The Robertson Family

May 2011: Moving, Labor, and a Family of 4!!!!

2011-10-04T21:11:00.006-06:00

Mike's report date to Vance AFB in Enid, Oklahoma was May 5. We left Utah on May 2, drove to Colorado Springs where we stayed until May 4. We were able to get our military ID's at the Air Force Academy and I was also able to have a Dr.'s appt while we were there. After a lot of stress, replacing the entire brake system on the truck, not to mention the fuel pump that had to be replace the week before we left.....we were finally on our way to Oklahoma. We arrived to Vance at 4am and got into our TLF (temporary living facility) at 5am after checking Mike's guns in at the armory with "Airman Slower than Mud". This was where we lived for 2 weeks. Lilly referred to it as Oklahoma. She loved the playground right next to our room. It was a tight fit in a tiny living room/kitchen/dining area, a tiny bathroom and a bedroom that barely fit the queen size bed in it. It was a little difficult to move around the bedroom furniture with such a big belly!

Mike was basically on casual status. He was in-processing for the most part for the two weeks I was here. He would report in at 8am and he was released for the day at 11:30am. The rest of the day was his. He was trying to get things done quickly though and would stay until 3 or 4 some days trying finish his check-list. It was nice having him finished for the day so early though! Our first weekend we went to the OKC Zoo. It was sooo fun, except for the 98 degrees and being 37 weeks pregnant. The Zoo here is incredible! not to mention inexpensive, especially if you are military! The discount is 50%! It was only $8 for our family! We decided to buy a pass that lasts all year...good investment! After the Zoo we went to Stockyard City to Cattlemen's Cafe, an awesome steakhouse that we saw on the travel channel. The little town has cute western shops and saddle/boot shops.
Lilly made some friends while in the TLF. Alayna was almost 4 and Cody is 4. They played and played at the playground, in the rooms and at the zoo.
We went back to the zoo the second weekend we were there, but this time the Taylors, Cooks and Kuzmas went with us. We were all in the TLFs together. There was a brand new baby elephant at the zoo. Her name is Maylee.
Lilly loved the petting zoo. She had no fear!
Mr. Kile was buying a hat. Daddy considered buying this one, but decided he'd probably never wear it (too expensive) and bought some boots instead...he wears them ALL the time.
On May 18 my mom flew into Oklahoma City to come and get Lilly and Me. We left early the next morning, driving my car back to Colorado Springs. Mike had to be out of the TLF that day as well. Luckily the Kuzmas were moving into their house which is just 3 doors down from our house that we were going to be moving into. Mike stayed with them for a week. He got the keys to our house on Monday, May 23. The movers delivered our stuff on Wednesday, May 25 and Mike flew to Colorado Springs on Thursday. It made for a crazy week. I had Dr.s appointments on May 20 and 27th. The Dr. decided that he would induce me on Tuesday, May 31. Mike had to be to IFS (Initial Flight Screening) in Peublo, only 45 min away on June 1. Mike and I went into the hospital at 0000 on May 31 (so it was still the same day). This is me right after we checked in.
I went in at midnight to receive a dose of cytotec to help my body be more ready to be induced. I had to stay laying, which was ok since I was just going to sleep...or so I though. I also had to be hooked up to the monitors so they could watch the baby's heart rate and also my contractions. The monitors made it SOOOOO hard to sleep. I was so uncomfortable and didn't want to move around a lot because then they'd come in and readjust the monitors. I think I got like 2 hours of sleep??? The doctor came in at 0730 and broke my water. This was a new experience for me. With Lilly I got my epidural before they broke my water. This time I got to experience all the gushiness. I swear I hold enough fluid in my giant belly to fill a swimming pool! In fact I think i hold so much water and carry so out front that both girls never dropped onto my cervix enough to cause me to really dilate much. Even being on pitocin it takes forever for me to dilate. But it also makes for nice round heads because the babies don't just hang out in the birth canal, causing egg heads......

I decided to hold off on the epidural until I really needed it. The nurse was astonished at how quiet I was. I'm not a big screamer. I would be talking and if a contraction came I would just stop talking and quietly breathe through it. My dad had taken work off that day so we could call my mom to hurry to the hospital (just up the street from their house) and he could keep Lilly. They came and visited me while I was in labor and brought the nurses and Mike some donuts. Since mom works their she knows all the nurses. Dad stayed with me while Mike went out to eat. With Lilly my mom and Mike ordered a pizza to my room...so I told them no food in the room until I could eat this time! Eventually the contractions started becoming ridiculous. I stood and leaned against Mike to try to relieve some pain. Finally I was in so much pain that I couldn't bear it any more and I was in enough tears that I called for my epidural. I was still able to move my legs and feet and toes a bit with the epidural, but I thought nothing of it.

I was at 6 cm around 1230. Right after the epidural. I figured it would go fast from there like it had with Lilly. I was right!....I started feeling some crazy pressure "down there" and suddenly it felt like I had to pee sooooooo incredibly bad every time I had a contraction. It got to the point where I was bawling because of this sensation. It hurt so bad. I think Miley's head was pushing on the catheter balloon with each contraction. Thankfully the nurse agreed to take out the catheter and it was MUCH better. She had me push twice (2 sets of 3) and then told me to stop and wait for the Dr. When he got into the room and was all ready it was time to really push. By now I was shaking uncontrollably because of the epidural and the pain.....yeah, not the best epidural...pretty sure it didn't take any pain from the delivery away, just made the contractions bearable. After the third push in the set with the Dr. they said to stop but I told them no, I couldn't stop because it was hurting so bad I just wanted her out. So I pushed once more and out she flew!!!

Miley Giselle Robertson was born at 2:06pm. She was 7lbs 11oz and 20in long. She is absolutely perfect!
Mike had to leave for IFS the next day. He didn't even get to take us home from the hospital the next day! He did stay with me over night in the hospital though, then went to get ready to leave, came back and said goodbye. Luckily with him only 45 min away we knew we'd see him on the weekend. This was our first family picture!
All ready to go home....to Mimi and Poppy's house.

April 2011

2011-10-04T16:59:00.006-06:00

I have been absent from blogging for more than a season now! holy dang! Well, I am back and just so you know, we are all alive! Here's a recap of April 2011: (note.....the pictures are completely out of order....sorry, thats one thing i hate about blogger, and the fact that rearranging things on the page is nearly impossible.)

I quit my job the week before we moved so I could have time to get things ready for the movers and so I could have a little time to see people and do utah things.

The movers came on April 25 and were able to pack the entire house and load it in one day. Which was no small feat...we have a LOT of stuff! this is just Lilly's bedroom! they were at our house from about 9am-8or 9pm! it was crazy! Gigi watched Lilly and Mike, my mom, and I spent the day at the house with the movers. I was extremely pregnant and exhausted so I was very little help until I finally left and went to take care of Lilly. There were so many boxes everywhere that I had a hard time fitting in places....I couldn't walk through the kitchen and they had to move all the boxes out of the tiny bathroom so I could go......You'll see why in the last pic!
Mike graduated from Utah Valley University on April 29, 2011.

We took some random family pics before we were no longer a family of three....so I uploaded the wrong pic to this blog...my eyes are closed...it was sunny. The ones we had printed up were better and mike edited them.....a new hobby he picked up.

Lilly got to dye eggs at Gigi's house for easter. She had a blast, but would not eat any of the eggs.

My middle little brother, Chase, was called to serve in the Johannesburg, South Africa mission. He took his endowments out at the Jordan River Temple (which is where I took mine out and where our parents were married) before we moved while everyone was all together for commissioning and graduation. It was a great experience to go with him. This is him, my parents and the grandparents that were there.

Mike commissioned into the U.S. Air Force as an officer on April 22, 2011. His mom and I were able to pin on his 2nd Lt rank. Lilly entertained everyone during the process. THe entire auditorium was rolling. She's such a little ham! She walked up to the edge of the stage where my dad was standing to take pics and she was posing for the pictures and was making faces at everyone. Such a stinker!
Before pinning Mike on he was sworn in by Lt. Col Steve Leftwich (aka....my dad).

We moved when I was 35 or 36 weeks. It all kinda runs together at the end. I know that this picture was at 35 weeks. We were already out of our house, staying at Gigi's. The was another picture taken at this time that showed how I was feeling....not pretty at all. When people tell me they get HUGE when they are pregnant, I don't really feel bad for them! Look at me!!!!! hehe! and still 5 weeks to go!!! ahhhh!

Love...

2011-03-05T06:47:00.007-07:00

The other day Mike had a little delay on his way home from work. He told me he was going 10mph down the canyon behind a line of cars, then he would have to fill up his truck once he got to Sandy. Then I'm sure he called a little later to say traffic was bad on the freeway. Anyway, when he got home he came into the living room and we just kinda sat around and talked and did the usual....then Lilly wanted some milk or apple juice or "chocate" milk (her staples in life). As I walked into the kitchen I walked into this (but it was on the stove so I couldn't see it from the living room).....Turns out mike had had a poopy day at work. When that happens he usually comes home and is grouchy and sorta takes it out on me (as in complains and grouches about it all day)...so he decided instead of doing that he would bring me home some flowers so he would not even think about the crappy day. Gorgeous PINK roses with YELLOW lilies. My kitchen smells soooooo good! I love this guy so much!

(our first date: country dancing)

(first kiss date: scavenger hunt to find Mike)

(engagement photo)

(wedding day)

(wedding day: SLC temple)

(feeding of the cake)

(yes, we attacked each other)

(mini golf on our first cruise in 08)

(first time holding Lilly)

(snuggling in their minkies)

(trip to Cali for ROTC Drill team)

(Jan 2011 Labadee, Haiti)

Only 8 weeks!!!!

2011-02-25T06:52:00.003-07:00

....left until I'm done working! 9 weeks until we move, as in drive away from Utah!!! We are beyond ready! So much lies ahead for us and we are so excited! For those of you who don't know (if anyone even reads this blog that I never update), Mike has a pilot slot in the US Air Force. He will be completing his first year of pilot training at Vance AFB in Enid, Oklahoma. So it's back to Oklahoma for me!
Of course there are things we will miss about Utah...like the mountains and lack of tornadoes. There are also things we will not miss...like our house, HORRIBLE schedules with work and school (we go like 56 hours weekly without "seeing" eachother)..and of course the lack of tornadoes.

We are supposed to be to Vance no later than May 5. We're very happy that we aren't having to wait long after graduation to move...actually, we won't even have our stuff here anymore when Mike graduates. His Commissioning is April 22, followed the next week by his graduation April 29 followed that evening by a little graduation/farewell BBQ and then we plan to be on the road to Colorado Springs the next morning (preferably really early so Lilly will sleep most of the way!) While there we are hoping to have a Dr. appt for me. Mike starts training in Pueblo, Colorado on June 2. He will be there until July 5. I am due June 5 so we're hoping to be able to be induced in Colorado Springs like the day before Mike has to be to Pueblo...I will just stay with my parents which is only 60 miles from where Mike will be, which means we can still see him regularly. Hopefully it will all work out. Still gotta figure some things out, call Tri-care (insurance) and figure out all the traveling back to Colorado after we've been in Oklahoma for a few weeks. (whew! busy couple of months coming)

(Miley Giselle @ 24w2d)

(Lilly and Addie, my friend Brooke's little girl. Lilly LOVES babies..hopefully that will extend to Miley or as Lilly says "My-yee")

Birthdays, Babies and Updates

2010-12-17T09:26:00.006-07:00

I appologize now for the lack of pictures but I'm at work and will put pictures up later.

