Christmas Lights!

We try to go to temple square every year!  I just love the feeling of walking in TONS of lights.  Of course there are not as many as in the past, but it is still a spectacular sight and brings back good childhood memories.  I LOVE the Christmas season.  

Here is our family picture from Temple Square this year!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!!!!

We rode TRAX to Temple Square! Taelin thought it was the COOLEST thing ever! She talks about riding a bus to school all the time, so in a way this was like riding the bus to her! : )

 Taelin loved finding all of the baby Jesus statues around the square! And actually watched the Nativity Story!!!

The air quality wasn't the best the night we were there, it looked super foggy! In some of the pictures it looks like it is snowing, but it really is the fog. But is was still beautiful! 

Things we have been up to!

 Danny Ran the Ragnar in Vegas this October! 

 Val, Shayla, and Myself were the support crew! (the non runners!)

 Fun in the SNOW!

 Zucchini Multi Grain Muffins! 

 Halloween! Bettle Juice and his little Fairy Princess! Brick WAS a dinosaur!

 Brick had stitches for the first time! On his upper left forehead! 

 Coloring on each other with dry erase markers! 

 My first Apple Pie

 WE LOVE THE SNOW!!!!

This snow man was half bent over by the time we were home from church!

A long lost picture of family!

Grandma Bitter!
  This picture is for you! To me it looks like Howard, but I see similarities of Brick in there too! The little boy is ADORABLE! Good luck deciding who it is!

 Natalie

What we've been up to!

Soooo.... Officially Today for our family was the last day of Summer!  (Danny Started School Today) We have had a busy and fun summer!
This Summer we decided to buy season passes to Seven Peaks Water Park.  Taelin and Brick were both still free so it wasn't too expensive.  We went swimming almost everyday for at least two hours, so I feel we got our moneys worth out of the passes! Brick and Taelin loved the Wave Pool, Lazy River, Tad-pool pond, and the Splash pool for kids.  Over the summer,Taelin has become a really confident swimmer.  She still can't do it on her own, she wears a life vest, but she understands now to mover her arms and her legs to get to places she wants to go.  By the end of the summer she was zipping from one slide to another in the Tad-pool ponds with mom and dad watching her of course.  She LOVES the slides!  They whip her around so fast, sometimes it makes her think if she wants to go again, but without fail she goes again! Brick also loved going on the slides, chilling in his tube in the Lazy River.  Brick was sooo funny.  He would walk around to all the different kids and moms who were playing in the Wave Pool and give them this cute little look and sit down by them... I think it was his way of flirting! : ) Gotta love that kid he is adorable!  Mom go to work on her tan for the first time in years and Daddy got to dive into the fake waves wishing he was at the Beach in CA!
  Our Next Summer adventure was the LUNA Family Reunion! We had a Blast this year! The weather wasn't too hot or too cold.  The sun would shine until about 3:00 and then it would start raining!!!!!  The Mud was a new addition to my experiences in Luna.  The kids loved it! Brick would run from puddle to puddle and jump in! Good thing that he was wearing a brown outfit that day!  Taelin came running back to the house one day, and slipped and landed on her face in the mud... It was Sad, but funny at the same time!
   This year in Luna, we all HAD to use the Port o Potty or the OUT HOUSE!!!!!  Ahhhh.... these both are my worst nightmares! I always have visions a a spider biting my rear or something creepy.  I finally overcame my fears and decided it was time to just do it.  So I walked over to the Out House thinking to my self what if someone walked up to it while I was in there.   There isn't a door on it, well a full door.  The existing cover is a piece of wood that is about 4 feet tall that you slide back and forth.  And just as I am about four yards away  I look up from the ground to see Danny's Cousin Corrie with a look on her face that described what I was thinking!  hehehe we both were startled and started to laugh.  Anyway, note to self, ALWAYS look from the house to see if the Out House is in USE!!!  Taelin loved the out house it had a little spot just for her.  Actually it would fit three people at the same time if you were up for it! ( GROSS!)
 Luna had much more to offer than mud and Out Houses! We went to the rogers place and shot guns, the excursion to the BOX was fun especially on the way  home! As soon as we arrived to the Box, it started to thunder and rain.  We eventually decided that we should head back and glad we did...  The river was starting to rise, making the ground muddy and hard for some of the vehicles to get out.  We had a great time.  This year we did a zip line over a pond/lake.  My sister-in-law Megan and I were talking about how we had a weak grip and were uneasy about going on the zip line.  Megan went first out of the girls and what did she do.....  she SLIPPED off of the handle bar and smacked the ground!!!!  I was next and let me tell you, I didn't really feel like going at the moment.  I finally did and it was fun, but I didn't need to do it again.  : )
   This year in Luna I walked four miles every morning.  By the end of the week, I was jogging and walking.  It is such a beautiful place down there...  Some mornings, the clouds were still on the road and when you finally got to them if would feel like mist was in the air.  I loved it, so did Brick!  Luna overall was a success this year! We all had a good time and no one in our family was sick!!!!

