lovely

first I want to say that I am posting this from my iPod. So cool.

Oliver is so sick right now. This flu is wicked. I feel so bad for the boy. He is so good when he iS sick. He can barely swallow, his throat hurts so bad. And he just woke up from his sleep and threw up. Poor boy.

Today Rob was showing off trying to be cool and he kept saying "that's crazy". Which is funny because he can barely talk and he just kept saying it plain as day.

oh yeah...

i wanted to add to yesterday's post.  Musicals always throw my life off whack.  I keep waiting for Cortney to burst into song and profess his love to me.  I asked him to sing to me last night (and he doesn't sing by himself with others watching)...that was how crazy I was feeling.  He said I don't know any of the songs words.  Sigh....Maybe in my dreams. 

something in the way he moves

So Sam has been here this week and it has been so fun having her around. Her babies are starting to get big. It looks crazy now when she holds both of them because they are not newborns anymore.

While she is here we watched Across the Universe.
I know that there are a lot of mixed reviews about this movie. And...there is a little nudity (one boob is showing while someone sleeps). But I absolutely loved it. The whole first half of the movie I could barely breathe and my heart was beating so hard. Oh I love the Beatles. The Beatles music is the soundtrack to my childhood. My dad would sit at the piano and play and sing. He had the sheet music to just about every song.

In this movie there were a lot of crazy drug songs. But I loved it...the singing was great. And...

This guy...Jim Sturgess...did such a great job. To me there is hardly anything better than a cute guy from England singing Beatles songs.

He really did an amazing job...and might (and by might I mean DEFINITELY) have landed himself in my top 5.

So I am going to go out on a limb...and say I loved this. I love musicals though. The music was awesome. There were of course some parts...that were definitely PG-13. But still so good.

they say it's your birthday

So yesterday was my birthday. I always feel weird on my birthday. When I was younger I would look forward to my birthday all year. Sam would wake up before me and play me a birthday song on our tape player so I could wake up (I would plan this all in advance and make sammy do it...hahaa). Now that I am older...I think I feel a lot of pressure on my birthday to have a great day...and I know all of my peeps feel pressure too, to make sure I have a good day.

Yesterday I slept in and at 9:30 Cort came in with toast (that was all I wanted). Then the kids came in so excited that it was the big day. Oliver remembered drawing pictures for me last year and wanted to make sure he did that again. Oliver also brought me two easter eggs...one with a nickel in it and the other with Cortney's old CTR ring. He kept saying how he was the only one that got me any presents...hahaa.

i am sure cort will love me posting this note he wrote.

Then Cortney went to work and I started the day by trying really hard to get the place cleaned up. Cali and Sam (yeah) came by around 11:30 and they had a huge brown bag filled with my favorite desserts from kneaders. A fruit tart, a key lime tart, a brownie and Raspberry bread pudding. Oh YUM. Those girls really know me. Then we all headed to target (where my kids had a couple of meltdowns). Then we came home and spent the day together with our 8 kids crawling all over us. CRAZY. The kids had swimming lessons so Cali took them while Sam and I stayed home with the other kids. At 6:30 Cortney came over and we sang happy birthday and I opened my presents. We don't usually do presents. Cortney got me...7 pairs of MUCH NEEDED garments. A binder where I can compile all of my recipes. That was so thoughtful and SOOO needed. I have so many recipes in a notebook and I am always losing some of my favorites. Then he got me and 8g IPOD touch! I found this overwhelming and was so tempted to make him take it back...too expensive. But in the end I kept it. I can get gifts. Ahhh. How nice. It gets the internet and is just so cool. I have never gotten a present like this.

I really hate this picture...but I wanted one with me and my present.

