Birthday Update

As always our life is running and never seems to slow down! But I wouldn't want you to think we missed our Adorable Baby aka as Becoming a Big Boy's FIRST BIRTHDAY!! And I know everyone is always asking us for an update on him.

Yep that is right,

PORTER IS ONE

My Amazing Beautiful Baby Boy is getting so big and WAY to fast. Looking back to a year ago it is hard to imagine the emotions that were going around, personally, from my husband and the rest of those that are so close to our family. Were we really scared? Unsure? Stressed about what this boy can and cannot do? I can't say this year has been easy, but it hasn't been hard either. I'm not sure words can describe this year, Joy, Defensive, Proud, Exhausting, but most of all probably, Eye-Opening.

To say Porter is AMAZING is a MAJOR understatment. We were told to expect a year of downs, (No I wasn't meaning to play with the words LOL) But now I am laughing because it has been a year of Downs... Just the better meaning and Porter style. Okay I'm done now. When I said Porter would be sitting at 7 months and crawling by 10 months they told me not to expect it, when I said Porter was saying Ma ma they didn't believe me. When I said I was sure he was cutting teeth, they told me, "No he wont have teeth till he is closer to two" That has been our year, the year of surprises, the year of excitement, the year of telling people, "Yes he can". The year of a lot of clapping, cheering and proud tears. The year of blahhhhhhs

Does that mean every year will be like this? No, if we have learned ONE thing this YEAR it is, STOP ASSUMING, STOP EXPECTING and STOP PLANNING. Porter will do what Porter is ment to do, Yes we need to help him, but his future is not set in stone, he will show us what he can do just like our other boys will.

So Porter like I said in the beginning is, AMAZING, he has opened our eyes and pushed us out of our comfort zones. Okay, I don't think Allen has a comfort zone, but he has pushed me out of mine. He is very social and loves to smile at people, or give them his new scowl to make them laugh. Both get him his desired effect. I can't go shopping without Porter bringing a long a following that can't get enough of his Hamming up. I am constantly talking to people about, how cute he is, how friendly he is, how funny he is. Yes, yes I agree, sometimes feeling guilty about not disclosing his diagnosis to them, but that is what he has, NOT who he is. We had a great FIRST BIRTHDAY, he loved the wrapping paper and bags on all the presents and enjoyed eating his cake. He didn't go all out with it, but made his Uncle Kory feed it to him so he didn't have to get his hands dirty.

The Cake, let the boys help decorate...

Present Time, Love the wrapping... Thank you for all the support not only at his party, but ALL the support he had throughout this year, He is one LUCKY boy, and we are ONE LUCKY FAMILY to have him with us.
Uncle Kory helping feed the cake

Hmmmm this is how he did it....

As always the First year is a YEAR of FIRSTS!!! Porter has had his share of First and how blessed we are to be able to NOT only be there for his FIRST, but KNOW the AMAZING TASKS these firsts are and be able to enjoy them as they came....

Past Year in Review

Look Mom, I'm pushing all the way up!!!

and now I am big and sitting.

and one of my favorites, this is an actual picture of the first time he crawled... what motivated him?? See that little Fall Leaf in the corner? Yep that started the whole thing!! Then the cat helped motivate him to go fast:)

and then it gets scary, the getting into drawers and pulling himself up!! He is almost walking, he pulls himself up and walks along furniture. He will stand in the middle of the room then look at all of us to cheer, once we all cheer he turns in circles and cheers with us. Ohh what fun he has been. It has not only been fun to watch him reach all his milestones, but to watch my boys cheer him on and be as happy as any parent would be for him. They are his biggest cheerleaders, boy style of course.

We are excited for what has been in store for us this next year and all the amazing things he will be doing. We do feel like we are inbetween two worlds. We don't quite fit with the DS Community, sometimes it is uncomfortable with them looking at him and wondering why we are there. Then we explain the Mosaic part and you get the aha moment from them. Yes it is rare and yes it makes Porter truly, "One of a Kind". On the flip side those who know he has DS look at us and ask if he was MisDiagnosed because, "they don't see it". My wish would be for everyone to see Porter as that, Porter, third boy in the Robins Family, third child, one who will have challenges in his life, different challenges than maybe his brothers, but still challenges.

When I say this year was eye opening, I feel even though we haven't really had challenges with Porter, my eyes have been more open of my friends and associates and people I don't know but run into. My eyes have been opened to their challenges and struggles. The struggles that we all face and who are we to judge the way they handle them? I hope that as you guys go out in grocery stores, events etc... AS you see a mom struggling with a child who is HYPER, YELLING, UNRULY, a mom that just looks plain worn out maybe judge less and recognize more that maybe, possibly, maybe that child has something more going on then lack of disipline. When you see a child in a wheelchair, with a cane, walker, slow to speak, you will look past their obvious struggle and find who the child IS, what HE/SHE is made of.

