Valentine's 2015

It's crazy that Valentine's day has already come and gone! We had a few fun family festivities.  How's that for alliteration?!

One afternoon I went in for a little bit and helped the 2nd graders made chocolate dipped pretzels.  They are doing an economics unit learning about buying, selling, consumers, producers, etc.  The 2nd graders helped make the pretzels, and then sold right before Valentine's day at the school. It's kind of funny though, because unlike the "real" world in candy/snack production where ingredients need to be purchased first, all of the chocolate, pretzels and sprinkles were donated.  When Lee wanted to sell lemonade once when he was a kid, his mom had him buy the ingredients from her first.  (As far as I remember the story correctly!)


Both girls were able to come and help while I was there.


That same afternoon we replaced our old washer and dryer with some newer "used" ones.  I am not sure how old this dryer is, but it must be from the 70s...or even the 60s!  It served us well the past couple of years.  Though recently I had to turn it on two or three times to get it to dry the clothes completely.


Here are the "new" additions:




And actually that same morning, I happened to be the very first customer inside Target that morning.  It was a first for me!


One day Lee and I received a Valentine from Elden.  His teacher sent it to us...so cute!


I mentioned in the last blog post that the kids are all reading the same book together at school and are bringing home a jungle animal with a journal.  They record their adventures with the animal and draw a picture.  Shanna and Haley's animal was a sloth.  I didn't take any pictures when Haley brought it home, but did with Shanna.  I am sure you are so glad I did. You're welcome.


It was kind of gross having the sloth on my counter, ha ha.


One of Haley's self portraits.


When I visited the personal finance teacher at the high school to talk about implementing Dave Ramsey's high school curriculum, I snapped a picture in the hallway...obviously.  Our kids' future high school!


I happened to stop in at the school one afternoon, maybe after making copies?  Elden was making a Clifford craft out of hearts with his "reading" buddy. I love how his teacher will often invite me to come in and see what is happening in his classroom.  She is so great!


Lee set up a fun date a couple weeks ago complete with a game of darts, a yummy chocolate silk pie, salted caramel rootbeer (my contribution) and Death Comes to Pemberly.  The rootbeer I bought at World Market.  It tastes like rootbeer with soy sauce. 






And more randomness, one Saturday morning Shanna came down from the playroom dressed like this, and posed on the floor like this.  She almost scared me.  And I couldn't tell at first which kid it was!


Shanna made a big group Valentine to share with her primary class.  She came up with the idea all on her own.  I had Haley get in on the picture just for fun.


The week of Valentine's, we made boxes for our family members to leave notes in.  Shanna and Haley LOVED it and left lots of notes.  I had the boys join in too of course. It was fun writing notes to everyone.


Figuring out features on my camera.




Lee gave me a fun Valentine!  I loved it!!!  I thought it was cute/funny when he said he did not use Pinterest at all to create it.


Every year when the kids came home from school with their Valentine "loot" Elden was a little sad that he wasn't in on the fun.  Well, he had a pretty fun first year exchanging Valentine's at school!


The goodies from school.....


Thursday morning was the last day of school for the week, and the same day for Valentine parties.  Also Shanna, Haley and I had our teeth cleanings that morning too.  (I had a cavity, boo hoo.)  I found these cute pea coats for them at Old Navy the night before, and the cute blue shirts too.  I admit, I bribed them to wear the jeans to school.  They hate wearing jeans, but they look so cute with the boots and all! (Just need to straighten the legs on the jeans so they're not bunched...next time I guess!)


On Friday the 13th some boots came in the mail for me.  They didn't fit.  They were so cute too!  I have been looking for boots and bought a couple of pairs already, only to return them.  I have never bought (and kept) a pair of boots before.  Maybe sometime soon I'll get some! I keep looking!


Now on to the actual Valentine's Day. That morning Lee and I attended the first session at the temple, then headed back to Lois'.  I went to a baptism with Lois as our friend's son was baptized. After the baptism we went out again for our Valentine lunch date.  We ate at Not Your Average Joe's.  It was so yummy!  We ordered a specialty pizza.  It came with corn, so Lee asked the corn to be left off.  Well, it had corn on it anyway.  I mentioned it to my server, but told him it was still good.  At the end he let us pick out a dessert for free because of the corn mishap!  We picked a key lime pie slice with raspberry sauce.  It was sooo good! Oh, and the artisan bread and oil dipping sauce they put out on your table when you first arrive was amazing.  Lee and I were actually not really hungry by the time the pizza came out!


We made a run to Aldi, then headed back so Lois and Jeff could head out on their date.

We had a family Valentine's party when Lois and Jeff got back.  Lee and I made dinner for everyone. The weather was crazy that evening!  Super cold, windy and snowing.  Lee was brave and took all the kids sledding at the complex's park after dinner.










After sledding the kids exchanged Valentines.


(One more sledding picture!)






Lee purchased a new phone from Republic Wireless and Valentine's day was his first day using it.  The kids were so excited about it.


The kids made cute Valentine bags with Lois while Lee and I were out that day.  Thanks Lois! 




And we decorated sugar cookies.










