Having a fourth

I remember when we were having our 16 week gender check ultrasound (yes, we paid $50 to find out 4 weeks earlier if we were having a boy or a girl) and upon discovering we were expecting a son my first thought after the inital excitement was, "oh great, now we have to figure out whether or not to have a fourth."

So Robby is a third. As in, he has the same name as his dad and grandpa. Robert Ernest Parsons. In order to be a junior or a third, or a fourth for that matter, each person in the line has to have the exact same name. If grandpa was Robert Ernest and dad was Robert John he would not be a junior. In order to have Robert Ernest Parsons IV we had to keep the name exactly the same. I discovered lots of people didn't understand how this whole junior/third/fourth thing worked...

The hard thing about making this choice is what would we call the baby? If the middle name were normal we'd gladly have him go by that but Ernest? I don't think so... or Ernie? Kind of funny that we have the option of "Bert" with the first name and "Ernie" with the middle.... we don't love the variation of Bobby or Bob... and calling a baby Robert or Rob when his dad is Robby seems silly.... so to avoid being silly we just call dad and son Robby. Really awesome. Trust me we've heard probably every variation of Robert and Ernest and THEN SOME and we have thought about all of them... We're trying to have Robby the dad graduate to "Rob" but it's taking some time to adjust.

I decided to let Robby make the decision as to whether or not he wanted to do a fourth - it wasn't my favorite idea but it is his family's tradition and if he felt strongly about it I wanted him to be able to pass down his name. Actually, I rock-paper-scissored my naming rights away in a moment of pregnancy insanity.... but really I was going to let him decide anyway! ;) Well anyway it wasn't until we were leaving for the hospital to have the baby that Robby - I mean Rob - told me he really wanted to have the baby be Robby IV.

Here's a shot of all 4 generations of Robert Ernests. I'm glad my son has such a wonderful line of men to look up to!

Got Family?

Ahh.... I often find myself reflecting on things and thinking, "I love our life." Amy, my newly engaged sister in law, started a little discussion about married life on our family website and she remarked that lots of people have been warning her about how marriage is so difficult... while it does require hard work, I am loving our little family life!

I love how when my husband watches our baby so I can sleep in this is what I come out to find...


I love being a stay at home mom and trying to learn how to cook... look at my awesome, amazing, domestic skills with this pizza.... oh yeah...



I love the boring things we do together like watch movies at home practically every night, running errands (today it was Target and Best Buy), or going on walks in the evening because that's the only way to keep baby Robby happy before bedtime...

I do love my little family and I love our life.

Halloween, here we come!

I just bought Robby IV's Halloween costume on ebay! Well, Robby the dad picked it out actually... it's the cutest thing I could find - especially when I tried to picture him in the costumes... I was actually in the process of buying it on another website when by the time I got to the third step of the checkout it had already been purchased!

I'm excited to take him to all sorts of Halloween activities... we're going to need to get some good use out of this outfit! We'll have to hit up all the trunk or treats in Provo!

Now I just have to figure out what Rob and I will be to go with our cute, cuddly, little lion! Suggestions?

Thank goodness for the mall...

Yesterday and today Robby has been especially fussy... and hungry! (Baby Robby that is! ;D) It seems like he wants to eat non-stop and his awake time has been a little difficult. I'm hoping this is a growth spurt... one that only lasts a couple days. It's tough to know what exactly is bothering him when he is probably going to be teething soon. The drool has definitely been around for months now... he didn't seem to love his refrigerated teether toy and I can't feel any teeth but who knows!? Not me!

My friend Kyrsten asked if we'd started any solids yet and we haven't... maybe that will help fill him up a bit more! He will turn 6 months on October 2nd (Par-tay!) and we'll start probably next week with some rice cereal. I did get him a sippy cup and he guzzled about an ounce of water but then spit it all back up a few minutes later! Awesome!

I'm sure we'll have lots more adventures coming up with teething and solids... and teething while nursing... yikes! In the mean time, I'll try to pass some of this fussy time by strolling along the mall.... great distraction for him and enjoyable for mom!

