Preschool

Is it even possible that I have a child old enough to go to preschool?  Hayden will turn 4 in September so we decided to do 2 years of preschool before she goes to kindergarten.

Hayden goes to Burnt Hickory Baptist Preschool on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 9 am to 1 pm.  Her teachers name is Mrs. Tammie and Hayden absolutely loves going.  The first day I dropped her off she told me, "It's ok mom, don't cry, I'll be right here when preschool is over and you can come pick me up!"  How funny is she.  She wasn't nervous one bit and was trying to care take me!  I wasn't too sad either, let's be honest.  Hayden has such a strong willed personality that it's nice to have a break from time to time.  I did have more mixed emotions than I expected her first day.  I did miss her and kept wondering how her day was going.

Here she is posing for me on her first day of school!

Hayden getting ready to get out of the car.  They have a very intricate drop off system.  You can also walk your child in to class, but she prefers when I drop her off.

I had so many questions for her about how her day went and an OB appointment right after so we went to lunch at Chick-fil-A.  We had a great time talking about her first day!

Swim Lessons

I taught 3 weeks worth of swim lessons this summer and let Hayden come along to all my lessons, but you can never teach your own child!  Hayden made some improvements and got a lot more comfortable dunking her head under water, but I knew she could do a lot more with another teacher.

I asked a lady in our ward, Mrs. Lisa, who teaches private lessons and she was kind enough to take Hayden on.  In just about 6 or 7 lessons Hayden was floating independently on her back and jumping of the stairs, streamlining and kicking on her own.  It was pretty exciting to watch her growth in such a short amount of time.

Hayden is kind of obsessed with mermaids right now, so this has been good motivation for her to learn how to swim!

24 Weeks

I officially hit the 24 week mark on August 15th.  My doctor said I am measuring right on for 24 weeks, but I feel way bigger!  

Beach Day

Our neighbors from the Air Force Base in Cheyenne live in Dothan, AL which is only about 4 hours from Atlanta. The Lasura's have lived there for 2 years and we had not yet seen them, so we finally planned a trip out to Alabama for the weekend.  We left Friday early afternoon and we were able to enjoy a yummy dinner prepared by Joan that night.  The next morning we drove about 2 hours to Orange Beach in Florida (about 40 miles from Destin).  It was such a beautiful beach with bright white sand and fairly clear water.

Hayden with one of her creative poses!

Don't let these pictures deceive you.  Out of no where Hayden announces she wants to go home and take a bath (after being there about an hour!) She had a big old melt down and was adamant that we leave.  I think the salt water bugged her eyes and yet she kept going underwater to show off her new skill.  She finally did cheer up and told me, "Mom, I changed my attitude, I'm happy now!"

Hayden had so much fun with Cora, their poor little eyes were hurting by the end of the day though.

 Ezra, River, Hayden & Cora

 I love spending time at the beach!  We played in the waves, made birthday sand cakes, and hunted for sea shells.  Can you ask for a better day?  After the beach we got dressed and went out for Seafood at JC Seafood and then got dessert at David's Cafe.  The Sno-balls were so amazing and we also got Benyays which are popular in New Orleans.  It's kind of like a fried pastry covered in powdered sugar.  The only problem is that I can't seem to eat and not inhale, so I kept choking on powdered sugar.  It was pretty funny.  

 After a fun filled day we headed back to the Lasura's and went to bed!  The next morning we went to church with them, had another yummy meal prepared by Joan and then headed home.  It was a quick trip with lots of driving, but we sure had fun!  We'll have to do this more often!

Baby #2

We have long been awaiting the day that we could announce that baby #2 was on the way!  I'm hoping to journal our whole experience here shortly.  But for now, here are the pictures from July 23rd when we found out what we were having.

We decided to take Hayden along with us since she is so excited to become a big sister.  She talks about the baby all the time and is practicing on all her babies now.  The ultrasound technician asked if we wanted to find out and asked Hayden what she wanted and she responded, "a brother" surprisingly.  She has been pretty adamant that she wanted a sister for a long time.  So much so that Paul and I almost decided not to take her with us because we were afraid of her reaction if it really was a boy!  This is only the 2nd time that she said she wanted a brother.  Right before she got her tonsils out the doctor asked if she had any brothers and sisters to which she said, "yep, a brother!"  We quickly told the Dr. that we were expecting but not until December.

Anyway, the ultrasound tech discovered the gender and whispered it to Hayden, so she was the first to know.  Then she told us that we were having a "boy."  We were all really excited!  It's so nice to have one of each and know that I will get to experience mothering a boy and a girl.  I'm so happy Hayden is glad to have a brother.

Dad calling family to tell them the news!

Hayden and I, she was such a good girl at the Dr's office!

Introducing baby boy :)  We can't wait to meet him!

Since it's been a long stressful road to get to this point we decided to have a little gender reveal party for our friends.  We decided to write on pink balloons, "nope" and blue balloons, "yep"  then our friends blew them up to see the answer after guessing the gender.  It was a lot of fun, except the writing faded on a bunch of the balloons leaving our guests wondering what in the world we were having!

