The Beloved PB&J

It's eating time again at the Rollins household (when isn't it time to eat?!?). Sawyer had a hankering for a PB&J and I told him that this time he needed to do it himself. He eagerly accepted the challenge!

Off to work he went, armed with a Gerber knife, a huge jar of JIF peanut butter, a plate of jelly, a hungry tummy and two heels of whole grain bread.....those were the last two piece of bread I had!

About ten minutes into it, I thought about hurrying him along, I thought the bread was going to mold before he was done! But who am I to rush the culinary artistry of an upcoming chef? There was a lot of tender loving care put into this sandwich..lots of spreading, smushing, countless dips into the jar, and finger licking....

It was well worth it!! The perfect PB&J masterpiece was finally finished!!

Bringing Up Boys

Sawyer is the light and love of our lives and we would do anything and everything for him. You think you know what love is until you hold your child in your arms for the first time and then you realize how much it all means. With all the love and feel-good-fuzzies that come with parenthood, also come the terrible twos, time outs, spankings, and tears~but all in the name of love! I've never had a daughter but I think that there is something to be said about the perseverance and xanax it takes for raising boys! For those of you who have had the pleasure of spending more than two minutes with Sawyer know that he is high energy, constantly moving and jumping off of things and loving all things boy! :)

After having one of those drawn out, batten down the hatches, battle of the will stand offs with Sawyer, I dove into this great book, "Bringing Up Boys". Dr. Dobson has some terrific insight into the little lives of our boys and how we can do everything we can to help navigate them through life and keep them alive so they see 18. It has been so helpful and encouraging to hear his advice and go, "Oh my gosh! That's SO SAWYER!!!"

"Our assignment during two brief decades will be to transform our boys from immature and flighty youngsters into honest, caring men who will be respectful of women, loyal and faithful in marriage, keepers of commitment, strong and decisive leaders, good workers, and secure in their masculinity, And of course the ultimate goal for people of faith is to give each child an understanding of Scripture and a lifelong passion for Jesus Christ."

Sawyer~that is Mommy and Daddy's prayer and goal and we will do everything we can do see it through* We LOVE YOU SOOOOO MUCH, forever and always, no matter what!

Now with that being said, I had to really remind myself of everything that I have read so far in my book when I discovered this mess last Friday....I was upstairs with the babies just before lunch and Sawyer, Dalton and Audrey were supposed to be downstairs cleaning up for lunch and it was suspiciously quiet.....and that's never a good sign. So I walk downstairs and they're not in the play area, nap room, bathroom or Brandi's room.....then I heard little voices coming from the storage/pantry room. There the three of them sit, legs straight out in front of them in a little circle surrounded by 32 cans of open pop! They each have a can in their chubby little hands chugging away! I couldn't believe it!!!!!! They had also helped themselves to one Red Bull energy drink, mixed nuts, Apple Jacks cereal and some fruit snacks! Needless to say we had a L-O-N-G chat, clean up session and another L-O-N-G chat!

Another fun Weekend

Friday afternoon snack......it still amazes me how much food this child can put away. If I got a dime for every time I heard, "Mommy, can I eat something?", I would be able to retire this Christmas.

About a year and a half ago we belonged to this AWESOME gym called Lifetime Fitness-it had a spa, salon, huge indoor and outdoor pools with water slides, hot tubs, dry/wet saunas, rock climbing walls, tons of excellent classes, a cafe, and the best child center facility in the city. The only problem was that it was all the way across town and we where spending more money on gas than the actual family membership! We ended up deciding to go to 24hr Fitness that was pretty close to the house and have been going there ever since. A few weeks ago we decided to go back to the nice gym when they raised the child care prices at 24hr Fitness. It felt SO good to walk back into Lifetime and just the smell and atmosphere just gets you so excited to work out!

Saturday morning we went to the gym to work out and do a kick boxing class and then we spent the afternoon at the pool! It was nice and hot and the water was the perfect temperature. Sawyer had a blast 'swimming' and splashing me!

That evening our friend Chase had a house warming party at his brand spankin' new house! It was so fun to go and see the finished product after months of watching it slowly evolve! As you can tell he has no furniture yet but that's not something to get in the way of filling it with friends and family! He has requested (or should I say, 'given in') that our Thursday Night girls get to paint and decorate with his credit card! Wahoo!!!

Sunday morning was very exciting as two little boys that we are close to were dedicated to God at church! One was Brandon and Laney's son, Nolan and the other was one of my day care kids, Boyd! It was really special to be there as the boys were prayed over, as their parents committed to living lives that would be an example of God's love and grace and for us as a congregation committing to encourage them in their godly parenting.

