Christmas with the Robinsons

We went to Idaho for Christmas this year and had a wonderful time. It was a short but well worth trip. We finally closed on our house on Christmas Eve!! That was a great Christmas present to Cam and I! We are house shopping and looking at our first one here in Riverton tonight, we are so excited.

The great thing about going to Idaho for Christmas is all the cousins. I love that my kids enjoy being with their cousins, they have so much fun. This year was especially fun because we had Crystal, Melanie and their families sleeping over.

Cameron's mom made the kids pj's and they all looked so cute, she did a wonderful job. It looked like a toy land Christmas morning, there were 8 kids that were on the good list this year:)

It was a very full filling Christmas and so good to be with family.

Here is what the kids got from Santa:

Austin-soccer goal set and 40 yu-gi-oh cards

Greta-a doll house that I even love to play with

Alina-a barbie princess castle vanity

The kids were spoiled rotten, they got all that plus what we got them. Cameron was also spoiled rotten, he got a Wii for Christmas and you can tell by the photo he was surprised. I've been keeping that a secret for over 4 months, it was so hard!!! I did it though:) My dad and brothers all had a bet going on if I could keep the secret or not, I did, so there!!:) Cameron also got me a ruby necklace, it's beautiful and I love it.

Christmas with the Egans

The kids got to open up their presents early with my family. They were so excited and could hardly wait until church got over.

Austin got the coolest Yu-Gi-Oh card holder with about 400 new cards in it from Grandma and Grandpa and a basketball arcade game from Tessa and Kevin.

Greta got a Bella dance video and she tried it out right then and loved it! Her and Alina put on their princess dresses and danced all over. She also got a puppy in a purse from Tess and Kev.

Alina got a toy piano with a microphone from G-ma and G-pa. She's such a little performer. She also got a puppy in a purse from Tessa and Kevin.

Caden and Carson opened up their presents from Tessa and Kevin so they wouldn't be left out. We got Caden the "Pizza Elmo" it sings the most annoying song, but it's really cute, the pizza even sings and Caden loved it. He also got blocks from Tessa and Kevin.

It was great, family time is awesome!!!

Temple Square

We haven't been to Temple Square at Christmas time for about 3 years. It was nice to have kids old enough to not have to worry about the cold as much, and they could all walk on their own.

There were so many people there. It's nice to know that so many people in Utah even if they aren't mormons can appreciate the beauty of Temple Square. We love to go there and love the spirit that we felt.

Cameron took some great pictures!

Home Alone

Alina watched Home Alone for the first time and when it was over I asked her if she liked it and what happened in the movie. Here is what she said, in her own words.....

Boy Home Alone
monster came (bad guys)
boy screamed AHHHHH (she put her hands on her face just like the famous scream)
boy hide in room

Her little scream caught me off guard, it was so cute. We now ask her to do the scream all the time. It's so adorable, look and see for yourself..... However it's sideways and no matter what I do I can't change it.

Our Newest Christmas Tradition

I went to our Relief Society dinner and this tradition was shared with all of us. Luckily a friend of mine in the ward is very good with wood and she made me this manger. It's perfect in it's simplicity. The idea is that you bring out the manger and a bag of straw after Thanksgiving. For every good deed done and for every act of service you get to put a piece of straw in the manger. The goal is to get the manger as soft as possible for baby Jesus to be lain it Christmas morning. My kids are on fire with doing good deeds. It's really been a blessing. They also had a lot of fun picking out a doll to represent baby Jesus. Alina takes the doll everywhere and makes sure he always has his blanket.

Here is the poem that goes with this tradition:

The season for giving is coming

Is the Spirit in your home this year?

If the Christ Child were coming to visit

Would He find you have room for Him there?

The way to add Christ to your Christmas

Is to live as He asked us to do.

Feed the hungry and cheer up the lonely

Act with kindness the whole season through.

For each good deed add straw to His manger,

And soften the small Christ Child's bed.

"When you've done it to one of the least of these

You have done it to me," He has said.

Soon your heart will find joy in the giving,

And your manger will fill up with hay.

You'll have room in your home for the Savior

As His love rests with you Christmas Day.

Special Visitor

Austin, Greta, Alina, Caden, and Carson had a big surprise tonight......Santa came to see them. They all sent a letter to him about 2 weeks ago. They have been patiently waiting for a letter back from him, but he surprised them with a visit. He told them that he only visits the very best behaved children and they made the list.

