Alan's first date

I have to start out by saying that since this summer we had a whole bunch of boys born here in our ward. There were like 6 or 7. All boys. Well, we've finally had a few girls grace the scene here in Wymount, which meant Alan had the opportunity for a first date. Alan didn't even shy away from the competition of all the other little boys his age. That's because he's a real...
The date went well, despite the fact that we should have covered a few things beforehand. Maybe he'll learn these dating tips for next time.

1.) Choose clothes wisely- they speak volumes. Maybe not the best outfit? Wonder what her parents thought.

2.) Not the reaction you're looking for when you hold a girls hand.

But despite the 7 month old faux pas, it was love at first sight.

Thanks Ellie for putting up with our crazy guy!

Weekend Updates

Just wanted to put a few highlights of the past 3 day weekend.

First of all, Scott and I got to go on a date! We went to the Cheesecake factory, since we had a gift card there. It's a ways away, but it was worth it. We knew we'd have an hour plus wait at the restaurant, so we decided to go to WINCO and get some of our favorite bulk items. Everything went smoothly and we had some truly delicious food. Thanks to Michael and Savannah for babysitting!

The second major event of the weekend was that Alan got to go to his first basketball game!!! Alan was still sleeping as it was getting time to go to the game, so we waited until he woke up from his nap and then rushed over. Much to Scott's dismay, we missed part of the first half. But the truly unfortunate news is that Alan was still in his half sleepy/groggy state when we got there. He had no idea what was going on and the loud buzzers and cheering totally freaked him out. Now he's never had any problem at all at football games... he even used to sleep when we were there. But once things calmed down and he had a chance to get used to everything, he was fine. By the 2nd half he was having a ball.

It turned out to be a good game. We won by almost double. Looks like our basketball team is pretty good this year. My favorite part may have been the half time show, though. It started out with clips from the football season, then Bronco and Harvey, and it was just fun to celebrate after a great season. Then the ultimate highlight was the performance of "Jean's Golden Girls." Priceless. It's this group of over 100 women from age 50-93 that come out and dance to B52's "Love Shack" They collectively have 480 children, 1170 grandchildren, 250 great-grandchildren,and 2 great-great grandchildren. And the best part is at the end when the 93 year old solos and starts doing high kicks and splits. Literally amazing. Props to these women. This picture is one from the Daily Herald, where you can also read about them and see a video!

The Price of Fame?

I was visiting the BYU homepage last week, and was surprised to find a link to a BusinessWeek article discussing BYU's success at generating startup companies. The article reports:

One entrepreneur is Eliot Jacobsen, a partner at a venture fund called RocketFuel in Salt Lake City. He plans to license an e-mail encryption technology that he discovered through the program.

The email encryption technology being referred to is work being done in the Internet Security Research Lab, where I work at BYU! Although I haven't contributed much to the system, I do know those who have.

Our advisor remembered one of BYU's most famous contributions: fizzy yogurt technology. Perhaps one day we could enjoy similar success.

How should one face impending fame? :-)

Christmas Break 2009

We went to Oregon this year for Christmas and had a wonderful time with the Robertsons! Here are a few highlights of our trip!

Ok, so this one is actually from before we left. We let Alan open a few gifts from his grandparents before we went to Oregon, as we were a little short on room in the suitcases. As you can see he was thrilled with his gifts.

3 boys reading the paper. Are you impressed we managed to take the picture before Alan got the newspaper in his mouth?

Look who came on Christmas Eve!

Christmas Morning.

Skyping with my family.

Alan had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa Robertson.

We also laid down new flooring in the kitchen when we were there.
Before.

During. Alan was a huge help. :)

After. :) It actually turned out pretty good and wasn't even that hard. Certainly a doable project.

Alan pretty much perfected the art of sitting up in Oregon. He still topples every once in a while- if he hears something interesting behind him or if he gets sleepy. He's getting better at toppling forward and landing on his stomach though.

Baby George and Baby Alan! They got along really well.

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!