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.

ending

I always feel so sad when I finish a book. I started and finished one today. All 379 pages of it. To make matters even worse...it was the last book of a trilogy. I feel as if I have to say goodbye to a dear friend or something. I have NEVER been good at goodbyes. This trilogy was the Uglies trilogy written by Scott Westerfield

They were all really good. I just hate saying goodbye to them so soon. Once again they are Young Adult books. So they definatly aren't classics just a really good read. They take place 300 years into the future. So semi-fantasy. I don't really know what makes a book a fantasy book. But since it is in the future they are definatly not real. Real good though. I have been on a reading high lately. I have one of my girls from Young womans who reads...she has been recommending books to me. I LOVE to read. I have never been much of a reader but...maybe it is the age of my children (easier than before) or my health (easier than before) but I have had time to read and I can't get enough of BOOKS!! I love it.

A letter to Mom and Dad

So the girls got letters from their parents. Some of the leaders got them from their husband's, I got neither. But I did write one to my parents while they were reading and writing. And since of course I will NEVER send it (too lazy). I thought I would post it here.

Mom & Dad...
June 8th 2007

So I am up here @ girls camp. It snowed 12 inches the first full day we were here. It was 24 degrees the next morning. I can't believe I am here and...I was one of the only leaders that wasn't crying to go home. Instead I just kept telling everyone "We can do hard things" & making sure everyone was happy. I am not trying to toot my own horn...but instead I wanted to tell you both Thank You. Thanks for turning me into the STRONG woman I am today. Thank you for making me into a POSITIVE woman and for teaching me to participate no matter how COLD it is. Mostly though for helping me build a strong testimony. I had faith that the stake priesthood knew we were supposed to stay up here. And that comes from what you taught me. I love you guys.

Ashley Earl Boice

P.s. Everyone is reading letters from their parents...where's mine??? :)

Secret sis...

I had two secret sisters have me this year. I don't know how that happened. Here are two notes I got.

Dear sister Bouice (If I didn't spell your name right Sorry!!)

Your such a cutie. I totally love you. Your always acting so cool, and your so loving. You make the funniest jokes, and stories too. Stay Gold.

Heart,

Secret sister




Ashley,

You are so awesome!! You also have cool sunglasses. I think ur really pretty and nice. You are such an inspiration to us all. You're kind of like a teenager.

Luv ya!

your secret sister.


I thought they were so cute.

Camp

The Geneva Heights 3rd Ward at Mia Shalom. (I am in the back row with the white sunglasses on)

Taken from my camp journal...
"these last 3...no 4 days have been a cold blur...I thought I would Journal everything I did. But so far this is the 1st time my hands have been warm enough to write anything. We arrived tuesday eve (around 2 or 3) and it was pretty warm up here. I was actually afraid that I packed too warm clothes. We had a fun night dinner with the stake chicken salad croissants and fruit. Then we all did our skits. Ours turned out really cute. Then we came back and played Camp Idol. Sarah Christensen talked me into singing "girls just want to have fun". It was great because one of the girls, Elizabeth played Simon Cowell and was so funny and dead on. Some of the girls thought she was too harsh but I laughed so hard. I kept clapping with my feet...up in the air. Afterwards we ate smores. All in all fun. I still wasn't into singing songs and acting crazy. I was actually too hot that night.

