A Quick Photographic Update (with a suprise at the end!)

So, we have had a lot of things going on for the past few weeks and we're sorry we haven't posted for a while. With Thanksgiving in Montana, Mara's two month check-up, Christen's birthday, the end of the semester, and the excitement of the trip to Alaska; we have been busy.

Here is a quick photographic overview.

Thanksgiving was awesome: with the Grandparents, 14 Aunts and Uncles, a ton of cousins, and one baby, 44 people were in attendance and there was never a dull moment.

Man, that was a lot of turkey!

Grandma and Grandpa Robbins had a great time meeting their first great grand-baby. Grandpa is blind, so it was really fun to watch him "see" her, and after 9 children and quite a few foster children, Grandma seemed right at home!

Aunt Holly is definitely one of my favorites, with a personality as wild as her red hair. She loved the baby burrito!

On November 27th, Mara was two months old.
11.6 lbs (70 %)
22.7 inches (61 %)

Mara and Daddy catching up on sleep together.

Last Friday (at almost 11 weeks old) Mara took her first spectacular roll! I was the only one there, and I'm sure Ian doubted me for a minute, but he saw it the next day. I wanted to catch it on camera, but at the risk of sounding like a giddy mother, I opted for this still frame.

My 25th birthday was on Sunday, and Ian made me a rolling pin and a shelf in the bathroom (which I've been wanting- on both accounts), checked out an AMAZING Christmas lights display, got me a beautiful flower, and gourmet chocolates. Yum!

Mara is a happy little girl- sometimes I just call her "Miss smiley."

For those of you that we will be seeing soon, here is a bit of a teaser showing what is to come (forgive my giddiness; I love her reaction!)... For those of you that we won't be seeing this Christmas holiday, Merry Christmas!

San Francisco

Yesterday was the first real snow for Provo. Don't get me wrong, I love snow, but exactly one week ago, we were enjoying the warm air of San Fransisco. My sister runs cross country and track for UAA (and is dang good, if I do say so myself) and we usually go see her run once a semester. This semester, our funds were tight (we have diapers to buy, you know) and so we told her we probably wouldn't make it. But, she really wanted to see us (ok, I know it was all about Mara) so she funded the adventure!!

San Francisco was incredible! We wanted to see all the sights, but we didn't have much time, and we had absolutely NO money, so we just went to a few places. (If you were wondering UAA took first place at Regionals that day, unseating the 15 year champions, Chico state) After the race we headed to Pier 39 to see the sea lions.

Awesome to see, disgusting to smell!

Only in San Fransisco can you see a cable car and a Segway gang in the same image.

After lunch, Emma had only an hour or two left, so we headed to the Golden Gate Bridge.

It was big and beautiful! My least favorite thing was the $6 toll to get to the other side. Actually, that was my least favorite thing about San Francisco in general- every single bridge had a toll...absolutely ridiculous!

The city buildings were a beautiful sight! Ian got some really good pictures- this was one of my favorite.

The roads were insane! So incredibly steep!! You can't really tell from the picture, but as we crested this hill, I felt like we were on the down side of a roller coaster ride!

We initially had no idea that the Jelly Belly Factory was about 5 minutes from our hotel, but once we found out, we couldn't resist a visit.

After all, this is where we got our little jelly bean, right?

There are some really talented (and bored) people in the world! This picture is made entirely of jellybeans!

Our last stop was the Redwood Regional Forest. These aren't even the really big trees! These are the second and third generation trees.

We had a great time in California, it was an incredible trip!

8.3%

I told Ian last week that I was really excited for Mara to be a month old because that means she's officially a fraction of a year old. One Month. 8.3%!! Wow- time flies when you are having fun.


People keep asking us which one of us she looks like, but we haven't quite figured that out. Basically, I think she has Ian's hair (I was bald for the first part of my life...) and hopefully she'll have Ian's eyes. And from me, she got her personality- she smiles randomly, she loves to sleep and eat, and she even plays solitaire!

She's a whole lot of fun, believe you me!

I know we just posted pictures on Sunday, but she was awake this time, so here's another one. Enjoy!!

4 weeks

Here we are four weeks into this new adventure, and we still can't get enough. At her last check-in on Friday she was 8 lbs 14 oz and almost 21 inches. We can't believe how fast she is growing. She is always trying to hold up her head and look around and she is getting better every day. Playing with her is getting to be a whole lot more fun, although we are excited for when she can interact more. We are just excited to see her grow and develop. Hope you like the pictures and although we mentioned that she likes being awake she still prefers sleep for her photo ops, go figure.

She really loves Mom and Dad's bed...

Sometimes Dad is the bed...

All things considered her bed is best.

In conclusion, we took a family portrait and you can feel free to plaster it all over your desktops...

