The Boulton Blog: I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home

It's been almost 2 1/2 weeks since my last post and I'm sure I'll leave a lot out, but I love giving you updates on our family, and always regret not writing, so here goes. Bare with me. :)

David: He's talking a ton, and the other morning as I was getting him ready to leave the house he kept saying "Bird? bird? Choo Choo!" He was asking to go tot he zoo! He loves the peacocks that are allowed to roam around freely and riding the train with his big brother. We didn't go to the zoo that day, sadly, but I loved that he remembered enough to communicate what he wanted!

He loves making Caleb laugh, and has started a new game where he "growls" (more like a scream of some sort) and Caleb acts scared and screeches in return. Then they both fall into a fit of giggles before starting all over again. It's quite a test of mine and Byron's patience, and we haven't figured out how to stop them yet, but every now and then it's cute to see them play together.

Caleb: He is starting to use his every day clues and deductive reasoning to figure out what is going on around him. Byron and I had several things to attend in the past week that required church dress, so as we got ready to leave the house each time Caleb would ask "Are you going to church?" He also knows that David's naptime is now his designated quiet time and he loves the hour of Daniel Tiger and Dinosaur Train that he gets to watch without having to worry about David turning off the iPad.

He asks all the time how big Baby Ezekiel is, and has added him to his introductions when meeting new people "My name's Caleb, and that's my brother David. And in Mommy's tummy is Baby Ezekiel!" He says it all with a smile, and he almost always has to repeat himself at least once, but the women at the grocery store always get a kick out of him and they walk away with a smile.

He also has a new found love of being at home. I'm not sure why, but whenever we're out somewhere too long (in his opinion) he asks if we can go home. I'm not sure what's so exciting for him here, but he seems to be completely content with a shredding a piece of paper to shreds with a pair of scissors or playing with train tracks to pass the time.

Byron: He's really been enjoying the cooler temperatures that our rain has brought in this past week or so and how enjoyable his bike rides are. One evening the rain came on a little hard and fast, so I called him and asked if I could come pick him up (I'm not a big fan of him riding during thunderstorms and low visibility with some of the crazy drivers around here). He was about halfway home and said okay, but I didn't understand the hesitation in his voice. When I picked him up he was soaked and he was talking excitedly about how he had gotten that wet just riding between the corner where he had stopped under a tree to accept my call and the over hang of a church just down the way a bit. Apparently the rain had hit the house before it got to him (he was less than 2 miles away) and it had just been lightly sprinkling where he was compared the downpour I was hearing outside our house. By the time I got him home (about 15 minutes after I called him) it had already stopped raining... Crazy Ohio storms.

I think he enjoyed Father's Day. I made him breakfast in bed and managed to throw together something very close to his favorite breakfast sandwich even though I had forgotten to go grocery shopping the day before. He got the wireless thing he wanted so his computer could hook up to the internet without the ethernet cable even though it had a bad wifi card. I also got him a new oil vial since he was still using one that was designed for emergency stashes of medicine on a keyring and the opening was so small that it didn't ever want to let go of the oil.

I think his favorite part was Caleb though. Caleb had picked out his very own card for his Daddy. We had been in the store right after they had put out Father's Day cards and I was walking by for something else. Caleb fell behind a little bit, then came running up to me saying "Mommy! We need to get this card for Daddy!" It was a cute card, perfectly apt for a daddy from his 3 year old, and I told him we would come back for it closer to Father's Day. Thankfully I was able to find it again and Caleb came stumbling into our bedroom with his squinty groggy eyes and the card clutched tightly in his hands with a huge grin on his face. He handed it over with joy and didn't even throw a fit about not getting to wear the huge sticker that proclaimed Byron was "The World's Best Daddy" My mom made the best chicken'n'noodles ever for dinner that night, I brought some homemade bread, and everyone got to stuff themselves full and enjoy spending time together.

He heads to scout camp next week, and thank goodness it's only for 2 days. They're leaving the church at 5 am Monday morning and he'll be gone through sometime Tuesday. Thankfully he gets Friday off in honor of Independence Day, so I'll have to make the most of it.

Arielle: I seem to be good at finding little things to keep me busy. I set a new fitness goal for myself this week: Being able to swim a mile in an hour by the end of my pregnancy. I don't know how close I will get, since I only have about 11 weeks to work with out of my last 13, and right now I barely swim 20 out of the needed 36 in about 35 minutes, but at least I have something to work toward.

Things seem to be creeping up on me so quickly and I realized I only have 3 weeks before we head to Hocking Hills with Byron's family and a mere 4 weeks before we go to Florida with my Mommy's extended family. By the time we get back from Florida I will have a little less than 2 months to do all of the purging and deep cleaning I've been putting off before our Sweet Baby Ezekiel joins the family. Perhaps with his due date drawing ever nearer I'll get my rear in gear and get my long list of To Do's taken care of.

I had the opportunity to re-acquaint myself with a couple of my dad's cousins that I haven't seen since I was a child, and meet their children, that were all similar ages to my siblings. We went to a really nice splash pad down in Cincinnati with them and had an amazing picnic lunch. Caleb keeps asking to go back, but I don't think driving an hour for a splash pad when we have 2 within 15 minutes of us is very likely.

In General: We took advantage of our last free Saturday and went to the zoo. The forecast called for rain all morning so we packed up the boys raincoats and an umbrella and headed out. We enjoyed having the zoo practically to ourselves and getting to walk right up to the edge of each enclosure to see the animals. Byron loved how excited the boys were about each of the animals and probably could have stayed all day seeing everything, but the boys and I both got tired before he got bored and we called it a day. He's definitely looking forward to a return trip in the near future though.

Thursday Byron and I got to make our monthly temple trip and Friday evening I managed to find a last minute baby sitter so Byron and I could enjoy a wedding reception for our Stake President's daughter. She looked gorgeous and it was exciting to see her again. She and her husband looked happy, and the reception was beautiful.

The babysitter we hired Friday night either really liked our boys or was a glutton for punishment and came back the following evening so Byron and I could go to the adult session for stake conference.

My mom saved the day and gave both Caleb and David haircuts yesterday. They were both starting to look like little ragamuffins and were in dire need. I don't know how she makes it look so seamless and effortless in such a short amount of time, it takes me forever to cut their hair and I always see spots I missed afterward, but their cuts are both perfect and they both look so much older all of a sudden. I'm really looking forward to having a baby to snuggle again this fall!

Needless to say we've been busy, and happy, and I am terrible at taking pictures, but I managed to scrape a few together to share with you. We hope you're all doing well and we're looking forward to seeing so much family so soon!

Tropical Smoothie Cafe was giving away free Strawberry Banana Smoothies to anyone wearing Flip Flops on National Flip flop day so we headed over after Byron got off work. We got 3 between the 4 of us and still had a hard time finishing them all off!