Yesterday was my birthday. I didn't get to spend it how I would have liked, but it was my birthday nonetheless. Honestly who really likes to work at 0530 on their birthday??? Not me. I have now reached the ripe old age of 24, which only means that my parents are practically ancient ;)...hehe!
Mike planned a trip home to Colorado for us to take, he bought two tickets and Lilly was to be a lap infant (still under 2). He planned the trip a couple of months in advance because there was a good deal on flights. As the trip got closer he was trying to get his old job as a bellman up at the Lodge @ Snowbird. He decided to quit Texas Roadhouse after he'd had enough and still hadn't heard from Snowbird. With about a week or two before the trip he finally made contact and the head bellman told him he wanted to have him on the team this season. Mike loved working up at Snowbird, not to mention the added bonus of a free season pass. There was supposed to be start of season meeting/get stuff ready on Wed, 12/1.....well that got changed to Sat 12/4. We were supposed to fly to Colorado on 12/3 to celebrate my birthday early and actually get to spend time together and see each other except for in passing. No Go! I wasn't very happy that he couldn't get out of it and I actually cried on the way to and at the airport. Luckily my brother Chase was flying there with us, but I was alone to fly back with Lilly....you'd think an hour would be easy....she's so active/busy...luckily she did pretty well and I only almost wanted to pull my hair out. While we were there we of course celebrated my birthday....Austin, my youngest bro who is 16, made me the the BEST cake you've ever had that I found on a random blog here. He is quite the chef!

One of our family traditions is to take a bite out of the cake after you blow out the candles....Lilly was sooooo shocked when I did it. The look on her face was priceless. I'll have to get the picture my dad took.

Lilly and I just kinda relaxed and hung out with my family in Colorado. No huge plans, just relaxing. We did get to see the Creche exhibit that my mom headed up, I think she said there were over 400 nativities in the exhibit, including a live Nativity that had a donkey, alpaca and a sheep. It was gorgeous! It's amazing how many different Nativities there are, some more on the light side and some stunningly beautiful.

In Lilly news.....Lilly has been talking in complete sentences since the summer. She's a crack up. The other day she touched Mike's face and said "I luzh (love) you....i promise". She's so funny! She has her own words for a few things which may be permanent name changes at our house for example : Heaband = Bandaid Otadon = Octopus (i think because Mickey does shapes and she thinks octagon???)...She's so funny. Her hair is finally growing and I was able to do a full-on ponytail the other day, thanks to lots of gel and hair spray for the little pieces. She's been potty trained since around Thanksgiving, except for the last two weeks she is scared to death to poop in the potty....So yesterday she pooped in her panties 5 times, including once at dinner at a fancy steakhouse (we won't be going back...long story...nothing to do with lilly though). I'm at a loss for what to do....she really wants the rewards from going in the potty but she's freaked out...she actually had a come apart when I put her back on the potty after she tried to climb into my lap and I noticed she was starting to poop (sorry about all the potty language). I know she's still young, not even two yet, but we're going nuts. She doesn't have pee-pee accidents anymore, maybe a few drops in her panties as she gets distracted on her way to the potty or somehow shooting over the toilet or between the basin and the seat which gets her clothes...but she's doing great! I love when she looks directly at a stranger in the store and tells them she needs to go potty or needs to go poop (everything she says or wants right now she uses "i need") which means she already pooped her pants....LOVELY! haha....oh the things we go through with our kids.

In other kid news.....In case you haven't heard .......I'M PREGNANT again. I am 15w5d. Yesterday I had a Dr. appt and because it was my birthday I asked him for a little present.....I asked if he'd do an ultrasound to see if he could tell what we were having. He was able to finally get a pretty good shot that was clearly not showing, as my mom put it, a "stem on the apple".....so for now we are having a GIRL ! My 20 week ultrasound is on Jan 18, the day after we get back from our upcoming HUGE, much anticipated , over the top excited for trip. Then we can confirm with the bigger ultrasound maching....We're excited to have another little princess despite hoping for a boy this time around to atleast guarantee having one of each. Mike is still convinced there will be a Pee-Pee in January....We'll see I guess....If it is in fact another girl, it's too bad the clothes we have for the same ages will be opposite seasons from what we'll need...oh well.

Halloweenie - late as usual

2010-11-05T19:26:00.004-06:00

I finally have 2 seconds to sit down and blog.

Halloween has come and gone and now it's o

nto the next holiday. My cousin Amand

a is here from Germany where her husband is stationed. Lilly and her son Bentley are only 3 weeks apart in age so we decided to do Halloween with them. Friday night we took all the kids to my Aunt Raylene's Ward party. Lilly had a blast getting to do the cake walk and the little "haunted" walk through on the stage. It was geared completely to little kids which meant that lilly thought it

was fun to take off running, leaving daddy trailing behind as he tried to climb over things. All of the pictures below are from Raylene's party. Mike took the camera with him t

o work on Saturday which meant I could

n't take pictures of our own kid, but now we have pictures of people we don't really care about. Anyway....Lilly was a little kitty...cutest little kitty ever!

It took hitting a few cars but Lilly is officially a pro at trunk-or-treating....she says "trit o treat" and thankyou to each car and she is not shy about just grabbing the candy if you are taking to long to give it to her. She was pretty funny to take around. She kept getting confused about where to go after each car though.

Cake Walk

Fishing a the fish pond.

Posing with mommy and daddy

Spiderman (Rykkar), Mickey (Bentley), Uncle Andrew, Lilly

CHEESE!

And finally.....this is my awesome dancer that we have raised.

The Ball is rollin! ! !

2010-09-28T12:17:00.005-06:00

The door took Mike and Brent two days to finish. It looks awesome! We even have two little steps. Lilly has mastered opening and even remember to close the screen door when she goes outside. She lets Rocky in all the time, only to yell at him to go back out. Silly girl! We finally even went and bought some vertical blinds today to go in the kitchen! Hooray! Having the door in makes the house feel so much bigger, especially the kitchen...and it makes the kitchen and living room so much lighter and brighter, especially since the kitchen was recently changed from dark red to bright yellow paint....(more pics will come of the inside)

Mike and Uncle Joe finally were able to get together and this is their progress on the trusses. The last pic shows the white that they were before and is the side that Mike is working on at this very second before he goes to work. The wood shingles make it feel so much cuter and cottage-y. We're pretty pleased with how all of this is turning out.

Hopefully we'll be able to get all the outside painted in the next couple of weeks, once all the trusses are finished. We're excited for the change and are hoping this will give some nice curb appeal as we get ready to sell the house next year.

I attempted to pull the ridiculous weeds in the weed, i mean flower, garden in front of the house. I made a little dent (you'd understand if you saw it). Today i'm tackling the kitchen and living room. Lilly and I put up a few Halloween decorations and I think that's about as far as I'll go with that part. We don't have much room for decorations, so we didn't put very many up.

FINALLY SOME RENOVATIONS PROGRESS!

2010-09-10T17:33:00.007-06:00

Alright,

I know I know we have not posted in forever.

I am so happy to post this time. Today my uncle brent came over and we started overhauling the kitchen wall to make room for access to the backyard YEAH! ! ! So here is a picture of what it looked like before and here are some progress pics of what we did in just ONE day. I was so so happy things went smooth.

Getting to take a sledgehammer to our house that has been such a stress was AWESOME. And things look great so far. I'll add pics when we get the cosmetic work done and the step.

Keen For Keen's

2010-06-15T10:30:00.003-06:00

As you can see, we like Keens. I got a pretty good discount when I worked at Cabela's so we got some for us and Lilly. Plus we have chosen some unisex colors so that we can pass them down through all the kiddies.

Reasons Keens are Awesome:

1. They are incredibly comfortable (long days on vacation and no sore feet. . . yeah)

2. They are Hybrid, Great for hiking and any water activity.

3. You can wash them in the washer.

4. Keen focuses on the environment, using recycled packing materials and reusing the leftover pieces of cork and rubber. Go KEEN

They are on the pricey side but well worth it, they last and last.

ART CITY DAYS

2010-06-12T14:09:00.006-06:00

The Parade was fun.

Lilly Loved the candy

Lilly and Sage rode together

They Loved the train.

I swear Lilly had fun, Even without smiling.

She did the duck pond.

This is her crown

And her great smile! What a picture.

Oh Lilly

2010-06-11T12:42:00.002-06:00

I took this yesterday I just love it.

I am trying to hack away at 15 credits this summer and it is a very difficult task. Today I was looking down at the computer typing a paper and in only takes a min and this is what I lifted my head to see.

1. Foot stuck in a tissue box.

2. she decided to put on some Desitin base.

What a little stinker!

2010-06-04T19:57:00.000-06:00

CARNIVALS ARE SCUMMY!

Lilly thinks she's a big kid!

2010-06-01T18:46:00.002-06:00

Our Little Lilly is getting so big I cant believe it!

Not long ago she was super tiny and not running full blast every day.

She Loves to color, preferably with marker and not on paper, on her desk her face etc...

Today she brought her moms earrings to me and wanted to wear them so I let her.

The last picture is great this is her smile when you ask her to, it classic Stewart from Mad TV.

How well do you know us?

2010-05-23T15:41:00.004-06:00

Last night I got a little buzzed and how did it happen you say?

Did we:

1. go to the bar down the street and enjoy a crazy night of karaoke.

2. Enjoy a bottle of champagne and a romantic evening.

3. Take 2 shots of Nyquil and feel like our heads were exploding.

If you picked 3 you guessed right. Maddie and I have twin sinus/head colds that are terrible and we don't feel to well. I think we got it through daycare. Lille had it first and now its our turn to bask in the coughing slimy nastiness of the cold.

Dr Doofenshmirtz

2010-05-21T11:24:00.003-06:00

So the Doctor told us that when Lilly play's with her food that it is a good thing. "it builds her creative skills" I am not too happy about that cause all it has lead to was todays disaster! Do I really need to narrate this picture? Have you ever tried to get Vaseline off of your hands? how about the whole Damn container of it? And your couch? Yeah so much fun . . . . . . . . . . Oh and Thanks Doc!

Date Night

2010-05-14T19:00:00.003-06:00

Last night Mads and I went on a fun date. But to make things even better I borrowed a Porsche 911 from a dear friend for the night. So we ruled the town going to Cafe Rio YUM and then went to Iron Man 2, AWESOME. Ya know I felt kinda like Tony Stark coming out of the theater and climbing into the Porsche. It was fun and fast we grabbed some RED MANGO and then went back to GIGI's to pick up Lilly. It was a very fun date.