The all sat on his lap, except Greta and Alina had to have dad there too. He remembered their lists and also knew all about what they were doing in their life. He even gave them a bit of advice on how to improve on some behaviors.:)

Austin is a true believer. Santa brought him a pack of Yu-Gi-Oh cards and every single card in the deck was a new card to his 500+ collection. He's never gotten a deck that didn't have at least 3 duplicates. It even had a card with a tiger on it, his favorite animal. He was astounded, so were we:)

He brought Greta and Alina matching cases of makeup. We are in for some fun. Alina got into Greta's makeup from her birthday and oiled her whole head with body glitter. I've washed her hair 3 times and I can't get the glitter or oily look out. We'll see how it goes with the new makeup.

Caden got a book and Carson got a teether. Caden wasn't scared at all, he even gave Santa a high five when he left.

It was so much fun! To make it even more magical 2 minutes before he showed up it started snowing. We already have a good 4 inches!

The kids can hardly wait for Christmas, they are going to be very happy with what Santa has in store for them Christmas morning.

There are 3 more posts after this one. I've been really busy this week and didn't have time to get them on every day so scroll down:)

Living Nativity

We had the opportunity to see a live nativity last night. It was so amazing! A stake in Draper has done it for the last 7 years and we just found out about it this year. We were lucky to find out, yesterday was the last day.

The costumes were amazing. Everyone played their part very well. There were shephards herding sheep in the field we walked by. The wiseman were looking for the star. And then they had a building set up to be just like Bethlehem. They had merchants, beggers, and someone telling us there was no room in the inn. Then we got to baby Jesus. They had a real newborn baby that was quietly sleeping. Everyone was very reverent and the Spirit was very strong. The kids just stared, we held up the line for a good 5 minutes. It was one of the best Christmas experiences we have ever had.

Gingerbread House

We made our first gingerbread house on Tuesday! The kids had more fun eating the candy then putting it on the house. It turned out great! We have to watch Alina closely though, she moves chairs around to sneak a taste!

Snow!!!!

On December 1st we got our first major snow storm. It was a great way to start December. Shan-the kids were so upset you missed it, only by a few hours. Did you see snow falling while you were flying back to New York?

We went to Matthew and Melinda's to build a snowman. Alina just laid flat on her tummy and ate snow the entire time. Then she found a raquet to pick up the snow with and munch on it that way. Her little face was so red, but she loved it!

Caden and Alina went to the backyard and turned on the water faucet and there was still a bit of water coming out so they thought it would be fun to take a little shower. Then we heard screaming because their hands were so cold. Those two, they can't be left alone for a second, they are both devious, but adorable!

Austin and Greta loved the snow, they never complained about being cold, it was a beautiful day that was perfect!

Doesn't my nephew Carson look adorable all bundled up! He's the most content baby I have ever seen. He just sat there and watched us play and smiled everytime we looked at him. He's adorable.

We all had some hot chocolate afterwards that Alina spilled all down the front of her so we got to see the naked dance the rest of the time we were there!

It snowed so much! We were so glad to have snow this winter, we missed it last winter! And it's snowing again right now!!

Enchanted

My sister Shannon and I took the kids to see "Enchanted" last week on Greta's birthday. The girls wore their princess outfits and put makeup on. Austin even got out of school early.

The movie was so cute, very cheesy, but a great movie. Even Alina sat through the whole thing and she never sits through anything. Go take your kids to see it, it's great!

Happy Birthday Princess Greta!

Greta is 4 today!! I can hardly believe it. She is so excited to be 4, but frusterated that she's not older than Austin today:)

We had a brithday party for Greta on Thanksgiving since it was easy to have everyone there. With us moving this weekend we didn't want her to miss out on having a party. We will be doing a friend party sometime next week.. She has requested a Cinderella cake, we'll see what I can do.

Luckily Greta didn't wake me up for her present on the table at 4am like Austin, she kindly waited until 6am! I made her crawl into bed with us and she slept until 8am. As you can see from the pictures she wasn't too happy at first, but she lightened up later!

The princess dress she is wearing is from Aunt Shan and Greta loves it. It's acutally a brides dress and she always wants to wear it. Alina of course has to dress up with her.

Happy Birthday Greta!!!

O' Christmas Tree

Christmas is almost here and we are so excited! We finally got the tree up. This year is going to be so fun because all of our kids are old enough to be excited and anticipating every little part of Christmas!

We all went to a free showing of "Stalking Santa" Monday night. It wasn't really a show for kids, but we kept the popcorn coming so they were happy. I recommend watching it, it proves that Santa is real:)

It's not even December and we are finished with our Christmas shopping! I'm so glad! Cam and I went shopping on "Black Friday" and we got lots of great deals, it was fun!

