Christmas Cheer!

We have thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas season this year! This photo shows us participating in a fun sing-along at the ESA in SLC. My Dad got there early and saved us ten seats on the front row, only my Dad would be bold enough to fight off those crowds all by himself (ok maybe Spencer too). We had lots of fun singing and eating free hot dogs with Clint and my parents.

We love beautiful Christmas decorations!  Peter has been pointing and shouting, "pretty" everywhere he sees Christmas lights all month.

After the sing-along, my parents came with us to see the beautiful lights at Temple Square. 

We love visiting the gorgeous temple grounds every year.  This December we've also enjoyed going to the John Schmidt concert and the Forgotten Carols with Spencer's family--They were fabulous, thanks Val and Joyce!

Talmage and Leia performed in their school's Christmas Program.  There were way too many people at the performance (the Fire Captain even came and made some people leave to clear the walkways), but Talmage and Leia gave a nice performance.  We especially enjoyed when Talmage took off his Santa hat and used it as a puppet to sing a few songs.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Every December we like to act out the Chritmas story with our kids.  We usually have a challenging time staying focused on the story, but this year was especially exciting. Leia was, of course, Mary. Peter was Joseph because Talmage really wanted to be the donkey. Ammon ended up having a dual roll of shepherd and wiseman.

The story started nicely with Grandpa reading from Luke, Joseph leading the donkey with Mary on its back, and the wonderful angel bringing glad tidings (I was the angel, of course).  But for some reason, halfway to Bethlehem Joseph started trying to bite the donkey, so it was a very bumpy ride for Mary.  Once they arrived in the stable, the donkey had to take over reading from the scriptures because he couldn't stop wrestling with the shepherd.  In the end, it was quite evident that Mary and Joseph both loved the newborn babe as they tugged and fought over who got to hold the child.  The Christmas story becomes more and more interesting each year in our family.

Frozen Fun!

Our kids were very excited to look out the window and see the winter wonderland yesterday.  Talmage and Leia got out all the snow clothes and dressed themselves, and Ammon and Peter too.  It usually takes twice as long to get everyone bundled as it does for the kids to play out in the snow, and yesterday was no exception.  They enjoyed the fluffy powder and then were happy to come inside and warm up with chicken-noodle soup and hot chocolate.

Thankful for Thanksgiving

We enjoyed  a wonderful Thanksgiving day at my parents' house this year.  The dinner was delicious, the weather was beautiful, and the kids enjoyed playing in the back yard with Grandpa Collier.  Later in the afternoon, we even got to play some volleyball with friends and family at a nearby church.  A perfect day!

New Moon!!

I went with some friends to the midnight showing of "New Moon" last night. Stephanie and I made "Team Edward" shirts to wear on the big night (my shirt says I love sparkly vampires). There were about 20 ladies there from our ward at our Syracuse theater. It was so funny to see all the crazy silliness with people fighting over seats, women screaming for Edward or Jacob throughout the movie, and fans willing to humiliate themselves to win Twilight memorabilia. The movie was sooo good and we had such a fun girly night!

Oompa Loompa!

Peter insisted on smearing his spaghetti all over his face, by the end of the meal he looked just like an oompa loompa to me.

Not the usual Halloween

We were lucky that my Mom planned a Halloween party in the middle of October, so we were still able to have some Halloween fun even though we were sick at the end of the month. My kids and Adam's kids are here having fun together: Ammon, Laura, Rachel, Katherine, Leia, Tommy, Talmage, and Peter. They were able to go trick-or-treating to the many rooms in my parent's house, where us adults were waiting to hand out treats from Grandma. The kids loved it!

Peter and Rachel are very cute together, even though Tigger kept trying to tackle Tinker Bell.

Spencer took Leia, Talmage and Peter trunk-or-treating for about 20 minutes Halloween night. Ammon and I were still resting from H1N1. The next morning Ammon was rushed to the hospital with serious breathing problems. He spent three days at Primary Children's trying to get his oxygen levels back to normal. He is happy to be home now and feeling much better.

