Robbins

6 month check up!

2012-02-01T23:04:00.001-08:00

Presley had her 6 month check up and shots today. Can I just say how much I hate shots? Especially when they are given to my little baby! I know in the long run they are good and necessary, so we do them. But it is so sad the second they hit her little legs and she bursts into tears!! She kinda takes it personally, poor gal! She was a champ today though. She definitely shed a fair share of tears; but after I fed her and snuggled her and she calmed right down.
Other than shots, all went well! She is a happy and healthy baby! She is growing oh so fast and learning so much!
Love you baby girl!

FHE at the Robbins

2012-01-31T21:35:00.001-08:00

For family home evening we decided to make a big fort in the tv room, eat delicious dessert, and have a party! :) Yes, I know...we are still children. But it was so fun and we have decided we should just leave it up all week! :) Besides Pres loves it...anything for the kids right? ;) We watch movies in it at night and snuggle up. It is the best! Sure do love my little family and love every second I get I spend with them. I am a very lucky girl!

Some of Our FaVoRiTe Treats as of Late

2012-01-27T21:19:00.001-08:00

One word....divine :)

Big Girl on Campus

2012-01-27T09:10:00.001-08:00

Miss Presley is all about being a big girl. She loves to stand (with a little of my help of course) and she is sitting all by herself! She is really good at it too! She is a strong little cookie :)
The other day I kindly asked her to not grow up and she literally laughed at me! Who does that?! I guess it is inevitable...she is going to anyways. But I am sure having fun watching her grow and develop into her beautiful little self. Oh how I love her!
(sorry for the picture overload:)! )

Walk Walk Fashion Baby

2012-01-11T17:34:00.001-08:00

Today I got to watch the Johnson girlies! And boy did we have a PaRtAy! It was a day filled of Wii, movies, games, lots of fruit snacks :), dress up, lipstick, perfume, hide and seek, and we went out to support the officer that was shot and watched the precession.

Tanielle and Chris went to the funeral and ceremony to honor officer Francom. He was a buddy of Chris's and we are all saddened by his loss. It was so amazing to go out and see the amazing support from the community and everyone out to honor a great man.

I was happy to take the girls and play with them for a day so they could go and participate in today's services.

Here is a little documentation of our day and our "photo shoot". Man don't they make great models??! :) They are a riot. I had a blast with them and Presley adores them as well. Tayia was a champ at making her giggle! I don't know if I've ever heard either of them laugh so hard! Sure do love you girls!

6 Months!! What??

2012-01-06T14:25:00.001-08:00

When did my little baby get so big?!?!? Tomorrow Presley hits her 6 month mark and it seems surreal. I know, I'm sure all the mothers say that!! But it really does fly by! Here are some pic's that I took so I would remember her at 6 months. :) I sure do love this smiley little baby! She melts my heart, the little rascal. Thankful to be her mommy!

Happy Birthday Tanny!

2011-12-30T14:56:00.001-08:00

We got to visit Tanielle, Chris, and the girls on the 22nd to celebrate Tanielle's birthday! We had yummy food, delicious desert, played games, watched the Help, and visited late into the night! It was a blast! Then all the boys went shooting in the morning. They had a blast as well! They are always looking for an excuse to go shoot some guns and be manly :) haha they are the best. We sure do love them and love when they get a chance to spend some quality time doing the thing they love!

Thanks for a fabulous weekend Tanielle! We love you and your family so much and hope that you had an amazing birthday!! You are so wonderful and I am blessed to have you as a sister!

Babys First Christmas!

2011-12-29T22:45:00.001-08:00

Christmas was great this year! It is so fun having Pres here and getting to experience all of her "firsts" with her. We had a great Christmas Eve and got to spend it with my familia! We did our annual family traditions and this year Joel got to be Joseph, I was Mary, and Presley was baby Jesus. We sang Christmas songs around the piano, my mom and I stayed up late and prepped Christmas dinner (with Joel as a sidekick/helper), then us three stayed up late watching the Nativity and getting things ready for Christmas morning!

Christmas morning was great as always! Presley loved all her presents but her favorite was the wrapping paper OF COURES! :) It was so fun! She got lots of new clothes, shoes, toys, care bear, and a walker! It was fun watching her play with her new toys, she was a riot! :)

And one of my FAVORITE Christmas presents was getting to talk to my sister on a mission! We got to Skype with her!! It was so good to see her face! Ahhhhh! Oh how I miss her! Love technology and am so grateful I could see her and talk to her when she is all the way in Belgium!
We also go to talk to Kel! Joel's brother that is in Japan on mission! It was so fun and he is doing great! We miss and love our two missionaries and are so proud of them for serving the Lord and building His kingdom. They are amazing!

Christmas day we also got to go and visit my grandma and grandpa Benson. Presley got to go in and see grandpa Benson (the grandpa she is named after-his middle name is Clair and her middle name is Claire). He is not doing very well and we don't know how much longer he has left. I'm so glad that we got to go see him on Christmas day! I got the sweetest picture of him and Grandma Benson with Presley that I will always cherish and I know she will one day as well! It was a very sweet moment. We also got to visit with my aunt Monta Faye and her kids! It was so great to see them.

To top off a wonderful Christmas, we had a delicious dinner at the Robbins! We played, opened more presents, and sat around and visited. I love being with family! They are all so amazing and so important to me.
All in all it has been a fabulous holiday and so much fun! I love being a parent! It opens up a whole new world of joy and happiness! I love every second and this little one is teaching me new things every day. :)

Tis the Season

2011-12-15T17:52:00.001-08:00

Off to a Christmas party! Hope everyone is having a fabulous holiday!

Pretzels

2011-12-13T21:13:00.001-08:00

Don't mess with her. She means business.

Cafe Terrace

2011-12-11T12:33:00.001-08:00

Saturday, one of Joel's mission companions had the grand opening of his new restaurant 'Cafe Terrace'. It's a great little cafe with crepes, sandwiches, soup, salads, gelato, and Italian sodas! So Presley, Joel, and I headed down to American Fork to support him and also have a little date night and try the cuisine :) it was delicious and is such a cute fun atmosphere. They even had a professional accordion player playing the songs of Italy! Loved it and Presley loved the music too. She even dance and giggled on dads lap. What a fun night!

Thanksgiving in Vegas

2011-11-26T17:42:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving= lots of yummy delicious food! Lots of shopping! Black Friday madness! Sister hairdooo experimenting time! Park with the kiddos! Bellagio fountains! Grand babies and cousins! Warm weather! Lots of laughing! Games! Lights! Happiness!

This trip was a blast! Thanks Welch crew for yet another fabulous thanksgiving! We loved it! But we sure did miss those who couldn't make it! Can't wait to celebrate with you when you get home Britters! Sending our love!!!

Bath Time Beauty-4 1/2 month Update

2011-11-22T14:11:00.001-08:00

Presley at 4 1/2 months. So in love with this little munchkin!
She is quite the little babbler, she has the cutest giggle I think I've ever heard, and she is a little inch worm during tummy time! We may have a mover on our hands!
She already thinks she is a big kid and wants you to help her stand all the time! She is very curious and loves to see and observe all of her surroundings.
Her nicknames are Pretzels (given to her by her uncles),Presley Kins/Kinners (from her daddy), Pres, Princess Presh (from G-ma Robbins),Lee Lee and Peanut. I know, a lot of nicknames haha but those are what she is commonly called. She may grow up very confused! :)
She also makes a lot of noises when she sleeps which are so funny! I think she will be a sleep talker (she gets that from her mother).
She also has several different cries to help you know exactly what she wants or how she is feeling! Ex: tired cry, hungry, mad/upset, fake cry, puppy dog attention whine, scared, etc. Thankfully I am an expert in Presley's cry language, it makes things get resolved a lot faster haha.
She keeps us busy and we love every second!
Last night we put up the Christmas tree (so it would be all ready for when we got home from Vegas from Thanksgiving) and listened to Christmas music and had hot cocoa for FHE and she loved it! She loves when we sing and dance with her :) she thinks it's a riot :)
Presley girl we love you and all the happiness that you bring to our lives!! You are such a good baby and so happy and smiley! You are our everything!

Fabulous People aka the Stangers

2011-11-09T23:27:00.001-08:00

Tosh and Tyler have been fabulous and so much fun! Tonight we went to Town Square Mall and played and had dinner together. It has been so great to spend some time with them. I sure do wish they lived in Utah still, but it has been so fun to play with them here in Vegas too. Oh how I love them! Thanks guys! You truly are the best! This trip wouldn't have been near as fun without you!

