A Whole Month in One Blog! Cripes!

Ok, I should be (and am!) totally ashamed of myself with my complete lack of blogging lately. I mean, c'mon...TWO blogs in a month?! Utterly ridiculous. To those of you who read blogs to escape work responsibilities, please accept my apologies. My excuses are the same as everyone else's in December...busy with holiday stuff. Now that they're over, hopefully I'll be better at blogging.

So here's what we've been up to for the past month!

Our primary kids, Ryan & McRae, have been SO good for us, we had a "Pizza & PS3 Party" for them last month. We had a BLAST! I learned that 10-year-old boys don't think you're cheap for buying Costco pizza and can be totally polite, go figure! We have LOVED this little class, I'm so sad that we're not going to have them next year. We found out that next year our class (and here I really mean MY class, since Paul ends up working at least half of the Sundays every month) is not only the biggest one (ELEVEN 11-12 year olds) but also the - how do I say this politically? - most energetic. I assume this is because I am big on discipline and reverence and am not above bribery. Pray for me, I'm really nervous about this calling combined with Single Mom Sundays.

Sarah turned the big 34 and we had a little party over at our place after she and Chris went out. She just wanted plain old yellow cake with chocolate frosting so I spiced it up with some candles. Cool, huh?

Sam's been happy and energetic...I just think this is a cute picture.
He also loves his new Hugh Heffner robe that he inherited from Cache. :D
We went to his 4-month checkup and he clocked in at 25 inches long (50th percentile) 43 inch head circumference (50th percentile) and 16.9 pounds (75th percentile)!! So basically we have a chunky little boy. :D Shots weren't as traumatizing this time around, which was great because dad had court so I had to be the bad guy and was not looking forward to it. Take a close look at Dr. Arora checking his heartbeat; I think Sammy has a crush.

We discovered that a Bumbo seat works great for a crown,


A diaper and/or bumblebee butt,


And a recliner/beauty chair! Haha, so versatile!

And when there's not a Bumbo seat handy, sleeping with daddy isn't so bad, either.


Sammy experienced a lot of firsts this December, most amazing of which was his first time rolling over!! Unfortunately we didn't catch it on film. :( But here are some of his others, including first time playing in his saucer (which he LOVES! It's mom's new lifesaver!!)


The patchy, uber-long-in-places faux hawk was really looking weird, so he had his first haircut...


In Utah we had some fussiness when a pacifier just wasn't cutting it, so he got his first taste of citrus fruits from the flavored waters on the tables. :D He loved limes the first time around, but not the second, and was content with lemons. We tried a mandarin orange and he flat out hated it.
At the ward Christmas party he had his first encounter with Santa and didn't freak out (he wished to sleep through the night regularly, good boy!) but was pretty irritated with the ridiculous reindeer antlers on his head.


And, since he'd already conquered citrus fruit juices, we decided to try some rice cereal. He adored being up high in the high chair but wasn't too fond of the cereal. He kept eating it but gave us a look like "seriously? this is it? I know I wouldn't catch YOU eating this crap". Apparently he's got a complex with dad's ability to grow a goatee when he can't, so he made up for it with the cereal.


We went to the LAPD wives Christmas party and had a blast with those women! Sam was the only boy and reveled in the female attention. I made an apron for the secret santa exchange and am really proud of the results! It looked way cuter not hanging on the doggy leash peg, haha.

Before we left to Utah we got together with the Chirinos side of the family for dinner and presents, it was so great to see everyone! There was Grandpa Gilbert and Tia Ilda...


Tia Ana...

Carlos & Amber - what a cute picture!

And, of course, all of the kiddles. Check out the mountain of gifts for those 5 lucky kids!! We all had a great time. Christmas is so much better with children around to amp up the excitement.


Sam in particular got showered with presents, since everyone loves the new kid, haha.

He loved all of the excitement and colored paper, and tuckered himself right out.


Paul and Carlos..."and visions of sugarplums danced in their heads"



We took a picture of the three of us to determine who Sam looks like more, Paul or me. What do you think? Leave a comment, I really want to know!


Sam and I got to go have lunch with Paul and his partner, Erik, before we left. He is such a fantastic guy and we love seeing he and daddy all decked out in their uniforms. Erik is the nicest person, he bought himself a new iphone for Christmas and just GAVE Paul his old one for Christmas!! I'll admit to being totally jealous, but I console myself playing The Price Is Right all the time on the phone. :D

Khai and Oscar got their Christmas present, a fluffy, soft new pet bed, a few days early as they were staying with aunt Sarah for the holidays. I think they like it!