In over my head.

2010-05-11T17:15:00.017-06:00

I felt the title to this one might be appropriate. We have lived in our home for just over 3 years and we are feeling a little cramped and also a bit tired of some things about the house. I admit at times we have just complained, well Instead of complain anymore I felt like doing something about it. First we looked at what we could do on the inside and have done a few little things, Bathroom upgrades, ceiling fans, carpet etc. and then thinking of some big things it just looks as if we would be spending 20-25K on the house. So I have come up with a much better alternative to liven up our home and make it more livable for a lot less money. So here we go with some Original pictures.

As you can see the house was built in the 40's and probably hasn't changed a whole lot since.

THE PLAN

Here are my ever so awesome renovation plans. I want to cover the ugly rod iron pillars in the front with cedar planks and maybe add some fake stone on the bottom. I plan to raise the garden in front to make it cleaner and separate from the lawn. I want to sand all the red pillars and the garage doors and stain them to match the front pillars. A natural wood color. I want the house to have the craftsman style so we are going to paint it a tanish brown and accent with a darker green. The backyard needs help. The door out the back that is now two windows is a must and I want to make it more of a nice space that we can hang out in and enjoy. I don't know how to do all of what I want so I hope to get help along the way. But I just hope that I don't get "in over my head" with something I can't finish.

To show that I am motivated I have posted two pictures of what I have done in just over a week. I have sanded the pillars and now today started on the garage doors. I am very excited and like this because everyday I do more and can see my progress. I figure that posting it now instead of a before and after will keep me motivated while I update the blog with new additions to the renovation.

2010-05-11T11:25:00.004-06:00

She Likes Her Dad (Halloween 2009)

Today I woke up with Maddie at 4:45 because the alarm (set to the radio) went off so loud I thought I had crapped myself even if it was Celine Dion it was scary. Then after Mads left I couldn't go back to sleep. I kept having anxiety about Maddie and worrying, so I came out to the computer and read the Nie Nie Dialogues, she is so funny. I am reading the old blogs from 2005 and she puts some great stories on. Well I made it back to sleep for 15 min and then Lilly woke up. Luckily for me one of our newer traditions is to snuggle on the couch together and watch Mickey Mouse. She is such an angel. So we are pals for the summer while I am doing summer online classes and not working. I am going to see if I can get some more work on the house done. More about that later

2010-05-11T10:41:00.006-06:00

A while back we went to Discovery Gateway because they have an incredible military discount. Lilly had a blast, she started with the balls where you could send them flying up tubes and arounds this huge room or you could send down

tube slides. She was having so much fun. Next she found a

house that was

tiny, she loved the chairs and the little kitchen complete with tiny plastic food.

Her favorite part by far was the water, they had a section for little

kids and older kids, she didn't care and played

in both. and unlike the other kids she didn't

have an apron so she got soaked and just kept playing. It

was a great

and she really loved it.

Inspired

2010-05-07T10:55:00.002-06:00

Today I am inspired by light. Usually I keep the curtain closed and enjoy the cave-like gloom of my house, today it was time for a change so I opened all the curtains in every room and Yesterday My bud Tyler and I removed the metal awning covering the kitchen windows. The house is full of light and it feels great, it makes me want to be productive and happy. Plus I feel good about not using any lights.

Time to catch up!

2010-05-07T10:06:00.002-06:00

Maddie love's to blog and scrap and does an extremely good job at in but she is tied up with work for the time being. She works so hard for this family full time, and I mean full time. the routine starts at 4:45 where she gets up gets ready and I slip out of my coma for a sweet kiss and to have her tell me something that I wont remember come the afternoon. She spends her day at the Development center in American Fork, her job demands a lot from her which anyone who is a nurse understands that anything and everything happens during a nurses shift. Listening to the stories I can't imagine some of the things she takes care of but am glad she does such a good job at it. After 8 hours she is back home and back into mommy mode, Lilly loves her mommy so much and gets so happy to see Mads when she gets home. Maddie gets to follow Lilly around the house playing with toys, reading etc. She is an amazing mother and gives so much to our family. WIth all of this taking her time and energy blogging comes low on a what seems endless list.

So I Mike have decided i'll attempt to keep up on our blog and let you know how our family is doing. We have quite a bit going on and want to share it with everyone.

It's gotta get better, right?

2010-04-02T11:18:00.001-06:00

It seems like we've had an endless streak of rotten luck this year so far....at this point I'm under the impression that things can only get better.....*fingers crossed*

February

It was the first Thursday in February. I had just called Mike as I was getting into the Equinox to head home...calling to let him know I was on my way. However, about 5 minutes later my ride home was extended quite a bit. I was driving my regular route home, on a road that has no stop signs in the direction I was travelling. The stop signs are all at the intersections going perpendicular to the road I was on. Well, I was coming up to one such intersection and noted another small SUV that was approaching the stop sign...well, as I went into the intersection I realized that the other driver was not going to stop and just as I was almost through the intersection (remember that I had no stop sign and the other driver did have one) I saw out of the corner of my eye that the other car was in-fact not stopping or slowing down at all. The back right end of my vehicle was smashed, causing my car to do a complete 360 before stopping. My airbags didn't deploy and I wasn't really jerked around, just scared to death. I know that I didn't even scream though because I wasn't sure what had happened. I did a quick check of myself to see if I was ok and then searched for my phone to call Mike to tell him someone had hit me. He of course drove like a mad man to where I was. Luckily he had Lilly and she wasn't in the car with me. I was totally fine and the paramedics and cops couldn't believe how calm I was. Turns out the other driver hurt her hand. She was 71, on oxygen, driving basically the same car as me, and pulling her rascal scooter behind her car....unfortunately her insurance company was state-farm, who are terrible to work with...mike had to fight them for 24 hours to get us a rental car that wasn't a compact car....they claimed it was the law that they could only provide the bare minimum.....WRONG-O!! and they also said they hadn't talked to their client yet...so mike called the other driver, asked if she'd given a statement to her insurance...and she had...so he had state-farm there......in the end they paid for my car to be repaired, and that's all.....we may still fight for diminuition of value...cause the car was a 2008 Chevy Equinox 2LT with only 35000 miles.....now we will probably loose $6000 if we try to sell it.....not happy!

Then on our anniversary Mike got a call from his commander at ROTC telling him that he did not get a pilot slot, but instead got a CSO slot which is basically what "Goose" on "Top Gun" is....or a navigator for those of you who know my dad. He was extremely heartbroken. He is however on the alternate list and is one of only about 60 people in the nation on the alternate list...we don't know how high up on the list he is, but our fingers are crossed that he will get bumped up to a pilot slot to fulfill his dreams.....talk about putting a damper on our 3rd anniversary.

we made it through february alive and were getting ready for a cruise in march, just mike and me.....

March

The day before our cruise, Mike was running some errands with Lilly. Shortly after I got home from work he called to tell me that he was on his way home....like 3 minutes later he called again....and now his truck was totalled.....GREAT!....Lilly was with him.....luckily the other car was a mustang and mike's truck just pushed it...they didn't get jerked really in the truck but the airbags deployed and the noise woke lilly up and really scared her... my mom was here to watch lilly so we jumped in the car headed down to get mike and lilly.....still working on this fun part of our lives.....we were a one car family for over a week last week when the car we were borrowing from my gpa mark completely lost its suspension.....

and then to top things off...i was called into the director of nursing's office this week and was told that the superintendent of where I work denied myself and the other girl who just got her RN from being promoted to RN wages and an RN position. yeah, pretty much no one likes the superintendent.....and not just for that reason...so i've feverishly been applying anywhere that i hiring RN's...not caring how much experience they want RNs to have.........we're having a fast the week after General Conference in hopes that I get another job. Mike's done at Cabelas because we were told I'd be getting RN pay....then that happened.....

It's gotta get better....right?

on a happier note...our cruise was awesome!!! we will post pictures soon!

Maddie and Mike...sitting in a tree.......

2010-01-05T10:54:00.009-07:00

It was recently brought to my attention that I have been slacking in the area pertaining to publicly praising my true love and sharing with the world what wonderful things he does for me.

He truly is an amazing guy. When we first got married he would try to do little things and go buy me a hoodie or something just to suprize me. I always had a hard time with things like that because NO ONE that I ever dated did things like that for me. I never really even got asked to dances in high school, boyfriend or not. I usually had to ask someone or get someone to ask me...anyway...that's not what we're talking about. But I had a hard time because if you know me you know that I hate spending money and I don't think money should be spent on me unless absolutely necessary. But he would do these cute little things like go through his mission journal, figure out what his first day at church was in my Branch in Belgium and he would get me an "anniversary" gift for the first day we met, even though I had no idea when that was.

In October he had been looking online at flights for my grandma and was looking at some of the awesome deals that delta had elsewhere. He found a really inexpensive round trip flight to Colorado from SLC even. I told him it was a bummer that I had to work and so did he or we could fly out to see my family because my dad was going to be going home for a visit from his deployment in Las Vegas. Well, as the week went on I was kinda bummed about it. Mike had been to my parents' house over night the week before or something like that for an ROTC thing. I was really jealous because I miss my family a lot. Well, Friday came and Mike called me at work and said he figured out what we were going to do that evening, but I had to guess. I was asking questions to figure it out and was asking things like "is it in Utah Valley?" "Is it in SLC?" "Do we have to travel to get there?" "are we going camping?"...I found out that part of it was in SLC and that it included travelling but not camping. Eventually I asked if we were flying somewhere....YES! we were going to fly somewhere. Colorado in fact. He had already arranged for my brother, Spencer, to pick us up at the air port. I had to call my dad to get information about his flight because I knew that he and my mom were staying in a hotel in Denver because Chase and Austin (brothers) had a State Marching Band competition up there the next morning so my dad knew about us flying in too. Well we drove up to the competition, just barely missing the performance...we saw part through the fence...but we called my dad and got him to walk to find us and then he took us up to where my mom was helping load the band equipment. He took Lilly and just walked up and said "can you hold this for a second?"....my mom was so suprized she almost started crying!! then we came around the corner and she freaked out. It was such a fun suprize. we spent the whole weekend with them. It was awesome and I'm so greatful to Mike for thinking about it and doing it. It was such a sweet suprize.

(our family, Nov 2009)

I appreciate these things a lot, I really do. I guess in all the hassles of working full time, his school, his part-time job, never seeing each other during the week and having a baby I forget to find ways to truly express my gratitude.

Even when he happens to make the bed since he's the last in it every day or if he decides to do even a few dishes that are in the sink or to clean part of the house or vacuum without being asked...I'm so grateful! I don't know, maybe I thought that since I'm the one that always does these things without being asked because it's in my "job description" as wife a mom, that I didn't need to thank him for doing it....but I am entirely grateful. It really helps me out so much.

I want to be better at telling him thanks not just by saying it but by doing sweet little things for him from time to time. Then maybe I won't be put to shame by some of the other wives whose blogs we read....

so to Mike, my one and only love, my eternal companion, my sweetheart, my other half, the frosting to my cookie....

