Lots of time has gone by since I posted! We welcomed baby Liam into our family on July 2013. He was born with a cleft so it was lots... ok TONS of work at first to get him fed. We still enjoyed every second snuggling and loving on him though! We made it through the initial surgeries and he is definitely getting his food intake now! He is 15 months old already! The time has flown by. Brynn and Gavin are still the best of friends and love their baby with all their hearts. We are so incredibly blessed!

Brynn is in 2nd grade! When did that happen? She is a rock star at everything she tries. She has been doing tumbling for 4 years now and can now do back flips, ariels, round-off back hand-springs... and does cartwheels everywhere she goes (instead of walking:)). She loves soccer and has gotten quite good! This was her third year and she scored lots of points and had tons of fun doing it. She is an AWESOME reader. She reads all of the time. She is an awesome singer! I told her she needs voice lessons because she was definitely blessed with an awesome voice. She said she will do that later but will NOT sing in front of people. :) Brynn is helpful, thoughtful, kind, full of energy, sassy, smart, and an incredibly great daughter and sister!


Gavin is in preschool and LOVES it. This was his first year in soccer and he was so funny. He was a lot younger than most of the kids so, even though he is really fast, he just couldn't keep up... and could care less. He would try to catch butterflies or floaty things in the air and jog up and down the field. LOL He had fun though! He is also in tumbling and absolutely loves it. He mostly does stretches and balance and somersaults into the "pit".  He loves to ride his "easy roller". He has learned all of his sounds to his letters and is trying to put them together to form words. Gavin is HILARIOUS! He giggles almost all day long. He loves his family and is very sweet, patient, and loves to play tricks on us. He is so gentle and gives the best hugs!


Liam is a walking/slobbering ball of love! He loves to eat! He enjoys being outside. He loves to play with his brother and sister. He has been a really good baby (as they all have). He is so so SO much fun to love on and that is what we all do!


This year we have grown a TON as a family and continue to learn each day how to meet each other's needs differently and in a more patient (still need work) way. We love being together, playing games, going on walks around the park, watching movies, eating yummy dinner together each night, going to all the college football games, and just snuggling up every night to read a good book. I can not even describe in words how much I love being "the mommy" of this awesome family of mine. I LOVE IT! We are incredibly blessed and so thankful for our loving Heavenly Father whom blesses us with small and tender mercies every single day.

Happy Valentines

We love Valentine's Day around here and we're having so much fun making some crafts to decorate our home, heart shaped sugar cookies, and home-made valentine's for family and friends.

Below are our cards for this year. We cut a hole on either side of Brynn's hand and stuck a lollipop in so that it looks like she is holding out a sucker. They turned out so cute and she can't wait to share them with her class and take a few around to her friends.



(I can't get over Gavin's camera smile! HAHAHA!)


We have such beautiful, healthy, HAPPY babies. We are so grateful for them and love them with ALL OF OUR HEARTS! Our Heavenly Father has blessed us beyond our dreams.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Christmas in the Country

We spent the weekend before Christmas with my family and we had a BLAST!!! We had planned it all out and made all the assignments on Thanksgiving so we'd have plenty to do.

We played basketball on the new hoop the guys installed on Thanksgiving weekend. We went on rides up in the mountains on the new quad Grandpa purchased. Tiff had Bingo all ready for the kids with super fun prizes. The adults played White Elephant and played minute-to-win-it games one night and I admit that I did pee my pants a little laughing so hard. We went skeet shoot-n' on the back hill (imagine me saying that in my best cowgirl twang). We cut out and ironed paper snowflakes and hung them all over my mom's windows (if there was a national competition on cutting paper snowflakes... I'm sure my brother Dave would win it!) The kids rode their scooters and plasma cars down the super long driveway.

I'm so sad that I didn't take any pictures. (Tiff & Ellie - send your pics my way ;))

My family is amazing and we love each of them so much! I can't forget to mention my mom's FABULOUS cooking.... YUMMY! :) It was good times and we are so very blessed to have our family close!

Thanksgiving 2011

We spent a couple of days at my parents for Thanksgiving this year.

The guys installed a new basketball hoop.


