Where has the time gone?

I know that life goes quickly for everyone. I usually am thinking, "Where does the time go?" But October was different for me. For some reason I truly feel like I skipped October. Even November so far feels much slower, I'm actually surprised that it's only November 11th. I'm not sure why October disappeared this year. It wasn't quite as busy as September was, so if anybody knows where it is, I would appreciate getting it back.......

In my previous post, I posted back to school pictures, but I guess I hadn't uploaded these ones of Brigham yet. He started preschool a couple of weeks after the girls school started. Thought I'd share these adorable pictures.

Always have to have a goofy pic. Can you tell he's excited?

In front of his preschool and sitting at his table.

He really is such a cute, funny kid!

I Love Fall! (Usually)

There are so many things I have always loved about Fall.

I love the weather cooling off.

I love the change of colors.

I love General Conference.

I love the return of schedules.

I love the rain storms.

I love opening the windows in the house in the mornings and evenings.

I love changing out my regular home decor for Fall decor.

I love sitting on the back porch, just enjoying the weather.

I love the kids returning to school.

I love my alone time with my younger kids.

(That I got to enjoy with my older kids when they were little.)

I love watching my kids play their soccer games.

I love the thunderstorms.

I love Fall.

First day of school. Look at these cutenesses! Too bad Corbin was asleep!

Macy starting 3rd grade.
Kamryn starting 6th grade.

Kinsie started Junior High. (Seriously?)

I love this picture, it definitely shows their personalities. Kinsie, taking care of everybody. Kamryn, posing/doing some cheer/tumbling move. Macy, independent, sure of herself. Brigham, macho, stud dude. Love it!!!

Now, to address the Usually part in my title. This Fall, for me, is all about feeling overwhelmed. Not really loving the schedule and structure this season. It's all been too much. But then along comes one of my favorite parts of Fall, General Conference. I felt like so many talks were specifically for me. I still feel overwhelmed, tired, etc., etc. But I now feel hope, I feel that I am not the only one, that truly I can do this.

Thank Heavens for Fall!

Chocolate

I am always telling my kids that they are so cute, I could just eat them up, nibble on them, etc. My older kids don't really like being told that anymore, but the younger ones start to giggle as soon as I say it. It usually means some tickling and even a bit of nibbling.

The other day, I said this to Brigham, approaching with my hands ready to attack. His response, amidst giggles, "Don't you feel like chocolate today, Mom?", pointing at Corbin who was right behind me. Unfortunately for Brigham, he doesn't realize, that I'm not too picky when it comes to chocolate, white chocolate, milk chocolate .........

doesn't really matter, I love them both.

Addendum to "Do you ever feel this way?"

Because my life is so encompassed with feeling overwhelmed right now, this whole subject has been on my mind a lot! So I just kept thinking about a couple of things that I wanted to add to my previous post.

First, I hope that nobody read my previous post and had thoughts like, "man, I must be lazy, I don't do half that stuff." or "she doesn't have a clue what busy is, she should look at my life." I think as women we tend to compare ourselves WAY too much. One thing I have truly learned over the last couple of years is that there is no way to compare. We all have different circumstances that make our lives easier or harder. And there is no way we can understand what someone else is going through because we have not lived in their shoes.

Second, I felt like I left out a lot of church things I know most of us that are members of the Church of Jesus Christ do, ie attending church each Sunday, going to the temple, receiving my visiting teachers in my home, going visiting teaching, having Family Home Evening, etc. Just wanted you to know that these things are priorities in my life. Don't know why I didn't mention them.

Third, there are times in our lives that we don't feel like we are being helped, yet we feel like we need that help so badly. I wonder about that a lot, why? Well for me when my health was declining daily, literally we felt like we could watch it diminish each day. I was so desperate for help. I prayed constantly. Yet, the inspiration didn't come. I felt so alone, felt like my prayers were going unheard. At the time I felt like I couldn't go on anymore. I kept thinking about the promise in the scriptures that we would not be given more trials than we could handle. I didn't think I could handle what I was going through and I needed it taken away.

So, why is it that sometimes we truly feel the daily help that I'm feeling right now in my life, but other times in our lives we go through times and feel so alone?

Well, for me it was all about learning and growing. Humbling myself to the will of the Lord. (I'm not good at the humbling part, too independent and proud!)

