Richard and Lisa Robbins Family: 2008

Painting is not the best project for a 1 year old

Okay, so you are probably thinking that it is common sense that a one year old should probably not be painting, but Maylee had so much fun that I am glad we tried. I wanted to paint a few items for Spencer's room before he was born and decided it would be a good project to try with Maylee. Although I did not get much done and Maylee tried to drink the paint washout water, we had a ton of fun. Her projects look pretty good too. We did this three days before Spencer was born. It should probably also go without saying that hammers and nails are not good toys for a one year old, but here is a video of Maylee helping Richard hang shelves in Spencer's room. She loves to be involved.

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The Robbins Family Welcomes Spencer Graham Robbins

Yesterday at 1:45 in the afternoon Lisa gave birth to our first boy. We named him Spencer Graham Robbins. Spencer is named after President Spencer W. Kimball and President Thomas Spencer Monson. We thought those two men would be good acts to follow.

Lisa was scheduled to be induced yesterday (Sunday, August 3rd), after going past her due date, which was August 1st. We spent Saturday night at my parents' house in Lehi so they could keep Maylee when we snuck off to the hospital in the morning. When we arrived at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo around 8:30am, Lisa was admitted to her room in the Labor and Delivery unit and given some Pitocin to jumpstart the engine at 9:30am. After a quick lockerroom-style pep talk from me, including the standard cliche motivational quips ("Alright team, you've got to get in there and establish control of the game early...Hit fast and hit hard...This guy's not as big as he looks..."), Lisa went to work. Once again, she proved that her pain threshold is well above normal, and she endured the whole thing without pain medication. The end result was a healthy, happy little boy weighing in at 7 lbs., 12oz. and measuring 19.5 inches. Welcome to the family, Spencer!

Here are some pictures of the event.

Lisa in Labor

Guess how you can tell that the Pitocin hasn't quite kicked in. See that big smile on Lisa's face? Apparently Pitocin has a side effect that removes the smile until after the baby's born.

Here's a video of Spencer right after he was born:{vidavee id="12511" w="320" }

Here is Spencer just a few minutes old. He came out without any bruises or scratches, and surprisingly he's got hair. Maylee will be jealous.

Here's our new family picture. Maylee seemed a little unsure about the whole thing, but she warmed up to the idea.

Maylee got to give her new baby brother a kiss to welcome him into the family.

Our 5:30am Miracle

Everyone is probably wondering what could possibly get me to write another blog entry since I have been so bad about updating our blog. But, I have to share what happened to us early this morning. Last night we had family and friends over to celebrate Carolyn's birthday. While everyone was over, Maylee decided to stick a 3/16" oval eyelet up her nose. We tried several methods to remove it including: closing the other nostril and blowing in her mouth (this is what all the medical sites online recommended), trying to suck the eyelet out with a homemade vacuum contraption, using a syringe to suck at it, and spraying water in the other nostril to get it to come out. None of these methods worked, and some were a little too traumatizing for poor Maylee. She also sneezed several times on her own, but this did not work either. Someone advised that we leave Maylee alone and let it work its way out, so that is what we decided to do.

When Maylee first went to sleep we checked on the status of the object up her nose and could see it pretty far back and decided it was too risky to try to pull it out with tweezers. All night long, Maylee woke up about every thirty minutes yelling and crying. We could tell that the object in her nose was causing a lot of pain. At this point the object had worked its way so far into her nose that we could not see it with a flashlight or anything. We were really worried about Maylee. We decided to try to remove the object again without success. So, Richard put on his suit and gave Maylee a priesthood blessing. He blessed Maylee that the object would come out of her nose without causing damage and that this experience would help her develop her faith. Immediately after saying "amen" Maylee sneezed three times and the eyelet popped out. We explained to Maylee that Heavenly Father and Jesus love her so they helped her with her problem. We knelt down and thanked them for our little miracle. It was a reminder to us that Heavenly Father answers our prayers when we ask for help.

Vancouver Excursion

Right now our family is in Seattle, Washington. Tomorrow we are going with Grandma and Grandpa Graham on a cruise to Alaska. Lisa and I came up early for the trip on Wednesday, April 30. We visited some areas where I served an LDS mission in Vancouver and Victoria more than 11 years ago. Here are some pictures from the trip.

We rented a car in Seattle and drove to Canada on Highway 5. Lisa jumped out of the car at the border long enough for a quick picture.

Maylee loved looking at the big fish, sharks and other animals at the Stanley Park Aquarium in downtown Vancouver.

Maylee at the Stanley Park Aquarium - Big Fish

Richard and Maylee at the Stanley Park Aquarium

Crossing the Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver

The Canada Vancouver Mission Office ...11 Years Later...

Maylee loved to be outside on the ferry to Victoria from Vancouver

My Niece Ashlee Doing A Jig

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I am not sure where Ashlee saw this kind of dancing, but she was so cute copying it that I had to take a video. Maylee is doing her best to keep up. Here is the next generation of River Dance.

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was a fun time. Carolyn came down and spent a few days with us. We had a picnic and Easter egg hunt on Saturday up at a park by Jennie's house, and then had a big Easter dinner on Sunday at Jamie's house with the family. It was awesome.

Before Easter weekend, Maylee got a package from her grandparents in Texas. She got an Easter hat, a bunnie bag, a Peter Rabbit book, and some candy. She had fun opening her package and dancing around in her new hat for us.

With Mommy and Daddy helping, this candy was gone in the first 5 minutes. Thanks Grandma!

Here are some pictures from our Easter egg hunt on Saturday. It was freezing, but the kids still had a blast. I didn't realize it was going to be so cold, so poor Maylee was way under-dressed. I guess I will have to remember that for next year.

Everyone before the big Easter egg hunt.

And they're off!

Savannah found the lucky golden egg. I think it had $5 in it.

Ashlee looking for eggs.

Here is Luke looking for eggs during the hunt.

Maylee really got into Easter egg hunting this year. She had her eyes glued to the ground looking for goodies.

Autumn with her basket of goodies.

Aunt Jamie bought a bunch of suckers. While other kids went for the surprise eggs, Maylee collected a ton of suckers. With eggs you never know, but with a sucker you know what you are getting for sure. She loved it.