December 31, 2001 - February 21, 2002 With each tear I love you more! I miss you every day!
ouses, especially Sierra, but they turned out great. We'll see how long they last! Okay, so I'm a little backwards and a little behind. What's new?
Thanksgiving was spent in Atlanta visiting Mark's family. We left Wednesday afternoon and arrived in time to make and decorate cookies with Aunt Mary. We love Aunt Mary, and these pictures say it all. She loves my girls and does the fun things with them. I don't think anybody actually ate these cookies, but the girls had a blast making them!
Instead of having pie on Thanksgiving Day, Aunt Carol's family has a pie night on Wednesday. She had tons of people over and there were so many pies. I don't usually make it to the end of our Thanksgiving dinner with room for dessert. We started with dessert and got to pig out for 2 days!
Our Thanksgiving meal was fabulous. Mark went out with the nephews and guys in the family to play football for a few hours in the morning. Then he spent the rest of the week complaining because he's too old to play that hard! I don't think I've ever seen him take so much motrin as he did for the next week! That night his nephew came home from his mission to Mexico. We were able to meet him at the airport for a few minutes before my little ones were done for the day!
And Friday was my favorite day of the year! Mary, Mark and I got up at 3 a.m. to go shopping! I love the hustle of black Friday and the thrill of finding a good deal (even if it's on something I hadn't planned on buying!) and saving a few bucks. We got a good start on our Christmas shopping and were home before any of the girls even knew we were gone. Later, we took the girls to see Santa at the mall (more hustle and bustle!) and the older girls topped off our trip with "Twilight" with Aunt Mary. Thanks Aunt Mary for letting us invade your home. We had a great time!
Friday was my birthday. I didn't have any huge plans. Mark was planning to take the day off so that 
he could stay home with Sierra while I went out to lunch with some friends. I thought that was a great idea and with all of the kids in school for the morning we could get a little Christmas shopping done too! Plans were changed when it started to snow Thursday night. It took Mark 4 hours to get home from work and Lauren's basketball game was cancelled. Of course, we were playing in Nolensville and I made the drive home with all 4 kids in the worst part of the storm on unfamiliar roads. It was slow
going and the youngest Robertson was pretty impatient during the 2 hour drive, but we made it. Later that night school was cancelled. The girls were excited to have a long weekend and they had a great time playing outside. Lauren and Mackenzie disappeared with their neighborhood friends for several hours and Mark gave me the best birthday present of all! He took the girls out to play and I stayed inside. Sierra joined me after a few minutes, giving me the perfect excuse to sit by the fire!
You'll want to check out this awesome video and share it with your man! I actually got a vacuum cleaner for Christmas one year (because I requested it, and it was a Dyson). This is so great!
For those of you who still have Christmas shopping to do, there's a consignment sale that starts tomorrow morning. You should check it out! I just dropped off some stuff and helped out for a couple of hours. There are really a lot of good toys there--lots of new stuff still in boxes and with tags!
h birthday. One more year of primary--hard to believe! Since all of our birthdays fall around the same time of year, our party rule is that you only get a "friend" party on your even number birthday. This was not her year. The kids are out of school all week for Thanksgiving, so she had a friend over in the morning and then we went out to dinner and had family friends over for cake and ice cream.
hat the waitress had her stand up on a stool so that the entire restaurant could see her and wish her a happy birthday. She is a fun loving, very compassionate girl who loves to be with her friends. Happy birthday, sweet girl!
dian for the big event. There was turkey and ham, mashed potatoes, rolls and pumpkin pie. A fun day with all her friends! Now we are ready for a full week of vacation!
I finally caved! Mackenzie has been wanting short hair for a very long time, and this past weekend I gave in. Gotta admit, it looks pretty cute on her. Or maybe it's just the t-shirt! Let's just cross our fingers that she doesn't start acting as sassy as the haircut!
When Mark and I found out that Sierra would be going to the Early Childhood Intervention program, we were excited. Excited to finally have some answers, excited for her to get some help, excited for her to be able to return to school and make new friends. We are still really grateful and anxious to see the progress that she makes, but I think now that I am going through a grieving process of sorts. Our daughter has been diagnosed with a problem. No, it's not life threatening. But it could be life altering. Someone told me my baby isn't perfect and that hurts! I'm worried about what her future might hold and how people will perceive and treat her now that she has this label. Mark is more optimistic and really thinks that she will be fine. But when I drop her off every morning I see the other kids that are in her class and realize that she fits in. Not that these kids are bad or anything, but they're the kids you feel sorry for because of the challenges that they've been given in this life. I went to the bookstore to get a book that was recommended and was directed to the section for "children with special needs". I'll admit that I shed a tear, right there in Barnes and Noble. In fact, I've cried a lot the last week or so. I'm not ready to have my baby gone so much...I miss her! I don't like knowing that something is "wrong" and wondering what that means for her. Will she struggle to learn? Will she be "normal"? Will other kids laugh at her or treat her differently? How will this change our family? No one told me that being a mom could be so heartbreaking!
How much do you pay your babysitters? I've often asked girls that have babysat for me how much to pay them and they never seem to have an answer, or they don't want to tell me. Now that Lauren is old enough to babysit I don't have to worry, but she is getting asked by others that she sits for. Do you pay by the hour? Do you pay according to how many kids you have? If they do most of their sitting after bedtime, do you pay less? Do you pay more if the house is clean and dishes done? What's the going rate?