Our next adventure was to Cayucos California.  We try to make it out to visit my dad at least once a year.  He lives in a little beach town where it is about 65 degrees every day and Beautiful! We love going there! Our visit this year was just pure relaxation! We didn't make any plans and just went with the flow of things! We went to the tide pools, had lunch on the beach! My Step-mom makes some of  the best Sandwiches on the Planet!!!!  Watched Danny freeze in the water with my brother Michael in the ocean.  Watched the seals off the Pier, had a bonfire and smores on the beach.  We went to the Farmer's Market in San Louse, Sooo fun! It is amazing how many people gather at this Farmer's Market every Thursday! The lines for food are soo  long and well worth the wait.  One of our favorite treats is the Roasted Corn.  So delicious! This year my brother discovered GUM Alley!!! It is an alley was that over the years people have added their gum to.  The gum layer is about 12 feet hight and 2 inches thick.  It is sooo gross!!!  We had soo much fun that we didn't want to leave, but of course vacations can't last forever.  The night after we got home, Taelin had a hard time going to bed.  All of the sudden she started to SOB!  I love my Grandpa Doug sooo much.  It was so adorable! This year Taelin had a special relationship with Grandpa Doug.  Every morning when she woke up she wanted to see him and then in the afternoon, she wanted to take him some cookies, etc...  To help her go to sleep, we called and left him a message!  Needless to say we can't wait for our next adventure to Grandpa Doug's house in the Beautiful Cayucos California.

Our next and final Adventure of the Summer was to Diamond Bar, California to visit my Mom.  The first two days we spent in San Clemente in the Condo...  It is right off of the beach! The first day the shore was made up of Rocks! What happened to the Sand?  We still played and luckly rocks are some of Bricks favorite things.  We all had  a good time..  The water was still cold, 57 degrees, Grandpa Briant got in caught a wave and came out! That was good enough for him! : )  Brick would sit on the Boogie Board and when the surf would come up to us I would take him for a ride, He had fun until a second surf came over the top of his board and got him we in the face!  Taelin learned the hard way that you don't walk out to where the water is to fill your bucket, you wait for the water to come to you! She was tumbled a couple of times the first day.  Then she had me fill the bucket with water. The second day at the beach was Awesome! The Sand was back! We also found a different spot that had better waves.  This time I went into the water.  It was a blast! The waves were perfect! By the end of the afternoon thought the waves were getting so strong that I was feeling a little DONE! Getting flipped around in HUGE waves is not fun!  The rest of our Stay in Diamond Bar seemed to go by too fast! We love California and would probably live there if we could afford it!

We had a blast this Summer and are sad to see it go we had so much free time with Danny! Having him all to ourselves every morning was the best! The kids still miss him during his busy school days.  As Taelin puts it in her really sad voice "I just love my Daddy soooo much!"  The first thing Brick wants in the A.M. is some breakfast and then Daddy!  It's cute!

We are expecting our third little addition to our family! The little one will join us around May 1st 2011! We are excited! So far the pregnancy has been totally different! I get sick on and off, but not as sick as some that I know! Taelin is so cute! When I went into the Dr's office to confirm my pregnancy, Danny stayed in the car with the kids.  Taelin was scared that I was sick and had to see the Dr.  When Danny told her that I was going to see if we were going to have another baby, she got all sad and said "But I LOVE my baby Brick!"  Danny had to explain to her that we were going to keep baby Brick but also get another one! She is so assertive and cute!  We as a family are excited for this new addition and can't wait to see what it will be.  We are not finding out at the ultra sound!   Thanks for reading!

The Birthday Girl!

Taelin my little baby girl! Turned THREE yesterday! I can't believe that she has grown up soo fast! It really does feel like I had her just a little while ago.  Non the less I am not OLD enough to have a THREE year old! It is crazy how fast life goes by, but it is SOOO rewarding!!!!  I love my kids and couldn't imagine a life with out them.

