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!

 

 

Laila and Baby

 

I finally have a girl that likes dolls!

 

 

We've had this doll for quite a while but she's always been just another toy in the box until Laila came along. Now at nap time it's baby and fuzzy or no deal! 

 

And for the non facebook crowd, I wanted to share this cute picture again that I took of her yesterday. Josh asked me if I stage these pictures of her and No, I do not.

 

 

More from Macy

"Look mom I'm Santa Claus!"

 

"Hey wait, why does Santa have a claw in his name?"

Kid Quotes

The best part of my day is when one of the kids says something so funny that I can't wait for Josh to get home so I can tell him. Sadly, I keep forgetting to record them here so that one day they can read them and laugh also. I'm recommitting myself right now to doing better, so here are a few from this week.
'

I was driving in Josh's car with Macy a few days ago when she said "Dad has really awesome music in his car, huh?"

I replied with a half hearted "uh huh"

And then she said "I don't like awesome music because it's too loud and screechy. I'm a girl so I like calm music."

Oh man, then I started laughing because she obviously has picked up on the fact that mom does not like loud music and dad does.

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Just this afternoon Josh walked in the door right after the kids got home from school which is very unusual. He mentioned that he had an hour before he was officially on call and when I asked what he was going to do with his free hour he said that he was going to bond with his son.

James was standing next to us and asked "what's bonding?"

So I told him that basically it meant that dad was going to rough him up a little and that he would cry, but that they would become better friends because of it.

Without even hesitating he said "But I'm already his friend!"

Another First

 

Since Samm is the oldest she gets the honor of doing most of the "firsts", and pine wood derby got added to that list last night. Yes, it's usually a scout thing, but we decided that it would be a fun activity to do with our activity day girls for recognition night. The girls loved it, but I think it will be a once every four years event!

 

 

All of the girls got a certificate, Samm's was for Most Dreamy.

 

Here is what we learned from our first Pine Wood Derby event...There are some very serious pine wood derbiers out there and we are going to have to seriously step up our game come May when James gets his block of wood!

James' Special Day

It has been an exciting week at our house. On Wednesday night Josh's sister Stacey and her family drove into town to spend a few days with us. Thursday morning Josh, Samm, and James helped their team solidify the annual Turkey bowl trophy for the 2nd year in a row (winning that title is a huge deal to Samm) We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner even though I forgot about the stuffing. Seriously. How do you forget about the stuffing on Thanksgiving! And then we stuffed ourselves with pie and ice cream in celebration of my main man turning 8! I'm sorry James, but this is the only picture I have from your party. Please forgive me! 

 

On Saturday James and his friend Isaac were both baptized, and it was a wonderful but emotional day! In a good way. I was so proud of James. 

I only have one picture of Josh and James in all white, but James has his eyes closed so you have to settle for one with me in it also. Josh's pants were a little on the snug side, so he made sure that James stood in front of him. I know Josh was uncomfortable, but I couldn't stop giggling. Order new white pants is now on the top of my to do list!

James being a goof ball

Macy likes to salute for pictures now. I don't know why.

We were so happy to have Stacey and Jason and their girls with us for this special day and very grateful that they made the drive!

How to torture Laila...

Make her stand behind a glass door and watch everyone else outside having fun!

 

 

The first wobbly steps never get old

 

Even the fourth time around, it's just as cute as ever!

 

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.

Our Son the B Boy



Never in a million years would I have ever guessed that James would do anything other than play sports. I always assumed that he would be a football player like his dad. It's not that I was against him pursuing other interests, it's just that Rollins boys play football. Plain and simple.

 

It has also been pretty evident for some time though that he takes more after me in his physical makeup than he does Josh, which doesn't exactly scream football player. He also hasn't ever really showed an extreme interest in sports outside of playing in the backyard as a family.

 

About a year ago he started doing head stands All. The. Time. He got so good at them that we suggested he try spinning on his head just to challenge him a little. One day after he had become pretty good at spinning in a complete circle we decided to look at break dancing videos on you tube so he could see all the cool stuff that they do. James was hooked. When we told him that we had found a place that offered break dancing classes for boys he went right up to his room and changed his clothes because he wanted to start right that second.

 

Unfortunately we didn't have the money for it right then but told him that when we got our house sold we would look into it.

 

Three weeks ago was his first class and it was so cute how excited and nervous he was all at the same time. We actually just went to check it out on the first day and told him that he could decide whether or not he wanted to sign up. After class he came running out with the biggest smile on his face and said "I want to sign up right now!"

 

We are absolutely thrilled that he finally found something he loves other than video games and I can already seen the change that this has made in his confidence. Most of the other kids were still learning how to do head stands when he started so the fact that he could already spin on his head made him feel really special. Then, just this past Monday he told me very excitedly on the way to class that they were going to learn how to do back flips! Honestly, I was thinking there was no way they were actually going to be learning that but I didn't say that to him.



 

So, they were exactly learning back flips, but I was shocked that he really was teaching them back hand springs. James once again was the best one in the class because he has absolutely no fear. His teacher explained to him what he was going to do and then James said "OK" and jumped backwards. Then his teacher had him do it again several times in a row so that the other kids could see exactly what to do. I know it seems silly, but I was so proud of him!

 

 

Laila loves his break dancing class too. She hears the music start and heads straight to the door to watch and pretty much stays there for the entire 45 minutes.

 

And you should know that I already have big plans to see my B Boy James on So You Think You Can Dance someday!