Vegas

2011-11-09T13:57:00.001-08:00

Joel has a business conference in Vegas this week so Presley and I decided to tag along! So far it has been a blast! It has been so fun seeing Tosha and Tyler and the boys! Tosh and I went shopping with the kiddo's yesterday and the first day we got here they came to our hotel with takeout and we had a little party and just chilled out. Last night Joel, Presley, and I hit up the strip and went to see all the shops and fountains! It was lots of fun and Presley loved all the lights. We got carried away and didn't pay attention to the time and soon realized we were starving and it was 11:25pm! We hurried our way over to Cesar's Palace and ran over to the Cheesecake Factory and they said they were closing in 1 minute!! It was our lucky day!! So instead of being rude and having them seat us at a table we just ordered our food to go. We found a comfy couch and a little table and had ourselves a little picnic! It was great! After dinner it was very late and we were exhausted. Baby girl was passed out and all snuggled up in her car seat and stroller and we caught a taxi back to the hotel. We ended up getting back around 1:30 am ish haha. It truly is the city that never sleeps because I think we are the ones that turned in early compared to the crowds of people that were still out! But our poor child is used to a bedtime of 9:30. She is totally going to be off her schedule when we get home! Dang it all. But it has been a fun little adventure and get away! Thanks honey for letting us come along! It's been a blast! :)

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T18:03:00.001-07:00

Hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween! Xoxo-The Robbins

Chantell is the Best!

2011-10-27T17:34:00.000-07:00

My precious wife is the best! While I'm sitting at work around 4:00 I get a message from Chantell asking when I will be home. This is not necessarily out of the ordinary so I don't think much of it. However, it does give me the proper motivation to stop what I'm working on and head home, since I had put in eight hours by then.

When I arrive home, to my surprise, I find these notes on the door!

Isn't she the best! I still don't even know what I did to be a recipient of 'Husband Appreciation Day'. Anyways, I walked through the door to find that the house smelled like freshly cooked (or I should appropriately say slowly crock pot cooked) chicken chili! (Not pictured but delicious!) Perfect for a brisk Fall day!
Once my mind cleared of how good it smelled I noticed an entire new wardrobe of Fall clothes layed out on the couch. (I understand that to some of you women reading this it might not be a 'full wardrobe' but it is to me :)) Thanks to Chanty and her fashion skills I don't look like a hood rat! Thanks babe!

I just thought I might share with the world that Chantell is wonderful! I love her so much! And I am so lucky to be married to her. She takes such good care of Presley and me and we are lucky to be her family! I am grateful for you Chantell! I love you!

Monkey Business

2011-10-14T21:30:00.001-07:00

So Pres and I decided that it would be fun to try on her Halloween costume and make sure it fit! So here she is just loving life in her monkey suit :)

Family Pictures...Lots of Pictures!

2011-10-09T19:28:00.000-07:00

We had to get some family pictures done while this little gal is still little! So we ventured back to good old Cache Valley and had them done. Izlas Imaging by Eric Richards, did them and he did great! We had so much fun and it was very laid back. Which was a nice surprise! Pictures always make me a little nervous, especially with a little one because I have NO idea what kind of mood she is going to be in haha. And sometimes for her, enough is enough. But she did great and I was so proud of her! So here ya go, take a look. I put tons up, so I hope you don't mind, but we had to document! Happy Sunday :)

September Birthdays!!

2011-09-18T21:10:00.000-07:00

RONDA LOU BENSON WELCH aka MY MOTHER :)

September 12th

Happy Birthday to my BEAUTIFUL momma! We celebrated her birthday on Sept. 12th and had a blast! Shopping at Nordy's and lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Yum! Man I love these ladies :) Mom you are amazing and I am so blessed to call you my mother! Thank you for all you do and your sweet example. You are an angel on earth and my best friend. You embody everything it means to be a mother and are so selfless and giving. You truly inspire me! :) I hope you had a fabulous birthday! I know I had a blast celebrating with you! ;)

(love this picture of these three! so beautiful!!!)

After shopping we went to visit my Nana and we had delicious German Chocolate cake and sang happy birthday. This is Elle helping my mom blow out her candles. So sweet :)

BRITTNY WELCH

September 18th

Sister Brittny Welch is out serving in the Netherlands and speaking Dutch! She is a superstar and one AMAZING missionary! She currently got made senior companion and has been doing great! She got put in as a senior companion really early on in the game and was a little nervous, but if anyone is up for a challenge she is! She has always risen to the occasion and can do anything! I am so proud of her and love her so much!
Brittny I hope you have a wonderful birthday!!!! We all love you and pray for you daily! Thank you for your example! Just know we are all thinking of you back home and hoping your day is fabulous. Eat lots of cake or German/Dutch goodies to celebrate ok?? :) And watch for our packages! They will get to you soon! ;)

This is the outfit Brittny sent Presley! We just got it yesterday! Isn't it darling?? We love it and so does Pres. THANKS Britt! You are so thoughtful! She wore it to church today and everyone loved it :) nice works sista. And again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

DAVID OLSON WELCH aka MY FATHER :)

September 24th

And last but surely not least is my daddio's birthday on the 24th. Man September is totally a party month for our family! A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dad! He is so amazing and such a good father! He has always worked so hard and always sacrificed for our family. I am so lucky to have such an awesome father and friend. He is so reliable and so sweet. Thank you dad for being the man you are. I am so blessed to have you in my life and call you dad! Can't wait to celebrate your birthday with you this weekend! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE!!!!!!

I love you all SOOOOOOOO much and hope you each have a very special day. You all deserve it!

love always & eternity,

Chan

2 Months Old!

2011-09-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

Things about Presley:
-She loves to snuggle with her momma
-She loves when you play with her hair
-She is starting to giggle and babble and she loves to hear her own voice
-She is VERY smiley :) and I love it!
-She loves to go on walks with her mom and dad
-She likes to stand up and show off her strong legs
-She loves her binky
-She will definitely let you know if she wants something!
-Her hair is long enough to put in a little pony (as demonstrated in the picture above)! :)
-She rolls over
-When she doesn't have her binky she sucks on her wrist or hands (hopefully she grows out of that before high school) ;)
-She is sooooooo much fun and we love her to pieces!!!

Red Rock Relay

2011-09-11T22:27:00.000-07:00

I'm on a roll! This is blog post number two and it's only been like 2 weeks! So Friday and Saturday the 9th and 10th I ran in the Red Rock Relay in Southern Utah. For those of you who don't know what the Red Rock Relay is it's basically the same as Ragnar and if you don't know what that is I will tell you briefly. It's a relay race over the course of 185 miles in Southern Utah, starting at Brian Head and weaving its way around down to end in Zions Park. Teams are made up of 2 vans with 6 people in each van and each person runs 3 legs during the course which takes a little over 24 hours to complete.

The race was a blast! The only down side was having to leave a wonderful wife and my beautiful newborn back at home :( I wish they could have come with me. Oh and I guess the other downside is running all those miles all day and night! :) There were multiple times when my knees felt like they were going to explode that I would ask myself, "why am I paying to do this!!" but really I loved it, it's just a major mental mind game when your out there running.

I had a fantastic team that was made up of a girl I work with, Kami, a few of her friends, and one of my friends. We still haven't received the results back to see how we did but we are anxiously awaiting (although I don't know why cause we definitely didn't win anything :) )

Just thought this showed the Red Rock in the background pretty good.

This is me in the chute getting ready to run by popping my headphones in!

This is our amazing limo van! It doesn't look special on the outside but the inside has leather wrap around seating, sweat colored lights, a TV, and even a place chill our champagne that we don't drink :)

No comment, I should probably just remove this picture really.

We started to get creative in our methods of encouraging each other on. This is Mike dancing on the van cheering on Lyndie!

This hill was literally as steep as it looks! Only 1 mile in my 5 mile leg and I was probably only still running because I'm sooo competitive and had to pass that girl in front of me... And I did :)

This is my friend prepping for his night run at around midnight! We ran until about 3 a.m. then got 1.5 hours of sleep before we were back pounding the pavement! Great times, makes you question why you pay money for things like this :)

Luckily we had a house to sleep in. But this is a church at one of the exchanges with probably a minimum of 300 people spread all over trying to get some rest in their sleeping bags.

These are Nate's shoes at sunrise! We could literally see him coming from 1/2 a mile away!

This is the beginning of my final leg, I really had no idea whether or not I would be crawling to the finish line :) During this leg I'm pretty sure I tried to jump on the side of my van for a ride, asked another van for a ride, and asked a lady riding a horse for a ride :) All 3 attempts at cheating failed.

This is our whole team crossing the finish line! Both Van #1 and #2

This is all my runnin mates from Van 2! They are pure champs!

Party with Presley

2011-09-05T15:17:00.000-07:00

These are the many faces of Presley Robbins! haha. She is a hoot and we have so much fun together! She is 8 weeks already!!! WHAAAAAAAAAAAT!? Where did the time go! I know, I know, all mothers say that! But seriously, I can't believe how fast she is growing and how much more aware she is of her surroundings. She is so observant and is soaking everything in. She is such a smiley baby and is even starting to giggle a little bit! (it kind of sounds like a cough/laugh/scream all at the same time! hahaha but it is the cutest thing ever!)

