The Robinson's Life

Happy 1st Birthday Luke!

2012-02-13T14:13:00.001-05:00

It is kind of hard to believe that my baby turned 1 today, Feb 13th.

We celebrated yesterday with Grandma and Grandpa Robinson and your sibs Liz and James. We ate a yummy meal, let you play with the balloons and had cake.

You gave a reaction I have never seen before. We gave you a cupcake to eat which you played with like any other kid, but you refused to put some in your mouth and just kind of looked at it with a disgusted look on your face. I tried to give you a bite and you reacted by turning your head and spitting. Hilarious. Check out the video for proof!

After cake we opened presents. You sure were excited to see what was in the bag and pull off the wrapping paper!

You are such a fun kid.

You have been walking for 2 weeks now and go farther and farther everyday.
You will not wear real shoes. I try to put them on your feet and you take them off as fast as you can. I'm sure you will change your mind soon.
You love to clap and cheer.
You like to give high 5's.
You love playing with your bro and sis. You love to wrestle James too and always have to be a part of the action or you get mad.
You are a picky eater! (It's annoying) One day you like chicken and then next you throw it on the floor. I can always count on you eating yogurt though. If that is the only thing I gave you to eat, you would be happy. You can down a gogurt in about 5 seconds flat. It is amazing! We could also supplement your diet with casa dia's!
You now like milk! The first week I gave it to you was rough as you had a virus and diarrhea, but now you like it lots! Yeah!
You sleep all night and tend to wake up too early (Like 5:30 half the week and 6:30 the other half)
You like to give hugs and they are precious!
You smile a lot!
We still can't get you to wave and you say the word "Momma" rarely. I seriously think you are too busy to talk!

We love you Luke! Happy Birthday!

Show-A-Thon

2012-01-28T23:43:00.000-05:00

Today Lizzy had her first dance recital for the year. It was adorable. I could tell from practicing at home that it was going to be entertaining! Lizzy performed 2 numbers: Tap, Tap, Tap and a hip hop number called Big Bad Wolf. Before the Big Bad Wolf Dance, Miss Alison, her teacher, was positioning the girls on stage and Lizzy shouts out in a loud voice, "Miss Alison, I'm so excited my grandparents are here!" Everyone thought it was cute as Lizzy waved to them. After her performances were over, Lizzy, James and friend Kayla stayed at the front of the stage area to watch more of the dancers. When it was time to go, I went to grab her and she stood up to leave. However, a girl started singing so she started dancing in front of the entire audience. It was cute, but I had to run up and grab her. What can you say, the girl loves to dance!

Before the show in the dressing area. Lizzy with almost half of her class...

Look Who's Walking!

2012-01-28T23:38:00.003-05:00

Today was an exciting evening in our house! Luke has been taking a few steps here and there for the last few weeks and I knew it was a matter of time before he took off walking. Tonight he was standing at the gate by the stairs and took off for the learning table toy. We then got the camera out and he went the distance! He is shy of 11 1/2 months by 2 days. Did I also mention that yesterday we were shopping at Fred Meyer and he looked at me and said, "Momma". It was so cute and made me so happy. To bad the little turkey won't say it on demand!

Snow Day

2012-01-16T00:43:00.000-05:00

Well it finally snowed it Seattle. Lizzy declared it the best day in January ever! The kids woke up like it was Christmas morning. I am pretty sure Lizzy jumped up and down for 2 straight hours until she was allowed to go outside and play after we found out church had been cancelled. I know it seems funny to hear "church cancelled". Seattle really does shut down. It was snowing quite hard and the roads were icy with no one to plow them. The other problem is actually getting to the church. The church is on a hill and the road to get there becomes incredibly icy so they cancel. Is it bad to admit that in Lizzy's prayer tonight that she was thankful it was cancelled?

It didn't take long for Liz and James to start with now angels until dad arrived to build a snowman in the front yard followed by a snow fort.

The kids got cold and came inside for awhile. After all, we did need to have church!

Grandma and Grandpa R came over after their church was over to spend the afternoon. It was back outside for building 2 more snowmen, a snowball fight...

eating the snow...

and then to the front yard again for sledding down the sidewalk.

Life doesn't get much better. It is supposed to snow again tomorrow much to the kids delight!

Dinner Conversation

2011-12-13T15:28:00.000-05:00

Last night I was missing at the dinner table. Adam had a nice conversation with Lizzy that went like this:

L: I am the first kid, James is the second and Luke is the last kid
A: Liz, do you think that your mom is going to have anymore kids?
L:No
A: Why not?
L: She can hardly handle the 3 she has.

Guess she has heard me say that phrase a few times. Maybe I don't have to worry about her begging for a little sister now.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T19:31:00.000-05:00

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my parents and extended family in Pasco. We had a great time and the kids loved going to the farm as usual. We woke up to this foggy morning.

While we cooked a few items for the extended family Thanksgiving, the kids had Grandpa take them on a 4-Wheeler ride. Luke had his first ride and if it were up to James, he would never get off.

We had Thanksgiving at Aunt Debbie and Uncle Karl's house with my Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandma that live in Pasco. While we waited for dinner. THe kids played on the playground.

We then got to wish my Grandma a Happy 90th Birthday. Her b-day was Nov 20th. She hates to have her picture taken and wouldn't look at the camera. She is one amazing woman and quite active for 90.

Friday was another beautiful day so we took Liz and James on a 4-wheeler ride by the river. The highlight was riding in the mud. Somehow it tired James out and he was out cold for the trip back.

While at my parents house, the kids loved playing on their bed.

One night we played cards. THis is my dad, Uncle Phil and cousin Aaron

James and Luke love to play together (heart)

Love those blue eyes (poor dry cheeks!)

Race on Over to Celebrate James 3rd Birthday

2011-11-22T23:52:00.000-05:00

James is turning 3 years old...in 2 more days. Who says you can't celebrate early? His birthday lands on Thanksgiving this year and we will be travelling so we decided to have a little party the weekend before. James is such a fun kid with a huge personality. He is always trying to get everyone to laugh and is hardly ever serious. He loves to wrestle with Luke, follow his sister around, and play with any truck, car, airplane, motorcycle, etc. that you put in his hand. He was potty trained 3 months ago (day & night) and can dress himself--what more could a mother ask for!

James LOVES the movie cars and has been asking for a lightning McQueen cake for a month now. He also told me it had to be chocolate. I never knew he was so particular. Of course, I had to attempt to give him what he wanted and I thought it turned out pretty good.

For the party, we invited a few of his friends and their families over for pizza. We had the kids make a car and had a race. It was hilarious. Everyone had fun though, especially James and that was what mattered. Love that kid!

