I didn't want to miss that, and my wonderful friend, Kathryn, had planned a little party for me on Friday night...so I started thinking- Friday night would be PERFECT! Make it to the recital and the party, go into labor as soon as the party is over! Perfect plan, right?! Right! But really, who goes into labor the day the want to? I was sure hoping! I don't know how I got so lucky. Friday night came and I drove my car down the street to Kathryn's for the party. She lives a whole 3 houses down, but I was just that uncomfortable. I was totally spoiled by all of my cute girlfriends! We enjoyed delicious desserts, great conversation and of course oooohed over all the cute and tiny outfits I received. And it being a baby shower and all, and me being miserable, and having 3 other pregnant women in the room of course we talked all about labor and delivery and all of the "old wives tales" to get labor going. I had told Ryan earlier that week, I don't think any of those things really work, but now I can see why so many women try them, we are just SO desperate to get. it. out! I was contemplating going for a long walk after the party and mentioned to the girls that in my pregnancy book it said that most of those things probably don't work, but the one that might is, well, ya know. Having your husband try to help you out a little. Andrea swore that this worked and I decided that I might just have to give it a try! (Impossible as it seemed!)


Here are the party comers: Kathryn (wonderful hostess), Stephanie, Jana, Kara, April, Ashley, Laura, Lynds, Mel, & Me
Angie, Katie and Baby Leila, Traci, Staci, Andrea & Brooke - What a cute group of friends I have! Thanks girls for such a fun night! I love you all!


And here I am with my fellow pregnant friends, Kathryn, Jana, Stephanie and Me. I was practically gagging at my hugeness when I came home and put these on my computer that night, and thought no way would I post them! But, I've changed my mind since thankfully this become my last night and the last picture of me as a pregnant lady!

So...after the party I came home and gave Ryan the full report and told him we were going to try "it". Of course, he quickly agreed. Now I'm really wondering if it really does work or if it was just a very lucky coincidence, but it seemed to do the trick for me, so I would definitely recommend it!

I woke up for the first time with a contraction about 1:30 and wondered it it was a "real" contraction. I went back to sleep and then for the next couple hours I would have a contraction that was enough to wake me up every 30 - 40 minutes. At 4:00 AM they started coming quicker and I sat in bed staring at the clock for the next 30 minutes, timing them and thinking- these are really starting to hurt! But also thinking- there is just NO way it's really going happen now just because I wanted it to! At 4:30 I finally woke Ryan up and told him they were coming pretty close together and were getting pretty painful. He called his Mom and she was on her way over! I wanted to wait until 5:00 before we decided to go to the hospital, I didn't want to go in and be sent home so I thought I'd give myself a full hour of really good contractions. By 5:00 they were pretty intense and I was getting anxious. We drove to the hospital and I think I was in disbelief, so anxious to not be pregnant anymore, but overwhelmed at the thought of really having another kid. Wow. We arrived at the hospital and I was anxious to see where I was too. I was dilated to a 5. Great, give me the epidural! Was all I cared about! Things went well from there. I had been progressing at a pretty good rate, but the contractions slowed a bit after having the epidural. They gave me some pitocin to keep things moving, but then noticed Baby's heart rate was dropping quite low with each contraction. This had me nervous for a bit, His heart rate was dropping down to 60, but then would recover quickly. The nurse thought maybe the cord was around his neck or something and so she eased up the pitocin and he did better after that. Things moved quick enough and before long it was time! After just 3 pushes our little boy was here! Dr. Lunt said he had a "body cord", I'd never even heard that before, but his heart was fine and he was perfectly healthy. I was so releaved! Smooth labor and delivery and a perfect little boy!

Now here we are, he is already 12 days old! Here is a little glimpse of his first week...

He has been pretty busy, lots of this...
Oh so tired! Could he yawn any bigger?

A little of this...





































It only looks sad. He has the cutest new born cry ever!

And lots and lots of this...


And of course lots of peeing and lots and lots of pooping.
Amazing how much you can love someone so much when all you do is feed them, clean up everything they pee on, change their poopy diapers and then feed them some more. in the middle of the night. when you are about to fall over. because you are so. so. tired.

