Richard and Lisa Robbins Family

Hawaii Vacation

2010-12-14T21:38:00.000-08:00

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we went to Hawaii to visit Richard's parents in Honolulu, where they're serving a mission. It was great to enjoy temperatures in the 70's and 80's for nearly ten days. While we were there, we maximized what we did with our time, running from one place to another. Here are some of the fun things we did.

Visited the Laie Temple, where we saw President Thomas Monson, President Henry Eyring and Elder Quentin L Cook after the temple dedication on Sunday.
Visited the Polynesian Cultural Center
Snorkeled in Hanauma Bay (twice)
Visited andthe North Shore
Hiked to Manoa Falls and Wiamea Falls
Took a long walk down Waikiki Beach at night
Hiked to Mariner's Ridge

Here are some pictures of the vacation. Enjoy!

Mariner's Ridge

Stephen's 3-Month Pictures

2010-10-02T23:59:00.000-07:00

Lisa took Stephen to Target this week to have his 3-month old pictures done. Is he hot? See for yourself! ...and these aren't even glamor shots.

LDS-focused Social Networking

2010-09-30T11:02:00.000-07:00

Today I was introduced to LDS.biz. I have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networking accounts. When I saw this one, though, I immediately signed up. Here is a chance for members of the Church to connect for business or other interests. I like the idea.

Remembering Granddad Robbins

2010-09-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

While I was visiting Travis and Traci in Florida last weekend, I took the opportunity to visit Granddad Robbins' grave site at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, Florida. When I arrived at the entrance to the cemetery, I was struck by the fact that, although I've been back to Florida several times since we fled the place in 1992, I never gave much thought to going back to see the site where Granddad's body was laid to rest more than 21 years ago.

Upon driving up to the entrance of the cemetery, the scene took my mind back to when we first paid a visit to the place for Granddad's funeral. I remembered riding on a charter bus with a bunch of our relatives. I remembered wondering why we were taking Granddad so far from his home to bury him. As a thirteen-year-old, it seemed like we were driving forever from Ocala to get to the burial plot. When I asked about it, someone told me that Granddad was being buried in a military cemetery as a means of honoring someone who served our country in the US Navy.

The cemetery is laid out in sections. Each grave site is numbered. Granddad lives in Section 110, Site 720. This is a picture of the graves in the front of Granddad's section.
When I got out of my car and walked over to the section where Granddad is buried, I felt like I was going to his funeral again. As I wandered through the headstones looking for Granddad's, I found myself getting nervous and even a little bit embarrassed that it had taken me more than 21 years to return to the grave site of someone I'd spent so much time with as a kid and whose influence defined so much of my life. I wandered through the headstones trying to figure out where site 720 might be located. After a few minutes of looking, I found Granddad's burial plot towards the back of the section. Here's some video footage. You can hear the loud sound of the bugs, and it quickly brings back the feeling of being in Florida again.

You can see from Granddad's headstone that he was an ADC in the US Navy, and that he served during World War II and the Korean War. I'm not sure what exactly an ADC is, but I'll do some research and find out.

The cross at the top of the headstone with the banner on the left side is the symbol for the Methodist Church.
Here are some of Granddad's neighbors at the cemetary. Most of the headstones have the block style cross. Granddad's Methodist headstone is somewhat unique among all the others there.
Granddad's grave site doesn't have a row of graves in front of it. The other burial plots make a kind of apex coming down from the left and right sides to the five or six grave sites that include Granddad's in the middle. From what I could tell, it looks like there are no plans to bury any other military veterans in section 110.

I called Dad while I was at the grave site to ask him about some details I wasn't sure of regarding Granddad's life. We talked about the significance of Granddad being buried there at a military cemetery. Dad mentioned that in that place Granddad will be resurrected when the time comes. It reminded me of Ezekiel's vision in the valley of dry bones:

Ezekiel 37
1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,
2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.
3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.
4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
5 Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:
6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.
9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

Of the many memories that came back to me one stands out in particular. I remember being woken up by Dad early in the morning. I think it was around 4am. Dad gathered a group of half asleep kids, probably most of whom thought the house must have been on fire or some other emergency. After gathering everyone into the family room, Dad surprised us all with the announcement that our energetic, seemingly healthy Granddad, one of our biggest fans and best friends had passed away because of a heart attack that most likely came as a result of a near-drowning accident he'd had years earlier while mowing the grass next to one of the lakes at The Grove. After absorbing the initial shock of the news and among a group of crying family members, we knelt in the family room while Dad asked God to comfort our family, to sustain Grandma Robbins, and to help us understand why we had to deal with the loss of our only remaining blood-related grandfather. [Grandpa Henline still counts though.]

While I was standing there at Granddad's grave, I calculated that he would likely be 89 years old now had he been able to reach his heart medicine in time or if some other factor(s) would have been different. I thought about my kids, and I contemplated that Granddad would be pretty impressed to see how much Spencer likes sports and how intelligent Maylee is. I figured he'd be honored to share his first name with a handsome little boy named Stephen George Robbins. While I was pondering what role Granddad would have in his extended family were he alive today, this scripture came to mind from Doctrine and Covenants 128:17-18:

17) ...Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse...
18) ...the earth will be smitten with a curse unless there is a welding link of some kind or other between the fathers and the children, upon some subject or other—and behold what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead. For we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect.

