The Adventures of Rob and Sara

Highlights

2011-10-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

My friend Stephanie, from our ward, does my hair. She does it out of her house and is fabulous. I went to get my hair done and when we were done with my color there was some bleach left. Steph does little highlights in her daughters' hair every so often so she called in her youngest and did some foils. There was still some dye left so she asked if she could do a foil in Anya's hair. Now, would I go out and pay to get her hair done (other than trimmed)? Absolutely not. Do I plan on doing this all the time? No way. However, I don't think one time hurts anything so I said "why not?" She did one little foil in Anya's bangs and I have to say, it looks dang cute.

I love this one because it looks like Magee is doing Anya's hair.

I am so in love with this girl.

Friday Funnies - Bad Hair Day

2011-09-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is how Anya woke up from her nap on 8/27. No, she didn't go to sleep with wet hair. I have no idea how this happened, although with the way this kid sleeps I guess I shouldn't be surprised!

Yeah, if I had hair like that I'd be crying too!

Pigtail Sighting!

2011-09-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Photo taken 8/16/11

There's a bobcat in our backyard!

2011-09-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

At the end of July, my sister Shannon moved in with us. She graduated from CDO in May and wanted to move out but didn't have the money to get an apartment. We happened to need someone to watch Anya in the mornings while I'm at work and had an extra bedroom. So in exchange for rent, Shannon plays Nanny in the mornings and then goes to Pima in the afternoons. It is working out so well. Anya loves her Aunt Shannon and they have a good time playing together. One day in August I'm at work and got a text from Shannon that says they found a new friend. It looked like this:

It was just a picture from her phone and I assumed it was a neighbor's cat hanging out on our back porch. When I got home I about had a heart attack when I saw the rest of the pictures.

Shannon was banging on the sliding glass door to try to scare it and make it leave but it apparently liked our back porch. It crawled under the the patio furniture for a while before wandering off.

Look at the size of that thing!

There is a giant wash behind our house so I know that is where it came from, but I have no idea why our back patio was selected as the place to get reprieve from the heat. I just hope he wasn't too comfortable and plans on making a return visit!

Laurie Notaro book reading

2011-09-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

My friend Ann introduced me to Laurie Notaro's books several years ago. They are HILARIOUS. If you need a laugh, I highly recommend her. She happens to be originally from Phoenix so when she goes on book tours she always has a reading there. The first picture is from July 2008 and the second one from this past July. I like how Ann and I have swapped hair colors. :)

The same dress, 27 years apart

2011-09-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

When I was little my mom made me this dress. She saved it and gave it to me and I've had it in my closet for years.

Twenty-seven years later, it made its second debut.

Picture People

2011-09-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

I bought a groupon to Picture People a while ago so we could get Anya's picture taken for her first birthday. I wasn't expecting any smiles since she gets so shy around strangers but luckily Shannon was with us and got her to laugh. They had to be head shots because she would not let me move away and clung to me the entire time. These are pictures of the pictures, hence the slight graininess.

Friday Funnies

2011-09-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

If I have a challenge of posting a humorous picture/story every week, will I stick to it? Probably not, but it is worth a shot! Someone found a bag of bottles in their closet and had a good time playing. This is the top of the infamous booby bottle.

Photos taken 7/19/2011

Video Time!

2011-09-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

Now I am all about posting things in chronological order (does anal-retentive have a hyphen?) but I have to interrupt the flow here to post these videos. I am well aware that my videos tend to be too long but the first one is worth watching to the end. First we have some excellent dancing followed by mom and dad showing off Anya's current vocabulary. She signs and says a word or two along with some animal sounds. This kid learns something new everyday and is constantly amazing me. She can already sign more things and knows more animal sounds than this video shows and it was only a week ago.

The second video is a big deal. Anya FINALLY decided to try walking. She has been able to walk holding on to her toy stroller or one of our hands but just this week she ventured out on her own. Anytime we would try and let go she would instantly drop down and crawl. There was no convincing this girl she was capable of walking on her own. She had to do it on her own time. (I can't, for the life of me, figure out where she gets her strong will.) I shot this with my iPhone so the quality of the video isn't as great.

Rebecca and Eric's reception

2011-09-22T21:05:00.000-07:00

My sister Rebecca became Mrs. Fanucci this summer! She and Eric had a reception dinner in July in Scottsdale. We drove up and took pictures at the Phoenician and then had dinner at Maggiano's.

The happy couple

The gorgeous bride!

The Hales family clan (I had to laugh, when my mom posted this picture on facebook someone commented "What a great crowd." That "crowd" is just our immediate family.) :)

Sisters

With her handsome brothers

Anya wanting more food at the restaurant

Cuddling with Grandma Heidi - it was a long night and she was exhausted

It was a great reception and the next day the happy couple left for Bora Bora for their honeymoon (yes, I am very jealous when I see their amazing pics. Bora Bora is absolutely beautiful.)

Anya's First Birthday

2011-09-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

Now that Anya is almost 15 months old I guess I better blog about her birthday! Anya's first birthday was July 8th which also happened to be our 6th wedding anniversary. Of course, Anya had all the attention that day. I think Rob and I went out a week or so later to celebrate our anniversary. :) We had my family over for a BBQ, swimming, presents and cake (We celebrated with Rob's family the next day in Phoenix since we were all there for a wedding). Here she is wearing her birthday outfit. I know she'll only wear it once but when I saw it at Target I couldn't resist.

Anya was quite reserved which is common when she is around a lot of people. She did really well opening gifts. She quickly got the hang of pulling tissue paper out of bags to see what fun things were inside.

Her favorite gifts that night were some finger puppets from Great-grandma Verlene. She wouldn't let them go.

Checking out the pretend food from mom and dad. There are soooo many pieces that we find all over the house, but she loves them.

My first attempts at cake decorating... nothing amazing but I think they turned out alright.

The giant cupcake was a bit overwhelming. She wasn't quite sure what to do with it. No cake smashing here!

Singing Happy Birthday (notice the finger puppets?)

We had a great day and then had even more fun with Rob's family the next day. I can't believe how quickly a year passes. I had every intention of posting a picture from each month to see how Anya has grown but I would end up selecting the same pictures I've already posted previously. So, if you want a flashback, just read the old posts. :)

Homemade gift exchange

2011-08-03T10:35:00.000-07:00

I participated in the homemade gift exchange on the Craftaholics Anonymous blog this summer. I was paired with a girl named Ariella (isn't that a beautiful name? I told her I might steal it for a future daughter) who lives in NY. You have about a month or so to correspond and then make something to send to your partner. I made this tin mini album for her. The mats for the pictures are for 3 x 3 photos. I like these little tins because you can carry the album in your purse and the pictures inside won't get ruined.

The title says "Living life wonderfully" because her blog is titled "Live Life in a Wonderful Way"

In return, she made me the most adorable magnets. You can see the tutorial on how she made them here. The picture at the bottom of the post shows 3 of the magnets. She got all the pictures from my blog and made me about 15 magnets. They are on our fridge and Anya loves pointing out herself, mama, and dada whenever we walk by. It was really fun to participate in this exchange. She is doing another one the first week in November so follow the craftaholics blog if you are interested!

Father's Day

2011-08-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

I'm slowly catching up here. My friend Heather sent me an email with a picture of a Father's Day gift idea. It was an adorable set of 3 photos of a little girl holding letters that spelled out "DAD." However, the girl in the picture was probably about 3 or 4, not 11 months old! Anya had absolutely no interest in holding these letters. First I went to the park in the neighborhood across the street thinking a nice green bush and grass would make a decent backdrop. Well, there is nothing more uninteresting than wooden letters when you are outside with lots of things to look at! So we scratched that idea and ended up just on the floor in the house. Here are lots of outtakes from our shoot:

This one is actually really cute but you can't see what the letter is that she is holding

Going after mom's flip flop which was much more fun to play with

Sooo done with this, mom!

That piece of hair on the side of her head ALWAYS sticks out no matter how many times I wet it down!

This was my frustrated attempt to just get a picture of her with a letter in it as she tried to escape once again :)

The finished product. I think it turned out pretty cute after all. (sorry the picture quality isn't great. I took this one with my cell phone.)

Rob was surprised and loved it. It is now currently hanging in his office and it gets lots of compliments from his staff. This post is almost 2 months late but I still want to say thank you to Rob for all he does. He works so hard to support our family and is a fabulous dad. I love seeing Anya's face light up when he walks in the door and then she crawls 90 mph over to him so he can pick her up and they can play. He gets the most laughs out of her and is constantly teaching her new things (like how to give mama a zerbit). Happy Father's Day Rob! Anya is the luckiest girl to have you as her daddy! We love you!

