Hey You!

I love you babe! I miss you so much!

Updates

Well, I got a sitemeter account and discovered my blog is as unused as my violin-Very sad.
But here are a few updates anyway-even if I am the only one that reads them.
1-Nate left this morning. It hasn't even been an hour and I think I'm already losing my mind. Here I am at 7 in the morning, in bed with my laptop. Is there a more 'single' thing to do? He should get to Blackfoot Sunday night and then to my mom and dads monday. We'll be limiting our phone calls for the next few days so as to avoid a $200 phone bill.(Tried to buy a calling card for him yesterday but apparently, in this cell-phone age, we have moved above and beyond calling cards and pay phones-hmmph!
2-We had a BEAR in our yard the other night-that's right, a bear! I have lived in Alaska over 5 years and I've only seen one in the wild from a cruise ship. Unfortunately, after I got the camera we couldn't find him again. (No thanks to Nate yelling that I was NOT to go chasing after him-If I wanted a picture I better take it from the truck. I guess when he told my dad he'd take care of me he actually meant overprotect me!)
3-I survived volleyball with the McDonalds! (Well, sort of) We had a family gathering Saturday night with Nate's family, as he and Mo are moving, and John set up the volleyball net. We were having so much fun playing, not even keeping score, when things went bad. James went to set the ball but I was already en route. I tried to move back as fast as I could but somehow his elbow caught me just right in the mouth. It split my lip, landing me in the ER, and pushed my tooth back into the roof of my mouth, landing me at the dentist twice already this week. I was looking quite hillbilly for awhile. For now, my tooth is back into place and we're waiting to see if it dies and I have to have a root canal and cap put on. I didn't have to have stitches in my lip which was great but hopefully my face won't be too damaged. OH-so frustrating-we are only 3 months away from dental insurance-this will be one expensive volleyball game. Too bad it didn't happen when I was doing something cool like spiking it!
4- Tayvin's been quite sick but we'll go to the doctor this morning to find out about his legs and face. He seems like he's feeling better and luckily, it hasn't messed up his sleeping much! Will update on that later.

We hope all is well with everyone and hope to see you back here soon! I'll try to find fun things to make the blog a bit more interesting!

For lack of creativity....GRADUATION!!!

He did it! On Sunday, May 4th, 2008, Nate graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage with a double bachelors in Business Management and Marketing-Cum Laude. My entire immediate family was able to join us for the week (more on that posted later) and Nate's entire family was there too. He graduated with his brother, Mo, and many friends too. I am so proud of Nate and all his hard work. When we got pregnant with Tayvin, everyone told us how hard it would be to go to school while married and raising kids. It absolutely was! But although my schooling has had to be put off, luckily Nate's wasn't. I know it was hard for him and he made many sacrifices but we so appreciate Nate's dedication to his schooling, family, and church callings. Thank you sweetie! And Congrats!

(will post pics after my family is gone and I have a minute to think! :) )

Counting Down and Adding Up!

Well, we made a decision. Nate and his brother will be leaving May 22nd to drive the Alcan with our many, many boxes! They'll drop off our stuff in Kamas then go to Arizona so Nate can help Mo unload their stuff. I will stay here through the summer with at least one trip down to Utah to see my hubby and to be with my little sis when she goes through the temple for her first time (she's going on a mission to New Zealand-does that rock or what?) I'm not quite sure what Tayvin and I will do here all summer- I guess just bike and hike!
We're counting down the days till my entire family gets here for Nate's graduation! We're so excited to show them "our town" and for Nate to have so many people supporting him. Our good friends from Homer that we don't see near enough will even be in town too! We've been so blessed to have so many people supporting us along the way.
I also started going through all our storage-organizing and packing things up-the boxes are definetly adding up! Hopefully we'll be able to fit everything!
Tayvin has been having so much fun exploring outside and never wants to get in the car anymore. He sees the bikes on the back of my jeep and will say over and over again- "bike ride, hat, bike ride-eese!" He's even a safe little biker! The other day Nate was getting ready to go to work and Tayvin goes searching for Nate's helmet for him to wear. It took about 3 minutes of me explaining to him that Daddy wasn't riding his bike to work but driving his car instead. Now if only he could convince his mom to ruin her hair with that very fashionable contraption!

Well, do ya punk?

As the wonderful Clint Eastwood would say, " You've got to ask yourself one question..." We asked, and yes, we do feel lucky. More accurately, we feel very blessed. We spent a few days in Utah this weekend interviewing for a job that is absolutely perfect for us. It is exactly what Nate wants to do and can open so many doors for us, especially in his career. We were hoping they would offer us enough money so that we could take it but willing to settle for miniscule amounts of money because it could be such a good job for him. After a few interviews, though, we found out that if everything goes right, (there you go babe-hehe) within a year we'll be making triple what we were hoping for. And the health insurance is killer! (Of course, compared to our previous two insurance plans, what health insurance wouldn't be awesome?)
Anyway, Nate starts June 2nd which is way earlier than we were planning on so we've yet to make some important decisions but will have to within the next few days! Good job, babe-I knew you could do it! I'm so proud of you!

