First Love

Boston has a first love: Sarah, and yes he is proposing with a sippy cup. (I think she may say yes!) If it was still possible to betrove you kids then I'd do it in a heartbeat. Boston loves when Sarah comes over to hang out.



I took these pictures a few months ago, but that's how my life seems to be, a few months behind. I'm slowly working away at the to do list, so stay tuned for some more postings, but they will be back posted so my posterity will think I was on-time. Maybe we can use this picture at their wedding reception someday!!

Hood To Coast 2010

Well it was Hood to Coast time again. We decided that this year would be Greg's year to run it, because when we got the team Boston had just been born and the idea of both of us getting our training in with 2 kids at home sounded impossible, and I must say, it would have been impossible. Greg ran with his best friend Peter and lots of Peter's brothers and sisters as well as his Dad, Uncle Mike and other friends. We went and saw Greg run his 2nd leg along Highway 30 and then we headed to the beach at a beach house to stay the night and wait for their arrival on the last day. Brooklyn loved to see Greg run because for so long we had been talking about "Daddy running his race". I think she was little surprised not to see more people in the "race", but they had such an early start time there weren't many runners along with them, which made the logistics nice, it wasn't too crowded at the exchange points. Here's the stud muffin running...

Here's the finish line at Seaside. While the 2nd van was finishing up their last legs, we fulfilled our Hood To Coast ritual by going to Piggin' Pancake and pigged out. It was super crowded but totally fun, I was kinda jealous I wasn't all tired and sore from running to deserve the pig out, but then When in Rome.....

These will be totally out of order, but Oh well..
This is the start line. It was really early morning when they started and it was super cold. Jimmy ran the first leg and I think he borrowed someone's pajama pants to wear over his shorts because he was so cold.

Here's Greg running with Peter. The van will usually stop part-way through a leg to water and motivate their runners.

Here's Greg again, he had his best year so far. He really worked hard at training this year to be faster and it paid off.

Here's the finish line again. They take professional pictures of the team that you can buy, but I had a good enough angle I decided to take a few pictures of our own. Of course the professional one wouldn't have the blue fence in the way, but it helps shield the view of John and Larry D's speedos. I think I'll keep the blue fence up....

Here's on the beach after they got their medal and pictures done. We stayed at the beach for a little while and then we had a big BBQ back at the beach house. It was kinda nice to be away from the crowd and be able to relax and sit and not get sand everywhere.

Boston was so proud of his Daddy!!

Brooklyn's Tap Class

Brooklyn got to take her first tap class this summer and she loved it. She had teacher Charlotte and I could not have asked for a better teacher. Brooklyn hung on every word Charlotte said and tried so hard to copy every thing she did. I was only able to go inside the classroom the last day of class and they had a performance planned. She did such a great job. She learned so much in a weeks she had the class. It was only for the summer but she grew so much. I can't wait wait until next summer to have the time to take another class.



I think she was the cutest girl in her class but of course I always think Brooklyn in the most adorable thing.

Pee Wee Soccer

Brooklyn had her first soccer class this summer. She was the only girl in her class, but she held her own. She didn't quite understand that it was a team game and she would get frustrated every time someone would steal the ball and she would get upset when she couldn't score a goal. There were a few tears during soccer class, but she was not the only kid who cried. Her coach did a great job of helping the kids feel confident.

She learned some good skills along the way and loved to kick any ball she sees now and tell me she loves to play soccer. I think she'll be a good soccer player because her long legs will come in handy and she can run fast. We'll see if she has interest in it next summer again, I think her Daddy wants her to try basketball next.

I tried to edit this picture lighter but I'm in a hurry and not that skilled so, "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit" She was so proud of her certificate from soccer.

Boston's Birthday!!

Boston turns ONE!!! I can't believe it went so fast!! Greg gets the kids balloons every year for their birthday and they LOVE it. This is Boston's first year of balloons but his reaction did not disappoint. He got so excited about the balloons. He wasn't quite walking by his birthday but he would stand up on his own and take a few tiny baby steps, but didn't have enough courage to get much further. The balloons really helped him get his confidence up. He loved standing and reaching for the balloons.







