Bolton Mom Blabbers On

500 Miles

2012-01-06T12:40:00.001-08:00

2011 was a year of significant physical fitness progress for me. The interesting thing is that I didn't actually set any significant goals in this area when the year began. I knew I wanted to increase my physical fitness, but I had no idea how much I would actually accomplish in the year. It all began with a switch to part time teaching. Without that one major life change I would never have been able to devote the time that I have to fitness. Normally my physical fitness goals are saved for summertime when I don't have work, but being home for an extra 20 hours each week gave me time to pick up on my exercise habit earlier. I stuck to my traditional routine of circuit style training with Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels (lonely living room workout style). Sometime in late spring I read about an iPhone app for running. It claimed to be for non-runners. I don't know what made me think that this time around running would be different for me, but the plan sounded reasonable and I wanted to increase my cardio routine, and get outside more, so I splurged ($3) on the app and went for it. The app was great and truly delivered results. I found myself actually feeling successful running for the first time ever and I stuck with it. I have decided that I am not interested in super long distances, but in general, I enjoy running a few miles (3-5) a few times a week to add variety to my workouts.

In November I went for a run and ended up going farther than I had planned. Nothing huge, but it was just under 5 miles and felt great. I decided that running was a permanent part of my life and in 2012 I would run 500 miles! The next few weeks yucky air quality and terrible winds resulted in a temporary hiatus from running, but the new year has come and I'm ready to start logging those miles. 500 miles in 1 year averages out to just under 10 miles each week. I'm hoping to get 10 miles in each week so that when the crazier weeks come along and I miss runs I will still be on track for my goal.

I should mentions that I cheat. I run and walk but consider the full distance as a run. My current pace is 4 min run 1 min walk, and it feels pretty good. Today I ran my longest distance yet: 5.6 miles. It was great! Earlier this week I had a much shorter mostly walk run (due to taking ibuprofen on an empty stomach) that was about 1.6 miles. Total so far is 7.2. I'm hoping that my body isn't too achy tomorrow from today's run so I can go for a short run and finish strong for week 1.

2012 Mile Counter: 7.2/500

Jack-isms

2012-01-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

I can't get enough of the funny, cute and sweet things my little Jack says all the time. Here are a few that I don't want to forget:

"Mommy, I'm not a quitter. I never give up!"

When we told him that his new shirt says best bro and that bro is like brother he protested, "But I'm not the best brother, Hayden is."

"Mommy, roll-up sandwich is an option for dinner, and I DO want to have this conversation!" - I have NO idea where he would have gotten that one from ;)

Mommy: "Jack, what does CTR stand for?"

Jack: "Do the right thing"

There are so many more, in fact I specifically remember that I sat down to write this post because of something he said as I was putting him to bed... but I can't remember what it was. Oh well. That's all.

Projects

2011-11-05T14:00:00.000-07:00

I've never met a person that says they have enough time to do all the things that they want to. If that's you, keep it to yourself, because all of the rest of us will hate you. There are lots of things I would do with extra time like run more, go back to school, be a better housekeeper, cook more (and more nutritiously), play with my kids more, blog more, stay in touch with more friends and family, garden, date nights, organize... anything and everything, keep up with my school stuff, practice the piano more, learn to play my harp... you get the idea. There are so many things I wish I had more time and energy to accomplish, but the reality is I have to get the day to day stuff done and at this point our family is pretty much just in survival mode. However, this school year is a lot different for me than any previous years, I have 4-5 days each week that I am at home! Of course this has mostly translated into increased sanity and more play time with my little rascals... toss in a little piano practicing, working out, and internet time wasting and I'm back to the same amount of spare time as usual. Really it's great, but I want to start adding in some of those other things that I've always wanted to, starting with projects around the house.

I am not good at decorating or crafting. I am not very creative when it comes to making my house feel like a home, but I'm pretty good at seeking out things I love (thank you blogs, pinterest and random google searches). We have lived in our house for 3 years now and I'm starting to feel pretty sad about how little I've done to make it our own. Time for that to CHANGE! So I am making my first list of projects to make my house a home. I'm starting simple, but with winter coming on it seems like we spend way more time indoors and we also seem to have a lot more stuff hanging out all over the floor... so I'm starting there.

PROJECT 1: Over the door "hang-all" for the mud room. My inspiration (bottom left corner below):

from This website. I think I want the knobs to be white or black with a rustic banged up paint job. I'm still trying to decide if I want to go with my original color scheme that I wanted for that room, if I do the knobs will be bright pink, yellow and orange... we'll see.

Project 2: Sticking with the them and the same website, I need a small pretty coat rack for inside the front door. It is going to hang low, and I might even hang the occasional ribbon strung holiday decoration from it. The inspiration (top left):

I just love the pretty knobs! I think there will only be four on mine. Now.... where do I find them???

Project 3: Coat (hat, back pack, tie, etc) hanger for Jack's room. It will look like the front of a propeller plane. Sorry, not picture for this one, but I'll try to describe the picture in my head. I will make the front of a propeller plane out of wood and paint it to match the plane theme already in his room.The propellers will each have three little knobs to hang things from. Ok, I'm giving myself some serious credit for creativity on this one! I'm sure it's going to be so stinking cute!!

Project 4: I can always use a little more space in my kitchen drawers and cupboards so I'm going to hang my measuring cups and spoons inside a cupboard door. This will free up a drawer for my tupperwear lids... and then free up a huge shelf in my cupboard for more kitchen gadgets (my FAVORITE)!

Mine will be much simpler. I'm just going to buy 3M hooks and use a level to make them straight :) Maybe I'll post a picture.

Project 5... and 6: My inspiration for these two came from a Relief Society activity. Another girl (who happens to have an amazingly cute home) painted a super cool picture frame. She hangs it on the wall and hangs things inside of it, like ornaments. The video I'm linking shows the idea using an old window frame... I'm going with simpler! After I looked at the video, I noticed the other one on the same page and realized I wanted to do something similar... A chandelier of ornaments. I'm thinking I will make a ball shape rather than a Christmas tree shape, and since my current light fixture isn't a glammy/glitzy style I think I will go with some brown base more crafty looking ornaments. This one will be an adventure, but since I don't decorate for Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving, I've got a little time.

Now, no looking at pinterest, blogs or magazines until these are finished. Wish me luck!

