Where In The World Is Kristin Bolling?

Have you ever seen that week long segment on the Today Show where they send one of their hosts to different countries and you have to figure out, based on some clues or background sceneries, where they are? I feel like I am the host in question.  Over the last 3.5 weeks, I have traveled to (3) different cities for (3) different National competitions/games.  It was a ton of fun.  It was extremely expensive. And if I am honest, it was slightly exhausting.  Haha. It would have been nice for these events to be spread out over the course of the Summer, but I had zero control over the when! 

Happy Father's Day! ~ 2019

One of my favorite holidays to celebrate with my little tribe is Father's Day because my children truly have one of the best men this world could offer them. I believe he is "THE BEST"! And he deserves a special day, set aside, just for him.

Sadie and Simon's Christmas

I've shared these thoughts just recently, but everyone that I purchase gifts for is considered in great lengths. EVEN OUR DOGS! 

Our dogs are truly treated like "royalty" and that is exactly why I HAD to buy that (above) $40.00 Rae Dunn dog bed as soon as I spotted it.  This was an item that I have been on the hunt for.   know, white dog bed, seems crazy, but they've had it for a good three weeks now and it's still very white.  My dogs are CLEAN!

Sadie and Simon always get a Christmas stocking filled with new toys and new treats. Sadie is always so A.D.D. on Christmas morning. She has to be RIGHT in the middle of us and paces the living room floors, so this year I tried a LARGE, candy cane rawhide shaped bone.  It was a HUGE blessing because it kept her fully entertained AND STILL for 45 minutes.  

See what I mean?? Every time we opened a gift, we started to throw our wrapping paper and boxes in the same spot and Sadie NEVER moved.  She received a royalty bed, but chose to be in the midst of it all.  If you are looking for a true family dog... a Rhodesian Ridgeback would be it.

And I always buy Simon new clothing.  He's not really a fan of clothing, but in the Winter, it's sorta critical for him. I bought two hoodies.  One said "Fierce", the other said, "Hangry".  I decided to only keep one. The word "fierce" fit him better.

Oh I could eat him up with a spoon.  He's so adorable.

 They also received a new water bowl by Rae Dunn!

To say they are spoiled is an understatement, but these dogs give me the MOST unconditional love ever and I feel so incredible lucky to have them! Besides, if you're going to have a dog, be the best dog owner you can be. Seriously!  

Annie- Practices

Here is proof that we did a ton of ANNIE practicing.  MOST of it was just goofing around, as you can see, but we did have a blast in the process. P.S. We are NOT singers in our family.  LOL!!!!

Happy 41st Birthday Darren!

To my FABULOUS husband,

May I have 41+ more years in this life, with you, until eternity!!!

Lilah and Jax worked on a birthday banner, one day after school, for their daddy! We hung it up during his morning shower.  He was surprised when he came down.

I greeted Darren with his favorite coffee, from the Fresh Market, on the morning of his birthday!

In addition, I purchased (2) handpainted canvases of our dogs: Simon and Sadie.  

I gave Michelle, the artist, (2) photos of Sadie and Simon and she replicated them perfectly, on canvas.  Darren joked and said, "I see you bought yourself a gift on my birthday!"  

Michelle loved Sadie's canvas so much, she now wants a Rhodesian Ridgeback.  LOL!

These photos will be forever precious to me.  They now hang in our kitchen.  Darren also joked and said, "Can we keep the artwork and get rid of the dogs!" 

At lunch, he was greeted with a lightbox note... LOLOLOLOL!  We are MARRIED.

Then, I switched it to "Eat Fit Cake" before my children got home.  LOL! I didn't want to make them gag.  Hahahahahaha.  

Darren refuses to eat dessert, so peanut butter was another gift that I purchased for him.  It took the place of a birthday cake. Snore!

 After work, we decided take Darren out to eat.  He chose Longhorn Steakhouse.  BUT FIRST, gifts.

We bought him new barstools. He has been egging for barstools to replace the old, crappy ones, in our family office.  

Darren treated himself to an iPhone X and I bought him the wireless charger for it. The SAME day we were gifting it to him, an amazon box arrived, with the same dang item inside.  

We also bought him Bose Wireless Headphones and a bottle of his favorite scotch, for his scotch collection.

After gifts, off to dinner we went.  

We are so very thankful for this man.  He is simply amazing. He cares for us so well.  Truly, he ever disappoints us.  The best gift I ever received was given to me on Sunday, February 27, 1977.  

Darren, I pray you felt loved, cherished, and valued on your special day, BECAUSE you are!  "And many more..."

Rae Dunn Inspired...

