The Boulton Blog: A Boomerang, an Elephant, and a Bird

These past few weeks have been busy. I love all of the many things we get to experience and am so grateful for my family.

A Boomerang: Caleb is going through a fun phase where he needs you close by so he can run up and hug you, and run off to play again. Over and over and over...All.day.long. He loves to wake up in the morning and pour a bowl of cereal for me when he pours his own. If I don't eat it, he notices, and gives me a hard time...Poor kid. I wish I liked Apple Jacks as much as he does. He is very excited about the new plecostomus (a bottom feeding fish) he got on Saturday. It has cleaned the algae in the tank incredibly well and Byron is excited he doesn't have to do the cleaning anymore.

An Elephant: David wakes up with the roosters and makes as much noise as a herd of elephants running up and down the hallway, the stairs, and across his bedroom floor. He wakes up wired and goes all day long, though I have managed to get him to take a few naps in recent weeks and they make my days go a little smoother. He's a polite, sweet boy, and it's really cute, until you're asking him to eat his dinner, pick up his toys, put on his pajamas or do anything else. Then those no-thank-you's sound surprisingly disrespectful. He has the most impish grin on the planet, loves when we blow raspberries on his belly, and treats me like his own personal jungle gym every chance he gets. If I really wanted 6 pack abs, all I would need to do is hang out on the floor a couple hours a day and let him face plant on me as many times as he wanted.

A Bird: Ezekiel has become quite vocal lately, sometimes he coos soft like a dove, sometimes he sings like a canary, and other times he squawks with the best of them. He has become very mobile, is good at (army) crawling along the floor, can sit up after crawling across the room and loves to empty boxes. He has a sweet smile, and is really good at expressing his likes and dislikes when it comes to food. I love making him happy, and I'm grateful for his nap schedule, until I'm out somewhere a little longer and his nap times are late, then he becomes a bit of a basket case. The kid really likes his crib.

Byron: He's been working hard and finally got the credentials to access base and the building there where BerrieHill keeps their supercomputer for their DOD contracts so he'll be headed up there a couple days a month from now on. He's excited about the opportunity to go up there but hopes it doesn't become to frequent because he loves riding his bike so much. He took me to the temple this past Thursday, which was such a treat. We didn't get to go together last month so it felt like it had been forever since we had been. He's going again this week with the youth as a priesthood member, and is really looking forward to it.

Arielle: I love taking the boys to Kings Island but don't go as often as I thought I would when we got the passes because I either need to spend the whole time in the water park by myself with the boys, or I need an extra set of hands that can help David on and off some of the rides while I stay with Ezekiel. I'm hoping to go more often though since I discovered 2 of the young women in my ward have passes and offered to come with me. I got to spend sometime sewing with Katrina this week, and can't wait to see how the dresses turn out that she started for her girls. I have been enjoying going to the YMCA more consistently again, and hope to get there every day this week. I made bread today, and discovered I can make 6 loaves in my kitchen-aid mixer instead of just 4, and am weirdly excited about that since the 4 never seemed like quite enough but I knew for sure I couldn't just make a full double batch. My Grandma and Grandpa came to visit today and it was nice to see them again. This afternoon I got to join my mommy, Gabrielle, and Chandler for their Family History Class. I did some indexing, which I haven't done in forever. We were working on some Phillipino names in honor of a young man in their ward that is leaving next week for his mission there, and it was more difficult than i had suspected it would be. I hadn't any way to make educated guesses since I'm not very familiar with Phillipino names, and the handwriting on the records I was reading was very scripty, but I managed to complete a few am grateful for the review program they have in place.

In General: I can't think of anything I haven't already covered. We love you all and miss you much. I look forward to the email updates from everyone and enjoy reading them.