It's been forever since our last update and things have changed quickly in the Rasband house!
First of all, Alina and Will are growing SOOOOO... Fast and learning something new constantly! They both are quite the little team too. It's fun to watch them play together and talk about all kinds of things... As Will attests they enjoy "Balls, pigs, dinos, blocks," and so on. Alina is definitely the more free-spirited of the two while Will frequently gets Mommy's tone and tells Alina when she might be crossing a line... he even will threaten her with time-out. Is is just me, or wouldn't you think it would be the other way around?
Christian is busy working hard at church and work. When he's home he manages to get the lawn mowed and make Alina and Will the happiest kiddos ever. Lately they have met him at the door with "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home!" we're proud of Daddy's hard work, he qualified for MDRT... Which is a pretty big deal! We know the Lord blesses us as we keep His commandments and we attribute all to Him!
As for me, life's pretty wonderful! In the past year I've gotten back into running and even completely my first half marathon with my brother Christopher. I'm serving in Primary and love it so much! We planted a little flower garden and have fresh-cut flowers in our kitchen right now! I feel so blessed to have the family I have and to know what I know. We really have a fabulous life full of smiles, laughs, and love.
Another little something that deserves mentioning is... drum roll please... we will be welcoming another little boy into our home come September! We're all excited... Alina thinks of something new everyday that she intends to teach the new baby. She mentions him in every prayer, but has made me very aware over the last day or so that I am beginning to look "weird." Out of the mouths of babes, right?
We just got back this past week from a trip with my mom and dad to NYC for their annual Dental Convention. We spent time there with my brother Jon and his wife, Lauren. We had a great time touring the city and finding random and delicious places to eat. (We owe credit to a friend we met at church for some wonderful suggestions we never, EVER would have known about... we're talking a restaurant without a sign, behind a curtain, in a hotel! Only locals know about the place... And boy was it fabulous!)
We walked by the temple in NYC and attended church... It was 5 floors of church! Slightly different than what we know to say the least! I'm so grateful for the gospel and the refuge it is from the crazy, noisy world we live in. There really was a huge difference that we all felt when we walked off the streets of NY and into the chapel.
Hopefully I'll update a little sooner next time! Til then...

Why are we always catching up?

Well... it seems like we always miss months at a time so here are some highlights from the last few months!

May - The Robbins - some great friends from Utah - came to Florida and dropped by for a night of fun! It was so good to see them - we hadn't even met little Chloe!

Also in May - Jessica and Christopher graduated from UF. We are so happy for them! We are always amazed and inspired by them!

Also May - We had an addition to our family - We rescued a little puppy and named him Beck! He is a fabulous puppy... although we are discovering that he's going to be much more of a dog than we expected! HE'S HUGE! He already can eat off of Will's highchair and snags lots of food!

Also in May - Grami and Pa came to Florida and we got to spend some sweet time with them! Alina loves her Pa.... in her own words "I so love you, Pa!" He made all of her dreams come true with this cute little stroller and baby doll.

JUNE! Our friends the Binghams made a trip to Florida! We planned this for MONTHS! It was so much fun to have them at our house for almost a week! Brody and Alina became quick friends and had fantastic conversations in the backseat. Alina still talks about how Josh and Cami are moving to Florida... how fun would that be? Here we are on our airboat ride to see some alligators.

June 26th - Will turned ONE! Time is going by incredibly fast! How we love this little guy! (Not so little... he's over 27 lbs. and about 32 in. tall. Plus, he easily outeats Alina!) We had a perfect family party and Will loved his Orange Lion Cake!

In July we took a two-week vacation to Utah to spend some quality time with the Rasband clan! We went on a week long trip to Lake Powell aboard "Young at Heart" and got to see the newest little cousin - Paxton.

Many of the nieces and nephews helped bury "Uncle Chris"We went to breakfast before a couple of families went on little trips of their own.

We even got to visit with Uncle Jon and Auntie Lauren in Provo. Alina and Jon had a debate about whether or not ketchup is good... they both started acting like tigers - uh oh!