A month ago we started talking about Taelin's birthday coming up.  She thought we said that her birthday was  "coming out" So ever since we talked about it she says " My birthday is coming out on June 10th " So cute!  She let me know that she wanted a Pink birthday.  Taelin has also been in love with dressing up like a princess so we combined the two and had a Prince and Princess party at the Robertson Castle. 

  Danny and I went around to Costco and RC Willey and collected boxes.  Danny assembled them together and then cut windows and doorways then we painted them pink and purple the night before the party!  They looked pretty good in the dark, and were wondering what they were going to look like in the light?!  Surprisingly it turned out pretty good.

We had pink, purple, and white table cloths, balloons, and pink Cotton Candy!  My Young Woman's leader from my home ward growing up let us use her Cotton Candy machine! It was a blast! Of course we had to test it out the day before to make sure it was going to taste all right! ; )  And of course it did! Who wouldn't like colored sugar?  Danny was the Candy Spinner.  All we needed was a Clown outfit and it would have been perfect!

Each child was given a gift bag full of royal treasures upon their carriages arrival.  Each Princess received; a Princess hat, earrings, a necklace, a bracelet, a ring pop, and a wand.   Each Prince received a sword and a ring pop and crown.

For our royal food, we had milk & cookies, grapes, bananas, and strawberries.  Then of course we had to have a Cake worthy of a Princess. ( I found a cute idea for a cake online. ) Cinderella's carriage!  I think that it turned out pretty good. 

We played two games a water balloon challenge, they had to carry a water balloon on a soup spoon to the table without it falling off the spoon. The older kids actually were able to do it and asked how to make it harder.  I then said walk faster! : )  it was fun! They had a good time breaking the balloons.

Then we played Red Rover! It was a little too grown up for the younger kids, but I think they had fun for the most part.  Ring-a-round the Rosie.  The kids seemed to have a good time.  Then we sang happy birthday had food and opened presents.  Then the kids went and played some more! Taelin was soo tired that night! It was great! She and Brick went right to sleep!  It was a good day! 

  Thank you EVERYONE for making this a SPECIAL day for Taelin! 

                                                   She loved it!!!

This was the after party! The kids filled up the cooler with water and had a BLAST cooling off!

Easter!!!

Taelin totally loved Easter this year! We went to Macey's Grocery store on Friday and had our nose painted and bunny ears made and pictures taken with the Easter Bunny.  Taelin totally loved it. Brick loved getting his face painted too! They had a mirror for him to look into and he loved it. Brick however wouldn't let go of Dad's arm and was whimpering, totally scared of the Easter Bunny!  Then we walked around the store finding different animal signs.  When you find one, you are supposed to tell the Macey's worker what sound the animal makes to get an egg.  Taelin was SHY!???  Where did this come from??? little miss talk your ear off!  SHY is totally out of her character. She is adorable! 

Saturday, we went to Mountain View High School for their Egg Hunt! Aunt Maile and Uncle Michael met us there to share in the excitement! It was fun to be there, but it was FREEZING! When they finally said said go! All of the kids AND PARENTS ran out onto the field and the PARENTS filled their kids baskets with eggs.  Taelin didn't get one Egg.  : ( Bummer...   I guess Mountain View has really good prizes like bikes etc... so the parents are all for filling their kids baskets...  There were kids younger than Taelin that had a full basket of eggs.  Oh well we had a good time and Taelin was perfectly happy with her Salt Water Taffy! 
   Then it was onto the Provo Easter Egg Hunt! This one is always a little more fun! It isn't as crowded! They have ages 2 and under in one area and older kids in another area so the little kids are more likely to get eggs.  Maile and Michale Hunted with Brick and I went with Taelin.  It was a blast we ran for the golden egg... but once again a parent grabbed it and put it in their kid's basket about a yard ahead of us! Oh well, we immediately switched course and Taelin began to pick up the eggs and put them in her basket!  It was FREEZING and a BLAST! We hurried and left.  At home we made Waffles and Whipped Cream and Sausage and had Strawberries and Orange Juice! Michael and Maile joined us for breakfast too! It is always good to spend time with family! Sooo fun!!! 

