Family Pictures

Family Pictures Part I

This one tortures my kids so I love it

I love this one, but our little buggy is missing.  

Myrna is going to try to photo shop her in it

I never thought I'd have kids with blue eyes

Robby, 5 1/2 

Braden, my all time favorite picture of him

it is so hard to get him to smile a 'real' smile

he just turned 15 this week

My BABY!  What else can I say?

Risi said today she sometimes looks

at him and can't believe he is so cute

He loves me, and he makes me smile

This is part 1 of our fall family photoshoot.  I won a free photoshot on a friends blog. Soooo, I have always wanted to do family pictures with fall colors.  Part of me feels like I grew up in these canyons around Utah County.  Rock Canyon was my 'place' in high school when everything was wrong with the world, which as a teenage girl was almost daily.  Provo canyon was the same.  I had beautiful places to escape to and cry a lot and when I was done, things were better until the next day.  Actually, that's not true, I think I spent an equal amount of time being happy and in awe of my surroundings.  I also did a lot of reading and homework in these places.  Needless to say, I love MY canyons.  I am so grateful Myrna captured our family being happy in this place I love so much.  I'll post part 2 soon.  Risi and Miles individual shots will be in part 2.

Myrna Matina's prices are great, she is so much fun and very talented.  Check out her site www.touchtheskyphoto.com

Lunch time

This is my beautiful curly haired BOY, no he is not a girl

he was very excited about the pizzas

Making lunch with Robby

Easy mini pizzas

Yes, he was very excited, and did most the work himself

About 2 weeks ago I needed a time killer in the morning before Robby headed off to school. So, I had everything I needed for a recipe Grandma Crist received this summer when she took the 3 oldest kids to a cooking class at the grocery store. They love these mini pizzas. All it is are the pillsbury biscuits or even rolls, you flatten them out, add pizza sauce, cheese and whatever toppings you want, and baking time is whatever is on the roll can. I think its about 12-15 minutes. EASY. And, all my kids love them, and it's a great project.

I can't bring myself to cut my little 'beast' golden locks. I dont' mind that people tell me he is such a beautiful little girl. They only think that because they haven't seen him in action. 5 minutes with this boy, and you know he is, indeed all boy.

Anyone I didn't send the diet coke story to, click here suzyg.com then scroll down to her 'just imagine' post. Love you Suz, told you I was sharing this with everyone I know!

Halloween

Attempt at group picture

Grandma reading to the kids - Robby was hot.

This pasta is so yummy, and it's EASY my kids love it.
It's chicken, mixed veggies, dry ranch dressing
and butter. It takes about 10 min. from start to
finish and my kids LOVE it.

The cauldron - this was funny it scared Miles

Scary yummy food!

Robby and Isaac are best friends and cousins.

Buggy - she went back to the punch bowl all night,
and when we got home, it may have been spiked,
she was bouncing off the walls.

My little monster, being him.

A minute later, probably after a bribe to smile
He is the cutest monster in the whole world.

Risi's costume ended up being my favorite,
"Marisa Mayhem"
I'll try to get a better picture on Friday.
She came up with this all on her own.

This years Halloween party was AWESOME. Mostly, because I haven't spent a dime on costumes. I told the kids we were not buying anything this year. No one complained. They were very creative, even spiderman has on a cape he made at a birthday party. Miles is the blue monster, very fitting, and Marisa came down the stairs very excited about her choice to be "Marisa Mayhem" I was relieved, because her first choice was Miss America. Praises be, to Miss Mayhem instead. Maya used a dance costume and was kind of a dog-witch??? Who knows, who cares, they got dressed up, were able to wear some make-up and Grandma did her thing. Which is food, dinner and an entire dessert buffet. This really is the only part of Halloween I enjoy. My mom does an amazing job every year. She was such a great 'holiday mom' as I was growing up. And, now she is the perfect 'holiday grandma' which is very fortunate for my children, because I am terrible. Just today, Risi asked me if we could get out our Halloween decorations. I sort of looked at her like she was crazy, because Halloween is pretty much here. I really thought I had dodged that bullet, and oh, don't worry, for me it feels like a bullet. My response to her was asking her what she thought about getting Christmas out on Monday, after Halloween. Yeah, she didn't go for it. So, thank you mother, I absolutely love you for providing my children with fun nights like tonight. I don't just think of this holiday as one I could do without, I really don't like it. Read last year's rant. Feelings haven't changed, only become a little more charged.

