Nothing much

I have been meaning to put something on the blog, but I haven't thought of anything cool to put on, and there isn't anything super exciting going on with us. Just life as usual. :) Joel started working at the hospital last week for his last semester of school. He works whatever days his preceptor works, so we are lucky that she works days. They are 12 hour shifts, so they are long days! Last week (and this week, for that matter) he worked Wed, Thurs, and Friday. He was pretty worn out by Friday night. But he seems to be liking what he is doing, he's enjoyed working with some of the patients, and I'm sure he likes it when he gets to learn something new.

We enjoyed some nice weather last week, but that is now long gone! It started snowing yesterday morning, and snowed for a good part of the day yesterday. We woke up to quite a thick layer on the ground this morning, and frigid temps! Jenna didn't even get to have recess at school because they keep them inside if the temp. or wind chill is below 0, and it has been that low all day today! I think the high was supposed to be 8, and I wonder if it even hit that. Brrr!

On Saturday, before the cold really hit, Joel took the two older kids up to Happy Jack and went sledding with the Elder's Quorum. They had a great time, and Joel got a couple of good pictures that I'll put on. Adam and I didn't go for two reasons: 1: It was during nap time, 2: Adam wasn't feeling well and he was making sure we knew it! He seems to be feeling better, and I think it was due to teething.

Why is it?

Why is it that my 13 month old son will throw his food off of his little tray at mealtime, and then as soon as we get him down he'll go eat the food off of the floor? And why do I let him do it sometimes? Only stuff like cereal, not bananas or anything wet. But still, it baffles me.

Adam got caught under the cupboard, the only door without a childproof lock on it.

Trying to escape after being caught.

1-2-3!

Too Much

There is so much to write about, so I'm sure I won't write about much at all. Does anyone else do that? When there is so much to tell you just condence and before you know it you have not said much of anything. This will probably be one of those posts...

Our holidays were absolutely great. We spent Christmas here in Laramie with just us. We are a big enough family now that it is just too much to pack Christmas up. We really enjoy focusing on one another and our time together. The kids had a wonderful time opening presents, as did Joel and I. We got a lot of fun stuff!

The day after Christmas we headed out of town for Mesa, AZ to spend a week with my family. All of my sisters, their families, and my Mom and her husband were in Mesa. The trip down was more eventful than we would have liked. To make a long story short, we lost a side view mirror to a reflector pole (in a blizzard), one child threw up (that's not actually too big of a deal, we are used to dealing with that), and worst of all when we were about 50 miles outside of Mesa, they closed the road due to black ice and accidents (black ice my eye, it was 38 degrees and the road was dry when we drove on it later that night). We tried to detour the way they told us, but that road got closed as well. We ended up having to turn around and go the way we came. It added about 4 and a half hours onto an already extremely long trip. Not fun...

But the time spent there was tons of fun! We took family pictures since we finally had everyone together. We played games, watched movies, ate good food, and did a lot of just hanging out. My kids had a great time playing with their cousins that they don't get to see very often. I didn't take nearly enough pictures, so I didn't get any good cousin pictures. The weather was nice while we were there, so the kids had a great time playing in Aunt Laura's backyard and on the trampoline. I did get a few pictures of that...

Jenna and Aunt Adrienne

Jenna in Uncle Logan's hat.

We were sad to leave, but thankfully the trip home was made successfully. We were, of course, very happy to be home as always. Jenna is back to school, and we are enjoying having Joel home for one more week before he starts his last semester of his undergrad.

Now, I think I've said it before but I'll say it again; I've been a bad blogger, but I will try to be better!

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.