Christian and I meet Paxton for the first time. He's so sweet and tiny! He has a long road ahead of him, but he's surrounded by the perfect people to give him all the love he needs!

Our trip was over before we knew it! Without question - the longest part of the trip was aboard the airplane! Actually, our kids did great! We're blessed to have such good travelers!

Is it really April already?

It has been way too long since our last update! Maybe someday I'll get this whole thing down a little better... but don't hold your breath! The last nine months have been an absolute whirlwind and it doesn't look like life will slow down! Here is a little of what we've enjoyed lately! One night we were playing with Duplos (one of the best toys EVER) and we were trying to make letters since Alina has been learning the alphabet. Here's what happened:

So much fun! Daddy has the best ideas! We love having him around - he makes all of us smile, laugh, and things tend to go a little better with two-on-two defense!



We also LOVED celebrating Easter! Fortunately, Daddy made it home in time for the Egg Hunt and the cousins found quite the surprise from the Easter Bunny! We managed to catch them all together for a moment before Alina took off again on her quest to find (and eat) all of the candy!

Daddy and his Princess

Daddy and his Future Football Star

We feel so blessed to have our two wonderful children! They keep us on our toes and teach us something new everyday! Alina is my "Little Mommy" and I hear her saying everything that comes out of my mouth. Just the other day she put her soft hands on my cheeks and said, "Hey Sweetheart, you're so wonderful!" I love her! Will is trying to be more independent and talks much more than just a few weeks ago. He still gets frustrated trying to keep up with his sister and older cousin. Life is good - we are so blessed!

Introducing... Lil' Will

Surely the suspense is palpable by this point... but seriously, we're a little late in posting pictures of the newest member of our family. Ronald William, aka "lil' Will", was born at 7:09 pm on June 26, 2009. He weighed in at 8 lbs. 1 oz. despite arriving two and a half weeks early and measured 21 in. in length. As his grandparents and great-grandparents can testify, he has a set of lungs unmatched by any other baby in our family! Alina has been a wonderful big sister and is a little mommy to Will as well as all of her "babies."

Will arrived in time to celebrate the fourth of July with his sister and cousin Jace. He obviously is the runt of the group - but is quickly gaining on both Jace and Alina!
Christian has been working hard at his new job - we're so proud of all of his hard work so that Alina, Will, and I can stay at home together. (Too bad somebody has to work!) He drives about 40 minutes to work everyday and has already listened to a couple of books on CD - admittedly, his favorite part of commuting.
We love our little family! We love how much Alina sings "Happy Birthday" each day, we love hearing about her dreams and taking her tubing on Da-ma and Pong's lake, we love our home and our little pond, we love Will's sounds that don't resemble crying, we love Will's strength and hearty appetite, we love having our own home, and we love being married for 2 years 10 months and nine days. We feel so blessed and are learning so much from our two little angels!Alina loves playing with Will - she even has expressed interest in toys long forgotten... like this play mat!

Our beautiful Alina finally has some hair - curly hair! She's absolutely adorable!

These are the Days!

We are loving every day with our family! With each second Alina gets bigger and learns something new. Lately, some of her new quests are learning to eat with a spoon and figuring out how to drink from a cup. Fortunately, Alina isn't afraid of getting dirty and she has a total affinity for water!
We had the opportunity to go through the Draper Temple Open House last week and are so glad that we did this as a family. It was Alina's first time through a temple and she loved it, despite it being past her bed time! She especially loves the chandeliers and saying hello to all the people. Christian and I were so grateful for yet another reminder of what it's all about. We love our family and want Alina to know how important the temple is in our lives.


We also got to attend the Draper Dedication and we had Stake Conference this weekend. How wonderful it is to hear the words of a prophet and hear eternal truths taught for hours over only two days! We love the temple, we love the Prophet and his Apostles! We're so glad that we had these opportunities to be rejuvenated and grow closer to the Lord. Our focus is unified on those things of eternal significance though the world around us is noisy and seeks to distract us from what matters. May we all remember to build our lives on the firm foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we will not fall.

