Robertson Family Picture

This is a picture of my immediate family... We are missing Logan, two nephews that are serving missions (one it Tucson and one in Samara Russia), and my nephew Christopher and his wife Brooke (he is in the hospital getting his appendix removed!).... So, if you've counted... there are five people missing. My niece-in-law Megan took the picture, her web site is http://megangrantphotography.blogspot.com) She is fabulous!

Ramblings

I still need to post some pictures from my trip to Wyoming for the month of November. I am a procrastinator! Anyway - as I said before, I had a great time, the girls loved Grandma Flash (my mom) and had tons tons tons of fun playing with all their cousins and meeting lots of family again.

Thanksgiving was a real treat. We had everyone home except for Logan and two of my nephews who are serving missions (Lane and Lucas). That means with all of my siblings, their kids and grandkids, and a few extra bonus guests we had 70 people for dinner! Wowza! that number still blows me away. We knew we could not all fit into anyone's house with everyone there, so we had it at the Church Gym. In Lovell, we have the Stake Center, and then the Church Gym across the street. It kind of felt like a ward dinner, not having it at a home and having SO MANY people there.

We all had a great time, a scrabble and Boggle tournamnet, Trivial Pursuit, Volleyball games, and the big boys had a full court basket ball game too. What a fun and full day.

At my mom's house (she recently moved to Cowley, WY to a house considerably smaller than the house I grew up in) we had 25 people and three dogs staying over. It was so much fun! I hope a holiday like that happens again.

There are a lot more happenings than that that went on, but I will bore you no longer. Here are a few pictures of our time there. Grace had lots of fun with my niece Betsy's little girl, Maren, and Libby learned to pull herself up to furniture while we were there. I will post a big family picture when we get it from the photographer (check out her website... http://megangrantphotography.blogspot.com/).

Grace and Maren

Grace and Grandma Flash

Libby and cousin Caleb

Laughing!

Look - Libby is Standing!

Headlock!!

Siblings: Karen, Gareth, Margaret, Marianne, Gwen, Eric, Joyce (Kevin would be standing between Eric and Joyce - we miss him!)

Scrabble tournament and boggle on the side!

Libby Maren and Grace

Matthew, Kyle, Eric, and Jared singing beautifully.

Pink Shoes?

Grace: "Mommy, ... Pink shoes?"
Mommy: "Hmmm?"
Grace: "Pink shoes?..." looks down at her feet. "Don't worry toes, I find 'em!"

She makes me chuckle every day!

Exciting News

I know I should be updating about my fun time in Wyoming last month, but more exciting news has occurred since then. What, you say, could be more exciting than spending a month in a small farming community in Wyoming where the highlight of the day is going to the local supermarket? Have I kept you in suspense? Thrilled? Can't wait any longer?

Drum roll... (it is up to you to imagine the sound :)

We had an ultrasound last week... and... It is another girl!! Hooray! We are excited to have another girl join Grace and Libby. They will have lots of fun, and run Logan ragged. He has decided that these girls will just have to be tomboys so he can have a fishing buddy. That is fine with me - my biggest fear is having a girly girl. I wouldn't know how to relate!!

We are looking forward to welcoming Leah Rebecca (we're pretty sure on the name) in the middle of April.

Jumping on the couch

Grace is jumping on the couch. I tell her to stop, but she insists it is a trampoline. I see one in our future for Christmas! She was saying "Mommy, Dabby, Grandma Flash, Bob..." with each jump. I love it. We just got back from a month long visit with my Mom. Grace really loves Grandma Flash, and I say, "Who Wouldn't! She's the greatest!" I will fill the fun times in Wyoming in a new post later on. Suffice it to say, we really missed Logan, but had the best time up home!

The Chiricahuas!

We took a day trip over to the Chiracahua Mountains the other day. It was beautiful and so nice to see pine trees and fall colors. Grace had a fun time hiking on trails and throwing rocks into a creek. Logan was with her when they got to the creek and he said that she said "hmmm... a river, how do we get across?.... I know! A boat!" She was a good girl, when we were getting a picture with all of us together by the creek. Libby did well in the car - even though we were there for about 7 hours! yikes! lots of driving, but pretty country.


We have also spent a lot of time outside in our back/side yard lately. Grace had a fun time with the goats and the neighbors mouser cat. Logan put our one billy goat on a stake on our acre that is all tall dead grass. Grace was grabbing its leash/chain and tried to take it for a walk. It was fun to watch Grace run and run and run. She is getting fast!

Here is our poor little peach tree - the grass hopper ate all the leaves! Ack!

Happy Halloween Fun!

The ward trunk-or-treat was fun last night. Grace was a cute Lady Bug (her costume from last year) and Libby was a chili pepper (Grace's costume from two years ago). They were both too cute. Next year will be more fun, when Grace hopefully will not be to shy to say "Trick or Treat", and Libby has maybe a clue what is going on. Grace sure liked the candy she received. She was already asking for her "bucket" this morning at 6:30!

