Christmas-the short version

This Christmas was a very different year than every other one we've had. Instead of running around like crazy, we stayed home and relaxed for most of the day. It was pretty nice. We even fit in some naps, which for this pregnant mommy is nice. :) After hanging out and relaxing at our house for most of the day, we went over to Jeremy's parents house for some games. We are a big game playing family and so we always get new games for Christmas that we get to try out. While we missed family that is away from us, we still had a great Christmas this year. We hope everyone else did too.

Christmas Eve always brings new jammies. Grant doesn't seem like he likes his too much, but he was just tired and ready to get to bed so Santa could come. Love that kids pouty face. :)

Mikkele sitting with her Santa stuff.

Grant and Mikkele with Grant's Santa stuff.

Mikkele trying out her new sandwich maker that Santa brought her. Apparently her mom won't make her grilled cheese whenever she wants one (which is all the time) so Santa brought her a sandwich maker and a children's recipe book so she could start learning how to cook. It's never too early to learn, right.

Grant and Mikkele reading the book "That's not my car" that Mikkele gave him for Christmas. It's a touchy feely book that's great for sensory play. His smiley face says he likes it.

3rd Grade Christmas Program

Two of the 3rd grade classes put on a really cute Christmas program. Mikkele was part of the stuffed animals. She was a baby leopard. We used her hair to make ears, as I didn't feel like having an additional project to put together right before Christmas. But I think it turned out cute. They did a show called Christmas Around the World. They learned a lot of different songs from different countries. They also learned Silent Night in German. Mikkele's favorite song was called Christmas in Kalarney.

Mikkele, Zoe, and Rietta waiting patiently for the show to start.

Singing one of the songs.

More singing.

This part was the stuffed animals doing their scene. They danced to a song from the Nutcracker. They each had their own part also. I was a bad mom and didn't get video of her part. :( Woops. But she did have another little extra part. She got to help lead the music when the audience was supposed to sing along. My mom and Grandma would be so proud of her leading. She wasn't on beat, but it gave me some laughs.

New Background

I decided that about the time I changed my last background to the snowman/snowflakes, is about the time we started getting storm, after storm, after storm. So I have decided to send warm vibes on my blog instead of cold, snowy ones. I know palm trees aren't going to start growing here in Utah, but maybe some warmer, drier weather will come. Call me a bah-humbug, but I just don't like the cold. So here's to warmer weather.....

Little Entertainers Christmas Performance

For the past few months, Mikkele and her Little Entertainer's group has been practicing for their Christmas performances. During the month of December we have had on average 3 performances a week. (This explains why Christmas is 6 days away and I am still not done with my Christmas shopping.) The show is really cute. They have been mostly performing at rest homes/retirement homes. Here are a few pictures and a couple clips of Mikkele's parts in the show. She has one solo, and one speaking part. Even when the whole group is singing I can pick out her voice as one of the loudest/strongest ones in the group. The teacher really relys on Mikkele to pick the group up when they are singing too quietly. Enjoy!

The whole Little Entertainer's Group

Mikkele and Alanna hamming it up for the camera. Alanna is Mikkele's friend that lives across the street from us. It is fun for the girls to be in the group together. It helps us mom's out too.

After the performance the kids go around to the residents and introduce themselves and wish them a Merry Christmas.

Elf Yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I used some pictures from our trip and turned Mikkele, Grant, Alisha, Albert, and Adam. Enjoy!

Trip to TX

For Thanksgiving we went to visit my parents in San Antonio. It was really our year for Christmas, but there was a Roberts family reunion over Thanksgiving. Plus I didn't really want to haul everything down for Christmas. I also figured that this will be that last time I get to go to TX for a while, being pregnant and then having a new baby. So since gas prices kept dropping we decided it would be cheaper to drive than to fly. So Me, Mikkele, Grant, Alisha, Albert, and Adam piled into Alisha's Nissan Titan Truck and made the 2 day-24 hour journey. Mikkele looking sassy in Aunt Lisha's sunglasses.

One of the only times Grant slept on the drive. He had a hard time, and didn't feel well a good part of the time we were there.

Grant and Albert. This is one of the only faces Albert knows how to make when a camera is pointed at him. He really is a Roberts at heart.

