You've had a birthday - shout hurray!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and messages! In some ways I can't believe a whole year has passed and yet so much has happened...

I had a great weekend! Celebrated with the girls by going out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory Saturday night! (girls email me your pictures! :))

Sunday the Primary sang Happy Birthday to me and look at the adorable little cake a friend at church made for me - thanks, Dareth!

Robby and I quickly devoured it when we got home from church!

We had a little party hosted by Andrew & Becca - made delicious Cafe Rio salads, more to come on that...

Played a little drinking game... ha ha.... I thought it would be fun to do a taste test with lots of different kinds of sodas! Rob was in charge and he did a great job!
We had 7 different kinds, all colas, and people tried guessing w/o knowing what kinds they even were but it was really hard! Even knowing what the options were it was pretty tricky!

Coke, Diet Coke, Diet Coke w/Lime, Coke Zero, Dr. Pepper, Diet Dr. Pepper, and Pepsi.

I'm pretty adamant about the fact that I dislike Pepsi so I knew I better get it right or I wouldn't be able to show my face again! Luckily I did! It was fun to actually test it out and even though it was really hard everyone did pretty well!

I do love being "Aunt Esther".... look at all these cute kids!

So it was a great birthday!

"One year older and wiser too!" It's true. And I don't mind getting older. I'm 27. I'm wiser for the experiences I've had this past year... it's been kind of a hard year but I'm grateful for my family and friends who support me and make my life so filled with joy!

Robby randoms....

(pictures from today before haircut)

Robby was on the phone with his little uncle Andrew... he was saying thank you for the Christmas presents he'd sent to him. Robby was holding the football from him but wanted the teddy bear so he asked Rob to go get it. Rob jumped up and ran into his room to get it. Robby looks at me with a sweet little face and says, "He is a date wunner." (great runner) "My dad is a date wunner." So hilarious. I think I say that sometimes because that really is one of Rob's many strengths - if we forget something from the house he'll run back super fast and get it... he's good at hustling. Anyway it was just so funny to hear Robby say that.

Today we got his hair cut at Cookie Cutters. Last time he did a little better with the buzzers than this time. "I'm a hiddle bit scared," he kept saying. But he was so excited to look in the mirror and see his "cute piky hair."

(with his best bud Berto - looked like little twinners today!)

Today I curled my hair (trying new things) and then wore some fancier shoes. Robby looked at me and said, "Oooo, you hook hike a prin-hess now!"
Me: "Thanks, Robby."
Robby: "But maybe you hood wear a skirt."
Me: "Oh really? No, it's cold and it's not Sunday, I want to wear jeans."
Robby: "Well, you could wear the blue things... the blue things to keep your legs warm."
Me: "Tights?"
Robby: "Yeah! You can wear tights! And wear a skirt."
I wore tights for probably the first time in his life to church last week. I would rather be cold usually but I was trying some out. He's just so particular and observant.

Driving through the underground library parking lot - at "Pro-bo hibrary" as he calls it.... we see a group of older people walking to their car...
Robby: "Were dose people in the hibrary?"
Me: "Yes."
Robby: "Oh, I didn't hee them. Maybe next time I will hee them."
Sure. You are crazy. :) I didn't really say that but I did laugh.

"Mom, is your hair down?" He asks as I sit here writing this. As he has asked me at least 4 other times today.

Sometimes he sounds like he's German with all his extra h's and hhhhgghh sounds.

Robby: "Mom, I hove you ho ho ho HOOOOO much!"

Robby: "Can I comb your hair, mom? So you can be a prin-hess too?"

He is such an awesome kid.... I love him ho ho hoooo much. :)

Robby randoms....

I just can't get enough of this little kid! He makes me laugh every day and constantly surprises me! He's always saying something that makes Rob and I look at each other like, did he really just say that?

Excited to eat apart his little gingerbread house...

That's right buddy.... go at it....

Robby steps on the scale in my bathroom, "what time does it say, mom?"
"Um... you weigh about 30 lbs...."

Putting a bag of apples in the scale at Macey's, "what time is it, mom?"
Mom: "Not what time is it - ask, 'how much does it weigh?'"
Robby: "How much it weigh, mom?"
Mom: "Look where the needle is - between what two numbers?"
Robby: "Um.... 2.... and..... 8!" (it was btwn 2 & 3 - hey 3 can kind of look like an eight.)
Mom: "Between 2 & 3! So it's 2 and a half! Like you!" Picture his big smile....