I love you and am so grateful to have you. You are the best dad I could have asked for my kids. Lilly loves you so much and I love to watch the two of you together. It always puts a smile on my face. I love all of the little things you do for me and I'm sorry that I haven't seemed as grateful as some of the former recipients of your doting. I love you even when you are a gross boy. I love th at you took me to the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity. I love you with all my heart and honestly don't know what I would do if anything happened to you. I have a hard enough time when I can't get ahold of you when we are separated by work and school....thank you for all that you do for me and for the love that you show me. I love when you suprize me with even and sticky note on the mirror for my early morning. I even love you when you have played video games all day instead of spend time with me, as frustrated as I may seem. I always get over it, eventually ;). I love that you are pursuing your dreams of being a pilot and that you're going to take me all over the world. I love that you have a passion for travelling, even when it makes us poor, but that you always want to take me with you. I lovethat you have compassion for others, even when your patience falls short. I love you when you have patience with me and even when you don't. I love you even when I won't talk to you. I love everything about you (except your stinky feet)...basically I am just madly in love with you! ~forever yours, Maddie

(our first date)

(date of our first kiss)

(wedding day)

(engagement pictures)

(time and all eternity)

(Mexico cruise 2007)

(cruise 2007)

(Paris 2008)

(new daddy 2009)

(Lilly's first bath)

(minky snuggles)

(daddy and his girl, Nov 2009)

p.s. I even love you when you won't stop snoring no matter how many times I kick you and when you steal the blankets!!

Just cause I'm a loser

2009-12-31T10:34:00.002-07:00

Yup, it's that time again. Time for me to try to catch things up because I'm a slacker not to mention that when I'm home after 8 hours of work each day I just want to relax and play with my girlie. Anyway, here we go....

In October Mike suprised me by flying us all to Denver to suprize my mom. (see above for details)
It's been a busy holiday season starting with Halloween. Lilly was the most adorable Tinker Bell in a dress that her Mimi made. We went to our ward trunk-or-treat/ chili cook off. I won 2nd place in the chili cookoff with my BBQ Black Bean Chili. YUM!!! it was great cause I was able to have chili. Mike hates it so it was nice to be able to have some. I LOVE chili. Mike was a Cabela's customer complete with Billy-Bob teeth and a mullet. SERIOUSLY nasty. I was a cave woman.

In November we drove down to Las Vegas to visit my dad during his "Deployment" there and to go to the Nellis AFB Air Show. Of course Mike had more fun than anyone...it was really windy and Lilly wanted us to hold her hand and walk her all over the place the whole time. We did get some YUMMY kettle corn. Possibly the best ever. Gigi (my gma) went with us. It was a nice little weekened vacation. Mike and I subjected Poppy and Gigi to the wrath of Lilly in the evenings when we went down to the strip with our "should-be-engaged" friends Tyler and Chanelle. Chanelle got kicked out of a casino cause she's only 18, it was all Mike's fault!

November also brought unwanted cold weather, which Mike loves. And of course Thanksgiving. My family was here for the whole week of Thanksgiving. They came the weekend before because BYU was playing Air Force at BYU and they went to the game. We didn't eat with them though. This year was Mike's year for Thanksgiving so we went to his parents and ate with them, his sis Brooke and her kiddos, and his sis Brenda (and her accidental sugar-free pumpkin pie)....haha! love you Brenda! It was fun and full of laughs. After dinner we went back to my family to hang out a bit before we went to see New Moon. I'm totally team Edward in the books but Jacob in the movies. Why couldn't they get a real hearthrob to play Edward? I just don't think Rob is cute! gah!! Mike went shopping on black friday and got some good deals. I worked 8 hours every day, as usual (oh the life of a nurse)....Later we had dinner at my Aunt/Uncle's new AMAZINGLY GORGEOUS, HUMONGOUS, AWESOME house. My cousin Allie took some family pictures which turned out AMAZING, as usual. THANKS ALLIE!!! WE LOVE YOU!

December was a crazy month...SNOW SNOW SNOW!!! It was only a couple degrees for about a week at the beginning of the month. Not fun! We hit 3 extended family parties in a weeks time. My birthday was on the 16th and Mike suprized me again. We left for our vacation to Colorado after work on the 17th and didn't get there until 3am. We spent 10 nice relaxing days in Colorado at my parents house. The fun included the guys skiing one day, girls shopping, the LONGEST game of Settlers of Catan in the history of the world, the movie AVATAR (if you haven't seen it yet you are a loser and need to go see it...in 3D!...Mike has seen it 4 times now), lots of junk food which I gained 0 pounds from...can't say the same for everyone **cough cough**... two short visits from my Uncle Brian's family on their way to and from oregon and texas, and time with Gigi. Lilly sure made bank on Christmas. She's so stinkin spoiled. She got as many presents as everyone else combined I think. Good thing her birthday is less than a month after Christmas.....more presents..yay!haha. We stayed in Colorado for one extra day to be able to go to one of Mike's ROTC buddies wedding receptions that happened to be in my parents' Stake Center...crazy! Gigi rode home with us and we luckily were able to sqeeze everything into the truck and leave Rocky enough room to lay down. It was nice to be back home. After we got home we went to Ikea and bought a table and chairs and a new toy shelf holder thingy for Lilly's room and all her toys. Yay! no more toybox in the living room! and now we can eat in the kitchen at the table! hooooray!

Now we're into 2010. These next few months are probably going to be very stressful but hopefully worth it. We've got a few big things coming our way that we are keeping our fingers crossed for. I'll try to be better at keeping this blog updated on our lives. OH, I almost forgot!!!....here's an update on Lilly....

*** Lilly now has 7 teeth. She's actually had 7 for a couple of months now. She eats whatever we eat.
*** no more nursing. I figured that it would be a good time to stop while I had 10 days off from work. we're trying to ease her into Vit D Milk (whole milk) by mixing with her formula.
*** Walked the night before she turned 10 months and is now into even more trouble than before. She's getting really fast and really curious.
***turning 1 in 17 days!!! ahhhhh!!!!

Look for pictures coming soon....if we can find the other camera (i got a new one for christmas)

photo montage

2009-10-06T20:12:00.009-06:00

This year has been crazy busy. Here are some pictures from the second half of our summer and then some. Be prepared for a picture overload.....(Descriptions are below pictures)

We got season passes to Seven Peaks (waterpark in Provo for those who don't know). It took Lilly a few times of going before she was comfortable. She is definitely a water baby now. She loves to take baths and therefore loves the pool.

Loving the water in the baby pool at Seven Peaks.

Thanksgiving Point has a farmland area where they have lots of animals. Lilly loves animals and as you can see she also liked her popsicle.

"Burrito Baby".......enough said

Rocky is one of Lilly's favorite things. They had a whole bin of stuffed Rockys at Ikea, so Daddy threw Lilly into the midst of them. As you can see she thoroughly enjoyed herself.

We went to Lake Powell over Labor Day weekend with both sets of In-Laws....Lilly had a blast but didn't always enjoy the life jacket...

Just before falling asleep on the speed boat

Lilly was introduced to red licorice on the speed boat at Lake Powell...and Mommy made her go without a shirt to eat it.

Whenever we would put Lilly in the lake she would scream and cry at first until mommy got in too. The water was a little brisk when you first got in

Climbing on the floaties

Ah the camping/Lake Powell way to bathe

Like father like daughter. This was not posed at all. I put Lilly down for a nap when Mike was still asleep in the morning (Lilly thought it was time to wake up around 6am when it got light...so that meant I was up too) and they both fell asleep like this.

Daddy made a mud pit and put Lilly in it.

Our little family

We went to the State Fair....our water baby is at it again.

They had baby ice cream cones....so Lilly got her own. She did pretty well but got tired of the cold and Mommy had to finish it off.

COLD!

I let her feed herself for once. Still haven't done that again unless it's solid food

This summer....

2009-08-23T22:34:00.006-06:00

People keep telling me to put some pictures up. we've been a bit busy and blogging is never at the top of my list of things to do. however, here are a bunch of pictures from a few things this summer. there are still more pictures on the camera to be loaded, these are what are already on the computer. enjoy!

Fourth of july, the day daddy got home from field training. We went and watched the fireworks at the stadium of fire. we were just across the street. after we finally got lilly to look at them instead of the cars on the street, she was fascinated.
We got passes to seven peaks. lilly loves to stand and splash in the water. daddy goes and plays on the slides and mommy and lilly hang out in the baby and wave pools.
Lilly is started her quest to be a domestic goddess early in life. she loves to help with the laundry...help unfold it mostly.
We hiked stuart falls up at sundance. it was not the funnest thing i've ever done. lilly was a little small for the hiking backpack. she pretty much screamed non stop the whole way. this is the beginning of the hike. she was happy at first.
after screaming for a while, mom took the backpack. lilly liked pulling mommy's ponytail...for a bit.

we went to st. george for a weekend, just to getaway. mike pricelined the hilton garden in...and we got it for $45 a night! it was awesome. a little hot.....as in 107 degrees at 9:30pm!! we mostly hung out at the pool and in our room. we decided that we were cursed having a gorgeous baby...whenever we are out to eat we never get to finish our meal because everyone has to come up to our table and talk to lilly and touch her and talk to us....so annoying!! anyway, lilly liked playing on the big king size bed.
lilly loves to be nakey....don't worry, she's a got a diaper on....still in st. george
i looked over to see if lilly was still taking a nap and she was just laying there looking at me...and she would smile and just kept laying there. sooo stinkin cute!

we did a little shopping at the St. george outlets. including going to the rocky mtn. chocolate factory. lilly LOVED the apple core from our caramel apple. she was very sticky!....now when we go shopping, lilly usually gets a ton and we get nothing....we have no control apparently
playing peekaboo around the couch. she just kept looking at me standing in the door way... this was before she could crawl. she's been crawling for a couple of weeks now. she'll be walking pretty soon.

hanging out after some milk at 7 peaks. mike and my brother spencer and his gf kim were still on the slides.
taking a bath in grammy and poppy's new 5th wheel at tinney's flat at Gigi's family reunion. we made a huge water mess all over the counter....
lilly thought it was lots of fun to play with the drinking water attachment...good thing she wasn't strong enough to really give herself a cold shower!
we went to snowbird for one night and lilly had fun with the shops.
after about 10 tries we finally got a good picture of lilly, but daddy had to be a goofball.....one day we'll get a good family pic!

5 months already!

2009-06-16T16:34:00.002-06:00

Lilly and I went to Colorado Springs this past weekend. While we were there Poppy (my dad) took some pictures out by the little pond in the back yard. We're gonna call these Lilly's 5 month pictures. She'll be 5 months in three days! She's getting so big! It's amazing how fast she learns things. She can now sit up by herself and doesn't need any support. She still can't roll back over onto her back after she has rolled to her tummy though. Soon enough I'm sure.

