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.