Obsession

Recently my awesome sister-in-law, Jillian, has introduced me to an amazing new author called Elizabeth Gaskell. I absolutely looove her writing. I've only read one book of hers but I've seen a couple of movies based on her novels and one movie in particular has taken hold of me. I have fallen in love with the movie "North and South."






















It's amazing. Pride and Prejudice fans can eat their heart out on this flick. I can't stop thinking about it. It's become rather an obsession with me, so I thought letting out my obsession in writing would help quell it a bit. After I watched it the first time, I watched it again the very next day and took the liberty of watching my favorite scenes over and over again and then I had to give it back to Jillian. Then I rented it from the library as soon as I could and kept watching it over and over till I found the will to return it back to the library early so that I wouldn't be glued to the screen all day. It has everything a truly good romance needs; a smart, out-spoken, independent heroine; an honorable gentleman that's willing to change for the heroine; and an involving and hearty plot with enduring characters. It's up there with my two other favorite chick flicks; "Pride and Prejudice" and "Anne of Green Gables." I've been noticing a lot of similarities between them. They all start out with the heroine hating the guy and they all involve a first proposal in which the guy gets rejected. There are other stuff too but I've already said too much for those who haven't seen it yet. I don't know why I find those kind of plots so appealing but I do. The character who plays Mr. Thorton is equivalent to Mr. Darcy but a bit more romantic and I think the end scene is a lot more romantic.... ahh so good. Anyways, I gotta go. Watch it!

I'm returning from a long slumber of not blogging finally. A lot has happened but things are still pretty much the same. Benny is now 1 year old and we had a fun birthday party at his grandma Robles home. It felt kinda awkward having him open presents especially since he had no idea what was going on. What is he supposed to do with them? He doesn't know everyone is expecting him to open them. Are they even necessary at such a young age? I don't know, but it was a fun excuse to gather as a family and eat cake.
Nathan is still chugging along at CBC and is past the halfway mark! This quarter we both took a class together and it has been fun. It will be the only class that we get to take together. I thought it would have been more fun to take a snowboarding class together when we were at BYU-I but he wasn't up to it then and biological anthropology is rewarding in its own way. I have decided to make an extra push and take two classes next quarter instead of one so that I can graduate. The plan is to graduate before the new baby comes. My due date (June 22) and the finals week for next quarter (June 18) are pretty close together so I'm hoping that this baby comes on time or a little later. I don't want to be in the hospital and have to worry about finals.
So I discovered that dehydration brings on contractions. A couple of weeks ago, I started experiencing pain in my abdomen and it kept getting worse. I ended up going to the hospital and felt kinda dumb when I found out all this came about just because I didn't drink enough water. I was actually kinda glad I went through it though because that was the first time I had ever felt a contraction!!! I never felt it with Benny so it was nice to know what to expect. I feel more prepared for when this new one comes now.
Anyways that's all for now, ta ta.


25 weeks along















The beginning of Benny's haircut















the middle, kinda has a captain picard feel to it















the conclusion, shorter than we thought but I like it















Benny loves the outdoors and he developed a habit of taking a walking stick with him on his walks

Boy prodigy Discovered!!

Benny has been manifesting many amazing skills for his age!



He can do chin ups! (he's just being hoisted up but it's all him when it comes to the actual chin up)















He can play the piano!















He can brush his gums with an electric tooth brush















Okay, so he still gnaws on our furniture















... and wakes daddy up by picking his nose















and still finds joy in the simple things, like a cardboard box















and crashes in the middle of playing while sitting up















and still has a lot of growing to do before he fills his daddy's clothes















Okay, so he's just a normal baby going through all the bumps and bruises of normal babyhood... but to us, he's still a miracle.

Guess What?!!

We're Pregnant!!!!!
Here comes baby #2!!

Trick or Treat

Finally, an update!! This halloween season has been fun! For those of you who don't know my husband that well, he is all about the holidays. He loves holidays. Each year as a holiday is approaching, he tells me all the cool and new things he wants us to do from candy, to gifts, to decorating, to lights, to parties, to streamers, you name it, he wants to do it. I'm a little different, I'm more like Scrooge. I think about how much money it will cost, how much time it will take up and then I try to tell him gently that it isn't in our budget. I always feel so stingy when these conversations come up but I have learned to give a little and hes learned to hold back a little so I think we're making progress. Really, holidays are much more fun with Nathan because he always wants to make them special.