I love Boston's smile right now. He has 2 bottom teeth in the middle, 2 teeth on top on the sides and 2 molars in the back. No top middle teeth yet. They are ready to pop through I think but they seem like they are taking forever!! It's a good thing I think it's cute!

Boston loved opening his birthday presents because he loved to tear up paper. I think he didn't really care much for what was behind the paper, he just liked tearing the paper. I'm sure by his next birthday he'll be more interested in the actual presents and not just the paper.


Here's the birthday cake before he got his hands on it.



I expected Boston to just dive right into the cake like I thought any boy would do, but first he had to look at it...

Then touch it a little. He would touch it and then look at me like, "Is this REALLY ok??" I tried to encourage him but I think he felt like it was some kinda trick. He didn't believe that he could just go for it.

Eventually with enough encouragement and a few hand smashes into the cake he figured out that yes, he could touch it and yes, he could eat it.

I love seeing all this rolls hanging out!! He's so chubby and I love it!! Suprisingly he wouldn't eat that much cake, he was done after a few bites. I guess he's more of a meat and potatoes kinda guy like his Daddy.


This is the "Ok I'm done face"
He had a great birthday and I still can't believe he's one years old already! He's talking so much, most of it I can't understand yet, but he makes so many different sounds. He of course says mama and dada and baba and ba for ball. He loves to play catch with anything that resembles a ball. He'll throw it to you and expect you to throw it right back. At this age Brooklyn still LOVED her binky but he's not attached to it at all. Most of time he won't want it to fall asleep, which is awesome, but also he won't take it at church. He loves to shout in the chapel because he can hear his own echo that way, so needless to say we're in the foyer for most of church. He loves books, but doesn't have the patience to hear me read the entire page and he wants to turn the pages himself. He'll bring me a book, push whatever is on my lap off, plop himself into my lap and open the book, I'll try and read it but he's turning the pages too fast and then he's done and up off my lap off to get another book. He's such an active little boy too. Rarely will he sit and play with anything for very long, he is always moving form one thing to another and he loves to just follow Brooklyn around wherever she is going. He loves to get in the middle of her projects and make sure she knows he's there. For the most part she puts up with him, but she has her breaking point and will yell for help. They play pretty well together though.

Peach Picking

We went peach picking this August and scored some AWESOME peaches. There is this great farm called Josie Farms pretty close to us and we decided to go get peaches one day. It was SO HOT the day we went, and it was pretty windy, but a hot wind. We came away with WAY too much peaches because we couldn't stop ourselves from picking them, they smelled sooooo good.



We also couldn't help ourselves from sampling them in the orchard as well. They were so juicy! Boston loved them so much, he would get so mad when we'd pull the peach away to share it with Brooklyn. I think we all ate dozens of peaches in just a few days.

I ended up going back a few weeks later to pick some more for Hood to Coast desserts and I canned a bunch of peaches. Every time I pull a jar of peaches off the shelf I can remember how they smelled when we picked them. I'm not a huge fan of canned fruit, but these peaches are GOOD. Hopefully they will last through the winter until the peaches are ripe again. Mmmmmm peaches, I gotta go get some.

Boston's First Haircut

We took Boston for his first haircut on July 24, just a few days before his first birthday. I was getting a lot of questions if he was a boy or a girl (little do they know if he was girl he's have a gigantic bow on his head, I hate obvious questions by strangers, he obviously dresses like a little boy....) This is his before shot at Sport Clips. He had a free coupon, so why not use it right??

We learned if you give Boston a Dum Dum he'll sit pretty still, but if you take that sucker out of your mouth and it gets hair stuck all over it and Mommy has to rip it out of your sticky little hands, a meltdown quickly follows. BUT if you replace the dum dum with a fresh one, all is well. He did sit pretty still and we were able to clean up his hair, it was just so uneven. I kind miss the little curls, but now he looks 100% boy.

Don't you think so? He loves to get his hair combed, I don't know if he likes the feeling of it or looking at the stud muffin in the mirror the best. I think he's pretty darn adorable, especially with his new man-cut. I promise promise promise to get birthday pictures up this week, Boston decided to get 4 teeth all at once and he's been pretty obnoxious. He now has 2 bottom front teeth, 2 incisors, 2 upper molars and he's finally working on the 2 front top teeth. His smile looks pretty silly right now, good thing vampires are cool this year!