Missing Daddy

2009-06-16T16:30:00.002-06:00

We sure do miss our daddy! he's been gone for a week and a half now. We finally started getting letters yesterday. There was one again today...it was so exciting! It's been really hard not hearing from him and therefore not having any contact until now. He's doing well. He said that a lot of the people in his flight don't know how to march or do the simplest things and that some of the people make the worst cadets at BYU look like shining stars. He reports that his attitude has been good and positive. He sounds eager to do things right but also to come home. We can't wait to have him back at home with us.

Forever and a Day

2009-06-06T17:53:00.003-06:00

i've been really bad about posting, i know. but my schedule just opened up, a bit...i dropped mike off this morning at the airport. he flew to atlanta, then took a 3 hour bus ride to Maxwell AFB, Alabama. He will be there until july 4th. He's doing his AFROTC field training, which is basically like officer basic training/boot camp. He won't be getting yelled at constantly though, because they don't want the officers to yell at the enlisted guys once they are commissioned. however, the only contact i will have with him until he's done is written letters. if anyone is interested in writing to him he would love to get letters, but don't be suprised if you don't get one back...he won't have much time to write. we had to pre-stamp and pre-address envelopes and put a piece of paper in each one so he would have time to actually write.

his address is:

Cadet Robertson, Michael L.

MAXWELL 2 FLT N

501 Lemay Place N.

Maxwell AFB, AL 36112

lots has been going on with lilly. i was planning on posting a bunch of pics but mike took the camera that had almost all of them. so there will be tons of pics in a month. i'll try to be better about posting while he's gone. anyway, lilly has been rolling from her back to her belly for 2 weeks now. she still hasn't quite figured out how to get back over though. so in the middle of the night after she rolls, she cries and you have to go get her. she has slept on her belly sometimes because she wakes up, rolls and zonks right back out.

she just started sitting up on her own too. which means that she ONLY wants to sit....in her bouncy chair, which she can successfully throw herself out of. she fights you when you get her into her car seat and once you finally get her leaning back and strapped in, odds are she'll scream the whole ride! then there's her swing. she either lays completely sideways or sits up and leans forward against the seatbelt. she's a goober!!! its so funny to watch. when you tell her "no" she just smiles and keeps going.

we took her swimming for the first time. not her favorite thing....she screamed and cried a lot. the pool we went to was dumb...no blow-up floats....only life jackets.....how stupid is that? a 4 month old can't wear a life jacket!!!

i also started giving lilly rice cereal every now and then....she does ok....but we still need to work on it.

Jibber Jabber

2009-04-19T18:00:00.004-06:00

Lilly has been talking like crazy this week. We put her in front of the TV when we need to get things done around the house, and turn on cartoons or just the Disney channel. She loves to watch the movement and she'll just sit and talk to the TV. Or she'll talk to us when we're in line at the grocery store or in the car...but as soon as the camera is on her, she's a stinker and she stops. Hence the reason this video starts from behind her and moves around. She also found her feet this week and loves to just hold them and look at them. This is mostly for my mom to see.

Our little Easter egg

2009-04-19T17:38:00.004-06:00

Lilly's first Easter was good. She got a couple of cute little dresses and some matching bows (I made the bows). She also got a few toys from Grammy...one of which is her favorite...Jangles. She LOVES him and will play with him for hours. She falls asleep with him hugging her all the time, which is super cute! Grammy bought her this pink dress before she was born, and it was the perfect easter dress.

gauffes et frites!!!!

2009-04-19T17:27:00.004-06:00

There's this new Belgian waffle and frites (fries) place up in Salt Lake. The guy is from Brugge. We went up a couple of weeks ago to try the "delicacies". It was delicious. Of course the fries weren't quite what we were hoping, but they were still yummy and double fried. The waffles were delicious. Hopefully the guy gets enough business to stay afloat!

Lilly's first Belgian Waffle!!

Glitter Toes

2009-04-04T22:27:00.003-06:00

Tuesday night Mike's sister Brenda had a "Glitter Toes" party. For those of you who are unfamiliar with glitter toes, it is somewhat similar to getting acrylic nails done. They use a gel and then cover it in fine glitter. Next they cure them under a special light. The process is repeated a couple of times. Anyway...Lilly and I went to the party and we both got matching Glitter Toes! Mike enjoys showing everyone, so here.....

Baby Stats

2009-04-02T21:28:00.002-06:00

Lilly had her 2 month appointment today. It was supposed to be two weeks ago but we were going to Moab so I had to reschedule it. She is 2 months and 13 days today. She's becoming our cute little chubby angel. These are her stats:

Weight: 11lbs 9oz (55th percentile)

Length: 23 inches (58th percentile)

Head Circumference: 15.5inches (52nd percentile)

She was fine during the check-up until the Dr looked in her ears....she didn't appreciate that at all. Then came the really sad part...her shots......She got three shots today, plus an oral vaccine. I have never heard her scream so loud. She couldn't catch her breath for a while. It was even hard for me to get her to nurse right after...once she started she fell asleep though. Now her legs are just really sore and if you touch the right one it sets her off again. She's still in just her diaper after her bath, and that was almost 2 hours ago...i think we'll just keep her in blankets all night and not worry about getting her dressed...so we don't have to make her scream. She's asleep in the swing...which means i get a break for now from nursing...that's all she wants to do tonight....hopefully she's happier tomorrow...i hate to see her so sad

SCIDM 2009

2009-03-26T20:15:00.003-06:00

This whole school year Mike has been getting up around 5am and heading down to BYU for ROTC Drill practice. He has suffered bumps and bruises and cuts galore, and even had an xray of his wrist (thanks to the "wrist breaker"). It was all to get ready for the Southern California Invitational Drill Meet or SCIDM.

Mike and Tyler went to SCIDM last year as supporters of the team. Mike was thoroughly impressed and decided it would be a good thing for him to do...plus it would help him be more prepared for Field Training this su

mmer. Anyway, they worked really hard on their routine, marching and memorizing "warrior knowledge" to get ready for the competition. Last year the team didn't pass inspection, took first in regulation (marching) and got 2nd in the exhibition phase. They ended up taking 2nd overall, losing by two points to the Air Force Academy.....that was the motivation for the team this year. They just wanted to kick the Air Force Academy's trash...funny story about that.....

The trip included driving to Edwards AFB, CA and then we went to LA AFB before the team performed in the Anaheim Angels Stadium parking lot.

The team took 2nd in inspection, 1st in regulation and 2nd in exhibition. Then there was the 4 man team who took 3rd and Color Guard took third as well (i think...maybe not right...oh well)..they took first overall...and were ecstatic! However, the air force academy wasn't in attendance, which we found out a few weeks e

arlier. West Point Military Academy was there though.....but we still won!

CONGRATULATIONS DET 855 Honor Guard!

Getting ready for Inspection

an Angel's Blessing

2009-03-25T18:49:00.006-06:00

Lilly was blessed on March 1, 2009. No, we did not change her name...it is Lilly Anastasia Robertson. She was blessed by her daddy, Michael Lynn Robertson, Jr. Lots of friends and family came to our ward. She truly is loved. Her circle was quite large, I guess it would be with family taking up 4 center rows at church!

Those standing in her

blessing circle included:

Mike, Grandpa Robertson, Grandpa Leftwich, Great Grandpa Leftwich, my cousins Andrew, Keith, and Chuck; Mike's bro Ray, my uncles Sean, David and Brad and our Bishop.

Lilly wore my blessing dress, my tights and my baby ring. It was very sweet. She also had a beautiful pink satin, quilted blanket similar to mine.

After the blessing there was a lunch at Mike's parents' house. Tons of food and gabbing.

Two years? That's it?

2009-02-22T18:56:00.002-07:00

So, today is our two year wedding anniversary. We decided to celebrate yesterday since it's Sunday today. Mike was the one planning everything. All I knew was that Grandma Mert was watching Lilly from like 3-10 (it ended up being 11) and that I needed to wear normal clothes and pack a swim suit and semi dressy clothes along with my make-up and whatever I needed to do my hair.

Gma met us at Wills Pit Stop at the mouth of Provo Canyon and we put Lilly in her car. This was a little tough for me....I was fine until I would start thinking about the fact that the longest I've been away from her is like 1 hour or so and that I missed her....then I would tear up a little bit.

We started driving and my first thoughts were that we were going to the Hot Pots in Midway, but we kept on driving so I figured we were going to Park City to do something. Now, I've never been to Deer Valley so I was lost when Mike turned off the main road in Park City...we ended up going to the Stein-Eriksson Lodge at Deer Valley for a couples massage and dinner. It was a very pleasant suprise.

We started out changing and going upstairs for our massage. It was really relaxing...except when my bum got massacred and Mike's calf the same. haha. After that we just kinda hung around at the spa....the locker rooms each had a whirlpool, sauna, and steam room in them which were way nice. Mike LOVES steam rooms so he was in heaven. He's been sick the last few days and the eucalyptus in the steam room helped clear out his sinuses and his throat had stopped hurting. We also took advantage of the hot tub and heated pool outside, which was way nice. (I hope so for a hotel where the standard rooms are $800 a night!!!!!!! we about died!)

After getting ready we went to dinner there. It was delicious! We split a salad and Mike got tuna seared with coconut and I had goat cheese with blackberries and pistachios for starters. Then mike got a filet and I had duck (I love duck!). We also had a bottle of sparkling cider...which we love...it was $4 a glass or $15 for the bottle...so we got the bottle. While we were waiting for it I told Mike it better not be something you can get at Walmart if it was $15. He said if it was it better be Martinelli's, our very favorite...and low and behold.....it was Martinelli's, which we haven't bought at Walmart for a long time because it went from $1.74 to $2.08, and we think that's ridiculous......plus we just bought 4 bottles at Costco for $7 something! haha...we laughed pretty hard. I told mike we were going to keep the bottle and use it for a vase and a water pitcher for the rest of our lives....haha

It was a great day. It was nice to be able to spend time with Mike and enjoy our anniversary together.

Today Mike woke up worse than he's been for a few days...so we went to urgent care to get him tested for strep......the swab was negative but he has a bad ear infection that is also a strep infection...so he gets to take amoxicillin for 10 days...yay! so far lilly and I aren't sick at all...and it better stay that way!

Lilly's Adorable Smile

2009-02-15T22:30:00.002-07:00

So we got these pictures done of Lilly and we spent too much, Maddie will have to explain when we have them to scan and put on the blog. But Steve (Maddie's Dad) Took this one and it is one of the cutest ones we have. So here is is

Finally Here!

2009-01-26T22:27:00.005-07:00

After much waiting and many uncomfortable nights and days, weeks upon weeks of swollen ankles, 6 bottles of tums, not being able to wear my wedding ring for 3 months, being at a 2 and 70-80% for 4 weeks, having my membranes stripped twice and going 6 days past my due date....LILLY ANASTASIA ROBERTSON is finally here!