New Pictures and a short update

So, we have been getting some requests for new pictures of the baby and I figured it was time to comply. Mara is doing great, she is starting to stay awake a bit more between feedings. This is good because we get to see her beautiful eyes, and bad because we get to see her beautiful eyes when we want to sleep. All in all she is still the best little baby on the block and we'll be keeping her. Enjoy the pictures!

Mara had to spend some time under the Bili lights, but she was great (after mask modifications).

Remember that cradle I made? It now has an occupant.

There are those eyes.

We have the best family (thanks go to Melissa for the blanket).

A parting shot (thanks go to Jenn for the blanket).

A New Addition (including pictures)

Our beautiful new daughter.

Mara and her new mommy.

Mara and her new dad.

Now for the story. Saturday night Christen and I decided to go for a walk. A long labor inducing walk, we did about 3 miles. It worked. At about 11 o'clock on Saturday night Christen began feeling the contractions. We waited for a couple of hours to make sure that everything was real and we headed to the hospital at 1 on Sunday morning. After being checked and hooked up to the machines, the contractions continued but labor didn't progress so Christen was given a shot of morphine in her hip and we headed home.

The pain of the contractions, although momentarily dulled, came back with a vengeance and we decided that it was time to head back to the hospital for another try. Christen was admitted at 4 o'clock, and enjoyed the beauty of the epidural. After a few more hours of labor the pushing began, and at 10:20 a bit more than 23 hours after we started, our little Mara came into the world.

Mara Jane Pierce
7 lbs 13 oz
19.5 inches

A New Addition

We had a baby. Nice, eh?

Booted

The books at the BYU bookstore are hideously overpriced. So we ordered Ian's books online, and payed less for ALL of his books, that we would have paid for ONE of his books. Naturally, I think this is a beautiful thing. However, one of those books hasn't arrived yet. I don't think they've even sent it yet. L-A-M-E.

So since we had reading in that class due tonight, (its an evening class that I'm joining in on), I checked the Provo Library. They had a copy! But when I got there, I couldn't find it. The librarians say that it probably got re-shelved in the wrong spot. ugh. So I checked the BYU library, and they have an electronic copy- however, its an older edition, and completely different.

So, in a final attempt, we decided that this morning we would go to the BYU bookstore and just read the chapter before Ian's 9 o'clock class today. Apparently, they do not allow reading of their textbooks, "but they are for sale." (side note- I've gone to Borders, and many other actual bookstores, and they have CHAIRS set out for you to read their books....not at BYU.) We explained our predicament, and his only response was, "that's the trouble with ordering online. You don't always have it when you want it. But we have it, if you need to buy it."

He ushered us out like we were criminals. I almost wanted to try to sneak in again later, just to see if he was watching for us. I think they lose a lot of money to online purchases- he seemed a little touchy about that. I bet if their prices were more reasonable, that wouldn't happen. But alas, we got booted from the BYU bookstore. One more thing to check off my bucket list.

But that doesn't really matter. I found the book anyway. At a bookstore just south of campus, that specializes in used textbooks.

Half the price of the "used book" price at the BYU bookstore. Exactly my point.

The House Guest

The Brick House has had chance to host a number of people the last few weeks. Most of them were awesome. One was not. If you are reading this, and you are wondering if you were the "unappreciated" house guest, stop wondering. The annoying guest can't read. If you are reading this and you wonder if one of your offspring was the pest, stop wondering. The guest's parents can't read either.

We had a lot of fun playing with these guests!

Pretty much, the whole family was a hoot.

And then after spending time with all of these guys at the FABULOUS family reunion
we brought home another house guest, and had just as much fun with her.
(And on the way to the airport, when Ian stopped to get her a GIGANTIC cup of pebble ice, she was ecstatic.)
(She ate the entire cup before we got to the airport. I tell you what, I think we know what we are getting Charity for Christmas!!)

So after dropping her off, we discussed how quiet things would be, since it was back down to being just the 2 3/4ths of us. But it wasn't. We had an uninvited guest.

On Tuesday night, we got woken up around 4 AM. Wednesday, it was a little closer to 2 AM. Thursday, Friday, Saturday- night after night, we heard it. The first night, apparently, Ian woke up and followed the sound, ending up empty handed. I woke up after him, and did the same thing. Because of the dream he was having, his response to me was "Don't worry, its just an electric cricket. It'll turn off."

At first it was by the door, the next night, by the window, then in the closet, and then on the top shelf of the closet. Each night, we could get the general area, but we couldn't find that dang cricket. Luckily, on Sunday morning, there was a light green colored movement on his white dress shirt. A snowy tree cricket.

WE FOUND IT!

And now, he doesn't wake us up.
The house guest, is gone.