After the present opening Cortney and I went and walked around the mall (I wasn't hungry yet). After the mall we headed over to the happy sumo. I love that place. It is sooooo dark though in there...honestly I can barely read the menu. It was soooo YUMMY. Then we went back to Cali's and talked for a while. It was a great day. Really really great. Oh...I also got emails and phone calls of people wishing me a happy birthday. I was sung to 7 times. My parents called from Peru, Cortney had his friends at work call and sing to me, one of my young woman posted an entry wishing me a happy birthday on her blog, and my boice crew called also. I felt SO SPOILED.

so cool

Yesterday I was laying in bed reading. Rob came in and said "look mom I'm cool". He had a cloak on and sunglasses. I yelled for Cortney to take some pictures of him. He thought he was so awesome.
I love this first picture because when he is trying to be really cool he rolls his eyes back in his head and won't make eye contact with anyone....I love that you can see that even behind the sunglasses.
He was strutting around...man this kid has so much attitude.


I have been going crazy the past two weeks. This whole potty training thing...I don't know about it. I have been a shut in for so long. Waiting for Rob to "get" the whole potty training thing. We got treats and he just doesn't want to do it. He gets mad at me everytime I ask him if he needs to go to the bathroom. He won't go on the baby potty and will only go pee standing up (he isn't quite tall enough...which equals a lot of bathroom cleaning for me). I don't know if I should give up or not...He poops in his underwear EVERY DAY. Yesterday I watched him like a hawk...I jumped in the shower quickly...and sure enough he pooped. I don't know if I should try again when he is older and actually wants to do it. I asked him if he wanted to wear diapers and he said "yes" really happy like. Oli was so easy to train because he was older...he got it. If I give up though...these past two weeks will be for nothing....

scripture power

I have never ever been that consistent in reading my scriptures every day. uchhh. I know I should do better. This week alone I read 3 books. So really....I clearly have the time. So starting off slow this year I really wanted to start reading EVERY night with my children. We have been reading the one that has like nine pictures per page with a couple of sentences under each picture. I have been doing really good and not missing nights. Oli has so many questions...I can't believe how old he is and how interested in the scriptures he is. On Wednesday I was at young women's (ice skating...yuck) when Oli went to bed so cortney read to him a scripture story out of a different book because he didn't know where we left off. All night long Oli kept waking up and coming in my room "we forgot to read the scriptures". It was totally annoying that he kept waking up but, at the same time I loved it because...come on....how cute is that. Then last night we were reading about Enos. Rob said "penis...hahaaaa" I told him no "Enos" and he just burst out laughing. Everytime I read "Enos" he would laugh hysterically. boys....

some pictures from a couple of weeks ago just because I haven't taken any forever.

Oli has been posing for pictures his whole life...he knows how to make himself look "cool".

Rob on the other hand doesn't pose AT ALL. He IS too cool for that. This one here is just how he looks a lot of the time...frustrated over something...or ANYTIME we are at a store.

Here is his best attempt at a happy face picture

boring

so I haven't had anything to blog about. All I have been doing is sitting in my house in my pj's. I don't know why...I am having a lazy week. Rob did go #2 on the potty last night. YEAH. (but...honestly potty training isn't coming too great...Oli was trained in 1 day so this 1 yeek going on two is a new thing for me) Since Rob did go potty last night we all packed up this morning and went to chuck e. cheese. Cali and me and the kids that is. Usually at the chuck e. cheese here during the day they have all of the rides for free. But today when we got there it took about 20 seconds to realize that was no longer the case. Man I hate paying for my kids to ride those rides...especially since usually we don't pay so they get off seconds after the ride has started. I had to give in and buy tokens. What a pain. It was nice though because the place wasn't as crowded as it usually is. (free rides=tons of mormon moms with tons of kids). We had fun...Rob was pretty freaked out by some of the rides...and the chuck e. cheese show...he was shaking harder than I have ever seen him do when I took him to watch the show. Hahaa.