A lucky day

I was so lucky today! As I was driving to my Doctor's appointment and as I was almost there I saw two missionaries on their bikes. Guess who it was? It was my nephew Lucas, my sister Marianne's second child!! He has been serving in the Arizona Tucson Mission since June of 2007, and is currently actually serving in Tucson. I new that his apartment was close to where my doctor was, but I did not think I would be able to see him. I had called the mission office to see if we could take him and his companion to lunch on their preparation day, but that was nixed by the mission president. So, I knew the only way I would be able to see him was to either a) break a rule and go to his apartment, or b) be lucky and see him on the street. Hooray for B!

It was so good to see him. I gave him a little hug and took a picture with him. I called my sister right away, and she was so excited to hear that I was able to see him. Now I will look for him everytime I go to the Doctor. I wish I had them more than once a month - especially since I don't know how long he will be in the area. I love happy accidents like this!

Still Mourning the Flips

Every day that I put on shoes - which is most days :) I still find myself mourning the loss of my favorite flip flops. This may sound odd to some, but I wore these shoes nearly EVERY day since I got them (except for the winter spent in Wyoming and Utah)! ... If I counted the number of days that I wore them, and that counts slipping them on to take the trash out, a quick trip to the store, etc., I would estimate that I wore them for about 1,500 days. I loved them so much I wore them to work, for play, and even to church on occasion.

Every time I have to put on my new ones - which are basic black and not pretty at all, I am sad. So here are a few pictures of my flips when we laid - er - HUNG them to rest in the random tree in southern UT. Mind you, these shoes had broken several days earlier, but I could not just toss them out like so much garbage. I held onto them until I felt I could let go. When Logan and I saw the tree, I made him turn around on the road we were on so I could leave them! Call me crazy or odd. I have never had such an emotional attachment to an article of clothing before (and hopefully will not have again)! Please don't laugh at my pain! :)

We are alive!

I know it has been a very long time since we have posted, I am sorry for the long delay. A lot has been going on at our home and we have done a lot of fun things we need to catch up on. Here is a short list of our activities these past few months.

1. We are going to have another baby! We are so excited! We are due in the middle to end of April. This is also the reason I have not posted - I have been sick. Blah. I am feeling better now and feel like doing stuff again.

2. We took a trip to Wyoming to see some of my (Karen's) family. It was a great time! We spent some time in Star Valley, WY, and spent a day in Jackson Hole. I sure miss Wyoming and everything about it!



3. This next thing may not seem important to you, but it was a life changer for me. My favorite pair of flip flops died on our trip to Wyo! Aargh. I love them so much and I have had them for so long, I can't remember how many year I've had them. I think more than 5 years.

We laid them to rest in a huge tree in southern Utah that was just filled with pairs of dead shoes. See below!




4. Grace is starting to speak in sentences and she is so good at it. It is so fun to have actual conversations with her. She calls Dad "Dab" and Mom "Momidy". Too cute.

5. Libby has finally started crawling!!! She waited til she was 11 month to do so, I was getting a little concerned. She is getting better and better by the day.

6. We now are the proud owners of THREE goats. We added two more so now we have a herd!

7. Logan has been working hard, hard, hard at work, and is presently at Hannigan's Meadow in eastern Arizona with Conan for a fishing trip. I hope they don't freeze!

That is a lot, and enough for now. love you all!

New Pet!

We have a new pet - and I like him better than a dog. He is a sweet black and white pygmy goat. I have to admit, I wasn't too excited to get him. But the first time I met him, my heart melted. He loves people and kids, and best of all he doesn't jump all over you. Logan wanted to name him after someone important, like a president or something. We decided on Napoleon because he is so short! So, welcome Napoleon to our family!

We also have more wildlife pictures to share. We are getting to enjoy finding out what different types of animals live near us. Logan found a horny toad and caught it. Grace loved it!

Baby Blessing and fun pics

Logan's cousin Terry blessed his and Heather's baby this last Sunday in St David. Titan is such a cute boy. I sm jealous!! I am glad I was able to go - it is a happy plus that we live close to Heather's parents in St David. Now we hope we will see more of their family. I was really glad to see Doeshann there as well. It has been too long since I've seen her! Here are some pictures.

Heather, Titan and Terry

Terry, Doeshann, and Grace


Libby sitting in her highchair eating noodles - she loved 'em!


Grace in our field of weeds. At least the weeds are green!

Swimming Fun

We spent the day at Conan and Chrissy's house last weekend and had a really fun time. They had some friends and their kiddo's there, and it was a fun little kid party all day. Here are some pictures of Grace swimming and going down the slide. She is fearless!!

Da, Daddy, Dabby?

