Where did I leave off.......

Oh YEAH! On May 6th Abby turned one!! That was a huge turning point for me personally. I hadn't really been thinking about it, until maybe a couple of days before. Seriously, we went bday shopping the night before her birthday! (Now that's cutting it close!) But with regular life stuff, I hadn't realized until a couple days before that we had hit such a huge milestone. I had to take a couple of quite moments to myself as I realized how much the hand of Lord had been helping me along to get to this point. As much as I LOVE Abby, and of course our family wouldn't be complete without her, having her come to our family at the time she did and in the circumstances she came was a huge trial for me. And having realized that we (or just I) had made it for a whole year. And we were all healthy and some what sane, that that in itself was a HUGE blessing. I knew that if the Lord wanted her in our family that he would provide a way, and without me realizing it HE DID! We survived the 1st year! And I'm sure he will continue to show his tender mercies for many years to come!
The funny part about Abby's birthday party was eating the cupcakes. We thought she would just dive right in. Instead she picked at the cupcake a little, and then burst into tears for fear of the frosting. So in the end she got a cupcake that hadn't been frosted. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the mayhem! But here are some that I did get in a scrapbook page, of course!

Credits: Sugarplum Paperie's Party Hat kit

Nate's Little Spot

I'm not sure what this says about me or my son but Nate now has his own little blog for the things he loves. He wanted to visit a Herbie website, but we couldn't find one that wasn't just for selling products, so he asked, "Can we make one?" And instead of setting up a website, I agreed to make him his own blog. He posts pictures of things that he makes, right now specifically related to Herbie. If any of you friends would like to see it, email me (stampinwithamanda@gmail.com) and let me know you're gmail address, and I can approve you to see it - it's by invitation only.

Nate rides a 2-wheeler

In April Nate took the plunge and took his training wheels off. I thought that they would be on for a lot longer - he wanted nothing to do with taking the training wheels off. One night we talked about a kickstand for his bike (a CHROME kickstand) if he didn't have his training wheels. And that sealed it! He wanted to go to the store RIGHT then to get a "chrome" kickstand. (Just has to be like his Dad with all the chrome for HIS bike!) So basically overnight Nate was riding a two- wheeler! The smile on his face says it all!!!!


And off course, the scrapbook page!!

April .... means that Parker is 2!!!

On April 6th we celebrated Parker's 2nd birthday! And Holy Cow is that boy two! It was like an overnight turn form sweet little boy to Terrible Twos.

(We still Love You Parker, even if you are 2)Here's a funny story for you, just to show how fun a 2 year old boy can be. The other day I was changing Abby in our bedroom, and from where I was standing I could see that someone was in the fridge. Something told me that it had to Parker. I kept talking to him, asking him to get out of the fridge, but the door stayed open. When I was done, I was finally able to go get him out of the fridge. Only to find out what was so fascinating. It was JELLO, that was in the beginning process of hardening. He had his hand in the bowl, flipping the jello all over the fridge. Oh, how fun!!!!

March is ALL about the Greatest Man on the Planet

I know you all think you married the greatest man on the planet, but well, I think I've got you beat! For our 8th wedding anniversary TeJay planned a surprise trip for the two of us to NYC! That's right - NEW YORK CITY!! A couple days before we were scheduled to leave I found out where we were going, and that ALL arrangements had been made. I didn't have to do a thing - I didn't have to find someone to watch the kids - TeJay did that ALL on his own! That is worth it's wait of GOLD in my book!!

Our flight left at midnight on Thursday, and we got to NY at 6 am. Our hotel didn't have a room for us at that early hour, so we went to get breakfast, and then being exhausted like we were (no sleep on the plane) we fell asleep on each other in the hotel lobby. After a little nap for a couple of hours we started out on the town. And we saw as much of the town as could in 2 days!! We hardly slept!!!

Here we are at the Brooklyn Bridge
I thought we could walk across the whole thing, but when we got halfway across I realized that that was probably good enough!

Here we are on top of the World on the top of Rockerfeller Center.
It was the first time in the big city that I felt big! When everything looks so small.

Here I am in front of the teeny, tiny Statue of Liberty
The line to go over to the island was over 4 hours long, and we just didn't want to spend all of our time standing in a line - so this is as close as I got!

Here we are in Central Park, eating Hot Dogs
I just had to try doing this in NYC, even though it was frigid cold.
We couldn't stay still to long - had to keep moving to stay warm!
You have noticed that I'm wearing my winter coat, and gloves, right?

