Christmas 2011

Oh My Gosh!  It has been since December 13th since I have done a post.  So much has happened in the past 3 weeks, the time has just flown by, I can't possibly blog about everything that has happened, so here is just a little snippet.

For Christmas we did something a little different then what we normally do, this year we went up to our cabin for 4 days with my entire immediate family.  We ate lots of delicious foods, made lots of crafts, decorated two trees; one inside and one outside (all edible decorations on the outside tree), and opened lots of fun presents!

Our family picture, minus me, cuz I was taking it.

Looks good, right?

Now look at the close up of my Dad's face, Julie (my sister) and I died laughing when we zoomed in on it!  It cracks me up, I am laughing so hard that I am almost crying as I am typing!

Good pic dad!

(Sorry I had to post it!)

In past years I have always bought the kids new jammies for Christmas Eve, but this year I surprised everyone with new Jingle Jammies from Old Navy.  I think it may have been my favorite part of Christmas, I made everyone put them on Christmas Eve and "Model" them for me, it was too much fun!  I hope that we can do this again next year, but maybe my Mom will buy for everyone instead;)

Love the shirt Uncle Jim!

The kids in their Jingle Jammies.

Oh wait!! Look at Nick's face, looks a little like Grandpa's, see above!!! LOL!!

Christmas was wonderful this year, but not over yet, we have once more family celebration on New Years Eve.

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday!

Black Friday Shopping at Target

Welp, it looks like Target has just about everything that may be on your Christmas list, well except for some non-alcoholic whiskey!

You gotta watch this, too cute...

...and who knew that Target had a basement to shop in? I wanna go!

Happy Christmas shopping!

Thanks for sharing this Robin over at Pink Dryer Lint.  Mike and I died laughing, especially with the Toddler Sized Shark Cage!!!

Frosty the Snowman

With a little tape, wrapping paper and construction paper

we turned our refrigerator into a snowman!
(Thanks for idea Pinterest)

I was the tracer...

Kate was the cuter-outer...

Nick was the sticker-on-er...(with some Mommy Guidance)

It was magical when Nick realized it was a snowman!  He didn't quite get it until we were done, then he exclaimed while pointing at it, "IT'S A SNOWMAN!!!!!!" in the most excited little 3 year old voice.

Precious.

Silly Sparkle...needed a midnight snack.

25 days of Christmas!

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas!  (You're supposed to sing that, not just read it, LOL, so try it again.) Especially since we just got snow dumped on us!  I would say about 8 inches.

This was the neighbor's tree, it is supposed to be standing straight up, but the weight of the snow is bending it down.  I had to snap a pic because it reminded me of the Christmas Tree in the Grinch.

 We even had our first snow day of the school year and celebrated by watching my favorite holiday movie The Polar Express and drinking hot cocoa for breakfast by 7:00am! 

My kids don't get that a snow day is FOR.SLEEPING.IN!!!

I love the Christmas season, everything from Thanksgiving to the New Year!  I especially love the 25 days prior to Christmas Day, I tend to make those days particularly special in our house, and I have to say we are ready!

The Christmas music is playing.

Last night, while watching the The Christmas Special at Rockefeller Center Kate informed me that Justin Beiber was her favorite and she LOVED him! (Really? you are 5!)

We all know that Mike still has a crush on Mariah Carey, so last nights performance with Mariah Carey AND Justin Beiber doing the same song was heavenly!

The tree is decorated!

My Christmas decor is up, including MY bells from Santa's sleigh that he gave me back in 1988.

The stockings are hung.

The Christmas scent of cinnamon and fresh pine are in the air.

The Mistletoe hung.

 My 25 Christmas books are wrapped, and waiting to be read.

(The kids will unwrap one each day until Christmas, they are just Christmas books I already had, and look, I made them look like Christmas trees!)

Sparkle, our Elf, is patiently waiting (In Mike's underwear drawer.) for tonight when she gets to come out and make her GRAND reveal!

Most of the presents are bought and stored away in bins.

Christmas cards have been made and just awaiting to be sent out.

We are ready for Christmas 2011!

How about you?

Black Friday Breakfast

Having a Husband who is a career firefighter means that there will be many holidays where he can not be home with his family, and this Thanksgiving was one of them.  Mike was scheduled to work the 48 hours of Thanksgiving and the day after, Black Friday.

This Black Friday was different then most for the guys at Delta Township Fire Department.  This Black Friday was spent making and selling $2 Breakfast Taco's right out of the fire station, like a drive through, you drive in the front of the bay, grab your taco's and drive out the back!  Mike thought of the ingenious idea to hold a fundraiser on the morning (6a-11a) of Black Friday with the monies earned used to purchase smoke detectors for needy families in the area and raise awareness to fire prevention.  For a first year fundraiser it was a HUGE success! 

Here are a few pics and quotes that I would like to share. 

They came from the On-Line Photo Gallery of The Lansing State Journal.

You will notice that I made the signs ;)

 Delta engineer/paramedic Mike Roberts urges drivers to merge right into the fire station for a taco breakfast to raise money for smoke detectors Nov. 25. Roberts says funding detectors for needy families is the department's first step in its community based fire prevention outreach effort.

 Delta part-time firefighter Olivia Herald (l) spent part of Black Friday morning on the corner of W. Saginaw and Canal Road holding a sign advertising the fire department's drive through breakfast. Here she takes a break with Delta engineer/paramedic Mike Roberts, organizer of the event.

 Delta engineer/paramedic Mike Roberts takes an order for breakfast tacos from Jesus and Cody Lopez Nov. 25 at the central fire station. The drive through breakfast gave Black Friday shoppers a chance to pause for breakfast and raised money to purchase smoke detectors for needy families.

