The big annual Robbins Family Christmas party!
Everyone looks forward to this party every year. Yesterday all I heard is "when are we going??"

We have a yummy dinner then we play Bingo or what I like to call "blood bingo". It was pretty tame last night. No tears or blood were shed this year.

We then exchanged our Christmas gifts, I love this part. I love to see how everyone likes the gifts they were given. Shan gave Sierra a barbie car with a barbie in it. It was so cute, she loved it. What was even cuter is that Shaylee loved it too. Sierra was sweet and shared it with her. That little Shaylee is the cutest thing ever, well it may be a tie for cuteness with Sierra. Ha!

We usually celebrate Noelle's birthday at our Christmas party since it falls either on her actual day or close to it. This year it was on her day. She wanted a big fudge-y chocolate cake, and Costco has a really good one. I just wished the whole things was eaten last night. Now I have a quarter of it staring at me all day.

Happy 11th Birthday Noelle!


Me and my gorgeous sister in law Judy. I had to get a pic of us since we totally matched in our black.


Noelle, Cody and Maddy playing cards.

I wished I had taken more pics. I just always forget when the party is in full swing. Everyone is coming over next Tuesday for dinner, so I'll try and get more then.

Thanksgiving 2008

Click on any of the pics to get a larger view.

















Turkey Day! We had a great time. It was so fun to have it at our house again. The turkey turned out juicy and moist. The rolls were light and fluffy. (We almost didn't have any because I made a huge mistake when I made them) Darlene (Scott's Mom) made the most wonderful yams. They were a huge hit. I want some right now. My Grandpa's sister was able to come. I haven't seen her since his funeral. She could only remember me as a little girl but she looks so much like him it felt like he was there with us.

This is a new recipe I tried. It's a chocolate-pecan-caramel cream pie. It was harder than I thought it would be. The custard layer took me three tries. It was pretty good though. Ash loved my razzleberry pie I made a little bit more. I think I need to teach her how to make it. I keep trying to teach the kids how to cook but it gets so frustrating. They don't seem to love it like I did at their age. My sister and I would try and see who could make the same dish the best. Maybe they need a little competition. The stuffing ended up wonderful even though I couldn't find the pecans. I think Ash threw them away when she was helping me clean up. It's probably a good thing since it forced me to abandon my idea of making pecan squares. I soooo didn't have time for that.

























Sierra making her sad and her mad face. She loves the camera.

Dance night!

Ash is such a cutie, She went to the dance with one of her buddies. Her boyfriend's parents won't let him take the same girl twice in a row. She didn't mind too much. One of Ash's good friends took him so they could all go together and still have a great time.


I told them to make a goofy face. They weren't too creative. Ash got a little more silly when she got some red lipstick on. All the girls that came over looked great. There was six couples so a total of twelve. Since it was girls choice I offered to make dinner. I told them they just had to pay for the meat. They all wanted to save a bit of money so they quickly agreed. One of the girls even had a friend that would do some great pictures so they wouldn't have to spend too much on them at the dance. This was such a great way to go.
They took a bunch of pics together and some with just couples. I can't wait to see all the fun pictures she took. Ash is between her date and her boyfriend. You can click on the pics to see them bigger with more detail.


I wanted the table to look beautiful, they seemed to love the cranberries in the sprite. I hope they enjoyed this as much as a fancy restaurant.









For starters, a spinach, romaine salad with cranberries, almonds and a raspberry vinaigrette dressing.The main course was oven roasted beef tenderloin finished on the grill with shallot burgundy sauce. On the side bow tie pasta with spinach ravioli with pesto sauce and steamed broccoli (obviously).

Dessert was Oreo, chocolate, strawberry parfait with a tuxedo strawberry on top.

I would totally do this again. I had a great time and I think the kids really liked the food. I can't wait to hear how many dances her date let her dance with her boyfriend. ;)

Ok, here is what's been going on for the last two weeks.

Ash got her wisdom teeth out.

She did great, she was out of it for a bit but then was fine later on that day. She didn't even bruise or swell up.

Halloween was fun, not quite as eventful as usual. I ordered a Sleeping Beauty costume to go with Scott's Buzz lightYear but it didn't fit right. Apparently it is made for girls without boobs of any kind. I ended up wearing all black and a witches hat. Sierra was happy I was also a witch. Ash didn't even dress up at all. She didn't like the Gogo girl costume she picked out.


Jackson only wore his costume for the picture, and Noelle had to have a costume of a real person for school. Her teacher had them do a report on a real person and make a poster of them. That was the only way they could dress up at school. She really wanted to be someone scary. Oh well. I guess he meant well but what a way to take the fun out of Halloween.

Sierra is the most adorable little witch ever. She had the most fun. It started to rain while we were trick or treating and she started to get cold. I kept asking her if she wanted to go home and she would say "no, almost done." So cute. I guess Halloween really is for the littlest ones.


The next day the fab Hubby took me to Mama Mia in Vegas. We both loved the movie and thought the theater production would be awesome. We were wrong. It was mediocre and now I know why they are closing. We still had a great time just being together.

Now I'm getting ready for Ash to go to the Ball on Saturday. I ended up offering to make dinner for her and all her friends. I just told them they had to pay for the groceries and I would make it wonderful. We found the perfect dress, it was 50% off. Woo hoo!


