1st week of 2012

Another week filled with good memories!

Sunday, January 1
After getting home late from our trip out East, we needed a day to catch our breath.  The boys didn't say much about Molly while we were away, but on our way home on Sat. evening, Dorian was asking if he could be the first one to hold her.  Nathan ended up driving over to Sheldon to pick her up in the morning.  :)  Mom said that she started running up and down the steps at her house so we figured it wouldn't be long before she would be going downstairs in our house, and we found that to be true.  :)

Monday, January 2
Levi was excited and came in to tell us that he had set out breakfast.  It was adorable.  There was this row of items on the counter.  :)  How sweet!

But we actually weren't going to eat breakfast at home.  Nathan went to work for the day, but since it was an official holiday, the boys and I did some things with family.  We went to the bakery in Sheldon to join mom, dad, grandma, Dave and Judy for breakfast.  The boys both picked out the biggest donut that they could find.  :)  Then we made our way back to Sioux Center and met up with Ryan and Heidi to have lunch with them and take the kids to the Aquatic Center.  As it turns out, that is what nearly all of the kids from Sioux Center thought that they would do before they went back to school so it was BUSY.  Then Nathan was planning on cooking Chineese food for supper so mom, dad and the DeKruyfs joined us that evening.  We made plans as we went and it turned out to be a busy, but fun day.

Tuesday, January 3
Nathan left for a work trip to Chicago in the morning and was due to come home again on Friday evening.  The boys and I were on our own.  Dorian's vacation from preschool was over and he was back again.  Levi and I went to Walmart for some groceries and to the coffee shop with some friends who meet there every week.  When we were all home again in the afternoon, I was excited about taking down our Christmas decorations and doing some cleaning.  Aniah and Eden came for a couple of hours and played with the boys.  In the evening, I had the idea of having a "camping" night by our fireplace stove.  So we brought up the boys sleeping bags, pillows, blankies and stuffed animals and I took up a mattress and we lined them up in front of the fireplace.  It was cozy and fun! 

Wednesday, January 4
After a night of "camping" with the boys and getting woken up around 5:15 by the dog, I was glad that we had planned on having cinnamon rolls for breakfast, my favorite.  And it was also a perfect morning for coffee.  We stayed in our pjs for a good part of the day and just planned on playing with our new Christmas presents and finishing up with putting Christmas decorations away.  I guess we did manage to take a walk over to the park in the afternoon.

Thursday, January 5
Dorian had preschool and after doing a few things around the house, I took Levi with me to look at the scrapbooking store in Rock Valley.  I am gearing up to get caught up with the boys scrapbooks!  After picking up Dorian from preschool we had planned on heading over to mom and dad's house for something to do while Nathan was gone.  It was such a warm day, 63 degrees!!!, that we met dad over his lunch break at the park in Sheldon and ate a picnic lunch together.  The boys were playing without their coats on because it was so beautiful!  We ended up staying there for over 3 hours.  :)  For supper, mom and dad took us to the Pizza Ranch and Dorian ate 4 pieces of pizza, 2 cups of water, dessert pizza and ice cream!  I guess he had burned a lot of energy playing outside all afternoon!  As I was hoping, the boys both fell asleep on the way home so putting them to bed was pretty easy.  :)

Friday, January 6
It was our last day without Nathan so I had asked Heidi if she could take the boys for a while.  I figured it would be good timing for a break.  I began putting an order together from Snapfish which took quite a long time.  I have been so disorganized for over a year that it took forever to find everything that I needed.  It was SO nice to have a quiet house and to be making progress on getting our pictures organized.  I really hope that some day soon I will catch up.  :)  After supper I read over 12 books to the boys and they were both sleeping by7:20...a record!  So I made monster cookies from some dough that I had in the freezer and kept working on picture organization until Nathan came home.  It was wonderful.

Saturday, January 7
You have to love Snapfish.  I was ready to order my pictures and then went again to see if there were any coupon codes that I could use.  I found out that if I spent $10 on a photo gift, I could get up to 500 prints for a penny each.  So as it turns out, I'll soon be getting over 500 photos and a new calendar (which I needed anyway) in the mail soon!  :)  Thanks to my husband for spending so much time with the boys so I could continue with my craziness.  The boys were thrilled to have some daddy time so it all worked out.  :)  After the boys were in bed, Nathan and I sat down to watch Sister Act together.  :)

Sunday, January 8...today
I'm REALLY looking forward to settling on a church home.  We went to a new church this morning and recognized some people, but didn't know hardly anything about them.  And there were even more people who we didn't even recognize and I'm getting tired of this.  Praying that the Lord would soon speak clearly to us about where our family can serve Him best. 

Coffee Break and MOPS start up again this coming week so I'm looking forward to that.  :)

New York & New Jersey

December 24 was our travel day.  We haven't flown with the boys since we've had to purchase them seats, but decided to take the plunge this time.  When we bought the tickets we thought that it would be nice not to have to drive on snowy roads.  As it turns out, there was no snow to be found this Christmas which made for very smooth flights!  The boys have been talking about getting to ride on an airplane for months so the anticipation of flying with them was exciting!  It was an adventure for them.  When we took off, Levi said "we're on top of the world!"  He also asked me, "Can we land on earth please mommy"  :)  It was also nice that it only took us 11 hours of traveling door to door instead of 22 hours which is what it would have taken to drive.

