Random Ramblings by Me

I have to admit I've been a little distraught over my broken camera. Of course it broke of all times when we were at Antelope Island and it was absolutely beautiful! Of course. So here are a few pictures of our month just to play catch up. Minus 2 weeks without pictures. That's not going to look to good in my POTD 2013 book. Grrrrrrr. Anyways, here you go!

Great Artist Class

Visit by Leprechaun? Yes!

The dreaded Science Fair

Kindergarten Program ~ Singing about the seasons

Crazy Love

It's official. This Ms. became a Mrs.!

We are so thrilled for them! We are excited to have a new brother-in-law & nephew. (They're not that new - they've been around for a few years. Hehe)The wedding was absolutely beautiful and everything went "without a hitch". Emily was the MOST GORGEOUS bride ever. Of course. Cole didn't look too shabby himself. And the boys were darling.

Congrats to the very happy couple!!! We love you guys!

This past month...

I'm finally updating my blog again! This year I have been completely spacing on my photo of the day. I have already missed a few days (gasp) and it's only March 2nd! Here are a few current pic's of what we've been up to.



I teach ballet every friday and after my little class we have started a little tumbling class. The nice thing about this class is everything we do is FREE. (Not taught by me) My very talented friend who taught me ballet for several years thought it would be fun to have classes that were completely free other than costumes which the moms help make. All parents contribute in some way. The law of consecration of sorts. Stella was a little nervous of tumbling at first, but now she loves it and practices at home all the time.



Stella and Grandma day. This was one of the days we were at a funeral. Good opportunity for some bonding.



Random.



Bill took Stella to a fundraiser dance at the high school. How cute is this picture? Seriously. Best. Dad. Ever. Bill brought Stella a rose when he "picked her up" for their date. (He never did that when we were dating!) They had so much fun and even took the photo booth pic's. T and I had a mommy/son date night and went out to a movie. We had fun too! We love our individual dates with the kids.

POTD for 2012

This will be my 3rd year of doing a picture every day. I love to look back at my 2 albums and see what we were doing, where we were, who we were with. I really enjoy it and so do my kids. (Bill does too, but probably wouldn't admit it) I couldn't decide how to make it different this year. I love the captions from last years. I thought the day of the week font was fun from 2 years ago, but wanted something new. I decided to try an all B&W album. I know there are some pictures that look better in color, but I have always loved the look of B&W photo's. I figure for trips & such I will end up doing its own little album anyways. Here are a few from January!

End of Year Wrap-Up

Wow! I have been slacking on my blogging! Partly due to my stupid Adobe Flashreader not working. It has been a VERY busy couple of months. It's hard to believe the holidays have already come and gone! This year has flown. I know I say that every year, but I swear time is going by faster and faster. I'm just going to do a post since there is so much to catch up on.

Halloween was wonderful! Stella was Cleopatara. I was about her age too. Funny. Tristan was a cop. He's a little obsessed with cops and still wears the costume around the house. I helped in both classes for their parties and it was so much fun! The weather was perfect. Dinner with friends was perfect. One of my favorite holidays!

My mom turned 60 this year! We planned a surprise 50's party since she was born in 1951. Music, food, decorations themed soda shop. She was really surprised! It was a total success and so much fun! I'm so lucky to have the BEST mom! She is one of my best friends and someone I rely on and look up to still. Maybe more now than when I was younger.

Thanksgiving. Food. Yummmmm. Love, love, love Thanksgiving! It's kind of the kick-off to the holiday season. We hosted at our house this year. Shaun & Family were able to spend the actual Thanksgiving day with us this year. In the past it's always been Friday - which is a great excuse to have 2 Thanksgiving dinners, but we were glad they could be up earlier! We all ate way too much.

Bill and I celebrated out 12th anniversary on December 1st! We didn't do anything too exciting. Bill's parents took the kids so we were able to for the first time in a very long time able to do to dinner AND a movie! I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful husband. He truly is my best friend, biggest supporter, and partner in life. I'm very blessed.

Stella had 3 - yes, 3 dance recitals on the same day. One with Jennifer's class and 2with mine & Miss Natalies. I am so proud of her! She was so pretty and did such a fantastic job! I love moments like this as a mother. These are the bigger moments, and I do cherish the small moments just as much...

My Grandpa Robbins passed away the week of Christmas. I saw him the week before he died. He had been in a care center for about a year and a half and has quickly deteriorated since then. He was bed-ridden for a long time and in the end couldn't eat or drink. He was so frail and had suffered too long. We weren't very close, but he's my grandpa and I still loved him. I didn't want to see him suffer and felt bad it lasted as long as it did. I feel bad for my dad and aunt who I know will miss them tremendously.
The funeral was nice. It was small. It was cold. It was just a graveside service. Many of my grandpa's loved ones came to pay their respects. My dad and someone who helped take care of my grandpa spoke. They said many beautiful things. The girls sang "A Child's Prayer" which was beautiful as well. Funerals are always a somber thing, but they make you gain perspective of what's important and I find peace that he is now with my grandma, Aunt Betty & Uncle Don again.

Christmas was amazing! Christmas Eve we went out to my parents for dinner. Shaun & Mistee were up, but left so they could be home Christmas Eve. We all got pj's and my mom made really cute covered pillows for each of the kids. The kids were so excited that night. They are at such a fun age! As we were driving home they kept looking out the window for signs of Santa's sleigh and yelling at us to drive faster so we get home before he gets there! Things are just things, but those are the memories I want to last.

