Finally a chill in the air!!!

It's begining to feel a lot like Christmas! We went to Lani's Christmas concert last night, they did a lovely job. The twins got the giggles through the it. Which gave me a little bit of the giggles through it. They have very infection laughter. But I straightened up and played Mom.

Tonight was the Young Women's in Excellence program. Lani's value was integrity... she told about the spiritual thought slips she made for the year and about her 14 hours of volunteer time at the city library.

School SMHOOL!

Feeling a bit distgruntled that after all these years of schooling it seems like there is so much more left to do. Each transfer doesn't want to accept the other credits.. blah blah blah. Get tiresome. I have so many classes that can't be used for anything... BUT I guess i have lots of great information! HA.. I keep hoping there will come a time that i will be able to use them. We shall see. I will keep plugging away and see if Leelani graduates college before me.


Thankful log Day 13- I am grateful for the blessings, gifts and talents that my Heavenly Father has so abundantly given me.

Thankful log Day 12- I am thankful for my Robinson family. I am grateful for all the gifts and lessons they have instilled me with and the fun active life we led growing up. They have alwasy been so very talented and supportive. I don't get to see them very often but they have left a stamp on my life. I am appreciate of my father who never said "we can't do that". But who always said, "You know what else would be cool!" Then had the wits and creativity to make is happen.

Thankful log Day 11- I am thankful for all the selfless men and women of the armed forces, emergency services, all law enforcement officers / agencies and organizations as well as security forces that help to keep us safe.

Thankful log Day 10- I am thankful for washing machines and dryers. I can't imagine how long i would spend doing my families laundry wihtout them. I guarantee we would not have as many clothes to our name if i had to do them all by hand.

Had a lesson on Gratitude for FHE

Last night for Family Home Evening we talked about Gratitude. First of all, Anthony actually remembered that President Monson's talk was on Gratitued... I was floored and so proud of him. We all shared ways we can show gratitude and each kid wrote down 5 things they are grateful for and drew pictures. I have to say... Mom, Dad and Hot Chocolate made the same list. I have been letting them have hot chocolate at least once a day. It was a big hit!

Thankful Log Day 9- I am grateful and truly blessed by the wonderful Carlisle Family I have married into. I am so glad we spent our first 7 years living in MT getting to know them and feel a part of them. I am amazed time ang again at the generosity they pour out to the world! We are very proud of you all!

Christmas is coming....

Christmas is on it's way. I am trying to get hints of realistic things I can get the kids. It felt like I had started to gather things earlier... but apparently not that many things. HA I know time is clicking along so fast. It seems like just last week i was complaining about how summer was here... now here we are less than 50 days away from CHRISTMAS!!! UGH...

I have friends all ready planning the BLACK FRIDAY strategies. I just don't know how it is all going to come along this year. We shall see. I think it might be fun to do an all homemade decoration tree this year. There are enough of us that the ornaments would fill up fast.

Thankful Log Day 8- I am thankful for church youth leaders, school teachers and all positive mentors who help teach our children how to be faithful, positive and productive members of society and show them they are loved outside the home. Thank you for being part of "Our Village"

Thankfullness Count Down!

Over on Facebook, we have been posting things we are thankful for everyday as a countdown to Thanksgiving day. I thought i needed to bring them here as well.

Thankful log Day 1: Thankfull for the song Ninety and Nine by Michael McLean. Ever since hearing it a few weeks ago at the Time of For Women, i have been so touched by it. We always hear songs about our Savior out looking for the lost souls... We rarely hear a song written just for those of us who try day after day and follows the Savior with all our flaws.

Thankful log Day 2: Thankful for modern technology and that i don't have to build a fire every day to cook or make my own flour or gather my own eggs. I am greatful for grocery stores and all the modern conveinances we have.

Thankful log Day 3: My kids are growing older and smarter at a normal rate. They are getting big dreams and starting to have goals for their futures! Coincidentally this makes them ask for more and more expensive things at Christmas time.

Thankful log Day 4: I am thankful for lovely energetic children that actually want to talk to me. Hopefully we can work it out so it is not all at the same time. That gets hard.

Thankful log Day 5: Love it when my children are happy in the mornings and for one on one time with sick kids. Very important when we have higher numbers... everyone needs it!

Thankful log Day 6: Grateful for the gorgeous FALL weather we are having and the fantastic world GOD has created.

Thankful log Day 7: I am greatful for a wonderful loving husband; who makes me laugh, cry and want to hit him... Sometimes all at the same time. He is an amazing father, husband and my perfect match. I thank God every day for bringing us together!

Fall Frenzy!

Fall is in the air... just noticed I have not updated this since April!!! WOW Time Flies!
School is progressing ever so fast, the kids are growing too. Leelani has been working hard in cross country. I got to go to the Time Out For WOmen this year. It was great fun!

Bill and I are both back in school this semester.. Busy times.

Twins LUAU Birthday

Aloha Cousin!!! This was my favorite creation that made me laugh all the way to the check out counter when i thought of it. I was tickled and it turned out even better than i imagined. The kids LOVED IT! They are those cheap little HUGS drink with straws and umbrellas. Then they just kept refilling them with lemondae when they were done. IT was great!

JR appeased me by looking refreshed with his daughters drink...

The Lovely Nichole...

The comedian Kaiyla...

THey were a bit excited when it came to present time...

But they had a great time...

