Roberts III

Happy Fall, Y'all!

2010-10-24T03:34:00.008+01:00

Our fall of 2010 has been a busy one. Faimon got a job as a reporter for The Advocate so we moved from DeRidder to Denham Springs. (We have not yet sent out our new address email, but hope to soon. If you need our new contact details, send one of us an email.) We have had a good time getting settled in to Denham Springs. Faimon has not quite given up his life in DeRidder. He's been traveling every weekend to do the radio broadcast for the DeRidder Dragons.

Faimon and Austin have been to 2 LSU games and Christa has been to one. Aaron's not quite old enough yet, but maybe next year. Here's a pic of Austin at his first game. He lasted until the end of the first quarter and then he and Faimon left. The second game he made it from the tailgate through the end of the game.

We made a visit to our parish fair. Austin had a good time riding rides and in the petting zoo and Aaron had a good time just taking it all in.

We also made a visit to a local pumpkin patch. It's tough getting the boys to pose together so I got a good picture of Aaron and Mr. Pumpkin-head.

We decorated some small pumpkins for our front entry. Not sure what Austin was making his into but he had fun doing it.

We're looking forward to getting more settled in and more fun opportunities that come with living near a big city.

Independence Day

2010-07-10T01:17:00.005+01:00

We had a great time celebrating Independence Day by grilling some burgers with our friends, Sonya and Stacey, and then attending the city fireworks show.

Aaron was a bit surprised by the loud noises at first but got used to them quickly and seemed to enjoy the show. Austin spent the whole show covering his ears. He kept asking if we had some earphones or something to cover them with because his arms were getting tired. About half way through he decided he was ready to go home. Didn't seem that he enjoyed it too much (he was more excited about the glow stick we got him) but afterward he said, 'Thanks, Mom for taking us to the fireworks.'

We also celebrated independence of another kind. Aaron took his first steps! He has done it a few times since then but not very often. He still prefers to crawl. He walks pretty well for having just started, he just chooses not to do it. :)

The picture below is a pic of Aaron with one of his favorite books. After not really being interested in sitting still for a book, he now loves to read and will bring me book after book at bedtime. He also likes to look at all of his books when he wakes up from a nap.

Where does the time go?

2010-03-18T19:17:00.007Z

Well, looks like it's been a while since we've posted anything here. (Sorry, been keeping up a little bit with posting pictures on Facebook. Not many there either, though.)

Our boys are growing up. Austin is 4. This age is so much fun. But, really, each stage is fun for different reasons. He invited a few friends to a "Flying Things" birthday party. We went to Jump City, came home for pizza for lunch, and then presents and cake.

These are his 4 year old pictures. He dressed himself and these are the best poses I could get.

Aaron is one! Hard to believe. He had a family birthday party at home. He is crawling around, pulling up, cruising a little, walking with help, and trying to say a few words (although nothing that would really be recognizable to anyone outside of our family). He's a happy baby but he's not afraid to let you know loudly when he's not pleased. He loves his big brother and they have a good time playing together. Here's his one year old pic.

The Dynamic Duo

2009-11-02T02:43:00.005Z

Halloween has come and gone and we have more candy than we know what to do with. Here are some pics from our activities this weekend.

Here are Batman and Robin before heading off to the library on Thurs. night for the first round of trick-or-treating. (This is the only night that Austin would actually wear his cape.)

Friday night we went to Leesville to enjoy a "Witch Way to Main Street" event with BB and the cousins. (Superman is missing from this photo. Must have slipped away for a daring rescue elsewhere.)

Sat. night we went trick-or-treating in the park and then in a friend's neighborhood.

Here's a pic of our pumpkin.

Pumpkins

2009-10-13T03:12:00.006+01:00

Well, we haven't picked out our carving pumpkin yet but we're getting in the mood. Here are the pumpkins that we decorated last week.

And here are some pictures of our other little pumpkins...

Aaron at 7 months.

Aaron at 6 months.

It's tough to get both boys to pose together. Here's a pic we got about a month ago.

Are you ready for some football?