Lastly, for James' Birthday we bought him a remote controlled lightning McQueen car which he was thrilled about. However, we put the batteries in and it went about 3 feet and started smoking. Are you kidding? I was able to take it back to the store, but of course no McQueen cars. They had Francesco though and James was thrilled. Luckily, it works great and the kid doesn't want to put it down.

An interview with a 3 year Old

2011-11-21T17:43:00.002-05:00

Looks whose Crawling!

2011-11-04T18:22:00.000-04:00

Luke has been pushing himself backwards around the house for over a month now. He has also been pushing up on all fours for a few weeks so we knew it was just a matter of time before he was on the move. One week ago, Oct 28, he decided he was ready to move forward and took off crawling. He is still fairly slow which is nice unless you put a phone on the floor and then he can move pretty fast. Again, it is only a matter of time before the kid becomes speedy gonzales!

Happy Halloween

2011-11-01T18:13:00.000-04:00

This year we had a great Halloween. We celebrated several times and I am not gonna lie, I am kind of glad it is over. Lizzy has been planning on being Rapunzel for a few months which works great for me since I bought her the dress-up for her birthday in June. James chose to be Lightning McQueen, Luke was a puppy, I was a witch and Adam wore a mullet. We started the celebrations by carving our jack-o-lanterns on a Saturday night with G & G Robinson. Lizzy was not too happy at first that we made her clean out her pumpkin, but she was determined that Adam carve her a cat so she did it.

our ward Halloween party. It consisted of some games and a trunk or treat.

A popular game was "whack a deacon". yeah...hilarious!

face or hand painting...bean bag toss, rubber band guns, etc

Liz and her friend Kayla

After the games, we headed to the parking lot for a trunk or treat. The kids made out with a ton of candy and home we went. The kids also joined Grandma and Grandpa R at their carnival and trunk or treat on Sat while Adam and I went out on a date.

Lastly, we celebrated on Halloween by taking the kids trick-or-treating. It ended up being a beautiful clear night outside. We just went to a few houses in the neighborhood as to limit the amount of candy intake. James was hilarious as usual. One house we went to he said, "I can't reach the ding bell". He then proceeded to reach into his pumpkin for a sucker to use as a door knocker. When the guy didn't come to the door fast enough he said, "Hey, I got a whistle" and started blowing (He picked that up at a previous house) Gotta love the kids persistence!

Pumpkin Cheesecake the easy way

2011-10-20T17:53:00.000-04:00

I go to a recipe group that is hosted every month. This month the theme was pumpkin vs. apple. I was going to take some pumpkin bread, but it didn't work out so I decided to adapt a recipe I had for a no-bake cheesecake and it turned out delicious so I thought I would share for all you pumpkin lovers out there. Best thing is that it is quick to make!

Filling
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 pt heavy whipping cream
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c pumpkin
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla

Crust
20 or so gingersnap cookies
3 T butter
2 T sugar

crust
put cookies in food processor. melt butter. combine with sugar and press into pie plate. bake 375 for 8-10min. cool

filling
whip cream with 1/4 c sugar. set aside
cream together cream cheese, pumpkin, spice, rest of sugar & vanilla for a few min. fold in whipped cream mixture. put in crust and top with a few gingersnap crumbs. refrigerate overnight.

I forgot to save a few crumbs for the top of the pie. oops!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-10T18:47:00.001-04:00

Saturday, my MIL and I took the kids to a pumpkin patch out in Carnation. It turned out to be a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun. We started the fun by eating a pumpkin pancake breakfast and then headed over to the corn maze.

In the middle of the corn maze, we found the treasure or the fire pit to make smores. Yum!

We then went on a hay ride behind a tractor. This was James' favorite activity.

After the hay ride, we check out the animals. The kids got to pet a lizard and a cow. Last, we perused the pumpkin patch for some small pumpkins. We ended up getting the sugar pie pumpkins that are small. Lizzy and James decorated them with stickers when we got home. James keeps stealing stickers off of Lizzy's pumpkin everyday. Luckily, I don't think she has noticed. I will have to take a picture of them sometime. In the meantime, look how big baby Luke is getting.( 8 months)

Quote of the day

2011-10-04T21:28:00.001-04:00

I work with Lizzy everyday on reading. Today Lizzy sounded out the word "that" and promptly used it in this sentance. "That brother just slammed me".....to much WWE!

Labor Day at Denny Creek

2011-09-07T00:21:00.000-04:00

The nice weather has graced our presence for the last few weeks and it didn't disappoint over the past holiday weekend. On Labor Day we decided to head to the mountains with some friends to hike up to the Denny Creek water slide area. It is a fairly easy 1.5 mile (one way) hike up to the rocks where they have a waterfall and a couple of very small water slides and pools (for the kiddos) and a nice big water slide that a few of the adults and older kids rode. I opted out as I didn't want a bruise on my back side.

Enjoy....

Guess Who...

2011-09-03T23:30:00.000-04:00

got his first tooth today?

It his bottom left front one--can you decipher that? This little turkey also thinks he wants to crawl soon and keeps trying to stick his little toosh in the air. Boo!

Our Kindergartner

2011-08-31T23:17:00.000-04:00

Lizzy started Kindergarten today. She was upset that the bus was late becasue she was so excited. When the bus came, she got on and James was MAD he couldn't go to. She came home saying kindergarten is the best ever and was not happy when I told her she only gets to go 2 more days this week. THe highlights were recess, reading a story in class and making some new friends.

When your paths cross...

2011-08-22T00:41:00.001-04:00

July 5th we started our drive home to WA. We were super excited to stop in Bosie on the way to see our friends the Jensens who were home from Taiwan for the summer to visit family. Lizzy was super excited to see her bff Aly and is still talking about her 2 months later. We had lunch and then swam for a couple hours. We didn't take a ton of pictures, but had a great time catching up with old friends. I love, love, love the perma smile on Liz's face that she has in all the pictures.

I had to include this pic of James at the rest stop near Yakima cause it is such a James look! Love that kid!

4th of July

2011-08-22T00:25:00.000-04:00

The 4th of July was pretty low-key this year. We left Downata Hot Springs in the later afternoon to head to Jerome, where my brother Kevin lives. I don't even remember what we had for dinner that night. I just remember we headed to this office park to sit and wait for the fireworks with my parents and Kevin and his family. The kids had fun playing with their cousins and enjoyed the show. We enjoyed the beautiful sunset too. Afterwards, we went back tot he house to do sparklers. Lizzy was too scared of them to even try them out and watched from the window inside. The next day though she was really sad to have missed out and was happy that Aunt Alayna had some spares she could take home to do later on.

Alayna and Kev

Hadley and James are quite the pair....watch out!

