Cats out of the bag

I mentioned on Instagram recently that I was really nervous because I had been asked to accompany two sisters while they sang in church on Easter. Well, I appreciate anyone who said a little prayer in my behalf, because it went really well. Unfortunately for me, that little performance gave away my secret of piano playing and suddenly I'm the primary pianist and a substitute Sacrament meeting pianist. I don't mind at all helping out in the primary, in fact I would have volunteered to help out much sooner if I had known that the primary president was also the pianist, but Sacrament meeting is a whole other ball game. I was very tempted to say no when the lady who plays the organ texted me this week to ask if I would play, and even more tempted to say yes when the one other lady in the ward who plays the piano (primary president) offered to play for me if I really didn't want to, but I decided that it was something I really needed to do. I was completely nervous the whole time, and have no desire to do it again anytime soon, but I'm actually quite proud of myself. The kids were excited to see me up there today too, which is one of the main reasons I said yes. I don't want them to ever be afraid to share their talents, and I can't think of a better way to teach that than by example.

  The rest of the week has been fairly quiet thankfully. Most of the time when we go to the beach during the week it is just at the bay here by our house which is nice but not quite the same as being out by the ocean, so on Tuesday I made the kids do two days worth of school work so we could take Wednesday off and go to the "big beach." I was met with quite a bit of resistance from one dramatic tween, but the next day she couldn't say enough about what a great idea it was! Life would be so much easier if she would just believe me when I say it will all work out and be worth it! Josh was bummed that he missed the beach on Wednesday so we made sure to go again on Saturday and got to meet up with Melissa and the kids for her birthday. (Beau was in Japan). I love that we are getting so much cousin time, but really the more the kids get to know each other, the harder it is going to be to say goodbye.

I know both of these pictures were already posted to Facebook, but I just love them, so I'm posting them again.

This girl has suddenly become very brave in the water and it makes me incredibly nervous!

Happy Easter

Wow. So, apparently I'm not so good at the once a week blogging thing. I really am trying though. Our day to day is pretty much the same. School work and beach, or if the weather isn't cooperating we go to Barnes an Noble or just hang out at home.

We did have the great opportunity to drive down to Fort Lauderdale last weekend for the temple open house. My kids have never been inside a temple so I was really excited for them to go. We made a fun weekend out of it and stayed with Beau and his family. The kids had a blast, of course and were really mad when we told them it was time to go. The adults even got to sneak away Saturday night for a movie. Having a live in babysitter is SO awesome! Life changing, really.

Not even a little rain was going to stop them from swimming!

And I would be completely ungrateful if I didn't mention today of all days how much the Savior means to me. Because of Him, I have these four eternal blessings to call my own. We didn't plan a lot in the way of Easter activities this weekend because Josh has been on call for the last two days, but last night the kids and I sat down and watched a couple of the Mormon Messages then read in the scriptures about the resurrection and had a really nice talk about what it means for us. It was really wonderful to see the understanding in them and know that they are already gaining their own testimonies of him.

We had to be earlier than usual for church this morning so I wasn't able to take pictures until we got home and Laila just wanted to go inside and eat her treats. Also, after we got done Samm said "wait mom, we have to take a picture of you!" I kept telling he no, but she kept insisting, so I gave in. Then she said "now do your most beautiful pose." I'm not sure if this is my most beautiful pose, but she seemed satisfied with it.

After a much needed nap for both mom and Laila, we piled in the car again and drove to my uncle Tony and aunt Patrice's house. Thy only live about 20 minutes from us, so we are hoping to get together with them again before we leave. My aunt Melissa was in town visiting with her family, so it was really fun for the kids to get to meet new relatives. They had a lot of fun with their 2nd cousins Bohdi and Skylar, and they got to meet their Great Grandpa Hug. He and Samm really hit it off.

Oh, I almost forgot. Macy decided this week that she was tired of brushing her hair so she asked me to cut it like aunt Krista's. And since I am equally as tired of the crying when I brush her hair I didn't hesitate to say yes. I was a little worried at first that she might be upset or think she looks like a boy, but so far she has been thrilled with it. And I think she looks adorable!

Crazy, Hectic, Crying...Yep, school has started again!

I won't bore you with all the details of our crazy morning, but let's just say school is definitely back in session. I have a love/hate relationship with school. This morning I kind of hated it, but the kids loved it. All of them, including the boy who hates school, so it was a victory! He even said he can't wait to go back tomorrow! We have our fingers, toes, and arms crossed that this is going to be his year.

"Guys! Wait a me!" Poor thing, that's the story of her life.

5th grade here is separate from the other elementary schools so Samm has to catch an earlier bus than the other two. Thankfully, it was running late so I was able to snap a few pictures of them all together, and then braid Macy's hair while we stood there.

She is way too grown up! And Beautiful!

