babies

So...I want a big family. I don't know what "big" means but I know for right now I am nowhere near done. I know being a mormon stay at home mom people are always wondering...."I wonder when she is going to get pregnant?....Do you think they are done?" and other such questions. I have Rheumatioid arthritis as most know...it is not a good thing to have. Very sad disease. Right now though I am doing awesome...I feel almost no symptoms thanks to the study I am in at the University of Utah. I had an appointment yesterday. It always makes me so happy. Anyways I had to sign that I wouldn't get pregnant for two years while in the study. I was soooo sick before I started the study that I didn't know if I could have anymore kids anyways. So it is definatly worth it. The drugs that I am on (I take 9-11 pills a day plus two shots a week) are too dangerous for pregnant women. It has been nice to have a break....and not feel guilty about it. But today for the first time (mainly because my baby is getting old he is almost 20 months) I thought....I really want another baby. I still have over a year before I can get pregnant. It is good for me though. I was so bad before that at least now my kids get an awesome mom rather than a mom that can't do anything. I feel as if I am falling behind. I still have plenty of time. I know that. I can still have my "big" family. This picture is funny. I LOVE hospital food. This is moments after I had my ROB. I pushed him out as fast as I could because I wanted to insure I got to eat lunch. I love how happy I look in this picture. I love being in the hospital. For me it is one of the best parts about having a new baby...along with of course having a new baby.
Here is Rob in all his glory. It is amazing how kids come out just how they really are. He was El Divo as Cali and I called him and he still is today. Cortney and I have the cutest babies. I think the other best part of having a baby is seeing what they look like. I love that. So that is it...I will have another one Septhember 2009 at the earliest. And to all of you wondering...no we aren't done.

cortney

cortney is threatning to get his "own" blog. He kept wanting me to put on a picture of a fish he caught with a spear gun, but I didn't. Lazy me.... Anyways this entry is dedicated to him and the things he loves.
Cortney's number one thing he loves is ME.
I guess this blog IS about things he loves. When I was marrying him my friend Jenn told me "You are going to have to come to terms with the fact that he will always love the outdoors more than you" I think it might have been true for a while too. But now I know...I am number one...or maybe a three way tie...me, the kids and the outdoors. No, I am number one.

Number 2
Our kids. I love having kids with Cort. I think it is the best thing we have done together so far.
When I was at girls camp Cortney was the best Mr. Mom. Here are the kids when he took them to Cabela's. It rained super hard on this day so he didn't have to work. How fun for them. It was his first time watching them overnight. Cali said he would have them dressed so nice every morning. They would both have shoes on and socks. Which is more than I usually do.

Number 3
Snowboarding...he loves it...enough said.
Here is Cortney doing a road gap. He jumped from one side of the road to the other right over that tahoe. I don't know if you can see him in this picture or see how big of a jump it is but it scared the living daylights out of me. I am never around him when he is snowboarding and actually doing tricks. When we go together he just goes slow so I can keep up. We were at a friends cabin and they built this and I was the one taking the picture. I was seriously having a heart attack the whole time I was waiting for him to come down the hill. I didn't like it. It was a cool picture though.
Here is a picture of him doing some trick he photoshoped the whole trick in the picture. That is why you see him three times. Haahahaa do I need to explain that...I am not sure.
Here is the picture he is famous (in Rexburg...hahaaa) for. Every couple of years it is in the newspaper there. This was before we were married. I would be ticked if he tried that today. I do love the picture and he does too. It reminds him that he used to be quite the dare devil. Now though he is pretty conservative, 2 kids does that to a person I guess.

Number 4...
I asked him and he doesn't know. He loves so many things. I think if he had friends here that kayaked or biked it would be one of those things. Now he spends his time fishing...golfing...thinking about his samurai...and of course working.

Today he got to go up in a helicopter to take pictures of the golf course. He loves taking pictures. And he really loves his job. Here is a picture from the helicopter.
Cortney has been working at this golf course since the first seed of grass was planted. He loves this place. It is his baby. He and his friend Brian are in charge of all the grounds at Sleepy Ridge. It is the most beautiful place. Everytime I go down there I am so proud of him.
I feel so glad that Cortney loves his job. That doesn't happen all the time so we are lucky. It is great for him to be able to see all his hard work pay off when the course looks so beautiful. Plus...he gets to see the sunrise every morning (well maybe that isn't much of a plus).

