Pretty girls

My mom sent these matching shirts for Robyn and Julie. Robyn's says "little sister" and Julie's says "blame it on my sister." Julie's worn her's once, but today was the first time I dressed Robyn in her onesie. She's moving into size 3 months clothes already, and this is a newborn size, so I realized that if I ever wanted to get pictures of them together in these outfits, I'd better do it soon.

This little shoot with my girls marks two important events for us. One: the first time I've gotten pictures of Julie holding Robyn. Usually this is spontaneous, and I don't have the camera around, and she doesn't want to hold her for very long anyway, so this was good. Two: this is the first time I've sat Julie down and made her pose and smile for the camera. She was actually pretty cooperative, and seemed to enjoy it. We'll see if that holds up the next time I try. Check out her faces though -- what a little poser!




This isn't what it looks like. I told her to gently rub Robyn's head, and I must have snapped the photo just barely too soon. She's not actually being repellant, though it is a little funny looking.




This one's funny. She was giving me goofy faces, and I wanted to catch real smiles, not contrived ones. So I started making funny sounds, which did make her smile, until she started making the sounds back to me.

This is what she gives me now when I ask for a smile. Definitely a poser.

Another tight-lipped smile. I love Robyn in this one, though. She's almost smiling and also looking up toward Julie. *love!*



And now some of just the...

Family meetings

I've been quiet on the blog for a little while now, not because nothing's going on, but rather because I'm super busy. I took a last minute trip out west when I learned that my grandmother was diagnosed with acute and untreatable leukemia. I flew with Robyn -- at three weeks old -- to Salt Lake City, and then my sister and I drove to Paso Robles, CA to visit her. My mom, sister, and two of our aunts are here as well. I've been taking lots of pictures -- mostly of Robyn, but have only uploaded a few.

My sister, Candice, with Robyn.


My grandma with her great-granddaughter.


My brother, Clayton. Robyn was actually crying and really upset when I took this picture, and he didn't like that I snapped it, because "it makes [him] look bad." Fortunately, at the exact moment I captured it, it just looks like she's snuggly. For the record, she wasn't upset to be with him -- she was just hungry (or maybe in need of a diaper change).


My mom, Grammy.


My little Robyn. I snapped this yesterday. She's changed a lot just since the beginning of this week when we started this trip. She's gotten bigger already, and I notice it mostly in her face. But I love this outfit, and she was sleeping so sweetly -- I had to capture it.

Jowls and funny faces

She's got 'em both. These are just last night.

Two weeks

My girl is chunking up and definitely looking like a two-week old. She's getting the defined double-chin, her nose and cheeks are widening, and she's putting on weight already. She's also more alert and interactive with us, and we think she may have smiled deliberately once or twice (I know it's awfully early, and I don't like to jump the gun on things like that -- "my child is a whiz" -- but I really think so).

Coming home

I've been posting a little out of order, but I still want to make sure I share photos, not just snap them.

Ben snapped these of Robyn and I just before discharge at the hospital. I think they're the only ones of both of us so far. I love the face she's making -- too funny.

Christmas tree

I think this is the first time since we've been married that we've gotten our tree up, lights on, and ornaments placed all in one day. But we did, and it was lots of fun!

Old friends

Last April, I was able to be a chaperone on a trip down to Columbus to visit the temple with the young women at church. After we were done inside, we took a few pictures, as it was the first visit for several of my girls ("my" girls).





While we were posing for photos, I noticed to my left a familiar face. A distant familiarity, but one I couldn't mistake. It was a friend I hadn't seen almost since our high school graduation. Thirteen years ago. In Oregon.

I kept glancing over, sure I was wrong. Last I knew, this friend lived in Minneapolis. Finally, on one of my glances, she happened to see me at the same time. She blurted out my name, and I knew I'd been right. We hugged, and had a brief five-minute reunion (my girls were hungry and we needed to get started on our 2.5 hour drive home).

It turned out that Malya and her family had recently moved to Ohio for her husband's work, and lived less than an hour from Columbus. Her parents were coming to visit in the fall, and they were all planning to come up to visit Kirtland on that trip. We talked about getting together and made arrangements to make arrangements.

Malya's mom had been my MiaMaid leader when I was a young woman. When I first moved to Oregon, she helped smooth the transition for me. Later she was called as the Relief Society president, and she helped me transition to the adult women's group when I graduated high school. Malya herself was a good friend to me in a time of need during our senior year of high school, and a few years later gave me some (at the time) unwelcome yet life-changing advice. I was so excited to get to spend time with them, albeit only briefly.

Randy and Katherine came at the end of October. We all got together for lunch at TGI Fridays and took some pictures afterward. It warmed my heart so much to be able to spend time with these two amazing women again.

Maybe you had to be there

The day after I came home from the hospital, I was sitting on the couch feeding Robyn, when I looked to my left and saw this scene, on the top of one of our low bookshelves:



I burst out laughing. Maybe it was the hormones, or maybe it's just my odd sense of humor, but I found the scene hilarious. Here are all these beautiful tokens on womanhood -- pregnancy, carrying an infant, comforting a toddler, and suddenly...UDDER! Somehow I don't think it would have been as funny to me if the cow was facing forward. The rear-facing stance is much more flamboyant, and I just thought it was hilarious.

But maybe you had to be there.