Oh happy day

So it has been no secret to us that our house had electrical problems when we moved into it. A lot of the houses in our subdivision have the same problems. I don't know why...I guess the builder (60 years ago) didn't wire the houses very well. Anyways...we had a whole bunch of necessary electrical repairs when we bought the house (the kind of repairs you get so your house doesn't explode in the night from bad wiring). Something that they didn't fix or couldn't figure out (and it wasn't a death risk so we just left it) was the light and outlets in the front room. They didn't work. So 1 1/2 years we have been using a little lamp as a light in the front room. Also the porch light didn't work. It was pretty bad. On Saturday Todd and Tiffany came over to help Cortney with some stuff in the basement ( I wish I took pictures). AND.......TODD FIXED THE LIGHT! I screamed really loud when he turned it on, and woke up their baby. I was so excited and couldn't wait for night to come so I could see what our house looked like with that light working. Needless to say it was a very very happy day around here. Then to top things off Todd added a light and plug in in the laundry room. Yes, I have been doing laundry for 1 year in darkness. Ahhhhh. What a happy day.

We are getting so far on the room. The put in insulation yesterday...there was NONE before. I will try to take pictures some day.

dang

man...I missed it. I got caught up reading blogs...and then I heard Rob calling me from the bathroom. Now I have to wait 24 hours. ahhh.

potty training

On Tuesday Cali and I decided that we would potty train our kids. I didn't really have a choice because Rob has been taking his diaper off because it isn't comfy. While we were in Rexburg for the wedding he kept taking his diaper off and pooping in random places (ie...on top of my bed...yeah fun for me.) So I knew when I got home from the wedding I was going to have to buckle down and do it. I didn't really want to because...let's face it. It is a lot of work. It means watching the kid like a hawk all day...it means, no stores and basically no fun. But I we were up for it. ALSO...Rob and Carolina...embarrassingly...still drink bottles. I know, I know...every parent has something they are embarrassed that they let their kids do and this is ours. I had tried to get rid of them a number of times last year but I knew that I was going to be leaving him with Cali for 17 days and I knew she would need some quiet time. Everyday he and Carolina would lay down drink a bottle and watch Tom and Jerry. Ohhh...when they are drinking bottles it is nice and quiet. Our only quiet of the day. So we also knew that if we were potty training it was time to say bye-bye to the bottles.

I am 4 days out. And it hasn't been too bad. The bottle thing for Rob was A LOT easier than for Carolina...poor thing, that girl knows what she wants (and her little sister still has a bottle which is very confusing). I am so proud of Rob with the potty training. He is a lot younger than Oli when I trained him. And a lot less mature. He hasn't pee'd in his pants once since we started. He has poo'd however like 4 times. That is a pain to clean up. I take my eyes off him for 5 minutes and he goes and finds a quiet place to do business (like the shower) and the whole days a bust. Then I have to wait 24 hours for him to have to go again. He is on a pretty tight schedule so today around 4 he is not leaving my sight. I told him he could go to chuck E cheese if he went on the potty. I don't think he really gets it. I will post pictures later.

Empty Sea

Last week we went to pick up my parents suburban from the MTC. As we pulled into the parking lot Oli said "I still have a sad feeling about this place" He knew that Grandma and Grandpa were in there and that Uncle Michael was also in there. Then as we left...he said "mom is it really an empty sea?" I hadn't even realized that MTC sounds like empty sea. All of this time that is where he thought they were. hahaa.

Crazy crazy weekend.

So...I had the craziest weekend.

For the last week or so I had a little bladder infection. I know...to much information. But it is a critical part of my story. I was taking cranberry pills and praying that I would get better. On Wednesday I felt better. Thursday morning I woke up feeling a little weird...achy...like I was getting the flu. Cortney found out they weren't working that day and so we decided that we would get an early start on our weekend trip to Rexburg. Griffin (Cort's bro)and Katrina wedding was on Saturday.

So I got packed and ready and we got on the road about 4 p.m. The roads were horrible. It took us forever to get to Rexburg. When we were going through the Malad pass there were 5 foot drifts across the freeway. Probably about 20 minutes after we were out of the pass it was closed. The whole thing was crazy. By this time I was starting to feel pretty sick...my back was hurting and I was feeling like shaky. We got to Rexburg at almost 11 p.m. We stayed this time at Ty and Nicole's, it was a lot of fun. Anyways that night I was shaking and freezing cold the whole night. I didn't sleep a wink. The next morning I got up and got ready but I was starting to get worried that the bladder infection maybe went into my kidney's. I couldn't get that out of my head. We headed up to Roberta's to hang out with the family. Here are the roads on the way up to Roberta's house. It was crazy windy.