And the crowning moment of the trip was seeing the Broadway show, Wicked!
I LOVE the music, and I had wanted to see it pretty bad.
I was just waiting for it to come to Salt Lake - wait no more!
It was unbelievable!!! TOTALLY AWESOME!!
When it was time for intermission, I didn't want it to end, but to keep going.
I can't even count the many times I got chills. If you ever have a chance to see it, DO!!!!!

And in our seats, waiting for the show to start! We were on Row E!!!!
Yeah, Row A is on the front - So.... awesome seats.


And this post wouldn't be complete without a scrapbook page of the trip!
I have many, but I don't want to bore you, so I'll pick one!
(OK, I'll pick a 2 pager!!)

March is Nate 1st commerical plane ride

In March Nate took his first commercial airplane ride. For reasons I'll explain in the next post I couldn't be there. And as a Mom I felt like I was missing out on a milestone for my son, so TeJay let him borrow an old camera of his to take pictures with. TeJay taught him how to use it, so he could document the event for me, and of course come home with pictures to scrap with!!!

P.S. Nate went to California with his Grandpa on a weekend trip to see Grandpa's boat that was being stored there.

Feb. brings us to Abby

Here are some pictures of Abby who turned the BIG 9 M! 9 months! WAHOO!

And of course, and scrapbook page to commemorate the occasion!

Let's start with.... Christmas

Since I left the blogging world around Christmas time, Let's just start there! And of course, here's the scrapbook page of our Christmas - showing all the cute little Rasband kids in there Christmas jammies.

Nate & Emma were SOOO excited this year, that they woke us up at 7 am. And little Abby, it being her first Christmas, woke up at 8:30am. How do I get them to all do that?

The big present this year, was Nate and Emma's scooters. They got spoiled and got to ride them around the house until Spring came - now they are outside permanently!

Parker was excited for his Thomas jammies, and his book that started the scrapping obsession. Oh if I could relive that moment over again!

And Abby was just looking for the biggest piece of wrapping paper tossed aside, thinking that it would make a great treat. Christmas was GREAT!

From Christmas to...... Um, Christmas in July!

OK, OK, OK, I know it! This is BAD! I got in trouble a couple weeks ago by Shannon, who said that she keeps checking in and it's STILL Nate's Christmas Program. The good thing is that Shannon usually sees me around at church and stuff, so she knows that I am living, but for you who I don't see - you probably have a good enough reason to wonder if I've fallen off the face of the Earth.

I can't really even say I have a good excuse, either. No huge catastrophes, just living LIFE! All though I will say that I have found a new obsession, which probably digs into my blogging life. For Christmas I made Parker a photobook at Shutterfly.com of all his favorite things. It was SO super easy, and SO super cute, it got me thinking. I checked into digital scrapbooking - I didn't really think I would like it. But within a week I was ADDICTED! I highly recommend it to any of your girls out there. It's so easy, and I am well on my way to getting caught up with scrapping our family memories. And another bonus - there is no set up, or clean up, and no one is spilling my brads all over the kitchen floor! What could be better! So..... my ONLY real excuse for not letting you know about what's going on in our family is that when I'm on the computer I'm usually scrapping. I will try to have a balanced life and do ALL that I need to on the computer, and still have time for my family in real life. Open to any suggestions out there......

I woke up this morning, with a to-do list, and I have finished some of the things on the list, but one that just kept coming up (which really wasn't on the list in the first place) was to "update" my life. Which brings me here to our blog.

So much has happened in the Rasband house since Christmas that I think I'll just start from there and try to bring us up to the present. How does that sound?

Kindergarten Chirstmas Program

Nate's Kindergarten Christmas Program was yesterday morning. And what FUN that was!!!! We took 65 pictures just trying to capture all of Nate's facial expressions. One of the other kindergarten teachers told me today, that it was planned to put Nate on the front row to help out with the singing. Let's just say he used his Rasband voice, and there was no way you couldn't hear him! He used his all to sing!! In one of the songs they sang about the nativity, and Nate was picked to be one of the wise men.Hope you enjoy the pics!"OHHHH, I'm the loveliest Christmas tree! Ho, Ho, Ho, He, He, He"Singing with his ALL and MORE!
One the wise men

Nate's 6th Birthday

On December 9th Nate had his 6th birthday! Can I believe it's been 6 years allready? NO! It's gone by way too fast! We were sick the day before so we took it easy. But we still opened presents, ate cake, and played train. It sure was a fun day to just spend together! Happy Birthday Nate!!!!! (This is my 1st attempt at a slideshow - here's crossing my fingers that it works)

Nate's 6th Birthday

Abby Girl

As a mom I've been feeling guilty. The more kids I have the less the younger ones get. Nate has a whole baby scrapbook filled with pictures, Emma - half a scrapbook filled with pictures, Parker - 4 scrapbooked pages, Abby - NOTHING! And I feel like I haven't taken a picture of her since she was born. It really isn't true, we've taken pictures of all the kids together, but nothing of just her. And she has grown SOOOOO much. I weighed her last week on our scales at home (so I'm not sure how accurate) but she weighed as much as Parker!!! It was time I took some pictures of my not so little girl who is now 7 months old!

