Visiting Grandma Halls

In April we went back to Virginia to see family as my birthday gift. It was grand, one of my favorite vacations ever. But it was so hard coming home to 29. Robin and I almost cried as our plane landed in Palm Springs among the barren brown mountain landscape. We should have been thrilled to land after a day of flying with four kids and many judgmental stares from other passengers. Instead we were heartbroken.

We had basked in rain soaked greenery, soaking up the cool humidity beneath towering trees. Rolling in thick green grass, and flying colorful kites in cloud studded skies against panoramic dark green mountains left us yearning to never go West again. Looking at this picture of my kids swinging on the same tire swing I played on as a child at my Grandma Hall's house makes my heart choke. One day we'll go East again, but in the meantime I remind myself that God needs us out West, just like the early pioneers were called from the greenery of Ireland and Norway to the Great Basin of northern Utah. I am grateful to be working with my Boy Scouts and doing whatever I can to build the kingdom of God in this remote corner of the earth. Our family is happy and God looks out for us, we are grateful to all our friends who have helped us call 29 our home.

IZ snow-surfs

Israel snowboarded all day at Bear Mountain with the Boy Scouts!

Travis Boone visits Cali

Travis Boone came back to Cali without the mission rules!
We went rock climbing, surfing, snowboarding, long-boarding, and kite-boarding. The kids couldn't get enough of Uncle Travis and his antics, we were all renewed and had a great time. Thanks for coming to visit "bro'a"!

Super Secret Blog

So, I've had this Super Secret Blog for over a year now. And today, I'm going to be brave and share it with you.
I was inspired by the movie That is What I am. Go watch it now:)

I want to stand tall and tell  myself and my family, and my friends: "I am a writer, that is what I am."

My writing blog is http://www.robin-hall-writes.blogspot.com/ I'd love for you guys to FOLLOW me on my journey. And tell me what you are too.

Feb. 2nd = GHD

11th Annual

Israel made groundhogs is space and in the ocean



Steve shooting Groundhogs for our Groundhog Stew



Playing "Pickup Groundhog Poop"

Tammy and Nadia

Pin the Teeth on the Groundhog
Julia and Christian were our spinners 

dizzy Mommy

Tossing cards into a hat
"it's all in the wrist"

Mia in action

Dessert: Groundhog Mounds (in sand since we live in the desert) 

Mormon Battalian Days

Jan. 28th we drove to Old Town San Diego for the festivities. We made rope, bricks, pioneer dolls, enlisted in the battalion (with a feather quill), learned to do laundry, roasted biscuits over a fire, listened to old time music, and marched in the parade. Israel's favorite, no suprise, was playing with the guns. Julia spent most of her time with the marble runs, and Eliza practiced hard on the stilts.

Pinewood Derby Winner

Israel and Stan made an awesome car for his first pinewood derby race. Stan didn't want Israel to lose (like he always did) so we talked to my brother Mike and then watched all these youtube videos about what he told us to do, spent more money than I was expecting on these little bits that attach to our drill, and make a super fast car.

Israel won 1st place for our pack, 1st place for wolves and will be going to the District pinewood derby in March (I didn't even know we had district races). He was a graceful winner. I'm so grateful for my Israel, he is conscious of other people and doesn't poke fun. He asked me this morning if he could give his trophy to his friend who didn't win anything.

cutting the car-Israel chose the easiest option (only 2 cuts)- with some persuasion. It helped that we told him he had to do the cutting:)

Sanding-Israel did not enjoy this LONG process. On the right our drill has the special mandril Stan bought to sand the tires.

The winners circle

1st-Israel, 2nd-Grayson, 3rd-Landon

Whale Watching-No Whales

 For MLK Day were spend 6 hours in the car and saw  no whales-talk about disappointing.  Thank goodness we were listening to the Chronicles of Narnia so the drive didn't seem as long.

On the Boat



Playing on the Beach



All we saw were a few sea lions-super disappointing. The ocean was so choppy that they ended our cruise early and gave us a pass for a free trip in the future-maybe we'll try again in May, the next few months are packed.



This Time . . .

Things We've Done Different This Time Around
1. Had our baby at home
2. Given him oral Vit. K and no eye drops (since I don't have chlamydia)
3. Used cloth diapers (and wool-I am enamored by wool-that stuff is amazing, I'll tell anyone foolish enough to ask me all about it)), not from day 1, but since 2 wks old
4. Used EC (elimination communication) basically we're training ourselves to put JT on the potty when her has to poop. Some days are good and some don't work at all, still, since we cloth diapering, when it does work we're happy.
5. Babywearing (and not because I wanted to either- JT demanding it and didn't like any of the carriers we already had- not my premax baby sling, not the baby bjorn either. He loves his sleepywrap and besides the annoyance of wrapping it, it is the most comfortable baby carrier I have ever used with any of my children, hands down. We also have an Ergo, #2 in most comfy-quicker to use and in this lime green color I adore)



Things We've Done the Same
1. Slept him on his tummy in the same little bassinet/car carrier that I slept in as a baby (yes, you read that right-and I don't think I was the first Ashcraft to use it either.)
2. No binky-we did try this time, but not that hard
3. No bottle (too time consuming when I'm here all the time anyhow. Yes, I'd love some freedom, but I am so dang lazy-pump, sterilize bottles, warm them properly-I'm a walking zombie, it's not going to happen)
4. Use Costco's Kirkland wipes-best thing on the planet. Even though we use cloth diapers I haven't tried reusable wipes yet.
5. Let him stay in our bed once he wakes up at night-we've been lucky this go round-often he doesn't wake up until 5, most all nights at least not until 3

New Years with the Christensons in AZ

Peter, Julia holding Marianne, Andre, Eliza holding JT, Israel



Melanie put up the Hello Kitty decorations from Marianne's party for my birthday-don't we look stylish?



Presents!

Our chefs for the weekend. They did the shopping and the cooking and it was delicious-they even made a cheesecake from scratch.

JT is 2 months old!

5 wks old- our little elf

6 wks old-my fav. outfil

being tortured by silly Julia-he puts up with a lot!

smiling-he's my easier baby to make smile and coo

Christmas Day-2 days shy of 2 months

in his sleepy wrap. This thing is magic-I understand why it's called a sleepy wrap. It puts him right to sleep. We use it for all our outings (which at this point is only the library, park, and grocery store)

We love our JT- he still has those gray blue eyes and darkish hair. He's a tummy sleeper and he doesn't mind his car seat. We've been doing EC and cloth diapers this time around and I love them, just prefolds and covers, we haven't had any blowouts and he's only gotten wet a few times-each our fault for not changing him or putting the cover on wrong.

He had his first babysitting adventure last night. We left him for 2 hrs for our anniversary and he did great (Thanks Angie!). He loves staring at the Christmas lights and ceiling fans. He's already 15 lbs-it's crazy he's so big. We're rotating into 3-6 month clothing already. We're still working on sleeping at night-I can often get 5 hours and Christmas Eve Eve he slept for 8, but that's the only time. He sleeps in his bassinette initially then I keep him in bed with me. He loves to sleep snuggled into my armpit. It's tricky to get out of bed without him waking in the morning. I recently discovered when he's mellow I can feed him, knit, and read from my propped up kindle:)



We're so glad JT has joined our family. Even in all the craziness of having a newborn and now being a mom of FOUR it is so sweet to hold our little guy, to reaffirm the plan the salvation and know that he is a gift from God.