Happy Birthday Tucker!

My little guy is 3 today! I think of him as a baby-which I sometimes call him when putting him to bed. "Goodnight baby," to which he quickly replies, "I'm a big boy." Yes he is.
Tucker,
You are my sunshine. You brighten everyone's day who meets you. You are beautiful-to which he would reply, "I am handsome." You are a mini Trent. You are so smart. You are so observant. You are so ticklish. You are a miracle. You give my life more meaning. You are funny, and silly, and strong, and playful. You are imaginitive. You don't like being dirty. You are left handed. You are very good at pronunciating your words and practice on the ones you have a hard time with. Sometime's L's in the middle of a word turn into D's (Chardotte, Kyder, baddoon) and you'll keep trying until you say it right. When you get really excited sometimes you will stutter the first word of your sentence ( I I I I went down the slide). You have a beautiful singing voice and love music. It brings me pure joy to hear you sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. You love bathtime-you always have. You love chocolate milk when you wake up and before you go to sleep. You love drawing and impress me with the drawings on your doodle pad. You love water, but haven't learned to swim quite yet. You are fearless in the water. Yesterday you woke up afraid of the thunder. You love being outside. We got so much time, just the two of us, I wish we would always be buds. You are petite. You touch my heart. You do the crab walk. You say "Guess what?" You make your little sister laugh. You take her toys. You are learning to share. You love carrots and dip. You love chocolate. You love your family.
Tucker, you have a special place in my heart. You made me a mother. You will always be my baby. I love watching you grow and being here for all of it. You are an amazing little boy and I love ever talent, every flaw and every quirk. I love you and I always will!

My baby is getting so big!

Charlotte is doing so much! She is starting to sleep better, she only woke up once last night! She is learning to cry herself to sleep- it's so hard to let her cry, but so worth it. Her crawling gets better every day, and now she can go from her back to her belly to her hands and knees and from there to a sitting position all by herself. She is always trying to pull herself up to stand by pulling on my clothes or using the couch or lazyboys. A few times I have found her in her bed sitting up which I find so comical. My little baby sitting there waiting for me. This morning she was crying in her bed and I was trying to let her cry herself to sleep. When I realized it wasn't happening and I went in to get her I found her STANDING-holding the rail, of course. It was darling. She was so mad because at this age they don't know how to get down from standing. I wish I had gotten a picture. I will post new ones of the kids soon. We will be having Tucker birthday celebrations this weekend with plenty of pistures. I can't believe he will be 3! Aren't I too young to have a 3 year old?

Smudge

Mark is the 7th child. He is 17 now (about 7 and 1/2) years younger than me. I think of him as a beoutiful round little brunette boy following Teddy wherever he went.
One story I remember with Mark was when he was really little, probably around 18 months. We lived in California, my parents weren't home. The doorbell rang, Sarah told me to stay by Mark while she got the door. But I wanted to see who was at the door and ran after her. Mark screams. We go back to find he had picked up the jagged top of a tin can out of the trash and sliced his finger. He had to get stitches and I've always felt guilty about that.
When Mark was getting older while I still lived at home, I was a teenager and too involved with me, me, me to remember a lot about Mark in elementary and so I missed a lot. I know he was ver smart. Skipped a grade, I think 3rd grade. He was pudgy and funny. Then I got to know him from a different view when I didn't live at home.
A couple years ago when I was visiting Mesa, my mom watched Tucker so I could spend a little time with my brothers. I went to their high school and picked up Mark and Ted, I think Ted was a senior and Mark a junior at the time. I got them out of class and took them to a movie. It wasn't anything special, but was one of my favorite times, because I never get to hang out with my brothers.
Mark is very good looking- if you haven't noticed, all of my siblings are pretty dang cute.He had braces and is very proud of beautiful smile. He is so likeable. Has lots of friends and I bet all different kinds of people like him. He is really helpful and giving and a people pleaser I think. He came with my dad and helped us empty the moving van after an already long day of working in the heat. He has the greatest sense of humor and you just want to be around him. He works hard, he is strong, and girls like him. I love my Marky and hope we get more time to hang out together soon!

