My Mom

Well, after two and a half weeks my mom flew home today. Can I just say that I hate living so stinkin' far away!! I cried... I cried when I woke up this morning just thinking about her going home today and I cried again all the way home from the airport. She is amazing and I loved having her here. I am grateful that she made the sacrifice to be here to help out (and maybe more so my dad, for letting her come!) Carter and Gage absolutely loved having her here, they loved doing art projects with her, reading stories, going to McDonald's and playing game after game after game. Carter loved the treats she would get from the store for his lunches, and the notes she wrote and put in his lunchbox. I loved that she helped out in every way imaginable! And as an added bonus she is so much fun to be around. I miss her already! Love you Mom!!

It's Been One Week...

After one week (and two days, but who's counting) of being a mother of three I have to say, so far so good... but my mom left today so that will probably all change... Camden has been a super easy baby so far and has slept most of his life away, however he manages to stay bright eyed (and cranky) from about 11pm to 3am... gotta love it! Carter commented the other day, "Mom, I think Camden's nocturnal!"

(I think he's warming up to the idea of having another brother!)

Living in Milwaukee has also had an influence on Carter. When Jared came home to get the boys to bring them to the hospital to meet their baby brother Carter asked, "What kind of skin does he have?" Jared didn't quite understand the question and asked for clarification.

"Does he have white or brown skin?" Carter asked.

"Oh, he has white skin," Jared answered.

"But that would be okay if he had brown skin, right dad?"

"Yah, that would be okay."

(Well considering my white husband... it really wouldn't be okay, but I don't think Jared was ready to have the birds and the bees talk with our 5 year old!)

Here are some pictures of little Cam that we took tonight, he sure is precious!!

Camden Rex Robbins

He's here! Born January 20th weighing in at a whoppin 9lbs 4oz... he's a chunker. He'll need that extra baby fat to keep him warm in this Wisconsin winter!

Everything went great,... thanks to a well placed epidural and Obama's inaugural address to keep us entertained for the 3 hours of labor. Jared thought it would be witty to name him "Change" since he was born on inauguration day. (Obviously that was a no go, but we did consider Obama... only because I wanted the nickname of Obama Mama.) We are all recovering wonderfully, well except for maybe Carter and Gage.

Gage is ecstatic to be a big brother and Carter has determined that he is now the big, BIG brother. Gage loves to hold him and will surely be a smotherer. Carter, well, he's warming up to the idea of having another brother and prefers to see him from a distance, but he is great little helper!

Baby Cam is perfect... 10 fingers, 10 toes, and the cutest little cry (well at least for now, with 2 older brothers I am sure he will find a way to be heard). We are so excited to welcome him to our home!

Seriously!?!

School has been cancelled two days in a row now... NO not because we have been buried in snow... because of the DaNGerOuSLy CoLd temperatures!! So this is what a Wisconsin winter is! Yesterday and today the wind chill has brought the temps to -35 to -45 degrees. The weather advisory said if you MUST go outside to make sure that ALL of your skin is covered as even 10 minutes of exposure can result in frostbite! Seriously!?! I sure am missing a good ole Arizona winter right about now!!

WAteR WaRs

Last night Gage decided he needed a drink of water after he had been neatly tucked into bed (one of his MaNy stall tactics). He came into the kitchen where I was doing the dishes so I gave him a drink of water. After he finished it he said, "Carter needs one too." I thought that was sweet of him to think of his brother (we had just had a family home evening lesson on sharing so I thought perhaps he was remembering it). I put a little water in the cup and he trotted off to his room to give it to his brother. 2 minutes later: Carter and Gage are both screaming in their room. Jared and I run in there to see what had happened. Well apparently Carter had already fallen asleep and Gage decided to climb up the ladder to the top bunk to give him his water. I'm not sure what happened from there but they both ended up getting wet... Gage's defense: Carter wouldn't answer me! Carter wasn't too happy when he was abruptly awoken by water spilling on him... I couldn't help but laugh... and look at that mischievous grin , can you really get mad?!?

IDeNTitY CRisiS!

I am suffering from an identity crisis.... in preparation for baby number 3 we bought a minivan!! The thought of being a minivan mom is more than I can bear. I feel sooo OLD driving it. (It is particularly odd to drive it when I am all by myself.) All of my friends that drive them have ended up loving them, but there is something about the stigma that goes along with driving a minivan that I can't get over. When I told my mom we were buying one she laughed at me and said, "can I remind you of a conversation that we had years ago where you swore you would NEVER drive a minivan." Yah, yah! I know, never say never! I must say the thought of putting 3 carseats in the back seat of the Jeep pushed me over the edge... it really is nice and has a lot of great features but I still can't get used to the fact that I am a minivan mom!

I would have attached a picture but it is covered in salt and ice right now and really doesn't look that pretty, besides that would have required me to go back outside in the frigid temperatures and take a picture. Maybe I will add one later... it's a Toyota Sienna, dark blue... with WISCONSIN license plates!

Happy New Year!!

In order to be able to celebrate New Years with our boys without having to sacrifice our sanity on the first (when they would have been sleep deprived and extremely grumpy) we opted to ring in the new year a little early this year. We headed to the children's museum and joined in on the celebration there where we enjoyed the museum, made some AMAZING party hats* and rang in the new year at 12:00 noon complete with cookies and juice. All in all we had a great time.

*Honesty Disclosure: I thought the party hats were a bit rediculous... they were Jared's creative genius. Although I have to say the boys LOVED them and had many compliments... and we overheard many kids asking their parents if they could make a hat like that!! Not to mention the laughs we got, particularly once we LEFT the museum and were on our way out to the car.

Christmas Wrap Up

We have always been close enough to family to be able to spend Christmas with either Jared's or my family. With our move to Wisconsin this year this was our first Christmas on our own... This definitely had its pros and cons. It was a little bit lonely and awfully Quiet. It was soo nice to not have to pack and travel! We had a very White Christmas. We loved being able to do our own thing and establish our own traditions but we REALLY missed all of the noise and being with all of the people that we love!

We spent Christmas eve with lots of friends. Thanks to the Pothier's for opening their home to all 28 of us! It was so nice to get together and enjoy a meal, a gift exchange for the kids, sing songs and to watch the kids act out the Nativity story. We got done early enough to come home, set out cookies and milk for Santa and open our Christmas jammies.

Christmas morning was a hoot. Carter and Gage were so excited and were so much fun to watch. Gage had been saying that he wanted a gumball machine for a week or so and Santa found a Lightning McQueen gumball machine for his stocking. I think if this had been his only present he still would have been ecstatic. I think he ate 20+ gumballs Christmas morning. He kept going back for more. He would open a present, get excited about it for a moment then head back to his gumball machine. Carter was an easy pleaser this year since all he wanted was a surprise! He definitely got more than he bargained for as we were all spoiled!

Who knows when we will get to spend Christmas at either of our families homes again, especially since next year there will be 3 kiddos to attempt to travel with, but I have to say that we definitely got off on the right foot. Our first Christmas on our own was very enjoyable!!