California! 8 is Great!

A couple weekends ago we decided to drive out to California for a long weekend visit at my sister Kari's house. My nephew Zach was being baptized that Saturday (plus my parents were flying in for a few days) so we thought it was the perfect reason to head out there. That, AND to meet my niece Lillian for the first time ever! She is just 3 months older than Ivy and it was our very first time ever seeing her in person. Pretty sure Ivy and Lilly are going to be best friends. Even after we came home, I noticed some things Ivy had started doing that Lilly would do while we were there hehee.. 

Since being there, I've learned that the loudest and craziest toys are the most fun to babies. Pretty sure Ivy thinks all her toys at home are boring now, lol.. She absolutely loved this table. We will have to get one soon:

 They both crawled over here on their own.. I think Lilly wanted to see what Ivy was up too:

Baptism day! Zach is so grown up! We are so glad he decided to get baptized and it was so fun to be there for him. Way to go Zach! Here he is with his mama:

Just had to get a couple pics of my baby girl in her stinkin' cute purple dress and tights:

The whole gang, we love ya Zach!

The next day we took the kids to Chick fil A... Ivy finally decided she was old enough for a high chair that day (we had tried during outings before without success. She would always arch her back or fold over and try to escape lol). Glad to see she is starting to act more her age these days, hehe. Thanks for being such a good (and cute!) example, cousin Lilly! ;) I just love these girls:

And finally, a double date for the adults.. We went to Lucille's. Amazing bbq! mmm:

Thanks for having us, Kari and Mark! We had a blast and are already missing y'all! And thanks baby Lilly for somehow teaching Ivy how to fake laugh, refuse baby food, and power crawl. She thinks she is a big girl now and I just know that it's partially attributed to you in some way. ;)

BTW- Thanks to all of you who commented about Max. Many of them were exactly what I needed to hear and all were very comforting. So thank you. It was nice to hear such kind words from loving friends. Just an update, I can tell in the past week or so that his health is declining rather quickly. We are getting the feeling that his time is approaching. I don't feel so scared or sad anymore though. I know this is the way it has to be and that he will be happier and feel much better after everything is said and done. I will update again soon. Thanks again for your love and support. 

Maximus

So this isn't as exciting as the news I just posted. In fact, it's rather sad but I just want to write about it because it has been bothering me. A few weeks ago we found out that our dachshund Max has a condition called Cardiomyopathy, basically, a rare and serious heart condition where his heart beats irregularly and is classified as congestive heart failure.

We noticed his abdomen swelling quite a bit back in December and I knew it wasn't just a normal weiner-dog-getting-chunky type of thing. He was still skinny everywhere else but around his tummy. His activity level had also been declining over the course of a couple months as well.. So Sam took him in right after we got back from Durango and that is when they discovered it. They told us it was a condition he was born with and that there was nothing we could've done to prevent it. Also, that he is not going to get better. They said he probably only has about 3-6 months to live if we are lucky (or a year if we could spend $$ paying for heart meds and diuretics for his abdomen/getting his tummy pumped if he needed it) but it would be a better idea to put him down before he gets too sick and things get too painful. They told us that was the kindest thing we could do for him.

What are the chances? I think it's crazy that out of thousands of dachshunds we could choose from, the exact one that we pick has a super rare condition and is destined to die early. It makes me sad but I know that he was meant to come to our family, regardless of his being sick. I knew he was the exact dog for our family ever since he was a tiny puppy (even from the moment I saw his pictures online from the breeder)! He was so adorable and perfect. Perfect for us. He isn't even two years old yet (birthday is March 16)! But I know he is in a lot of pain because I can tell that he isn't the happy fun-loving, full of energy puppy that he used to be. We have decided to put him down but I hate thinking of that sort of thing and being in control of when to do it. I feel torn because I keep thinking "he's so young! he still has life to live!" but really, he is not feeling well at all. I just told Sam to pick a day in the future and just tell me that morning or the night before that he is going to take him. Not sure how else to handle it.

Anyways, do any of you friends or family out there have experience where you've had to let a pet go? Please share any insights, advice, words of comfort, etc... I really would appreciate any comments..

Exciting News!