In the meantime, I'm eagerly awaiting turkey time.

Monday

Testing the water, it was cold and yes Miles does jump in

Jumping never gets boring

They each have their own size appropriate jumping rocks

we went home with soggy feet

cold river water

the bridge, he could of stayed here all day

our goal, to get to the waterfall

My camera is never in focus, but can you see all those colors!

My little guys

There was a twig down his shirt

This is arguably the best of our 4 seasons in Utah. Miles has an obsession with the mountains lately. He looks at them as we drive and begs me to take him - THERE. Well, a few weeks ago we started walking up Provo and Rock Canyons. There are really easy safe trails for these guys. And, I have re-discovered how easy it is to put smiles on their faces. As we walk Miles will ask me about 30 times if we are on the mountain. I say yes, and we go through this routine several times until we are in the car going home. He loves it, he loves to find sticks and bugs and throw rocks in the water. He likes to feel how cold the water is, and then put his hands in my pockets. Robby likes to feel his feet squish in his shoes. He looks for 'an even bigger' rock than the last one to jump off of. He asks me what kind of trees or flowers we see, and most the time I am making up names. I tell him I don't know so I make them up like I did when I was a kid, he starts to catch on and makes up his own names. He collects rocks and forgets they are in his pockets. It's really making this season great for me, because I was having a serious post-summer melt down. Glad that's gone, Fall is fabulous, it's just never long enough. My goal is to get up these canyons that are ten minutes away every day while we can. We'll see how that goes.

Being Human

It's been a hard week, I've had Robby home from school all week with some sort of infection in his mouth.  He has big open sores on his lips and inside his mouth.  He was crying a lot everytime the ointment would wear off, and then we would re-apply.  One day I was taking care of Miles, Rob was crying and I looked around the house and realized I was losing the battle of motherhood.  I got Miles to sleep and sat down on the couch, Robby came to me with books that I didn't want to read, I told him to wait ten minutes.  I don't think I slept more than 2 hours at a time last week.  He said, "Mom, whats wrong?  I said, "nothing, sometimes it's just hard being a mom."  He relied with, "well Mom, sometimes it's hard being human, but I do it everyday."  A lot of the humor in that conversation was his tone of voice.   Truth be told, it was nice to have him home in the afternoons when Miles is usually sleeping.  He is much better now, and hopefully will go back to school on Monday.  He is sad, he missed his first field trip to a pumpkin patch, he misses his teacher and his friends.  

A very boastful blog about my wonderful kids

This is how he looks most the time, homeless

I love that Braden is smiling

She is so photogenic, hasn't learned the fake smile yet

Love this picture of Risi, she is so pretty

My Green Dragon
They have the treats, that's what it's all about

Robby, the cutest Green dragon ever

**WARNING** This will be one of those braggy my kids are so awesome blogs.

The Green dragons seems an appropriate name for that bright kelly green jersey these athletes wear. My little dragon was totally on fire yesterday. Hold on, back up with me, in May I signed the little guy up with all his friends from the hood. He showed little interest, he was a little more excited when he realized his cousin Isaac was going to be on his team. I literally picked him up out of bed for 2 weeks this summer and took him to soccer camp, he hated it. Then he was given the green jersey and everything changed. He never takes that shirt off. He doesn't understand why he can't wear it to school. (He wears a uniform) Anyhow, the first game I was shocked, he played pretty well, he seemed to grasp the concept, he ran where ever the ball was and he really had fun. The next few games he scored a goal or two in each game, and loved playing. Then last night, he scored 4 goals. It was so cool to see him enjoy this sport, and honestly the coolest part is how much endurance I notice he has. This is my kid who broke his femur in April. He was suppose to limping all summer, he limped for maybe a week. He inspires me, I see a lot of kids who get tired, and lay down and complain, and they are young so it's totally normal. I have said I believe Robby came out of me running and has not stopped. He plays with a determined face, and knows if his team is winning or losing. He doesn't get frustrated if they are behind, he just tries harder. I never thought him playing soccer would teach me so much. He is a special little boy, and I am so privileged to be his mother.