On the way down we stopped in a city called Las Cruses, NM. We had a slight mishap at the hotel that next morning. At 5 a.m. we were rudely awakened to water pouring out of the vent in our ceiling of our bathroom. The bathroom and hallway were quickly flooded. We informed the front desk, and were quickly moved into another room. Come to find out the guests staying in the room above ours had a huge all night party and ended up overflowing the bathtub and toilet. This also explains all the pounding I heard all night long. So we ended up getting reimbursed for our room for all of the hassle and inconvienence. Really not too bad for getting a free room. We tried to figure something out to get our room free on the way home, but it didn't work.
Monday and Tuesday were mostly spent relaxing. My mom, Alisha, and I went and saw Twilight while the boys went golfing. Thanks to my dad for sacrificing the golfing to watch Mikkele and Grant. We all had Twilight shirts on trying to act as teen-y as possible. The movie was good. There were a few things that we thought were cheesy or didn't follow the book, or at least our perception of the book. But overall we all enjoyed it and can't wait until the next movie comes out.
Wednesday we drove to the coast for the Roberts family reunion. We met in a city called Port Aransas. It's a little town by Corpus Christi. We stayed in this condo pretty much right on the beach. It was a lot of fun and we had beautiful weather.

Our condo is the door on the second floor that is open.

The view of the beach looking out from the door of our condo.

We spent some time on a jetty. This particular jetty was 8/10 of a mile. Dad and Adam walked the whole way, but the rest of us got sidetracked watching the dolphins in the bay. There were a couple of them that just sat out there waiting for boats to come by. We also watched some of the fisherman. They caught some interesting fish.

Mikkele posing on the jetti. She is one hot babe!

Papa and Granty. Grant really liked the warm weather.

Albert, Alisha, and Mikkele walking along the jetty.

Dolphins in the bay.

Mikkele finding her first seashells. She found TONS during the trip to bring home with us.

We also shopped around town for a little bit. The stores had some interesting things outside of them.

Can you see Mikkele inbetween the teeth of this massive shark?

It was also a walkway that lead up to the doors of the store.


After walking around town for a while, we came back and cooled off in the pool, hot tub, and ocean. This was Mikkele's first time getting into the ocean more than just ankle deep. And she even got the hang of boogie boarding. I actually didn't brave the jellyfish, but everyone else did. The hot tub was good enough for me.Adam, Mikkele, Grant and Alish in the pool.

Grant and Aunt Lisha in the hot tub.

Mikkele and Adam out in the waves.

Alisha and Mikkele

This one's kinda blurry, but you get the picture. She was a pro by the end of the trip to the coast.


Thursday was Thanksgiving. We didn't have the whole Roberts family there, but there was a good amount of us there. We missed those that couldn't come. The food was good, but the after dinner entertainment was even better. The old men played the boys in a Turkey bowl on the beach. My dad, in typical old man form, pulled his hamstring during the game and had to quit. I don't know who won, and I didn't get any pics of the boys, but lets face it the pics of the old men are much funnier to look at. We also had a talent show and games for the kids. And of course in true Roberts form, there was a game of dominos. Dad's bum, Robby, Bruce-in his short shorts, and Rodney in a huddle.

Lonnie and Bruce..."I'm open"

Grant spent a lot of time listening to Adam's Ipod. It was nice that it entertained for bits of time.


Friday we drove home from the coast, regrouped and headed for the river house. This is a favorite place to visit when in TX. The house belongs to my dad's friend Kenny. It is a beautiful setting along the Blanco River. We had a second Thanksgiving dinner there, and the boys watched some football. Grant always enjoys rides on the gator. A front came through that day, so it was too chilly to get into the river, but on a nice summer day it is very relaxing. The gator with the river house in the background.

Saturday morning we got back in the car again and started our journey back to UT. We had a great time, but it sure was a lot of time in the car. Mikkele said that she didn't want to get back in the car again for a year, but obviously that's really not possible. Maybe just not a long road trip again any time soon.

The Official Announcement

Some of you already know, but for those of you who don't....we are expecting our 3rd baby! It's exciting, but scary all at the same time. My due date is May 31st, my doctor's due date is June 1st. I told him that I know that it's only one day difference, but it sounds a whole heck of a lot worse than May 31st. He said with my history he'll be delivering the baby at least a week early, so it'll still be a May baby, but I'm still sticking with May 31st as my due date. As you can probably tell from the picture above, I am hoping and giving out vibes that the baby will be a girl, and also an angel baby. Let's be honest...with a little baby on the way and with big baby Granty, it's gonna be a little bit of a challenge. So this baby really doesn't have a choice but to be an angel baby. I'm hoping Heavenly Father and I are on the same page on that one. So Mikkele and I want a girl, but Jeremy wants a boy. Really all I want is a healthy baby, with no complications...that's not too much to ask for, right???
Something else that is exciting is that 3 of my best friends are pregnant also, and we are all due within a month and a half of each other. Jenny is due at the beginning of May, Tina the middle of May, then me at the end, and Michelle F. the middle of June. It's kinda crazy, but it will be fun to have kids the same age. They all happen to be 3 of my 4 babysitters also. So I guess Grant and Mikkele have some sort of a vibe that is released when they are watched. So if you are wanting to get pregnant, just let me know and I'll bring the kids over. :)
I guess we are still not out of the woods as far as the "scary" time of pregnancy goes, but I'm past the time when I have miscarried in the past. So hopefully everything will continue to go well and the time will pass quickly.