It's a little blue at the Rasband House...

Despite many thoughts of updating our blog, things have been quite busy around our little house and, therefore, it has been a while - oops! So, ready or not, here comes a HUGE update.

We spent Thanksgiving in Florida with my family and played tons of tennis - Christian is quite the natural and Alina even picked up a racket a few times. Of course there was tons of amazing food and laughs with my parents, my brother and his wife, and my grandparents.

December flew by and we spent Christmas with Christian's family although things weren't exactly as we had hoped. Alina came down with some sort of flu Christmas morning and threw up twice before making it down to see what Santa had left. This continued for the next day or so and on into her birthday on the 27th. Even though her diapers couldn't quite do their job, we did venture out to the Living Planet Aquarium for her birthday party with Grandma Rasband.

On New Year's Eve we hopped on a plane back to Florida and spent New Year's and my birthday in paradise! Before we knew it, our week in Florida was over and we were back to the old routine in Utah.

Christian started his last semester of college (YEA!) and Alina dove into her second year of everything. At the end of January, my friend Jamie asked me to help coach a high school lacrosse team and we decided it would be TONS of fun. Needless to say, Alina and I go to practice everyday and she is picking up lacrosse very well... she loves yelling "GO" for sprints and even cheers the girls on as they practice.

Now for the main purpose for this post. Apparently I have a little issue with announcing our exciting family news until certain factors are determined - Case in point? Perhaps we found out back in November that we are expecting number two! So exciting, right? I just wanted to know everything was perfect and what we were having before the official blog. Well, the day before Valentine's Day we had an appointment and were at 18 weeks. Our incredible doctor felt badly about our long wait (what do we expect though scheduling the last appt. of the day?) and decided to go ahead and do an ultrasound for kicks. WE WERE DELIGHTED! After so poking and prodding the baby who did not want to cooperate, he announced that we are expecting a little GIRL! We even have the ultrasound pics to prove it!

So, for the past two weeks we have been talking baby sister to Alina and even bought her (meaning the new sis) a onesie that says "Little Sister." Alina, however, hasn't been the most enthusiastic. We'll ask her if she's excited for her little sis and she'll quickly say one of two things... either "no" or "brud-ah". Interesting seeing as we never taught her the word brother.


Any rate... we just have figured that she'll come around, but meanwhile we'll get a video for laughs later when little sis is being naughty...


Needless to say, Christian has felt a little outnumbered as now there are three against one (yes, baby has a vote... she automatically sides with mom!)


So this morning we had our official 20 week ultrasound - the doozy where they make sure everything is perfect and measure every detail and verify your due date. Everything looked good - measurements were right on except there was one detail that left us all a little baffled... it turns out our "little girl" is a "little boy!" Alina knew it all along! I looked over at her after we found out and said, "You knew, didn't you?" to which she did her dramatic head-nodding and said "ya."

So the word is out - the newest little Rasband's a little boy and his arrival date is sometime around July 14th! We couldn't be happier!

Here's one of his first photos - fresh off the press! He's even waving "hello!"

Hopefully we'll be a little better in the future... but our lives are soon going to get a little more crazy as we throw in some blue with all the pink we're used to having! Will is well on his way!

Tag

My incredible friend, Cami, tagged me and reading hers brought back tons of memories together! We are all unique in so many ways - these silly tags make me appreciate all of my friends and what makes them special in my life! Enjoy!

8 Favorite TV Shows:

1. The Biggest Loser

2. 24 (Miss our 24 buddies...)

3. The Hills

4. House Hunters

5. Food Network Challenge

6. Property Virgins

7. Bringing Home Baby

8. American Idol

8 Things I did Yesterday:

1. Played with Alina (this includes A LOT!)

2. Went for a walk

3. Cooked Dinner

4. Folded laundry

5. Cleaned up

6. Took a shower

7. AND blew my hair dry (a huge accomplishment some days!)

8. found out Prop 8 passed!