Happier Halloween

2011-11-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

I have never liked Halloween, except for the candy of course. Even as a kid I really hated dressing up because I just felt weird, and I didn't really care for knocking on all of the neighborhood doors asking for candy. There were a few exceptions I suppose. One year I was a BYU cheerleader and I loved my costume so much that it made the whole experience worth it. The same was true when I was Ty Detmer (BYU Quarterback/Heisman award winner). Essentially all of the other Halloweens I felt like my costume just wasn't good enough and I didn't really want to run around the neighborhood all night. There was another problem. My parents hated Halloween, so I almost felt guilty liking it. My dad still complains that it is a Pagan holiday and we shouldn't celebrate it. I also detest pumpkin guts, so making Jack'O'Lanterns never appealed to me. All of these things added together made me pretty unenthusiastic about this night of ghosts and goblins.

Since I have had children I have enjoyed it a bit more. I haven't dressed up for years, but I do like seeing them dressed up, however the process to get them to that point has usually been less than fun. I have been a boring mom that has no Halloween decorations and really can't get into all the Halloween traditions.

This year was different, maybe just a little, but different still, and I think I might be making progress. First of all the Young Women were in charge of the Ward Halloween Party this year which forced me to get festive a little earlier. I also saw a darling craft on facebook and decided to copy it with the kids. I got really excited for Jack's costume and putting it all together (including a little sewing)! It all turned out pretty great. I even dressed up... and liked it!

Woody, Anikan Skywalker and Witch before the Halloween Party (Cow was still napping). At the party, Jack and Gunner won the costume contest. It's true, they were pretty fantastic!

Can you tell that the holes on my stomach make a skeleton face?

On Halloween night before Trik'or'treating with Jack and Daddy's Jack'o'Lantern.

After walking around the neighborhood, we visited Aunt Cassie at work, Grandma and Grandpa Bolton and Aunt Chelsey, Grandma and Grandpa Bolton, and Grandma Linda and Grandpa Thurgood.

I think it was a pretty successful night!

What's For Dinner?

2011-09-14T21:14:00.000-07:00

You may recall that I recently (ok, maybe not so recently) set this goal of a once weekly post about a new recipe. I suppose it was just another case of starting a goal incredibly excited and motivated but petering out as soon as other stuff, often referred to as real life, got in the way. The good news I have tried lots of new recipes and it has even been on a fairly regular basis, but I don't remember most of them. Here is a link to one that I do remember that was quite yummy (and simple):

Crock-Pot Stroganoff Loved that it was in the crock pot all day, but my big discovery... don't use the stew meat or whatever it calls for, use a roast. Pull it out when it is cooked through, shred it, and drop it back in the sauce for a while. So tender!

I recently purchases a new recipe book called Hungry Girl: 300 Under 300. I ordered it online after hearing amazing things about her books and glancing at a few recipes. I was sooooo excited when it came in the mail.... but I must admit, it wasn't as incredible as I had hoped. So far we have found a few recipes that looked good, sounded good, had reasonably inexpensive and regularly used ingredients and actually turned out tasting good. I think we have tried about 10 recipes. Most have been pretty good, but the ingredients were a tricky thing. Ground beef style soy crumbles... no thank you. So we substituted a few ingredients where the calorie count would only be slightly affected. Another little issue-many, of the recipes are designed for only one serving. I guess hungry girls eat alone. Maybe the biggest problem is that Jack hasn't liked much of it at all, and he needs MORE calories anyway. I have decided to try at least 2 a week from the book, but I don't promise to report on any of it.

The Best Boys!

2011-09-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

This boy is always making me smile. I just wanted to mention two of the absolutely adorable things he does lately. First he says thank you for EVERYTHING. When I get him out of his bed and give him a kiss he tells me thank you, when I give him a snack he tells me thank you, and pretty much any other time that I do something for him that he likes he says thank you. In fact once he told me thank you when I wiped his nose, right after he finished screaming because he actually hates that. Thank you was actually one of the very first things he said, right after mama and daddy. We tried to teach him the sign, but he learned to say it before he learned to sign it.

The other super cute thing is being proud of himself. He has a "Little People" fire truck that is filled with building blocks that can be put in the back of the truck through holes that match the block shapes. He will pick up a block and put it in the right slot and then throw his hands in the air and shout "YAY" every time. It is so stinking cute!

Not to leave out my other two amazing boys I better say something about them too. I've nicknamed this one:

DASH! Because he is always going at top speed. The great thing he's doing lately is making lots of new friends. He is always wanting to stop by different neighbors' homes to say hi and he always wants to run across the street to play with one of his best friends.

He talks like he does everything else--super fast! Kind of like his mom. He does a lot of other things a lot like mommy and sometimes it drives daddy just a little crazy. He certainly has a mind of his own, and I love that about him! I prefer the word strong willed over stubborn, and boy is he :)

This guy is are sweet nature boy (I know Dash is in the background there, but he's kind of everywhere). He seems to be a never ending encyclopedia of knowledge about anything and everything in the wilderness. I am always surprised at the intricate details he knows about random animals and plants. So awesome.

He said the funniest thing the other day. Daddy and his uncles were teasing him a bit about a girl at school that he has had a crush on for a couple years. Daddy asked him "Is she a good kisser?" His response: "I don't know, I've never seen her kiss!" So cute. Glad to know he's still sweet and innocent considering his daddy was already thinking about kissing me when he was about that age ;)

I have the BEST boys!

Balance

2011-09-08T19:58:00.000-07:00

The last 4 years of my life have felt very uNbAlAnCeD to say the least. I have felt like every moment I have is torn between school work, housework, trying to enjoy time with my kiddos and hubby, church callings. You might be thinking yeah, yeah join the club, everybody is busy, and you are right, everybody is, but there was something else. With all the to-do's between school, work, home and church I was feeling like an epoch failure! I could spend tons of extra time on my grading and lesson planning at home and still feel like I wasn't reaching a single student but that took all my time away from being a good mommy which meant I was a grumpy mommy. So I would try to spend less time on school work and things got even worse there and I lived to dread every minute I spent with students in my classroom. That's not at all what I had expected for my career. It felt like a constant battle: make school survivable or keep my house semi livable and make sure my kids got some happy mommy time.

I had to pick. I could never choose everything! Something (or rather many things) always got dropped. I felt like I was dropping every ball thrown in my court. In addition my poor husband was having to fight the exact same battle and I could do nothing to support him because I was too worried about my own balancing act. We kept talking about the light at the end of the tunnel, but living in the darkness waiting for that light was just becoming too much to bear. I hated the person I was becoming and I felt like I was missing the time of my life I had been looking forward to most since I was a little girl!

