November 2018

Emilia Claire
November 3, 2018
6 pounds 10 ounces, 18 1/2 inches
We have a new niece! The boys have another cousin!  We can't wait to meet her in person!  She is adorable! Congratulations Drew, Cara and Maddie!

Launch Pad Children's Museum
I love having Friday's with Mason.

Fishing
Fishing wasn't going so well this time as the lake was frozen over but not enough to go ice fishing.

Pets
Levi loves his animals!

Dessert
Dad likes to make dessert with Mason on Sunday afternoons.  This time Mason requested a layered chocolate cake (which was a reward he earned).

Games and Drawings
Dorian learned how to play the game Farkle with his classmates when they went to visit the residents at the Retirement Home.  He came home and taught us how to play and it's been one of Mason's favorite games lately!  He is getting really good at adding numbers all the way up to 10,000!!!  I'm super impressed!

Dorian looked up how to draw in 3D and made this!

Levi picked out this picture online and made a drawing of it!  Love each of their creativity!

Brotherly Love
This was not staged...and I got a picture without them noticing!

This was not staged either!  Dorian was home sick for a week and one morning he offered to listen to Mason read.  Yes, Mason is reading!  It's impressive how much he's learning this year in Kindergarten!

Christmas

I typically try not to think much about Christmas until after Thanksgiving, but this year was not the case.  I've been wanting either a new tree skirt or something different to put around the base of our Christmas tree and when I was shopping with Janey, I found a wood box that I loved.  We decided we could make them ourselves much cheaper so we went to the lumber store together to pick out wood!  It was a fun project and I love how it turned out!

Bowling
We had a fun evening out with the Boogerd family!

Thanksgiving Break
Nathan spent a couple of days working at the cabin.  The boys and I finished decorating the house for Christmas!

We also went to Sioux City to do a couple of errands and discovered that the movie theater there has reclining seats which were quite comfy!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Mason is thankful for Spring, Fall, Halloween, Christmas Tree, Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, Games, Christmas, Winter, My Dog, My Mom and Dad, My Family, Summer.
I absolutely love it that he spelled them all himself!

Once everyone in our family filled out their leaves, it made a beautiful wreath!  We have so many reasons to be THANKFUL!!!

After our church service, we joined the rest of the Bolkema family at Dad and Mom's house for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner!  I was thankful that Brian, Katherine, Mikayla and Caden could come for the weekend!
On Friday we had a crafting day!  There were plenty of craft supplies to go around and everyone's creativity was sparked!

The boys even got to do some woodworking!

These were some of the completed projects that we got to take home!

On Friday night we had a Christmas party since we won't all be together for Christmas this year.  The kids all had a stocking filled with gifts and each family received a new game to play!

Nathan put in a day of work on Saturday and I took the boys to play with their cousins at Grandpa and Grandma's house!  Brian mowed up all the leaves and then the kids had fun giving mower rides!

Christmas Concert
Levi was thrilled that the 4th graders were chosen to sing along with Jill Miller at her Christmas Concert.  She is a Nashville recording artist that performs with her own band.  Levi came home from school telling me that he gets to sing with a famous singer and, after practicing, he was elated for us to come and hear it!  What a joy his enthusiasm is!  Proud of him for doing a wonderful job!

Christmas is coming
Through all the busyness of the season, it doesn't get much more peaceful than this.

October 2018

Sandy Hollow
Mom and Dad set up their camper for the Tri-state weekend at Sandy Hollow and watched Eden and Adria during the days they didn't have school.  We joined them one day to play some games and catch frogs!

Happy Birthday!!!
12 years old on the 12th of October.  Happy Golden Birthday, Dorian!

Your brothers couldn't wait until after school to give you their presents!

Mason drew heart pictures and gave gummy worms.

Levi picked out ice fishing lures he was certain his brother would like!

So sweet of them!

For supper Dorian picked homemade pizza.
Dorian decided at the beginning of the summer to accept a mowing job from the Rens' and decided on saving some of the money and purchasing his own ice shack.  He followed through on that commitment even though the summer was hot and it rained a lot (which meant the grass was always ready to be mowed each week!).  He picked out an ice shack online and purchased it with his own money and it arrived just in time for his birthday weekend.  Impressive Dorian!

We gave him a few items he'll be needing when he goes ice fishing!

The Bolkema's came the day after your birthday to celebrate with you!  I was really excited to try 6 different kinds of GOLDFISH for the party.  The theme was anything golden and anything related to fishing!

The Lamfers' picked out a few lures from Uncle Rodney's tackle box that they thought you'd like!

The DeKruyf's picked out LEGOs and mini M&M's so you could build another candy machine!

Grandpa and Grandma found a Fishing Monopoly game, an ice fishing book and LEGO's to add to your collection!

Cookies and Cream ice cream cake for dessert, at your request!  We love you buddy and pray for a great year ahead for you!!!

Snow
On October 14 we woke up to lots of snow!

It was a perfect Sunday morning to fit in a round of Fishing Monopoly before church!

Dorian's completion of another candy machine.

Flag Football
Levi signed up with a friend to play Flag Football on Thursday nights this Fall.  He loved it and we enjoyed watching him!

Grandparent's Day
Grandparent's Day is such a special day at school for the boys!  I'm so thankful that both Grandpa and Grandma Bolkema and Grandpa and Grandma Tintle could go this year!

We also got to celebrate Dorian's birthday while Grandpa and Grandma Tintle were here!

12 candles on one piece of ice cream cake might have been a little much!

Dorian was excited to get more ice fishing gear!

We spent the day on Saturday with them at the cabin doing some geocaching and playing games.

Conferences
Nathan and I went to parent teacher conferences and we were excited to hear from each of their teachers.  Mason's teacher showed us this LEGO creation that Mason worked on at school during his play time!  Love it.

Paper creations
The boys continue to love making stuff out of paper.  Nice bow and arrow Levi!

Shopping
Nathan offered to hold down the fort at home so that I could go on an overnight shopping trip with friends to Omaha!  They went to the cabin and fished!  Not a huge surprise there!  But what was surprising was how many fish they caught!  They said they caught a fish almost every time they threw their line in the water.  They had the fish filleted so we will be having multiple meals of fish!

It's also not too surprising that Nathan took them to try out a new restaurant!

Thankful for quality time with friends!!!

October 31
We don't have enough leaves on our yard to make a big leaf pile, but the neighbors do!  It was a family effort to rake their leaves so that Dorian could mow.  Levi and Mason took full advantage to the large leaf pile to play in!

Our family all ended up at the Halleluiah party.  We spent very little time figuring out costumes but they all had fun playing games and winning prizes!

We spotted Adria there too!

The golf challenge was perfect for my little Golfer!

Nathan took his Cadet group to our house after the Halleluiah party so they could work on the baking badge.  A busy, but fun, night.