Happy Birthday to Me!

On the 23rd I officially started the last year of my twenties. The big 29. It was a fun weekend with family, dinner at Asian Star, Kung-Fu Panda with the kids, yummy cake, and puke! Tracy got sick and threw up all over our patio. It was a great birthday present! My favorite part was hearing the boys sing "Happy Birthday" to me. It made cleaning up vomit at my own birthday party seem bearable.

Go Jags!

I Got Tagged -- HIGH SCHOOL

I have been laughing at all my friends memories who have been tagged with this one, but now it's my turn and it is not so funny. I suppose it is only fair I subject myself to the same embarrassment so here it goes. Don't judge me too harshly. I was not always the mature shining example I am today. (Hee-hee)

1. Did you date someone from your school? Yeah, on and off for about five years. He was the varsity basketball "star" and his coach hated me for distracting him.

2. What kind of car did you drive? I didn't.

3. What was the most embarrassing moment of high school? I have spent a lot of money in therapy trying to forget these. Just kidding. I am sure most of High School was embarrassing but I can't remember anything specific. If anyone can think of anything let me know. I will go look through my scrapbooks and come up with something.

4. Were you a party animal? Every day was a party, but NOT with drugs or anything. We managed to keep ourselves entertained with speedoman, trains(I won't go into detail about this one. If you were there you know why. We were really stupid.), sleeping in cars (you are a good snuggle-buddy Jami), Spring Break, Drill camp/Nationals, spying on people....so many fun times.

5. Were you considered a flirt? No, I was a faithful girlfriend. Although I had plenty of crushes on the side.

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? No

7. Were you a nerd? One word: POPULAR! (refer to Kristen's post) What makes one a "nerd" anyway. I was in honors classes and was a yearbook staff editor so does that make me one? Maybe the fact that I actually enjoyed school makes me a nerd.

8. Were you on any varsity teams? I was on Drill Team. I really wanted to do track but had a conflict in my schedule.

9. Did you get suspended/ expelled? No, but I should have been once. Sorry Jami and Val, you guys got all the blame (thanks to your future husbands) for our little stunt.

10. Can you still sing the fight song? I'm not so sure that I could even sing the whole fight song when I was in high school -- I deferred those responsibilities to the 'popular' head cheerleader (that would be Kristen).

11. Who were your favorite teachers? I don't know that I have one, or can remember their names. I will look in my yearbook and get back on this one too.

12. Where did you sit during lunch? Thanks to Kristen and Amber, and Jen I now remember that we usually sat at a certain table to eat and then moved to the stairs to chat.

13. What was your school's full name? West Jordan High School

14. School mascot? Jamal the Jaguar

15. Did you go to Homecoming and who with? My boyfriend, Ben

16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? No thanks. I enjoyed High School, but I would not want to do it again. I still see all my closest girlfriends and we relive old memories enough.

17. What do you remember most about graduation? I sort of liked mooning people back in the day, so I remember one of my teachers having me prove I had a skirt on under my gown. As if I was going to moon the entire crowd! My mooning was tastefully thank you very much. (Perhaps this is why nothing from high school comes to me as embarrassing. If I was willing to show my butt in public, why would anything else seem embarrassing?)

I also remember we wore our graduation collars around our necks and called them "popularity sashes". It looked much cuter too.

18. Where did you go senior skip day? Every day was Senior skip day. Especially before I got my press pass taken away.

19. Were you in a club? If you look in my yearbook I am in several. But, I wasn't really. Because I was on the YB staff, a group of us thought it was funny to pose in all the club photos. My editor was not very happy, but I was so awesome he didn't kick me off.

20. Have you gained some weight since then? Yep. I don't mind the gaining weight part. It is that it has all turned to fat.

21. Who was your prom date? My boyfriend again- I was so boring. Even more boring is that we barely caught the tail-end of Junior Prom. He had to play in some basketball game to get his scholarship. I missed out on most of the fun and I had been a nominee for Prom Queen so I missed out on all that excitement too.

22. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Been there, PLANNED that. It was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to planning the next one.

23. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself?I would have stayed single. I think I missed out on a lot because I dated the same person the whole time. I also wish I had tried harder to make track work out as well. Ultimately I would tell myself life gets really good so RELAX!!!

Hope you all enjoyed my high school experience! I tag 4 people: Troy, Kristi, Alicia and Hayley

Sweet Moment

It is no secret Tracy absolutely adores his baby sister. It is hard to take pictures of her alone because he is always by her side. He takes his role as big brother very seriously. Yesterday Summer had hiccups and he grew concerned. He put his hands on her head and said, "I'd better give her a blessing." I thought is would be a good teaching moment so I asked him, "When do you get blessings?" His reply was, "When I am SIX (rather than sick)." I think something was lost in translation when he learned about the priesthood.

FUN IN PARK CITY.

Melody was nice enough to invite us to her Ernst and Young work party up in Park City. I love the heat, but the cool mountain air was a refreshing change. We had a great time on the Alpine Coaster and Alpine Slide. Tracy liked calling them Speed Racer rides.

