Robertson Christmas Newsletter 2013

Dear Friends and Family:

The biggest news of 2013 is that on Dec. 22, we adopted a son, whom we named Spencer David. He was born in Jupiter, FL on Friday, Dec. 20 at 4:34 a.m., healthy, at 6 lbs. 14 oz. and 20 inches with strawberry blond hair. A wonderful young lady we knew back when we lived in Florida had called us in May, (just 2 months after we finished our adoption home study,) and told us she was pregnant and had selected us as adoptive parents. We were cautiously thrilled, and kept in constant contact with her until we drove down to Florida Dec. 18. We should have paperwork to leave the state around the New Year. We will finalize the adoption in a few months, and look forward to continued contact with her & her family. He is our most wonderful Christmas present.

Impromtu family picture on Christmas Eve at our
Homewood Suites Hotel in Jupiter, FL.
Spencer is five days old, and we are thrilled
to have him and enjoy a warm holiday.

This year we didn't travel much, partly to save up 2 weeks of vacation time for the adoption. My family cancelled our summer reunion, due to unplanned reunions at the funerals of our Grandma Bosen and Grandpa Eyring in the spring, and the coming births of two new nephews in October. My parents visited us in May, and we met in Denver for my brother's wedding in November, so I've seen my family a lot.

My grandma Bosen gave me her organizing gene and sewing legacy. Jessica  came with me to Utah.	I loved seeing my Eyring  grandparents' house and hearing stories of  California.	My brother Jeff married a smart, cheerful Chinese student, Ellen, on a beautiful fall day in Denver.

My dad and mom with Jessica and Dave in Natural Bridge Caverns, VA.

Spencer has four new boy cousins: two on the Eyring side, and two on the Robertson side. Three amigos both ways!

Dave's job is going well; he installed 6 new test stands for Flowserve. He likes his assistant and all the capital they throw at him. He flew to Austin in August for his yearly Labview training, and he and all his siblings met in San Antonio in June for his Dad's 60th birthday surprise. He ran a 4-miler, swims and plays racquetball with his friends every week, and made his first pilgrimage to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. He really enjoys his 500 sq. ft. wood shop and all of the free hardwood Virginia can produce.

Dave used his job skills and equipment to time the local Pinewood Derby Race. Everyone was impressed with the automatic timing and margins measured in .0001 seconds.

Dave uses his new sawdust collection system with his table saw. About a third of the shop is shown here.

Dave's dad, mom, niece, and brother outside the Alamo in June. They also went to Sea World - San Antonio.

In February we went to Washington D.C. We spent almost 2 days at the Air and Space, and I taught Jessica how to use the phrase "It's cold enough to freeze your lips off!"

Jessica is 3 1/2, has a head of hair down to her elbows, and loves cats and singing. This year she was potty-trained, corrected all of her mispronunciations, learned to use a mouse and navigate computer games, and sprouted up into size 5T clothes without gaining any weight. She is taking Joy School again, since she is still too young for preschool; (I like to joke that she flunked her first year.) She can be very charming and very demanding. She loves gardening, drawing, play-acting with her toys, and our neighbor's kids.

Our cat Smokey is sometimes tolerant of Jessica's love, but sometimes uses his sharp ends to assist his escape.

Jessica's third year included declaring her independence in every area from cooking to gardening.

Jessica plays on a library computer.

For her 3rd birthday, Jessica asked for a kitty party, and we invited a whole litter of girls.

We share backyards with our Mormon neighbors, which now includes a swingset, trampoline, climbing dome, 2 swings, a sandpit, two gardens, and lots of dirt.

I was happy to start teaching another year of Joy School in rotation with another great group of moms. I worked in my vegetable garden, which was full of big successes and big failures. For church I taught children, organized a quilting project, and was music director for the Christmas play. We arranged our house so I have a craft space, I attended scrapbook groups, failed to find much tennis to play, and happily prepared for a new baby.

