Category: Robertson

    ANOTHER SUPER WEEKEND

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    Kevin and Liz came to play Friday night and Saturday! They have 4 kids – a 6 year old, 5 year old twins, and a 2 year old, we were excited to play with them and have a sleepover. When 1 sibling comes to town it’s a party so Ryan brought his 4 girls, ages 10, 8, 5, and 2 and Joel, Brady, and Kelsey spent most of the weekend here. So we had 12 kids and 8 adults. (Tara if you are reading this you need to know that if you can’t get off work for the next ‘party’ then we are going to have to move the happenings up north to your place! – we all missed you.) We just played all weekend and stayed up to late. Kelsey was my camera girl so here’s documentation of the fun.

    The Game Table - Dominion, Bonanza, Monopoly Deal, For Sale, o shucks, Zooloretto ... (and Joel's friend Kristina)

    Kids playing in the uncarpeted play room. Our house really felt bigger having one more place for the kids to go - it was great.

    do you think Benji was excited for a sleep over????

    They were ALL excited and wanted to sleep in the new room even without carpet. This was Cali's first time not sleeping in a crib!!

    On Saturday we just hung out, more games, a trip to the park and of course watching a KILLER BYU game.

    Joel, Brinlee, Ryan, and Taylee

    Kelsey and Ella

    Jaydn and Benji

    This guy got in a car accident on Tuesday before they came. He totaled his car and we are pretty sure his hand is broken but he was lucky enough to walk away.

    he had CDs in the visor and you can see where each one got him on the forehead.

    Rose threw a big old fit anytime anyone would take her chip bags at dinner - can't believe she's old enough to throw fits over that!

    Everyone had to leave Saturday night and Sunday morning so we got some recovery time in after church. But we did get to go celebrate some Nettesheim birthdays after dinner so the fun continued. We love our families!

    Categories: Robertson

    cute kids

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    NEW PAJAMAS!!

    Packer and Cali convinced me that we NEEDED these pajamas – Yes Packer chose Sponge Bob AGAIN, Cali wanted Dora and Packer decided that Benji would want Toy Story more than Cars. When Benji got home from school Packer told him to go up to his room and look in his Jammie Drawer – – they were all so excited – totally worth the 10$ splurge.

    DID you KNOW that MY parents WENT cruising LAST week? They flew to Puerto Rico and then got on the boat and went to a lot of cool islands. They got to go with a BUNCH of their friends and I’m sure they were missing me the whole time but they still had fun 🙂

    HUGE BOAT

    My Mom on the beach somewhere in another country - jealous!

    My Dad!

    I'm amazed that they got to cruise with so many good friends!

    AND did you know that my littlest sister camped out at the Marriott Center for 3 nights so that she could get a good seat for Saturdays BYU basketball game – They got 6th row! We saw her on TV passing  Cosmo up the stands, and they did a fun DANCE and she got to chill with some players after/during the MWC champion celebration…

    That's my Kelsey in the Red Sweatshirt

    COLLINSWORTH

    with ABOUO

    Fredette and Emery were too busy for a picture

    But I just found this link and Kelsey is right there on the loading screen – first picture!

    BENJI AFter SCHOOL. This guy is a creature of habit. He always has been and I’m thinking he always will be. If I am going to change anything up on him he has to be warned and talked through it and then he is still nervous until he gets used to the change. A friend has been picking him up for school in the mornings since the beginning of the year – the first few days were really hard to get him in their car and he needed bribing BUT now it is the routine and I LOVE IT….

    coming home from school - kindergarten is flying by!!

    It’s flying by for me anyway – this guy has grown leaps and bounds in kindergarten. He can READ. He can Write! he can actually draw and color and count by 5, 10, 20 or whatever. He is so big and it is so fun. He and Packer woke up early on Friday and started creating some art work, they continued some of the art they started with their friend Lucie – here is what they came up with. Mostly monsters…

    Benji's work

    Packer's work

    Packer has this really weird habit that I have almost blogged about a few times because as much as I don’t like it I kind of want to tell him about it when he is older… so I will hide the details here in this really long post so that only the diligent readers will have the chance of reading the bathroom talk 🙂 So every time Packer goes #2 he says, (and I quote) “Mom can you come wipe my bum. I went poop but some poop is stuck in and you need to come wipe it out. ok mom?” That is word for word and he says it EVERY time and the first part is loud to get my attention and then he just trails off with the rest of the sentence and explanation.

    our only Brown Eyed Child! He makes us laugh a lot.