That's about it. Oh I did rear ended on Saturday. It's just a little dent, it shouldn't be too much to fix. They may not even want to go through their insurance. I felt bad for the girl. She is 19 and she cried like she had killed someone. Poor girl. Scott is coming home from St. George in a bit so I better get going on the house. I love to have it all sparkly and de-cluttered when he walks in. Off to work!

Disneyland in October! The weather was beautiful, the decorations were spectacular. The crowds...well it was UEA weekend. So we pretty much shared the park with all of Utah.

Sierra loved seeing her favorite characters. She ran up and hugged each one and had the biggest grin on her face. She wasn't scared of any of them.
We love the churros in Disneyland, they are the best. We have a hard time walking by one of these carts without getting one.
Sierra had so much fun posing for the camera.

She had the best time, even now she reminds me daily that she loves Disneyland.On the last day Scott got the cinnamon roll he had been craving the entire trip.

And I got my giant smoked turkey leg. I promise it's to die for.Haunted Mansion was the most popular ride since they only decorate it like this for Halloween to Christmas.


Sierra getting us all to do mad and sad faces. We would take her picture then she would say "okay, now a sad face."

This is the crowd in front of the Mansion. It was packed!
This is the side of the Mansion, all the people behind Scott and the kids were IN LINE. I have Never seen the line go out of the gates before. We were right by the entrance to the train. I tell you it was crazy. We got some fast pass tickets so we didn't have to wait.
Sierra was so excited to see Mickey, then she got all shy and hid in my hair. She gave him the biggest hug ever though.
This moment made the whole crowd behind us say "awwwww."


Time for a little rest and more posing from Sierra.



Some of the characters were in costumes.

Canning the fruits of my garden

Tomatoes are taking over my kitchen! Last year I planted four plants, they produced way more than we could ever eat. Being the lazy person I can sometimes be, I left them there all winter. In the spring we weeded all the dead plants. I guess the seeds were in the ground because later I had little tomato plants all over the place. I did plant a few and for some reason they didn't do as well as the volunteer plants did. So what am I going to do with all these? And why is this post underlined?? Grrr! I have the hardest time posting here.

I ended up with seven jars of salsa and seven quarts of Scott's Mom's green tomatoes. I did add some cauliflower. I found a site that said you could do that. I also did seven quarts of crushed tomatoes. I hope we will eat them. I think they will look pretty on the pantry shelves though.
Here is a close up of the green pickled tomatoes. Scott loves them. Jackson about hurled when he walked in the house. He has a serious problem with the smell of vinegar. The whole house reeked of it. I thought the smell of dill would linger but the vinegar killed that smell. They look yummy. I've never loved pickled veggies. If we end up having to eat them to survive I suppose I will learn to love them. I am excited for the salsa though. I just hope it's spicy enough to make Scott happy and yet mild enough that we can all enjoy it.

It was fun, I can't believe I got it done before we leave tomorrow for Disneyland. I feel so proud. *sniff,sniff*

Birthday Bash 08!

The big birthday weekend is finally over.

It all started with my birthday on Thursday. Scott took me out for lunch and gave me tickets to Mama Mia in Vegas. I ate raspberry chocolate cake and clam chowder with yummy sourdough bread. I can honestly tell you I didn't feel even a little bit guilty. I found this amazing cake store called Nothing Bundt Cake. They have these little individual cakes called bundtlets. Perfect for one person.

As I was savoring this perfect slice of heaven, my wonderful friend Joey brought me another one! Oh the day just gets better and better!

So I didn't eat that one all by myself since I was starting to feel a little sick from gobbling down the first one. I shared it with the kids.

I did get a big one for the big dinner and birthday celebrations.

Later that night we went to one of those Astro Burger (one of those yummy greek burger places.) The kids all had cheeseburgers and Scott and I had gyros. So yummy....until I threw up later that night. I guess I wasn't used to so much crap. Anyway, I enjoyed most of it.


See my bodybugg on my arm? I've had a few people think it was a tatoo. huh? really? ok.

The next day (Friday) was Scott's and Ash's birthday. It was pretty quiet for me we did go out for dinner again since it's a tradition. They picked our favorite pizza place. We had salad, pizza and spumoni with rum sauce. I gave Scott one of those flip camcorders. They are way cool. I can't wait to put up some of them. Sierra slept all through dinner since she woke up at 6:30 in the morning. Her normal time to wake up is anywhere between 8:30 and 10:00.


Here is Ash and her best friend. I can't believe she is 17! That freaks me right out.

Here is the Scott doing what he loves. Who knew you could surf behind a boat? This was just last weekend down in St. George.

I had to put one up of him smiling. He is such a hottie! Yum!

Then came Saturday and little Sierra's birthday. Three years old. She gave me the best birthday present. She pooped in the potty! Yes, she finally did it and we celebrated. There was much rejoicing. ha!

We spent the day getting ready for all the family to come for dinner and cake on Sunday.

She got her first crown and princess jewlery and shoes from her cousin Jamie.


She then did some Irish dancing on the kitchen floor. So adorable.
Grandma gave her a cute crayon apron and a huge coloring book. He other Grandma gave her some books which she loved. She also got a fun little Brat doll from her Uncle Ken and Aunt Shana. They are so awesome. Uncle Ken did have fun teasing Ashley about her boyfriend. She get two dozen red roses from him. He is a sweet kid.




So we are all another year older. I don't think I'm any wiser but at least I'm thinner than last year which is almost as good in my book. ha! Woo Hoo!

Here are some more fun pics from our trip to St. George and Sand Hollow.