Month: December 2012

    Temple Square

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    We went to Temple Square with all of the kids! Grandma and Grandpa came and both of Ben’s sisters with their families. It was cold and crowded but it was beautiful. I really wanted to take the kids since we live so close and have never been.

    We met up at the singing/dancing fountain at City Creek. The water and fire routine to Christmas music was entertaining.

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    The girls kept calling the Temple a princess castle. They were pretty amazed at how big and beautiful it is.

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    There were also a number of different style nativities that we enjoyed looking at. Rose was convinced that a certain style was Dora! She was fun. Somehow the boys escaped my camera. I’ll add some pics from Ben’s phone when I get a chance.

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    And then the two youngest decided that they were done so we headed home. I loved being at the temple and enjoyed being out and about with so many others that were trying to capture the true reason for the season.

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    Categories: General, Nettesheim

    Brewer is on the naughty list!

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    Brewer is a really good dog, BUT… He has been on my naughty list the past 2 weeks!

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    St. Nick left a few dog treats in Brewers stocking on the 6th. A few days later we woke up to a chewed up stocking and the dog treats gone. Not cool.

    Fast forward a few days. We had some dental chew sticks for the dog and had left them out on the desk. Upon coming home from the store I discover the package empty and chewed up on the floor!

    Now Ben and I are starting to wonder what our perfect little puppy is capable of so we left a piece of chicken on the edge of the table before we went to church… Do you think it was there when we got home three hours later? NO. It was long gone. He NEVER eats off of the table. Our dog is being bad.

    We like to let him stay in the house when it is cold and wet but he might be losing that privilege. I set him up for failure again today when I left to run some errands. I took a before and after picture of the table top see what he was up to while I was gone….
    Before:

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    After:

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    He failed.

    My only excuse for him is that the vet said that he was over weight so we are feeding him a little less food AND apple season ended at the same time… Meaning that the apples from the neighbors tree are always on the ground so Brewer eats a ton of apples during the fall. Now the apples ended at the same time that we cut his portions so he is a hungry doggy.

    Categories: Brewer

    3 Christmas Parties and 5 busy days! and now 3 more days since I started this post!!

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    I felt like I was running all week last week. We had things on the calendar every day which isn’t our style BUT we had fun and we survived, again.

    We started out the week with a Robertson Christmas Party at Ryan’s house. We basically had Thanksgiving number 2 with my 4 brothers that live out here and my mom’s parents. The food was delicious. The Pies were too. And we had a little Christmas program including jokes by the girls, a poem by Joel, a haiku by Ben, songs by the kids and the Flea, the Fly and the Flew by Arden. I love my family. I am happy to live near my grandparents and be able to build our friendship.

    Megan meeting the GP’s

    Arden, Jana, Elma

    Monday wasn’t tooo busy I just had to get the house back together and get the rest of the week organized on paper and in my head. For family night we got together with a few families in the ward and watched a Christmas movie.

    This pic just makes me smile. His teeth are so BIG. I am DONE nursing, 100%. It’s sad but good. In the wee hours of the morning he wanted to nurse so bad but it has been 3 days and I debated if I dare try… finally Ben went and made him a bottle and he was content.

    Tuesday we had cub scouts right after school and then I hurried and threw dinner on the table and left for the Temple! Ben fed the kids and then the Young Women had volunteered to babysit while Ben was at the Scout Court of Honor. Everything tried to convince me to just stay home but I did not stay home and I loved being in the temple.

    advent calendars every morning!!!!!!!

    every day is busy with 5 little kids

    Wednesday I got to go shopping in the morning and then we picked the kids up from school and went to the church for a class party for my 7 year old primary class. All 7 of the kids were able to come and we played hard and ate donuts. The kids worked really hard at being reverent so this was a reward to them. We again RAN home from the church, I threw some food in the oven, changed clothes and gave Joel a high five on my way out the door. Ben and I had a fun evening for his work party. We ate dinner and then went upstairs to the “casino”. We got 1000 in chips and at the end of the night you got to turn your chips into raffle tickets. I managed to lose 4,000 while Ben made over 6,000. I am not LUCKY. But we enjoyed socializing with Ben’s coworkers and spending the evening out.

    work party

    On Thursday we woke up early to see if Santa had come to check on us! He did check on us! And most of us got our stockings filled with candy but Someone got a bag of coal and Santa left a note and a book saying that someone had been talking about trapping him and eating his cookies so he left the Elf on the Shelf to keep an eye on that person and report back to Santa if we are being good or bad. So.. Ben has stopped teasing Santa and the kids love finding Chewy the Elf each morning. We spent the rest of the day playing with Cali and having birthday fun.

    new watches!

    Rose has been living in her Cinderella outfit.

    On Friday we had the 6 youngest Netty cousins over for about 4 hours and celebrated Cali’s birth 🙂 We played Cheep Cheep and Doggy Doggy Wears your Bone. We opened presents and played with the new toys. We had lunch and rainbow cake. Then we sent the older boys off to school and turned on a show to wind down. That afternoon Ben got off work early and we took the kids to the sophomore basketball game to watch our friend Alex play. And then it was date night! We tried a restaurant in SLC that we had heard good things about. It was the Copper Onion. We went with the burger and it truly was tasty. We walked through city creek and enjoyed being out of our Utah County bubble for a few hours. I fell asleep on the drive home but I had a midnight soccer game so I kind of needed the nap.

    Cali’s Birthday Lunch with cousins!

    The “double” rainbow cake! I rainbowed the inside of it and the kids loved it 🙂

    The food was so good that the Pickles were even yummy!

    Saturday morning we headed to the church for our ward Christmas Breakfast! and then we spent the rest of the day getting things done around the house and relaxing a little.