2009-09-04T16:44:00.003+01:00

Fall is here and we're even getting a little bit of cooler weather to prove it. With fall comes football and Faimon is jumping in with both feet. Even though he's no longer the Sports Editor of our local paper he's still exercising his football muscles. If you want to hear what Faimon has to say you can check out these sources:

Grid Iron Gumbo - 7 PM Thursdays on 105.7 KVVP FM. Weekly football talk show about local high schools, colleges, and pro teams. There's a 'Listen Live' link on the site.

DeRidder Dragon Football 7 PM Fridays on 95.7 KROK FM. Faimon is calling the play-by-play radio broadcast for the DeRidder Dragons. There's a 'Listen Live' link on the site.

DeRidder Daily News Faimon will still be covering the DeRidder Dragon's games in the local paper.

Bleacher Report This year Faimon is a featured columnist for LSU on Bleacher Report and should be publishing at least a couple of articles a week.

Better late than never?

2009-07-28T23:31:00.004+01:00

I know Aaron is almost 5 months old but I'm just getting a chance to post his 3 and 4 month pictures. Hopefully I'll get a 5 month picture soon.

Aaron at 3 months...

and 4 months.

He is growing fast (still off the charts in both height and weight). He can roll from his tummy to his back and has rolled at least once from his back to his tummy. His head seems to still be a bit too heavy for him to pick up to get all the way over. He is making lots of sounds all the time and has developed a grunting/groaning sound to tell us when he is not happy. Not very much fun to listen to but he is communicating. :) He's getting pretty good with grabbing things with his hands. The doctor said last week to expect his bottom teeth to start coming in a couple of weeks. It all goes by so fast...

In the News

2009-07-09T02:19:00.003+01:00

Faimon is no longer the Sports Editor for our local newspaper. He's now the Editor! This is his first week of putting together the rest of the paper (besides Sports) but he's had a few weeks to transition from one job to another. While this means he won't be out covering games at night, he is still going to be working 6 day weeks and will be working in the evening to make sure all the news from the day makes it in the paper. :(

He won't be giving up Sports entirely, though. There will probably be some opportunities in the fall for him to cover some football games and he hopes to continue writing a column for the Sports section. (If he can find the time, that is.)

Goin' Fishin'

2009-06-13T01:21:00.003+01:00

Now that it's officially summertime, Austin is starting to get into fishing. He got a new Lightning McQueen (still his favorite character) fishing pole in preparation for a trip to Beebe and Gramp's camp for Memorial Day. He spent almost an hour outside learning to cast and practicing in our driveway the day he got it.

We had a good time at the camp but Austin didn't catch any fish.

At the first of this month, Austin spent a week at Grandma and Grandpa's while Faimon, Christa, and Aaron went to Oklahoma for a friend's wedding. This is the longest Austin has been away. We all survived and enjoyed our week. Austin went fishing with Grandma and Grandpa, too, and caught two fish this time.

Growing Like a Weed

2009-05-09T20:51:00.002+01:00

Aaron is now 2 months old and he is growing so fast. He weighs 14 lbs 2 oz and is 24.5" long. His height is so far off the charts the doctor accused us of bringing the wrong baby home from the hospital.

Sleeping Like a Baby

2009-05-01T15:49:00.007+01:00

Aaron has slept the last two nights from about 11 PM to 7 AM. Yeah!! He really sleeps well anyway but this allows Christa to get a little more sleep. He is growing fast and taking more of an interest in the things going on around him. He is smiling more and more but still makes us work for them sometimes.

We spent some time last week visiting grandparents and had a good time. Austin had fun catching lizards and swimming. Faimon got in the water with him but no one else was willing to brave the cold water.

We also got the chance to celebrate birthdays with Aunt Laura and Darby. Here's a picture of the cousins.

One Month Old

2009-04-06T20:38:00.005+01:00

We have now had Aaron in our lives for one month. Time passes so quickly and he is growing fast. (He has a doctor's appointment this Wed. so we can find out exactly how fast he's growing.) We are starting to get back to something resembling our normal lives but we're not quite there yet.