Her neck is getting so strong and she is great at holding it up and keeping it stable all by herself. She has already rolled over several times (the first time being when she was 9 days old). She has way strong legs and can totally stand up and hold herself up with me just stabling her and helping her balance. She holds all her weight! She is a rock star :)

She is definitely a little homebody! She likes to be home with mom and dad and gets a little overwhelmed when there are lots of people (we found that out on her blessing day, poor girl!) But that is totally normal when you are just used to hanging out with two people all the time and then get passed around and held by people you aren't familiar with. I would probably freak out too haha.

Presley and I get to party all day with each other. I love it! I wouldn't rather do anything else. She is my world and I feel so blessed to be her mom! I am so grateful to my amazing husband who works so hard so I can be a stay at home mom. It is so important to both of us and I don't take it for granted for a second. I love being with her and devoting my time to raising her. She is my little sweetheart.

Love you Pres! Don't grow up too quick on me :)

Presley's Blessing Day

2011-09-04T18:40:00.001-07:00

What a special day! Presley Claire was blessed today in the Kingston Ward by her father Joel. It was such a neat day and Joel did a great job! She is lucky to have him as a daddy, he loves her oh so much and gave her a beautiful blessing. It was so awesome to have family and friends there with us today! It meant so much and I'm so glad that they made it out! So a big thank you to all who made it!! You guys are awesome! (This picture was taken at the end of the day and needless to say she was pretty exhausted and not the happiest camper on the block! She is just used to mom and her at home so she had a little bit of a people overload. haha. But aren't all babies like that?! I don't know :) but she was today haha.)
My mother made her the most BEAUTIFUL blessing dress! She truly is so amazing and so talented!! Everyone kept asking where I got her dress and I got to tell them proudly that it was custom made by my mom :) Thanks mom! It is stunning and she will love it forever!(As will I!)
Baby girl and I right before we got in the car to head to her blessing!
My daddy and me! Oh I love him so much! He is the best!
This is my sweet grandpa, Gordon Clair Benson. This is the grandpa that Presley is named after :)
Grandma and Grandpa Benson. So glad that they made it to her blessing!! It meant so much to us and I was so happy that my grandpa Benson was able to stand in the circle when she was blessed. Thanks you two! Love you loads :)
The 4 generations picture! My beautiful mother, me, Presley, and my beautiful Grandma Benson.

Liza and Presley both had a big weekend! Liza was baptized on Saturday and Presley was blessed on Sunday. I had to get a picture of them together in their beautiful white dresses. These two are very similar! They both had similar birth stories and were quick labors, they were both little 6 lb. babies, and they both have beautiful blue eyes and brown hair! Can't wait to see them as they grow up together. Her cousins sure do love her! Harley and Liza are always the first to have their hands and arms scrubbed up to their shoulders so they can hold her haha. And sweet Tayia and Bergen always want to hold her as well. I wish we lived closer to them so they could see her more and get more holding time! We will just have to go out and visit them more often!

Thanks again everyone for sharing this special day with us! We love you all!

High Adventure to King's Peak

2011-08-24T20:00:00.001-07:00

So I realize that this blog has both Chantell's and my name on it but let's face it she is the only person to have blogged here for the past two years! But enough is enough, it's time I take a turn and give a little update to the world.

Last week I went on a week long, 50 miler scout camp trip to the High Unitas in eastern Utah. We hiked, camped, fished, hiked, saw some moose, hiked, climbed King's Peak, and oh did I mention we hiked. Well actually the leaders did most of that hiking and playing around while the kiddies hid from the mosquito's in their tents! All in all it was a blast! Except for the part of being away from Chantell and Presley for a few days :( that was not so fun.

This is one of many stops on our way into base camp.

This waterfall was awesome! We could see it from camp. And on the last day we decided to test our strength by pushing boulders off the cliffs into the river below! Ya know typical man stuff!

Standing on top of the waterfall looking back toward camp. We camped at Henry's Lake, the second one in the picture and fished in the streams and lake!

Henry's Lake right by camp

A moose just being awesome! A leader spotted this moose just standing in the middle of the lake so we ran over as quick as we could and watched it just hangin out in the lake for probably 5-10 minutes.

Just a cool rock climbing wall/cliff I found while out exploring!

This is the last climb up King's Peak. The picture does this nasty climb NO justice! These are pretty big bolders, I'm sure if you look hard enough you can see people trying to make their way to the top. From here it was about 1/2 mile straight up climb to the top!

The top of Utah!! King's Peak reaches about 14,000 feet!

Instead of hiking the long way down like the way we went up we decided to slide down this HUGE rock slide! Once again the picture really does this NO justice. You can probably find people on there to give you an idea of how high this slide really was! It took at least 30 minutes just to go down.

Sick Baby :(

2011-08-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

Presley had a bit of a rough week. She has been very congested and stuffed up. It is so sad to see her have a hard time! It really breaks my heart and I want to just take it away from her. I took her to the doctor and they did some suctioning to get the mucus out. It was so sad...she did not like it, and there was quite a bit of it! But they checked everything else out and her lungs and ears look great. She just has some bad sinus congestion. So thankfully it's nothing too serious, but it is still sad and she sounds awful when she is so stuffed up and trying to breath. Lots of snorting and crying :( But all in all she is being a trooper! I just snuggle her all day and try to help her to sleep. The doc told us to do the Saline Spray and suction when needed. So hopefully they will help clear it up! Wish us luck!

Still smiling even when she is sick. Oh how I love this little lady! She is my world :)

Family Gateway Outing

2011-08-21T11:55:00.000-07:00

I think she may have liked it! What do you think? :)
We went on a much needed outing after Joel had been gone all week with the scouts on a high adventure backpacking trip through the Uinta's. It was so nice to go out as a family and spend the day! I loved every minute! Needless to say, we missed him A LOT!

Grandma and Grandpas House!

2011-08-14T19:00:00.001-07:00

This weekend we got to go visit grandma and grandpa Welch's house! It was so much fun! We all had a blast! All of the cousins were there and had so much fun playing all weekend. Presley already loves it there and loves when grandma holds her! :)
Presley is sometimes a cheater when it comes to tummy time haha. She likes to rest and take a break.
Bergen and baby Pres
Sweet cousins, Matayia and Presley
Grandpa and Presley
Grandma and Pres. Her face cracks me up! I had to post it. This is one girl of many faces! She is always making us laugh.
Sweet sleeping baby. Grandma Welch has the touch!
Her monkey face :)

Thanks for letting us come and play! We had a blast and especially loved the zoo and snowcones! :) We will be back soon!

Joel's Soccer Tournament!

2011-08-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

This weekend we got to go to Cache Valley and watch Joel play in a soccer tournament. It was so much fun and he did great! Their team did really well, and they were ahead but the other team scored in the last 19 seconds of the game making it a tie. So they called a shoot-out (best out of 5) and sadly we lost by one goal in the end. But they did amazing and had lots of fun!
Presley and I rooting for the red team!
My mom and Stetson came with me to watch and cheer on Joel! It was a lot of fun. Thanks for coming!
Our little family! Joel came to say hi at half time.
Stetson was a riot and loved watching Joel play. He kept yelling, "Run Joel run!" and "YEAH!" every time Joel would kick the ball. hahaha I loved it!
Presley cheering for daddy from the sidelines!
Stetson loving on baby Presley. He was so cute with her! He would kiss her feet and give her hugs. I just love that little boy. We will have to visit them in Vegas a lot so they can continue to be little buddies!

Miss Presley

2011-07-10T19:54:00.000-07:00

Baby Presley with her head of dark hair! Love it!! Perfect for bows and headbands ;)
Aunt Monica and Grandma and Grandpa Robbins
Brooke and baby girl
Aunt Michelle

Uncle Jordan and Aunt Michelle
Auntie Shay, me, and baby Pres
Aunt Tiffany
Grandma and Grandpa Welch
Auntie Tanielle loving on baby Presley
Jill, Presley, and me

Here are some of the many visitors that came to visit us and baby Presley in the hospital. She is definitely one loved baby! We can't get enough of her and all of these sleepless nights are totally worth it! Although I'm sure I may be singing a different tune in the nights to come haha. Right now I am just running off of adrenalin and I stay awake just staring at her she is so perfect! We love our little girl very much and are in awe that she is all ours. We are totally enthralled by her!

I'm trying to document everything so that my sister that is on a mission can stay in the loop and keep updated. She made me promise to post lots of pictures, so this is for you Britters! Love you and miss you like crazy!!

Presley Claire Robbins

2011-07-08T11:20:00.001-07:00

Miss Presley Claire arrived to this earth at 3:53 pm on July 7, 2011, weighing in at 6 lbs. 13 oz. and was 20 inches tall. She is perfect and absolutely beautiful! We are so in love with her and already can't imagine life without her.