Here is the picture he wanted me to post. He caught this fish with a spear gun. I am sorry to any animal activists. There are so many of these fish at the golf course that they have to get rid of a lot of them anyways. He really is an animal lover. But look at his face he is oh so happy. He goes fishing almost everyday at lunch. They have a little canoe with a trolling motor on it. You might also notice the funny thing around his neck. I am always so worried about him being too hot. So I bought him a neck cooler, hahaa...it is filled with gel crystals that soak up water and as the water evaporates it keeps you cool. He looked like he was from the village people when he wore it for the first time. I love it.

rice krispies

I love to cook. I am good too. Hahaaa. I don't bake very often though. I am not one of those people that has a cookie jar full of goodies. Today I realized why. On Saturday I stopped by target and I was starving. I bought every kind of chocolate chip I could...thinking...I am going to start making more cookies. I also loaded up my cart with rice krispies and marshmallows. Today my children and I (mostly I) ate a whole batch of rice krispie treats. I fed them dinner and lunch but in between it was just a million rice krispie treats. I would try to sneak one so they wouldn't see me eating because I knew I would have to share...but I swear R.O.B. can smell food a mile away. So that is why I don't make treats. I don't need us eating dessert all day long. Especially when buttered bread is what I eat for breakfast lunch and dinner. No sir I don't need dessert.

I am having a very weird day. I don't know exactly why but it has been weird. Maybe it is because Cali and I didn't get together. And it was just me and Rob while Oli was at summer camp. Which by the way I loved....Rob is the best one on one. He is so funny. I can't wait until he can talk. He has lots to say I can tell already. Weird day. Cortney is sick. We have been passing the stomach flu around here. It is horrible because we love having fun and we can't resist being with our friends and family so in turn everyone gets sick. So Cort was home today. Oliver said "mom, Cort is a girls name." I told him to tell his daddy that. He said "I heard him tell Byron (Our funny old neighbor) that Cort was a girls name". Cort said that to Byron almost a year ago. Oliver has the best memory. So because Cort was home we tried to play outside so the kids wouldn't bother him. When he is home all they want to do is fight him and Rob kept trying to body slam him right in the stomach. So our yard is the BEST. We have 3 huge trees so our yard is shaded the whole day. I just layed in the back and read. My kids played in the baby pool and drove Oli's four wheeler around me. Rob loves to drive it but he doesn't understand that he is the one controlling it. Sometimes if he holds it just right he will go around in circles, and he will do it forever. Our grass will die I am sure from the circle he made today. He was going for like 15 minutes straight. He ran my leg over...ran my book over...and ran into the house a number of times. HE LOVES IT. It was fun playing outside. Rob put two towels in the pool. He would put it in the pool and then cry because it was too heavy for him to carry. I would run in and get anther one...for the whole thing to be repeated. They would come and lay their little wet bodies on me or try to snuggle me so by the time we went in I was just as wet as they were. I did finish my book. I love reading. Well that is all. Now it is time for me to clean up. It doesn't matter how much I clean how many hours it takes. My kids can have the whole house messy in the 5 minutes it takes for me to roll out of bed in the morning. I swear that is the most annoying thing as a mom. I just want my house to be clean.

new bunks

I went to IKEA for the first time on Saturday with my Mom and sister. It was AMAZING!! Wow. I even had the stomach flu while I was there and it was still awesome. My boys are soon going to be sharing a room so I have been looking for bunk beds everywhere. I really wanted a small one. The bedrooms in our house are small I didn't want the bed overwhelming the room. So my Mom had seen this bed before at IKEA and bought it for us. IT IS PERFECT. I love that it isn't very far for them to fall when they do (it is inevitable, they will fall I am sure). Also the bed on the bottom goes on the floor. I think it is so cozy and will make a great fort. Plus I won't have to worry about R.O.B. rolling off in his sleep. You may notice in the pictures that there is no mattress on the bottom. We went to get them from their spot at IKEA and the man in front of us grabbed the last two. Just another excuse for me to go back. Yeah! Oli with a pixie stick and his bed. (he watched a little movie in his bed fort today)
Posing like he is going to bed.