    Telling Santa what they want: A Doll House, Skylander Giants, Furby, and Barbie!

    If Ray gets to be in his diaper then Rose wants to be in hers… aren’t they cute?

    Benji officially hits his head in the toy room!

    Sunday we enjoyed a good day at church and then went to Joel’s Wassail Party in Provo. We brought Netty’s Hot Bev and socialized and ate cookies and tolerated a cranky 2 year old daughter.

    And now Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday have come and gone since I started this post… Time flies. Christmas time flies even faster. We are happy and healthy and we love this time of year that we get to focus more on our Savior and giving and serving and being with family. One week until Christmas vacation!

    Categories: General, Nettesheim, Robertson

    Cali is 4!

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    We had a birthday and she loved being the center of attention. Cali turned 4 on December 6th! TIME FLIES.

    She got to take her All About Me Poster to preschool on Tuesday!

    Cali on December 4th – ready for Preschool!

    We woke up early and opened Presents on her birthday! She got a doll that came with hair accessories so you can do her hair. An Ariel Barbie. A Skylander like her brothers get. She got some clothes and the game UNO MOO. It was enough to keep us busy for the day and she and Rosie have played non stop.

    combing her dolls hair

    Uno Moo was a hit.

    All the Loot! I think it took her 5 minutes to open everything. There was no stalling in between gifts.

    She also got to open her presents from my parents and we had cookies and ice cream for a treat that night. The Falabella’s stopped by in the evening and we skyped with 3 of my sisters so it was a busy night. Cali was very gracious all day. She said thank you for her gifts one hundred times, “thanks for getting me this”, and “thanks mom!” were her phrases of the day.

    princess chair from grandma and grandpa robertson!

    The funniest thing she said was right before lunch time she was getting upset about something and she stopped everything and said, “Wait, do I cry when I’m 4?” So cute. And precious. She and I have butt heads a lot over the last 2 years but we are both growing up and communicating better. Cali shared her new presents so well and has really adjusted well to helping Rose and Ray get their way most of the time. Cali is our social bug. She loves all things girly right now and is still the little mom of the house. We love her a ton.

    Make a wish!

    We had the youngest cousins over the next morning so we saved the real cake for that party. Pictures coming soon.

    Categories: Cali

    I SURVIVED!!

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    Remember that week that Ben signed up to get his soccer coaching license and he was gone Monday night, Tuesday Night, Thursday night and 6 hours on Saturday? That was this week and he is ALMOST home and that means I get my husband back! We are excited. We missed him. The kids made me wrestle with them and play video games with them and do all of the dad activities that he usually does in the evenings. AND It was a SURPRISINGLY good week. I had more energy and patience than I expected and we survived. I definitely don’t prefer him gone but I was impressed at how well the kids behaved and we avoided the tired grouchy mom needs a break evenings. Heavenly Father is aware of us and our little needs and prayers.

    we did have a few meltdowns, but pretty wimpy ones.

    A big part of the success was that we are finally HEALTHY! All of us seem to be germ free. No runny noses and the whinyness has been minimal. In retrospect it appears that my 3 youngest children have been fighting a cold or virus or teething for the last month. Healthy kids are happy kids and my days have been SO MUCH nicer. I hope this lasts for a while.

    The girls got new hats and purses and headbands this week! thanks Megan.

    My HAPPY baby!

    Cali showing Rose how to be happy!

    and she was happy a lot.

    November 2012 almost killed me! I felt OVERWHELMED on several occasions which just isn’t like me. I debated if we could ever handle another kid BUT this past week I’ve felt more in control. I feel like i have energy and am able to cope better with every situation. Having the kids and myself healthy is a huge factor and I feel like I am back to the real me, not pregnant, not nursing, usually sleeping for a good 6 hour chunk at night. I feel more alive. I hope this too will last. At least until we are ready for number 6. Today I envisioned movies with the kids and waiting around for Dad BUT the kids had other plans: airplanes, christmas chains, homemade necklaces, and cousins. It has been a good day.

    Paper Airplanes

    Everyone needs their own chain this year!!

    Packers 3rd idea was necklaces – he was so amazed that we were really making them 🙂

    the cousins wanted to make necklaces too.

    Rose has been playing princesses ALL day – too cute.

    Packer was the common theme to our art day. He LOVES crafts. He wants to be an ARTIST when he grows up. And Raymond took a SUPER nap today so I better go tend to him now that he’s awake and the boys are itching to play Skylanders so I am done!

    Categories: General

    Memory Lane

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    Remember when I took pictures of some of my moms picture albums? I love that I have them, even if they are poor quality. SO MANY MEMORIES. So I wanted to post a few pictures and memories from time to time before I forget everything :). And if anyone has their own memory please chime in.

    This is the ONE time it snowed in Oroville when I was a kid! We thought it was Amazing and went and put on our warmest clothes so that we could build a snowman 🙂 Kevin, Jana, Joel, Tracie

    Santa at our house! Joel was the baby so this must have been Christmas of 1983. back row: Ryan, Michael, Santa, Christy front row: Jana, Josh, Joel, Kevin.

    Another Bert Reynolds Classic, starring our dog TWINKLE! Was this the next year or 2 years later?? Joel, Michael, Josh, Kevin, Santa, Jana, Christy, Twinkle, Ryan.

    Categories: Jana, Robertson

    TheToy Room

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    I love my toy room. And we all LOVE when it is actually clean and organized. It took me 3 hours this time to put it back together but that was after a good month of neglect. The newly instated old goal is to make the kids clean up after themselves so it doesn’t get out of control.

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    Categories: Cali, General, Jana, Raymond, Rose