Aaron~ Robyn~ Taylor

Tay Tay's first Christmas!!

2009-12-29T15:01:00.000-08:00

Happy Christmas and New Year's 2009! We have had a great holiday season. As the Christmas cards have been pouring in it makes me realize that I really should have done Christmas cards. For some reason it makes me feel really old to be "sending Christmas cards out". Oh well, I do want to show off our little girl though, so that's a good excuse right?!

We had a fun Thanksgiving break in Vegas visiting the family and took some shots with the two cousins there in their cutie pie dresses. It was great to see al the friends and fam there as always.

We have been at home in Loveland for Christmas and soaking up the freezing weather! Although there really is something about a white Christmas...and not a white Christmas that consists of spray painting white frost on your windows like in Vegas! We have loved every minute of spending our first Christmas with Taylor. She got a fun present this year..even though she really liked eating the wrapping paper better than the present, but whatever.

So, next year we'll send out a Christmas card, but until then here are a ton of pics for your viewing pleasure. P.S. As you can tell the first couple are pictures of pictures. Tacky I know, but our computer wouldn't scan the pictures, so I thought even a little taste of the pictures is better than nothing. Enjoy, and thanks to everyone for your Christmas cards and updates. It was so fun getting them in the mail!

Taylor and her cousin Madalynn Tobiasson (both 8 months old)

Taylor next to the Christmas tree, I'm pretty sure she had a dress on over this outfit, but it probably got spit up on or something. At least it gives a good shot of her cute chubby leggies.

Taylor's first ornament. Love the expression on her face!

Eating some frozen fruit. The only option was a bath right after this. Seriously, she is such a smiley baby. This is a normal expression on her face, happiness.

My present this year...a jogging stroller! Now we can prepare for the Salt Lake Marathon...Stewy will be doing the full marathon and I will be doing the half marathon, hopefully!

Aaron's brother Dave, his wife Caroline and little Izzy stayed over and had Christmas with us. It was fun to have the little girls at the same stage opening presents. Gotta love the morning dads and the girls' Christmas hug.

Our candy cane girl!

The fam! Don't worry, my hair will grow out, some day!

A few videos for your viewing pleasure.

Not even Halloween Yet!!

2009-10-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

So, if anyone has seen any weather report you have heard that Colorado is getting a lot of snow! We're talking over a foot people! It is crazy! Taylor and I have enjoyed it from inside looking out! We've had a great month enjoying family, friends and the upcoming holidays.

Taylor and daddy after church...pretty much just showcasing Taylo's cute church dress.

We had fun seeing Tracie and Troy for the weekend. What it would be like to have twins!

So, this is supposed to be Taylor's Halloween costume...a cute carrott. But it's huge!! We opted for the classic pumpkin instead...pics coming.

Taylor loves her books, loves being read to, and loves just trying to touch everything she can and tear anything off she can get her hands on!

VEGAS! I was lucky enough to go home last weekend to see fam and friends and to see one of my besties Becky Hale get married. Of course it was a packed weekend trying to see everyone, but it was a great time. My mom had a Halloween party at her place and it was so fun! This is Madalynn (Shane's little pumpkin), Taylor (cutest chubby skeleton you've ever seen, which glows in the dark by the way), and Audrey (Shane's cute pink lady).

Me and my cousin Jen.

My madre the pirate and aunt shirley the biker chick.

Taylor trying to figure out Aunt Shirley. Funny thing is that she is a state senator!!

Aren't these girls so cute?! Only 5 days apart. Can you see the size difference in their feet. Madalynn is all Tobiasson and Taylor is all Powell!

Beautiful Becky Hale Bunker and her new hubby Scott.

Taylo helping daddy with dinner. Yes that is drool covering almost the entire front of her shirt!

The snow!!!!!
Looking out our front room window.

Don't worry, it's been snowing for 2 days straight and it should be stopping tonight. We'll see...isn't it so pretty?!

Too cute for words

2009-09-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

Here is a little picture diary of what we've been up to.

Taylor will be 6 months this friday, crazy! She is the best and we can't keep our hands off of her.
She is working on sitting up, getting better at putting weight through her legs, and eating like a champ. She is such a chill baby. I mean, really chill. She has been slow with her development because she is just so content, at least that's what I'm telling myself anyway. You know how they say, "oh, put a toy to her side and it will give her incentive to roll over and play with it"..well, the toy will fall to her side and she'll be perfectly content with looking at her hands! Oh well, she will come along sooner or later.

SLEEPING: What happened? I prized my little gal on the being the best sleeper and the last 3 nights have been torture! Previous to this Taylor had been sleeping through the night pretty much from 8:30pm to 7am, with occasional trips in to her room to just put her binky back in. Well, the last couple nights she has been waking up and screaming bloody murder! She sees that I'm in the room and wants to be with me. I know she has been fed, diaper changed and she's fine! So, what to do?! I am a babywise momma, so I was trying to let her cry it out in her crib. Well, 1 1/2 hours later she would finally go to sleep! Yikes, Rebecca, I need some consoling! Anyway, I'm hoping it's just a phase and that she'll get back on schedule, but until then, I'm tired!