Fun and Games

This was a fun little thing Gina had on her blog. It would tickle me pink if you'd play along. It's kinda like Mad Libs.

Copy this letter to my comments and fill in the blanks. Then, if you want, copy the blank letter to your blog with your name after "Dear," and I will come and fill one out for you...

Dear Robin,
I _____ you. You have a nice ______. You make me _______. You should _______. Someday I will ______. You + me = ________. If I saw you now I'd __________. I would build a _______ just for you. If I could sing you any song it would be _________. We could __________ under the stars.
Love, _______________
(P.S. ______________.)

Brain Damage

My husband has a disorder. I call it selective listening, and answering. What is wrong with saying "okay" just to verify you heard something even if it wasn't a question? Furthermore, what makes it impossible for you to hear something while the tv is on? I have had my moments of being sucked in to a show where I didn't hear something, but isn't it pretty normal to occasionally comment on a movie during it, or talk to your husband during a commercial? Then again it isn't the TV that is the problem, he can be looking at mail or simply thinking and miss every word. The sad thing is that usually I am telling him how hot I think he is or something I thought he would find amusing and he still doesn't hear! I understand being slow to respond when I ask you to change a diaper, but when I am coming on to you please have the courtesy to respond in any way. I would not say I am high maintenance by any means other than I thrive on affection. This is our long time fight. Why don't you kiss me more, or for longer, or even look at me like I am desirable? His response-"I think it, I just don't say it." While we were at Lake Powell, I put on a new swim suit that is red and ties at the top. He actually made the comment that I looked like a stripper. Frankly, I was stunned, I knew that he had not meant it to be offensive and that he may even have thought it was some sort of compliment somehow. It left me bewildered for the rest of the day.
Now, just to make myself clear, this is not meant to be telling what a terrible husband I have. Anyone who knows me will vouch that I adore my husband. Nor is this meant to say that I am the perfect wife, I am terrified at the amount of flaws that could be listed by my husband. It is simply to say that some men were not born with a sensitive, doting gene. And for all of his fabulous qualities, there is no such thing as the perfect man or the perfect marriage or the perfect relationship that has no bumps. This is an example of a silly manism that makes life interesting and I felt like writing(typing) it down.

Some cute, not too excitng stuff

Thursday we (Charlotte and I) went to a Pampered Chef party at Diana's house. Tucker played at Grandma's while we went since Trent was at real estate school. It was nice to get out and fun to see baby Ava, she is darling and chunky, just like my little girl, and she had the cutest short pants on. Anyway I did manage to get a picture of the two of them.
Friday night Trent didn't work late, but he was so tired from all his classes and work that he didn't want to go out or hang out with anyone. That's alright, we ordered pizza and wings( I haven't had good wings since we moved to Utah). We also rented Prime with Uma Thurman and Meryl Streep. It was alright, but long and ended pretty lamely. I like movies that are more of an escape from reality.
Saturday Tucker was pushing his doll stroller when Trent decided to put Charlotte in it. It was pretty cute. Notice Tucker's shirt. Gina made it for him and gave it to him before we moved when they had a little birthday party for us.
Saturday night we went to Peter Piper Pizza (like a Chuck E Cheese) for our nephew Ethan's party. It was a good time with my family who are usually pretty big slackers on planning things to do together. Moqui and Charlotte looked especially cute in their SpongeBob party hats.

It's The French Revolution!

