Shinanigans

Last night kicked off our Christmas dealings.  We went to our Robertson grandparents and read Christmas stories and sang carols around the piano.  It was fun to do.  Jer and his Dad took turns reading Christmas stories to the kids and Ggpa and Ggma kept us busy with song requests.  The kids had fun, until it was time to go... then they said that they didn't have fun because they were tired and grumpy.  Sam was being a nut and hopping past Ggpa.  Ggpa reached out his foot and tipped him over... Sam thought it was so funny that he went back 3-4 more times for Ggpa to tip him over... Then Ggpa was his usual gruff self telling Sam to sit down and quit because it was time to sing.  Oh the joys of age. Sam didn't mind too much.  Grandpa made everyone waffles.  That was a hit.

This was a couple weeks ago, but I thought it needed a place on my blog.

Evelyn is very imaginative.  My mom bought my kids a very cute wooden Nativity set years ago.  All my kids have played with it, but none more than Evelyn.  Hers is extremely creative too.  I walked it with her stuffing all the people in the manger and turning it upside down.  I asked what was happening and she said, "Jesus is in there with the Ender dragon.  Mary has to go and save him.  And then Joseph has to.... " on and on and on.  Not the traditional story, but at least she has the characters down right?!  Evelyn was brought to me in RS crying because she hadn't gotten the paper she wanted... I talked to her and she went right back to class telling me that, "I'm not going to cry, I'll be happy now." Driving all together down in the car to Grandma's house, I mentioned that Evelyn had been bawling at church.  From the back of the van I hear her say, "A ball for me?!" 

Seth is loving being able to easily get around the house and climb on things.  But he's now trying to come down the stairs standing like adults do.  He stands with his hand on the wall and dances his feet around a little bit, then he takes the plunge and goes down a step, then he dances his feet around on the next step and takes it.  It's a funny process to watch.

Ada's been crying over everything!  Some people have been telling me that it's the Christmas season.  Maybe so... but she also seems to be growing again.  She's been an amazing chicken keeper as long as I can get her out the door.  Once she's out there, she loves to see them, feed them and pet them.  She's also getting ready for her piano recital this week.  She's loving music and I think she's going to love her Christmas present from my mom. 

Sam is Sam.  He's very methodical and keeps to  his schedule.  He gets things done quickly so that he can move on to something he likes to do better.  Lately he's been going to his friend, Milo's, house.  I suspect it's because our Wii is broken and you can't have more than one or two players on the computer at once.  Milo has a PS2 and a Wii... I know they play other things together too though.  He comes back talking about air hockey and basketball. (Milo's the youngest and his brothers are both in High School so they have the teenage toys at their house).  At caroling last night, Sam was sitting by Grandpa and singing.  We started to sing some of the songs out of the Children's song book and the adults all whipped out their phones to have words.  Sam turns and tells Grandpa very emphatically that he doesn't need it and that he knows the words already.  Then after singing the whole song with gusto Sam proclaims, "See I told ya!"  Yes, yes you did.

Tree of Life

I've been wanting to go to Draper's City park for a couple of years.  They put as many lights as they can possibly squeeze into the park.  The big, full tree they call the tree of life.  On the way back from Emma's birthday party we stopped in.  Baby kept saying, "Oh! Oh! Oh!" and pointing at all the trees.  He couldn't take it in fast enough.  Ada and Evelyn decided that they loved rolling down the hill.  Sam paused his moaning long enough to roll down and wrestle and promptly started complaining about being cold and tired as soon as we stood still again.  I'm so impressed with how willing Jer is to play with the kids at any time and any where.

Sunday night, we went with my Mom and Janelle to the Draper Community Messiah Sing-In for my Mom's birthday.  I still love it.  No matter how many times I join in to sing, there's still more to learn.  My Mom is the one that introduced me to Messiah sing-ins.  The first ones that I ever attended were at the Provo Tabernacle and the American Fork Tabernacle.  I remember going to a sad one at a high school after the Provo Tabernacle burned, but it is fitting that we go to one together on her birthday.  Funny thing.  Jer used to go to them too at the Provo Tabernacle.  What do you bet that we were both there together several times before we knew each other.

Family pictures

I didn't do any editing on these, but here are the pictures we took at the park the other day.

Formal-Informal pictures.  I sure like these guys.

Date Night

For our date night last Friday, instead of going out to eat or do a temple session we volunteered in the temple laundry.  It was fun. First, they put me on going through temple dresses that had been washed.  I was supposed to check them for stains, rips, turn pockets the right way and zip up zippers.  I was struck by how even the little tiny details were important.  Then they had me putting together packets.  The lady training me was very deliberate with each movement.  Each item was carefully lined up and carefully and beautifully stacked before putting it in the basket.  It struck me that even though most people wouldn't notice if something was slightly off kilter inside the packet, the workers were careful to treat it as if it were the end goal.  Even the socks that they had Jer and I folding together at the end.  They had us match them as carefully as possible, fold them as neatly as possible and line them in the baskets in a very orderly fashion.  The workers did this as a daily thing, but everyone seemed happy and smiling to be carefully lining things up and washing things out. I've been having a hard time staying awake in the temple lately.  With having 4 littles and changing medications, I drop asleep as soon as the lights dim.  This was a good way of serving so that I could feel good about being there instead of guilty.  It forced me to stop rushing around and pay attention to details.  I think I'd like to do it again.  Give me a call if anyone wants to go with me!

Weekend

Ada was named the noble knight from her class this week.  My kids love getting recognitions.

Saturday, we went to Emma's birthday party.  It was so cute!  They had a pet adoption.  They had a bin of dogs and the kids each chose one, then gave it a bath and made it a collar and named it.  This is Evelyn's dog named 'Robertson'.  Nella tried to convince her to name it 'Dread Pirate Robertson', but Evelyn would have none of that.

Seth found a buddy.

Making collars

Naming your pet

Ada's 'Pupcake'

Beautiful woman

Evelyn and Lance "feeding" their puppies.

After the party we went and took extended family pictures at the park and went to eat at Longhorn for all our December birthdays... Emma, Mom, Jer, Sharon, McKay... I love hanging out with family and letting the kids be together.  Emma, Ada and Aubrey were the three musketeerets at the end of the table while Sam and Devin sat and played together.  So fun.

This week

The kids favorite chore is raking... this was actually a little bit ago, but I was getting pictures off my phone and thought I'd include these.

Family lunch day at the kids school

Breakfast...

Sunday, we were all sick, but we tried to have a little together time anyways.

The youngest ones "helping" me teach reading at the kids school.

My girls pretending to be trees when we went to get a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.  We decided that we'd get them.  We went to Baum's with Grandma and Grandpa Robertson.  It was fun to go together.  We usually don't do that.  It was COLD! 

Grandma seeing if there was anything to shake out of Sam.

Saturday, my parents and siblings took our kids and Jer and I took GGpa to the Sing in Messiah with the Utah Symphony.  It was very fun.  I had a harder time keeping up with some of the pieces this year.  GGpa was funny.  He said, "I'm singing tenor, this guy next to me is too I think but he's not doing a very good job."  I couldn't hear any other altos close to me, I felt like I was a little island in the sea.  Kind of crazy.

Ada had her last horseback riding lesson.  She's loved it and will miss it, but she's taking it well.  Sam is now saying that he wants horseback lessons too.

Monday was no school... so we geared up and jumped on the tramp in the snow.  Fun stuff. Baby lasted for about 5 minutes and then wanted to stop.  The other kids played forever.