Does anyone remember the beautiful brown full head of hair that my little Taylor had? Well, it's gone folks! Not only has her head gotten bigger so it is less full, but a ton has fallen out. I know everyone said it happens, but for some reason I thought it would be different with my own kids. You know, of course your kids' hair wouldn't fall out. Well, here she is in all her bald glory. At least its turning blond though which will be cute.
Taylor is doing so good at sitting up, she's mostly doing it on her own. Let's just say I have the boppy pillow behind her for the tumbles.

Isn't this the cutest beanie that my great aunt made for her? I love it!

So...we watched our four oldest nieces/nephews for 2 days over the weekend and it was quite an adventure. I thought it was a process getting a baby out of the house...it's nothing like trying to get 4 kids and a baby out of the house!! We had a great time and went hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a beautiful day. Do you think some people were wondering how Aaron and I had 5 children?

I'm not gonna lie, I can't remember which waterfall this is, but it was pretty!! Taylor was a trooper and even slept through half of the hike.

The cutest cutie pie in her high chair. She is getting so much better with eating. The dry heaving has been cut down in half...progress!!

Tay-lo and daddy and tickle me ernie!

I was watching Izzy while Caroline and Dave were fixing up their new place. We had a great time at the zoo with our friend Shaina too! They don't look too happy in this pic, but I promise they had a good time.

A dirty story...

2009-08-19T20:32:00.001-07:00

Of course I haven't posted in about a month so it will be a slew of photos/updates from the last month's happenings. First off though I need to tell a little story that all mothers will appreciate. I went to Barnes & Noble today to just enjoy getting out, look at some books and hang out with Taylor. I found a cushy seat, had two books to check out (What to expect the First Year & Twilight Photo Book). That's what all moms have right?! Well, I wanted to hang out with Tay-lo too, so I go to get her out of the stroller and before I could even get her all the way out...da da da...the smell hit me first...blowout!!

I had to hold her facing out and try to not get it all over me. I bumble my way into the bathroom holding her and dragging the stroller behind us. I have to use the gross changing station in the bathroom and my experience today affirmed that those things are disgusto. Let's just say that we were both knee deep in green poo. In trying to get her outfit off, the poo got all the up to her neck, under her armpits, etc. Well, as I'm trying to wipe it off I notice that it is all over my arm...sick. Then she starts screaming, then another toddler in the bathroom with his mom starts asking why the baby is crying so bad. I luckily had a ziploc bag from my lunch that I was able to throw her clothes into. I'm just laughing the whole time because there's nothing else I can do at this point. Let's just say it all went downhill when I had a screaming, naked baby slung over one arm and trying to wipe with the other hand, and poop is going places I can't even control! I used almost all my wipes trying to wipe both of us off. Needless to say I put her new onesie on backwards, I still found poop on her arm 10 minutes later, and the two of us finally sat down to look at us some Edward!! Yikes, the joy of motherhood!! We both took a much needed bath after that experience.

Ok, here are some pics...

daddy daughter time

Taylor and her friend Kaeli at the pool...cutie pies...and the joy of being mostly a stay at home mom

Brookie's 1st b-day at Cinzetti's. Sorry Brooke isn't in the pic

Pool time with daddy. She is really loving the pool these days as long as it's not too cold. She's so cute!! And, I finally gave in and got her swim diapers after going in the pool about 5 times without one. I was asking for it holding out that long, I didn't want to end up being that mom where the diaper explodes in the water so I finally gave in.

Taylor and Grandma! P.S. You can't see it in this shot but this is an outfit with leggings that my mom got her. Seriously, Taylor is more fashionable than me most of the time. My mom was so great and came to stay with us for a week to take care of Taylor while I oriented all week at the new hospital I'm working at. To be honest, I think my mom loved having some alone time with Taylor. Aaron was gone in Florida all week for work, so it was just us girls, and we had a great time...ate out, watched our girlie shows, and chatted. Thanks for coming up mom...you're the best!!

Us 3 girls enjoyed our girls time, but were also excited when Stewy came home. Taylor had a special surprise for daddy when he came home. If you can't tell her onesie says.."Welcome home Daddy-o".

more quality daddy daughter time. I won't say out loud that they are probably watching UFC together. Good quality TV watching. Yikes! She is just watching the colors at this point right?!

We love Colorado and it's erratic weather and beautiful nature. We went to Poudre Canyon and went tubing down the river. Well, most everyone else did while I was busy feeding/watching Taylor, but we had a great time. It was cloudy and sprinkling driving up, and then the sun came out for a few hours while we were there and then the rain started coming down as we were leaving. Perfect timing. It was beautiful up there.

