Tyler is 6 Months Old! (a couple weeks ago)

I have been so busy, which always throws off my blogging. Tyler turned 6 months old on January 23, which is a while back I'll blog it anyway.

He weighed in at 14 lbs 9 oz which puts him in the 5th percentile. His height is 26 inches, which is about the 35th percentile. He had to get lots of immunizations, but is really healthy and happy. His development is a little ahead of the curve and the doctor was suprised that he has been pulling himself all over the house for a couple months now.

He is eating all sorts of things now and is participating with Babies in the Library. It is so cute! They sing songs, read books, and play with other babies. He also started swimming lessons! I will do a blog on that next. Tyler is a great little baby and a joy!

We love Tyler!

Mommy's Big Helper

Adam is really into his role as the Big Brother. It is so fun to see him teaching Tyler new things. Sometimes he gets frustrated when Tyler tries to eat his toys or scratch him, but for the most part they are getting along great. My favorite is when Tyler is chewing on a book Adam will tell him that "We don't eat books! We read them." Then he will "read" the book to Tyler. Tyler always looks at the pictures and pays attention while Adam reads him a story. For Christmas they both got some Little People toys which are great because they are interesting enough for Adam but designed so they are safe for Tyler. They can play with them for hours! I'm so glad they love to play together and hope it lasts.

From Ghosts to Aliens

On the drive between Reno and Logandale we got to drive on the Extraterrestrial Highway. It is a road through the middle of nowhere that goes right past Area 51. We were hoping to see some neat air craft that was being tested but saw nothing. It was New Years Eve so we figured the Aliens must have been too busy partying to show us their UFOs. We did stop and take pictures by the sign.

On the way back home we drove through the Extraterrestrial Highway in the light. This is what we saw:

Real Alien? Metal Hoax? You decide.

Chillaxin with Ghosts

On the way down to Southern Nevada for our Family Reunion we spent the night in Reno. We decided to go to Virginia City which is a little outside Reno and apparently very haunted.

I had never heard of Virginia City before and didn't know any of the stories of huantings until AFTER we went. With that said I was a lot more brave and mocking of the whole "ghost" thing. The town is a little gold mining settlement that back in it's day was full of saloons, brothels, and very rough frontiers men.

The most famous resident of Virginia City was Mark Twain. It was neat to be in the place that he wrote his famous stories. There are also some very famous ghosts. One of them is the "lady in blue" who (if I remember the story right) was a prostitute who got pregnant. The man who got her pregnant was so angry that he tied her up in a room until she starved to death. It is said that she still haunts the building. Apparently the women's bathroom door will lock on its own and not let you out. Creepy!

But we pretty much walked along the boarded sidewalks and went into a few saloons that were supposedly haunted. Once it got dark we decided to go to the cemetary. Usually I love cemetaries. They are so peaceful and it's neat to see when people lived. However going to the most haunted town in the west and then to its cemetary at night in my mind is dumb! My dad and Daniel were the only ones to actually enter the cemetary while the rest of us stayed in the car at the gate. I did find an orb right by the gate which was kinda creepy.

So here is my question: Can this town really be haunted? We took tons of pictures on this trip and many of them at night. Only the ones in Virginia City show orbs, which are apparently how spirits show up on film. Maybe the city is just really dusty and that's all we saw. I don't know! All I do know is that it was a little creepy, but I was WAY more afraid of the rats that I'm sure roam this run down old town!

100 Recipes in 2009

So it's a new year and anyone who knows me well, knows that I LOVE to do a goal every year. Last year I spent reading 100 books, but this year I will cook 100 recipes. I am so excited! I am not a huge fan of cooking and baking but would love to learn how to do it well. So I have a new blog (http://100recipesin2009.blogspot.com/) where I will keep track of my progress and post recipes. The only bad part is that this totally doesn't coincide with my goal to lose weight! Oh well....there is always next year for that ; )

Happy Birthday Papito Mario!

Have a wonderful Birthday! We wish that we could be there to celebrate with you. We love you very much and miss you!

Robison Family Reunion-Celebrating 100 Years

January 2nd and 3rd we had a big Robison Family Reunion down in Southern Nevada in the Moapa Valley. It was for all the decendents of Joseph Robison and Nellie Hinckley Robison, who are my great grandparents. The boys and I drove down with my parents and sibblings while Mario flew to Las Vegas and met us there.

These are my little pioneers in a handcart my Uncle Dan made.

My grandma is now 92 and their last living child. However there are over 1,000 decendents from just that one couple! There is such a rich pioneer heritage in our family so it was so neat to learn more about it. My favorite thing at the reunion was getting to see my boys with my grandma. It is so neat that she is still alive to see me as a wife and mother. I love this picture of Grandma and Tyler.

Four generations!

My dad grew up in Logandale, NV and that area is still where a lot of our family lives. The reunion was actually celebrating 100 years since the family settled there. The Moapa Valley and surrounding areas are so beautiful! We went to the Valley of Fire and St. Thomas. St. Thomas was a town that was completely relocated when Hoover Dam was built because Lake Mead would cover it. So everything and everyone was moved to higher ground. Then that part of the lake dried up. Now you can hike down in the dry lake bed and see both sea shells and the foundations to houses. Crazy!