We found out at about 21 weeks.  This picture is me at 20 weeks.  It's crazy how much faster I began showing with baby #2!  I swear you could barely tell I was pregnant when we found out Hayden was a girl at 24 weeks!  But thank goodness the belly growth has slowed down a bit, I was big enough with Hayden I can't imagine being any bigger!!!

Paul is so excited to have a boy in the house with him and we are just feeling really blessed at the moment!  Currently I am 24 weeks along and recently stopped feeling so nauseous!  Excited to have my energy and stomach back!

Kennesaw Mountain

Paul and I have been putting off buying a hiking backpack because they are so darn expensive.  But we found the exact one we wanted on Craig's List and it was only used once!  It is awesome and last weekend we finally got out and used it.

There is a nice "little" (compared to Utah Mountains) mountain about 15 minutes from our house.  They have lots of trails both paved and on the mountain.  We wanted to do about 3-4 miles, but this turned into 6-7 miles before we knew it!  Hayden loved riding in the backpack so much so that she only got out once for about a half hour and walked with us.  She had to jump off every rock we saw, so it took us quite a bit of time.

It was such a perfect day to go.  It was a bit overcast and in the low 70s.  Despite this, Paul seemed to sweat through all of his clothes.  Check out his pants!

By the end the sweat completely covered his shorts.  Hayden kept saying, "dad, you're soooo sweaty!"

We got to see 3 deer which Hayden thought was great.  We'll definitely do this again but probably chose a shorter trail!  We were all kind done by the end!

Robinsons Come to Visit

We've been lucky to have a lot of family come and visit us this past year!  My mom and brothers came out for the first time since we've lived here the first week of July and we had a great time despite all the rain.  It literally rained everyday they were here and some of the days it rained ALL day!  It kind of put a damper on the 4th of July, but we still managed to have fun.

They flew in on Monday July 1st and we started things off by going to the Georgia Aquarium on Tuesday morning.  Hayden warmed right up to uncle Ian and asked for a ride in the line to get tickets.

Hayden and my mom by her favorite fish Nemo

The highlights of the day were the Beluga Whales, the sharks, and of course the dolphin show.  Hayden kept asking the whole time we were there if it was time to see the dolphins.  This is right before the show began.  She's seen it about 4-5 times but every time she sees its like it's the first time.

We also saw a few movies while they were here.  We took Hayden to see Despicable Me II and my brothers and Paul and I saw The Man of Steele.

Like I said, the 4th of July literally rained all day so the fireworks were all cancelled as well as the parades and any other outdoor activity.  So we took my brothers to the gym and gave them a good leg workout and then had a big 4th of July dinner.  That night we met up with our friends the Heinholds for dessert.

Hayden was constantly asking for her Uncle Ian's attention and he was so good to play so many games with her.  She loved having him chase her around the house. Here Hayden is "sick" and Ian is taking good care of her.  Hayden also enjoyed every morning with my mom while I slept in!  They watched Glee, read books, and my mom even got Hayden interested in puzzles by bringing her some new ones!

We were able to take them to Pickett's Mill which is about 10 minutes from our house and a significant Civil War battlefield.  Due to the rain, we were unable to go on the walk to really see the trenches and get a better feel for the area.  But we were able to walk around for a bit.

Saturday we took them to get some southern barbecue at one of our favorite places, Jim and Nicks.  That night we took them to Stone Mountain.  My mom taught Geology for a bit so we knew we needed to make a trip there. We went on Saturday night and so they not only had the laser show, but also a fireworks presentation.  The only problem was that again it rained right after we left the top of the mountain and so the grass was SOAKING wet and it was so humid that the smoke from the fireworks just sat right in front of the mountain blocking most of the laser show!  Oh well, at least it wasn't hot!

Sean & Ian on top of Stone Mountain 

 Hayden on top and her funny new poses

My mom and the boys!

One of my favorite pictures from their trip.  On top of Stone Mountain!

Monday was their last full day in Atlanta and we actually got some sun, so we took them to Acworth Beach in the morning before the rain came in and we had a great time.  Again Ian was so good to spend so much time in the water with Hayden and Sean even got in and squirted them with the water gun while Hayden shrieked with delight!

Ian & Hayden

Sean working on his tan

That night in between the rain we did some of our own fireworks.  Hayden had been looking forward to this the whole weekend and I think my brothers had been too.

Sean and Ian lit all the fireworks for us and it was so fun to see Sean get so happy and act so natural.  If I had known he would have so much fun I would have bought a pack of fireworks for each night!  We did have a pack of pretty weak fireworks and right after I made some statement about how lame they were, one shot off the ground and barely missed my face!  Everyone had a good laugh and Hayden cannot stop talking about it. After the fireworks ended we caught fireflies and frogs.  It was a great way to end their visit here.  

Tuesday early afternoon we drove them to the airport and Hayden was so sad to leave them.  She had it in her head that she was getting on that airplane with them.  She just kept crying and saying, "I need my grandma" and "I want to live in Utah."  It was pretty sad and made me feel bad that we live so far away.  But I'm so glad they were able to come and visit.  It was a relaxed, enjoyable week.  Hopefully we'll see them again soon!