Christmas

We started out our Christmas celebrations the Thursday before Christmas with a sing-a-long at the Fabiano's house. There were some pictures taken of the six sisters that were here for Christmas, but I don't have any of them! But we had a nice time singing Christmas carols at the tops of our voices, and eating some delicious goodies. It was also the first chance we had to see Adrienne since she'd flown in the evening before. 

On Friday evening we went to the Gunnell's house for dinner and some Christmas activities for the kids. Dinner was delicious, of course. The kids then got to decorate their own gingerbread houses.

 

After gingerbread houses we did a gift exchange for the kiddos, and I think everyone got some fun stuff. Adam ended up with silly putty, Will had a noisemaker toy, and Jenna got a travel size Battleship. I was pretty excited about that one! :)

Saturday morning was very busy with cleaning the house and getting the food ready for the progressive dinner for Christmas Eve! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, but we had a great time. We had a common food theme again this year (last year it was citrus) and it was BACON! Yum! We started out at Fabiano's with some delicious bacon-y appetizers.

After that we proceeded to the Blau's where we combined the second course and main dish. We were supposed to do main dish at the Turley's, but they had a sick one at home that was being quarantined. The lettuce bacon cups, funeral potatoes, and bacon wrapped meatloaf was delicious and very filling.

And last but not least we came to our house for dessert. How do you incorporate bacon into dessert, you might ask? Well, as it turns out there are countless recipes out there for desserts with bacon. However, I wasn't feeling particularly creative in the weeks leading up to the dinner, so the only bacon dessert we had was good old chocolate covered bacon. I think everyone was a little skeptical in the trying of the chocolatey bacon, but I think the consensus on it was "it's not so bad". We also had two kinds of chocolate covered popcorn and three kinds of chocolate covered pretzels.

Right before we had dessert I had the fun opportunity to share the news that Joel and I are having another baby! The reaction from my sisters was great, and I think I surprised them all with the news. My due date is July 8th, and we are so excited about it!

Christmas morning was a lot of fun, as always! We were up a little before 6 and digging through stockings and opening presents. We all got a lot of fun things. Unfortunately our camera was out of battery, so the few pictures I got were on Joel's phone. 

I love how sleepy-eyed everyone looks in Christmas morning shots. :)

Adam got his own sleeping bag, so now each child has their own.

Adrienne had us for Christmas this year, and she surprised us all by getting Joel a set of golf clubs! She was even super sneaky and with some help she hid them in our garage the night before during the progressive dinner. I think his smile says it all!!

After we finished opening presents we had time to play with things for an hour or two, and then we got cleaned up for church. Joel thought the boys were looking particularly handsome (and I must agree) so he snapped this picture of them in front of the tree. I think he used the new camera that I got him for Christmas!

After church we got back in our jammies and played some more. Will got some Kinex, and everyone had a fun time making things out of them. We also got to Skype with both Grandma R and Grandma K!

In the later afternoon we headed over to Laura's house to hang out, eat dinner, play games, and generally enjoy ourselves.

Since Christmas there has been a lot of building Kinex, watching "24" (for Joel and I), and playing Uno Attack, battleship, and the game Authors which Joel's Mom gave us. Joel played the game as a child so it's extra special. We're happy that our kids have taken to it so well. Thanks again, Brenda! Jenna's also been drawing us lots of pictures on her new easel, and all the kids have enjoyed Will's new remote control truck.

The Christmas vacation has been so much fun, and it's been so great to have Joel home so much. He had an orientation for his third rotation today, and he will start the actual rotation tomorrow. The kids head back to school on Thursday, so it will be back to the routine. It's sad that the Christmas season is over, but it will be nice to get things back on a schedule. :)

Small p.s. Our New Year's Eve was wild and crazy here at home, watching "24" and drinking some sparkling cider. It was absolutely perfect! Welcome, 2012!

