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!

Sheldon's Mission Call

Well, today was the big opening of Sheldon's mission call. He is my youngest brother and the youngest sibling of ten of us kids. All of my brothers served missions, either foreign or foreign speaking. I served in Los Angeles and was also at the Visitors' Center there. Darrell went to the Dominican Republic, Daniel to Arcadia, California Mandarin speaking, Sam to Australia, and Roger to Guatemala. And my brothers who went overseas all got sick too. SO, hopefully Sheldon won't follow suit there.

BUT he did follow suit as to going foreign and foreign speaking. Sheldon is going to: Milan, Italy! Yeah! He will serve for two years as a missionary and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the people there. In February, he will go to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah for a couple of months to get a jump on Italian and to refine his skills in sharing the gospel. We are so excited for him! Congratulations Sheldon!

The Robertson Family 2008 Christmas Letter

Since we're cutting back some this Christmas, we have posted our family Christmas Letter online. We don't want it to get lost in the shuffle of other December happenings, so there is a link for our letter on the upper right sidebar. Happy reading and Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Happy Birthday today Amy!!!

Darrell and Stacie and their kids came and visited us for Thanksgiving. They arrived last night while Lee was at the ward football Turkey Bowl. We enjoyed having them here and are looking forward to seeing them right after Christmas too!

Yesterday, Lee was able to come home a little early as he basically had a half-day at work. He did have to go to a training in the afternoon, but it only lasted 45 minutes and I was thankful he was home a little more yesterday!. Thanksgiving preparation started on Wednesday. Though under the weather, I made 6 pies, a pumpkin dessert and prepped the veggies for Thanksgiving Day. Here are the first pies in the oven.


TODAY: Before the big feast we played outside and enjoyed the GORGEOUS weather! Darrell took some of the older kids on a walk through the woods behind our house and he found two bonsai trees that he took home with him. The kids also had fun playing hide-n-go seek all around the house and enjoyed a little "house" Lee set up in one of the storage rooms.




Katie and Clark


Haley and Jessica


The turkey was one of the first things done! I watched a video on Food Network by Alton Brown on how to do a perfect holiday turkey. It worked great! Though it wasn't perfect all-around for Lee, he did say that he had some yummy pieces. Doesn't it look great?? It was done in 2 1/2 hours and it's my first turkey I've ever done.




The feast begins!


Another view


After some more eating and talking and Lee cleaning up--you are the BEST Lee!--we went to a park on base.












Katie, Eric and Clark


Shanna, Joseph and Jessica










Eric and Haley. Eric had a blast playing with our cars and trucks.


My brother Darrell and Lisa


Katie and Clark


Cal, Jessica, Clark and Katie


Jessica and Shanna




After the park (we counted it as our "Thanksgiving Day Run"), we had PIE of course!






Darrell and Stacie left early this evening. We wish they could have stayed longer! I am glad they took some pie with them. I think I made too much. We got everything cleaned and kids in bed before 8. Clark helped us out by falling asleep during family scripture reading at 7.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay, so I know I am over doing it on the whole gas price thing, but it's a $1.49 here on base.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We hope you did too!