We woke up wed. morn to probably 3 or 4 inches of snow. I was up at 6:00 (after a night of no sleep). We cooked pancakes for 32 in the freezing cold. I don't think anyone actually had a warm breakfast. We spent the entire day indoors as it snowed and snowed and snowed. Only to go out to use the bathrooms (we had toilets about 100 yards from our camp). We were all so wet...so cold and I was kinda excited, WHAT AN ADVENTURE!! Lunch was sandwiches (because it was too cold for any cooking) more lying around. Dinner was ravioli and salad. It is hard to cook up here it took an hour to boil water. Wendy Talbert is amazing, she cooked for us the whole time. When we were making pancakes she and I were talking about what a shame it was we weren't going to eat any of our desserts. I said too bad we don't know how they made those snow desserts on little house on the prairie. We started brainstorming after that and came up with a dessert with snow. We took raspberry pie filling and apple juice and poured it over fresh snow. YUMMY. Of course we followed that with hot chocolate so they could warm back up but it was so fun to make dessert out of a bad situation. I gave a thought on COURAGE before bed...which we all needed. It was a LONG day but fun. THat night I don't think I have EVER been soo cold. I woke up and for the first time thought..."I don't think I can do this." If I was cold (I never get cold) I knew the girls must be cold.

I bucked up and got dressed breakfast was at the pavillion (a covered eating area, with a fire place). It was 24 degree's at 9:00 that morning. Most of the girls shoes were so wet that they couldn't stay close to being warm. I got to stand by a fire that morning for the first time in what felt like an eternity as we had NO fires on Wednesday and Thursday (until night time). We all came back to camp after breakfast and they told us to pack up. WE WERE GOING HOME!!! For me it was bittersweet news. I was having a great time. I LOVE LOVE my girls and what funner thing to do than sit around and eat and talk. We packed up in record time and were all sitting around playing catch phrase, when we were told it was too dangerous to try and go home. Everyone was crying when they found this out. Not me of course. But they were all pretty dissapointed. We were told that it was going to warm up and that we would be safer if we stayed. We had Jumbalaya for lunch (soooo yummy for cold bodies). Then we sat in sleeping bags and I tried to cheer everyone up. It was still so cold. Around 3 or 4 on Thursday the sun came out and the snow started to melt. We got a fire started and also got news that our bishopric was coming up with more sleeping bags and more jackets. They called and got people to gather everything they could and had enough coats and mittens and scarfs and hats for practically everyone. It was a real blessing and we all slept much warmer that night. (I think it was in the mid 30's in our cabin both nights) Our stake president came up and told us that he had gone to the temple twice trying to decide what to do with us. The first time afterwards he was covered in sweat and on his way to the car a big gust of wind came and he said he was "soooo cold" and that he couldn't warm up. His thought then was..."they are freezing up there" That is when we got the call that we were coming home. He felt like he still wasn't sure and went again to the temple. The second time he thought of his great great grandma crossing the planes. Her husband woke up one morning and told her he couldn't go on he was too cold and there was too much snow. She then told him "then you can stay there and ROT" THe son wrote in his journal that day that "dad got over dying and got up". President Thomas then knew that we had to stay. He said he was proud of us and that we can do hard things. He knew the weather was going to warm up and he didn't want us to miss out on girls camp. I knew that there were a lot of people praying for us and that really helped. That night was testimony meeting. Dinner was great. And the bishopric brought up costco pies. The pies were freezing cold but it was still fun. It was good having men up there. I am not meant to be in a girls only existance. My whole life I have surrounded myself with men, boys whatever. I felt so much better with them up there.

Friday was great, we had scones for breakfast, dutch oven pizza for lunch and chicken casserole for dinner. It was the first day we went back to the schedual. We had a friendship hike, games, crafts, singing, and we all sat and played liar liar by the fire before bed. Oh and ofcourse we went on a snipe hunt. There was too much snow for it to be that good but it was still fun. I slept great that night and was finally warm.

Saturday we were up volcano pancakes. THen we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. It was a great week. I got the award for "MOST PREPARED" (I knew it was going to snow). Then we stood around playing and dancing. I taught them a couple songs. Then on to the bus. I was the only leader that rode with 3 wards. So I got to talk on the speaker thing. I LOVED THAT. Hahahaa. GIRLS CAMP WAS SO MUCH FUN. I have a feeling I will be doing this for the rest of my life.
Here is our Cabin. Now just so you know...There was no heat in these cabins. And no insullation. We had to tape up the holes in the wood with duct tape. We slept 16 girls in each one and in ours we all slept downstairs because it was too cold up stairs. IT WAS CROWDED.

