Grace's First Ballet Recital

Grace had her first ballet recital a few weeks ago.

It was The Nutcracker.

She let me fix her hair. That never happens.

Passe.

Trying to socialize.

Telling the other girls what to do.

During her part, she was so distracted. No stage fright whatsoever, though. She didn't do a single one of her dance moves. It was wonderful. She yelled, "I think I see Gramma Karen!" Then she pulled her tutu up under her arm pits and yelled, "How's this Mom?!" Quite entertaining.

All that dancing made her hungry.

"Wow." That was all she could say. "Wow."

Beautiful Miss Sarah (front), Grace's teacher.

Gorgeous.

Photos taken by Tasha Robison.

Jacob Meets the Blue Swing

Jacob, meet Blue Swing.

Blue Swing, meet Jacob.

Grace and Paige

Photos taken by Tasha Robison

A Robison Thanksgiving Bonanza!

The Robison Siblings:

Left to right (and oldrest to youngest):

Kelley, Brook, Sara, Matthew, Daniel, Amy, Emma, Hannah

A few weeks before Thanksgiving my sister Sara contacted my siblings and I and asked if we wanted to surprise my mom for Thanksgiving. (Now, my family has to plan reunions two years in advance because we all live so far away, and there are nine of us.) But somehow we pulled it off.

(1 set of grandparents, 1 set of parents, 1 cousin, 9 siblings, 6 in-laws, and 11 grandchildren makes for 1 crazy reunion. 2 in-laws and 1 grandchild not shown above.)

It wasn’t a surprise, though. We invited my grandparents and they refused to surprise her. So we planned a fun way to tell my mom. One evening my sister Molly (the youngest living outside the home) called my mom at 6:00 pm and told her that she would be coming for Thanksgiving. Then at 6:02, I called her. At 6:04, my older brother Dan called her. And so on every 2 minutes until finally my grandparents called. She loved it. And it turned out much better not being a surprise. There were thirty of us in my parent’s 4-bedroom house for three days.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at the local Stake Center so we could all sit down together, at the same time, without worrying about what the kids were getting into. Dan and Tasha set up the tables. Pretty exquisite, huh?The kids got their own table with a butcher paper table cloth they could color on.

We all cooked something for dinner so my mom would have to do anything. My favorite was Molly's sweet potato dish. I had it for dessert instead of pie.

Playing at the Stake Center after dinner.Dancing in my parents living room. Jacob warming up to his uncle Ken. He stared at him like this for at least 30 minutes and then fell asleap there.
Grace "doctoring" her cousin Paige.
The sisters: Molly, Hannah, Amy, Emma, Sara, KelleyThe Turkey Bowl:

It wouldn't be a family reuinon without a little competiton, a little roughhousing, a little disagreement, and a little arguing.

We all had so much fun. My family likes to play this game called loaded questions. You may have heard of it. We make up our own questions, though. It is hilarious. I could go on and on about all we did and how great my family is, but, I don’t really want to. So, that’s all.

Twilight Night

Yes, I am a Twilight fan. Not a crazy one, though. There are some things I would do, and some things I would not do. For example:

1. I would not wait in line at midnight for Breaking Dawn to be released. I would go to Wal-mart then next morning to buy one copy.

2. I would not spend my free time creating my own personal music video for Paramore's song, Decode. I would watch the real music video on YouTube and buy the song on iTunes.

3. I would not ask my husband to try to be more like Edward. I would ask him if he would want to read the book with me. (We read a lot of books together. Well, I read and he listens. And he said yes. We’re on New Moon now. He said Twilight was okay. He says New Moon is better so far because there’s a lot less cheese and mush.)

4. I would not spend money on a fancy special edition book that has a poster and tattoos in it. I would buy Stephenie Meyer’s book, The Host, which in my opinion is better than the Twilight series.

So that said, I was incredibly excited about the movie. My mom, sisters, and I planned a girl’s night out to go see it. And it was an absolute blast. The movie was not as good as I hoped. (I would not go see it again, but I don’t regret seeing it.) But we all got dressed up, my two younger sisters and I held hands through the whole movie, we cheered as the movie started, and screamed when Edward first appeared. After the movie we went out to eat at The Olive Garden. On the way home we listened to the radio too loud, sang along with the songs, and danced in our seats. It was wonderful. I love my mom and sisters.

Baby Love.

This boy adores his daddy. And vise versa.

The Many Faces of Grace