Obligatory Christmas Post

Okay, so Christmas vacation wasn't much of a "vacation" at all. Mark had to work all but Christmas and New Year's Day, which left me to entertain the kids. That's so much harder when friends are out of town or entertaining company and other Dads are home. (I have a love-hate relationship with Mark's job. LOVE that he has one, HATE that it's so much work!) We missed him but had a good time and kept busy!

Our vacation in pictures:

Spent our first weekend with sick kids, and some good cuddle time! No last minute Christmas shopping for us!

Decorated some Christmas cookies! Gotta love all the sprinkles!

Had a great Christmas morning! The cell phone and castle were big hits and the girls were all excited about their presents. Pictionary Man became our new family favorite game! LOVE IT! Anybody up for a game night?

After opening presents we made a last minute decision to head down to Atlanta. We hurried and ran a couple loads of laundry, packed, and hopped in the car for a nice long ride. We stopped along the way and had Chinese food for our Christmas dinner. We had a good visit with Mark's family (thanks, Mary for letting us stay with you!) and then came home on Saturday. We got to hang out at the outlet mall the day after Christmas and the girls had a good time shopping, playing mini golf in the dark with neon lights, having lunch at Chili's, riding the carousel, and doing tricks on the trampoline!

Love this picture of Mark and Sierra!

We spent a good bit of time playing games on the wii and DS, and arranging play dates with friends. (Check out Mark's shirt. It says "No Whining". It was my favorite gift to give this year and perfect for the father of 4 girls!)

We spent an afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese where everyone had a good time. Sierra was the only one who stayed anywhere near me most of the time, which is why she's the only one that got in any pictures!

We went bowling with friends and saw several movies including Bolt, Twilight, Marley and Me, and Bedtime Stories. Bedtime Stories was definitely a favorite. Totally recommend it!

To top it off, Mark and I celebrated 17 years of wedded bliss with dinner at The Olive Garden. Of course, we were just babies when we got married!

The lights have been taken down, the tree packed up. The only remnants of Christmas that remain are the toys on the floor and the memories made.

December 31, 2001 - February 21, 2002

Happy Birthday, Angel Baby! There won't be a cake with candles, presents, balloons, or even a card. But you're in my thoughts today and in celebration of your short life and an eternity of being your mom, I will hug my girls a little tighter, play a little longer, and be grateful for my life's blessings.

With each tear I love you more! I miss you every day!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to our favorite Aunt Mary! We love you and the time we get to spend with you! Have a fabulous day celebrating YOU!

Gingerbread Houses and the Tooth Fairy

My little ones have been very busy at school doing all of the fun things that make Christmas memorable. Yesterday and today I went into each of their classrooms to help them make gingerbread houses. I think they ate as much as they put on their houses, especially Sierra, but they turned out great. We'll see how long they last!

And the tooth fairy got to make a stop at our house last night. Ashtyn lost her 2nd tooth. She wasn't really very excited about it because I pulled it when it wasn't quite loose enough. Her new tooth is already coming in behind the baby tooth and I decided it was time for it to come out. It hurt a little and bled a bit, but a couple bucks from the tooth fairy made her forget all about that part!

Thanksgiving

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!

Happy Birthday to Me...and a Snow Day?!

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!

Awesome Video

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!

Toy Consignment Sale

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!