Christmas With The Bollings!

On Christmas Eve morning, our family packed up the car and headed to Grandad and Grandnee's home to celebrate Christmas. I made two yummy dishes: an egg casserole and a creme brule french toast. BOTH were so, so, so scrumptious, especially the french toast. Grandee made bacon and fresh fruit. It was a lot less stressful to do brunch than to do a dinner, that is for sure.

The kids were blessed beyond all measure with gifts ranging from toys to clothing! I think it's safe to say that Lilah and Jax's favorite gift was their blue and purple gum-ball machines. Lilah's was filled with M&Ms and Jax's was filled with skittles. One of Tyson's favorite gifts was a video camera.

After we finished up gifts and brunch, Darren and I left the kids there and headed out to run ONE last Christmas errand. Be on the look out for that post soon! You may be shocked!!!! Or better yet, you may think I have NOW officially lost my mind.

Grandad and Grandnee, thank you kindly for allowing the kids to come over and spend some time with you both. They had a blast and anticipate the NEXT time they can see you both.

Milk and Cookies for Santa!

I didn't know it at the time, but at Christmas Eve service, at Church, Tyson wrote a note to Santa on the Church bulletin (Kind of comical looking back. A note to Santa on the Church bulletin.) Anyway, it's hard to read, but Ty said,

"Dear Santa, I love you! I hope I am not on the naughty list. Would you mind leaving me a list of who is on your naughty list and who is on your good list? I hope my friends and I are NOT on the naughty list!"

A note...

Milk....

And 10 Oreo Cookies... (Tyson had ALL to do with the quantity... brown noser!)

Santa Darren wrote back and said,

"THANKS for the milk and cookies. Sorry Ty, I can NOT tell who is naughty or nice!! Merry Christmas!! Love Santa!" Santa was a piggy. He ate 7/10 cookies. No wonder his belly is so plump!

Dessert With AND For Jesus!

We spent a good chunk of time making and decorating a cake for Jesus the other day and we were anxious to finally get to eat it!!! Of course, we needed to sing Happy Birthday to the birthday boy first ... Our Savior! :)

And so we did!

"Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to Jesus!!!!! Happy Birthday to you!"

This was their favorite part... blowing out the candles!!!

We even had "Happy Birthday Jesus" Plates/Napkins! He deserves the WHOLE kit and kaboodle.

Party blowers.....

I think the HIGH amount of sugar in the cake/frosting caused us to all get a little goofy afterwards! I hope Jesus didn't mind that we had a little fun on his special day!

I told everyone to make their goofiest face. Of course Tyson had to stick his fingers in his nose.

But look who he gets that from. Then Darren, our house leader, pulls off the grossest face ever. What a great role model we have!!!!

Jax tries to be silly, but he doesn't really have to try. He is just plain silly without being silly.

Sweet little face!!!!

Things got a little out of "hand" at this point - pun intended. We turned our heads for one moment and our sweet Lilah had stuck her entire hand in the cake. This cake was an UNFORGIVING cake. The dyes are so potent. If you got dye anywhere, it was permanently stained. Of course this is the moment I became the crazy lady and put a halt to the fun we were having.

Thank you again Erin for decorating this cake with/for us! I am STILL feasting off of it. It was delicious.

Kids Say The Darndest Things!

A few funny convos in the last few weeks:

Lilah:

Mom: "Good morning my pretty girl! I love your morning hair. It's so big!"

Lilah: "Yea! My hair is big like mommy's hair!"

Jax: (I was reading "Little Quack" before nap. Little Quack, his siblings and his mommy play a game of hide and seek. Little Quack hides behind his mommy.)

Mom: "That's silly! Little Quack hid behind his mommy's hiney!"

Jax: "You have a big hiney mommy!"

Tyson: The other day I allowed Tyson to buy a "fun brain" application on is IPOD Touch. When he noticed that I purchased an "app" verses downloaded a free "app" he said...

Ty: "MOM!!!!!!!!!!! Now daddy is going to WHACK me!" (this was followed by a mound of tears.)

Darren has put the fear of God in him about downloading things without asking!

Feeding Santa's Reindeer

"Now Dasher, now Dancer, Now Prancer, Now Vixen! On Comet, On Cupid, On Donder, and BLITZEN." AND we MUST NOT FORGET RUDOLPH!

We make it another imaginative and fun, "night before Christmas", tradition to feed Santa's reindeer. This is the first year Lilah and Jax got to partake in the excitement and comprehend it. The kids had a ball of laughs throwing food in the yard, in their matching Christmas pjs, on a cold winter's night!

Getting ready to feed the reindeer.