Finally it just couldn't go on anymore. Thankfully that was about the time Tyler got a job with IHC that would offer benefits for a part time employee. We decided that, while it was maybe financially a bad idea, I had to be more there for my family so I needed to switch to part time. It didn't happen right away, and the process that it took to get there was emotionally exhausting, but it was the best decision we could have made. Yes financially it has been challenging (ummm, that is a massive understatement by the way), but the pay off has been amazing in other ways. Most significantly, we are experiencing something we had only dreamed of... BALANCE!

Balance is an incredible thing (ready for my inner nerd to vomit science on you...) When the forces on an object are balanced the motion of that object remains unchanged, this doesn't mean there are no forces, it just means they are balanced. Take the example of a hockey puck gliding along a sheet of ice. Unless it is hit by something, it continues along its path. There are still forces acting on the puck (gravity and normal force), but it just keeps on moving along... sometimes said: an object in motion remains in motion. And that is in essence what I am beginning to feel. There are certainly still a great deal of demands on me daily, but all in all they seem to be balanced! I am now a little like that calm disc, gliding along the ice, heading in a certain direction and moving at a steady pace. Of course the occasional (or frequent) external force comes along and takes me a bit off course. The big difference, was that before something always had to come first, there was always one demand that could knock all the others out of my plans for days at time, and usually that was school/work related. Now, I feel like I can give priority to everything when it is needed.

The things that I used to put off until summer or long weekends are now a constant part of my life. I can plan healthy meals, exercise, play outside with my boys for hours at a time, hang out with my man (when he isn't too busy), keep up with grading and lesson planning, work on projects around the house, keep up with my church calling, spend time with friends, and amazingly even enjoy some me time. No, I still don't have it all together. I forget things I'm supposed to do, there are usually several unfinished tasks on my to do list at the end of the day, and I still get cranky about all sorts of things that I should probably not worry about. But, I feel balanced and that is enough.

Baby Animal Days

2011-04-08T13:46:00.000-07:00

Last year a friend of mine introduced me to a fun event up in... almost Logan, called Baby Animal Days. I couldn't wait to take Jack again and introduce little Gunner to the baby animals as well. As the day approached it appeared that the weather was not going to cooperate, so we called ahead and they said it was a light shower. I figured it would keep the crowds down and we could handle a little rain. After an hour and forty-five minute drive in terrible conditions, the light shower had turned into a decent snow storm, but we had come all that way, so we decided to brave it. We were not prepared and poor Jack ended up pretty wet and chilled, but we just stayed long enough to see all of the baby animals and get out of there. With very few other patrons that didn't take long.

All of the animals were darling, and the bunnies were extra snuggly because of the cold. I thought I had gotten more pictures of Gunner with the animals, but I guess that was my mom. I'll have to get them from her. I had Gunner in a carrier the whole time, which kept he and I both quite warm.

Checking out the chick's beak.

Last year he kissed the duckling, this year we could barely get him to hold it.

Warming his hands on the bunny.

Gunner was very gentle, except when he almost pulled this bunny's ear off.

How we stayed warm.

Yummy BBQ Chicken

2011-04-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

Last week's new recipe:

Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken Barbeque

It was super easy, but had more pizzaz than the standard chicken with BBQ Sauce in the Crock-Pot. We served it on toasted whole wheat hamburger buns, melted a slice of cheese on it, and topped it with a slice of tomato. Everybody loved it. Hayden even ate the chicken plain when we ran out of buns :) Oh, and I added some finely diced onion to the sauce before cooking it.

The next day we were making quesadillas and I made one with Mozzarella, the left over chicken and diced tomatoes. It was super delicious.

Make again sometime? I think so!

Fast and... almost Fantastic

2011-03-26T09:47:00.001-07:00

I tried two new recipes this week and both deserve at least a mention.

The first was a yummy chili called Lizard Stew. The boys liked it and I would definitely consider making it again on a busy night because it can be cooked in a pot right before serving, or just left in the crockpot all day until you are ready to eat.

Lizard Stew

1 lb hamburger browned and drained

26 oz. Can Minestrone Soup

15 oz. can ranch-style chili beans

10 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chilies

1 lb. Velveeta (I use the lower fat made with 2% milk)

Combine all ingredients except cheese and heat until bubbly. Add cheese and heat until melted. Serve over corn chips. If done in crockpot just add cheese about 30 minutes before serving.

What I LIked: It was full of flavor and just the right amount of heat. It was so easy to make and the kids liked it. The name :) what's not too love about that. I also like that it has lots of veggies and fiber from the beans. It didn't take much to make me feel super full!

What I didn't like: It is super high in sodium and fairly high in calories and fat, but as mentioned above it does have a pretty high nutritional content as well, so in moderation it's a pretty decent meal. It has Velveeta in it... it's kind of hard for me to get behind a meal that has processed cheese product.

If I were to give it a grade, Lizard stew would get a B, and I will keep on standby for a crazy night that needs a warm meal.

The other meal was called Fast and Fantastic Black Bean Soup, and fast it was, but I wouldn't give it fantastic. I love black beans and I love soup. I thought it would be a great meal with some quesadillas. It was pretty good, but left something to be desired. Tyler thinks cilantro, and it probably would have helped if I had remembered the green onion on top.

What I liked: It was easy to make. The flavor was pretty good especially with a little sour cream and quesadillas. It was a good portion size for our little family.

What I didn't Like: Again with the Velveeta, but this helped me use up some of what was left. The beans didn't really blend to smooth so there were funny little bits in it. The flavor was kind of weak.

I would probably give this one a B-, and will consider it again as a cold day lunch, and maybe add more salsa or some herbs and spices to give it a little more flavor.

Hopefully this week I will come up with a family favorite that's a healthy timesaver.

A New Family Favorite

2011-03-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

I think it was January of 2010 that I decided I would try to make one new dinner each week. I Wish I could say I now have over 60 new dinners in my repertoire, but I failed. After a few weeks I ran into roadblocks, and, like other new years resolutions, it died out.

This has nothing to do with why I tried a new recipe tonight. Really that was just necessity. I had some left over brown rice and a somewhat picky 8 year old coming for dinner along with no hubby to keep the hungry boys occupied until it was done. I knew I could pretty easily throw together some chicken and rice with some vegetable and some cream of something soup, but that sounded pretty lack luster to me.