Sam got into the post-baccalaureate program at Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee! Way to go babe! It is a one year bridge program that really prepares you for medical school. Sam will be applying to actual med school this coming summer for next August 2013 (you apply a year in advance and he didn't have all of his classes done last year to apply for this coming fall). He will apply to multiple schools but if he does well in his post-bacc program in the first semester, he has a big chance of getting into the school they have there at Lincoln Memorial called Debusk College of Osteopathic Medicine (pictured below). Sam has done quite a bit of research on schools and he really likes this one so it would be a great thing if he ended up going there. 

The school is located in a small town about an hour north of Knoxsville named Harrogate. He starts the end of July so after graduation, we will be moving down to Pheonix, AZ to sell for the first part of the summer and then head out to TN! We are super excited to start a new adventure in a completely new part of the country. We have gotten so used to the west so it will be interesting to see how we like the east. :)

Ivy at 8 months (plus a new video)

My baby girl is already 8 months old. She has grown up so much in the past couple months (especially in the past couple weeks!) and just keeps changing so fast. I love how her little big personality is starting to show more and more. It's been a while since my last post about her so just wanted to record some updates..

We got her ears pierced back in December after we got home from mine and Ivy's trip to Houston! Sam and I decided to just stop talking about doing it and just go do it. She was funny. It took a while to mark the dot's in the right places bc she is such a wiggler.. but once those were done, it was pretty easy. They did one ear, Ivy became immobile from silent crying (the kind where they are so shocked and exhale for a while until they finally inhale and scream hahaa), then they hurried and did the second one, lol.. She didn't scream though. She was a little shocked and cried for a few minutes but after that, she was completely fine and never knew what hit her! I'm so glad we did it this way. Now she will never remember it hurting and she just looks so darn cute with her studs. :)

Ivy finally started sitting up on her own over Christmas break. It's taken her a little while to get it down because she is such a mover.. We had been practicing and trying to get her to do it for a while but I guess she just had to decide to do it on her own. One day while we were in Durango, she just started rolling from her army crawl into sitting position and eventually got the hang of it and found her balance. It's soo nice that she can finally sit and play with her toys instead of always rolling to her tummy or back.

First tooth! A bottom one came in December 31st, 2011. I remember the day because it was New Year's Eve and Sam felt something sharp poking through her gums! We had just driven back from Durango the day before and it was a miserable drive because Ivy cried pretty much the entire way. Poor girl was teething! Good thing there was an explanation or else I don't think I'd ever want to take a road trip with that girl again! haha! (This past weekend to california was a much better driving experience)

I wouldn't say Ivy is strictly a "daddy's girl." I'm pretty sure she has quite a preference for her mama but boy does she just love him to pieces! Her face lights up when she sees him and her eyebrows perk up and she starts looking around for him whenever she hears his voice. He's just so darn fun! And Sam is certainly smitten by her, that's for sure. I love the relationship they have together. It cracks me up...

Ivy has been army crawling for a long time, ever since around Thanksgiving, I would say.. but just in the past week or 2 has she finally figured out how to crawl for real. It still looks a little funny because she sometimes goes back and forth between real crawling and army but she's using her knees a lot more these days. Always been a real mover though,  no matter the method. ;)

So I guess with the sitting up comes standing because ever since she has figured out the sitting up bit, she has started to pull up on things! I'm not ready for a walker yet! Oh and this also includes learning to stand up in her crib as well. The first couple days she learned this, naptime was nearly impossible. She was so fascinated and proud of her new trick that each nap took around an hour for her to finally give in and go to sleep lol.. and she hasn't quite figured out how to sit back down from standing so this just presents the problem of her yelling out for me to come help her each time, lol.. Hopefully she will learn soon..

Ivy just looves her jumper these days! Jump, jump, jump! It's hilarious to watch. before she would just kinda rock in it or sort of move but since she has figured out how to jump, she just goes on and on. It's a always nice change from playing on the floor. :)

Baby girl is finally starting to babble a lot more. She's been a pretty quiet baby thus far so it's  funny when she get's going.. And she had her first word a little over a week ago! She was in her jumper and was sort of whining to get out and we were both sitting there and heard her say "mamaa!" (yeah!!) We both looked at each other like "whaat?" so I turned to her and said "Ivy, say mama! mama! If you say mama, I'll get you out.." I guess she understood because after a little whining, she said mamaama again. haha.. that whole night we were trying to get her to say it and she kept saying bababa, mamaam, and other variations haha.. but I'm pretty sure she knows what mama means because she says it when she wants me. usually happens more when she's whining about something but I'll take what I can get, lol..