    Packer is also just getting over a little issue at primary. He went in and started crying the last 2 weeks and it was all because they switched his class to the other side of the room and he felt like he couldn’t see his big brother anymore and so he has been in tears and all of the wonderful primary peops have been trying to help, so we had a talk and I believe that this week went well, he just needed a little assurance that it is ok to sit on the new side. And on that note CALI is becoming Super Nursery Girl. She lets me drop her off and doesn’t cry! The teachers are even starting to say that she does GOOD in there. They told me on Sunday that she knows how to count from 5-10, I wasn’t sure what they meant because I try to get her to count and she stumbles with 1, 2, 3. So today we were reading a book and counting and I started but she picked up at 5 and took it to 9!

    JUST THE GIRLS photo by Packer

    Well, we had another FUN FULL weekend! For date night we went to a little Thai restaurant and then picked out paint for the toy room. We had ambitions to get some more work done in there but that didn’t happen. On Saturday morning we got to go to see Caitlin and Lalo get baptized! We spent the whole morning with family, eating and playing and visiting. That afternoon we watched BYU defeat Wyoming. I ran out to get a part for the hot tub and we were wornout from crabby Cali so we put the kids to bed a little before 8, and then just relaxed. Sunday was another early morning for church, a relaxing afternoon and then we invited my siblings over for dinner. Ben made some killer stroganoff and then we lost 3 rounds of Dominion, while discussing futures, dating, family trips, and the BYU craze. Now Monday is half over so I better get going.

    i loved this pic - pure PJ happiness

    Categories: General, Nettesheim, Robertson

    EXHAUSTED

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    EXHAUSTED

    Friday 4pm Ben leaves for a Winter Scout Campout. 6 pm Kids go to Lalo’s birthday and cousins night. 7pm Jana soccer game. 8pm Meet up at my house with Ryan (+4kids) Joel and Kelsey. Grocery shop for weekend o fun. Pick up kids at cousins. Brady and Tyler join the party. Play bonanza, dominion, … Kids to bed super late. Play more games. Get to bed around 3am.  Saturday 8am Make French Toast, feed kids, wake up college kids, 10am Ben gets home, finish breakfast, start working on the play room. 2pm sheet rock done, send Ben to LOWES for a few more essentials… Pizza break, run to stake center for my church calling, start tape and mud, insert door casing, build toy box, FINISH working, Start Gaming!! Go get Shannon in Alpine in a blizzard, meet everyone at JUMP ON IT – kids get their energy out, big kids try BIG tricks – girl we don’t know busts her ankle, Ambulance blocks us in so we are almost late to our soccer game but we get there right in time for a 10pm TIE. 11:30pm get kids to bed, keep playing games and downing the food and beverage. 2am ish off to bed. Sunday 7am Ben to priesthood, 10am Stake Conference, 12pm lunch, naps and games and Ben makes the roast. , Joel, Shan and Kel go visiting the extended fam. We learned an expansion to beans and kept gaming. Ben makes awesome sunday dinner. Play games until 2am again. Monday 7am Ben leaves to get donuts and do flags with the scouts. 9am Jana starts making crepes. Ryan, Ben and Jana decide to let the college kids sleep and we play Puerto Rico! 2 times! Then we get the crepes going. 12pm we all eat a few crepes and get dressed for the day. 2pm meet up at Rock Canyon Park for some Yorbing. Ryan, Shannon, Michelle, Udine, Tyler, Diego, Taylee and Kylee were all first time yorbers – that equals exciting! (visit Michelle’s blog for pics and details: http://michfal.blogspot.com/2011/02/1-2-3-yorb-nation.html)  4:30 we head home so Ben can take down flags with scouts. Ben makes another grocery run. We have sandwiches and chips for dinner. Aunt Di comes to check in on us. Ryan leaves at 7ish, Di and Shannon and Mindy leave at 8ish, Joel, Brady, Kelsey and Tyler stick around for one more game of Dominion before we call it a wrap 🙂 9:30pm they are on their way to hot tub monday and BEN AND I ARE OFFICIALLY EXHAUSTED!

    Cali and Brinlee playing the bean game

    Packer and Marlee playing Square Up

    Rose snuggling with Aunt Kelsey

    a little pictureka for the kids... I love that the 2 year olds can really play

    We had a super fun weekend but it might take me 2 or 3 days to recover from this one! It has been 24 hours now but I am not ready for real life yet 🙂 BUT our play room is coming along!! I can’t wait for it to really be done! We need to do a little more prep – then paint and carpet and BRING IN THE TOYS!!

    The Door (i decided that i did not want an actual door - just open like this).

    Almost ready for paint - my built in toy box in the back!

