Happy Birthday to Me

I just made my final passage into adulthood (according to car rental companies) by turning 25. Thanks to my sister Heather for giving the greatest gift ever (babysitting), Kyle and I had a big date night to celebrate.

We started off with dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant called Mazza. So delicious! And part of the fun was eating such exotically named foods. The English major in me delighted in such brilliant descriptions:

Ful Mudammas: A blend of fava and garbanzo beans cooked to tender perfection and blended with fresh mint, garlic, lemon juice, tahini, and spices.....

Chicken and Cauliflower Kebseh: Seasoned morsels of chicken, braised in a rich broth of tomatoes, onions, and fragrant spices until very tender....

Shawarma: didn't write this one down, but here is Kyle eating it.



Reading these makes me want to go again. Too bad I don't braise our chicken in fragrant spices until very tender. Our dinners would be a lot yummier.

As we were driving into the city for a play, we spied this lovely tavern and had a big laugh. I love Salt Lake City.It reads: "The Tavernacle Social Club; Where everyone else goes to Sing!"


On my actual birthday my sister Brooke invited me and Jason over for lunch. This was also an awesome birthday present because I didn't have to fix lunch, and we got to play with cousins, which made the day pass quickly.

This is a picture of me and Jason after I successfully blew out all 25 candles in one breath, for the second time. I got birthday cake with both Kyle's family and my family. I love doing that because it drags out the birthday celebration, which makes having a birthday so much more exciting. Thanks everyone for making my birthday so special.

Happy Father's Day

A great big thanks to Kyle for being a FANTASTIC father! Another great big thanks to Jesse and Curtis for being fantastic fathers as well. We are incredibly blessed to have so many good fathers in our lives.

We had a unique Father's Day in that we got to have both of our fathers with us for most of the day. We had to speak in church, so we invited both to come. I've decided we should speak in church more often because it was so nice letting Jason's grandmas entertain him. Kyle and I got to listen to the whole sacrament meeting. After church both sets of parents stayed and had dinner with us.

Lucky Kyle got yard tools for Father's Day. Now we can work in our yard more, which is a good thing, right?



I love my rose bush.

Summertime, When the Living is Easy

For Mother's Day my mom, my sisters, and I had a girl's weekend. We started on Friday night with dinner at Pei Wei and then shopping at Nordstrom Rack. Then we stayed at a Marriott in Salt Lake. Saturday we shopped all day long. We relished being able to shop without having to tote along kids or husbands. My mom bought us these cute cardigans to help us all remember the occasion. I love my mom and my sisters! Wish Megan and Natalie could have been there, and that Karren would have stayed.



Kyle and I have enjoyed doing bar-b-ques in our backyard, now that we have both. Here are some pictures I took when Kyle's family was over. It was neat because we had the 4 generations of Robbins boys together.




Jason is a lot messier these days because he loves feeding himself. Here he is enjoying a cookie.


He LOVES playing in the sand.


Now we have to bathe him more often because he gets so dirty from food and sand.


Jason is obsessed with balls. He says "ball" all the time. He calls everything with a round shape a "ball," whether it be a balloon, a helmet, a Chinese lantern, a round sign in the distance, or sometimes even a blueberry. This boy is happiest when he is playing with a ball. My parents brought over all my childhood toys that had been boxed up. I went through the boxes and found my old ball collection. Jason was in heaven when I gave it to him. He sat and played by himself for about 10 minutes, which is a record for him.


I know this blog is forever long, but keep reading below; Kyle tells a really good story.

A Story

Jason takes after his parents because he loves books. The other day I caught him in his room "reading" his books by the bookshelf. I thought he looked so cute that I decided to take a picture:


and then he noticed me:


He decided he would rather play with the camera and headed my way:


Can I have a turn?


Please?

Back on the Face of the Earth

After falling off the face of the earth while moving, we have emerged back on top. We are feeling mostly settled in our house. It is soooo wonderful having our own yard. Jason thinks it is so cool having stairs. He loves throwing balls down the stairs, especially when we bring them back up to him so he can do it again, and again, and again. My dad gave us a grill (thanks again!), so we are having fun inviting people over to show off the house and enjoy some grub. We are feeling especially up-to-date now that we have internet again. It was strange living without it for two weeks. I am resigned to the fact that those missing pieces of furniture might take years to collect. We hope to post some before-and-after pictures of the inside of our house soon.

Jason is 10 months old

The count-down to the first birthday is really on now that Jason is 10 months old.

Recent accomplishments:

• crawling on hands and knees (verses the army crawl)
• 2 teeth on top (for a grand total of 4)
• moving self from lying to sitting
• feeding others his dry cereal
  

These are a few of his favorite things:

• walking while holding hands
• walking up and down stairs while holding hands
• more walking
  
• eating
• splashing water
• playing around other kids
  

Kyle Graduated from BYU

Kyle Graduated from BYU on April 23rd with is Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Accounting. Way to go, Kyle! I am so proud of you. After 5 years of school, he is moving on to the working world. Actually it's more like after 25 years of school, he is moving on to the working world. It will be an interesting transition. I guess he's not totally done with studying until he passes the CPA exam, so we can't say we're totally done yet.





On April 21 my parents threw a graduation party for Kyle. They threw their first crab boil, and it was a smashing success. The crab boil consisted of boiling crab, shrimp, sausage, artichokes, onions, corn-on-the-cob, potatoes, and carrots together in a large pot--basically everything yummy. The plan was to eat outside and dump everything out on a newspaper-covered table for finger-grabbing food, but rainy weather forced a cleaner, inside version of a crab boil. We are looking forward to the Jesse Hunsaker family reunion this summer so we can have it again.

We had three heaping buckets of food.


The amazing (and handsome) chef.


Kyle with his parents, his brother Blair, and his red-head. Jason loved the crab boil as well. He grabbed some crab off my plate (among other foods) and surprised me by thoroughly enjoying it.


If you look closely, you'll notice Jason was having fun playing with the crab legs.