Valentine's Day

I know it's over a month later, but I realized today that I never posted about Valentine's Day. This was Emily's first official Valentine's Day where she gave out and received valentines, since she's in Kindergarten.

She worked (with some help from us too) very hard on her box and the ideas were pretty much her own. Her box is not perfect, but I sure thought it was super cute. She decided to give out Fun Dips and was very excited to receive so many valentines in return. She also came home with a really cute heart around her that she made at school. It was a great first Valentine's Day. Ashley also got to have a Valentine's Day party in pre-school and thought it was wonderful! We made her a little box too for her valentines.

Emily with her cute box--she was so proud of it!

Her cute heart she made--click on the picture to read the words. It's really cute!

Grandma R. came over and brought some valentines too

Great Grandma came over too. It's always nice to see my 91 year old Grandma!! She's still hanging in there.

My thoughts on having a boy

A friend at church (thanks, Valorie) reminded me that I have never put on the blog what I am having after we found out. Well, I'm having a boy. I knew it would be so that wasn't a surprise. But I've also never shared this neat story about how I knew.

When Ashley was born, I had a strong feeling that there was a little boy there too saying, "I'm next." I've never had anything like that happen before so it was really neat and tender. I think that's what made this pregnancy trying the hardest, because I felt like I really knew there was supposed to be this little boy that was supposed to come, yet for some reason we couldn't get him here.

It was really heartbreaking and I didn't know what to think except, "keep trying." When we were finally successful I was very excited but as always very carefully optimistic. I always think that something bad is going to happen so I just thank my Heavenly Father each step along the way when things look good.

Now the reality sets in though of, "we're really having a boy." I don't have any idea what to do with a boy! I think he'll bring new and exciting things to our family, but, boy, it will change!! Kenny is still in a state of shock, but little by little is warming up to the idea of having a boy. I am definitely getting a lot of advice, some helpful and some that, quite honestly, scares the crap out of me!

And so I continue on this pregnancy journey, extremely grateful that at 32 weeks it's so far so good. For now I'm enjoying all (well, mostly) his kicks, rolls, and hiccups, knowing that our lives will change forever again in about 8 weeks. Now if we could just think of a name for this little guy! :-)

The obligatory pregnancy picture: Me at 31 weeks pregnant

Dinosaur Museum

Emily was learning about dinosaurs in school so Kenny, being the good dad that he is, wanted to take her to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. To say that the girls liked it was an understatement!! They had an absolute blast and couldn't get enough of, well, everything...digging for bones, making sand/waterways, seeing the dinosaur bones, weighing themselves, putting dinosaurs together, etc. etc. Emily also really enjoyed telling us which dinosaurs were plant eaters (the nice ones) or meat eaters. It was a very fun Saturday afternoon.

It's always fun pretending you're scared of the dinosaur

Ashley, however, did not think it was so fun :)

They found a dinosaur just their size

Emily being so "scared" of the mega shark

Ashley would not pose in front of the shark! She felt okay here at the side though

Weighing and seeing what dinosaur you weighed as much as

Three of the four on the scale (Mom strategically put herself behind the camera, especially with baby weight added too)

Having a blast at the sand/water table

Looking for dinosaur bones

Ashley "unearthing" a dinosaur bone

The Power of Prayer

I don't write spiritual posts nearly often enough. I read the blog of one of my former student's moms and she posts all the time about gospel things and I love this. Hopefully I can do this more often, especially since I have this be like my journal.

I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and the peace that it brings. One affirming experience we've had lately is on our way back from California at Christmas. We had just finished our last day at Disneyland and thought we would drive to Barstow and stay over then head the rest of the way in the morning. Well, when Kenny got to Barstow, he was still feeling good and not tired so the decision was made to keep going.

There had been some rain but the roads were really good and dry. We kept pressing on and got to the mountain passes just outside of Vegas when we noticed white stuff on the side of the road and Kenny asked, "Does that look like snow to you?" I replied, "Yes, but it couldn't be." There had been no evidence of it before then. In the split second after this out of nowhere we saw about 15 cars that had slid off the road and were either upside down or on their side. The mountain pass was covered in black ice and it came upon us with no warning. We too slid, but luckily didn't go off the road.

I immediately started praying for our safety and peace. We had our two sweethearts asleep in the back seat and our little baby inside me that I needed protection for and started silently begging for.