    Categories: Robertson

    Happy Birthday Elma Johnson

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    I went and visited my Grandma today for her birthday. She told me not to tell you that she is 84 years old today but I need to write it down so that I can remember. I told her that I wanted to ask her a few questions to record on my blog so this is what I got:

    Favorite Color: Blue and Red. Food: Chinese (today). Number: 29 for the number of grandkids. We talked about a favorite vacation when they went with friends on a bus tour to the Calgary Stampede rodeo. And how they loved to play pinochle on Friday nights with the same couple. They would go to Chuck-a -Rama and then back to the house for a card game. Grandma likes Skipbo too. Her favorite animal is a dog. They used to have a black poodle named Gi Gi (?) and she likes to spend time in Kanab when they can. My Grandma HATES to get her picture taken, she’s been that way as long as I have known her. She was much happier when I went to take a picture of the pictures on her wall:

    84 Elma Johnson 20

    Happy Birthday Grandma! 🙂

    Categories: Robertson

    Crawl Space to Play Room

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    We had another CRAZY BUSY FUN FULL weekend! Friday night was our turn to watch the kids for cousins night and my brother brought his 4 kids so we had a house full that night. We worked on our playroom on Saturday and my brothers stayed for church Sunday and Super Bowl watching that night. My house looks like a tornado hit it with all of the toys and saw dust BUT I wouldn’t change a thing…

    Brinlee and Cali - happy Girlies

    We are finally working on making the crawl space under our kitchen into a PLAY ROOM!!! We poured cement during the summer. We had an electrician come in January and on Saturday we started in on the walls and ceiling. My 3 (Utah) brothers came and spent the night Friday so we could get up and get working on Saturday. We were a little giddy actually – us Robertsons really enjoy a little project every now and then. We had to raise the kitchen sink plumbing, install air vents, (fix an emergency leak in the water main), move several electrical wires and frame 2.5 walls. Then we started the sheet rocking. The ceiling is done and 2 of 4 walls but we didn’t quite finish. We had to take a break to go win a soccer game (best game yet), and visit the grandparents. I got home from Stake Basketball and made dinner at 8pm and we were all spent. It’s hard being in a 4 foot crawl space all day. Our knees were killing and backs were aching so we called it a day.

    Framing the walls

    installing Air vents

    fixing the water main

    moving the plumbing

    insulation in

    starting the sheet rock

    My brother brought his 4 kids and the kids just played all day. The house is thrashed BUT we are well on our way to a play room!

    Taylee's class pet

    The Bearded Dragon Lizard also came for the weekend. He stayed in Cali’s room. The kids loved it and he was a big hit for cousins night but when we went to put Cali to bed in her crib right next to him she freaked out and started yelling “SCARY, SCARY” over and over so she got to sleep in mom and dads room 🙂

    GOOD WORK BOYS! Lets finish soon – Presidents DAY anyone????


    Categories: Robertson

    we love John Deer

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    This should be the end of catching up on Christmas break and everything. We are back to life in full swing – homework, joy school, time outs, PSP, runny noses, NFL playoffs, FHE, cooking and cleaning – the whole works. Vacation was awesome, luckily real life is pretty awesome too. Now I need it to warm up – just a little bit cause I’m sick of frozen milk and exploding soda cans in the garage fridge, and sick of little freezing kids when we take Benji to school, and my hot tub pipes are frozen so I can’t get it heated up… anything over freezing would be nice!
    The kids loved riding their cousins new toys…

    Packer Driving

    Benji Driving

    Cali Steering While Ella Accelerates

    Categories: Robertson

    HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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    This was our new years party! can you believe it’s already been a week – slow down 2011!!

    Bringing in the New Year with baby Rose

    We hung out at the parents house all night…

    The boys - Ben, Kevin, Mike ad Dad.

    Liz, Mom, and Jana.

    Sleeping kids.

    We told the kids that it was a party night. At about 8pm they started asking when the party was cause it was just another night with cousins so… we played fruit basket tip over, the leader game and Doggy doggy where’s your Bone. Then we gave them a bunch of treats and let them watch a movie. By midnight they were all asleep except Jaydn(6) and when he heard the fireworks going off down the street he was wishing that he was asleep 🙂

    I’m Excited for this new year!!