We have it and we don't like it!

The flu has struck the Rollins household. First, Leia came home from school not feeling well on Friday. By Saturday night, she was coughing so hard she was throwing up and could barely breathe. She's had a fever off and on for the last five days. Then Tuesday, Peter started with a fever and the ugly chest bark. Sure enough, Ammon and I ended up sick on Wednesday. We won't be celebrating the usual Halloween festivities this year: Leia was devastated last night when she had to miss the Ward Fall Carnival, today I will be missing Talmage's class party that I was in charge of planning, most of us will miss the Rollins family party tomorrow night, and we're not sure if there will be any trick-or-treating for us this year. Hopefully, Talmage and Spencer can stay healthy and not endure this yucky sickness.

A Fun Fall Hike

Look at those tough hikers and one very nice behind!

We enjoyed a beautiful hike through the fall leaves in Adam's canyon, even though it ended up taking a little longer than we expected.

My Dad told us he completed this hike with three kids in a couple hours, but we're quite certain they didn't make it all the way to the falls--right Dad!? We finished the hike in about three and a half hours. About an hour into the hike, I was singing the Pioneer Children walking song to keep the kids going. This is the point where we think my Dad's hike ended. Talmage, Leia and Ammon were still happy even though they all ended up with wet feet from slipping on rocks in the river.






Spencer's strength was quite impressive as he carried this 27 pound chub-a-lub all the way to the falls and back.










Talmage was a great helper and he carried the water for all of us throughout the whole hike.





The waterfall was very beautiful and worth the long hike to me, but I'm not sure if my kids would say the same. I think we'll wait a couple years before we try that hike again. But I'm very proud that we made it with four little ones, and that we were still smiling when we got back to the van.

Frightening Frightmares

We enjoyed a fun evening at Lagoon, even though we didn't make it to most of the scary stuff. The spook alleys and terror rides were a little too scary for us this year. But we loved the trick-or-treating and the kids even liked the singing chainsaw zombies. I liked reminding the kids that their Dad used to sing and dance in the fun Lagoon shows.

Peter the Astronaut

Leia the Butterfly, Talmage the Bumblebee and Ammon the Spider

Talmage just Hangin' around :)


Talmage and Leia as Aladdin and Jasmine-- Aladdin seems quite happy about all this :)

Poor Fourth Child

I guess by the time the fourth child comes around, Mom is so busy that he gets a little neglected. When Peter got tired today, the poor baby had to resort to taking a nap in the dirty-clothes basket. He's such a cute, funny boy!

Two Big Birthdays!

We had a fun birthday weekend! Ammon's birthday was on Saturday and Leia's was on Sunday. We enjoyed a fun family party at Boondocks.

Peter, Ammon, Leia and her friend loved climbing in the huge play place.
Talmage loved racing on the slick track. You can see Talmage ahead of Spencer, who is blocking uncle Clint.

The kids also enjoyed spraying each other on the bumper boats. Talmage and Ammon were battling against Leia and Katie. Our kids are growing so fast and they are so much fun!

Over 1,000 Pounds

This morning when my kids were getting ready for school, the boys were taking turns weighing themselves. They all stood on the scale together and were amazed at how much they weighed. Then they told me it was my turn. I reluctantly stepped onto the scale while they all watched and then said, "Woew"! Talmage asked me how high the scale could measure. I said I wasn't sure, maybe 300 or so. He replied that I weighed over 1,000 pounds and it still worked. Shocked, I said I don't weigh that much, and then I reminded him about the decimal point on our scale.

Today at my step aerobics and weight training classes, I made sure I worked extra hard so my son wouldn't think that I weigh more than 1,000 pounds!

Good old Bear Lake

Since we moved back to Utah (about 6 years ago), we have gone to Bear Lake at least once every summer. Somehow, we didn't end up going this summer, so we decided to make a short trip up this Labor Day weekend. We had fun playing on the sandy beach.