Oli's 4th b-day

A long long time ago in a galaxy far away (well actually one block down the road) a little jedi was born. Hahaa Oli had his 4th birthday party today. His actual birthday is on Sunday but since we can't have a sweet party on Sunday we celebrated today. He of course had a DARTH VADER theme.
I LOOOOOVED these masks is there anything funnier than a baby in a darth mask? I don't think so. I only invited Oli's cousins that live here. It is still a lot of kids. Brooklyn, Tyson, Zac, Jack, (front row) Oli, Rob, Carolina, and Eliza...she doesn't have a mask on TOO scared. We told her she could be princess Leia.
Oliver got up this morning and had to dress in all black. He wanted to look like he was darth. (that is why he isn't dressed super cute for his party)
We started the night of as most good parties should, with a dance contest. I of course downloaded a whole bunch of star wars music and weird al star wars parodies for party music. Here is Rob going crazy. I love jack in the backround, he is REALLY dancing.
My nephew Zac doing some impressive ground work.
Some of the adults laughing.

After dancing we played..."Obi-Wan says" followed by "Yoda may I" then we were on to present opening, by far Oli's favorite part of the night.
Legos...the perfect gift I love them. From Cali's family.
Opening a book and flashlight from my grandma.
Cortney and I bought Oli a power wheel back in February it was on major clearance at Costco (more than half off) it has been so hard to not give it to him. It has just been sitting down stairs. I thought it was too big a thing to just get for no reason. The only down side of course is it is a Dora one so it looks a little girly but hey...it goes 5 mph. It should be fun. ANyways in this picture I am trying to get his reaction as Cortney brought it in. The only thing was he had no reaction. He just stared at it in disbelief. It was funny.
Here he looks a little happier though.

I decorated the house with red and black crate paper. The only problem was the kids are so short I don't have 1 picture of the decorations. Ohhhhhh. I am so sad. The whole ceiling was covered. We also had a million red balloons everywhere. Oh well.
I made really cute cupcakes but just like the decorations...no pictures. Here you can see though, they were dark brown (as close as I could get to black frosting) then I bought some little space ships and put one on each cupcake. (you can see the ship in Oli's hand) Each kid had a different one and they kept asking me which were good ships and which were bad.
We got some sparkler candles. I had some cute pictures of Oli trying to blow them out...but I LOVE Rob in the back round of these acting so surprised.
and of course messy rob. He loved the party. I thought he looked like Don ROberto from spain with this beard.

It was a great day. Birthdays are sooooo overated. Oli thought it was awesome though. I am listing what he got because this is my journal and I love to read what I got at birthday's or Christmas and my dad wrote it down sometimes. I am not writing it down to brag to you all. If that is bragging....I don't know.

From Cali and Joe and kids...Lego Bucket.
From Mike D...Nerf gun.
From KaeLynn and Jason (Jason bought this...I thought it was so cute and considerate)....Nerf dart gun, and Nerf basket ball hoop (the kind that go on doors)
From Grandma Connie...a tee ball mit and a base ball (plus church shirts, jersey shorts...and tons of other things)
From Aha...A cute Noah's Ark book with action figures, and a flashlight. Oli loves flashlights.
From mom and dad....dora power wheel.

Man, I tried not to invite friends just family. We are a huge family. I fed sloppy Joes and Rootbeer floats to 18 people.

spelling

okay everyone....it is no secret I am a horrible speller. I just have no attention span for spelling. So as I type these I always misspell things, and since I have a mac instead of a pc the only option of posting that I have is in HTML. SOOOOO when I put on pictures I can't spell check. It thinks the picture code is a whole bunch of misspelled words. Two words I have the most problems with are definitely and delicious (I had to look those up online to put them in right). No matter how hard I try I cannot spell those words. I always try to sing the fergie song in my head to get the spelling of delicious but i still can't. I always want to put delicious down...but instead I have to replace it with YUMMY which isn't the word I use to describe good food. When I was 13, I was in a spelling bee. I was one of the first ones out. My cousin Alex who is in the special ed class was in longer than I was. Sigh. So there you are, I am a bad speller. I was always more of a math girl.

eight years

Cortney and I have been married 8 years today. WOW. That seems like forever, but it has gone by so fast. You would think after 8 years together we would have a picture of us without kids. I don't have a scanner and we got a digital camera after Oli was born. So of the files I have to put on the blog that are in our computer here we are...in mazatlan...with Oli. (hey at least we are both in the picture)


I have made it my goal now to always get a shot of just Cortney and I. I know Cali has some on her camera just like I have plenty of pictures of her and Joey. Anyways...