The view the first morning of snow.

Here we are trying to make pancakes.

I am not actually asleep in this picture, I just am pretending. I would take off my wet pants and socks and just wear the awesomest long johns and dry socks in the cabin. I did a lot of long john dancing as you can imagine.

I just stayed in my bed all day. It was cozy

Here are all of our ward's leaders. Last year they had 3 so it was a big group. I love them all.

This is the group of girls that I did cooking and cleaning with. We were the RAINBOW DINOSAURS that go RAWR. I love them.

Finally the sun came out. You can see there was still a lot of snow.

Girls Camp

COMING SOON!!!


I am going to post everything about my camp experience later. I thought I would put one of my pictures on though. This is me at 6 a.m on the second day there. I wasn't too worried about the snow in this picture. I should have been though...it snowed constantly for 24 hours after this picture was taken. Too tired to post now. I had the BEST time. I will write all about it later.

scared

So tomorrow morning I leave to girls camp. I am scared. I don't know why I just am. I know it will be very hard being away from my kids and Cortney. No cell phone reception. I hope I can make it....not that I have a choice. Already Oli was crying tonight, he doesn't know if he can do it either. Hahaa. I think it will be fun. Cold...and fun. I will post everything about it when I get back. I think there are mice up there. It is going to be fine. I think I will take any vacation I can get. So Adios.

If it looks like a cheetah it is a cheetah

So Cortney was out of town on a boys weekend this weekend. It is always very hard for me when he is gone. I don't like being alone. I miss him and I get very lonely and bored. Anyways yesterday (Saturday) I was so bored that I decided to go to my nephew's t-ball game. By nephew I mean Jack, Tyson and Zac. They are all on the same team and the game was right by my house so we all loaded up and headed over to watch. It was so hot and sunny that I just knew I wasn't going to stay the whole game. Then the funniest thing happened. My niece brooklyn was there with her friend Megan. Megan's face was face painted to look like a cheetah. It was good face paint too...not like the kind you get at a local fair for free but maybe the kind you get at some rich kids birthday party. I never did ask where she got her face painted. Anyways ROB was SOOOOOO scared of her. I have never seen him act the way he was. His whole body was shaking and he was crying and hiding his eyes in my neck and holding on to me for dear life. He never stopped being scared and anytime she walked past he would scream and hold on tighter. We finally left because he was just too scared. Later in the evening I stopped by KaeLynn's (I needed her creativity to help me with something for girls camp). Megan was still there but almost all of her face paint was washed off. Rob was still totally freaked out by her. It was insane. I loved it though because he was hugging me so much and so hard. She finally washed it all off of her face and changed her clothes and then he was fine. I felt bad for her...I think it is hard to understand at 8 that a baby is scared of your face paint. I guess Robbie won't be going to Disneyland anytime soon. I didn't know he was someone that got scared. It was so nice going to KaeLynn's I was so bored over here by myself and I had already read two books in the two days Cortney was gone. Over there Jason started a fire in the fire ring outside and we roasted hot dogs and ate cherries and chips...it was a perfect start to the summer. As I was leaving her house to put my kids to sleep Cortney called and said he was coming home a day early YEAH. He got home a half hour later. Thank goodness.

2 cute things

Every morning when I go to get Rob out of bed he hides in a ball in his crib and says "where are you" although it sounds more like "weahhhyou". He does it everytime. Even this morning when he was poopy in bed and was asking me to come get him for 15 mins. He still wanted to play with me. He doesn't ever lift his head up either. I could wait all morning. I always just have to grab him out and he laughs so hard.

The other cute thing is we were having family prayer...Oliver was saying it and I was helping him. I told him "please bless daddy while he is away that he can be safe" He didn't say anything and I thought it was because It was too long so I said it again. I opened my eyes and looked over at him and he was crying. He was trying to keep it in but that usually makes it worse. He missed his dad.