I made chocolate cheesecake for everyone too.  Luckily some of the kids didn't want some so that left more for us adults!


We had a fun family celebration.  That night we found out that our church was canceled so we decided not to drive home like originally planned.  When we woke up the next morning it sounded horrible outside.  Lois told us a little later that their church services had been canceled too. We had a fun time being "weathered" in that night and next morning.  The kids had fun playing with each other. Lee received permission to administer the sacrament to us, so we had our own little sacrament meeting, combined with family scripture reading.  Almost all of the kids shared their testimonies too.  Sorry Lois, I am just realizing that we did not clean up your playroom!  Sorry about the big mess!!!


The roads were great coming home that afternoon.  We opened our Valentine note boxes and read the notes from our family members.  Lee also left Valentines on the porch for the kids.  He rang the doorbell, then ran out back.  My dad would do the same when I was growing up.  I though it was fun that he gave us kids a Valentine every year.


A little history: after I finished my training at the Missionary Training Center, I flew to Los Angeles. My first day in the mission field was Valentine's Day.  My Aunt Jenni, my brother Sam and sister Lena were at the airport to see me off.  I am sure others were there too...can't remember! 

Then my next Valentine's day on my mission (and if my memory serves me well, which it doesn't!), my companion and I were kind of complaining about Valentine's day to one of my favorite district leaders.  We weren't sad that it was Valentine's Day (I love Valentine's Day!), or that we were "single". I mean really, I didn't go on a mission to moan and groan about being single, ha ha.  Mainly it was because we didn't have any fun candy or packages for that fun upcoming "holiday". (Like I said, if I remember right.  Sorry for all of you out there who did send me a package on Valentine's day!) Anyway, Elder Davis was so sweet and gave us some candy on that day.  Or somewhere around that day.  I thought it was such a kind gesture, and I felt like he really did care about us and helping us on our mission...even with a bit of candy.  I'll have to ask my companion Kelly, if that is what really happened! 

Another thing that happened that Valentine's day on my mission, is Sister Clark and I (Kelly) decided that we would be so kind, and such sweet sister missionaries if we did a "heart attack" on a single sister's door.  I totally used to remember her name for YEARS, but right now it escapes me!  We cut out a bunch of hearts and probably close to sunset, or maybe even after dark, we went to her house and taped up hearts on her front screen door.  Oh what a great, sweet surprise she would have! 

Well, the lady heard some noises on her front porch and when we were close to being done all the sudden she starts banging on the door (or window next to the door) like CRAZY.  And yelling at us to go away.  We were totally freaked out!  She thought we were robbers or something!  Poor lady! She said something about it not being a good neighborhood to be in and that she had a gun or was going to call the cops or something. It seems like we sheepishly took off the hearts, said sorry through the door/window and left.  Yeah, so much for being kind, wonderful, thoughtful sisters. 

Sister Clark and I were pretty shook up. (And now I totally freak out when people so much as knock on my front door when it's dark out! Not because of this scenario but because of Lee's scare with death in Memphis.) Soon thereafter we were done proselyting for the evening, and true to LA traffic had a little time in the car before we arrived home at our apartment behind the LA Temple on Santa Monica Boulevard.  During our drive, we both started busting up laughing at the whole craziness of the night.  Oh, we laughed and laughed and laughed. 

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!  And that no one scared the daylights out of you!

Checking In...

For awhile I felt like there wasn't much to blog about, but after looking through pictures (and wanting to blog about Valentine's Day) I saw that a few things had happened!  Enjoy the pictures from everyday winter life.

On a random Thursday Lee and I had a date.  It was my turn for the date that week and I think Fast Sunday was coming up, thus the mid-week date.  We like to have treats during our date, so the first Saturday of the month isn't a good time to have one.  We played pingpong, got a blizzard (yay for coupons in the mail!) and looked at a house that would be an awesome rental. But we don't have $80,000 cash lying around to buy a house ha ha. Someday we plan on buying rentals though!


We took a couple of trips to the community center. This must have been when Haley was on a date with Lee.


We bought a bunk bed awhile back, and it took us a long time to put it up.  Before Lee and the boys set it up I got the bright idea of painting their room.  So I did.




On New Year's day we normally have Scotch eggs. That is if my mom is visiting!  We didn't do them on New Year's day this year, but I did make them one January morning.  YUMMY!!!


Haley has always enjoyed getting her picture taken.  And likes doing "selfies" too.


For our young women New Beginning's program I made a pendant banner that read "Embark".  The theme for the youth (ages 12-18) in our church this year is from Doctrine and Covenants section 4, verse 2: "Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day."  We all need to memorize it.  My friend Maren has been having her family memorize a scripture per month.  I love that!  She even has it written out on a cute framed chalkboard.  I need to hunt around for one.  Clark has this memorized, but we should make it a family affair. The kids helped me with the "Embark" sign.






It was a great evening and the cupcakes were delicious!!! Our friend Courtney made them.


My brother Sam emailed telling us to get on chat that night for an annoucement.  Almost all 10 of us siblings were on!  He told us he was taking a new job in Seattle.  They actually will head out tomorrow.  We are so excited for this new opportunity for them.  He is in food science and will be working in research and development (R&D) for a beef jerky company. 