Graduation and Promotions

2011-07-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

May was a busy month for our family. Shannon graduated from high school and both Yue and Nicholas had 8th grade promotion. I was able to be the line leader for Shannon's line at graduation which was really cool. Here is my littlest sister wearing Shannon's cap. I guess you have to be 3 to actually look good in one!

The family at Shannon's graduation

Two days after Shannon's graduation we had 2 promotions in the same day. Yue promoted from Cross and will be going to CDO next year. There will be yet another dorado in the family! :) Here he is after he received his promotion certificate.

Later that day we headed down to ASDB for Nicholas' promotion. It had a much different feel than Cross'. For one thing, there were only 11 kids promoting! Because of the small numbers they were able to have pictures from the school year showing before the ceremony and had a slideshow of the kids growing up during the ceremony. Here is Nicholas with his certificate.

Typical silly Nicholas :)

Thankfully, Rob's mom was able to come down for the week to watch Anya so we didn't have to drag her to these. I don't think she would have lasted long. Also while she was here, she painted my craft room and helped me set up furniture I bought at Ikea. The room looks great! I'll have to put some pictures up once I figure out where to put all my stuff.

Time to start catching up...

2011-07-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

One of the requirements Rob had when we were looking for a house to buy was that we had a pool. He said if we had to move to the northwest side of town (which made his commute go from less than 5 minutes to about 45 minutes) he needed to have a place to relax in his own backyard. I am so glad we found a house we loved with a pool too. Last summer (when I was 8-9 months pregnant) I spent hours in the pool trying to cool off. It was also the only place where my back didn't hurt. Anya was too little to spend any time in the pool at the end of last summer so this summer we were eager to get her in it. We were thrilled to discover she LOVES being in the water. She likes sitting in her floatie and watching her aunts and uncles swim, loves sitting on the side wall and lungeing forward for Rob to catch her, and enjoys the occasional sip of pool water (yuck!). Her new favorite game is to stand on the top step and throw Rob's sandal in over and over. She is lucky she inherited her Grandpa Rob's Mediterranean skin (as he calls it) as she tans quite well rather than burning like her mama. This kid is currently very brown. Here are some pictures from her first time swimming back on May 21st.

If you live nearby give us a call and come on over. We are in the pool almost daily and love to have friends to swim with! Just be forewarned, you might get hit in the head with Rob's sandal as it goes flying through the air. This little lady has quite the arm!

Oh the way this kid sleeps!

2011-07-06T21:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am very much behind on updates but what else is new? Here is a little something to tide you over... Every night Rob and I go in to check on Anya (I ask him if he wants to "gaze lovingly," a phrase I got from a book I read). What it has turned into is "What crazy position is our daughter in this time?" I think she moves about every 30 seconds. I have never seen anyone toss and turn so much and she is always in the most bizarre positions. Frequently one of us will come running to the other saying "You've got to come see this!" and by the time we walk back in she has already moved.

It all started when we noticed the stinkbug position which is how my sister Rebecca always slept when she was little. Look at those crossed ankles!

Now it seems there must be a limb hanging out the side. If it isn't through the slats then she is usually holding them.

This one is actually kinda normal. Maybe that is why it felt picture worthy

This is the newest trend - the leg propped up on the bumper.

(Check out those tan legs! We've been spending lots of time in the pool. Pics to follow)

That's it for tonight. I'm off to go see what position our soon to be one year old is in now!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter Sunday. I had prom the night before so I was pretty tired but church wasn't until 11 so I was able to sleep in a little. Usually my singing time plans are fun and include some sort of game or activity so the kids don't notice we are singing the same song over and over. This Sunday, however, we only sang reverent songs about Jesus Christ (When He Comes Again, I'm Trying to be Like Jesus, I Feel My Savior's Love, Did Jesus Really Live Again?, If I Listen With My Heart, He Sent His Son) and then ended with I am a Child of God. It was nice to have a reverent singing time. The kids were great (even junior primary!) and we talked about how we could feel the spirit and how it was ok not to play games every Sunday.

Anya got a new Easter dress from my mom. It is adorable and the flower embroidery reminds me of my flower girl dresses.

Yes, her feet are bare. The dress was cream and the only tights and lacy socks I have are white. Her gelly sandals looked weird too. Oh well!

I LOVE this picture! Anya loves her daddy! Her face always lights up when he gets home from work. He is her best playmate!

Her Easter basket consisted of a stuffed bunny, some Easter themed Little People, and gerber puffs. She went straight for the puffs and ignored everything else. Bunny ears are courtesy of Grandma Diane. I wish you could see the onesie better. It has 3 bunnies embroidered and says "Somebunny loves me."

We went to dinner at my parents house. I think Easter dinner is my favorite of all the holiday dinners. I ate sooooo much. Thank goodness for breastfeeding and all the calories it burns! Here is Anya with her Great-grandma Verlene.

Dive Bomb Crawling

2011-04-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

After a few weeks of scooting backwards and pivoting, we finally have some forward motion! She hasn't figured out how to move her arms forward while up on her knees so she ends up dive bombing forward. Exciting but at the same time I already miss when I could set her down somewhere and she stayed there! :)

Spring Break, misc photos, and General Conference thoughts

2011-04-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

Rob and I were lucky that we had the same spring break this year. That doesn't always happen. We headed up to Prescott for a few days with his sister Liz to visit Grandma Diane and Grandpa Rob. I am not a fan of cold weather. I continue to live in Tucson for a reason. You can imagine my displeasure at waking up to see this outside:

Yes it is beautiful but it isn't the weather I had envisioned for my SPRING break! In fact I believe my exact words as Rob opened the blinds were "Are you freaking kidding me?! Anya, we're going home today!"

Anya and Aunt Liz

Regardless of the cruddy weather, we had a good visit. Anya had a great time playing with Aunt Liz and Grandma. She wasn't quite sure what to do with Grandpa and continued to give him looks that make me wary of her teenage years.

As for other going-ons around here...

This is the only way mama can get laundry done during the day. The Little Miss doesn't like mama to be out of her sight so we load up the laundry basket and take rides from bedrooms to the laundry room and back.

Sporting the dress Grandma Diane bought in Hawaii with the gellies from Aunt Rebecca

Nothing special about this, just liked the picture. I think we were on our way to visit Great-grandma Verlene so I could learn how to knit dishcloths. We go though way too many paper towels around here. (gma, I'm on my 7th one so far!) On a happy note, Anya finally has enough hair on the sides to put bows on. Headbands were getting quickly ripped off.

Lastly, an early Happy Easter. Grandma Diane was down this weekend and so Anya got an Easter basket a few weeks early. It included some gerber snacks, books, a stuffed baby chick and these cute ears. Somebunny is definitely the center of our world! What on earth did we do before she joined our family?

One last note, didn't you just love General Conference this weekend? I look forward to it so much and am never disappointed. I love receiving instruction from our Prophet and Apostles. I'm always inspired to be better. I really liked the message from Richard J. Maynes on Saturday afternoon. He said that as he raised his children he learned that his kids probably wouldn't remember the Family Home Evening lesson later in the week, but they would remember that they had FHE. They probably won't remember the words that were said in morning prayer later on that day but they would remember that the family knelt together that morning. I know that will be even more helpful as we have more kids and they become "Bedlamites" as Elder Holland called them. :)

I enjoyed Elder Scott's talk on marriage (oh how I aspire to be the wife that tells her husband to go play with the kids in the short time he is home rather than fix the washing machine as she stands there washing clothes by hand) and Elder Holland's talk on the messages that are shared in conferences. I really liked Elder Holland's statement that in matters of discipleship the church is not a fast food outlet - we can't always have it our way. Those two, along with Elder Bednar, are always my favorites. Elder Bednar thinks the same way I do. I love how logical and structured his thoughts and talks are. His analogy of revelation and inspiration being like a lightbulb (sudden light in a dark room) verses a sun rising (light comes little by little) was a great reminder that we usually don't have grand visions or epiphanies, rather testimonies grow little by little. Those grand occurrences are frequently talked about because they are rare. We might overlook the simple personal revelations from the spirit because we focus on receiving great inspirations. I can't wait to sit down and read the talks when the Ensign comes out. There were a few I missed as I was feeding/changing/taking care of Anya. What was your favorite talk?