Moving on to my next boastful thoughts for everyone who reads this, we had parent teacher conferences this week. This year, Marisa finally moved to the A,B,C grading system. She has always been a bright student, but when I received her CRT and Iowa test scores I was amazed. She is brilliant. She is currently getting straight A's (no A-'s) and, she was invited to participate in the after school odyssey program, which is the academic gifted and talented program. I have issues with schools labeling programs gifted and talented, I think all kids are both gifted and talented, but that is for another post. She said to me last week "Mom, I could read Little Women every day." Her favorite books so far are Little Women, Diary of Anne Frank, Huck Finn and the American Girl books about Addie, oh, and she is currently reading Les Miserables. Her favorite subjects are math and science, she is collecting rocks, and comes home with pockets full of rocks and asks me what kinds of rocks I think they are. Ok, that's a lot of bragging for one kid. I didn't get to the whole she saves my life the weeks Tom is gone stuff.

At Maya's parent teacher conference she is getting all O's (outstanding) this really shocked me. I worked so hard with her this summer on basic sight reading and writing. She really struggled in kindergarten. She also had 31 kids in her class with only parent volunteers. Have I said how much I love their school? No, I haven't I LOVE NOAH WEBSTER ACADEMY! They are getting a private school education for no cost. She is also doing so well socially, she loves her teacher and has friends. She is raising her hand and participating. I am so proud of my little buggy. She started dance 2 weeks ago, and she has some serious rhythm, the girl can move!

It is so thrilling to have kids who are excited to go to school everyday. I remember fake sick days, they don't do that, in fact this week they had short days because of parent conferences and they were mad they had less time for certain subjects.

Ah, finally Miles, I don't have a lot of bragging about him, in fact I wonder each day if I will survive another day with him. Tonight he put a mylar helium filled balloon in our microwave, I came down to see him very animated with excitement at the firework display in our microwave. And, then there is the potty training...he knows how to use the toilet and does when HE wants to, he does it well when HE wants to, other times, he drops his pants and poops on my kitchen floor. I know he does it just to make me crazy, and it's working. He also has managed to test my plumbing skills. It is disturbing that sticking my hand, up to my arm down our toilets to retrieve items no longer makes me need to vomit.
My oh my the times he is cute and sweet which are many, he melts my heart. Really, his excitement over a balloon is unlike any enthusiasm I've ever seen, or when he wakes up from a nap and wants 'mommy to hold you.' He is the best at letting me read him books, and gets so excited over the stories. He loves story time at the library, and loves going to the park. So, when he is good, all the bad, naughty, gray hair causing behavior is so worth it. I really don't want him to grow up, and is it crazy I'm already anxious about him going to kindergarten? It's not for 3 more years.

Today I was able to take Braden to the BYU football game. He loves BYU football. I was raised on BYU football, again, another post. It was so much fun to be with just him. He is really turning into such a great young man. He is playing football at Lonepeak high school, and has never played football before, but he made the A team, he plays defensive line, and he is getting better each game. As he is getting older I see him really wanting to spend more time with Tom. Tom has always been such a great father to him, and I think Braden really sees and appreciates that. As I dropped him off tonight he said, "Thanks that was a really fun day." It was a great day for me.


They are great kids. We are lucky parents, they make us look good. If you are still reading, thanks, this one is for the printed blog I intend to have bound soon, I apologize for the whole my kids are the best kids on the planet theme, even though they are!

Peaches

This is how I spent Miles nap time today.  In past years my mother has very generously canned as many peaches as we were willing to pay for.  I decided last year it was time I figure out how to do this by myself.  I started with a half bushel of pears.  I was blown away at how much I enjoyed it.  I felt like I had mistakenly stumbled upon a new form of therapy.  This season my mom called and asked how I wanted her to do for my family.  I told to order 2 bushels and that I would do one and she could do one.  She actually enjoys it as well.  It wasn't exactly without incident, I had two jars break in the second batch, and during the process I must have called my mom 10 times.   I think I know why they broke though, so hopefully that won't happen tomorrow.  

Now if I could just figure out how to bake.  I can't bake, my poor kids, I can't make a store box of brownies.   

Summer highlights

These are not all great quality pictures, however, I promised a summer re-cap so here you go.   Once we got past all the June rain, we had a fabulous summer.  We swam almost daily, we hiked, biked, scootered, camped, californiaed, (yes, the way we did it, made it an actual verb) had field trips, watched fireworks, played on the boat, danced, went to soccer camp, practiced piano, did summer chores, attempted to garden, and ended with Braden's high school football scrimmage.  I love summer with kids, this was our best so far.  They were my little buddies all day everyday.  I'm actually going to miss them while they are at school.  Thanks kids, most the time you are all pretty awesome. 