Austin is very proud of his little brother and introduces him to others every chance he gets. He's very sweet and gentle (most of the time) and likes to give Aaron hugs and kisses. He has also offered to share his favorite fluffy blanket with Aaron as well as some of his racing cars. Let's hope this brotherly love lasts!

Trying to get Austin and Aaron to "pose" for a picture is a difficult task. Here is one we've taken and hopefully we'll get more soon.

Aaron William Roberts

2009-03-11T19:23:00.005Z

The newest addition to our family arrived on March 5, 2009 at 1:23 PM. He weighed 8 lbs 13 oz and was 21.25" long. Mom and baby came home on Sat.

We are adjusting well to having a new baby in the house, although we still have a lot of help at the moment so reality hasn't quite set in. He is a good, happy baby and is eating and sleeping well. We'll see how long that lasts.

Austin is excited about being a big brother and loves to show off his baby brother. His first question when he got home from his first day at nursery this week was 'Where is my baby brother?' He still seems a little confused about why Aaron cries but otherwise he seems to be accepting the changes pretty well at the moment.

Party Time!

2009-01-26T02:52:00.006Z

Austin will be 3 tomorrow and we had a small party for him at our house yesterday. He wanted a 'Basketball, football, soccer ball, baseball' party. He invited 3 friends. The weather was not great so we were all stuck inside for most of the time, although the boys did get out a bit to run around the house a few times.

The biggest hit during the party was a construction claw that Caden and Jackson gave him.

After a full day of excitement, Austin crashed.

When he recovered he had enough energy to put on a little show for us.

For those parents of young ones out there, do you recognize any of the pop culture references that seem to give him his inspiration?

Santa Claus is coming...

2008-12-14T20:46:00.005Z

We are getting in the Christmas spirit. Santa visited Austin's nursery on Friday and he got to sit on Santa's lap and chat for a bit. Austin has decided we will make chocolate cookies to leave out for Santa this year.

All Austin wants Santa to bring him is '5 big McQueens'. Austin has 2 or 3 Lightning McQueen cars, 1 big one that used to talk but doesn't anymore. Now he wants more. He tells us that Santa will bring 1 for mommy, 1 for daddy, and 1 for him. Not sure who gets the other 2.

We put our tree up yesterday. It made for quite a full day but we had a lot of fun. Austin loved decorating the tree, although, the needles did hurt his hands and he wanted mommy to help hang a lot of the ornaments but they had to go exactly where he wanted them. His favorite ornaments were the train ornaments and any red ornament. Red is now his favorite color. (I think it helps that Lightning McQueen is red.)

Trick-or-Treat

2008-11-01T02:38:00.004Z

Here's our Spiderman all ready for Halloween. He has had 2 long days of trick-or-treating and Halloween fun. Thursday night was trick-or-treating in the park with his cousins. Friday was trick-or-treating in the morning at nursery. After nursery we were off to a friend's house to trick-or-treat in their neighborhood. They had a hayride through the neighborhood and everything. One of the houses was even set up as a haunted house. Austin just opted for the candy and didn't go through. We had a really good time. Austin's favorite candy so far seems to be Skittles and Smarties. Halloween seems to have lasted so long it's going to be difficult to understand why we won't get any more candy or light our jack-o-lantern for another year.

Austin with cousins Pirate and Batman.

Austin and his friend Jake at the start of the trick-or-treating hayride.

Pumpkin Carving

2008-10-28T01:55:00.005Z

Faimon and Austin carving our pumpkin.

The finished product.

A few weeks ago we decorated some small pumpkins.

It's a Boy!

2008-10-21T02:22:00.004+01:00

At first we weren't sure if the baby was going to cooperate but we did get a picture that shows us we're going to have another boy. Austin wasn't interested in seeing pictures of his little brother but he didn't seem upset when we told him it was a boy and not a girl. He was convinced it was a girl before today.

Here's the proof:

We have several other pictures but none that are easy to spot what you're looking at. She kept trying to get a good face shot but the baby kept moving and hiding his face. In this picture you can see the baby head to toe, with his head on the left and his feet on the right. His back is at the top of the picture.

