Happy Holidays! I think this is a record for the greatest number of pictures in one post. After I started creating this post I thought I should have split them up, but oh well. Hope you have a tub of popcorn and a jug of hot chocolate!

Lee and I at Lee's Christmas "work" party. We met and ate at a Chinese buffet in town. It was YUMMY!


Roger and Brittany arrived the 20th. The kids loved the attention, and playing with dad too of course.




Clark loved playing the Wii over the break!



My parents and Sheldon arrived the evening of the 22nd. We are enjoying ourselves--just concentrating. Carcassone is a great game!


We made gingerbread houses the 23rd.




My dad's


Lee's


Clark's


My mom's


My first one


Roger's


Brittany's


Cal's


Like my haircut? I gave it to myself. I know haircuts aren't that expensive, but I just can't bring myself to fork over $15-$20 for a haircut! I went to a nice salon this summer, but I think I won't visit a salon until 2010.




Sheldon's


The night of the eve of Christmas Eve we went caroling with the missionaries. We gave two of our neighbors the Mr. Krueger's Christmas DVD and a gingerbread house.


Christmas Eve!


My dad turned 61 on Christmas Eve. When he was born of course my grandma was in the hospital Christmas day. And that particular Christmas day, one of my uncles received a doll from Santa. Guess the real Santa wasn't around to get things straight! Anyway, Roger put the candles in a cinnamon roll I made that morning, and then put it in the middle of the bunt cake.



Christmas Eve my dad read the Nativity Story from The Book of Mormon and the New Testament. Normally we dress up, but it was late and I hadn't thought about it, so the boys acted it out with a kid nativity while my dad was reading.


Excited for Christmas! Sam arrived about 10pm Christmas Eve.


Christmas Day!



We've started a new tradition. Now the kids will get a can of olives in their stockings. They LOVE them!


I thought it would be funny to have Sam and Sheldon see a tiny stocking (I used a pair of the girls' socks) Christmas morning. And it was. They had a big stocking too, but they were covered.




Shanna must think the bottle is a bottle of eye drops because she puts the bottle on her baby's eyes.






Haley loves her new stroller!




Clark "hid" a present in the Christmas tree and retrieved it for opening.









The day after Christmas. Shanna loves her new scarf from Clark and of course loved eating all of the candy. Here she is enjoying a sucker.


Deborah and family, Darrell and family, and Lena and family arrived the 26th.



The 27th we went to the St. Louis Temple and we siblings joined Sheldon as he went through the temple to receive his endowment. It was a good day. Seven of us siblings were together for the event! Shanna in the annex of the St. Louis Temple.


Cousins enjoying each other that evening.


Sunday morning Roger and Brittany left. Everyone else came to church with us. The Bishop was happy because so many people were in Sacrament meeting that day. I had a full class for Gospel Principles and I really enjoyed that. And new nursery leaders were called, so we won't be helping in the nursery on a regular basis anymore. Mike has some photo equipment--a backdrop, two lights with the umbrellas, and a nice camera. He took some pictures Sunday afternoon.


Sunday night we had a fun family talent show.


The 29th was Darrell's birthday. After lunch a group went fishing.





Darrell's cake!


The 30th brought about my 29th birthday! That morning some people visited Miller Cave here on base.




That afternoon we went to a park on base.





At 6:30am on base over some sort of intercom, revely is played, then 5:00pm retreat, then 9:00pm taps. We left the park right at 5:00 and when you're outside and hear revely you're supposed to stop and put your hand over your heart, and since Lee was in uniform he had to salute.


Because we had cake on the 24th, then again on the 29th, for my birthday I made a mousse-type-cream-cheese-strawberry dessert instead of a cake. I used the last piece and a half of Darrell's cake for my candles...and I should have saved some of my dad's candles for my cake!


Lee and I stuck to our $5 budget for Christmas presents for each other, basically. Well, Lee went about a $1.50 over and I $0.25 under, so it worked out fine. I should have put a "limit" on my birthday, but since I didn't think to say anything, Lee spoiled me! He surprised me with Settlers of Catan--I love that game!--and a knife sharpener. Plus I got some Dove chocolates from Darrell and Stacie and TimTams from my parents.


New Year's Eve we toured Lee's work at the hospital and at the 43rd.


We then enjoyed bowling. Our lane kept acting up, so they gave us free passes to come again. Free dates! YEAH! It was Clark and Cal's first time bowling. I think they enjoyed it. Deb bought us all french fries and that was a fun treat!



Every New Year's Eve we have a party with my family. Yummy snack food, like chips and dip, veggies, cheese balls, meatballs, little smokies, rootbeer floats and pizza. We also always play Monopoly and watch Star Wars. I couldn't believe it, I was the first one out of Monopoly! I had a bad first several rounds. My dad is the champion two years running now! The picture is of Lee and I at 12:00 midnight. We stayed up till 3:00am that morning.