After listening to the Education Week talk from Brent Topp (Mom emailed it to everyone a couple weeks ago) about the sometimes not-so-expansive divide between the spirit world and our mortal existence, I wondered if it would be worth trying to tell Granddad at his burial plot the things I would have said to him 21 years earlier had I known it was his time to go. I thought about telling him thanks for the big bucket of bubble gum he bought for me to use during my baseball tournament in Cape Coral, which was held within weeks after his death. I thought about telling him how exciting it was to have him take us to McDonald's for breakfast on Saturday mornings, and how I've continued that tradition with my kids. I wondered if I should apologize for sometimes making his life complicated by harassing Darron and Ryan during our summer visits to Ocala, by wrecking the go-cart almost every time I drove it, by following Robby out to the lake to go fishing instead of taking a nap when we were supposed to, and dozens of other transgressions. As it turns out, the only thing I could get out was a whispered, "I miss you, Granddad!"

My visit to Granddad's grave was not originally planned as part of the trip. I thought of the idea after talking to Travis about where Granddad was buried and checking to see how far it was from Orlando. Having left Travis' house in Cairo later in the morning than I should have, I was debating on the drive south whether I should risk missing my flight by going out of the way to Bushnell, where the cemetery is located. I called Lisa just before I got to the Florida Turnpike (which goes to Orlando) to ask her to check Google Maps to see whether I had enough time to visit Granddad's grave. I'm glad I took the chance. It was a good experience, and I recommend it to whoever can make it.

Message to Coach Mendenhall - Let Your Cougars Loose!

2010-09-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

During BYU’s road trip to face Florida State this weekend, I learned some things about the uphill battle that constantly faces the Cougar football team (and athletics at BYU in general) that I don’t think I understood very well previous to what I experienced over the past couple days. I grew up in Tallahassee, playing my first two years of high school football at Lincoln High before moving to Utah and finishing up at Orem High. When I moved to Utah, I noticed a stark difference in the attitude and approach toward playing football. As a linebacker In Tallahassee, I was taught to make a quick read when the play started, fly to where I thought the ball was going, and punish whoever I could from the opposing team. After a good play, I was encouraged to celebrate with my teammates.

During drills, if a fight broke out between offense and defense, it was a good thing. It was an indicator of intensity. In fact, if one of our fellow defenders didn’t step in to help someone who was involved in a fight with an offensive player (this is on the same team, mind you), he would be sent to run laps. I remember on one occasion our linebacker coach, when an all-out brawl broke out in practice, shouting “Get in there and getcha’ some! Get in there and getcha’ some!” while forty or fifty high school players took out their frustrations on their teammates.
When I moved to Utah, I was met with a much more reserved style of playing football. Dancing after making a play was very much frowned upon. Taunting and intimidation weren’t very well accepted either. Instead of being commended for acting that way, I quickly learned that I had better tone it down.

What does all this have to do with BYU football? I’ve made some curious observations while witnessing the last three games played between BYU and Florida State.

The Cougar football team puts on a fireside (a meeting where spiritual talks are given) before each of their football games. I went to the one held in Tallahassee on Friday. Previous to the fireside, I’d heard of BYU’s and Coach Mendenhall’s unique perspective (winning is not a top priority) with regard to the football program, but until last weekend, I’d never heard the concept in Bronco’s own words. Paraphrasing, this is what he said. He’s much more concerned about a player swearing or throwing his helmet down than he is about giving up the touchdown that caused the tantrum. Coach Mendenhall also explained that the purpose of the football program is to teach discipleship, to elicit questions from football fans throughout the world about who the players are and how they could perform at such a high level when so many of them are Eagle Scouts, returned missionaries, husbands, and fathers – family men.
I appreciate that mission. I’m glad that BYU’s football team strictly enforces an honor code that requires them to cut a guy like Harvey Unga (who they desperately could have used Saturday) because he fails to live up to the standards. It’s great to have role models in a sports program who can demonstrate that being an athlete doesn’t necessitate being a thug.

However (you knew this was coming), I’m certain that BYU will never have the ability to really broadcast its message at the level it could while putting such an impractical, demotivating governor on their team as I’ve witnessed while watching the Cougars. That difference is especially noticeable when BYU takes on a team like Florida State, known for its bad boy, in-your-face style of playing football. Each of the games played in this most recent home and away series for BYU seemed like an exercise in futility, even before any football was played on the field. In Provo last year, I strolled the stadium behind the BYU sidelines before the game, and I mentioned to my wife that the players looked more like they were getting ready for a devotional than a football game. The same thing stood out this year. While FSU gestured, sauntered, and otherwise made it known that, in the words of Peter Warrick, “It’s showtime baby! That’s what it is!”, BYU’s mood seemed like Eeyore at a funeral. Not much excitement. No attempts at intimidation. None of the mind games that characterize football and that give an emotional boost to your own team.

So, if I had some advice for Bronco Mendenhall (and what BYU fan doesn’t?), it would be this: let the dogs out on Saturdays. You’re coaching football. It’s an emotional game, one that begs for adrenaline if your team is to win, if your team is to spread its message and have anyone care what you say. I’ll forgive a “dang” or a “heck” now and again if it means the players can mentally take their game to the next level. I can overlook an occasional late hit if it means my players are playing with intensity. The players don’t have to sacrifice integrity in order to play fierce football. Leaving the Mountain West Conference can be a great opportunity, but it means that you’ll be facing less Wyomings and more Florida States. If you don’t teach your men to let it go on the field, it’s likely that your message won’t reach an audience too far outside of Provo.