What I've been working on lately...

Here's a few projects I've been working in lately:

Fabric covered boxes
I used the Huggies wipes boxes, they are the perfect size and are super heavy duty boxes. Thanks for the idea Rachael!




Menu Board
This actually is hanging on the wall but the lighting was off so I put it on the counter to take a picture. You write with a dry erase marker and then wipe off each week. For the ladies in Aloha 2nd Ward, you'll be doing these at Enrichment in about a week! Thanks Maren for the idea!!


Still to come.....pictures of Boston's birthday. We are having some computer problems and I was lucky enough today to have the computer at home work, but too bad all the pictures are saved on Greg's work computer. I'll get to it soon.

HEBER!!!!!

I had the best time going to Heber this year! My sister Heather and her family came from Illinois to Heber because my niece Haley had EFY and they decided to make a family trip out of it. Since I hadn't seen Heather since before Boston was born, Greg and I decided it would be good for me to go, and with Southwest having a great deal on airfare I flew in! I was there for about 8 days and the weather was GREAT!!! We went to a park in Park City and met an old neighbor and her kids. The cousins had such a great time playing together! Maddie and Jenna were my fantastic photographers at the park!

Brooklyn actually smiling at the camera! I wish I knew how the girls got her to do this, she is NOT a great photo taker, she never cooperates for me.


Boston having a great time in the sun. I'm not sure he understood the concept of "sun" until we came to Heber, Oregon has had a hard time remembering it's summertime. It's been so cold and rainy, I'm afraid we're going from winter straight to fall and skip summer this year, we've already skipped spring!

Three cousins with matching jammies, what more could cousins ask for? They loved to be matching and Brooklyn loved having "princess dress jammies". Olivia and Brooklyn were perfect together. The both love princesses and dress up and pretend castles. Mckenna loved playing with the boys.

I love this picture of Payton. He has a root beer in one hand and a juice box in another. He snuck up the hill in the backyard and consumed both. I guess if you're that far away no one can tell you no, right? All the kids LOVED to play in the yard, even though it's still mostly just weeds and hills, but that's a dream land to kids.

Benjamin, Christian and Payton in the yard, playing various games. My favorite game was Indians and Americans.

Here Payton is demonstrating his wonderful Indian bow and arrow skills. My favorite moment was when they were carrying Benjamin off in pretend handcuffs (he was an american) and he was singing at the top of his lungs "I'm proud to be an American, at least I know I'm free..." I guess they do pay attention about history is school. The indians ran around yelling "Run for your life, the Americans are coming!

They played for hours and hours until it was too dark to play anymore.

I love this shot of them playing the yard, you can see Midway across the valley. It looked like the Garden of Eden, it was so green and plush looking. Heber is so pretty this time of year, it's truly breathtaking.

Olivia and Brooklyn loved picking all the weed flowers. She would keep bringing be flowers of different colors and types and was so excited with each new find.

Jenna and Maddie were always found together they were so great with the little kids too. Boston was a little nervous around most of the cousins but he loved when Maddie and Jenna would play ball with him. There were many days I would not have had a shower unless Maddie and Jenna were there. I even managed to get a few runs in!

All I can say is Thank You, Thank You Thank You guys!!! The following is a true story..... So there was a recognizable stench in the house and it kept getting worse, especially when anyone did the laundry. We figured a mouse had dies in the dryer vent and needed to be blown out the hole, but after much work on John and Heather's part, no mouse was coming out of the hole. So John dismantled the dryer and behold a ground squirrel had found it's way through the vent and into the dryer and died. We figured sometime when Tanya was at girls camp this happened and Tanya says when she got back and used the dryer for the first time she thought it sounded weird. So a few days later the smell happened. Well after John found the stinker in the dryer it was just a matter of getting him out. A pair of tongs and many suggestions later I came up with the brilliant plan of just putting gloves on and grabbing it (Duh!). Well I guess this was too gross for John and I had already opened my big mouth and after the conversation I had with my sisters and mom on the way home from the airport**, I was the one who got to do it. Honestly, it really wasn't that gross. It took about 2 seconds and double trash bag glove hands snagged it and dropped it in the trash without even looking and then I left the laundry room and John took care of the rest. Once the windows opened up for a few hours the smell was gone. So the big Thank You is to the Robison boys shooting the ground squirrels with their pellet guns. I think in all about 40 met their fate, but I'll assure you there are still at least 10 times that left.