Stewy and our cutie pie niece Laurene walking out to jump off the rock. I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I may have only put a toe in the water this entire trip. I was watching the baby....

Vegas baby

2009-07-18T22:52:00.000-07:00

In the beginning of June I was able to go home to Vegas to see my fam. I was so excited because it was the baby debut! Most of my family hadn't met Taylor yet, and I hadn't met Shane's little gal Madalynn. We had the craziest, packed week and a half of my life. I had to come home and recover afterwards, but it was all worth it. I got to see tons of family and friends. It was fabulous. And of course the best part was showing off my little Taylor girl.

Here is a pic of Madalynn on the left (if you zoom in you can see the sweet, totally natural mohawk) and Taylor on the right. They are only 5 days apart and total cutie pies. Madalynn is a lot bigger than Taylor so in any pictures we would try to take she was trying to hit my little girl. What's up with that?!

My sweet Grandma Verna. It was great to visit her, she's hilarious. I would love to be as sharp as her when I'm at the young age of 90. Living by herself and everything.

Again..madalynn on the right trying to knock out my little taylor.

The proud grandma. I think Taylor had a bit of jet lag, because she was doing a whole lot of sleeping for the first couple days we were there.

Baby Talk!

2009-07-18T22:09:00.000-07:00

Life has been crazy...

We have offically moved from Denver, and are loving our new residence in Loveland. Moving was craziness, especially because Aaron was out of town and really busy with work, so I literally packed the entire apartment myself. We moved in a couple of days before 4th of July. I have to give thanks to my Taylor for being the best baby in the whole world and allowing me to put in her every play activity we had to keep her busy while I packed/cleaned. She's an amazing baby.

We were exhausted to say the least, but happy to move in to our new place and get started up here. I got a new job working at a hospital in acute care just doing on call (only working a couple days a month). I'm really exicted. Aaron is really liking his job as a medical device salesman.

On more exciting news...Taylor is growing up so fast!!

She is...
spitting up a ton
sucking on her hands
starting to reach and grab for things
smiling like crazy
laughed one time (on the same day that you asked me about it Tracie!)
doing great with tummy time (her neck is stronger than mine)
getting chubbier by the second
sleeping through the night more than half of the time (yeah for me!!)

Chubby girl.. 4th of July. She's looking all cute in her red/white/blue and wearing big girl jeans for the first time. We saw the fireworks from Estes Park and they were fabulous. Of course Taylor slept right through them. Chillin with daddy-o...lookin cuteThis was one of our pool times in Denver. This is what she was doing before we were about to take her in the water, so you can imagine what happened right afterwards...Cry fit!! She wasn't very happy about being awakened by getting her feet dipped in the pool. We went another time though when she was awake and she was a champ! (The sunhat looks a little weird because it was too big so we had to fold it up, but doesn't she look adorable in her tiny swim suit?! : )Taylor is great at helping mom cook or clean in the kitchen from her bumbo seat. She will check out what I'm cooking and just look around, it's so stinkin cute. She's even great at sitting in her bumbo while I'm doing my hair and make up, and she'll just sit and stair/smile at herself in the mirror. I hope I'm not making her vain! I had to post this pic first of all because of the cute beanie, but second of all so everyone can see her precious profile! Don't you love the squishy roundness?! You can see in this pic that she has my nose! Confession: Aaron has the craziest, biggest boogers I have ever seen. My sweet little baby Taylor girl has giant boogers that I have to get out of her nose every day!!! Even when she's not sick...gross. Here is proof that she is her daddy's girl. I found her like this when she was playing under her play gym one day. Just a few video highlights. (don't worry, those were actually clean towels in there that we were storing in there for packing...I wouldn't have my little girl rollin around in the dirty laundry folks)

smiley girl

2009-06-04T14:08:00.000-07:00

Taylor is becoming quite the little smiley cutie pie. It's so cute when I come in to get her from her crib and she's just all smiling like she's the best thing that hit the earth.
Do you think that's a dimple on her right cheek in the picture below, I can't tell? (did I spell cheek right, I don't know if I've ever spelled that word before). This is my favorite when Taylor is a nakie girl getting ready to take a bath..she's just so soft.
This is the cutest adidas outfit that my aunt Shirley and cousin Jennifer got for Taylor. Name brands..she's more stylish than me!!

So, I am the luckiest mom ever...Taylor is an amazing sleeper!! I have totally followed babywise and I love it! I would say that 90% of the time when it is nap time I can just put Taylor in her crib and she just falls right to sleep on her own. Once in a while I might have to go in there and put the binky back in, but mostly she enjoys her sleep. Sometimes she wakes up in the middle of her naps...the video below was one of those times. She was mostly telling me that she is way too cute to sleep. Love this girl!

Those of you who know Aaron, know that he is the beat boxing man. Babies love it! This is how daddy daughter time goes with Taylor and the stew man. Don't you love their matching fo-hawks?!