Picnic at the Park

2011-03-03T21:05:00.000-08:00

In Tucson we have this wonderful thing called Rodeo Break. We don't recognize our President's and get that day off, instead we get the last Thurs and Fri off in February when the Rodeo is in town. Friday was such a nice day and Rob suggested we have a picnic at the park. We packed up sandwiches, fruit and a blanket and headed to the park. Like I said in the last post, Anya loves being outside. There were lots of other kids and moms at the park that day and she had fun watching them while we ate. Here she is with her sun hat:

We have been trying lots of different foods lately. So far, blueberries and strawberries are her favorite. While at the park she also had some avocado that I put on her Gerber Puffs. Now that she has 2 teeth on bottom and on top she likes to gnaw on things.

This was our first time in the swings. Once she got the hang of it she was in 7th heaven!

She wasn't so sure about the slide, however. I think we went down too fast for her liking.

This is what we saw as we opened the car door when we got home (it is less than a 10 min drive). Guess we tired her out! :)

Trip to the Zoo

2011-03-02T13:10:00.000-08:00

Rob and I took a day off from work earlier this month and decided to go to the zoo. Anya LOVES being outside. We go on walks around the neighborhood almost daily and she loves sitting in her stroller and taking it all in. The weather that day was super nice and since it was a weekday morning the zoo was pretty empty - just a few other parents with their little ones. As we walked up to the first exhibit we quickly realized Anya had no interest in the animals. She was standing 5 feet from a giraffe and oohed and ahhed over the grass that was right in front of us. Mom and Dad enjoyed the animals and we all had a good time just being outside and hanging out as a family.

Mom, what are you doing to me?

I tried to get Rob to pose in the turtle but no such luck :)

Anya's favorite part of the zoo

Next time we'll bring some bread to feed the ducks

Photo Shoot at Grandma's and a few others

2011-03-01T14:14:00.000-08:00

So I'm a little behind here... what's new? Anya went in for her 6 month check up in January. Her stats were 14 lbs, 6 oz (10-25%), and 26.5" (75%). Looks like she has her daddy's build - tall and thin! Here are some pictures from last month:

Wildcat onesie from Aunt Liz

"Come on, Cats! Ref, are you kidding me with that call?!"

These are some pictures my mom took one afternoon while I was at work.

Anya is wearing two onesies because it was cold (yes, that happens occasionally in Tucson!)

I love to grab the spoon when Mama is feeding me!

Chillin' in the tub

New Videos

2011-03-01T12:55:00.001-08:00

If you are bored and need a way to pass the time, take a gander at the videos below. I am well aware that I leave the camera on way too long so feel free to quit watching each one after the first minute or so. :) The singing ones don't capture her singing as much as you hear me instead. As we watched them after I uploaded them, Anya was singing away right along with them. It is never as good on camera. I have other posts I need to write up but we switched internet providers to save some money and the connection is so slow so I get frustrated. It took over 2 hours to upload those videos to youtube. We went to the zoo and to the park and I have some cute pictures to put up. I'm just going to have to select the ones I want to upload and then run some errands or something. I'm not sure this slow connection is worth the money we are saving!

Anya singing If the Savior Stood Beside Me

2011-03-01T12:54:00.001-08:00

Anya singing The Family is of God

2011-03-01T12:54:00.000-08:00

Steamroller!

2011-03-01T12:53:00.000-08:00

Splashing!

2011-03-01T12:51:00.000-08:00

How did she do that?!

2011-02-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

My little girl is just like her mama. She doesn't like to sleep with her feet covered. This is from when she was only a month old:

When she has footie pajamas there isn't anything she can do about it. However, whenever she takes a nap and has socks on she always pulls them off. I can count on one hand the number of times she has woken up with the socks still on. Usually they are in the crib somewhere. It has become a game to find her socks. A few weeks ago Rob and I went in after Anya had woken up and found one sock on the floor: (this is fairly common)

We looked and looked and couldn't find the other sock. Finally Rob started cracking up as we found this:

It was all the way on the other side of the room! I told him I wanted to get a video monitor so we could see how she tossed it all the way across the room. Tonight topped them all however.

Anya woke up from her afternoon nap sockless again. I found one of them in the crib but couldn't find the other one. Later tonight we were putting her pajamas on and all of a sudden Rob started laughing and said "Are you messing with me?" I was totally confused until he pointed up at this:

How on earth did she manage that one? I really need to get a camera in there so I can witness these throws!

Christmas

2011-01-27T15:40:00.001-08:00

Right before Christmas our family said goodbye to my two little sisters. D. was with us for almost a year and V. for almost 2 years. Both are living with their respective families which is bittersweet. We got to open presents with them prior to their going home. The first picture is of D. opening some candy from Nancy. Nancy had wrapped it in several layers of paper with lots of tape which resulted in this expression:

V. and Rob

Both girls loved holding Anya even though she tended to not be too thrilled with the idea :)

We opened presents with my family on the 23rd and I forgot my camera. I need to get pics from my mom. We had our traditional mexican food dinner a day early so Rob and I wouldn't miss it. Rebecca and Eric came down from Phoenix so the whole family was there.

On the 24th we drove up to Prescott to be with Rob's family. Grandma Diane bought Anya these adorable Christmas pajamas. This first picture was taken with my cell phone which is why the quality isn't so great. I texted it to my mom with the words "And visions of sugar plums danced in their heads..."

I love the hat. I think it completes the outfit. It also helped keep Anya warm. Us Tusconans aren't used to the cold!

Christmas morning with her stocking

Who needs presents and toys when there is all this wrapping and tissue paper to chew on!?

Opening books from Mama and Daddy

Helping Grandma Diane open her gifts

This is Anya with her Uncle John (Rob's sister Liz' husband). We call him the Sandman because he is always able to get her to fall asleep. We were at a wedding and reception in November complete with a DJ and she slept on his chest for a good hour. We're lucky to have them only 10 minutes away from us and that they are willing to babysit!

It was a great Christmas with both of our families. I'm looking forward to next year when Anya is more aware of what is going on. However, that will unfortunately mean I can't just buy her tissue paper. :)

One other exciting milestone was reached on Christmas day: Anya was able to sit up by herself without toppling over!

Family Pictures

2011-01-27T15:10:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'm a little behind on our family adventures which my grandma kindly reminded me. :) At the beginning of December we had our family pictures taken by my friend Beth. I knew I wanted to have her take our pictures at some point and we decided that now would be a great time so we could get photos for our Christmas card. She spent about 2 hours with us down at the U of A. We took pictures up on the balcony of Old Main, in front of the fountain by Old Main and then over by the Forbes and Harvill buildings. Anya was great the entire time - no melt-downs or even tears. Near the end you can tell she is getting tired of it all. We ended up with a disc with lots of photos, each in color and in black and white. I picked a few of my favorites to post here. If you are in Tucson or Phoenix and are looking for someone to take family pictures for you, I would highly recommend Beth. You can see her website at http://www.bethcurtisphotography.com/

She truly is a happy girl. I'm so glad Beth caught this expression.

I LOVE Anya's little head peeking over Rob's shoulder. I had this photo put on an 11" x 14" canvas with a coupon I had online. It looks great in our family room.

I like how my butt is so far off the seat to be able to reach Rob. :) Guess that is what happens when you are 13" apart!

"Can we be done with this, please?!"

I just love these little feet!

2010-12-02T13:47:00.000-08:00

mmm... rice cereal!

2010-12-02T13:41:00.001-08:00

At Anya's 4 month well check her pediatrician said we could start solids since she wasn't taking a bottle. That way my mom would have more options to feed her during the day. It was just a few days later that she finally took the bottle so we decided to hold off on the solids. Lately she has been wanting to grab anything we are eating so last night we broke out the rice cereal. She loved it!

"Ooooo" translation: This is good stuff mommy!

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

2010-11-29T17:00:00.000-08:00

For those of you not in the crafting world, there is a magical cutting machine called the Silhouette. There are lots of cutting machines out there but this one is king. You don't have to buy cartridges to get it to cut different shapes or words. It can cut paper, vinyl, you can use it to etch glass, scrapbook, I could go on and on.

Because it is so amazing, it runs around $299. This company is very smart. They gave machines to many different bloggers to do giveaways. Thousands enter, few win, and then today on Cyber Monday the machine is on sale for $199. All the broken hearted souls that didn't win go out and buy one. After entering over 25 giveaways on various blogs I fully expected to be one of those broken hearted ones that would then go purchase the machine (it is a killer sale price!). Imagine my shock and absolute happiness when I found out that I WON the giveaway on The TomKat Studio blog. Luckily it was my planning period and there weren't any students in the room because I definitely shrieked with glee. I called Rob and my coworker Ann to share my amazing news. I can not wait until this arrives in the mail and I can start crafting!

