Happy Easter

 The Rollins family, after collecting tons of eggs at Grandma Collier's eggstravaganza!

The younger kids always get a head start on their egg hunt, but all of the grandchildren ended up with a full bucket of eggs filled with candy and coins.

Our cute Collier bunnies!

 We enjoyed our other traditional egg hunt with the Pearson family. 

All of these cousins had a great time scrambling for eggs.

Grandma Rollins couldn't resist getting Easter dresses for these beautiful girls:  Shaylee, Miriam and Leia.

Leia wore this dress to church today when she sang "I know that my Redeemer Lives" with me in sacrament meeting.  We enjoyed singing about the Savior on this special Easter Sunday.

Peter's Parties

 Peter turned three this week!  We first considered going to Cherry Hill to celebrate, but then we were surprised with a snowstorm on his birthday.

The kids enjoyed building snowmen on this chilly April birthday. Talmage made hot chocolate for everyone after they finished playing in the snow.

  We had a fun party with Peter's grandparents at our house where we played several of Peter's favorite games:  Hullabaloo, Twister, balloon toss, puzzles, Go Fish, etc.

We also had a fun party with the Rollins family. 

No, Peter's head isn't quite in the cake.

Peter enjoyed singing "Happy Birthday" to himself and blowing out candles.  The cake used to say Peter's name, until he sneakily got his fingers in the frosting.

Our Peter is a tough little guy and is ready to wrestle anyone at anytime. 

He definitely keeps us on our toes!

 

 We absolutely adore our sweet Peter! 
He often gives us big hugs and says, "I love you more."

We are so blessed to have this fun-loving, darling boy in our family!

Last Row!

Have you ever been to the very top of the ESA?  We have!  We had several free tickets to a Jazz game, so we decided to take all of our kids.  We knew we didn't have very good seats, but we ended up hiking all the way to the very last row in the whole arena. 

We still cheered and had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa Collier. 

My kids LOVE swimming in the hot tub with Grandpa!  He encourages them to jump out and make snow angels and then run back to the warmth of the water.  So fun! 

We are very proud that Talmage earned his Arrow of Light this month.

He's getting so big...and so smart...and just wonderful!

California Dreamin'

We just enjoyed five wonderful days in the beautiful California sun!  We stayed in Newport Beach for the first couple days. 

We went swimming several times in the many pools at our resort.  Our kids couldn't get enough of the water, they were like fish.  My favorite part of our vacation was playing and relaxing in Newport Beach.

Happy Peter and his Mommy!

Ammon said his favorite part of our trip was when Spencer had us all play tag at the playground at our resort.  I guess we need to go to our playgrounds at home more often.

Talmage was the die-hard tetherball player in our family, but everyone took turns competing.

We played on the sand and in the ocean at Huntington Beach.  Spencer and Talmage enjoyed boogie-boarding, while the rest of us jumped in the shallow waves.  This picture shows Leia and Ammon trying to escape a large wave.  Leia got away, but only Ammon's hat managed to stay on top of the water.

We hiked around the beautiful beaches at Crystal Cove.  We ate lunch at a nice restaurant nearby, and as we were leaving we were surprised to be stopped by two different groups commenting on the good behavior of our children during the meal.  We were pleasantly surprised...even though Peter was asleep during most of the meal.

We were able to explore strange sea life in the tide pools.

You can't take children to Southern California without making a trip to DISNEYLAND!  We enjoyed two days at Disneyland going on rides, waiting in long lines, walking forever, trying not to lose anyone, and visiting with Mickey Mouse.

We spent one day at California Adventure.  We enjoyed shorter lines and were happy for our whole family to be able to ride on most rides.  We bought Peter some heeled hiking boots so he could be that extra inch taller that he needed.  Talmage and Leia loved going on the wild rides.  When we finished riding Space Mountain, the Tower of Terror and a few other scary rides, Peter would say, "I'm not going again."

We had so much fun!  The worst incident that happened on our trip was when we were waiting in an especially long line, and the kids were getting restless.  Then we heard a woman near us start screaming, "No...Noooo!"  I frantically looked over expecting to see someone bleeding, but instead I saw Peter squeezing a little girl's juice box.  I quickly pulled Peter away and apologized, but after the mother stopped yelling, the little girl started screaming.  Spencer wanted to offer a couple dollars for the spilled juice, but the mother was too furious to look at us as her little girl cried.  We felt really bad...especially bad as we had to continue passing them as we weaved through the line.