New Adventures

About a month ago we bought a boat! We had been talking about it for a couple of months. Bill obsessively checked out KSL every day for probably 3 weeks straight until he found our boat. We got a great deal and have enjoyed taking it out! We took a little first trip to Deer Creek to make sure everything ran good. Then our first big trip was Yuba with Shaun, Mistee & kids. That was a lot of fun! We had to boat all our camping gear to our campsite, which was some extra work, but so much nicer than the other campsites. The water was nice and it was just so great to catch up with each other! It's been too long since our last trip together. Aside from our huge wind storm that blew our tent down it was a really fun weekend!

Our next big trip was to Jordanelle with the Eichelbergers. I think Melissa was as excited as the kids! Our kids have so much fun together it makes experiences like this so worthwhile. The lake was pretty dang busy, but it was really pretty. The weather was great and Bart was the first person so far to get up on the wake board! We will definitely have many more trips like this in the future!

This summer seemed to come and go so fast! I wasn't ready for school to start already! I tried to cram some extra summer fun into their last week off. We went to the Bee's game with Emily, Cole and Dylan. I probably watched 2 minutes of the actual game. It's a fun change of scenery. The kids even got to go on the sweet train ride. We also did father/daughter & mother/son dates. Stella and Bill went swimming while T and I went to the nickelcade. I don't think I've really been on a date with T! I'm alone with him most of the time, but it was a lot of fun to sit down and eat and talk with him. As well as go somewhere that was something he would enjoy. I love my dates with the kiddos! It makes parenting feel so rewarding. And it's great to see their personalities away from each other. Goodbye summer! Hello holidays? Oh, no.

This Summer Thus Far...

This summer has been really nice so far! The weather seems a little cooler than most summer's which I love. I hate the heat! We haven't done too much. We've only been camping once, with the exception of girls camp for me! Hopefully we can get in a few more trips before school starts next month!

Stella's last day of school! She's officially big!

Fairview Rodeo for the 4th of July. Feelin' the American Pride!

Sweet neighborhood fireworks! (Can't complain. We didn't pay for them! And the kids loved it!)

Tristan is now riding his big boy bike!

Lots of trips to our local library. Keeps our summer educational and gives us something to do each week.

A little nature walk at Strawberry.

A pretty overlook of Strawberry on one of our evening drives.

Tristan's big catch. He thought it was a whale, but it was this big umbrella! He was pretty proud. And it was the only thing we caught that afternoon.

This was a rainbow/sunset I saw leaving the library last week. It was so bright and pretty. Luckily I had my camera with me so I could capture the view. It only lasted a few minutes, but it was amazing! God is great!

Life's Journey's

All because THESE TWO fell in love!!!

The whole shebang



My brother and his family are moving far, far away to Atlanta, GA the end of this month. I certainly wish them the best on their new journey and hope this is the change they have been wanting/needing for some time now. However, it will be very weird not having them around! We have had so many good times together. Almost every life-changing memory I can think of involves them! We have had Sunday dinner together every couple of weeks ever since they got married almost 15 years ago. We love to play games and laugh at one another. I don't know many other families that laugh as much as we do when we get together. I will certainly miss them!

This was the last weekend we will all be together as a family before they leave so we of course had to do some family pictures. Here are a few of them!


Jason, Suzanne, Aberdeen & Geneveve

Shaun, Mistee, Makayla & Luke

Us

Emily, Cole & Dylan

Just because I don't have many pictures of just Bill & I

The Robbins Originals

Crazy suckers that joined our family!
(This was an awkward moment for them)

Quality Time

Today Bill and Ron took the kids ice fishing for the first time somewhere by Strawberry. I was wondering how the kids would do - especially Stella. She usually gets pretty bored with fishing, so adding cold weather to it I was sure was a bad combination. Much to my surprise both the kids loved it despite the fact they didn't even get a bite! Tristan stepped in a hole once, but didn't complain about cold feet. The weather was good and the kids took turns pulling each other around on the sled. (Tristan did most of the pulling) Next time I will definetly make the trip. I was able to get a lot of church stuff done that I am in charge of so that was a huge relief for me!

Go Jazz Go!

Bill has ALWAYS been a big Utah Jazz fan. I have too, but usually if there is nothing else on T.V. This year has been pretty fun so far to watch them! They tend to have a pretty big finale' at the end of each game. Makes things interesting. We have just recently started reward punch cards for the kids and once they reach 16 punches they can choose something they want, whether it be a small toy or time with us they can pick. It has worked really well! Stella even comes and asks us if we need help (knowing it will earn her an extra punch on top of the one for doing the chores). She's catching on fast! Bill thought it would be fun to take them to their first Jazz game to start out the rewards. They had fun for the first half then started asking when it was time to go home. Bill and I had a great time though! They did like the Jazz Bear quite a bit. He was pretty entertaining this time. Next time we're sticking with ice cream rather than overpriced (but still worth it) tickets!

Fabulous Fall

We have been enjoying all the beauty that comes with fall. It is in my opinion the best season in Utah. We have driven in the mountains to check out the colors changing and we went at just the right time, not the right time of day. We only had a little over an hour of light. The colors were so vibrant. I took the kids to Cornbelly's and they had such a blast! We'll have to go again next year!




Bill has been hunting as he does every fall. He hasn't had any luck so far. He just left for 6 days to try and get a buck. It's what he loves to do so I guess I just wish him luck and hope he enjoys himself. His dad went down with him which he was glad about. Hopefully they don't freeze to death!