Christmas Card Chaos

Tis the season to gather your family around you, force them to dress up in super nice clothing (hoping and praying they don't trip, spill or otherwise dirty themselves), shout out threats to put their hands down, promise candy to look at the camera and say "smile" so much that you could only bare through the experience once a year!!

Having my mom in town this week we took advantage of the situation and decided to trudge through the wonderful experience of "FAMILY PHOTOS". Don't get me wrong...I LOVE PICTURES...but I rarely love giving that control over to someone else. I'm always afraid of seeing my inherited double chin...or any of the other million flaws caught on film (let's not list them). But I suppose it's worth putting up with it for posterity!!

Thankfully our close friend Erin came to help take extra pictures while she and my mom took turns jumping up and down, making silly faces and clapping their hands to get our young kids to cooperate. I mean at one point we got so desperate to have everyone just look at the camera at the same time we could care less if the kids were smiling! Here are some of my favorite shots...vote for your favorites!!

Sunshine Generation Fall Program

For those who have NO CLUE what Sunshine Generation is...it is a singing and dancing group for children 3 and up. They do small performances throughout the year at community fairs, seasonal shows, retirement homes, etc. The best part is that it doesn't matter how good or bad your kid is. (which makes it really cute) If you haven't assumed by now this group started in Utah.

It has truly helped my kids be unafraid of performing in front of people, speaking and singing into a microphone and being placed on displayed in funky costumes while parents unload rolls of film on them (aka: the paparazzi).

This was Emma's first performance and she did great!

I was afraid her "shy" side might come out. But she pulled through!!

Emma got into the full swing of things once the music started. What girl wouldn't love a dress with loads of ruffles?

As usual Sydney does her part beautifully!

Miss Ella (aka: Sister Romney)

Friend Ava Stewart

Ta-daaa, The End!

Field-trip To The Pumpkin Patch

What a wonderful way to roll in the Fall Season by taking a trip to the Pumpkin Patch. We enjoyed beautiful, cold, crisp air with the warmth of the bright sun. It couldn't have been better!!

And the best part was that Grandma Nancy was here to enjoy it with us.

Sydney defies gravity!

Emma sprouts wings while jumping in the bounce house!

Farmer Ben enjoys the hay with the Dalmatians!

Only these kind of inspiring signs can you find in Texas!

Just Another Day At Preschool

Today at Preschool with Sydney, George,

Chanelle and Emma

(Emma joins the kids when it's at our house),

we talked about "H" makes special sounds

when paired with C, S, and T.

Here's the story!

This is the story of 3 "H" Brothers.

The 1st "H" Brother drives a train.

And he says "Ch Ch Ch Ch".

And the 2nd "H" Brother loved the Library.

He always says "Sh Sh Sh Sh Sh".

And the 3rd "H" Brother was a naughty boy.

He teased the girls by saying...

(now stick your tongue out)

"th th th th th".

Then we did a Halloween craft and snack.

Painted Pumpkins

(we put stickers on, painted them and

then peeled the stickers off after it was dry)

White Chocolate Marshmallows Ghosts
(yummy!)

"WE DON'T TAILGATE...WE BOULEVARD!"

If this doesn't sum up the scene

at an SMU tailgate, I don't know what does. 

At these tailgates you won't find any BBQ's, 

Painted Chests, or even an 

abundant amount of school colors. 

Heck I doubt even half of us go to the game!! 

But TONS of us show up for the great weather, 

good music and free food supplied to all grad-students.

As I have mentioned in previous blogs the students

even turn the apparel up a notch by sporting

"only dresses" for girls and "button up shirts" 

(w/ ties sometimes) for the boys!

I guess we are long past the days of sporting

school logos... apparently it's just not 

COOL enough for the Big D!!

We haven't missed a tailgate since 2004
when we started law school! 
It has been a great way to get the kids outside
to play on the grass and throw some balls around. 
The cooler fall weather is 
just the cherry on top. 
With the cool breezes you can't help
but feel summer blowing out of tow
n to bring nippy nights and color changing leaves.

And the best part was being able
to eat out doors and laugh with friends.
It's times like these that make it 
easy to feel of all the bounteous blessings 
that have been supplied to us.

The Richins "train"(left to right: Alex, Taylor, Travis, Isabelle and Chandra)

Erin and Kajsa Brinkerhoff

Ben flirts with Isabelle.

I can't believe he's already trying

to hold hands with a girl. 

It must be ingrained in him!

I'm really surprised they are ALL sitting. 

Will wonders never cease!! 