The day started off at 8:00 am. We were scheduled to be induced so we made our way over to McKay Dee hospital and by 9:15 am they had me all checked in and started on pitocin. The pitocin jump started my contractions right away and labor was in progress! A little after 10:00 or so my doctor came in and broke my water. That right there really got things going and my contractions started getting stronger and more painful. After a couple hours, I was ready for the epidural! I was hoping that I was at least at a 4, but wasn't wanting to wait any longer! After the anesthesiologist came in and gave the epidural to me the nurse checked me and sure enough I was at a 4+ hooray! I was progressing right along! The epidural was great and helped so much with the contractions! I labored for another hour and the nurse came in to check me again and I was at a 7! Whahooo! Things were moving right along and I was getting more and more excited to meet this little girl! The next hour I was checked again and the nurse looked at me wide eyed and surprised and said, you are at a 10 and 100% effaced! We are ready to go! She called my doctor and within the half hour we were pushing! I pushed for 15 minutes and little Presley was out! We did skin to skin right away which was amazing! It was the most incredible feeling in the world. She was so precious and cuddled right up to me and calmed right down. Joel got to fulfill his dream and cut the cord! haha. Everything went perfect :)

She got a great APGAR score, a 9, and she passed her hearing test and all of her little exams. She is so sweet!

We absolutely love being parents and feel so blessed to have her in our lives. Labor went really good and was so smooth. I had my two very best friends with me through the whole thing, my mom and my sweet husband. I couldn't have asked for better coaches :) they were amazing and I'm so blessed to have them in my life. Thank you so much you two! It was a perfect day! :)

GrAdUaTiOn!!

2011-04-23T16:04:00.000-07:00

We did it! And the cool part is that we did it together! Joel and I both graduated on Friday; April 22, 2011 from Weber State University. He graduated with his bachelors in Communications: Public Relations and Advertising with a minor in Japanese and I graduated with my bachelors in Family Studies and a minor in Criminal Justice. Yay for being college grads! :)

Thank you so much family for coming and supporting us! It meant so much! We love you!

Joel and his buddies pretty excited to be done!

Showing off the baby bump! (for posterity reasons of course! I had to document so baby girl could see that she was part of the graduation party)
Me, Cortney, and Shaylee
My friends and I messing around before line-up. Getting ready to walk! :) Woot!
We are all grown up! :) Well kinda.... :)
haha so I know that I look higher than a kite...don't worry, I wasn't of course! But I thought this picture was pretty funny so I just had to post it! There is nothing better then ending a post with a good ol' jumping picture right!? This shows our true excitement hahaha :)

Preggers :)

2011-04-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

21 weeks! yucky pic....don't judge :) it was purely to document!
24 weeks
26 weeks

So now I am about 29 weeks and haven't taken a picture of my belly to document yet, but I'll do another post with more pictures. She is growing and it is so fun to see how much my belly changes every week! She is a little kicker, which is good! I love that she moves around because when she is more chill I worry about her! But if she is moving around I know she is ok. Funny how I am already a paranoid mother :) I just get more and more excited to meet her every week!

Today was officially my last day of classes!! It was an amazing feeling (a little bitter sweet though, I will miss seeing all my friends and learning in class-I know...I'm a nerd)!

I aced my final and now I am done! I graduate on Friday and then I will officially be a grown-up :) haha. Now with school and my internship being all done I get to start working on baby girls nursery! I can't wait!! Oh how life will change; but it will be a good change! I can't wait to be a mommy.

Life is good! :)

Welcoming Baby BoStOn! :)

2011-03-09T12:19:00.000-08:00

At the hospital, meeting him for the first time! He is sooo beautiful and has a head full of hair! Man we love him! Boston is my sister (Tosha) new baby boy! He is darling and we love him so much!!
Bergen and Boston. The girls couldn't get enough of him! They all wanted to hold him every second! :)
This right here is Boston! This pose is totally him! He is always putting his hands on his face. It is so funny! :)
Britters and Boston! So cute! I love them both oh so much!!
This is my all time favorite picture! Brittny looks beautiful, Elle is so excited to hold Boston she can hardly stand it, and Boston is just trying to snooze! Love it :)

**Updates to come on Brittny leaving for the MTC! (saddest day ever! I miss her sooo much already!) BUT, she is doing amazing and loving it.**

Update!

2011-01-31T16:18:00.000-08:00

I feel like I should apologize every time I blog because my posts are so few and in between! So sorry....I have been bad at keeping up!

So many things have happened since last month!

Now that we let the cat out of the bag, I should probably up date you on what is going on!

So...here it goes :)

We are 18 weeks pregnant! (wahoo!)
We are having a little baby GIRL! (couldn't be more excited!! especially cause this mama likes to shop and can't wait to dress her all up!) Plus I have LOTS of sisters...so I am glad I am getting something familiar to me! :)
I would post some pictures, but we are still waiting for her to make her appearance. So...pictures to come...
We just had an appointment last week and got to see her and she is doing great!

I have learned a lot of things while being pregnant, some more personal, and others just simple learning experiences and am continuing to learn. The greatest thing I have learned though through different experiences is what a blessing all of Gods children are. Every single one! And I am surprised more and more every day how I could love something so little so very much! I would already do anything for her and pray for her continually (I already feel like an overprotective mom haha). I love that all of us have journeys that we go through and each one is tailored to our own life and the experiences that we need to have to progress.

It's amazing how well Heavenly Father knows us, and by trying to follow His will, we learn more about ourselves. Pretty amazing journey we all have to travel don't you think?

As for an update on the lives of us two crazy college students...here it goes...

JOEL-

Joel is one busy guy! He is currently in his senior year at Weber State, studying PR and advertising. He is minoring in Japanese! So hopefully that will help him with his career later on working for some business. He is very smart and doing awesome! I am so proud of him. So, on top of being a full time student, he is also doing TWO internships...yikes...(now you know what I mean by being busy) and working at his job. Luckily we still find a little bit of time to hang out :) thank goodness!

He also just recently got called to be in the Young Mens as the Teachers Quorum advisor. So now we get to go to mutual together! fun fun :)

He is also extremely excited to be a daddy but probably gets tired of me always saying, "Should we put up the crib today!? :) haha

As for me, I'm staying pretty busy myself. I am studying Family Studies at Weber with a minor in Criminal Justice (I know, interesting combo, but they surprisingly fit together quite well!). I am doing my internship at McKay Dee Hospital in the Pediatric unit as a Child Life Specialist intern. I love it! It is so fun to work with all the kids and their parents. I learn new things everyday and try to learn things quickly so I can be more helpful on the floor. I am also working at the University too in the Campus Rec

office. Also, I am in the YW's and absolutely love it!! I am with the beehives and think they are the coolest girls ever! They teach me new things every week. :)

So, that is what is going on with us in a nutshell!

Oh, also I want to give a shout out to my baby sister Tiff!! I got to go spend the weekend in Cache Valley with my family and we got to go to one of Tiffany's bowling tournaments. It was so FUN! And she did so good! She really is awesome and scores way higher than I ever could! She got 4th place and I was SO proud! :) You go girl :) LOVE you!

Also...one more shout out. This one is to Brittny. She is one of the most amazing people I know. Sunday she spoke in church and did such an amazing job. And I am not just saying that because she is my sister! Really, it was outstanding and everyone was touched and learned so much. She is going to be serving a mission pretty soon and I just don't think I am ready for her to leave! She leaves on the 23rd of February and I keep praying it will never come. Don't get me wrong, I am SO excited for her and she will be the best missionary the Netherlands and Belgium has EVER seen! I am just going to miss her....a LOT. But she truly will be amazing and I know that the Lord needs her out there spreading the gospel. I can't wait to hear all of her awesome experiences and stories (she always has the best stories to tell!) I love you Britters and will miss you everyday!

So....We Have a Little/BIG Surprise!!.....

2010-12-22T10:55:00.000-08:00

Christmas Time

2010-12-19T12:30:00.000-08:00

Christmas time is just around the corner and I can hardly believe it! This month seems as though it is flying by and I wish it would just stop and slow down for a bit. Things have been going by so fast that it hardly seems like Christmas, now that is just sad because Christmas is my absolute favorite! I love the snow, the lit up Christmas trees, the lights on all of the houses, celebrating the Saviors birth, the Christmas music, visiting temple square, hot chocolate, the spirit of giving, feeling the love that Christ has for all of his children, the beautiful Nativity sets, garland around bannister's, and much more. I love to visit my mom's house because she always decorates the house so beautifully and it just feels like Christmas when you walk in! There is just no place like home :) Hopefully as years go by I will be able to accumulate lots of Christmas decor so I can make our home as beautiful.

