New Books to Read

So many new books to read! Cousin Ann Dee's new book came out:


Her first book just came out in paperback. It's the bees knees. You should buy it and read it.

Just finished reading this novel, written by of one of my best, dearest friends from high school.


It's a really fun, creative story. You should get this one too.

And here's one more - I have yet to read it, because it comes out tomorrow, but I'm going to read it. Julie Berry is from my area and just had this amazing article published about her on the front page of the Sunday Boston Globe (and cousin Ann Dee got a mention too! Hurray!). This is Julie's book:


It looks wonderful and I'm so excited to read it. She's launching the book here in Massachusetts this week, and you lucky Utahns can go meet her and go to her book signing this Friday in Salt Lake. Here's the info:

A Giveaway!

Not from me, from my friends at Store and Style!

Click over here on their Giveaway page - you can enter to win a beautiful Kaleidoscope Planner with a Sausalito Cover from FranklinCovey. Even after I switched to an electronic planner from my beloved Franklin planner, I still used their purses and the wallet that holds a Palm Pilot. They make great, great things and you can get some of it for free! Go check it out and enter! And keep checking back. They have giveaways on a regular basis.

While you're over at Store and Style, click around and check out some of the cool articles they have. Christine and Rebecca are organized, stylish and fun women. Christine's house is beautiful, her children are well-spoken and kind and Christine is an amazing cook and baker. Having the chance to grab some great ideas from her is well worth the time to click over there.

The 9th Annual Robison Dessert Party

I still have pictures to post from Thanksgiving, but I wanted to get these pictures up.

For several years, Diggity has hosted a dessert party to kick off the holiday season. I was adopted into the tradition when we moved into our new house and had the space to start up the tradition again. Diggity and I spend the year figuring out which bakeries and restaurants in the Boston area are known for their desserts, and then Diggity spends the day collecting the best of the best. It's a great deal of fun to have friends over to eat and play video games and just relax.

And now, the pictures!

(Yes, we have an official logo. If that surprises you, you must not know us very well.) :)





I was a little worried the new paint would clash with Christmas decor, but I love it.





These were ALMOST too pretty to eat.












We always have a sugar cookie decorating station.



Roger is our artist-in-residence. This is his creation this year. It's an homage to our scoutmaster friend Russell who just moved to Georgia.







Introducing Wayne and the Wonder Twins! With Catalina on drums. They're currently rocking out "Roxanne."



Wayne and the Wonder Twins' with their groupie



The Aftermath...



We had a great time, as always! Thanks to everyone who came! (And to those who sent us your pictures! I ended up with pictures nothing but food and of the rockin' Rock Star band.)

See you next year!

Meeting of the Minds

Solving world problems over pretzels while their moms play cards.

More Summer Fun

A few weeks ago, we went on a hike and went swimming with our friends, the L Family. We had a great time exploring the woods. Until we lost track of the blue arrows that marked the trail. We ended up backtracking to our cars and driving to the swim beach instead. We finished the afternoon with Blizzards at DQ (Girl Scout Cookie Thin Mint! Yes, please!). Thanks for inviting us, you guys! G-Man and I had a great time.

Ready to start down the trail!

Explorers leading the way...

J. gets displaced.
We had been walking for a while and were on our way back to the cars. Au. wanted to ride in the backpack, so there she is on her mom's back while the 16 month old is walking.

I made them stop so I could take a picture. As you can see, C. is not a happy boy at this point.

Getting G-Man to look at me when I'm taking pictures is becoming more and more difficult.

Luckily, J. was willing to model her rock star hairstyle.

D. was brilliant to think of taking a picture of G-Man and I. I forget about getting pictures of me. I wasn't thinking about the light when I set this up, so it's been Photoshopped within an inch of its life just so you can see our faces. G-Man was tired and wouldn't smile - or we have another picture to add to the pile of evidence that he doesn't like being in pictures with me. We don't have very many where I'm holding him and he is actually smiling. *Sigh*

A Day at the Beach

Last week, we went to one of the local town beaches with our Robison cousins and our friends the L Family and Miss Lori. Because there were a lot of adults around, I got my camera out. I had a lot of favorite shots from the afternoon, but I really loved these.

Also, I'm playing around a bit with templates for displaying my photos on my blog. They don't look as uniform as they will in the future because I'm still playing around with them, but I welcome any feedback you may have.

A Very Rainy Day, Part 2

I can now reveal the identity of our Very Special Guest player:

She has very lovely hair. Even lovelier in person than in her pictures.

It's Annie of Anniethology! Annie and the Lovely Lori are sisters and Annie is here for a visit. I did not reveal her identity because she was having a guessing game on her blog and I didn't want to spoil the game for all the people that read both of our blogs (well, for the one person that I know reads both of our blogs ;) before she announced her location. I've never had the chance to meet a fellow blogger (that I didn't already know) in person. It was very fun. She's delightful. But, if you read her blog you already know that.

When I last left you, the card game was over and the kids were outside playing. The older kids were painting and G-Man and his girlfriend J were having their first disagreement. It involved a bubble wand, and it wasn't pretty.


G-Man and I had a talk about how you are supposed to treat your girlfriend after this happened. ("If she wants the bubble wand, you need to give her the bubble wand. This applies to everything she wants. Remember that, and all will be well.") They made up. It's all good.

After playing for a little while, it started to rain again. Torrential rain. The kids loved it. They just kept playing. I walked into the garage to watch and continue taking pictures.

G-Man, Dana, & J. She was the nice mom that went out in the rain.

Dana's older kids changed into their bathing suits.
They were serious about playing in the rain.

He hoards things. I'm not sure what to do about it. Especially similar items.
He was trying to hold every bubble wand he came across. Thus, the fight with J.

It started raining so hard that G-Man finally decided to give up and come into the garage with me. Except the amount of rain was disconcerting to him and he wasn't sure what to do. So, he dropped to his hands and knees and crawled up the driveway into the garage. Did I go out into the rain like a good mom to help him? Ummm....no. Did I at least get a picture of him crawling? Ummm....no. I was laughing too hard and trying to talk him into the garage.

We came inside to get dry and warm and ended up taking a bath with C & J. Which resulted in this awesome picture:

Parts have been blurred to protect the innocent.

Another great day with our friends! Thanks for hosting us again. Come for Sunday dinner soon, okay? Diggity misses seeing you guys.

A Very Rainy Day

It's been raining a lot. Like torrential amounts. We went to play cards over at the L Family house this afternoon. As always, it was very fun. Nertz is the game of choice. (Always the game of choice. Is there any other game?) Today was extra fun because we had a Very Special Guest player.

Lovely Lori contemplates her cards

Delightful Dana loves a good game of Nertz!

And finally, our Very Special Guest Player.

Don't ask me. I can't tell you. You can guess if you want, but I can't confirm or deny your guesses until a future-yet-to-be-determined time.

After the card game, we took the kids outside. But that's another post...