Jessica was the youngest of 5 in the '12-'13 Joy School. I learned the same curriculum when I was a toddler.

Jessica is the tallest of 7 in the '13-'14 Joy School class.

Our garden produced lots of lettuce, radishes, zucchini & yellow squash, basil & cilantro, sunflowers, and marigolds. Because of my inexperience and a bad batch of manure, we didn't enjoy tomatoes, peas, pumpkins, peppers, melons, or onions.

Lots of church ladies & kids came together to make quilts for a family whose house burned down. This is a strip quilt, done with scrap fabric in sections, in which the back is quilt as the front pieces are sewn together. Theoretically, it's faster.

Our Lynchburg 3-ward "Brassernacle Orchestra", including Dave on trombone far left, who played for an original, 2-night play 'Picture A Christmas'. I choose music, coordinated the 3-ward children's choir with percussion, arranged violin & flute parts, a double quartet choir, and a few solos. It was a lot of work, but I justified if I did this, I wouldn't have to make cookie plates for anyone. In my defense I was smart enough to say 'no' to being director.

We are still enjoying Lynchburg, VA. Not the hilly terrain or cold weather; but the seasons, conservative town, the YMCA, and nature, including Shenandoah National Park. We are renting a new house from great landlords, and our church congregation is full of young friendly families.

Standing in front of Natural Bridge, VA. There is a highway going over the top; apparently George Washington hiked through once.

A Jessica in her natural habitat: water, at Doyles River Falls in Shenandoah National Park in May.

Three families joined us for our Easter Sunday dinner.

Four families celebrated Pioneer Day with us in July by pulling pseudo-handcarts from one house to another through the trees. The kids pretended to cry when a doll "died", and we played stick pull, "shot" stuffed animals, and ended with scones.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Love,
Dave, Liz, Jessica, Spencer, and Smokey

For the Love of Kitties

Jessica, like many of her young friends, is enamored with cats. I see from her photos and videos as a baby, we only encouraged that love by owning such a soft, friendly, pretty, entertaining animal like our Smokey.

Jessica sure is a bald, cooing, adorable six-month-old chunk of baby goodness as she feels kitty kisses and grabs his tail.

And here, at ten months old, Jessica laughs like a maniac at Smokey trying to swipe a toy.

If Jessica's attention gets to be too much, Smokey hides, boxes her, or gives her a warning nibble to stop her from smothering him. Sometimes she acts like she's learned her lesson, sometimes she just asks for it. (Here, Jessica is using Smokey's favorite sleeping chair to watch cartoons, so I'm pleased they're sharing.)

That's where stuffed kitties come in: they can take all the toddler love and never complain. Like 'Alice', a mechanical kitty Jessica got when she was 2 months shy of her second birthday:

Just last Thanksgiving at Dave's parents house in Houston, she discovered 'Baby Kitty'. She carried it around so much, Grandma Robertson gifted it to us. I named him Jellybeans, after his nose and his plastic bean stuffing. She was three months from her third birthday. On the way home we entertained ourselves by photographing Baby Kitty in funny poses.

Baby kitty was her newest favorite stuffed friend. 

Jessica's birth mom Tegan crocheted this kitty, named 'New Year's Kitty', 'Daddy Kitty' or 'Snowball'. Tegan has a soft spot for felines, too, so Jessica was doomed through nature and nurture to be partial.

For her birthday Grandma Eyring gave her 'Alby' (left), which she renamed 'Twilight' after a friend's cat, who is the grandpa in the kitty family. She spent her gift money from her Robertson great grandparents on 'Sparkly Kitty' aka 'Crazy Eyes' aka 'Mama Kitty'. We gave her the vet kit to care for all her growing menagerie.

So for her third birthday, what else could we do, except throw her a kitty party? I burned a whole CD of cat songs I entitled "Kitty Ditties" for her, which she loves to listen to, the most popular numbers being "Cat Flushing a Toilet", "Smiley Cat", "Meow Meow Ringtone", and "Kitty in a Basket".