Salt Lake Mormon Temple

2010-09-13T13:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of the the Salt Lake Temple. I'm doing a little SEO (search engine optimization) experiment trying to get this image ranked #1 on Google (as opposed to the garbage they're showing now) for the search term "mormon". If anyone is interested in contributing, feel free to use the image on your blog, web site, or social media page. This particular image is being referenced from LDS.net (http://www.lds.net/forums/mormon.jpg). You can reference the image from there, or you can save it and upload it to your web server. Google's algorithm for ranking images has a way of knowing that images are the same even if they don't have the exact same URL.

Our new baby

2010-06-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

Lisa was due to be induced at 7am this morning (6/16/10), and we expected that our new little boy would share his Granddad Robbins' birthday. Instead, he was so anxious to get started on his mortal life that he came last night, so he'll share his birthday with his Uncle Brian. Here are the details.

We took the kids swimming at the Lehi Legacy Center pool around 7pm last night. While we were at the pool, Lisa began having contractions that were about six minutes apart. We left the pool at 9pm, grabbed some pizza, and came home initially with the intent to put the kids to bed so we could get up early the next morning. When I got home from the pizza run, Lisa told me that the urgency level had moved up enough to merit a trip to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital shortly after 10pm. Stephen George Robbins was born less than an hour an a half later. Apparently he's had some issues with his ability to inhale oxygen, so we haven't had the chance to hold him yet. It's expected that he'll be in the Level II nursery for two days so the oxygen level in his blood can be monitored. After that, we can take him home. It's been difficult not being able to take the little guy into our own little hospital room and allow him to be with his momma, but we understand the need to take precautions to make sure he turns out a healthy boy.

Here are some pictures from the festivities:

Little Stephen wasn't too impressed with the treatment he received from the nurses. I'm sure it's a shock for a newborn to go from the quiet shelter of the womb to a cold place where people are constantly poking around with random things.

Introducing Stephen George Robbins

2010-06-16T06:17:00.000-07:00

Stephen George Robbins was born on June 15, 2010 at 11:26pm. He weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce, and he was 19 inches long. He was named after his grandfather Stephen Robbins and his great-grandfather George Robbins. He looks like his older brother Spencer. Welcome to the family Stephen!

New Family Pictures

2010-02-24T18:52:00.000-08:00

Don't let the title of this post fool you. These pictures aren't necessarily new. They were taken last fall. I just came across them and decided to post them. We've been feeling bad about our most recent "family picture" leaving out Spencer for his first 18 months, so we're working on getting a framed version of a family picture with Spencer. Here are some pictures we took up Provo Canyon around South Fork.

New House in Lehi

2010-01-31T07:32:00.000-08:00

Most of our friends and family know by now that we're planning to move next week into a home we bought in Lehi. We've had some requests for us to post pictures of the new house. Here they are.Here is what the front of the house looks like when there's a truck and a bald guy standing in front of it.

Here is the view from the back yard.
Kitchen on main level.
Mud room/laundry room - entrance from the garage.

Main entrance.
Stairs going up to kids' rooms.

Family room with fireplace and pluthera of windows. You'll notice the house comes furnished with blinds, which can be expensive if you have to buy them in addition to the house.

Master bedroom with entrance to the deck.
Sink area of master bathroom.
This is where we will relax on the weekends.

Upstairs bedroom/playroom.
One of the upstairs bedrooms. They both look like this, so we'll refrain from taking up more memory by adding a picture of the other one.

Upstairs bathroom sinks.
Upstairs bathroom tub area. It's separated from the sink area for extra convenience. You can close the door on the stink while you are washing your hands.
Back deck. The deck is made out of the Trex decking material, so it doesn't require staining and all the maintenance that wood decks require.
Back yard view. You can see the sandbox and fire pit just off the deck area. There's room in the back yard for a short soccer field so Richard can get some payback on the nephews and nieces and have home field advantage. Bring it on!

Basement office. From here Richard can get his work done without being distracted by the crowd hanging out in the playroom two levels up. This is what sold us (besides the master bathroom tub) on the house.
Basement kitchen. The door to the right is the master bedroom for the basement.
Basement family room, complete with built-in entertainment center.
Basement playhouse under the stairs. There is a ladder in this thing that goes up to a little loft. The kids can look out the triangle window from the loft. When we brought Maylee's and Spencer's cousins to see the house, they spent all their time in this little space.
Closet in basement bedroom. All of the bedrooms have closets similar to this one. There are nice shelving systems to organize the kids' stuff better than it is now.

There are three total bedrooms in the basement. They all look essentially like rectangular boxes. The only real difference between them is their size and the fact that the basement master bedroom has its own bathroom, and the two other bedrooms share a bathroom that sits between them. Apparently we didn't get any pictures of them while we were there for the inspection.

We bought this home with its extra space as an invitation for visitors. If anyone from out of state wants to stop in, we now have a place for you to stay without bothering us too much, or... umm....I mean, us bothering you too much. For those who live locally, we can now have sleepovers as well after those late night movies or sporting events.

With the real estate market being what it is, we were able to get this house, which had been foreclosed on, for a really good price. We've wanted a back yard with some space, and this yard has it. The yard came with a dug out, cinder-block-lined trampoline pit, a built-in sand box, and a fire pit. We've been thinking about getting a pet for Spencer and Maylee, and our neighbor offered us her extra dog Max, so we may give that a go. We might put a goat or two in the yard, but no horses or cattle yet.

