Merry Christmas - Happy Birthday Jesus!

Brady (as well as Charlie and I) have had a very good Christmas.  I have repeatedly asked Brady what is important about today and he correctly answers "Jesus' Birthday" or not so correctly "God's Birthday", but he is on the right track...but he may understand the Trinity better than I do - Father, Son and Holy Ghost!

The one bummer was that the Wii that I bought the guys would not work.  I kept getting a disc error, which I finally found help for.  The help was to send it to be repaired.  I guess I will be going to Best Buy tomorrow.

Brady got a ton of stuff (of course) between Nana's house on Christmas Eve, Santa's visit at home, April's house and Nay's house.  We are very blessed!

Abbie got a Princess dress up trunk, which Brady enjoyed too!

Gifts from Santa!

The new Imaginext Fire Department.

THE BIG ONE!!!!

We have not had a big snow for a few years but boy did it make up for it this weekend.  I am not sure how much snow there was at our house - you can't tell because the wind blows so much.  Charlie said that on Saturday morning there was 8 inches on the back of his truck.  April said there was ten inches at her house.   The US mail did not run by our house on Saturday, but the paper man did.  What was up with that?  These pictures are  of our venture out into the frozen tundra.

Christmas Party

We had a Christmas party for a few of Brady's friends.  Abbie, Bradin, Ethan and Sam came over for fun, cookie decorating and lunch.  They had a blast.  (The mom's had a good time too - decorating the left over cookies and eating them.  It is nice to have an adult conversation!).  Baby Mollie came too and enjoyed being held and watching Mickey Mouse while the older kids played.

Happy 26th Birthday Unc!

Brady, Ethan and Caleb













Brady and Mom - wonder why he loves to stay with her? 

















Jimmy and Heather






My sweet brother Jimmy turned 26 on December 6.  We went to Fatz Cafe to celebrate.  Happy Birthday to my favorite brother!

First Snow - December 4

Brady, Charlie and Chipper braved the elements to frolick in the first snow of the season.  Little did we know what would be looming a few weeks later.....

Super Awesome Birthday Present

This is my super awesome birthday present from Mom.  It is a docking station/alarm clock for my Sony Walkman MP3 player.  I LOVE IT!!  Thank you Mom!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  We have just finished a huge meal.  Mom said that we were going to keep it simple this year but I think that we had more food than ever.  I am thankful for my wonderful family, friends and the many blessings that the Lord has bestowed on me.  As our pastor said last week, if we live in America we are some of the wealthiest people in the world!

Here are a few photos that April took last weekend of Brady and Jimmy & Heather:

Happy Birthday To Me!

I celebrated my 39th birthday this week.  I have decided that this entire year will be a celebration.  It started with a party at McDonalds, complete with cake and a balloon.  This was the first time I ever had a McDonalds birthday party!  It was very exciting.  The guest list included Brady, Charlie, Abbie, Mollie, Jennifer, Pat and Mom.  We had a very good time!

The only thing about being 39 is that no one believes that you are actually 39 - they think that your are lying because you are actually older.  When people have asked my age and I tell them - I get the "Yeah, right".  I think I should just tell them that I am 37, then maybe I would not get the doubtful comments.

The main celebration is going to be in April, when I get to see Bon Jovi - a dream of mine! 

The Many Faces of Brady.....

We LOVE the after Halloween clearance sales!  Brady wanted to be the "enja" turtle for Halloween, but I convinced him to wait until the costume went on sale.  We also picked up the "army man" and the "enja".  There will be a lot of fighting at our house!

Good News Good News

As many of my close friends know, Brady has been quite the challenge to get to do #2 on the potty.  I even went so far as to see a child psychologist this past week to see if there was anything that I could change or that I was doing wrong.  We tried rewards, punishments, comparisons and (being the bad mother that I am) telling him that he was still a baby.

Well eureka!  On Thursday, after holding the #2 for five days even with Miralax, I broke down and went to Walmart and bought some childrens suppositories.  We went home, I put him on the potty and plopped the thing up there.  No, he did not like it.  After about 1 1/2 hours, he had a tiny accident.  I ran him to the potty and sat him up there and it worked.  He went another time.  Nothing happend Friday - he was cleaned out, but on Satuday he went FOUR times by himself.  I know that you  must think that I am ridiculous for posting this, but this has been an extremely stressful time at our house and we are relieved to have made a step in the right direction. 