Moms...what a blessing

2009-05-20T19:02:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while, but there is reason to update. Our Taylor girl was blessed by her dad on May 10th...mother's day...and my birthday! It was a special day for everyone. It was great to have all the moms together. My mom flew in from Vegas, Aaron's mom was there, and all of the sister in laws. It was quite the mom celebration.

Taylor did so great with her blessing. She was a little fussy right before we headed into sacrament so I was really nervous. I wanted her to be totally asleep, but she was wide awake. She didn't even have her binky in and she was just looking around and really happy throughout the entire blessing. Again..what a good girl. And she looked beautiful in her tiny white dress.

The entire Powell clan..minus one sister in law Holly and plus my mom. Can you believe that 3 of us have just started having kids? Its going to be chaos when everyone has finished having kids and there are more than 20 Powell kiddos running around and screaming. That's just a guess on how many there will be, Taylor is grandkid number 12 for the Powell side. It's always great getting together, especially since all of us live in Colorado now.

Aaron's BFF Evan and his fabulous wife Rebecca. You know how its hard when your husband has a best friend and you're worried about whether you will get along with their wife? Well, I love Rebecca...we haven't been able to hang out very much but every time we do its fabulous, we could talk for hours! I love that girl. I'm sad their moving to Chicago.

Just a cute shot of Taylor girl looking up at her daddy. She is like a little mini me.

And yet another cute pic. So...there are already a few nick names emerging. Taylo... (say it out loud, its kinda cute), and T-lo ( I don't like this one at all, reminds me of J-lo). Even though if Taylor is like her momma she will have a booty like J-lo. Which one do you guys like better?

2009-05-05T12:58:00.000-07:00

I can't believe our Taylor girl is already 1 month old. We can't get enough of her. She is growing so fast. This is a little bit of what she's been doing...

She is getting better at looking at things and tracking objects

She had her first blow out (which luckily her dad got the pleasure of changing!)

When her mom is lucky she will sleep for 4 whole hours at a time at night

She is a really loud eater...loud!!

She is a really mellow baby...she will just be chill and look around, totally content

1 month

8 pounds 11 ounces

I wanted to get Taylor to her first shopping outing to the mall, girls gotta learn from a young age! She got to hang out with her friend Zak. Do you love the difference in size..Zak is 8 months old and Taylor 1 month. Cutie pies. I met my friend Holly from work at Cherry Creek mall, it was great to meet up and chat with her. I love that place, especially the area where the guy is just playing the piano...I could seriously just hang out there and veg.

She is such a little peanut in her bouncy chair.

Ok really...is this the cutest picture you have ever seen? Precious!!
We just can't get enough of this girl.

P.S.

2009-04-12T13:48:00.001-07:00

I noticed that we haven't disclosed her full name yet on the blog......

TAYLOR ADDISON

We love her!!

~Our Little Taylor Girl~

2009-04-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

So, we are home and doing well. It has been such a whirlwind having a baby. Your water brakes and then all of a sudden within 24 hours you have a baby! Aaron and I talk about how much we love her even though we just met her. She is such a good baby...sleeping, eating, and pooping well! What more could you ask for?! We love everything about her..even when she's crying she's so cute and we can't help smiling at her. We haven't posted in a while and of course we're first time parents so we've taken a million pictures. Here are some of our favorites.

Leaving the hospital...it had been snowing outside so we had to bundle her all up. Her arms couldn't even move out of this position. And, do you notice how they made her little hospital beanie into a "girl" beanie with a bow...too cute.
Her first tummy time on her mini boppy. Isn't she so cute!

Her first sponge bath. She cried a little bit during the bath itself, but she is in heaven when she gets her hair washed. She loves it! She is just like her mom..I make Aaron play with my hair any chance I get.

We have caught a few smiles. I'm sure at this point though it is just the face warning us that she is filling her diaper up!

The happy little family. This is one of the only pictures we have together as the new fam. Aaron wants to make sure to set the record straight that it is a burp rag on his right shoulder, not some crazy shirt/sweater vest!

All the little Powell Cousins. Taylor: 1 week. Isabelle: 5 months. Izzy: 7 months

This is our first attempt at a photo session with her. It was right after her bath, so she wasn't very happy about the whole thing. The first picture shows her true sentiments about the whole situation. We will try again soon maybe while she's sleeping or just after she's eaten. They still turned out super cute though.

Taylor has arrived!