The house is located a short three-minute drive to the Lehi Main Street entrance to I-15, so it works great for Richard's commute to his new job with the LDS Church. The Church's IT office is located in Riverton, and the drive from the new house takes less than 20 minutes. Maylee is excited that the house is within five minutes of the Lehi Legacy Center and its year-round accessible pool.

Halloween

2009-11-04T14:27:00.000-08:00

We had a blast on Halloween. We decided to do a family theme with our costumes. Maylee and Spencer were Thing 1 and Thing 2. Richard was The Cat in the Hat, and I was Mrs. Cat in the Hat. I broke out the sewing machine to make everyone's costumes, and surprisingly they all turned out. Here are some of our pictures.

In the afternoon we went to a Chili Cook-off and Carnival at our church. Then in the evening we went trick-or-treating with some of Maylee and Spencer's cousins. The cousins were way faster, so after the mad dash at the beginning, we became "the slow group".

Savannah stayed back with us. At the end Maylee was carrying two buckets since Spencer's was too heavy for him. She told Savannah "This is the last house Savannah; these buckets are heavy." But, she would not let anyone else carry Spencer's bucket for long because she wanted to show how strong she was.

Spencer and the Sprinkler

2009-09-09T01:08:00.000-07:00

Spencer enjoys playing in the sprinklers when he has a chance. I caught him on video experimenting with the sprinklers in our front yard.

Maylee's and Spencer's Birthdays

2009-09-09T00:46:00.000-07:00

Spencer and Maylee have birthdays five days apart. Since Spencer's birthday was first, we had a small party for him with just the four of us at home. Then, on Maylee's birthday we did a big combo barbecue party with friends and family at the park. Spencer turned 1 and Maylee turned 3.

Two days before the party I started making Maylee's castle birthday cake. This was a lot of work, but Maylee loved it so much, it was definitely worth it.

I made Cookie Monster cupcakes for Spencer. I think they turned out so cute.

We had a good time at the party. Thank you to everyone who came!

This video is hilarious. Spencer is obviously worried about what has come over his family.

Spencer Walking

2009-09-09T00:19:00.001-07:00

Spencer started walking about 2 week before he turned a year old. He could have walked before them probably, but it was not until Richard put the pressure on him to perform that he finally did it. Since Spencer could walk before then but just did not have the confidence, once he did start walking he took off. Pretty quickly he was running.

This is a video of him walking while we were visiting Texas. These are some of his first steps.

Christmas 2008

2009-01-05T03:04:00.000-08:00

Man! Talk about needing to update our blog. There is no way I can go through all the stuff that has happened and the pictures we have taken since the last post, so I will just take a minute to talk about Christmas. Christmas Eve we went over to Richard's parents house, and we stayed there for two days. Even though they only like about thirty minutes away from us it was like we went on vacation to their house.

Unfortunately Maylee was sick pretty much the whole week of Christmas, but we still had a lot of fun. (The last time she was sick was on Valentine's Day.) She was looking forward to Christmas so much, we did not want her to miss out. Before Chirstmas she kept telling everybody that we were going to celebrate Baby Jesus' birthday. She even bore her testimony at church one Sunday while I was not there and said, "Happy birthday for Baby Jesus." Anyway, we did not want her to miss Christmas. On Christmas day she did not wake up until 1:00 in the afternoon because she was not feeling well and had been up a few times in the night. We had to resist the urge to wake her up earlier because we wanted to open presents and get to a family gathering.

Here are some pictures from Christmas.

2008-08-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

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Painting is not the best project for a 1 year old

2008-08-04T17:28:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-04T05:32:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-28T06:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-02T20:03:00.000-07:00

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.

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

2008-04-15T18:51:00.000-07:00

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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

2008-04-15T18:46:00.000-07:00

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.

Can someone please open this for me?

After the hunt.

Everyone with their loot.

Zach with his basket full.

More suckers???

Maylee in her Easter dress after church.

Richard's Birthday

2008-04-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

Here are two videos from Richard's birthday. Again, these are from January.

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Here is Maylee reading a story in her little chair at Richard's birthday party. She was barely 17 months old in this video. Notice that Maylee knows something needs to be said on every page.

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January

2008-04-06T18:39:00.000-07:00

Some catch up pictures. I was going to sit down and post some pirctures from Easter, but I am too sad to miss posting some of the pictures from earlier this year. So I am going to post as many as I can right now and hopefully still get the Easter pictures posted this week.

Richard's Birthday (1/10)

Here are some pictures of Maylee at the piano. She loves to play on the piano and to dance to the demo music.

Andrew (Maylee's cousin) got a set of drums for his birthday. Maylee went to town while she had the chance.

2008-03-21T04:38:00.000-07:00

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Business Woman

2008-03-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

I guess Maylee has seen this scene enough to know how it is done. She often walks around the house talking on my, I mean her phone. She also lets me know when she thinks it is her turn to sit at the desk and get some work done.

Maylee giving the business.

Can I help you?

I think she is taking an order in this picture. We train them young.

We caught her kicking back on the job.

What a cutie!

Our employees better watch out. Their jobs may be in jeopardy.

Our First Video Blog

2008-03-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

After almost a week of trying, I have finally figured out how to upload home videos to our blog articles. We have so many videos that I will probably start adding a lot more. Here is one of our ultrasound videos that Richard took last Wednesday. If you haven't heard yet, we are having a boy. Enjoy!