Yesterday it happened. I cracked! I pulled out the Christmas music and listened to it all day long while I ran errands. Nothing sets the mood for some Christmas shopping like Holiday music! I usually wait until later in the season, but this year I have wanted to pull it out since the day after Halloween. And I would have, but it took me a few days to remember where I put it last January. My favorites? I love the classics...Silent Night, Jingle Bells, O Little Town of Bethlehem. But I think my favorite is Believe by Josh Groban. And The Polar Express just happens to be one of my favorite Christmas movies. Bring on the Christmas cards!
Today Ashtyn is 6-years-old and it's hard to imagine there was ever a time when she wasn't a part of our family. Ashtyn is our little angel, our sweet little love bug who is always ready with a kiss and a hug. Ash is our "unexpected" baby and she couldn't have co
me at a better time. When I found out that I was pregnant with her, our little family was in need of some sunshine. We had just lost Austin about 6 weeks earlier and we were missing him so much. We were surprised and excited to find out that there would be another addition to our family.
The day that she was born was just like any other Saturday. Lauren and Mackenzie were playing their last soccer games of the fall season and we had spent the day at the soccer fields. I had been having some minor, sporadic contractions all day and was pretty miserable. Having just had a baby 10 months earlier, I was so worn out and huge. Mackenzie and I sat on a hill watching Lauren play soccer and I was able to pay attention to the contractions. It seemed they were more regular and a little bit painful. There were several moms on our team who were nurses, and as we left the game I asked them how close together contractions needed to be before I got concerned. I still had 6 weeks left. We decided to go home and rest and see if they would 
stop. At about 5:00 that night we decided that we should go to the hospital, thinking that we would be sent home. We weren't. Ashtyn Michelle arrived a couple hours later and weighed in at 6 lbs. 14 oz.! She had a full head of beautiful blonde hair and was perfect!
ated her birthday yesterday with a party at the movie theater. We saw Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and then had cake and ice cream with her friends. It was a great day and we had a great time. Happy Birthday, Ashy! You're growing up so fast!Soccer season is drawing to a close. Lauren has 2 HMS games left, and they all have 2 Saturdays of rec games. I think we will be glad to see the end this season--especially Sierra. She is less than thrilled to load up and head off to another game! 
For the past couple of months, Sierra has been having some evaluations. We knew her speech was behind, but when she started preschool more problems became evident. We have seen speech and occupational therapists and were finally given the results in an IEP meeting yesterday. She has a sensory disorder and qualifies for some special education through the school system. Yesterday we got her enrolled in an Early Childhood Intervention program, and she started today. I am really excited about the help she is going to be getting and I'm anxious to start seeing results. She will go 4 days a week, 3 hours a day. I was a little sad this morning as I dropped her off and left. She's not my baby anymore and I'm not ready to have her gone every day, but she was excited and had a great time. Her teacher is so fabulous and she will spend a lot of time with speech and occupational therapists. I'm sure as soon as she adjusts to the routine she'll do great!
I have really gotten behind on things this week! We have been so busy, going from one activity to another without much time to catch a breath. My blog isn't the only place that I have fallen behind, but it's certainly more fun to catch up on than the housework!
We had a great Halloween. The girls went really simple and used costumes that we had already. I'm so glad they were agreeable to that! We went trick-or-treating with friends on Friday night and came home with bags full of candy. Lauren wasn't too big on the dressing up idea, but was willing for some chocolate! Then Saturday night we headed up to our ward's chili cook-off and trunk-or-treat and filled those bags up again! With all of the chocolate in our house, I should make it through the chaos of the next couple of months just fine!
It's getting close to that time of year when you can bake and bake and bake, and there is still just one more party or neighbor that needs a plate of goodies. What better way to save some time than to have refrigerated cookie dough, ready to be baked? Lauren is selling cookie dough to raise money for her band trip to Disney World over Spring Break. Someone, please help me out?! You know what will happen if I have to buy it all--I'll eat it straight out of the tub with a spoon and a glass of milk and I'll be playing the role of Santa Clause this year! Think of all of the time you could save and there are several different types...snickerdoodles, peanut butter, chocolate chip, white chocolate macedamia nut, and more. A little something for everyone!
Friday night I loaded up the girls and headed to the much anticipated High School Musical 3! The girls (maybe even Lauren) were excited, especially because we were seeing it with friends and celebrating a birthday. What could be better than High School Musical 3 followed by chocolate cake and ice cream?! We were not disappointed and the girls (well, maybe just Sierra) danced and sang in the aisles. There may even have been a tear as they graduated! I think this is a new favorite and I'm sure there will be new additions to Christmas and Birthday wish lists! Don't miss it!
What craziness! This week has been totally hectic, going from soccer game to soccer game. Most days 2. I'm tired, very tired! But Lauren has had a good time and the younger girls have been such good sports. It's what we do, and we love it! I'll need a vacation when the seasons are over! Lauren played 6 soccer games and reffed (is that a word?!) 2, Mackenzie played a game and had a practice, and Ash played a game and had practice. Some hightlights of the week...Ashtyn scored her very first goal (way to go Ash!) which of course we didn't catch on video. Mackenzie had great game and made some great stops as the goalie. Lauren, well her teams lost all of their games, but she played really well. She had their team's only point in 1 game and saved them from a completely humiliating loss by stopping about 30 shots on goal. The week in pictures...
Saturday we took the girls out to a beautiful spot on a jogging trail that some friends had told us about. We had high hopes of taking some family pictures for our Christmas cards. We spent almost 2 hours walking the trail and playing, trying to get some good, candid pictures of the girls. Sierra wasn't very cooperative, but we got some cute ones anyway. What do you think?
