you know you want this

i happened to pounce on to the popular Give Away Today blog this morning and found this darling, darling website. i refuse to spend time trying to get a handout, but i love seeing the cute companies that they highlight daily. today happened to be a vinyl company, and i know there are a gazillion out there, but this company will change your entire view of vinyl. and for the next couple weeks they are giving 30% off your entire order by using this code gat30430 during checkout. i ordered this adorable monogram for porter's room, and with the discount it was just $15. i love that vinyl isn't permanent like paint, i can peal it off and move it later down the road. and aren't these growth charts just darling? i am in love, maybe someone else will be too. check them out at Studio JK Vinyl.

ps: i LOVE my new blog design, i am totally proud for doing it all by myself. isn't it so stinkin' cute?

makes me smile

sorry not too many new pictures to post lately. but i came across this picture from last week and it brought a smile to my face. when we went to phoenix last month we brought along our portable dvd player for porter to watch movies, and we paired it with these lovely headphones so j and i could still sing our lungs out to our ipod. porter got pretty good taking the headphones on and off. so it was pretty funny when he was going through or drawers and cupboards last week and came across his headphones and decided to put them on. he just walked into the room wearing them. he was pretty stoked when i actually turned the ipod on, he just wandered around the house listening to his music for a good 10 minutes. love this boy.

scare of a lifetime

for more details and pictures, see jamie's blog
as we were leaving to go home, zach climbed into the celica that was parked at the top of jamie and d's driveway, on the side of their house. he was getting some bubble gum for his mom. he grabbed onto the shifter and moved the car into neutral. the car started rolling down the driveway with the door open and zach in the car. jared and darron ran to try and stop the car but the momentum of the car rolling down the driveway had the car going way too fast. it zoomed all the way down the driveway, across the street, to the empty lot across their house that has a huge cliff off the back of it. the car jumped the curb and somehow ended up a good 5 feet away from where it hit into a big green electrical box. darron opened the door the same time jared grabbed zach out of the car so he wouldn't go down the cliff with the car. the opened door hit the electrical box and stopped the car from going down the cliff. the car somehow went past jared and zach without pinning them badly. zachs arm got pinned and looked pretty bad. they rushed him to the emergency center where they were rushed in, with worries of a broken arm and possible internal bleeding. they did a catscan and had xrays done. thankfully, all was well and everyone involved escaped with just some scratches.
we were all so thankful that heavenly father was watching out for us last night. there were so many things that happened just right to have the outcome we did. so many things could have happened differently, and the outcome would have been terribly different. it was a great reminder that nothing matters in life compared to our children and family. we are SOOOOO happy and blessed that our little zachy is safe and okay. we are all still pretty shooken up.

i survived

surgery day came 10:30am friday morning. i have never been put out before. after they wheeled me into the surgery room they started to administer the anesthesia. the doctor told me i would start to get sleepy. i waited a few seconds and i wasn't. i told them, "i'm not sleepy at all!" and i looked around the room waiting to feel the affects and said to them again, "i'm not sleepy at all." i don't ever remember getting sleepy or anything, the next thing i knew, i was trying to wake up. i couldn't get my poor little eyes to open up, but i was trying to tell someone that i was in PAIN. that wasn't how i imagined coming to. in fact, this entire experience was far from what i expected it would be. since i have had a c-section i imagined that it could only be as worse or less than that. it didn't cross my mind that this was going to be the most painful experience i have had to endure thus far in my life. as i was working on waking up and trying to sound like a coherent person answering their questions, they were giving me meds through my iv. but they simply were not doing anything to help my pain. so the next step was to get me to eat and drink something so that i could take something orally. my cute husband hand fed me chocolate pudding and as did, his mouth would open wide the exact same time mine would- just like he does when he feeds porter something. if i hadn't have been so groggy i would have laughed. the meds didn't kick in until later that evening. it was, however, short lived; i woke up in the middle of the night with intense pain. i took as much pain medicine as i was allowed, as often as i was allowed, but still that following day (saturday) i was in the most pain i have ever experienced. something about the pain of those two screws in my bones penetrated throughout my entire foot and lower leg, throbbing non-stop. finally around 5pm saturday i was instructed to take ibuprofen with my pain meds for the inflamation. that combination was what i needed for relief. it was such a wonderful feeling to have the medicine working. i literally felt like i had been holding my breath and was finally able to breathe. the next day i had to find the right balance in medication because although my pain was relieved, it was making me vomit. needless to say, it was not a fun recovery. oh yeah, and the doc said while they were doing surgery they discovered "several other fractured bones" and "bone chips" hanging around in my foot. no screws or pins needed for those, but still... lovely.