(Emma, Ben, Asher, Taylor and Sydney)

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1.02.28

Soccer II

Sydney and Emma had their last game of soccer today. The score was an amazing 22-7. It was a short season with 5 practices and 2 games, but it was worth the chance for them to get a taste of what soccer entailed.

They had a great time and really blossomed into it. I couldn't believe the change in them from the first practice to this last game.

Sydney can now dribble the ball, change the ball direction, never gives up, keeps trying and scored like 10 goals today.

Although Emma still likes to pick up the ball to get it out of the corner!

She never cries, kicks with a ton of power and is willing to try despite the fact that everyone is a foot taller and 2 years older then her!

Way to go girls, we are very proud of you.

Interview With Emma

If you could change your name what would it be? Pink.

When was the last time you cried? When Sydney hit my mouth.

What do you like to draw? Cinderella.

What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Hamburger.

Do you have any dolls? Just pink, always pink.

Who are you friends with? Daddy, Sydney, Emmie's, BenBen, Mommy and Emmie's.

Do you have a tickle spot? (Points to belly.)

Do you still have your tonsils? Yes.

Would you bungee jump? Yes, jump from Ben's pumpkin.

What is your favorite cereal? Pink. (sounds delicious)

Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Yes

Do you think you are strong? Yes pick up Daddy.

What is your favorite ice cream? Pink.

What is the first thing you notice about people? Good.

Red or Pink? Red (well that's surprising considering all of her other answers!)

What is your favorite thing to play with? Change your clothes (I think that means dress up)

Who do you miss the most? Nothing.

What color pants and shoes are you wearing? Pink pants with Elmo...no shoes.

What was the last thing you ate? Poptart and Milk.

What are you listening to right now? I'm playing Polly Pockets.(considering she just screamed that at me I think she's getting annoyed that I keep talking to her)

If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Pink

Favorite smell? Chocolate Milk.

Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? Cinderella

Favorite sports to watch? Football

Hair color? Yellow

Eye color? Brown

Do you wear contacts? Yes, good.

Scary movies or Happy endings? Scary movies with ghosts.

What is your favorite pajama? White shirt.

Summer or Winter? Winter time, snowman.

Hugs or Kisses? Kisses from Grandma and Daddy.

Favorite Dessert? Strawberry.

What book are you reading right now? Cinder-Elly.

What is on your mouse pad? I don't know mom.

What did you watch on tv last night? Strawberry Shortcake

Favorite Sound? Stop

Rolling Stones or Beatles? Beatles, lady bugs.

What is the farthest place you have been from home? Chuck E. Cheese

Do you have a special talent? Go down baby slides.

Where were you born? Right there. (she pointed to my tubby) I was hiding.

Favorite Princess? Cinderella

Do you like to get up early or stay up late? Stay up late.

Favorite thing to do outside? Walk.

What song do you like to sing? La, la, la.

Best dance move? Shaking.

Who’s your favorite teacher? Ali's mommy.

Favorite summer vacation? Daddy. (Apparently having Daddy around is a vacation for her!)

If you could change one thing about your life what would it be? Disneyland!!

The Village Gym (aka: meat market)

Tonight my friends and I went to the country club gym to work off our Ding Dongs, Twinkies and Dr.Peppers. (I wish) For the first 1/2 hour we chatted while we sweated like pigs on the treadmills and then headed over to the bikes. I stood in between Chandra and Erin while waiting for an empty spot. Suddenly a guy came up to us and said "So is this some sort of work-out group?"

We all laugh heartily and scanned each others faces wondering which one of us knew him. I figured maybe it's one of the guys from our ward. New-bes are always moving in, right? For sure, that has to be it.

I told him that I'm their coach and began to shout "move it, faster" and play my part. Then our new little friend says "so do guys come here often?" (oh crap, he's hitting on us!) Chandra tried her best to HINT to him by saying "well not lately, it's hard with the kids and all". Unfortunately she's a little soft spoken and our little friend needs to buy some q-tips and totally missed it. (dang it...how did he miss our rings?...maybe it's because I'm the only one wearing a ring)

At this point I'm starting to stare out the window with a blank face. Welcome to the zone. I'm too shocked, appalled, and tongue-tied to offer anything to the conversation. It's like I'm 14 again. Then our friend goes for his next step toward victory "so which apartments do you guys live in?" (in case you don't know, The Village is made up of like 15 apartment complexes) So we told him which apartments, I mean what could be the harm in that!! This poor guy has no clue what he just got himself into. He has NO CLUE he's hitting on 3 married women with a total of 8 kids.

Now what do we do? Do we ask him questions? Do we tell him to hit the road? Do we mention how huge and manly our gorgeous husbands are? Pull out the accordion photo booklet and ask him if he would like to see a picture of our kids? Tell him we have STD's? We have been married too long to remember the 10 steps of getting rid of boys we aren't interested in without crushing their egos.