Dane's visit

I'm a little behind on my blogging, so before I can post about Christmas I need to cover the week of Dane's visit! Joel's brother got home from his mission in New Jersey in November. Unfortunately we weren't able to make it up to WY when he got home, so he very kindly came down to Mesa to visit us. Joel finished his second rotation on Dec. 7th, then had testing the 8th and 9th. Dane flew in on the 11th and the fun began. :)

The weather wasn't very cooperative; it rained more in the week that Dane was here than it has the entire time we've lived here. Or at least it felt that way. It wasn't easy to really get outside and do a lot, but we did show Dane Joel's school, eat at Giant Hamburger, drive by the building site of the new Gilbert temple, visit the temple lights at the Mesa temple, and eat at The Cheesecake factory. Joel and Dane also went golfing and hiked Camelback. We watched a lot of movies, and towards the end of the trip we watched a lot of the show 24 on Netflix. I didn't take many pictures at all, which I always intend to do but never do. Blast! 

It was so great seeing Dane again and spending time with him. Adam wasn't so sure about Dane at first; he didn't remember him at all. But by the end of the trip they were pretty good buds. We were sad to see Dane go and we hope we get to see him again soon.

Dane also got to enjoy Will's school concert with us. They had a Christmas themed concert with everybody in pajamas. I didn't bring the real camera so I had to use Joel's phone to snap a few. This was the best that I got. Will did a great job singing the songs and doing the actions!

Adam's Birthday!

Yesterday our little Adam turned FOUR! It's hard to believe that our baby is so old and big. Thankfully he was feeling better after a long Thanksgiving weekend of fevers and allergies. 

We went to Krispy Kreme for his free birthday doughnut! As soon as he saw that snowman he knew he wanted it. I'm sure it tasted pretty good, too. :)

After dinner (chocolate chip pancakes, at Adam's request) we opened presents. Here is Adam showing me how old he is. I love how his thumb is bent kind of funny.

He got a lot of fun presents!

He got a monster truck from Grandma and Grandpa K, and he couldn't wait to play with it!

 So, whenever we tell Adam to smile for a camera, this is the face we get. The only way to get a natural smile in a picture is to catch him off guard. But can you tell how excited be was about his new guns?!

We had rice crispy treats instead of cake. We've had a lot of cake and pie recently, so we decided to change it up.

I had to tickle him to get this smile out of him. Isn't he cute!!!

Happy Birthday, Adam! Thanks for being you!

Thanksgiving

I intended on taking a lot of picture this Thanksgiving so I'd have a lot of good stuff to put on the blog. Well, I started off okay, but I didn't get as many pictures as I'd hoped.

We had a pretty low-key Thanksgiving here in Mesa. We didn't travel because of Joel's work schedule, and most of my sisters eat dinner with their in-laws. So Joel and I did dinner at home this year. I got some of the cooking done Wednesday, which made Thursday a little easier.

Will made some Indian garb in school and showed it off to us Thursday morning. I think we all took a turn wearing that feathered headdress at some point during the day. :)

 We were lucky to have my sister, Amy, join us for Thanksgiving this year. We took a break in the morning when most of the food was done and the turkey was cooking. She was showing the kids some fun stuff on her ipod...

After all of the food was ready we stuffed ourselves absolutely full. Joel snapped this picture after us adults and finished up and the boys were still working on their food. I had my feet up because I was trying to stretch out my extremely full belly.

After dinner, which was really delicious if I do say so myself, us grown ups helped ourselves to a leisurely afternoon nap. And it was lovely. After that is was time to get serious about clean up because the Blaus and the Turleys came over in the evening for pie!

We had a lot of pie varieties and I didn't even get to try them all because I was still pretty full from dinner. But I powered through a few slices and I'm very glad I did.  It was a nice, relaxed, fun Thanksgiving. It will probably be our one and only Thanksgiving here in Mesa. Last year we went up to WY, and it's likely that we will have moved by next Thanksgiving. We really enjoyed it!!!

Happy Birthday to Joel!

Yesterday was yet another birthday in the Robertson house. Joel turned the big 2-8! :) He says it feels the same as the big 2-7, so I guess that's good. :)

He got done with work early, so I went and got some Subway for lunch that we both enjoyed. We just hung out in the afternoon and relaxed. After dinner (which Joel didn't eat because he was still too full from his huge Subway sandwich) we opened presents. Jenna made him a card, and I got him the Bourne movies and some new basketball shorts.

I'm really not sure what this face is about, but it was funny enough that I had to add it. I love how Will is looking at Joel.

After presents was singing and cake. Cherry cheesecake, to be exact.

He had a lot of help with the candles...  :)

Joel, we love you and are so happy that you were born 28 years ago! Happy Birthday!!!