on the bright side of things, my older brother robbie, drove all day from california to come help out. what a sweet heart he is, it was like heavenly father sent me an angel to help me out through this horrible trial of mine. he played with porter, took him on bike rides, took him to the park, played basketball with him, took him outside, etc. my biggest fear going into surgery was being stressed about porter, and thankfully i was able to rest on 20 pillows on my comfortable guest bed with ice packs on my leg and foot, snacks on my bed side, and a large stack of red boxes to pass the time; and all the while i didn't have to stress about porter, i knew that he was having fun with his uncle robbie and his daddy. this was a horrible experience, one i pray i will never have to repeat, but it was wonderful to be taken care of and to know that everything will work out in the end. i'll admit, last week i had a complete meltdown and had no idea how i would be able to be a mom and recover at the same time. i cried for hours and offered a lot of prayers. later that day i found out that dinners were going to be brought in by our ward, i had my neighbor offer to take porter for some play dates, my sister in law volunteered to take porter on surgery day, and then later robbie surprised us by coming out. i have had so many good friends offer to help, and even if i haven't needed to ask (err, yet...) it has been comforting to know that there are helping hands all around me. i knew heavenly father was watching out for me and my family.

and now, monday is here and real life begins. lets see how this REALLY goes... :)

countdown til surgery

monday the girls from the ward and i met up at cascade park for a picnic. finally, the weather was warm enough to be outside at the park. porter explored the park high and low, from one end to the next. i guess i didn't get to visit as much as the others, but porter was having so much fun and that is really the point of getting together. he even was dribbling a huge ball on the cement, i was amazed. we were there for a whopping 2 1/2 hours before heading home with rosy cheeks and an overly tired little boy. i made a mental note that sunscreen now needs to be added to our daily routine.

as i pulled into the garage the ups truck was parked outside my house delivering the daily business packages. chris abney whom lives in our basement was outside chatting with his mom. as i unloaded our stuff and porter from the car, it crossed my mind that the packages on our front step might be needed for today's shipments. if so, i would need to bring them down to the office. so porter and i headed around the front of the house to the front door to see if any of the packages needed to be brought down. during this short walk, the ups man drove away in his big brown truck. chris hugged his mom and helped her into her car. his mom drove away and chris headed down to the basement. we checked the packages and none needed to go to the office. i was grateful, considering that porter was ready for nap time. the front door was locked, so i headed back to the garage. porter in my arms, i climbed down those cement steps. 1, 2, 3... i thought my last step was on to the ground. it wasn't. i stretched my right leg out preparing to make the double step. my foot landed and gave out on me, and i was heading face first to the cement. my immediate concern was that porter was in my arms and would either a) hit the cement or b) get squished by me. i turned my body away so that i would fall on my back thus bracing porter from the fall. i was mostly successful but the impact still made his head jerk, and the side on his face bumped the cement. i was immediately aware of 2 things: the welfare of my little boy, and the excruciating pain in my foot. i checked porter from head to toe and held him close to my chest with his blankie by his face ... his favorite way to be soothed. my foot was in so much pain. i wanted to keep porter as still as possible because any movement made it hurt even worse. i didn't know how i was going to get off of my butt, baby in hand in the situation i was in. i had a small freak out moment... i yelled chris' name hoping he hadn't made it to the basement yet. and then i yelled "somebody help me!" but no one could hear. i wondered how it could be that just moments ago there were three abled bodies right in my front yard and now there were none. my mind contemplated what i would need to do- crawl through my garage and into my house where i could retrieve my phone. then i remembered that one of my neighbors across the street was packing her kids into the car as i was leaving the park. surely she would be home any minute. then again, her boys were tired too, and she likes to run errands while her boys sleep so maybe she wasn't coming home? then i remembered that my other 2 neighbors were walking home with their strollers and were about 1/2 way home when i passed them driving home. they would walk (oh how sweet that sounds, walk) around the corner any time now. so i sat there, holding porter who was now calm... and maybe confused why we were sitting awkwardly outside... and waited. porter was close to falling asleep when alissa and jamie came around the corner. i felt so relieved to see their pretty faces, and for the 1st time i felt the few tears that were never far away slip down my face. i waved to them and said, "i need some help."