And when the inspiration came that there was another child meant for my family, I said "OK". Because I had come to that point in my life, because I had "made" it through those impossible times. And look what I have been truly blessed with. Man, I love this little cuteness!

Do you ever feel this way?

Do you ever feel like you can't handle one more thing on top of everything else? I've been feeling that way. With my dumb Fibromylgia everything is harder than it used to be. It takes longer to do things, some things I just can't do anymore, which makes me sad. And it's difficult always living in pain. Then you add 5 kids, 1 being an active little cutie that is starting to get into everything. Then you start school, which includes soccer practices and games. Piano practice and lessons. Cheer carpool, school chorus. Young Womens & Activity Days. Don't forget homework (Ugh, I still hate homework & it's not even mine!). Making sure that the kids get their daily chores done and they are reading every day. Trying to make daily family prayers, morning and night, a habit. Oh and my church calling (which is actually pretty easy) Activity Day Leader. I volunteer to make food for a funeral (because we're supposed to, right?). It's canning season and we are out of all sorts of stuff. So far I've canned salsa, pears, & pickles. Spaghetti sauce is on the list (hope I get to it before those tomatoes in the garage go bad!). Then there's the stuff that never goes away: housecleaning, laundry, making dinner, dishes, etc. etc. Normally I would be doing yardwork, but that doesn't happen much anymore with this body. I have been trying to clean out closets, etc. My sister, Marianne, & I have a yard sale scheduled next Saturday. Then there's paying bills and balancing the check book. I also do that at the car lot and for my parent's while they are on their mission. Oh and I almost forgot, working from home about 20 hours a week. In betweeen I try to squeeze in reading the scriptures, exercising, and reading a good book. Needless to say, there is no room for anything extra. I have been heard to say over the last couple of weeks, "I don't think I can do this anymore." (Anybody else feeling tired, just reading all of that?)

But what is interesting about life, is that when you are truly maxed out, the Lord steps in. I truly have felt that there isn't a free second. Yet when we all get a little sick and I'm getting calls from school, I AM able to do it. How? Surely not by myself. Remember I can't do it anymore. The day that I was already driving cheer carpool without a second to spare, I get a call from the family picking up, asking if I can pick up. In my mind I'm thinking, "there is no way". But I say yes, and guess what I was actually able to do it. Me, by myself? I think not.

I am inspired by so many people who keep going, even when life is hard. Probably my #1 inspiration (blogwise) is NieNie. I look at her and how hard everything must be for her, yet she keeps moving forward. I came across another blog where a young mother recently lost her daughter. Her motto is "I CAN DO HARD THINGS". I have been saying this to myself recently when I'm having an extra hard day.

But the #1 thing that I have to remember is that when I feel like I can no longer do ANYTHING, there is someone who can and will pick up the slack, I just have to ask.

Summer Re-cap #6 - Final Installment

We finally took the kids to Lagoon for the first time. Kinsie & Kamryn have felt so deprived that they have never been before. I'm glad we made it before their demise. I haven't been to Lagoon in 16 years, shortly before I started dating Ty. A lot has changed. We had a really great time. Our #1 reason for not going to Lagoon is the price, the day we went was buy 1 get 1 free, so that made it much more affordable, but it felt a bit crowded, hard to compare when it's been so long since I've been there. We got there when it opened and left about an hour before it closed. The kids had a blast.

Right before they got on the bat.

Waiting in line.

Ty & Brigham on the bat. He cried when it was over because it was waaaayyy too short of a ride.

Corbin was an angel baby. He only took 2 - 1/2 hour naps the entire day, yet he was so good. I think everything was so interesting, he was never bored. Isn't he so cute?

I think it's funny that they guy next to Kinsie looked at me & smiled. Does he really think I was talking to him when I said, "Girls, look over here, smile!"?

We had so much fun, definitely will have to budget it in for next year. It was a great way to end our summer.

Summer Re-cap #6

Lake Powell: Definition: A little piece of Heaven on earth.

We LOVE Lake Powell. Ty & I both grew up going there during our summers and we love taking our kids there. Our kids love it too. We had a great trip this year. A little hard with a baby, but Corbin did really good and we all had lots of fun.

Corbin's first time in Lake Powell. He loves water and thought it was great.

Kamryn in the houseboat.
Macy caught this little frog. She wanted to bring it home as a pet, unfortunately it didn't survive more than a day on the houseboat.
Kinsie on the back of the houseboat, reading. Is she my daughter or what?