Everett is so light I was worried he would fly right out of the seat, but he was safe and had a blast.

Little factoid: When I was little, my older brother and I overturned our sled on the Alpine Slide and I got ripped to shreds. He and the sled rode down on ME for several yards and it was wicked painful. My mom thought it happened because we had gone on a Sunday. I think it was because we were being stupid kids. Anyway, I was wrapped in gauze for about a week, but we stopped at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory on the way out for truffles. Chocolate is the best medicine.The incredible black Spiderman!

There was a lot of speculation as to what Everett was supposed to be. He loves Kung-Fu Panda. I think he looks like someone from the cast of "Cats", but either way he is a cutie.

Return of the Randalls

We are beyond excited that some of our very best friends have finally made it back to Utah!!! Greg and Tonya have been in Ohio and Arkansas for the the last 6 years for Dental School and they are finally done! We are so proud of all their hard work and look forward to spending lots and lots of time with them.Greg is holding their adorable little girl Kylee and Ton is holding my cute little Summer. It is so great to have you guys back! Although we will miss our long road trips across east coast historical sites. Nothing has topped Greg getting peed on in the subway. We all had some great moments on that trip. Good times. We need to make many many more.

New pics of our quickly growing baby girl!

She is a great eater and I am so excited that I may finally get a fat baby for once! Oh, I just love her.


We can't believe how fast our little Summy is growing up. She is smiling and holding her head up and already outgrowing clothes It's bittersweet to watch your little tiny baby grow up so quickly. We are all still so in love with her and now Tracy says he is going to marry her one day. She is such a sweetheart and such a huge blessing to our family. We have all grown closer and we appreciate our children for who they are and love their similarities and especially their differences. Mike and I feel so lucky to be blessed with our family. We are all good pieces in the Bollinger Family puzzle.

Happy 24th of July fellow Utahns!

The boys began their day bright and early with Daddy at the Days of 47 Parade. Mommy and Summy decided to sleep in. Tracy loved having the "Princesses"(city royalty girls) wave to him while Everett was fascinated with the police motorcycles.

ALL AMERICAN GIRL! Summer looked so cute in her patriotic stripes. Too bad she slept through most of the excitement and fireworks.

We went to the Burtons for dinner and fireworks later that evening. While we were setting up dinner, Mike and Troy came up with a fun game for the kiddies. They lifted the top of the trailer up while Oakley, Tracy and Everett sat on towels. Once the trailer was at its peek, they'd release the kids and they went flying. The towels slid down the back at a greatly fun speed. They thought it was radical and did it over and over again. Only Everett came out with a battle wound. Derrick was trying to catch them all and Ev slipped through his legs. Everett didn't cry and kept sliding down. Only later did I see the big bruise on his behind.

Stake Lagoon Day.

Our kids had a blast at Lagoon especially because we went with the Sullivans. Everett, Bailee, Tracy and Kennedi loved riding the rides together. They almost look like two sets of twins because they are all little blondies.
Oh my boys, and how they love their toys! They are in their element driving/riding in the car. Tracy takes it very seriously.

JOSHUA wins it all!

While I was on bed rest Mike and I joined the reality TV world by becoming addicted to "So You Think You Can Dance". Our favorite was Joshua Allen. He is so amazing to watch because he has no professional training yet the boy can do anything: samba, Broadway, baliwood, contemporary, hip-hop, waltz etc. Mike and I both fell in love with him (especially when he wore really tight pants to show off his larger than life bootay). He is a such a great entertainer that we actually voted this week. I am sure he woudn't have won without our help. :) Mike even bought us tickets to see them next month when they come on tour. I am so excited!!! I have always thought reality television was silly but now I get it. Charity, Kristen and all you other fans know I mean when I say Joshua's dancing is "BUCK"!

BREAKING DAWN

Yes, I am a crazy Stephenie Meyers fan and I went to the midnight release party at Gateway. It was a fun girls night out too. Rachel, Lizy, me, Melody and Summer (sleeping in the car seat behind us) had dinner and pigged out on yummy Cheesecake(from Cheesecake Factory, of course) before heading downtown. I haven't accomplished much since I started reading it but I am finally finished! It is so good. I especially loved the ending when Bella drives a stake through Edwards heart for cheating on her with a Zombie. Bet none of you saw that coming. I won't really ruin the ending for you fans, but I will say that I was not disappointed. I am extremely sleep deprived but it is well worth it. Thanks gals, it was a lot of fun.

First Sunday at Church

Today we took Summer to church for the first time. It was so much fun to put her in a dress that I had to take a picture and , of course, put it on the blog. Three kids at church is a little crazy but at least we got our own bench.Tracy had some great one-liners today that I have to share. They probably won't be as funny to all of you, but here they are anyway:
First of all, the Primary president had Trace stand up to talk about what exciting thing happened in our home. He told the story like this, "When Mike and Melody came to get me, Mom and Dad went to the hosipal (that's his pronunciation) to have the baby and then she came right home." Then, when they asked him what her name was he replied, "Baby Summer Jazz". Luckily I am in Primary so I could explain that he gives her a new Transformer middle name every few days.