But what I wanted to really talk about was feeling the spirit of Christmas. Like I said, our lives have been extremely busy and we have been running around ever since school let out for the winter break. Today at church is when I really felt as though it was the Christmas season. In sacrament meeting they put on a beautiful Christmas program full of beautiful music. As I sat and listen I really tried to pay attention to all of the beautiful words that were spoken and sung and as I did the spirit touched my heart so very much! I would find myself getting teary eyed during several of the musical pieces. Today people blessed us with their beautiful talents and abilities and I was so grateful that I was able to be there to listen. Powerful testimonies were shared through music and you couldn't help but feel the Saviors love and spirit so strongly. He truly did come to this earth to save all man kind. We are so lucky to know that and to be able to give gratitude to Him for His selfless sacrifice. I feel so blessed to know about my Savior and know that He loves me. I pray that this year I will be able to show him my gratitude and appreciation everyday.

I know He lives and I know that He will come again. I know that He loves me and I will praise Him all of my days. I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and that you will feel the Saviors love as you celebrate His birth. It truly will bring your family and friends together this season. I love you all and especially want my family to know how much I love and appreciate them!

Merry Christmas!! :)

Here's to You Love :) Happy Birthday Joel!!

2010-12-09T14:35:00.000-08:00

You are my very best friend and I love you more than you could ever imagine!!

Happy Birthday darling :)

Here is to Eternity and many more birthdays to come! xoxoxoxo

Girls Just Wanna Have FuN :)

2010-10-07T15:08:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago my nieces and our little cousins came over to my house to have a slumber party. It was so much fun! So I know it is a little late, but I just had to document it! It all started with a late night trip to Smiths to pick up supplies (popcorn, treats, and nail polish)...the two youngest were very egger to volunteer their assistance :)
(Of course we had to document the experience! Even the Smith's adventure part!)
Watch out, these super models are already practicing their poses!
I think Hazel has a kissy face in every picture! :) haha love her, she is ADORABLE and so much fun!
Harley and Bennett, oh so cute!
Toenail painting party! We were up till ONE in the morning, and that was just painting toenails. We actually stayed up much later...(sorry parents) but it was so fun!

I need to start practicing my painting skills. These ladies had all sorts of request (butterflies, dragonflies, flowers, leaves, polka dots, you name it!) haha. But they were very sweet and just kept telling me that I was an amazing artist....thankfully they are not too critical :)
Blow-drying nails!
Finished product!
Sleeping Beauties (minus the sleeping part) :)
Late night movie and popcorn!
This girl is a professional at sleepovers. She is always the one that can stay up the latest. I pass out in the middle of the movie and wake up to Liza staring at me saying,"umm its over, what do ya wanna do?"hahaha. She is awesome!
It doesn't get much better than Lucky Charms and Coco Pebbles! (Some of Joel's favorite)
Bananas and high heels :)
He was such a good sport!!! Thanks Joely :) Love you!!!! (ps. he even helped the little girls blow-dry their nails! How sweet is he?!)
Getting Ready in the morning! **makeovers** :) Before.....
....and AFTER :)

Beautiful Girly's. Love them all!!
Rockin the shades
Hazel, Liza, Harley, and Bennett

On the way home back to their parents. They are the best nieces and cousins ever :) We had a blast!

Oh how time does fly!

2010-10-04T11:20:00.000-07:00

Wow, I'm in major need of a new post! It is already OCTOBER!! Can you believe it?? I can't, but I do love it! I love the fall, and the rain, and the leaves changing colors, Halloween, oh just all of it! mmmmm :) I promise I will do a post soon, with lots of pictures showing what we have been up to! But as for now, I can't. Sorry :( but I have 5 tests this week...yep, you heard me...5! blah blah blah, that's how I feel right now. So sadly I must go study! Pray for me pretty please! I am going to need it!

Adios Amigos :)

Family in town for the Wedding!! Party :)

2010-08-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

Ashley and her sisters
Ellynn and Jessica
All the girl cousins
Cam and Monica
The beautiful Beecher sisters
Me and the Hub
Ashley's Family
The Beautiful Bride Ashley! PS. Her dress was amazing!! She looked like a super model! It was so fun to be there with the whole fam. The Sealer did great and I even got teary eyed. I just love weddings :)
SO pretty!
Ashley and Dave!!! Wooot!!
Joel and his mama Paula

BBQ! Party at the Robbins! Family just chillin. (the day before the wedding) Everyone was in town so we just got to play all week with them! It was sooo fun!
The Wheel of Death....hahah jk! It is sooo fun! This is me and little miss Bennett!

Cute Beck!
Me and baby Harris
Monica, Beck, and Paula
Harley and Liza
Joelster!

Date NiGht!

2010-08-05T12:32:00.000-07:00

Dinner and a Movie!
Stroll around the Temple!
Enjoying the sunset!
Handsome boy :)
Playing on grass practicing our back walk overs haha

Joel giving his best attempt at a back-bend :)
Laughing so hard
Got to see a beautiful rainbow!

ahhhh I LOVE love! :) Thanks honey for the great date!

Camping with Family and Friends in the Tetons

2010-08-04T16:38:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to go river rafting down the snake river! Wooohooo!
Beautiful Teton Mountains! P.S My mom and dad actually climbed the Grand Teton Mountain back in their glory days! AMAZING if you ask me!!! People have died on that climb...intense! They are pretty much my hero's!!
Tyler, Tosha, and their cute little babe Stetson.
Elle loving my sunglasses :) She is a doll! Love her!
Coyote chillin

Joel and miss Bergen on the hammock.

Stetson looking like a creature crawling around. haha. He is the cutest!

Bergen spending quality time throwing rocks into the lake.

Elle bell

Matayia and Ellie
We went on a hike up to Hidden Waterfall at Jenny Lake and as we were hiking down (Matayia on my back) says, "hey look Chantell, a horse!" Curious as to why a horse is on this hike with us I look around and lo and behold....a moose! We were way close and got to take lots of cool pictures and then we scaddadled out of there before he was done taking his water break.
Me and Bergen on the hike to Hidden falls.
Tanny as cute as can be!
Tan and Bergen
Bergen and I on our squirrel hunt. You do lots of those when camping with children.
Papa Welch and Matayia at the famous Bubbas restaurant.
My mom and Bergen on the boat ride across Jenny lake.

Elle all ready for the hike with her sweet shades.
The girls striking their Hannah Montana pose!

Benson FaMiLy Reunion Fun Fun Fun!

2010-07-18T22:49:00.000-07:00

(Disclaimer...this post starts at the bottom and works itself to the top in the order of things that went on! Just FYI :)...)

This is Joel and I rocking our .25 cent sunglasses! I know, I know....steal of a deal right!??? We ended up buying 6 pairs haha. We started our trip off right, thank you Evanston, WY!

This year at the reunion we got to have a sweet pinata party, go shooting, ate an amazing rib dinner! (Benson's are professionals at eating ribs!), horse back riding on grandpa's mountain, camp fires, visiting with cousins, staying up late, and just having a blast camping in the great outdoors! It was a blast! Can't wait for next year :)

Meet the Robbins :)

2010-07-13T12:22:00.000-07:00

We aren't exactly your "average" family. But we are really good at entertaining ourselves while waiting for other family members to come out of Red Robin. :) Good times. Oh and a special thanks to the photographer...my 6 year old niece Liza :)

GiRls CaMp!....warning...lots of pictures!

2010-06-30T10:27:00.000-07:00

Girls camp was a blast! We got to go to Heber Valley for camp this year and we had Oh so much fun! It was stake camp this year and I was the lucky leader of the beehives cabin. :) I love the beehives! (even if they did think I looked like a 17 year old! haha it took me a while to convince them that I actually was in my 20's!) But along with that young stereotype and fountain of youth, they did expect me to do everything and anything with them! I had no excuses! It was a fun week of singing, dancing, braiding hair (I have never braided so many heads in my life!), activities, hiking, challenge course, canoeing, and yummy food!

It was so fun going back to girls camp, a little different this time as a leader. I have never felt Heavenly Fathers love so strong for his daughters as I did this week. Every day I felt the love and care he has for these girls. It was so strong and by the end of this week I had grown to love these girls so much that even I would step in front of a bus for them! Wow, amazing what girls camp can do! haha :) It was a straight week of fun!