P.S. The picture above was taken shortly after I let him suck on a Twizzler... and then took it away. I had to pry it away from him and he was not happy about that! The picture below is what my normally happy boy normally looks like...

He has never done this before...

Saturday I went to lunch with Lindsay and Liv and as usual we spent about 2 1/2 hours at Costa Azul - eating but mostly just talking. Robby was getting really fussy and tired but I was thinking I'd be leaving soon and maybe he'd fall asleep in the car or even make it home to sleep in his crib. I set him on my knee and bounced him and he calmed down... and then calmed down even more... and then just went limp in my arms. I looked down in shock, "Is he asleep??" Yup. Sure enough he had just closed his sweet little eyes and fallen asleep. I can't remember him ever just falling asleep in such an awkward/unsupported position. For the first 3 months he needed to be swaddled, shushed, jiggled, rocked... then he liked to sleep only on his tummy... now that he's rolling around he seems to favor his side... and of course would occasionally fall asleep in his car seat or stroller... but never just sitting up like this. I thought it was pretty cute.

The Dreaded Grove

Every one should come out to the Dreaded Grove--the newest haunted forest. I'm working there and we're going to make it the best haunt in Utah. Once everything gets up and running it's going to be sweet.

BYU 31 Air Force 6

The football game went pretty well today--a world of difference between last week and this week. Today they had one poor offensive possession and one poor defensive possession, but the rest of the game they played really well, as opposed to a night full of disappointments last week. Next week we play New Mexico in Albuquerque. My parents and my brother Andrew all came to the game with me. Esther stayed home with the baby--well she went to lunch and then to a family thing--but not to the game. It rained most of the second half and we got soaked, but that's ok.

This phone is so cute...

So I've had my cell phone for over 2 years now which in cell phone years is practically ancient. I tell ya they make these things so after the first year the battery dies constantly and it just falls apart forcing you to buy a new one. Then it's impossible to get a decent phone without signing up for a new contract or extending your contract for at least another 2 years... vicious cycle. That must be where they make all their money!

I remember when Lindsay and I were buying our very first cell phones... it was fall of 2001, I was getting ready to come out to BYU. We would go the mall all the time and look at the phone stores over and over again... we thought the Nextel ones would be fun because we could do the whole walky-talky thing. We were determined to find the cutest phones out there! Of course a good service plan was important too but really, the phone HAD to be cute! :) Super practical, I know... We ended up getting an amazing deal with AT&T - they were running a promotion where for every point BYU scored in their game that weekend you could receive a dollar of credit on your bill. What they weren't expecting was for BYU to have the most amazing season ever and we both got about $70 worth of credit due to an awesome high scoring game! I remember getting all the rest of the family to sign up... helpful too because then we were on the same network. Anyways! We got really cute phones. Mine was red.

Now my phone is dying and I need a new one and I think this Blackberry phone is adorable! It's really the only one I even like in the whole store... And I don't even care if I have the internet on it or not - I just want it because it's cute.

WE love Raymond!

Ok so the 9th and final season of Everybody Loves Raymond came out on Tuesday and wouldn't you know.... we already finished it. Yup. We did. I picked it up at Costco Tuesday afternoon and we finished it today. It was only 16 episodes... about 20 min a piece... but yeah, still pretty pathetic. It helps that Robby gets all his homework done during the day so we have our evenings to relax.

I have to say the series finale was pretty... anticlimactic? But a solid season nonetheless. Very funny... ah... very funny...

Who does he look like?

Ok, I totally stole this from Nancy! (She has an awesome blog by the way - she's one of my Russia friends) Isn't this hilarious? And I think it's interesting that it says he looks more like Robby because most people say he looks more like me, or more Pincock... but he sure is cute!

Emailing Posts to Your Blog

Did you know that you can email posts to your blog. Kinda cool if you ask me. Well, if it works, I've never actually done it yet. So if this shows up then it worked and HOORAY!!