   After Breakfast we went to pick up Grandma Bitter and headed out to Uncle Jerry's house for his Easter Lunch and Hunt!  Jerry and Laurie have their very own Chickens... They lay eggs for them and everything it was really neat to see.  They had a few baby chicks in their house and Taelin and Brick couldn't get enough of them.  Brick kept hanging on to the edge of the Tub they were in and trying to grab one if not get in with them.  They were sooo cute!  Cheep Cheep ...  The food was great and the Hunt was a blast!  They have a huge yard and had eggs everywhere....  Some in plain sight and others were hidden under the dead grass, plants, etc...  Taelin and Brick had a great time looking for them.  By now the weather was quite nice! Which was a plus! Taelin didn't find the GOLDEN Egg that is full of money! But she did find six eggs that had nickles in them! She was so delighted to put the money in her very own piggy bank! Then finally we headed home to put the kids down for their naps and for me to listen to conference while I finished getting dinner ready!
  While Danny was at Priesthood session.  I went to Grandma Bitters and sewed these cute Crayon holders. That are made of felt! I made a Crayon or Pencil holder for Taelin to use at Church and a Car one for Brick.  Now I just have to buy him some Hot Wheels or barrow some from Grandma Robertson's house. 

  

Sunday Easter Morning was a blast! Taelin came and sat with us in bed at about 8 and then brick woke up and we just played in bed for a while (the kids love playing with Daddy!) Then Taelin remembered the Easter Bunny was supposed to come, and went looking for her basket! She was sooo excited! She got a new Aurora Cell phone and a egg cup with a straw and a princess kite etc.... she loved it. 

Brick also loved his basket he got a golfing set with three balls and clubs he has been playing with it all day.  He also got a new Binky since he lost one at the store the other day!  Candy Candy Candy!  The Kids, Mom and Dad have all had their fare share today! Now it is time for Mom to be good! : )  (and Not eat anymore).

Today the kids did pretty good at doing their own activities so that mom and dad could watch conference.  It was a great day/weekend.  Holidays are so much more exciting with kids.  : )  I love Brick and Taelin soo much and can't believe how fast they are growing up! It's amazing how they change from day to day.  Taelin always wakes up with something new to say or do.  I look at them both and it feels like they were just infants in my arms days ago!   Thanks for reading and We hope that you also had a great Holiday weekend!

  We also got to go to the Knicks VS Jazz game! Thanks Auntie! We had a blast and were on the fifth row!!!  Great seats! One of the people we sat next to has been a season ticket holder for 30 plus years in the same seat! He was great to sit next to!

An Almost Perfect Morning!

Last night I had my family over for dinner Auntie, Grandma, My Brother and his Girlfriend and me and the kids! It was a blast to see them and just to eat dinner together! As everyone went home it started to snow!!! I LOVE the snow! It is so beautiful! I love listening to it fall and breathing in the fresh crisp air and I love the smell! YES snow has a smell. After putting the kids to bed I enjoyed shoveling the driveway and side walk reminiscing about my childhood! We shoveled a lot when I was younger. It seems like it doesn't snow as much anymore. Anyway, I made a perfect boundary to our yard! You know when you push the shovel up against the snow bank and it makes a rounded edge! I used to do it all the time when younger, now with kids, I don't usually have that much time when shoveling. Needless to say I had a BLAST! I even made a snowman! (not the one in the picture!) He is in there though.  We used his body parts to start new ones for this one!

This morning I really wanted to play in the snow, so I called my sister-in-law to see if the they wanted to play
as well. I was in luck they were headed out to build a snowman. Perfect! Amanda, Logan and Scott came over to our house and we built one together. The snow was a little dryer than it had been the night before, but it worked out perfectly. Scott built a fort!!! Now we just need to have a snowball fight! Anyway.... Here are some pictures of our ALMOST PERFECT morning! It would have been a PERFECT MORNING if Danny could have been there. Some day he will have a job with normal hours! But hey we are grateful for a good job, with a GREAT boss!!! :)

Tomorrow Brick turns ONE!!! I can't believe it! He was just born, my baby is all grown up! He is walking and trying to talk. It's cute how he walks around babbling things! ADORABLE! His forehead is always covered in bruises! Poor guy. He always seems to fall into a corner of some sort. He is going to have all sorts of scars on his head! We celebrated the other day with my Mom and Briant at Brick Oven! He LOVED his Pasta!

After dinner we went to Danny's basketball game! He didn't win, but we still had fun cheering. Then we had Cake! Brick was asleep so we sang to him and Taelin blew out the candle. As we finished, he woke up so we did a re-do. He was up for a little while and opened his present from G & G Buckwalter. He LOVES it! It is a singing tool bench. You get to hit different buttons with hammer and lights go off etc... Taelin loves it too!

Anyway... We love our children soo much and are grateful for these opportunities to make memories with them! I hope that all is well with you and I will try to keep you updated on our lives!