I was induced on Monday, January 19, 2009. I was called at 7:30am to be informed that they would be ready for me at 8:30. After I got there the nurse, with very tiny hands and short short short fingers checked me and was way off from what the doctor had me at....you have to meet a 10 on the Bishops scale to be induced before 41 weeks for your first baby at the AF hospital. I had been at an 8 for the last 3-4 weeks and the nurse said I was a 6 so she wouldn't even start my IV until the doctor came because they might send me home (i was 41 weeks the next day)...DUMB! of course he wouldn't send me home!

After two hours of waiting..Doctor Haskett came up to check me himself (monday is C-Section day). By then I had another nurse, thank goodness...her hands weren't as small so I didn't hurt so much. This nurse started my IV and hooked me up to the monitors. When Dr. H came in Lilly had a couple of late decelerations and he said "oh, I guess you have to stay"...it was funny. Because he took so long, Mike gave him a new name...Dr. Hasselhoff.

They started me on Pitocin and the contractions came and stayed. I asked for my epidural before things got too bad and before the Dr. came to break my water. It's a super strange feeling...I really couldn't move my legs which sorta got annoying..but I was so relaxed. Unfortunately I had to be redosed twice towards the end of my labor. Lilly was OP and it was making me have horrendous contractions in my back. All I could do was cry and try to breathe through them. Mike was great holding my hand and watching them on the screen. I don't know what I would have done if my mom and Mike weren't there!

I had to have oxygen on a few times because Lilly's heart rate was a little wacko every now and then...but the oxygen seemed to calm her down. It took me a while to dilate completely....after I finally got to a five, I went really fast. The nurse called the Dr. and had me start pushing. Once Dr. Hasket got there he started talking about needing to use forceps because she wasn't tolerating the pushing. Then he said that if she continues to have such major drops in her heart rate, he was gonna take me back for a C-Section and things would go really fast. At this point Mike was basically scared to death, trying to play it cool and not show it. My mom and I were suprizingly calm throughout the whole thing...being nurses probably had something to do with it. Thankfully the forceps were only needed for a few pushes and our little angel was here. Because she was delivered via forceps, the Dr. had to cut her cord fast to hand her off to respiratory and the nursery nurse. Right as he cut it, Mike leaned in a bit and got sprayed really good. His face was covered. The look on his face was priceless...because of it though, he didn't cry when he finally got to see his baby girl.

Lilly came into this world at 9:45pm on January 19, 2009. She weighed 7lbs5oz and was 19.5in long. I only pushed for about 20 min total. She is absolutely perfect in every way. She had super long fingers and toes and fairly big hands and feet to go with them. She looks just like my 2 day old picture but has more hair than I did. Feedings are going great and she's a great sleeper, once we get her to bed...she thinks she needs to eat twice after her bath before she'll stay asleep...but she only wakes up like once during the night...usually between 2 and 5...which is awesome, but when once she's up it's for 2 hours. Which means mommy is up for 2 hours. But then she'll sleep again for like 3-4 hours, so mommy gets a little more sleep.

She's now just over a week old and doing awesome. She's such a joy. We can't help but just watch her whatever she's doing. She is such a blessing to have in our home. We love her so incredibly much.

My mom was here for a long time before Lilly got here and was only able to stay for about a week after her birth. It was hard to see her go and I still cry because I miss her, wishing she was here to help me and keep me company while Mike's at work and school. I'm so thankful for everything she did for us. I hope I'll be able to live up to the mommy standard she set for me. She's the best mom anyone could ask for and I'm so blessed to be her daughter.

The Equinox

2009-01-12T22:01:00.003-07:00

So some of you may know about my "crap wagen"...also known as a volkswagen passat. Well...the driver's side door didn't lock, the alarm didn't work, the windows were known to roll down when the car was already off for a while, and the interior lights didn't work, among other things. We actually got it sold and ended up getting $500 more than our asking price. We took some time to look at different Chevy Equinoxes and test drove a couple, coming very close to buying two different ones. With the help of Mike's dad and his connections we were able to get an awesome deal!

We ended up with a 2008 2LT Chevy Equinox in Slate Gray, our color of choice. It has 18000 miles and the following perks....... leather seats, seat warmers in the front, electric seats, wood grain, 17" wheels, AWD and lots of other fun stuff. It's such a great car! I love it!!!! We got an awesome interest rate and didn't have to change our approved loan or anything like that. Our payments will be very manageable, and above all, our sweet baby girl will be safe!

Year in Review: 2008

2009-01-03T11:19:00.003-07:00

One of my friends did this on her blog and I thought it looked like a good idea. Plus I'm bored outta my mind at work (which isn't bad with only 10 days till my due date...better than nonstop running) and am trying to not fall asleep...something the nurse I'm working with today was incapable of. She's been asleep for like 30 min! haha....

Anyway....here is our 2008 year in review....

January - Our first New Years as a married couple. Mike joined ROTC at BYU to see if he wanted to be in the Air Force after he graduates.

February - One year anniversary! Rocky is one year as well. Mike decided we were going to go on a cruise and booked it (thank you Pell Grants!)

March - Spring break for us...we went on a Mexican Riviera Carnival cruise. It was 7 nights and it was awesome!!! Two days after we got home I took my NCLEX-PN and passed, recieving my LPN nursing license!

April - I stopped birth control without telling Mike, thinking it would take us a while to concieve...guess not...two weeks later I was pregnant, but didn't know it. We went to France to visit Grandma Gisele after school ended at the end of the month. Mike got his Private Pilot License.

May - We cut our week trip to Europe short after 4 days because Grandpa Keith died and his funeral was a few days before our original date of return. We moved (drive) to Baltimore, Maryland for Mike to do summer sales (NEVER AGAIN) Rocky stayed with my family in Colorado and was spoiled. Found out I was pregnant. Learned that we don't like the east coast. Mike has a new love....Blue Crab....Obrycki's is his new favorite place to eat....much cheaper than his other fav, Ruth's Chris.

June - Baltimore is HOT! Mike sweats to death everyday doing door to door. I give it a try with him a few days...not so great being pregnant! I threw up for the first and only time my pregnancy. First OB appointment, we see the baby do a little dance and find out how far along I am....due date Jan 13.

July - Baltimore is still hot and we still don't like it. I teach kids craft classes at Joann - not worth my time! We go to Bath, New York to visit my best friend from high school, Alyssa and her family for the 4th of July. We severely miss Utah summer....all the city days and the freedom fest. NASCAR at Dover and trips to Washington, D.C. I learn that theme parks are not fun when you are pregnant. We go to Anapolis to see what it's like and eat at Leune's...slightly cheaper and better than Ruth's Chris, which is next door.

August - We flew home for a weekend for a family reunion...Mike got to meet two of my cousins who got home from missions. On our trip home we bumped our flights twice and each ended up with $800 in flight vouchers! Tyler flew to Baltimore to visit, see the sights including the Air and Space Museum(s). The three of us drove back to Utah, stopping in Dayton, Ohio at the Air Force National Museum for a whole day....the boys LOVED it. I got more swollen possibly than I have this entire pregnancy on that 31 hour drive at just 18 weeks. We picked Rocky up in Colorado Springs on the way home. We got to go to Lake Powell, just us and Mike's parents and had a great time. Mike turned 24 (old man!) and the next day we found out we were having a little girl!!!!! Soooo excited! School started again...Mike took 20.5 credits! Crazy! My last semester!

September - I started my nursing preceptorship in Labor and Delivery...and that's definately what I want to do! We both just trudged away at school. It kept us pretty busy! We decided to name the baby Lilly Anastasia Robertson.

October - Mike got hired at Cabela's in the footwear department. Too bad it's not a commission job...cause he kicks butt at it. I got hired at the Utah State Developmental Center as an LPN. We'll be able to live a little more comfortably and not really have to worry about money as much. We used our travel vouchers and went to Alaska to visit the Tippetts for a week. It was really cold and snowy. Mike suprized me with two nights at a cute lodge style hotel on a frozen river. I had NO idea. I'm starting to feel a little big.

November - Both jobs are going good. We never get to see each other though. All we do is work and school. I get exhausted quickly from being up so early and then waiting up for Mike to get home and have lots of break-downs because of it. People start predicting that I'll have the baby by New Years because she has dropped a bit and I carry her completely in front. My first baby shower was at Grandma Mert's...huge turnout...tons of stuff! Turkey day comes and goes...I worked and then we went to Brad and Jody's new cabin. My family was here for the week.

December - I finished school completely! YAY! Freedom! I turned 22. Mike did very well in school this semester and his GPA should be going up quite a bit. He took the AFOQT, but we still don't know how he did on it. He'll be applying for an ROTC scholarship in Jan!!! Christmas came and went. We had to open presents at 4:20am because I had to work. My family is here. My mom is staying until the end of January now. My 2nd baby shower was at Lynette's...lots of loot! Lilly is set!.......and.........................NO BABY! gah! I'm huge and just want to be finished!

A lot happened last year for us. We feel so blessed to have survived all the ups and downs and to have so much support from our friends and family. We are adjusting to never seeing each other and are hoping to see a lot more of each other while I'm on maternity leave. We are so excited to become parents in the next few days and feel so blessed to be entrusted with one of our Heavenly Father's children.

Hopefully my next post tells you that Lilly is here.....or that we got a new car.....either one should happen soon!

Belly Shots

2008-12-29T18:58:00.008-07:00

I wanted to surprise Mike with some maternity pictures for Christmas. He knew that I wanted to get some really good pictures done to document my big belly. My cousin Allie, who is absolutely amazing and even did our engagement pictures, came over with Missy (sisters) and they did a photo shoot while Mike was at work. It was lots of fun. I told them they had to edit the pictures really good to get rid of the train-track stretch marks. They ended up doing like 250 pictures!!! I picked a few of them out and had them printed for Mike. They are still working on editing the rest of them. Here are a few of the pics....

Getting close!!!

2008-12-20T20:28:00.005-07:00

I will be full term on Tuesday, December 23...37 weeks! yay!

My birthday was on Tuesday. I'm 22 now....and feeling old...oh, wait, no that's just the extra weight I'm carrying that makes it so hard to move around...and forget about going up any stairs! yikes! Gma Mert took us out to dinner for my birthday. We went to Olive Garden and had dinner with Amanda, Josh and Rykkar, Spencer, Andrew and Gma. It was nice to see everyone. I feel like all I do is work...and then when I get home from work I just want to sleep because I'm sooo exhausted, so I really don't ever see anyone. I rarely see Mike as it is. The day before my birthday I took my nursing final. I officially finished my degree in Nursing when I was 22. Now I just gotta come up with $300 to pay for my NCLEX so I can take it and get my RN and then make a little more moolah.

The nursery is well on it's way. We decided we are going to make a canopy to go over the crib...for our little princess. So we're trying to figure out exactly how to do it with the stuff we bought. Mike's been going to craft stores with me and helping me find flowers to use to make baby gifts for other people and more little "big" flower clips for headbands. We have one more thing to sell, a chair to wrap and store and a plastic file cabinet to empty and throw away (it's collapsing on itself.) and the nursery will be nothing but a nursery. I still need to get some Dreft and wash Lilly's clothes and her little blankets. Speaking of things to do. I need to pack my hospital bag and have all that stuff ready to go, just in case. We got the stroller/car seat from Mike's parents last night and Mike put it all together as soon as we got home. Now we have to figure out which car we want to put the base in...until we get another base. There's still one more baby shower on the 30th...so then we'll have to find room for all of that stuff.

