Christmas Eve Videos

Here is a link to our Christmas Eve 2012 Program: http://www.youtube.com/user/eprobertson61

Temple Square

We have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Bailey's family. Their flight was scheduled to land in Salt Lake City on Saturday. We (Me, Isaac, Abby, Micon) decided to make a day of it and go see the lights on temple square. We rented an SUV so we could all ride together and away we went.

After meeting the plane and collecting the luggage we headed to Crown Burger for lunch. Isaac had heard that they have the best burgers in Utah. I think that fact is still up for debate, in my opinion. We enjoyed visiting for a bit and then we headed to the City Creek Mall. We planned to meet up with Paige's family there. We mostly walked around. Not much buying...except for some chocolates.

Here are some pictures of the day. I left the camera in the car at the airport so I didn't get any pictures there.


Meeting up with Paige's family at City Creek Mall



On the move....heading over to temple square.



Missing Eric and Miranda but here are the rest of us in front of the reflecting pool. Minus me..I had the camera.



I wanted a picture of my grandkids in front of the temple. Their moms were helping to hold them. Poor Miles had had enough for the day. In his defense, he had been up since 4:00 am and only had a short nap on the plane. Leslie and Brooke are wondering about their cousin.



So glad to have Bailey home. We stopped long enough for a photo in the visitors center.



Leslie and Abby wanted in a picture too.

Grandma and the cutest grandkids in the world!!

On might think this is a photo of Paige and Leslie. However it is really just a decoy so we could take a picture of the guy from Kid History. Paige recognized him and told me to take a picture. He is the guy in the black coat. I think he knew what we were up to.

Beautiful lights on Temple Square



The Cummings family

Abby, Marie and Micon

Salt Lake Temple

 

 



New Backsplash

The backsplash board that was originally installed in our house 13 years ago was falling apart. We decided to put a tile backsplash in. Here are some pictures of the process.

 

Before  

Another before shot

Another before shot. The new backsplash will reach from bottom of the cupboards to the countertop.

Here is a photo of the tile being installed.

Almost done...just needs to dry overnight and then be grouted in the morning.

The finished product. 

Another view of the finished product. And since the tile guy had the stove pulled out I was able to clean behind there too. I would love to have new countertops too, but since we are selling the house that is not going to happen.

Good Grandpa

 

 

 

Grandpa (Pop Pop) playing with Leslie. They were having a good time making things out of Playdoh. What a good grandpa he is!

Thanksgiving 2012

THANKSGIVING 2012

 

One of the best things about being together is playing games. This past week was filled with Boggle, Monopoly, Quizzler, Wii, and Yatzee! Here are Miranda and Isaac playing a Monopoly card game.

 

 Turkey Trotters - Paige, Eric, Miranda, Marie, Isaac, Brent, Remmi and Leslie carrying on a Ralph Vernon Robertson Thanksgiving day tradition. We went on a 2.5 mile loop near our house.

 Grandpa Eric (Pop-Pop) reading a story to Leslie. Miranda is listening in too!

 Brooke is entertaining the crowds. She was very happy to wear Uncle Isaac's hat.

 Isaac is trying very hard to turn Brooke into a gangster. She is just too cute!

 On the Friday after Thanksgiving we headed to Pine Creek Pass to cut Christmas trees. There was not very much snow. It was such a nice day, we ended up shedding our coats, gloves and hats.

 Miranda chopped her own tree down. She wanted one for her apartment in Pocatello. What a woman!

 Leslie really wanted to play in the snow...too bad there wasn't much.

 Eric and Brent...real manly men! The carried our trees down the mountain.

 Brent, Leslie, Remi and Brooke pose by the downed tree for a family shot.

 Our truck is in Texas so we took the Durango up to haul the trees. We were hoping someone would see how great this vehicle is and want to buy it. We don't want to take it to Texas with us.

 Leslie helped decorate the trees. She wanted her picture taken by the tree in the piano room. I love putting the Santas that my very talented sister-in-law hand carved for me on the tree. I look at each one. They all have their own little personality.