all i really intended was for them to call jared for me. but those two girls took matters into their own hands and made the otherwise stressful situation be ok. jamie got my purse, cell phone and crutches for me, and took porter so he could go nap. alissa came around with her car in a matter of a minute and helped me into her car and took me to the doctors where she proceeded to stay with me from check-in, to xrays, and diagnosis. i was so glad to have someone to talk to, to keep from thinking about it. the doctor looked over the xrays and sure enough i had broken my foot. again... yes this happened less than 6 months ago. he thought i might need surgery, but considering the urgent care doctors didn't even see my broken foot last time around i didn't give too much credit to his opinion. he splinted my foot and told me that i had an appointment with an orthopedic specialist at 9am the next morning.

so this morning i went to the orthopedics office. once again, it was confirmed broken and it is a pretty good break. the bones are separated quite a lot, i was surprised when i saw the xray. after me trying to encourage other solutions that were all shot down by the doctor, i finally had to come to grips that yes, in deed, i have to get surgery. one or maybe two screws will put things back together. after my morning appointment i headed to my next appointment at timpanogos hospital where i had a ct-scan of my foot that cost a fortune. so now i have a couple of days to be nervous about my surgery on friday. i will be on crutches for 2 weeks after the surgery and then they will put me in a walking cast for another 4 weeks. i consider that good news. i will be able to walk in a relatively short amount of time. granted, i am sure 2 weeks hopping after my little boy, not being able to drive, and recovering from a broken bone and a stitched up foot will last a little bit longer than my previous 2 weeks did. but i'm trying to stay positive, things always work out. right? right?

special thanks to alissa and jamie for saving my day. i was so thankful to have their help and support, both physically and mentally. and another special thanks to jared who is mr mom right now, catering to porters needs. he loves his daddy especially the added attention he is getting right now.

easter fun

easter was fun this year. the festivities began on saturday at our elder's quorum easter egg-hunt and breakfast. porter found some rice krispy treats and decided that would be HIS breakfast. he is his father's son. he also managed to find someones cup of punch sitting on the edge on a table and spilled it all over himself and the floor. lovely. he did better than i thought he would with the egg hunt. i was certain he would think they were balls and just want to throw them. but once he learned there was candy inside he knew what to do. open it and try and eat the candy. he is his father's son.

sunday we went to darron and jamie's ward for their baby girl's blessing. little michelle looked absolutely beautiful in her tiny blessing dress. what a little princess she is. after, we had a bbq at their house. they had the yummiest bbq'd marinated turkey. it was so tasty that i am marinating some chicken in the same marinade right now. equal parts - soy sauce, 7up, and vegetable oil. jamie says it is the one everyone uses, so maybe this is no news to you... but if it is, try it. the kids decorated cookies and then they had an easter egg hunt. porter and ryan were missing during the cookie decorating- we later found them in zach's room playing some bball. even during the egg hunt porter was more interested in playing football with the uncles. it was a beautiful spring day - bright blue skys and a warm sun and cool breeze- just how easter should be. i love easter, not only for the budding beauty that is refreshingly new, but to remember our savior and His love and sacrifice for us. i am eternally grateful that He has made it possible for me to be with my beautiful family forever. (of course, no holiday post would be complete without a gazillion pictures to follow.)