It was so neat to see everyone and have my dad tell us about growing up in the desert. We got to see where he grew up, went to school, attended church, and even the "hospital" (it is really a small house) that he was born in. I can tell that he really loves the valley. I also enjoyed getting to visit my grandpa's grave because I hadn't been there for years.

The best part however was visiting with my grandma, Uncle Dan and Aunt Merry, Aunt Wandanell, Aunt Susie, and all of my cousins. A few of my cousins have kids the same ages as mine so it was so fun to see the next generation all playing together.

Adam and Noah are only a few weeks apart in age and made perfect centerpieces at our table!

Adam loved playing with all my cousins children. It was such a fun group of kids!

Tyler and Maya took a nice nap together but also had fun playing.

Tyler was getting so much attention and loved it! This is him and Uncle Adrian playing.

It was a wonderful reunion! I loved seeing so much family and meeting many relatives I didn't know. My blog is going to be totally out of order though....now I will blog about our drive there!

Nothing in the World is Better than Family!

I am soooo behind with my blog that I don't even know what to do....so here is a pictorial (is that a word?) guide to our December.

For some reason Mario hates getting his picture taken. This means I have very few and have to post it when i finally get one! This is Christmas.



About a week before Christmas Adam, Tyler, and I went to a neighborhood that has lots of lights. We were very suprised to actually see Santa there and even more suprised to find out that he had a Christmas Llama...who knew?!


Adam and Tyler got to meet (a very grumpy) Santa at the Mall. I didn't want to buy there uber expensive photos especially because I hadn't planned on seeing Santa so they weren't dressed cute. However, they let you take 2 pics with your own camera and I got a good shot on the first try. Yay!

I love my sisters!

Adam adores Aunt Jennie and Aunt Laura.

My boys have the best Nana and Papa in the world. There is no lack of love in that relationship!

I love this picture of my 3 boys! This is at the hotel in Nevada.

Yet another picture of Adam at the park (this time with Papa). This kid lives the good life!

Can you believe how big Tyler is getting?

For Christmas Santa left yummy oatmeal with apples baby food. This was his first taste of fruit since we started him out on veggies. He LOVED it, but he really has liked everything he has eaten.

Adam loves Uncle Adrian and Uncle Daniel, but for some reason always mixes up there names. I have NO idea why....crazy child!

Adrian does such a great job with Tyler! They are buddies.

So that is a whole lot of pictures and kinda gives an idea of our Christmas...now on to our Nevada trip!

Christmas 2008

This Christmas was unlike any other we have ever had. We were actually the hosts to my family this year. I wasn't really sure how it would all turn out but it ended up being wonderful. My parents and siblings drove down from Washington on Christmas Eve and Mario had to work, so the boys and I spent the day cleaning and cooking. I made a huge dinner of pot roast, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole (my favorite!), rolls, salad, fruit salad, and Martenelli. We ate at about 10pm because that was when my family got here. It was so nice to sit as a family all together! Adrian, Jennifer, and Daniel are all students at BYU-Idaho so I don't get to see them too often. Adam was beyond excited but very sleepy. We had put him to bed at 7pm and then woke him up to eat and open presents.

After dinner we had a little family home evening where we learned the real meaning behind the colors and symbols of Christmas. Adam said this was his favorite part of Christmas.

Then at Midnight we opened presents. In Ecuador they have dinner late and then open presents at midnight, so we thought that might be fun to do so Mario wouldn't feel so homesick. I know he really missed his family but he enjoyed carrying the tradition on to our new little family. Opening the presents really woke Adam up but Tyler fell asleep...oh well!

Once again our "small" Christmas turned into tons of gifts but you could really feel the love and thought that went into each gift. We like to open the presents one at a time and have everyone watch. Once Adam opened a big box of toys and said in a very bored voice, "More toys..." Then he opened a box of pajamas and gleefully yelled, "PAJAMAS!!!" Crazy kid!

At about 1:30am we all stumbled off to bed. It was a great Christmas Eve! The best part was that we got to sleep in Christmas Day since the presents were already opened. My dad made us our traditional Christmas/Easter breakfast of eggs benedict (kinda...only way better!). I had so much fun with all the nice meals because I got to set the table with my Christmas dishes, gold chargers, goblets, etc.

After breakfast Tyler got to open his presents since he was asleep the night before. Adam was kind enough to help Tyler out a little.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing in pajamas, napping, playing with toys, watching movies, and of course...eating lots. In the evening we had a nice little program were we read the christmas story from the Bible and sang songs. We even did our traditional singing of Silent Night in all the languages we know. Usually with the whole extended family we have several languages, but we only did English and Spanish. It was a wonderful Christmas!

So Much to Blog...So Little Time!

I have tons of things to blog about! There is Christmas, New Years, our trip to Nevada, and all that other fun day to day stuff. I think I'm going to do a bunch of short blogs about each thing...This might be way boring for people (sorry!), but I want to keep our blog complete so I can print it into a book later. A good blog about our trip is on my sister Jennies blog and there is a link on my side bar...