Lloyd Bleazard Family Reunion

2011-08-22T00:08:00.001-04:00

Over the 4th of July, my immediate family got together for a reunion at Down-At-A Hot Springs in Idaho. We had so much fun visiting, swimming, 4-wheeling and playing games.It went by way to fast so it was a good thing we were having another Bleazard reunion the first week of August. My kids do not get to see their cousins that often and LOVE it!

Living, in Seattle, we have the longest drive, but to my kids delight, we stopped at a rest stop that had some dinosaurs and another one to just run around where Lizzy let her hair fly.

We got to the Hot Springs and hit the pool and water slides. Once the kids went down the big one, they couldn't stop. When they were not in the pool, James wanted to be on the 4 four wheeler. (I think he called them that as we had 4 quads to ride.) For some reason we didn't take hardly any photos on the 4 wheelers. At night, we put the kids to bed and played games. It was heaven catching up with everyone and just spending time together. Good thing another reunion is coming in Aug cause we miss everyone!

The whole Family...

My Immediate Family all grown up!

Us and our better halves...

Check out the slide show for more photos.

Coming Soon...

2011-08-15T23:28:00.000-04:00

I realize that I have pretty much abandoned my blog over the past 6 weeks or more. I have to say it is because we have been having a great time enjoying our summer with friends and family. I am planning on updating during the next week or two. In the meantime, enjoy this picture of a Happy Rapunzel...

Happy 5th Birthday Lizzy!

2011-07-07T17:36:00.000-04:00

It is hard to believe our little girl is now 5! Although I have to say she seems to be getting taller everyday. She is also maturing tons and is such a great big sister. Lizzy is so much fun these days. She is all about pretend play, playing barbies, dancing, coloring, singing, playing games, being with friends and playing with her brothers.

Needless to say, she has pretty much been planing her birthday the day after she turned 4. She really started planning after she saw the movie Tangled so we had a tangled party.

We did Bubbles

ate the tangled tower cake

played pin the frying pan on Flynn Rider

made pascal party blowers

did rapunzel hair

blowing out her candles

hula hoop competition

Grandma and Gpa Robinson

Smiles and Giggles

2011-06-17T01:35:00.000-04:00

So yeah, I am waaayyy behind on blogging, but I am sure that you will forgive me after seeing the picture and video of baby Luke. Luke is now 4 months old, but he started laughing when he was 3 months old and smiling way back at 2 months or so. He is such an easy going kid which is great now, but has me worried a little because James was like that too (emphasis on the WAS).

Luke is really fun these days and loves to smile, talk (coo), giggle, grab his toys, kick his legs and be entertained. He is a champion sleeper at night too. We love him so much!

Primary Talent Show

2011-06-15T00:42:00.000-04:00

To say that Lizzy was excited to perform in the primary talent show tonight with her friend Kayla is an understatement. She has asked me every week for over a month if I emailed Sister Agler to put her on the list. The girls practiced today and totally pulled it off.

Father & Sons

2011-06-11T00:44:00.000-04:00

Adam, James, his dinosaur and Grandpa Robinson headed up to cascade park on Friday, 5/20 for the annual father and sons camp out. It was the most beautiful weekend. They had a great time. Adam took lots of pictures of Grandpa and James, but none of him and James. They played in the sand at the river, on the playground, and with new friends. James is in love with camping and keeps asking when he is going in Grandpa's truck again.

The boys came home fairly early since Grandpa had some other obligations so we took a hike down to Meadowdale Beach. We love it there. It was so peaceful.

Surprise--I could never get Liz and James to smile at the same time.

Instead of bringing her treasures home, Lizzy opted to just take a picture with them.

Lizzyism

2011-05-16T10:50:00.000-04:00

Back in April it was Adam's Mom's birthday and I forgot to write this cute little saying down.

Lizzy: Mom, how old is grandma?
Mom: 29
Lizzy: (thoughtfully) Hmmm, that means that Dad is older than she is.

Love the thinking's of a 4 1/2 yr old! (I am not allowed to say she is just 4)

Easter 2011

2011-05-03T16:39:00.000-04:00

One day I received a phone call. I looked at the called ID and it read Mary Bleazard, my Grandma. I was really surprised to be getting a call from her. I answered it and it was my cousin Andrea calling to see if we were coming to Pasco for Easter. They really wanted some more kids for the annual Easter Egg Hunt. I told her we hadn't thought about it, but I felt so loved that they would call and invite us. I spoke to Adam and we thought it was a great idea to head to Pasco to be with family and to get out of the rain!

Saturday was a beautiful 70 degree day in Pasco. We stayed outside pretty much all day soaking up the sun! My parents work in the temple on Saturdays so we spent the day with Andrea and her kids Addison and Caiden. It was so fun since our kids are the same age. We first went to pet the cows. Lizzy was in heaven cause she thought it was a petting zoo with free food. We went swimming in Andrea's indoor 90 degree pool (felt Awesome), played on the playground, jumped on the trampoline, saw the horses, rode the 4 wheeler and Adam rode motorcycles. It was awesome.

Sunday we went to church and then went to the Bleazard family party. I LOVED these parties growing up. All the families would bring food for a huge potluck, we would have an easter egg hunt and visit and play games. I love my family so much and it was so fun to see my aunts, uncles, cousins, & grandma.

Blackmail or Embarrassment

2011-05-03T16:26:00.000-04:00

Lately James has decided he does not want to be left out of playing dress-up. The only dress-up he has is his dinosaur Halloween Costume from last October so he has resorted to wearing some of Lizzy's. I could not resist taking a picture to use as blackmail or to embarrass the boy later in life--ya never know when these will come in handy. Adam is definitely not happy about his clothing choice, but was pleased to see he was still playing with his favorite toys.

Visitors

2011-05-03T16:21:00.000-04:00

At the beginning of April my Uncle Ron, Aunt Marjean and cousin Katie and her family came to visit. It was really fun to see her and get together especially because her kids are just a tad younger than mine. Lizzy and Ariana were instant friends and James was so excited to have a boy, Corban, to play with. We got together for dinner, took our first trip to the zoo this year and Lizzy and Ariana did their hair while we watched General Conference.

Mukilteo Beach Field Trip

2011-04-19T23:35:00.000-04:00

Lizzy's preschool class decided to try something new this year and did a field trip at the beach. When you hear beach don't think of beautiful sand and warm sun--remember we are in seattle! Think lots of rocks, sun (surpisingly), COLD wind and the beautiful Puget Sound. Despite the cold, it was still a ton of fun. The field trip consitsed of 4 stations to learn about the beaches in WA. We did a craft, learned about Seaweed, kelp, etc...

Rocks like granite, the wishing rock, balsamic, etc.

Sealife: We found lots of Seastars (NOT starfish--they don't have gills), little crabs, snails, shells, etc. We even saw some seals swimming right offshore.