2009-04-03T16:24:00.000-07:00

We are excited to announce the birth of our beautiful daughter Taylor. She was born on April 2nd at 6:39 pm and weighed 6 pounds 14 ounces and is 20 inches long. Robyn and I were surprised on Wednesday night (April 1st) at 10:30 when her water broke. She was given pitosin shortly after arrived and for the next 17 hours we waited for Robyn to dilate, but with little avail. After a discussion with our doctor, we concluded that it would be best if Robyn was given a C-section. Just minutes later, I was in the operating room with Robyn as they were slicing her open. It was a scary sight to behold, and all I could do was comfort Robyn and pray. In probably less than 20 minutes, they finally pulled out Taylor and it brought great relief to us both. Despite the fact that she was covered in goo, I felt an overwhelming feeling of love for my new daughter. It was an experience that I will never forget. One minute I was freaking out because I scared for my wife, and the next minute I was so excited to finally see Taylor. Robyn is recovering okay, although we will need to stay in the hospital a few extra days since she is stitched up. Robyn's mother Sherri was nice enough to immediately book a flight when she found out her water broke, and she has been with us to help out R0byn. We have also had family and friends visit and it has been wonderful for all of the support we have been given. Robyn and I are so proud of our beautiful new daughter and we are so excited for all of the adventures that we will have in the years to come.

Baby Tobiasson!!!

2009-03-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Shane and Jen!!

Baby Madalynn Ann Tobiasson was born on Saturday, March 28th at 9 pm.
She was 7 lbs 14 oz, 18 inches

(sorry, they haven't sent any pictures yet except for on the cell phone)

The other kids look exactly like Jen, her daughter Audrey is like a mini me.
Little Madalynn on the other hand looks a lot like Shane with sandy blonde hair (a lot of it), chubby cheeks, and big hands. If you know Shane he has giant hands. We are so excited for them!

I just hope this gives my little girl inspiration to come now as soon as she wants...like today!!! We'll see and keep everyone posted. I have 11 days left, so hopefully any day now!!

Date night!

2009-03-08T18:24:00.000-07:00

The melting pot...yummy!!! We went on friday night and it was delicious! I was feeling pretty full the whole time, so I didn't eat a ton, but Aaron on the other hand really enjoyed it. I think it was one of those male things where he couldn't see really good food go to waste, so by the end of the night he wasn't feeling so good. We really liked it though because it is in this really cool building with tables in little nooks and crannies. We loved where we were sitting because we were right next to the fireplace. So...the funny thing is that I was originally going to sit where Aaron was but it was a tighter squeeze than the other side and we had to switch places because I wasn't going to fit on that side. The belly is getting so much bigger! Anyway, we had a great date night...which I hear is a good thing before baby comes.

Here is the current belly shot. Can you believe this thing?! I still have 4 1/2 weeks to go!!

Valentine's...and Birthdays!!!

2009-03-01T17:14:00.001-08:00

Life has been good in the month of February. We had a fabulous Valentine's Day. We were going to go out to eat somewhere, but nothing sounded good and then we didn't want to have to wait in the crazy lines, so we decided to have a quiet night at home. It ended up being the best night ever.

Here is a picture of my stewy helping to cook a deliscous meal...gotta love the Hawaii apron from his folks. Pretty flowers from my Aaron...

What's better than a dinner at home with my valentine...and wearing sweats! Love it. Notice our amazing kitchen table..yes folks it's the smallest card table you've ever seen. We can just barely sit across from each other and have our plates fit. These are the good days...first married and having a baby soon. cheese ball smile....

Updates: It is Aaron's 29th birthday on March 18th. We are pretty excited about it. We are celebrating by taking advantage of the 5280 week this week. In Denver, during this time of year they have a bunch of really nice restaurants that you can go to and get a great meal for $52.80 for 2 people. We are doing an early birthday celebration for Aaron and going to....

question...

Other birthdays...when is our little girl going to be born? What do you think? She is due April 10th. But will she be born 2 days later on Easter? Will she be born a couple weeks sooner because she loves her mom so much and doesn't want to be kicking her in the ribs anymore?! Will she have any hair? What color? Let us know of your guesses of when she's coming! We are so excited...less than 6 weeks now!

We are alive...and growing!!!

2009-01-31T19:45:00.000-08:00

Well, as always I haven't posted in quite a while so I will have to do a big update on what's been going on in our lives. I am officially 30 weeks pregnant now...only 10 weeks away now! Crazy. I have definitely grown since the last belly shot. It is amazing once you finally pop, its all over from there. We are so excited to meet our little girl though, we can't wait! I'm not gonna lie though ladies...I can't decide if I'm more nervous about giving birth or breastfeeding? Both freak me out big time-PAIN!

Anyway, we spent a great Christmas in Vegas with my family. We saw my whole family and of course we had to do the comparison shot of me and my sis-in-law Jen. My dad got in the pic too...he gives us some fierce competition with his beer belly. This is us at 6 months pregnant.We had a great Christmas break with the family. We had quite the twist at the end though because my parents gave us one of their "old white trucks" (the old roomies know what this means) and it needed a few more things fixed on it then we had planned to begin with. It is a long story but it involved me flying home on Sunday to get back to work, Aaron not being able to drive home until Tuesday..running out of gas in the middle of the mountains in Colorado due to a broken gas gauge..no cell phone service..a ride to the gas station in a big rig..and getting home 14 hours after leaving. Let's just say we're so glad that Aaron finally made it home.