Abbie was born on July 14, 1981-twenty-two days after me. We've been hanging out pretty much ever since.
We lived in the same area until we were almost eight.
We saw eachother on holidays, and once I even flew down to go to Rocky Point with her for spring break. That trip was a disaster and is a whole nother story entirely!
I moved back in town my sophomore year, and wouldn't you know it, we ended up at the same high school.
This is our strange high school love triangle. We managed to get over it.
Abbie is one of my biggest supporters. She came to so many track meets. And believe me, it's not always the most exciting or fun place to be, especially in Arizona heat. Abbie and I weren't always your typical, bubbly high school girls who wished those days would never end. We had a great time writing notes using pictures and making fun of other girls. We spent time hitting thrift stores and watching our friends "jam" at Dustin's house and going to their shows on the weekends. Abbie invented Thursday holidays and saved us from the monotony of the high school week.
I will have to have Abbie do a post on Thursday holidays, as I have a notoriously bad memory and she has an excellent one.
The summer after graduation we took a road trip with Meadow to Majic Mountain in California. This picture was taken about 5 minutes after Abbie threw up.
Abbie and I lived in Provo at the same time for a while. She was going to BYU and so was my husband. So we got to hang out a little there. Well our paths have crossed again for this summer and I am so grateful! Abbie is hilarious, she has a unique sense of humor. She is thoughtful. She is the cutest pregnant chick too. She is meek and underrated and usually mistaken for a teenager still. She isn't very affectionate, except with Jake. She is creative. She is a mystery.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBIE! I LOVE YOU! (am I allowed to tell you that?)

Ted Ted the round head

Here comes the return of my sibling posts.
Teddy is the 6th child in our family, he is 6 years younger than me. Ted is the first newborn I ever remember seeing. We went to the hospital after he was born and he was this cute tiny thing in a little beanie. When my mom took off his little hat I was shocked to see that the whole thing had been filled with this long cone head. His head looked just like a football. Well, as little Teddy turned into a darling blonde little boy his head turned out perfectly round and we would sometimes call him Ted, Ted, the round head.
Teddy is a beautiful, blonde hair blue eyed boy. He and the next youngest Mark were just 22 months apart and inseperable as little boys and always reffered to as "the boys". Adam who had been waiting for a brother for a long time after being surrounded by 4 sisters was very pleased to have little boys to tease and boss around. I remember at some point he made them call him "master" and he called them his "henchmen". They would obey his every command it seemed.
As Ted got older his hair got darker, and turned curly. He can sport a fro with the best of them. He is built much like Adam, very slim and athletic. He took up running. He competed in cross country and the distance races in track. I am so bummed I didn't get to be there for more of his meets, I only got to see him compete in one track meet in Tempe-I think it was the Tempe relays, and one cross country meet at Red Mountain while I was in Mesa on visits. He did very well and competed in State, I am sad to say I am not sure how he placed overall, but I know he did well. I wasn't around for most of his high school days, and I feel that I still have a lot to learn about Ted.
He is a night owl and a late sleeper(at least he was before his mission). He is an avid reader and loves fantasy novels. He is easy to get along with. He is handsome. He is silly and maybe even a bit dorky. He loves food. He is on a mission for our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in Madagascar. He is an awesome brother and on his way to being a great man!
I love you Ted!

Powell reunion at Lake Powell 2006

We started our trip on Tuesday the 4th of July. We woke up around 5 am and loaded the truck and kids and headed to Trent's parents' house where we met up with the rest of the clan and hooked on a trailer with Trent's brother Bart's newest toy-a Ranger. We headed to Flagstaff after fueling up and loading coolers with ice and eating a Jack in the Box breakfast. In Flagstaff we all stopped at Trent's sister Kim's house. While stopped there Charlotte played on the grass, she has started getting onto her hands and knees and rocking back and forth when she is placed on her belly. It is so cute, she is so anxious to get crawling and playing like a big girl! And even more exciting, while we were at Kim's Charlotte had pulled my finger in her mouth and I thought I felt something little and sharp, I rubbed her gums and sure enough she had cut her first tooth!! I got all excited and handed her to Trent to feel it. He said, no, that's just a rough gum. I was so disappointed, how could I have mistaken it, but after further examination (more fingers in Charlotte's mouth) we found it definitely was a tiny little tooth! What a big girl. She had been very fussy the last week and I am sure now it was the teething. After a little playing at Kim's we headed to the Cinders about 45 minutes from there, this is where we played on quads and the ranger on all the cinder hills.