I also don't want to let this moment go without giving a BIG SHOUT OUT THANK YOU to all the support we've had this year. I don't want anyone to think we are not grateful and appreciative of those in our lives that are there for us and for our boys. No Matter What!!

The New Year Running...

We had a very eventful New Year and very fitting for all the weddings earlier to celebrate a wedding New years eve. First and foremost Welcome to the Family Natalie!!! We are so excited to get to know you better and all the fun things the future has in store.

Before New Years Eve we enjoyed a nice little retreat at my brothers cabin where I got to play with my adorable nephew and niece (though Lexi enjoyed playing with the boys more than me) then we drove down to celebrate my brothers wedding. They wanted to get married at 12:01 on 1/01/11. It was a great ceremony and with the help of a movie the boys were really good. (Hence no pictures of the older ones as they were glued to the TV) After we got a hotel room in the area so we weren't traveling so late and because we had a baptism for my nephew Treyton the next afternoon.

Porter was really good during the whole thing and awake, crazy kid!

He just LOVES his daddy and I love this picture!

Our traditions in the past is to get a hotel room New Years Eve and take the boys swimming etc... so we were able to stick with that and take them swimming New Years Day.

Hope Everyone is keeping up with their New Years Eve Goals:)

Ending the Year, Beginning a New Year at a RUN

Well as always it's about three to four times a year I think of quitting my blog, it is always about the same time that I recieve emails from friends asking why I haven't updated my stuff. Yeah most of you know I'm a slacker, but also know I can be guilted into stuff and honestly I love reading all of your blogs and keeping up to date on your adorable kids and what they are doing!! (And those that don't have kids, I love being entertained by you also:) So again here is my quarterly update, LOL


We had a WONDERFUL Christmas!! Usually I don't let the holidays get to me, I LOVE THEM, but I do have to send out an apology to everyone I may of been a little short with this Nov/Dec, I was tired, not of Christmas or the holidays, but of being a single mom (Allen is gone wrestling all winter) and having so many EVENTS that needed my attention. SOOOO Sorry, I will do better next year and if I don't at least ya'll are prepared;). I also propose we change Christmas to January 26th, Why? you might ask? Because I love Christmas, but let's be honest it is A LOT of work for 3 weeks and then your done. You have Thanksgiving and then it's like a race to get everything fun and cute and joyful done (plus of course the buying) and then it's over. I want to listen to Christmas music for two months, I want to enjoy my house decorated all festive for two months (it is a lot of work for three weeks, right Kristen?) EVEN if I didn't decorate my house this year but let my little sister do it. After all, Jesus wasn't really born on Dec 25th, I'm just saying.....

Alright I'll step off of my cardboard box, the one that my kids enjoyed more than the toys that came in it and post some absolute adorable photo's of my cute kids as we enjoyed our holidays.

This is my favorite picture, "Mom, really? The hat?"

This outfit was impossible to find. I REALLY wanted to buy him a Santa or first Christmas outfit, but everywhere I looked they only had the outfits up to 9 months, like a 10, 11 or 12 month couldn't be having his first Christmas. I finally gave up looking when in Smiths (not the marketplace, the grocery store) tucked behind a box in the baby aisle was this outfit. So here he is, he couldn't keep his legs in the outfit because it was only 12 months, but hey he got a first Christmas outfit.

and you can't go wrong with stuff on the butt when they are crawlers:)

Showin' off the Loot, I really love Christmas especially with how excited the boys get!

We again decorated our tree with only two weeks left, IF ANYONE knows of someone selling a good looking fake tree let us know. Buying real is hard because Allen isn't around a lot and I'm not going to lug one in sooo we always decorate way to late, but the boys love doing it and had a lot of fun. I told Allen I would re adjust all the ornaments the next day, but I never really got around to it.

AND a Big Thank you to our awesome neighbor who handcrafts rocking horses and gave us one for the boys for Christmas. How cool is that!!

I hope you all had just as merry of a christmas as we did and looking forward to next year!!

Love This Season

This Season has been so fun!!! We had two wonderful weddings where we added two great brother-in-laws, one more official than the other one.

Congrats Whit and Kassieand Congrats Danny and Katie

We are so excited for you guys and had a great time at your weddings!!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, celebrating with Allen's Family on Thursday and my family on Friday, two thanksgiving meals def didn't help on losing that baby weight!! Oh well, almost there.

