Happy Valentine's Day!

Our loooong week by the numbers:


3 Valentine's parties at MDO
2 dozen homemade sugar cookies that G and I baked for her class
20 Kung Fu Panda Valentine's with suckers attached (of which the proud mommy might add, G folded, decorated and signed her name all by herself...on every single one)!
4 home made dinners... ordering pizza tomorrow night
50 (give or take) hours that daddy has put in at work, and it's only Thursday!
3 trips to Wal Mart
1 EXHAUSTED and feeling-very-pregnant mommy!


I have to say, having a little girl is so, oh how do I put it? Everything in life is either hot or cold, high or low, love or hate, naughty or nice, you get the idea. She cracks us up. She's usually 80% tomboy. For example, she insisted on Kung Fu Panda Valentine's (even though I was steering her toward the princesses, fairies and care bares.) In the car a few days ago, we were asking her if she is excited for soccer season to start up again and she responded "Well Dad, I'd really like to try football." But today, I finally got her to wear a dress to school and she let me do her hair! (see pic below). And in the store the other day, she had a meltdown because I wouldn't let her get Hannah Montana perfume! YEAH!! Not that I don't love the tomboy in her, I do indeed, but there are just certain expectations that come along with a girl and it's so fun to experience both, but quite the roller coaster ride, and I have a feeling, this is just the beginning....


One more thing I must add, I successfully infused my son ALL BY MYSELF this week! Of course, his nurse was right beside me, talking me through it. But I did it right and was successful on the very first try! I've been feeling fairly confident that I could do it myself if I HAD to...so I suggested to her that we start 'training' and just take it slow. I still feel like I got pretty lucky, but I'm going to keep trying until I feel completely comfortable and can take over. Sweet boy must have known that I needed encouragement because he didn't even cry!

The ice has melted...

We survived! We were lucky to only be out of power for about 50 hours. Some people are still without. The first night, we stayed in our house and all slept together, but in the morning, we could see our breath. So the next 2 nights we crashed at our friends house, who were gracious enough to put us up (thank you Carlsons)! We were so grateful to have a warm (and lighted)place to sleep and hang out. For two days, all you could hear outside were trees cracking and falling, and since then, all you can hear now is chainsaws, busy at work. The damage was horrific, I've never seen such big trees split into so many pieces. Amazing how something so beautiful can be so dangerous!


These huge pine trees line the property behind our house and back up to our fence. They are not supposed to be in our backyard. Since the ice has melted, they've lifted quite a bit, but we still might have to cut some of them down.



The first day of the storm, I was being productive inside and paying bills, when I went out to put them in the mail, I couldn't get the mailbox open! Needless to say, we didn't get mail for a few days.





The biggest icicles I've ever seen!

Still Iced In! Still Powerless!

We are 1 of the millions still without power. We have been without power since Tuesday afternoon! We stayed at home on Tuesday night, but yesterday it was just too cold and we decided to stay with friends last night. There are currently 3 huge pine trees in our back yard, and we can't see our fence, so we don't know if our fence is still standing or not. The electric company has said it won't be until Saturday night that we get our power back, but we are hoping it happens sometime today.

When we get our camera up and running we will upload some pics of the damage.

Ice Storm

Well, we are experiencing our first real ice storm! My over-achiever, I mean, very committed husband, braved the 2" thick ice on the roads and went in to work this morning, hope he makes it home! (I really hope he makes it to the store first too to buy a few flashlights). We are hoping not to lose power, but some parts of the area already have. Grace and I went outside to take a few pictures. This has all happened in less than 24 hrs. and the freezing rain is still coming down. I have to say, it sure is beautiful compared to a Southwest dust storm!

The boy loves to dance!

Grace's drawing

Man I Miss My Crew Today!

This picture pretty much sums it up. This is a busy time of year at work, which means I'm at work early and leave late. When I do get home the kids are ready for bed and could careless about seeing daddy. WORK, who invented it, and when did it become such a significant part of our lives? Don't get me wrong, I'm blessed to have a job and I really like what I do. I just miss my family, and lets face it, life is short. No point in not enjoying the journey! I need to remember this feeling when I'm impatient with my wonderful children at home. Anyways, enough of me venting, back to life.

Our Christmas Gift.

Santa didn't make it to our house this year, instead, the Stork did! Our family is growing! We will be welcoming our 3rd baby in July. We've never been more blind-sided, surprised, caught off guard, panicked...(you get the idea), but after experiencing those emotions, we are THRILLED about our new addition and this special, special blessing we've been given. We'll be sure to keep you posted.

All our love, the Robbins' family.