As I woke up this morning my wedding day 8 years ago. I immediatly thought of 4 of my best girlfriends. On the night before my wedding I shared the queen bed with Missy Heslop and Laura Hardy. Amber and Tiffany Merrell slept on the floor. They spent the night for the last time as girlfriends and roomates that night. Ohh I love them. It was so nice to have them there. None of them were married yet so they weren't at the wedding but they helped me get ready and were waiting outside. I don't know why I thought of my best girlfriends as I woke up this morning I just did. Cortney and I were married at 11:47. My Grandpa Earl always used to watch for the exact time that people were sealed. My mom said she had never seen me that happy.

I don't really know what to say. I was so young when I got married. I feel so greatful and blessed (not to mention lucky...I was only 19, did I know what I was doing???) that I married Cortney. He is a perfect match for me. Since we did marry so young we were able to go 4 years before we had children. I am also greatful for that time that we got. We did so many fun and crazy things in those times. I also will say I am greatful for Cortney...for who he is. He LOVES me so much. I am not bragging...it is just the truth and it is a wonderful quality that he has. It doesn't matter how I look or what I do he still is head over heels for me. He has never yelled at me. Not when I backed into his car, not when I am acting grumpy...never. I feel so safe with him. I am also so greatful for the opportunity to have a family with him. What could be better than being surrounded by little boys that look and act like the love of your life???

So that is it...it has been 8 years. We have done so much and he is still my best friend. I am pretty proud of us for being such a great couple. Hahahaa. I don't know how that sounds but it is the truth.

a day in the park...

I got a kite on clearance at target and we have been waiting for a nice windy day to fly our kite. Today was the day. So I remember being a kid and going with my mom to the park in pelican point and trying to fly a kite. I have never had a kite that actually flew. This one that I got for 2 bucks did. We had a great time.
Even little Rob could keep this in the air. He would chase the kite while holding the string it was really funny. He never caught the kite (needless to say).
Cortney always takes the pictures and is never in them so I snapped a couple...this is the only one that was in focus.



All in all a great day!

So there have been a million things going on and I always forget to blog them. I have been posting so much lately too that I always think...man I think I am posting TOOOOO much. Oliver started summer camp. It has been the best thing ever. It is through Orem parks and rec and he goes mon-thurs from 10-12 for three weeks. He is doing it with his cousin Jack which helps. I don't know if I could send him alone. He loves it and it is the first time he has been away from me at something besides church. He is having the time of his life. Everyday he is dressed and ready to go with a back pack on before I even wake up. He is growing up so fast. He is also in swim lessons. They didn't have any sessions left when we signed up so Cali and I decided to do semi private. So it is just him and jack and they are learning so much. He also finally lost his toenail on thursday. It was scary or as he said "freaky".

On Saturday we had Todd and Tiffany (Merrell) Davis and kids over for a BBQ it was really fun. Our kids played great and we actually got to have adult conversation. We ended the night with a hillarious round of Dance Dance Revolution. Cortney was the champ. He is good at that thing. Man youv'e never seen feet move so fast. I loved it.

Also my brother Justin is engaged to Angelique Christensen!!! Yeah. We are so excited and we love her. They are getting married July 21st. Here is a picture Cortney took of them.

Father's Day

In my life I am surrounded by A LOT of great fathers. My own DAD and my FATHER IN-LAW whom I love more than life itself...my own dear HUSBAND, my brothers, my brothers in laws. All GREAT DADS!! I am so greatful to have my 2 dads.
Here we have Robert Boice and Robert Boice. I always laugh at having a kid with the same name as Bob...I love it though. It is a perfect name for him (they are both quite the trouble maker) and I hope that my little Robert Boice can live up to the name. They are some pretty big shoes to fill. My father in Law has always been so great to me. He always welcomed me into the family. He is so generous and he LOVES his children. I think he would do anything for us. I love him.
Here is my dad and Robbie. My dad and I are a lot alike. He gets me. When I was dating Cortney, Cortney said to me "man...I have never met a girl that talks about her DAD so much" I love my dad. He is my HERO. My parents are getting ready to go on a mission. I don't know how I will live without them.

