Sewing Stockings

Ok. So I'll start off by saying that I am not a seamstress. I do have a sewing machine. I have used it once during the last 4ish years- the night before my sister went into the MTC. We were trying to sew some extra buttons on her shirts so that they could be buttoned all the way up to her collar. So, I broke out my sewing machine to try to do the button holes. Very stressful and we never got it to work. And I have just assumed it was broken, and haven't used it since. But this year I needed to make Alan's stocking. Luckily the whole front I sewed by hand, but I needed to machine sew the back to the front. So I busted out my sewing machine and... it worked! Great news for all. Though it took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to sew a straight line, we did get the task accomplished. (It would only sew zigzag. There's a random separate dial that controls straight lines... nothing like my mom's machine) Anyway, I am quite proud of the finished product...



And here's all three!



So there you go. My crafty side must prevail about once a year. Another thing done off my Christmas "to do" list!

Christmastime is Here

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around the Robertson House.



We made candy Advent calendars with Michael and Savannah.



Alan got his first taste of candy cane!



We decorated the Christmas Tree.



There was snow this morning.



Alan loves to have his very own Nativity. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Robertson!

And it's only December 6th. It's shaping up to be a pretty great Christmas!

To Grandmother's House We Go...

Here's a few pics from our trip up to my grandparent's house for Thanksgiving.

The day before we left, I noticed Alan was starting to get teeth! I was a little nervous for the trip, but Alan did really well. A little cranky and one pretty rough night, but overall, really good. He put his bink in like this when he was teething. Or sometimes he'd just put in in backwards and chomp on the other side. Funny huh?



On the way up we stopped in at Temple Square to see Beth! They already had a few Christmas decorations up.

Here's Alan on Thanksgiving day. He slept through the main meal, but had his a little later. We even mixed sweet potatoes in with his rice cereal for a little Thanksgiving treat. And he liked it!

My cousin Zach was super excited to see Alan and was so nice to share all his toys.


Here's Alan with his Great Grandma Tucker.

After Thanksgiving dinner, the whole family decided to go to see "A Christmas Carol" in 3D. We decided to bring Alan along for his first movie theater experience! I figured that if I missed parts of the movie, it's not like I wouldn't be able to figure out what was going on. :) But he was really good- even in the scary parts. I only stepped out at the very end. We thought they did a great job with the animation on this film. Same story, but really well done. I'd recommend it.

My parents got us Mickey jammies from their most recent trip to Disney World, so we decided to do a little photo shoot.

Overall, we had a really fun time in Idaho. I was great to be able to spend time together with family. We ate way too much and played endless cards, so it was a successful trip in my book! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa & the whole Idaho crew for having us!

BYU Senior Quarterback Finds His Senior Tight End

Hall to George, Beck to Harline. We've had some exciting finishes lately. Good thing we decided to stick around for a little more school! Go Cougars!

Easy Recipes???

Hey everyone. One of the girls that I visit teach has asked me for a favor. She's been really sick here recently and has gotten way behind in school. She asked if we could come up with some recipes and meal ideas that are really easy and quick, as she doesn't really have any recipes. I'm pulling a few of mine together to give to her, but it would be great to add a few more. So if you have a few standard, fall-back-on, easy recipes that I could include, either post them here or email them to me. Thanks!!!

Harry Potter... Finally

Well, for the record, we finally managed to see Harry Potter! This has been our goal for the last 4 months and I can't believe it's taken us this long! I've always seen the previous movies the day they came out. It's amazing how plans and priorities change. :) But we finally managed to make it happen now that Alan's a little older and is much better at going to bed.

It was way fun to be able to go see it together. Honestly, we haven't seen a movie in the theaters since Dark Knight. Can you believe that??? The show wasn't until 10:10, and Scott and I couldn't remember the last time we purposely stayed out til 1 am. When did we get to be so old??? Overall we liked it. Nothing compared to the books because it really can't be. 6 is one of my favorites. But overall, a fun time.

Our other goal was to see Up, but we didn't quite make that one while it was in theaters. In retrospect, probably should have seen it before we had Alan. But now that it's out on DVD, we can rent it this weekend. So there you go. Back into the swing of things. Even if we are a few months behind. :)

Halloween!

Just wanted to post a few pics from our most recent holiday!

Here's our cute little tiger!

Mom was a giraffe, thanks to Em and Nate.

Dad was an elephant, thanks to Mom.

And here's our happy zobilee zoo family!

Alan with our Phillies pumpkin. As you can see he was a little worried about the series. Turns out he had reason to be. Thanks Matsui. Oh well. Still a fun year!

See how big I am??