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Gingerbread Houses - December 2007

2008-03-02T17:12:00.000-08:00

A few years ago, Lisa started an annual tradition that involves making gingerbread houses with our nieces and nephews. She spends hours baking the various parts of the houses prior to the big day. Then, usually on the first or second Saturday in December, all of Maylee's Utah cousins come over with candy and other decorating items to spend a few hours making gingerbread houses and having fun. Here are some pictures from December's "Gingerbread Extravaganza".

Lisa set up shop in the kitchen to help with icing and other support functions.

Jennie loaded the candy dishes to get the party started. The houses started out pretty plain-looking, but they would soon be covered with icing, Pop Rocks, chocolates, marshmallows, Dots, licorice, and in a case or two, slobber.

Autumn, Andrew, and Maylee were the first to get started building their works of art. Autumn and Andrew decorated houses. Maylee did a train.

Luke and Savannah weren't far behind. Luke made a train, and Savannah made a house.

Luke got some help from his mom, an expert in the science of gingerbread train decorating.

Zachary and Ashlee showed up on the second gingerbread maker shift with their mom for some backup help.

Maylee got some help from Aunt Carolyn.

Ashlee built her rooftop out of mints while Jamie snuck some for the road.

Luckily some of Zach's stash made it onto his train. It was visibly hard to keep from eating the decorations.

Autumn's first idea was to put Santa Claus on the chimney of her house to make sure she foreshadowed what would happen for her on Christmas Eve.

In honor of Hannah Montana, Savannah used some Pop Rocks to decorate her house.

Jamie was obviously taking this thing seriously. The concentration here is intense.

The Finished Products...

Ashlee's Gingerbread House

Andrew's Gingerbread House

Savannah's Gingerbread House

Autumn's Gingerbread House

Zachary's Gingerbread Train

Maylee's (and Carolyn's) Gingerbread Train

A Year Later...

2007-11-05T17:49:00.000-08:00

The title of this blog entry was inspired by the fact that I just took a look at our last entry and saw that it was titled "Thanksgiving in Florida". That was 2006. Now we're getting ready for Thanksgiving 2007. This year we'll be spending it in Texas with Lisa's family. Our Christmas plans are still up in the air. Anyhow, here's a quick run-down of 2007 for our family...

Moving the business to a HNL ([w]Hole 'Nuther Level)
In April of 2007, we finally moved our home-based online sporting goods business into an office. Our home had become a factory and warehouse, complete with computers, embroidery equipment, and lots of foot traffic between the garage and the living room area. We found an office and warehouse area in Orem, and we signed a year contract. Soon after we moved in, we bought some screen printing equipment that allows us to do our own customizing on uniforms and other apparel we sell.

After we moved into the new office, we hired a few employees, and we're continuing to expand. Go Robbins Sports!

Brian's Wedding
In May, Lisa's brother Brian married Heather Monson in the San Antonio Temple. We flew down for the occasion, and we stayed with Lisa's folks in Boerne for a week. As soon as I can remember where the pictures from the wedding were downloaded off our camera, I'll add those.

Maylee
Learning to Walk
Maylee began to crawl at 7 months old. She took her first steps just a few days before her 10-month birthday. Of course, she was under a lot of pressure from Lisa, who wanted to make sure she could say that Maylee walked at 9 months old.

First Birthday
Maylee's first birthday included a party with lots of friends and family. She hadn't caught on to the gift opening aspect of birthday parties, but she had a lot of help from her more experiened cousins.

Maylee seemed more interested in her cousins' reactions to her gifts than in the gifts themselves. Of course, who can blame a one-year-old for not hopping up and down after opening a picture frame.

Maylee's birthday guest list included the usual rowdies and others.

Lisa made a "My Little Pony" (not to be confused with a "My Little Godzilla") cake for Maylee's first birthday. Lisa was a huge fan of My Little Pony as a one-year-old, so she's passing down the legacy. Evidently Savannah decided to do her Hannah Montana impression in this picture.

Lisa and Julie made a poster board with some of the cutest pictures of Maylee from her first year. What a little cutie!

Moab Trip
Robby called us on a Thursday night to inform us that the next day we were going with his and Jennie's family, Jennie's parents, and Darron and Jamie's family to Moab to find some excitement. We left Friday afternoon to travel to Green River, where we spent the night on Friday. On Saturday morning, we visited Morning Glory Arch at Negro Bill's Canyon. Then we went to Arches National Park in the afternoon. The trip was a lot of fun, especially since it only took a couple hours of driving to get there. Now Lisa and I don't have to look for excuses when people ask us why we haven't visited any of Utah's amazing national parks.

I forget the name of this arch, but here are Robby, Andrew, and Darron standing in front of it. Maybe the reason why the name of it escapes me is because I was distracted by Robby's musings about what it would take to bring the thing down.

Jennie, Jamie and Lisa hit a wall (literally) and had to take a break.

Richard and Maylee after climbing one of the arches.

Somehow we were the only family to make it up the trail to the Delicate Arch lookout.

The whole group at Morning Glory Arch

Anyone concerned about safety here???

It looks like Maylee is trying to estimate how long of a fall this might be, but I had a pretty good grip on the rock.