A couple cute things she has started to do are give kisses and nod her head. The nodding her head is still pretty rare but if you catch her doing it, it's so funny to watch her because she is just starting to figure it out.. And her kisses are so sweet. When we went to Houston was when she was doing it the most.. She must really love her aunt's because she gave each one a big slobbery kiss goodbye on their cheek. It was so sweet. I just love those baby slobber kisses! When we were in California this past weekend, Lillian would lean over and try to give Ivy baby kisses on her head (bc Ivy is quite a bit shorter than her, lol) They were so cute!!

And finally, another fun little video I put together. I made it pretty quick so I'm sorry if some of the music or audio is a little too loud or what not:

Flashback!

So crazy to think that 10 years ago today, was when I decided to go hang out with some guy I knew named Sam Robinson and a few of his friends at his house in Friendswood. Little did I know that holding his hand that night would lead us to where we are now, hehe. I wouldn't have it any other way. Love this guy...

Christmas in Durango, CO

(view from our room's balcony)

Sam and I decided to spend Christmas with his dad this year at his new cabin in Durango, CO. Sam's brothers Jeff, Joe, and Dan met us there with their families as well... This was my first Christmas away from Texas and I have to say, I sort of loved being in a winter wonderland for the holiday. I think after living in Utah for so long, we are both becoming a little more partial to the mountains and snow. Crazy huh! Anyways, it took me quite a while to sort through all the pics because I realized that when it's your first Christmas with a baby, you end up with a gazillion pictures. So I will let the pictures to the talking.. er, typing. 

Activities at the cabin included snowmobiling, snowshoeing, hot tubbing (not pictured) as well as a nearby ski resort for your snowboarding needs (which sam took advantage of for one of the days we were there).. I'm not too sure I liked the snowmobiles all that much. Sam seemed to like them, though. There weren't a whole lot of trails so it was mostly powder carving around the nearby meadows, which I'm not very good at, lol.. Snowshoeing was pretty fun though! We were able to explore the land a little and it was cool to be able to see the house up on the cliff above us: 

I think I got a little camera happy on both Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I guess you can't help it when it's your baby's first Christmas, lol.. Had to get a few with her in front of the tree.. And later on she started doing baby yoga for us so had a snap a few of that too, hehe. After finishing our last minute shopping earlier in the day (that seems to keep happening these past few years lol), Christmas Eve was nice and low key. We had dinner, played a few games, then had a wonderful Christmas devotional about the real meaning of Christmas. :)

Christmas morning... Ivy loved opening all of her gifts from Santa and mommy and daddy.. at least for the first hour or so. By 9:30 she was pretty wiped out and already ready for her morning nap haha! Guess all the unwrapping and excitement got to her. She was hilarious though. Mostly wanted to just eat the paper, of course (see pics below)... Oh and had to include a few good pics of the fam that morning. It was a nice relaxing day spent with those we love! Perfect!

Lol.. The girls decided to call this her "stamp of approval." If she tries to suck on it, she approves. haha. guess she liked her new toys:

Yes, more photos of my cute girl! ..playing with her new toys, and looking cute in her Christmas outfit:

Photos taken with Jeff's camera. These are a few of my favorites from the whole week (I took the one of Ivy.. not bad, eh?):

The day after Christmas, we rode on the Durango Polar Express! Such a fun experience. Waay better than the one in Heber City (sorry Heber Creeper, lol).. They were super organized and even had a little skit with actors before and afterwards. It was so cute! They had a "North Pole" with tons of lights and Santa/reindeer that you could see out your window. And each kid got a bell from the real Santa who came to visit. So fun! Ivy got a little nervous at times from all the loud noise and excitement going on but she looved that bell. ;) Thanks Dad for taking all of us!!

Later on in the week it got quite warm outside so we took Ivy out to play for a little while. We will have to get a snow suit for that girl soon. Pretty sure she loved it!

It really was such an awesome Christmas this year! Durango was so beautiful and we had so much fun seeing everyone! Thanks Dad and Trish for having us! We had a blast with you! (and thanks Trish for many of the photos in this post!) And to those friends and family members we weren't able to see this year- we miss you tons and hope you all had a very merry Christmas filled with love and the spirit of our Lord and Savior! Love you all!