All I want for Christmas...

is my one front tooth.

Robby finally lost his first tooth last night.  He has been claiming he had loose teeth for over a year now, so it was pretty exciting when he actually lost one.  It has been close to coming out for a week, but last night I couldn't stand it anymore and finally just pulled it out.  He was so excited that he lost it and even more excited this morning when he saw that the toothfairy had come.  Being 6 is so much fun.

Now Robby and Zoe are having a race to see who can grow a front tooth the fastest.  Any bets?

I was trying to get a good picture of the missing tooth last night, and I had to post a bunch of the pictures I took.  That is definitely my goofy Robby.



Oh, and because I am behind, last Saturday, we watched Polar Express for movie night.  Emily came and watched with us.  We ate pizza and then train cupcakes.  They were yummy.

My decorating skills aren't the best, but I should have lots of chances to improve.  I get the feeling cupcakes will be the treat a lot.  They are just really easy to decorate so that they can go along with any movie.

Basketball Star

For the last couple of months, Robby has been playing basketball.  The city has a league and since this is his first year, it is basically just run like a basketball camp, except they go twice a week for a couple of months.

Robby is really not an athlete, but we didn't ever expect he would be, not with his genes.  I am so proud of him though.  He improved so much in those couple of months.  He listened to his coach, he learned a lot, and he had fun.  He loved it and really, that is all that matters.  Thursday was the last day and as soon as it was over he informed me that he can't wait until next year.

Here he is, shooting a layup.



Oh, and by the way, that shot did go in.

Gingerbread House

We have always thought that it would be fun to build a gingerbread house and so this year, we actually did it.  We cheated and bought a kit with pre-made gingerbread, but we had a lot of fun.  I think this might just be our newest holiday tradition.  Maybe next year we will even try to make one from scratch, or maybe not.

Here is Kirk and Robby building the structure of the house.

Robby loved decorating it.

One of the few pictures you will see of me since I am always the one behind the camera.

And here it is, our finished work of art.  I need to work on my piping skills just a little, but hey I've got lots of years ahead of me to master it.

Thanksgiving

Wow, I am a little behind and have a lot to blog about.

Thanksgiving was great.  I have so much to be thankful for right now: a wonderful husband who loves me and does more for me than I could ever expect, a son who makes me laugh and makes me proud every single day, a daughter that is the answer to prayers and truly brings so much joy to our home, parents who love me and are the absolute greatest, the best little sister who I am now able to spend so much more time with. wonderful in laws, a beautiful home, my husbands job which he loves and that allows us to have the things we need, great friends, and so much more.  I am so blessed and thankful for so much.

Thanksgiving was great.  We had it at our house.  My family and Kirk's parents came.   We had good food (well except for the stuffing, I am still on a quest for the perfect stuffing recipe), and a lot of fun.   Then on Friday, I went Black Friday shopping with Emily.  That has become a tradition for us and I love it.  We are never too serious about it, we just go to have fun, but we were relatively successful this year, which is nice too.

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving.

Robby and Zoe with Grandpa

Our turkey, which was honestly the best turkey I have ever eaten, yum!

Robby made these cute little buckets for everyone's napkins and silverware to go into.  He worked so hard on them and they turned out so cute!

Busy, Busy Saturday

Today was a crazy day.  I got up early this morning and went out with Zoe and my sister, Emily.  We met up with some of my aunts and cousins to drop off some cabbage patch kids we had refurbished for a service project.  Then we all went to lunch at Olive Garden.  It was fun to see everyone, but taking Zoe anywhere in the car is exhausting.  She slept all the way there and was an angel the whole time we were there.  But, as soon as we got in the car to come home, she started crying.  She cried all the way home, which was about an hour and a half.  She hates being in her car seat so much, I don't know what to do for her.  If anyone has any brilliant ideas, let me know.

While we were gone, Kirk and Robby had a bit of a boys day.  They went to a primary activity in the morning to practice for the primary program.  Then they went to lunch and to Home Depot.  When they got back, Kirk spent most of the day installing a humidifier for our house.  He did a great job and I am really excited about it.  Robby thought that it was great that he got to spend the day just with dad.  

We had movie night tonight, but it wasn't a very exciting one since I didn't have anytime to get it together.  We watched Star Wars, Episode V, which means we only have one more Star Wars to watch.  I like Star Wars, but I am ready to move on to something else.  I didn't even take the time to make a cool treat for tonight.  Robby had some cereal straws that he had been wanting to try, so I just gave him one of those and told him it was a light saber.  He wasn't all that impressed.  Next week I will have to do better.

