Noah's word of the day (yesterday)

As we were driving home from my gramma's house a surprising word used correctly in a sentence by Noah : disinterested.

Just a Bolin fun fact to start the week.

stuff

Seems like there is always stuff to report on, but lots of other stuff gets in the way. Here is some stuff that doesn't really go together, but I thought would be fun to share....

The chick-fil-a on Archer Road is always doing neat events for the kids. The boys and I made a trip to meet Albert and the Chick-fil-a cows. The cheerleaders (or danceretts) were there and the boys both enjoyed the pretty ladies...I think they take after Grampa Dave!

The best part about moving is having a bunch of empty boxes! Noah and I made a box tunnel that had three open ends. He had fun being the "construction worker" who brought mommy tape and pounded on a few places with his hammer for good measure! Foster enjoyed the project too.

One day before the weather was cool, the boys played in our rain water collection buckets. We collect the rain as it pours off of our roof to water our plants with. If God is providing us that resource, we certainly are not going to let it go to waste! Playing in the rain water usually starts with Foster escaping from our back porch and going right for the buckets. We must have just had rain beacuse all of our buckets were full and he was soaked before I could catch up to him. I decided playing in the water would be a good pasttime until daddy got home. I think the boys agreed with my decision!

What is fall without leaves...

We had a birthday party for Baga (my mom) and Baga Sue (my gramma) at our house the weekend after their birthdays. Matt and I made a cake that took about 8 hrs total to make. It consisted of a chocolate frosting over brownie layer over marshmellow creme frosting over chocolate chip cookie over marshmellow creme frosting over cheesecake over chocolate frosting over graham crakers and then in the reverse again. Man was it yummy, man was it rich!

After we celebrated, we raked up leaves and Baga, Baga Sue, Barby and the kids jumped in the leaves. We all had a fun time celebrating!

Elf on the shelf

Our Elf came to our house in November 2011. These are some of "Trix"-as named by Noah- adventures since he has been at our house.

 Trix acting as a tree topper since we don't have one yet

Trix got in a carry-on bag to go to Iowa with us

Trix hid in Gramma Pam's flowers the first day we awoke in Iowa

Trix ate some of Daddy's birthday cake

Trix decided to try a cow ride out 

He thought he would help with wrapping presents, but just got all tangled up.

Wanted to make sure he heard the Christmas songs loud and clear!

 

Visited the true meaning of Christmas

Since there was no snow, Trix decided he would make a snowangel

Back in Gainesville, Trix got in on the decorations.

Checking Noah's stocking to make sure stuff would fit in

Trix hanging out in the kitchen with the lollipop Noah gave him

The letter Trix left Noah since he was going to stay at the North Pole to help with toy production.

So if you have any ideas on where Trix will be tomorrow...send a message my way!

Ashley

December Update

Well, I took Foster to the pediatrician again today and he still has an ear infection:( He had to get an antibiotic shot in his leg and will follow up for the next 2 days with shots. He also is being put back on the nebulizer for some wheezing associated with his cough that has been hanging around for several months now. In other health news, I slipped and fell and fractured my tailbone. The good news is that most daily activities are fine. The bad news is, it takes a while for tailbone fractures to heal.

In Noah news, he has been having a great week at school- all greens! We are still contemplating taking him out of school and homeschooling him. Please pray for this decision because it is a big one for all of us!

15 month check up

Foster had his 15 month check-up today and a recheck for his second (or continuing) ear infection. His stats are 21pounds 11oz, 31.5 inches. Both are 15- 25 percentile...so he is little...just not quite as little as his brother. Foster also still has an ear infection. We are traveling to Iowa tomorrow so pray for a smooth trip and not too much pain for his little ears and pray that antibiotic #3 does its job!

halloween

A couple pics from Halloween. The one of the boys and I was taken by Pam on Skype, hence the low quality from camera on the computer. The second one is from a neighbor's iPhone. Not too bad of quality. Our house is in the background behind me. We are in the neighbor's yard when the photo was taken. And yes, we did spray paint the boys hair blue. Don't worry, it came right out!

Thanks to Katie

Thanks to Katie Whitlock, I can finally get my blog to publish again! I was so frustrated with it that I gave up. Thanks for the tips and I will try to get some new posts up soon!

another tooth!

Foster has another tooth on the top right. He is also now pulling up, cruising, catching himself when he falls forward, and trying to learn how to let go while standing. Tomorrow we are heading to Gainesville for a 9 mo checkup for Foster and a 5yo check up for Noah. I have decided that Foster's nickname is "Ironman" because he is so big and his initials are "Fe" like the periodic table symbol for iron. His eyes are still blue like daddy's, so we think they will stay that way.

On the "home front," we are blessed to have family members who are able to purchase a house for us in Gainesville while we continue to wait on our house in Iowa to sell. We have an offer in on a house (we are the back-up) and have not had an update on what is going on with that property and not for lack of trying. Hopefully we will hear something tomorrow.

I am praising God for bringing my brother-in-law home to Jacksonville and allowing him to get restationed here because it was truly an act of God that that happened. Praying for my 2nd cousin and his teaching job. Also for family friends who have to make decisions about a sister's living situation. Praying for wisdom in our house search- the where, when, and what. Thanks for joining with me!

Noah's Graduation

Noah graduated from PreK in June. Here is video from his graduation.

Another milestone...

Foster reached another milestone today. He was getting it down really good until the camera came out. See if you can catch what he figured out today.

New news on Foster & Noah

Well, Foster obviously is changing everyday. His first tooth came through the week after we came back from Iowa. His second tooth came through last week. He is still crawling backwards and has not figured out how to go forward which makes him very frustrated. He stands up at the table/window/chair/wall for 10 minutes at a time.
Noah has started reading! He is reading easy readers like Green Eggs and Ham, Cat in the Hat, Go Dog Go, The Giving Tree, etc. He also has the Tag reading system, so any books in this realm would be great gifts for him this year. For the tag he already has the Ispy book and Map. He is almost in 5T clothes...just remember that we now live in FL. Too many long sleeves/pants wont get as much use as short sleeves and shorts. He also loves games!

Long Lost Videos

So some of these are really old, but I wanted to get causght up. So here goes...



Noah loves making his brother laugh and Foster laughs best for Noah!





Yummy! Foster gets his first solids. He loves to eat.









More to come...

The rest of the previews...

Somehow I missed these when I was saving them to my computer...I then realized I was missing them because some of my favs are in this group!

Photos with Mrs.Linda Bainter

We have a wonderful and very talented photographer friend Linda Bainter. She is a budding photographer whose work is in full bloom! She is very resonable $100 for an hour session which includes 20 shots on a CD for you to have. She is located in Gainesville, but says she will travel...When you need her info, message me.