I love him.

AND, in all of the baby excitement I failed to post the true culprit of Pierson's black eye a few weeks ago.
Believe it or not, it was-
Madi
In the Backyard
With a Croquet Mallet!

He's Here!

Finally! Our precious little boy arrived Saturday morning, May 21st, at 11:25, 7lbs. 7 oz., 20 inches long. He has a major fan club. After much deliberating, he now has a name!
Jensen Calvin Robison
The details to come later. It's a miracle I had time to post this.

Easter Weekend

A look at our Easter Weekend in a few favorite pictures...







































We started the festivities on Friday and joined Crystal and her kids for coloring eggs. Pierce and Madi loved it and had a great time choosing colors and each making a special egg for Daddy. Madi was much too busy to have her picture taken, at least I got a smile out of Pierson. (And Matthew too)

Our finished product! The kids were so proud of their eggs and couldn't wait to show Dad!

Grandma was off on a trip over Easter, so we had our traditional Cousins Easter Egg Hunt at Aunt Carolyn's this year. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast of omelets and stuffed french toast before we let the kids loose.


And they're off!




































































































Easter Morning...
Easter Sunday makes for a day to be thankful for 1:00 church. It was great to have a nice morning with the kids and let them have plenty of time for their fun. They were so excited for wake up and see what the Easter Bunny had left for them!
Madi was thrilled to find a Pet Shop in one of her Easter eggs! She also loved the new book she got of "My Little Pony" stories! I've never seen a kid love books like this girl does!

Pierce was happy to find one of his Easter eggs filled with a little Star Wars Lego set! He also got some cool new books to read.

Ryan was asked to speak in church and did a wonderful job! He gave a beautiful talk about the Resurrection, he made it quite personal sharing some things about the losses we've had in our family and how we are all looking forward to the Resurrection around here! He shared a sweet little moment we had with the kids...when we were ready to tell them that I was pregnant we sat them up on our bed and told them we had a surprise to tell them about. Pierson, wide eyed, and with out a second of hesitation exclaimed," Grandpa and Todd are back alive??!!" This was such a sweet moment for us, he was so sincere and you just knew he was thinking what a great surprise that would be! Ryan started his talk sharing this sweet little story. I had been in tears already- Easter Sunday fell on my Mom's birthday this year (she would have turned 52!) and as I sat and looked at my nasty, swollen, painful feet, in flip flops that were way too tight, during the Sacrament hymn, all I could think of was how miserable I was feeling and how much I wanted my Mom! - So my tears were already streaming as Ryan stood up to talk, but I'm pretty sure after he shared this I was no longer the only one in the room with tears. We had many friends in the ward complement him on his talk. It was a great opportunity for him. After Sacrament meeting I came home to put my nasty, swollen, painful feet up and all I could do was sit in my bed and cry some more. It has been 8 1/2 years since my Mom's accident and over the years as I've just gotten used to it, the meltdowns have come less and less. But this day, on her birthday, Easter Sunday, it was especially painful. Trying to endure my 3rd (and by far the worst) pregnancy, and having it sink in, how much has happened with out her here, (not to mention the feeling miserable) I felt like a little girl, all I could do is cry and think to myself, I want my Mom!

After allowing myself a breakdown, Ryan and I made our favorite Holiday dish, Mom's Au gratin potatoes, and headed to Jeff & Crystal's house for Easter dinner. We enjoyed a delicious meal and, of course, great company. Then the kids played for awhile and the adults got a chance to play too, for my first time ever, we played Phase 10. It was so nice to spend the evening with them, Crystal is so strong and such an amazing example to me. We are so thankful to have them so close to us. Of course before we left Crystal and I shared a few more tears and hugs. Very hard to believe they've been 8 months with out Todd (now 9, since my delay in posting) and have been through Christmas and Easter with out him.

Wow, what a day, Easter + Mom's Birthday + Ryan speaking on the Resurrection + Time at the Halls + being pregnant = Emotional Overload! It was a great day, and also incredibly hard. I am so thankful for the reminders of hope we have on days that seem so sad, for our Savior Jesus Christ, and for his Resurrection!