Hello Blogging World

I have missed the blogging world for the last 2 months. I have had to take a hiatus. Due to the ridiculous expense of adopting (but sooooooo worth it!), I got a job! I'm really lucky, it's a data entry job I can do from home. But for 4 weeks in June, I had to do my training outside the home. It was a hard adjustment for us, but my kids were exceptional! And my mother-in-law stepped in when I thought we might not survive, thank you Cynthia. I missed my kids so much. After those 4 weeks, I started working from home. The first couple of weeks were even worse because my kids were so happy to have me home, they were interupting my work every couple of minutes. I felt like it took all day long to get 4 or 5 hours of work done, but things are starting to shape up. We are figuring it out. And it truly is a blessing to have that extra income and still be able to stay home. But, blogging had to take a back seat. At first I would read updates quickly, but never comment. Then I just had to drop it all together. So if you have missed my comments, I am sorry (I KNOW you have all missed my comments so much!).

Here are some fun pictures of cute Corbin who is now 8 months old and has 6 teeth, with a couple more poking through. He is figuring out crawling and can definitely get around the room, time for a little baby proofing. He is still the cutest, happiest little guy around and such a joy to have in our family. I know, I too can not get enough of those cheeks. I promise you that they are getting kissed and smooched on constantly. We love this little guy so much.

I have had fun catching up with everybody's blogs, but I doubt I could comment on everybody's updates. So just know that I have enjoyed the pictures and commentary. And would have said something very witty if I had the time and energy!

My dear friend, Jen @ http://bjdentonfamily.blogspot.com/ I have not had a chance to catch up, but plan to, you know how much I love you and your blog. And for anybody else needing a great blog to read, you may want to check her out, she's becoming quite popular.

Corbin's Day in Court!

Today was a great day, because we are officially Corbin's family. I say officially because to us and in our hearts, he's been our son and baby brother since he was born. Here's some cute pics of him recently and pictures from court today.

Judge Davis was great and let each of the kids put on his robe and hold his gavel and sit in his chair. It was a great day, emotional, but beautiful. We are so happy and love this little boy so much.

Proud Mama

This week has been a really fun week to be the mom of my two oldest girls. I am one proud mama.

It started out on Sunday, Kinsie was put in as the 2nd counselor in her Beehive class presidency. Being a Beehive for only 6 months, she wasn't sure what this all entailed, but was really excited about it after we talked for a while. Then Monday morning, Kinsie received the Hope of America award at her school. I remember being devastated in 6th grade when I didn't receive that award. So proud of her! This award is for the student who excels in academics, leadership, fellowship, etc. Kinsie is such a great girl.

Then on Tuesday, we found out that Kamryn had made student council for next year. We were extra excited because she had tried out last year with no success. But she went for it again and it paid off. Tuesday evening we had Kinsie and Kamryn's piano recital, I am amazed at how much they have learned over the years.

So this post is my bragging rights as their mom, I'm so proud of these two girls who are also great friends. When I found out that I was going to have two girls 17 months apart, I worried that they would continually fight and maybe not get along. Well, I truly was wrong, they really get along and are such great friends.

At the dance festival today, they announced the names of the student council members, there's our Kamryn. Kinsie receiving her Hope of America award.

Kinsie and Kamryn with their teacher, Emily, at the piano recital.

Great friends, these two cuties!

BYU Football Spring Practice Game

Ty took the 4 oldest to the BYU football Spring practice game. If you arrive early, the kids can run through some drills and meet the players. They had so much fun. I think Brigham was by far the most excited to go. Driving down, he told Macy, "When I'm on the field, you have to cheer really loud for me."

Kinsie running a drill. (For you Robbins', notice her tongue? Anybody else that reminds you of?)

Kamryn muscling it up with a football player.

Macy running her drill. Can you tell how fast she is? Look at that hair!