Silly Granty

***WARNING: Some germaphobes may get grossed out by this post.

This morning Grant woke up at 6:50. Not too bad, especially for sleeping in his bed all night. So I got him up, fed him, and then hoped that he would go back to sleep so I could go back to sleep. It's Saturday, let's sleep in. Anyway he wasn't having it. So we got up and went in to the computer to mess around. What else is there to do that early on a Saturday morning??? Well after a little while I went in to use the bathroom and laid him on the floor. After I was done I left him in there and returned to the computer. For some reason he really likes to lay on the bathroom floor. I know it's a little weird and a little gross, but if he's happy, I'm happy. So after a little while of him being in there, Mikkele went in to check on him and found this....He had fallen asleep! That little punk won't go back to sleep when I want him to, but he'll go when he's good and ready and after I'm fully awake and can't go back to sleep. Silly Granty. It bought me about 45 min to an hour of being able to use both of my arms. Too bad I didn't get anything productive done.

***New post on Mikkele's blog. If you're not invited to see her blog and would like to let me know.

8 things...

My sister keeps tagging me, then wondering why my tag's aren't done. Well mostly because they're dumb, Alisha. But I will do this one for you. Hopefully this will satisfy you.
8 Shows I like to watch...

1. The Office
2. ER
3. Trading Spaces
4. Lingo
5. American Idol
6. So You Think You Can Dance
7. Big Brother
8. The Amazing Race

I know I watch way too much reality TV. They just don't make any good regular shows anymore. At least in my opinion.

8 Restaurants I Like...

1. Joe Banditos
2. Cracker Barrell
3. Cafe Rio
4. Magleby's Fresh
5. Chuck-A-Rama, Upchuck-A-Rama, Chuck-A-Grandma, however you say it...it's a favorite because you can please just about everyone.
6. PF Chang's
7. Village Baker
8. Chin Wah

8 Things that happened yesterday...in no particular order

1. Found out that I have to get a new furnace :(
2. Watched a crap load of kids.
3. Forgot to pick up one of the kids from school until 40 min after...blaming this one on the shock of the furnace.
4. Washed and dried some laundry...note it hasn't been folded yet, maybe that'll happen today.
5. Went to Costco with 5 children. Tina came also, so it wasn't that bad of an adult to kid ratio.
6. The dishes.
7. Made eggrolls and fried rice for dinner. It was delicious I might add.
8. Went to bed early. :)

8 I things I'm looking forward to...

1. Going to TX in a couple weeks!
2. The good food we'll be enjoying while in TX.
3. The good weather we'll be enjoying while in TX. Hopefully.
4. The conversation Alisha and I will get to have with our little brother while driving to TX. This will be fun. :) Are you nervous Adam???
5. The end of may.
6. Dinner party with the Woods and Brownings tomorrow night.
7. Winter to be over, even though it's just starting
8. My grandparents coming home in a year.

8 things on my wish list...

1. Winter to be over, even though it's just beginning. I know I just said that, but I really do wish it was summer. Although it's more more reasons than just the weather. :)
2. People to stop playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving. People...are you not thankful for anything???
3. My parents to move back to UT-not gonna happen, but it's a wish list right. :)
4. The end of May to come quickly.
5. To have healthy winter.
6. Furnaces didn't cost so much.
7. Grant able to run around and play like a normal 3 1/2 year old.
8. To be done working. I love what I do, but wish I could not work and still get paid.

And there you have it. It actually took WAY more thought than I was really wanting to give this morning.

I tag...anyone who wants to do it. That way there's no pressure.

Halloween 2008

We had a busy, but fun Halloween this year. Thursday night I guilt tripped Mikkele into staying home from a party to carve pumpkins with me. I know...I'm a horrible, selfish mother. But if we didn't carve them that night it just wasn't gonna get done, and what's a Halloween without carving pumpkins??? So she stayed home and carved them with me. I think she still had fun and didn't think about the party too much. She did a really good job gutting the pumpkins this year. She did hers and Grant's. Even though she made some faces, she was having fun. She decided she wanted to do a more complicated pumpkin this year. She got all the holes poked around the stencil, but when it came to carving she had a little bit of a tough time. So I finished carving hers while she carved Grant's. Her tongue cracks me up. It is always sticking out when she is concentrating on something. I guess she's our little Michael Jordan.

Here are the finished products. Grant and Mikkele's are on the top and mine is the puking pumpkin on the bottom.

Mikkele got to her ditch her uniform and wear her costume to school on Friday.

They had a party at school. She was excited to be a fairy because her teacher, Mrs. Beagles, and her BFF, Rietta were also fairy's.