From Mullet to Man

So Parker has been in need of a major haircut I just haven't known quite what to do with it. It was a little long in the back, but it had such a cute curl as you can see. His hair was described by Uncle Dustin to be "business in the front, party in the back" We got a good kick out that. But it was time to clean in up a bit. So not knowing how to really fix it, we just took the clippers to it on the shortest guard. So know it's just military style.Here are the before pictures:

And here is the little man now:

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you all had a good Thanksgiving! Ours was GREAT! We spent the day at my Grandma Pollock's house. It was a HUGE crowd! Everyone was there except Chet & Jamie's family. We usually are not that lucky to get everyone from the family there together, but we came VERY close this year. We had the usual huge Thanksgiving dinner. Then the kids played with toys, while the adults played games. And Abby was so good to take a nap! The following day TeJay had the day off!! It was wonderful to get to spend some family time with him. Nate insisted that since Thanksgiving was over that we HAD to put up the Christmas Tree. Usually I wait until after his birthday, but he wouldn't let that happen! So Saturday was spent "decking the halls". I think that Nate and Emma think the sooner they decorate, the sooner Christmas will be here. It just means more work for Mom as she tries to keep the curious Mr. Parker out of the ornaments and the train. Allready most of the ornaments have been moved to higher ground just out of reach.

Emma put on the Angel topper for this yearThe finished Beauty!

The real reason (I think) that Nate counldn't wait! THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN!! They have played with it every night since. Chirstmas wouldn't be complete in our house with the train!
WE ARE READY FOR SANTA NOW! Guess I'd better get shopping!

Last Ride of the Season

Over the weekend, TeJay and Nate took their last motorcycle ride of the season. They went to Saint George with TeJay's dad, and they had a lot of fun. They left Saturday afternoon, and came back Sunday night. We told Nate that it would be a really long ride for him, but he insisted that he REALLY wanted to go, and he would be good. And he was!!! On the way to Saint George they only stopped ONCE, and Nate never complained! He said his backside was a little sore though. They saw trains in Milford, and I'm a little surprised that they didn't bring back any train pictures,because Nate LOVES trains. He even has a "Train Scrapbook" that he cuts out pictures of trains that he finds in the newspaper, or anywhere to glue into his scrapbook. TeJay and Nate have helmets with CB radios inside so that they can talk to each other, and both listen to the radio. Along the ride, Nate asked TeJay to turn off the radio so that they could take turns singing their own songs. What a great idea for a road trip.

TeJay's photo class

Last week TeJay finished a photo class he was taking at UVSC. It was really good for him, although we missed him on Tuesday nights. But I love the pictures he can take now! Maybe I can have GREAT pictures of my kids without going to Kiddie Kandids. I wanted to share some of the pictures that he took for his class, because I think they are awsome! WAY TO GO SWEETHEART!

Rain drops

Snow Fall (this one won the weekly prize in class)

Emma - she LOVES to pose

Our little brown eyed boy - Nate ( I just love this one)

A little Harley chrome

Take the Twilight Quiz

Here are the results for the quiz I took on which Twilight character I am! I'm REALLY pleased to be Esme! She has it all together. She has a family, and a great guy! I couldn't want more! Ohhhh, WAIT!! I have a family, and a great guy!!!!

Read the books! They're GREAT!

Which Twilight novel character are you?

You're" Esme Cullen - Your maternal instinct to take care of people and be kind draw people towards you. You're compassionate and loving, yet firm when you need to be. You appreciate hard work and value the beautiful results of your dedication to any project.
Take this quiz!'>quiz!




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Halloween

Ok, so it's a week later, and I'm FINALLY getting to Halloween pictures. It was a great Halloween for our family. Nate loved doing a parade at school, and having a party.

He's the cute little train engineer in the middle. He came into the room with his arms "chugging" and kept doing it all day, that he wore his costume. Nate loves EVERYTHING about trains.

The yummy & delicious pea pod, Abby

The loveable, huggable teddy bear, Parker

The very polite Princess Emma

The whole gang before Trunk-or-Treat

That night we went "Trunk or Treating" with the ward. I love it because I don't have to answer my door ALL night long, as trick-or-treaters come and go. It's just done all in one stop. Nate and Emma loved trunk-or-treating. As they were getting ready for bed that night I overheard them talking about how they couldn't wait for Halloween to come again next year.