Finished with afternoon snack

Enchilada, cucumber - same thing

Better than chocolate

Thank you Grandma

What you don't just grab a cucumber and start chowing down on one - daily? What's wrong with you?

This is my Buggy, she will eat ANYTHING. If you ask her what her favorite food was for a long time she would say 'enchiladas' I don't know how or where the confusion came from but she was under the impression her much loved cucumbers were called enchiladas. We thought it was funny and kind of cute so we didn't correct her right away. This love of cucumbers started last summer when my mom brought some in from her garden and Maya said she wanted one. My mom washed it and gave a very long skinny cucumber to her, she ate the entire vegetable in about the time someone would eat a banana. She has since come to prefer to have them peeled, but will eat them with the skin on them. I tried to grow a plant and failed. My mother thankfully, did not and has shared her crop with this child who really just might choose an enchilada over a Hershey's bar. She eats about one a day. We buy them all year round. Of course her favorites are fresh from Grandma Sue's garden. Thank you Mom!

I didn't inherit my mom's greatest talents, gardening, cleaning, being a wonderful hostess, decorating, sewing. And, for the most part I'm ok with myself the way I am, but I do wish I had a beautiful yard with a garden full of delicious vegetables, and my girls have said more than once I really need to ask grandma how to sew. That is not going to happen. I've probably embarrassed my mother. It's not the first or last time. Love you Mom, and your enchiladas.

How did this happen? No really, help me out.

Robby 5 lbs, 7 weeks early

Robby at 1 year falling out of car seat

Robby at Noah Webster Academy

Very happy Dad could join us for first day.
Robby so excited for Kindergarten

Really, what happened to my baby?

He is ready for the world!

Hold on, wait, just STOP! PLEASE I'm begging, I can't take it. This is the 3rd time I've done this whole sending off the kiddos to kindergarten and guess what? It's not any easier. As I followed my little guy as he walked in front of me eager to get to class I had a lump in my throat, tears in my eyes, I was trying so hard to contain the emotions.

All babies are miracles, wondrous gifts from God. I know this with all my heart, my pregnancies were anything but normal. I remember being in a hospital bed pregnant with Robby at about 26-28 weeks and told he could come any day. Thankfully, he held on for about another 4 weeks at least. Robby was my earliest preemie, and yet, he was my healthiest at birth. I have often felt he came out running and hasn't stopped. He is so active, and happy. He is a delightful child.

I look at that first picture, that was when he was in the NICU, and one of the final things they do when you have a preemie is a car seat test. He had to sleep or be in that car seat for 7 hours without needing oxygen. After he passed that test we could take him home. And, even a year later, look at him, he was thriving. This little boy has been through a lot, and he triumphs. I do apologize for bragging, but....well, he is all the greatness I just shared and more.

I am blown away when I look at those car seat pictures, and then flash forward to the picture in his desk.

I may need to be committed somewhere when Miles goes to kindergarten, I don't know if I'll be able to 'hand over' my last baby.

Robby and Maya

Robby is growing up, and it's making my slightly, a lot sick to my stomach.  The way I can tell, he isn't saying those funny, witty things as often, or even asking nearly as many questions as he was even 6 months ago.  

But, just this past week he came up with a few.  And, I am happy.

Robby to me, "Mom it's ok that you ate my skittles."  Me, "Rob I didn't eat your skittles, what are you talking about.??  "Yes, mom, in my dream you ate my skittle all the way gone, and I cried.  But it's ok, because I can get some more, right mom?"   A boy can dream.  

On Tuesday they went to a cooking class at a local grocery store with Tom's mom, (brave woman taking all 3, I warned her.)  So, of course anytime and I mean ANYTIME Robby and Maya are together there is usually an incident.  They were fighting over who got to sit on grandma's lap.  The other had to sit on Risi's.  Well, Maya won and Robby showed he was upset by hitting her.  When confronted by me later about what went on, Robby said, "Mom I didn't hit her, I just petted her."  I laughed, mostly at the image of the violent petting across her face that happened.