Thanksgiving in Florida

2007-02-11T20:10:00.000-08:00

Well, it has obviously been a while since Richard and I have written. Since the last time we wrote we have been in Florida/Georgia for Thanksgiving, and Texas for Christmas. We had so much fun on both trips. It was fun to see our family again and spend some time out of the office (even though we take our office with us).

Maylee has recently started sitting up and is now starting to do a little scoot to get to things. She is such a cutie! We love having her in our family. Richard and I take her over to Mickey and Steve’s house several times a week so they can see her. Sometimes we work out at their community clubhouse while they watch her. It is fun to see Maylee grow. She loves playing with her cousins. Autumn seems to especially like to hold Maylee and take care of her. I bet Autumn is a good helper at home.

This week we are especially grateful for the blessing that we receive from our Heavenly Father. Maylee, Stacy (my sister-in-law), and I were in a freeway accident a week from last Monday. A Yukon in the lane next to us on our left swerved into our lane and swiped us on the side of our car in the rear. We did two doughnuts on the highway before a truck slammed into us on the right side of the car. We feel very blessed that both cars hit us towards the back of our car and no one was seriously injured. The accident was very scary and could have been a lot worse. We must have had guardian angles protecting us.

Here are pictures from our recent trips and from home. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Trip to Florida

It was fun to fly with Maylee for the first time. She surprisingly had such a good time in the airports. She was laughing and smiling at everybody. I had so many people tell me what a beautiful baby she is. It was fun to take her on a new adventure.

Our first stop on the trip was St. Augustine. Since our plane did not arrive in Orlando until 11:00pm, we did not get to Grandma Robbins' house until about 4:00am in the morning. We were exhausted.

Richard took this picture of Maylee and me sleeping in the first morning after arriving in Florida.

St. Augustine is the oldest city in America. It has a lot of sites to see including Flagler College, St. George Street, and the old Fort.

On St. George street in St. Augustine.

At the fort.

The Fort

Richard, Maylee, and Grandma Robbins out for a stroll in St. Augustine. It was cold!

At the Wheel Mill on St. George Street.

This is the beach at Aunt Carol's house. We collected some starfish and shells.

...so much fun!

On Thanksgiving morning we left Grandma Robbins' house to go to Tallahassee. She did not want to put Maylee down. Despite concerns that Maylee might be too heavy for her, Grandma Robbins toted Maylee around all morning.

After a Thanksgiving feast we walked to the pond in Traci and Jason's neighborhood.

Uncle Travis (Richard's brother) holding Maylee.

We bought this FSU cheerleading outfit for Maylee for the big game against the Gators. Go team go!

This is us at the Florida State game in front of Chief Osceola's horse, Renegade.

Richard and Maylee in the stands at the FSU game.

At Travis and Amy's house before leaving.

Us with Travis and Amy and their kids Stephen, Jacob, and Katherine. (I think Caroline was asleep.)

On the way out of Tallahassee we stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Henline's to say hi.

in Ocala with Aunt Shirley, Uncle John, and Uncle Pratt.

Maylee and Aunt Shirley

Richard used to go with his family to the Orange Grove where his Grandad and Grandma Robbins lived when Grandad Robbins was still alive. They have wonderful memories of this place. Grandad Robbins sold this land in 1985, and the we found the same man who bought it from him living there still. There aren't any orange trees there anymore because a frost wiped them out a long time ago, but we were able to see the same old house and the big and little lakes.

The dock at the Big Lake.

The lake.

The old house where Grandma and Grandad Robbins used to live.

Richard at the Orange Grove.

at the Grove

Lots of Firsts for Maylee

2006-11-05T19:40:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. This is Richard checking in on the family blog. We've been taking a lot of pictures recently and promising people that we will update our blog, so here we are late on a Sunday night keeping our commitment to keep you up to date on our version of the Robbins family.

Any of you who have kids know how exciting the first year of your child's life is because of all the "firsts" he or she experiences. Since the last time I wrote, we've had a lot of firsts with Maylee, including her first college football games (now she loves waking up to ESPN's College Football Saturday), her first bath, her first snowfall, her first "campout", and her first Halloween.

Maylee's First Campout
Because Lisa and I are the 11-year-old scout leaders in our church, we had the opportunity to take our scouts on an overnight campout to fufill some of their Tenderfoot requirements. We went camping at the Diamond Campground in Spanish Fork Canyon on Friday, October 20th. Despite the picture painted by the following pictures, which show a bunch of happy campers, we learned some good lessons about preparation.

Lisa and Maylee stayed for a little while to help us set up, then went home when the sun began to set behind the mountains. We figured that the hour or so that Maylee stayed at the campsite qualified as a campout, especially since the rest of us couldn't even last until breakfast the next morning.

I forgot my brand new, bought-just-for-the-occasion 0-degree sleeping bag at home, but I figured I could make do with a thin "comforter" and a baby blanket. The scouts had their summertime gear with them, so they weren't much better off. Once the sun had made its way out of the canyon, the temperature quickly went from the 60's to about 30 degrees. After a sleepless night of attempting to heat my tent with the camping stove I used to make dinner, I decided to go for a jog or make a fire to keep from freezing. Soon after I began stirring around, the father of one of the scouts came out of his tent, stumbled over to where I was attempting to build a fire, and summed up our camping experience: "It's just too cold out here!" Soon after realizing that none of us had actually gone to sleep (all of us were pretending to be asleep so as not to be the weak link), we packed up and left for civilization.

This is Maylee using the blanket I had to borrow from her.