Kind of a big deal

2010-11-16T13:28:00.000-08:00

Play the song below to get the full effect :)

Get Your Own Free Hypster.com Playlist.

Happy Halloween! (and a few other pictures)

2010-10-31T18:33:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween! Anya is a lion this year. I found the costume at Babies R Us for 50% off. I was excited because I knew I wanted a lion costume and the ones online were $30-50 which I wasn't willing to pay. The theme for CDO's winter formal this year is "Under the Big Top" (Circus themed) and the chaperones like to dress according to the theme. I'm going to be a lion tamer and Rob is going to bring my little lion for our picture and then take her home. She gets to wear the costume twice which made the $14.99 worth it to me. Our ward had their trunk-or-treat last night. Here is the little cub in her car seat ready to go. She wasn't too sure about the head part but she got used to it. Apparently the costume tasted good too because she chewed on it all night. :)

Smiling at Mama

I don't know what she is looking at in this one but I think her expression is hilarious.

I know I'm biased but I think Anya looked pretty dang cute. She was only mistaken for a puppy, a tiger (really? aren't tigers orange and black?!) and a boy. I'll let the boy slide - it's hard to tell gender in this costume and the lady didn't know we had had a girl.

Rob's parents came down last weekend for the UA football game. Grandma Diane babysat while Rob and I went out to lunch and did some shopping. (On a side note, on said shopping trip I found a TI-89 at Bookman's to replace my old one that got water damage. It was $65 and I had more than that in trade credit so I got it for free! I was pretty excited as it is hard to teach precal without a calculator and I really didn't want to spend the $150 it would cost for a new one.) Grandma and Aunt Liz watched Anya while we went to the first half of the football game with Grandpa Rob. This picture is Anya laughing at Grandma. It is always hard to get her smiling in pictures so I'm pretty excited when I succeed.

Anya is not a fan of tummy time. It doesn't take her long before she gets frustrated and cries. She is doing pretty well at it regardless.

Making goofy faces at mama

As for other updates, I went back to work on the 18th. I'm working Mon, Wed, and Fri and Anya spends those days with Grandma Heidi. The little diva still won't take a bottle. I've purchased every bottle that Target sells and even one online that is nicknamed the booby bottle. You'd think once she tasted the breast milk in it she would be ok but when the bottle nipple is put in her mouth she acts like she is being tortured. My mom is able to get some milk into her with a syringe in the mornings and then drives to CDO so I can feed her on my lunch break. Then I rush to pick her up at the end of the school day to feed her again. It is getting a bit ridiculous. Other than that, school is going ok. I made it through the first day back with some mascara still on although I broke down asking one of the secretaries for staples and paperclips. :) Once I'm at school and busy I'm ok. Plus since I see her on my lunch break I only have to go a few hours without seeing her! It also helps knowing I don't have to work the next day. I'm so grateful my mom can watch Anya. I don't think I could make it through the day if I had to drop her off at a daycare.

Our primary program was today and the kids did great. They sang so well. It is nice to have it done for the year though. Now we get to practice Christmas songs for our ward's nativity program and I get to start learning the songs for next year! I'm pretty sure I have the best calling in the church. I get to spend my Sundays with the primary kids, playing games and teaching them songs about Jesus Christ. They have the sweetest spirits and a sunday doesn't go by where one of them hasn't said something adorable or hilarious. (Last week the primary president was reminding the kids of the practice we had on Saturday. Since we would be practicing in the chapel she told them to wear their "sunday dress". One little boy hollered out, "And our shirts and ties too!")

One last note, yesterday I had the program practice and then a car wash for stugo which meant Rob had to watch Anya for several hours. He usually doesn't have her by himself for more than an hour or two (the refusal of the bottle makes it difficult to leave her any longer). I ran home after the practice to feed her and then headed to the car wash. When I got home that afternoon Rob was exhausted and handed her over to me the second I walked in the door saying "I don't know how you do this all day! I'm exhausted!" It's always nice to be appreciated! :)

Anya tells a story

2010-10-27T20:06:00.000-07:00

Copying Daddy

2010-10-12T17:41:00.000-07:00

First Haircut!

2010-10-12T17:38:00.001-07:00

Two months old!

2010-09-08T21:05:00.001-07:00

It is hard to believe Anya is two months old already. It has gone so fast but at the same time it is hard to remember how things were without her. This post is picture-heavy but great-grandma deleted her facebook account and likes to see pictures! :) Here are some of my favs from the last month.

This is the shape her hand is in the majority of the time. (It is the letter T in ASL :) ) She discovered her hand in the last few weeks and likes to suck on the index finger.

We had a photo shoot yesterday and I couldn't resist some naked shots. I LOVE her expression. She smiles a lot when she first wakes up but I've yet to capture the full grin on camera.

Anya was blessed at church on Sunday by her daddy. He gave a beautiful blessing. We had tons of family that came down. I took apart my wedding dress and my aunt made her blessing dress from the material. Even the little trim on her dress came from my wedding dress. Thank you so much Aunt Jan! This picture isn't the greatest (the combo of the slippery dress and the slippery bed sheet I used for the background made her keep sliding down haha) but I wanted to show the whole dress.

We took a 4 generation picture with my great-grandma criger when I was a baby and I wanted to get one with Anya. We'll have to get a nicer one taken when we're wearing clothes that look good next to each other. :)

She's reading already! We read several books each day. Her favorites are some Berenstain Bears books and the Belly Button Book. Those pictures seem to capture her attention the most.

I just love this picture. It makes me wonder what is going on in that little brain!

Sucking on daddy's finger. I shouldn't say sucking, it is more of a gnawing which is what she does to pacifiers and bottles. We can't get her to suck long enough to keep the pacifier in or to drink from the bottle. She better learn before I go back to work or I'll be driving to my mom's house during my lunch break to feed her!

When I scanned back over these pictures I realized she is either naked or only wearing a diaper in most of them. I promise I put clothes on her! We go through several outfits a day as she has become the queen of spit up. I'll have to put up a picture of her in her UA onesie. She is a wildcat already. My other favorite outfit right now says "I woke up on the cute side of the bed." Your mama and daddy sure do love you, Anya!

Just like Daddy

2010-09-08T13:41:00.001-07:00

Ok, I might have assisted her hands into this position but I think it is dang cute!

Chris and Tricia's Wedding

2010-08-19T20:46:00.000-07:00

My little brother is married. I officially feel old! Chris married Patricia Montano in the Mesa Temple on Saturday August 14th. We went up to Phx the night before since the sealing was at 9 am. I think I packed up my whole house just to have all Anya's stuff. We brought her pack 'n play for her to sleep in in our hotel room. I was really worried her crying at night would wake up the people in the rooms next door but she did alright. Aunt Rebecca came and watched her while Rob and I went to the sealing. We took some pics on the temple grounds and then drove back home for the reception. Anya slept through the whole reception. She was waaaay overstimulated. Congrats to the happy couple! Thanks to Mom, Aunt Jan, and Tricia's friend Jen (one of my former students!) for the pictures.

The beautiful bride

Wedding Party (Rob is on the far left)

The happy couple

Sooo not happy in the heat on the temple grounds (being held by Papa Que)

All of the family wore the wedding colors. This is Anya in her beautiful dress from Macy's. Her dress cost more than mine which came from Target! She'll be wearing it every Sunday to church until it doesn't fit anymore. :) I love the little half smile on her face.

As my mom always said when she did our hair when we were little, "It hurts to be beautiful!"

Sleeping peacefully in her car seat

Family pic!

Chris and Patricia Hales

One month old!

2010-08-12T09:08:00.001-07:00

Anya turned one month old on Sunday. She is actually 5 weeks old today. It is hard to believe how fast time goes. These are some pictures from her first real bath from Saturday night getting ready for her first time at church. We'd given her sponge baths before but this was the first time in her whale tub. She loved being in the warm water.

She did great at church and was even calm when she was passed around during primary while I did singing time. So many people have volunteered to hold her during primary; I might have to start a sign-up sheet. :)

We went to the pediatrician yesterday and she is now 9 lbs 10 oz and is 22" long.

My daughter the Michael Jackson fan

2010-08-09T18:46:00.000-07:00

When I was pregnant I saw this video on a talk show (ellen? oprah? I can't remember which):

I pulled it up on youtube and whenever I would watch it Anya would go nuts, kicking and moving all around. Whenever Rob wanted her to move he would play it. Last night (around 3:30 am) Anya was up and crying. Usually at bedtime we rock in the glider and I sing 4-5 primary songs and she falls asleep. This morning she wasn't interested. I had sang every primary song I could think of and she still had no interest in sleeping, much less being quiet so Rob could sleep. I took her into the office and pulled up the video on youtube. As soon as she heard it she stopped crying and cocked her head as if to say "Wait a second, I've heard this before!" By the time the song was over she was asleep against my chest. Who would have thought that the combination of mama's heart beat and a Michael Jackson medley would be the perfect lullaby?!

