A Robinson Christmas

Merry Belated Christmas!!
This year we celebrated Christmas in Northern Virginia at B's parent's house. It could potentially be the last Christmas in their house, as they are hoping to retire and fly south soon. :)

Even though it didn't snow (in fact, it was quite warm!), we had a great time. My mom-in-law and grama-in-law are amazing hostesses... the house looked beautiful and the food was DELICIOUS. It was also great to hang with the 'Richmond' Robinsons. Chara and I were able to have a date the day after Christmas and do a little shopping. It was so much fun. And Riley could possibly be the cutest, funniest, greatest kid EVER. I might ship mine to Chara to raise! ;)

Anyway, I trust everyone had a good Christmas as well. Enjoy the pics!


Holy Crow! Look at all those presents!


Aw... such a cute couple...


Riley reading the book we got him (Goodnight Charleston).
The big red chair was a present from Papa Bear and Nana.


Riley with Two-G. I love this picture.


Unkie B and Riley cuddling. Looks like Nana approves, too.


Me, rockin' the Christmas ribbon.

Pictures by Matt Daniel Photography

We had our 'Winter Photo Shoot' done by our good friend, Matt, this past weekend. Oh... and Matt also happens to be an EXCELLENT photographer. :) Check 'em out!









As you can see, he's very talented. He took over 100 pictures and they all turned out great! It was very difficult to pick the 'winner' for our Christmas cards... but we did. And you'll just have to wait and see what it looks like. :)

BTW, if you EVER need photos taken, give Matt a call... he's AWESOME.

Busy

Hi. Sorry it's been a while. We've been extraordinarily busy! From hosting Thanksgiving for the first time (12 adults, 2 babies and we ALL fit!!), to just plain old life, it's been a BUSY month. Plus, if I can just keep it real for a minute... I also sorta lost some motivation to update this thing. I'm not really sure why - nothing 'happened' but I honestly felt like NO ONE, besides me, ever read it. However, I no longer doubt... cause everyone was like NICOLE! Update your website!!! So, as long as y'all keep reading, I promise to keep writing. :)

Anyway, here are a few pictures from our recent weeks... as you can see, we've added a few things....


... like a new fan!

AND...




NEW COUCHES!!

Congrats!!!

Congratulations to my younger sister, Holly-Anne and her NEW HUSBAND, Bob!! They decided to skip the stress of having a big wedding and instead had a small, intimate ceremony at their house in CT on October 31st. And I don't blame them one bit... Weddings are stressful!!

Holly and Bob... I pray you have a happy marriage. My only advice is: Communicate, Communicate, COMMUNICATE! :) AND HAVE FUN! Hopefully, I'll see you soon and congratulate you the right way... with a BIG HUG! Miss you!!

And yes... I know... I know... we do look a lot alike. We may have different mommas but our daddy stamped us good. :)

Happy Halloween!

You KNOW I had to dress up the boys... :)



Cricket


Dodger


Me and Bruin... we made our costumes. Shirts from A.C.Moore, with iron-on felt letters. Our 'hats' (aka, nozzles) are felt that Bruin glued into a cone shape.

Three years ago...

It's been an amazing journey so far and we look forward to many many many more years together. We are celebrating tonight by having Surf (shrimp) and Turf (steak) with homemade mashed potatoes for dinner... then a mini German Chocolate cake we bought from Bi-Lo for dessert. :)

Our Cruise

We're back! We actually docked early Saturday morning but we've been taking it easy and enjoying our last few days of vacation before we headed back to work today. Anyway, we had a fabulous time. Here are some highlights:

Tuesday, out to sea:


We woke up to the sun shining and the blue ocean twinkling outside our window. We ventured out to explore the ship and attend a few of the daily activities such as Bingo and Trivia. Tuesday night was our 'formal' night so we got all dressed up and had a really nice dinner.

Wednesday, in Freeport:


Another beautiful day, which was so awesome, cause we spent the day driving around Freeport on the wrong side of the road in a Jeep. SO FUN.

Thursday, in Nassau:


A rainy and windy day. But it did not stop us from exploring Atlantis and swimming with the dolphins. Which was freakin' AMAZING. Thursday afternoon we had massages and facials on the ship.

Friday, back at sea:


Friday... oh Friday... how I DON'T miss you! We woke to 20 ft waves crashing OVER our window!! The boat was literally rocking back and forth. It took its toll on me so we spent a good portion of the day in our room... but two good things happened: 1) I discovered Ginger Gum is the BOMB and 2) We played Bingo again... and WON... another CRUISE! Yup. I still can't believe it. We played one card (other people were playing like 3 and 4 cards) and won a 5-day cruise for two anywhere we want. YEE-HAW!

We did take a ton of pictures so be sure to check them out HERE .

We are down to hours people!!!!

That's right! Just 5 hours to go! YAY!! I guess now is a good time to start packing, right?? :)

Anyway, the boys left for Doggie Camp this morning. (sniff. sniff.) We check-in at 7pm tonight and leave Charleston at 10pm. Tomorrow we have a day at sea. Wednesday we are in Freeport, where we will do the Jeep Adventure tour through the jungle! Thursday we are in Nassau, where we will swim with the dolphins at Atlantis! Friday we are back at sea. We dock Saturday morning at 8am. Phew! Can't wait!!!

OK. Must really start packing... stay tuned for pictures!!!

Six days...

Need I say more... :)

Maggie's Present

'Maggie' our Magnolia tree had a little present for us today...

