Birthday Lady

Happy Birthday to the sweet one who birthed me!  Man she has put up with a lot over the years raising us five crazy cats (the gray hair we gave her covers up nicely) and the other millions of adopted friends, nieces, nephews, and the list goes on.  I am so grateful for her and the unbelievably great mom she has been to me my whole life.  I hope with all my heart that my kids love me as much as we love her.  She has always been there for us no matter what stupid thing was going on in our lives.  She has always been so supportive and has given great advice about all sorts of things that come our way.  I'm so glad that I have a husband who recognizes that sometimes you just need your mom and has actually taken me to her to cry to because sometimes that is all you need.  She brings so much joy to our family and we definitely wouldn't know how to laugh like we do without her. 

Mom, thanks for never losing your cool with us.  Thanks for leading us by example of how someone should treat others and not just telling us.  Thanks for teaching me to be the best Jill I can be.  Thanks for the lack of dating and marital advice and letting me figure things out for myself.  Thanks for being at home when I came home from school every day, I realize now how many kids don't have that and I am so grateful that I did. Thanks for trusting me so much that I never wanted to do anything that would disapoint you.  Thanks for teaching me how to work but also how to have fun.  And lots of it.  Thanks for being there to answer all my questions about life and offer me advice from the time I could talk up until last last week that I needed grown up house advice. I love you so much and I hope you have the best birthday and year ever!

Favorite Little Somethings

Found this lovely on pinterest and thought to myself... yeah...I really need to appreciate the awesome little things about each day.  We all get so caught up in work mode, sometimes we forget to stop and smell the flowers.  So here goes!

 

Today, my favorite little something are two little somethings named David and Jessica.  They are Woody's siblings who are 6 and 8 and I love them to pieces!  They came to stay with us this morning until Saturday and I am so excited to hang out with them!  They are two of the best kids I know and I love being their big sister in law.  They're the coolest!

 

Animal Hoarders

This is Marley. She's a 3 year old American Eskimo. Marley's momma had to make the hard decision to find a new home for her.  Marley was actually brother Ben's as a puppy and then when he needed to find a new home for her, he gave her to Missy.  Now Marley is back in the family and we love her to death!  It took so much for me to be okay with having three dogs but as soon as we got her (and moved are gigantic love sac downstairs) I was so happy she was there!  Thank you Missy, for trusting us with your girl! 

Hunt man!

On April 18th 2013 this little man joined us on Earth.  We could not be more happy about this tiny addition the Robinson clan!  Ben and Carly are already great parents to little Hunter James, he is so lucky to have been born to such a loving couple of people! 

One day old! Daddy is a little exhausted!

Hunter loving mee-maw on Mother's day  :)

CRUISE!

We just booked our first cruise!!  I am so overly ecstatic I just had to share!  We are going to the Bahamas out of Charleston S.C. in September, over the week of our 3rd anniversary!  The last two anniversaries we have gone to Midway because it's like my favorite place in Utah but now we live 5 minutes away so that would just be strange. So we decided to go big this year!  Woody's brother, Ryan and his family live in Georgia so we are going out a couple days early to spend some time with them before the cruise which makes the trip even more exciting! EEEKK!! I CAN'T WAIT!

Shout out to the Hubs

If you don't want to hear about how much I love my husband then back away NOW!  Just kidding.  But seriously.  I just want to give a shout out to husbands and how much they put up with being married to our kind.  I seriously don't know how they do it sometimes...we be cray cray! (That was for you Hol) But you probably aren't reading this because of my disclosure ;).  I feel out of control blessed to have such a patient, understanding, helpful, entertaining, hard working, loving husband.  I feel like it is so important to remember that a marriage should be equal and I am so glad that Woody and I walk side by side instead of one in front of the other.  He is so supportive of me and loves me even when I am being ridiculous or crying for no dang reason.  He is more than I ever thought a husband could/should be and I thank my Heavenly Father every day for him.  I am a big fan of my marriage and the joys it brings to my life.  I was so happy to hear such an amazing talk about marriage in General Conference last week.  If you didn't get to hear it, or if you did... here it is!  Watch and Learn.  And remember to go home and hug your husband and tell him how much he means to you!

Love Your Life and it will Love You Back!

I don't have any idea why I think I should only blog when big, awesome things happen in my life.  Those big awesome things usually are not the things that make me the most happy.  Although, moving back to Utah, getting a new dog that I adore, moving to Heber for my job, and having a new neice are four things that actually make me VERY happy! I am in love with my own life and I decided I don't need to wait until something monumental happens to write about that love.  So here is to a new year and celebrating the small things that really do in fact, mean the most.  Here is a little bit about the last six months of our lives.

The hubs and I moved back to Utah at the end of August for multiple reasons but the number one being that we are happier here.  Our lives are here and even though we loved Colorado and could see us moving there again some day, we felt like it was the right thing to do at this time, and now we KNOW it was the right thing to do.

Stella is the Shiz.  She is a total mut...we adopted her in the fall and they think she is a pug/dauchund mix which is pretty obvious when you see how long she is...and then she looks up at you and her awesome underbite tells all.  She was a street dog before she was rescued by lost paws so she totally holds her own with the big boys.  She is seriously is the bomb.  Woody's dog, Coda had been living with his parents since forever because Woody was moving around so much.  He is a nine year old black lab and we love him.  Stella and him became best of friends within five minutes of meeting each other.  She is a definetly a little thing that makes me so happy!

In November, we found out that Wasatch Mental Health was going to be expanding to Heber City, Utah at the beginning of 2013. In December, I was asked to go up for 3-6 months to help get it up and running.  We had been living at my in-laws since we moved back from Colorado and we were starting to decide where to go from there.  When this opprotunity came up, we took it and ran with it.  We found a house for rent and moved up the week before Christmas and thus far have not one complaint about this fabulous valley.  We LOVE it!  Woody isn't the biggest fan of Utah living but I think this place may have changed his mind a little.  It is so nice to be away from the hussle and bussle but also to be able to get to the hussle and bussel in 30 minutes if we need to or want to.  It is just delightful! 

One HUGE but little tiny reason I am so glad we moved back to Utah is IVY JO!  She is the best thing EVER!  I seriously can't get enough of her and I can't imagine not being around for this first month of her life.  She has brought so much joy to all of us!  She is so lucky to have the parents she has who love her to a million billion pieces!  They are such wonderful, patient, loving parents!  And just around the corner is Mister Hunter James!  He is going to be here before we know it and we are just as excited for his grand enterance! 

We went on our first real trip alone!  We went to Catalina Island and California adventure for a weekend and it was just what we needed.  We both started eating healthier and exercising more.  Woody bought me an aquarium as an early birthday present!  It was such an awesome surprise after I fell in love with snorkeling.  Woody took up a new hobby called Aquaponics...look it up...it's pretty cool. 

We are just surrounded by so much happiness it almost doesn't seem fair.  2013 has already been a great year and we are only 2 1/2 months into it.  I am so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who blesses us so imensly. 

Love your life and it will love you back.