We played a game of soccer while the kids jumped on the tramp and Grandma took some of the grand kids for rides on the horses. (The 1st pic. is of Brynn doing a flip)





The cousins have so much fun when they're together.



We went back up to Logan and we hit the "November Fest" which kind of bombed this year. We went to Arthur Christmas with all of the cousins. We put up all of our Christmas decorations and had a nice long relaxing weekend. It was a good start to the holidays. :)

Praise To The Man

Brynn loves singing her primary songs and I am impressed that she knows a lot of the really big words in this song. Enjoy!

Date Night

Going to this concert with my very handsome hubster this month. So excited!



UPDATE: Amazing Concert! We both loved it.

Time 4 Salad!

We LOVE to eat yummy salads this time of year so I thought I'd share some of our favorites. Along with these three we also eat a lot of pasta salad filled with tons of summer veggies, ofcourse Grandma Miller's delicious potato salad, and the broccoli salad with bacon and Craisins (Matt does NOT like that one but I make it anyway ;)).

side note: You may never want to make these salads after you see my photos of them. (This week I've found out that food is very difficult to photograph! :)

Matt's very favorite salad is the most difficult to take pictures of because it doesn't even look really appetizing to begin with. It is seriously so yummy though. You'll just have to take his word for it. ;)

Northwoods Chicken Salad
3 cups cold cooked wild rice (I use a mixture of wild rice and brown rice)
2 cups cubed cooked chicken (also cold)
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 cup snap peas, chopped in 1 inch pieces
3 med. green onions, sliced
3/4 cup cashews

Dressing (mix in blender until smooth):
1/3 cup veg. oil (I use e.v.o.o.)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 Tb. dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. pepper

I just found the recipe for this next salad about a year or two ago. We sat out on the back porch and ate this on the 1 day we didn't have rain in May ;). We eat both this salad and the Northwoods Chicken salad as our whole meal because they're so filling.

Oriental Chicken Salad

4 - 6 cups cooked chicken, cubed
2 pkg. oriental Ramen noodles, crumbled (save the flavor packets)
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
4 green onions, chopped
2 - 16 oz. bags coleslaw (can use shredded cabbage)

Dressing (blend in blender):
3/4 cup veg. oil
1/4 cup plus 2 Tb. white vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
2 packs of oriental seasoning (from Ramen)
3/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt

This last salad is my very favorite of all time. I haven't found anything that tops it yet. I know there are a lot of versions of this one out there but this is the best in my opinion. Make it today and enjoy every bite! :)

Strawberry Spinach Salad
5 - 10 oz. baby spinach
10 strawberries, sliced
3/4 cups sliced almonds
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbed
1/4 cup Craisins
1 cup mandarin oranges
1/2 cup pistachios (I usually put in a little more cause I love em!)


Dressing (serve on the side):
(I blend it in the blender but you can shake it in a bottle)
3/4 cup mayonnaise (I use 1/2 cup)
3 Tb. white vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup whole milk (I use 2% and it works fine)
3 Tb. poppy seeds

Hope you enjoy salad season as much as we are!

Pillow Talk

I've been on a pillow kick this week. I have big dreams to recover all of the pillows in our house and to make new pillows for the basement for when it's finished. Here are the ones I've done thus far...

Two of these flower pillow covers for the living room.


And several new covers for the pillows on Brynn's window seat (or "story bench" as she calls it).

Killer Bunnies

We have many fun family traditions that we will post about on this blog. This first "tradition post" is about what we love to do on Easter! Along with decorating our eggs, hiding our baskets, and reading about the Resurrection, each Easter we like to take a trip out to this big community event called Baby Animal Days. There is horse back riding, hay rides, caramel kettle corn, crafts, touching of giant snakes and turtles, treasure hunts, cannons of candy being blown up into the sky, and our favorite part... petting all of the baby animals. My (Robin's) parents came up for the weekend with my sisters and we had a blast. We had to pry our daughter away from the baby bunnies, pigs, chickens, ducks, lambs, and goats so that the other little kids could have a turn. She loved every minute of it. When we left my littlest sister exclaimed, "This is a HAPPY DAY!" ha ha ha. When we got home my dad made homemade strawberry ice cream and we had a delicious dinner together. We are always sad to see them go.