Since he did such a good job with the potty, Mom took Brady to Walmart after church today and bought a prize.  Here is a picture of it: 

FALL FESTIVAL

Vampire Teeth!

Brady and Abbie had a great time at the Sugar Grove School Fall Festival.  Between the games, pizza, prizes, cotton candy and inflatables there was not a dull moment.  The Batman obstacle course was Brady's favorite.  Abbie got a new set of vampire teeth at almost every prize table.  This was a great preview for Halloween.

Just Pictures!

                                                     Chipper before a haircut.

                                                    Chipper after a haircut.

At the pumpkin patch with Abbie & Will.

Happy 4th birthday Brady!!

Man Have We Been Busy!

October has been a busy month for the Roberts' family!  First of all, we have a new family member.  Chipper (a so-called Yorkie) came to live with us on October 8.  He is six months old and was used to living in a basement or tied outside.  He is in heaven staying in our living room.  Right now he is looking out the storm door at the cows across the road.  He loves to bark at them. 

I took a few days off last week for Brady's 4th birthday.  On Thursday the 8th, we went to the Pumpkin Patch at Williams Orchard with a group of children.  On Friday the 9th, we went to Bristol for photos at Sears.  The culmination of the birthday celebration was a party with a few of his friends.  Of course he has been spoiled with many gifts from family and friends. 

My camera was not working at the birthday party so I am at other's mercy for photos!  Hopefully I will be able to add a few soon!

New Paint

Here is a picture of our breakfast nook.  Charlie has been painting the breakfast nook and dining room this past week.  If you have ever been in my house, you know that it was void of any color what-so-ever.  This is a color that I picked out from a swatch that Charlie brought home from Mike Barton's new paint store.  It looks beautiful!  Charlie's friend said that it mades the house look modern.  That is just what we needed!

Happy Fall Y'all

It is a beautiful Saturday here in Southwest Virginia! Brady and I have been outside planting some Asiatic Lily bulbs, but came back in because the wind will whip your wig off! We went to town this morning to order the birthday cake for next weekend - Spiderman! I have shop-vaced the bugs from 10 windows, but only cleaned two of them. There is only so much you can do to motivate yourself to clean windows.....

Next weekend Brady will turn 4! Charlie and I have been teasing him that he is getting a doll for his birthday. He told his Nana (well, Charlie did becuase Brady will not talk on the phone!) what he wanted for his birthday. After they got off the phone, Charlie told Brady that he was going to tell Nana to get him a doll that was on tv. Brady said "Dad, I have already put my order in." We got a big laugh out of that comment.

Pop's birthday was yesterday. He went to Florida for a wedding so we had a party for him and his mother, Jo, last weekend. The pictures above are from that party.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Brady and I went to the movies today and watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It was great! It had a lot of action. Brady did not ask when the movie was going to be over or go out the bathroom, which is a major accomplishment! This is a picture of us with the 3D glasses on.

Growing Up

My sweet little boy is growing up. He decided on Saturday that he wanted to get the toddler bed from Nana's house and sleep in it (in the bedroom with me). Of course I thought that we would set the bed up but when he came time to go to sleep, he would hop back in the bed with me. Boy was I mistaken - he went to bed and would not even hold my hand when I offered. After he went to sleep on Sunday night, I cried. Monday morning, he just wanted to lay in the bed instead of playing before we left. Monday evening he came home and relaxed in his bed before supper. So far he has slept in his bed for the past four nights. I guess I am adjusting. I thought that he would be at least seven before he slept alone(the age my brother was when he started sleeping alone - sorry for outing you Jimmy).