Her newest hobby is using my camera to take pictures of her cats, at her desk, sleeping in her bed, and

apparently, showing solidarity in sickness and health. Jessica woke up with a sore neck one day, and spent 3 days watching a lot of movies and drinking cherry-flavored pain-killer. One time I found she had put little fuzzy hairbands around the necks of her plastic kitties, so they could match. Silly, silly kitty-crazed girl!

First Preschool: Joy School for Jessica

Although Jessica was only 2 1/2 by the fall of 2012, my friend invited us to join a preschool-at-home group for 3-year olds in our ward. It wasn't expensive, and was only 2 half-days a week, and I wasn't about to turn down the chance for several hours of free time. Here we are on the first day:

Plus, it was the same Joy School curriculum I had learned as a kid, which brought back sweet memories to me. The material is quaint, but with a few tweaks it was really fun to teach. It emphasizes happiness and gratitude, and age-appropriate hands-on activities over pure academics.

Our units were joy of my body, the earth, honesty, sharing, order, goals, obedience, humor, trust, confidence, imagination, and family. We started the lesson sitting in a semi-circle to do the weather & date, stories, songs, and show & tell object starting with the letter of the week.

Super Hero Me day, from "Joy of Confidence" day is pictured here. (I love that Jessica chose to borrow a Batman mask over Supergirl outfit, which looks even funnier with her girly clothes.)

I took this picture after the obstacle course activity for "Joy of the Body". Too bad Jessica was being a pill; it just happened that 3 kids wore red and two wore purple, so I was trying to get a symmetrical shot. Kids pull the funniest faces...

Our "faith fall" (let your friends catch you falling backwards) during the "Joy of Trust & Confidence" unit morphed into 20 minutes of "Cowabunga!" during playtime.

There was 20-30 minutes of playtime scheduled into the beginning, middle, and end of the 3 hour block, so it wasn't too intense for little kids (or the teacher!)

The kids were so fun to get to know; each one had their talents that surprised and delighted me. Here Ian, Mr. Hands-On, helped me make "fried snowflakes" for a snack, and Julia sang "I Am a Child of God" perfectly, for our "confidence" talent show.

Joy School lesson songs are clever, but sometimes wordy. So most of the time I only taught them a few keywords or actions. This song (during "Joy of Service and Sharing" in December) I just sang to them as I wrapped each of them, laughing, in Christmas paper: 

I Have a perfect present

To give to someone true,

To make us all feel hap-happy--

I'll give myself to you!

Just wrap me in some paper, 

And tie me in a bow.

Be sure I'm covered head to foot

So wiggly ears won't show.

Then give me to whomever 

Should need some love today.

You'll have the Perfect present when

I give myself away!

Arms can hug you tightly,

And feet can errands run.

A song to sing or story tell,

Before the day is done.

During that week, we also played secret service elves, and cleaned up the neighbor's backyard.

We also taught holidays and seasons. At our house, each kid took turns doing each part of a Nativity play, which I narrated and directed at lightening speed to keep up with their 2-minute attention spans. If you look closely, you can see that Jessica, as a wiseman, brought a gold Liahona, body spray, and red pepper flakes as gifts to baby Jesus.

Since there were 9 kids in Joy School, we split into two groups. But we joined together for holiday parties at Halloween and Valentine's.

Our group includes Jessica & I; ladybug Julia on Kristina's lap; Melissa behind Kristina and her mom Emily top-right; Buzz Lightyear Ian and his mom Jessica (taking the picture); and Tanner the tiger and his mom Lauren in black.

The other moms in my group were so great to work with. Thanks Lauren Malone, Jessica Shorter, Kristina Randolph, and Emily Bingham! I loved chatting them twice a week. Jessica loved Joy School and her friends, and was always happy to attend. Frequently, after it was over, and I was finished talking to the other moms, I had to go find her (like below hiding in her friend's closet) and drag her away.

Thanks for all the great memories!