On a more exciting note...on January 12th was our first anniversary!!! It has gone by so fast. I'll tell you this too, I never would have thought that I would be 6 1/2 months pregnant on our first anniversary. Sometimes surprises come in small packages right?! We have heard about this thing called a babymoon where a couple will go on a vacation before the baby comes, so we had a combined anniversary/babymoon mini vacation. Aaron booked this fabulous room at one of the tallest hotels in downtown Denver, and we had a great weekend there eating out and enjoying the view and the nice hotel. Happy anniversary honey....you are the best husband a girl could ask for!I headed back to Vegas towards the end of January for a baby shower. Let's just say it was more than fabulous and so good to see all of my good friends and family! I have never seen so much pink, fluff, and cute clothes in my life. Aaron already a little upset because the baby has a better wardrobe than he does! It was great to see everyone and show off the crazy growing belly. It has been so fun getting ready for our little girl to arrive. We are counting down the days/weeks. Here are my BFFs Melissa and Emily. Emily even flew down from Salt Lake for the shower. and here is the belly update...I've grown a bit from the last shot huh?! 10 weeks left and counting!

Buddha Belly

2008-12-14T13:46:00.000-08:00

Ok folks...here is the belly shot you have all been asking for. This was taken last Sunday...I told you there wasn't much yet here people. I am tall and have a super long torso, so it has taken a while to start showing. I feel like I am actually starting to grow a little bit more each week now though. It wasn't until about Thanksgiving week that I started "showing" a little bit more. I am officially 23 weeks now!! Yeah.

Being pregnant has been quite an experience...a lot of aches & pains, but also really exciting when you feel the baby moving. She is quite a mover. I first started feeling her move around 18 weeks and Aaron was able to feel her move around 20 weeks. It has been really fun. We are just so excited to meet her and see what she looks like! Although the thought of being parents is quite daunting, I must say. I just can't think about it too hard, I just need to enjoy every step. I'll be better about doing updates since the belly is starting to grow now.

Go Cougs!!!

2008-11-21T19:06:00.001-08:00

We headed down to Air Force this past weekend in Colorado Springs to watch our Cougs whoop it up!! It was a fun game to be at and watch. It was sweet to see the fighter jets fly over at the beginning of the game. It got pretty chilly while we were there, but we had a great time. This was mine and Aaron's first BYU game together even though we went to BYU during the same time for 3 years and didn't know each other yet. Then there's miss Tracie...this is 8 years later since our first football games and we are at a BYU game together again...craziness!! And we are now both with child...I just happen to be harvesting mine in my stomache at this juncture. We had a great time...and the hot dog and hot chocolate topped it all off...you can see that Aaron was still enjoying his hot dog in this picture!

On Sunday, we headed up to Loveland for our sweet niece Lorene's 6th birthday party. These are the two newest additions to the Powell clan....Izzy on the left (9 weeks old) and Isabelle (6 days old)...can you believe that my sis-in-law Kristen looks so great after just having a child?!! Soon enough there will be another baby girl to add to the bunch; our little girl will be the 12th Powell cousin...5 boys and 7 girls.

BIG NEWS!!!

2008-11-08T15:58:00.001-08:00

So...the verdict is in...we are having a little girl!!! We are so excited! I'm not gonna lie, I have wanted a girl all along, and not for any other reason than they are so fun and cute to dress!! My mom was in town this past weekend, so it was fun for her to be there for the ulstrasound. It was quite a process and I had to do all these crazy maneuvers to get the little one to move around enough to find out that she was a girl. It took almost 45 minutes to find out and the process included...rolling side to side a million times, eating 4 starburst in a row really quickly to get my blood sugar up, drink lots of water to fill up my bladder, do some stomache crunches, and put an ice pack on my stomache!! But, in the end...alas it is a little girl! And to make my mom a little happier, Shane and Jen found out a few days earlier that they are having a little girl as well!! I think on both the Powell and Tobiasson side there has been a male domination, so us girls are finally taking over!!

Enjoying the Sunshine...what we have left of it!

2008-10-26T20:31:00.000-07:00

Aaron and I had a fabulous weekend last weekend by default actually. We had looked up a hike that we wanted to go on and ended up chatting so much on the way there that we missed taking an important freeway off ramp. Well..it turned out great because we ended up at a place called Heritage Square outside of Golden, CO. Aaron remembered that they have alpine slides there.

Well, we show up to this place and it was slightly creepy, looked like it was a happening little amusement park about 20 years ago, and had scary carnies running small rides for kids. We won't mention that we bought lunch there and it was a big mistake. I'm not really supposed to have hot dogs right now being pregnant and I thought, well we're at this little place and what's better than fair food, right? Once we got our hot dogs we realized it was a grave mistake and I had to eat it because I was starving. We both didn't feel that great afterwards but we are doing ok. Let's just say that I've never seen a hot dog that color...yikes!