A few weeks before girls camp I was asked by one of the stake leaders to speak to the girls while we were there as one of the inspirational speakers. The only guidelines they gave me were that they wanted it to be inspirational, entertaining, and make the girls want to do and be better. Ha! Piece of cake right?.....uhhhh, not so much. Oh and did I mention who the other speaker was.....oh ya know, just Miss America...and later went on to be Miss World! Who knew she was in my stake! (luckily I didn't find out about her prestigious labels till I was at girls camp). I was a little intimidated and nervous. But as soon as I hung up the phone, I had an idea pop into my head and I grabbed a pen and some paper and started scribbling away. Thank goodness for the Holy Ghost! By the time I set that pen and paper down I knew exactly what Heavenly Father wanted me to speak to His young women about. I felt confident and so excited to speak....but still nervous :) I mean, I had to give this talk 4 times because we had so many young women that we had to divide them into groups. But lucky for me it all went so well! It was so neat to be able to give it that many times because each time it was a little different. Heavenly Father prompted me to share different things with each group because the things that I shared he knew would pertain to each of their lives and different situations. I was grateful that I wasn't the only one with wet eyes and that the spirit was able to touch the hearts of these girls as well. I love this gospel so much and know how much the L0rd loves all of his children. I am just grateful that the Lord was able to use me as an instrument in his hands.
This is me and little Holland. She was so much fun and so cute! Miriam did our hair in corn-rows! (never thought I would experience this hair-do in this life time! haha but it was so fun!) Thanks Miriam, you are amazing! She could braid hair so fast! It took her like 1o minutes to do a head! Mine about 20 min....sorry girl! Believe it or not Miriam was an African Princess before she came to the US. She is amazing and beautiful inside and out!
This is Danielle and Azi, my little beehives! So much fun!
Me and Cassi!
Some of the girls were scared to do the challenge course so I had to show them how much fun it was!
Me and the two blonde beauties!
The girls said I looked Indian....ha ha (not the first time my nationality has been questioned!) so April stuck a jewel on my forehead and started snapping pictures. This is me just humoring them :)
The girls geared up for the challenge course!
Chay and I!
My cute girls getting ready for their skit!
Maria and Daryian...hilarious.
Little Mishell
The girls in their skit costumes.
At the top of the Mountain! Great hike!

Cache Valley Visit

2010-05-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to go visit the fam in Cache Valley and my sweet mom took us out to lunch. We went to this cute little sandwich and pastry shop and had lunch together. Yum! It was a fun rainy day outing. Stetson had fun with all the girls giving him lots of attention! haha. That boy is a crack up! When we got home we all hung out and kept listening to the 'We are the World' song because Stetson was so amused with it and would dance every time we played it. It was so cute! If you haven't heard it, you'll have to youtube it. It is so good! Type in, we are the world 25 f0r haiti and watch it. I'm sure you will love it!
Me and cute Tiffany!
Beautiful Brittny!

Thanks mom for a fun day! You are the absolute best!!!! Love you!!!

May Happenings

2010-05-22T12:02:00.001-07:00

Shay had her baby on the famous Cinco De Mayo! She had a darling baby girl and they named her Reagan. She is oooh soooo cute! I love her already! She is beautiful! Brittny and I got to go to the hospital and visit her. It was so much fun and I loved seeing Shay and holding that cute little baby! Shay is one of my best friends from Ogden. We met at college at good ol' Weber State and we have been best friends ever since. This girl is AMAZING! I love her to death! She is going to be such an amazing mommy! Congrats Shay, you did it!! :)

ReAL Salt Lake game! This game was a blast to go to. Friends, great game, cool stadium, what more could you ask for? ...good weather?? haha. We did get rained on a bit, but it wasn't too bad. :) Thanks Pete for the invite! It was so much fun!

Brooke and Johnny's WEDDIN! :)

Our friends Johnny and Brooke got married!! It was so fun to go to their wedding in the Salt Lake Temple. They are so cute together and Brooke made a gorgeous bride!! Congrats guys! We love you!

Viva Lake Mead

2010-05-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

Lake Mead...the beginning of a wonderful adventure!
Las Vegas Temple! It was sooo pretty!
Beautiful day on the Lake!
Temple trip! Joel and I got to do sealings and the others did baptisms. It was so pretty inside!
Brandon G. jumping the wake! Our friends are pretty talented!! They were throwing all kinds of tricks! They were soooo fun to watch!
The water got a little choppy and Brad had to deal with its wrath!! haha hilarious!
Me surfing! It was a blast! The water was really cold that day...hence the dry suit! Luckily it was in the upper 80's/90's though! Oh Nevada, you treated us well.
Christian P. soaring!
A bunch of the girls!
Lunch on the dock
Jason.....amazing! He jumped right over them, they didn't even see him coming!

Joel jumping off the roof of the port-a-potty! haha that boy is crazy!
Me wakeboarding

Joel throwing a back roll! This cat has skills! He threw a tantrum for the first time and landed it! It was sooooooo smooth!

40 friends, 3 boats, and sunny weather is sure to equal a great time!!

1 Year! Woooot!

2010-03-20T08:48:00.001-07:00

So this post is a little late, but better late than never right!? On March 6th we had our one year anniversary! Woot! Crazy how time flies! It really has been the best year of our lives! We have loved every minute. We have so much fun together. I love Joel ooooh so much! I don't know what I would do with out him!

To celebrate our one year we went and played in Salt Lake for the weekend and stayed at the Grand America. If you have never been, you've got to! It is great!! We had so much fun together and he totally spoiled me. This boy knows me all to well and he took me shopping. :) We spent the whole day just playing! Going out to dinner, going to a movie, and he even let me get a pedicure and a manicure! It was so fun to just get away for the weekend with him and just relax. We have had so much fun in just this one year, I really can't wait to spend eternity together. Thanks Joel! I love you!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy bAbY!

2009-12-08T22:10:00.000-08:00

So, tomorrow Joel Christian Robbins is turning the big 2-4!!! He is so wonderful in every way and this post is to just celebrate him!

Here are 24 very important reasons why I love this man!

1- His testimony and love for the gospel! He is the kind of guy that proclaims his testimony not only through word, but through his example and the way he lives.

2-He is kind hearted and worries about the well-being of others.

3-He is so service oriented and he will do anything for anyone if he thinks it will help them in any way.

4-He is humble, he never shows off or boasts, and when I brag about him he gets really embarrassed and denies everything I say (even though what I say is true!) ha ha :)

5-He is sweet, he will take time to write me little love notes and brighten up my day!

6-He is understanding and extremely patient with me!

7-He loves to sing out loud with me and claims that I have a good singing voice...bless his heart!

8-He leaves me funny voicemails where he sings the message to me :) he he

9-He always notices when I clean or do things and he is always so appreciative!

10-He loves to play! He is very athletic and active, just like a little boy :)

11-He always lets me wear his slippers, even if his feet are cold too!

12-He takes the time to start a fire in the fire place just because I think it makes our house more cozy and I love it!

13-He goes out of his way to surprise me. I am a hard person to surprise, so he really puts a lot of effort and time into it so I don't find out!

14-He will go out in the freezing weather just to warm up the car for me before I go to work! Can you say SAINT???

15-He loves little kids and kids absolutely love him! We serve in the nursery and the kids are always swarming around him! ha ha....a girl could get jealous! :)

16-He is always up for trying new things!.....that's good and bad! ha ha jk babe :)

17-He loves the Lord with all of his heart and is so dedicated to serving him.

18-He talks Japanese in his sleep. ha ha it's really funny!

19-He is the biggest snuggler!! He always falls asleep with his arms around me and if he wakes up in the middle of the night and we are apart, he shimmies back over and wraps around me again. I love it!

20-He is hilarious! I'm always laughing when I am with him. It may be at him...but usually it is with him :) :)

21-He loves me for me! I honestly don't know if anyone could love me like the way he does! He is so wonderful and I never question his love for me, because he is always sure to tell me!

22-He gives me great foot messages and back rubs!

23-He loves ice cream as much as me....well, maybe even more!

24-He makes me want to be a better person!!!

This boy is the best in the whole world and I love spending every day with him!! He truly is my best friend and soul mate! I thank my Heavenly Father for him every day!

LOVE YOU JOEL!!!

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

California happy thoughts

2009-11-12T17:26:00.000-08:00

Sunny days, warm sand, brisk breeze, and blue skies. Oh how I love you Californ-i-a.

(just because....i love jumping pics. this is for you britt!)

If you are wanting a fresh new look of brilliance, come visit my store! :) I couldn't think of a better name than my own, so there you have it! :) ha ha jk jk I wish, but isn't that cool? A cute little boutique with the name of yours truly! (and its even spelled right! ha! What are the chances?) Too bad I never got to look inside...Joel wouldn't let me :( ha ha but its probably better that way because, one: we were in a hurry, and two: I would have wanted to buy something purely because its from "my store" :) ha ha dumb I know. But don't tell me you wouldn't be tempted....

I love animals, I do............but not THAT much. Here's to you pigeon man! I hope you have many days to come with your feathered friends. Let's be honest, they need supporters!

Oh michael, bless your heart. I love you, but not to this extent. I hope you can understand...

Oh and ps. did any one see " This Is It"? Brilliant! If you like his tunes and are into choreography you'll be entertained! He may be a little crazy, but you can't disagree that he has amazing talent!!