New High Def Format

So Esther has tried to get me to post for a couple weeks now about anything, but I couldn't think of anything that I thought you guys would care to know about (whoever you guys are anyways--I think everyone here is here because of Esther and not me). So finally she gives me a topic to write about so I have no more excuses. As most of you know, I love movies, high definition, home theater, etc. stuff. Just recently a new twist came up in the HDM (High Def Movies) world. There are two competing formats HD-DVD and Blu-Ray--(think VHS and DVD, except they are both high definition and they both look like DVD's, just better quality, but you need a different player to watch movies on either format) that have been fighting to become the next generation movie format. It's been a tough battle and no one can seem to really pull ahead.

Well now another format has just announced that they are releasing players next month. It's called HD-VMD. It's cheaper than both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray and supposedly is at least as good as either of the other two. The big question is whether or not any movie studios will support them. So the HDM World is thrown upside down and we're waiting to see if we need to buy yet another DVD player to play this new high def format!!!

In case you want to know more about which one you should buy I'd love to inform you already--and if you got through that whole post then maybe you really are interested.

Congratulations Amy & Nathan!

So my darling sister in law recently got engaged to her long time sweetheart. Hip hip hurray! We got to watch her try on some wedding dresses Saturday afternoon and I've had fun looking at links to bridesmaid dresses... They are a really cute couple... ah, young love! Have we really been married for almost 3 years already? Time sure goes by fast.. although I am happy to be done with all the wedding business and to be much more settled into our married life together... now with a baby we're trying to figure out this next step... parenthood. Well, anyways, we are looking forward to their wedding this December.

I think Nathan will make a fine addition to the in-law section of the Parsons' family. Kind of helps that half of the group are original Pincocks - as in me and my brother Andrew. Yeah, for those of you who don't know, I married my brother's brother in law. No, that is not illegal or considered incest. Just convenient! To clarify see the pictures below - there's me & Robby, and then my brother Andrew and Robby's sister Becca... and their 3 lovely children. It's fun because we can see more of what the Pincock/Parsons gene mix can produce - I think our little Robby looks pretty different from their kids but we'll see as time goes on. Oh, and did I mention their younger son is also named Robby? Maybe I should save that for another post...

Robby & Jack...

Ok so this is basically "Separated at Birth" part 2... Had to post these pictures from today! These cute little boys are 11 days apart and just ridiculously similar... So Liv called me to invite me to go walking with her and Cindy and their friend Stephanie and all our little babies in the canyon. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not usually the "out-doorsy" type and shy away from activities like this but a chance to get together with other mommies sounded fun!

When Cindy pulled out her stroller I have to say I wasn't surprised at all when I saw baby Jack had the same stroller as baby Robby... and when Cindy talked about how when Jack was little he didn't love to just stroll around and sometimes just wanted to be picked up - yeah, we both seemed pretty used to strolling with one hand while carrying baby in the other. But I guess most mommies develop that skill, huh?

After my post last time I remembered so many other things that were similar but can't remember them all now... they had the same little wrist rattles, both have dark eyes but they're not quite brown, even a little green, but not a definite color... and I think the matching double cowlicks is too big of a coincidence. When we tried to get their picture together little Robby just kept trying to grab Jack's face... pretty cute.

Well it was a wonderful afternoon! Thanks for inviting me ladies! :)

New Collage...

I LOVE putting pictures in frames - especially frames like this where you have to pick out a bunch, try to make them look good together, find pics for all the different sizes... I just got this frame on Friday and within hours of buying it I'd already had it filled with pictures and hanging on the wall (thanks to a good 2 hour nap by Robby IV). Also I like how this brown frame looks in our front room as opposed to the black one that was in it's place - matches the rest of the pictures. Makes it look more like a real house...

When I do have a real house I'll hang up tons of picture frames, big mirrors, and some of those giant clocks. One day...

"Goooo Dad!" (turtle from Robin Hood voice)

Friday night we went to Rob's first intramural football game. Luckily they won so we went home with a happy dad! It's a little harder to pay attention and move up and down the field now that I'm watching the baby too but we tried to be good cheerleaders! Robby LOVES being outside so he enjoyed it!