I took this picture while Cortney was driving.

Cortney took this one later that day.

Once we got to Bob and Roberta's, I got to meet this guy...
Bodin Arensberg. He is Whitney and Schuyler baby boy. He is such a chub and it was good to finally meet him after 5 months of only seeing pictures.

Friday morning was spent at Roberta's. There were a million dogs there since everyone in the family has one. It was pretty crazy...

Here is Kina with Dotties whole head in her mouth. They were just playing...Dottie loved all of the attention. Here I am...I was feeling really sick and getting the chills so I was laying in front of the fire. Then all of the dogs came over. Drago, Dottie, and Mini are on the other side of me. I started getting worse and worse...finally Cortney and I decided I should go to the doctor. Now...this is huge because I NEVER go. If you don't count pregnancy or Rheumatoid stuff, I have been to the doctor 4 times since we have been married. But...I didn't want to have to be hospitalized...and I could feel I was heading there. So Nicole and Cortney and I jumped in the car and headed down to the Doctor. nicole in her cute new car driving us down

At the doctor, I got a prescription for an antibiotic and we were out of there (thank goodness). Once we were home I really started feeling bad. I could not warm up. I laid down on the couch and Nicole covered me up with like 6 blankets, she got me all tucked in and everything (and she kept making me drink all night). Then hours on end passed without me knowing it. Roberta would come over and check on me ( I got so much great mothering...it was wonderful), then she got out the hairdryer and would heat up underneath the blankets. It really helped...but I was pretty much delirious the whole evening. Meanwhile while I am passed out on the couch, the roads to Driggs (where the wedding is) were closed. Katrina was in Driggs and Griffin was in Rexburg. Everyone was pretty stressed out, hoping there was going to be a wedding.

That night I slept much better (nyquil...I love you). In the morning though everyone (ty, nic, cort, and the kids...oh and dottie) were in the room checking on me and I was dry heaving and shaking really bad. Tyler and Cort gave me a blessing. I felt seriously so bad...the only thing I can relate it to was before I got my appendix out....I was young but I remember. Pain, and nausea...ohh.

Here I am Saturday morning...curled up trying to stay warm...so sick (I probably lost 5 lbs over the weekend).

We were supposed to have the wedding Saturday but the roads were still closed. So we went to plan B. And they started planning for a Sunday wedding. This meant that they would have to change LOCATIONS (stress) amid many other things I am sure but didn't hear or worry about since I was in a sweaty daze the whole day. What I do know about the trip was that I didn't really see my kids much. Cortney must have had them.

Tyler spent the morning digging out around their house so the basement hopfully won't flood.

So I know this post is getting long....hang in there.

Sunday came...I woke up at 8:30 and I felt Okay. Not great but okay. We got ready and headed up to Driggs for the wedding. The new location was Warbird Cafe. Beautiful place.

Here we are waiting for the ceremony.


This picture is during the ceremony...I love how Oli is just looking right at his dad. And he is sitting all alone. Where am I you ask??? Look in the back by the window. Rob was being too loud to sit in the front. Of course. Weddings are lovely for me because I am almost always alone with the kids because Cortney is off taking pictures. Sigh...poor me. hahahaa.

Grif and Katrina during the ceremony. She looks so happy.

Cort took this picture while the moms were giving them advice...they are a really loving couple. I think this one is sweet because they didn't know they were being photographed.
All of the Boice family...we were all there...I think??? We are a big group.

This is pretty much how Rob was during the whole reception. I love the whole no nap thing.

Grif and Katrina dancing.

Here the are in the freezing Driggs out doors. I love this picture. (I don't really know how to edit so...that is my disclaimer...or should I say Cortney's...)