Last year Tucker was deathly afraid of quads and would scream if you even attempted to sit him on one that wasn't running. This year Tucker could not get enough rides. He had a fabulous time riding quads and the ranger and playing in the black dirt with his cousins. I stayed at the trailer with the baby a lot, but I did get to go on some fun rides and my favorite part was when Trent and Blake got out there rifles to go shoot some skeet, I went with them. I haven't done much shooting in my time, I can't remember when or where I have, but I have once before. Anyway for me they put a skeet upright on a stump which I hit on my second shot and then I shot a pinecone. After that they let me shoot at skeet flying throught the air, and to my surprise I actually hit one of the four I shot at. Not too bad for a first timer. I really liked it.
Anyway the plan was to camp there that night. Kim and Dan were going to head home to finish packing their trailer for Lake Powell and Trent's mom was going with them to stay there that night too. When Trent suggested he and Tucker stay and camp and I take Charlotte back to Kim's for the night I gladly accepted the offer. It was a fun day but I did miss the festivities of the Fourth of July. I was a little bummed not to see any parade or fireworks. The next day we headed to Lake Powell and first stopped at our hotel a little after 12:30 pm to check in and drop off our bags. Then we headed to Lone Rock beach where we always stay and set up camp for the rest of the week. A big wind storm came through blowing sand everywhere, but luckily didn't last too long. We didn't go out on the boat that day but enjoyed playing on the sand with the cousins and eating and hanging together.

This is the Ranger. It can climb and move like a quad, but is much more stable and can hold much more weight.
The next day we were joined by even more fun relatives. Trent's sister Stacey came with her family including her 7 week old twin boys.
Also Trent's Aunt Sandy came with her daughter Britney and her husband a 2 year old little girl. And they brought Grandma and Grandpa Summers too. This is the annual Powell reunion. We do it ever 2nd weekend in July. I always know I can at least count on that for vacation.
Friday morning we took family pictures at the lake. Wes (Trent's dad) has them so I'll post some later. Charlotte hated her lifejacket and would scream until the boat got going and then would instantly fall asleep. Tucker loved building sand castles, jumping on the water trampoline and going down the slide attached to it, riding the boat, riding the quads, visiting the marina where we would get ice cream and watch the huge carp that swim close to the surface waiting for people to feed them and the ducks.
Here is Charlotte and her tongue again. We brought her saucer to sit in, and a baby pool, and an outdoor playpen. Babies require so much gear, and it was worth bringing it so I didn't have to have her squirming to get out of my arms at all times.
Friday night a storm blew in and we left the lake a little earlier than usual. We headed to a burger and shake drive thru on the way back to the hotel and before Tucker could even eat his dinner he was passed out. I figured he would wake up in an hour or so and eat and bathe before bed. Nope. He slept from 5:45 pm to 6:40 am! He hardly budged when I slipped him into his jammies. Saturday I finally got to wakeboard a little. It has been two years since I have gotten on a board. It was pretty fun even though the water was rough and I face planted twice. I am so sore now, I am sure sitting in a car for about 6 hours didn't help.
Sunday morning we checked out and went to breakfast together before heading home. This is me and my sisters-in-law Andrea and Dusti after breakfast. We had a great time!

Gone again

Tomorrow we head up to Flagstaff, to the Cinders. I have never been there before. I guess it is pretty much like the sand dunes. I assume I will be stuck sitting around with Charlotte while the boys play on the four wheelers, motor bikes and other toys. We will camp that night and head up to Lake Powell Wednesday morning. We will play there for 4 days. We won't be camping then, we will stay in a hotel. I love playing in the water and wakeboarding and cliff jumping- but I guess that is illegal now at Lake Powell. I will take pictures to post later and I intend to finish my sibling posts too. I still have 4 left to do. I have tons to do today to get ready so I better go.