We only got a couple photos of me and Spencer, Talmage and Leia insisted on taking them.

These wild kids are bustin' out!

Talmage and Leia were such great helpers on this trip.  They pushed Ammon and Peter in strollers the majority of the time at the theme parks.

We are so grateful for Spencer for planning this wonderful family vacation!

Holiday Hoopla!

 We've been so busy partying, that we haven't had time to write about our fun.  We enjoyed another wonderful Chrismas with our families.  Here are all the Rollins grandchildren attempting a pyramid.

 Here are the "big boys" showing us how a pyramid should be.  Spencer, his four brothers and his Dad enjoying good times together.

 We enjoyed welcoming in the new year with loud poppers and pans.

 Peter loved banging on a pan, and not getting in trouble for doing it.

 We exhausted ourselves by constantly playing for the last two weeks.  We had fun racing on the slick track.  Spencer loved blocking everyone else trying to speed by him.  The older kids were able to race also (Peter just liked wearing a helmet).

We enjoyed a fun morning of snow sledding and then headed to the Nickelcade to play and warm up.

We sure love our strong horsey/Grandpa Collier!

 We feel very blessed to be able to enjoy so much fun, family time together.

Amusing Ammon

We all adore our outrageous 5-year-old Ammon.

A few days ago Leia, Ammon and Peter were eating Spaghetti O's.  I noticed Leia had dripped some on her pants and told her to wash it off.  Then I saw that Peter had spilled tomato sauce all over his shirt.  Ammon looked down at his clothes and said, "Look Mom, I'm clean as a whistle!"  I'm not sure where he heard that phrase, but he was definitely clean.

With our active children, we have frequent spills at our house.  I find myself expressing gratitude when the spill is "just water."  I guess Ammon had been listening to me, because the first thing he said after he dropped a jar of pickles all over the kitchen floor was, "At least it's just pickle juice."

Ammon LOVES going to preschool!  Everyday when I drop him off at school, he makes the "I love you" sign with his hand and holds it up toward me as he runs to his school with his little backpack swinging behind him.  I love dropping him off at school!

Sometimes I am frustrated having to tell my kids to do things over and over.  Last week I had repeatedly told Ammon to do something, and in frustration I exclaimed, "I've told you that a million times!"  Ammon calmly looked at me and said, "no, only like a hundred times."  I guess he was probably right.

Family Time

We had a fun evening this weekend at the Deseret Mill with Spencer's family.  We canned food for our own food-storage and did a little service too.  We love working and playing with our family.

Peter wasn't the most helpful worker in the factory,
but he sure was cute in his little hair net.

My kids love spending time with their grandparents and cousins.  The other night, my parents were leaving our house after spending a fun day with us.  The kids were begging them to stay, and Ammon said to me,

"I'm gonna miss those two...I wish they could sleep over."

Halloween!

We had a wonderful Halloween this year!  The rain came just in time for trick-or-treating, but that didn't stop us.  The kids had a great time collecting candy at a trunk-or-treat with Jake and Quin's family.

Spencer and I got into the holiday spirit this year and dressed up. 

Spencer was Flash Gordon and I was a Cheetah.

   After loading up on tons of treats, we headed over to the Rollins' home for an exciting, spooky party.  We enjoyed playing games, eating food and visiting with family and friends.  Peter and Zoey were so cute dressed as a fairy and a skunk!

We love Halloween!  So, ya better watch out, or we'll scare you!  Boo!

Fright Nights

We've enjoyed several fun evenings this fall at Frightmares.  The kids loved trick-or-treating and walking through the little corn maze.

 We made the mistake of taking our whole family into one of the scary haunted houses.  Hopefully, our children won't be scarred for life.

 Leia the butterfly, Peter the bee, and Talmage the spider.

Ammon was really excited to ride the zebra, and it shows!

While we're at Lagoon, we always have to get in a few stomach-turning rides.

We love it!

Wedding Day

We had a wonderful day last week celebrating my youngest brother's wedding.  Steve and Alysha are so cute and happy together.

All of the Collier kids are now married.  "We're so old", Steve would say.

 Some things never change.  Aren't Spencer and Anthony so hot!?

 Steve and Alysha's wedding really brought back memories for us.  They had their reception in the same place we did, and they were married two days before our twelfth anniversary.

 We enjoyed remembering the good-old-days as we sang together at the reception.  I can't believe we've already been married twelve years! 
I sure love my Spency-Baby!