There were 2 other videos Rob would play - the "We are the World" (Haiti version) and "Just Stand Up," which is a video of celebrities singing at a cancer benefit. Today I downloaded all 3 songs and we now have a playlist in iTunes titled "Anya" that will be my secret weapon when she won't stop crying. Its worked 3 for 3 times today. She's out by the time the third song is over.

Anya's Arrival

2010-08-04T18:17:00.000-07:00

I've been telling myself everyday that I need to sit down and blog about Anya's birth but something always comes up (like a need for sleep!). Since she is going to be 4 weeks old tomorrow I better buckle down and get it done. It all started on my due date, July 6th. I went out and got a mani/pedi to treat myself since I was frustrated she hadn't come yet. Afterward I went grocery shopping and locked my keys in the car along with my purse, cell phone, and half of my groceries. After my brother Chris came and drove me home to get the spare key I posted on facebook that I thought the stress would have put me into labor but no such luck. Little did I know....

That night I started having contractions at and about 10:30 they were coming often enough that I figured I should start writing them down. I had them all night long but the intervals would vary from 4 minutes apart to 15 minutes. My doctor had told me that I shouldn't go to the hospital until they were consistently 5 min apart for an hour. I had an appointment that day (the 7th) already scheduled. As they called us back I had a contraction and my doctor was right there to witness it. She checked me and I was already dilated to 5 cm. She said she hadn't seen someone dilated that far and still walking around before and that we should get our stuff from home and head to the hospital. They would take us right away and we could skip triage. We hurried home, grabbed our bags, called family, and headed to the hospital.

Once we were in a room I got an epidural. I'd been having bad contractions for 15 hours by then so it was wonderful not to have to feel them anymore. Shortly after that my Dr came in and broke my water. Things seemed to be progressing at a decent rate then and by 8:00 that night I was at 8 cm. Unfortunately, that is where I stayed for the next 4+ hours. I was given pitocin but still wasn't going anywhere. Also, the way Anya was positioned, she was pushing on my cervix and was causing it to swell. The nurse had me do a practice push and it actually made the cervix tighten and the opening get smaller rather than continue to dilate. At that point the Dr came in and said we needed to do a c-section. I hadn't progressed for so long and the swollen cervix can become a serious problem. Rob and I were really upset. This wasn't what I wanted at all. We asked for some time to talk about it. We prayed, called my parents, and Rob gave me a blessing. After the blessing I felt at peace with the situation and that things would be ok. Once we told the nurse we would go ahead with the c-section things moved quickly. The anesthesiologist came in to get me ready and they brought Rob scrubs for the operating room. They were wheeling me out of the room before he was even dressed which was a little upsetting. He couldn't go in the room right away but he knew I was upset and didn't get a chance to calm me down and tell me things would be ok.

From this point on my memory is pretty splotchy. I remember being wheeled to the OR and being moved from my bed to the operating table. During that time I was so worried that the drugs wouldn't work and that I was going to feel everything. I remember the Dr testing to see if I was numb and I told her it felt like she was poking me with a pin. I heard the anesthesiologist tell her he had given me the max dose and I must have panicked because he gave me a sedative. The next thing I remember her saying is that she had made the first incision. Obviously, some time elapsed there but it seems like seconds to me. I remember Rob coming in and then hearing Anya cry. It was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard. I started crying and so did Rob. (She was born at 1:06 am on the 8th which was our 5 year wedding anniversary.) He took pictures and tried to show them to me but my eyes couldn't focus. This first picture is her entrance into the world and the next one is our first family picture. (Forgive me for the weird formatting. I keep trying to move things around and blogger is not cooperating.) Rob says I talked to her and she recognized my voice. I don't remember seeing her at all during this time.

Rob went with her while they cleaned her up and were sewing me up. I was moved to a recovery room where my mom stayed with me while Rob was with Anya. I apparently told my mom that I hadn't seen her. I don't remember seeing her until around 4:30 that morning when I was in the postpartum room. I was still groggy at that point because I was on morphine. I didn't like the way it made me feel so they switched me to percocet and ibuprofen. I won't bore you with the details of the next few days except to say that recovering from a c-section isn't fun. We had lots of visitors in the hospital and were
there until Sunday the 11th. The last picture is Anya in her car seat as we were packing up to go home.

We're spending our days staring at her, taking millions of pictures, and trying to sleep. We've had lots of help which has been so nice. Family, friends, and people from church have brought meals and both my mom and Rob's mom have cooked and cleaned.
We've had some rough days but everything is worth it when we look at that adorable little face. She's got us (and her grandparents, aunts, and uncles) wrapped around her little finger. I'll post more pictures once I sift through the millions we've taken.

The newest member of Team Pecharich

2010-07-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

I'll post about her birth soon! Now we're spending our time eating, sleeping, and staring at her. :)

So ready to be done!

2010-06-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

A post for baby girl's great-grandma

2010-06-10T17:37:00.000-07:00

It's been over a month since my last post and my grandma is getting antsy. :) Here's a quick update on the pecharich household. I finished school May 21st which couldn't have come at a better time. It is getting too hot and I am too tired to do much other than hang out at home and in the pool. Rob is going to be principal next year at his school (yay!) which means no more summers off for him. That part stinks but he has been working hard on his masters degree and it paid off. He is excited to continue to improve his school and help out the kids from an admin role. He is going to be great at it! This came just in time for me to go part-time (I'll be teaching Mon, Wed, and Fri; 2 precals and stugo) and not affect us too much financially. Funny how that all works out, huh? :)

We've got the nursery pretty much done. We have all the big stuff, now I'm just working on getting everything organized and the 0-3 month stuff washed. I was lucky to have several baby showers with very generous and kind friends and family. I think our little girl is set on clothes for quite a while. I might have to change her outfits often just so she can wear everything before she grows out of it. If only she would come soon! She did drop a bit this week so we're trying to find cool places to walk to keep things moving. I'm thinking we might join the mall walkers because it is so hot outside. I had an appointment today (the first of the now weekly visits) and she is head-down but only at station -3. I'm slowly starting to dilate but not as far as I had hoped. Rob is convinced she's coming in about 2 weeks. We'll see! If he's right I might have to take him to Vegas.

Not much else is going on around here. Today is my 27th birthday which feels odd. I totally agree with my friend Heather that in my head I'm 23. I don't know why that number sticks but it does. Rob took the morning off to go to the doctor with me but then had to go to work and has class tonight until 10:30. We'll be celebrating my birthday tomorrow with "Sara and Rob's day of fun" (any "Friends" fans out there??) and dinner with my family tomorrow night. I'll have to get some pictures taken and posted. I looked at the last ones (the 5 and 6 month bumps) and I look so small. I'm like a giant now in comparison!

We might have some progress on the name front but we're still testing it out so I'm not telling yet. I never thought it would happen, but we actually found one we agree on. We've been referring to the baby as this name to see how it sounds. Nothing definite yet but definitely a step in the right direction!

Eight Years!

2010-04-25T18:13:00.000-07:00

Rob and I have been together for 8 years today. This is a picture from our first date back in 2002 from an institute dance with Bekah and Andy. It took a few months after this before we were officially a couple (Rob takes things verrry slow :) ). We often comment that it seems like we've been together for 20 years and like it was just yesterday all at the same time. Happy Anniversary babe!

Gonga!

2010-04-21T20:09:00.001-07:00

We set up the crib on Sunday night. It took both of us just because the pieces are so large but it was relatively simple. We had purchased a mattress Saturday but that was the extent of the baby room. We decided the next purchase would be a glider. After sitting in several at Babies R Us, we found one we both liked. It was $299 - pricey but so very comfortable. I'll get our money's worth during those middle of the night feedings. I got an email from Babies R Us because we have their frequent shopper card (like you would get at the grocery store). It was for a member's only one-day sale for today. We went tonight armed with our 20% off coupon. When we got there, not only was the one we wanted in stock, but it was on clearance too! So, after the clearance price, the 20% off coupon, and a gift card I received from my assistant principal, we had knocked the price down to $175. We were able to pay in cash with our garage sale money so I didn't even have to touch the debit card. The nursery is slowly coming together!

What a week!

