O.N.E.

I love the idea of big fancy birthday parties for my kids with cute decorations and delicious food, but I also know myself pretty well by now and it's just never going to happen. Especially for the first birthday. Your lucky if you get a cake and a few presents...

 

Laila's official big day was on Wednesday and we happened to have a fun splash park with friends day planned.  

 

Samm is already a boy chaser!

Josh was on call Wednesday so we had planned to have her party of Thursday, but ended up going to IKEA instead. We got the kids an ice cream cone on the way out and said it was for Laila's birthday, although Laila only got a few small tastes.

The actual party took place of Friday night, at home with no guests. It was not Pinterest worthy at all, but it was Rollins family worthy!

Samm made Laila this cute little book of first words.

Laila actually loved looking at it. I had to take it away from her though because she was starting to rip it and I want to save it in her file for her.

"Don't touch my baby doll"! I finally have a girl that loves babies!!! Yay!

She wasn't too sure about this horse right at first, especially after James knocked it over and it popped right back up, but she has since warmed up to it.

Samm also hung up streamers all around the dinning room. Maybe someday her kids will have really cool parties.

"I'm one!" I didn't notice until was uploading these pictures that she is holding up her pointer finger. (Sign also by Samm)

It's hard to believe that she is already one year old. Part of that is probably because she just barely started crawling and she is pretty small compared to my other kids at this age. I'm happy about that though. I want to hold on to her baby stage as long as I can.

And, just a few little tid bits about Laila at 1 year...

She is incredibly observant. She is always trying to copy what we do. She no longer has to be in the same room with me at all times. She crawls after the kids and will sit at the baby gate and yell until I put her downstairs with them. She loves fruit, tolerates vegetables, but will not touch meat. She says dadda and bye, but will not say momma. She knows a few baby signs, but now refuses to do them. Her preferred method of communicating is still shrieking. She loves baby dolls and rubber ducks. She likes when I read to her. And, she still draws all kinds of attention everywhere we go with those pretty blue eyes.

Happy Birthday Laila Bug! I love you so much!

Bum Scooting down the slide

At exactly 11 months and 14 days, Laila finally started crawling. She has been on the verge for months, but just wasn't quite ready to commit. What is funny, is that the day after she started crawling, she decided that scooting on her bum was a much better way of getting around. I actually have a better video that shows her scooting, but for some reason it takes forever to get my videos to upload to YouTube, so I thought it best to stick with a short one. She loved going down this little slide at the mall and was not very happy when we walked away from it.

The Talent Runeth Over!

I found this video on the camera last night and remembered that I had never posted it. It is a little bit long, but it's worth watching for a few reasons.

1- Macy's outfit
2-The end of the 1st verse of Samm's song (all of my family, are you thinking George Washington!)
3-James trying to moon walk (not sure if that is actually what it's called)

Enjoy!

Laila Bug...11 Months

This little thing is about to turn 1 and I'm having a hard time accepting it. Despite the near constant drain I feel from having such an attached baby, there is also an element of closeness I feel with her that I absolutely adore. I know that when she hits that one year mile stone its like we step out onto a high speed free way and her babyness will vanish before my eyes. So, I'm trying my best to soak it all in. And I can't get enough of her hugs and kisses. She doesn't always give them away so freely to others, but for her number one, there is always a slobbery smooch on her lips.

Oh, the lashes! she is one luck lady!

She thought she was pretty hot stuff sitting on that curb outside. Until she leaned forward just a little too much and her face met concrete. It was nothing a hug and a graham cracker couldn't fix though!

National American Miss

Several months ago we got a letter in the mail inviting Samm to come to an open call for a pageant called National American Miss. I had never heard of it before, and we certainly have never done pageants before, but it sounded like something that Samm would love to do so I loaded up all the kids and drove her to the meeting where they herded all the parents into one room and then took all the girls aside and interviewed them. We were told that only half of all the girls interviewed would be invited to participate. Samm squealed with excitement when she got the phone call letting her know that she had been chosen, so even though there was a substantial entrance fee, I told her that if she could raise all of the money with sponsors than she could do it. And, thanks to the generosity of family, friends, and Josh's co-workers, she was able to raise all the money she needed.

It wasn't until after we had already sent in half of the entrance fee that I started thinking about a dress for the formal wear part of the competition. I got online one day to search for pageant dresses and about had a heart attack. $500!!! Are you kidding me!!! I love my daughter and would do just about anything for her, but pay that kind of money for a dress is not one of them. At first, I planned on making her one myself, but when it ended up that we were going to be in Oregon I decided to beg my mom to help me. She agreed of course, but we waited until the last 3 days I was there to start on it so I came home with about 90% of it done. It didn't take me too long to finish the rest of the dress, but in order to be a true pageant dress it needed some sparkle, and I waited until the last minute to start sewing on beads and didn't finish until the night before she needed to wear it. It wasn't even close to being perfect, but Samm felt like a princess in it. And, what is really fun about the dress is that it is made from fabric that was left over from our wedding.  

Even though it was a super stressful week leading up to the pageant, and a crazy stressful weekend trying to manage the other kids and getting Samm where she needed to be, she had a great time and it was such a good experience for her.