This year, Nathan wanted to do really cool outfits for halloween. He's been thinking about it since Benny was born. He wanted to go for outfits that matched eachother, so after going through tons of alternatives we settled on Peter Pan. Benny was Peter Pan of course, Nathan was Hook, and I was Wendy. We went to Value Village and Good Will and found materials for our costumes. We bought a regular coat for Nathan and then with fabric glue, and borrowed fabric I transformed it into a pirate coat. We also bought Benny a green shirt and girls tights. I modified the shirt and dyed the tights green and my mom made really cute brown shoes to go with it. It was perfect! We celebrated the holiday by having a halloween party with both sets of our parents. We ate pizza and watched "Monsters vs. Aliens." It was great.

the old neverland gang together again

that peter pan, looking youthful as ever

a little too much rum, captain Hook

our scary, spider infested abode

The inconveniences of Motherhood

lately, I've been thinking a lot about certain aspects of motherhood. I'll admit that when I first saw Benny, I didn't exactly bond with him on the spot. For the first couple weeks, I felt like he was a stranger in our home. I didn't know this little spirit at all. I know some mothers feel a connection at the very beginning but that wasn't me. I had to get used to Benny and then a connection grew gradually over the months and so did my love for him.
As I think about this gradual process of love, I also think about the world's general view of children and motherhood. Having children is viewed as an inconvenience. However, I'm finding that a lot of the times, I cherish the inconvenient moments with Benny. If I am doing something on the counter, Benny will crawl up to my feet and imploringly cry to be let up to see what I am doing. Although a task is made a lot harder when reduced to one hand, I love the look on his face as he looks at what I am doing with happy interest being totally oblivious to the fact that it has cost me the use of one arm just so I can hold him. Bedtimes I especially love. Benny doesn't easily fall asleep on his own and usually the advise for that is to sleep train him, which involves just letting him cry till he falls asleep. That method I hear works wonders for the mothers sleep schedule but I love holding him and gradually rocking him to sleep. We do however put him in the crib to kinda tire him out so he goes to bed at a descent time but it always ends with him in my arms. I love the feel of his little body cuddled up to me and falling asleep. There are so many other moments that I love with Benny that make life a little "inconvenient" but I love them all.

Shhhh, he's almost asleep, nobody make a sound!















Just kidding!!!















sleepy in the fireplace














I love this picture, it captures his excitement














Cody and Jillian surprised us during the weekend and showed up in Kennewick without even telling us! We loved it. They dropped by our apartment while we were having Pam and Adam over for dinner and we had a great time all hanging out. It was a record for the number of people in our small home with babies up the wazoo!

School days come back

A lot has happened! First of all, Nathan has started up school again and so have I!! I discovered a couple of months ago that I only had 4 classes left to qualify for an AA. I had no idea i was so close, so I decided to finish it off. I'm now enrolled at CBC in a basic biology class. The plan is to enroll in one class per quarter so I can still take care of Benny. I have my class after Nathan is done with all his so I can take Benny to campus and trade him off to Nathan with his lunch and then while I'm in class Benny and Nathan are hanging out and eating lunch. It's a really fun arrangement. I love taking Benny to campus with me and I love seeing him and my hubby right after class. I'm really enjoying this little season of our lives. We also took a trip to Rexburg and got to see little Joseph!!! He is amazingly cute and has the radest hair ever, its super thick and is golden brown like a lions mane. We also took a trip to Provo on conference weekend to attend Nathan's mission reunion. We traveled all day and thought we would only be 40 minutes late but then we ran into traffic. We hadn't anticipated traffic from conference. We made it just on time for the ending. Luckily a lot of people had stayed after and Nathan got to chat with a couple of his comps for about 2 hours, so it was worth it. Benny is developing quite a bit, he is starting to stand on his own, is sprouting his first tooth, and is making 2 syllable sounds! He is well on his way. Anyways, till next time.














All the Robles men at the gardens at BYU-I














Benny's forth haircut















Benny and little Joseph















Benny in the Bath/sink














A table I bought at goodwill and painted














Bennys attempt at eating














The fam up in a tree on the way back from the Puwallup fair














Sporting our cool head attire that we got at the Puwallup fair. I got a lot of comments, people asked me if it was my real hair. Benny's hat was actually made by Aunt Emilee. Check them out on etsy.com.