Josh was giving me a hard time about taking the camera to the bus stop, because he said Samm was too old for that. She turned around on her way up though and made sure I took a picture so I guess she's not too old yet.

After Samm got on the bus Laila had a major melt down because she wanted to go too. She even refused to come back in the house because she was so mad at me. I got her calmed down just in time to head out the door again for round 2. It was pretty chilly this morning so we had to put on some warmer jackets also.

James is in 3rd grade this year and getting to that too cool stage. He didn't want to put his arm around Macy or even have his picture taken, but he did it anyway because he loves his momma.

These two have finally started becoming buddies, just in time for Macy to be gone all day.

Macy has been ecstatic for months to finally be starting school. She could not have been more excited to get on that bus this morning.

And just as the other two loaded up on the bus, Laila started wailing again, until she noticed me taking her picture. This is her, I'm trying to pretend like I'm not crying face. Fortunately we stayed pretty busy today and even went to the park for a while so she wasn't too lonely. Tomorrow will be a different story though.

Take me out to the ball game

Whenever I have talked to other moms about sports or activities that the kids could be involved in I would always say something like "Baseball is so boring to me, I really don't want to be a baseball mom and I would die if I had to sit through hours of softball games."

So of course you know that all of my kids have decided that they love baseball and I just spent my entire birthday night watching 3 games in a row. And of course I loved it!

Macy's game was so cute with all the little kids running around not knowing what they were doing and hearing all the parents yelling "run, no drop the bat, stay there."

I was thrilled to be watching James play simply because he has found a sport that he likes and he is really pretty good at. He had a few good plays last night but struggled a little more than he has at practices because he was trying a little too hard to be the super star. He still had a great time though so I'm still crossing my fingers that it sticks.

And Samm was the biggest surprise of all. The whole time before her game Josh and I were both praying that she would at least make contact with the ball and have fun. She hasn't been the best fielder during practices and only an average batter and even she was nervous about being the worst one on the team. In her defense she hasn't played any sports since she was five and that was only one season of soccer. She is the only girl on this team and most of the other boys have played before. She ended up doing better than most of the boys on her team and way better than the two girls that were on the other team. She had two solid hits and only struck out once, but that was really because her coach was throwing horrible pitches. She scored one run, got one of the opposing players out at second and even slid into second once avoiding being tagged out. None of the boys even dared slide! Needless to say Josh and I were elated at how well she did and that she had so much fun!

Of course my camera battery was dead when I took it out to take pictures, but I did bring my video camera and got a quick shot of all the kids for their first at bat.

 

First Anual Earth Day Parade

Samm is such a unique kid. I couldn't love her more. She comes up with the best ideas. Today it was an earth day picnic with all the neighborhood kids (most a lot younger than her) and then a parade around the circle. Most of the boys opted out of the parade, but she didn't care at all.  I love our little circle and I am so excited for all the fun these kids are going to have this summer.

A little bit of a pile up.

Smiles all around when the weather is nice enough to be outside!

 

This was all very last minute so Samm wasn't able to put in all the planning that she would have liked. Next year's celebration will be even better I am promised!

Easter 2013

Even though we have late church I didn't get the chance to take pictures of the kids in their Easter outfits before church because I was busy doing my last minute look over of my talk. Yikes! Talking on Easter is a little stressful.

 

We had to settle for after church dirty messy hair and faces pictures which is always a more realistic showing of how my kids really look anyway. The kids have been candy deprived lately so I didn't have it in me to take the sucker away from Laila.

 

Samm's dress is the only one that I made and it ended up being a little too long even for a maxi dress, but she loved it anyway.

He's looking so grown up these days.

More sucker!

What a goofy cute girl!

I LOVE this picture!

This stuff just happens. Especially when you have a brother.

Rollins style

Just a little video Josh captured the other night of the kids dancing to Gangam Style. Laila LOVES this song and actually asks for it by doing the little hand move. Sadly she wouldn't do it for the camera but the dancing is still pretty cute. Please excuse my sons inappropriate moves. He's a boy!

Records Day

It seems like we have had a lot of no school days around here lately. First it was mid winter break then a snow day and now this week we had records day. I'm not really sure what records day is all about, I just know the kids don't have school.

 

I tried to prepare myself for the day of craziness by locking myself in my room for a while to read but it was quickly interrupted by James who came in asking for that black marker you draw on your face with. After a minute or two of back and forth confusion I figured out he was talking about my eye liner. I wasn't sure I wanted to let him use it, but decided it would buy me a few more minutes of quiet so I handed it over. Five minutes later I was summoned downstairs for a front row seat to the Samm and The Lightning Thieves concert. Best. Concert. Ever! I was really sad when I took out my video camera and the battery was dead.