Anyway, I had heard about alpine slides all the time living in Utah, but I don't think I had ever riden one. We took the plunge down the mountain and it was so fun. Aaron even took video footage of the ride down...he's pretty proud of it. At the end of the clip you can see the slightly growing Robyn belly too!

After we left Heritage Square we went for a drive up in the mountains. We pulled off the road where we could walk next to the river. It was a beautiful day, so we just planned on going on a nice little jaunt next to the river. By then end of our "walk" we had soaked our shoes trying to cross the river on dry rocks...you know how well and how long that ever works! Aaron was a little sad because he was wearing his brand new running shoes...sad. Not only had we successfully crossed the river, wet or not, we got to a hang up when there were no more rocks to walk along the river and we had to do a bit of light rock climbing (you can see above Aaron's head in the picture). Aaron just wanted to climb over it to check it out and figured I would just wait for him. Well, not me...pregnant or not I did some climbing and was right by his side. It was fine on the way there when our shoes were still pretty dry, but then trying to cross back with soaking wet shoes was a little frightening. I was thinking of reading the headlines..."Pregnant lady falling while trying to rock climb with no ropes and wet shoes!" Really smart for a gal who works at a hospital for people who have had brain/spinal cord injuries. I guess I need to start thinking about being a little safer these days now that I'm prego!

No April Fools!!

2008-09-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

Well folks, this is no april fools...this is what I will be looking like in April!! I have joined the prego club!! I am due April 10th! We are really excited and can't wait to find out what it is. Don't worry...I don't look like this, Tracie and I were maternity clothes shopping and I strapped on the crazy belly thing to see what the clothes would really look like. It was a little crazy to see. I'm not really "showing" yet, but I'm already feeling fat. Anyway, we are really excited about having a little one, and I'm even more excited for the day when I don't feel nauseous and have a headache!! The fun thing is that my brother Shane's wife is pregnant as well and her due date is April 7th! You can imagine that my mom is beside herself. So...I will keep everyone posted on how it goes!

Picture Update Time!

2008-08-03T17:51:00.001-07:00

Well...I wanted to add a few pics that I can't add from Aaron's computer. I know it has been 2 months since we last posted...so hear goes the crazy summarized picture diary of the last 2 months of our life.

First...in the beginning of June I went to Boston for a girls' trip and met up with my mom, Aunt Shirley, my cousin Jennifer, and my good friend Emily.

June was also the month that our friends Erin and Ryan came to visit and live with the Wares for a month. And we had some other fun visitors during that time...Bri and Dave, Jenna and Drew, and Stephanie and Taylor Cox. Fun times in the summer.Then, on July 24th...we became Aunt Robyn and Uncle Aaron to the cutest little blonde haired asian girl on earth (well...not really blonde, but what's wrong with hoping right?!). Not that I'm a biased Aunt or something, but she has to be the cutest thing on earth. Sorry, this is the brand new (10 hours old pic).

Troy teaching Aaron how to hold a newborn...precious picture moment!

I did not attend an event the night before the 4th book of the Twilight series came out to celebrate with 15 other ladies...it's pretty bad when the little teenagers also in attendance asked if we are "Twilight Moms". Um...I guess we don't fit in with the 16 year old crowd, especially since about half the group we went with are mothers!! We embrace our love of Edward..sorry honey. And we are also not wearing matching t-shirts! We are nerds, its true.

Last, but absolutely not least we ran into some old friends of mine from Salt Lake at another friends wedding, Arianne! She looked absolutely beautiful..even though it was so crazy I wasn't even able to sneak a picture of her. We got to see the Petersons though and Max and Jayme, so we had a great time.

Summer Scorcher

2008-08-03T16:21:00.000-07:00

Robyn made me write a blog entry for once because our friend Tracie told her that she likes hearing from a guy's perspective once in a while, so here goes nothing. Thanks a lot Tracie! jk. This summer has been abnormally hot for Denver. I can't even think of the last time that it was under 90 degrees or when it rained. We've been able to do quite a few fun things in the past two months. Robyn was the big boss at girls camp and I was able to spend the last night there. She had a good time with the girls, but more than anything was just relieved that it went okay and that all of the preparation and stress was finally over. However that relief did not last more than 24 hours. She must have impressed the bishop so much that the next day he called her as the young women's president!

Speaking of Robyn's sweet skills, she was just promoted to Assistant Supervisor at Craig Hospital over the occupational therapists in the brain injury department. She was by far the least experienced candidate for the position, so I was quite impressed (but not surprised) that she was selected. Between having the new position, new calling, and helping with a lot of baby showers, she has been busy to say the least. I try to help her where I can, however I am much busier than I'd like to be with my own job.