Santa Monica

I love the ocean, yes I do, but I don't know if I love it as much as YOU! BURRR! She was a lone dove out in the icey water of death! Heroic??? I think so!

Bad day Snoop Dawg? Good thing you were only wax. Shesh!

Joel was trying to be cool like Snoop D. :) ha ha. hun, you are way cooler, don't sweat it.

My fav, Dorris Day! I'm a sucker for the olden day movies. Her and Audrey, love it!

Well, that concludes our brief Cali visit. Stay tune for other adventures....

Happy HALLOWEEN!!

2009-10-31T15:43:00.001-07:00

Friday we went to a Halloween Party that was so fun! And it was a blast to get all dressed up! Joel and I, as you can see are sporting all of our cowboy paraphernalia. He was a hog tire and I was a rodeo queen! :) ha ha. It was so fun to get together our outfits! My gracious father let Joel borrow his sweet cowboy hat and even his lasso! Then my mom let me borrow her hat. And a shout out to my dad again for my amazing cowgirl boots (which I love and wear all the time)! And even Jace (Britt's man friend) let us borrow some sweet belt buckles! The only thing missing was some boots for Joel and a rodeo glamor shirt for me. But never worry when there is a SAVERS near by! We thought for sure there would be no sign of boots on the shelf, especially the night before Halloween. But we went on the search and sure enough.....$10 sweet, classy boots (that were JUST Joels size!!) were waiting for us to purchase them! What a miracle! :) And then the hot pink button up shirt was on sale for a whopping $3!!! We had been to Savers and DI multiple times and could never find cowboy boots and then the night before...BINGO! Man, this costume was meant to be!

Our friends Jason and Alyssa dressed up as Gothic/Punk/Emo. :) ha ha and they did a pretty great job don't ya think?? They are so funny and such an awesome couple!

There were two couples that showed up as the same thing! ha ha Mario and Peach! Their costumes were awesome and so cute. They are doing a face off in a game called "bone to bone". If you haven't played it you should. Its funny! :)

This costume I loved! They were a bee and a bee catcher! So cute. I wish I would have gotten a picture of him with his netted hood on. So clever!

There were tons of way cute and creative costumes! I loved seeing all of them! Another couple was from the "Nightmare Before Christmas" theirs was way rad, there was Marilyn Monroe and a Mobster as her date, Loggers, a butterfly, a blueberry and a blueberry farmer, ect.! Oh Halloween is so fun! Thanks Mandy and Paul for the fun party.

Tonight is gonna be a blast as well. Happy Halloween everyone!

WOOOOT for Sapporo!!!

2009-10-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

To many of you this probably doesn't make sense but I (Joel not Chanti) served my mission in Sapporo Japan and it was always our dream to hear the announcement of a temple to be built on the Island. I can only imagine all the members that are going to be crying when they hear the news. So many people have wanted this for soo long it is just amazing that it is actually happening now!

Upon hearing the news I was yelling and celebrating in the car soo much that I forgot I was driving and ran a red light and almost got smashed by a mini van!! It was great and embarrassing! And my phone started to go off with phone calls and messages of excited people. It is a fantastic feeling!

FAMILY FUN

2009-10-02T14:42:00.001-07:00

So, September is a party month! We get to celebrate the birth of my mother, father, and sister all in one month! Woot! For my moms birthday we had a big picnic in the canyon and then we went rock climbing. It was so much fun! It's been awhile since we've been and it was so so fun to crack out those climbing ropes and climb the mountain! Thanks mom for being born :) and for going rock climbing :) I love love loved it and so did everyone else! You are so amazing and I love the fact that you are so active and fun! You climbed that mountain better than any of us! It was so cool to see you climb right up and then repel and bounce back down. What a woman! :) You are always amazing me in one way or another. Everyone had a blast!

My mom rocking the rock! :) Check her out!
Sleepy baby
Crazy baby! :) Possibly the youngest child to ever rock climb. We were all so proud :)

Tan repelling like a pro!
Brittny and Bergen loving the outdoors :)
Bergen showing us all how it's done!

Tiffany and I sporting our climbing gear. Woot!

Joel showing off his nice calves :)

The toothless wonder :)

Some people call him Gandhi I call him.....Joshua.

And Elle finds other ways to keep herself entertained. :)

WeDneSdaY!....a beautiful day

2009-09-30T15:36:00.001-07:00

Things that make me HAPPY....

Rain drops. umbrellas. rain boots :) Walking early in the morning to school when no one is there and splashing through puddles. Scarves. Listening to the rain fall. The smell of the outdoors during a rain storm. Cardigans. Frosted mountains. Pitter-patter sound. Being warm inside, curled up in a blanket after a long day. Hot chocolate..........Bring oN fALL mother nature :)

The GREAT Salt Lake

2009-09-10T10:26:00.000-07:00

My BeEuTiFuL mom and cute niece Bergen!

My BEST friends in the whole world! My awesome, beautiful, and talented sisters. :)

My handsome husband! Love love love him! :) :)

fUn FaMiLy PiCs :)

2009-09-10T10:17:00.000-07:00

The angel of the family! I love this picture because it totally captures Tiffany. She is so fun and free spirited! I have a blast when I hang out with her! Love you Tiff!

Stetson and Brittny! Check out that beautiful blue sky and that beautiful baby!

KiNgS iSlaNd and rEds gAmE!

2009-08-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

Since I am heading back to Utah Joel and I thought we would have one party day before I left. I was way excited for this day because Joel works everyday(except sunday :)...) all day l0ng! So you can imagine what a treat it was to chill with my awesome husband all day! WONDERFUL!

So, to celebrate this sweet day we went to Kings Island! It is a water park and an amusement park all bottled up in one! It was awesome! The rides were sooo much fun and I love waterparks, so it was a blast!! Thanks hun for partying with me! :)

Joels hair after riding "The BEAST" ha ha. The name of the ride is NO exaggeration!!! It was the most intense ride I have ever been on in my LIFE! We were holding on for dear life! It is a rickety 30 yr old ride. But don't let it fool you! We waited in line forever and I thought we were in line for a different ride and when we got in the cart, I was like oh, this is probably gonna be lame! But OH was I wrong!!!! It was 4 minutes long and scary!!! haha. It was sooo fast my whole body was flexing holding on sooo tight and then it was zoom into dark tunnels and the whole ride was shaking!!! HOLY COW! Ok, so I think you get the point now so I'll stop. lol. But you'll definitely have to check it out if you are ever in Ohio!! :) It's the bomb!

This is on Diamond Back. It's the highest rollercoaster around! You'll notice Joels crazy hair once again. lol. His hair was standing straight up all day! :)

After all of that fun, we hit up the Cincinnati Reds game! It was so fun to watch them play. I'm not a fan of watching baseball on TV because I think it is super boring. But I love love to watch it in real life! They played an awesome game and there were tons of sweet home runs! The Reds won and they shot off huge fireworks in the stadium. It was cool to watch!

After the game we went on a stroll across one of the Cinci bridges. The city is so pretty at night. It's all lit up and awesome.

View of the Reds Stadium from the bridge.

Greatest date ever! Thanks Honey!

MaKeOveR nIgHt!

2009-07-25T18:55:00.000-07:00

Kyrsten CuRlY Q's!

A bunch of us Apex wives got together and did a maveover night. It was blast! We painted our nails and toes, made and ate pizza :), did eachothers hair, and makeup. It was so fun getting together with the girls and getting to know each other better. We even got a little crazy with the bright red lipstick! ha ha. And I got to experiment with my eyeshadows on everyone! It was so fun! Thanks girls!

Picture of the pizza right before it went into the oven.

Kyrsten has amazing braiding skills and did some awesome stuff with our hair. This is a picture of Karlee sporting her sweet do!

This is Cathi wipping up her homemade alfredo sauce for the pizza. YUM! Thanks Cathi!

This is Nicole showing off her crown braid, done by Kyrsten. I think it looks awesome!

Diving fOr dOLLaRs

2009-07-22T16:47:00.000-07:00

Coins anyone??

So, for a little summer fun, Joel's work decided it would be fun to go diving and earn a little cash while at it! They put $900 worth of coins in a swimming pool and the guys all got to dive for it! haha. It was hilarious!!! Have you ever seen a pool FULL of oversized men??? Well...if not, these pictures will give you an idea of how funny it is! I was laughing my head off!

It was a lot of fun and Joel ended up getting the most money!! Woot! I'm sure it was a really hard task with 27 other guys in the pool all splashing and kicking to get to the bottom! Most of the guys ended up with about $30 or less, but Joel banked $60. Not bad eh?

So, if you want a little summer fun.....grab some goggles and go diving :)

Can I have YoUR autograph??

