The Boulton Blog: It Takes All Kinds

It takes all kinds of days to make up a life time, so here is a not-so-quick recap of our last two weeks. If you want to skip ahead to the pictures they sum up the more fun parts. :)

Last week we kept pretty busy. My amazing Aunt Liz drove down to join us for a morning at the park, and afterwards we stopped for Dunkin' Donuts. The boys had a blast getting to play with friends and Amelia was a huge help keeping everyone corralled.

The next day was Independence Day! We kept things pretty low key here and opted to not walk in the crazy heat at the Americana Festival we usually love. Instead we joined some friends from church at the little park in our neighborhood for ultimate Frisbee and playtime, then Aunt Liz and her sweet kiddos stayed and had lunch with us. She put an amazing marinade on the chicken we had picked up, and Byron cooked it on the grill with some hot dogs and filled up water balloons and our little kiddie pool, so the kids had a great time cooling off in the water outside. It was a delicious lunch and getting to have Liz and her kids here definitely made it feel more like a holiday. After they left we all managed to take naps before going out for the fireworks that night. We met up with my family and had a wonderful time letting them burn off all the sparklers leftover from a mega box I bought almost 4 years ago or something crazy. The fireworks were beautiful, the family time was wonderfully relaxing, and I was so grateful for the time we had to celebrate our independence. :)

2 weeks ago Byron listed our Ford Explorer on Craigslist. We had a buyer contact us later the same day, but with it being the weekend closely followed by a holiday they couldn't come to buy it until Wednesday. I was worried the purchase wouldn't come through since he had to wait so long, but Wednesday he contacted Byron to make sure we still had it, and came to purchase it later that evening. It was a relief to finally sell it, and our driveway looks so empty now!

Thursday when Byron got home from work he loaded Caleb and David into the car and drove to Amelia's birthday party. They were a little late, but they still got to go out on the lake twice, once Caleb was in a kayak all by himself, and David even got an opportunity to operate the paddles for a bit, so they had a fantastic time. Caleb keeps begging us to buy a kayak. He thinks they are the coolest thing ever, and gets so excited when he sees the one hanging in Costco, but it's certainly something we won't be investing in any time soon.

Friday evening we had set a date to take our family to the temple. The idea was to have time to walk around with the boys and let them enjoy the spirit there. We stopped in Mechanicsburg on the way there for the viewing of one of Byron's co-workers husbands. Sharon works at the front desk of the office and is one of my favorites whenever I stop by the office, so I felt grateful for the opportunity we had to stop by and get to know her family a little bit too. Unforunately when we made it to the temple it was pouring rain, so we sat in the car, talked to the boys about things that we can do in the temple and sang some primary songs. It was great family time and we all got home nice and tired. :)

Sunday evening we crashed the linger longer at my parent's ward so we could have Sunday dinner with them again. With our new church schedules (we meet from 11-2 now and my parents ward meets from 1-4) and my ever growing belly that makes it harder for me to cook, clean, and host, we haven't worked out how to continue our Sunday family dinners yet, but hopefully we'll think of something soon. Caleb is devastated at the idea of not getting to enjoy that special family time every week.

Monday morning I had another ultrasound. As of yesterday I am 31 weeks! Things are continuing to progress well, though we discovered that Hannah flipped again and is now heads up. I know in singleton pregnancies there are ways you can try to get your baby to flip back over, but with Hannah weighing about 3 lbs 5 oz, and Gideon right behind her at 3 lbs 4 oz, they are definitely running out of room and I can't think of a way that could get her to flip with Gideon in there too. I keep praying things will just work out. If she does end up heads down again it means I could deliver her, and they could perform a breech extraction with Gideon or he could flip once she's out. However if she stays heads up I'm guaranteed a C-section because she's positioned lower than he is. I have about 5-7 weeks left before I get to meet these sweet babies! Sometimes I wish it was less. My belly feels HUGE, though they seem to be growing up and sideways instead of out right now, it's harder to breath, and I'm pretty sure I can feel my hips spreading apart....but at the same time I feel like there is still a lot to do before they come...so I guess that means they won't be coming any time soon right?

After our ultrasound I came home, packed a picnic lunch and loaded my van up with Gabrielle, Amelia, Amber, and my kids and we drove up to Englewood. We stopped at the splash pad for a couple of hours before going across the street for 20 cent cones at JD's Frozen Custard. They're a local custard place, celebrating their 20th anniversary, and just such a fun little place to eat. It will always hold a special place in my heart because when I was a kid I was mildly obsessed with the 50's and their decor was all 50's themed, so my parents humored me and let me have my 10th birthday party there. I had earned enough money to buy myself a poodle skirt outfit, and invited all my friends to dress 50's too. It was so very much fun and still one of my favorite childhood memories, so every time I go I get to take a trip down memory lane. <3

Tuesday I made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby. I picked up some cow print fabric, headbands and felt, then came home to make cow costumes for my boys. It was cow appreciation day at Chick fil a and Caleb was begging me to let him dress up for the free food. They all looked adorable in their little pants and cow ears, and now they have an extra pair of lounge pants they can wear on my lazy stay at home days. :)

Today we had a good time running around at Young's Jersey Dairy. The sun was out, it was delightfully warm, and the boys had a fantastic time playing on tractors, eating ice cream and feeding the goats.

Caleb is thrilled to be starting soccer in 2 weeks, and school in a mere month.

David will be starting his first soccer season this fall and is so excited to finally get his own soccer jersey.

Ezekiel has been throwing some serious tantrums recently and sometimes I just laugh at how absurd he is. Last Sunday being one example. He was cranky and kept tearing things apart, knocking over trash bins, throwing the broom, pulling laundry out of hampers and throwing it around the room, kicking toys everywhere. Whenever we would offer to hold him or try to console him he would run and throw himself into a corner, crying ever louder. Eventually Byron filled a bottle of milk and left it on the table, as soon as Ezekiel got his hands on it, his sunshine smile came out, he came running up to hug our legs, giggling while he ran in circles with his big brothers, and just overall became all bright and happy. It was insane how quickly his attitude changed and Byron thought my Incredible Hulk analogy was pretty hilarious, so his nickname of the week is Bruce Banner.

I guess that's all the news we have for now. We love you all and miss you bunches!

David's favorite part is feeding the goats. When he got done eating he picked it over icecream!

Proof that I left my house at least once this summer. I sat pretty much 95% of the time we were there, but it was great getting to see my boys running around having fun, and Gabrielle was amazing at keeping them corralled.