Awkward silence begins. Thankfully he took the hint and made his leave. Gosh I don't even know how to talk to a single guy any more. Am I that lame? I can't even hold a normal conversation. Maybe next time I'll get some balls and just straight out tell him...we're Lesbians.

Simply Funny

Sydney and Emma played their first soccer game. Larry and I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. We were amazed at how good the girls were. (ok, we weren't that shocked, I mean they have our genes don't they?) Before the game I told each girl that if they tried hard, never gave up and didn't cry (yes...you have to mention that to girls) we would give them a dollar!! I love bribery. A parental tool that's under-used (hint, hint mom).
Now normally I would offer a dollar for every goal that was made. But I didn't want to get there hopes up. And especially after watching them at practice I wasn't ready to enroll them for Summer Olympics 2020 (do they have soccer in the Olympics? who knows...just roll with me).
I also want to mention that the kids picked their own team name. I was hoping for some scary animal that would strike fear into their opponents. But in true children fashion they picked "THE EYEBALLS", because it was funny. Nice!
To start off the game each team put in 3 people. Sydney, Emma and their friend Georgina were picked. At this point I'm pumped because Georgina is wicked awesome, fast and fearless. A perfect combination of talent for a girl to play sports!

But to our surprise Sydney scored like 6 goals. I mean this girls has "golden feet". (oh don't mind Syd running with her hands over her ears...ha...she hates loud noises!)

Even Emma tapped a few in. But just to make sure the other team didn't get their feelings hurt we put a few balls into our goal too.

Although to top it off there was a boy on our team that emulated the perfect title of a "Texan" playing soccer. Please note his boots AND blue jeans!
GO EYEBALLS!

Where Is That Ringing Coming From?

Embarrassing is the only word I can think of to explain the situation I found myself in yesterday. Or maybe that saying "If my head wasn't screwed on straight I'd probably loose that too" could sum it up. Either way I did NOT want to blog my blonde moment, however my mom keeps bringing up how funny she thought it was and so do all the other people she has been telling. Nice? By now some Great-Aunt once removed is laughing at some 3rd hand story that has absolutely no resemblance of the truth. Thus to keep it all straight...

As I went through my morning routine I realized I hadn't heard my cell phone ring for the traditional morning chat with my sister. Maybe I missed her. I started looking in my purse. The cell phone wasn't there. Did I take it out last night? I check the counters, tables...nothing. Mmmm...Maybe it's still in the car. That wouldn't be a first. An hour later I'm out at the car getting ready to do some errands. I check the car. No phone. Ugh! I hate doing errands and not having my cell phone with me. (I have an attachment issue)

As I'm driving I start running through my previous evenings events and try to locate in my over-crowed mind the last place I had the phone. Aaa-ha! In the stroller. We had walked around the mall for some family entertainment. It's probably in there. It wouldn't be the first time. (If you haven't noticed by now, leaving my cell phone in odd places isn't a new thing for me.) Excited to finally have it I jetted from the car and checked out the stroller in the trunk. Bummer. It's not there.

After finishing my errands and load the kids back into the house. I strip search it one more time while shushing the kids, I push redial on the house phone trying to hear my phone ring. (Don't laugh, I know y'all have do that one before.) Suddenly I remember that one time we searched for the TV remote for months and found in buried deep deep down the side of the couch. I cram my hand in. No such luck. Now I'm freakin'. (And on a side note, I still hadn't told Larry about the lost phone by this point. I knew he'd be shaking his head with "not again" written across his forehead.)

For my last ditch effort I headed down to the car parked in front of my apartment and bring the house phone with me. Of course the portable phone connection only reaches to the sidewalk...so I have to push redial, put it on the sidewalk, run to the car and listen for my phone to ring. I hear it...barely!! I'm saved!! I start digging around. Shoot it stopped. It went to voicemail. Dang it! I run back to the sidewalk, push redial. And begin the search again. I know I hear it. Aaa-ha! The trunk. So I open the it. Run back to the portable phone on the sidewalk. OH PLEASE I HOPE THAT NO ONE IS LOOKING OUT THEIR WINDOW RIGHT THEN WATCHING ME DO THIS. I MUST OF LOOKED NUTS! Push redial. Upon searching the trunk. Nothing. I don't even hear a thing. I was "warm" and now I'm "cold". Schnizzle!

So I try again. I'm even so desperate I start unlocking all the kids car seats and throwing them out of the car. And if that isn't desperate I don't know what is because locking car seats into the car is no easy chore. And I have 3! Guess what. No phone. BUT I HEAR IT...barely! So I reload the car, lock it up and start searching the sidewalk. Maybe it dropped out of my purse on the way into the house last night. I'm grasping at straws by this point.