I like the Kraft website because you can put in ingredients that you have and it will give you recipes that match. My ingredients: chicken, brown rice, and carrots. I almost passed over this recipe because I didn't like the name. I was hoping for something healthy with a moderate calorie count, and the name just didn't shout that to me, but turns out at less than 500 Calories per serving it wasn't too bad (and by the way a serving was way more than enough for me). So, here it is:

Farmhouse Chicken Dinner (see what I mean about the name, sounds a little too hearty)

I made a few adjustments:

I didn't have any Light Zesty Italian, only Fat Free Italian, which doesn't work to cook chicken in so I mixed half olive oil and half dressing. It worked fine, but I'm sure it would also be great as directed.
After reading a couple of reviews I got worried that it was going to be bland, so I added a little garlic salt. I think it would be great to add some to the flour mixture, although I didn't feel the dish was bland at all.
It didn't take 20 minutes!! I hate overcooked chicken so at about 14 minutes of simmering I stuck my meat thermometer in and discovered it was cooked through so I took it out.
I didn't use instant rice because I already had leftover brown rice. The rice doesn't cook with the chicken, so it doesn't matter.
I forgot the parsley... oops

What I liked:

It was very easy to make and called for ingredients that I almost always have on hand. It was delicious; the combination of flavors seemed right to me, but I'm no food critic. The carrots were yummy and flavored with the sauce and cooked to just tender (with only 14 minutes). The chicken was cooked to perfection. I don't know if I or the recipe get credit for that, but either way it was luscious (ok I know Ryan Lamb doesn't read my blog, but if he did he would be laughing right now)

What I didn't like:

Once it was all served up on the plate, it had a bit of a casserole feel to it and that's just not my favorite, nor Tyler's. The sauce didn't thicken, at least in the time that I gave it. Even runny, it made for a great gravy.

Back to how I started this long post - this meal has inspired me to get back to my one new meal each week goal, but this time I have a new idea of how to stick with it. I am going to post the recipe and my review each week. I hope you enjoy. If not, maybe at some point I'll follow it with pictures of my always darling boys :)

Also, if you have any favorite dinner recipes please share!

Your Secret Weapons Please

2011-03-12T09:53:00.000-08:00

Yes, it has been months since my last post and now you happen upon my blog and you are greeted with a post about the least glamorous of all motherly duties... cleaning the bathroom. Well I'm sorry, but that is what is on my mind this lovely saturday morning. I woke up motivated to get my Saturday chores done, mostly because Tyler would be leaving for work at noon and I wanted to get it done before I had both boys to entertain all by myself. That tends to slow down the cleaning, so off I went. I grabbed my trusty bin of scrubbing, disinfecting, and sparkling bathroom cleaning chemicals.

It seems since early on in my life it has been hard for me to commit to any one particular set of cleaners. There must be something to clean mirrors, disinfect and clean countertops. Wipe away nasty toilet germs, bleach the heck out of the toilet bowl and finally make my tub and shower sparkle! I'm fairly comfortable with my selection of cleaners for mirrors, counters, and toilets, but the tub and shower have always left me a little befuddled. Frequently the two are made of different materials and have different needs. Clearly the shower walls need something that sprays and the tub must have something the bubbles up and disinfects. Often, when Tyler is faced with shower/tub he feels it is sufficient to spray it down with water and finish off with our standard after shower spray. I feel strongly that this is not enough. Seriously friends, we stand in their naked... and with BARE feet!!! That thing needs bleached.

Generally for the tub part I look to comet. I love the bubbles, the sparkle and the germ killing goodness. I have even found a lemon scented version and enjoy it very much... but this still leaves the shower walls and doors. I faced an even greater dilemma this week as I realized that I was out of comet and had forgotten to pick up more. So I looked in the bin... windex... not germ killing enough, clorox wipes... not scrubby bubbly enough, toilet bowl cleaner... hmmm bleach, check, bubbly check why not. Well news flash, this is some strong stuff. For my bathroom I wore gloves and was pleased with the final result. After a deep scrub to the tub I sprayed everything out and finished off with a leave on shower spray for the walls. Near the end however I discovered a hole in my gloves and realized I would have to go gloveless for the remaining bathrooms, ICK. Oh well what was I to do? There was a job that must be done and I am the woman for the job, so I set forth looking forward to a nice antibacterial hand scrubbing and moisturizing following the dirty task.

It was then that discovered the harshness of the toilet bowl cleaner. I would say strong base to say the least. My hands feel awful, and now I'm a little worried to put naked baby bums back in the tub. I rinsed much more carefully (like 5 or 6 times) this time around and was still satisfied with the final result but decided that I will definitely need to make a trip to the store before my next bathroom cleaning adventure. Alas, all bathrooms again sparkle and shine... at least for now. Not to mention, I managed to get them all done before 10:30 :) good day. But, my question for all of you faithful readers (hmmm I better post this to facebook so I at least get 2 or 3 of you...) What do you have in your arsenal for that oh so gruesome job? I feel ready to commit so that I don't have to face down the daunting cleaner aisle at Target ever again feeling vulnerable and unprepared. Help me please!

Treasure Family to Island Park

2010-08-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

Friday July 16th- Tuesday July 20

The Treasure Family went on a big trip to Island Park Idaho. We had so much fun staying in a great big cabin all together. Almost everyone got to come and we really missed the family members that couldn't make it. The kids had a great time playing together in the cabin, on the boat, out in the woods, canoeing down the river and having a great big slumber party. We did so many fun things so I'll try to list them by day.

Friday

Packed up the car an got on our way. We left later than planned (I mentioned this was a Treasure family trip right? would you expect it to get started on time?). In our car we had 4 little boys- Hayden, Isaac, Jack and Gunner. Gunner had a hard time. He did great for the first 3 hours, but after that he mostly cried. I felt so bad for him and it made me rather cranky. After a VERY long drive with many stops we finally arrived at the cabin. It was a great cabin with plenty of space for everyone. After dinner it was already way past bedtime so that's where we all headed.

