Our tour of Florida

When we arrived in Florida, Matt went and picked up our rental. We were very relieved that it had stow-n-go seats otherwise we may not have fit with all of our stuff (Matt, Noah, Mom, Amy, Brilei and I). We made it to my gramma's safe and sound. We had some good times with gramma and Barby before heading to Gainesville for New Years Eve. We stayed with Katie and Jimmy while we were in Gainesville and had a blast hanging out with everyone on New Years Eve at the Williams'. We were so into our game of "What if" that we missed the ball drop!

The next day we headed out to the Birketts' to watch the Gators play...yes, it was a loss, but the time wasn't. We had lots of fun catching up the last six months with everyone.

That afternoon we played some games and then went over for our "Christmas Dinner" with Dean. We ate some really good food and exchanged gifts, but Noah was getting tired and we need to put him to bed, so we went back to The Whitlocks for bedtime.

The following morning we headed back towards Tampa and had Christmas Dinner with my mom's family. Barby finished her original painting for Noah's wall! Here is Noah admiring his new piece of art.



We also enjoyed playing Bohnanza and Hurricane, which we borrowed from the Whitlocks. The following day, we saw David, Leigh Anne, Shay Lynn, and Tomi . Leigh Anne hosted a Pampered Chef party and recieved $215 dollars in free products and 3 1/2 off items!!! Her show also helped get me to $3000 in sales in Jan! It was so fun hanging out with the four of them for a little while.

Saturday, we headed to Withlacoochee River Park to gather with the Hughlett family. We ate like kings, because thats what the Hughletts do! It was great seeing everyone who was able to make it out to the park.These are a couple different group shots because some left early and some came a little later.



Charlie Showing Noah how it is done!



Noah showing Charlie how it is done...Just look at that form! For those who do not know, Charlie will be playing college football as a long snapper...as far as I know, where is not decided yet.



Beautiful Julianne stops to pose for me.



That night we made our way to Gainesville and stayed with the Whitlocks again. Sunday morning we were able to go back to our church (the building) in Gainesville. It was nice getting to see everyone there. We also went out to eat after church with several of our friends. That afternoon I held a Pampered Chef Fundraiser for our Costa Rica mission team. If you do not already know, Matt and I are going to Costa Rica with the UF Christian Campus House in March. This fundraiser helped us in two ways.

My commision is paying for our trip and the fundraising money is going to be divided among the team. Matt and I are also going to try to organize a fundraiser breakfast or dinner to raise funds for our mission. Monday, we finally got to see Joel, Jen, and Evan. It was so good that they got in before we left because we were missing them terribly.

We also got to visit with Beth and Jordan on our tour and that was great too. We missed seeing a few people though. My dad and his family are he first ones we didn't get to see. We also missed seing my great friend Bran Dee, but I think she may come and visit us sometime! The last few days we spent with my gramma. While we were there, we had to take Noah back to the Dr. He still had an ear infection and she put him back on antibiotics. As I am writing this, I am preparing to take him back to the doctor because I think he may have an ear infection again. My gramma took us back to the airport and we made it home by 10pm that night.

Very eventful few weeks...now over a month!

Hi all! I have really been neglecting the blog lately and there are plenty of people who are depending on me to keep this up so they can keep up with us! Matt and I have been enjoying recent success in our jobs. I just passed $5000 in sales with the Pampered Chef and Matt is adding new clients with his nutrition business.

Since the last post, so much has happened. Noah is continuing to have potty successes. On the 21st of December, we were blessed with a full house of guests. Dan and Lynn were planning to stay with us, but we were also fortunate to have Dave, Christa, Travis and Rebecca Jensen stay with us the night before and during the Jensen Christmas. The weather was bad so they asked if they could come up so that they would be able to be there for the Christmas celebrations. We told them that the inn wasn't full yet, so come on over.


After gifts were opened on the 22nd, the men went on a buffalo hunt. Grampa's buffalo had managed to escape and Matt, Marque, Dave Jensen and Grampa went on the chase. Needless to say, there we 4 very cold men when they were finished. We played some games, but the most enjoyed was definately "What if," a game that our good friend Jen Searby taught us. Some of the best rounds we wrote down. They are never as funny if you were not there, but for everyone who was there here they are:

Q: What if brown cows gave chocolate milk?
A: Then I'd diet.

