Rah Rah RAH RAH RAH!

It's football season again! There are mixed emotions about this time of the year in this household - utter excitement and anxiety - you can guess who's feeling what!

We went to BYU's first game yesterday. While Rob was not super thrilled about the team's overall performance at least they won the game! It was blazing hot for the first half and Robby was such a trooper. Luckily with a little soda and ice cream he made it through the game! :) Oh yeah, and we'd been working on the BYU fight song or "cougar song" which he loved to join in for the "Rah rah RAH RAH RAH" part! And this year he was not as afraid of Cosmo the Cougar! Wish we could've met him up close - I'm not sure if Robby will be going to any more games!

"I'm so glad when daddy comes home!"

I'm so glad when daddy comes home,
Glad as I can be;
Clap my hands and shout for joy,
Then climb upon his knee,
Put my arms around his neck,
Hug him tight like this,
Pat his cheeks, then give him what?
A great big kiss.

We are both singing this song by the end of the day! (Quattro and I) I love watching my Robbys play together! I love watching little Robby's face light up when Rob gets home from work. Even though Robby is quite a little "momma's boy" you know he still needs his daddy!

OAR Contest Part II

So while Rob was not only #1 in this contest look how much he totally crushed the competition! Like Ness said, you really must be their #1 fan!!!

Doing dishes

Robby wants to wash his hands about 18 times a day. His latest favorite is to push the bench from the kitchen table over to the sink and play in the water, making a huge mess of course.... when he's done I give him a rag and ask him to dry it off which he kind of does - it's very cute. When he splashed a bunch of water out of the tub the other day he saw my reaction and reached down and picked up a washcloth (wet from being IN the tub) and started trying to "dry off" the edge of the tub.... very cute and thoughtful, not so helpful.... ahh.... let's just say this kid keeps me BUSY!

ps - I hate the fact that you have to push pause on the OAR music to watch any videos, sorry about that! I was tempted to remove the whole thing until Rob won that contest for it getting the most hits! (see below) I guess it'll have to stay a little longer....

O.A.R. Contest

A few weeks ago O.A.R. put out a contest seeing who could get the most page impressions with their new player-hence the new music player at the top of the blog. I got an email a couple days ago saying that I had won the contest. I had completely forgotten that it was even a contest and was pleasantly surprised that I was able to help the band and that a lot of people visit our blog. Today I got a personally autographed picture in the mail as a thank you for the help with the promotion. So I want to thank all of you for listening to O.A.R.'s Shattered every time you visit our blog.

Nie Nie

Recently there was a horrible private plane crash that resulted in a couple being severly burned and in critical condition - Stephanie and her husband from Nie Nie's Dialouges. While I do not know them personally their story has touched me and hundreds of others. We were able to attend a balloon launch to show our support last Saturday and it was so moving to see how many people were praying for this young family! She and her husband will be in the hospital for several months to come and their four children will be staying with other family members.

Fundraising for Nie Nie's family is in full swing! Many people have posted about auction items and I just wanted to especially spread the word about Becca's (my sister in law)! You can see her full post here.

Becca is auctioning off 6 hours of private childbirth classes! For those of you who know Becca's experience in childbirth this is an awesome item! Check out her website www.gentlebirthchoices.com.

Nie Nie and her husband are in for a very long road of recovery and their family will have ridiculous medical bills to deal with for years to come..... check for updates on her sister C Jane's blog!

Welcome the Bears to Blogging!

Hurray! My brother Joel & his wife Kristine have started a blog. Joel was known as Joelie Bear growing up so now the whole family gets to be dubbed bears.... You can check them out here.

Baby Joe & Kristine

We miss you, Babu & Dyedu!

We had a great visit from my parents recently! Now that they have 3 of their 7 kids living in Utah, or, more importantly, 7 out of 11 grandkids, we're hoping they will come out more often! :)

My dad won Robby over by creating a game of stroller hockey - chasing balls around the church gym! Robby loved playing with my mom so much that the day after she left he went around signing grandma and saying, "Boo" for Babu! So cute!

PS - Their nicknames are short for Babushka and Dyedushka which are the Russian names for Grandma and Grandpa. Since a few of my siblings and I speak Russian we thought this would be a cute nickname for them. And it's convenient because Babu is a lot easier to say than Grandma for a one year old.

And aren't these cousins just so cute together? I love it! They are such good friends and it's been so fun living near each other and getting to hang out all the time!

(Anna, Gwen, Robby, Tyler - then Quattro, Robby, Anna, Tyler, Gwen)

Baby Signs

I've had a lot of comments/questions about Robby's signs so I thought I'd do a post about it.

I started "teaching" him a few simple signs (more, eat, all done) when he was about four months old. I would just do them to him, ask him questions and use the signs, and sometimes make his little hands try to do the signs as well. He didn't sign back to me until 9 months. And as my sister Tabitha describes it, "then you feel like a genius!" It's true. Watching your little infant communicate with you long before speech is even possible is truly amazing.

