square one

Rob wouldn't go to sunbeams today. I tried to take him in kicking and screaming and crying (AND PUNCHING) but man...that kid is stronger than me. He has new teachers...and he just wouldn't go. I don't know what to do. I threatened everything. And as we speak he is grounded from TV and TREATS today. Both of Rob's true loves. He doesn't quite understand what is going on.

This was not today...I am not sure when it was but Cortney took it with his iphone sometime at church (it was sometime since I got a big belly). But it is how today felt. Any suggestions on getting kids to obey.

The beginning of a new time of my life...

Kindergarten.

I can't believe the time has come for my baby to FINALLY enter the world of school. Yay. I can't even say just how excited I am for this day to finally be here. Of course, it was scary for me but also so wonderful. He definitely needs some entertaining.

As Cortney gave him a blessing this morning, I felt overwhelmed. It is scary to send your kids out into the world. I told him today that now it was his job to choose the right even without me there. He is a good boy.

His first day outfit of choice. I bought him probably 8 or 9 plain t shirts. School shopping for me this year was really cheap. Oh and yes, he got his hair cut (I had to pay him to do it...sheesh that kid). We looked through an Entertainment Weekly to see if he saw any hair cuts he liked. He picked a picture of Robert Pattinson...hahaaaa. This is the first time Oliver has really worn spiked hair. He was really looking in the mirror this morning as we got ready to go.

How handsome. I love being able to see his face again. That long hair was getting on my nerves.

Walking in.

My shy little boy. I know every mom feels the same feeling I felt...that they hope their kids will be able to make friends.

His teacher. She is so cute.

Name tag.

He walked in without so much as a glance backwards.

It felt like a long 3 hours. But it was so nice and quiet. Rob and I did a little grocery shopping and then I came home and got some work done. It was a nice afternoon.

After school I took the boys to Wiseguyz for a couple of slices of pizza. Oliver couldn't believe that there is no lunch during kindergarten. (I fed him before...honestly) We picnicked on the grass in front and talked about the day. Oliver said he was the best one in his class. I like that he thought that.

organization

Cortney and I took the weekend to start going through our storage room. AYE. What a pain and what a mess. Three days later and we are still living in pure chaos. Put we are throwing away tons and tons of stuff, I have nearly gotten all of my baby to 5 year old clothes organized by size, and we have come to find out that Cortney is quite the pack rat. In the whole entire storage room there is maybe one tupperware of my stuff. Everything else is Cortney's or Children's clothing. I love it.

I have always been someone that doesn't keep a lot of storage. Moving every 6 months for 7 years will do that to you. But we have been in this house for 3 years now (our record) and the storage room just got a little out of control. It will be so nice to have it done and one more thing off of my list of things to do before the baby comes.

Last night when we were saying prayers I asked rob "what are you thankful for??" to which he responded "storage, I am thankful for storage.".

How cute is that the little guy must have been listening to me tell Cortney how grateful I was for such a big storage room, earlier in the day. Haaa.

I have an update coming from the reunion as soon as I get this house all cleaned up. It should only take a couple of trips to DI and a couple of trips to the dump. Hallelujah.

Help

I have tons and tons of lemon cucumbers in my garden. More then anyone could ever eat. SO if you live around here come by and pick some...please.

the drive

So Cali and I just got back from what is probably the last road trip we will take together for a long time (boooo hoooo). We have loved so much being able to fit in one car. It really helps to have someone to talk to and someone to help with the kids and such when one is driving (Cali always drives). On the way down the kids were pretty great. They really are such good travelers. And it is NO easy feat driving 12 hours with someone right next to you bugging you all day long. It is a pretty jam packed van.

Here are a lot of car pictures. I just think they are funny.

Both on the way there and back the three front row kids fell asleep right after lunch and stayed that way for a while. It sure helps to have half of our kids asleep.

We always leave SUPER early (4:00 am) so we can get a lot of driving done before lunch. On the way home we didn't stop for lunch until LeGrand. That is like 9 hours into our trip. We had stopped once to pee before that but it was a fast stop. Our kids are road warriors.