***So I flew into Salt Lake and my mom's plane arrived a little later than mine and once we picked up my mom and headed to Heber we were talking about my Grandma Robison and my mom and what I appreciated most about what I learned from them was a get it done kind of attitude. I never remember my grandma or mom waiting around for others to get things done that they were more than capable of doing themselves. And even if they didn't know how to do it, they figured it out. With my husband being so busy and not wanting to have a gigantic list of things to do once he finally gets home from work I try and get things done myself. Also the one thing I can hear my grandma and mom say the most is don't cry over spilt milk, just clean it up and move on. They never dwelt on their hardships or complained, it was faster if you just dealt with it that whining about it. I'm so grateful for these lessons that I've learned. Sometimes I feel frustrated with others who are more inclined to cry over the milk rather than just clean and move on, it's just not the way I was raised to do it and so I have to try and have more patience with those who deal with things differently than I do. Ok Ok, sorry to make a long story even longer....

Ok but seriously even with dead ground squirrels in the dryer, I'd still live in Heber for this very reason, isn't it GORGEOUS???!!!!!

And cousin time all the time would be sooooo great!!!! They seriously slept so good all night because they just played and played all day long.

And fantastic tiny desserts every night. We seriously had the BEST desserts every night. I'm surprised I didn't gain 15 pounds just over the 8 days, but I'd have to say it's probably because they were in these tiny cups, tiny servings. Sure we ate at least 2 of every one, but even 2 tiny cups is smaller than 1 huge helping. Plus the tiny cups and tiny spoons are soooo cute!!! I'm trying to find a place to get some here in Portland. I'm sure I'll find them sooner or later....

We had a Robison cousin dinner one night. It was a lot of fun to see all the cousins I haven't seen in a long time. Here Uncle Elwin, Uncle Bruce and cousin Keith are playing horseshoes. I'm not sure who won, I was too busy playing Shanghai.

I know this picture is hard to see because you think it's mostly just about the sunset, but I thought this was cute. Maddie and Jenna were so excited about finding different rock and bringing them to Uncle Bruce to have him tell them what kind of rock it was. Here Bruce and Elwin are telling Maddie about some kind of rock they found. I was surprised that Bruce knew so much about rocks, but I guess I'm not that surprised. Bruce is one of the smartest guys I know.

Brooklyn and Jenna waiting for the Car Wash. Since there is no pool in Heber and it was such a warm day we decided we needed to have a car wash. With all the cars that drove from California, Illinois and girls camp up the road, there was plenty of dirt and bugs to scrub off. So after Maren and I got back from our run, we got all the kids in their swim suits and put them to work!!!

They loved it! The best part was playing super heroes with the wet rags and running around the driveway.

Boston even got an occasional splash from the hose. He loved to watch all the cousins run around and scream.

We also were able to be there for Benjamin's baptism. It was so fun to have so many of the cousins see Benjamin get baptised. Brooklyn had so many questions about it. I think this is the first baptism she has been to, so I think it makes much more sense when we talk about getting baptised. She used to cry and say "I don't want to get baptized and DIE". I think she was so used to hearing about Jesus being baptised, he died and then he was resurrected. I think a light bulb finally clicked on in her head and really understand what being baptised means-at least physically. We talk about these things all the time, but it's fun the see her finally understand what we are telling her. Now she asks all the time if she can get baptized, and I keep reminding her that he has to wait until she's 8 years old. Man, it might be a long 4 more years!!!!!

We had such a great time in Heber. I'm so glad that we all have a place we can come and hang out as family. The older I get the more I realize how special and lucky we are as a family. We all get along, are still talking to each other and actually WANT to spend a week together. When I thought I might not be able to come to Heber I was so upset, I wanted to be there soooo bad!! It seems like most of the world cringes at the idea of spending so much time together as a family. I feel so blessed that my parents raised us to always love each other and to get over our disagreements quickly(because he do have them, we're not super human!), because I think I will always love being part of a family that loves to spend time together, so thanks mom and dad for raising us to love each other. I'll thank you for eternity!