Mike tells me everyday that it still hasn't sunk in that we are having a baby in 3 weeks (I really hope I don't go over. I told him it probably won't hit until we get home from the hospital with her. I am so looking forward to having her in our lives and we are already very grateful for the opportunity we have been given by Heavenly Father to bring one of His children into this world and nurture and care for her.

We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Recently...

2008-12-01T18:25:00.003-07:00

So, it's been a crazy few weeks. The week of Thanksgiving was insane. My family was here from Colorado. They drove here on the 21 and then my mom threw me a baby shower with my gma, aunt and cousin. We got lots and lots of stuff (meaning mostly clothes). It was way fun! Afterwards, we all went to see Twilight. Mike had to work so he didn't go, and he said that he didn't care. I dunno if that's true or not. Despite what everyone else thinks....I really liked the movie. I thought they did a good job with it.

I had to take that Saturday off of work which meant that I had to work Monday instead...which also meant that I would be working Mon-Sat, 5:30am-2pm. It pretty much sucked! I was soooo stinkin exhausted. On Thanksgiving I was supposed to leave at 1:30 and say I didn't take a lunch (which I didn't) but we had an emergency and I had to go with someone to the ER about 20-30 min before I was supposed to be off. Of course I was stressed and upset and exhausted. I got back to work around 3 and left from there...the person was still at the ER but someone that had just gotten to work came and relieved me and the other girl. What a day! When I got home I broke down. It didn't help that my mom kept asking if I even wanted to go up to Mt Pleasant to eat....plus being pregnant and sleep deprived and ever since we got married...if I cry once in a day, then I cry all day and can't stop! I hate it!...The food was good though.

Anyway, I the Monday before Thanksgiving my family helped us paint the nursery and then a couple of days later Mike and my Dad put up the chair rail. My mom and dad bought us a crib at my request (instead of a glider) and then mike put it up on Saturday night. He read all the instructions and everything! He's such a good hubby! I'm so thankful to have him in my life!

Now I'm 34 weeks and starting to feel like it. I'm definately glad to be done in 6 weeks!

Dining Out

2008-11-09T18:52:00.004-07:00

Dining out was on Saturday, Nov 1. for those of you don't know what dining out is, it's a formal dinner where it's pretty much required to have a date for ROTC. there are rules of the mess that the cadets MUST follow and if their date is doing something really bad, then they may suffer the penalties for him/her. by penalties i mean being sent to the grog which is a toilet on a table filled with nasty drink (whatever they wanted to put in it) or they might have to do something embarrassing in front of everyone. here are the actual rules of the mess.......

Thou shalt enjoy thyself to the fullest!

Thou shalt not be late.

Thou shalt make every effort to meet all guest.

When the mess is formed thou shalt remain standing until seated by the President.

Thou shalt not leave the mess whilst convened. Military protocol overrides all calls of nature. (they made an extra announcement for this one...it didn't apply for anyone who was pregnant...i'm the furthest along by far)

Thou shalt participate in toasts unless thyself or thy group is being honored.

Thou shalt ensure that thy glass is always charged.

Thou shalt not murder the Queen's English or any other language.

Thou shalt always use proper toasting procedure.

Thou shalt not laugh at ridiculously funny comments unless Mister President first shows approval by laughing.

Thou shalt not question the decisions of Mister President or Mister Vice.

Thou shalt express thy approval by tapping thy spoon on the table. Clapping thy hands will not be tolerated.

Thou shalt not begin eating a course of the meal before members of the head table.

Thy reputaion shall be placed at risk if thy bow tie rides and an obvious list.

Thou shalt not grog members of the head table.

Other rules included always escorting your date and dates always had to be on the left. Very hard for us to do because i move fairly slowly. anyway, BYU catering did the event, and the food was not that good. there was this huge cake that was gorgeous and it tasted sugar free to top it all off.

i searched all over for a dress and shoes and all that and finally lucked out like 2 days before the event. mike's sister did my hair and everything was great. i worked 8 hours that morning and was fairly swollen and could barely move my knees, ankles, and toes. there was a dance afterward and you can imagine how great i felt...haha..to top that off, mike stepped on the top of my left foot with his heel which is horse-shoed. it still hurts. we had fun at the dance though. i was the only prego that stayed for the dance. we were neglectful and only took a couple of pics though......

One of the speakers at the dinner was Col. John M. McCain, the commander of all of Air Force ROTC. mike was excited to have him there....

ALASKA

2008-10-20T17:54:00.005-06:00

Alaska is absolutely gorgeous! Its been a nice getaway and its also been nice to be able to see Mike for more than 5 minutes at a time since ROTC thinks they are the world. To start our trip off we flew to Seattle and had a layover for about 2 hours and our "cruise parents" who live there came and saw us in the air port. It's always fun to catch up!

Then as we landed in Fairbanks, Aaska, we went down to the one little baggage claim conveyor belt and we got our bags pretty fast. So then Mike had me believing that we landed fairly early and pretended to go outside and call the Tippetts to tell them that we had landed early. He came back inside and told me they'd be there in a few minutes. So, after a couple of minutes he went back out to "flag them down" if he saw them...actually he was looking for something else. He came back inside for a few minutes and then said "k, let's go" and led me outside where he proceeded to load the suitcases into a shuttle. I still had no idea what was going on, maybe we were going to take a shuttle to their house...I was totally at a loss. The we pulled up to this hotel/lodge place and got our bags and went inside. Mike suprized me with a two night stay at Pike's. We had a room with a king size bed and a fireplace (unfortunately we couldn't get a room with a jacuzzi because they are off limits for a couple more months). Mike had arranged to have a bottle of "champagne" in the room on ice, rose petals and chocolates on the bed and the lady he was working with also had put a really cute teddy bear on the bed for me. It was a pleasant suprise. He's been feeling bad about not being able to spend time together and wanted to have a little bit of a romantic escape.

The first actual day we were there in Fairbanks, we just went downtown and walked around a bit. It was a bit nippy...especially since I can't zip anything up anymore and my belly just sticks out, however, everytime we'd go into a store or anything I would start to die from the heat and I'd have to start stripping off layers. It was sorta annoying. The cool air felt great though. After about 30 minutes we'd seen most of downtown and also discovered that Fairbanks is similar to Vegas and Europe in that everyone and their dog smokes. Very disgusting!

The next day after Sam came and picked us up at the hotel, she took us to North Pole, Alaska to the Santa Claus House. It is FULL of Christmas decorations to buy and that's pretty much it. It was way fun to walk through. Outside they have a huge pole that says "NORTH POLE" and also some reindeer. As you can see, I got tired of wearing my coat again cause I was too hot inside.

Date Night

2008-09-29T22:45:00.014-06:00

i think anyone who is married can justify that lots of different things can cou

nt as date night. here's an example....mike hurt his back really bad on saturday helping someone move a gun safe. the worst part is that we don't even know the people. he's basically been in agony the past few days, which also involves keeping me

up at night cause he moans and groans and tosses

and turns...valium is in the plan for tonight. anyway, the Legacy Center "aquatic center" has a good sized hot tub so we decided to go so he could sit in it and hoped that it would help his back. while he got to play in the hot water and relax, i just dangled my feet in. that's one thing i miss about not being pregnant...hot tubs! anyway, he also likes the slide because it is pitch black inside, which makes it pretty dang fun. mike had fun taking pictures in the slide. during the swim break we got some nachos, a pretzel and a cookie with some loose change from home. then we went back to swimmin

g. we finished the night by playing around in the kid area with the camera....p.s. it's waterproof.

Baby Girl

2008-09-24T09:44:00.006-06:00

here's a few pics from 4 weeks ago, when we found out we were having a girl. i'm slow at getting them up, i know. but last night/this morning i had a dream that i had the baby and it turned out to be quadruplets and they were all boys! ahhh! we had no clothes or anything like that...and i was never big enough to have quads in my belly. it was crazy. anyway. this is our baby girl. at my 20 week appointment everything checked out great. all of her organs look good. spine looks good. no cleft lip/palate. the only problem was that she was being a stinker and wouldn't let us see that she was a girl. first she had one hand down in the way. so we decided to finish checking other things and then go back and look again. this time she had her legs crossed way too tight and we couldn't see. so the tech was bouncing the ultrasound on my belly. (keep in mind that i had downed 24oz in the last hour and my bladder was very big on the ultrasound). this wasn't working so she had me go to the bathroom and come back and she tried again. the stinker still wouldn't uncross her legs! i tried rolling around, she tried having me lay on my side and doing the ultrasound. eventually we just gave up for a bit and i went to my doctors' visit and drank some apple juice (my fav). i kept trying to move the dang baby around during this little break. so we went back into the ultrasound and nada! she was being such a stinker! she would NOT move! finally, we got her bouncing enough that her legs parted just a bit and we saw that it was a girl!!! hooooray! i had been hoping it was a girl but we thought it was going to be a boy. my family on the other hand were positive that it was a girl, so much so that my mom and mike had a war going that it was a girl/boy. my mom bought mike pink onsies for his b-day which was the day before the ultrasound. so mike had to call her and break the news. his parents were also positive that it was a boy, so he had to tell them they were wrong too! hahaha! so now we have lots of pink stuff. it's way fun and we're way excited. here's a couple pics.....

It's a GIRL!

Profile.

I think she has her daddy's nose!

One foot.....

.....Two feet!

Things that are BIG

2008-09-16T19:03:00.008-06:00

i haven't posted in a long time, i know. i hate posting without pictures and someone stole our camera out of our car when we were on our way home from baltimore and were stopped in colorado at my parents'. but this saturday we were able to replace the camera....yay! so, along with replacing the camera, we replaced our couch! haha...kinda on accident. we went to the RC Willey Outlet tent sale and saw this sectional and we got an awesome deal on it...so yeah, now we have a bunch of furniture to sell. it's sooo comfy and so big and we love it soo much! unfortunately we sold our kitchen table and chairs before we went to baltimore because we never sat at it to eat (the kitchen lighting stinks). we always just ate on the couch and now we don't want to eat on the new one, so we just sit on the floor. great fun when you're pregnant! haha...

we actually planned ahead for sunday and we took fixin's over to Teri and Sean's to make shishkabob skewers complete with chicken, steak, shrimp, onions, zucchini, and peppers. gma Toddy came too and provided a yummy salad. we made SOOOOO much food! it was crazy! it was so yummy though. everyone kept eating and eating and eating. i'm pretty sure there are still like 3 skewers in the fridge. oh yeah, and we had Harward corn on the cob too. yeah buddy!