Delta Township paramedic/firefighter Mike Ruster, cook for the department's Black Friday breakfast, after he loaded more tacos into the warmer. Also cooking for the drive through event were Captains Dave Boomer and Mike Roman.

Satisfied customers Cody Lopez (r) and his dad Jesus at the Black Friday drive through breakfast sponsored by the Delta Township Fire Department Nov. 25. Money raised will buy smoke detectors for needy families.

Mike is hoping that this will be the first of many years for this fundraiser, we are already thinking of ways to make it even more successful!

According to Nick...

This umbrella is all you need in the rain....according to Nick.

It's a paper umbrella from his sprite!!

Mike snapped this picture as Nick was walking out of LaSenerita's  in the rain after having lunch on Sunday.  Cracked us up!

According to Nick...his name for Kate is: "Sissy Wroberts"

According to Nick...Whenever you ask him to do anything is answer is: "Okey-Dokey Artichokey". Ok, It definately does not 'type out' as cute as when he says it.

According to Nick... he loves to dress like his Daddy.

Oh wait, maybe that is according to Daddy! LOL!

According to Nick...MY iphone is actually HIS iphone.

According to Nick...MY computer is actually HIS computer.

According to Nick...he loves to play with planes, trains, and Fire Fucks, yep your right, you read that right, Fire Fucks...

Right now Nick has a little trouble pronouncing the TR sound, like in TRuck, for him the TR-sound is a F-sound, making TRuck sound like Fuck, it really is quite funny!  Especially when we are in Target walking down the "Little Boys Sextion" (yes I meant to type sextion, because that is what he requests to do everytime we are out shopping) and he is upset with me that I won't let him stop and play with every Fire Fuck in the store and he starts crying and saying, "Nick.want. to. play. with. Fire Fuck," over and over!! 

According to Nick...A diaper full of poop is not a big deal, and could care less if his diaper is full and has no interest in ever using the potty.EVER~

According to Nick...Grandma and Grandpa Andersen live at the cabin, not their house.

According to Nick...Wearing Sissy's lipstick is a good time!

According to Nick...Every pizza shop is recognized as PIZZA! PIZZA!, and is recognized by shouting it out in the van as we are driving down the road.

According to Mama Patty...Nick is such a fun 3 year old to have around the house!

We have a new look in these neck of the woods...

So what do ya think?

Do you like my new look in my little corner of the world-wide web?

I LOVE IT!

I started this blog almost one year ago not knowing if I would really continue blogging or not.  Ya know, since I HATE to write and all, and I can't spell worth beans!  Anyway, when I started, I used one of the pre-made designs that Blogger provides for you.  As the months went by, and I was still blogging, I decided that I really wanted a blog that was more personnal, something that was a little more "Roberts Family Specific". So, I did my research, on-line of course, and looked at lots and lots of blogs and contacted many designers and decided on...

April Durham over at April Showers Design Studio.

Once she got started on my project (she is a VERY busy blog designer, so it took awhile) it went great!  She customized/characterized all 4 of us, based off from one picture I sent her!   I think they look pretty darn good!  Well, after the main design was complete and I approved it, we worked together (she is great to work with) and made little tweaks here and there for a few days until it was perfect. Then ta-daa, my new design was complete and was launched into the blogsphere. I still have some work to do with my individual pages until it will be completely finished and the way I want it, but the majority is done.

I am so very thankful for April and her creativeness to be able to personalize my blog for me, and give me exactly what I was looking for!

10 year anniversary pictures

A few weeks back I mentioned that Mike and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary.  Instead of giving each other gifts, I really, really, SUPER BAD REALLY wanted fall family pictures (You will notice I am somewhat of a "professional picture freak", and love to get them taken!!!!).  I wanted some pictures with just Mike and I, some with just the kids and a few with the 4 of us, to document our family after 10 years together, so that is just what we did!

One of my very best and most wonderful amazing friends (Hi Jenn!) recommended Crystal Olsen Photography in Mount Pleasant, to take our family pictures, so I gave her a call, and sure enough she could take our pictures for us!!!  It worked out just perfectly that we would stop at Crystal's house (She is a stay-at-home Mom of 4 kids who has a photography business on the side.) on the way back home from being at the cabin for the weekend.  We had our 10 year pics taken outside of Crystal's house with a beautiful natural fall backdrop.  The weather was perfect, the trees were beautiful in color and the soft fall breeze made Kate's hair lay perfectly.

We just got our disc of pictures in the mail after Crystal spent some time editing them, and of course I wanted to share a few of my favorites with you, certainly not all 61 of them though!

 I made the "10" from old buttons and just glued them on paper and put and old frame around it!  Practically FREE!!

(Thanks Pinterest for that idea.)

 Wow, has how family changed in 10 years! 

So very Thankful!

I wonder what we will look like in another 10 years?

 I just LOVE this picture of just our hands holding the sign.

 Frame pictures are so fun too!

Of course we stand in tall grasses with an old picture frame and kiss, who doesn't?

 Too cute!

 I love this one!

 I love this one too! Look at Nicks little foot!

 My favorite picture of the kids together.

Look at those Baby Blues!

Little Miss Sassafras!

My favorite "Just Kate" picture.

She was standing about a foot off the ground here, as she hopped off her boot and got stuck, so she fell and tore her tights, good thing it was the last picture of the day!

These are my favorite family pictures because it's a "Family Tree" Get it? Haha ;)

We had so much fun with Crystal, she was so amazing to work with, I can't wait to schedule another session with her.  Her prices are very reasonable, she has great creative photography skills and allows us to have all right to her pictures to get them printed wherever we want to!