32 weeks

I love it that I can be a part of some of the special events that the boys have at school!

 

Dorian's class had a Bowl-A-Thon to support Christian's family as he undergoes his chemo treatments.  

Levi's class had a Muffins with Mom morning!  We decorated a snowman together and Levi served me some delicious muffins!

The boys had a 2 hour delay from school yesterday and I was kind of bummed because I was just gearing up to get some scrapbooking done and was looking forward to the morning to do that.  However, Heidi offered to take Levi for the afternoon to play with Eden and I took her up on it!  Unexpectedly, I ended up not doing any scrapbooking, but a lot of picking up and organizing.  These were some of the pictures that were on our fridge.  The bottom 2 are Levi's beautiful and colorful creations.  Dorian made an entire book for me!  It goes like this:  "There was a lion in the forest.  There was a little boy went into the forest.  But there was a lion but the boy just kept going onto the forest.  But the little boy didn't like getting bit from the lion."  It's beautifully illustrated and stapled together and I love it!  Then there is a rocket that he made to give to daddy after he returned from his trip to Washington DC this past week.  And I love the snowflake that he made to look like an alien.  :)  And I also love the picture he brought home from school one day that says, "Thank you for the coces (cookies) I love you."  It's inspired me to make him cookies for an afternoon snack.  :)

I am now 32 weeks along and starting my 8th month of pregnancy!!!  At my Dr's appointment this afternoon, Levi got to help with finding the babies heart beat. :)  And I scheduled 4 more appointments in March and one in April!  I'm getting to know the scheduler, nurse and doctor quite well over at the Sioux Center Medical Clinic.
I was super excited to order wipes and newborn diapers and Levi shared in my excitement this morning when the diapers arrived on our doorstep!  They are VERY tiny.

I've been having a lot of fun getting the nursery all ready and looking cozy.  Levi wanted to be in all of the pictures that I was taking this morning.  :)

It was a lot of fun to take out the little tiny clothes that the boys used to wear.  And it was fun to go shopping this past Saturday to buy a new little outfit to take our little boy home from the hospital in!  :)  Speaking of shopping, I ended up shopping in Sioux Falls since Nathan wanted to take the boys tubing there.  I really didn't need anything and it would have been better on the budget not to go.  :)  But it was a lot of fun to leisurely stroll through Hobby Lobby, Younkers, Menards, Babies R Us, Target and World Market.

I'm loving how the animal ABC cards look up on the walls! 

I have to admit, sometimes I just go and sit in the rocker to soak it all in.  :)  And then I usually find something to rearrange or to do.  But my list is getting pretty short...things are nearly all in place.

The boys are getting more excited and wanted to begin a countdown already.  :) 
53 days until March 23!

Jaguars

Funny story.

I was watching Eden and Adria this afternoon.  Levi was showing Eden a paper that he made at church that was covered with band-aids.  They had read the Bible story of the 10 Lepers.  She asked what the band-aids were for and Levi said, "There was mans called jaguars."

And I cracked up laughing!  He thought that the 10 Lepers were leopards, thus he called them jaguars!  :)  I don't think he got much out of that Bible story. :)

Happy New Year!

On New Year's  Day the boys woke up coughing a lot.  We ended up staying home most of the day and then went up to Sioux Falls to pick up Mom and Dad Tintle from the airport!  We were excited to celebrate Christmas with them, excited that the boys could spend some quality time with them, and excited that we didn't have to travel this Christmas.  The boys were thrilled to ride on the moving ramps at the airport, see some planes, and to see Grandpa and Grandma!  We went out for supper at Granite City which was delicious, but it was evident that Dorian was wiped out from his cough and needed to get some rest. 
The next morning (Wednesday) we had a Christmas party together.  We ate delicious food (including some of the Christmas cookies that the boys decorated), opened gifts, listened to Christmas music, and enjoyed each others company.