Maylee's First Real Bath
Our friends Trent and Sara Richards gave us a handy lounge chair to use to bathe Maylee. Here's a picture of her kicking back in the lounge chair waiting for her momma to lather the washcloth. Maylee enjoys bathtime, all the while splashing around in the water with her hands and feet. We still haven't perfected the transfer from the bath to hooded towel to getting her completely dry, so she gets a bit uncomfortably cold (evidently...from what we can tell). We're thinking that if we can get that interval down to less than 10 seconds without risking injury, Maylee will have some good bathtime memories.

Maylee's First Snowfall
We got an early snowfall this year. The snowflakes were like the ones you see in Christmas movies, so we decided to dress Maylee up warm and take her out to see the phenomenon. We can't tell yet if she likes snow, or whether she likes being bundled up. You can take your best guess from these pictures.

Maylee's First Halloween
Lisa shopped online for a costume for Maylee to wear to our church's Halloween Trunk-or-Treat/Chili Cookoff party, and we nearly bought a ladybug outfit, but we ended up using a chili pepper costume Lisa's friend Angela used for her daughter the previous year. Maylee looked cute as ever as a chili pepper.

Here are some other pictures we've taken over the past couple months, complete with authentic captions.

Maylee likes to peek over Lisa's shoulder to make sure she's "watchin' momma's back" for her.

We couldn't get Maylee to wake up after a long Saturday. Evidently watching all the 3-and-outs from Florida State's offense takes a real toll on her.

Maylee's become a thumb-sucker. She normally sucks her left thumb, sometimes with her right hand in a support position to make sure the thumb doesn't come out (top). Sometimes she does it just fine with only one hand (bottom).

Maylee's New Dress

Maylee got a new dress, so we let her wear it when we went with my parents to church in Heber City.

Lumberjack Maylee

Looking back at this picture, Lisa and I think we could have had another option for a Halloween costume. We could have used this outfit and told people Maylee was a lumberjack.

Maylee enjoys relaxing in her bouncer. It plays tunes and it has a starfish and two other fishies that move when bubbles are pushed through the little aquarium.

The writing on her shirt says it all. Our little Maylee is 100% sweet!

1 Month Pictures

2006-11-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

This is Lisa again. On Tueday, November 8th, Maylee will be 3 months old! She is getting so big. At her two month appointment they said she was in the 76th percentile for height and 48th percentile for weight. She just continues to grow and grow. It is neat to see her developing her little personallity. She is definitely a thumb-sucker and this week she even started sucking on her toes. She looks so cute doing that. In fact, she has started grabbing for things and putting just about anything she can in her mouth. When we put her in her car seat, she pushes forward and sits up as much as she can like she is trying to get herself out. She smiles and laughs a lot. We are also blessed that she is a good sleeper.

I am really excited to post these pictures. You can probably tell that we are proud parents. These pictures were taken when Maylee was one month old. We had a photographer come to the house and she spent about 3 hours taking over 500 pictures. She gave us all the pictures on CDs. Here are a few of our favorites.

Maylee was such a ham while the photographer was here. She seemed like she enjoyed having her picture taken. The clicking of the camera kept her intrigued and she kept making cute poses for us. Of course, since the photographer was taking pictures for such a long time, Maylee did get worn out, but still the photographer commented on what a good baby Maylee is.

The white dress Maylee has on in some of the pictures is her blessing dress. She was blessed on Labor Day weekend. The beautiful crochet blanket that Maylee is laying on in some of the pictures was made by her Great-Grandma Robbins.

September 20, 2006

2006-09-26T16:50:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, my parents came out to Utah to vist us. We had a lot of fun with the Robbins family and members of the Graham side of the family. Richard's Grandma also came out to visit, so there was a lot of excitement going on. Robby and Jennie took us 4 Wheeling, we had a few barbeques and get-togethers, and of course we watched the crazy FSU vs. Miami game at Jared and Stacy's house. We were able to also visit Temple Square, Uncle Ray and Aunt Bobbe and their family, and Uncle Mike and Aunt Janine's family. When my parents and Grandma Robbins were here we blessed Maylee. Brianna (my cousin) and Owen blessed their baby on the same day so we were able to attend that as well. As you can tell, it was a pretty busy time.

Here are some picture from Maylee's baby blessing. We decided to bless her at home.

Maylee on her big day!

Four Generations of Robbins. Wow!

Here are Richard's parents, Lisa's parents, and us (and some plates) at Maylee's blessing.

Proud Grandparents.

More Proud Grandparents.

Daddy and daughter. How sweet.

Stacy and Savannah at Maylee's blessing.

Nap time with Grandma Robbins. Who is putting who to sleep?

Grandpa and Maylee.

Grandma and Grandpa Graham visiting Temple Square with Maylee.

Baby Push-Ups. Richard showing Maylee how it's done.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

2006-08-29T13:42:00.000-07:00

Today Maylee is three weeks old. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful and beautiful baby. She rarely ever cries. Usually she just give one quick shout of "Ah" if we have not realized that she is hungry or needs attention soon enough. Yesterday Richard was thrilled to let me know that she turned her head from side to side to follow his voice while laying on her back. Sometimes she tries to talk to us and is learning how to make new noises all the time. We also started reading to her yesterday. She is getting more alert and even laughs sometimes. We love our baby girl!

