Christmas 09

It's been a great month. Gavin has loved looking at trees and lights and has learned all sorts of new words that go with December. He is now 18 months and SO MUCH FUN. (And a little sassy.)

This picture is just cute. Loves putting on dad's hats. And they fit.
Robinson Family Christmas Party. Gavin was a rebel when it came to singing - wouldn't sit still. But he's got an awesome belly.
Enter Santa.

His new found love...Elmo.
Robinson Family Christmas Eve. Gavin loves his cousins. He loves hugs. Put the two together and you've got a great combination
Cute picture taken before dinner and red jello ruined everything.

Gavin loved looking at everyone else's presents. He was wondering what was going on, but he started to figure it out. New stuff = fun.
Christmas Eve. This is the first year in my entire life that we've been alone with nothing to do (family parties) or anyone to be with. It was nice to have just the three of us do Christmas jammies and watch a movie. Simple and cozy. After Gavin went to bed, I challenged Brian to a game of Trivial Pursuit. Family version for ages 12 and up. Turns out we are not super smart. In an hour we got 3 chips TOTAL.

I just want to eat this kid.
He was bouncing off the walls. (Has been every night since.) He knew something good was coming...
Watching the Christmas classics. He's been begging for Santa and Rudolph all month. I put them away, happy to not see them again until next year.
Christmas morning. Gavin slept and slept. I was so excited for him to get up. Brian had the video camera out as he walked down the hallway. This 18-month-old boy slowly walked down the hall and said, "Wow."
He got a popper (my dad says I'll live to regret that decision), a train, a microphone, and a book. The bike is from G&G Robinson. We put it together and pretended that it was Santa. Cheating? Maybe. But he loved it.

Luggage from G&G Woolf.
My new scriptures. My first pair that says "Robinson" on them. I've been waiting awhile for these.
Brian's tickets to the Jazz/Laker game in February.
Gavin learned the word 'bow' and thought it was a hat. He wore this for at least an hour.
Playing a little Guitar Hero with dad.
A fun, fun Christmas. So glad to spend it together with our little family. It was fun to see how involved Gavin was this Christmas. He was so content all day. Can't wait to see his face next year.

Bedhead

You, too, can get this look if you take a bath late and go to bed with wet hair.

An Arizona Thanksgiving

We headed down on Sunday, stayed the night in St. George to break it up, and ended up in Mesa late Monday afternoon. The drive down left us a little frazzled. Gavin kicked up his feet and had some Doritos. That seemed to help - for a bit. Eighteen month olds are not meant to be strapped in a car for 11 hours.

My grandpa's funeral on Tuesday was probably one of the best services I've been too. I'm glad we could be there for that.

We stayed at Lynsey and Matt's and the boys played and played.





Wednesday night before Thanksgiving we headed up to the desert to have dinner, roast marshmallows, and have a story from Grandma. Gavin was content on Brian's shoulders for most of the time. He was interested in the fire and in all of the cousins. I haven't ever done that with my family - it really was fun.
Noah, Cade, Ben, and Ashley.


Rachelle - the 7 1/2 month broken foot woman. She's still smiling!


Gavin was mesmerized by Elmo. I've already found him a little Elmo doll for Christmas.
The weather was delightful. 75-80 degrees! We headed to the park more than once and as always, Gavin loved that too.
Thanksgiving was at my aunt Trudy's house. Brian is still getting used to eating Thanksgiving outside. I guess I've never thought about it.

Gavin LOVED Thanksgiving. He was so quiet and just ate and ate - everything but the turkey he put over there on the side of the table.

My parents, uncle, sis-in-law and some nieces and nephews.

Gavin played at the park next door and wanted to be around the big kids. He didn't know what to do with them, so mostly he ran around - just happy to be free.
The last day we were there five of the girls, my mom, and the coordinating children went to Freestone park. We rode the train and played on the horses and then headed to the park again. It was fun to be with my sisters. We caused a little bit of a commotion with that many kids, but that's just normal for us, I guess.


We're glad that we were able to go down to see my family. It's a long drive, but always worth it. It's important to me that Gavin is not a stranger to his Arizona cousins. We'll probably head down again with the new baby this summer.

The blue kind

It's a BOY! We were so excited to see that this little guy looks healthy and okay in there. Brian and I were thinking it was a girl, so we were surprised to hear it was a boy. Not disappointed by any means - just wrong. I can't feel this baby as much as I did Gavin. They said that was due to the placenta being in the front. I thought that less movement paired with my totally irrational behavior the first trimester meant estrogen. But no.

We are so excited to have two little boys and know that Gavin will be a great big brother. See you in April, buddy.

Weekend Get-a-way

I came home on Friday to these roses and a brochure mapping out our next 24 hours. I knew we were going somewhere for the night - just didn't know where we were going or what we were doing. Brian always has the best surprises - I don't plan on ever being able to live up to the things he does for me. It doesn't mean I won't try, it just means that I've accepted that he's way more creative than I am.

We ate at Ruth's Diner up Emigration Canyon in Salt Lake. Guy Fieri from Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives did one of his shows there. We love Guy. The food was super tasty. We've been wanting to go there for a long time.
Our next stop was Color Me Mine. This is a place where you buy an unfinished piece of ceramics and paint it there. They will fire it for us and we'll pick our pieces up next week. We were super proud of Brian's giant man mug (with polka dots) and my "You are special today" plate. There wasn't much visiting during painting time. Of course we would stop and ask each other questions about how and when to apply which color - because one needs opinions when they're creating! Turns out we both get pretty intense and focused during art time. I'm sure both of these pieces will be in the family for years to come. Our great grandchildren will cherish our work, I'm sure.
We needed a treat and stopped at Baskin Robbins. Neither of us can remember the last time we were there.

We pulled up to Little America and wheeled and dealed for a $15 upgrade. I'm sure the clerk thought we were super cheap, but this is what I've learned: It doesn't hurt to ask. We've never been denied yet.

Our room had a nice little sitting room and Brian brought a projector (that ended up not working) to show me a little slide show he had put together of us. Then we watched Shanghai Noon. Our classic first date movie. Very nostalgic.
The morning brought a serious buffet for breakfast at the hotel. When you pay $16.50 a plate, you feel like you've got to fill up. We weren't hungry for hours.

We stopped at Gateway because I wanted to get some little girl clothes at the Gymboree sale. Not sure if we're having a girl, but I didn't want to miss the sale if we do. It's all returnable. I asked.

The Joseph Smith Restoration video at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building was awesome. We thought it was new. Well, that was 3 or 4 years ago. Glad we made it. :)

We were going to watch an organ concert at the tabernacle, but apparently they don't have the 2:00 show in the winter. Bummer. Some other time.

We headed back home to pick up our little guy. We had such a great time. It was nice to be away, but be close enough to home to get back in 45 minutes. A good reminder that we need some "us" time sometimes.

Thanks to Brian for planning every part and for loving me enough to take me with him.