Here are the kids lists, they requested I put them on:

Austin:

YU-GI-Oh CARDS!!!

Soccer goal

Baseball glove and mitt

Picture of Jesus (Greta asked for this first and the other 2 followed)

A toy castle

Any kind of Lion, Tiger or Liger toy (his favorite animals)

$50.00 (it was $20.00 and he thought he needed more)

Greta:

Doll house

Picture of Jesus

My Little Ponies

Princess dress

Princess cash register

Barbies

Princess clock

Makeup

Alina:

A puppy (this is what she asks for every time, we are NOT getting a puppy!)

princess dress

Anything pink or black (her words)

BARBIES (what she really wants)

Play food

makeup

I think the kids will be happy this year with their loot! I can't wait!! And to my husband Cam, I got you the BEST present ever! Only 26 more days until you can open it!!!

V.I.P.

Every Friday Austin's class has a V.I.P for 1 week. Austin is it for this week. Last week he made a poster of all his favorite things and he got to take it to school to show his class. He also got to bring anything else he wanted so the kids can get to know him better. He chose to bring in his favorite teddy bear for everyone to see, his favorite dinosaur book he got from his birthday and his sisters. Greta and Alina were very excited to go to school with Austin and he was very proud to have them there with him.

His poster has his own drawings (except for the picture of the dinosaur shark that he got out of his national geographic magazine). His favorite animals are the lion and tiger. His favorite foods are pizza, watermelon and butterfingers. He also made a family tree of us. His favorite superhero is Superman. He has a Yu-Gi-Oh card for his favorite card game and his favorite colors are red and blue.

After the VIP explains their poster all the kids get to ask 1 question to them. Every single kid in that class was amazed at his drawings and all of them asked him "how did you draw that lion?" "How did you draw that tiger?!" Austin's answer was..."ahhh it was easy." He is very good at drawing for his age. He decided about a month ago that he wants to be an artist when he grows up, he's on his way!

I Hope They Call Me On a Mission

My youngest brother Ryan got his mission call yesterday. He has been called to serve in the Peru Piura mission and he leaves on January 30th.

Ryan just barely had his interview with the Stake President last Tuesday and a week later he got his call. We were expecting it to come next week so it was a big surprise for all of us, except Ryan.

With all 3 of my brothers we have played a guessing game in our family journal of where they will go and when. My dad's first guess for Ryan was Peru, but he changed his mind because a missionary from our ward got his call to Peru and never got his visa. Then shortly after that all missionaries in Peru were sent home from Peru for some reason. So my dad would've guessed right.

After he opened his call we had Cameron on one laptop and Shane on another looking up all we could about Peru. Here is some of what we found:

-Peru has over 4,000 types of potatoes. Problem is Ryan isn't very fond of potatoes!

-They also are known for the best tasting cuisine in the Americas.

-Peru has a democratic government where the citizens 18-70 have to vote.

-It's home of the legendary Inca settlement of Machu Picchu.

-Piura is the oldest spanish settlement in the Americas.

-The city is also well known for its artisans who weave straw hats and make silverware.

-Piura means "supply base" as the area was used by the Incas as a stop to get provisions during their conquest of the area's original inhabitants.

-The population in Piura is 400,000.

-Piura is also on the coast which means lots of seafood that Ryan also doesn't like:)

-A favorite dish is called Ceviche, it's a citrus marinated seafood salad and is pictured above.

-They speak Spanish and not Peruvian Shane!!:)

Ryan is so excited! He really wanted to go spanish speaking. Now we'll have Cameron, my dad, Matthew, and Ryan speaking Spanish to each other. I really need to learn it.

Peru reminds Cameron a lot of Uruguay. We are all planning on picking Ryan up after his 2 years are up.

Ryan's girlfriend Kelley came down from Utah State to see him yesterday. I think she's a little shell-shocked. Kelley also plans on going on a mission so they won't see each other for quite awhile. It'll be interesting to see what happens, we all love her and would love to have her as part of the family. In our family with girls waiting for missionaries we are 2 for 2 so there is hope Ryan and Kelley:) Except that this time it will be Ryan waiting for Kelley.

Austin can't wrap his head around the fact that when Ryan comes home he'll be 8 and baptized. He just refuses to believe me. But when Ryan was leaving for work and said bye Austin freaked out and said "he's going on his mission right now?!?" We are all really going to miss him. I can't believe my youngest brother is all grown up. He is going to be such a great missionary and do wonderful things for those in Piura Peru.