Leslie wanted to pose by this tree too, but she thought it was more fun to stand on Isaac. Notice the stockings are hung by the chimney with care. In hopes that St. Nicholas soon will be here.

 

Now it is Monday and everyone has gone home. Micon and Abby or off to school and I am left in a very quiet house. I am slowly getting things back in order. I stopped to blog when I was putting the camera away. Many of my friends have been posting what they are grateful for on Facebook. I wrote a grateful list a little while back and I thought I would add it to this blog. It is a long list to bare with me.

 

My Grateful List (in no particular order)

 

Eric, Paige, Brent, Leslie, Brooke, Bailey, Chad, Miles, Isaac, Miranda, Abby, Micon, Blue (even though he is gone), good parents and in-laws, extended family, food, church, padded benches in church, temples, priesthood, my temple marriage, scriptures, prophets, friends, education, a good job, atonement, repentence, hot water, cars that work, computer/internet, chocolate, missionaries, electricity, Pres. and Sister Dias (they took care of my son for 2 years), music, tv, advil, modern medicine, tooth paste, beds, cell phone, ability to read, sight, curling irons, sacrament, FHE, Nursery kids, toilet paper, patio swing, seasons, fireplaces, mountains, health, stars, sunshine crock pots, nexium, Holidays, home and visiting teachers, good neighbors, Christmas lights, dishwashers (especially when everyone is home), vacuums, washer/dryer, indoor plumbing, remote control, happy people, Fred Meyer, kids who try, make up, slippers (I just threw my favorite pair away since the bottom had a hole..hint hint kids. New slippers are on my Christmas list), animals, flowers, temple recommend, Sunday treats, good books, warm clothes, resteraunts, Book of Mormon, Airplanes (especially when they are on time and bringing my husband back to Idaho), good nights rest, the color green, Chocolate ice cream, bandaides, Eric's singing voice, Pioneers, games, Matha cat, University of Wyoming, finances that meet our needs, new running shoes, new carpet. I am pretty sure this list could go on and on....But since this blog is getting long, I will stop now. 



Election Day

I VOTED!!!

(2 weeks ago)

I was heading out this morning to go walk around the greenbelt and I was pleasantly surprised to find a bald eagle perched in one of our trees. He was polite enough to sit in the tree while I ran back in to get the camera. What an appropriate day for him to visit.

On a different note. I was walking 3 - 4 times a week, but I took a week off when Paige was here to help me paint. A week off turned into more like a month off. So today I strapped on my shoes and headed out. It was a beautiful fall morning. One again I was reminded that I enjoy going for walks and that all the little things that I have to deal with (broken garage door openers, and cupboard doors) really are insignificant.

Halloween

Micon went out with some friends to experience Halloween in America. She had a lot of fun and got lots of candy (which she shared). Abby and I went to dinner at Olive Garden and then to Walmart. I am not sure who was in costume and who was not, but at least for one night it didn't matter. Isaac stayed home to watch the Bulls NBA season opener. Halloween sure has changed at my house. And yet again we didn't have one single trick or treater.

Micon dressed in  traditional Chinese clothing for Halloween. She was very beautiful.

Happy Birthday Eric!

HAPPY BIRHTDAY ERIC!!!!

Eric's birthday landed on a weekend that he couldn't come home to Idaho. I decided to fly out and spend the weekend with him. I left Idaho with snow and cold, excited to enjoy the warm weather of Houston. Guess what? Houston was cold too. I had to buy a jacket. It didn't stay cold the whole time, luckily. Eric worked on Friday so I just hung out in his apartment and read a book. Saturday we woke up and went to help clean the church. We got stuck with the bathrooms. Yuck! Clogged toilet in the mens and no plunger. We spent the day driving around looking at possible areas to buy a house. We toured some very lovely model homes. We still have no idea where we are going to live. If we get a place with a little bit of land then the commute becomes an issue. If we stay close to Eric's office then we have to live in a house that has no yard and the neighbors are VERY close. We are used to 5 acres. Can we get used to having neighbors that are 10 feet away? AND can we have our bees there? Oh boy this gives me heartburn just thinking about it.