2010-04-17T17:25:00.000-07:00

It has been a roller coaster of a week. On monday my water bottle leaked in my bag as I was going to work and my calculator got soaked. Now this is not just any calculator. This is a TI-89 that I got in high school that got me through many a college math class. Its name is Excalibur, and had its own purple case and was treasured and adored. Rarely did I go anywhere without it. It even accompanied me when I would go out of town which includes camping. In my opinion, you never know when you will need a calculator and I like to be prepared. (Insert flashing neon "geek" sign here.) I've tried everything to get it to work but to no avail. Now I get to go out and buy a new one - and they aren't cheap!

RIP Excalibur

Also on Monday we had a faculty meeting after school to inform us of what was going to happen at the next night's school board meeting. Due to our lovely governor and state legislature, education is facing enormous budget cuts as a result of them trying to balance the budget and get rid of a deficit. Punishing the future generations and putting them in classes of 40+ makes sense to me, doesn't it to you?! I won't get started on politics... Anyway, as a result, everyone in my district hired in 2005 and after got a Reduction In Force (RIF) letter. Guess when I was hired? That's right, 2005. You'd think after 5 years of teaching you would be safe from the cuts but no such luck. They gave letters to 48 out of 95 teachers at CDO. That leaves 3 math teachers. Realistically they can't teach 1800 kids with only 3 teachers so I'm pretty sure I will get recalled and have a job but you never know. There is a proposition for a 1% sales tax increase that is voted upon on May 18th which will determine how bad the cuts are as 2/3s of that money will go to education and the other 1/3 to public safety. If you live in AZ, please please please go out and vote for this proposition. It not only helps kids but helps police and fire too.

Monday did have a high point. Chris texted us with a picture of Patricia's ring on her finger. My little brother is getting married! I feel old! He couldn't have found a nicer girl and I'm excited to have her as a sister-in-law. I will, however, pray for her to have an increase in patience. She's going to need it. :) (Love you Chris!)

On Wednesday I received my RIF letter. Despite the fact that Chris thinks "pink slip" would be a good name for a band, it wasn't enjoyable to open. I knew it was coming but that didn't make it any easier to read. My favorite part is how my insurance ends 6 days before my due date. We've got back-up plans in place but it is still depressing and stressful. The kids at school have been very supportive. They have banded together supporting their teachers which is a cool thing to see. One of my seniors in Stugo got a campaign going and on Thurs and Fri got over 50 students registered to vote. Hopefully the enthusiasm will last until May 18th when it is time to vote (YES on 100!!!).

www.servicearizona.com - In case you need to register (deadline is Mon 4/19 to be able to vote 5/18)

Thursday our softball team had a home game and all the girls had pink ribbons in their hair supporting various teachers. One of my seniors in stugo had "Save Mrs. Pecharich" on hers. Its always nice to feel loved and appreciated.

Friday we came home to see 2 things on the front porch. The crappy thing was a notice that I had been sent a certified letter from my district because apparently handing me my letter in person isn't enough, they have to waste money they don't have sending certified letters as well. I don't think I need 2 letters to tell me I don't have a job!

The exciting package on the porch was a giant box that contains a crib! Rob's parents purchased it off our registry and had it delivered which is incredibly generous and we are so grateful. I'll post pics when we get it assembled.

Friday night a member of our bishopric came over to extend me a new calling. I'm going to be the primary music leader. I'm excited about it and I think it will be fun. However, the last chorister was Janis Golding - an AMAZING woman that passed away from Cystic Fibrosis last month. I feel very humbled to be taking over after her and hope I can do half as well as she did.

This morning we had a garage sale to clear out some furniture and odds and ends. I posted the big things that we didn't sell on craigslist and so far we made almost $400. That's enough to buy baby stuff and a new calculator. :)

As for developments in my pregnancy, I discovered yesterday that I'm sporting what I can only call cankles. All of a sudden my feet and ankles are swelling. I'm trying to drink plenty and keep my feet up but apparently I'm doomed. I think our little girl had a growth spurt. Rob and I both think I got bigger and more oval-shaped this week. My belly button hasn't popped yet but it is just about even with the rest of my stomach. I've always had a pretty deep "innie" so it is weird to see an almost flat surface. I know you all were dying to hear this info and I'm glad I could satisfy your desire for information on my naval. (Sorry, no pics of the cankles or belly. I'll spare you)

I feel the need to end this on a positive note. Despite the stress of the week with losing Excalibur, my job, and the discovery of cankles, there have been several perks. I've felt the support of many friends, family and students and know people are praying for me. Rob is always my rock and has been so great this week. He is there when I need to cry, listens to my worries and rants (yes I know it is shocking that logical and rational Sara can be irrational at times) and makes me laugh. He knows how to lie through his teeth and tell me that I'm still attractive and that my ankles don't bother him at all. He got up an hour before me this morning to get garage sale stuff set up so I could sleep in a little. I am so lucky to have him as my best friend and husband for eternity. We're off to go buy a crib mattress and then assemble the crib. This week truly has been a roller coaster but with great friends and family riding with me I can say I've enjoyed the ride. That doesn't mean I want to get back in line and ride again though! :)

6 month photo shoot

2010-04-04T21:09:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter! We had a great weekend watching General Conference and then went over to my parents' house for Easter Dinner. Now that we're down to a double digit countdown I guess it is time for some pics. I considered coloring my belly to look like an easter egg for about 10 seconds but then figured I'd spare you all the trauma. I asked Rob to take my picture and he told me to pose. This is what we ended up with:

Yes, we're strange but we entertain ourselves which is all that matters! :) I'm a little concerned that I still have a few months to go and I feel ginormous. My doctor (who is my height) asked me at my last appointment how tall I was and when I told her she said "You're going to get very uncomfortable. There is just no place for that baby to go!" That is something to look forward to. I have my next appointment this week - it's glucose test time. Yuck! Only 7 more weeks of school and then I can sit at home for the last month. I'm guessing I'll either be in the pool or on the couch with the AC cranked up.

She's moving around like crazy which is pretty cool. When I posted on my facebook page a month or so ago that it felt like a dance party was going on in my stomach my friend Leilani commented that right then it was like she was at a church dance and in a few months it would feel like she was out clubbing. Boy was she right! It is fun to watch my whole stomach move and jerk around. It seems she moves the most when I'm trying to go to sleep but I guess mother nature is just preparing me for the lack of sleep that is coming! Still no progress on a name. It is a daily discussion but we can't seem to agree. We might just have to see her face before we decide.

She kicked!

2010-03-03T20:00:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling our little girl move around for a while now but Rob wasn't able to feel anything. Last night we were sitting in bed talking and I had my hand on my stomach as she was dancin and rollin around. All of a sudden I felt something against my hand. I grabbed Rob's hand and right as I put it on my stomach she kicked again. It was so exciting for him to finally feel movement too! I, of course, got teary-eyed. I'm sure in the next few months I'll wish she would just hold still but for now I'm loving every minute of it.

Rodeo Break

2010-02-28T16:55:00.001-08:00

We had Thurs and Fri off this week for Rodeo Break. In Tucson we don't get President's day off but we get 2 days for Rodeo! :) We spent Wed night registering at Babies R Us and registered at Target on Thursday. It was a bit overwhelming seeing all the baby gear and deciding what we liked. I finally settled on this bedding for the crib and plan on going off these colors for the decor. If you're bored (and I mean really bored!) you can check out our registries on the respective websites.

On Friday we slept in a bit and then headed to Payson for Rob's cousin's wedding. Before we left I went to the library and checked out 3 baby name books. We spent the 3 1/2 hr drive there reading names and laughing until we cried. No luck on picking one yet but we found a lot that we don't like! Rob's parents rented a house where we stayed with a bunch of other family members. It was fun just hanging out and spending time with family. The house was amazing and could sleep 16 not including floor space where you could put air mattresses and sleeping bags. I greatly enjoyed a bath in a tub complete with jets. It was just what my sore back muscles needed! It was pretty cold in Payson and we even woke up this morning to light snow. These pictures are from the wedding last night. I think my husband looks quite handsome. :)

It is rare that we get a family picture that everyone is satisfied with. I think this one turned out pretty well. Thanks to Rob's cousin Cheri for taking these!

It was nice to have the weekend off! Only 2 more weeks until my spring break. Unfortunately Rob has 4 more until his. That's right, we have different weeks off this year. :( We'll likely each take a personal day during the other's break so we can enjoy more time off together.

The 5 month baby bump

2010-02-15T19:23:00.001-08:00

It's not my favorite picture in the world but you can see our little girl is growing! Now if only we could agree on her name...

