Bad Blogger

I've been a very bad blogger lately. It's been weeks since my last real post (the tag doesn't count), so I thought I'd better put something on! There hasn't been anything very exciting going on around here. Joel is done with school for the semester! He finished last week, and is happy to be done, but doesn't know quite what to do with himself. But we are beginning to enjoy the time off, and we're trying to get ready for Christmas.


Last week for FHE Joel did some plaster cast hand print things. The one below is something I've had for years but have never pulled out. This is Jenna's hand. You can't tell in the picture, but the detail of her hand is really great. She actually had to leave her hand in a gel for a few minutes, then when the gel was set we poured plaster into it so her hand is sticking out. Anyway, Joel painted it, and the finished product is below. :)


I finally hung up our Christmas stockings last week. My Mom made these for us. I actually got mine when I was 5 years old! I love them, and it's nice that they are so big; lots of stocking stuffers! :)

We have been getting lots of packages lately, because of the time of year of course. Jenna and Will had a fun time playing in this box, with all of the packing chips. Jenna actually got all of the way in and Will closed her in. What a cute package!

We got our Christmas tree last Friday from a place here in town. I saw the biggest dog of my entire life while we were there! It was a Saint Bernard, and he scared the absolute crap out of Will! Will is not too keen on dogs anyway, and such a huge dog trying to knock him down didn't go over well! He was a nice dog, just trying to play, but I think Will may have been permanently traumatized. :) When I picked him up he had a death grip around my waste with his legs. I felt bad for him, but Joel and I both got a good laugh out of the whole thing. Seriously, it was a huge dog!

We are looking forward to Christmas, even though we aren't totally ready yet. :) But we will be, like always. We've had a ton of snow lately, so that helps it feel like the Christmas season. And I absolutely love having a Christmas tree. It smells great, and it's so pretty. The day after Christmas we are taking off to Mesa, AZ to see all of my sisters and their families. I'm excited to see everyone! And it will be so great to have us all together for the first time in so long!

Husband Survey

This fun survey was on Emily's blog; I thought it would be fun to do for my own husband. :) Feel free to do it yourself!

5 things he loves:

Me
Jenna
Will
Adam
his Mom

5 things on his to do list:

study
take one last final
finish his bachelors
go to grad school
get in better shape (he's been talking about a possible marathon)

5 foods he enjoys

Spaghetti
chinese food
carne a la tampequenia (sp?) from Corona Village
Tony's pizza (yes, the cheap stuff from the grocery store)
Steak
(this list could go on and on...)

5 things you may not know about him

He's very shy when you first meet him, but he's pretty talkative around people he knows
He actually used to have lots and lots of hair
He loves to "fight" with his brothers
He likes to dance, but only at home
He can manage to break almost anything (he says things aren't made tough enough)

5 quirky things about him

*He leaves his dishes in the sink even when the dishwasher has plenty of room (he's trying to be better on that one)
*He really hates to be late
*He doesn't like talking on the phone (like to order pizza, call the cable company, etc.)
*He can tune people out so that he doesn't even know they are talking
*when he brushes his teeth he taps his toothbrush on the sink in a certain rhythm, then goes "Chh" (like making the sound a cymbal makes)

Thanksgiving Vacation

Just a warning to all; this is probably going to be a long post! Good luck to you! :)

Well, Thanksgiving was last week, of course, and we went up to Lovell for it this year. Last year we stayed at home because I was mucho pregnant and couldn't travel for fear of having a baby on the side of the road. No such worries this year, I assure you! Tuesday afternoon when Joel got done with his clinicals in Cheyenne we picked Jenna up from school about an hour early and hit the road! The trip was uneventful, except for the fact that Adam didn't fall asleep until we were 30 minutes away from Lovell. We arived safely Tuesday night.

Not much happened on Wednesday. Joel went hunting with his brother Dane, and I think that "hunting" became the theme for the vacation. He was only hunting rabbits, though, so they were only gone for a few hours. The rest of the day we pretty much just hung out and relaxed before the big day.