Maylee had her first doctor's appointment on Friday. She weighed in at 8lb 4oz. She did not like the doctor poking her and really did not like having her foot pricked and squeezed for the PKU test, but she is healthy and doing well. It is good to know that. Here are some more picture. I am sorry some of them are so dark. Our camera is not the best. Richard and I are going to get a new one right away.

My oldest sister Carolyn was staying with us when Maylee was born. This is a picture of her holding Maylee in the hospital the day after Maylee came. She was so sweet to bring Richard snacks and spend time with me while we were waiting for Maylee to come, and to come sit with me the day after Maylee was born so Richard could go get some work done.

Ginny and Maylee in the hospital. Jennie and Maylee in the hospital.

Here are Autumn and Andrew holding Maylee in the hospital.

Here is Steve (Richard's dad) holding Maylee in the hospital, and Savanah, Maylee's cousin.

This is a picture of my sister-in-law Jennie and her four kids who came to visit in the hospital the day after Maylee was born. The kids love to hold their new cousin.

Jennie's kids brought their lizards over before releasing them back into the wild.

Pictures at home with family. The picture on the right is of Richard's parents Steve and Mickey.

This is the Richards family on the left. They lived in our apartment complex with us in China and are still some of our best friends. Tim and Bethany Overton and their cute baby Gracie (right) invited us to dinner on Sunday. Their baby is so cute!

Ben and Joanna Simon (left) came to visit us and see the new addition to our family. Joanna is expecting early next year. On the right are the Rickers. I grew up with their kids in Texas and they came to Utah for their son's graduation and stopped by to see Maylee.

Maylee ready for her first ride in the stroller. She slept through the whole thing. I could watch Maylee sleep all day. She is such an angel and is fun to watch. She periodically makes sounds, funny faces, and stretches while she is alseep, but most of the time she is so peaceful.

Richard was taking a picture of Maylee and she grabbed the camera strap and tried to put it into her mouth. She already has pretty good control of her hands. This is Richard's favorite picture because Maylee looks like a Kung-Fu fighter.

This last picture is of Maylee and my cousin's baby named Branson. He and his family just live a few minutes away in Spanish Fork. He is about three weeks older than Maylee. Hopefully they will be good friends.

Welcome Maylee Marie Robbins

2006-08-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, August 8th, we were blessed to become the proud parents of Maylee Marie Robbins, our little girl who was born at 6:21pm at the American Fork Hospital in American Fork, Utah. Maylee weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces when she was born, and she was 20 inches long. The delivery went very well. Maylee was evidently anxious to be born. Lisa had been due to deliver on Saturday, August 5th, but we expected that she would go right past that date and have to ultimately be induced on her delivery deadline of Monday, August 14th. However, on Monday night, August 7th, for Family Home Evening, Lisa and I decided to get things ready for the hospital just in case Maylee came earlier than we anticipated. We installed Maylee's car seat into the car we bought the previous Saturday, and we packed our hospital bag with clothes, Star Crunches, and other necessities. When we were finished and it was time for bed, Maylee couldn't sleep. She was kicking and moving around inside of Lisa's stomach more than we had ever remembered her doing previous to that night. It was as if she were saying, "I'm ready, Mom and Dad!" The next morning, Lisa's water broke, so at about 7:30am, we made the trip from our home in Spanish Fork to the hospital in American Fork, about 40 minutes away.

When we got to the hospital, Lisa had to be induced because she wasn't having contractions. I tried to motivate her by having her repeat words like "can't", "don't", "we'll", "they're", and the like, but that still didn't have any effect on her ability to do contractions. We thought Maylee would be born the next morning, which would have meant that she would share a birthday with her Grandma Graham. Instead, she hastened things up starting in the late afternoon, and to the surprise of Lisa's nurse and the doctor (who almost didn't make it for the whole festivity), she started coming at just after 6pm. Lisa had to push for only 11 minutes, starting at 6:10.

At the birthing class we had been attending for three weeks prior to Maylee's birth, we listened to a nurse describe how senseless it is for a woman to give birth naturally (she even said she'd offer to pay the epidural cost for anyone who didn't have insurance), but Lisa still wanted to try it out. She may still have been harboring some bitterness from a statement I made awhile back about her not being tough enough to endure football two-a-days in the Florida heat. Anyhow, with the help of the bathtub, a birthing ball, a helpful nurse, and a legendary coach, she made it through with nothing more than a few weird noises and some serious looks on her face that may have made her sister-in-law want to postpone having kids for a bit.

Here are some pictures at the hospital and at home:

This is Lisa in front of our home in Spanish Fork. It was taken the day before Maylee's birth (August 7th).

This is Lisa in the hospital. You can tell she wasn't having major contractions yet, because she's smiling.

Here is our newborn baby, Maylee, only five minutes old. She was as perfect as a baby can be.

The proud momma with her new little daughter, shortly after Maylee's birth.

Here's Richard with Maylee in the nursery (taken through a glass window), where the nurses checked out Maylee to make sure she was healthy, which she was. You can see another baby container (not sure what they're called) in the bottom left of the picture. It turns out there was another little girl there whose parents were going to name her Maylee (which comes from the Chinese term for "beautiful") as well, but their last name was May, so they named her Haylee instead.

Here's Maylee at home on the bed with her daddy. She likes to get comfortable in her parents' bed, so we are trying to find out how best to get her to sleep in her bassinet or on her little mattress.

We're grateful to have little Maylee in our family now. She gets to be the boss and set our schedule for sleeping and such, but she's a really good little baby.