Reading with Daddy

Sunday afternoon Norah decided she wanted to be read to. She went down the hall to her room, quickly emerged with her favorite book of late, and held it up to daddy, who was sitting on the couch. Jason hoisted her up into his lap, and read to her. When I saw her sweet little feet sticking out, I just had to have a picture of the two of them reading together.

(Disclaimer: Jason Robinson is not in support of, nor does he endorse fairies of any kind. His reading of this book is merely a coincidental effort to appease his daughter's literary cravings, and he would much rather read more manly books about football, fast cars, or dinosaurs.)

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Ok, truth be told, we actually had more than a quiet evening of celebration with family for Jason's birthday last Tuesday...but if I would have blogged it earlier, it would have spoiled the surprise!

While daddy was at work, Mommy went to work making 2 cakes. One small cake (aka--the dummy cake, to throw daddy off the scent) and one large cake (which Norah and I delivered during the day), for all of the party guests.






Unfortunately, mommy failed to offer Norah any of the left-over icing. Instead, mommy threw the unused icing into the trashcan. However, being the self-sufficient soul that she is, Norah simply helped herself to the icing supply.

I caught her almost instantly (as you can probably tell by the look on her face). Thankfully, I already had the camera out to take pictures of the cake!


Once I had taken a couple of pictures, her expression changed from one of "Uh-oh...I'm in Trouble", to one that said, "Oh, I think I'm gonna get away with this after all!"










We headed out to the "Robinson Farm" for our "family dinner", only to be bombarded by a caravan of our friends, toting their dinner, ready to join us! Jason was completely surprised (for once, we were able to pull one over on him!)





Everyone ate dinner. The kids had a ball feeding the goats. But probably the most popular attraction of the evening was Uncle Grant's bow target, which looks like a deer. Kellen kept asking if he could "pet the reindeer"! It was too cute for words!

I had to laugh at little Shelby, too. Mid-way through the evening she ran all the way across the yard and up onto the porch where the "moms" were congregated and asked with optimism, "Mommy, can I holler outside?" Katy answered, "Yes, sweetie. You can holler outside." Shelby turned and let out a little girly shriek before she even made it off the porch, and continued "hollering" as she ran across the yard. (Katy explained that she was constantly telling Shelby at home that she couldn't holler inside, she has to use her inside voice)

After everyone had plenty of time to play with the animals (and in the rain, for some of the evening!), we all gathered on the back porch for cake and ice cream. This was one of my favorite cakes I think I've ever made. (It's a disc golf basket, in case you're not familiar with one of Jason's biggest passions) It took quite a while piping the individual chain links and the basket, but it was totally worth it when Jason told me how much he loved his cake.




After the crowd died down, we had a little family time and Jason got to open his gifts from his mom, Grandmother, and Grant & Paige. (Norah re-lived her Christmas joys, by wearing a bow atop her head)













We also got some great photos of Norah playing in a box. (Thanks to Aunt Paige for making ridiculous faces and funny noises to get her to look up!) These were especially special to me because my parents took some similar photos of me when i was just a little older than Norah is now. (I know everyone's parents probably took photos of them in boxes...but its just fun to compare your baby pictures with your child's)



And of course, she had to make her cheesy face and pose for the camera a little too. (She was in an exceptionally good mood, considering it was over an hour past her bedtime and she usually turns into a pumpkin!)

Happy Birthday Cal & Patti

Two years ago this Wednesday, our good friends Jenny & Daniel welcomed their sweet son and daughter into their family. Happy Birthday Cal & Patti! Last Saturday, we went over to the mini-amusement park that is the Livingston's backyard and to celebrate with the twins' 2nd birthday.

Norah had a blast swinging. (She was saying "Weeee!"at the time that this picture was taken.

The party's theme was "Dirt & Daisies" and Jenny did an awesome job with decorations, party favors, and especially these adorable cakes!

They even had a sandbox filled with shovels and rakes. (Here Norah is with her own improv rendition of the soon-to-be hit, "I Love Yard Implements")

Speaking of birthdays....Daddy's is tomorrow! We're planning a family dinner at the farm (.50 pizza rolls at Buck's...yum!)

My Dirtiest Post Yet

It's been beautiful outside, so I decided to try a little yard work. I've been wanting a cut flower garden in the backyard (so it wont be an eyesore from the street when I cut all the blooms...or if nothing ever grows in it and we're left with a big mud pit). Being the mother of a 1 year-old, I had 2 options: 1)Leave my child inside where I can be certain her finger nails will remain dirt-free (and listen to her pitiful cries brought on by my insensitivity to her love of the great outdoors), or 2)Suck it up and let her come out with me, dirt and all.