Lately we have been working on not talking about body parts and bodily functions like bum burps(that is the name Tracy came up with for farts a couple of years ago). So, during the last verse of "I am a child of God" after the part "if I can but endure" Tracy leaned over to his teacher and said "He said butt." (The "he" in the story is our music leader.)

Finally, when we were leaving church we passed a guy getting out of his car. Most of the cars were gone because we'd gotten held up after Sacrament Meeting. When Trace saw him start towards the building he gave him a puzzled look and said, "Hey! Church is over." The guy just smiled and replied, "Maybe for you".

As I said, these probably won't be as funny to you, but I am laughing as I write them down.
Now I will leave you with another picture of Summer.

Good times.

Remember When? Here is a fun little game...Leave a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you've known me for a short time, or a long time, anything you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.On your mark...get set...blog your memories!!

One week old!

I cannot believe Summer is already a week old. She has been such a sweetie! I love the feeling we have in our house with a new baby around. We are all just so happy all of the time and seem to migrate to wherever she is. Mike is such a cute dad to her. He is cute with the boys too, but I can tell he is going to be extra protective of her. I think we all will be. She probably won't need it though. I put her on her belly for "tummy time" today and she held her head up and tried to pull herself forward. She is one strong little chica!!! She will need to be with two big brothers around. I could go on and on about her. She is such a fun addition to our family.



Here is Summer at the hospital right before we brought her home. It has been so fun to dress a little girl. I actually get a little excited when she spits up or has a blow out because it means I get to put her in another outfit. Boys have cooler toys but girls definitely have cuter clothes!
Tracy is very in love with his baby sister. Every morning he comes out of his room and asks where baby Summer is. Whenever someone comes to visit he asks them if they want to see him hug and kiss his baby sister. He loves to play with her toes and sing her "Twinkle Twinkle". (Everett joins in about every fifth word.) Whenever we drive somewhere he holds her hand and talks to her. I was trying to take pictures of her today and he wouldn't leave her side so I decided to make him a part of them. He told me he was worried I wasn't going to be careful enough. He is just so fascinated with how cute and little she is and what she is doing every minute of the day. She is so lucky to have big brothers to watch over her. In fact, yesterday Tracy said,"We have to take care of baby girls Mom". It was so sweet.
Today he was eating lunch and found a piece of noodle on the table. He looked up at me and asked, "Is this part of Summer's belly button?" Having a baby around has been a lot of fun for our family. She already has us all wrapped around her little finger.
Everett likes to have a turn holding her, but after a few seconds he says "done". He is always on binki patrol. Whether she wants it or not! He also likes to help me tuck her in and close her door so she can go "nigh-nigh". He is also in love with her. We just have to watch him more closely because he likes to play a little more roughly. He enjoys having someone sitting next to him in the car and narrate to me what she is doing. Most of the time it is "baby Summy sleeping."

A DAY AT THE SALON

Everything has been so crazy the last few weeks that certain things have been neglected. One of those things was my sons' hair. We finally drove them down to Capelli's to have Charity cut it. While we were there, Mike got some sexy highlights for fun. I feel bad for the salon because we were there for a couple of hours and our boys were all over the place.
A cute girl named Brandy cut Tracy's hair and Tracy wasted no time playing up the dramatics. He kept complaining about how bad his hair was itching after the haircut that she gave him a good rinse. We laugh because Charity has cut his hair so many times he knows she won't give in, but this girl totally pampered him and he loved every minute of it.
Everett didn't complain about itching, but he also didn't want to stay in the chair. Char'd ended up chasing him around the salon trying to get the final touches.

Oakley came to visit Tracy and that is when the real fun began. These pedicure stools became their "scooters" while Everett chilled under the dryer.

Real men wear caps.

It's SUMMER Time!!!

We are sooooo very excited to announce the arrival of our sweet little baby girl! Summer Daisy Bollinger was born on Friday, July 11, 2008. (Daisies were Leesa's Mother's favorite flower.) She weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces and was 20 inches long. We are all so in love with her and are excited to have her as part of our family. Leesa is still having a hard time getting used to saying little "girl" instead of boy and "her" instead of him. She is beautiful and perfect and healthy and we just love her. Also, I hope you all got your free slurpees today because it is, after all, 7-11.















The labor team. Charity, Angie (Leesa's doula) and Mike. I would not have made it through another natural birth without their support and patience. Thanks guys!!!
Everett and Tracy seem so grown up to me now. They were jumping around all morning when we told them we were going to the hospital to have the baby.









Tracy is very nurturing of his baby sister. He loves to kiss her and check her vitals. He always comments on how cute she is and how tiny her feet are to whomever he runs into. He is also telling everyone her name is Summer Bumble Bee (after his favorite Transformer).

Everett thinks she is a fun new toy but is much more interested in playing with Mommy's bed and all the tubes coming out of the walls. One of the reasons we decided on the name Summer was because it is so cute to hear him say "Summy".
Auntie Melody and Oakley. Oakley has promised to teach Summer how to be a princess because she only has older brothers.