Nolan and Boyd, we love you both very much and pray that you will love Jesus and want to know him more and more each day!

After church Kathy (my mother-in-law) and I headed off to celebrate another mile marker in life~Brett and Ashley's wedding!(Brett is Bill's cousin) Well, not the actual wedding, that's next weekend, but we went to Ashley's bridal shower!

We had a really nice afternoon playing shower games (I won one!), having a vegan lunch and watching her open some really nice things! Kathy and I and Grandma Joan put together a really fun basket with a Vegan cookbook, some dishes, utensils, kitchen towels, a bottle of wine and a rolling pin to whack Brett up side the head with every once in a while! :)

We are really looking forward next weekend when they finally tie the knot!

Mid Summer Night's Thanksgiving

Last night was our third annual Mid Summer Night's Thanksgiving! Three years ago Bill and I thought it would be a fun idea to have a big thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of our friends in the scorching heat of summer. Why? You might ask, well anytime to sit down to a huge turkey dinner is enough reason for me! :) So for the past three years we have gathered our friends, cooked the turkey, made them bring the sides and just had a fun evening together! We normally host it in the middle of summer around the middle of July, but for some reason this summer kind of got away from us and here we are at the end of August, but better late than never!

In the years past, Bill has always been in charge of cooking the turkey and does a REALLY good job! Yesterday morning he was busy, so I thought, "How hard could this be? I cook alot, it comes with directions...."......ok.......wow......this thing was 22lbs. and really slippery! It was like trying to wrestle a really chubby toddler that had been dunked in olive oil....after I corral it into the roasting pan and pat myself on the back for a job well done, Bill comes in and offers to 'check' it. I was in no mood to have it be 'checked'. But thank you God that he did, because after a few seconds he pulls out the entire sack of neck and giblets with a cocky grin on his face. UGH!

Anyhow, he took over from then on after I had a mini meltdown and it came out just perfect! He did such an excelent job of taking it out at the perfect moment and carving to perfection!

We had our regular Thursday Night dinner group there and they brought all the fixings! Mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade stuffing, sweet potatoes topped with brown sugar and walnuts, green bean casserole, fresh corn, garden salad and Arliss made her famous dinner rolls!

(Stefanie, Emily, little Nora, Ashton, Arliss and James)

We normally set up a huge long table out in the back yard, but it was so windy that we set up camp in the garage and driveway. Thanks James for coming through once again with the tables and chairs!

(Rob, Stephanie, Melody, Scott, Shawn, Brandi)

(Bill, Chad, Brandon, Chase and John)

(Sawyer, Jack and Theo)

The boys (and no I don't mean the three and under boys, I mean my husband and his friends) had a grand time of throwing my decorative apples, pine cones and mini pumpkins at each other, so I'm sure we'll be finding those jammed in the tread of our tires over the next few weeks....

We headed down to the park to play some kick ball and Sawyer and Jack decided to ride down on the four wheeler. Sawyer's a bit of a crazy driver because he gets pretty distracted and just steers wherever he may be looking.....so he swerves quiet a bit! But they made it down and back all in one piece!

Gearing up for the big game! James and Bill were picking teams and they ended up picking Arliss and I LAST! How could they do that to their wives?!?!

(Stephanie, Ashton, Melody and Arliss)

After the sun went down and the mosquitoes came out, we headed home for some mouth watering pies! We have some really good bakers in the group that brought apple, pumpkin and pecan chocolate silk supreme! D-Lish!!!!!!!!!!

A while ago Sawyer appointed himself and John as the official dessert guys. So John plates and Sawyer serves. Last night though Sawyer put himself on 'ala mode' duty and went to town on dishing out tons of melty vanilla ice cream!

He was using two ice cream scoops, and a child safe knife but mostly his hands! I think people got dished up a little more ice cream than they had anticipated :)

The best buddies ended the evening with a DVD and practically fell asleep as soon as their heads hit their pillows! It was another successful Mid Summer Night's Thanksgiving! Thanks everyone for coming~We are so thankful for you and how close we've gotten over the years!