Brigham wearing his BYU football uni. (notice the shoulder pads?) The funny thing is that you are supposed to run between the blue things. He ran on top. But with that smile, who cares?
It was a fun day for all. I'm not sure if the kids or Ty enjoyed it more. Okay, of course Ty enjoyed it the most!

Easter Egg Hunt

The Sunday before Easter we had my entire family (except my parents who are serving a mission and my sister Julie's family who live in Spokane) over for an Easter egg hunt. There were 40 of us and we had about 350 eggs hidden in the back yard. We had a yummy dinner of Honey Baked Ham and funeral potatoes. Then it was time to enter the backyard and watch the kids find easter eggs.

Kids waiting their turn for the hunt on the back porch.

Corbin with Uncle Duane Brigham
Macy Kamryn KinsieChecking out their stash.

The weather was great and we had a really fun time. With it being such an early Easter this year, the yard sure doesn't look so pretty for an Easter egg hunt, but the kids don't seem to notice. We've only found 2 eggs so far that were missed. I'm sure we'll find a few more when I get around to doing some yard work.

Happy Easter from the Robbins Kids

Corbin is 4 months old!

Corbin is getting so big. At his 4 month check he weighed 14 lbs and was 24 inches long. He is still not the best sleeper, but we are making progress. When he is awake, he is the best baby ever. He only cries 3 times during his awake times. First, when he wakes up and you are taking an extra 10 seconds to get the bottle in his mouth. Second, when the bottle is taken from his mouth, empty. And third, when he is ready to take his next nap. Usually though it's just fussiness because he is tired. We laugh at the crying when he is finished with his bottle. He truly screams hysterically for about 20-30 seconds and then he is fine. I guess it just really upsets him when he has to push away from the table. I honestly think that if we gave him 20 oz, he would do the same thing at the end of the feeding. His soft, curly hair is falling out (Boo Hoo!). From what we have been told, it will grow back course hair. We love to play with his soft hair. He loves toys and reaches for anything in front of him. Which includes my face, I love that moment, when a baby reaches out and touches your face while smiling. Pure love. He "talks" a lot and loves being social. I also love when he hears my voice, he starts looking for me and the minute his eyes meet mine, he grins from ear to ear and is so excited.

Here is Kinsie feeding him.

Corbin taking a bath. Corbin is ready for the BYU Basketball game. He takes his BYU sports seriously, like his dad.He has begun sucking on his fingers with a vengeance. It's actually pretty cute, it's typically the 2 fingers you see here. And here he is so excited that I am talking to him, he can hardly contain himself. Oh how we love this little guy!(Cami, recognize the cute brown & orange jammies you gave him for Christmas? They are so cute on him!)

St. George

We decided to use the long weekend to get away to the sunny, blue skies of St. George. Wow, did I ever need that. We had a great trip. Corbin was an angel and slept the entire drive down and the entire drive home. We played pretty hard on this trip. We went swimming twice, went hiking twice, went to the park to play soccer twice, and went to our favorite park with water features twice. Notice a trend here? Of course I forgot to charge the camera battery, so we didn't get a whole lot of pictures, but here are the few we did get.Ty took the 4 oldest and Toby on a hike, my cousin recommended this trail and they seemed to have a good time. I enjoyed staying home reading a book while Corbin napped.

This is a hike Ty did as a kid. They named it "the short and scary hike". It's a MUST for our kids, every time we go to St. George. The kids climb through basically a crack in the rock, while the larger, unable to fit parents climb around to the top. Here's the kids coming out of the crack at the top.

Corbin got to hike up with mom and dad.

It was so nice to see blue skies the entire time, no inversion! I even got a little sun on my face. We really had a great trip, I was worried with travelling with a baby again, but Corbin has truly redeemed himself. What a great baby! The only thing missing was my mom. I got a little home sick for her while we were down there. The kids and I kept mentioning places she likes to go and things we have done with her down there. But they have passed their hump day and are on the home stretch of their mission. 8 & 1/2 months to go and you can bet next winter we will be taking a trip to St. George with Grandma! (Don't think I'm leaving my dad out of the equation, he doesn't enjoy the heat and truly doesn't know how to relax, so St. George isn't his kind of place.)