Saturday

Grandpa Treasure rented a boat and we all had a great time riding around on it. I spent most of the day on the boat thanks to Jeannette who was willing to keep Hayden and Gunner so we could go again. The second time on the boat a bunch of us went swimming, it was SUPER cold, but so much fun. Jack loved the boat and all of the grandkids had a great time taking turns driving the boat. Michael was pretty good at it. I really loved being on the boat. Tyler hooked Dad's iPhone up to the sound system and I just relaxed listening to some great music with the wind in my hair and water splashing up. It was GREAT! Here's a BUNCH of pictures.

Sunday

We went to church. The congregation was huge. There was a separate building for chapel overflow and it was full. After church we all just played and hung out. The next pictures are from Sunday and just around the cabin on all the days we were there.

Monday

Tyler and Grandpa took some of the older grandkids shooting. It was Hayden's first time shooting a real gun and he liked it. Tyler got to shoot our gun for the first time.

After shooting we took the canoe to the river. The kids had a good time there rowing the canoe and then catching minnows (or trying to catch minnows) on the river bank.

Gunner's Blessing Day

2010-08-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

Sunday July 4

Talk about a weekend filled with spiritual experiences for our family! After Hayden's baptism on Saturday we were lucky to gather as a family again and witness Gunner's baby blessing. He was blessed by his dad (Dad was a busy guy that weekend) and it was wonderful. His name is now officially on the records of the church as Gunner Max Bolton! Family and friends were there to support. We met at our home for a lunch after church and enjoyed spending time with all that could come. Gunner cooperated very well, except that about 3 minutes before sacrament meeting started he pooped A LOT. I changed him.... and he pooped again. Thankfully I managed to keep his adorable white suit all clean.

After this great weekend I felt especially grateful to have a husband that is worthy and faithful priesthood holder. I am so happy that he honors his priesthood and blesses his family with it. Tyler is a wonderful father and husband. I love him so much and I hope that our boys will follow his example and grow to be strong men that love their families and honor their priesthood!

Gunner in his adorable little suit (Thank you Grandma Treasure!)

Outside our Church after the blessing (I'm not sure what I'm looking at)

Hayden's Baptism

2010-08-06T09:34:00.000-07:00

Saturday July 3

I can't believe he is 8 and baptized! He is growing up so fast. The day was amazing. He was baptized by his dad and confirmed by his Grandpa Stevenson. Many family members helped make the day very special. Talks were given by his Grandpa Bolton and his Grandma Stevenson. Aunt Jeannette Played the piano, uncle Austin lead the music, and Aunt Candice said a prayer. He was so excited about being baptized and receiving the Holy Ghost. Jack was very excited for Hayden to be "baptized in the pond" even though we explained it wasn't a pond, it was a font (is that how you spell that kind of font?). After the baptism we had a BBQ at the Stevenson home and everyone had a lot of fun, especially those that went swimming. Hayden loves swimming and only got out of the water long enough to eat. Jack also loved swimming and got in twice after we got him out to get dressed. Once fully dressed in dry clothes... oh well.

I will add pictures to this post as soon as I get them from Tyler's parents. I was dumb and forgot to make sure my camera was charged.

Another Bolton Boy

2010-06-08T19:24:00.000-07:00

This is a bit late, but better late than never right? I wanted to write a few things before I forgot the whole thing (which of course has to happen or I would never have more kids...)

Gunner Max Bolton was born on Tuesday May 18th at 2:30pm. He was 6lbs 9oz and 19" long. I'm sure most of my readers don't really want the details of my labor, but I am really writing this more for me, so if the story will bug you... skip it :)

I was induced. I REALLY didn't want to be, but there was something I was even more opposed to and that was having an experience similar to the one when Jack was born, without my doctor there and destroyed by people that all thought they knew what was best for me, but refused to call the people that actually did know what was best for me (aka my cardiologists).... but this isn't Jack's birth story, it's Gunner's (sorry about that absurd run on sentence). Since my doctor was going out of town in 2 days and I was already dilated to a 3 and almost completely effaced I decided that I better just get induced and at least have my doctor their for the delivery. After all the many horror stories I have heard from others that were induced (and a few positive stories) I am happy to report that it went much better than I had expected. We arrived at the hospital around 7am and just hung out until my doctor came around 9 to break my water... that was a bit unpleasant. Nothing happened after that. Gunner was in no hurry to leave his warm, wet abode. I had wanted to avoid pitocin but around 11am it was clear that if I wanted to have a baby that day we better start helping him along, so they started me on the lowest dose. That did the trick. My contractions came on strong and steady. They were less than a minute apart... and uncomfortable to say the least.

I had wanted to go sans-epidural because of some unpleasant side effects I had when I had Jack, but a ways into transition I decided that pain really didn't need to be part of having a baby and I was tired of it. I should mention that at this point the contractions were only about 20-30 seconds apart, thanks to the pitocin. My doctor assured me that we could do a weaker dose this time so that I might be able to feel my legs again before the end of the week, so I went for it... and now regret it, because I had no idea how close I was, and my right leg did end up numb for way longer than I wanted. Epidural was administered (sometime a little before 2pm) and I started to feel a little better, except on my left side. For some strange reason the drug only worked on my right side. The pain from contractions continued on the left, but even the decrease down to just one side made it quite a bit more bearable. As long as I focused on my breathing I managed the pain just fine. We talked about having the anesthesiologist come back in and increase the dose, but before the nurse sent for him she decided to check me. Instead of getting the anesthesiologist she sent for my OB (about 2pm)because, HOORAY, it was time to push. As I waited for my OB I worked on the breathing techniques that I had sort of "studied" in a hypnobirthing book that are supposed to help to ease the baby down. Apparently it worked because when my OB got there we got all ready, I pushed twice and Gunner arrived.

I guess they count labor time from when the water was broken to when the baby comes, so by that clock my labor was about 5 hours. I don't feel I was really in labor until my contractions started, so I really only about 3.5 hours. WAY better than the 12+ hours with Jack.

Gunner arrived with high APGAR scores, screaming with a great set of lungs and with a full head of dark hair (totally unexpected). When Jack was born the nurses just took him right away because they were a little concerned about his breathing and then when they decided to take him to the NICU for a little bit I almost didn't get to hold him before he left :( it was terrible. This time my doctor handed him straight to me and I held him as they did the initial clean up. It was so wonderful! He was perfect and healthy and It was so much better for me to get to hold him right away. The other difference was this time once he was cleaned up they gave him back to me and everyone left! That was exactly what I needed. The people there were wonderful; Davis Hospital was a happy place for me to have a baby!