The whole freeway was at a stop and then a crawl of 5-10 miles an hour for the next three hours. What we thought would be another 1/2 hour on our drive turned out to be a loooong 3 hours of prayer the whole time as we drove on pure ice.

The interesting thing about this night, which I'm so grateful for, is even though I was nervous, I felt calm and peaceful knowing that everything would be okay. I was also able to stay awake, which if you know me is a miracle in and of itself! I'm so grateful that we made it safely and finally to a hotel and even though it was only for a few hours, were able to finally sleep in a bed. I'm so grateful for the comfort and peace I felt that night even through all the jack-knifed semis that we passed and cars sliding off around us. I know the power of prayer is real and that Heavenly Father is always there watching over us. I'm grateful for this experience (now that it's over of course) to once again reassure me that we are protected and can rely on Him to comfort us in our time of need.

Chuck-a-Grama

My daughter, Emily, LOVES the restaurant, Chuck-a-rama. She calls it Chuck-a-Grama. She asks to go eat there ALL the time. We don't go to sit down restaurants that often so it is a real treat for her when we go. We went the other night and she was in heaven as usual. She loves the scones, turkey, corn and noodles. Glad we could make your night at Chuck-a-Grama, Em!

Emily and her happy self

Thanking Daddy for bringing her to Chuck-a-Grama

Ashley really likes Chuck-a-rama too; she just happened to be sleepy that night

Finishing our vacation

I'm so behind now, but I'm determined to finish up our vacation at Christmas before I move on. I'll try to make these brief:

Mormon Battalion Museum--If you haven't been here in awhile, you NEED to go! They have totally redone it and it's super cool; interactive exhibits, panning for gold, old fashioned pictures, laundry washing, posing in a wagon, etc. Really worth your time.

Our cute family picture from the Mormon Battalion

Posing at the wagon

Emily enjoying doing laundry

Panning for gold--we got to keep what we found too!

The Beach--We had a great time at the beach looking at some of the tide pools and playing in the sand.

Emily had her name so cute and then the water washed it out right before the picture

Ashley wanted her name too to pose with

Had to have one of us too :-)

Ashley enjoyed playing with the sand way more than in the water. Her cousin, Hunter, helped too

We also went to see the Sea Lions

Playing Croquet--My brother, Mike, taught us "officially" how to play croquet and even provided hot chocolate and snacks. It turned out to be a lot of fun and probably a little too competitive (but we are talking about the Robertson family after all)

Sea World--Loved going with Grandpa and seeing all the wildlife. It was also nice not to be rained on. :)

We saw and held starfish

and seashells

Waiting to see Shamu

Boy, does this little girl love her Grandpa!

And boy, do I love my little family SO much!!!

Final Day at Disneyland--I know what you're thinking, "They went back another day?" And the answer is YES! We had 6 days on our passes and had to use all 6!! We are gluttons for punishment though because we CHOSE to go back to Disneyland on the only day that week that it rained. By then we were used to it and even though it was still busy it was a lot of fun!! It was finally time to go home. Even through all the rain it was still a WONDERFUL vacation and great time spent with my family!

I put this picture in because during our whole trip, Emily was still thinking about her escaped Gingerbread man from her Kindergarten class and every time we saw a gingerbread, we would try to "get" him, but he always seemed to escape once again :)

The biggest news of the day was that Ashley was super close to 40 inches so we fudged a little, put her in Em's boots with a heel and this made her tall enough to go!! She liked it--for the most part :)

Pretending to be scared by Jack the pumpkin king

You have to pose in front of the A if your name's Ashley!

Family Pictures

My sister had the wonderful idea to have family pictures taken on the beach while we were all together at Christmas. Like I've said before, we hadn't all been together for about 5 years so this was wonderful! I'm including some of my favorites and some classic shots you get when trying to convince a 3 year old to keep smiling, even while freezing cold. Enjoy!

Tongue out on Ash and way too cheesy on Em!

Ashley's, "Aren't we done yet?" pose and Emily still trying to smile

This was her, "I'm so done posing for you!" pose

Now some of my favorites:

My eternal companion and me

My cutie pie girls

Gotta love this picture of Emily that Kenny took!

Some great ones (I think so at least) of my eternal family!!

My favorite; hence the reason why it's my picture at the top of the blog now

My siblings and me: Vickie, Scott, and Mike

My entire Robertson extended family (minus my mom). I really love them!!