Jillian, Hannah and Lizzy

Her Preschool Class

A thief in our midst

2011-03-28T14:44:00.000-04:00

Wednesday night I am cooking dinner and Lizzy is talking to Luke and James comes into the kitchen for a second and then disappears. I really didn't pay any attention to him. Lizzy then says, "mom, James just asked me if i wanted a mint". I said, " what?" I then went up to his room.As i enter his room he hurries and shoves the remaining Altoids in his mouth. yes-crumbs were coming out the side of his mouth. he had eaten half a box of Altoids. I then look over and see he had gotten my purse and dumped it out to find what he wanted. oh boy.

Then Thursday comes along. again, time to make dinner and James grabs the loaf of bread off the counter. I quickly snatch it back as i see in my mind the bag breaking open. i tell him no food as i am making dinner. he disappears mad. i go back to making dinner and not 1 minutes later Lizzy comes down stairs and says mom, look. she had a box of kix in her hand. Mom, James had this in his room, come look. I followed her to see a trail of kix crumbs leading to his room. I honestly don't know how i missed him grabbing the cereal from the pantry. oh boy, what will he steal tomorrow?

Baby Blessing

2011-03-20T00:55:00.001-04:00

Today we blessed baby Luke. We did it at home due to other conflicts. It was really nice to have close family and friends with us. My mom made his outfit and knitted this awesome sweater. I will add more pictures later. We are so glad to have Luke in our family. He is such a good, sweet baby!

Here are some more pictures from Luke's special day. Love this kid!

Grandma Robinson, baby Luke and Grandma Bleazard

The end of the day. My tired boys.

1 month Old

2011-03-13T00:42:00.002-05:00

It is hard to believe that Luke is now 1 month old. The time has flown by. We just love this kid so much. He is a really good baby and is on a pretty regular schedule now. Sometimes he will even give out little smiles which are so cute. He doesn't love his pacifier which is so weird to me since the other 2 couldn't live without it. Not sure how I feel about it, but we will see how it goes. Lizzy and James still love their brother and want to hold him/bug him all the time. Here are a few shots of him that we took today. Enjoy!

5 days old

2011-02-28T14:26:00.000-05:00

We love this kid!

Update

2011-02-18T23:13:00.000-05:00

So wanted to let you know that we came home from the hospital on Wed afternoon. Luke's jaundice is doing well and continues to go down. I figure all is smooth sailing from here. It has been wonderful to sleep in my own bed again. It feels so soft--I love it! Lizzy and James are adjusting well to baby Luke. Liz just wants to hold him all the time. James likes his brother too although he is a little jealous. I think it will pass quickly though. All in all, Luke is a great baby and we love to snuggle him!

Luke Anders Robinson

2011-02-14T22:21:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday baby Luke! We are so excited to have you in our family! Luke was born Sunday morning, Feb 13th at 3:43am. Everything went well. He came out at 9lbs 3oz and 21 inches long. I guess my doctor really wasn't kidding a few weeks ago when he said that I would have a ginormous baby! I have been discharged from the hospital and doing well although a little sore but Luke has jaundice and needs to stay over night and hopefully by mornings the level will start to decrease. I will keep you posted. In the meantime, here are some pictures I promised:

Bruised Luke on the scale..poor guy

Happy Daddy!

Happy Brother and Sister!

Our new family!

Moooommmmmmm!

2011-02-08T11:19:00.000-05:00

So lately James has had a little bit of a rough time going to bed. By rough time, I mean staying in his bed. He has every excuse to get out from I need a drink to I need to get more toys for my bed, etc. Yesterday, I heard some noise and went upstairs to find he had locked himself in the bathroom. Inside he had take the water bottle and sprayed the entire mirror. He then had put the handtowl in the sink and was turning on the water. Oh man.

Well tonight, we had put him back in his bed for the third time and it had been 20 minutes or so and finally all was quiet so we figured he had gone to sleep and then I heard, "Mooooommmmmmm!" I went upstairs to see what he was up to and was in a little bit of shock. I found him completely stripped of pajamas and his diaper halfway off and trying to put it back on. I said, "What are you doing?" He said, "Pajamas dirty". What? I had gotten them out of the drawer yesterday.... Anyways, they were on the top of the dirty clothes basket so I fixed his diaper and put on new pjs. silly kid. Hope this isn't going to be a regular occurrence!

Your baby is gonna be ginormous!

2011-02-08T11:14:00.000-05:00

I have been to my ob weekly now for a few weeks and everything is always the same--baby's heartbeat sounds good, size feels good--feels like it has more room to grow in the uterus (I don't really think so as my ribs feel bruised!). Anyways, when I went this past week I heard the familiar baby's heartbeat sounds good, head down and then he was trying to measure the size of the baby and this is what my doctor says to me: "Wow--this ain't gonna be no 7lb baby! How big were your other 2?" I tell him they were 7 and 7 lb 11oz. He then says, "Well--this one is gonna trump them all and be big--be careful there-someone has to push this baby out!" I was needless to say a little shocked and couldn't believe that it had changed that much in a week. Then Dr. M checked my cervix and says, "Oh, the baby's head is higher than I thought--I don't think the baby will be that big." Thanks for the reassurance!

Christmas

2011-01-08T12:48:00.001-05:00

I just love this picture of Lizzy Lou Who and James on Christmas morning.

It was so much fun to see their excitement. Christmas was great and in the afternoon we drove to Pasco to visit with some siblings, cousins, and grandparents for the week. Hopefully I will post more soon.

Happy 2nd Birthday James!

2010-11-25T14:01:00.002-05:00

Our little James turned 2 Nov 24th. Lizzy was so excited about his birthday which made him very excited about his birthday. James talks a lot and is always surprising us with new words. He loves his dinosaurs, trucks, trains, cars, etc. He seems to be getting bigger and taller everyday. He has such a sweet personality and is a little jokster too. We love him so much! Happy Birthday!

View Full Album

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-11-24T13:54:00.000-05:00

Rarely does it snow in Seattle and never before Thanksgiving, but surprise--Snow! It snowed all day yesterday and it was nice and sunny and beautiful today. The kids loved it! James favorite thing to do is to eat the snow. This morning I was barely able to stop him before he ate grocery store parking lot yumminess--yuck!

Also--as an update to our life, we are still living out of a suitcase. We moved out the hotel today to Adam's parents house for the holiday. They told us our stuff would arrive on Thanksgiving so we are expecting it to really come Monday hopefully and we can get settled just in time to decorate for Christmas!

Happy Halloween

2010-11-01T20:08:00.000-04:00

Halloween was great this year. We celebrated at our ward trunk or treat on Wednesday, had a party with Lizzy's preschool class on Friday and her school had a fall festival on Saturday. The kids had a great time and loved all the goodies and candy!

