Mother Dear, I Love You So

Last week was my Mother Dear's birthday! I thought I would include my parents in my birthday highlights. I feel like I am back in primary again, highlighting people on their birthdays. Here is one for you Mom. Hopefully this can be a little bit of a thank you for all the years you highlighted me in primary.

Charlotte Leigh Robinson. She is a wonderful woman, wife, and mother. I have great respect for my mother. She is a pioneer. I am so grateful to her for everything she is. She is so utterly amazing it would take too long to focus on all her qualities. So I will only focus on a few that I have recently been thinking about and been especially grateful for. 

My mother is a rock in her faith in Jesus Christ. But she is also a pioneer. Her mother was a member but her father is not. It could have been very easy for her to not gain a deep love for Christ and the gospel and fall away for the LDS church. But she did not. She was dedicated and gained a deep testimony and went on to attend Rick's College and BYU, married in the temple and raised her children to know Christ. She is a pioneer in my mind because there was no a strong tradition of faith in her family. But with the help of her mother she is a strong link in the chain of her family and I am so grateful to her for making the right choices. 

My mom is a stay at home mom. And I am so grateful for that. She made our home wonderful! I was always grateful for her being around, and being so involved in mine and my siblings lives, but only now as I am a mother can I be truly grateful for what she did and does. I believe that although men can come close to know what their mother went through for them only mother's can truly know and to what extent their mother's did for them( and be truly grateful, haha). I never knew EVERYTHING that goes into being a mother until I was one myself. And I know my mother is a much better one then I am. I am about to have my third baby and am scared out of my whits but my mother raised 9 children! She is amazing. 

When I was in high school my mom and I butted heads quite a bit. But now that I have grown up and realized she was always right , she has become my best friend. She always has great advice and is a great example of the mother and wife I want to be. She always has a smile and is excited to talk to me and hear about my kids. 

My dad use to always sing this song about me mom and now I sing it when I think of her .

Mother dear, I love you so.

Your happy, smiling face

Is such a joy to look at; 

It makes home a lovely place.

Mother dear, I love you so. 

Your lovely, shining eyes

Are just like stars that twinkle

Way up in the bright blue skies.

Mother dear, I love you so. 

I'll try the whole day through

To please our Heav'nly Father.

I'm so glad he gave me you. 

The last line is most fitting. I am so glad Heavenly Father gave me you!

Aubrey

I have a friend whose blog I read and really enjoy. She highlights each one of her siblings on their birthday. She talks about them and why she admire and loves them. I thought that was such a great idea and since my oldest sibling just had her birthday I thought there in no better time to start then with the top of my family. Over the next year I am going to highlight my siblings on their birthday and brag on them a little, OK more like a lot because they are awesome. 

Aubrey Leigh Gardner! She is my oldest sibling and my only sister! She is totally amazing. I have always thought of my sister as the lucky one that got all the talents. She is beautiful, incredibly smart, musically talented, an incredible athlete and has beautiful hand writing, just to name a few things. My family is pretty large and with that come some large age gaps, for example my sister and I are 11 years apart. So, growing up I never felt particularly close to my sister because she was already grown up and out of the house by the time I was 8. However, I feel I have been blessed to have had a special time with each of my siblings to help combat this age separation. For my sister and I this time was when I was attending BYU and she was living just 20 mins away. She lived here in Utah my freshman year when I came to BYU and she was the best sister you could ask for. She took such good care of me. Her and her husband Ryan we so nice, always having me over for Sunday dinners (and for anyone who knows Ryan and Aubrey you know it was amazing food!), driving me places I needed to go, making sure I had food, bringing me cookies, and tons of other stuff. She showed me around campus, helped me figure out BYU, helped me find a job, helped me move in. She has given me a ton of baby clothes and things to help me out. She seriously is the best. We lived here together for 4 years. Those years are so special to me because I finally got to create a close relationship with my sister. She is like my second mother and best friend all rolled into one. I call her for advice on everything. She is the one who gets things organized, and gets things done in our family. I really admire her. I want to be like her. I know we tease you sometimes for being turbo, but please don't ever change, because our family would fall apart without you. You are the glue that holds us all together. I am so grateful you are my sister. You are such a blessing in my life, even though you live thousands of miles away. I love you and Happy Birthday. 