And then of course there is Cortney...my boys dad. He is the best. I don't want to be cheesy or gooey...I am not really like that but...He is the best he really is. He does so much for all of us. Everyday he hurries home from work because he wants to be with us. He works SOOO hard in the HOT sun everyday, so I can stay home with my kids. When I was really sick with my RA he took care of all of us. He had to do almost everything. I couldn't pick Robbie up in the night...it was physically impossible for me to do. He would get up and get him and bring him to me to eat. He would help me hold him while I nursed. And then after a night of no sleep he would wake up at 4:30 in the morning to go to work. I couldn't have gotten through it without him and he never complained once. Even now as we speak he is bathing the kids while I write on my blog. On Father's Day when he shouldn't have to do anything. I LOVE HIM. My boys are so lucky. What a great example he is for them...and he is so fun too!!
I have a real limited library of pictures of cort. They are mostly pictures he is taking of himself with a new mustache. Or maybe a couple here and there of him with a fish or a deer. This what I could find

unexpected event

Rob hates the water. He doesn't like to swim, he doesn't like the bath. If he loses a toy in the bath he won't try to crawl to get it he is just frozen in terror. A couple days ago Cali and I took Oliver and Jack to swim lessons, and in true Earl girl form we were at the wrong pool waiting for the teacher. We thought we had signed up for private swim lessons at the Orem Rec Center but instead they were at the scera pool. Well anyways there we were with kids dressed to swim and no teacher. After we realized what happened we headed home and Cali's Jack was yelling all sorts of mean things to us. I could understand he thought we were going swimming so he was REALLY dissapointed. He is so funny when he gets mad because he just lets loose. It takes a lot for him to actually lose his temper but when he does...it is so funny. Anyways we felt bad and went and bought a little kiddie pool. Over the past 4 years we have bought every kind of baby pool there is trying to find the best kind and also trying to avoid the hard plastic ones that scrape your shin when you get in. After all these years and a whole lotta pools that were worthless, (I am sorry but those blowup ones are impossible) we bought a plastic pool the kids have been loving it. Kids meaning everyone but Rob. As I mentioned he doesn't like to swim. Occasionally I will force him in and he will cling to me in a death grip screaming trying to climb up me out of the water. So imagine my surprise today when he swam. We were all hanging out outside (cali and her kids and I) and Rob just climbed in the pool. Clothes and all. He stayed and swam for an hour. Crawling around...putting his face in...laying on his tummy. I couldn't resist I had to grab a camera. I don't usually take pictures of my kids in their birthday suits. I don't know why...I just don't. So I tried to keep any privates out of view in these. It was amazing. I was thinking I was going to have to be tortured through another session of Mommy and me swimming lessons. I took them with Oliver and decided I would pay 30 dollars to not have to get in a swimming suit...and into a freezing cold swimming pool. So phewww...no mommy and me. Rob is officially a fish.

I don't know why he is eating his foot.

memories

Someone from Brigham City is selling this on KSL's website. It made my heart stop when I saw it. The McDonalds in Moses Lake had this same Hamburgler Jail. I have so many memories sitting behind those bars. The metal hot from the sun. Maybe acting shy because there were other kids in there I didn't know. Hmmmm....I had the best childhood.

fudge face

So my little neice went from being 8 lbs at 4 months to all of the sudden being a totally chubby baby. She is still short but she just has become so round. Anyways...my family we like nick names...I don't know why but we do. Little gracie has had a huge assortment of different nick names but right now we have been wanting to call her fudge face. I don't know why...maybe because it is better than calling her fatty, or something like that. She is ADORABLE. Anyways here is where it gets funny (well funny to me) Cali put her to sleep on my bed today. Earlier in the morning as we were getting ready to go to Youth parks (the summer camp Oli is doing with cousins through Orem Park's and Rec) Oli brought me a candy bar and asked if he could have some. I was in a major hurry so I gave him a square and left the candy bar on my bed. I snuck in my room during Gracie's nap and she some how scooted all the way across my king size bed and found the sparkly wrapper of my symphony bar. When I found her I thought "man it smells like chocolate in here" I looked at her and sure enough she was covered from head to toe. I had to wake her up and take some pictures.

lucky

My boys are lucky...they have a great dad. A dad that can teach them all sorts of manly things. This past week it was fishing. Ohh they are so cute.
I love this picture. I love that R.O.B. is right in the middle of throwing back his pole...or casting? I also love his tummy.

For my thought at girls camp I talked about courage. I handed out cards that said : "red is for Courage to do what is right." Thus Oliver's tons and tons of red bracelets. I ended up making them red bracelets as these ones were too small. He wore all 12 for probably a week without taking them off. He is just like his mom...and dad for that matter...always trying to make a fashion statement.