St Augustine, Florida

2010-11-01T14:41:00.001-04:00

On our way home from Disneyworld, we decided to spend the night in St Augustine, Florida. We had heard it was a cool little town and we thought a nice afternoon at the beach would be relaxing. The beach was beautiful except for the huge, dead jellyfish littering the beach. We still had a great time though as you can see.

St Augustine was a pretty little town and had a lot of historic stuff to see. We mostly just drove by and also walked around the fort.

View Full Album

Walt Disney World

2010-10-31T21:45:00.001-04:00

We decided to take our family vacation in October this year to take advantage of Disney world being only a 7 hour drive away and the fact that the temperatures would be a lot cooler. We went for 5 days and had so much fun with the kids. Lizzy was pretty much in awe most of the time and James liked it and had his favorite rides and moments. We hit Magic Kingdom Mon/Wed/Fri, Animal Kingdom on Tues and Hollywood Studios on Thur.

Monday: Magic Kingdom (Oct 18)

Magic Kingdom is just what it says it is: Magic. Lizzy was in awe from the moment we saw Cinderella’s castle from the monorail to the Mickey mouse confetti on the ground when they opened the park. Liz and James also got to meet a plethora of Disney princesses and other characters and loved, loved, Loved going on the rides and seeing the parades. (Liz loved peter pan, driving on the speedway, Goofey's roller coaster and buzz light year) (James’ favorites were the flying rockets, carousel, going on the speedway and buzz light year)

Tuesday: Animal Kingdom (Oct 19)

We LOVED Animal Kingdom and could have spent more time there. The kids were beyond thrilled to start our day in a dinosaur park going on dinosaur rides.

They had some of the best shows that I have ever seen. The Finding Nemo puppet show was absolutely amazing as well as the Festival of the Lion King. Needless to say the kids were in a trance throughout the shows. They also loved taking the train ride, visiting the petting zoo and the safari ride is amazing. James can never get enough of seeing the animals.

One of Adam’s Highlights was riding the Mount Everest roller coaster while I was thrilled to be able to go on a more wild ride with Liz—the rapids. It felt so good to get wet!

Wednesday: Magic Kingdom (Oct 20)

We got to the park about a half hour after it opened and saw Snow White as we walked in. Lizzy ran up and grabbed her hand. Snow White was awesome and asked Lizzy to walk with her to her pavilion where there was a line of people waiting to take a picture with her. It was great since Liz got to skip the line and have a great conversation too.

During our trip Lizzy also made us do cheers all the time. She would say, “Peter Pan ride, Who's in?” We would then all have to put our hands in to show we were “in” and she would say “All for one, and one for all” It would be followed up by Liz and James clapping and yelling “Yeah!”. We cheered a lot during our trip. Gotta love the stuff she comes up with!

Wednesday was also our one late night at the park. We took a break in the afternoon and came back in the evening so we could see the electric light parade and the fireworks. The kids loved the electric parade, but were getting pretty tired by the time the fireworks came around at 9pm. It was fun to see Tinkerbelle flying across the sky and the fireworks and music were so coordinated I thought it was an awesome show.

Thursday: Hollywood Studios (Oct 21)

We were kind of on the fence about visiting Hollywood Studios because it is mostly shows and has about 3 rides. In the end we went because they had an Ariel show and a Belle Stage play that we knew Lizzy would Love. They were also playing their big Fantasmic show that evening. The day started out great. Lizzy loved the Ariel show and still to this day believed she was under water during the entire show. Toward the afternoon the kids got more and more bored and just wanted to go on rides and not see anymore shows. We hit the Indiana Jones Stunt show and the highlight for James was seeing a tractor that was there to pull a piece of the set aside for the next stunt. He was disappointed when the tractor disappeared. The Fantasmic show was as it says it was “Fantasmic!” The kids loved it and all its effects, but honestly, if I was going with young children to Disneyworld again, I would skip Hollywood Studios as it felt 5 times more crowded than the other parks and the shows were not enough to keep the kids interests. We didn’t take too many pictures, but one highlight was meeting Sully and Mike!

Friday: Magic Kingdom (Oct 22)

We spent our last day in Magic Kingdom enjoying all the rides the kids wanted to do a second time and meeting a few princesses that we hadn’t seen yet. I was personally glad it was our last day cause my body was so tired! The highlight for Lizzy was meeting Ariel. Right now, if you are a mermaid, Lizzy loves you. The Ariel at the park was awesome. We waiting about 10 minutes to get a picture with her and she told Lizzy she didn’t have to take a picture right away, but they could talk for a few minutes. Lizzy told her she liked to dance and they twirled together. Adam was too close to get a twirling picture, but it made Lizzy’s day. After all, who wouldn’t want to dance with a real princess?

We also saw the “Dream along with Mickey” show on the castle forecourt stage. This production was fabulous. Lizzy and James were entranced the whole time and I especially loved Maleficent.

We loved our trip to Disneyworld and so did the kids. This week Lizzy said, “Mom, I miss Disneyworld” What kid wouldn’t?

View Full Album

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-12T13:17:00.000-04:00

Today was the first time that I have ever taken my kids to a pumpkin patch. It may seem strange since Lizzy is 4, but since we were in Taiwan the past few Octobers it makes perfect sense. The plantation down the road from our house is always doing something fun and one thing they do is have the Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch. We went with Lizzy's preschool and had a great time. She was so excited to do everything with her friend Katie. The kids got to go on a hayride, learn about pumpkins, pick a pumpkin, decorate it and then enjoy the jump castles, haunted house and feed the goats. We skipped the corn maze, but I am sure it would have been fun to!

Pitt Street Bridge

2010-10-12T13:10:00.000-04:00

Sunday was the most beautiful day. After dinner we went down to the Pitt Street Bridge Park. My friend had showed it to me the other day and it was so cool. We watched the sunset and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Gotta love October when it looks like this!

Baby #3

2010-10-04T12:06:00.002-04:00

Don't you just love technology? Due to my "advanced maternal age" as my doctor likes to say I got to have a fancier ultrasound.

We are having a boy! Don't you just love him already? Adam and I are amazed we didn't see chubby cheeks as both Liz and James had the cheeks even at the 20 week ultrasound. He is due February 18th on my Dad's Birthday. If you have any name suggestions we would love to hear them as naming a boy is HARD!

We took James with us to the ultrasound and he kept looking at the screen and saying "Dinosaur, Dinosaur". Well I guess I could see that. (to say James Loves dinosaurs is an understatement)

Liz was at school during the appointment. She is going to be disappointed that she isn't getting a sister, but I think I prepared her enough that she will be OK. Funny story though. Yesterday in between conference sessions we skyped with Adam's parents. Cindy is always making a baby blanket during conference and she showed us her current project which was a dinosaur blanket. Lizzy saw it and immediate said, "Grandma, you know if it's a baby sister you are going to have to start over and make a princess one". Lucky Grandma guessed right!