On the way back Cali and I were the weakest links. We had to PEE a lot. I don't know I guess two pregnant women equal a lot of bathroom breaks. We love rest areas...I know gross. But...the kids get to run around and there are no treats for them to get distracted by.

Letting all of their wiggles out with a couple of laps around the building.

On the way home the kids weren't as good for some reason. They were still good but, they were all very hyper. After lunch we got a couple of red boxes and that settled them right down. At one point right before we stopped for lunch they were all crying and freaking out. So I sneaked this video clip. Yes they are all buckled and in car seats...it just doesn't appear that way. Tyson was the only one that realized I was taking a video.

We had a great time but are so glad to be back. It was a bittersweet last ride...we are really going to miss our long car trips.

I guess this goes without saying but in case it doesn't...No more road trips because come October Cali and I will have 8 kids between the two of us...we'd have to have a huge old van.

things that make you go mmmmm....

I am heading back tomorrow, we had a wonderful reunion. I will do a longer post when I get back but here is a picture of my Grandma, Aunts, girl cousins and nieces. What a great bunch of women. I am so grateful for the strong women examples I have had in my life. I love all of these ladies. (were not to hard on the eyes either....hahahaaa)

Moses Lake or bust...

Cali and I are on our way to Moses Lake tomorrow. I can't believe how crowded it is with all 6 of the kids and two pregnant women. We will definitely be making memories that is for sure. The kids are so excited. So who knows....I probably won't be posting for a while.

oh my gosh....I am having a baby.

Now I know this is not news to any of you...but tonight it is to me. Cali called me from the store where they were having some sales and asked if I wanted them to get me some baby clothes. My immediate reaction was "yick" I don't know why...but that is what came out of my mouth. Up until now it just hasn't hit me. Then tonight when I saw what they had picked up. It HIT ME...oh my gosh I am having a baby. I little baby boy. It has been FOUR long years since I have had a little one. I can't even imagine it.


Here are the lovely things they got for me. I just stare and stare at them and think...what are these for?? How crazy. (although I got an email from a pregnancy site saying I have 74 days left...that is forever) 10 weeks. I know it will fly by though because Oliver is starting school, and I have a bunch of family things going on. (yay I head to Moses Lake on Saturday...can't wait to be back home)

In other boicefamily happenings Rob has been saying "holy Crap" the last two days. I don't know where he got it...it isn't one of mine that is for sure. I keep telling him not to say that to which he says "mom it's not a bad word"...I have been trying to explain that it isn't a "nice word" that it is rude. He doesn't quite get it.

you all must be crazy

Yesterday we went to the park. It was horribly hot. I just kept thinking...I don't know how other mom's do this...how they do "stuff" all the time. I would way rather lie in my bed snoozing. It sure looks fun though.

I think all of the grandkids except Dougie were there.

I was dying in the heat...I really was. Then out of no where an ANGEL appeared. Okay it was just my dad but he had a HUGE box of creamie popsicles from costco and it was a lifesaver.

Gg sure thought so.

Not only did we have popsicles but all of the kids went and sat under the shade of a different tree so the adults got a little quiet ice cream time.

Our sad attempt at a group shot. Mom and dad haven't mastered the art of "just look your best at the camera and don't worry what the kids are doing". Amateurs. I took this picture and by the time my camera was ready to take another shot they were all gone.

Oh...and you can see the shorts I made Oliver wear that started his breakdown yesterday. This picture was mid tantrum for him...but you can't even tell. That is how deceiving pictures can be.

difficult `

i know I have mentioned Oliver's obsession with clothing before but in the last couple of months he has taken it to an all time high. I don't know what to do. HE IS DRIVING ME CRAZY. Honestly it will be nice to have a little baby around because the two kids I do have don't seem to care about minding me at all. It will be nice to have someone that doesn't sass back.