Funny to think I've been going to Robby the dad's football games since 7th grade... my understanding of the game has come a long way since then! I just went to watch and hope that he'd notice me... I really was his #1 fan - still am!

Family Picture

When I looked through my pictures I realized we didn't have a lot with all three of us - mostly just of baby Robby... so yesterday evening we all were dressed normal and kinda cute so I thought it was a good chance to capture our little fam. Utah is a beautiful place to live!

He did it!!!

So the night I posted about him sleeping was probably the best night of sleep I've had in... oh... 5 months!!! :) Hurray! From 9 pm to 6 am I didn't hear one peep from him! And wow, what a difference a good night sleep makes! Just look at this happy face:


Well, ok, he pretty much always smiles, but I was smiling too! Last night was pretty good too and hopefully we're onto something and it's here to stay!

What's not been awesome is that our internet has been down since yesterday morning! Ew! So I keep thinking of things to post about or things I want to look up and can't and it's very frustrating. I'm writing right now from my sister-in-law's apt - we couldn't even wait until Monday for the guy to come fix it! Oh boy we sure are pathetic and internet dependent!

Sleep, baby! Sleep!

Oh my goodness... we have had an interesting time trying to get Robby IV to sleep through the night... Robby III has no problems with that... ;D He was such a good little sleeper until about 4 months where he began waking up several more times a night... and he's kept this up for several weeks. So every night I cross my fingers and pray that it will be better than the last... *sigh*

But he sure does look cute when he IS sleeping! Notice the beautiful quilt my sister Taba made him...

Mommy & me photo shoot!

Oh the things you do to try to keep your baby awake and entertained those last few moments of the day.... Robby loves being outside so we pretty much always go for a walk in the stroller with dad and that's fun for all of us. Last night after our walk we still had about 45 minutes to go and he was especially... how do you say... wanting to be entertained?? ;D Whenever he sees the camera pointed at him he just stares at it... and then when the little red light comes on to focus the picture he makes the funniest face... this kept him entertained for almost a good 15 minutes. I'll only post a select few but know there are many more where these came from.

...these pictures made me laugh so hard - it looks like I said, "ok now on this one lets make the weirdest faces possible!" and that we did! Ahh....

Little cougar...

Will he grow to be as big of a BYU fan as his daddy? I don't know but he sure looks cute in his little t-shirt. We took him to the opening game last weekend - well, part of it anyway! We went to the pre-game party in the tent with the free food and he took a nap and was fine. Then we went outside for the game to start but the heat was just awful and the sun was just beating down on us so I took him home. Luckily we have a parking pass and so since Rob needed a ride home anyway I just drove back to the game and he lasted pretty well for the whole fourth quarter! What a trooper!

Go Cougars!

Separated at birth?

Just the other day I was chatting with Liv's friend Cindy about her almost 5 month old son, Jack... at first it was funny because when she walked in with him everyone commented on how much he looked like Robby IV. They are about the same size, have dark hair, dark eyes... just looked similar... Cindy asked if he was sleeping through the night. "Weeeell, he used to do a lot better, only waking up once to eat and then at about 4 months he started waking up all the time. Just now we're working on that," I said. Little Jack had the same problem! Also, both boys mostly only take 45 minute naps but sometimes 2 hours... similar eating schedule... and to top it all off, they both have two little swirly cowlicks on their cute little heads. What the HECK?

It was kind of crazy.... nice though to know someone else is going through some of the very same challenges we're dealing with...

My four friends...

Since high school I've been lucky enough to have these amazing four friends... in a different world we probably never would have been best friends - but we were perfect for each other and have made our friendship last through the years! Each girl completely different from the next... I love how others know about these friends of mine - to the point where in a conversation about I don't even know what all someone said was "the blonde one" and I knew they were referring to my friend Malea. Or you just have to say, "she's an LBG" and people instantly understand what level of friend I'm talking about.

Anyways... they are pretty cool girls and I love 'em a lot.