Each year, I find something REALLY nice, personalized, affordable, in style, trendy, and/or GORGEOUS that I want to give to SO MANY people, so I do. LOL!  The items either fit the person, the budget, the need, the category, OR I just love it so much that I want everyone to have it. This year, there were two items that I was a little obsessed with giving.  The first... were these Rae Dunn, inspired Christmas ornaments. I gave them to school teachers, the principal, the bus driver, Sunday school teachers, business owners, our pastors, my nail technician/friend, special friends near and far, my in-laws, and several other people. If you received one and now feel like this was just something I gave to everyone... DON'T THINK THAT WAY.  It truly is something I LOVED so much that I wanted everyone, I love, to have .  My hope is that this item is used year round because Rae Dunn is that type of product. OH AND... I even bought 10 of these ornaments for my tree.  I didn't take photographs of EVERY ornament I purchased, but here are a few of the ornaments I did take photos of.

Apparently, I forgot to take a photo of my personalized ornament.  LOL!

My Christmas tree was gorgeous and so special because of THESE ornaments.  

I bought (12) ornament hangers at A.C. Moore, but sadly it wasn't enough.  When I went to buy more, they were GONE and they aren't getting anymore in until next year.  A few of my recipients didn't receive one, so I am going to check Amazon and see if I can get more. Basically, all of that to say... I bought close to 25 of these ornaments if not MORE!

I gave these ornaments a special touch of my own by adding the gorgeous and very popular buffalo plaid ribbon (which by the way was IMPOSSIBLE to find this season).

I am even excited to have one for my desk.  I love anything LIPS, LipSense, or LipBoss related.

These special ornaments can be ordered at Four Seasons Gifts.  My girlfriend, Carmen, owns this shop.  There is truly NOTHING I haven't liked that she has made.  She's very talented.  As the old saying goes, "Find something you love and be sure to buy it in every color!"  Rae Dunn only comes in black and white, so I bought 30+ in the same color, just different names.

Thanksgiving 2017

Our Thanksgivings are always spent together, just the five of us.  We have built our own little traditions and each year, we add a little something to it.

I woke up extra early and set the breakfast table really cute. Even Darren looks forward to this.

Breakfast consisted of eggs, bacon, muffins, orange juice, and fruit!

The turkey plates were BEYOND simple... seriously just throw stuff on a plate and add a turkey face.  My turkey faces came from Thanksgiving napkins I had.  LOL! I wish I was an artist, but I am just NOT.

I set out all of our Drumstick Dash items: t-shirts, bandanas, and hot hands.

Even though this breakfast was healthy, I felt like it was time to  "Break Out The Stretchy Pants".

We set out for the race! We always walk it because the dogs can't run.  Simon is terrified of all of the pot holes and comes to a complete stop, which is like slamming on your brakes on the interstate, when we are about to cross over one.

I am thankful that there are perfectly good strangers willing to capture our entire family.  I am also tickled that the dogs even posed.

Jax wore this Santa hat the entire time AND made it to the Roanoke Times newspaper/online gallery because of it.  Haha.  

I always love capturing our beautiful downtown buildings.

Pre-Race photos.  

It took us quite a while to get to the 1 mile mark.  The beginning race is just so congested.  We always like to beat our time from the year before, but we could tell we probably wouldn't do so.  

Santas...

Capturing our time during the walk.  My girl didn't complain ONCE! I was beyond proud.

Hotel Roanoke!

This turkey always helps us to know we are VERY CLOSE to the finish line.  He stands about 1/4 mile from it.  He personally thanked my kids and said, "Because of you all, others are able to eat today!"

And there you have it... we didn't beat our time from last year AND WE WALKED crazy fast. The crowds were just too difficult to gain any kind of speed the first 35 minutes.  Last year, we finished in 1 hour and 6 minutes.  Oh well... who's keeping score.

We snagged the news reported, who captured Jax Santa crossing the finish line and asked her to take our photo with my cell phone.  Love THIS photo.  

We came home and ate breakfast again and relaxed.  Some of us were exhausted.  Even Jax and Sadie took a cat dog nap!

We didn't have to worry about spending hours and hours in the kitchen cooking. Darren treated our family to dinner at Shula's.

We took a few photos to capture our time together.

Ty desperately needs a haircut, but has decided to take a bribe and try to grow it out.  Ugh... such a bad time of year to grow out your hair.  He has a fro.

Our waiter was Virginia Tech tight end Dakota Jackson.  He even had on his VA Tech bowl ring.  It was gorgeous.  

After dinner, we went to see "Daddy's Home 2".  This may just be another new added tradition.  We literally had the entire theatre to ourselves.  

The movie was funny, but slightly inappropriate for my twins.  It was rated P-13, so Jax received one of his Christmas gifts that he requested from Santa that night... hahah. He asked Santa to "be able to watch PG-13 movies".  LOL! Weird request, but true.  I will be doing a post on the piñata later today.  I hope you and your family or friends had a fabulous Thanksgiving!