The Boulton Blog: It's Great to Stay Up Late

Well, I'm writing after 2 weeks again, and hopefully I can make it interesting.

*This is actually 2 weeks old now, and covers the first 2 weeks of March. A recent post to be uploaded shortly. :)

David: He's a pro at sitting up, and has begun rocking back and forth. I keep thinking he's going to topple over, but that boy has abs of steel and manages to get his face almost all the way down to his toes before coming back up into a sitting position. He gets going pretty fast and it looks hilarious, but I know if I did it as often as he did, I probably wouldn't have to go to any of the Pilates classes I've been considering. He slept great for the past week. I learned that he has his own nap time schedule, which involves a 2 hour morning nap (which he rarely gets since it starts in the middle of my workout and he's in a childcare facility that's too bright and noisy for his tastes), and an afternoon nap that should start at 2. Since I mess with it on a regular basis though, he just compensates by taking a 4 hour nap starting between 10 and noon. Even sharing his room with another baby and his older brother he slept through the night, so my fears of putting him and Caleb in the same room when the next baby comes have been alleviated.

Caleb: He's growing a mile a minute. He's as tall as his 3 year old cousin Cameron, and weighs at least 5 lbs more. He's so solid compared to other children I spend time with, that I often over compensate when going to lift them up while playing with them. His vocabulary is growing daily, and his favorite things to say right now are “I hurt myself” which sounds more like “I hate this stuff”, “I got you” and “Silly (instert family member name here)” He learned lots of new climbing techniques while spending time with his 6 year old cousin Tyler, and can now get on the top bunk without a ladder. We're trying to discourage him from doing it, and hopefully we've nipped it in the bud by letting him get stuck up there for a period of time, but we'll see. He's a rather determined little booger.

Arielle: The past 2 weeks seem to have flown by. I've been using the elliptical trainer at the Y instead of the treadmill, and I've noticed a serious change in my leg muscles. It's pretty awesome. :) I got to learn how to hem men's slacks the past week as well. Our elders got permission to go to the temple, and since we don't have a temple where he can rent clothes like he has in the past, he had ordered his new temple clothes and needed them hemmed. He surprised me by bringing them with him to the dinner appointment, and I was excited by how well they turned out. I loved having Craig, Mindy, and there boys here, since they helped a ton with household chores and Caleb had playmates 24/7. My visiting teacher and I did our first temple swap and I'm thrilled to have a friend so close by and willing to help us get to the temple each month.

Byron: The weather is finally nice enough he's gotten to ride his bike almost every day the past couple of weeks. This past week I gave him a ride Wednesday since it was raining so hard when it was time for him to leave, and it was snowing by the time he got off work, but overall, he's been such a sport about riding and I was really grateful. He's been working hard trying to get things done at work, but kicked himself a couple times after asking his co-workers as a whole who he needed to turn his portion of a report into to be compiled, and was stuck with the job (`I think that's probably what he likes least about reports, is reviewing and compiling everyone's pieces) but I'm sure he didn't say anything at the time and probably did a great job.

In General: We've had a couple of exciting weeks. The week before last I tried to get a little crazy and invited my sister, and the elders for dinner the same night I had agreed to do a temple swap with my visiting teacher. Things went surprisingly well, but the children visiting my house definitely made the most of my sisters sweet, giving personality, and she was ready for them to go to bed by the end of the evening. Saturday night we had a young married couple from our ward come for dinner and games. I knew the husband from youth dances with the other stake, but his wife was from Cincinnati, so it was fun having them over and getting to know them a little better. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were pretty quiet, but Craig, Mindy, and Co got here late Wednesday night and we let the good times roll. I'm afraid I made life quite boring for them on Thursday since I spent the morning trying to put a bookcase together to get it out of the way, and it was too cold to go out, but things seemed to go well the rest of the week. That night we got Gabrielle and Chandler to come babysit all 5 boys and we took Craig and Mindy out for some bowling. The first game we played normal, and the second one we played so that you had to do a different style every time such as granny, backwards, left-handed, etc. It was interesting, and I did way better on that round...I had a good time laughing at myself, and we were glad we got to enjoy being weird and silly without being inebriated like the men in the parties on either side of us who were getting a bit rowdy and were not enjoying our antics. Friday Mindy's brother and sister in law brought their 2 daughters down from Michigan to play games and spend the night. I made a taco bar for dinner that seemed to be a big hit, and we enjoyed learning how to play a couple of new games. I must admit, I love playing games and having friends and family in my home, even if we didn't manage to get to bed before midnight the whole time they were here since we were too excited and caught up in our games. Saturday morning Byron and Craig went to play racquetball for a little bit, and that afternoon we took all the kids to a park across the street. They had a good time running around in the sun, even though it still seemed kind of a bitter cold. We didn't get to stay as long as they would have liked, but it was still nice. That night we had a movie night and watched Rise of the Guardians with popcorn and peanut m&m's. We all managed to get up in time for church the next morning, and I had a good time having Cameron in my primary class. He listened to well, and I was excited to know that even when it seems like they're not getting anything from my lessons, they are learning something! I made a big supper before they had to leave and we tried to make the most of the last couple hours they got to spend with us. I played games with Tyler and Cameron, got fired by my brother in law, and tried to play with baby Will. (He was pretty tired though and didn't want to mess around).

Overall, we had a great couple of weeks and were so excited to spend time with family. We love you all, think of you often, and hope life is going as well for you as it is in our little corner of the world.

Cheerio!