8 Things I look forward to:

1. Christian being done with school

2. Buying our first house

3. Alina learning how to talk

4. Running a half marathon

5. Thanksgiving in FL!

6. Christmas Shopping

7. Meeting Jess and Christopher's baby boy

8. Getting enough sleep - someday!

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1. Bern's Steakhouse

2. Brio Tuscan Grill

3. Amura

4. Tijuana Flats

5. PF Changs

6. Five Guys

7. Chipotle

8. Papa Joe's

8 Things on My Wish List:

1. A Trip to Hawaii

2. A Highlander Hybrid (graphite color)

3. A House

4. No more dirty dishes

5. A self-folding laundry room

6. warm winter in Utah - right!

7. Alina not falling and hurting herself anymore

8. Christian knowing how much he REALLY means to me...

4th Picture in my 4th File:

It's a picture in a series where Alina was learning to pick up Cheerios and transfer them successfully from highchair to mouth! It was a monumentous occasion (She did it too!)

8 People I tag:

Whoever wants to be tagged! I know, kind of a cop-out, but I recommend it... It was hard for me to come up with some of these... I had to really think (and Christian helped too!)

Our Incredible October!

Christian and I cannot believe that October is already over! With Alina's first year quickly coming to an end, we enjoyed celebrating several occasions this month including her 10 month birthday. Our little 10 month old is currently walking! She has taken MANY steps this month. She also has started saying more things (aka making more sounds that sound like words). Along with Ma-ma, and Da-da, she has been known to say "hi", "bye", "baby", "uh-oh", and making the mwah kissing sound. So fun!
My brother Christopher's wife, Jessica, came out for about a week. Alina and I were able to attend a surprise baby shower with Lauren in Jessica's honor. It was so fun to be with her family - they are some of the most loving people EVER! Melissa, her little sister, brought the cake from St. George... isn't it absolutely adorable! Cynthia was so busy that day - her daughter, Makelle, had her birthday party and then she deftly change all of the decorations for the shower by pulling them out of hiding (Jessica hadn't noticed them despite that she was staying at Cynthia's house!) I'm so glad that I was included in this fun celebration.

For Halloween we started the celebration a week early with Christian's family. We had a Halloween Party at his parents' house. It was a fun night filled with yummy food, laughs, and crazy costumes! We also got to attend a baptism for Hailey and Mackay's blessing.

Last Wednesday my mother and grandma came into town to help us gear up for Halloween. Grandma worked tediously on Alina's Thumbelina costume which turned out to be the most beautiful little costume I have ever seen! Mom, Grandma, and I made some delectible food including egg rolls, wontons, rolls, cinnamon rolls, punch, and I'm sure many other things I can't remember. We took Alina Trick-or-Treating around the house. We were so happy to celebrate with friends and family. Ashley and Brandon came over for a bit and Cynthia came over with her husband, Dave, and daughters, Makelle and Audrey. Dave was hysterical as Nacho Libre and even showed off his authentic poses.

Our Little Princess - Thumbelina

Dave, Cynthia, Audrey, and Makelle

Audrey and Makelle

Nacho Libre - Dave has a relative that is a famous Matador in Mexico... he's the real thing!

Halloween came and went incredibly fast - on the first day of November we drove up to Bountiful and had a little surprise dinner in Mom's honor (Happy Birthday next week, Mom!) We're so glad Mom and Grandma came out - it was the BEST Halloween... perfect for Alina's first!

A Long Overdue Update

Obviously, I have fallen a bit behind on the whole "blogging" endeavor; however, this will be my attempt to catch up on all of the most important experiences of the last few months! (I appreciate all of the friendly reminders - I hope to do better in the future!)

Christian has been incredibly busy diving into work after passing all of his exams - we are both extremely happy to have those tests behind us! He loves his job and really prioritizes his time well - I still get to see him more than most wives even though he is attending BYU too! I am indescribably grateful for his hard work which allows me to stay at home with little Alina!