We made a really quick trip to Utah, in which we only got to see a couple of friends and most of our family. Please don't be offended if we didn't get to see you, Paul only had a few days off. We were really lucky and didn't see any snow coming down the whole way up or the whole way back, but plenty while we were there!! I was so bummed we couldn't go snowboarding, looks like the season is going to be FANTASTIC!

We stayed in a hotel in Vegas on the way there that we got a GREAT deal at, only to have all of the non-smoking rooms FULL when we got there! You can send an email from the freaking rainforest in this day and age, but somehow hotels can't see when they've reserved all their non-smoking rooms. Sheesh. I was really bothered, but Sam didn't seem to mind so much:


The best part was when housekeeping came up to deoderize our room with this spray for us. We sent them next door to Paul's uncle Koki's room, too, to try to tame the smell. The next morning he told us about the call girl who'd come knocking on his door who wouldn't go away!! Haha, he'd thought the maid was some sort of hooker so he wouldn't open the door for her. SO funny!

We had a quick dinner with our friends Jes and Banks. They are such gorgeous people it's ridiculous. They love Sam and the feeling is totally mutual. :D Banks even held him, which is huge because Banks is one of those guys who is completely uncomfortable holding babies, haha. Every year Jes' family has this huge mega make-your-own-chocolates day that completely blows my mind, and this year we were the grateful recipients of a whole box! They were fantastic! It makes me tired reading her blog about the process, but the results were totally worth all of her hard work. In fact, Jes, I'm willing to have you work that hard again next year! :D I planned on telling her which was my favorite here, but I have like 6 and most of those I wouldn't even know the official names of, so I won't even try. :D Thanks Jes & Banks!



Keeping with tradition, we spent Christmas Eve with the Lamas side of the family. Sam loved all of the paper again and this time even grabbed onto it and "opened" some of his presents himself! The lucky little guy got showered with some great gifts. We felt really bad because this year we'd all agreed to pick names and get gifts just for the people whose names we'd drawn, and then when we got there we were the ONLY ONES who hadn't gotten something for everyone! I couldn't believe it. Sorry, and thank you Lamas'!


We met Martin's new girlfriend, Lisa, who we really, really liked. Check out what she got him for Christmas, haha...
Tia Sylvana's kids were in Colorado with her oldest, Stephanie, this year, but she couldn't go because of work. :( So her sweet girls gave her a framed picture of them together and a note telling her they were sad not to be with her in person. It made her cry, it was so sweet. We definitely missed them this year!


Christmas morning was an orgy of wrapping paper and joyful shrieking at the Robinson household. We shared Christmas with Grandpa Steve, who got gold in his stocking instead of coins...


Grandma Janet, showing off her extra large can of macadamia nuts - she must have been really good this year!


Aunt Leah, who thankfully loved the book of letters from her friends and family that I gave her (you know it's a good one if they cry) :D

And the Pattees (my sister Emily's family), who reveled in their pretty ponies and awesome laser tag guns.


Sammy really struck gold here, Santa and his parents gave him lots of books, toys and clothes. Even though we woke him up REALLY early, he was all about the colorful wrappings and fun new things to look at. In the past couple of weeks he's broken the grabbing things barrier, and he was grabbing anything in sight that looked interesting.

Check out the huge pile of goods! Lucky Lamas'!

Paul and I even got a few things. :D The soup was just to weight the package, but hey, we'll take it! haha



My big present stayed at home, it was great to come home to new bedding! We've been sleeping under a blanket that was comfortable and cute but still intended to be a picnic blanket. :D


We spent most of our time hanging out with family, since we only get to see the Pattees once every year or so. Last time we saw them was August 2007! We played a lot of games and Em, Ry & kids spent a lot of time getting to know Sammy.

My twin sisters...aren't they beautiful?!

A goofy picture of 2/3 of the Robinson grandkids. We missed the Eddy's, but had a good time anyway.

Paul's only request was to see his family and go shooting while we were there, go figure. So we took our friend Merica and our nephew Will with us. It was Will's first time shooting, and he did so well! He was really nervous of all the loud bangs at first and was convinced that the empty casings flying out of the guns were live bullets. :D Once he calmed down, though, he had a really great time. Paul really is such a great shot, he shot the O in the small logo at the bottom of one of the targets from like 12 yards away! Unfortunately the target fell off the booth's shelf onto the firing range, so we couldn't take a picture.



Finally, the morning we left Grandma Janet shared her special "Happy Hat" with us to give us a visual to laugh at when the holiday grumpies kicked in. :D I love my mom, she is so funny!


Whew! If anyone is even still reading after all that...we had a great November & December and I will try to be better about blogging to save us all from such a horrendously large blog ever, ever again. :D Happy Holidays!!

love, mary