Sunday, January 30, 2011

Carter's new little buddy

Last week Carter and I got to spend some time with my friend Nicole and her adorable, sweet, happy, li'l bundle of joy, Henry. Carter was pretty excited to see the baby and even got to hold him a couple of times. He was so gentle with him. I think he is going to make a great big brother!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Happy birthday Isabelle!

Today was my sweet little niece's 2nd birthday. Just like Carter, I figured she probably had plenty of toys already, especially with Christmas just a month ago. I thought about one of my all time favorite gifts that I got when I was little. I was probably about 8 and my mom gave me a creativity box. It was a file box filled with different items to help me create a book (I wanted to be a writer at that point).

Isabelle is only 2, but I thought about where I keep Carter's crayons, makers, coloring, books etc. The answer: everywhere. I don't have a central spot for them, but I do keep them out of his reach so that we don't end up with crayon marking on the walls. So, I decided to make a creative box for Isabelle. This way, even if she already had crayons, markers, etc. she would have a fun place to keep everything.




I had so much fun shopping for supplies to help get her box started. Then, I used my silhouette machine to personalize her little box. Sorry for the bad photo. Carter's has little tractors and trucks..





I thought it turned out so cute that I made one for Carter too. Of course, he doesn't have all the cool stuff inside yet, but I'm sure he'll acquire it all little by little.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Ujimacare Orphanage

I'm so excited to finally be able to share about the fundraiser that I'm heading up for Ujimacare to raise funds for their orphanage in Ghana. I recently joined their board of directors and have been anxious to jump in and get things done!

Get more information at our adoption blog.

I hope that you'll take a minute to consider how your $10 (or more) could make a huge difference in the lives of orphans.

Monday, January 24, 2011

I saw this great craft idea on so many different blogs that I can't even remember who to give credit to. I told Chris about it and he thought it was a great idea so, we came up with our list of Roberts Family Rules together. The next day, I painted a 16x20 canvas and then used different scrapbook paper and my silhouette machine to put it all together.




The finished product is hung at the bottom of our stairs so that we always see it.

I'm usually not big on Valentine's Day - neither is Chris. We don't do much to celebrate and I don't decorate. This year I'm getting my act together mostly to focus on Valentine's Day instead of the other significance of the day. So, today Carter and I made some hearts to hang on the windows. I think I could get into this Valentine's Day thing.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

The dilemma

So, I put Carter down for his nap and came back downstairs. About 1/2 hour later, I look at the monitor and saw that he was awake. I also saw... his little bare butt! No clue how the diaper came off, intentional or not, but I had a dilemma on my hands. Go in and put it back on knowing that the odds of his not taking a nap after seeing me are slim to none or risk pee all over this bed and worse.

I went back in, put the diaper on, read another story and then had to listen to 10 minutes of painful "MA-MA!"s...

Happily, he is out now and the diaper is on!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Cafe sip 'n' play

Mostly fun except when moms bring their way-too-old bratty kids who take toys from the little ones.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

What I did during nap time

We are in the middle of redecorating our home office. I've already painted it, had an electrician install a ceiling light and ordered a new organizational piece of furniture. I'll be posting the "before" and "after" photos in the next few weeks. One thing I really wanted was a nice big family calendar and bulletin board to help stay organized. Pottery Barn has an awesome system where you can mix-n-match, but each piece that I wanted was $44 (sale price) + the cost of the system that allows you to hang it on the wall. It was going to cost $130 for what I wanted.

I found this 35" x 22" white board at Target for about $20



Using a black permanent marker, I measured and drew the lines for 2 monthly calendars.





And, that's it! I used dry-erase markers for the dates and all the notes. The finishing touch will be to do something about the name of the month. I'm going to run out and get magnetic "paper" so that I can just make magnets for each month. It will look so much cleaner and professional if the months are typed, don't you think?

Big boy!!!

Carter went pee-pee on the potty!

Monday, January 10, 2011

More from Christmas

Every year Papa Ron and Neta throw an amazing event for the entire family to get together at Christmas. It's simply really. We go bowling and eat pizza. What makes the day so special is that pretty much EVERYONE comes. To clarify for my side of the family, this photo is just Chris' mom's immediate family with their children and grandchildren. Grandpa Roger is 1 of 8 children as well.



We really missed Nick this year, but otherwise, it was a superb turn out with all 11 of Papa and Neta's kids, their kids, their kids' kids, etc. Wow. What an amazing family to be part of!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Sledding

We had a blast in Sunriver with Auntie Lindsey and Mr. Big Dog (and ALL 4 DOGS!). Friday morning, while they hit the slopes, our little Roberts clan hit the sledding hill. We were the only people there which was great! I thought it was because it was Friday, Chris pointed out that it might also be because it was only 9 a.m. and there had not been any new snow recently so, it was a bit icy.



Carter loves his snow outfit that Auntie got him for Christmas and he LOVED sledding!





After sledding we went to the store. I took this photo because he just looked so cute and proud of himself in the cart going through the check-out line. Had I realized there was a "liquor" sign in the back, I may have rethought how cute the photo-op really was.



Chris brought along one of his Christmas presents, one of his remote control helicopters (yes, we now have multiple). He and Mr. Big Dog had a good time playing with it and Carter always loves to watch. Chris showed his mad skills when he landed it on the beer bottle.




Jay was by far Carter's favorite of the dogs. The biggest, but the most mellow. Carter couldn't get enough.



I knew that Lindsey has a lead foot, but it really felt like we were flying out of the neighborhood. I was relieved when she told me that the speedometer was broken.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Christmas baking catch-up

This year Chris and I had a great idea: I would bake Christmas cookies in the shape of calculators for all of his employees and put them in a cute box with a Starbucks gift card, 2 other types of cookies, and a thoughtful, handwritten note from Chris.

Let me just say, this will not be happening again next year. If I don't bake another cookie, I'll be just fine.






Did I mention we did this for 15 employees?

Great taste in music



When this song came on the radio, Carter just couldn't help himself. He had to move!

You know you're craving the music video now. Go ahead, enjoy:

More progress

Man, Carter really didn't like the idea of speech therapy. He is saying even more today. He is now trying to say anything we ask him to say. Previously, we would ask him to say "berry" and he would just look at us and then move on to something else. He wasn't even going to bother trying. The new Carter, gives it his best shot and he gets really close each time!