i'm mac'n it

I did it. I ditched my PC and got an IMAC. Everyone says it is hard to get used to a Mac when you have learned everything on a PC but, I have to admit, it hasn't been difficult at all. Knock on wood. I've only been playing around for a couple hours but overall I have to say that I think it will be a little more user friendly. It is true that some things look and run a tad different but it is easy to navigate. And you know what they say, "Once you go Mac you never go back!" We'll see. The biggest adjustment is the 20-something " screen, I feel like I am turning my head from side to side to see the entire screen. And the best feature of all is that there is no tower, the monitor and the computer are built in one. Pair that with a wireless keyboard and mouse, and that means no more cords running everywhere.

More fun and exciting news. We have spent the past week and a half setting up our .... drum roll please .... first office! It is an exciting business milestone for us. For the past couple years, we've been running everything out of our basement. It was wonderful for me and Porter to be able to see Jared and my brothers on a daily basis. But now that we are hiring more employees that are not family, the time has come. Jared's brother also has an online business and is sharing the office with us. Tomorrow they get the daunting task of interviewing some 40-odd people that have applied. It will be fun to meet the people they choose that will join our little adventure.

This week at the Robbins House...

Just another typical day in my home. As you can see, he is still the center of my life and the highlight of it. What ever would I do without this rascal? So this week...

We have done the dishes...





































We've pouted over taxes. Original estimate says we owe $20K? Ouch! Still working...
















We've gone on bike rides with Daddy.














We've had chocolate!










We've laughed...
























We've fallen asleep in the shower.

Deal - Teva Boots

Jamie and I found these cute Teva boots on sale on Teva's site. They have them in brown or black and they are only $14.90 + FREE shipping. They are regularly $85, score right? You can find them by visiting HERE. Happy Shopping!

Uck!

I wish this WERE an April Fools joke, this is real. The nastys buying this are probably the same ones yelling across the store honey, we're out of chocolate milk! Uck!

* Each tube contains 21oz (595g) of Squeez Bacon®.
* 16 servings - equivalent to 64 slices of bacon!
* Bottled in Sweden, made from U.S. bred swine.
* Shelf Life of 12 years.
* No refrigeration needed.
* Jätte gott!

Babble, Babble, Talk!

Porter has been in such a talkative mood this past week. First it began with lots of babbling. He has lots of words that he can say, but mostly he likes to babble. But recently he has been using his words a lot more. I thought it would be so fun when he put together 2 words, and much to our surprise yesterday he put together not two but THREE words! We were upstairs, and Porter kept yelling "daddy". He would put his hands up and I would say "Daddy, where are you?" And just like that he started saying, "Daddy, are you?" I am going to have to capture it on camera because the cutest part of it is the tone in his voice when he says it. Then at lunch he was eating his chicken and he touched one and tells me "hot". Today he has been saying in a very low voice "two, two, two..." and then he SCREAMS" "threeeee!" So funny. So here are the words Porter is currently saying: Daddy, Mommy, Baby, Kitty Kat, Banana, Balloon, Ball, Are You, Bye, Ashlee, Fishy, Hot, Car, Cheese, Uh-Oh, Binky, Whoa...I am sure I am leaving some out. This has been such a fun couple of days for us, as he has randomly starting saying the cutest little things. I guess some stages really do happen over night.

Last night we saw Will Smith's Movie, Seven Pounds. Confusing start, but I thought it was cute and touching. I would have cried if I wasn't trying to figure out if eyeball transplants really existed. Never heard of such a thing. Anyhow, pretty good movie if you're looking for a good one.