The boys opened a new Beyblade dome and beyblades to go with it!  After getting it set up and figuring out how it worked, the boys were both having a lot of fun with it!!!

On Thursday, we went up to Sioux Falls to spend a couple of days there.  We stayed overnight at the Ramkota which had an indoor water park that was perfect for the ages that the boys are at.  They really enjoyed the big water slide!

On Friday, we went to the Science Center and Cinedome at the Washington Pavilion.  What a fun spot! 

On Saturday, we swam in the morning at the hotel and in the afternoon we went to the Butterfly House.  I decided it would be fun to touch a sting ray and also thought it would be good for my kids to see me being brave.  But the funny thing is that when I actually did touch it, I freaked out.  :) 

Nathan, Dorian and Levi each touched a baby shark!!!

The butterflies were beautiful and it was quite calming and relaxing to watch them.

Dorian and Levi had fun looking at the butterfly chart and identifying some of the different kinds they saw.

 

 

We enjoyed doing things together that the boys enjoyed doing!  However, we did not ever ask the boys where they wanted to eat because it would have been McDonalds, Chuck E. Cheese, etc.  Instead, Nathan looked up some fun new restaurants and we ate very well!!!  Nathan and I also got to enjoy 2 evenings of free childcare while his parents were visiting.  :)

 

It was a fun start to a new year!

Christmas is here!

Christmas Day
On Christmas morning, it was fun to wake up at Mom and Dad's house and the boys were excited that "Santa" did come to bring stocking presents.  It's not a secret at our house that Santa is not real...but Levi is at the age where he is having trouble distinguishing reality from fantasy and seemed quite convinced that Santa did bring him presents during the night.  :)

It was a super cold morning...I think there was a high of like 6 degrees that day.  After having washed the van the day before, we were unable to get our van doors to close all the way that morning.  So we listened to beeping all the way to church and even had to stop to push the sliding door closed after it was pulled open by the wind on our drive!  I've never had that before. 

We had a delicious ham and everything to go with it for lunch on Christmas day.  Lyle and Brenda, Jim and Lavonne, and Grandma also joined us.  After we ate, mom played Christmas carols while we all sang together.  I enjoyed that.  What I didn't enjoy quite as much was the fact that my 2 boys were pestering my cousin, Nathan, and didn't want anything to do with calming down to sing.  I am glad however, that they love to play with him so much.  :)

Almost everybody played games in the afternoon.  There was an intense game of Monopoly going on in the kitchen.

And there were a couple of good games going on in the sunroom.  Dorian learned how to play Dominoes and really enjoyed that.  The boys both bounced around to the different game tables, sitting on different people's laps.  :) 

Friday: December 28
Grandma had rented the gym at the Village to have the Bolkema Christmas party.  She treated us to pizza for supper and then those who were willing and able played a game of volleyball.  I would have played if my belly wasn't the size of the volleyball.  :)  It was fun to watch the boys though!

Then we played Bingo and picked some fun gifts off of the prize table!  And we laughed a lot opening white elephant gifts.  Nathan couldn't figure out how to button up his blanket...but Levi thought it was the best gift ever.  He cuddled up next to Nathan for nearly the rest of the night!

That's a nice look Levi!  :)

Dad looked good in his new reindeer antlers.  :)

And the girls looked quite handsome in their new moustaches.  :)

It turned out to be a late night, but it was a lot of fun!!!

Saturday: December 29
Nathan needed the day to work, so I took the boys to Sheldon to enjoy another day with family.  Dave and Judy and Holli and Matt were there so it was nice to visit more with them.  Dorian and Levi especially enjoyed playing with Caleb.  In the afternoon, we took the kids to the roller skating rink!  Dorian was quite hesitant about it, but after about an hour, he was skating on his own!!!  Levi's skates were a little easier and he did great on his own as well!

Dorian and Ashley came super close to winning one of the skating games.  :)

I'm thankful for family!  Thankful for all of the new memories that we could make together this Christmas!