U Week

Monday:

Library day AND free quarterly Utah Museum of Natural History day! We took full advantage of both. We grabbed our U books and then some food and hit Up the "Nuseum".

Apparently my superstar can't be seen in public :)

"Mom, don't take picture of me - I'm just relaxing."

We saw the Utahceratops :)

Mom:"If you don't smile we'll go home right now." and this is the cheeser I got.

We had a great time, as usual. The museum never disappoints. When we got home 'we' (he) put on some Undies and took a nap (hardly ever happens)! When he woke Up he was still dry and went pee pee on the potty the rest of the night!

We read: Let's Have Fun With Alphabet Riddles by Caolan Madden
Bear in Pink Underwear by Todd H. Doodler
Charlie's Superhero Underpants by Lee Wildish

Tuesday:
We went to the store and cleaned a bit, but mostly I tried to keep my foot Up - I was being not so smart the other day and fell off my rocking ottoman, legs flew Up in the air and back fell down on the floor. I'm not sure what gouged the soft, tender Underbelly of my foot, but it HURTS (especially after a full day of walking the day before).

Javin was in Undies all day and watched Up.

We read: The Midnight Unicorn by Neil Reed
An Undone Fairy Tale by Ian Lendler (good)
The Fish Who Cried Wolf  by Julia Donaldson

Wednesday:
We talked about Umbrellas and that they can be used for rain and sun. He wasn't really interested so we just hung out, U week is difficult.

While getting ready for Relief Society Javin told me he wanted to wear his Undies, so we went for it. First time out of the house in Undies and no accident! Thanks mostly to the wonderful gentlemen that were in the nursery watching the "kids" (just Javin).

We read: The Umbrella by Ingrid & Dieter Schubert (cute)
Rain Song by Lezlie Evans
Never Give a Fish an Umbrella by Mike Thaler (LOVED)
Yellow Umbrella by Jae Soo Liu

Thursday:
We stopped by Jump Around Utah so Javin could 'jump Up, jump Up and get down' (or Under).

We read: Up! Tall! and High! by Ethan Long (LOVED because he read all the "up"'s)
Great Day for UP by Dr. Seuss (great)
Up Above & Down Below by Sue Redding

Friday:
We talked about the only other U word I could think of Uncle. I told him that he has two Uncles; Briggy (brought Javin the Horseshoe for H week) and Scotty.

Then Uncle Scotty came over with his girlie friend, Amanda, right before bed time. YAY! It was a perfect surprise on the last day of U week!
Then we read: Willie and Uncle Bill by Amy Schwartz
Uncle Wally's Old Brown Shoe by Wallace Edwards (LOVED).

Christmas Break

We took a break from the Letter-A-Week for Christmas, some family time and playing with all our cool new toys. Javin slept in until almost 10 - it was AMAZING!

9:40 am Christmas morning in his new Monster "Inc" pjs

"Oh! That's a BIG box! Is it for me?!"

Big Wheels! 

Yay, Liberty Park!

YAY! SLEDDING!!

Oh! week

This week has started out great, both really and sarcastically. Mr. Robbins FINALLY got a crew to come tear off our existing multiple layers of roof and replace it with the beautiful architectural shingles I picked out two Falls ago. YAY! NEW ROOF! Also, ugh! new roof noise and inconvenience - luckily Tara's brand new baby, Carson, is a super sleeper and the days that Javin naps, he's out cold.

Monday:
Library day! Once we get to the library Javin never wants to leave, I had to bribe him with a different I Spy book and an Orange (he loves Oranges).
We read: The Friend by Sarah Stewart
Ocean Babies by Hiroe Nakata (great)
WOW! Ocean! by Robert Nuebecker (LOVED)
Otis by Loren Long (LOVED)
Otis and the Tornado by Loren Long (LOVED)
Oh, No! by Candace Fleming (good)

Tuesday:
Niece/friend Brit came over and color/trimmed my hair - she did such a good job! Needless to say, it was an indoor day. Javin snacked on Fruit Loops because they look like little Os.
We read: A Garden of Opposites by Nancy Davis
Hands Off, Harry! by Rosemary Wells (great)
Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood (great)
Owl Howl by Paul Friester
The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear
Owl Babies by Martin Waddell (great)
White Owl, Barn Owl by Nicola Davies (great)

Wednesday:
Really Great day! Started early (7:30 am), made great breakfast (pancakes), stopped by Smith's for some last minute ingredients and some snacks on our way to the zoo. We say the River Otters, they were so cute and playful.

And the Orangutans never disappoint :)

 Even when all they do is sun bathe.

 I don't know if you can tell, but this Owl was totally giving me a crusty.

We came home from the zoo after only a couple meltdowns and two timeouts to make Ornaments. My mom gave me a recipe for homemade cinnamon Ornaments:
1 C. ground Cinnamon
3 Tbs ground cloves
3 Tbs ground nutmeg

3/4 C. applesauce
2 Tbs white glue

Combine dry together, also combine wet - then slowly add dry to wet. Roll out dough to 1/4" thick and cut out shapes with cookie cutters. I also made holes in them with a straw while wet, dry them on a wire rack for a day or so, then color/paint if you want to. They smell divine!

We read: Do Unto Otters by Laurie Keller
Little Otter's Big Journey by David Bedford (great)
Utterly Otterly Day by Mary Casanova (LOVED)
Stop Snoring Bernard! by Zachariah O'Hara
Little by Little by Amber Stewart (great)
Utterly Otterly Night by Mary Casanova (great)
And I wrapped the 24 Christmas LIBRARY books for Javin to open everyday til Christmas, he is SO excited. He's been grabbing one from the pile and walking around the house with it saying, "This is my surprise. What is it? Can I open it?"

