Monday, December 12, 2011

Our Piece of Heaven for 2011- Part 5 0f 5 Visitors and Vacations

We were able to see some of our family this year and enjoyed that so much.  Hope to see more soon..


Luis and Kendy had a quick visit with us on on their way to Cancun. Kendy needed a break. She has been working on her bachelors degree and just finished mid December. She has been a registered nurse for some months and working as such. She is working at the Center for Change where they help patients with eating disorders. Luis is International Operations/Regulatory Affairs Manager at SISEL International
We were able to have Steve and Cheryl share their wedding anniversary week with us.  Dody took us all to the Medieval Knights for dinner and a show.  That was so fun.


We drove to Vegas for Olive Walker, my mom's, 50+ birthday.  We had a wonderful luncheon together as a family.  Brice and Angela had gotten her a crystal with their photo engraved inside it. 
We ate at Applebee's where my sister, Gayla, works.  
We stayed for 5 hours eating lunch and then playing games!
 
Lavar Johnston came to Dallas to watch the BYU vs TCU football game at the Cowboy stadium and to celebrate his 85th birthday.

Gayla and Shawn were able to visit for a few days.  we had a nice time going on the Grapevine Vintage Railroad.




Britt flew in with her two babies and Casey came with his family for Thanksgiving.  We ate turkey and all the trimmings and had a great visit watching the cousins play together.



Our Piece of Heaven for 2011- Part 4 Stefan


Stefan and I went to California this summer to attend camp. Stefan attended Young Actors Camp while I attended the parent camp. Joey Lawrence among others came to speak with us about how to be supportive to our talented children and help tem in their careers. Joey talked a lot about having a healthy balance in your life. He was a child actor and has recently started in a new comedy sitcom called Melissa and Joey. Stefan learned to sword fight, auditioned in front of cast directors, preformed his clogging routine to the entire group, got to meet a fun young singing group that have gotten famous via You Tube called Y I Yell. He got to see Roshon Fagen sing dance and present with his father tips for Hollywood. Stefan got to tour downtown both with the camp and also with me when we visited Ripley's Believe It or Not on Hollywood Blvd. When we got back to Texas Stefan worked as a great assistant when I taught art classes. Him and his grandpa attended Cub Camp. Marty was the Range Master for the BB gun shooting and Stefan was a jour camp leader. Stefan received a dancing scholarship this year and was selected to be in the Utah Valley Youth Symphony. He was in the Production of Pioneer Legacy were he did a dancing dual in clogging style. He received 1st palce in this years science fair at Timpanogoos Acadamy in Life Science and 3rd in the Elementary Division. He will be going to the Charter School District Science Fair to compete for State competition.

Our Piece of Heaven for 2011 Part 3- Olivia

Olivia turned two July 6, 2011. Now she can say and sing her ABC’s. Olivia can count to 12 with some variations. She started the year with singing “diddo diddo “for twinkle little star and can now sing it well although it is her own interpretation and can last over 45 minutes straight. She can even sing it when asleep! She is FULL of personality that charms everyone she’s around her. Britt, Cy, Olivia and I went to the Fort Worth Zoo in November. Olivia was awed by the sea turtles and a large gorilla which interacted with her behind a very thick glass. Later that day she built a sand castle at Lake Grapevine, which was in her to do list for Texas. We went shopping to buy Olivia black church shoes to go with her new Christmas dress. She found some pink leopard print sparkly shoes and looked up at grandma with her BIG brown eyes and proclaimed "I love them so much", so she got two pairs of shoes. Grandma and Grandpa love her so much. Olivia has matured from the world being hers back in May: “ my tree, my rain, my bus, my temple” and Cy was “my guy”. Olivia loves to paint and draw and create. She is particularly good at creating messes but can sing “clean up”. She loves to help care for baby brother, Cy. Olivia has a sweet quiet voice unless she is declaring her independence in loud wails.





Thursday, December 8, 2011

Our Piece of Heaven for 2011 Part 2- Lux




















LUX
comes to visit grandma and grandpa often.
Grandpa takes him around to all the photos in the house and teaches him all about the family. He visits when Ashley goes to school to be an audio engineer at Media TechInstitute while Casey works for Verizon as an application developer creating aprogram to stream video directly to TV. Lux had his first birthday and reallyenjoyed the cake and ice cream. He loves music and already has some dancemoves. While Britt visited we all spent the evening with Casey and his familyat their lovely home in Dallas near the Arboretum. Ashley introduced us to anew yummy salad dressing and a delicious dinner while we enjoyed watching thecousins play together. Lux danced wonderfully to his Elmo stocking tune andCasey sang to us while he played guitar. Lux loves to dance and he loves togrowl. He growls when he loves something or when he hates something or when hejust wants to play around. He was appropriately a tiger for Halloween. Lux hasstriking blue eyes and is a handsome mix of Ashley and Casey.


Our Piece of Heaven for 2011 Part 1-Cy









Cy Henry

Riggins




It wasn't until Cy was six months old grandma and grandpa got to see him

again. Britt and the two babies came to Texas for Thanksgiving. Cy had grown to 20lbs and 27.5 inches, he is a strong little BIG man. Now his eyes are still changing in color but his hair is still blonde. He likes to make squealing sounds and loves to eat. He has an adorable giggle. He’s happy when his holder keeps moving around. The other day a stranger walked clear across a store parking lot just to tell Britt that Cy was the cutest baby, “The Gerber baby”, he called him. He already crawls at 6 months old.