Catching up

We finally have the internet and I have lots of pictures I want to share. moving in Charlotte's room before


Charlotte's room in progress... I will have an after picture in a couple days when her room is all clean and pretty.
Charlotte is showing off doing her new trick-sitting up by herself! She is quite good at it now and has also started to do this cute little army crawl where she lays on her belly and leans to one side and pushes with the leg on the opposite side to get whatever she desires on the floor ahead of her.
Tucker has begun drawing people. These people always have boy hair and usually have arms and legs sprouting from the head in a potato head fashion. After I took this picture he added a nose and eyebrows.
This is Trent and I at PF Chang's on my birthday. Trent wears collared shirts and khakis or slacks to work now. He looks so handsome. I love seeing him in his new work clothes instead of greasy pants and a shirt with his name above the breast pocket. His hands are no longer black and he actually wears his wedding ring for the first time in our marriage.
This is how long my hair was last week. If you read Abbie's blog she talked about how she decided to donate her hair to Locks of Love. They make wigs for cancer patients. You must have at least 10 inches to donate. Abbie asked me if I would like to donate my hair as well a while ago. After a little thought and a lot of wearing my hair in a ponytail and hating it, I decided I would. I am very glad and I love my haircut!
Here it is. The longest parts cut were almost 14 inches long! Wow!

Still Alive

It's true, I am still alive and very much without the internet. I am on Andrea's computer today and thought I would let everyone know a brief summary of what's been going on. Trent got here last Wedneday evening and we unloaded all our earthly belongings that night with the help of family men. I have grown to like my house so much now. I am not sure why I didn't like the first impression, but this house is really nice. The only thing I really miss is my big open kitchen. Almost every single girl that I know here is pregnant; Abbie, Andrea, Lindy, and Raan. And no it doesn't make me want to get pregnant. I am still in the process of emptying boxes and sorting thru crap. I have lots of pictures that I want to post, but can't right now. My birthday was yesterday, I am now 25 years old. Thank you to everyone who called emailed and posted birthday wishes on myspace! My best present was a date with my husband without kids thanks to my folks in law. I also got some much needed clothing at Target. All is well, we are happy and very warm(quite the understatement). I almost forgot about butt sweat-gross! Anyway, I will try to get on here more often and we should have our internet set up in a couple wells. Love to all.
Robin and company

A Half Life

This is still feeling much like a vacation. No husband, no car, very few of our things, and no sense of permanance for me or the kids right now. I am happy to be here spending time with my family but am starting to miss Trent very much now. I am feeling guilty that I am not there to help even though I don't know how much help I would really be. Trent does not show signs of stress often, but I can hear it in his voice and it is a helpless feeling to be far away from him.
I went and looked at our new house on Saturday. I don't love it and I'm glad we are only renting. Don't get me wrong, I am glad to have a nice new house to stay in. It seems to be a nice area. The cons are: It is pretty far east, I don't love the way it is set up, and the kids rooms seem tiny. I guess I had gotten pretty attached to my house and I will miss it. This new house does have a great master bathroom and walk in closet and is pretty close to Trent's parents and very close to his brother and his wife. They will be fun to hang out with and have BBQ's. I think I will like it much better once I see all of our stuff in it and can feel more at home. It will be nice to have lots of time to shop for a home we will really love and want to settle down in for a long time.
Some other things I wanted to mention. I heard a "heat advisory" from 10 am to 8pm for the next two days will be 112 degrees. Tucker thinks he wants to go outside all day until he goes out and after 5 minutes is ready to come back in. He is really loving spending time with my baby sister Claire (age 7), his grandparents, and "those 2 Chandlers" which is actually his cousins Chandler and Jackson. Charlotte is getting lots of attention and kisses and is showing off in all her cuteness.