Once There was a Snowman, Snowman, Snowman...

Literally! We had to rebuild it 3 times!

Tayvin loves that song and any picture he sees of a snowman

so since it was so warm the last few weeks I decided that it would only be fitting if we went and built his first snowman.

Tayv and I went out by ourselves but the kids were home for President's day so they ended up joining us (which of course, Tayvin was excited for.)

Anyway, we got it built, came in, and as I was about to tell Stef about it and looking at it out the window, it fell-crushed the head and all! So while Tayvin was playing with "Rah-Rah" (toddlerese for Robinson,) I went out to rebuild it.

Then, later, it fell again. I decided that I am terrible snowmom so this time, Peter rebuilt it! And guess what, it's still standing!

We wanted daddy to have something to do with the snowman but he was at school

so we used an old shirt of his to make everything but the nose. So, here's our snowman,

bit carrot nose and all! (Tayv was hungry!)

Say Uncle!

As you all know, Nate was ecstatic to have a baby boy and was trying to turn him into a big boy from the very beginning. From "dame cinco" in the womb to turning him upside down at just a few weeks old, Tayvin's learned to play rough. Well, last night, as I was cleaning up the candlelit dinner Nate made me, he was wrestling with Tayvin. He got Tayv pinned and the next thing I knew, Tayvin's yelling, "NO, NO, NO!" Nate, being a guy, told Tayv to say Uncle! What did Tayvin do? Well, he instantly said "Uncle!" And it was a very cute uncle, I might add. These boys are too fun-Love 'em! We hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! We love you all!

Our Dear Sweet Prophet

I just found this song that was based off a prayer that President Hinckley said in behalf of the young people. I was one of those young people and I was there at the conference center when he said that sweet prayer and I remember it very well. If I'm not mistaken, this was the same meeting that he gave us the "6 B's." I just wanted to share this story and song with all those who are interested, it really is beautiful.
http://ashleyharris.com/prophetsprayer.htm

He's Baaaaack!

Well, after months of studying and hard work, Nate took his test again yesterday. He actually scored 10 points lower than he did last time, much to our dissapointment. It wasn't because he didn't study enough (8 hrs/day for the last month plus should have done it, right?) It's a hard test to take. Once you get an answer right, it gives you a harder one and so forth. So getting the first several questions right actually ended up hurting him in the end. He ended up scoring in the 75th percentile which is great-way above the average Grad school applicant! We looked at some other schools but they just aren't as good as Marriot School of Business so we have decided that we will apply with the score he got and if he doesn't get accepted, we will try to get an internship or job in Utah and reapply next year. I'm so proud of Nate and all his hard work- he really is giving it all he's got!

Christmas in Utah

We set out for Christmas in Utah together, that's right-together! We got to stay two weeks and had so much fun! Tayvin knows so many words but most of the time he just said "Grandpa!" He is quite taken with his grandpa Tony and is now driving us nuts. A month later, he still thinks that every coat, truck, hat, pair of gloves, man with flannel on and so forth, MUST be grandpa. We also got to see our friends, the Riedels, and their sweet new baby Alysa. We were blessed to be able to attend both family Christmas parties and spend lots of time with my immediate family. And as tradition goes, all the girls on my mom's side (minus Shara) got together and made Christmas chocolates! Yum! My little sis drove back from her internship in California the day before Tayvin and I left so we got to see her for a few hours-I was so excited she got to see Tayv! We had a wonderful Christmas, we hope everyone else did too!

Ouch!

Well, I was trying to be such a good little girl and get my Christmas cards all done when I slipped and cut off part of my finger with a rotary cutter! Yuck! Anyway, I'm in a lot of pain but doing ok-especially when Tayv says ouch and kisses it better-such a sweet boy!

The Ghost says "Boo!"

We were so excited for Halloween this year! Tayvin was old enough to enjoy it and didn't even mind his costume too much! He learned what a bat, jack-o-lantern, and ghost were. He even learned how to say "Happy Halloween" (that came out more as Haaaa!) and also what a ghost says! Nate was in charge of a booth at the UAA carnival so he rented a Shrek costume and we all went as a family-His costume was a huge hit! Then on Halloween we invited some of Tayvin's friends over (and their parents too,) had spooky snacks, then went over to Grandma and Grandpa McDonald's to trick or treat! Grandma Jeanne taught Tayv how to take treats from her treat bowl and put them in his bucket-Thanks Grandma, such a wonderful talent for our sweet baby boy! We hope everyone had a wonderful halloween!