Yesterday my brother and I went tubing down the Boulder Creek. That should be a requirement for anyone living not too far from Denver or Boulder. I know it's not the most wild river ever, but it has enough rapids and drops to get your heart going at times (mostly because you are afraid the huge sharp rocks beneath you are going to peel a layer off your bum). Somehow my hand got under the tube and got a good scrape. The water level is lower than average right now, which makes the river slower, yet a little scarier at times because of all of the rocks that poke out everywhere.

I went tubing and rope swinging a few weeks ago with the scouts in our ward (I am in the young men's presidency). Some of these kids hadn't ever been on a boat, yet alone been in water that is over their head. Our friend Tyler has a lake that his family owns and has exclusive rights to (I admit, I'm a little jealous). He took us out on his boat and did some sweet tubing action. The big question- can you not smile while tubing? When the tubes get whipping around a bend and you hit some crazy waves, it's impossible to not laugh your head off. Of course laughing makes it even harder to hold on, which makes it even funnier because you are hanging on by a thread, about to do flips on the surface of the water once your last finger can't hold on anymore. I love wakeboarding and skiing, but I think I may actually have more fun doing some extreme tubing. Anyone agree?

The rope swing was equally as fun. Only one of the scouts had the guts to try it. The rest didn't want to, besides we didn't trust their safety on it. The rope was tied to a huge wood pole and the ladder to get up to the top must was built far too long ago. Every step creaked as if the board was going to rip through the metal screws. The top was super wobbly and it suddenly looked much further down than it did looking up at the thing. Tyler set the standard by climbing to the very top ladder step. Once I saw that, of course Bill (a priest) and I had to try it as well. There were no rails to hold onto, so we just had to rely on our own balance. The top of the pole was extremely high, which made the rope super long, which in turn made for a ton of momentum while swinging down into the water. There was a good gap between the top of the rope swing and the water, which made it that much more nerve racking. Once letting go of the rope, the momentum would chuck us a little higher and about 20 feet further. Once we tried it, we were hooked and went for about another hour. It makes me want to find a higher and crazier rope swing, but I doubt there are any in this area. I saw some huge ones on youtube that I can only dream of doing. I couldn't stop perseverating about the rope swing for the next few days. There are some pictures of it below.

Robyn has done a few other big things this summer, but I didn't go and couldn't give you any good details. I'll leave the next blog for Robyn so that she could talk about them. So I wrote my first blog, I'm so proud of myself. Don't plan on my writing one for quite some time- unless I'm given an encore by several people. jk.

Three day weekends!

2008-06-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

What would we do without 3 day weekends. It was so nice to have an extra day off...it makes such a difference. We planned on going camping that friday night but in light of the recent tornadoes just north of denver we had a change of plans. The campground we were planning to go to had even been hit by one and still had a tornado watch that night we were going to go. Now, let's talk about this folks...I ask my husband if it's safe to go camping in the mountains in a tent when we just had a tornado, especially since the only person that died here was camping. And...of course he and his brother were all for it until they went up there and were finally told it wasn't a good idea. Crazy!!

Anyway, instead the whole Powell clan got together and hung out friday and saturday. We all met up in Estes Park on Saturday and it was fabulous. I love that place. It is a beautiful area up in the mountains that has the most quaint mountain feel that makes you just feel at home. Here is a little glimpse of the craziness that was the Powell family with all 5 brothers and their wives and all the kiddos...9 and 2 (1/2s on the way). Anyway, we had a great time hanging out with everyone.

On Monday we went with our friends Ben and Tarin to Boulder...another one of my favorite places. I have to take every single person that comes to visit me here to Boulder because it is also another gem. We planned on going to a festival/fair but ended up going up and down Pearl Street, the major street in Boulder with lots of shops and street performers. Unfortunately it was raining like crazy so we got out of the rain when we found our new favorite place...Powell's Sweet Shop! Great name huh?! We went in just to look around and found that by the end the four of us had found all the candies, gums, and chocolates that reminded us of our childhood...big league chew, blow pops, and jelly hamburgers anyone!!! We loved every second of it and the lady even gave us some Powell stickers since it is our namesake. Gotta love acting like kids sometimes.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

2008-05-13T20:16:00.000-07:00

First of all folks, are you noticing how much I am posting tonight. You should be so proud Tracie and Troy. Anyway, saturday was my b-day and I had a great day. We went out to dinner with some family and friends to the best Italian Buffet you could imagine...Cinzetti's. It's so good that I have to call my brother in Vegas and brag every time I get to go there. After we stuffed ourselves beyond belief, all of us headed back to our place and had some cake, cupcakes, and a good time.

I'm not gonna lie...I was really nervous thinking that 25+ people were going to be hanging out in our 2 bedroom apt. but it worked out great and we had a fabulous time. It's always so funny on my birthday...I almost forget about getting great presents for your birthday...and I totally scored! My favorite (besides my hubby's present of course) was this cute robot that my nephew Jake made with some serious TLC. He put this funny face on it and we dually named it Jakie Jr (our only kid for now). You have to love how creative kids are.