My Blog Update Is Finished!

And now that I have finished my update, I think it is time for me to go and do this...

Bath Time With Dolly

What is Jenna doing when it's quiet?

Giving baby a bath, of course!

I'm not sure if the baby was still breathing here.

All clean!

Balloon Blast-off

Our birthday fun really began after the meal when we let the kids each run around with a balloon. Olivia thought this was the greatest, and she was especially happy when she found a new game she could play with Dad...

Balloon Blast-off!

It was so great... Jenna got into it, too!

All you need to do is get a helium balloon...

let it go...

convince Daddy to lift you up so you can get it, and then start all over again! Great fun!

A Birthday Celebration

I missed making a birthday post on the day of, so this is my belated birthday post. Earlier this month was Robby's 34th birthday. We don't usually do anything really exciting for birthdays around here - just the usual birthday dinner and cake (or brownie, pie, or loaf of homemade bread). Well this year I had the itch to do something more. I figured the kids would get a kick out of truly decorating for Dad's birthday and having a family party, so off we went to our local "Wally-World" to buy decorations and goodies.

Well, round about the time my cart is packed full (we had to get groceries, too) I got a call on my cell that our landlord's realtor wanted to schedule a showing for that night at 5:30pm. What?! Of course, it has to be tonight, I thought. Our landlord's had recently decided to sell the house, and the last I heard the house wouldn't be officially listed until the next day or so. Great timing. I was very bummed, but bought all the decorations anyway (mostly because I was too lazy to go and put them back on the shelf.)

We went home and I worked all afternoon to get the house looking spic-and-span in time for the potential buyers to show up. I half-way considered decorating for our birthday party anyway, but decided against it (they would never have forgotten our house!) The group came and Robby started a game of ladder ball with the kids on the lawn. After the realtor left, I decided that Dad and the kids were distracted enough that if I worked really fast I could still blow up balloons, hang the sign, but I would have to forgo the streamers. I guess in the end the realtor didn't completely ruin everything. Dad was still equally surprised because he had no idea what I was doing inside...

We all enjoyed Pocky sticks...

french bread and nutella (YUM!)...

and chili and Fritos. Okay, you're thinking, "What an odd selection of foods for dinner!" Hey, Robby asked for it!

We had cupcakes, and I spared making him blow out 34 for candles.

He was being silly when he posed for this picture above...

but Jenna didn't think it was too funny!

She flipped when she thought he was going to eat ALL of the cupcakes!

The kids loved the balloons ...

and noise-makers!

And we all had a grand time celebrating Dad's 34th!

We love you, Dad!

Sunday Sweeties

Sometimes you dress your kids up for Sunday and you think they look so cute your just can't resist taking pictures...

The challenge was getting Olivia to still be smiling when the camera finally clicked.

Then Robby got a brilliant idea to try and bribe Olivia with one of her favorite treats...

Marshmallows!

But it's hard to smile with soft, white, sweetness in your mouth!

Daddy-Daughter Date

Jenna got to go on her first official Daddy/Daughter Date earlier this month. They went to a kids performance of the local Orchestra. Jenna was so excited to get gussied up with her Daddy and go somewhere special. In fact, she still talks about how much fun it was to go on a date with Daddy.

Sledding on Slayter Hill

It's time I catch everyone up on our lives. I finally have a few minutes to do this because poor little Olivia is sick and is sleeping right now, and everyone else is at church. So here's our first update (of course, you will probably be looking at this in reverse order, so this will be your last post).

At the beginning of February, we got a good bit of snow one week (about 5 or 6 inches) and we decided to take advantage of it and go sledding with our new sled. We picked Slayter hill as our spot. It is one of the better sled hills in the area. Conveniently located with a road right at the bottom. You just have to pray that you stop before you get to it. No really, in the hour that we were there, I only saw one sled get that far. Actually, it stopped just shy of the road. I think the nose of it was in the road. Little Robby just used the "Abandon Ship" technique if he thought he was going too fast. When we went down with Jenna, Dad and I used our heels to try and brake the sled. I do say "try" because we were going so fast and the snow was almost ice, so our heels didn't really take a lot of speed off of the sled. None the less, we had a great time and avoided a collision with on coming traffic.

Olivia camped out in the car with me most of the time since it was quite windy at the top of the hill.

Wrapping Up Our Trip to TX

Here is the conclusion to our Texas trip (or rather our drive home)...

The Gateway Arch

On the way home we stopped in St. Louis to take a ride up the Gateway Arch.

This picture and the one below is courtesy of Little Robby.

It was awesome because we were the only visitors going up in the arch at the time slot we picked. We were there on a Wednesday evening. This giant scale is something they have along the path you would normally wait in line.

At the top of the arch. We had a great time being the only ones up at the top (with the exception of the employees.)

The Lincoln Presidential Museum

Here we are with presidential family.

Olivia loved the open atrium because she could walk where ever she wanted.

And here the kids are in front of the White House of the 1860s.

One area of the museum had toys for the kids to play with. Dad and Jenna build a log cabin!

Then Jenna prepared a meal for us over the fire.

Chap showed us his latest and greatest design for a log cabin.

And even I played with some pioneer toys.

Success!

And that finally wraps up our trip!

This is an example of someone who has too much time!

But you have to admit it is pretty entertaining...

(You should have seen Little Robby's face the first time he saw this. He was ecstatic!)