Spencer dragged me and the kids to the Oregon Trail Museum, but we all ended up liking it even though we didn't think we would. The kids enjoyed the simulated wagon ride and the old-fashioned cash registers they got to play with.

We swam at the Ideal Beach pool after playing on the beach.

We love hiking up to Bloomington Lake--one of the beautiful glacier pools in a nearby canyon. Spencer and Talmage are always brave and swing on the long rope and drop into the chilly water. This year Spencer even talked me into swinging on the rope. It took me a while before I could breathe in the icy water, but it was really fun! Leia and Ammon said they wanted to try, but I told them they needed to wait a few more years.

We love good old Bear Lake!

I yuv you!

I had a wonderful conversation with Ammon as I held him after he woke up this morning:

Ammon: I yuv you a million times, Mom.
Mom: I love you a million times, Ammon.
Ammon: I yuv you a billion times.
Mom: I love you a trillion times.
Ammon: I yuv you a billion, billion, trillion times.
Mom: I love you infinity.
Ammon: I yuv you infinity and beyond!

I like Buzz Lightyear even more now! I'm such a lucky Mom!

Aspen Grove

We enjoyed a fun Pearson family reunion (Spencer's Mom's family) in Aspen Grove last week. We're all wearing our reunion shirts in this photo. We love Aspen Grove because we have lots of family time, and we also have time where the kids get to go to different groups and participate in fun activities while the parents get to do their own thing for a few hours each day.

Nathan and Spencer had fun competing in the championship horseshoe game. Nathan ended up taking the win. But Spencer was happy to be the shuffleboard champion of the week. Unfortunately, we were humbled on this trip in our volleyball and racquetball skills. We thought we were pretty good, but we played against others who were much, much better--but we still had a lot of fun playing!

Aspen Grove is owned and run by BYU, so on Sunday we enjoyed a nice sacrament meeting in their outdoor amphitheater.

We were busy the entire week, trying to fit in as many fun things as we could: Volleyball, racquetball, air rifle shooting, shuffleboard competing (Spencer and I competed together in the doubles shuffleboard championship game, but Val and Joyce won in he end), interesting lectures, hiking, ropes course/wall climbing, late-night game playing, no cooking or dish washing, singing in a family talent show, frolicing in the pool, playing family field games, mini golfing, playground playing, etc. We were completely exhausted at the end of each day. I even fell asleep in the middle of the day in a very uncomfortable chair while watching a rousing game of horseshoes.

Talmage was very good at climbing the rock wall. He did the two most difficult climbs and went all the way to the top on both.

The Rollins Family! We loved this wonderful family reunion!

The Bangs are Back!

I have resisted having bangs for the last 15 years or so, but I finally gave in and had some cut recently. I had been pondering over this decision since I went to this "fabulous" hair stylist a few months ago, who told me that I might want to do something about that billboard on my forehead. (He is actually an amazing stylist, just maybe a little too honest about his opinion.) I blame my fear of bangs on my hair situation when I was in Jr. High--notice the scary 7th and 8th grade photos! I never wanted to go back to using Aqua Net, a blow dryer and a curling iron every morning. I guess my hair change is not that drastic, but for me it was quite a step.

Pineview Partying

The day after Spencer and I returned from our trip, we left for a camping trip with my family to Pineview Reservoir. We loved playing in the water: skiing, knee-boarding, wake-boarding and tomcat riding! Go Spencer and Talmage on the tomcat!

I enjoyed a calm ride on the tomcat with all of my children.

Crazy Talmage, Leia, Ammon and Gabe had a fun ride together.

Grandma provided the kids with swords that they enjoyed battling with every chance they got.

We all enjoyed each others company playing games, eating dutch-oven cooking and Grandpa's fried eggs, boating, beach playing, campfire story telling, etc. Thanks Mom and Dad for another fun family trip.