Anyways...the new problem with Oliver's clothes is that every day...regardless he wears a plain shirt, baggy jeans, socks and shoes...oh and a hat...of course I can't forget the hat. Now I know this doesn't sound like a problem but it is 100 degrees here. Every morning when I get out of bed he is already dressed (shoes and all). Today we went to the park and I had to threaten him to wear some shorts. (FORGET ABOUT FLIP FLOPS...he won't even budge in that arena) Then when we were leaving the park he freaked out crying and rolling on the grass because I told him he couldn't go home and change into jeans before we went to Cali's house. He decided that he would rather go home and not play then wear shorts. We have now been home like 5 hours and I won't let him wear his jeans. He right away changed into pajama pants (he won't even wear pajama shorts)...and he has been crying non stop for me to let him be ungrounded from his jeans. I am going crazy, there is no parenting book that tells you what to do when your 6 year old won't dress appropriately for the weather. I cannot wait for school to start so I can tell him it is school rules.

Oye...every day I pray for the strength to be patient. I could have never imagined a kid would be this difficult about JEANS.

good saturday

Saturday morning I woke up (to pee) at seven. Once I got back in bed I couldn't fall back asleep. Oliver came in at 7:20 to tell me that his tooth fell out. What a big boy he is. I was glad this tooth came out on its own...no blood.

Sorry this whole post is going to be filled with horrible pictures. I got a point and shoot camera, which means that I am actually posting pictures taken by myself and not Cortney. I DO NOT have the eye.

I decided since I couldn't fall back asleep Oliver and I would go garage sale-ing. We had such a great time. I didn't find many really great garage sales but it was so fun being just the two of us. We had a great time. Around 9 we started heading home and hit a garage sale on the way home. Jackpot...I found a fairly new (way newer then mine) Graco (my favorite brand) stroller for only 20 bucks. My stroller from when I had oliver has been great but a couple of months ago Cali and I were at the mall and almost all of our kids were riding in and on the stroller. Well surprise surprise...a wheel fell off while we were pushing it. I have been missing it ever since. PLUS...as you all know I have a baby coming in 11 weeks. They also had a graco car seat...I couldn't decide if I should buy it or not. My car seat is IMPOSSIBLE for me to get out of the base. It has got to be the worst car seat for someone with rheumatoid arthritis. When I would try to get Rob out of the car sometimes it would take me like 10 minutes. I ended up not buying it and went home. I told Cortney about it when I got home (he and ROB where still asleep) and he insisted we load up and got buy the car seat. I am so glad he made me buy it (I need that sometimes) it really is a nice LIGHTLY used carseat.

once again not great pictures...I didn't want to get out of my recliner to take the picture. hahaaa.

the stroller...duh.

So from one garage sale I got the stroller and car seat, two transformers, and a book for 36 bucks. I felt great after that.

Then on the way home we stopped at one more sale. We picked up these two beauties for a whopping 3 dollars TOTAL.

Three bucks...are you kidding me? What color do you think we should paint these babies? Yellow, white, blue, black...the sky is the limit, or green maybe green. I can't wait to get started.

Then once we got home I got my paintin' clothes on and we got started painting our kitchen.

We went for a pretty dark grey. Man...our walls were bright white before and just so hard to keep clean (which was driving me bonkers). It was a bigger project then I had envisioned. The walls just needed so many coats of paint. I love getting stuff done though.

We also painted the kitchen table and chairs. The table was given to us for free 10 years ago and even then the person that bought it got it from kmart for 50 bucks...it isn't a nice table. But it feeds us and it is the right size for our small kitchen. It looks awesome now.

this is this morning before church...don't the table and chairs look great? I think the wall color is good too. I am getting used to it...I love white walls I really do, but it is nice to have some color on the wall. It sure makes the walls look better.

Remember my table from before...I guess setting it on fire would have even helped....so it is no surprise what a coat of paint can do. It is sure a relief for me to be done.

Anyways...that is our Saturday. Pretty productive huh? I love getting stuff done. It is such a great feeling.

arggghhh

I am so frustrated today. Seriously one of those days when you just want to scrap everything...and crawl back into bed. Are my kids even going to turn out?? Oliver teases Rob non stop, every second of the day. Everything he does he does to annoy someone. And Rob and I have a stubborn showdown every single day. Today he threw a huge tantrum because I told him he couldn't have pop inside (only outside) and he wanted to do it anyway. So here we were having a 20 minute battle of wills...about something I don't even care about. But he has to obey me, right??