On Thursday morning the Robertsons do a "Turkey Trot". Some just walk, and some actually trot. We weren't planning on going, but the walking group stopped at Brenda's house (that's Joel Mom for you who don't know. That's where we were staying) and told us to get our walking shoes and get out there! So Brenda and I, and Jenna and Will went along for the 3.6 mile walk. Jenna did great, but she could have used a hat (she kept complaining that her ears were cold). And Will did okay, but he could have used some longer legs! After 5 blocks or so I think he got tired and from then on he rotated on shoulders of various family members. After the walk I felt a little tired, but completely justified in planning to eat as much pie as I could manage! At 12:30 we took family pictures in front of the church in Lovell, then we ate at 1:00 in the church gym. I heard he had a crowd of 70, so we definitely needed the space! It was a great dinner, with tons of delicious food. Joel's grandparents on the Asay side joined the Robertson crowd, as well as my sister Cindy. It was great to have our family all in one place and not have to run around to different houses to see everyone. After the yummy dinner we hung out at the gym all afternoon. Some people played basketball, and there was a Scrabble and Boggle tournament. Later they took down most of the tables (and pushed the ones that were being used to the side) and set up the volleyball net. Now here is the big difference between my family and the Robertsons. Exercise before dinner! Exercise after dinner! Exercise the next day! Exercise for fun! They are amazing! And so active! Anyway, I forgot to mention that after dinner Joel took off to go hunting with two of his brothers (the theme continues). When he got back he went to play volleyball as well. After he was done with v-ball he and Dane played some b-ball, and really worked up a sweat. But they had fun.

Later that evening I went over to my aunt's house and played a few games with some family, which is always enjoyable. Unfortunately I didn't get very many pictures on Thanksgiving, and no good ones. I'm sure other family members got a few, maybe I'll be able to post some later.

On Friday Joel went hunting with his brothers (again), and then in the evening they participated in a town volleyball tournament. Joel's team was a little slow to start, but after awhile they got a little better. They didn't win the tournament, but they did okay, and I think that had a good time. :) I know I had a fun time watching. I can watch Joel play almost any sport, and it's interesting to me. He's certainly the only person I can watch play volleyball that can make me care about the outcome of the game!

The tournament continued Saturday morning. After it was over we ran to Powell to eat at China Town. The food was okay, and it was a buffet so how can you go wrong with that. :)

When we got home from Powell I got to work on Adam's birthday cake, since Adam's birthday was that day! Unfortunately he was pretty cranky for a lot of the day because of the way naps worked out, plus I think he just wasn't feeling well. (He still isn't).

After dinner Saturday evening Adam opening his presents. Of course he had no idea what they were about, and probably couldn't have cared less about what was going on. :) Below is Adam actually working on one of his presents...



Here is the cake I made for him. You can't tell too well, but the frosting is actually a baby blue color. I liked the way it turned out...

Here is Adam with his first piece of birthday cake.

Not quite sure what to do with it.

Is this where I put it?

Now I know what's going on!

Yum!

He definitely liked his cake, and he even had seconds. He was messier than he looks in the picture, but he was definitely one of the more efficient b-day cake eaters I've seen. He wanted to eat it, not play with it!

He got a fun card from Grandma Flash that played music. He had a blast opening it and groovin' to the tunes...

A few times over the week we would wonder where Will was, and we found him here. Under the kitchen table, eating Spongebob Cheez-Its!

We had a great vacation, and we were sad to leave Sunday morning. Our trip home was uneventful, except that Adam slept a lot more than he did on the way up! When we got home our house was freezing! Five days without heat will do that, I guess. We had to really crank up all of the heaters to try and make it warm before bed. We are happy to be home. No matter where we go, or what we do; if the trip was two weeks or two days; we are always happy to be home, together, as a family.