No thoughts on names yet. Now that we can narrow it down to boy names hopefully it'll be a bit easier. Any suggestions?

Place your bets...

2008-10-15T19:55:00.003+01:00

The time has come and, if the baby cooperates, we will hopefully find out if it is a boy or girl. The appointment is set for Monday morning.

What do you think? Pink or blue?

Fall in Louisiana

2008-10-08T16:59:00.004+01:00

Fall in Louisiana brings football, the parish fair, and, for us, visits with family. We have had quite a busy few weeks. Austin has now been to his first parish fair, which opened with a parade through our downtown area. This may have also been Faimon's first parish fair parade. Austin enjoyed the parade, mostly the candy that he was able to catch or chase down. He did get a little bored with the actual parade. He liked watching the horses and 4-wheelers that were part of it.

Faimon managed to skip the fair as he was covering a couple of high school football games that week but Christa and Austin made an evening of it. Austin rode the merry-go-round, a truck ride, and a 4-wheeler ride. The 4-wheeler ride was his favorite. He cried after the first ride saying that he wanted to ride again on the other blue 4-wheeler. After 2 turns he seemed satisfied, though. He also took in some of the livestock (the chickens being the favorite) and a petting zoo. I can't forget to mention topping it off with his new favorite meal, corndogs.

Last week Austin and Christa also got to go to their first high school football game of the season. Faimon's parents were in town visiting so we all got to go to the game. Austin lasted through the first quarter and then was ready to go home. He said he liked the cheerleaders best of all. :)

Austin enjoyed having his grandparents around for the weekend. Faimon and Christa went through short bouts of the stomach flu that same weekend, so it was a good thing grandparents were around to keep Austin occupied.

We are enjoying the fall and are getting ready for Halloween. Austin loves the pumpkins and is all set to be Spiderman. Hopefully he won't change his mind before the big night!

Big News!

2008-08-25T21:39:00.002+01:00

Expected 4 March, 2009. This picture was taken at about 8 weeks.

Summertime, summertime

2008-08-06T22:10:00.006+01:00

We are enjoying the summer weather, although it is quite a change from an English summer. A little rain would help to cool us off and keep the grass in our yard from dying. We did get a little from Edouard but it might not be enough.

Christa and Austin spend their days off going to the library, playing in the park, and playing in the little red caboose. The caboose is near the museum in town and not red at all but that's what Austin calls it, so that's what it is. Sometimes we get to see real trains going by on the tracks behind the museum. Austin loves it but is still scared by the train's whistle as the engine passes.

A few of our summertime evenings have been spent going to some summer baseball games. Austin has really enjoyed them and even asked unbidden one Sunday night to go see one. Since summer baseball ended a few weeks ago, Austin and Faimon spend some of their evenings watching the Rangers on TV. Austin will get out of bed at night sometimes asking to watch racing cars on TV (he has taken a liking to NASCAR) but will settle for baseball if that's what Faimon is watching.

Austin is 2 1/2. We tried to get some good pictures of him to send out but, as you can see from the pictures below, he is much more interested in playing and making noise than in posing for pictures.

Slip-N-Slide

2008-06-06T03:34:00.004+01:00

Austin enjoyed a day at BB and Gramp's house today. He got a chance to go on the slip-n-slide with his cousins and loved it.

We're getting ready for a trip down south this weekend for a short visit and a chance to celebrate with Antenna. Austin is most excited about possibly getting a chance to go to cousin Darby's house and go to the zoo (he has been asking about it for a couple of weeks). He keeps standing on his chair and telling us that the elephant is so very tall.

Austin seems to like his nursery. Sometimes he doesn't want to leave and he's always ready to go back. They have been having some fun summertime activities. Faimon and Christa are still getting used to the differences and really miss Austin's old nursery. There's not as much personal attention at the new nursery as we feel Austin deserves. :)

The World of Sports Writing

2008-05-28T17:37:00.004+01:00

Faimon has been invited to join Bleacher Report, a sports fan website, as an author. He is still writing for his own blog, Pelican State Sports, and some of those articles are picked up and carried on Bleacher Report. He also writes some articles specifically for Bleacher Report. Right now, one of his articles is featured on the front page as one of the most popular articles. You can view his profile to see all of his articles.