While I started doing them super early I don't think that's necessary - but the earlier he starts signing back the better! Once he got those three down we tried to increase his vocab more and more, a couple of signs at a time. We STILL learn new signs each week. He loves it!

What did I use? Experience from watching my nieces and nephews sign showed me how awesome and useful it would be. We rented the book Baby Signs from the library and there are a ton in there! We got a few Baby Signing board books which are fun. For his birthday I got him the Baby Einstein My First Signs dvd which he loves. Then there's a great series called Signing Time that you can catch on cable or rent the dvds.

I know it can depend on the child how much they take off with signing but every little bit of help in the communication department helps! Especially with a frustrated toddler!

Some people have asked me if signing delays speech - statistically it's been shown to help kids talk earlier. Robby does not have very many actual words - fewer than some other kids his age I know of (LILY!) - but he could just naturally be a late talker (not that I'd call him that - yet!), in which case I'm even more glad he signs so well! He does try to say words when he signs them now and I'm not worried about speech - it will come.

I think it just means a lot to kids to understand that they can communicate with you - it's great when they start making up their own signs! And we've made some up for friends and family.

Here's a little video of him doing a few:

I kept trying to get more on tape but no such luck. And his signing is a little sloppy here cause it's one handed and he's not really trying but the point is he's communicating!

I don't mean for this to be such a brag about Robby as a plug for baby signs in general! It's really easy to teach them and it's actually a lot of fun! And so helpful! It's something I think we'll continue learning even as he starts to talk more and more - it'd be a great second language to have.

Sorry for the overload! Let me know if you have any other questions about it!



just seemed like there was too much talking and not enough pictures...

Yeah, Robby!!

Just wanted to post that Robby had another poop on the potty Saturday morning!! Yeah!!! I sat him on the potty after hearing a little boom and knowing it was around the time he usually goes. He sat there for at least five minutes but nothing. So he got in the tub and I kept telling him to tell me if he felt like he needed to go - we taught him the sign for bathroom and we're trying to get him to associate that with "i need to go." I was watching him in the tub, jumping at every little gasp or stillness... he signed hurt and then pointed "down there" and I wasn't sure what he meant. And then he did it again and sounded really upset and so I grabbed him and set him on the potty and he immediately went! I was shocked!

While he didn't sign "bathroom" like I thought he might he still was trying to communicate that something was going on which is a good start!

And then he went tink on the potty later that afternoon after his nap! Just set him on it and he went.... that might've been a lucky coincidence but still an exciting thing!

Congratulations to Michael

Last night Esther and I and Esther's mom stayed up to see if Michael Phelps could once again make history. It seemed like there was so many things that could go wrong--it was a relay event and so he was relying on 3 others to be great in order for him to win gold. The US had never lost this event in the Olympics but the Australian team had won the World Championships last year because the Americans were disqualified over one of the exchanges. One small mistake by jumping too early and you're out of the race. All in all, there was a lot to lose for the U.S. However, true to form for Phelps and his swimming buddies they performed good enough for Gold. Phelps carried it by giving Jason Lezak enough of a cushion to keep the lead.

Personally, I never found swimming to be very interesting--a lot like NASCAR--just back and forth everything looking the same. But last night it was different. Last night it was amazing. A true display of competition and athleticism.

Congratulations to Michael Phelps and the U.S. swimming team.

Basically famous...

Out of 5,000 pictures sent in to the Stephenie Meyer website of Breaking Dawn release parties we got put on her site! Woot!

See Lindsay and I carrying our stacks of books proudly:
You can go here to see for yourself.

Potty time

Would you believe that Robby went poop on the potty Wednesday night? He did! It was a really exciting moment!

His reward - getting to use some toliet paper to pretend wipe himself. And lots of cheering and high fives from me!

So, I bought this little potty seat for Robby a few months ago. He's really interested in watching mom and dad use the potty and we'll sit him on his potty seat every now and then. That night he was in the tub and I could tell he was about to poop so I quickly stuck him on the potty. He looked a little unsure but we just waited and I encouraged him to go and then he went!

Even if it's just one less diaper I had to change that's good news. While I don't think he'll be potty trained for real for a long while at least it's a step in the right direction!

Baby Days

I borrowed this book, Baby Days, from Becca to get some fun ideas of activities to do with Robby. It's full of awesome suggestions and projects for kids under three. Some favorites from what I've read so far: keep a bucket of "cleaning supplies" for baby to play with while you clean like rags, spray bottle of water, dustpan, etc; put magnets on the dryer/washer to play with (this was great cause our fridge isn't magnetic so we had all these great magnets and I did not even think of putting them there!).

Thanks Bec! And I need to get my own copy and give yours back! :)

Discouraged....