Thursday:
Brit and Danny came back over and took some super cute pics of us, here's a little preview:

We read: My One Book by Jane Moncure (good)
The One And Only Marigold by Florence Heide (weird)
My Penguin Osbert by Elizabeth Kimmel
Inside, Outside Christmas by Robin Spowart (great)
One Two That's My Shoe! by Alison Murray

Friday:
We made an O Octopus because Mr. Robbins was suppose to take Javin to the Aquarium later to see one, but the Aquarium didn't happen - maybe it'll happen tomorrow.

We read: We'll Paint the Octopus Red by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen (not what I expected)
Cowboy & Octopus by Jon Scieszka (good, but weird)
Octopus Hug by Laurence Pringle (good)
Follow Me! by Bethany Roberts (great)
Ollie the Purple Elephant by Jarrett Krosoczka (great)
Tickly Octopus by Ruth Galloway (great)

Saturday:
The Aquarium HAPPENED! They got to see the Otters and the Octopus, he was actually moving around the tank, usually he just sits in the corner.

AND we opened our first (and second, without permission) of the 24 Christmas books today - Christmas Oranges by Linda Bethers, Gram was here for the unwrapping :)

H Week

Last week was long and difficult, with the viewing and prepping for the funeral AND scrambling to get Mr. Robbins home from Orlando in time - it was crazy. Mr. Robbins ended up arriving just in time, seriously, 30 minutes later and he would've been too late. After the viewing the Mr. and I ran home and packed for our....trip to France/Spain.

As many of you know, I work for jetBlue. At the Summer Party I won two round trip tickets on IcelandAir, to anywhere they fly. We wanted to go to Spain (That's where the Mr. served his mission, we both speak Spanish, it was a no brainer), however, their flights to Spain decrease to 1 per week in October. Long story, made short...we flew to Paris, spent a couple days and then flew to Spain, then stopped back off in Paris on our way back home. It was amazing and IcelandAir was AWESOME!

My brother was here for the funeral, from Kentucky, and knew he'd be at my house with my mom and Javin during H week so he brought a Horse shoe for Javin. An actual, real, racing Horse, little bit of dirt in it Horseshoe. My mom said they did a lot of Horse stuff and they read Heart in my Pocket - that was his favorite.

I asked him to go grab his shoes, this is what he brought back.

My mom also said that Javin was the biggest Helper. And I know for a fact that they ate Hambuger Helper for dinner one night, it was pretty much the only thing in my empty kitchen. My Ma, Pa and brother were such troopers, thanks!

Gee its been a long week!

You know how life trials work? In my life, it works like this: Everything is good, so I start to get nervous for 'the bad' to happen. Something inconvenient, but not terrible happens, I think that 'the bad' is over and I relax. Then I get blindsided with something awful and hate myself for being stupid enough to think that the inconvenient was 'the bad'. **WARNING** This post is a bit depressing.

Having said that, it was an AWFUL week. It started normal, library day with Gram, we ate Grapes and talked about Gardens and looked at ours outside, then we colored Green Gs for a while.

Gram read Javin some books: Grandpa Green by Lane Smith

Gabby & Grandma Go Green

Grandpa's Overalls by Tony Crun,

she is such a good reader that he fell asleep on her lap.

Tuesday:

We got a really late start, I wasn't feeling it. It was hard to get out of bed and I knew the next day was going to be the Zoo day (Gorillas, Giraffes, Grizzles, Goats, Geese) so we just hung out and I let Javin watch a few shows while I cleaned and tried to collect myself and get it together. We ran a few errands and talked about how the Green traffic light means Go. That evening we dropped Jaron off at the airport for him to go to a business conference in Orlando.

Wednesday:

I traded someone a shift and was picking up my portion from 7:00am-9:00am. I received an unusual call from my Step-dad's phone at 7:30am, I ignored his call because I was on a call, then my mom called. I knew something was wrong so once I had a minute I paused my work phone and called my mom back - through her tears and sobs she told me that my nephew, Josh, had just hung himself across the street in my sister's garage. I was immediately filled with panic and it felt like all the blood in my body drained to my feet. I told my mom I'd be there shortly. I called my work and managed to use some Paid Time Off and Volunteer Time Off to get off 7:45-9:00 - it was a miracle. I ran downstairs, brushed my teeth, packed a quick bag for Javin and woke him up. Dressed in our pjs we raced out to West Valley to find a small group of people gathered on my sister's driveway. The whole way there I was trying to convince myself that I heard my mom wrong and/or that she was just exaggerating. Once I pulled up and saw the police it set in. The unfortunate and unexpected death of my 16 year-old nephew has been and continues to be a really terrible, confusing, frustrating experience.  

Needless to say, we didn't go to the zoo. Neither did we do anymore G week, we stayed at my sister's house in West Valley the rest of the week and cleaned, cried, ate and talked. It was wonderful to see family and friends, I just wish it had been under different circumstances.



I couldn't just leave it at that. Here are a few books I thought were cute and was excited to read, but didn't get to:

Duck, Duck, Goose by Tad Hills
Gorilla Garage by Mark Shulman
Furious George Goes Bananas by Michael Rex
Gideon & Otto by Olivier Dunrea
The Girl On The Yellow Giraffe by Ronald Himler
John, Paul, George & Ben by Lane Smith (I might grab this one for J week)
The Legend of the Golden Snail by Graeme Base (Also, this one for S week)

Holiday Pictures

My friend Noelle was nice enough to take time out of her Saturday to come take pictures of my little family for the holidays. This is how it went:

Javin wasn't happy unless he was doing what he wanted and that didn't include taking pictures or holding hands. Thanks again Noelle, you did wonderfully!