Mahalo Friends!!!

Anthony's B day April 7th

Happy Birthday to Anthony....

We had a great swim party at the hotel! The little fish had a great time!
He is getting so BIG!!!!

Even Leelnai enjoyed the party! Tween's are hard to please.

EASTER PORTRAITS!!!

We love our new family portrait. I think the kids had a lot more fun than normal! Shows their personalities off a bit more too... can tell who is more cautious for sure. Here is the whole Carlisle Bunch...
This is just our branch of the clan...

Visitors from MT, AK, AL... YEAH!!!

March 2nd we were descended upon by Carlisle's!!! Jim, Evelyn, Heather, Christine, Kenny and Baby James. We were very blessed to have them visit... We miss them!

We were very lucky and had the whole Carlisle Clan come to visit this Easter. Anthony's birthday happened while they were here so he felt like he celebrated all week long. JW and his handlers came as well. It was nice that the cousins were able to get to know each other a bit.

The game was nice... it wasn't so crowded where we were so we could stretch out. It was a beautiful night as well.
The kids got to stare and Grandma in shock as she yelled her particular brand of motivation at the team.

Here is Grandma and Grandpa with their grandchildren.

We all had a great time... The boys have really taken to baseball.

Texas Blizzard???

The kids were so excited about not having school... the only problem was they missed out on their Valentine's Day parties.

(Please note the snow skateboard on Tyrell's snow dude.)

I thought the song was called Texas Tornado...

not Texas BLIZZARD?

We got about a foot of snow this past couple of days. This a lot of snow for us! Everyone else was so excited... Bill and I help saying, "Didn't we move away from all this?"

Kaiyla is a harsh supervisor... she was not happy with my first attempts at a snowman head. She kept telling me to make it rounder. Luckily I discovered the snow packed well enough i could use a knife. HA HA FINALLY i came up with one that made her happy. Anthony was grounded and he got a reprieve to come and play in the snow. He was pretty glad.

Everybody worked hard on their own snow dude.

Anthony helped me make a TX snowman...

Kaiyla worked hard on hers...

It all started of course with a nice snowball fight!

I particulary enjoyed the argument the twins got in because trees kept dropping a bit of snow on them, and they kept accusing the other twin. It was quite funny. They each were convinced the other one was telling a lie about not throwing snow. Whish I really wish I would have videoed it.

Basketball Time

The boys have been working hard playing ball. It is so funny... one week they will be "on fire" on the court. I will think to myself.. they get it... they are starting to get it. Then the next week they stand and just watch the ball.

I figure it is all part of the learning curve. They both had pretty good games today... they both won. YEAH!

Parental Reflections

One of the lessons today was talking about how God loves us so he lets us make mistakes so we can grow from them. It made me realize that many times I do that with my own children. But that I should allow them to do it more often.

I get so used to helping them avoid catastrophes that I help them avoid lots of things that will bring them pain or suffering. There are some things they need to learn on their own and I need to let them. I need to practice more love and logic parenting and let them create their own lives. They are little... but need to learn about their freedom to choose and that there choices have real consequences in life.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We had our 4th annual New Years kids party with the Holt's. We added our new friends the Green's last year and were able to have them this year as well. We had good food, fun games and lots of loud horn blowing. After so much confetti last year, the kids did snow angels in it, I opted for no confetti. Well they figured that out very soon and I was guilt ed into pulling out the confetti.

I made them do it outside this year. So they had a confetti fight, only one casualty.

We are grateful to have such great friends in our life. We miss our old ones, look forward to meeting new ones and appreciate the ones that got away. May the new year bring you happieness and enlightenment.

Carlisle Christmas

She look happy now... but when they opened the box that looked like a Wii, but was filled with books they were TICKED OFF! Tyrell snooped and found the hidden Wii. So we taught him a lesson and swaped the box. Well he had told everyone they were getting a Wii. So he looked pretty sheepish and was waiting for the kids to get mad at him. Chirstmas morning was a hit. They were very sweet and woke us up so we could watch them dump out their stockings. They were sleepy, but the magic of Christmas hasn't washed away yet. It is close, the Santa talk at school is hard to put the kybash on but we try.

They had fun decorating the tree. They did a great job! It was a lovely holiday season.

Bethelehm Revisited

Our friends told us about this reenactment of a night in Bethlehem. Think Renaissance Fair in the holy land. They have a permanent village set up and they have the craftsmen and artisans set up and they explain to all the kids how to do things. These ladies were knee ding bread and baking it in a wood powered brick oven. They gave away samples and handed them out with sage honey.
They had garment stores that they let all the people try on head scarves, the girls loved it.

They got to pet the camels, chickens, goats and see the donkey.

Then at the back side of the village they had a manger. Every 30 minutes Mary and Joseph would come through the town and try and find space at the inn.

This lady sold fabric and they had them making the fabric and rugs on site so they kids saw the looms. They also were spinning the yarn made from flax, sheep wool, camel hair, rabbit. The kids got to see all the different types of thread made.

They had the pottery makers, carvers, net menders and makers. It was much more historical and educational that i realized it would be. I thought it was cool and the kids had a great time.

They had markets and we tried to explain to the kids they didn't used to have Wal mart's. They think Wal-mart is easier. HA.

It was a great experience, on the way home we talked about how different it would have been to live then. I was hoping to create some gratitude for the things we do have in life.