$xxx.xx and 3 hours later...

2010-04-15T20:56:00.001-07:00

This is the story of a very late and very expensive dinner. I'm a little ashamed to tell it, but what can I say? Being nearly ready to pop makes me a bit impulsive in my behaviors.

This afternoon was like any regular afternoon. I got home from work around 4:30 after a short visit to the OB (on a completely unrelated note, I'm dilated to 2 already, doesn't really mean anything, but nice to know I'm getting a little closer to being done). I had been thinking about cheeseburgers for dinner pretty much all day, and I had some ground beef in the fridge along with tomatoes, lettuce, buns and even avocados! YUM!

There is a problem with this craving, I have been wanting burgers for several days now, but since we have a deck Tyler feels that we shouldn't have burgers until we can grill them on our very own grill... another problem, the grill that we "have to have" is rather expensive. This is not an example of greediness, I promise. It's just that we have a natural gas line that is almost sticking right out of the back of our house, and with that option it just doesn't make sense to spend money on a grill if we won't be able to hook it up to that and in the long run have significant savings on fuel for the grill.

Back to the story... I got home wanting a home grilled cheeseburger and impulsivity took over. I got out of the car, walked up to Tyler and said, honey lets go get your grill, I want burgers TONIGHT! Tyler wasn't going to argue with that, so off we went to Home Depot where we quickly found the correct grill (happily on a bit of a sale right now) found an attendant and had them bring one out for us. This is where we made the big mistake of the night. The salesman offered to have one built for us to take home. A fully constructed one won't fit in the back of the 4-runner so we figured, it can't be that hard, lets just get it in the box and take it home. WRONG! We should have quickly driven over to my dad's shop, borrowed the truck and come back to pick up the fully assembled grill. I should mention that by now it is about 5:30, still not a very late dinner.

We arrive home with the grill and Tyler gets to work on putting it together. Not a difficult task... but far more time consuming than we had anticipated. There was another minor detail that needed to be worked out: until we get the hook up run from our gas line we still need a propane tank, and don't have one. Thanks to Candice and Ryan for helping us out on that one! Finally at about 7:15 the grill is assembled, and we set off to get some propane in the tank (or exchange the tank as it turned out). This took a little longer than expected, but we were still excited to grill our first burgers on the grill that night. We got home around 7:45 with the full tank and Tyler quickly set to work cooking the burgers while I prepped all of the toppings. Finally at just a few minutes after 8:00 we sat down for our delicious burgers. Jack had gotten pretty cranky by this point but was adorable as he took great big bites of his "cheese booger."

Remembering Christina

2010-04-05T06:52:00.000-07:00

Christina Lynn (Treasure) Hamilton, my oldest sister, passed away on Friday. She was 36 years old.

I don't really want to talk about that so much right now, instead I want to talk about how incredibly powerful and touching President Monson's talk at the end of the Sunday morning session of conference was. I know that many others in the church have recently experienced the loss of a loved one, but I felt that the talk was directed to me and my family. I have never wondered if I would see my family after death, I always knew the answer to Job's question: if a man dies will he live again? However, I have never had a close family member die and had my personal testimony of this principle tested. His message was truly a tender mercy of the Lord for me at a time that I have been unsure how to feel.

I was not very close to my sister Christina, especially in recent years. She made choices as a teenager that lead her down a road of destruction in her early adulthood. I was angry at her for many years because of some of the outcomes of her choices, but more recently I have just felt sad for her. When I was a young child I spent most of my time with my Christina. She was like a second mother to me. She loved to take me places and take care of me. My siblings all say she spoiled me, but I just remember that I always loved spending time with her. I remember her buying me treats, taking me shopping, teaching me how to make my bed and do the dishes. But the memory of my sister that sadly sticks in my head is the time I caught her smoking outside my dad's work with several of his coworkers. From then on I have few really positive memories of my sister. I love my sister. I miss her, I have missed her since long before she died. At this point I am less sad for my own loss than I am for how her life ended up. I'm sad that she spent most of her life unhappy. I'm sad that she never had the joy of the gospel in her life as a young mother as I do now. I ache knowing that her choices lead her to loneliness.

President Monson's talk helped me feel less of this. Christina is now in the Spirit world, her standing there I don't know, but I know she will be resurrected. I know that in her youth she was taught correct principles that my parents have been promised she will return to. While I am still sad, I feel comforted. Christina is ok; I will see her again.

All of the messages from conference were timely and uplifting. I feel renewed in my efforts to strengthen my family and live a Christ centered life.

The Name Game

2010-04-02T21:14:00.000-07:00

The date is quickly approaching and it shows, big time. As any woman who has ever been pregnant knows there is a standard set of questions that you get asked whenever someone notices the abnormally protruding belly (thankfully very difficult to confuse with just being fat).
Question 1: When are you due?
Question 2: Do you know what it is?
Question 3: Have you picked a name for him (or her depending on response to question 2)?

I have absolutely NO problem with any of these questions. I am of course thrilled to be expecting the baby, thrilled that it's coming in only 7 weeks, and thrilled that it's a boy... but not so thrilled about needing to choose a name. When I was young I had a long list of names picked out, I believe written on the inside cover of some journal somewhere, but I have changed A LOT since my teenage years. The names I liked then are not the names I like now. Another issue with the names from being a teen is that for some reason I picked out mostly girl names, I can't remember a single boy name that I remember liking. This is silly since even in high school I felt pretty strongly that I was very likely to be raising a little army of boys.

Naming Jack was really a piece of cake. I adore my father. He was my hero growing up and still is. He makes people happy when he's around. He makes people laugh and not take life to seriously, but at the same time puts high priority on those things that really matter most. It was a no brainer that my first son would be named after him. I also love the name Jack. It is so simple and pure. It sounds very strong to me, and so I love it. Edwin was also easy. As Tyler's middle name and as a great honor to several men that have served their families, their country and their Heavenly Father faithfully it fit nicely with Jack and so it was: Jack Edwin Bolton. I love how it looks and how it sounds. I believe it suits my very strong willed but soft hearted little boy very nicely.

Now we have baby boy 2... If you ask we probably tell you an option we have discussed, however we agreed early in this pregnancy not to discuss names with others because I am very susceptible to the influence of other's opinions. We have a specific criteria when coming up with names. There are 3 things we are looking for:
It should sound pleasant and have a nice ring to it.
It should be easy to say and spell.
It should have meaning to us.

