Joel

Joel put this on the Robertson MyFamily site and I thought I would copy it on here since he doesn't ever write anything for the blog.

I have been completely loving my time on the surgery floor of the hospital. I have gotten to see a lot of new and exciting things. I had a patient last week that fell 92 feet from an oil rig and only ended up having a broken leg.... his tibia was completely shattered, fibula was broken in 4 pieces and his ankle/foot broken in 5 places. He also had to have a double fasciotomy to relieve pressure from the swelling which was super cool to see. His leg had to be as big around as a basketball. I am looking forward to the rest of the semester and what new things I can learn. I will be in the ICU after spring break until graduation.

Lincoln, A Man for the Ages

Last night was Jenna's school concert. The theme was Abraham Lincoln, hence the title of this post. Each grade did two songs, and here is a video of one of the 1st grade songs. Jenna is in the front, third from the end, with an orange hat on. I apologize that it's shaky, I had Adam on my lap while I was taking the video.

Jenna has been pretty excited about the concert, especially this week. She's been singing the songs at home, and sometimes she would show us the actions. The funny thing about Jenna is that she loves to show us thing, tell us things, and even perform for us sometimes. But as soon as she has our attention, she gets shy and nervous. Even when it's just me. We can see how torn she is sometimes between wanting to show us what she knows, and being too nervous to do it. I totally sympathize with this, I was (am) the same way.

As you might be able to tell from the video, those kids were absolutely too cute in those hats! I think I might have to get Jenna one like it because she was so adorable.

I was worried about going to this concert because Joel had to work. He is usually the Adam wrangler, so I was not excited about having Adam and trying to get videos and pictures. The hardest part with Adam was actually the 20 minutes before the concert started. Jenna had to be there 20 minutes early, which meant we had to sit for 20 minutes. It was pretty loud in the A&S auditorium, and that really helped to get Adam wound up. He didn't want to sit still for a second, or even sit at all. I was worried the entire concert would be like that. However, once the kids started singing Adam was quite entertained. Most of the time he sat on me knees, holding on to the seat in front of us. Sometimes he was moved to dance, which meant swaying back and forth. During one song some kids played the guitar and Adam was slowly shaking his hands like he was trying to play too. It was very cute. And I was relieved that he wasn't completely crazy for the whole concert. :)

Will also did just fine, but I wasn't worried about him. After Jenna's grade was done singing he asked "Is it over?". I told him there were still lost of kids to sing, but following each song after that he asked the same question. Towards the end he kept asking, "Why is this never being over!?" He really wanted to be done, apparently around four songs is his limit. :) But he didn't complain too much.

Joel tried to come to part of the concert, but things got crazy at the hospital. He made it to the concert for the very last song, of the entire show. :) It was funny, and he said he felt really silly coming in at that time, but we were just glad to have him there even for just a few minutes.

I took a picture of Jenna coming off the stage after the first grade was done (her hair was a little crazy from wearing the cute hat).

Will with a goofy smile

Adam was a little tired by the end of the show. This picture is so bad because I was trying to hold my arm out to the side to try and get a pic of his face.

Picture strip

When we were in Cheyenne last week we stopped at one of those little booths at the mall to take our picture. Joel and I haven't done that since high school! Jenna was really excited about it. :) They certainly aren't the most flattering pictures of us, but it was fun!

Teeth

This short conversation happens occasionally in the morning at our house.

Me: Will, come brush your teeth.

Will: I don't want to brush my teeth.

Me: You have to brush your teeth.

Will: Why?

Me: Because if you don't then your teeth will fall out. Do you want your teeth to fall out?

Will: Then I will just put them under my pillow and the tooth fairy will come!

Hmm, what do you say to that?

Weekend

Our weekend started out with a great Valentine's Day. Shortly after we woke up we exchanged some gifts, which was fun. I think the kids get most excited about it, even if it's Joel or I opening presents. :) It was really cute and a lot of fun. Later in the day I made some heart shaped sugar cookies and pink frosting, and the kids frosted their own cookies. The frosting was pinker than it looks in the pictures. :)

Hard at work

Enjoying the spoils

For dinner on V-day I made pancakes and bacon and the kids got to cut their own pancakes into heart shapes. Of course they had a ball with that. All in all we had a great day.

Today Jenna didn't have school, and Joel didn't have work, so we took a trip to Cheyenne. We stopped at Circuit City because they are going out of business, so we were looking for some good deals. Apparently we should have gone many weeks ago, because the store was pretty well cleaned out! At least 3/4 of the actual floor space is blocked off, and there is incredibly little stock left. Mostly little stuff. Anyway, we then bought Joel another pair of scrub pants for work, and went to lunch at Old Chicago. We've never been there before, and we weren't disappointed. All of our food was delicious and we all left very full. After that we just headed to the mall for awhile. The kids played in the little play area they have, and loved it like always.