It's a Girl!

2010-02-10T17:28:00.000-08:00

Alice in Wonderland - Winter Formal

2010-02-02T19:49:00.000-08:00

I mentioned this in a previous post but didn't have the picture scanned yet. This is a pic of my friends Michelle (white rabbit and PE teacher), Nina (queen of hearts and math teacher) and Ann (mad hatter and english teacher) and me at our winter formal this year. We had so much fun dressing up!

The Bun in the Oven

2010-02-02T15:54:00.000-08:00

I feel silly "announcing" this since those of you that read this already know, but if you haven't heard or didn't get our Christmas card (the picture above) then... I'm pregnant! This has been a long time coming. If you're interested in the loooong story, keep reading. :)

When Rob and I got married we both knew we wanted to wait a while before we had kids. I, however, was ready much sooner than he was. As my friends started having kids he heard about how I was ready on a regular basis. Finally, he said he was ready. Still, friends were having babies and my feelings went from jealousy to sadness. Why wasn't it happening for us? I would cry every time I heard about someone else's pregnancy or even when I saw it on tv. Meanwhile, we found our house and moved into our new ward. Apparently the Lord knew where we needed to be because it seems half of the women in our ward have gone through infertility. After a young women's board meeting, during which I had received a text that another friend was expecting, I started crying and instantly found support. I heard from women and about other women in our ward that were going through the same process, had been on clomid, and even gone through IVF. The yw pres gave me the name of the reproductive endocrinologist she was seeing and I made an appointment. Rob and I went in and they did all kinds of tests. We did ultrasounds, a postcoital test, I had an HSG, and Rob had to give more samples than I'm sure he was comfortable with (this made for some funny stories but I'll save those for another day). After all this they couldn't find anything wrong with either one of us but decided to put me on clomid. I would have appointments several times a month to check if I was going to ovulate, then if I did, then blood tests to check hormone levels and on and on. Around this time I started getting the lovely explanation of benefits letters from my insurance company informing me that they weren't going to cover any of this. Since the doctor had written a scrip for 4 months of clomid, we decided we would use that the next few months on our own and then take it from there. I continued to have friends get pregnant and my feelings changed from sadness to anger. What was wrong with me? How could it be that people that hadn't even known each other as long as Rob and I had been trying could get pregnant and we couldn't?! We prayed daily that we could start our family but I guess it just wasn't the right time.

I finished the 4 months and still nothing. The next step would be an IUI (feel free to google these acronyms!) which was relatively inexpensive compared to IVF. Rob and I decided we would just take a break and try the IUI this january if nothing happened before that. I had been charting my cycles all during this time. This included taking my waking temp each morning. You can tell when you ovulate from your temp as it jumps after you do and then stays high through your luteal phase. If your temp is high for 18 days, that means you are pregnant. In the end of October I took my temp and it was day 17 of high temps. I mentioned this to Rob and he went and bought a preg test that day. During that day I started feeling crummy and figured my temp was going to drop the next day. The next morning it was high again so I figured I'd take the test so I could see it was negative, try and accept it, and then move on. I took the test and almost instantly the test (with a digital read-out) said the magic word: "pregnant". I stared at it in total shock. I'd been waiting for this for a year and a half and couldn't believe that it was actually happening. I carried the test into our office where Rob was on the computer and apparently was as white as a ghost. Rob asked what was wrong (he thought someone had died or something equally bad) and I just held up the test and instantly started bawling. I think we were both too afraid to get excited and get our hopes up. I took the other test in the box the next morning and after it was positive too we both were giddy. The hardest part is wanting to shout it from the rooftops and not being able to. We made an appt with my OB/GYN for 3 weeks later. We were thrilled to go in and got to see this:

I think it felt more real, especially to Rob, to be able to see our little one. The first trimester was tough; lots of throwing-up, headaches, and needing more sleep than I ever have in my life. I was grateful to finally be pregnant but at the same time thinking, "This is what I was hoping for for so long?" :) The second trimester has been much better. I'm enjoying that my stomach looks round now rather than looking like a fat roll. I'm also feeling movement now which is the coolest thing and can feel the heartbeat. Rob felt it too and was super excited. He talks to the baby daily which is so cute. He's so excited to be a dad and I know he's going to be great at it. I'm currently 18 weeks along. We have our next ultrasound next wednesday and we can't wait to find out the gender. I'm ready to start planning and decorating the nursery!

I still don't understand the timing of it all but I have to trust that it is supposed to be this way. I do want to say thank you to all of you that prayed for us and were there to listen to my frustrations. I couldn't have made it through without family and dear friends - you know who you are! Also, thanks to my best friend and husband who has been my shoulder to cry on and support during this time. Rob takes such great care of me and is always asking what I need and what he can do to make things easier. Almost daily I hear "What can I get for you? I can cook something, I can pick something up, whatever you need." I love you babe and can't wait to start this adventure together!

Christmas 2009

2009-12-31T09:45:00.001-08:00

This year Rob's parents came down to Tucson and we had dinner and opened gifts at our house the weekend before Christmas. I like going to Prescott but I didn't miss the freezing temperatures! Here's the 2009 Pecharich family Christmas picture:

The Hales family Christmas picture. We took this the day Chris got back

Christmas morning Rob and I headed over to my parents' house to open presents. The kids had been up for hours and were very excited to get started. Rebecca drove down from Phx that morning so everyone was there for the first time in 2 years.

A little hesitant at first but once that first package was ripped open she became a pro!

Nancy with the fleece blanket I made her. She LOVES High School Musical.

Chris and Zhao Yue

Showing Rob her Barney doll

Nicholas and Yue love video games. I had wrapped the games I bought them in jewlery boxes. A few weeks before they had been at my house and were shaking them trying to figure out what was inside but wouldn't believe me when I told them it was just earrings inside. :)

Hmm... no pictures of me in my pajamas. Shucks!

Line up in front of the tree!

2009-12-31T09:26:00.000-08:00

It seems we have a tradition on the Butler side of the family. Each christmas grandma would have the cousins gather in front of the Christmas tree for a picture. This year Richard reminded us we needed to take this picture so we all lined up once again while gma and our moms snapped away. Here is a progression over the last 20 years or so. (Yikes, that makes me feel old!) I'm estimating on the years so if I'm wrong let me know!

1990:
1993:

1996:

1999:

2009: we're missing Matthew in this one and added a few others :)

Merry Christmas from the Butler cousins!

Welcome Home Elder Hales!

2009-12-30T15:32:00.000-08:00

On the 10th the whole family went down to the airport to welcome Elder Chris Hales who returned home from the Texas Fort Worth Mission. We had quite the crowd waiting for him. At the Tucson Airport they have a video feed of arrivals before they come down the escalator. As we saw Chris walk by Mom jumped in the air and yelled "There he is! There he is!" Needless to say, we were all excited to see him. :)

My parents have been adding on to their house but the addition wasn't quite ready yet so Chris stayed at our house for about 2 weeks. We didn't see him much as he had lots of people to catch up with (and us old folks are in bed by 9:30 or 10) but it was great having him here. I'm sure the people of Fort Worth in the BMW (best mission in the world) miss him but we are so glad to have him home!

November

2009-12-30T14:41:00.000-08:00

November began with one of Rob's wildest dreams coming true. We became season ticket holders to UA Men's basketball games. We are the 2nd row from the ceiling but we're in the building! We're enjoying going to the games but those nights are some of the few that I wish we still lived across the street from Arizona Stadium rather than having to drive half an hour home!

The 21st was CDO's Winter Formal. The theme was Alice in Wonderland so a few of us chaperones dressed up as characters from the movie. We're still waiting on the pictures from the photographer but as soon as I get them I'll post the picture we took together. We did get some interesting looks when we all went out for dinner beforehand. Apparently having Alice, The Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts and the White Rabbit at a mexican restaurant is not a normal occurrence.

The 23rd was Nancy's 9th birthday and my family went to dinner at Macayos. After we ate we were headed back to my parents' house for cake and presents. Nancy asked if she could ride with me and Rob. Rob purchased a Toyota Prius this summer and as we were walking over to it Nancy asked, "Is this your new vehicle?" We told her yes it was and as we all got in she said "Man, its a hot gunner!" Then a few minutes later asked "When you pass away, can I have this car?" We were cracking up the whole drive home. Where does she come up with this stuff?!