You can always find links to Faimon's websites under "Links" on the left side of this page.

Faimon is settling in to his job as a sports writer and enjoying it so far, Christa is getting used to working more predictable hours at home, and Austin is adjusting well to his new nursery. We have 2 rooms that still have boxes in them but otherwise we are pretty much moved into our new home. We're all ready for a fun summer back in the US.

Big Boy Bed

2008-04-29T19:26:00.003+01:00

Austin spent his first night in his big boy bed last night. It went really well. He was excited about it. We had been talking about it and it was up in his room the night before after Daddy, Uncle Mike, and Gramp put it together. Yesterday afternoon we made the bed with his new comforter that has trucks and cars all over it. He went to bed at 7:30 last night and stayed in bed until about 6:45 this morning. He was ready to take his nap this afternoon in the big boy bed again.

Austin and I went to visit his new nursery this morning. He was shy at first but seemed to settle down and enjoyed playing a bit with the other children. He will start going 3 days a week for the summer session on the 26th of May. It should be a fun time for him, although now he's really enjoying time playing with Mom and Dad and with his cousins.

The search is over...

2008-04-10T22:55:00.004+01:00

Faimon has found a job as a Sports Editor for a small town newspaper about 30 minutes south of where Christa's parents live. It has all happened pretty fast. We are excited about the move and starting to look for a place to live. We will be staying with Faimon's parents until we do, probably around the end of this month.

We will probably be sending out our new contact details via email when we have them. In the meantime if you need to contact us feel free to email or leave a comment here.

Back In The US

2008-04-05T20:41:00.007+01:00

Well, we are back in the US for good and enjoying it so far. Austin has had a great time with his friends and cousins. He thinks America is a land of trampolines, tractors, big trucks, and goldfish crackers. He has adjusted well and has only mentioned his nursery in Oxford once so far.

There has been some adjustment time for all of us. Christa has been feeling a bit homesick for Oxford. Getting used to driving in traffic again and just the speed of everything here has been a challenge.

We are having a good time visiting with our family and friends. We haven't decided where we're going to end up yet. Only time will tell...

One, two, buckle my shoe...

2008-01-27T14:38:00.001Z

Austin is two years old. Hard to believe but it's true. We had a birthday party on the 26th with 3 of his friends. They had a good time playing with toys, old toys, new toys, and other people's toys that are left around the family area of our housing block.

We had the living room all decorated for his party when he woke up. He immediately noticed the balloons and played with the few that we had left on the ground. He helped to open all of his presents but kept getting distracted wanting to play with the new toys so one of his older friends helped out a bit. He did a good job trying to blow out the two candles on his cake. We had several different kinds, vanilla cake, chocolate cake, and cupcakes. Austin voted for a cupcake and enjoyed eating it in the messiest way possible. :-)

If you ask Austin how old he is now he will tell you, 'Two candles!'

Happy New Year!

2008-01-08T21:35:00.001Z

We had a wonderful Christmas season and are ready to tackle another year. We enjoyed a visit from Grandma, Grandpa, and Antenna for Christmas. It was nice to have a full house during the holiday and Austin loved all the attention.

Austin enjoyed Christmas Day. In the picture above he is just getting in to his stocking, which was the first event of the morning (after breakfast, of course). The picture below shows him sitting in his chair with two new toys (Lightning McQueen and Mater) and watching his new DVD (Cars). He needed a little downtime to recover from all the excitement. Halfway through opening his presents we could tell that he was a little overwhelmed with everything but he continued to take it all in and have a lot of fun.

This year should see some exciting changes for us. We are planning a move back to the US at the end of March. That's about as far as we've gotten with the plan... no decisions yet as to where we will end up or what we will be doing. One step at a time. :-)

Shave and a hair cut...

