Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's

After a good nap at home, it was time to go eat Christmas supper with Grandma and Grandpa. Just like every year, Grandma outdid herself with a delicious supper. As a tradition, we always have a family discussion about God and what He has done for us this year. The discussion this year was to name your favorite Christmas song, sing it, and then tell why it was your favorite. It was fun singing Christmas songs together and it was something that the little kids could get involved in too. When it came time for Dalton's turn, he first said his favorite song was "Backyardigans", but then with further thought, he changed it to "Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer". Super fun singing that song with all the Herring's! :)

Jeff, Austin, Kristin, Abby, and Grandpa

Grandpa, Autumn, Grandma, Dalton, and me.

Dalton found some chap stick in his stocking.

Bring on the presents!

Uncle John and Austin

Watching Christmas movies together

One of the hardest jobs comes at Christmas every year: getting toys out of the box. This year two of his toys required power tools to get them out! Dalton is giving Dad a hug for working so hard to get his remote control car out of the box.

Uncle Jeff and Aunt Kristin got Dalton this Buzz Light Year robe with his name on it! He has been wanting a robe like mom and dad wear. He said, "Can I go take a shower, now?"

One of his favorite gifts was this echoing microphone. Thanks Grandma!

Breakfast with Santa

Saturday morning, Dalton and I left the house bright and early to go to AR Children's Hospital for their "Breakfast with Santa". Not sure who had more fun...me or Dalton!

Our breakfast was made and served by the Little Rock Fire Department. They made pancakes, bacon, eggs, sausage, orange juice, and an orange. They parked their fire truck outside and gave the kids tours of the inside. Dalton loved that!

He got to write a letter to Santa....

....and then sent it to him in the special mailbox.

The elves had Santa on the "mainline" and were calling him so that the kids could talk to Santa.
Too cute!

Listening intently to what Santa had to say.

Christmas would not be complete without a tattoo!

I love this picture!
My how things change in just a year. I remember last year we had to have a family picture with Santa because Dalton had such a death grip on me that I had to be in the picture too. Not this year! This boy went up there all by himself and even told Santa, "Merry Christmas!"

When Santa asked, "What do you want for Christmas?" Dalton answered, "A big paint brush and big paint!" I asked him later why he wanted this and he said Ms. Becky paints the walls at church and he wanted big paint and a big brush like she has. Uh-oh! I am scared! I have been wanting my living room painted....

Making a Chrismas card...we got a little "happy" with the glue!

Santa was letting the kids test drive his sleigh outside. So fun!

We had a great time! I am thinking this will have to be a yearly tradition and dad is going next year to pull double-duty in the long lines! More than a great time, it was all for a wonderful cause!

These are pics from our trip to Silver Dollar City a few weeks ago. We had a great time.

Carving Pumpkins, Dressing up, and Trick-or-Treating....Happy Halloween!

Saturday was a day filled with lots of Halloween fun. I am not sure, though, who had more fun... me and John or Dalton! We invited our sweet neighbor friends over for some pumpkin carving fun. I think the jack-o-lantern turned out very spooky!

Dalton, Ashley, and Claire picking a template for the pumpkin.

Dad is putting setting the template on the pumpkin
(So glad John has skills...if it were up to me to carve that pumpkin...who knows what it would look like!)

We bought at Wal-Mart these great "kid-friendly" pumpkin carving knives, scoopers, and templates. Honestly, this was my first pumpkin carving experience too! I was more excited about it than Dalton was, I think!

Digging out the inside of the pumpkin.

This kid is "all boy"! Loving to feel it between his fingers. He said, "Ooooh, it feels mushy!"

Our spooky jack-o-lantern!

I got this cute little cut-n-paste worksheet from work for him to do after our pumpkin carving.

And here he is...the cutest little UPS man I have ever seen! UPS men have always had a special place in my heart because my dad was a UPS man when I was a kid. I saw this costume back in August in a magazine and I knew this is what Dalton had to be for Halloween. He kinda has a thing for UPS guys too! Whenever he sees a UPS truck, he always says, "Look! a PS truck!"

