ROBERTSONS INC.: March 2011

Monday

Just hanging around

For those of you looking for more pictures of this cute little bug...

Sarah loaned us her Boppy to try out and I am totally getting one! Ash looves it! And it is a life saver when she wants to be held, it fools her every time!

Tummy time reading books!

Bath time.... so stinkin cute.

This was the first time on the Boppy... she lasted like 10 seconds. But aren't you impressed with her head holding up!

Collin's 3 girls hanging out..... any time I put out a blanket for Ash Lucy immediately comes and settles right onto it!

Some time with Mommy (will I ever get used to being called that?!?!)

aw.

More bath time...

Loving the new room...

Story time with Dad... this is super hilarious to me!

Lucy meets Ashlyn

What do you think would happen when this little baby....

Meets the baby?

This:

sniff sniff..

No one else can touch her!

I want attention too!

This is the best!! Lucy didn't used to be a huge lap snuggler unless she was really tired...but now that we have Ashlyn any time either of us is sitting down with Ashlyn in our arms, guess who runs right over and barges her way into our lap! It is super funny. Lucy was super mad at me the first day she was home, as in she would sit in the farthest corner away from me, and when I would call her name she would purposefully look the other way!! I know! what a brat! Just joking, I understand. But we have been sure to give her lots of love and attention and she has gotten over it, I think. She mostly just sniffs Ashlyn and then goes about her usual business. I think they will have lots of fun together once Ashlyn is a little more interactive! For now though I definitely feel like I have 2 little kids to look after at home!

Ashlyn's at home!

Home sweet home in Boise at last. . .

The sign in her brand new nursery left by the magical nursery decorators!

I meant to take pics of her with all my friends that came to visit, but forgot most of the time! Here she is with Auntie Kim! :)

And Auntie Alli! (who has the magic touch to wake her up!)

Snoozing with dad on the couch.... can't count how many times I have already seen this.

We had so many wonderful friends come to visit, bringing gifts, formula, dinner, and more! It has been great to be back home and to introduce Ashlyn to everyone and get to catch up with my friends! It's nice to start to feel normal again!

Ashlyn's first experience at the piano

Okay, so the first day she was home Collin was giving her a little tour of the house (so cute) and he thought it would be a good idea to get a pic of her sitting at the piano. She was amused for a second--

Then not so amused!!!!!

hahaha! I thought this was so funny! So we have 2 versions of her first experience at the piano--only time will tell which one will come to be true!!!

The trip home from Detroit

We were originally told that it would be about 2 weeks' stay in Detroit when we went over to get Ashlyn. Well, about 6 days in I was ready to go! But after talking with our caseworker over there, he said it looked like it would definitely be another week before we could leave. That was a big bummer, because we were hoping my mom and I could fly home before she had to leave, and Collin had to come back. But it looked like Collin would have to come back anyway, since there was no freaking way I was flying home alone with Ash.

Soo.... of course the day that my mom was leaving, which was day 9 of the trip, I got the call from Boise that we had cleared ICPC and were free to leave! wahoo! I was jumping up and down! Then I realized it wouldn't be so simple... my mom's flight left in 2 hours so it was too late to change it, and Collin was scheduled to fly in the next day. So, we had to keep it that way and fly Collin out again. But just knowing we could leave was so wonderful! We decided to try to plan to fly out Sunday, hoping our birthmom could meet with us earlier than we had planned, since we could now leave earlier. We found out Saturday night that yes, she could meet us the next day and so we would be able to fly home that day. How's that for last-minute planning?!

The sad thing was that Collin flew in, only to have to leave again 24 hours later. I think he was looking forward to having a few days to spend lounging around in a hotel room watching all the ESPN his heart desired. I, on the other hand, was itching to go, since I had been there 10 days already!

We got to meet Ashlyn's birthmom, Rae on Sunday. It was such a neat experience! We really love her so much. How can you not love someone who gives you a child? She is such a nice, humble, sweet girl. We had a couple of hours to talk and get to know each other, then Collin, Ashlyn and I had to hurry off to the airport.

I love this one because Ashlyn is smiling! She knows how much all of us love her!! :)

So, the trip home was definitely an adventure. I was the one who had to drive the rental car, which was super annoying to Collin. And it was super annoying to me because he is not a good navigator! He is one of those change-lanes-at-the-last-possible-moment drivers, while I am one who changes lanes the minute I know I will need to turn, even if it's not for 20 miles. So, it was with help from above that we made it through all the freeway changes and navigated the airport area to make it to return our rental car!! Then we had to hop a shuttle to the airport, all with huge suitcases and a baby in tow. Security was awful! You know how they hurry you along and act so rude if you're not moving as fast as you can..well what the heck am I supposed to do about stripping off my coat ,shoes, belt, and everything else when between the two of us we were juggling a diaper bag, laptop, 2 other bags, the baby, and having to dig out all her formula for inspection? it was stressful to say the least. But we all made it through and it was fine. Our flights home were great--Ashlyn was admired by all the flight attendants, and she was such a champ, she slept most of the time but when she was awake she was content just looking around. She even timed her poopy diaper for our half-hour layover in Denver. yeeah!

