Introducing Jamis

Jamis Blaine Robertson was born Sept. 24, 2009 at 5:04 pm. He is 20 inches long and weighed 8 lbs 12 oz. What is more - he has a full head of hair. He slept soundly his first night and had to be woken up by Morgan and the nurses in order to eat. He has been quite content to be swaddled and held. Kyla and Daria are still trying to make out exactly what to think of him, but they do call him "Baby Brother Jamis" or (phonetically speaking) "Baby Bwuddar Jamis). They will be good big sisters; I'm sure.

Morgan is doing fine enough. While trying to give her an epideral during delivery, the needle poked a small hole in her lining which caused an immediate migraine. The doctor administered just a test dose of the anesthesia to see how she would react. It had the effect of a spinal tap. Everything from her navel down went numb, and she couldn't move her legs. So between the migraines and the inability to move her legs, she was pretty miserable. The positive side is that she couldn't feel any of the contractions. That state only lasted for an hour or so before the medicine wore off. She started to feel all of the labor contractions, and they were the mean ones. Fortunately, she didn't have to endure them for long. Jamis was born within the hour of that. Morgan is doing much better today. She is able to get up and walk. Her headache has gone down drastically, and I think she is enjoying all of the attention the nurses and staff are giving to her.

More updates to follow.

Scout Camp

This last week, I went with my Branch to the Regional Aaronic Priesthood Encampment. Following are several pictures from the week. Most are from the beginning and closing ceremonies.Josh Albers






























Eric Norgrant


































Nathan Neefe


















Spencer Neefe































Ken Norgrant



















and me

The Girls are Growing

The girls are growing, growing, growing. Some days they don't seem like toddlers but small adults - or teenagers depending on their attitudes.




Sleep has become an important topic at our house. The girls have graduated to twin sized beds. There has been only one falling out of bed (that we know of). We knew that the girls were ready to handle the height after we had found the girls a couple of times sleeping together on our couch without falling off.












After a while of letting the game sit, we got Guitar Hero back out. The girls have decided that they really like it. They have become little rockers. We are trying to get them to say "Rock On."Someday. In the meantime, they are getting into the rock and roll lifestyle.

School and a Table

So Derik finished his second semester of Grad school and maintained his 4.0 GPA! Woo-hoo. To celebrate he made a goal to read one book a week during the summer. So far, he is keeping to that goal. We also decided to get a new kitchen table (sort of). We received Morgan's Parent's old table since they were going to throw it away. We stripped all of the old varnish and stain off of it and redid the table top. We were able to fix alot of the discoloration and water damage that was on the table. It is sitting in our basement right now curing. The table top at least looks really nice. Not bad for our first effort with furniture restoration. In a week or so, we will be able to get the table upstairs and ready for some light use. We are currently also looking to upgrade Kyla and Daria to twin (no pun intended) size beds. We have found a pretty good deal at the Salvation Army that we will probably take. Here's hoping that the girls show at least a little mercy towards their beds when they get them and don't try to jump them to death.

We are looking forward to catching up on everything that we have fallen behind in during the school year in the summer (including this blog) talk to everyone soon.

Books read during Spring semester

• Kafka on the Shore, Invisible Man, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Good news, for a change, The Four Giants of Russian Literature, Dante's Divine comedy, No Excuses: Existentialism and the Meaning of Life, Tripmaster Monkey, Lady Oracle, To the Lighthouse, Song of the Lark, An Artist of the Floating World, Fahrenheit 451, History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, Oranges are not the only fruit, Maria W Stewart: America's First Black Female Political Writer and Speaker, The Conquest, Paradise, Little Black book of Stories, Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, Beloved, Einstein's Monsters, Kindred, Northanger Abby, Lydia's Story, First Love, Last Rites, The Light Fantastic, Religous Literacies, Sorrows of Young Werther, The Bondwoman's tale, Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, The Stranger, The Blue Death, Epic of Gilgamesh, All I Did Was Ask, Asking the Right Questions, Equal Rites, The Plague, Elantris, Birthday Boys
  

Birthdays and Valentines

Big News, Big News. We can start with the day that Kyla and Daria turned two years of age. They had a good birthday at their Grandma and Grandpa Firl's house. They were really spoiled with presents sent to them from all over.

Kyla and Daria enjoy the attention of everybody singing to them.

They did well in blowing out their candles.














They really liked the cake!















Both the girls really got into the spirit of unwrapping their presents.











































For Valentine's Day the girls received a special treat - their very first Twinkies!

How our girls like to have fun...

More fun times! Look how high those two jump!
(Even though we try t0 get them to stop)