We Did A Lot!

As summer draws to close and another school year begins (our last one in college I might add!) I get a little melancholy and lament that we didn't do all the things I had wanted to. I always feel like I don't take full advantage of the summer months. But as I was recalling all the things we did this summer in preparation for writing this post I realized we did do a lot!  We did not do everything I hoped and it is good we didn't because I always plan WAY to much. Plus Cody was in school and I am pregnant so it is for the best we didn't do everything I wanted or else Cody probably would have failed his classes and I would have went into early labor! But I am grateful for this wonderful, family and fun filled last summer we had together in Provo. Here are some of the things we did:

Picnics Up the Canyon

Broc's muscles!

Yes that is dirty coming out of Broc's mouth...what are ya gonna do?

Spring Festival

Trips to Cabela's

Of course Maren has a cart full of stuffed animals...she;s obsessed.

Broc Doing/Building Weird/ Awesome Stuff

He built this city all by himself.

Trips to the Park

Potty Party/Training

First Up-Do

Robinson Family Reunion

We Found Out We Are Having a BOY!

Pioneer Day!

Fiesta Days in Spanish Fork

Blanchard/Thompson Family Reunion

Lots of Homework

Maren loves to "help" dad!

Party In The Park

The Bean Museum

The Truth About BYU

I have exciting news! For the FIRST time ever I am having a guest post on my Blog. It is done by one of the greatest, smartest, most talented people I know. Cody Thompson wrote an opinion piece that I just had to share(partly because it is for his persuasive writing class:)). Attending BYU was one of the best experiences of my life but often had a negative stigma attached to it... I wasn't really experiencing college because I was in the dreaded "bubble" of Provo, Utah, but I always thought I was experiencing it more because unlike most college students across the country at least I can remember it. I always disliked the stigma and Cody does a great job of shattering this misconception. Or maybe I am just biased because he is my husband. But either way it is worth a read.

There has long been the idea that Brigham Young University students are close minded people who live in the Mormon bubble of Provo, Utah. This stigma may stem from the fact that BYU students are expected to live up to the strict honor code of the university. It may also come from the fact that the vast majority (98%) of students are of the Mormon Faith and are narrow minded due to lack of religious diversity.

...Because skin and hair color are the only variables of diversity (Sarcasm) 

Well, I admit I shared those same ideas about BYU. But after an unexpected turn of events I found myself enrolled as a full-time BYU student. It wasn't long before I realized that the stereo-type was false. Completely false. If you know anything about the Mormon church you may know that many of 18 and 19 year old Mormon males serve 2 year missions while a large number of females serve 18 months. While across the whole church less than a third of young men serve missions, among BYU students it is much higher. In the year 2013 about 86% of male students and 13% of female students had served missions.

These missionaries serve in places throughout the whole globe. From California, to New York, from Hong Kong to Moscow. They reach every continent on the globe. These missionaries experience a wide variety of different cultures. And I'm not talking about your typical tourist who walks up and down old town Paris snapping a few pictures of The Eiffel Tower and spending an afternoon at a museum. These missionaries live among the people. They experience the real culture of the people within their homes. In a lot of cases, they even learn the language of the country they are serving in. I would like to see the open-minded and cultured students of Berkeley make that claim...Good luck.

Cody in Lithuania

Any how... The assumptions that BYU students aren't free thinkers has no basis other than they are all the same religion. During my time at BYU, I have met some of the most diverse and open minded people than anywhere else I have been.

Lots of Fun

I have an awesome younger brother who is a freshman at BYU. He is so awesome he is even willing to give up his Friday night so Cody and I can go on a date. We went to King Kebab. They serve shawarma. It is a dish common in Eastern Europe, including Russia, so we just had to go because Cody loves Russia/Russian culture/food. They are usually sold on the streets but this one is in the food court at the mall. It is basically a burritos/wrap thing with chicken, prok or lamb and special shawarma sauce and a variety of other fillings including french fries. It is really good. Then we went to our friends engagement party. It was a really nice to have an evening to enjoy each others company.
One of Cody's Russian Professors was nice enough to invite his class to her house for a Russian Party. She made us Borscht, Vinaigrette (beet salad), and some other salad we can't remember the name of but had cucumbers and tomatoes in it. All the food was really good and it was fun to get to know her. She is from Russia and her husband served in Russia and they met here in the states. She has two little girls and the one that can talk speaks amazing Russian. I always think bilingual children are so amazing, how they can switch from one language to another and speak both so well. We even brought the kids and they had a great time all playing together.