I hear lots of names that I like the sound of, but I have always loved that my name had meaning for my parents. It is a family name of a pioneer ancestor, it is the name of a righteous woman in the Bible, and for my dad I was named after Abigail Adams, a woman with great strength, courage and wisdom. It may seem trivial to have a name with meaning, but I have often felt the pressure of living up to my namesakes and desired to be a better woman. It's been a huge part of making me who I am now.

That said we have thought of several names, some of which totally fit our criteria... others that are just missing something. We have very much broken our rule about not discussing the name and I regret that a lot. So here it is, (finally my point) an explanation of the name you have heard for our new little boy. It is of course not for sure yet, but I will no longer apologize for the name, I like it very much, and it has great meaning to me!

Gunner: This is a name I have heard a few times but not frequently. I like that it is unique without being... weird (well I don't think it's weird). You should hear how cute Jack sounds when he says it, that is what sold Tyler on it :) The name's meaning is Warrior. My mother's first reaction to the name was that it sounded so militant... yep, that was actually sort of the idea. I like this for a few reasons, first it honors my sweet husbands faithful service to his country, second, have you noticed the number of boys that are being born lately?? I can't help but wonder if I am helping to raise an army. I am helping to raise an army of righteous young men to serve their Heavenly Father. Gunner will be a warrior of truth and righteousness.

Max: The middle name has been a bit tricky. We have thought about many and this is quite possibly not the one we will end up settling on, however it is a name I love. It is simple and short and who doesn't love a name with an X!? Tyler actually always wished he was named Max as a child, but that is definitely not our meaning for this one. I actually don't know the meaning or origin of Max, for me the meaning comes from the idea of having something that represents me in a name. How does Max represent me in any way? You may ask (that is if you are still reading this ridiculously long post). Well here comes the physics nerd in me... Max Planck is a famous physicist--a Nobel prize winning physicist. He is the founder of quantum theory and because of that may be an even more important physicist than, dare I say it, Einstein. I wrote a report about him once in college and was amazed at the beauty of is physics and theories (ok have I nerded everyone out of reading now?) and I like the name Max. Even more impressive to me was that he saw the simplicity and pureness of the natural laws of physics as evidence of an all powerful and all knowing God, which for some reason was uncommon among scientists of his time. At that point I thought, hey I should name a child Max... and now 5 years later I'm quite seriously considering it.

So there you have it, the possible name for baby boy 2: Gunner Max Bolton. Again, I like how it looks, the flow is a little off and that bugs me, it's easy to spell, and it has meaning to Tyler and me.

Thank you for reading the post if you survived the whole thing, even the especially physicsy nerdy parts. Now we will all just have to wait and see if this little one seems like a Gunner Max when he arrives.

My First Adventure in iMovie

2010-02-18T08:17:00.000-08:00

With some changes coming to one of the programs at our school I joined a committe to help the changes run smoothly. My responsibility was to inform the students of the changes. I helped create a skit/movie to show to the students.
Yes, I know the students are reading MOST of their lines, but they got the script minutes before filming. What I'm most proud of is the editing I did last night (and into the morning). Watching it today (after some sleep) I realize that it is far from being a great editing job, but it was my first time and I wanted to share my success.

By the way, as far as legality goes, I am allowed to post pictures/videos of students as long as I don't include their names... so I didn't.

Huge

2010-02-11T15:51:00.001-08:00

Just thought I would mention, I'm feeling rather large. I finally had to give up the elastic band across the fly trick to keep wearing regular pants and officially am in maternity clothes. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Baby and I are both incredibly healthy and I only have 13 weeks to go! It is super exciting except that I don't feel at all prepared. Jack has been pretty difficult lately and I don't know how I will do it with two! My mom is always asking "what if you get another one like Jack?" My response is I can already tell this one is different. Baby kicks, but not violently. I'm pretty sure this will be a much calmer child... but we will see.

We were pretty sure baby was a boy, but the ultrasound was quite early and we've started second guessing the Doctor's prediction. Today we had another ultrasound and baby was extremely uncooperative. While I feel pretty sure it is a boy the thought that we might get totally fooled and end up with a girl and only blue clothes makes me worry. Pregnancy in general just makes me worry a lot.

While difficult, Jack is being incredibly adorable and funny lately as well. He is speaking much more clearly and in sentences. It is so fun to be able to communicate with him.

So that's life right now, to be honest I am blogging to avoid grading papers.

New Hair Cuts

2010-01-30T09:32:00.000-08:00

I have never been one of those girls that likes long hair on boys. I never understood the appeal. I tend to prefer clean cut (but yes I still like Tyler's beard, he looks super handsome). Tyler is all for convenience, so between that and my love of short hair that stays off the neck and ears the Marine Corps hair cut just never went away for him. I must say that makes me happy. I think he always looks pretty sharp, as long as the beard is well trimmed. When we bought our house we found a "military barber" that lived on our corner and that's where Tyler has been getting his haircut since (yes it's easy enough a cut I could do it, but I HATE HAIR ANYWHERE!!! so I figure for $6 I don't have to sweep and wipe with damp paper towels and still find little pieces days later YUCK!) We also get Jack's hair cut there.

Hayden on the other hand... well I'm not sure who normally cuts his hair, to be honest, in my opinion it is always too long and a little puffy looking. We finally convinced him that dad should cut it so he could look like his friends at school (short with spikes in the front still pretty standard style) The issue was convincing mom and grandma... A couple weeks ago they were going to get his haircut and he said, no my dad's going to do it, so when we picked him up they told us and we rejoiced!! It was time for a little more grown up hair cut for him. Well instead of Tyler doing it (again, I HATE hair) all 3 boys went to the military barber and got matching cuts. I LOVE THEM!!! Hayden's grandma and mom feel it's a little short, but like I said, I never understood the appeal of long hair on boys, so we are happy at our house. Thankfully Hayden's grandpa Mike loved it and it looks pretty much like all the other boys his age, so he's happy with it too, he also loves to rub the back with how short it is. I think you will all agree I have three VERY handsome boys at my house. Soon there will be one more, and he will likely get the same matching hair style :)

Lucky

2009-12-01T08:32:00.000-08:00

Today I feel very lucky to be alive, healthy and pregnant. I complain a lot these days about my job and being away from my sweet little boy, but today sitting at work (yes blogging at work, I have a million other things I should be doing, but this was most important right now) I realized that I should never forget how fortunate I am to be sitting at work with a sound mind and healthy body! This realization was mostly brought on by some sad news I heard yesterday read more about today.

http://www.vanderlindenclan.blogspot.com/

That is the blog of a teacher that I worked with last year that suffered a major heart failure, probably one not unlike the one I suffered when I was 17 years old in Disneyland. Sadly Pete was not as fortunate as I was to be moments from paramedics carrying a defibrillator. He is still alive and fighting, but they are concerned that he will never be the same. This same concern was shared with my parents at a hospital in California almost 9 years ago. The doctors figured that with the lack of oxygen to my brain for such a long time I might never wake from my coma and if I did I would likely have significant brain damage.