Movie Night - Star Wars Episode 4

Today was another great Saturday in our house.

Our routine was disrupted a little, but it was for good things.  A family that we are good friends with adopted a little girl and they had her sealed to them and blessed today, so we went to the blessing.  It was so great to be a part of that experience with them.  It is wonderful to think that in just a couple of months we will be doing that with Zoe.  I can't wait.

After the blessing, Robby went to a birthday party and had a blast.

Once all that was done, we dove into our usual Saturday routine, linner out, run some errands, and movie night.

Tonight's movie was Star Wars Episode 4.  For a treat, I made Death Star Red Velvet Cake Truffle Balls.  (Yes, I do realize that they look nothing like the Death Star, but I really wanted to try them and I needed some way to tie them in.)

I got the instructions for the cake balls from the Bakerella blog. They were kind of a pain to make, but they were fun.  They were pretty tasty too.

Robby loved them too.  He said that the only problem with them is that they are so small that you want to eat a ton.  I guess they were a hit.

High School Musical 3

When Robby is a teenager, he is going to hate me for posting this, but maybe he'll forgive me.

Robby is very big fan of High School Musical.  He saw the first one when he was four and loved it.  For a few months, he watched one of the two almost daily and he still goes to sleep at night listening to the soundtracks.

Saturday, Robby was feeling better and we wanted to do something fun.  We had avoided going to the theater to see HSM3 because honestly, the thought of a theater full of excited tween girls, well, rated somewhere after going to the dentist on the fun meter.  But we figured that enough time had passed that it wouldn't be to bad so we gave in.

The theater wasn't very full and the movie was pretty good.  I thought it was much better than the second one and maybe even a little better than the first.  Robby liked it, Kirk thought it was the best movie ever made (ok, I made that one up), and even Zoe enjoyed it.  It was nap-time for her, but she didn't sleep.  She just sat on my lap and stared wide-eyed at the screen.

All in all, we enjoyed it and it was definitely fun, after a few days of sick kid, to just enjoy the time together.

Halloween Part 2

We finally did end up doing a little trick or treating.

Robby had been feeling a little bit better all Halloween afternoon and had a hard time deciding if he wanted to go trick or treating or not.  Finally, about five minutes before the start of the ward trunk-or-treat he decided he felt good enough to go out.  So, I had 5 minutes to get them both ready.

The last couple of years, Robby has insisted on wearing something "Halloweeny" for his costume.  Last year he was a skeleton, this year he decided to be a ghost, and he is already talking about possibly Frankenstein for next Halloween.  I decided to just keep it simple and dress Zoe up as a ghost too.

Last weekend, when we went trick-or-treating downtown, Robby had his face painted white and his costume looked pretty cool.  We just didn't have time to paint his face this time, not to mention that since he was sick, he did not have the patience to sit still and let me do it.  So, his costume didn't look quite as cool, but I still think we had two pretty good looking ghosts.

Robby walked around the church parking lot, got a little candy, and then was ready to come home.  That totally did him in.  I think the fresh air did him good though and he has been feeling much better ever since.  We are all just glad he got to celebrate Halloween a little bit.

Halloween at Our House

This is what Halloween looks like at our house this year.

Robby has been sick for the last couple of days. Yesterday he stayed home from school. He missed a field trip. Today he missed his school Halloween party. We had all sorts of fun plans for today, but instead, we are just staying home in our pajamas and watching a movie. Poor thing. I feel so sorry for him; what a terrible time to be sick. He has stayed pretty positive through it all though and I do think he is starting to feel better.

Robby has never been a napper, but being sick his poor body definitely needs the sleep.  Even being sick, he still couldn't manage to fall asleep on the couch.  I left the room for a while and when I came back, I found him here, asleep on the floor, sprawled over the pillow, with his head resting on the tile.  It couldn't have been comfortable, but at least he got some sleep.

Luckily, last weekend, the city had trick or treating downtown, so Robby and Zoe got to wear their costumes and do a little Halloweening.  Of course, I didn't take any pictures because I thought I would do them all today.  Oh well, they are both going to have to get in their costumes one day next week so I can at least get some cute pictures.

Here is a picture of Zoe on Halloween.

I didn't put her costume on her since we aren't going anywhere, but I at least had to put a spider in her hair to make her somewhat festive.