Christmas Day!  The boys each had a stocking filled with many fun surprises waiting for them when they woke up.  The whole family was able to be together!  We opened presents, went to church, and ate delicious food.

When we got home from church, the boys wanted to go and help Grandpa walk Bruno.  The boys were very excited that Grandpa and Grandma have a new dog!

I love Dorian's expressions on these pictures.  It just shows his joy!

Fun!  Dorian and Levi opened a guitar and a drum!  Dorian, we discovered, is a natural on the drum!

Uncle Drew was excited about the drum and the guitar as well since he could now have jam sessions with them.  :)

Nathan's mom made all the girls silk scarves which were beautiful!

In the evening, we went to Grandpa and Grandma Tintle's house.  As usual, their house was packed!  The boys discovered an antique pinball machine downstairs which is where they spent a good part of the evening.  :)  Grandpa had fun watching them.

December 26 was the day that Dorian and Levi made gingerbread houses with grandma!  I love this picture of Dorian because it shows him contemplating with excitement how he is going to decorate it.  He is good at making patterns and making sure everything is just right.

They are proud of their work!

In the afternoon we went to the veterinarian office to see where Grandpa was working.  The boys had a blast holding Tweety and letting her walk on them!

We also went to Jumping Jakes where the boys went on inflatable jumping toys and ran off some energy.

December 27:  Grandpa and grandma wanted to take the boys to their first movie in the theaters. So we watched Chipwrecked with the Chipmunks and ate popcorn!

December 28:  After lunch we drove down to spend some time in New York City.  As we were walking there, we passed many characters that wanted us to take pictures with them.  Dorian was feeling brave and wanted to do it too.  But Nathan didn't know that the stocking that each of them were holding weren't filled with treats, it was where you were supposed to put money in for the privilege of taking your picture with them.  :) 

Yeah!  The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree!  I'm not sure why it's so exciting to go and stand shoulder to shoulder in crowds to see it, but it is!  :)  The boys had lots of questions about city life as we walked for miles from our parking garage, to the tree, and to go out to eat.  I know we're not cut out to live there, but it was fun to visit.

 

December 29:  We spent the morning hanging out together.  The boys ate up the attention from Aunt Jillian. 

After eating lunch with the Tintles, we left to drive to the hotel that we were staying at while we visited with Brian, Katherine Mikayla and Caden!  It was fun because Kerry, Ashley, Emma and Claire were also visiting so we were able to all be together!  The hotel had a pool and the boys couldn't wait to go swimming!  After swimming Katherine made tacos for all of us and they were delicious!

December 30:  In the morning, everyone came over to swim again.  In the afternoon we took the kids to the bowling alley.  In the evening, we ordered food from Big Jims, Nathan's favorite place to eat when we are visiting.  It was wonderful because after the kids were done eating, they played so well that we could just sit and talk together! 

December 31:  Katherine's dad wanted to take the kids to the fire station to see the fire truck.  The boys were thrilled with that idea.  They sat in the truck, tried on the Firefighter gear, rang the bell and watched the bright flashing lights.

We left right after lunch to head back to the Newark airport.  It was so cute to see the boys with their backpacks and carrying their own luggage.  :) 

After we landed Nathan went to get our van while I pulled off our bags from the baggage claim.  You know you have too much luggage when you get asked, "Are you moving to Omaha?"  :)  Let's just say that we came home with more than we left with.  :)  It's great that bags are free on Southwest!  We arrived back home at 11:30, just before the New Year!

the Bolkema Christmas party

It was late afternoon on Friday, the 23rd when we drove over to mom and dad's house to celebrate Christmas together.  It felt strange since we've been traveling at least 12 hours for nearly 10 years to be with family over the holidays.  It felt strange that there was no snow.  And the other thing that made this Christmas not feel quite right was that Rodney was not there to celebrate with us.  Even though we enjoyed our evening, there was a sadness that he was missing.  Kerry did organize a time of remebrance for our family and she had some gifts for us to remember him by.  I received a beautiful quilt and the boys each received a teddy bear that were made from some of Rodney's clothes.  Nathan was given one of Rodney's ties.  

For supper we had a very delicious ham with many yummy side items to go with it.  Dorian taste tested the ham for us and gave it a thumbs up.  He asked me if he could have ham for supper because he really loved it.  :)

 Levi had a long narrow gift to unwrap and I think he tore the wrapping paper into 50 different little pieces.  :)  It was fun to watch him!  It was a tent.  And then dad came out with a gift for Dorian that was shaped the exact same way.  Hmmm...  Levi's tent has farm animals on it and Dorian's tent has a train on it.  They are adorable and I'm sure that the boys will use them often!

Dorian and Levi traded names with Aniah and Eden this year.  Dorian opened Dinosaur K'Nex and Levi opened a cash register.  Heidi said that there are only about 2 toys that the boys play with when they are over at her house, and a cash register was one of those things.  Levi was excited to have his own.  Dorian was thrilled when he found out that there was a button on his dinosaur to make it roar.

Then we opened a family gift.  Our very own Wii!  I didn't think the boys would know what it was, but they did since they have played it before with the Lamfers family.  I'm looking forward to some good family competition.  :)  Thanks Dad and Mom!