Kennecott Copper Mine

Kennecott Copper Mine had free entrance this week, so Jason and I met up with Melissa and her kids. This mine is the largest man-made pit in the world, and it can be seen from outer space. I thought it was really cool. I hadn't been since my 5th grade field trip. Kyle hasn't ever been, so we'll definitely return sometime with him.

I forgot to take a picture of the mine, but we got a picture next to this tire, which is an actual tire they use on their HUGE trucks. They make Diesel trucks look like toys.

Jason's First Haircut

After Jason turned one I decided it was time for his first haircut. He was fascinated watching cousin Austin get his hair cut, so we put him on the stool next. I let Grandma Linda do the honors since she has a lot of experience. Jason did not like getting his hair cut, even with Kyle holding him or me trying to entertain. The only thing that pacified him was sucking on an Otterpop while Linda fixed some longer spots with scissors.


I think he looks quite handsome with his new look.

Jason's First Birthday

Jason is ONE! I love being able to feed him so many foods. We had fun celebrating his birthday with Kyle's family. We celebrated it on July 4th, rather than on his actual birthday because the poor kid got shots on his birthday and we didn't want grumpy baby at his own party. Because we celebrated on the 4th of July, I made a fun flag birthday cake using blueberries, raspberries, and cream cheese frosting with lemon zest. We rounded off the festivities with homemade vanilla ice-cream, 7-layer dip, star-shaped cookies, watermelon, and a cheese platter.

We gave Jason the opportunity to dig into a big slice of cake, but he didn't take it. I think this is partially because he wasn't hungry enough, and partially because he was nervous with so many people watching him. He did enjoy smooshing the cake through his fingers once everybody stopped staring, and I fed him a few bites with a fork.

Jason getting nervous:


Calmly smooshing cake now that the pressure is off:



Kyle helped him open his presents. He was most intrigued with his new balls, of course.




Sitting with Great-grandpa Brailsford is not much fun.

At 12 months Jason loves to:

• play with balls
• talk all the time whether we understand him or not. His best words are ball, cheese, blueberries, hot, grapes, bear, and Dada.
• walk with assistance from parents or the wall
• hold his bear while sucking on his pacifier
• eat watermelon
• "help" dad mow the lawn
• take objects in and out of containers
• play with water

Jason has 8 teeth now. I nursed him until he was 12 1/2 months.
We love our crazy Jason. Happy Birthday again, sweet boy.

A Tour of our Home

It is probably time I do a post on our house now that we've been here for over 3 months. Kate told me that I should do this post since I did more of the work. Luckily the house was in really good condition, so we didn't need to do too much, but we did want to make it our own. We painted everywhere but the kitchen and the three bathrooms, replaced all of the carpet, replaced the railing, and put tile by the front door. We had a lot of help from family and friends and couldn't have done it without them. Thanks everyone.

I'll start by showing you the front living room. The walls were all a flat white before we did anything, and the carpet was blue. You can't see the carpet in any of the pictures because of the furniture, but you can get a little of a before and after feel.


The after picture is a different angle, but you can see the new colors on the wall. We love the painting. Kate spotted it while we were shopping for a couch and the colors went perfect with everything we had already picked out. It was 50% off, so we had to take it.


Here is a picture of the tile by the front door. My brother in law Matt put it in for us. Before they just had carpet by the front door.


My dad helped me put in the railing. The old railing had a couple of balusters that were broken and they were further apart. We figured it would be safer for Jason and the future little ones to have a new railing. We used the old post, but put in a new base and new balusters.


My sister Melissa helped us re-stain the handrails and Matt helped us put a piece of wood on top of the wall that goes up along the stairs. As you can see in the before picture, it was just painted. We thought the board would help make it look a little nicer and make it easier to keep clean.


Those are all of the before and after pictures. The rest of the pictures are the other rooms. I have some before pictures, but they mostly just show the furniture that was there before.

Here is a picture of the basement. The basement is mostly Jason's play area and our entertainment room.


Here is a picture of the third room upstairs.


This is Jason's room, with his cool blue fan (the fan came with the house).


Finally, the master bedroom. We love our new bureau. We ordered a bed to match, but it is back ordered and we haven't received it yet.

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.