Grace is spouting off words as if the dam burst, and all the things she has wanted to say are just spilling out. It must be exciting for kids to finally figure things out and learn to talk. Grace has turned into an even happier girl now that she can get her point across in words. I wonder at some things though. She will spout off a new word and get all the syllables correct, and then degenerate the word down to just its first syllable. It was fun to listen to her say "triangle" for the first time. Now it is just "tri."

Another thing (and the name of this post) is what she has called Logan. For along quite a long time she called him "Da." In the last few months, has called him "Daddy," which I think is cute. The last two days, however, it has degenerated to "Dabby." What???? She will ask, "Where's Dabby?... Dabby? Dabby? Dabby?" and look around. Hmmm. I am sure it will fix itself (with the help of me repeating Da-DEE everytime). Anyway - that is what has been going on at the Beach home lately!

Creeped Out!!!

Just look what I found on my front porch the other day!



I screamed - and not for ice cream. I have not been the same since. Now I am just sure that they are everywhere. Every time I feel something on my leg, or back, or arm I freak out. I need to get it together.

We understand that these great little creatures are a lot more active during the monsoons, so we shouldn't have to deal with them all year. Comforting? Not to me. I will just have to figure out how to tarantula proof our home and yard! Or move.

Photoshop

How much do I love photoshop? I love it so, so much! I am learning how to fix up our photos, make colors brighter, add edge burning, and some other cool tricks. There is a lot more for me to learn, but look below for a neat thing I learned how to do today. I was surprised how well it turned out!

(P.S. You can see what the photo looked like in the post below)

Rain Rain Rain!

Rain rain rain! The monsoon season has arrived in Benson! It rained like cats and dogs these past few days. It has been fun to listen to, watch, and play in. Here are some pictures of our front yard and a few other places around the house. I thought we were going to float away!

Grace during a break in the rain.

Rain is funny.

The chicken coop full full of water. I am glad they are smart
enough to get out of the rain!

Do you see the stream of water running towards the

side yard? It was raging!

The front yard full of water - we could've swam in there!

Exercise Tapes

So - have you ever tried to to an excercise tape with a two year old in the room? It is impossible. Grace thought it was the funniest thing she had ever seen. There was her mom on the floor doing sit-ups, leg lifts, etc. She was climbing over me the whole time! I had to give up. This activity will have to be done during nap time or after she is in bed for the night.

Update on the escaped chickens. I am sure all (4) of you that read this blog have been on pins and needles waiting to see what their fate was. They are fine, they stuck close to the coop all day, and between the two of us, we were able to shoo them easily. They probably enjoyed being out of the fence and being "free-range" chickens for a while.

Here is a picture of the eggs we collect.

Chickens

Have you ever caught chickens on the loose? I haven't. But I need to! We have two chickens that escaped the coop. I took Grace out today to check for eggs. Actually, Grace whined at the door "Chickies" until I relented, slipped on some flip flops and went with her. I usually do not go in the coop, but I did today, to check on the feed. I let Grace come in too. Bad mistake - I looked back a second later, and the door was wide open! Two of the chickens were out fast.

I like that we have chickens, that we get free eggs, and we have some neat pets that I can take Grace to look at once or twice a day. Now, comes the time that I will actually have to touch them.
I tried for half and hour running around the coop after those chickens. Every time I would get close enough to grab them, they would take off. I have to admit that I am scared to grab one. I don't think I can do it. They are sticking close to the coop, and look like they want to get back in, I wish I could "shoo" them in better. Oh, well, I will have Logan help me when he gets home.

Here's a picture of the escapees.


ps - did I mention this is Sunday, and if I was at church, this wouldn't have happened? Grace was sick yesterday, and coughing a little today. If we had at least gone to Sacrament meeting this would not have happened!!!

Happy Birthday, Grace!

Today is Grace's 2nd birthday. What a fun day it will be. We are in Benson, Arizona, having fun on three acres with five chickens, some turtles, and a couple tortoises. It is so nice to be here. I will post pictures of our place in a different post. This one is for Grace. She is so cute these days. Saying new words, and even expressing her opinions in words. I love it!

This morning we opened her gifts from Grandma Flash. Thanks G-ma Flash! We love them. Grace especially liked th Symphony candy bar and the wonderful Barbie Princess keyboard. She is having lots of fun with it. Grace also really like the birthday card. It is one of those that sings when you open it. This one sings the chicken dance song. She will open it, hear it go off, then close it quick and give a little laugh. We love her.

Laugh, laugh, laughing!

We just had a huge laugh fest at our house. I posted some video below. It had been going on for a good five minutes or so before I started recording, and it is still going on now. What fun kids can be!

A Family First!

Our family just had our first professional family photo taken. It turned out pretty well, I just wish we had done it earlier. It reinforced to me just how much Grace and Libby do not look alike. Grace looks like a Robertson (my family) and Libby is so very much her fathers daughter.