Good Times with Jake and Lara

Bill's best friend Jake was is roommate in college and lives up in Wisconsin is we don't get to see him much. He and Bill usually get together once a year to just hang out and have a good time. Last week Jake and his girlfriend Lara came down and spent the week with us! It was SO fun! The boys just did guy things-video games, fixing their cars, buying junk on Ebay, jumping off of bridges and eating. It was nice to have another girl in the house and Lara and I were quick friends :) You guys need to move to Omaha! Remember: the house across the street is still for sale! HAHA :)

Bill, Jake and Brandon showing some love at a Mid Night run to Village Inn :)

Lara and I met up with some of my girlfriends to see "Eat Pray Love" and this one, "The Switch". I liked "The Switch" a little better, it was a funny, feel-good movie and I loved it! It was nice to leave the boys at home with all their video games and barrels of Mountain Dew to have some girl time!

One afternoon we went down to the Old Market to walk around.

At the end of the 19th century, Omaha was in its prime as a great railroad center, connecting the settled East with the wide-open West. The Old Market area was at the height of its splendor – bustling with produce dealers, buyers and transporters (Thank You Wikipedia).

We've always loved the feeling of the old Market with it's cobblestone streets, horse and carriage rides and little shops.

We went to lunch Old Chicago downtown in the Old Market. That was a real dieters delight lunch chalked full of calzones, chicken nachos, spicy buffalo wings, fries, pepperoni rolls and raspberry lemonade!

It was such a fun time to recconect and make some new memories!

A Day at the Cabin

Bill's Uncle Jeff and Aunt Lin have a wonderful cabin on the lake and are very hospitable in inviting us all up a couple times each summer to enjoy the lake and the scenery! It's always a fun time and somewhere that Sawyer will have fond memories of. The picture on the left is the three of us at the cabin in the summer of 2008 and then the one on the right is us now in 2010!

As you can imagine, Sawyer LOVES riding on the big four wheeler! Thank you Papa Steve for all the countless rides you took him on :)

Sawyer and Grandma Joan doing some weeding together!

Uncle Mike, Papa and Uncle Jeff.

Uncle Jeff and Papa were grilling (insert manly grunts) and Uncle Mike was wiping down picnic tables with soapy water (cue music for "It's a hard knock life").

Me and Grandma Joan just chillin' and chatting about how nice it would be to take a nap.

Cousin Cameron and Sawyer being buddies.

Sawyer had such a blast-jumping off the dock into the water, riding along on the floatie, building sand castles, hitch hiking rides on the four wheeler and drinking gallons of pink lemonade!

We had a great dinner that everyone contributed to: cheeseburgers with all the fixins, tofurkey dogs, veggie burgers, tossed salad, vegan pasta salad, spiced pineapple upside-down cake and caramel crunch cupcakes~ YUMMY!

Best time of the day: Eating time!

We were celebrating Grandpa Rick and Grandma Joan's 55th wedding anniversary that day, so we sat down to watch them open up their cards......and then Sawyer decided to 'read' aloud some of the cards which ended up becoming Thank You cards to himself for helping them move their dresser the day before. I hate to tell ya' Sawyer, not every occasion is about you sweetie :)

Phoebi thought she had died and gone to heaven that day-with all the attention, the lake that she would dip her toes into, random pieces of food that would get dropped off the picnic table and so much grassy area to romp around with her other canine friends-Bella and Razzy...but by the end of the day, she was pooped!

The cousins were very sweet to let Sawyer 'play' cards with them :)

Even as we were loading up the car to go home, Sawyer was trying to take advantage of every moment of the summer evening. It was such a relaxing and perfect day to spend with family, celebrating the commitment of a loving marriage*

Happy Anniversary Grandpa Rick and Grandma Joan!

What a wonderful life of love and dedication you've led, through thick and thin, no matter what. Thank you for the incredible example of a Christ honoring marriage you've left behind for the rest of us to follow! We love you both*

Yesterday I was running around trying to get the house ready for Bill's college roommate and his girlfriend who were coming to spend the week with us. I needed to make a quick batch of brownies and that normally takes me about about five and a half minutes flat from start to the oven if I do it by my self.....but then this little voice screeches out, "I wanna help!!" So I had a quick pep talk with my self and remembered that these little moments will just fly by and when he's getting dropped off at college and I'm sitting in the car sobbing I'm going to long for one more batch of brownie making together.

And besides, who can resist this face?!?

He was very excited that he had an excuse to use his scissors to cut open the mix and then he learned how to crack eggs! He did a really good job too! The weird thing was that after each egg he cracked, he would blow on his fingers....I 'm not sure if that was him trying to get the egg off his fingers or that was some new signature move of his....

The brownies turned out perfect and Sawyer needed a bath! A good time was had by all!

We all went to a wedding last Saturday for one of Bill's old friends. It was a really beautiful wedding outside at a park right next to a lake. Congratz Rob and Stef!!!