***So I picked up Lizzy from school and handed her the pictures from the ultrasound. She said, "Mom, this looks like James" I said, "no, that is the baby that is in my tummy right now". Liz said, "It looks like a baby brother" I said, "It is a baby brother, are you OK with that?" Liz: "Yeah! A new baby brother!"

15 Minutes

2010-09-26T20:54:00.000-04:00

In 15 minutes, we can drive here:

We are loving where we live and the beach!!!

You are Special

2010-09-19T19:56:00.000-04:00

Conversation tonight driving home from a friends:

Lizzy: Mom, why did I get to stay up late?
Mom: Because you are special
Lizzy: I am not special
Mom: Why do you say that?
Lizzy: Jesus made me wrong, I wanted black hair

I guess she still has identity issues and wants to look like an Asian.

The Great Smokey Mountains

2010-09-10T21:02:00.001-04:00

For Labor Day we decided to venture outside of Charleston. On the recommendation of a friend we went to Gatlinburg Tennessee home of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park with our friends David and Diana Hall.

It was absolutely beautiful and just what I needed. I have been craving a hike just like I sometimes crave ice cream if you know what I mean. The mountains were not super tall, but good enough they were mountains with trees and trails to explore. We enjoyed hiking to a couple of waterfalls

and also enjoyed driving around a scenic loop. We stopped a few times to view some old cabins and churches.

The coolest thing was that a bear—a black ran across the road right in front of our car. What are the chances? It was AWESOME! Unfortunately this was the best picture we got of the guy cause Adam fell asleep and woke up when I yelled “Bear!”

While there we rented a cabin. There are tons of cabins in the area to rent and I recommend it.

Each day we would relax on the porch and the kids would go for a swim in the hot tub. After they went to bed the adults would enjoy games and a nice soak in the hot tub sharing stories and looking at the stars.

On Labor Day we finished up our trip at Ober Gatlinburg Amusement Park. The park itself was OK and I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it. We took a tram up the mountain and at the top it is an amusement park in the summer and a ski resort in the winter.

The view from the top was beautiful and it is safe to say that everyones favorite thing to do was to ride the alpine slide. Lizzy said “I hope I can go as fast as I did at the Great Wall” It was great to hear that she remembered that experience from over a year ago.

Overall, it was a relaxing weekend and just what we needed.

By the way, who do you think wins for best watermelon face?

View Full Album

Preschool Starts

2010-09-01T17:23:00.000-04:00

Lizzy has been so excited to start preschool again and the day finally came!

The end of James’ Modeling Career

2010-08-24T13:32:00.001-04:00

Obviously my kids modeling careers would end once we moved back to the US. When my friend came to visit the US this summer she mailed me a few of James last catalogs. Most of these were taken anywhere from Nov 2009 to January 2010. It is hard to believe it was almost a year ago and he was so small!

These are a few of my favorite shots:

The rest can be seen here:

View Full Album

Daddy Please

2010-08-12T19:51:00.000-04:00

Daddy, please don't kiss me anymore. Only kiss me in the morning when your whiskers aren't so rough on my cheek.

Aunt LauRieee

2010-08-08T21:01:00.001-04:00

In July, my sister Laurie came to visit or as Lizzy called her, Aunt Lau-Rie with a heavy emphasis on the rie. Lizzy also has an aunt Laura so distinguishing them was very tough so she had to specify with a bold pronunciation on the rie. It was so fun to have Laurie with us for a week. We would have kept her longer if we could have. The kids of course fell instantly in love especially since she came bearing presents. She brought James a car and as soon as she gave it to him he was convinced that her suitcase was full of cars and that she was holding back. It was pretty funny.

We did some touristy stuff with Laurie that we hadn’t done yet. The Touristy stuff here is kind of pricey so we thought we would save it when company comes to visit. The new things that we did were to eat breakfast at a local, Southern Restaurant. Adam and Laurie got the “Big Nasty” which consisted of a piece on fried chicken topped with sausage gravy inside a homemade biscuit. I couldn’t bear to order that. Adam and Laurie loved it. I took a bite and it was OK. We also had grits—again, OK.

Next we took the ferry out to Fort Sumter where the civil war began. It was a fun ride through the harbor and history surrounded us. We only had an hour at the fort which went by really fast. We listened to a ranger tell the history for the first 20 minutes or so and then explored the rest of the fort. We never did make it inside to the museum, but I bet the outside was way more fun anyways. We even saw some dolphins in the water on our way back to shore. Dolphins are abundant in the water here which is pretty cool.

Laurie, the kids and I also went to the Middleton Place Plantation. The grounds were beautiful and so picturesque. It was really cool to because near the barn and stable yards, they had a bunch of stuff set-up like in the plantation time and you could participate or watch a few of the old craftsmen. We got to help milk a cow, watch a potter, a cooper and see a blacksmith shop and a weaving shop. We also got to grind some corn which was cool and of course pet all the animals.

Lastly, we checked out the Caw Caw Interpretive Center. This was a nature park where you could walk through a pretty cool swamp, see a lot of birds and rent canoes or kayaks. It was pretty, but it was so hot we were excited to go into the air-conditioned visitors center. That made Lizzy’s day since they had “animals” inside (some live fish and some stuffer otters, beavers, etc)

We had a great time with Laurie doing new things and the regular stuff like the beach and history walk, etc. Can’t wait to see you again!

View Full Album

Lizzyism

2010-07-28T19:21:00.002-04:00

Tonight, Lizzy called her Dad to see when he would be home, what she told him when he answered the phone was "Dad, the meatballs are so not good"

Jesus is Coming

2010-07-12T08:08:00.000-04:00

So last night when Adam was finishing up the bedtime routine with Lizzy she told him that Jesus was going to come to visit tonight. Adam said, no, I don't think that he will be coming to our house. She almost made it sound like she was going to go to bed and wait for Santa to arrive, but she would know when he showed up so she could talk to him. She insisted that her teacher at church told her Jesus was going to come to her house tonight. So Liz went to sleep and at 1am I heard her come in our room. I asked her if I could take her back to her bed. She said yes and when we got there she said, Mom, I guess Dad was right--He is not coming to visit. It almost broke my heart a little that she had such faith. I told her that Jesus still loved her and although he wasn't going to visit her in person, he was always with her. She seemed OK after that. I love her sweet testimony.

4th of July

2010-07-07T13:52:00.001-04:00

It was nice to be back in the USA for the 4th of July. It was our first time to celebrate in 3 years on the home land. One of the best parts was that our friends, the Buhlers, traveled down from DC to celebrate with us. We were so excited to see them again and had fun doing some sightseeing, relaxing and playing cards.

Saturday we visited Boone Hall Plantation which is just down the street from our house. The plantation was very pretty—especially the entrance of oak trees.