 

Most days Samm can only handle one group activity with the younger kids before she has had enough but that day the stars were aligned and after the concert she led them in a game of recycle ville. Basically they raided the recycle bin for cardboard and then made a little town for cars to drive around in. This was the just the beginning of recycle ville. I wish I would have taken a picture when it was all done because it really was quite impressive. What is even more impressive though is that they sat and played cars for FOUR hours! AND with only one little squabble at the very end.

 

And this is totally unrelated but I'm tacking it on anyway. Samm and Macy used to play dress up together all the time, but since Samm has outgrown it Macy doesn't play with the dress up clothes anymore unless a friend is over. One day last week though I went down stairs and found these two playing together.

 

Macy is laying on the couch because she was sleeping beauty and Laila apparently was channeling Michael Jackson. 

 

 

I'm hoping for a lot more dress up days still to come!

An original Samm Rollins Production

I meant to post this last week, but forgot. Christmas Eve seems like the perfect time for it anyway since we always had some sort of Christmas Eve production growing up.

 

A few things I should mention. 1. Please ignore the mess! There were a lot of projects going on last week. 2. Samm insisted that it be dark to be more like night time so sorry about the picture quality and the fact that you can't really see her awesome sheep on cardboard drawings. 3. Please know that we do not believe angels wear mini dresses. Samm came up with all the costumes on her own and was really proud of everything so we rolled with it. 4. I ask the kids to sing our new favorite Christmas song at the end, but didn't realize until just now watching the video how distracting James is. It is a really pretty song though called Could I hold the baby.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Pushing through (Halloween)

I'm tired and not at all in the mood for blogging, but I've got to get Halloween out of the way before a mountain of pictures start piling up all waiting to be immortalized on the Internet.

We kind of waited until the last minute to carve pumpkins this year, but the kids didn't seem to mind as long as it got done.

Laila tried her best to get in on the action.

Every year since we've been in Michigan we buy tickets to the Zoo Boo. It's always so cold and I don't really look forward to it, but this year we went a little earlier in the evening and it was surprisingly pleasant. The kids look forward to it every year, not only because of the extra candy they get, but because it gives them another chance to wear their costumes.

Samm was a pink leopard this year. She wanted to be a cat, but the cat costumes in the kids section were kind of dumb so we looked in the adult section. The full pink leopard costume involved a leotard and fish net stockings, however we opted for just the ears, collar, and tail, and Samm was thrilled!

James wanted to be a ninja again. Too bad his costume from last year didn't fit still!

Macy originally wanted to be a ballerina witch, but Josh talked her into being just a witch when we found this costume on sale. I personally think the pink cowgirl boots make the whole costume!

And Laila HAD to be a lady bug because she is our Laila bug...get it! That's what Macy told every single person she talked to, including but not limited to, friends, family, checkers at the grocery store, pediatrician, random man at the grocery store, and fabric cutter at Jo Ann's.

Laila was not too thrilled about being a lady bug for the Zoo Boo!

Costumes always seem to change a little for us by Halloween night. Macy ended up being a glow in the dark witch, although it never got dark enough because of porch lights for her face to actually glow. And, because of some boy in James' classroom who told him his ninja costume was lame, he ended up being a zombie vampire ninja. Actually, what happened was when it came time to trick or treat James was in tears because his costume was not scary (ie, lame) and he wanted to go as just a kid. Now, what I wanted to do was yell at him that we paid money for his costume and I didn't care one bit if he thought it was lame, he was going to wear it! I didn't though. I actually remembered that we had a vampire makeup kit in out Halloween bucket that I'm pretty sure we bought on clearance after Samm's first Halloween, and we did a little modifying. He loved it so much that he has been wearing the teeth for the last 3 days and even asked to put more of the blood on his face today. And Laila actually warmed up to the costume!

Towards the end of the night Samm pooped out so I took her and Laila back home while Josh kept going with the other two. When they showed up just twenty minutes later, Macy's treat bag was busting at the seems. Some man said he was done for the night and just emptied the rest of his bowl into her and James' bags. I realized as Josh was telling me this that right before we split up, he emptied Macy's bag into the stroller because it was getting too heavy and James who had opted for just a grocery sack sent his home with me and started using a new one. The guys must have thought they just started and weren't gong to get much candy since it was getting late. Josh weighed Macy's bag as soon as they got home and it was 8 pounds!

Between the 8 pounds of trick or treating candy, the trunk or treat candy from church, and the zoo boo candy, I think we could distribute candy to a small country! I know everyone does candy differently, but our mom always just let us have out treat bags to eat until it was gone since we earned it, so that is what we do. All three of the older kids have about 10 years worth of candy sitting in a special spot in their rooms. The funny thing is that they usually ask first if they can have some even though I've never told them they have to.

Laila didn't get a treat bag to fill this year, but after watching the kids go down the first street she started screaming until I got her out of the stroller and then she headed straight for the nearest porch with her hand held out. It was so cute I had to let her walk up and get a few treats of her own.