A Robinson Valentine

VaLenTiNes DaY 2011

Our Valentine's Day this year consisted of new outfits for the 3 of us, Cafe Rio for dinner with Ryan, Deedra and Kai - and then Farr's Fresh for ice cream! YUM!

Happy Love Day!

The Annoying Valentine . . . :)

We are celebrating Valentines tonight w/ our little family! Evie and I got some cute Valentine outfits and are making a special dinner for Braden. I'll post about that later - for now . . . I have to tell the tale of my 7th or maybe 8th grade Valentine! I'm dying laughing. Enjoy!

In 7th/8th grade it wasn't really dating - it was "going out". Well I told my friend, who told her friend that I thought {boy} was adorable! She told her friend, who told {boy}. And wha laa, we were "going out", which consisted of sitting by each other between classes, writing notes, the occasional {and very awkward} holding hands, a possible phone call a few times a week. So THE very next day happened to be Valentines Day. {Boy} shows up to school with a pink box for me, which happens to be a pink Victoria's Secret box . . . I was FREAKING OUT! Victoria's Secret!? I am 14ish years old! So I avoided him as long as possible that morning. Finally he tracked me down (can you imagine my humiliation - having to open a Victoria's Secret box in the 'commons' where EVERY ONE in the school was - and what if it was some pink undies or something! WHY would he do that! Beyond humiliating - at this point I already wanted to "dump" him because I was so embarrassed.)

So, it ended up being one of those little sets of lotions, soaps, body wash, bath salt - like the $5.00 K-Mart special . . . how romantic . . . . I'm really not the 'romantic' type, frankly the fact that he got me something for Valentines on our second day "going out" was not my cup of tea. So, now I'm ANNOYED! (I'm not that hard to live with anymore, promise!)

Anyways - we plan an ice skating night. All my friends come - all his friends come. Parents drop us off, parents pick us up. Well, turns out {boy} can't ice skate very well. ANNOYED! What boy has to hold on to the side of the rink while ice skating - not a very cool one! So - dumped him the next day via a note dropped in his locker! Brutal, I know.

Happy Valentines! Hope you have a great one!

XOXOXO

"Person of the day"

Now, if I thought my husband, Braden, read our blog - I wouldn't be posting this! He would think that I'm making him sound "gay". BUT I think he's GREAT - and he deserves to be bragged up every now and then! He called me this morning and said that he was chosen at work as an example of "People and Passion" - one of Anadarko's Core Values. And I am proud of him :) He always works so hard to support our family. So, today {and almost every other day} he is my "Person of the day!" HAHA :)

Love you Brade!

My 'baby' is 15 months!

I honestly can't help but tear up a little when I look at these pictures. Evie is such a beautiful little girl. So precious, petite, loving, smart, full of life, wonderful! I just love her! At 15 months, I feel like Evie has already overcome so many obstacles! She's such a sweet blessing to our family! She makes me want to be better and try harder every day! She definitely is my sunshine! I absolutely love that I am her mother and she is my daughter!

Love ya Evie bean!

Park City "Staycation"

Last weekend Braden and I planned a spur of the moment snowboarding/skiing trip . . . minus baby Evie! It was great :) SOOO relaxing and FUN! We totally lucked out with an awesome room @ the Summit Watch Resort by Marriott! I booked our room on my BB on our way out of Vernal! I use the Marriott friends and family discount that my aunt gives us - we usually just stay wherever is cheap. Well, I booked a room here for $$ {you'd hate me if I told you}, and wa la! We got the keys to our room and to our GREAT surprise it was a GIANT suite! Including a fireplace, two flat screen TVs, giant bathtub w/ built in seats, laundry room, kitchen, dining room, living room, separate bedroom . . . awesomeness!

The next day we went to The Canyons and skiid/snowboarded all day! It's honestly weird to be able to spend two days just worrying about eachother - no baby! Weird in a good way! We tried to soak up every minute - time just seems to fly extra fast when you're on a "mom and dad" only trip!

We did miss Evie VERY much! Seeing all the little kids skiing and hearing their little voices made us wish we could have brought Evie girl. We had so much fun riding the ski lift up and listening to the little kids below taking lessons: "Why are you calling all of us little man!?", "Snowplowing is awesome!", "I don't even want to go over there, but I can't stop!" . . . . ya it was great!

Communication!

Evie has been watching this DVD {Baby Einsteins's "My First Signs"} on a daily basis. Possibly an unhealthy amount of times a day, but she LOVES it!!! I would HIGHLY recommend this DVD to anyone and everyone w/ babies and/or toddlers who are learning to speak. It keeps her attention better than any show she watches! The BEST part of all is that she's learned almost every sign on the video and will tell me and sign what she wants! It's SO COOL! Evie is telling and signing:

• Milk
• Drink
• Cereal
• Eat
• Mommy
• Daddy
• Sleep (which is SO awesome that she can communicate this to us)
• Ball (she is constantly screaming the word ball everytime she see's one!)
• Bath (after breakfast she signs/says 'bath' - COOL!!)
• Play

My favorite are eat and sleep! It's so awesome to me (and her) that she can tell me these things and I understand! It's actually pretty cool that she can tell me all those things period! Even if I can't understand what she is trying to say, I understand what she is signing! YAY! I have to admit, when I first had Evie that was THE hardest thing for me, having a lack of communication! I'm loving that we can communicate so well!

ZERO + 2 PiGgiE tails = Our week{end}

This past week, Braden and I took Evie to another appointment with her audiologist in Salt Lake City. Each time we go, I'm afraid! I am afraid to hear bad news, I'm afraid Evie won't cooperate, I'm afraid I have the appointment time wrong . . . etc! We decided to go out the night before and stay w/ Braden's brother Jed & Abby {thanks guys}, because it's so hard on Evie when we try to turn it into a one day event! Evie got to nap before her appointment and thankfully did AMAZING @ the appointment! {Sigh of relief} Evie mainly spent the appointment in the hearing booth with her daddy, because she was responding and cooperating so well! YAY! She was hearing {w/ hearing aids} things @ ZERO decibels!! So pretty much EVERYTHING :) :) :) It was so encouraging! And we could tell how confident she is w/ her hearing aids on! She's understanding that she hears better with them on and we're so proud of her!!!! The audiologist was tearing up {and possibly Braden?} because Eve was doing so well! It's been a great experience working with our audiologist! She's wonderful! Below is a chart that kind of puts things into perspective . . . (without hearing aids Eve hears @ 45 dB and higher - the Banana shape is where most of the speech sounds are)

On another note . . . Evie is now sporting some adorable piggie tails!!! HER 1st ONES! Her hair has been long enough to do them for a while, but I just never did it. It's a bittersweet thing - she looks totally grown up! But they are So SO sO adorable!

(Intently watching a show from nickjr.com {it's my saving grace})