art class

this week has been spent mostly at home as all three of us girls have been sick. there has been a lot of pajama time, book reading, and just being inside. it's also been REALLY hot here. here are some pics of today. the "art class" was happening while i was cleaning the kitchen-kate's favorite thing to do is create-color, glue, cut, stickers, etc. amelia is sure learning quickly and loves to take the caps off the markers before mommy sees. we went to the park for a pinic lunch with tim. we were pleasantly surprised to be there all alone. i guess that's what you get when you are suckers and go out at the hottest part of the day on a really hot day:)

ready for make-up

i think amelia is ready for make-up. what do you think?

40th anniversary

tim and i are so blessed to both have parents who have just celebrated 40 years of being faithful in their marriage. oddly enough, they celebrate their anniversaries one day apart. we celebrated my parents anniversary while we were all in spokane together in august, and celebrated tim's parent's this last weekend. thanks dad and mom (both sets) for setting awesome examples of Christ-centered marriages.

fun in the sun

here are some random pictures of the hot days that we've had lately. please don't think i'm white trash because i let my kids run around in their underwear and diapers (it's really so that the popiscle they're eating doesn't stain their clothes:)

you know your kids are tired when...

they ask for a quiet time and cry when you tell them they can't have one. we went swimming out at a lagoon today with my sister-in-law, the girl's cousins, and my mother-in-law. the kids had an absoulute blast, but were totally trashed after spending 5 hours in the sun and water. when we got home at 5 tonight, kate literally begged for a quiet time in her room. i guess we finally wore her out:)

wet blankie

the other night i was in the kitchen cleaning up dinner while amelia was playing in the bathtub (please don't call cps on me:). when i went in to check on her, this is how i found her. i guess she needed her blankie, so she helped herself out of the tub, found her blankie, then let herself back in. glad to know she could do all this by herself:)

last but not least

summer top 10

here is my list of this summer's top 1o faves (in no particular order):
1. watching kate learn to LOVE to swim and being quite brave during lessons ( not typical for her).

2. enjoying amelia's love for life-i think she's the happiest and most personable baby i've ever met.

3. watching amelia float down the truckee river NEXT TO our raft (and screaming if we made her come in the boat).

4. not having our house torn apart like it was ALL of last summer.

5. not having a schedule and being able to enjoy what each day holds.

6. spending quality time with each of our families.

7. s'mores-in the backyard or while camping

8. experiencing bears while camping (we saw a lot of them in tahoe-quits close-up i might add!)

9.hot sun!

10. listening to amelia and kate play together-they are such buddies! i pray that they will continue to love and care for each other the way that they do now.

even more still...

more pictures

finally!

we are finally home from all of our adventures, AND i have finally figured out how to sort and post pictures on our new computer. the hard part is going to be choosing between ALL of them. fun things we've done this summer (so far):
-camping with tim's family at gualala (near mendocino) on the coast

-santa barbara for our 6th anniversary (minus the girls)

-my mom and dad visit in july

-church family camp in tahoe for a week

-spokane and idaho visit with my entire family

so, i will try and post as many pictures i have time for (the girls are in their rooms now, but you never know when the quiet will end.

enjoy!

we're here

just wanted to let you know that i am here and that we have been having a BLAST this summer. we got a new computer, so i am learning how to upload pictures and as soon as we get home from spokane this weekend, i plan to do some major blogging. we have been to tahoe, santa barbara, mendocino coast, and are now visiting my sister in spokane. looking forward to sharing our fun memories and pictures with you!

"fancy" kate

anyone know who fancy nancy is? if so, this should remind you of her:)

sweet conversation

today we spent some time in the car driving. as we were driving the girls were happily reading and singing to the music we had in the car. randomly kate started with this:
k: mommy, you're the greatest mommy.
me: what does mommy do to make you say that?
k: because you love me......SO MUCH!
it is times like this that i am thankful that i've hung in there, and not given up. being a mommy, especially one that stays home, is an exhausting, sometimes unappreciated, and (by the worlds standards) an unglamorous job. BUT, when my 3-year-old says something like this, i realize it is ALL worth it!

our little reader

one of amelia's new favorite things to do is read. she will sit in either her chair or go into kate's room, get some books, then plop down and start reading. we love that both of our girls LOVE books.

we've been busy

talk about starting the summer off with a bang. as soon as tim's family left, my family came in to town. amy and abby (my sister and niece) flew in from spokane for a week's stay with us. we had a blast doing fun things as well as just hanging around the house relaxing. after a few days, my parents drove up to join in on the fun. we took a trip to the zoo, picniced at the park, and did s'mores (a summer fav). i am so thankful for times spent with my family and miss them dearly. i so wish that we couild do these types of things more often, but am learning to treasure the times that we do have.

all seven

it's not very often that all seven rollins' grandkids are together so we thought we'd try to capture a picture of them. this was about the best that our camera got.

amelia

who would have thought that a one year old would want to be so much like her sister. i am constantly amazed at how much she strives to do what kate is doing, but also by how vastly different she is. for example, at train town, the little train take you for a ride, then stops at a "town" where you can get off and explore and also feed some farm animals. both times we've gone (this being the second) kate has had no interest in feeding the animals due to fear. amelia, on the other hand, walks right up to the HUGE sheep, sticks out her hand, and lets him eat right out of her hand without a second thought. amelia, also unlike kate, will climb on ANYTHING. she can get herself on almost any chair, bench, table, you name it. kate just doesn't have any interest in being high up. i'm just always so amazed at how different my girls are, but also think that it is so fun to see them starting to interact and wondering what they will be like in 5 years, and ten. what will they like, what will they dislike, who will be their friends? we haven't done anything differently with the two of them, and yet they are completely different. i guess it's God's way of making sure we trust instead of getting comfortable in what we are doing:) the picture of amelia dressing up was all her idea. she "asked" me to help her put the shoes on and would bring them to me if they fell off. i think we have another princess on our hands:) (please don't think we let her hang out like this all the time-it was 104 degrees at our house and she was hot).

train town

this last week was busy, once again, trying to spend as much time with tim's brother and family as possible. we had the whole rollins crew over for dinner one night, then met everyone at train town in sonoma for a day of rides, trains, and a picnic in the park. here are a few pictures of the outings.