Wrapping up 2013

The day after Christmas was much harder than I anticipated.  I had this great idea to have the boys build roads with masking tape to ride their matchbox cars on.  They had lots of new toys to play with.  We didn't have anything scheduled, so we could just be home and relax together.  It was going to be wonderful.  But instead, it was one of the hardest days I've had in quite a while.  Let's just say, parenting is hard and sometimes you just don't know what's best.  How do you fully love your kids and discipline appropriately for each child?  It was a reminder to me to put my relationship with God first in my life, and continually ask him to meet all of our needs.

These were some of the highlights from our day.  Dorian and Levi were playing with their BayBlades and laughing at Mason who was trying to catch them. 

Dorian and Levi were excited to play the new Star Wars Angry Birds game that I downloaded on my new iPhone!

Levi came down with a fever on Friday.  So Dorian, Mason, and I went to Sheldon to spend the night with the Bolkema relatives who were still visiting.  We ate tacos for supper and enjoyed playing some "Olympic Games" together.

On Sunday, Nathan and I took turns going to the early and late services at church.  When I got home, the boys had just finished making a volcano together!

 

Yesterday was the first day Levi didn't have a fever.  But I'm thankful that he's feeling better again!  Nathan worked in the morning and spent the afternoon helping Levi finish building his Lego ship and helping Dorian finish making an army tank out of cracker boxes that he started a long time ago.

Oh my!  We decided to see if Mason could walk behind this toy since he can walk holding onto our hands...and he CAN.  He was giddy.  He's not very good at it yet, but he sure thought he was pretty awesome.  :) 

In the evening, we invited Mom and Dad to join us for supper, to play games and celebrate New Year's Eve with us.

Christmas Day

Mason's first Christmas!
Time to open their stocking gifts.

I love giving the boys a new ornament for the tree each year.

We went to the Christmas morning service in Sheldon.  Even though it was busy to get out the door and to church in Sheldon  by 9:30, I love making that the priority for Christmas day.  We had lunch at Mom and Dad's house and played some games together in the afternoon. 

Levi was going around taking pictures of everyone and this is the only picture that I have of myself with the new dress that I got from Mom and Dad Tintle.  I love it!

We found out that Cara and Drew are expecting a baby in July and I can't wait!!!  It will be so fun to have cousins for the boys to play with on the Tintle side of the family.

We went home in the afternoon to have a family night together.  I was very excited for the boys to open the matching pajamas that I bought for them!  They opened a new Curious George movie and we had a Monkey Movie Night.  :)

 

The boys are used to going to bed around 7:00 so Nathan and I played a couple of games together, made thimble cookies, and went to bed early ourselves.

Our lives are FILLED with many good things.

Christmas Party #3 and #4

Christmas Eve

This was the day that we chose to have a Christmas party with our family. 
We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast...my favorite. 

We were blessed with another beautiful sunrise.  Dorian and Levi were admiring it with me as well.

Another blessing was that Dorian and Levi, instead of wanting to rip open their presents first, wanted Nathan and I to open the gifts that they had made for us at school.  It was precious and so thoughtful.  We love the angel, bookmarks and picture that Levi made.  And we love the snowman that Dorian made.  They were certainly made with lots of love.

This was another gift that the boys spent a long time on.  One day after school, Dorian had an idea to make Nathan and I gifts.  They spent about an hour downstairs making paper plate shakers and carefully wrapping them all up.  It was precious.

The boys, as expected, were very excited and couldn't wait to open their presents.

Levi had really been wanting his very own recorder!

Nathan tells me that I'm sometimes too practical when it comes to gift giving.  We decided together to order a couple of things from a store called JMCremps which sells only boy toys.  :)  Dorian got a Bow and Arrow and Levi got a stomp rocket.  :)

 

The boys were excited to give Nathan notes telling him that we are going to take him to a Skyforce basketball game together as a family.  The notes are precious.

I was very excited to give Mason a cute stuffed bunny named Henley.  I hope he loves to cuddle with it.  :)

Nathan completely surprised me with a new iPhone.  I guess I had made too many comments about how we were really behind the times with not having a smartphone.  He's enjoyed my new toy as well!  :)

I think all of the pictures accurately describe our day together.  We had lots of fun!


In the evening Great Grandma invited us to celebrate with the extended Bolkema family which was also a lot of fun.  We did the traditional things of having pizza for supper, playing in the gym, playing Bingo and eating lots of sweet Christmas treats.  But we also did a couple of new things together:  an ugly Christmas sweater contest and shooting Nerf darts at gift cards.  The gift cards were supposed to be for Nathan and I, but we let the boys shoot for us and when Levi got a Culvers gift card, he was jumping up and down with excitement and claimed it as his own.  :)

Dorian and Levi took home many little Bingo prizes and a wooden bowling set from Grandma.

Christmas Party #2

Saturday: December 21

Celebrating Christmas with the Bolkema's at Mom and Dad's house.

 

Mom made a delicious brunch with we all enjoyed together and then we opened presents.

 

Mason's new chair is absolutely adorable and it's even cuter when he sits in it!  :)

I love it that the boys have cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents who all make our parties special.  It's kind of crazy, but a lot of fun!

Levi and Dorian had fun modeling their new hats and gloves.  They will certainly stay warmer at recess time now!  They thought they looked like Ninjas!  :)

Mason spotted Toby who was watching the party through the window.  :)

We were excited to give Grandpa and Grandma a couple of new games to play.

In the afternoon we went roller skating.  Dorian and Levi both did great this year!  Nathan and I had a lot of fun skating as well.

We had a delicious ham for supper.  Thanks for making all of the food, giving generous gifts to each of us, and for making our day together so special Mom and Dad.

The next day Dorian and Levi couldn't wait to get their new Lego sets put together.  Dorian worked non-stop until his Warrior Bike was completed and he wanted me to take a picture of him with it.  :)