Now this particular day I had parked in my favorite spot. It's the closest to my apartment and has the huge trash bin next to it and makes it so there's a wide area for the HUGE Buick doors to swing out. Although I do have to admit that the stench of HOT trash during the summer leaves much to be desired. I redial the cell phone number. I hear it louder now. Oh FREAK!!!!! It's in the trash can!!!! All I can do at this point is roll my eyes.

So I take the deepest breath I can and pull the side doors open to locate our trash bag. Thankfully my luck had changed and for 15 hours my cell phone had been ringing off and on while sitting right on top.

On a side note I would like to thank all of the 1/2 drunk college students who clutter up most of my apartment complex for being too lazy to empty their trash that morning.

Truly I wish I could make up some story of how on the "kids" chucked my phone in the trash can. BUT honestly it was me. I through out in a shopping bag, thinking it was only full of crap I didn't need. Obviously I was wrong. Now excuse me while I rub down my cell phone in anti-bacterial lotion.

The Mom Song

This song is great! If you are a mom or have a mom (which we all do) you have to listen to this!! Very funny!!

A Girls Night Out To Celebrate My Old Age

29 here I come!!
Unfortunately this photo of us girls doesn't do us justice. We are way hotter in real life. (just ask our husbands!) Erin Brinkerhoff, Chandra Richins and I all met out of coincidence. Each of our husbands transported us here to Dallas to go to Law School. Together we have endured the hardships of early motherhood, surprise kid-o's, lawyer dialogue, down right nasty Health & Human Services offices, mini apartment living, life on a budget and the scary crimes that lurk here in Downtown Dallas. I am very grateful to these gals for always being there for advice, a listening ear, a good laugh and an instant babysitter!! This time in our lives hasn't been easy, especially without family around. I feel like they have become my sisters through these ups and downs. Thank heaven for the LDS church! We were instant friends with more than the gospel in common. In this photo we are enjoying our little "tradition" of going out to eat on our birthdays (yummy Pei Wei). Thanks Ladies!!

All about Larry

My husband...
What is his name? Larry Lee Roberts Jr (shhh...he hates the Jr thing, mainly because the person who donated the "Sr" part of the name is non-existent)

How long have you been together? 14 1/2 years...well that's how long we have known each other.

How long did you date? Gosh off and on over an 8 year span. After his mission we dated for about 5 months then broke up for 5 months since I went back to school at UofA, then started talking again and dated for 7 months and then FINALLY got engaged. What a process!!

Where did you meet? Stake dance, Thousand Oaks CA.

How old is he? Currently we are both 29 until next month he turns the dreaded "30".

Who eats more? Larry (unless we are talking about cheesecake, ice cream or vegetables and then I win)

Who said I love you first? Gosh I have no freakin' clue. Let's say him. That makes me feel better!

Who is taller? Larry is...but if he keeps jacking up his knees he might shrink a few inches.

Who sings better? Me. Although I'm not good by any means, but he's totally tone deaf.

Who is smarter? I think the term "Law School Graduate" places Larry the winner. Plus he's full of useless information which makes him king of Trivial Pursuit.

Who does the laundry? Me, unless I've slacked and he needs some clean g's.

Who does the dishes? Mainly me but Larry pitches in on the dinner dishes.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Larry does. It's furthest from the door (note: the blog about Larry's Earplugs)

Who pays the bills? I do. It's not a question of math skills, just time. Apparently I have more of it.

Who mows the lawn? The Village Gardeners (thank you apt living), but Larry dreams of cracking a root beer open while he cruises around on a riding lawn mower.

Who cooks dinner? Lately me. Larry pitches in on weekends.

Who drives when you are together? I usually do especially since he drives 45 mins to work, has a bum knee (note: the blog on Larry's knee) and when I'm prego I get car sick unless I drive.

Who is more stubborn? Me. It's in the Gurvine Genes.

Who kissed who first? Larry. He was the "mack-daddy" in high school.

Who asked who out? Larry. He's a good boy like that!

Who proposed? Don't listen to Larry. It was all his doing!

Who is more sensitive? That's a tough one. I guess it depends on the situation. Larry's a sucker for the girls, but I'm in touch with my mom sensors.

Who has more friends? Larry will talk to anyone. I'm a little more reserved.

Who has more siblings? HA! We have the same unless you start counting the random "half" siblings of Larry's that occasionally pop up looking for his dad.

Who wears the pants in the family? Larry does. I like skirts unless its a good pair of stretch jeans.