Alan has been growing and growing and growing. Literally. He's not only getting bigger, but he's learning lots of new tricks as well.


Alan sits up very well with support. He can sit by himself for a few seconds, but mostly still needs the boppy. He's also reaching out and grabbing every toy in sight. Or anything in my hands for that matter. And he likes to put everything he finds in his mouth.


He also found his toes! He loves to play with them, but hasn't started eating them yet. He thinks he's pretty cool when he finds them though. :) He also rolled over once. Purely accidental. We're not expecting him to do that again any time soon, but if he does, we'll get a pic.



And finally here's a little video of our awesome eater. He's now decided he likes the cereal a little more than he did this first time!

National League Champs!

So we've been kind of into baseball recently, spurred in part by my trip home a couple of weeks ago. Alan's new bedtime song is "High Hopes" and we turn on the game whenever we can between our busy schedules. Lets just say we were THRILLED last night when the Phils won the NLCS. I am still amazed that they're going to the series again.

Biggest Phillies fan in the world? Geoffrey. Where has Geoffrey been the last two years when the Phillies went to the World Series? Albania. But Mom is recording every playoff game. I don't know if we should call the mission-World Series link a curse or blessing. In 1980 when the Phillies won their only other national title, my dad was on a mission. What are the chances of that?

We'll be hard pressed to win this year though. I'm sure Nate's calling for the typical W-L-W-W-W pattern that has been constant through the playoffs these past two years. I'm simply hoping to come out on top. Still fun though.


Here's a pic of the oldest 4 kids in the good old days.

Oops. There goes another rubber tree plant.

NJ Trip

Well it's about time for an update! Alan and I flew back home to New Jersey last week to visit my family. Unfortunately, Scott had to stay here with work and school, so we made the trip alone. With the exception of missing Daddy, we had the time of our lives. I was worried about taking Alan through security and on those long plane rides, but he was sooooo good on the flights. Just wanted to mention a few of the fun things we did while we were there, and why I love going home so much!

It was wonderful to spend time with my family. Evan, Nate, and my Grandma all met Alan for the first time. Evan got to learn about babies and loved to help bathe Alan. And Alan was delighted to have tons of people to play with him every minute.

Alan and Uncle Evan

We got to celebrate Meg's birthday as well. Can't believe she's 16. She's happy as a clam now that she got her own cell phone which she's been begging for for years.

Alan loved spending time with his Grandma.

We also got to go to the Apple Festival when I was home. I used to volunteer there every year in young womens. Clearly the best part is the food- apple cider, apple ice cream, apple butter, and apple donuts. We also had cheesesteaks, rita's, and tastykakes while we were home. Couldn't ask for much better in the food department. :)

Alan with Grandpa. We watched a lot of Phils games and sang a lot of "High Hopes." We know Alan is a Phillies fan because he absolutely loved Dad's Phillies shirt. He also loves his rally towel, although he seems to use it most as a burp cloth. Oh well. Go Phils!

Alan's first trip to the zoo! I'm not sure he noticed a single animal, but we had a fun time none the less. This is a picture we took for Scott of us with the red panda aka fire fox.

And we also took a quick trip to the shore. Even though it was cold, we flew some kites, got some seashells, and touched the water. It was so fun!





Four Generations!

Alan's Blessing and Fun Family Times

Well, it has been a busy few weeks here at the Robertson home. And when you actually have something to blog about, you have no time to blog! Way too much to tell, but here are some pics of the highlights!

Scott's parents came out for a little vacation, and we had so much fun with them. We celebrated Scott's birthday and went to a Lonestar concert!
Alan with Grandpa Robertson

My sister Stephanie just got back from a mission to Las Vegas. It was way fun to get to see her again, and now she's here for school too!
Us at the temple

Alan's blessing day!

Alan had over 50 family members and friends here on his blessing! What a fun day!

We finally got Alan's crib and room set up. He's now such a big boy. (literally. at his 2 month check up he was above the 95th percentile in every category- height, weight, and head circumference)

And finally, Alan at his first BYU football game. Despite his very concerned look, he was soooooo good at the game. This is at the very end, when we realized we forgot to take a picture. Believe me, most of the time Alan was the one smiling, and Scott was the one with the very concerned look. :) But oh well. Better luck this Saturday, Cougs.

Alan learns how to play Rook

Bring it on. Don't you even think about outbidding me!

What should trump be, Mommy? Blue?

They thought they'd get it with a 13, very funny.

Impossible, the Rook was mine!

Go Cougars!

It's opening day for BYU Football. We're practicing for the first game:

Game face

Leading the band

Touchdown!