The Boulton Blog: Exciting Things Keep Happening!

Guess you're getting a Boulton overload today. Hopefully I'll stay on top of things though and this will be the only time you get two doses in one day!

Gideon is growing so fast. This last week his favorite thing to do is make messes. He unrolls toilet paper and paper towels, pulls everything out of the cabinets under the sinks and grins his face off through it all.

Hannah is his little partner in crime. Gideon gets things started and she just takes it to a whole new level.

They have both started boycotting their morning nap so I'm reluctantly transitioning to one nap a day. I'm going to miss morning quiet time, but maybe it will make Sunday's a little easier since they only get one nap then anyway.

Ezekiel is still just making me laugh (it's better than crying right?) with his little quirks. He is seriously the snuggliest boy. He loves to be my "pillow" and he cuddles in close and starts tickle fights and is absolutely hilarious, but when it comes to dressing this kid...I am seriously at my wits end sometimes. He loves wearing pajamas, and will change into clean ones in order to leave the house! If he doesn't feel like wearing the clothes we picked out for him he'll tell me they're "too big" or "too small" (neither of which is true. They're all his clothes) which is a complete 180 from the last couple of months when he would wear any clothes he could pull from anyone's drawers. He loved his birthday until about 3:30 in the afternoon. We went to visit Uncle Chandler's eagle project to say high to everyone (Byron had been there working) and whenever someone said Happy Birthday he would pull his hood down over his eyes and vehemently state that it wasn't his birthday. He loved his sprinkle pancakes served up to him in bed and getting to open his present though, and was thrilled to blow out candles and eat cake.

David has been so sweet and loving the last week, and ornery! He is, unfortunately, a chronic bed wetter, so we have pull ups for him to wear at night since it doesn't matter how many times we take him potty he still has a problem. Well he decided he didn't want to take time away from playing one day and decided to wear a pull up during the day! I mean, kudos to him for problem solving, but the kid is 5 years old and it bugged me maybe a little more than it should have. :/ Aside from that, he's been building tons with our magnet toys and manages to play with just about anything he can find. He's been a great big brother helper in Caleb's absence and can't wait to start school next year. Is it weird that I'm still adjusting to him being a 5 year old??

Caleb is not happy with my disinterest in laundry and gets really pouty when the outfit he wants to wear hasn't come through the wash yet. I messed up and lost his first reading log for school, so when he came home without a sticker for that week he was determined to not let it happen again. He reads at least one book every day to anyone who will listen. His favorite's right now are a chess book he got at the library fundraiser at school, and anything Dr. Seuss.

Not much has changed in the last week for Byron. He's still working on updating computers at work and loves that with his new calling he can now take one of the twins for the last two hours of church. He's amazing about doing dishes in the evenings and has a great bedtime routine going for the boys. Last night he made dinner for the whole family and didn't complain once that we ate various forms of tacos almost every night last week. I am so so blessed by his love! This last Saturday while I was taking kids to the primary program practice Byron went and helped with Chandler's Eagle Scout project. He and about 35 other people worked to clear honeysuckle from one of the local parks and did so much work. Everyone I talked to after it all mentioned how wore out they were. I was amazed to find that when left unattended Honeysuckle grows into trees! It was really wild.

I was recently called as a co-teacher for the 12 and 13 year old Sunday school class at church about three weeks ago. My co-teacher is one of my best friends and she in incredibly inspiring to teach with. She manages to connect with the youth in a beautiful way and encourages them to be such wonderful examples of living Christ centered lives. I love it so much.

Last Friday our new friends found a Czechoslovakian club here in Dayton and we went Polka dancing! It was so incredibly fun! None of us had ever gone before but the friends we went with actually met because of dancing and were so fun to watch. Byron and I managed to actually (kinda) get the hang of the polka and danced all of the line dances. The "band" that night was a gentleman with an accordion, and when he wasn't playing he had music for line dances, waltzes, and even a tango. It was definitely one of our top ten date nights. We had an absolute blast. The four of us were the youngest people in the place and everyone who came to talk to us were so nice! The couple we sat across from during downtime had been going to the club for 10 years and had brought their dancing shoes, literally! They were so good. I hope I'm that cool when I grow up!

Well, that's it for us this week. Keep in touch! We love you all. :)