I joined Gold's Gym on July 9th. Since then I've worked out about 3 times a week, missing one or two sessions. Mostly just doing about 20 min of cardio while I tried to get Robby used to the day care there. He's been doing much better so we've been working out a little longer and longer... (Liv comes with me).

Monday I weighed myself and bad news bears! I had GAINED 3 lbs! I was so mad.

All this working out, eating broccoli and salad for lunches, drinking less soda, avoiding late night snacks (most of the time).... and gaining weight? Ew.

For the last two weeks we've added Matt Furey's Combat Conditioning to our workout. I don't know why I didn't start with this from the beginning. I did this for a few weeks before my wedding and felt like it really whipped me into shape. I am REALLY hoping that we'll be seeing a difference soon... and maybe actually LOSING some lbs. Or at least some chub. :)

Any great/magical workout tips??? Or healthy eating tips?

ps - if you go to Matt Furey's site let me just warn you - he looks ridiculously low budget and crazy but the program is pretty awesome.

Thank YOU, Lindsay!

As a thank you gift for helping her out after her foot surgery Lindsay had this painting made for Liv and I by Shauna! Isn't it amazing?! While we were only doing what any good friends would do, I'm glad Lindsay thought of this as a gift cause it's awesome! :)

Here's the photo it's based off of:

Random Robby-ness 2

I haven't blogged for days! I wanted to post this little journal-ish entry that's pretty much just all about Robby....

Robby, Robby, Robby! He wants to drive the car all the time! Today after the gym I let him sit on my lap while I straightened out my horrible parking job and then we sat in the car for a few minutes letting him “drive.” One of the first things he does when he’s in the driver seat is to crank up the music! We were listening to Leonia Lewis’ Bleeding Love song which he loves to dance to. After a minute he reached down for the IPOD and picked it up expertly and skipped ahead to the next track, a catchy tune by Fiest. He was boppin along, having a great time!

Andrew & Becca let us borrow their cute little tricycle that Annie has outgrown. We let him ride it around our little patio and he loves it. He can kind of push himself forward and backward with one foot – there is no pedaling involved yet! J Often he wants to get out and try and load up the little bucket on the back with balls… normally they’re too heavy and make the bucket fall off the trike and then he just starts the process over. He loves rolling balls back and forth with me and he’s actually pretty good with them! I wonder which sports he’ll play when he’s older – assuming his obsession with balls sticks. Can’t imagine it won’t.

The first thing he wants when he wakes up, besides milk, is “ba,” or, ball! As I’m typing he’s running around the kitchen with a football and a smaller bouncy ball-ish-ball, screeching, “ba! Ba!” This is also the incentive for him going to the daycare of the gym – they have an awesome assortment of balls and little basketball hoops and he loves them!

New signs Robby’s learned lately – some we made up for cousins and friends including, Tyler, Anna, Gwen, Annie – and some from the Signing Time dvds we rented: Time, gorilla, rhino, butterfly, panda (sort of), animals (sort of), stop… I don’t remember the others… He made up a sign for music and driving the car… We also made up signs for Sydney, Liv, and Lindsay that we’re trying to teach him. You can tell he gets excited about learning new signs and it’s fun for us. The cutest is how much he loves the opening song to the show Signing Time – he points to his wrist, the sign for time, when he hears it, and starts spinning in circles or dancing.

He loves music and is always bouncing in his carseat to my music. Rob will not be thrilled when he hears Robby about cried when I stopped the car in the middle of Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back” song that I love. “More more,” he was signing! So funny!

Sorry this is a random post but it’s all these little details about Robby that I want to remember and be able to share with him when he’s older!

Other cute Robby pictures - Robby playing with a dog at the park... the dog's owner was so nice and let Robby "walk" the dog. He's getting more happy & less scared around dogs.

Playing at the Children's Garden at Thanksgiving Point... checking if his nostril is still there... yep... it's there...

Breaking Dawn

Friday night we all went to the release party for Breaking Dawn, the last book in the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer.


Yes, we are nerds, but look how cute we look! Ha ha... so we made our own "Forks" t-shirts and on the back it said Cullen, Liv's said Black, and Malea's said Switzerland.... We won fourth place in the tshirt contest which was fun.

Lay & Liv showed off their stuff in a trivia round....

Becca and I pigged out on some oreo shake thing.... don't worry, we got two larges so we could share!

And then we got our books at midnight! Thanks to Liv & Malea who waited in line Friday am to get a wristband we were #77 in line.... they stopped handing wristbands out around 1000 I think.... and there were still people left over! We would have been waiting for our book for forever!

Went home... started it that night... finished yesterday by 3 pm! Whew! It was a great book. I knew I had to read it fast because everyone would start talking about it and I hate hearing ANYTHING about a book I'm reading.

I still think I liked The Host more than the Twilight series but that's ok.... just means all her books are awesome!