This evening he told me to come into the bedroom and sit in the floor in front of his bed. He then asked me how many kids I had. I said one. He said "No, how many do you have in your class? How many juices do you need?" We were playing school! He was pretending to be Mrs. Kerri and I was the teacher of the class at Pitter Patter. He asked how many cups of milk I needed and how many snacks. He wrote all of this down on paper (just like they do at Pitter Patter). He came back in a few minutes and told me that lunch and snack would be late today. A few minutes later he came in the living room with Charlie's hat on, holding his wallet and said that he was Dad and that he was here to pick me up from school. He signed me out, then I followed him through the house as he "drove" me home. He got stopped by a police officer and had to show his drivers license. Now he is waiting for me to come into the bedroom again. I just started DVRing Survivor because I bet I will not get to see it!

It has been a while since I last posted, but I have to admit that I forgot my password and just figured it out tonight. I tried so many different ones that I really can't remember which one worked so this may be the last one for a while......

Life Update

I have not had a chance to post an update lately because things have been a little crazy. I like to post funny, lighthearted stories, but that has not been my life the past few weeks. Here is a glimpse of what has been going on:

My uncle Larry had a heart attack. Mom and I went to Winston Salem and spent the night with Aunt Linda in Forsyth Medical Center because things were touch and go for a while. Larry had a bad heart attack, had stints put in, then kept having serious chest pain. They finally diagnosed him with inflammation around the heart and once they got him on the appropriate meds, he began to improve quickly. Please continue to pray for him - he has to have an additional surgery in about two weeks.

On my paternal side of the family: My cousin Denice passed away in Aberdeen, MD. She was in her early 40's. She was a Special Olympain (swimming and bowling). She had many health problems throughout her brief life. My Aunt Laura dedicated her life to taking care of Denice and I know that her heart is breaking. Aunt Laura is a super woman and an inspiration to all mothers. I did not attend any of the services for Denice, I am sad to say.

We also had another death on this side of the family - my Aunt Donna Rickman passed away this week after having a massive stroke. We called her Donnie Wampler as kids - I have asked many times why we called her Wampler and no one could ever tell me. Probably something that one of us kids made up. She was married many years ago, divorced and never had any kids. It was really sad at the funeral home at first - only about five people there and three flowers. Finally other family members started coming in and there was a small crowd.

I am sure that there are other family's out there like mine - the only time we are together anymore is during a tragedy. It is really sad that we do not see each other more than that. At the hospital, I got to see aunts, uncles and cousins that I had not seen in a few months. At the funeral home, I saw family members that I had not seen in YEARS, and most of us live in the same town. My mom's family is really close and I am thankful for that.

Hopefully the next post will be happy, filled with funny stories and good news.

Picnic at Nay's

Mom had friends from church and family over on Saturday night for a picnic. We had a great time eating, playing badminton, eating, hitting golf balls, eating and well, eating. Here are a few pictures she took of the fun.

This is Ethan, my sister in law's nephew. He is so cute.

Here is Brady and Brenner, his friend from church.



This is Brylee (Brenner's sister) holding Caleb (Ethan's brother).

Jaime and Matt (Brenner & Brylee's parents).

Heather & Jimmy (my sister in law and brother).

Funny Face

I thought I would share a few photos that Mom had taken of Brady last week when he spent an afternoon with her. She asked him to make a few faces at her and boy did he ever! I must say that he really looks like his father in these!

The last one was Mom's favorite. Yes, he is quite a character.

On another note, I pulled a white hair out from Brady's head one day last week. He is only 3 and already as a white hair!! Charlie had a lot of gray in his hair when I met him - he was 19 then. Just another way that Brady is like Charlie. At least he has my eyes and sweet personality! (Here is where you laugh hysterically about the personality comment.)

"Tiger" Roberts?

Sunday afternoon Brady and I went to Mom's house for a visit. She bought him a set of golf clubs before he could hold them and he is just now getting the hand of using them. He understands that he has to concentrate and keep his eye on the ball to hit it. I was actually very surprised at how well and how far he can hit the ball! Brady and Pop had spent an afternoon together a few weeks ago in the back yard talking golf - and Brady really paid attention! The only real challenge of the evening was keeping Clooney and Ditto away from the balls. Brady would hit them and they would chase them. You can see Clooney in one of the photos studying Brady's swing!

Teeing up.....

Clooney the caddy.

Studying the shot.

Whatta Swing!