Brigham, being goofy. He was in heaven on the boat. All day, he would say, "Can we go on another boat ride?"

We found this great beach, I don't have a good picture, but we would dig in the sand and swim. We went every day because it was the perfect spot for the kids to just play and enjoy Lake Powell. I got really sunburned the first day. I had put sunblock on everybody else's back, but nobody got mine. Brigham and I were digging tunnels in the sand for a long time and my back was directly facing the sun. Ouch!

Here's Corbin and Ty on the beach. Look at that smile on Corbin's face! Isn't that the cutest?

Lake Powell wouldn't be complete without a hike up to the indian ruins.

Corbin was a little weary of boat rides at first. He would look at me with this expression of confusion, trying to figure out what was going on. By the end of the trip, he loved it. He was always kind of mellow, the boat seemed to be calming to him.

We had lots of fun and really enjoyed taking Corbin for his first time to one of our favorite places. Hopefully there will be lots more trips to come!

Summer Re-cap #5

Some friends, the Magleby's, invited us to be in the Spanish Fork parade with FSA, Families Supporting Adoption. It was fun to interact with other adoptive families.Corbin was such a good baby and eventually konked. Isn't he adorable?

It was a fun experience and the kids loved throwing out candy and waving at the crowd. Towards the end they pulled out our spray bottle and began spraying everybody to help them cool off, it was a hot day.

Summer Re-cap #4

This is The Place Monument

The Robbins clan, minus the men, all went to This is The Place Monument in Salt Lake. We had never been there before. They have a lot of fun things and the kids had lots of fun.

All 12 Robbins grandkids with Nana.

They have a little play area with this train. It's so fun to watch these cousins all play and interact together. They really have so much fun together.

They got to go on horse rides,

pan for gold,

and go for a train ride.

We had a really great time together.

Summer Re-cap #3: Macy's 8th Birthday

Macy turned 8 on July 5th. She had a pajama party with about 20 of her friends. They had lots of fun. They got their hair and nails done, played night games and of course cupcakes & ice cream and presents.

She chose Pirate Island for her birthday dinner. Isn't she a cutie?

And of course her baptism. She really had a wonderful fun filled week. She is growing up to be such a beautiful, wonderful girl. She keeps us laughing and loves to be goofy. She is smart and extremely creative. She has an amazing imagination and comes up with all sorts of things. What a great girl who always wants to do what is right.

Summer Re-cap #2

Every year we go on a camping trip with my family. We look forward to it every year. I wasn't able to go for very long because I had training that week. But we still had a good time. It's fun for the cousins to just play together and the adults to visit with each other. Plus we all enjoy the beautiful mountains. I love this picture of my brother-in-law Brent holding Corbin while my nephew, Tanner makes Corbin smile and laugh.

Kamryn with her cousins, Susanna & Breanne.

Kinsie with Breanne goofing around in the background.

We celebrated Macy's Birthday up there, she got lots of fun presents and money.

One of our family's favorite things to do every summer. Another year, another success. My older brother, Keith wasn't able to come and of course with my parents serving a mission, we missed them, but otherwise we had a great time!

Summer Re-cap #1

We at the Robbins' household love sports. So summer always involves sports. We started out with a little softball and T-ball. Macy opted out this year, she's so good, I was sad, but supported her decision nonetheless. Through sporting events this summer, we found out Corbin loves grass. To pull, to eat, to lay on, and then to eat some more.
Brigham took his first year of T-ball very serious. So serious, that I thought we might have a fight on the T-ball field. One game another kid ran out and grabbed the ball Brigs was about to pick up. Next thing I know, Brigham was in his face. I asked him later what he had said to the kid. And he told me, "I told him, 'Hey, that was my ball'". He was also telling all the other kids (on both teams) where they were supposed to be and when they needed to run, he would give them a friendly push in the back if they were not paying attention. It definitely suits his macho, ALL boy side. He was so fun to watch. He LOVED it!

Kinsie & Kamryn played on the same softball team this year. Their team had a rough start, but ended up getting 2nd place. It was really fun to see them work together and make a come back. Of course, I forgot my camera to every game except the last one and with running back and forth to their game and other commitments, I missed catching Kamryn up to bat, so only a picture of Kinsie. But they both did so awesome. I am amazed at how good they are at every sport they play. Love these girls!

Aren't they adorable? And beautiful? Man we are in trouble...