Something that Lee and I would love to happen is to have the Dave Ramsey's high school course Foundations in Personal Finance taught here at the local high school.  A packet came in the mail for me to pass along to a teacher.  I finally was able to meet with a personal finance teacher and discuss it with him.  I hope he wants to teach the course!  If not it won't affect my kids because we'll teach them either way about money, how to be a wise steward, and not go into debt.  But it would be so beneficial to the kids in this area to learn these things too.  It's so amazing being debt free. Why not teach high schoolers to go into college and then a career debt free too?  My brother and his wife are getting their bachelors right now at Brigham Young University.  I've been so proud of them as they are working hard and going through school debt free...vehicles and all.  My parents and my sister Stephanie did the same too. 


I saw this post on instagram from Your Home Based Mom one cold afternoon.  I actually had all of the ingredients and made these amazing oatmeal Carmelitas for an after school snack.  Check out the recipe here!


Every year our elementary school reads the same book together.  Of course they read it in their individual classes with their teacher.  This year the book is about animals, and there have been displays all over the school.  I wonder if there are doing some sort of competition with each grade for the best decorated space?  Anyway, this is the 2nd grade display in the main hallway.  Such a fun rainforest theme.  They even have a motion sensor sound thing that makes it sound like you are walking through a rainforest! Shanna and Haley were able to make a butterfly to add to the display.


One day school was canceled....it sure was a blizzard!


When we made our temple trip in January, Darrell and Stacie came the same day too.  That night we went to the visitors' center to watch the new film "Meet the Mormons".  It was so fun seeing it!  We had a small theater all to ourselves.  I love that this is only 3/10ths of my family!  (Siblings that is!)




There is a new model in display of the Washington D.C. temple.  So gorgeous!  The kids loved seeing it.  There is a similar model of the Salt Lake City temple at a visitors' center on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  If you are ever in Salt Lake or DC, check out the visitor center!  It's fun to see the display of what the inside of the temple looks like.  And I am SOOOO excited to take my kids to the Philadelphia temple open house in a year or so.  Anyone, whether a member of my church or not, can walk through a temple before it is dedicated for use.  They are so beautiful and lovely.  What a treat and a blessing to have a temple just two hours away! We love going often.


Another snow day....or a day off... I finally helped the boys clean their room since their bunk bed was assembled.  It was pretty bad, but we got a lot organized and thrown away!


They had a fun time that day playing and going on outings.


Pop Rocks!


And more community center fun.








Along with the book that the whole elementary school is reading, each class has a stuffed animal that they take turns bringing home.  They record their experience at home with the stuffed animal.  I didn't take pictures of Cal and Haley's animal, but we documented Elden with the panda.


And to throw this in, one night the young women went ice skating for their activity. It was very fun!


I went on a field trip with Shanna and Haley.  They were supposed to go to the local TV station to see the weather center, but their class couldn't go in....long story.  Anyway, instead they made weather instruments.




And they played at the children's museum too.










One afternoon Cal and Elden helped me make chocolate chip cookies.


Haley decided to take pictures of "cool" cars she found online one day.


One weekend Lois and Jeff and co. came down to hang out.  Oh yeah, and do a time share tour at a local resort (Massanutten) so we could get a free hotel stay and waterpark tickets.  Let me say they put us through the ringer and would not take no for an answer!  Well, they had to take no for an answer as neither of us bought a timeshare, but boy did they put on the pressure. What horrible people we are that we just waste money on vacation every year.  If we had a timeshare we wouldn't be wasting money. (TOTAL SARCASM HERE!) I finally stood up and told them we had to go.  Anyway, I could go on and on.  It was quite the experience.  We went in just to get the free stuff.  And that we did. I would never buy a timeshare by the way!

They stayed for Sunday too.  The Superbowl was on that Sunday.  For posterity sake,  we never watch the Superbowl, even growing up (never seen it!). Sometimes I realize after that fact that the Superbowl happened.  Kind of funny.  I don't see how it would help me personally keep the Sabbath day holy.  And really, I need all the help I can give myself to keep the Sabbath holy as I am far from perfect in doing so! And really, I could care less about sports.  Anyway, that night we wanted a yummy dessert, and decided on homemade hot fudge sundaes.  We actually had the ingredients for everything too!  Jeff was very nice and made homemade ice cream.  We should pull out our ice cream maker more often!


I made homemade brownies.




And homemade hot fudge.






Oh so good.


We had a nice Sunday evening together.


The kids enjoyed building with Legos too.




For Family Home Evening one night Cal did a shoulder angel act.


We started incorporating a family history moment into our Family Home Evenings.  Thanks Daniel and Amy for the idea!  That night it was my turn.  I seriously don't have a good memory and can't remember many stories.  I called up my mom, who has an AMAZING memory, and she told us a fun/crazy story how my great-grandpa Thompson killed five rattlesnakes one night (that were in his CABIN!) and hung them on a pitchfork.  The snakes were so long they hung past the handle on the pitchfork.  And pitchfork handles are long!


Thanks for checking in on the regular Robertson happenings!