Thanks for maning the grill Teri!!!!

in other news...i'm am 24 weeks tomorrow. our baby girl is constantly kicking my bladder, making my days nothing but trips to the bathroom. she's our little wiggle-worm and she has even moved a few times for her daddy to feel it. i think she knows when he puts his hand on my belly to feel, because she stops moving when he does. mike says it's because she's already a daddy's girl and she just wants him close and then she calms down. i think it's because she already takes after him, which means she's a stinker. i'm definately starting to look like i'm not just fat, which is nice for me. haha. none of my normal clothes fit, including shirts, unless i want the bottom of my belly to hang out. thanks again to Aunt Teri for lending me her maternity clothes!

The Dumbest Day Ever...

2008-07-18T16:38:00.002-06:00

last month all the guys mike works with sold over 500 accounts and that meant that they got a trip to a theme park, wives include. well, there just so happens to be like 4 theme parks within 3 hours of where we live right now. Hershey Park, 6 Flags America, King's Dominion, and Busch Gardens. well, the first three are the closest, cheaper and all have a water park in the park...which you don't have to pay extra for. but did the two managers pick any of those or listen to anything anyone else had to say??? of course not. they decided that we were going to Busch Gardens which has the fewest rides out of all of the parks and is an hour further away than any of the others, and didn't have a water park. they didn't care that the one person who is FROM the baltimore area said that King's Dominion was the better park. they didn't care that tickets were $20 more per person. they didn't care that i couldn't ride the rides but that i could at least go to the water park.
we went on wed. it SUCKED! mike had a good time riding the rides. he rode one of the roller coasters 11 times! i on the other hand rode one thing between 10:30am and 6pm. i wore mike's aviator sunglasses for the first half of the day because when he would leave me outside of the ride to wait the 30 min-1 hour for him to go through the line and ride, i would just sit there and cry (the added emotionality is soooo much fun! not!) all in all i was able to ride three rides (the rapids, the big splash ride, and a 4-D sit in a chair that moves ride.....BORING) we didn't leave until like 10pm, then we had to drive home 3 hours.....omigoodnes!
and to make things worse, the managers also decided to have a bbq the night before we went to the park....and by night i mean it started after 10pm and then the guys played volleyball. no one went home till after 1am and everyone had to be ready to leave by 7am! then at least one of the managers complained about being tired and since he was driving FORCED the people who rode in his car to leave when HE was ready. maybe they should think things through a bit???? an on top of all of this...apparently no one understood that there was a water park at the other parks. they just took the manager's word that busch gardens was the best, only one of them having even been to it.....when he was freakin 13 years old!!!!!! what the HECK!?

p.s. i'll put pics up later...they won't load right now for some reason

new york

2008-07-09T13:59:00.003-06:00

alyssa, my best friend from high school just so happens to live in bath, NY, a charming little podunk town in southern NY. it's about 4 hours from us in baltimore. so we decided to go for a visit during the weekend of the 4th because mike had it off. it was a bit of a drive and we didn't get there until 4am, but it was way fun and a good escape from our boring life. alyssa's family has a really nice house and a fairly big pool, so we had fun just relaxing by the pool a lot. we also got to meet a few of alyssa's friends and a bunch of her extended family that i didn't know before.

somehow we keep "lucking out" and randomly come across anything and everything that has to do with air planes and aviation....yup, there was the 100th anniversary of the 5000 ft flight of Glen Curtiss, who happened to hold the very first pilot's license issued....and of course there was a museum about him...which i made mike go to alone. i'm sorta airplane/space/aviationed out.

anyway. it was way fun to see alyssa again since i hadn't seen her since my wedding day. she's gonna come see us one more time before we head home. her sister lives about 30 min from us, so that works out perfectly! yay for friends!!!!

belly dancer

2008-06-24T18:25:00.005-06:00

so far it hasn't been a horrible pregnancy...not the best time of my life, but i'm still alive. i am 11 weeks today and i've only thrown up a total of three times, all within a three minute period a couple of weeks ago. other than that the worst thing has been the horrendous heartburn. i'm suprised that i actually have an esophagus left...sometimes i wish i didn't. mylanta has been fabulous and i drink it straight from the bottle. i call it my chalk cocktail. the only other thing is that i'm starving like every 2 hours but nothing ever sounds good....except ice cream, which always sounds good. i had that for lunch the other day.

i had my first OB appointment on june 16. i was 10 days off of what they thought i'd be "date-wise". my due date is jan 13. i knew ahead of time that i was going to be having a sonogra

m so i made mike play hookie for most of the day so he could come with me. the sonogram was awesome. we could easily tell where the head, arms and body were. mike says we're having a boy because it's head was so big...haha...it was really cute. the baby did some dancing for us. first we'd see the little head move and then the arms would wave around. it was awesome. of course i cried, i don't think mike or the doctor saw though. here's the first picture of our little baby...

Time Together

2008-06-03T17:53:00.004-06:00

so these posts are a little out of order. but we've done a few fun things in the time that mike has actually had off (saturday night, sunday, and labor day).

we have the book 1000 Places to See Before You Die and in it one of the only things in Baltimore is a crab house called Obryki's. it's pretty famous. they've even been on the today show. it was pretty good. i didn't want to eat too much crab because i don't know if that counts as fish you aren't supposed to eat when you're prego. but mike, as you can see, went all out. he ate 6 whole crabs himself!!! i have to admit it was uber yummy and their crab cakes were sooooo stinkin good. it smelled a bit fishy in the place though. oh yeah, and they just dump the crabs on your table.

we went to washington DC one sunday after church. we saw the white house (which is super hard to figure out how to get to), washington monument, WWII memorial, lincoln memorial, korean war memorial, DC war memorial, saw the jefferson memorial from far away, and watched lots of air planes come in really low to land at the raegan air port. it was a gorgeous day and it was nice to just walk around together.

on memorial day we went to the Maryland zoo in baltimore. it wasn't terribly amazing, but we had fun together. it was a hot day, but there is tons of shade at the zoo, which helped. i've been wanting to go to a zoo for a long time and we finally got to go. afterwards we just went to ikea and then to the mall. we ended the day with a movie (baby mama). the movie was pretty fun and it was a good story too.

with what little time we have to spend together, it's nice to go out and have fun and do stuff. i always feel bad when i feel sick when we're together....but i can't really help that i guess.

Monster Mile

2008-06-03T17:23:00.004-06:00

so, we decided (mike decided) on saturday night after we got back from the DC Temple (which is gorgeous!) that we were going to go to the NASCAR race on sunday. it was in Dover, DE and that's only like 1h30m from us. having never been to an actual race but falling asleep during many.

after we got there we had to find parking, always a fun thing. no matter where you parked you had to basically give them a car payment. we got lucky and found the last space at a denny's parking lot which was the closest thing to the already full track lot. of course we had to pay for being close...it was $35!!!!! what the heck?

then it came down to finding tickets somewhere. now, at a NASCAR race it is better to sit as high as you can so you can see the whole track. scalpers try to get you with "these are good tickets...row 14 on the 3rd corner"...but mike is way too seasoned when it comes to NASCAR to fall for that. not to mention the scalper tried to sell them for face value. then dropped it like $25 after chasing us down a few minutes later. instead we continued to the ticket office where tickets were $85-$95 and they weren't really that high up. so we set off again. by this time i had sweat seriously trickling down my back and one of our 3 water bottles was just about empty. as we walked a bit more we found some people selling extra tickets they had for $40 each. we lucked out and got tickets about 10 rows from the top...the only downfall was that we couldn't see pit row. but that's ok...another race.

the race started pretty exciting. within the first 75 laps there was a BIG wreck that took out three cars which had to be towed away...after that it got pretty boring. we got ear plugs and i probably have lung cancer now from all the smokers, k, it wasn't as bad as it could be...it's just a gross habit. so, the winner lapped up to like the 7th place car, no one was gonna beat him. jeff gordon finished 5th, jimmie johnson 6th. it was a relatively good ending.

when we left the race it of course took a while to actually get going on the road. we ended up behind a few of the semi's carrying actual cars. this was fun. we drove through some tiny communities and everyone was out in the yards and in lawn chairs having BBQ's waiting to see their driver's semi go by. it was like we were on parade! we had fun...mike honked a lot.

by far the coolest thing though was the amish families!!! on the way we saw TWO amish buggies on the road, and we saw a bunch of kids out by the road when we were on parade. so fun!!!! anyway, we had a good time. and we even got our baby-to-be a onsie that says "chevy baby". good times!!!

Good morning BALTIMORE!!!

2008-05-21T09:43:00.003-06:00

we're here! we made it! (ok, so i'm a little slow with the blogging thing) Baltimore is nice. it's is completely covered in trees and highways/freeways. we actually had to buy a GPS in order to find our way anywhere. there are no big signs for things....i have yet to actually see "golden arches" that are not on the side of the building! there's not even a wally world sign on a big pole! its sooo weird and confusing! but "velveeta" (i named the GPS that so it didn't sound like mike was talking about an actual girl...and because her voice is smooth and cheesey) treats us well.

we brought a lot from home, but also forgot a lot...like silverware. as you can see. thankfully we live in the good ol USofA and we figured we'd just buy a lot after we got out here. unfortunately nothing is open 24 like it is in utah. not even wally world! its pretty annoying.

we like our apartment. it is much more open than our house and we can actually both fit in the bathroom at the same time. i'd put pics up but i'm too lazy to clean really fast to take them. but it's newly remodeled and was gay and had no microwave...so we have used the costco rental program for a few things. so far so good though.

My eggo is preggo!!!

2008-05-17T14:55:00.004-06:00

Holy cow! What can I say!? We're super excited right now. We're both really looking forward to expanding our family and being parents. We found out Sat, May 10. I actually took a test while Mike was out working. My friend and I went and bought a box of 5 pregnancy tests for me to have for then and future use. When we got home I needed to pee...so I took a test with me, thinking it would be negative for sure....before the toilet was finished flushing I was walking to the living room, test in hand, huge eyes, mouth wide open. After some very excited jumping and screaming, we headed back to Wally-World to buy some onesies and binkies to decorate the bedroom with.

Unfortunately, Mike was late getting home and I was very anxious. He actually called me from another apartment in our complex and I was ready to wring his neck cause I just wanted him to get home!...so his manager helped by going and getting him for me. Funnily enough, after he was home, we could not get Mike to go into the bedroom where everything was set up for him....after everything we could think of, he finally went back and just stopped dead in his tracks...stunned. It was pretty awesome. I had to really hold it in to not cry, but I did good. We're looking forward to being mommy and daddy and all that comes with it.

SUMMER! ! ! !

2008-04-25T11:45:00.004-06:00

Finals are finally over! And Mike is officially a PILOT, and I am an LPN! Now its time for a little trip before we go to work. We are heading to France to visit our Grandma Gisele. one week later we are flying back and then the next day, starting our cross country Road trip to Baltimore.

We did it!!

2008-04-02T22:40:00.000-06:00

We did it!!! We finally got a blog going, thanks to my aunt "cheri". We're the M&Ms of the family, mike and maddie, hence the m&m adventures!!! woohooo!