In Springville they do trick-or-treating on Main Street. All the local businesses in "downtown" Springville give out candy and it brings out quite the crowd. Luckily we got there early and didn't have to wait in too many lines.

This witch is a teacher's aid at their school. She also works at one of the shops on Main St and the kids were excited to see her.

Skyler, Mikkele, Tienna, Katelyn, Rietta, Gunner, and Grant with their loot after trick-or-treating on Main St. Gunner was so funny. His face totally fit the role of Eeore. He wasn't so thrilled to be there.After Main St., Mikkele had her music class to go to. They also had a party. After music class we went to our ward trunk-or-treat. Mikkele went around to all the cars, then came back and took Grant around. He is loving trying all the candy. We gave him a sucker and he thought he was pretty funny when he bit down on the stick and wouldn't open. He is such a tease. Mikkele turned his hat sideways so he is a G-funk train conductor here.

Mikkele the fairy and Grant the train conductor at the trunk-or-treat.

After the trunk-or-treat we met up with Jeremy's family for his mom's birthday dinner at Sizzler. She gets to share her birthday with Halloween. Mikkele commented that she wishes her birthday was on Halloween, but I think Dorene would tell you differently. Happy Birthday Dorene! Dillon and Connor both dressed up as Indiana Jones, or as Dillon says "Dr. Jones". I couldn't get a picture of Connor looking at the camera. His hat won that battle.

We had a fun, busy Halloween. Mikkele is already planning her costume for next year. We'll see if she changes her mind.

A Weekend With Xixi and Coco

Last weekend we went out to Roosevelt to see my sister Alisha (aka: Xixi pronounced she-she). It has been almost 3 1/2 years since I have been out to see her. I know I'm a slacker, but have you seen the weather for the Basin in the winter? -20 and I don't agree, so it only allows a few months of which I can go visit. (That's my lame excuse.) Anyway...we had a fun visit with her oh and her husband Albert (aka: Coco) too when he decided to stick around. Here are some of the fun things we did. We had to get creative, it is Roosevelt mind you. Warning...there are a TON of pictures.We made haunted candy houses.
During the process.

The finished product. (which is now partially eaten away)

Alisha had some 2x4 pieces of wood that we asked Albert to cut into 3 inch pieces. So what does he do??? He cuts them into all different sizes. We were kind of irritated at first that he couldn't follow simple instructions, but then we decided that different sizes could be cute. Mikkele and I did Halloween blocks, and Alisha did Thanksgiving. We used Alisha's cricut machine to cut out the vinyl letters. Yet another reason why I love cricut machines.
Mikkele's finished product.

My finished product. My straight edge of my K is a pumpkin man. Kinda hard to tell from far away. Oh and there is a spider on the S block.

Alisha and Grant posing with her blocks. Can you see her turkey on her L? He was pretty cute.

We went to a corn maze in Bluebell, UT. It was about 30 minutes or so outside Roosevelt. I didn't even know that we had a Bluebell, UT. Anyway Mikkele had fun with all the different activities that they had. Can I just mention that I HATE corn mazes? And after going with Grant it just gave me another reason to not like them. He screamed throughout the entire maze. I should have gotten a picture of it, but I didn't because Alisha had the camera. And this is what I found on my camera after I got home.

Good

Sassy

Scary. We have issues in our family about making crazy faces when the camera is pointed in our direction. She may be sorry that it was my camera that she was taking pictures of herself with though. Did you know I would post these pictures Lish?

Mikkele measuring up next to the pumpkin.


Mikkele took Grant on a cow train ride. I think this was one of the only time he didn't really fuss while we were there.

She also took him down this slide made of PVC pipes.


They had this barrel thing that the kids could get inside and then get tumbled around in and get dizzy. Mikkele thought it was fun.

They had this barn filled with corn. Kinda like a ball pit, but no balls, just corn. Talk about the germs in that thing. YUK. And yes she thought she needed to lay down in it and make a corn angel!?!?

They also had this sling shot thing that you had apples and tried to shoot them at targets. She didn't hit the target, but had fun trying.

Oh and you can't forget the Moki dog. Moki had fun giving Mikkele and Grant kisses. He is a funny dog. I bought him a hot dog costume for him to wear on Halloween. We didn't get any pics of him wearing it, but it was really cute on him. I'm sure Alisha will have pictures on her blog within the next couple weeks of it.
And finally you may wondering why we call Alisha, Xixi and Albert, Coco. Well here's the story...when Mikkele was little she couldn't say Alisha very well. She said She-sha. Well when Albert and Alisha started dating he said that it was similar to Xixi (she-she) in Portugese which means "urine". So she is Aunt Xixi. And you can probably guess what Coco means...POOP.
And there you have it.
Thanks to Xixi and Coco for a great time! We'll try to make it out there before 3 1/2 years goes by again.