2009-06-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the funniest thing happened at work today! I am currently working at the Gap Outlet and while I was in the back sorting through some clothes a cute girl came up to me and very eagerly asked if I was Indian! I laughed and said, well....a tiny tiny bit (remembering what my dad told me about all of the different blood that is in our family) and she got the biggest grin on her face and asked me what tribe I was in, and as soon as I answered her question she ran away and came back with a piece of paper and a pen and asked if she could please have my autograph! I was a little taken back and wasn't sure if she was serious....but she waited patiently, very seriously until I put my cursive John Hancock down on her square paper. She smiled happily and asked what my Indian name was. I laughed and said, "Well, my name is Chantell." She looked at me a little confused and said, "You mean you don't have an Indian name?" I replied, "well I guess not." She quickly resolved the problem by saying, that's ok! I'll just give you one! :) So....now my new name is Tepee! :) That is what she came up with and she was very pleased with herself! ha ha. She made my whole day!

Maybe if I grow my hair out really long, I'll get lucky and she'll think I'm Pocahontas next time? ha ha jk.
Sometimes I feel like I disappoint people when they ask me what ethnicity I am and I answer Caucasian! Some people really have an imagination :) I have been labeled as Indian, Hawaiian, Hispanic, Polynesian, and even Asian (I think that one came about because I squint when I smile! ha ha who knows!). Maybe my parents just haven't told me something???

Morning Adventure!

2009-06-29T12:01:00.001-07:00

So, this morning Joel and I were able to spend a little time together so we thought we'd go exploring in Cinci. I took a bunch of cool pictures of the city and the painted murals on the walls.

So.....enjoy! :)Us practicing our modeling skills.........don't worry, we won't quit our day jobs! haha.

Here is one of the murals painted on the wall. They have tons all along a huge wall by the river and they are all about Cincinnati's history. It's way cool!

One thing I love about here is all of the cool bridges! There are so many and they all look aweseome!

This is when we were driving across. I tend to stick my arms and hands out the windows to get good pictures :)

What we are up to in KENTUCKY...

2009-06-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

Cincinnati City at Night!

Well, for all of you who don't know, we are currently living in Kentucky! Pretty exciting huh? Well, I don't know if I'd go that far...ha ha jk. Life is good and it brings different adventures our way every day.

Sunday is definitely our favorite day! Not only do we get to go to church and enjoy the Sabbath, we also get to spend the whole day together and that is very rare! Joel is a hard working man and works every day (except Sunday) from 12-10:30pm and Saturdays he works all day. And I work 9am-6pm about every day. So we definitely love the quality time when we get it!

Last night was a lot of fun. We invited some of our friends over for dinner and Joel made us his famous curry! It was soooo good! He did a great job! I hope you notice the nice candle lit atmosphere and all the mismatched plates! :) Oh you gotta love the life of newly weds! haha. We sure keep ourselves entertained! :) :) Plus all the guests were bachelors so they didn't mind the kitchens mismatched decor....they probably didn't even notice as long as they were full of food! :) haha these are the kind of guests I like :)

Then after we all had big bowls of ice cream and watched the sunset. That is one thing about good old Kentucky, we have an awesome view from our apartment of the beautiful sunset and you can see the city of Cincinnati. It was great to have a relaxing day together and then friends over for dinner! Love you Honey!

ItALy and SwiTzeRLaNd adventure!

2009-06-17T12:03:00.000-07:00

There is sooo much I need to catch up on! So, I will do it a little at a time! First I will tell you about our trip to Italy and share some pictures with you! First of all, it was absolutely amazing and we had so much fun! We started our trip off in New York for a day and then headed over to Milan, Italy. New York was fun! While we were there we got to see Time Square, Central Park, the Temple, and lots of tall tall buildings! Its was a really quick stay, but still fun! Then we headed off to Italy! When we first got there we went straight off to see the Duomo. It was amazing!!! It was humongous and sooooooo beautiful! Everywhere you go the buildings are awesome! They are so big and breath taking!

Milano is really big and for all you who don't know, its the fashion capital of the world! Sweet huh? Joel and I went off exploring and we found the shopping industry that every one crazes about! And it was pretty fantastic! There were Porsche's and Ferrari's everywhere! I felt like we just stepped into a magazine! Yeah....it was that cool! ha ha. There was every high end shop you could think of! It was so cool to see and so fun to explore! ......thanks for humoring me Joel! :)

Next we went to Venice! And yes....it is all it's cracked up to be! The canals that go through everything are amazing and the old buildings are phenomenal!

I'll just stop talking and let the pictures say the rest....

After Milan and Venice we traveled over to Genova. That is the area that Jan served his mission. We got to tour all around and see all the cool attractions. Then we went on an amazing hike along the Mediterranean through little old villages. The view was amazing and the hike was so much

fun! Robbie (one of Jan's investigators and friend from Genova) took us on this beautiful hike and told us all the history about the villages and buildings. It was awesome!

Now it's off to Switzerland! It is so beautiful there! Once again....I will let the pictures talk. :)

We hiked all these stairs and more to the top of the Swiss Alps. The stairs were never ending! Literally....there was no end :) It was so fun though! We took a bus up to the mountain, then hiked up the rest! (I didn't know what was in store for that day as you can see....Italian sandals are definitely not hiking boots! ha ha). But I made due! :)

View from the top!!!! WHoo Hooo!

The Pains of Marriage...

2009-04-15T21:27:00.000-07:00

Well I figure our new blog is now plenty cute with all the new wedding pictures and pictures of Chantell. I wanted to let everyone know how our everyday married life is going. First of all we both Love it! We have tons of fun and everyday is a an adventure. I want to tell a little humorous story to explain how marriage is an adventure. (Well we thought it was funny at least...)
So we were sleeping last night and I randomly lashed out and HIT/PUNCHED my lovely sleeping wife right in the back!!! Chantell screamed out "Ouch!! What the heck!!? And I said "I thought it was Blu (my family's cat)!" Well in my dream I was fighting my family's cat Blu, or protecting myself from him. Anyone reading this might need to understand the relationship Blu and I have. Blu is my Nemesis! Well after the punching episode, Chantell was wide awake, I can't imagine why, and she was laughing hysterically. While I was laughing all I could say was "honey you gotta stop laughing, I am way too tired to laugh!" But as tired as I was I couldn't stop laughing either.
Anyways I guess you could say the moral of the story is, marriage is amazing and random. I love being with my best friend soo much! I will just have to sleep a little further away from her from now on. But.... We'll see how long that lasts! :)

Bridals, Wedding, & ReCePtIoN!

2009-04-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

Here is a bunch of pictures from the wedding, the reception, and some more bridals. It was such a great day and so much fun! Everything turned out amazing! A special thanks to Terri and my mom! They were miracle workers with the reception and the flowers!

Wedding Pictures!!!

2009-04-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

The three pictures up top are some bridals that Heather (my photographer) took in Provo. She was great and so much fun to work with!

Terri James took these awesome pictures for us at the Riter Mansion. A couple are from the Logan Temple grounds too. It was a great day and we had a lot of fun! Sorry for taking sooo long to post these! Sylv...these are especially for you!! LOVE YOU!

Honeymoon!

2009-03-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

So here it is! Our official blog as a married couple! Woot :) This is for all of you bloggers out there! Mainly my family members though. ha ha. So I am still new at this so I apologize for it looking funny right now, but...hopefully I'll learn the ropes of it soon!

Well, here is the update on our lives thus far......

After our wonderful wedding we flew off to Florida for our honeymoon. The weather was amazing and oh so warm! We spent our time there laying out on the beach and swimming in the ocean! And yes, the ocean was cold! But we couldn't go to a beach and not get in the water right?? So we were crazy and went racing in and dove under the icy water and played in the waves. Miraculously our bodies got somewhat used to the water so we stayed in for a little while. Then I ditched Joel and went back to the beach to lay out and get warmed up again! I know...rude! :) sorry honey! But he followed quickly behind :)

We also went to Epcot which was a lot of fun and really cool. My favorite part was seeing all of the different countries! It was amazing! You'd walk around to all of the countries and at each one they had people from that country working there and they had that particular food as well. When we went to Italy we had to get the galato (ice cream). It was really yummy and we are both suckers for the stuff! But I think our favorite country to explore there was France. The buildings were amazing and flowers were beautiful! It was a blast!

Florida was great! We loved just exploring and going to play in Orlando and go shopping and on walks. We found a beautiful pond in the middle of the city with an awesome fountain and ducks and all sorts of cool things. I think one of my favorite days was when we went there and had lunch by the park and walked around. It was a beautiful day with blue skies and I was with my best friend! Can life get any better??

We also got to go the the Orlando temple. It is so beautiful! I was able to do initiatory work there. It was such a neat experience and the ladies working were so sweet and so excited to help. I love temple workers! They are so cute and helpful and they always make you feel so welcome and loved. They are amazing!

All in all our trip was amazing and oh so much fun!