Maya has turned our painting of Christ that hangs on our living room wall into her own confessional.  The first time I saw this I nearly wet my pants I laughed so hard.  She was standing on the couch with her most earnest voice telling Jesus all about the sins committed by her sister toward her.  Oh, and she also let Him know all about Miles hitting and pinching, and Robby got shout out to for his wrong doings.  

Kids are funny, a free form of lasting entertainment, at least the precious moments when they aren't crying or throwing punches at each other. 

Sorry Facebook friends, you got a re-cap on the Robbisms.

Friends, Family, good times

Robby

Robby and Miles

Heaton's pile of rocks taunting the kids to climb on

Moana, kids and I

'Ams, Me, and Mo

Mo and Risi jumping into the weeds

Risi and 'Ams

Leanna, me, Mo and 'Ams about 3:00 a.m.

My lifetime BFF's rolled into to town this weekend. Moana has been living in Harlem New York for the past 10 years maybe a little longer, an amazing artist, and poet. She is the youngest sister of the 4 Niumeitolu sisters I grew up with. 'Amelia and Moana are sisters. 'Amelia is currently living near Los Angeles and just graduated from California State University Northridge. 'Ams is a film maker and incredibly talented. Leanna is living in SLC and finishing up her schooling at the University of Utah, she also does a lot of volunteer work for several organizations. They are truly powerful, strong, intelligent women. I love them.
So, these are some pictures of Friday night and Saturday morning. They left me on Saturday to go to my beloved Moab. I couldn't make the trip, something about not being single and having 4 kids. Someday.

I didn't get any pictures of my last trip to California to visit Ryan's family. I forgot my camera. It made me slightly sick to my stomach to not get beach pictures this summer with Ry's kids. I have beach pictures of the last 3 summers. Regardless of the pictureless trip, we had a great time, and driving alone there and back was not so bad. I left Risi in St. George for a few days with her cousin Abby, she loved every minute of being with her. I think she felt like she was finally being acknowledged for the big kid she is by being left 'alone.' I missed the heck out of her, and was so glad when she came home 3 days later.

The summer re-cap will be coming soon. I will say for June sort of being a sucky month, this summer has been one of my favorites. We have played so hard and had so much fun, it makes me tear up to think it's coming to an end.

California

I am taking the kids and going to Southern California tomorrow. We are going to visit Ryan and Flora's family. It doesn't really seem like our summer is complete with out a few beach trips with Ryan's family. Tom has to work 20 out the next 24 days. It sounds horrible, but I think he's only worked a few days the entire month of July. It has been so nice to have him around so much. Kind of like it use to be when he worked from our basement.
Anyway, I am hoping to survive the trip, driving is really the only thing I am worried about. I will post pictures and get caught up when we get back.

May re-cap and 4th of July

Robby still in his cast

I love this picture of Miles

My little Buggy

These are pictures from a Sunday we went to visit Tom on one of his long work weeks. Starvation Lake is close by his office. It is absolutely beautiful, it reminds me a mini-lake Powell, blue water, red sand, red rocks and lots of sage. This was a really nice Sunday afternoon.

Next, the 4th of July is my dad's favorite holiday. I love this holiday as well, it's hard not being raised by a father who is the most patriotic person I know. I love how much my father has made this holiday a holiday my whole family enjoys. We start each year early, I mean EARLY, we got up this year at 6:15 and went to Provo to watch about 30-30 hot air balloons take off. This is an absolute treasure as a parent to see the delight and awe of a young child Miles age watch. The first picture of Miles is him having that same thrill and amazement at the fireworks, the next is that same open mouth wonderment at the balloons. There is nothing better than a holiday that brings family together in celebration of and honoring great events.
Good food, entertainment, and great company. It was a wonderful day.

To the Redwood Forest...

I don't have time to write much now, but I wanted to get these pictures from our vacation to Northern Califronia up. We tagged along our friends Vaughn, Carrie and Emily and their 2 dogs. They rented an RV and riding in the RV was a definite highlight of the vacation for the kids. We camped for 3 nights in Klamath California. We visited beautiful beaches, and saw amazing stretches of Redwood forest. When I asked the kids what they liked the most, roasting marshmallows was the favorite activity. We had a great time. Camping is about 3 times the amount of work than other vacations, so we won't be doing it again for a while, but it was worth it, I love camping, and the kids had a great time.