Q: What if I were big?
A: Too bad!

Q: What if Nicole was a Bolin?
A: Christmas would smell different.

Q: What if Travis got an F on a paper?
A: Then we would have a funny funeral

Q: What if Christmas was everyday?
A: The more the merrier

Q: What if I could not think of a what if question?
A: I don't want to think about it!

Q: What if Anthony didn't like the Packers?
A: Then he'd be a Vikings fan

Q: What if football wasn't so important to men?
A: Kathy would be excited!

Q: What if it didn't snow?
A: Then I'd be mad.

Q: What if Mary (gramma) moved to Tx?
A: She wouldn't be so chubby


Q: What if gramma J couldn't cook?
A: That would be ok.

Q: What if Ashley was shy?
A: She'd be sick

Q: What if we all got snowed in?
A: It couldn't happen!

I think we have a video to post on someones camera. When I figure out whose, we will post it.


The following morning the Jensen's went to church with us in Waverly and then treated us to lunch at the Pizza Ranch (a pizza buffet in Waverly). Dave and Christa also brought gifts for their bed tax- habeneros, egg rolls, and homemade pestos. We haven't used any of them yet, but we are waiting on our oven to get fixed! It broke the Sunday morning when everyone was here. It has yet to be fixed, but the repair man is suppossed to be coming today...and snow is also on its way, so we will see which gets here first.


That same day, my mom (Noah's Baga), my sister Amy, and Brilei finally made it into Des Moines after hours of delays. We were so happy that their flight was not cancelled! We made it home that night around 1am. Then after we had all piled out of the car, we realized we had been locked out of the house. Matt found us a way in and we were so glad because we were all so ready for a bed. The next day we had Christmas with the Bolin clan. It was fun to have all of us together again. We had a great Christmas dinner Pam made and had fun opening gifts together. We were all pretty beat from our late night airport stay, so we headed out to get some rest for the Christmas eve festivities that night. We went to the Vineyard for the candlelight Christmas Eve service. Afterwards, we enjoyed chili and oyster stew Gramma Mary had prepared. The boys and Amy enjoyed playing guitar hero on Amy's wii and ther rest of us played "What if" again. We had some great laughs. When we went home, Mom, Amy and I did some last minute wrapping before Santa Clause was to come. Then we all headed to bed.


Christmas morning, we had fun watching Brilei open her presents. Noah like to open presents too, but his attention span just didn't hold as long. Mid-morning we went to Gramma and Grampa Bolin's house to celebrate with the extended Bolin family. We got to see all of the family there which was really great. When we left there, we headed home to get our warm stuff on so that we could go sledding in the Bolin's pasture, and did we ever! Everyone went down at the slopes and we all had a blast!


As for the rest of the time my family was here, we played scrabble at the Bolins which my mom and Amy proved to be a deadly team. On the 27th, we got to visit with the Harveys and played Cranium WOW! We also played "what if" again with the Bolins and we wrote down some of the favs from that round too.

Q: What if all of the Bolins could play the Star-Spangled Banner on the nose flute?
A: We would ask them to move to the next room


Q: What if Nicole bought a ring for James?
A: It would only crush James' spirit more in the end


Q: What if Nicole said "No?"
A: That wouldn't surprise me


Q: What is Brilei already graduated from Pre-K?
A: Then all that giberish would make some sense


Q: What if Obama was a republican?
A: He'd be on star search


My mom spent some time sewing while she was here. She made a little house for Noah that fits over top of the card table. He has a lot of fun in it. She also made the four of us girls scarfs that matched. We took Noah to the pediatrician and found out he had a throat and ear incfection. The following night, we took calzone to Gramma Mary's house (because our oven was broken). Noah ended up spiking a fever that read 103.2 on the thermometer under his arm when he yanked it out. Matt and I took him to the hospital and we were there for about 4 hrs. We found out one good piece of info- we could give him a higher dose of fever reducer.


The next day we went to church, then loaded all of our stuff up into the van (minus one of the seats) and headed to Des Moines to fly to warm Florida for 12 days.