On October 27th Eric turned 51. We decided that 51 candles may cause a little catastophe so we opted for the 5 and 1.

Blowing out the candles....wait the candles are not lit! We had no matches and nothing in the Houston apartment to light them.

Painting!

Paige and her cute little girls came to Idaho Falls last week to help me paint the inside of my house. We have lived in this house for 13 years and needless to say the walls and trim where getting pretty dinged up. Plus it needed new paint in preparation of putting it on the market. I tried to match the paint that is already here so that I wouldn't have to paint every room. I got pretty close. My walls are now "toast" color. I would say they are more bread than toast. If you didn't know I painted you would not be able to tell a difference except for the walls look cleaner and the trim looks clean.

 The stair well was especially bad. Whenever I get sick of Abby and Miranda's shoes piling up in the entry way, I chuck them downthe stairs. Hence all the scuff marks. I won't be doing that anymore.

 Another before shot of the trim going down the stairs.

 Wall and trim painted! It looks so much better.

 Paige rolling on the new paint. I was concerned about this wall since at the peak it is 15 feet. I wasn't sure if we could get up that high. Thanks to a handy dandy ladder we rented the task was completed.

 The other hard part was edging the stairwell. Paige was brave. She said it wasn't bad if you didn't look how far down the bottom of the stairs were. Of course cute little Leslie was on hand to check things out. We kept her pretty busy making us pretend food out of Play Doh. She makes a pretty good blue hamburger.

 This is Paige up the tall ladder. She is touching up the ceiling. There were spider guts up there and we painted over them. And while we had the tall ladder we vacuumed the ceiling. There were a lot of cobwebs up there!

This is the back wall in the livingroom. The new paint looks a lot lighter than the old, but it actually dries very close to the old.

 

 

Now after looking at these pictures, one might think Paige did all the work. I actually helped too. Paige is just the expert at edging so she edged the top edges and was up on the ladder. I edged the bottom edges where I could crawl along the floor and take my time. I am not nearly as patient as Paige when it comes to details. (Thank you Dist. 91 summer paint crew for teaching her how to be a great painter!)

 

I really appreciate that I have such great kids that are so willing to help me out. Isaac took his machete to the yard and cut down all the dead hollyhocks and sunflowers. He also mowed and weed whacked the grass and it was tall grass. I though we might need to bring in a baler for the clippings.

 

The next big project will be new carpet in the family room downstairs, bedrooms and upstairs hallway. Too bad we are doing all this so someone else can enjoy it. The house will go on the market in Feb. or March. 

Bear Lake

Eric and I have been condo owners for several years. We don't really use it all that much so we had some points to spend. I decided that we should go somewhere close for a fun, but relaxing weekend. We invited the family to join us and off we went to Bear Lake. Our plans were to play games, watch general conference, and enjoy the fall colors.

 

 Waiting to check in to our condo and Isaac decided to be a daredevil.

 I was too slow on the camera button, but here is Isaac after he jumped.

 Getting ready to play a game while we wait for Paige's family to arrive.  For some reason Miranda wanted us to act like gansters.

 Yeah! Paige's family arrived. Leslie is showing Grandpa (Pop Pop) a game on the ipad.

 Brooke is showing us her trick. She can sit alone.

 Pop Pop is teaching Leslie how to play Solitaire the old school way; not on a computer or ipad.

 On Saturday after morning conference we went for walk at the marina. Miranda journeyed out onto the boat docks.

 Brooke and Abby on the walk. Brooke makes the best faces!

 Grandpa and Grandma with Leslie.

 Paige and Brent with their cute little girls.

 After our time at the lake, a few of us went for a drive in the Logan canyon. We stopped to look out at the lake from the top of the mountain. I think this could be an album cover with Micon acting as the lead.

 Lovely fall colors.

 Burning bush.

 Abby and Leslie having a sleepover at  the condo.

Another cute face brought to you by Brooke.