After we had Colby's 8th Birthday and Baptism, I can't believe my baby is sooo big and this post is for him!!

Colby is 8

I can't believe my baby is Eight Years Old!! He is getting so big and we love everyday with him. (yes even the trying days).

It all started 8 years ago when I woke up and my water was leaking. I got ready for the day and told Allen to go to work, I would just go into the doctors and get checked out. Can anyone say DENIAL?? I wasn't having any contractions and I knew they told me that they wanted the baby to come within 24 hours after the water breaks, but I wasn't ready for him to come! With that being said it was actually good timing, further away from Christmas... I had already cleared off my desk... We had finished all our Christmas shopping the Saturday before.... We cleaned the house for my friends shower I was having at my house that night PLUS finished the babies rooms so I could show it off... Well after something like 20 plus hours of labor and the doctor threatening to C-Section me, Colby Trent Robins came into the world.

Eight Years Later and life has seemed to fly by. We are so grateful to have him in our family. I call him our protector because he is so concerned of others. He is doing Awesome at school and has such an amazing memory. He try's really hard to make the right choices even though his energetic self makes it hard sometimes:) My sister calls him a 40 year old in an 8 year old body, because of his personality. He never considered himself a kid and sometimes we do have to remind him of the fact!! He has inherited the art of negotiating and loves to prove people wrong. (and of course every 8 year old thinks he is right all the time, Oh Wait, I thought that was suppose to start at 14 LOL)

He is such a fun person, he loves to make sure we are safe and takes very good care of his brothers. Brody spends all day asking, "When does Colby get home from school?" and Porter gives him one of his biggest smiles and laughs whenever he comes into the room.

We have had a ton of fun adventures together and I have Loved seeing him grow and learn and be such an Awesome big brother. Note to Colby ----Some of the fun things you like to do at 8 are .... You are such an Awesome Basketball player and really enjoy that sport. You also love to play with your brothers and make them laugh. You are an excellant student and excel at Math, Science and Reading, you have one of those memories that people are jealous of!! You love playing with friends and sledding down our hill in the backyard, especially in the summer (yep my boys are expert sledders in the summer) You like to ride your bike and do all sorts of boy things. You are very good at art and we LOVE all the great notes you leave us around the house. We are so blessed to have you in our lifes and the great choices you make

Another great thing about 8 is that Colby was baptized!! He was so excited and I know he will continue to make great choices in his future. We had a wonderful day on his baptism and really appreciate the support Colby has of family and friends who came to celebrate with him. What a lucky boy he is and how lucky we are to have sooo many people Wanting to be involved in his life and ours.

Happy Halloween

We had a great halloween! The boys picked out Dragon costumes, I told Allen, "They wont wear them, that they are just saying that because they see them now" He told me we would make them. I knew I wouldn't make them and OF COURSE they didn't wear them, not at ONE event and we have a LOT of Halloween parties. Brody for the most part ended up wearing his Teenage Mutant Ninja Costume from last year and Colby wore his Ninja costume from two years ago then an Iron Man costume I bought just to replace the mask for my nephew that Brody (of course) broke. Porter was Jack-Jack from Mr. Incredibles because he is of course, Incredible!!

TrickorTreating on Saturday night was COLD, my brother's family came over and joined us in our neighborhood, apparently it was the first time his kids trickertreating I think they seemed to have fun, because of the rain we went about a block if that and headed back to the house, let the kids watch a movie on the main level and the Adults went downstairs to watch a good movie! Fun night, we were initially going to be in St. George though, so really missing the good weather.

Oh and Porter looks shocked, scared etc.. in all the pictures, but I promise he was having fun.A video of Brody dancing at his school program

Fall, Fall, Fall

Okay, I love Fall, not as much as I love Summer, but the colors and everything are so pretty. I have to admit though, even though that mountain didn't have the prettiest colors I do miss the colors that were on the mountain by us that burned down. Those who don't know our city had a HUGE fire that burned like crazy. It was a def eye opener about getting our act together and finishing up our emergency planning.
For reflections at his school Colby decided to do a photograph. So we went outside and took some great pictures.

We also had a great week down in St. George while Colby was off track. The beginning of the summer we purchased a house down in St. George, so those that we know and who love to vacation down there we do rent it out for great rates:) Allen ran the marathon, or as he said, "walk" but either way he finished and we are VERY proud of him. I love the example he set for our boys of setting his goal and reaching it. We are also very appreciative to Allen's Uncle Mark who pushed him through the race and also supported him throughout it. We had a great weekend with them at St. George Almost there....