Alina is a firecracker! She is a professional crawler and clapper now. She also climbs the stairs if you turn your back and has further developed her sense of humor. Now in a forward-facing carseat, you can hear her randomly laughing as you drive around town. She also points at anything of interest and can out-cheer even the best BYU fans - it's true Doug!

Back in August Shannon and Dave had their newest - Mackay Rasband Norton. Alina now has 15 cousins on Daddy's side.
We also took a family trip this past month to Washington to visit my extended family - my grandmother, uncles, aunts, and cousins. While in the Seattle area, we were able to see four football games in which four of my cousins played. It was at these games that Alina learned to clap! Soon we hope to see her making the touchdown sign!



Phillip, one of my cousins, plays for the University of Puget Sound. Alina is a die-hard Logger now... we're trying to help her remember her cougar heritage after she fell in love with the cozy school and cheered her heart out! She even has more Logger garb than BYU (we seriously need to correct this!).

Gayle, Phillip, Alina, Mo, Christian

The two other teams we followed had Jordan, Jeremy, and Brandon on their rosters. Can I just say that it is unbelievable how old I am getting! I have one cousin that's a senior and two that are juniors - I better start looking for gray hair!

Jeremy

Bridgette and Ray with Alina (Bridgette has another niece named Alina Marie!!)

Jordan Dylan

My parents were also in Washington with us - SO FUN! We got to go to Leavenworth for a couple of days and enjoy the Bavarian town. It was gorgeous and I'm excited to go back someday.


Alina dedicated new landmarks in her Great-Grandma's house - the most notable being the "Wailing Wall" so named because of a crying episode that lasted for approximately an hour. As always, it ended with victorious Grandpa and Alina passed out, fast asleep!


Grandma as well as Aunt Gayle and Sheila have to be thanked for all of their kindness! Grandma (I can't believe I'm admitting this) slept on the couch so Alina, Christian, and I could use the bedroom! She also got up every morning and made us yummy breakfasts. As if that wasn't enough, she also survived an almost sleepless night and then walked around the Puyallup Fair for half of the following day. Gayle made sure that Alina had plenty of toys to slobber on and that we all had seats in the Logger Stands. Sheila made sure we had a car seat and Pack-And-Play for Alina to sleep in as well as opened her house for noisy dinner and games. We'll have to play Hand-and-Foot again soon... I hope to win a second game! Ha! There's a fridge in the room!


Now that we're back in Utah we've been trying to get everything organized! We spent about four days in Highland watching four nieces and one nephew. Six children... I'm so grateful that they come one at a time! I can't even imagine having two right now so six is totally unfathomable at this point! They were good helpers though and it was fun to "play house" for a few days!



Mom, Dad, and Tanya came out for Conference Weekend and we fit as much as possible into those few days. Mom, Tanya, Alina, and I visited Temple Square and took out a bunch of girls for shoppping during the Priesthood session - WHAT A GREAT TRADITION! I've missed it the last couple of years! Christian and Dad fixed ALL of the drawers in the kitchen that broke due to excessive weight! What a HUGE job! I'm so appreciative that my fingers aren't getting smashed when I try to open and close them now!

After my family left we went for a visit with Great-Grandma Rasband. She held Alina and gave her kisses. It was a priceless experience - captured in pictures of course.

On Monday we got to go take some pictures at a place Shannnon found. It was... different, but we got a few good shots. Alina got to play a bit with little Jaxon!

On Tuesday, October 7th we celebrated our TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY! It was so fun to reminisce about the past two years and all our most memorable times together. Christian planned a romantic night and our friends, Doug and Heather, babysat. I believe in Date Night - do it!

Last night we had a New Member Activity at our house and it was really fun! Every couple made their own Halloween themed pizzas and we got to mingle quite a bit. I was so impressed with everyone's creativity! I mean - you've got to see these pizzas!

We just found out today that Jenessa and James are expecting their sixth - Congrats!

Well, I think that's it for this maraton post. Hopefully next time it will be a little less long-winded!