Team Robison

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Katherine's First Birthday

My niece Katherine had her first birthday at the end of January. Melissa and Aaron weren't sure if they wanted to host a party in their apartment, so I offered them the use of my house. I ended up being terribly sick at the time, but it worked out well. Since Mark was snowshoeing with his family, if it hadn't been at my house, I would not have gone. The kids had so much fun playing with each other and the balloons. It's nice that we live close enough to some of the cousins to celebrate birthdays together.

Hannah's First Haircut

During Christmas, Hannah's hair was driving me crazy. It wasn't exactly a mullet, but the back was so long in the center but not at the sides. My mom and everyone else kept insisting it was fine, but I decided it was time to take her in for a professional haircut. To even out the back, the basically had to cut all the length off. The trimmed up her bangs so they weren't in her face. The actually styled her hair in a little twisted ponytail, but I haven't been able to replicate it since. It took a bit getting used to her new cut, but I'm glad I did it. Even though now I get a lot of compliments on my two cute boys when Hannah's clothing isn't pink. Her hair is slowly growing out, and now it's nice and even all around.

New dress up clothes: Matthew as Superman

Hannah the cheerleader

Go, Ohio State!

Pre-haircut

My last ponytail for a while

Post haircut (with a top twisted ponytail)

We'll call it a bob

Christmas 2014

Overall, we had a wonderful Christmas last year. It was fun to have all the cousins together. And since they are all so close in age. Except for our few outings, mostly we just hung out at the house. The kids ran around playing and watched plenty of Christmas movies, and the adults played tons of board games. And I should mention that I was the winner of the annual Ticket to Ride tournament. Who knows how many grandkids there will be when we get together next.

Hannah fell asleep under Matthew's bed

Hannah, Ayden, Matthew and Jonah

Jacob and Violet

Jaclyn and Steve

Jonah

Jaclyn and Violet

Grandma Pingel with Violet and Daniel

Mark and Matthew in matching sweaters

Aaron and Violet

Uncle Jacob with Violet, Jonah, Matthew and Hannah

Violet and Hannah

Jacob and Matthew

Jonah, Matthew, Violet and Hannah

Playing the dinosaur game with Grandpa Pingel

Our 2014 Christmas card

Hannah and Jonah jumping

Monday, March 2, 2015

Cousins and Pajamas

For Christmas, my parents got all the grandchildren a new pair of pajamas. The boys got dinosaurs and the girls got penguins. Poor Jonah was not in the best mood for pictures, but I think it's funny to watch the progression of his meltdown. Unfortunately, I should have taken the pictures much closer. Oh well. Live and learn. I guess I can always crop them closer.

Hannah, Ayden, Violet, Jonah, Matthew, Daniel

and Katherine with Grandma Pingel

Probably the best one

Grandma Pingel with Matthew, Daniel and Katherine

Hannah

Matthew

Ayden and Matthew

Grandma Pingel, Matthew and Ayden

Katherine

Christmas morning

We awoke Christmas morning to the first snow in weeks. Jaclyn was excited to have a little bit of snow since she rarely gets it in North Carolina (though this year, she's gotten more snow than us.) Jaclyn and Jacob were both staying at our house, so they got to watch my kids open presents. Luckily their kids are young enough not to care that they didn't have any. I kept asking Matthew what he wanted for Christmas, and he would reply, "a train with wagons." Luckily, that's what I had bought him a month earlier, so that made me happy. And he absolutely adored his Lego train. Right now, it's actually sitting on his headboard of his bunk bed. Our other big gifts this year were a new tent, sleeping bags for the kids and new camping pads from Mark's parents. After getting rained on at Yellowstone, we realized we needed a new tent. I don't know how much camping we'll do this year, but I'll at least have to make Mark take Matthew and Hannah. Or maybe even camp in the backyard.