Thanksgiving Weekend

For Thanksgiving this year we were in Las Vegas. My good friend from high school and BYU got married the day after Thanksgiving, and we decided to make a weekend of it. We stayed at the MGM Grand (a.k.a. "the Lion King" by Robbie). It was a lot of fun! We did a lot of site-seeing.

MGM lobby
MGM
the lions..we walked right under them
Excaliber

Bellagio fountains

Bellagio gardens...this pumpkin was 898 lbs. and it was real!

Caesar's Palace Forum Shops
FAO Schwartz 3-story toy store

breakfast Friday morning before we head to the wedding

Here is Robbie on Friday at the temple.

Jenny's Wedding

We had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday after we got back.

It's Official...He Passed the Bar!!

Here's the news!!

It's been a long road, and many months of studying, worrying, and praying! We got the news on Friday night that Brian passed the bar! We are so proud of him. After reading the message on the computer screen, we jumped and shouted for joy.


(Robbie took this picture)
After getting the good news, we called family and then headed to Outback for a steak dinner. It was such a great night and we are still counting our blessings!

Temple Trip

Saturday, we took a trip to the Los Angeles Temple. It was really busy that day with youth groups putting up the Christmas lights, construction on the visitors center, and lots of weddings. Robbie and I took some pictures around the grounds while Brian went in for a session. While we were waiting for Brian to come out, we saw some of our old ward members from last summer. It was their ward temple trip, so it was fun to see them again. Especially our friend, Grandma Smith. Robbie and I would go over to her house for play group. We found out last summer that she went to high school with my Grandpa Cleghorn. She came out of the temple and said, "I can't even believe my eyes! Maryn and Robbie, how are you?" It made me happy that she recognized us and remembered our names! It was a special day, and we were excited to be there. As we were driving from the parking lot, Robbie said, "Thanks for taking to temple!" He's so cute and we love that he enjoys the temple as much as we do.
After the temple we went to this brazilian churrascaria called Porto Allegre, to continue our celebration of passing the bar!

Brian's Birthday

Yesterday for Brian's Birthday we had a small celebration. Since he has YM on Wed. nights, we had our main celebration on Sunday. Thanks to all who sent gifts, cards, emails, and phone calls!

For a treat we had these chocolate covered cherry cookies. It's just a chocolate cookie with the cherry-filled kisses on top...pretty good.

Daddy's Birthday--Part 1

Brian's birthday is this week! We had to start a little early, since Wednesday is going to be busy for us. We made him one of his favorite meals: roast, cheesy potatoes, corn, jello, and rolls with pumpkin bars for dessert. Then he opened a few of his gifts from family. Robbie loved helping him unwrap. Hope your Birthday Week is a fun one, Brian!

Party

This weekend, Robbie went to his friend's birthday party. It was a fairy/gnome theme, and so cute. Robbie enjoyed playing with Daphne and having a good time.

"Super Helper"

Robbie's new thing lately is being a "Super Helper". He loves to help out, do whatever he can around the house, and then come and tell me that he has been a "Super Helper". His newest thing he has learned to help out with is emptying the dishwasher. He loves it! I don't know how long this will last, but I'm milking it for now. When I've asked him to do something else that he doesn't want to do, I tell him that if he does it, he can help me unload the dishes. He gets all excited and runs to do whatever I'm bribing him to do. ;-)

Tummy Swinging

Robbie discovered this week that he could swing on his tummy all by himself! It's so cute because he likes to count down before he takes off. He says, "1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10!" and then jumps. He runs to the swings first when we go to the park now.

Rainforest Cafe

On Saturday, we tried out the Rainforest Cafe in Ontario. It's a fun themed restaurant and we thought Robbie would enjoy the environment. It was a lot of fun. Robbie liked all of the animals. Every 30 min. they have a "thunderstorm" where the animals come to life.

Annual Peanut Testing

We went to the doctor today for Robbie's annual skin test. It's a little overdue, but with moving and insurance, we finally made it. He was such a good sport, especially since he had to lay across my lap like this for 20 min. in order to not mess up the test. The test showed that he is still allergic to peanuts, however, he did not show a reaction to any other nut/seed. He might not have shown a reaction because he hasn't been exposed to it yet, but it's still something to hope for. I knew he wouldn't react to the cottonseed and sesame because he has had that in food without a problem. The numbers on the left of his back are the 10 nuts/seeds that they tested him for (almond, brazil nut, cashew, coconut, cottonseed, hazelnut, pecan, pistachio, sesame, and walnut). On the right of his back is where they tested the peanut and did the controls for the test.

This picture was taken about 5 minutes after he got the allergens.
This picture was taken just before the nurse came back after 20 min. If you enlarge the pictures, you can see how much the peanut reaction grew in that 15 minutes. Last year the reaction measured at 8 mm. This year they diluted the solution to 1/10th and his reaction measured at 3 mm. I'm not sure if you can compare the two with the dilution, but I thought is was interesting. The amount they give him is so small I can't imagine what it would feel like for him to actually come in contact with the peanut in food. I'm so grateful that he has not had any reactions this year!

Halloween

For Halloween, we went to our ward Trunk-or-Treat party. The guys went as Charger football players, and I went as a Charger fan. I was a little nervous as this ward doesn't know as much about the peanut allergy as our ward last year did. But we went prepared. I saved a bag of candy at home that we could trade out unsafe candy for when we got home. We also had Robbie wear gloves, and told him that he couldn't touch or have any candy unless we said it was okay. He is starting to pick up on the fact that he can't just eat everything that others do. The night turned out to be a success...no reactions!

To go with our Charger theme, our trunk was a tailgate party.
going around with Daddy to get candy
Robbie and Daphne
After Trunk-or-Treating, we went inside for the rest of the party. Here Robbie is playing with one of our sister missionaries, Sister Oh from Korea.
the costume parade
After the costume parade, they gave out 4 awards to the kids with the best costumes and our little Robbie won! Here he is with his prize--some cheese cake.
hanging out with Mommy