As you've probably gathered by the pictures, I went with option 2. I like to call this series of pictures, "Why We Don't Let a 1 Year-Old Garden". Actually, I guess they could also be called, "Why You Should Totally Let Your 1 Year-Old Garden". I mean, look at her. She's having the time of her life in that mud! I'd say a little more than her fingernails got dirty. (And for the record, her clothes came perfectly clean in the wash! Shout rocks!)



The hardest part, by far, of the whole ordeal was getting her clean. I had just cleaned the house spotless the day before (hence my having time to fiddle with gardening). The post-gardening house had a trail of mud-droppings from the backdoor to the bathtub. More dirt rained down from her filthy clothes as I stripped her down for a bath. The water...yeah....pretty well black. We had to drain and start again. But in the end, she was clean. And it was a fun adventure for both of us. Totally worth it.

Happy Belated Easter

Ok, AA, you demanded Easter pictures...so here you go. This was the coldest Easter I can ever remember! I was so glad I had bought Norah a little white sweater to go with her Easter dress. Jason and I both opted out of wearing our Easter duds, in exchange for something a lot warmer.

We tried to get a sweet picture of Norah in her blue Easter dress...this is the best we came up with. We made the mistake of waiting until after her nap, after church, so she was full of energy and in a super silly mood. I know it looks like she's screaming, but in actuality, she's fake laughing. She has this hilarious shrieking laugh that she only does when she's feeling especially cantankerous. Mom R once described to me how funny it is to watch a baby rooster teaching itself how to crow...I have to imagine that it must, in some small way, resemble a baby girl teaching herself how to belly laugh. Somewhat painful looking, but proud, and amused, all at the same time. (Not to mention very entertaining to onlookers)

Norah was certainly spoiled this Easter. Friday, Grammy gave her a sweet necklace with her initials engraved on it. (interesting enough, though her initials in monogram format spell NRA...this was unintentional and the Robinsons currently have no affiliation with the National Rifle Association) Then Saturday, a mysterious FedEx box appeared on our doorstep, containing 4 stuffed (non-edible, and thankfully, non-sticky) Peeps! Norah knew just what they were because she almost immediately started saying, "Peep! Peep!" when we opened the box. (I was glad AA, aka Peep Provider, was on the phone with us at the time to witness this sweet sound). The box the peeps came in had some fun facts. Did you know it originally took 27 hours to make ONE peep!? Crazy. Sounds to me like the guys making the first batch must've really liked peeps. I'll bet they finally got tired of eating the product after 27 hours, so they said, "Ok! They're finally ready. Whew! Those take forever to make!" when their boss showed up to see what was taking so long.

Sunday, we headed out to Uncle Grant and Aunt Paige's house (you wouldn't believe how much the guineas have grown!) for Easter lunch. Grandma (aka Mom R) had a sweet Easter basket chocked full of goodies for Norah...and one for Jason and me too! (Its nice to not have to grow out of all the fun stuff)

In other news, I'm still hard at work hand-quilting on Norah's quilt and it is really coming along. (Hence the less-frequent blog updates...sorry) I can't wait to post that I've finished it...but don't hold your breath! In the mean time, I'll at least try to keep the Norah updates coming.

Fun on the Farm

I'm a little behind in posting, but here are the promised photos of Norah's evening at the Robinson Place (which, thanks to the efforts of Uncle Grant and Aunt Paige, is beginning to look more and more like a farm)

This first shot is of Norah and Daddy on Uncle Grant's big, orange tractor.








This is Norah's first glance at real, live goats. Jason is feeding the baby kid, while a wide-eyed Norah looks on.








She got a closer look at the goats a little later, when Uncle Grant and Daddy lured them in with some leafy tree branches. Those goats made short work of every leaf in the amount of time it took me to snap one picture!






Norah loved peering through the slats in the gate. She was mesmerized by all the animals. But her favorite still remained the doggies! She'd look at the chicks and the goats, but she'd always wander back to the dogs.














Daddy let Norah try out the tractor bucket. She thought it was a fun place to play for a few seconds, but then, perhaps sensing potential abandonment, she decided she didn't like it in there.



We even got a 4-generation photo with the tractor. (L-R: Grandma, Great Grandmother, Norah, and Jason)







Daddy devised a clever new way to keep Norah in check. Too bad it only works when she's wearing overalls. (She loved when he picked her up like this!)













She also really liked being hoisted up on Daddy's shoulders. I thought this was a sweet picture of the two of them.










As we headed home, we hadn't even driven a mile before Norah completely zonked out! It was a long, but very fun day. I'm sure we'll make many more good memories at the Robinson Farm, and I hope that Norah will grow-up to appreciate the time we are able to share with our family there.