We made it to Boise around 11:30, and my bud Amber picked us up, and it was SO nice to get home! We spent another couple of hours unpacking and taking care of Ashlyn before we finally made it to our beds--which made it about 3:30am Michigan time that we finally got to sleep. But it was wonderful to be back home!

Time Warp--Lovely Weekend!

Right before everything went all crazy, we had a super great weekend with some family visiting! This was literally the weekend Ashlyn was born, though we didn't know it yet... but I wanted to put up pics anyway since I swear someday this blog will be a book!

Sam and Megan came to visit! It was so fun. They hadn't ever been to Boise to visit us before and it was great to have them. We did lots of fun things like going to Merritt's, Sonic, district wrestling! ha ha! Actually, the pic above.... RANDALL took it! (those of you who know my terror of him!) He was sitting right behind us at districts and I got up the guts to ask him to take our picture!! I know he isn't really that scary but I do like to be a dork about it.

Centennial WON districts for the second year in a row! They blew everyone out this year, I believe they won by something like 65 points?!?! Wow! Those guys are good. It was fun to watch because there was a CHS guy in almost all the finals, which isn't usually how it is at tournaments. I was very proud of my Pats!

We celebrated by going out to Texas Roadhouse.... we ate about 50 rolls with honeybutter before our actual food came out--we were starving! It was a lot of fun. While we were there was when we got the first call about Ashlyn, though at the time we weren't thinking it would become anything! ha ha!

It's funny to look back at these pictures and think just 48 hours later our lives would be completely changed...! It seems like we were so innocent!

Lucy LOVES when we have any company come to town! And Sam and Megan were no exception! Sam took her out back to play her favorite game--chase the toy on the string! I thought this was a nice action shot!

I thought this pic was hilarious! Lucy is like, "huh?" Totally thinking she is the boss on Sam's lap. She got plenty of attention from them and loved every minute of it! We all had a good time sharing dog stories!

Cory came over Sunday night also, so we had some fun playing Set (well some thought it was fun) and then Five Crowns, and eating loads of yogurt pretzels. It was really fun to hang out as siblings, I haven't really had many of my older sibs over to Boise without my parents being there (besides Tara of course), so it was fun for a few of us to be together! Needless to say I think we all act a little more mature and like our "usual selves" when we're not in the time-warp of my parent's house!

Thanks for coming you guys, it was a fun weekend! Now that we have a little one you have a good excse to come again!

Sunday

Boo! I have been SICK for the past 5 days! Sorry to those of you who I may have not called, emailed, texted, whatever back . . . it has not been fun! Today I am feeling a teensy bit better but still taking antibiotics, tylenol, and anti-nausea medication! I don't know what hit me but it is surely something Collin and his invincible immune system brought home from school! I have been dying! Yesterday was the worst... of course the day I had things planned, including our big fun baby shower with the ward and my friends! I was very blessed though that I felt pretty well during the party! Aftewards I went home and crashed, I don't even remember getting into bed!

Anyway, so I will be catching everyone up with pictures of our cute little baby soon, but who knows when! Man it is hard to take care of a baby while you yourself just want to sit down and cry if something isn't going right! I feel for all you moms out there for sure. Even if you're not a mom, being sick SUCKS!

What do you do?

What do you do when you're not allowed to leave the county? That is the very question my mom and I asked ourselves while we were in Oakland County, MI (Novi, to be specific) for 7 days together. (I was there for 12 days--but it was 7 with my Mimsy there)

I think when she first got there we were both thinking the same thing.... "what the heck are we going to do to keep from driving each other crazy over the next 7 days, stuck here in this hotel room?"

but this past week, as I have been back in Boise, I realized that I got into a ROUTINE while I was there! And it has been weird coming home to adjust to a new routine! Never thought that would be the case.

This is where we stayed:

And this is a panorama shot of the room we stayed in for Ashlyn's 6th through 17th days of life:

Many people were asking me how we were getting along....did we have to go out to eat every night? Were we hiding in our hotel because we were in downtown Detroit? Well, the answer is no, and no. Thankfully. We stayed in Novi, which is a Boise-ish suburb. I never even saw any remote area of actual Detroit. Not a single skyscraper. I'm a teensy bit sad about that--I have always loved seeing big city skylines. BUT given the situation I was in, with a new baby and all, and the city I was in being Detroit, which isn't exactly touristy, I didn't feel too heartbroken.

