Packer just turned 1 year old! He had a small tragedy at his party that reminded us of another tragedy that he had on his first Christmas so I have decided to reveal the drama of Packers First Christmas and his First Birthday by way of video…
Packer: if you ever watch this – I really wasn’t a negligent mother. I love you.
For Spring Break we went to St. George for a long weekend. We enjoyed swimming, hiking and condo-ing with some of the Nettesheim Clan. Some of the clan wasn’t much fun – just kidding – we just didn’t have the whole Nettesheim Clan there so we enjoyed our time with some! We hiked the crack and had a good time betting on who would or would not be able to make it through. I being mildly claustrophobic was not the first to go through but I did make it. In fact Benji even went – we are sure that he didn’t realize what he was doing until it was to late but he did it! We went to the St. George temple on Sunday and got some good pictures there. I just loved being with family and with my boys and the warm weather was very nice.
 
This last picture is when we finally got home on Tuesday and I was exhausted and I was letting the boys play in the backyard unattended because the couch was a lot more comfortable to be sitting on than our broken porch. Benji came in for a diaper change and Packer was out crying during the change – I finally made it out to find Pack crawling out of the dog house and looking like he just lost a boxing match. He was filthy. This second child is nothing like his older brother!
In all my years of parenting ( that’s supposed to be funny) I never thought that Packer could or actually would swallow the little frog that I always let him chew on. I should have listened to my husband and everyone else who warned me “Not to let Packer chew on that rubber frog!” He downed it without a sound – I only knew he had swallowed it because it disappeared completely off the face of the earth – -only to appear in the diaper 4 days later!!
 
Hopefully I learned my lesson!
 Well – I thought I’d try the potty training thing yesterday and…. that is not happening anytime soon! Yes, Benji is almost 3 now so I thought if I pushed him just a little then he could do it. So I made him wear big boy underwear and when he peed on the floor we cleaned it up and talked about going on the toilet and then when he pooped in his underwear we went up to the toilet again to try and finish. We went to the store right after we had the first two incidents so I thought he was safe to go in his big boys but he did it again in the parking lot. So by nap time we were happy to put a diaper back on! … the kid that I once thought would potty train himself at age 2 continues to love his diapers and his parents are resolved to wait – atleast until he is 3 and probably until after any summer trips. Benji wins this round.
The big news for Packer is that he can come down the stairs by himself now!!! He just learned to turn around at the top and come flying down on his tummy. This is wonderful news because I can now go about my day without checking the top of the stairs or wondering when he is going to need to be rescued. It’s a big deal when you live in a split level cause there are stairs wherever he goes.
 
My sister Tracie lives with us right now while she finishes Dental Hygiene School and then gets married in June 🙂 . The boys love playing with Chicken Wing and Ben and I like having her around too.
So we didn’t take a family picture since the day Packer was born!! Our last picture before this was in the hospital!
And it’s not even a good picture 🙁
Benji loved doing the Easter basket thing with his cousins and Packer loved trying to get through the wrappers to the good stuff. We had a great Easter!
We spent a week in Oroville at Grandma and Grandpa’s house! We worked in the yard all week and with lots of family and friends we got a lot done!
I forgot to take more pictures when I left but we got a lot done and there are still crews working this week so I post these pics not to embarrass the fam but to remind them what it looked like when we started and motivate to finish!
Packer has been sick for the past week or two and has been a little grumpy. So I’m trying to steal a few minutes at the computer and it turns into 15 minutes and Packer is in the next room but still not crying. I’m a little curious but my freedom beats out my curiosity and I keep plunking away on the computer. A few minutes later I get smeared by a little chocolate hand!
The Pac Man had found a babyshower gift bag and helped himself to all of the chocolate inside! I spent the next 15 minutes changing, wiping,  spray and washing and scrubbing the carpet. So much for freedom!
We had lots of snow this winter and lots of fun playing in it.
On Presidents Day we had a big Robertson family play in the snow day: my sister Christy and her husband Rob and kids Shaelyn, Braden, Bryce, Camden and Carter. My Brother Ryan and his girls Taylee, Kylee and Marlee. My brother Joel. My sister Tracie and her “friend” John. And of course Ben, Benji, Packer and I.
 
We carved out ice blocks in the front yard and made an igloo! That was pretty impressive.
 
Then we found a great sledding hill at a nearby golf course and played there for a few hours.
Benji actually liked sledding! We were sure he’d be too wimpy so that was a nice surprise.
 
Packer (10 months) just slept in until 10am – wow that was really nice. He cut his first tooth a week ago and hasn’t slept through the night since so this was a treat – maybe the best treat of the week – we’ll see.