For Thanksgiving we headed up to Prescott to be with Rob's family. His mom had over 30 people there for dinner. I don't know how she does it. There was family there from both sides of their family and they came from as far as Alaska and Northern California. Dinner was great and it was fun seeing everyone. The next day was Rob's 31st birthday! I'm sorry to say the camera sat in our car over the weekend so I don't have any pictures. :( We spent the day playing games with Rob's cousin and his fiance, hanging out with his parents and then the two of us went out for dinner together. Rob has been on a gummi bear kick lately and each trip to the grocery store includes grabbing 2 bags of them. We know which brands are the best (Haribo and Black Forest) and which to avoid. When I was shopping earlier in the month, I went to Cost Plus where I found a 3 lb bag of Haribo gummi bears. I've never seen such a giant bag. It made a perfect birthday present along with a UA t-shirt to wear to the basketball games.

October Adventures

2009-12-30T14:10:00.001-08:00

October was a busy but fun month. I was able to attend Deseret Book's Time Out For Women in Phoenix with my mom, sister, aunts, and Christie's mom, Anna. We heard talks from Brad Wilcox, John Bytheway, Kris Belcher, Emily Watts, Emily Freeman, Wendy Ulrich and music from Jenny Oaks Baker (an amazing violinist and daughter of Dallin H. Oaks) and Kenneth Cope. We laughed, cried, and left feeling uplifted. I look forward to this every year and highly recommend it if you've never been.

The 12th - 16th was my Fall Break which always comes at just the right time. I love my students but a break after 9 weeks is the greatest idea I've ever heard. The bummer is that Rob didn't have the week off. I spent my time sleeping in and crafting. It was good to relax because the next week was the biggest week of the year for Stugo: Homecoming Week.

Homecoming week consisted of spirit week (dressing up daily), a bonfire, pep assembly, lunch with the Homecoming court, a car bash, tailgate, pregame show, half-time show, and dance after the football game. On Friday I was at school from 8 am - 1 AM! Yes, 17 hours is a looong day. The theme for the week was "Dancing through the Decades" so Friday was "Decades Day" and the assembly had various groups (cheer, pom, performance dance, stugo, and teachers) dance to songs from different decades. The teachers represented the current decade and danced to Beyonce's Single Ladies.

We recruited a few more teachers to join us. Hopefully we'll have even more next year. I love watching the guys dance. They are hilarious. One of the teachers was hesitant to dance because he said he was going to lose any street-cred he had from our Soulja Boy dance last year. :)

The coolest part of the day was the pregame show. We had a parachutist bring in the game ball. He jumped out of a plane and came in at about 60 mph (his estimation - not my exaggeration!) and landed in the middle of the football field with the ball. I wish I had this on video. When the players ran out on the field, anytime we scored a touchdown, when the king and queen were crowned at half-time, and at the end of the game we had fireworks shot off. It was pretty cool if I do say so myself.

On the 30th - 31st Rob and I were able to stay downtown at the University Marriott for a free night stay. I won this at a math conference back in January and we finally picked a night to use it. We went to dinner at our fav restaurant Cafe Poca Cosa, had a relaxing evening, went to breakfast the next morning and then headed home. It was a much nicer date night than grocery shopping!

Labor Day

2009-09-12T16:02:00.001-07:00

Monday we had a BBQ at our house with my family and Grandma and Grandpa Butler. Rebecca and Aunt Deanna even drove down from Phoenix to join us. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, grandma's salsa, corn on the cob, watermelon, and brownies. Before everyone got there Rob was cleaning the surface of the pool with the net. A giant lizard (Rob has affectionatly named them "gordos") ran up the pole and then up his leg. He yelled, and then fell into the pool fully clothed. I was in the kitchen and looked up when he opened the sliding glass door to see him soaking wet. After laughing hysterically, I grabbed a towel for him.

Here are some pictures of the kids playing in the pool. Nancy loved to have Rob toss her in.

Nicholas rarely holds still long enough to take his picture:

Zhao Yue decided the pool was too cold to get in so he floated around on the raft.

However, just sitting there was too boring. He used a net for a paddle and Nicholas chased him around the pool. Despite his best efforts to stay dry, he got soaked anyway.

I went to a Stugo spirit conference last week and everyone had to dress up like a pirate. I bought a pirate wench's wig and pulled it out for the kids (and a few kids at heart) to put on and model.

We had a great time. Thanks for coming everyone!

Exhaustion

2009-08-29T21:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my first big day as Stugo advisor. We had our first pep rally, played our rival at the football game (we won!) and then had our Kick-off dance. The assembly went well other than a few organizational things behind the scenes. We had over 500 kids at the dance and sold enough water bottles at the dance to pay for the DJ. We also sold shirts for the football game so it was a good money-making day! The only bad thing was I left home at 8 am and didn't get home until 12:15 am! The dance ended at 11:30 but apparently some parents like to take their sweet time picking up their kid. Next up is Homecoming which will be even more work because we will be in charge of the half-time show and the homecoming court stuff too. That day will include a pep rally and dance as well. I think the homecoming assembly will be even better than this last one. Some of us teachers are rumored to dance again. Here is a video of the last time we danced in case you missed it.

Any suggestions for our encore performance? :) I'm thinking Beyonce's "Single Ladies" but something tells me Tony and Tommy won't be too excited!

This post isn't exactly about the Adventures of Rob and Sara so I'll give a shout-out to my homey Rob and say thanks for being so supportive! The kids always say "Stugo 4 Life" but I think it easily turns into "Stugo IS Life". It can quickly take over all your time and I am so grateful for a husband that understands and supports me. Love you babe!

Date Night

2009-08-15T21:29:00.000-07:00

After barely seeing each other this week, Rob and I decided tonight would be our date night. This next year is going to be hectic with us teaching, me doing stugo, and Rob taking classes so we plan on having a date night each week. It doesn't have to include going out, just spending time together. You know you've been together a while when your date night looks something like this. We went to Fox and Hound for dinner (we had a coupon) and then headed to Sprouts and Frys for groceries. The plan was to come home, unload groceries, get some ice cream, and then watch a movie we have from Netflix. When we pulled up to frys, we both commented on how exhausted we were so we ended up buying some ice cream there. Its cheaper at frys than at baskin robbins anyway. We get home and unpack groceries (which by the way were horribly bagged. The kid needed a lesson. Food items mixed with nonfood items etc. The best combo was an extension cord, a container of ice cream, bean sprouts, and canned pineapple) and decide its too late for a movie. It is after all, 9 o'clock! :) We don't have church until 1:00 tomorrow but staying up until 11:30?! So now the plan is to have some ice cream, play a game of Ticket to Ride, and then head to bed. Aren't we romantic?

My First Post

2009-08-13T21:37:00.000-07:00

Its Thursday night, I was home alone and bored so I decided to catch up on my friends' blogs. Something led me to click on "Create Blog." I always figured I would wait until we had kids to start one but since that isn't happening I guess now is as good a time as any. So here I am, writing my first post and realizing I have absolutely no idea what to say. I called Rob (he was on his way home from class) and asked him to help me come up with a url and blog title. We settled on "teampecharich" and "The Adventures of Rob and Sara" after I shot down a few of his ideas ("Robara"?! Seriously?!). :) I then proceeded to spend about an hour searching for background layouts because after all, who wants to read an ugly blog? I'm still not thrilled with the current look but I can fix it later. So now, here I sit with not a clue of what to say. I suppose I can give an update on what we are up to for those of you we haven't seen in an while.

Its August, which means back to school for both of us. I'm starting my 5th year at CDO teaching math (precal and geometry) and added Student Government this year. Its keeping me busy (and stressed!!) but the kids are great. Rob is starting his 8th year at Edge High School teaching math as well. He is currently working on his master's degree in Administration and has taken on some administrative duties at school. With both of us teaching we're not exactly rollin' in the dough but it is soooo nice to come home to someone after a long day that can relate to exactly how you are feeling.

We bought our first house in April 2008. We moved from the university area to the northwest side where I grew up. We both miss being close to everything but love the quiet out here - no planes flying overhead several times daily, no train whistles, police sirens, or drunk college kids next door. (My personal fave: the drunk girl in the UA band crying because they asked her to switch instruments "But I don't want to play the french horn!") Rob insisted that if he had to move so far north (which to him is anything past ina) that he had to have a pool. He loves the backyard and goes straight back there most days upon arriving home. We've got 4 bedrooms so we've got space for kiddos whenever they decide to join our family. I'm hoping we never have to move again!

Well, I'm bored reading this post and I doubt anyone else will find it interesting. I guess the only good thing is that it can only get better from here! I hope you enjoy following along with the adventures of Rob and Sara. We tend to think we're pretty humerous and amuse ourselves so I can only hope that we'll entertain you as well.