On Easter we had an Easter egg hunt with all of Matt's family after church. This year they gave each grandchild a color of egg they were assigned to find so that each child would have the chance to find their own eggs. Our daughter grabbed her basket and searched high and low - she really got the hang of it this year. She did take a couple breaks to jump on the tramp (with her basket- candy flying!). We then headed inside and had a delicious dinner. Afterward we took a wagon ride up to the park to play. It was a very enjoyable Easter! We love our family and we are SO glad they live nearby! Happy Easter~!

A Shout Out to our Amazing Parents

Robin - My parents both went to BYU and studied in similar buildings but didn't meet until later when they both worked at a hospital in Salt Lake. My dad has his Bachelors in Microbiology and owns a microbiology business. He has been an extremely hard worker my entire life. He enjoys his family and gets very excited about going on vacations and planning outdoor activities with us. He is tremendously loving, spiritual, and kind. He is interested in gardening, farming, fishing, hiking, camping, boating, church, scouts, and also loves learning and studying. My mom has her Bachelors in Microbiology as well and worked as a Lab Technician until they had my oldest brother Ben and has been a full-time mom since. She has a very tender heart and is a compassionate, happy, thoughtful, beautiful person. She enjoys knitting, reading, gardening, dancing, swimming and taking care of her children and grandchildren.


Matt - Our parents are awesome; we have definitely been blessed with goodly parents. My dad has his MBA, Masters in Business Administration, and has worked as a banker all of his life. My mom received her Bachelors in English where she student-taught at Murray High School. They met at BYU and got married soon thereafter. A year later my brother Mike was born and my mom stayed at home to raise her new family. I would describe my parents as incredibly loving; they are a lot of fun and are very involved with all of their children and grandchildren. My mom is the glue that keeps us together; it would be hard to find a sweeter human being in the entire world. My dad is a very dedicated father, growing up he called me champ and never missed a single game of mine. They enjoy reading, listening to music, singing, creating new recipes for family dinner, serving in their church callings, exercising, and playing with their grandchildren.

Hobbies & Interests

Our common interests are certainly centered around spending time with family. We enjoy the simple pleasures in life-- going on walks together, singing songs together, playing board games, and pulling triple-fakie-covert-japans off some sick ski jump ;). You know, the normal stuff. We have been to Europe, Brazil, and Mexico (we went to Mexico together! but some day we'd love to go see the rest together too!) We simply love life.


Hobbies & Interests for Matt:

I enjoy playing. It really doesn't matter what it is; if it is somewhat of a challenge, I'll give it a try. I'll wake up before dawn (even when I don't have to) just to play a game of basketball or a round of golf with friends. I am fascinated by music and I love to play my guitar. I love to play with my daughter - we enjoy bundling up and going out to play in the snow, having tea (or milk I should say) parties up in her room, playing hide and seek, playing ball in the drive-way, and snuggling as I rock her to sleep at night. I love to play, joke, and tease with Robin. She, in my opinion, is absolutely hilarious to be around and not too shabby a prankster herself. I also love to read and really dig history and politics.


Hobbies & Interests for Robin:

My interests mostly revolve around being the best mommy I can be for our beautiful little girl. We enjoy all sorts of crafts, reading books, getting messy, building blanket forts, cooking, shopping, playing house, and singing/dancing together. In my free time, I love to create! I enjoy making jewelry, sewing quilts (and crocheting the edges of receiving blankets), scrap booking, re-creating things we find and love (on a budget), and decorating rooms in our home. I love spending any time I can get with my sweetheart. Whether we are going on a long walk, throwing Frisbees, yelling at a good basketball game, or just snuggling on the couch and talking, I am grateful for each moment that I spend with Matt. I love being outdoors. Each summer since childhood, our family vacations consisted of camping, boating, back-packing, fishing, renting RV's to travel cross country, house boating, etc. To this day, I love a good adventure. My favorite memories have been the time spent with my family. Matt and I are excited to take our children on exciting adventures and create the same wonderful childhood memories that we had, for them.