Later today, before dinner, Mike did a little magic show for all of us, which was really fun. This afternoon he set up his camera equipment again and took some pictures of our kids. I was going to get "school" pictures for Clark, but the package I wanted was around $12 and I can get them done at Walmart for $5. I kept putting off getting pictures of Clark, and I am glad I did. Thanks to Mike the only thing I have to pay for are the prints!


Today, January 1, 2009, I went over our budget and am really excited about the prospect of being debt free before my 3oth birthday--my golden birthday--this coming December. Lee and I will have to be extra careful every month, but I am hoping for the best! I already figured out an estimate of what credits we'll receive for filing taxes this year, and that money will be key in helping us reach this goal. I am also looking forward to adding more food to my food storage. We've started our food storage a little bit, but I really need wheat, among other things. We have an AWESOME food storage coordinator in our ward, so I have some great help right here.

Happy New Year everyone! We hope you all meet your new goals, and reached your goals you set for 2008.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We hope you have a wonderful, joyous day today.

Here is a Christmas Greeting for Grandma and Grandpa Robertson that we took just this morning before our pumpkin pie breakfast.

Look for more pictures later today!

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells!

Happy Holidays everyone. Isn't it amazing that Christmas is NEXT week? Our tree still smells good and the ornaments on it are slowing moving upward.

On Thursday Lee went into a clinic here on base as a walk-in because he wasn't feeling good. The Nurse Practitioner said he had strep, and wrote a note dismissing him from work on Friday. What is funny and weird: the NP didn't even swab his throat. Lee is still sick and hopefully he will start getting better instead of worse. His gums and tonsils and throat are sore. Haley was not feeling well either and I took her in on Friday. I of course didn't want to take her to the emergency room so I just went to the clinic.

When I walked in it was really busy. I talked to the lady at the desk anyway saying I didn't have an appointment, but my husband has strep and I thought my daughter might have it too. She went and talked to someone and about two minutes later a nurse called me back to her office! She checked Haley over and called a doctor from another clinic to come over and look at Haley. They swabbed her throat and mine too for strep. Turns out that Haley has stromatitis, and we are 99.9% sure Lee has it too. They have the same thing, though thankfully Haley's isn't that bad. I am sure glad it's viral! It was great that they saw me right away, well, Haley.

Here are some pictures from the past week. Enjoy! There are a lot of them, but I always overdo it on the pictures, so why cut back now?!

Our neighbor gave us some cupcakes on Friday. They kids loved them. (I did too!) I don't know why a picture of Haley wasn't taken...maybe she wasn't messy enough.








Saturday after we put the girls down for a nap, I cut the boys hair. They've needed a haircut for awhile. After haircuts Lee and the boys went to the library where Santa was present. There was a train display, crafts, coloring, snacks and of course a visit with Santa.


Cal loved the trains, but wanted nothing to do with Santa. I think Haley may have influenced Cal from her reaction of her first Santa encounter.


Clark didn't mind. Lee said that it was the best Santa set-up he's ever seen.


Saturday night I took the boys to the ward Christmas party. For dinner they served biscuits and gravy and pancakes. The tables had wrapping paper for the table cloths and gingerbread houses in the middle. Of course, Santa visited there too. We definitely don't need to see Santa again this year! When I said that we should go see Santa Cal started crying. He said he did not want to go. I didn't mind one bit, but we waited so Clark could go.


Here are pictures of the kids this morning. This wasn't a planned "photo shoot" or I would have had Cal in his black dress pants and white shirt too. It just happened that we started taking pictures of all the kids together. I should have looked for black tights when were in St. Louis a few weeks ago. I think the white ones look okay at least.








Well, Shanna deserves a little post. Sometimes I call Shanna, Shanna Bear. She's very cuddly and soft and if bears were nice they seem like they would be cuddly. If Haley is crying Shanna is quick to give her sister a hug. And I don't know if bears like to swim in the water for fun, but when she hears the bath water, she quickly climbs upstairs (Haley is like that too with bath time). She is also a climber and can be aggressive. So it's a perfect nick name.

Lately she has been climbing out her crib. So at nap time and bed time I close the doors to their room and that way she at least stays in the room. At night after she's fallen asleep I'll put her in her crib. I intend to do that for her nap too, but sometimes I forget.

Simply closing the door is no longer a solution. She can open it!

She opened it yesterday for the first time. She is only 19 months old! Today she opened the door a few times but I was close by and she would look at me and close the door. Good thing we have lots of those door safety things that prevent little kids from opening doors. I took one off another door and put it on one of the inside door handles to the girls' room. Hopefully that will work, but I bet in a couple of months, Shanna will figure that out too.