2007-12-16T21:38:00.000Z

Austin got his hair cut yesterday. We went to the barber in the covered market. He sat very patiently in the big chair and let the barber use the scissors and some small clippers. He seems to like his hair cut, when he was brushing his teeth this morning he looked in the mirror and yelled 'Hair Cut!' and touched his head with a smile.

O Christmas Tree...

2007-12-08T15:26:00.001Z

We are getting in the Christmas mood. We put our tree up this morning. Austin helped a little bit. His favorite part was taking the balls out of the box and throwing them around the room. He did throw a few on the tree. He had a good time with it and he really likes the Christmas lights.

He's all set to be a camel in the Christmas Nativity Play at the nursery. He sings Jingle Bells and Twinkle, Twinkle, Christmas Star for us. Of course, his favorite part is the 'Hey!' in Jingle Bells.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-25T16:24:00.000Z

Well, we had our Thanksgiving celebration yesterday as Thursday was a working day for us. We had some friends over so it was very festive. Austin enjoyed having some other children around. He enjoyed the turkey and rolls most of all.

Austin is staying very active and keeping us busy. He enjoys running and jumping. He has such a good time at nursery that he's not interested in napping while he's there. He will fall asleep during the walk home (as pictured below). He is talking all the time and learning more and more new words.

He loves to look at the moon and stars. He wants to fly in a spaceship to the moon. He's always trying to reach it. "Austin reach moon.", he says. He talks about it so much that his group in nursery has gone through a time of drawing pictures of the night sky and making rockets to play with.

Happy Halloween!

2007-11-01T21:04:00.001Z

Austin had a blast for Halloween. We went to the Halloween party at the college and he loved looking at all the other kids' costumes. They went door-to-door as a big group and yelled 'Trick-or-treat!' at each door. At first Austin was scared of all the noise and at the first door he got caught in the crowd so he wanted to be carried after that. After about 4 or 5 doors he started saying 'treeeeat' when all the other kids were yelling.

A friend's son was dressed as a Jedi and when we went to his house, our friend answered the door dressed like Darth Maul and they had a light saber fight. Austin was scared of him at first but after he realized who it was he kept saying his name and wanting to touch him.

When we got home he wanted to take a bite of each piece of candy. He really enjoyed the chocolate!

Autumn Weather

2007-10-10T20:26:00.000+01:00

We are trying to enjoy some of the last bits of sun and warm weather before the cold weather sets in. The highs for the next few days are in the 60s and 70s. A couple of weekends ago we all went to the University Parks. Faimon played a football game with some friends and Austin and I played with some other friends that were there to "watch". Our friend got a few pictures that you can view on her blog.

Austin is learning several new words and concepts. He is putting thoughts together to make sentences. He has tons of energy and loves to play. His new favorite book is "Things That Go". His favorite video at the moment is "Barney At The Farm".

He has adjusted well to 3 days a week at nursery. He calls out the names of his friends that he wants to play with on the days that he doesn't go.

2007-07-28T20:44:00.001+01:00

Austin is 18 months old. It's hard to believe. He keeps us busy as he is always on the go.

He's talking all the time now and some of the words we can even understand. His newest words are 'up', 'grass', 'car', 'bowl' and just today he said his own name. He loves to point out planes in the sky and chase flies with the flyswatter. He's a big help in the kitchen and his favorite thing to do is help make scrambled eggs. Of course the scrambling is the best part.

We have had a cool, rainy summer so far but we try to make the most of the sunny days and get out and about. Austin loves to run and take his ball outside and throw/kick it around. He's fascinated by the geese in the river near us and the bumble bees in the flowers.

2007-07-09T14:33:00.000+01:00

Austin got a chance to go swimming last weekend. The pool is a shared one in our family housing. The sun was out most of the day but it was still pretty cool outside for swimming. Some of the moms were topping the pool up with boiling water from their kettles so the water was nice and warm. By the time Austin finished swimming his lips were shivering a bit. He had a great time, though.

At first he wanted to get in and out over and over to chase the ball that kept getting thrown out of the pool. He got more comfortable being in the pool with the other kids and was splashing around and making as much noise as he could.