Obviously we need to work on teaching him the difference between telling time and measuring weight.

Sometimes we ask him a question and he won't know the answer so we'll tell him and then he says, "Ask me ______(whatever the questions is) and I will say _____ (the answer)." Like a re-do.

The other day I said something to him and then explained the word handsome, "it's like the guy version of beautiful. Do you think mommy is beautiful?" (yes I know I was obviously digging for a compliment but hey, what's the harm there?)
"Mmm, you are beautiful when you put on a preedy dress with a preedy scarf." He replies thoughtfully.
"Oooh, so you don't think mommy is beautiful right now?" (with no make up and my hair in a ponytail)
"No." He says quickly. Then with a very serious face he says, "Don't cry."
Ah! I didn't cry. I laughed. Very hard.

And the kid does nothing to improve my opinion of myself in a ponytail - my close friends will tell you - I HATE the way I look in a ponytail. I think I look drastically different and just horrible. Bleh. And it's just funny Robby is always telling me, "don't put ya hair up mom!" or "leave ya hair down mom!" It's so funny that he has an opinion on it! He used to be so bugged by it all the time, now he's more used to mom's ponytail... and knows if we're going to the gym it's a must.

His latest favorite book is a version of The Three Little Pigs. It's a weird version where the pigs have a waffle business and at the end the wolf's meanness is "burned" out of him! "The wolf was mean and now he's nice!"

Robby was pretty disappointed today to not have nursery - we just had stake conference. He loves seeing his friends there and loves his teachers. After church today he was making pretend phone calls to "nursery." "Oh hi... daddy is making my table... and... mommy is fixing my scarf.... ohhh! ha ha ha!"

Talking to "nursery" on the phone...

Daddy putting together the little Ikea table & chairs we got the other day... Robby "helping"...

So fixing his scarf - I'm crocheting him a little blue scarf since he's been wanting one. I'm almost done. But everytime he sees me sitting and reading or doing something else he'll say, "mom, work on my scarf!" And then he constantly wants to see how long it is! "Mom, let's see if it dovers my neck now!" then 2 minutes later... "let's see if it's honger and honger now, mom!" Promise Robby, it takes a little longer than that to make it "honger and honger."

Yesterday he woke up at 4:30 in the morning crying... I had barely fallen asleep (having random sleep issues lately) so I listened for a while seeing if he'd go back to sleep. He sounded very awake - not a good sign. I opened the door and he immediately said, "I spitt-ed up mom!" He was so scared and so sad!! My heart just broke for him!

All day yesterday he was burning up with a fever but didn't spit up anymore, thank goodness. He was happy to watch Dora and Little Einsteins on the couch and drink water-juice from a straw.... and when I put him to bed I rocked and sang him to sleep... he's still my little boy... and even though he was feeling better tonight I still held him and let him fall asleep in my arms...

New Year

The adults played some games.... dutch blitz is one of the only games I'll play...


The kids ran wild... I'm not even allowed to post a picture of the boys considering the outfit my son put on!


Ate a lot of yummy food. A LOT.


Passed around this sweet hunk of chub.... look how big he's gotten!!! (Baby Luke)


Watched the ball drop on the East Coast online with the kids with some bubbly...


Look at that happy face!

Then we big kids stayed up playing games, rang in the new year with some more Martinelli's... a lovely evening.

Some of our New Years Resolutions/Goals include:

-Read Book of Mormon as a family/couple
-Read 1 book a month (already read one for January - The Last Song, liked it much more than I thought I would and am excited for the movie to come out!)
-Get pregnant (Rob says that's can't be a goal but why the heck not?)

and some other things.... already not doing great at "eating healthy" but what's a girl to do when that time of the month comes around and you so desperately do not want it to... I figure I deserve to eat whatever I want at that time! And so I do.

Hope everyone's year is starting out right! Happy 2010!

Childbirth Classes

My wonderful sister in law, Becca, is starting to teach childbirth classes again!

With her fourth child, Luke....

You can look at her website here and email her at rebecca@gentlebirthchoices.com.

Whatever kind of birth you are planning this class covers all kinds of useful information! I firmly believe in educating yourself about all of your choices and options when it comes to pregnancy, labor, and birth!

So if you or anyone you know is expecting and interested in taking classes email her or feel free to ask me any questions as well!

Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! And it's weird to think we still have New Year's to celebrate since Rob's at work today... looking forward to another short work week for him!

But seriously, is Christmas really over? My last post was Thanksgiving! Bah! I'm going to do better at blogging - at least I want to do better at recording more funny Robby stories so what better place to do so than my blog?

Christmas Eve

Christmas morning...

Christmas Evening... acting out Nativity with cousins!

if you want to see a million more pictures you can go here.

It was wonderful to have so much family time this Christmas! So fun to have Daddy home from work to play all day! And happy we have cousins near by. We also visited Rob's grandparents and my Gran Christmas Eve and it was a wonderful activity!

I just feel so blessed to have such a wonderful little family! I'm grateful for the gospel and good news of Christ! Merry Christmas!!!

Thanksgiving

We stayed in Utah again for Thanksgiving and some of Rob's family came out from MD.

We dressed up again which was really fun!

Indians again....

Kate was the cutest pilgrim! Too bad she went down for nap before the group shots - she seriously was the cutest!


All the pilgrims...


Indians and Pilgrims peacefully together! :)

The kids made "grateful turkeys - I mentioned Robby's earlier...
So fun to see what the kids came up with!

Annie & Quattro at their own kid table...

The group....

One of the food tables.... we made so much of everything because we wanted lots and lots of leftovers! MaryAnn made her rolls which were awesome, homemade stuffing, sweet potato casserole that might as well have been dessert....

Mmm.... makes me hungry just thinking about it all.

Looking forward to making a big Christmas dinner!!!

So. Much. To blog about...

Time has just been flying by... and I haven't blogged for so long... so here's a big catch up post...

Robby got potty trained.... just one day we decided to put on a pull up... and then we just put on underwear.... he still wears a diaper for sleeping since he apparently still pees in his sleep. But if he's in bed for a nap or just woke up (and has a diaper on) but needs to go he just yells and yells, "MOM! I NEED TO GO POTTY!" Till I come in the room. So no real method, kind of cold turkey. One thing is we started putting him on the potty from a really young age so he's always been used to it and went through phases of going on it more or less...

Thank you Lindsay for multiplying our undies supply! Now our day starts with five minutes of picking out which one we want to wear that day.... so fun! (can you tell he loves it?)

And I just LOVE cute little underwear bums! So fun!

Then.... NEW MOON!!!!!!!!!!

We rented out a theater for a midnight showing and it was such an awesome event! We watched Twilight before at my house....

while putting together goodies bags for everyone...

After the show - showing off our awesome shirts we got made for the event!

A little funny Robby story about our shirts... so it's "La Push Cliff Diving Team" and a pic of a girl diving...

Robby: Who's that?
Me: Bella.
Robby: She's jumping.... What's she doing?
Me: um.... Jumping off a cliff? Into water...
Robby: No. Her not dumping into wader, her saying "help me!"

Ahhh.... he's hilarious...

This is just so Robby lately.... he kept asking every Sunday to wear a tie like daddy so I finally got him one and he was SO excited! And I got him this belt at Savers and he LOVES it. Now when he's all dressed up and ready for church he says, "Mom! I look like a prophet!" Hmm...

Playing with the Carter kids a lot lately.... Liv and I have been trading solidly once a week watching the kiddos so we can get errands done especially with the holidays coming up and it has been so nice!

Getting set up for Christmas....

I know this tree is so lame. :( Rob's had this little fake tree since his mission and we've used it every year! I wanted to get a bigger/real one this year but really we don't have much space for one anyway so maybe next year.... we had fun decorating it though!

Robby said, "I'm going to put Robby on," as he placed the ornament with his face on it on the tree. :) So cute.

APX Sub for Santa

We spent two long evenings involved with APX's Sub for Santa program which was really fun! We shopped for gifts for families and then helped deliver them. It was a great experience!

Sesame Street Live w/Aunt Lindsay

Robby was sooooo excited to go see Elmo! He hasn't watched much Sesame Street but of course knows who Elmo is! And we even got to go out to eat first. He was very well behaved, even extra quiet I'd say, just excited to be on such a fun outing!

We had front row seats! It was awesome!

He got to give high fives to Elmo & Abbie CaDabbie (who I'd never heard of but was really cute). He was kind of nervous of the big characters but ended up totally loving it! Thanks Lindsay!

And now I'll attempt one more post about Thanksgiving....