    Categories: General, Robertson

    Week After Christmas

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    The last few years we have spent the week leading up to Christmas and Christmas Day at home. We do a lot of things with Ben’s family during that time and we really enjoy just watching our kids on Christmas morning and being able to give them all of our attention. Then the day after Christmas we leave the toys and gifts and jump in the van to spend the week in California at my parents house. We are good friends with highway 80 now but this is the first year that we’ve had to deal with storms and watching the weather. Donner Pass has just been snowy this season. Anyway, we made it there with a storm entering the great state of Nevada where it felt like we were the only car on the road and we were making our own tracks in the snow covered road and then as we were leaving NV we had to inch along in bumper to bumper traffic and icy roads to get down out of the mountains. But luckily the Packers game was on the radio and we still made it in 12ish hours ( I don’t remember exactly). On the way home we got lucky and just missed the storm again so we had nice clear roads and even blue skies for part of the trip – we managed to make the return trip in 10 1/2 hours! That’s about as fast as it gets without really speeding. The trick for us was only stopping twice instead of three times… next time we might shoot for one stop! Our kids would be amazing if they could pull that off – actually my bladder would be amazing if we could pull that 🙂

    Anyway, we had a super fun week with my parents and some of my siblings. We left Sunday and didn’t come back until the next Monday. My mom gave a good summary of our week in her email to my brother Sean on his mission so rather than typing it all up again I’ll insert her summary here:

    Well, it doesn’t seem like Jana and Ben have been here a whole week!  They’re all packed up and leaving in the morning; Shannon, Kelsey and Brady left this morning, with Josh and Katie- they made it safely- we were pretty worried about them going over Donner but they didn’t have to chain up, and made pretty good time.  We all went to dinner at Hulas on Monday night; Also on Monday day we went to the park and the guys all played frisbee golf, then we went to get yogurts;  Tuesday Joel had to leave to go back to Utah- they left at 4:00 a.m. to beat the storm; we played at the church and rode the little cars that Kev and Liz’s kids got for christmas- the funniest was watching Cali and Ella try to drive- Ella would press on the accelerator with her leg stretched as far as she could while Cali steered- very cute! That evening after we fixed dinner, Christy and Rob left for the cabin… Wednesday we went shopping, returned a few things (just the females:) ), fixed a late dinner, played games- (of course during any down time there were games being played- lots of Dominion, some nertz, rook, ticket, hand and foot,etc…) Thursday Dad and I both worked, kev and Liz and J and B played some more frisbee golf at the park, then that night I babysat while they got together with all their friends- about 20 kids- they went to dinner at the Depot then played games at Kevin and Liz’s. The kids all watched Gordy and had a sleepover in the family room.  New Year’s Eve we had a bunch of snacks and just hung out here, playing games- Shannon went to Becca’s, had a few friends over there,  Brady and Kelsey went to the YSA Party in Gridley- they went all out with fun activities for that-  New Year’s Day we went to the church and played B-ball- that was fun, then had dinner, watched football, watched the kids playing- all in all it was a fun, happy week!  I love my family- missed you and Ryan and Tara and John and Tracie, but at least we got to talk to everybody:)

    Uncle Brady entertaining all of the nieces and nephews.

    Rose got some cute new dresses from Grandma and she got held a lot, even spoiled - in fact she has needed a lot of attention this week as we adjust back to normal life.

    Pacen and Benji were so excited to show each other their new toys - the DS and the PSP! N-E-R-D-S

    Chillin with Grandpa on our last day...

    I always love “going home” – and after 14 years of not officially living there anymore it still feels like home. I spent my entire childhood in that exact house and a lot of the people that influenced me as a kid are still there. I love it. I got to see some of my good friends from high school and not only reminisce but also make some new memories on the soccer field, at the Depot, playing the music game and on the basketball court. Peace Out Oroville – we’ll be back soon 🙂

    Categories: General, Robertson

    Hollister, CA

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    We went to California for Thanksgiving week!! We usually go to my parents house but this time we made a few different stops. First we stopped in Hollister. I hadn’t been to my oldest sister’s house in a few years and thanks to snow over Donner Pass for 3 days we got to stop in on her and her family. We drove south through Vegas and got to Christy’s house Saturday evening. We left Sunday morning (not even time to take a picture) but it was fun to see them and have a slumber party. There is just something about seeing where a family lives and how they interact and where they sleep, play and eat. I like knowing/seeing those little details.

    And we got to see them again a few days later so the short trip was all good. The next several posts are from our trip….  

    Categories: Robertson

    Lathrop, CA

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    We went to my Brother Josh’s house for Thanksgiving. We got there before the rest of the family and got to hang out with Josh, Mal,Payton and Scarlett for a few days. Scarlett is the best 9 month baby ever. Payton is no longer “The one who hits us” (that’s what Packer used to say). Cali clinged to Mallory all week. We got to try the latest and greatest in Play Station entertainment and shopping for Turkey Day was kind of fun.

    cute, TIRED, girls

    brothers - in - law

    Aunt Mal and Cali

    Categories: Robertson