Landscaping 101

Well folks, if our day jobs don't work out, we know what we could do next... landscaping! Ha! Three days (we both took Friday off) and about a half a bottle of Aleve later (our 30 years are catching up to us) we have a beautifully landscaped yard. And we did it all by ourselves!! It was HARD work but surprisingly, we both really enjoyed it. Our neighbor, Chris, works in the landscaping business so he was able to get our plants and flowers wholesale. He also gave us some advice and tips on how to plant everything. But the dirty work (pun intended) was up to us. And I have to say, I'm quite impressed. I'm not one to boast but I think we did a darn good job. See for yourself :)


Click HERE for pictures.


P.S. It should be noted that ALL holes were dug by my awesome husband... Regrettably, I did not take any pictures of this feat. However, he would like me to note that most of the digging involved a battle against clay :)

P.S.S. He also wants me to note that the hole for the Magnolia tree was 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep.

Cricket's Boo Boo

Cricket has THE fastest growing nails EVER. I swear we have to cut them every day! And what is worse, his 'thumb' nail (the nail on the upper inside of the foot) is SO hard to get to. Unfortunately, last night, Cricket moved just as Daddy was trimming it and he ended up taking a little too much off. The next thing we know, blood just starts gushing out! Cricket was a trooper, though. He allowed us to bandage it up to stop the bleeding.

My poor baby...



Momma, will you kiss my boo boo??

Could it be?

Why, I think it is!



Yup, these are definitely signs... Fall is coming!!!

O Canada!

Bruin left on his first business trip today to the Great White North - Canada, that is. Winnipeg, specifically (...It's OK. I didn't know either... it's under the 'C' in Canada, then to the left a bit...)
He left really early this morning (and I do mean early... 5am!!) and will be back Wednesday night. So, not a long trip. But the boys and I already miss him. We know he's having a good time, though, AND that he'll bring us back something good as a souvenir. :) Hehe. I'm off to relax and enjoy a night with the remote control (90210, Eh?). Sorry. Had to throw an 'eh?' in there. I mean, we ARE talking about Canada.

Operation Hornet

It's a typical Robinson evening... Bruin and I are enjoying the nice weather with our boys in the backyard... when I notice... in our tree... a nest of MASSIVE hornets. They. Were. HUGE!!! About the length of your finger! Well, they were certainly not staying there. So, my amazing husband, sent them an eviction notice... :)

TS "Hanna" Damage

Well, here it is folks - the damage the Robinson House incurred from Tropical Storm Hanna:



Yup, that's right... a WHOLE branch. Actually, not even a branch. A TWIG!

I certainly do NOT mean to make lite of the damage the storm did in Haiti (or elsewhere - sorry about your basement, Mom and Dad Robinson!!!) or the terrible loss of life... in fact, our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in that area. But they made it seem like Charleston wasn't going to survive Hanna. So I find it slightly comical. But I'm not complaining. We got out of work early. On a Friday. Which was awesome.



Do you think I need to file a claim to get this thing removed?!? Ha.Ha.

My first college football game

A pictorial journey of my first college football game... Enjoy!

Leavin' On a Jet Plane...

So David, Chara and Riley are moving to Richmond next weekend... sniff... sniff. I'm pretty sad... sniff... sniff. I mean, I'm SUPER happy for them. But MAN, we are going to miss them!! To mourn, I mean celebrate their new direction in life, we (the whole Robinson clan minus Two-G) got together for dinner Saturday night. We went to Poe's on Sullivan's Island, then took a little walk on the beach (it has finally stopped raining here!!). Here are some pics from our night.



D/C/R - we are going to miss you guys SO SUPER MUCH. We pray for your new life that it is happy, healthy and FUN!!! We promise to come visit!!!

My Little Hokie Boys

Bruin and I are going to Charlotte Labor Day weekend to attend the Virginia Tech/ECU game. It'll be my first VT game (actually, my first college football game - my college didn't have a football team) so to make it more fun, we ordered some 'Hokie Gear'. T-shirts, car magnets, etc... and of course, something for the boys!!!


Getting them together in one picture was quite a feat. It involved LOTS of treats.


Cricket is always the willing participant in my fake photo shoots... he should be a dog model!


I'm working on Dodger... he still likes to eat the camera. :)

Bathing Bostons

Cricket has always been a big fan of sunbathing. Looks like he's teaching Dodger to be the same thing...

Some other cute pictures from this week...

Our 'mellow' Boston, Cricket. That 'blur' at the bottom is Dodger.


Dodger in his 'restful' state. It doesn't happen often but when it does, it is so cute!!!

Beach Bums

B and I decided to make the most of a very beautiful day yesterday and headed down to our favorite spot in Charleston - Sullivan's Island.

The weather couldn't have been nicer...sunny, warm, breezy but not humid. Perfect in my book. Within 30 minutes, we saw dolphins playing/swimming just a few yards from the water's edge. It made us excited because we are actually going to swim with the dolphins on our cruise. :)
We took a nice long walk down around the point and saw Fort Sumter, the Charleston skyline and TONS of boaters. Then, we just sat and people watched for a while...

Unfortunately, two girls who were sitting next to us got stung pretty badly by Jellyfish. The Sullivan's Island Fire and Rescue came out within minutes to help them... the funny thing though was they drove two HUGE trucks, with flashing red lights, down the beach for about a half-mile... which of course brought tons of people to come check out what was going on. The poor girls were so embarrassed but grateful the guys came to help.

We brought our camera and took tons of pictures... so enjoy!


The view from our chairs...


My hot husband :)


Me. :)


Playing with the camera zoom... that's the Morris Island Lighthouse.


Zoom again... a sailboat on the horizon.


A frequent sight... a container ship coming to port. (Zoom again)


The Sullivan's Island Lighthouse.


Sullivan's Island Fire and Rescue.


My faithful umbrella. I don't go to the beach without it!

It's so cool to live in a place like Charleston... where you can just drop everything and spend the day at the beach. Have I ever mentioned how I just LOVE living here?!?