Merry Christmas

This past weekend we made a trip up to SW Missouri to celebrate Christmas with the Roberston/Hopkins side of the family. While the time always seems to go by fast we were able to squeeze quite a bit in. We spent Saturday trading Christmas presents and eating way too much food, but we always enjoy seeing everyone and wish that we were able to get together more often.

This year we decided to keep Christmas stress free, so we decided to give “As-Seen-On-TV” gifts.

Kellen didn’t understand everything that was going on but he did seem to really enjoy ripping all of the presents open.

We didn't send christmas cards this year but hope everyone has a wonderful time and here is our blog card to you!!

May your holiday be merry and bright!!!

Merry Christmas from Mark, Jill, and Kellen!!!

Thanksgiving/White Rock Half Marathon

While we never have enough time at Thanksgiving we are blessed that our families only live 45 minutes apart. This allows us to split time between both of our families and while it leads to some hectic days, we wouldn’t have it any other way. The four days are a blur as we travel the country to parents and grandparents houses and what seems to be everywhere in between, but this is certainly one of our favorite times of the year. The days are spent focusing on our families and although we probably get to see them more often than others who have to travel greater distances do, this time always makes us reflect and realize how thankful we truly are for great families. This was K’s first Thanksgiving and he certainly enjoyed being one of the centers of attention as he and his other cousins split some time being loved on by all of the grandparents.

Best Farm Hand

First Horse Ride!!

Precious

First Tricycle Ride

Jill's first real homeade apple pie!



We headed to Dallas last weekend for a brief weekend get-a-way. We were able to get out of town a little early on Friday and although it was a 5 ½ hour drive, K did really well in the car and he didn’t seem to mind being in his car seat for the extended period of time. It certainly helped that Leta, one of his “Gran-Nannies”, was in the back to help entertain him as he had to endure the carseat a little longer than we intended since all of the road construction in Dallas confused our Garmin to no end. After circling on the same road four times and two calls to the hotel we abandoned the new technology and instead relied on Jill’s hunch that “we should turn down this road.” Amazingly, it worked.

We were blessed with beautiful weather on Saturday and we spent the majority of the morning visiting some of the attractions at Fair Park. K loved the aquarium the most but he also seemed to enjoy the large stuffed animals in the Natural Sciences building and the butterfly house as well. The rest of the day was spent shopping in various areas around Dallas.

On Sunday, Jill and I headed to Fair Park again to participate in the White Rock ½ Marathon. We have completed a handful of runs over the last few years but this was by far the largest that we have ever participated in. With close to 20,000 runners it was certainly a festive event and one that Leta and K could enjoy as it was large enough that it was televised live. This allowed them to watch it from the warmth of the hotel room instead of bundling up and enduring the cold air for a couple of hours.

The run itself was great as it took us through downtown, the Highland Park area, and then back around Fair Park. We were both able to enjoy running together and were satisfied with our runs and so this was certainly one of our favorites and one that we will consider doing again in a few years.

Playing boo with Grammie!!

Our congratulations sign from Kellen and Grammie

Hello from the Robertson Family

No excuses. We made a commitment to be more diligent about our blogging and that lasted all of three months. But then it ended. Honestly, we quickly lost focus on blogging because it always ranked very low on our priority list and although it still does, we understand that it is a good way for our friends and family who are not close to stay connected to what we are doing – or more importantly for many of them, what K is doing. So we will renew our commitment but this time with more realistic expectations. If you choose to follow us and catch the updates then mark your calendars for the first and third Tuesdays of the month as we will make updates on those days. Granted we may get a little wild and crazy from time to time and have multiple postings in a week but don’t expect that. Instead treat it as a sweet surprise and savor the moment if that happens as additional postings will be a far stretch for our Type A personalities.
· Disclaimer – We will try our best to include some photos and shorter entries over the next few weeks but again, those should not be considered as the norm. They are simply our way of showing what we have been doing instead of blogging and proving that K is in fact 10 months old instead of frozen in time as a three month old.

Three Month Pictures

We continue to run about a month behind but we are certainly improving on the frequency of the posts. At the three month stage it seemed like K made changes every day. Whether it was by adding a larger smile, lifting his head up higher during tummy time, or tracking his favorite finger puppet "Gladys" from side to side, lots of changes were made.

To mark the occasion, Ruthie was able to get some great shots of him and we even tossed in a couple of family shots. We are very thankful for her willingness to help us capture the moments and if anyone here in NWA is looking for a photographer check out her blog at http://www.ruthephotography.blogspot.com/

Two Months Old

K celebrated his 2 month birthday in early March so we are a bit late in posting the picture. Thankfully, he survived the shots at the doctor's office without too many tears being shed and I think that we are all glad to have that part over with. We're not that big on the measurements that they give as we know that they often don't predict as much as parents are led to believe, but nonetheless, we were pretty shocked to find out that K is taller than 98% of his peers. We'll see how it goes from here but based on the results I am anticipating the basketball scholarship letters to start rolling in.

Smiley Face

K has started to smile! At first he would just wrinkle up one side of his mouth, then he advanced to smiling when he was having a "poo break", but now we have advanced to the full fledged smile. Hopefully we can keep him happy and give him multiple opportunities to share this wonderful smile with us.

Baby Parade!!

After spending the first couple of months indoors with K, Jill and I were pretty anxious to get him outside. Thankfully we didn't have to wait that long due to a couple of unseasonably warm days late last week. K sent the word to all of his lady friends and asked them to join him for a "group date" at the park.

The strollers certainly hide them well, but there are three girls that came along. That's right, the buggy in the middle is filled with twin girls.

All of the fathers went for run before meeting up with the Baby Parade. Our wives had no real sympathy for our post-workout aches and pains and somehow we still ended up pushing the strollers.

Awesome Pictures of our Little Man!

We wanted to share some of the pictures that were recently taken of K and his room. We are super excited about the pictures because they turned out so good and now we have some more pictures of him at about the two month mark.

All of the pictures were taken by Ruthie, who is helping watch K at the clinic since Jill went back to work four days a week. Ruthie has been a huge blessing and while the transition back to work is one that continues to be a struggle and one that we continue to pray through, it is at least comforting to know that K is being well cared for.

We are very thankful that the room came together so well and we couldn't be happier with it. I know I had some doubts when Jill told me we were going to use the same color on the wall. I really questioned if flat and satin would really make that much difference --- but as you can see by how it turned out, I should just keep my mouth shut and trust her.

We tried to time the pictures so that we would be able to get some of K when he was asleep and some when he was awake. But once again K continues to teach us that planning and him do not really go together. He woke up while Ruthie was taking some quick shots of the room and once he's up ---- he's up!

We were even able to get in some good family shots.

Thank's again Ruthie - We love them all!