 

The girl right behind her right shoulder with the dark hair is the one who ended up wining.

With new friends!

Pretty girl!

They did this little dance number on stage at the beginning of the finale, and even though it was fun to watch, Samm's hair was completely flat and had no curl left by the time she walked back out on stage in her dress.

James found a friend pretty quickly and didn't mind all the waiting around one bit.

Josh got to escort Samm on stage for the formal wear competition.

This was her own idea for a pose. Totally Samm!

Macy was so tired this night she was falling asleep in the stroller while Josh held Laila.

This was the personal introduction part where all the girls had 30 seconds to say a little blurb about themselves. She looked so cute in her suit!

All the girls were rewarded with a trophy for being chosen as a state finalist.

The third part of the competition was the personal interview. She had to fill out a resume and then sit down with judges one on one for a little less than a minute and answer questions about herself. Parents weren't allowed so I wasn't able to get any pictures.

All in all it was fun to do, but oh man am I glad it's over with. Summer is almost over and I'm looking forward to spending the rest of it with the kids at our little lake.

Her first official display

Samm got a letter in the mail a few days ago from the art teacher at school. It said we should check out the display case at the top of the stairs at the Novi Public Library. So we did.

Samm was pretty tickled about having her peace sign chosen. After all, her dream is to be a "very very famous artist someday!"

Oregon, part 1

So, did you wonder if I was ever coming back? I've wanted to catch up almost everyday, but I have been crazy busy with hair appointments since I walked in the door from our trip and I've been trying to help Samm get ready for her pageant next week. Did I ever mention Samm is going to be in a pageant? I can't remember. There's also the small matter of having four kids that need to be fed and such. Anyway, I'm tired. Let's just leave it at that.

I was going to blog the whole trip at once, but our Internet is on the fritz and I can't sit here for an hour while it uploads my pictures so I guess I'll break it up. The whole reason for our trip to Oregon was for my Grandma's funeral. I would never just up and drive across the country with four kids just for fun, but I wasn't about to miss my Grandma's funeral so I gladly got in the car even though we had just gotten home from a trip out to Oklahoma two days earlier.

The service itself was a beautiful tribute to a truly beautiful woman. There wasn't a dry eye among any of the grandchildren. I know we all feel so blessed to have her as a Grandmother.

The sun even came out just a little bit at the grave site and I have no doubt that it was in her honor. She really was that great of a woman.

Samm and James with cousin Ava, and my Brother Tomas

I love her one tooth grin..although now it is a two tooth grin.

My Grandma was a very classy lady who always dressed up and always wore a scarf. Jenn had the great idea of all of us wearing one of her old scarves in her honor. It was really fun to see them all and the memories they brought with them.

My dad and pregnant sister Krista

This is my favorite picture of Macy with my Grandpa. So sweet!

My cuter than cute nephew Ezra!

Always a free spirit!

I don't really have that many pictures from the rest of the vacation, and honestly the only reason I have any from the funeral is because my brother in law took the camera from me and walked around, but hopefully I can get those up soon.

I am poem

It's going to be several days before I am fully recovered from our incredibly long, but very worth it trip to Oregon. It seems like the more I unpack and clean, the more there is to unpack and clean. Tonight as I was sorting through the mess on the kitchen counter I came across Samm's writers notebook from school this year so I decided to flip through it a little. I love her confidence, and the fact that she likes her name. I worry about that sometimes.

I am...pretty.

I like...ice cream.

I am...smart.

My favorite dream is...for everyone to be kind.

I woud like to talk to...God.

If I had enough money I would...help my family.

If I could change my name I...would not change it. I like Samm.

They really do love each other

I wish I had lots of exciting things to blog about and great pictures to show, but I don't. I have been so busy the last few weeks trying to help Samm make hair bows for a fundraiser and make her a dress and make James a tie for his class play. I still have a long way to go on the dress and bows, but I did finish James' tie yesterday and I couldn't be more thrilled with the way it turned out! I didn't really need to make him one, he just needed a tie that was either red, white, or blue, but I was so proud of him for getting the lead role of Mr. Freedom, that I wanted to make him something special. I love a boy in a white shirt and tie!

And as I was doing my final tuck in of all the kids tonight I happened to over hear this conversation between James and Samm

James "Sometimes when you are mean to me in my life I say something in my head, but I don't want to tell you because you will cry."

Samm "It's OK. You can tell me. I won't cry."

James "I say I hate you."

Samm "I know, I say the same thing. But then we apologize and we regret what we said."

James "OK. Can you read me a chapter of your book?"

I have no idea why he felt the need to tell her that since I didn't notice them fighting today, but it was so sweet the way they were talking to each other. Made my heart feel glad.

It's that time of year again

The weather has finally warmed up enough for some backyard football. Today's teams were Samm and James versus Macy and Dad.

There's no touch football in this family. It's tackle or nothing.

Penalty on the play. Unnecessary roughness on the defense.

You just can't have a game of family football without some tears. It's in the rule book.

These two are pretty much alike in every single way possible.

See! I told you.

Me and Laila in the spectators spot.

Looking forward to many more warm nights!