Ty was laughing because instead of throwing the food in drips and drabs, Lilah dumped hers all in one spot. Oops. I guess I should have explained a little better.


Check out the food in the air.

A Christmas Gift For Daddy!

A week or so ago, I asked Ty...

Mom: "Ty, what would you like to get daddy for Christmas?"

Ty: "I would like to get daddy a new tire for his bike!"

(The three kids and I arrived at Cardinal's Bike Shop.)

I thought that was an insanely creative and thoughtful gift. Darren received a bike for his birthday, almost one year ago, and for the last three months the tire has been deflated and unrepairable. Who knows when it would have gotten fixed had Ty not requested we do it for him. Needless to say, Ty has really missed going on bike rides with daddy.

Here Ty stands with the FLAT/BROKEN tire.

It was so tricky finding the perfect time to take daddy's tire off the bike, drive it almost 30 minutes away to get fixed, and thirty minutes back home, as well as put the tire back on the bike without Darren present or aware of any of it. It all worked out though and Darren was so thrilled to receive such a well thought out gift from Ty.

Ta da! Complete. Took less than 4 minutes to replace the inner tube.

Cost: $4.00. Why can't I think of such creative gifts in that price range?

Inside this gift bag, were print outs of the five pictures above, tied to a long ribbon. You can see the ribbon sticking out of the bag. The pictures told a story!

Christmas "No-Nos!"

Things I hate to hear before, on, and after Christmas day...

Before:

"What is Santa going to bring you?" - Yes, my children believe, but it is annoying to hear a perfectly good stranger focus on Santa's material gifts and not Christ eternal gifts.

On:

"I think it's broken." OR "It doesn't work" - Darren is NOTORIOUS for NOT reading directions. Everything is broken on Christmas day... to him. Usually, a KEY "ingredient" is left out because he REFUSES to take the time to read the directions.

After:

"I'm bored!" - This really did happen today, even after receiving an ungodly amount of gifts. This MOSTLY stemmed from the fact that Mr. DEPENDENT didn't have a sidekick aka DADDY to play with.

On another note, I am so surprised and disturbed at how many "right out of the box" gifts are TRULY NOT WORKING or damaged. I really am not ready to fight the return lines.

A Christmas Gift Put To Use...

Wow!!! Christmas has come and gone! I have spent two FULL days in my pajamas (barely brushing my teeth) because of the intense MESS around here. The day after Christmas is the day I HONESTLY wish I had only purchased THREE GIFTS for my children. It's insane. I spent well over 12 hours straight organizing, binging, purging, cleaning, UP all of the gifts they received. This week, I hope to post all of the excitement that took place in the last two days, but I apologize, in advance, because the posts will mostly likely be out of order. Starting with this post...

One of Ty's Christmas gifts was a set of foam wood, tools, and nails. Tyson loves to construct things. Let me take that back... Tyson loves to hammer nails into things. So, I thought having some mock wood, tools, and nails would be exciting and he would take the initiative to build on his own.

Unfortunately, Ty has NO patience, NOR does he enjoy being ALONE, so good'ol daddy agreed to build something with him. I honestly have to give MAJOR "PROPS" to my husband. I am NOT just saying this or falsely bragging to all those who read my blog, I REALLY MEAN THIS. When I grabbed my camera and snapped the FIRST photo, I put the camera down and said, "You do realize how good of a daddy you are, don't you?" He is so good to the kids. So involved. So much fun! I am always too consumed with cleaning, organizing, baking, and/or cooking.

Darren and Ty all sprawled out on the hardwood floors.

Check out where Darren has the saw! Near Ty's neck. YES, we do feel like we could literally do this to him some days :)

Anyway, Darren and Ty constructed an army tanker out of the foam wood and "foe" nails that were included in the package. I think it turned out awesome!!! I hope Ty is encouraged to try this on his own or while he has a friend over.

A Homemade Song - "Christmas O Eleven"

Christmas O Eleven

(Click on the words above.)


Darren used to love creating his own music "back in the days". I think he is rediscovering it now that our children are a little less dependent on US! Tonight, Darren, the kids, and I created a little Christmas song for all of our family and friends. We dedicate this to you all!!!!

Christmas Lights!

It's ANOTHER tradition that we try to fulfill every Christmas, multiple times in the month of December... driving around to tour our citizens Christmas lights. Last night, my small group girls sent our family on a wild goose chase after recommending a very BRIGHT and tacky house, decorated with Christmas lights. Thanks GIRLS! Some friends you are. LOL!!! It really wasn't their fault, but we had a TERRIBLE time finding it. It probably didn't help that there was a torrential down pour of rain and it was pitch dark out, not to mention the insane distraction of 3 children crying that they ALL had to poop. Needless to say, 45 minutes into our endeavor, we NEVER found "THE" home, but we did find this house. Let's just say, the ONE word you could use to describe this decorated house was INFLATABLES!