Tonight I cut Jenna's hair again. It was getting a little past her shoulders, and she wants to wear it down with no hair clips or hair-do's in it at all. I don't love this because her hair usually ends up looking crazy and I don't want people thinking I don't brush my child's hair! But this is what she wants, and I try not to fret over the small stuff like hair. So, I cut her hair even shorter than last time. It's pretty durn cute if I do say so myself. She told Joel that I cut it "up to the bottom of her skull". :)

Adam also got his first real haircut tonight. I've tried to trim up the back before, but that wasn't super successful. So this time we did the real deal. He looks so cute! And now the hair on the back of his head won't hang over his collar. :)

This is just a random picture of Adam. He likes to make a little tripod out of himself.

Another tag

I found this on someone else's blog and thought it was so funny, I just had to do it.



1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Socks Venture


2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (favorite ice cream and favorite cookie) Cookies and cream Ginger


3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) S Rob

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Green Tiger


5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Vivian Mesa


6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) RobSa


7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put “The”) The Blue Mountain Dew


8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)- William William

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) Gravily Jelly Bean

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) Dickson Earl

7 Things

7 things I can do:
1. Cook
2. Sing
3. Dance (but preferably only around my family)
4. Read long books :)
5. Go to Walmart a lot
6. Flip through channels quickly; I don't ever stay on the channel I'm watching for the commercials, unless I can't find the remote
7. Change diapers

7 things I can't do:
1. Grow my hair out
2. Drive a stick (very well)
3. Stay up very late (unless I'm with friends or family, but not usually at home)
4. Remember people's names
5. Not wear jeans and a T-shirt at least 6 time a week
6. Reach things on the top shelf of the cupboard
7. Watch ESPN for very long without getting bored

7 things I say often:
1. I love you
2. Go clean your room
3. Adam, don't touch the computer!
4. Have a good day, honey
5. Eat your food
6. Geezaloo
7. Stop!

7 things I love about Joel:
1. He makes me laugh
2. He gives the kids baths when he's home
3. He loves to eat what I cook
4. He works hard at his job for long hours and doesn't complain
5. He always supported me when I was going to school
6. He doesn't mind watching the kids when I have something I need or want to do
7. He's honest and punctual

7 favorite foods:
1. Orange chicken
2. Olive garden salad and bread sticks
3. garlic bread
4. muddy buddies
5. about 15 different kinds of cookies :)
6. Pretty much anything in the candy isle, especially jelly beans, cinnamon bears, circus peanuts...
7. cereal
(This list could go on and on. And these are some of my favorite foods, not foods that I eat all of the time. :) Except for cereal)

7 people I tag:
1. Ranee
2. Tanya
3. Kristin Palmer (even though she doesn't blog anymore :)
4. Cindy
5. Michelle
6. Karen B.
7. Jadi

Cooperation

I decided to take Michelle's advice and put on some videos of what I talked about in the last post. The only problem... cooperation. Will cooperated much better than Adam, so I got quite a few good videos of him reading. This morning I made up a couple of simple sentences and printed them off. I included some easy words I knew he knows, and some a little longer that I knew he would have to sound out.

Reading and talking

There has been some fun things going on at the Robertson house. First of all, Adam is starting to expand his vocabulary. This consists mostly of a single word. Many of you mothers out there can probably guess what this word is.... "No" He has decided that this is going to be his answer to everything! Most of the time it is accompanied by a resolute shaking of the head to emphasize his point. It is quite entertaining, and doubly adorable! When he first started saying it we weren't sure if he knew what it meant. I think he's got the gist of it now, but he still uses it when he doesn't mean it. For example, last night Adam was standing next to the table where there was a box of graham crackers (his new favorite food). He had his arm up in the air and was putting up a ruckus. I asked him, "Do you want some crackers?" "No!" He said, shaking his head, and reaching for the crackers. I got him a cracker and he took it happily. So he doesn't have the meaning of the word down to a science, but he sure uses it to express himself!

In other news, Will is reading! We are very impressed with the progress he's made in just the last week or so. He is only 4, and would be in his first year of preschool, if he was going to preschool. He will go to preschool next fall, and not go to Kindergarten until the fall of 2010. Anyway, he's been doing great with the sounds letters make. He's known his letters for a couple of years now, but knowing the sounds they make and what they do in words is a whole new step that he's been mastering for a few months. Anyway, he loves to spell words, so yesterday Joel printed off the alphabet so that he could make words for Will to read. He's read a few words here and there before, but we haven't been pushing it with him or anything. Anyway, they were at the table and Joel was putting together a bunch of different words and Will was just knocking them out of the park! He usually has no trouble with three letter words, and he was even reading all of the four letter words Joel was making. I tried to trick him with "walk" because of that tricky L in it, but he just sounded it out and got it right! Joel and I were both blown away! Today he read the word "Friend", as well as doing great with one of our books "My puppy playtime".

I want to say that I am not trying to brag about our boy, we are just totally blown away by this. Jenna was (and is) incredibly smart. She did wonderfully in preschool, and her teachers were always impressed. But she was not even reading at this age! We are so proud of our little William. Way to go, kid!