That afternoon we hit the beach. The beach here is awesome—great sand, shallow and gentle waves for the kids.

On the 4th, we enjoyed church and then walked around downtown before enjoying the fireworks in front of the USS Yorktown. It was a great show that lasted 20 minutes. The kids were pretty excited.

We were sad to see the Buhlers go home and hopefully our paths will cross again soon!

View Full Album

Windows Live Writer

2010-06-29T14:41:00.001-04:00

So I know how I said I was going to go back to my original blog on spaces, but I miss your comments so much. When I was publishing the other day, I discovered that I could publish to blogger using the free window live writer program. It makes it all so much easier when it comes to posting pictures and slideshows. I can upload all at once and not one at a time. Going forward you will continue to see me here on blogger and I promise to do no more switching!

Our Little Swimmer

2010-06-29T14:39:00.003-04:00

When we moved to SC we got Lizzy into some swim lessons as we swim almost everyday. When she started her lessons she would do more in class than she would with us in the pool. Toward the end of the lessons she would do more with us than in class. Monday, June 21st, we went swimming for FHE. She was clinging to me like I was going to let her drown. However, I got her to trust me and then I let go and she has been a little fish ever since. We are so proud of her! This video is from June 22 as we didn’t have the camera with us the first day.

Happy Father’s Day

2010-06-29T14:39:00.001-04:00

We are lucky to have the best Dad in our family. We really couldn’t ask for anything more from Adam. The kids love him and can’t wait for him to come home from work everyday and maul him as soon as he walks in the door. To celebrate father’s day they were nice enough to let him sleep in. Lizzy decided she wanted to wake him up by roaring at him and I told her it wouldn’t be very nice so she opted to go, “tweet tweet, tweet tweet”. Where does she come up with these things? Anyways, we had a great Sunday with Dad at church and at home and finished off with a walk in the county park. We love you Dad!

Happy 4th Birthday Lizzy!

2010-06-28T15:24:00.001-04:00

Lizzy turned 4 this past Thursday. She wanted 2 things for her birthday: a Belle cake and a mermaid Barbie so we complied. i kind of cheated on the cake this year, but I thought I was a genius. She loved the Barbie and the cake so it was a success!

We love our Lizzy so much! She is so much fun and is a great big sister to James. We couldn’t ask for a better girl.

See photo album for pics

View Full Album

Going Back

2010-05-09T20:20:00.000-04:00

Well friends, I have tried blogger for blogging and it just doesn't work for me. The picture upload is what has done it so I am moving back to msn spaces. I know some of you will not be able to comment if you don't have a windows live id (you can get one though) and I will miss it. Please keep visiting us here:
http://krobinson.spaces.live.com/

Tulips & the Temple

2010-04-22T16:05:00.000-04:00

Our friends invited us to go and see the open house for the LDS Vancouver Temple last weekend. http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/vancouver/ . I was excited for Lizzy to be able to see the inside of a temple as ones that are dedicated are only open to those with a special recommend. On our way we stopped at the annual tulip festival held in Mt. Vernon. It was a beautiful day.

The temple was a good experience as well. It could have been a little better if we had let James run around for 30 minutes or so before the tour. The true problem was a lady with her guide dog was on our tour so every room we went to he would yell "Dog" at the top of his lungs and run to pet the dog. I truly felt sorry for those who were there to really learn about the temple. Adam and I tried to remove him from the room as the tour guide spoke. I also remember entering the celestial room in the temple and having such an overwhelming feeling of peace. Lizzy really enjoyed the trip to and keeps asking when we can go back.

We spend the night in Vancouver and headed to the aquarium in the morning due to the rain.

After lunch it quit raining long enough for us a to do an awesome hike across a suspension bridge before catching dinner and heading home. Thanks to the Hyuns and Kersavages for a great trip!

Move Date

2010-04-21T18:51:00.000-04:00

Finally, 2 months and 11 days later we have a pretty firm move date. Coming back to the US has been wonderful and we have loved spending time with our family, but we are sick of living out of a suitcase so we are excited that we will be moving on or around May 4th to Charelston SC. It will be a great adventure. What am I looking forward to the most? the beach, 10 minutes away from my house!

Bi-focals do not make you old

2010-04-13T14:21:00.000-04:00

When we came back from Taiwan we noticed that Lizzy's eye started crossing on certain occasions. We couldn't nail down the specifics, but thought we should get her eyes checked out. Turns out she is far-sighted. She sure is cute in her purple and blue glasses though.

Happy Easter

2010-04-05T00:40:00.000-04:00

Easter has been so much fun this year. We started off by doing a family home evening lesson on Easter so Lizzy would at least know what it was all about. Trying to describe death and the resurrection was very confusing to her Monday night. When it came to activity time to dye eggs all she could say is that we were going to dead eggs. Every morning she asks for a dead egg for breakfast. It at least gives me a good laugh!

We have also been doing a lot of egg hunts around the house. Man has it been raining!!!! THe kids love it though. James tires of it a lot faster than Liz, but is still a good sport.

Today was a beautiful Easter Sunday. Lizzy was so excited for the Easter bunny to come and she got to enjoy her to-full basket for a bit before we enjoyed watching conference all day. Afterwards we set up some egg hunts in the back yard. It was fun to watch the kids running for the eggs. Liz even told us we needed to do the hunt over becasue we made it too easy. Gotta love that girl!

What have we been up to?

2010-04-05T00:32:00.000-04:00

We have been back in the US for almost 2 months now. It is hard to believe how fast the time has flown. We have been enjoying ourselves despite missing Taiwan and our friends among other things. So what have we been doing?

We bought Lizzy a bike and she loves to ride it. This isn't the best picture of her, but do you notice how BLUE the sky is?

We have been reconnecting with old friends!!! We have missed you!

The cousins came to visit and we went to the aquarium

Lizzy was so tired at night she did this:

We reconnected with our friends the Ni's and had fun speaking out limited Chinese

We still play at the park all the time. We had one right out our back door at our temp housing:

We have been playing with Grandma and Grandpa

and last, but not least we have been doing a few things around town like the zoo

Go ahead, try and stop me

2010-04-04T23:35:00.000-04:00

For the last couple of weeks, I have turned around to find James here

here

and here

I can't keep the kid from climbing on anything inside or outside. Some days I will hear him talking and sure enough he is on top of something and just not sure how to get down. Gotta love it!

Our own Little Mermaid

2010-03-11T13:40:00.000-05:00

Since we have returned from Taiwan, we have been sorting through the stuff in our house. One item that we found much to Lizzy's joy was a copy of the movie, The Little Mermaid. Lizzy knows who all the Disney princesses are, but has never actually seen the movies. She has now watched the little mermaid at least 100 times in the last 5 days (OK I am exaggerating). Lizzy also loves to sing so this is what we get to listen to all day and night and even in restaurants (shhh! please keep your voice down)

Our Journey home and where we are going...