On lighter news Cortney and I got SOOO much done yesterday. This nesting thing rules. I wish I had the desire to get everything done all the time. I took some pictures and I will post later today.

The airport

Flying home from Peru takes forever. My poor parents were flying for almost 24 hours straight. That in and of itself is horrible and emotionally draining. I can't imagine adding coming back to the USA for the first time in a long time and...something like 20 people to the mix. I felt bad for my parents they looked so tired. BUT...man they sure looked like they were glad to be home.

We decided to wear USA colors at the airport. Here we are waiting and waiting anxiously for them to come out the gate. (oh I forgot to mention...they didn't make one of their connections out of Dallas...luckily we knew that before we headed to the airport though or it would have been a long wait)

Finally we get a glimpse of them. Look at our excited faces. Oh and I love Grandma Jones' hand up in the back.

Dad, Tyson and Carolina

I haven't taken any pictures hardly of me pregnant (well where you can actually see that I am pregnant)....So I thought I would include this...I am 27 weeks.

All the kids surrounding Grandpa.

Blurry but a great picture nonetheless Grandpa meeting baby DOUGIE for the first time.

Sam sent a poster of her family that Vicki held up as mom and dad walked out. It was perfect. Plus Kate has the funniest face in the picture.

My mom showing the grandkids her name tag.

It is surreal to me that they are back. It is great to see them. After we all headed over to Cali's and had pizzas and just sat around. My mom burst into tears as she drank a glass of milk...because she was so grateful to be back in the USA (where milk is ohhh so good).

WELCOME HOME GUYS!

today is the day

My parents are coming home!!!! YAY!

Rexburg part UNO

Sorry this is long...but I realized I NEED to post for myself. I want to be able to remember what we actually did. So there.

We headed to Rexburg for the 4th of July. It really is so fun there on the 4th. They have an awesome parade, wonderful weather, we ate delicious food the whole time and got to hang out with family. Really what more can you ask for??

I know this is taking me forever to post about but accchhhhkkkk. I have been nesting like crazy and painting, cleaning and such every second of the day.

Okay...back to the fourth.

We made it to Rexburg Thursday night. We had a nice drive up and drove through one of the CRAZIest storms I have ever seen. It was almost pitch black out just from storm clouds.

Friday a couple of the cousins came over and Cortney and I got to have a nice relaxing day because the kids just played and played outside and we barely even saw them. It was awesome. We went and ate lunch at Taco Time (a Rexburg must) all by ourselves and left the boys up at grandmas. It was great. Friday night we went out to Tyler and Nicole's for fire and Smores. It was so fun to just sit around and talk with all of the adults. Once again being in the country my kids just ran wild.

Every time I go to Rexburg it makes me want to look at real estate there. I love the wide openness you feel there. Hummmm. I would love for my kids to have a couple of acres to run around on. Instead I am scared they are going to get kidnapped by one of the million random people that walk by my house everyday (on their way to the bus stop).

Anyways. Saturday was the 4th...duh. Cortney left early in the morning to take some family pictures. Which was great for him to be able to do. Then we all headed for the parade. It was fun. My kids were over it in about 15 minutes. It was hot and even the candy wasn't enticing them. But we stuck it out and I personally had a great time. I love that kind of stuff. I will post parade pictures tomorrow.

Then it was home for the annual Boice family slip and slide. It is so funny to watch. I spent the afternoon cooking. Then when the cooking was done I got to sit around with my lovely family. We sipped limonadas and played sequence...two of my favorite things to do in Rexburg.

Rob loved the slip and slide. I was shocked since he doesn't like to be sprayed. He would make cameron stop the hose but as soon as Rob would start running Cam would put the hose back on. He went like a million times.

He didn't even want to take the time to put on a swimsuit. He just took he shirt off and took off down the hill.

I loved this pictures of the three girls and rob in the background. It looks fun doesn't it? It isn't...after last year I was sore for a week.

Look at that form.

Oh...and some of Oli.

Look at how happy Oliver looks. I love it.