We left the wedding around 6:00 p.m. This time we had about 5 hour drive since we were coming from Driggs. Both kids fell asleep within 5 minutes of being in the car and we all settled in, I was so happy they were sleeping and thought they woulds sleep the whole way. BUT NOOOOO I had to go to the bathroom in Idaho Falls and they both woke up. The watched movies the rest of the way but when we got to Draper they were losing it and Rob was SCREAMING. I was feeling sick again and had the chills and Cortney was just plain tired. It was a long day. I was so glad to be back. We love love love Rexburg....but this trip was a pretty hard one.


Ps... my parents are in PERU and my brother is in PARAGUAY.


I meant to write but the night was getting late....I FEEL TOTALLY BETTER NOW. I feel great. THANK GOODNESS.

eggs

Today the Jack and Oli kept coming in and telling Cali and I that the babies were cracking egg shells all over the kitchen. I was being lazy and kept saying I was coming...I knew that I had put a carton of eggshells in the garbage...and I was kinda thinking, that it wouldn't do too much harm for them to crack them more. When I finally got up to go see this is what we found...
I screamed...out of shock when I walked in...like a short girly scream. Rob freaked. Gracie just crawled out of there as fast as she could. I didn't know that there was 1 egg left in the carton that was still a whole egg. So they got egg everywhere. Yuck. Cali said..."go get the camera" right when we ran in there. hahahaa. What a cute face....

Also...Rob is trying to potty train himself. He keeps telling me that he has to go to the bathroom and when he and Carolina are together I always find them both in the bathroom...and he is trying to undress somehow to show her how he can go. They always look so guilty when I find them. Hahaa. So I guess that is something that I have got to get doing. I always put it off...because lets face it, when you are at target or wherever it just isn't convenient to have to take a toddler to the bathroom a million times.

I am still really missing my parents...people say the time goes by fast...not so far.

Todd and Tiffany came over last night along with Justin and Angelique, and the boys went down and worked. They got almost the whole thing framed. How awesome is that. I couldn't go to sleep last night because I was so excited about it and couldn't stop thinking about it. I can't wait to have it finished.

good weekend

On friday Cali and I decided we would trade babysitting. So Cortney and I watched her kids on friday night. They were good and all were asleep after probably 30 minutes. Cortney and then watched 5 episodes of 24. Yikes that is a lot.

Saturday morning Todd and Tiffany came over so Todd could take a look at our basement. Todd is going to help Cortney re-finish it. They are coming over tomorrow for dinner and the boys will start framing it up. How awesome is that? I will eternally be grateful to Todd and Tiff...and they both know that their wish is my command. While they were over Cortney got a chance to photograph this jewel...baby Camilla...
She is so cute and we got some dang cute pictures...especially since the whole photo shoot wasn't planned. What a good baby. After they left we headed over to Cali's to watch Pres. Hinckley's Funeral. My parents were out of the MTC on PDAY so most of the kids were there. We had a cozy time on the couch...just talking and such.
After the funeral we headed to Costco...(Angelique and Mom watched the kids so we got to go without kids...it was fun). And then back to Cali's for more hanging out.
This is a picture of Oli...he is mid BACKFLIP. Ohhh...my kids are so like my husband. They aren't scared of anything. Scary.

Then in the evening we went out to eat with Justin and Angelique...we love doing stuff with them...they are really fun. We went to Brick Oven and it was delish...Justin had some vouchers so the meal was on him. Then we headed to the dollar theater and all that was playing at that time was Water Horse. Justin seemed pretty excited about it..hahaaha...so we went and it was pretty sucky...but funny...we were laughing the whole time, at how funny it was that that is what we were seeing. All in all a great night.

Then tonight we had a big super bowl party at Cali's. MAN OH MAN THE FOOD WAS SO GOOD. All our friends brought so much food we could have been snowed in all week and never run out. It was a great night.

Cortney took a whole bunch of really cute pictures of the kids...go to his blog to see the pictures. He will also have more of Camilla...maybe tuesday.