Robbins Kids

I took pictures of the kids on Saturday. It was a bit of a last minute decision, but I think we got some good ones. Corbin wouldn't smile for any of the group shots and spit up 5 or 6 times during the whole process. But all in all, I was happy with the pictures I got. I updated all of their pictures on the side, except Corbin's. These are some other cute ones, love the goofy pic!

The Beauty of being Different

I love looking at my children and seeing how different they are from each other, from me, from Ty. Yet we have similarities too. I can see similar characteristics that my children have to me, to each other, to Ty. I have always appreciated the differences of my children, but I have never appreciated the beauty of those differences . . . . . until now.

Corbin is Smiling!

At about 4 & 1/2 weeks old, I spotted my first Corbin smile. I thought to myself surely not, he's too little. But the next day, I spotted another. Then Ty spotted one and he has continued smiling more and more each day. We have moved on to giggles and cooing. Oh how I love a baby's smile. Have you ever seen anything as cute or sweet? Just a minute ago he was having some awake time in his swing and I looked over at him and he had this huge smile on his face!

Corbin's beautiful smile.

Corbin giggling.

Adoption

Ty spoke with our friend, Beth that works for Heart to Heart Adoptions today. She told him that they have been crazy busy lately. So much so, that they need families desperately. I know that September was a record month for Heart to Heart. They placed 13 babies. Then October beat out September with 16 babies placed. November (when we adopted Corbin) tied with October, they place another 16 babies.

So if any of you have ever thought about adopting, now is the time. We had a really good experience with them. My only real complaint is that I would have liked better communication. I think part of the problem was that we really were only with them from the beginning of September, until we got Corbin in November. Their busiest time ever. I know that most of the people we worked with, were overwhelmed. I know they've done some hiring and hopefully they are better equiped to handle the work load.

I can't even express to you the joy that it has brought to our family. Obviously, this is only if it's something that you've thought about. Just thought I'd pass the info along if your interested.

Heart to Heart Adoption Website: http://www.hearttoheartadoptions.net/index.html
Heart to Heart Adoption Blog: http://www.hearttoheartadoptions.blogspot.com/

The best of part of the blog is the links on the bottom right hand side to other people's blogs who have adopted. I have really enjoyed reading about other people's stories.

Just think about it.......

Corbin's Photo Shoot

On New Year's Day we went over to Ty's sister Whitney's beautiful new home. Whitney took these great pictures of Corbin. He is so cute, it's really hard to not get a good one. Didn't they turn out adorable?

Christmas 2009

This year, Christmas felt different to me. I'm one of those people who can't sleep Christmas Eve because of the excitement. The excitement builds from Thanksgiving to Christmas as we go to Temple Square, have family Christmas parties, spend time together at home drinking hot chocolate, building snowmen. I love the entire season. I don't know what happened this year, it just wasn't there for me. I'm sure there is a lot that lead to it. Lack of sleep due to a newborn with Colic, Macy breaking her arm a few days before Christmas & having to be in the hospital. It could be because we weren't able to do any of our annual family things. Maybe it was the fact that 11 prime shopping days were gone while I was in Louisiana causing stress to get the shopping done. Maybe it was the fact that now I have 5 kids to take care of and to shop for. I'm not sure, I just know it wasn't there this year. Well, now as the season is over, I am grateful it wasn't there. I usually come down from my excitement with the January blues. It happens every single year, Ty prepares himself for it. Not this year. Which is truly a blessing because I don't know how I would be holding up right now. Truly we had a wonderful Christmas, simplified some things and spent a lot of time with family. As I look back it was a great Christmas and best of all, I don't have to plow through these first couple of weeks fighting the January blues!

Robbins cousin Nativity on Christmas Eve

Beckstead cousin Christmas party
Sledding on New Year's Eve
Being pulled behind the 4 Wheeler

New Year's Day with the Robbins Family