My dear friend Jody told me that, last year, some high schoolers popped a ton of these inflatables. Can you imagine? People are so ruthless. My friend Dawn said that she lost count, but counted a minimum of 50 inflatables. I wonder what their electric bill is like? Is this house fire code safe?

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Tyson offered a suggestion for our "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake this year. He said, "Mom, I know, we can put Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus on top of the cake!" I responded by saying, "We could take our manger scene upstairs and place it gently on top of the cake?" He said, "Mom, no!" Uh! Ooooooooook. I went to my next thought... I KNOW.... I'll ask my dear friend Erin Carroll if she would be willing to help us put a manger scene atop the cake. She did MORE than help. She allowed Ty to assist her where he could, but she wound up doing a large portion of the cake. Our family is so excited about singing Happy Birthday to Jesus, blowing out His candles, and eating the cake in honor of our Savior!!!!

Christmas Break!

Christmas break is one week in and we are having a blast. I cannot believe how much we have done this week.

Monday - Baking and Crafts

Tuesday - Chuck E. Cheese & Haircuts

Wednesday - Pump It Up and McDonald's

Thursday - Duck Pond, Mamma's Pizza, and Driving Around to See Christmas Lights

Friday - Tomorrow we are making Jesus a birthday cake and I hope to do a mini-scrapbook with the kids to help them learn about what certain things stand for (ie. a Star at the top of the tree and a wreath). I hope to take Tyson on a date to see the movie "Chip-wrecked" while the twins nap.

It's been a very busy week filled with LOADS of fun. I am looking forward to some special hubby/daddy time this weekend! We are always thankful when Darren has an extra day off. It doesn't happen much.

Enjoy the photos of our outing to Pump It Up! We were joined with the Harris Family, the Fernandez Family and the Pierce Family.

"Nicey" Captured By Toy Story!

Oh no! "Nicey" has been captured by the Toy Story characters. Ha ha.... I can't wait to see how Ty reacts to this one. I think I am enjoying this a little too much! If you've NEVER seen the movie, part of the movie, is about how "Andy's" toys come to life while he's asleep or away from home. Well during the night, it appears as if, that happened in our home (wink wink). Imaginative play is so fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sitter Love, Christmas Crafts and Freedom...

Today I hired Kaitlyn Belcher (ah... still getting used to the sound of that), to watch my kiddies, so I could go out and get some MORE Christmas shopping done. I wish I wasn't such a perfectionist. It has to be the right price, the right color, the right size, and it has to have the right meaning, the right purpose. Etc. etc. etc.... AH! Why me?

I set aside some ingredients as well as some links to some fun Christmas crafts I was hoping Kaitlyn would attempt with the kids. NOT to my surprise, the QUEEN of childcare completed them ALL :) I came home to so many fun completed projects and a yummy treat made for Aunt Whitney and Gram. I sure hope they don't read this post anytime soon.

First up.... I asked Kaitlyn to help the kids make "reindeer poop"! I'm sure you've seen or tasted this before.

Ingredients: pretzels, rolos, and pecans.

The kids unwrapped the rolos!!!

Next up, handprint ornaments. Gotta love pinterest! Ashely, I think you pinned this and snagged it. Thanks!!!!

I am SOOOOOO glad I wasn't home for this mess. God has blessed Kailtyn with so much patience.

Finally, Reindeer footprints. I think Ty is getting too big for this stuff. Only Lilah and Jax participated in this one.

Look at those colorful toosties!

Kaitlyn threw in her own "twists" by helping the kids play a game of TWISTER. Then when she put the twins down for their nap, she played a stressful game of JENGA. From the photo it looks intense.

Wonder how this game played out considering Lilah and Jaxon do not know their left from their right yet!

I always cherish and appreciate Kaitlyn's time spent in our home. She cares for our children like they are her very own. The kids have a BLAST and make so many memories.

It was tough after spending money while shopping to come home and spend more money on childcare, but in my eyes, it was 100% worth it. Kaitlyn you are the BEST!!!! Thanks for always coming to my rescue. I've said this before, but I can't help to repeat it... God sent me an ANGEL when he made YOU!

The "freedom" mentioned in the title was not as enjoyable as it normally is. The Christmas insanity has finally begun. I drove around the mall for 10 minutes and I couldn't find a parking spot. I decided to leave. I couldn't take it. It's probably all of those men out there that wait till the last five days to shop for their wives.

PS. I AM SO GLAD YOU TAKE THE TIME TO CAPTURE THESE MEMORIES ON CAMERA.