John and I dressed like jail birds. Our story is that we escaped jail in a UPS truck and we are holding the UPS man hostage! Notice our #s on our costumes are the same. John said we were "cell mates". Funny!

"Trick or Treat!" We were probably the first trick-or-treaters in the city of Maumelle, starting at 5:00. That was good saying that we had been holding Dalton off for 2 hours! He woke up from his nap at 3 and was "ready to go!" He did great saying "Trick or treat!" at the first couple of houses and then I guess he got tired of saying it and just went straight to "I want candy!" I'm sure it looked hilarious seeing a little UPS man with 2 jail bird parents walking the neighborhood. Needless to say, we got many head turns!

Saturday night we got to go to Doug and Cindy Mickan's house for their annual Halloween Party. I thought last year's was awesome...but these 2 totally outdid themselves this year! The party was fully equipped with a craft table for the kids (or the moms :), delicious finger foods, spooky Halloween decorations, Rock Star game, and fire pit to roast hotdogs. Thanks Doug and Cindy for all your hardwork to put this together every year. We look forward to this party all year long!

The Rock Star Robinson family
Scott and Jamie...or should I say Olivia and John?
Addison and Riley West....too cute!

Autumn, Abby, Austin, and Dalton

Benji and Lindsay Carlisle

Astronaut Ben Carlisle. I love this costume! This picture does not really do it justice. Lindsay had embroidered on the chest "Commander Carlisle". She said Ben kept asking all day, "When am I going to get to go to outerspace?" Too cute!

Erik and Keasha Montgomery.
Erik was "Nature boy" and Keasha was an Egyptian princess. You look great guys!

Uhmm...this is Paige West, the pastor's wife! She was telling everybody that they had to behave because their was a nun at this party. Mrs. Robinson told her we did not have to behave, she did!

I could not figure out how to get this picture straight, but I loved it so I could not leave it out! Saigel Mickan was the cutest little rock star!

Amy Fly....Miss Cellaneous.

Brian and Karla Gates...blues brothers.

P.J. and Lauren Noland...Meow! That face paint on P.J. was a little creepy though! He said Dalton was not scared of him at all and totally knew who he was! He said he walked up to P.J. and said, "Hey P.J.!" like nothing had ever changed! Too funny!

Carson Morado...Our blind ref!

Jailhouse Rock!

Cowboy Danny and Sara Hill the gorilla and sweet baby Caroline.

The UPS man and the astronaut playing Rock Star.

Cindy had a craft table at the party that was supposed to be for the kids. But once all the moms saw how adorable the craft was, we decided to turn it into a Mom's Craft table! We made monster pillows out of felt that she had pre-cut all the pieces out before the party. It was super fun visiting with these girls as we made these sweet pillows for our kids.

The Rock Star Band

So...as I was putting all this together for my blog, I decided to look back at all my pics on my camera. This picture below was taken early last spring. It's the first picture on my card in my camera. I have started the tradition to save all the pics on this card to a CD every year on Dalton's birthday and then start fresh with a new card for that year. Just wanted to show how much he has grown in less than a year...

Then.....

Now!
We had a little photo session this morning before church because I thought he looked sooo big and handsome in this outfit he was wearing. Just when I think he couldn't get any cuter....he goes and does something like this!

This is why we had to move to a big boy bed!

Just in time...John and I were already working on converting his playroom into his new bedroom when one morning we walked in his room to find this....Needless to say, there was a rush put on the project and that night he got to sleep in his big boy bed for the first time and did great! I have to be honest though and say that it was a little sad not having him in that crib anymore, but he still gets a rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" every night before bed. He has only got up out of bed one time. I had just finished singing to him, turned out the light, and walked into the living room. I hear two feet shuffling behind me and I turned around and said, "What are you doing?" He said, "I waked up!" As hard as it was not to laugh, I told him this was a "no-no" and he is to stay in the bed. John and I were ready to implement the strategies we have seen on "Super-nanny", but there was no need that night...Thank goodness! I am very proud of the way his room looks and I think he is, too!

Notice the red box that is beside his bed. His dad made this from scrap wood so that he could climb up into bed easier. He also taught him how he could move the box over to the wall to turn on the light.

His bears seem to have made themselves "at home" in their new bed, too! :)