And as for getting along foodwise... we were in an extended-stay hotel, which means we had our own little kitchen: fridge, micro, stovetop, dishwasher. It was necessary. I think I ate out 3 times total the entire time. Our hotel had free breakfast every day, and free dinner 3 nights a week. We were right across the street from a Kroger and down the street from Target.

There was also a decent workout room (all I needed was a treadmill anyway) and free laundry. So, we were well taken care of.

BUT

even with all that, you can only sit around in a hotel room for so long. Ashlyn definitely kept us busy, as well as watching my fave shows every night, but about mid-afternoon we would get itching to get out SOMEWHERE. Plus we had to leave so housekeeping could come clean!

So we ventured out to see a few sights....

Stocked up on unique treats and dried fruits (FLAT BANANA...YUM!) at Trader Joe's! SO wish there was one in Boise!

Headed to Babies R Us to register for baby stuff.... and may or may not have gone a little crazy buying little girl clothes while we were there....

Ate at Famous Dave's....I can officially say this is the first restaurant Ashlyn has been to, if she ever cares to know!

Walked a giant mall! Just like 3x the sise of Boise's. Ashlyn usually snoozed in her carseat or sling while we ventured out these places. When people would ask how old she was and find out she was only 10-ish days old, I would usually get raves about how great I look for just having a baby! Gotta love it! And if you are shaking your head that we took a brand new baby out... I swear she was covered up and out of reach everywhere we went. And really, what are you going to do thousands of miles from home with absolutely nothing to do? I am not ashamed!

It actually turned out to be a great time to bond with Ashlyn, and my mom. I wish Collin could have been there more, but then again with the 4 of us it would have been beyond crowded. It was nice, in a way, to be able to just relax and not have anything to worry about but figuring out how to be a mom and enjoying my sweet little baby! Not that I would recommend racking up thousands of dollars worth of plane tickets, hotel, rental car, and other bills, but you will never ever hear me say it wasn't worth it.

Friday

Ashlyn's Nursery!

When we got approved for adoption right before Christmas, they sent us a letter explaining that it is not guaranteed that every couple will have a child placed with them, and that the average wait for getting a child should be expected to be about 2 years. So, we definitely thought we had a while to get ready for a baby. We had just started saving to cover the adoption and possible travel costs, and we had also just started a plan for making some home improvements--like recarpeting our bedrooms and cleaning out the baby's room. Well, plans changed obviously, and here we are 2 months after getting approved with our sweet little baby girl already. Back in the day years ago when I dreamed about having kids I always pictured myself happily decorating the nursery for months in anticipation of having a baby. Because if you know me, you know I love decorating. WELL things sure didn't work out that way! But instead something even better came along.

The day we found out that Ashlyn was in Michigan waiting for us, I got a call from my brother Sam who said he and his wife Megan wanted to give us a present--to come up and decorate Ashlyn's nursery. I was kind of crying when he told me this. There have been so many miracles along the way of this whole journey, and though it may seem trivial, it meant a lot to me! Megan is brilliant and super artsy, and Sam likes to do little home improvement projects, so I think they were pretty excited about it too. We had a crib waiting at Collin's brother's house in Tremonton that they picked up, then I guess all my siblings pitched into buy us a glide rocker, and my Grandma in Denver sent $$ to get us a changing table. Yes, my brother Sam is a good salesman.

So here is the before picture of the baby's room, as we left it in our hurry to get to her:

And here is the after!!!

I am so excited to see this in person! I have just gotten a webcam tour and these pictures so far. But as you can tell, Ashlyn is a very lucky girl who is loved by so many already. Having something like this taken care of eases my mind SO much as I think about all the craziness that will ensue once we finally get home! Thanks again Sam and Megan. I really think you guys should join the Extreme Home Makeover team, or start your own show!

I love this little snuggler!!!! And check out that hair!!!

Bath time photo shoot!

This is part of our hotel room.... I used the panorama setting on my camera! This place feels like home now.... I have been in Michigan for 10 nights! I am ready to go back to Boise, but I am thankful we have had such a nice place to stay, thanks to my dad's great travel agent skills. We have had free breakfast every morning, free dinner 3 days a week, free laundry, free DVD rentals, a gym to work out in, and many more amenities. Although we will probably be paying off this trip for a year, it has been nice to be somewhere comfortable, that is for sure!

We have been at Staybridge Suites in case you are ever needing a long term hotel! I would highly recommend it!

Fun with Grandma

Since we had to wait in Michigan for a while for legal things to go through, Grandma Amy came to visit for a week! She really saved me, I was not ready to handle a newborn on my own in a hotel room in a strange place! It was great to have this time together, and Ashlyn really loved spending time with Grandma, of course. I learned lots about being a Mom too!

Stretching with Grandma!

Reading books and playing games with Grandma

Snuggle time!

Thanks for coming Mom, you really did save my life! It was great to have help and to see your great example in being such a wonderful mom. Ashlyn is already spoiled by her Grandma!