Maren's Russian dress

Broc is growing up so fast. The other night we were driving down University Parkway where it goes down a hill and curves around and it overlooks east Provo. You can see the temple perfectly and especially at night when it is all lit up. When we drive this stretch at night we always point out the temple to the kids and sing I love to see the Temple. And this time Broc sang along and it was perfect. He was in key and sounded beautiful and knew all most all the words. He missed a couple. But it was so precious to us. He also has been praying so well lately. He will be reverent, fold his arms, bow his head and close his eyes for the whole prayer. He has also started saying his own prayers. In his prayers he prays for mommy, daddy and baby, he also includes other family members like Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle Jacob. He also sometimes prays for his toys. It is so wonderful to see him progressing in the Gospel at such a young age.

This picture is not that great, but I thought the kids faces were really funny for some reason

Saturday morning snuggle/wrestle in Mom and Dad's bed 

Maren stood up today for the first time all by herself, free standing, just in the middle of the floor. She is getting closer to walking. She did it twice during Relief Society and when she did it I was so excited I started clapping and praising her a little too loud because the teacher commented on it. Opps. I was just so excited I could not hold it in. She has been slow on the whole crawling and now walking thing that I just get so excited and I want to encourage her. She is such a sweet girl.

Some of This and That

I like to sit near front when we attend church. I attribute this to my family always sitting in the second pew in the ward I grew up in. But now we like to sit in very back during Sacrament Meeting. The reason being our kids. Having 2 little kids is really fun most of the time but can make things difficult when you need to be still and quite. Hence the sitting in the back. When we sit in the back the kids don't distract as many people and have some more room to roam around and play. This way they don't make as much noise as when we try to make them sit in one place for over an hour. Making the overflow, in the very back our favorite place to sit. Especially right next to the door with the folding wall because it makes a nice little corral/circular area for them to sit on the floor and play so that you can make a quick exit with a screaming baby. But sitting next to the door allows for a 2 year old named Broc to make quick exits too, which brings me to my story. So a few weeks ago during Sacrament Meeting we were sitting in our usually spot in the back of the overflow right next to the door. Broc and Maren were on the floor playing when Broc decided he wanted to leave. So he runs out the door. It takes me a second to get up and make my way through the toys and into the foyer. There is a couple sitting out in the foyer with their baby and they point me in the direction Broc went. I followed their directions but couldn't find him. I keep walking down the hall, which is in the direction toward the front of the chapel, I am still not seeing him until I look through the open door at the front of the chapel. He is at the very front of the chapel and when he looks out the door and sees me he screams at the top of his lungs and jets down the aisle still squealing. He thinks this is all a game. He does this all during some ones talk. I briskly walk down to the other doors and intercept him as he gets to the back of the chapel and take him out. This is just one of the many reasons why when ever I meet someone in our ward they say something like, "You have that little red headed boy don't you?" but even though he acts less than well behaved a lot of the time in church, a lot less, not even close to well behaved, I still answer with a proud "Yes. He is my little boy!", because I know that Broc is awesome. I like the way my dad describes him. There are just some people, in Broc's case, kids who just live every second to the fullest and are just full of life all the time, and boy does that describe Broc.

Maren got a stuffed animal pig for her first birthday. She loves her piggy, she sleeps with it and drags it around with her every where. Broc calls her the princess and an angel because that is what she is to us. She is so sweet and precious. She always has a smile for everyone. I tell Cody all the time that if every one in the world could just see her cute face and feel her special spirit there would be world peace. She is getting closer to walking but is not there yet. She is a blonde blue eyed beauty. She is addicted to fruit snacks.