We finally decorated for Christmas last night. Our live, free tree is very pretty and smells good! The kids had fun this morning waking up to a decorated house. Yes, we decorate while they are asleep. In two years Clark will get to stay up and decorate with us.



Saturday night I finished the girls' dresses. I am thinking of making a black belt to go with them, so no pictures of the dresses on the girls just yet.


Today school was canceled. It rained on and off all day yesterday and was quite warm in the morning--but then it got very cold and froze the rain. Also last night it started sleeting. Pretty much everything was covered with ice this morning. Unfortunately, Lee went to work right on time this morning and was there at 6am. He found out later that there is a number to call if places on base have delayed closings due to weather. Because of the icy weather the building he works in didn't officially open till 8am! Oh well. Now he knows what to do if there is bad weather.

The boys had fun playing out side. We need to buy a sled! Our neighbors had some and shared with Clark. Cal wasn't interested.


Our neighbors came over this morning and played inside and outside and then we went to their house, played and for lunch Kelly fed us mini pizzas that almost all of us helped to make. It has been a fun day home with the kids. I caught Clark at the wrong time. He had a blast outside.


Saturday we went to Rolla on the bus with our whole family. We went to the Leach Theater, saw a clown show and watched the cartoon of Dr. Suess' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We then had lunch, which was kind of crazy! The kids also got animal balloons and Clark and Cal went into a Santa's Shop and made two presents each for people in our family. It was cute because Clark wanted to make a present for Cal, and Cal wanted to make a present for Clark. The nice thing was that it was all free, even lunch!










While at Leach Theater the kids visited Santa. Shanna seems unsure at first.


But with Haley crying the moment she sat on Santa's lap, Shanna became sure that she didn't like sitting on Santa' lap either. (Well, Haley crying hysterically didn't help I'm sure.)


Clark got into it!


Cal didn't mind either--especially since a candy cane was promised!






On Friday Cal, Shanna and Haley and I met Clark during lunch. We didn't eat with him, that would have been a bit too crazy. I just brought snacks for the other kids. Clark was one of the Mustangs of the Week. He went up on stage with the other Mustangs of the Week and they each got to pick a cheer they wanted to do and also said their name and what class they were in. Clark chose the roller coaster cheer.


For lunch the Mustangs of the Week sit at a seperate table. After lunch they get to eat cookies that the Parent Teacher Organization provides. Clark was happy about that! Great job Clark!


Have a great rest of the week!

Hello Everyone! Hope you are all having a nice Thursday. Thought I would make some random updates.

Saturday I finished cutting out the fabric for the girls' Christmas dresses. The fabric is really pretty and looks better in "real" life. All I have left to do on the dresses: gather the skirt, attach the skirt to the bodice, put in the zippers, and hem the dresses! I want to have them done by Saturday night and so far I think I am making good progress.


Sunday Lee and Shanna took a little nap together. Can you tell that Lee isn't sleeping at the moment?


Monday, I think it was, Cal went on a picture taking spree. He took this picture from a book cover. Lee and I thought he did a good job centering it!


Tuesday we went to the "Holly Jolly Holiday Express" here on base. They had Santa, lots of booths, live entertainment and the lighting of a big Christmas tree. It was SO cold that we didn't stay very long. Shanna likes licking her zipper on her coat.


Wednesday we picked up our free, live Christmas Tree! Thanks to FedEx and St. Joe Christmas Tree Farm in Fort Wayne, Indiana! FedEx gives them out to various bases to active duty members and families as a "Thank You" for serving our country. We also got a bag of ornaments. Our tree is patiently waiting in one of our storage rooms to be decorated and to be put in a tree stand. I need to get one first.


Some other girl updates for you: On Sunday Shanna had started eating her lunch before Haley was even at the table. After Lee put Haley in her high chair, the girls started waving at each other. SO FUN!

I've mentioned before that if Shanna can, she will pull the two port-a-cribs together and climb into Haley's. Well, yesterday Shanna figured out how to climb out of her own during nap time. She kept climbing out. After about 4 times of putting her in her crib, I just closed the doors to their room. I heard Shanna playing for the longest time. When I went in their room to get them about one and a half hours later, Haley was still awake with a lot of toys in her crib and Shanna was asleep on the floor.

For some boy updates, Clark is the "Mustang of the Week"! I guess you could also call him the student of the week. About Cal...he enjoys being at home and still sneaks food out of the fridge. Today I took him (and the girls) to a craft activity they have every week here on base at a community center. He made a Santa ornament. My friend Kelly came with her twin girls. Hope you all are having a good week! The weekend is almost here!