2010-02-24T14:06:00.000-05:00

Did you know that my kids are the best travelers in the world? It helps that we have dragged them around a lot. One of Lizzy's favorite forms of transportation is airplanes. On February 8th, we gathered our 6 boxes, 6 suitcases, 2 strollers, 2 car seats, and 5 carry-on bags and headed to the Taipei airport for a plane bound found Korea and then Seattle. Adam's project with Boeing was complete. We loved our 2 1/2 years in Taiwan, but were also excited to return home to family, friends and conveniences.

My kids enjoyed the business class accommodations. At one point Liz was sleeping so soundly that even James jumping on her did not wake her.

You can see the video here: James Climbing on his sleepy sister

Here we are getting ready to go through customs at the Seattle Airport. We were only stopped by 6 security guards asking us what was in all the boxes. Everything made it except for one box and one suitcase. We thought that was pretty good considering we had to switch planes in Korea and only ha 30 minutes to do it.

What is in store for our family now? We are moving into corporate housing in Bothell for the next month near our house so Adam can do some training on the 787 project. March 15th we are slated to move to Charleston South Carolina for 6 months or more. We hear that it is beautiful and people love it there. Should be a great experience and a fun adventure. Right now we are loving being near family and friends and reconnecting. The kids can't get enough of the grandparents!

Last night in Taiwan

2010-02-23T13:57:00.000-05:00

Our last night in Taiwan, Feb 7th, our friends threw us a going away party. It was sweet and sad. It was great to be around the people that we have loved to be with for the last 2 1/2 years, but hard to say goodbye. Lizzy had a lot of fun playing with her friends, but after she had hugged the last one goodbye and they went out the door she broke down crying and told me that she didn't want to go to America. It made me super sad to see her so sad. It was hard for me to say goodbye to our friends as well and hopefully our paths will cross again. Here are some of the people that we love (for those of you not pictured sorry we didn't get a picture)

James, Adam, Liz, Kay, Nicole, Jaydn, & Cody

Erin and Kay

Lucas and Lizzy

Ben making his fried rice

Lucas, Aly and Lizzy

Sadie and James

Adam and Shaun

Kay and Lori

James, Adam, Ben and Sally

Levi, Camille and Sydney

Sidney, Bishop, Levi, Carrie, Quinn. Second Row Reid, Kay, Liz, James, Adam. Front: Aidan

Bali, Indonesia

2010-02-22T00:36:00.001-05:00

We decided to take one last vacation before leaving Taiwan to move back to the US. We chose to go to Bali as we had heard lots of great things about it and we could get a direct flight. Lizzy fell in love with the resort when we arrived and we were greeted by dancers. Every time she saw them she would ask them to dance for her and they would comply and give her a flower.

We loved the resort to and planted ourselves in a "pod" on the beach everyday.

We relaxed, buried each other in the sand, built sand castles, swam in the ocean, people watched, and bartered for souvenirs. It was a great beach for kids as the water was really calm, fairly shallow and the sand was soft. Once a day the tide would go out. We took advantage of it and walked out to see starfish, sea enenemies and other sea life.

We also enjoyed the pool. Liz loved jumping into the water and swimming to her "house" which was located under a bridge. James also loved the water and could not wait to get into it everyday. He loved the kiddie pool where he didn't need to be in his floatie all the time. A 10 minute walk from the resort was a little town in the Nusa Dua area that had shopping and a lot of restaurants and cheap massages. Adam and I took turns after dinner while the other one took the kids back to the hotel to go to bed.

(our favorite part of this picture is the guy in the background stripping down to his speedo)

Our fourth day in Bali we rented a car and driver to take us around the island. It was beautiful. It was very green and lush. We checked out Ubud which is famous for painting, stopped at the most beautiful rice terraces I have ever seen (Tegalalong), checked out a place where they grew every type of spice, and had lunch overlooking a volcano. Our plan for the afternoon was to see a temple and other stuff, but the heavens decided to open and it poured and poured. It was raining so hard that you could see newly formed rivers running down the hills and some of the roads became flooded. Needless to say, we skipped the temple and just saw a handicraft center where they gave demonstrations on how to make these beautiful pictures with wax and showed us how they used a loom to weave their own cloth.

Besides that, the only other time we left the resort was to see a turtle farm and go on a glass bottom boat.

We loved our trip. It was so relaxing and we had so much fun with our kids. When can we go back?

To see a full set of photos from the trip click here: Bali Slideshow

James Starts Solids

2009-05-18T03:21:00.000-04:00

James turns 6 months old this week. It is hard to believe that my baby is getting so big! This past week he decided he wanted to eat almost every 2 hours which is too often for me so we started solids. His first feeding of rice cereal was as expected--just not sure what to think! He now eats rice cereal and bananas and love it. Sometimes we even have to make him a second bowel, now what to feed him next? James also can sit-up all by himself. I swear he went from being wobbly to a solid sitter in 3 days. He loves seeing what is going on around him and has already figured out how to spin himself around in the exersaucer. He also can roll over. He did learn to roll from front to back first, but now he will only roll back to front and then get mad after a minute or so. I tell him to roll over, but he doesn't. He loves Lizzy and will laugh for her more than anyone. He will give out smiles to anyone who talks to him though. We are lucky that he is such a good baby! P.S. I know you are all waiting to hear about our trip to China. I promise, it is coming soon!!! I just have to find time to blog...

Happy Birthday Leone

2009-04-09T10:44:00.001-04:00

Leone's Birthday happens to be April 1st. What better way to celebrate than to eat at a restaurant called..

Yes, That's right, the Modern Toilet. Check out a video here to see our experience! Unfortunately, I forgot to video dessert in the squatters!

She pedals

2009-04-06T05:39:00.000-04:00

Lizzy has now had her bike for awhile (since her 2 yr B-day). We really didn't expect for her to learn to pedal right away and she has not been interested in it until now! At the end of March she finally started to try pedalling herself and now does pretty good pedaling, just not watching where she is headed! Here are some videos I took at the park across the street. It was kind of a sunny day and we forgot our sun glasses...

Roller Coaster

2009-02-22T06:11:00.000-05:00

We recently went to Ocean Park down in Hualien. Lizzy loved the roller coaster. It would come to a stop and she would say, "Again". Here is the video of her riding it. I thought that she would be scared, but she laughed and was soooo happy!

Animal Serenade

2008-10-15T08:33:00.000-04:00

So my msn account does not allow me to post videos easily so I thought I would post them here.

I realize this is a video that only a parent or grandparent my love! Lizzy is in a kindermusik class and they read a book set to music. she pretty much knows all of the songs. Enjoy