Robins' Spooktacular!

This year we held the first ever Robins' Halloween Spooktacular.  I sent out invitations to all the ghosts and goblins inviting them and their parentals to join in the fun.

We gathered at the appointed hour and busied ourselves creating monster  and witch hat cookies, bone bread rolls, and jack o'lantern pizza for the little people.

While our dinner was cooking, we colored and cut eyes in paper rolls and loaded them with glow sticks to put spooky eyes in Grandma's bushes while we trick-or-treated.  All too soon the parentals arrived bringing with them our costumes and lots of hungry appetites.  We enjoyed our pizza while they ate chili and bone bread.

 After dinner we donned our costumes and lots of pictures were taken!  Welcome to our zoo--a giraffe, elephant, and monkey with a princess to enchant us and Spiderman to defend us!  We set off for a fun night of trick-or-treating with our parentals!  Returning home about an hour later with full treat buckets and treasured cousin memories!  Happy Halloween everyone!

Easter Egg Hunt 2012

Enjoying the sunshine, family and each other!

Easter Sunday was a a beautiful spring day.  We gathered as a family for our first dinner outside in the sunshine.  After a great meal of pulled pork sandwiches, chips, tossed green salad, and strawberry shortcake it was time for the annual Easter egg hunt.                

The hunt is on!

Shyann sporting her Easter tattoo finds an egg.

The eggs were hidden and each participant had to find 6 eggs (one of each color) with their specific initial on it.  It was fun to watch the older ones help the younger ones find their eggs!

Ready, set, roll!

After everyone found an egg of each color with their initial on it, it was time for the large egg roll.  They gathered at the top of the hill, waited for the start signal, and then the race was on!

Zac's egg breaks open!

 Zac's face was priceless as his egg burst open halfway down the hill.  Once he was told that the goodies inside were his, his smile appeared and he dug into the loot!

Brad and Shae Hunsaker check out their eggs.

The adults each got a bag of Cadbury eggs and I-tune gift cards.  Brad got a dvd of Phantom of the Opera to help him prepare for his upcoming role next year in the BYU musical.

The Everett Clan
Shyann, Tina, Ashton, Rick, Alex

The Bradshaw Family
Katie, Taylor, Mark and Zac

We took advantage of the sunshine to take family pictures.  It was so fun to have everyone in the family share this celebration!

Mark blowing up 2 punch balls at once!
Not sure he realized how it looked when he started!

As Mark began to demonstrate how much "hot air" he had the two punch balls began to grow!  We asked him if he realized what it looked like!  He nearly inhaled the punch balls as he began to laugh!  Simple dollar punch balls provided an afternoon of great fun!

Punch Ball Wars!

Our greatest Easter Blessings
Ashton, Taylor, Alex, Shyann, Zac

It is hard to believe that we are "grandparents"!  Where does the time go?  How blessed we are to have such wonderful children and beautiful grandchildren.  We are grateful that they live close and are willing to make the effort to join in family celebrations!

It is hard to believe that the births of Alex and Taylor nearly doubled our number of grandchildren.  They have brought such joy to our family, can't believe they have only been here a month!

Our family is truly the greatest blessing in our lives!  We are proud of the great individuals and parents they are and the beautiful children they are raising.

First Photos

We were preparing to leave when a photographer came in to take the hospital photos of Alex.  We stayed to capture a few candid shots of the new family!

Mother and sons!

Father and new son.

What a treasured opportunity it was to get to capture these first precious photos of a beautiful baby boy!

Picture perfect!

Meeting Little Alex

Shyann and Ashton woke up early and were so excited to see the photo of their new brother.  We had breakfast, read scriptures, and got Shyann off to school on the bus.  Ashton and I then met up with Katie and went to the hospital to introduce Ashton to his new brother, Alex.

Big brother meets little brother!

Sleeping in Aunt Katie's arms!

Getting acquainted with Grandma Robins

Happy Halloween Haunting!

What fun I had seeing the many ghosts, witches and goblins that came trick or treating on Halloween. About 8 p.m. I was greeted by a beautiful princess, Shyann and Ashton, her brave dragon. They were all smiles and eager to explore "Grandma's treat cauldron". We took pictures of the duo, heard all about their adventures trick or treating Main Street in Bountiful, and then enjoyed some Halloween pie--double cream blueberry! As Princess Shy put it--"it was really yummy!

I am so grateful to live close to our family so we can share these precious moments!