That night we had an amazing BBQ at Shawn and Kandee's. They had invited Shawn's forman from his landscaping company and they made and brought the best ever beef for tacos. Steak tacos. Yum. There was so much good food. I ate and ate. My dessert plate alone was filled with like 5 different things. Sooo good. The boys ran around with the other cousins and lit fire works like wild kids. I let them do things I would never let them do here at home.

All in all we had the best weekend. I loved every minute of it. I hope I can get back to Rexburg again before this baby is born. I don't know if that will be possible with everything I have going on this summer but I hope so.

Rob put his head too close to a lit smoke bomb. It burned his little head. Hahaa. They were loving the fireworks. (oh and of course shawn put on like a city caliber firework show...it was amazing.)

A boice get together isn't a Boice get together until the boys start shootin' stuff.

The boy cousins setting off fireworks.

pure bliss

Yesterday was like the best day of my life ever.

My big huge sectional sofa (that is light cream) was driving me crazy. In my nesting stage it was feeling TOO big and I couldn't keep it clean despite how hard I was trying. So before I went to bed I gave it one last good shampooing and then in the morning I listed it on ksl. (a site news site used for selling stuff here...like craigslist). The couch was sold by 4:30 p.m. I got tons of calls and sold it to the first person who could come and get it. I was ecstatic. still am. My house feels so free and open and furniture free (but dang...when cali and her four kids where over today we sure didn't have a place to sit...hahaha).

Then on top of that wonderful thing that happened Cortney arranged for someone to come and clean my carpets yesterday night. I feel like a new woman.

This picture was taken with my computer and it sure doesn't make the carpet look that clean...but it is way better.

It is amazing how great a house looks to me with no furniture in it...no shoe baskets, no odd things propped up against the wall. Hmmmm pure heaven. And yes I realize I have nothing on my walls. I am not much of a decorator. I like simple white walls. It just feels so much cleaner to me that way. I can't help it. Cortney is insisting we put up some big frames with some of his pictures...and I guess now that we have an income I can splurge on them...so maybe someday.

i know

I haven't posted all week. I haven't wanted to. I have been so bored. Cali's family had the swine flu and we were with them the day they got sick...so we were exposed and for the first couple of days I just waited for my kids to get sick. They didn't, thank goodness. But because Cali has been quarantined I have been bored all alone in this house.

On Friday Cort took the boys to Father's and sons. It was the weirdest night of my life. I think it is the first time I have ever been all alone over night without the boys. WeiRD.

I have some pictures. I will post them later. I promise.

I have been nesting like crazy. Just today I painted the concrete beneath the siding on the exterior of our house. On our WHOLE house all by myself. It looks so much better. Cortney and I also spent all Saturday painting the trim on the front of the house. I will post pictures once cortney takes some pictures of it.

3 going on 30

My three year old just cut a tomato into 3 slices (yes with a knife) sprinkled the slices with fresh cracked sea salt and then started the dishwasher, with the right detergent and all to get rid of the evidence. Man...he's good...AND following in my footsteps as a tomato lover. Even though that is pretty naughty...there is nothing like seeing your baby sneak to eat veggies.

swim

Today we took the kids swimming.  Cali's cousin in law is visiting with her 5 sons so we thought we would take all of our kids out to use up some of their energy. 

Oli and Jack...Yes I know that Oliver has floaties and a life jacket on.  But hey, our kids don't get to swim very often...and he is my cautious child.  He doesn't want to drown. 

Rob is so dang cute when he is swimming.  Most of the other kids have complaints like "this is boring" or "I'm cold" but not Rob he could swim all day.  

He went down this slide 100 times and everytime he would close his eyes like this so he wouldn't get any water in his eyes.  He kept coming up to me and drying his face on my stomach.  This time swimming I gave the boy a little dignity with shorts over his swimming unitard.  I know he will appreciate that someday when he sees the pictures as a teenager.

On the way home we stopped for sonic's happy hour.  50 cent slushies is where it is at...I am telling you.  The kids thought it was awesome that they got to pick their own flavor. 

oh and it did help to use up some of their energy...Rob was asleep in bed by 6:50 p.m.  Hallelujah!