Our Piece of Heaven for 2011







Monday, November 14, 2011

What! Yes! My KC


The Beginning…….1981

Only five months after Kendy was born, around Valentines day to be exact, I got pregnant. It's not an uncommon phenomenon, just think of how many people you know with birthdays around November 14th! My birthday calendar is pretty full around then. We were delighted for another baby.

It was an easy pregnancy other than this baby I was carrying would stretch out so aggressively in the womb I'd yell out "Ouch". Baby 2 was an active baby and much bigger than the first. I kept myself busy during the pregnancy doing a writing for children correspondence course. I had a yard sale to raise money for items I would need for the new baby. With some of the money I bought the darlingist owl clock for the new baby's first Christmas. The eyes went back and forth as it ticked. (I got this same clock 28 years later for his baby, Lux, for his first Christmas.)

The year before, Marty gave me a shotgun for Christmas. Yeah right your thinking was his name engraved on it. No it really was for me. He had his own and he knew I liked the outdoors. I enjoy going fishing, horseback riding, motorcycle riding, hiking, repelling, and shooting because we had done all these things together from the beginning. We had fun doing things together. This shotgun became an important part of Casey's entrance to the world.

Thursday October 15th 1981 journal entry: "Kendy took her first real steps tonight. Four of 'em! Both Marty and I were so proud. She was holding onto his wicker chair when he said to her “Walk to Daddy” and she sure enough did. The she did it a couple more times and finally decided that was enough for the night."

Sunday November 1st 1981 journal entry: "Today was my due date but I had only one small contraction throughout the entire day." Nov 2nd: "I had a doctor's appointment and there wasn't really any progress other then I didn't gain any weight but my stomach grew 3 inches!" Nov 3rd" Back to the doctor because Kendy has an infection in both ears. Poor little thing, she gets sick so often."

Friday Nov 7: "I had quite a few contractions tonight but they were about 15 minutes a part. We had read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and then had our evening family prayer. Marty gave it and in it he thanked the Lord for our relationship and love for one another. It mad me feel so good to know how happy he was, especially since both Kendy and I haven't been easy to live with recently. I don't sleep well lately and Kendy has been fussy because of the ear infections."

Nov 8: "Marty woke me up at 4 am to check on how I was feeling. I told him fine and to go ahead and go hunting. So he and Jay left at 5 am. He had a good time but still no elk."

Sunday Nov 8: "I started having pretty regular contractions tonight so we went to the hospital. I had barely started dilating so they sent me home."

Nov 9th: "Marty stayed home from the doctors. The doc did some things to help things along and sure enough the contractions started up again. This time they admitted me. We spent the night but the pain petered out and was sent home again." I was listed as admitted to the hospital in the local news in the paper so people called to find out if it was a boy or girl. Embarrassing!

Nov 14th: I awoke unable to go back to sleep at 2 am. Sat up in the big wooden rocking chair in the living room just thinking until 3 when I began to have labor pains. First they were 8 minutes apart. Then 6 minutes apart then they were only 4 minutes apart. It was getting close to 5 am so I thought I would wait for a few more contractions and then call Dr. van Gemert. I waited and waited but after 15 minutes had passed no contraction!!! At 8 I call and told him about the pains. He met me at the hospital at noon planning this time to break my water. But the head wasn't engaged in the birth canal. "

"Marty and I were so discouraged we decided to do something to get our minds off things. We went pheasant hunting. I took my shoot gun and we walked through two fields. I had mild contractions every once in awhile. Finally we decided to go home and take a nap, exhausted from the sleepless night. I was awoken at 3:30 pm by an intense contraction, painful. I let Marty continue to nap. Eight minutes passed and another one. Then the pains were 6 minutes then 4. The contractions kept up for two more hours as I rocked back and forth in our chair.” The chair I rocked and sang all my babies to sleep in through the years. One of two chairs Marty's mom and dad had bought thinking they would rock in as they grew old together, Glenn had passed six months before I met Marty and Bernadine a widow, they were both only 41. Britt, our fourth child treasures, this chair and rocks her babies in.

Marty took me to the hospital at 6 or so and at 10 pm the Dr. van Gemert broke my water and shortly after the pushing pains came. I had Casey natural, no drugs, I did special breathing techniques to work through the pain while Marty coached and supported me. “The doctor wasn’t in the room when I started to pushing, which concerned me. He was a couple doors down the nurse said as she rushed out the door to get him. Casey's head crowned as the doctor put on his gloves in earnest. I was ticked. He said, "wait, wait!" but I wasn't in any mood to be bossed around by a doctor who should have been in there with me. He had done the same thing last time! The babies’ broad shoulders gave the doctor a chance to finish putting on the gloves. With the next pain Marty announced "It's a boy!" Tears flowed from my eyes as I exclaimed "My son, my tiny infant son” I loved him so immediately as I cuddled him close. “Casey Martin Robbins was born November 14, 1981. It was a Tuesday at 10:37 pm. Casey weighed 7 lbs. 12 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. He was a hungry guy with a head full of dark hair.