Single in a not so strange land

We flew in to Phoenix yesterday at 2 pm. Tucker and Charlotte did pretty well on the flight and we sat by someone who knows my family and helped out. My arms are really sore today because I was carrying Charlotte inside of her carseat which was clipped into it's base in one arm and Tuckers carseat in the other while wearing Tucker's Dash backpack and my carrying my hobo bag purse. All the while Trent was pushing Tucker in an umbrella stroller and carrying 2 very large duffel bags stuffed full. Once we checked the carseats and bags I put Charlotte in my baby bjorn carrier(which I was wearing empty until this point) and Trent continued to push Tucker right through the huge line until the security gate. They closed the line directly behind me for my lane which meant I wasn't slowing anyone down while it took me forever to have everything scanned and get my children back into their respective holding devices. We didn't have to wait long and thank goodness for preboarding. Anyway, Trent's mom picked us up right outside the security point in phoenix and had a guy with a cart help us with all our crap. We went to Wes' Auto (Az) and saw Trent's dad and brother Troy. Then went to his mom's house to relax a bit and hang with my sister in law Andrea. Blake came over and we had pizza for the 3rd time this week. I met with our landlord to give him a check and get our house keys. By this time the kids were exhausted and so was I. We went and visited my family for a little bit, Abbie came over and then got her husband and sister to meet me at my grandmas to unload our stuff. Her husband is so great with kids, I was amazed that he took Charlotte off and got her to sleep and laid her down, if only he could show Trent how now. We have spent all day today with my family and I am debating if I have enough energy to hang out with the Powell clan in Queen Creek tonight. Well, it only feels like vacation right now. I still haven't gotten over to see our house yet, I have no husband, no car and none of my stuff except what fit in our bags, so you could say it's still not real. It is 103' or so today, we haven't been out much. Well that's about it for now. I will keep you all updated.

1 Week Left!

I am leaving one week from today! HOLY CRAP! I have so much to do and so little time. Yesterday I spent some time at Tori's house, the boys played in the yard and we sat there with our cute babies and talked. It was really weird when I went to leave and realized that we would probably only communicate through email and blogging from now on. We didn't get to hang out much before, but the fact that it's no longer an option made me really sad. She left for Texas this morning, so I guess that's goodbye. I know that it's going to be even harder to say goodbye to Michelle and Gina. Not that we'll never see eachother again, and I am happy to be moving, but you know how it goes. Plus, I'm a real baby.
I will have to pawn these kids off for a few hours or pack at nights if I am going to get this done. Trent is going to stay until the 14th, he has to finish his home addition and the rock and stucco on our house. I was stressing out about driving with the kids while hauling a big trailer, to which Trent kept replying "We'll be fine." It was absolutely driving me nuts that he didn't care or understand that I was really not comfortable with doing that, no matter how many breaks we took or if we stopped overnight. I am an average driver and have never pulled a trailer. Plus I knew Charlotte would not be happy in her carseat, hungry or not. So after talking to my mom, my parents made a very generous and wonderful proposal that saved my sanity. They are flying me and the kids down on June 8- I can have a few days to get the house key and make sure the utilities are set up. Then my dad is flying up on the 13th do the driving. Honestly, a lifesaving deed! I feel the weight of the world is off my shoulders and now I can focus on packing and cleaning the house.

Kare Bear

Karen is the sister just after me. She is 3 years younger. I mostly remember us fighting a lot when we were kids. A couple of particular moments I recall are:

1. Her sitting on the counter kicking me and I grabbed both her feet and pulled on them so that she landed on her back on the floor
2. She and I laying on the floor kicking and clawing at each other, she always managed to scratch me or pinch me so hard with her sharp little nails
3. One time playing Scattegories and I threw this huge dice that has all the letters on it at her, she was bent down and I really just wanted to scare her, but at that moment she looked up and it hit her square in the mouth giving her a nice fat lip.

