Thanksgiving 2009 -- San Diego!! And a few other Roberts' family happenings...

Okay. I admit it. I totally forgot I had a blog. Finally fixed my computer, though, so I can now do blogs with pictures. Here's a quick summary of what we've been up to:

First, we got the Christmas tree put up. I like having it up by Thanksgiving (the Christmas spirit does amazing things for helping me feel more thankful). We did it when Lee was here so he could do it this year. The girls were big helps with getting the branches ready.

Grandpa Ross was visiting us for the weekend. He wasn't quite as much help. (He dozed on the couch and dreamt of flying while Lee and the girls put up the tree -- sorry, Dad, but it was too hard to resist!) :)

Morgan has been in an after-school theater club for the past 10 weeks. Just before we left for Thanksgiving, the club presented their play to the parents. Morgan was one of the narrators. She did a wonderful job! In fact, I think theater is right up her alley!!

We spent Thanksgiving this year in San Diego with my parents, my sister Lindsey, and my sister Ashley and her family. Ashley invited us down. Her husband, Derek, was given use of his family's time share right by Legoland. It was a brand new, super-nice place!! They even had an ocean view that was beautiful!

The first thing we did after arriving at the resort was drive to La Jolla beach. It's famous because seals lay out on the rocks by the beach. We got there just as the sun was setting and it was BEAUTIFUL!!! It was also perfect timing because the tide started coming in while we were there. That made for some fun water time for the girls.

While at the resort, we also played some fun ping pong. Who knew that my girls would love it?! Morgan was actually surprisingly good for her first time.

We also went to the San Diego Zoo. Below is Brynne, Morgan, and Marshall (being held in place by Grandma Ross) at the zoo. I would tell you what kind of animal they are sitting on, but I'd probably tell you wrong... (I will tell you that the animal is not real, though!) :)

We spent Thanksgiving afternoon in the swimming pool. What better to do while the turkey cooks? I got a picture of my cute Brynne in the hot tub with the beautiful view. You can see the ocean just to the right of the palm trees.

After eating turkey, we decided to take a nice walk down to the tennis court. We weren't there all that long, but it was long enough for the kids to have some fun. Brynne discovered that she had more success hitting with the big ball. :)

Morgan really enjoyed learning all the new games -- in addition to ping pong and tennis, we tried our hand at lawn darts.

Here is my attempt at getting a good picture of the beautiful sunset!

The day after Thanksgiving, we took a drive to the San Diego temple to do some sealings. I have always thought it was a beautiful temple, but I didn't realize how beautiful it was inside too! Did you know the temple has a garden on the roof that can be seen from the third floor of the temple? Beautiful!! They also had a basic nativity set up on the temple grounds in front of the temple. You can see Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus right behind me.

Friday night we went to Cabrillo National Park. I took a picture of everyone else in front of the monument there: Ashley, Derek, Grandma Ross (Mom), Morgan, Brynne, Marshall, Lindsey, Grandpa Ross (Pa).

While there we saw a beautiful area to the west where sunbeams were shining through the clouds and onto the water. We also saw the lighthouse that was used years ago. Apparently we visited the park when I was younger, but I don't remember it.

It was a really fun Thanksgiving vacation. To end it all, Brynne's second tooth came out on Friday night. It's a good thing the Tooth Fairy found us at Ashley's house in Fullerton! (And yes, the big owie on Brynne's face is healing...)

I enjoyed San Diego so much, but I haven't been able to adjust to being home yet. At least I got to come home to a decorated Christmas tree! :)

Brynne's First Lost Tooth!

The middle of October brought exciting news for Brynne -- a loose tooth! The night before Halloween brought even more exciting news -- the tooth came out! It actually didn't just come out, Brynne pulled it out!! Oh yes, I have a brave child! :) We were at Aunt Alyson's house that night; but Aunt Alyson had a Tooth Fairy pillow for us to use, and the Tooth Fairy managed to find us - so all was well!

Lee's B-day and A Little Randomness

We drove to Rawlins last weekend to surprise Lee for his birthday. He had planned on driving home Saturday after he got in from work, but instead we surprised him by going to Rawlins. We had Friday and Monday off school, so we had a few days. The last thing we did before coming home was go swimming. Here's all four of us in the pool:
Like I said, it was Lee's birthday. Although this picture makes it look like he was turning one, he actually turned 35. We've decided he is officially old because he now has to get an EKG when he goes in for his flight physical. Good thing I'm not that old yet! :) Happy Birthday, Lee! We think you're great, even if you are getting along in years...

And Miss Morgan has had some excitement of her own -- she lost her second front top tooth, so she now appears to be toothless. The tooth that just fell out is already starting to grow in; but no sign of a tooth on the other side, which fell out several months ago. She's a cute girl no matter how many teeth she does or does not have! :)

So here's some randomness -- It is January and it has been raining. There wasn't even really any snow until just before Christmas, and now it's raining.... The rain caught me off guard, and I realized I better make sure our window well wasn't flooding again. I woke up at 5 am totally worried about it. I went out in the rain with my flashlight and discovered about six inches of rain in the well. Although this was significantly less than the 1/2 full well I discovered the day we had flooding, I decided I better still get that water out. So at 5 in the morning, I got my ladder and bucket and went to work bailing water. I thought to myself, "I'm out here on a January morning in just a jacket and it feels hot. Weird." Good news, though...no flooding!

Can I just tell you all how tired I am. I am planning to sleep in tomorrow, and I can't remember the last time I was this excited about sleeping in. Knowing my body, I'll probably be up by 5:30, but I'm going to try. I have felt so out of touch lately. I've been really busy with random things (you know, those "to do's" that pile up when you've been gone for three weeks), but I am a bit out of touch with anything else including friends and family. I haven't read blogs in more than a month; and as you know, I've been a bit behind in blogging myself. I feel like all those little to-do's I've been doing are pulling my brain and body into that many different pieces -- totally disconnected and out of it. But since I'm typing I guess that means I'm alive... I think... :)

Morgan's New Look

In case anyone wonders what 7-year-old Morgan looks like after losing two teeth within days of each other, here you go:
(Meanwhile, Brynne wiggles all her teeth every day "just in case"!) ;)

The Joy of Losing Teeth

Note: I am hoping to be on a vacation for the next week, so I will be blog-less until I get back. :)

Here are some pictures of Morgan each taken after she lost a tooth. The first one was the end of August last year. The second one was the end of February. That's six whole months! Do you have any idea how hard it is for a child to wait six months in between losing teeth?! Once they lose one tooth, they expect the rest to come out one right after another. I think Morgan spent at least an hour every day wiggling those teeth to try and find another loose one. And then once they really are loose, it takes more than a month to get them out. It's pure torture for a child!
The newest lost tooth has caused me to reconsider our budget. Not just because the tooth fairy prices have seemed to inflate as fast as home prices (hopefully the price for teeth will level off with the price of homes!), but because we're going to be shelling out for the orthodontist too. You can see from the picture below (if you look closely), that behind the "hole" is already another half-grown tooth. The new tooth is supposed to grow in the hole, not behind the hole! This wouldn't be such a big problem except that we are less than three years away from the age at which they like to start with braces these days. Yep, they do that kind of thing when they are 9 or 10 now. Can you believe it? I didn't have braces until I was in 7th grade. Man how things have changed!
For all you with kids who have yet to start losing their teeth -- start saving money while you can. And then get excited because there are few things in life more pleasurable than seeing your child as happy as they are when they lose a tooth! :)