I loved to tease her. I would call her Honey Bulloney because she hated it and I would call her Bucky O’Hare, referring to her teeth. She has this cute little nose and it’s almost just like 2 nostrils stuck on her face so we sometimes called her E.T. I guess being a big sister just made me mean cause everyone picked on me and now it was my turn I guess. I do have sweet memories of her too. My favorite from our childhood is when I was in 3^rd or 4^th grade. Our class was learning songs for a Christmas program and there was one song in particular that we liked, it is called Emanuel. She would ask me to sing it to her over and over again when we were in bed before we fell asleep.

Karen is my little sister and I am always concerned about her. She is a grown woman now and it is strange to me that she could be married and having her own kids so soon. She is very beautiful, skinny, and stylish. She went to beauty school and she can pull off so many different hair styles and colors. She came here and lived with us for a few months at the end of 2004 and a little of ’05. It was so fun that Tucker got to know her so well. He referred to the bed in our guest room as “Karen’s bed” long after she moved. Karen is very sensitive, emotional, and a bit dramatic (like most of the women in our family). She has tons of friends and boys throwing themselves at her. She is known in our house for making the best potato salad and I think that is pretty much the only thing she makes. She is funny and affectionate and great! Like Adam, she has always just absolutely loved and adored babies. Karen I love you and I can’t wait for you to love on my babies all the time.

I am taking a break from my sibling posts for a few days or so because my internet connection sucks so bad lately that I cannot finish in time. After posting my Utah oh Utah post I thought of some things that I won't miss that much about Utah.
-the little neighbor boy who thinks he is welcome at any time even though there is nobody here even close to his age ( I guess Tucker still gets a kick out of him, but I don't)
-box elder bugs (or hump bugs as I call them)
-freezing my butt off all winter and not being able to have fun in the snow with a baby
-the "everyone in provo must be mormon like me" mentality-I know I am mormon but it still bugs me for some reason
-my swamp cooler making all our food soft
I look forward to
-family time
-babysitters I really trust my kids with
-date nights because I have those babysitters
-restaurants like Ned's Krazy Sub, Pei Wei, Cheesecake factory, Crackers, and The Landmark
-Tucker having tons of cousins to play with
-knowing people I trust to cut my hair
-Grandmas to spoil my kids
-Trent being home at a decent hour (morning and night)
A few other things I'll miss
my big shade tree
decent traffic
green grass and pretty plants

Utah Oh Utah

Today is plenty warm and sunny and Trent mentioned I should wash my car. So after we ate lunch with him, I came home, put Charlotte down for a nap, put Tucker in the kiddie pool and washed the car. It was fun! I was reminded of a summer when I was 12 and a friend and I walked around with a bucket and towels and soap and sponges and went door to door selling car washes for 2 bucks, what a deal! We just used the hoses at the houses we went to. I don't remember how much we made, but we had a lot of fun washing cars in our swim suits and one guy gave us ten bucks cause he had just taken a road trip and we had to scrape a million bugs off his grill.
Anyway I hopped in the kiddie pool with Tucker and was just thinking about a bunch of
Things I am going to miss about Utah.
-Gina (and Ian and Liam)
-Michelle (and her boys)
-Tori
-My house
-Thinking 90' is super hot
-The mountain views
-my Sunday School class
-Cafe Rio
-snow
-rain
-cherry trees

I am sure many more will come to mind when I am actually gone. But that's what I thought of today.

Emily

Emily is the sibling right before me. She is 3 years older than me. We spent many years of our childhood sharing a bedroom. I remember back massages before bed time and laughing and being silly. Emily introduced me to and got me liking country music and Billy Joel. Emily always seemed really cool to me. She had lots of friends that always seemed to be doing fun, cool things. I wanted to be like her in a lot of ways. I remember her telling me about the fun dance activities she would do and I particularly thought it was funny that a bunch of high school kids would dress up as muppets and sesame street characters for a costume themed dance. She was Oscar the Grouch, not very fitting for someone who seemed to me to always be upbeat. When she and her friends would get together everyone else in the house would go crazy because they would talk so loud and their voices seemed to get really high pitched. Typical bubbly teenage girls, I guess. Right before my freshman year and Emily's senior year we moved to Wyoming. Our house was still being built and the rest of the family stayed in Utah until it was finished, but we decided it would be better not to have to switch schools during the year. So Em and I moved into a one bedroom apartment with my dad who was living there to work and coming home on the weekends. We started at Star Valley High School and Emily was kind enough to let her dorky freshman sister eat lunch with her and her friends in the Senior hall until I found my own friends to eat with. That was pretty cool. I am feeling retarded that I can't think of way more specific childhood memories with Emily. Perhaps I am losing my mind or I just have a terrible memory- I do lose things on a regular basis.

Anyway I do know plenty of ways to describe her. Physically she has the cutest,most petite body with the roundest little bubble butt, she is healthy and very pretty-she even competed in the Mrs. Hawaii pageant (it's for married women). She is very intelligent and graduated BYU Hawaii. She is motivated, talented(a great writer), not afraid to tell you what she thinks, outgoing, a leader, organizer, and planner, a list maker, a traveler (she and her husband backpacked in Nepal for weeks), she loves reading and learning, she shares advice and recipes and her feelings, she is thoughtful and calls more than anyone else in my fam. She is adventurous and loves playing cards and board games. Emily, there is no one like you and I am lucky to have you as a big sister.

Adam

Adam is my next oldest sibling. He is 5 years older than me. Much like Sarah, I did not know him very well growing up. I remember an incident when my dad was pretty mad at him and went in his room to destroy his collection of shot glasses. I remember he listened to Crash Test Dummies. I remember that when I was in Junior High he told me that I was the biggest loser in my school which made me cry because I was in fact a pretty big loser. He was a little shocked that I reacted that way, he was only kidding. I remember him telling me about a that I had sleep-walked into his room crying and he had had to carry me back upstairs to my room. I remember he and Sarah teased me a lot because when I was in elementary school I had talked in my sleep about s boy I liked, they would chant "Victor, Victor, my name is Victor" which is apparently what I said in my sleep. That would always make me really embarrassed and mad. When I was 12 I decided that I wanted to collect troll dolls, this is the one Adam got me ->
The day after my first kiss with Trent, Adam and I went to a stake singles dance together, I remember thinking how it was weird that we were going out doing something together like friends. I really liked it. The night before my wedding we had a family dinner and everone in Trents family told a story about him and my family told stories about me. Adam got up and said that I was the good child. In my mom's eyes I could do no wrong, even if there was evidence to the contrary. It was the first time I had heard that. It seemed funny to me, I was far from the perfect child. One of my favorite times hanging out was when I came to visit Mesa, I was pregnant with Tucker. I flew in and he picked me up from the airport. He took me to lunch at a chinese place, The Bamboo Hut on Mill Ave. It was great, that was the first time I tried edamame(which I love now). We looked at some stores and then climbed the ASU mountain. I loved it!
I would describe Adam as good looking(all my friends say so), physically fit and athletic, health concious ( I remember him keeping weird health food stuff in our fridge like flax seed oil and other stuff, he also went through a vegetarian phase and has always worked out), holistic, aware of his environment, intelligent, a great cook, independant, silly and playful, a face maker, a joker, a hard worker, and someone who appreciates nature, beauty, art, and literature (a metrosexual?). Adam has always loved babies and is a wonderful, adoring father. He married this great girl who had two boys and fell into the father role so easily and they now have a baby girl together 2 weeks older than Charlotte. Her name is Moqui and she is darling.