I can never forget how blessed I have been. I am living the life that many thought would never be possible. It is amazing that I am able to live such a happy, healthy and normal life. I'm so fortunate to be strong and healthy enough to have delivered one beautiful baby boy and have another healthy one on the way. I have truly been so blessed by my Heavenly Father.

Please keep Pete's family in your thoughts and prayers. I know I will be praying that he will be as fortunate as I have been and be able to continue his happy life with his beautiful family.

Gummy Bear Profile

2009-11-29T15:55:00.000-08:00

We never got a good profile shot of Jack in any ultrasounds so at 14 weeks we were thrilled that we got a shot this good.

By the way, we are completely stumped on names, so this little guy might get called gummy bear until we meet him in May. Sorry it's blurry and reversed. I was in a hurry and just took a shot using photo booth on my mac.

oh BOY

2009-11-24T13:43:00.000-08:00

The other day a dear friend of mine said she is very tired of going to my blog and seeing JANUARY. Yes I know it's been a while, and the lack of posting is certainly not due to lack of events. Our life is ever eventful! We love it (and sometimes wish it were just a tad bit less eventful) and are spending so much time enjoying it that I never have a moment to post anything.

I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post, maybe I'll post some soon...hahahahahahah...yeah we all know that's pretty unlikely. I will also not try to write updates for the last 11 months; there is far to much. Right now life is busy with school, work, callings.... and BOYS! I think it's pretty likely that Tyler and I will run out of names for baby boys before we run out of baby boys :) We are expecting another in May. When we went in for the ultrasound today we really didn't expect to find out the gender, and at first baby was making it pretty difficult, but in the end the radiologist was able to coax him into an opportune position and it became rather clear. YAY! We are thrilled to have another boy. Someday we hope for a girl, but I am happy to be carrying another little Momma's boy, even if they can be quite a handful!

Winter fun

2009-01-27T19:43:00.000-08:00

Life at the Bolton home is still busy as ever. Oh, there's a piece of news not on the blog yet. For those of you that hadn't heard yet, Tyler and I bought our first house YAY. We found it in October and closed exactly one month later. We were in our house for Thanksgiving, and painted the rooms on the main level over Christmas break (not as relaxing a vacation as I would have hoped, but it's nice to be in home that looks like it is ours). This explains why I didn't post anything over the break when I should have had oodles of time on my hands.

Jack is an adorable little toddler. His new thing is putting shirts, hats, blankets etc. over his head and walking around and banging into things, then bursting into laughter. He also likes anything that begins with the letter 'B' (book, bear, ball, bottle) he just says bu-bu and points at what it is that he wants. He likes to bring us books and wait for us to pull him onto our laps and read one or two pages and then he's off. He loves the new house with all the stairs and open space.

Hayden is doing great in first grade and learning lots of Spanish words, the other night in the car we carried on a very short, very simple conversation in Spanish where I mostly asked him how to say different words in Spanish. He knew lots of them. He and dad build an awesome snow fort in the front yard that provided hours of entertainment. We tried to get Jack involved, but I think he felt a little overwhelmed with all the extra apparel. He sure looked cute, and stayed plenty warm (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Bolton and JC and Shalee for the snow clothes!)

The boys playing in the snow.

Jack was a little frustrated by his lack of mobility,

but he looked SO cute!

This picture is Hayden in the fort (and a neighbor kid)

It's dark because it was taken with Tyler's phone, sorry.

Tyler and I are keeping very busy with school. I can't believe I have finished half a school year. It will be nothing short of a miracle when I survive this first year of teaching. I'm still far from feeling like I am doing a good job, but I'm trying hard, and every once and a while I have a day that I feel like my students really learned something (seems scary, but ask other first year middle school teachers and they probably feel pretty much the same way). One thing I am grateful for every day is that I'm a teacher of middle schoolers, not a middle schooler myself (would anyone repeat those years of their life?). The highlight of my day is often overhearing silly 9th grade drama.

Well I can be proud of myself, I finally posted something. It's time to go to bed so I am ready for another day!

Still Alive...but barely

2008-10-22T16:56:00.000-07:00

I was looking at a friends blog that has her friends and family blogs listed down the side, much like mine. It also, like mine again, has listed the time since the most recent post. I scrolled down and saw mine there at the bottom with two months since my last post! So just to let everyone know, the Bolton family is alive and still taking loads of pictures, we just aren't posting.

As most of you know life got insanely busy for us starting August 25 when both Tyler and I went back to school and work. I now teach at Syracuse Jr High, and Tyler is working at the IHC Bountiful health center and going to school. Jack spends much of his day at the Layton High School Child Care Center where I hear he is quite the favorite (no surprise there).

Sorry but I am not going to give more of an update than that or post any pictures. The little free time I have these days goes to my family, so you can probably expect another post around Thanksgiving when I might have a little time.

Graduation

2008-08-16T17:48:00.000-07:00

Everything has been so busy that I haven't blogged for a while so I thought I would catch up on recent events. First, It's official! I graduated. While actual graduation is not super exciting or eventful it felt great to walk across the stage in my goofy cap and gown and know that I had finally done it. My graduation was fairly small because I just went the specific school graduation and the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at BYU is a small group. I was the only person graduating in physics teaching. Tyler and Jack came of course and so did my parents and Robin and Chelsey was there for some of the time. One of the people that spoke was funny and the other... wasn't. Anyway, all in all it was a great day. The only thing I was bummed about was that my advisor, Duane Merrell, wasn't there. For those of you who don't know he pretty much bent over backwards to get me through school and make sure I had everything I needed for graduation. He got me into a situation for student teaching that would work with having a new baby. He did lots of other things to help me out, and I may not have graduated without his support.

I promised a bunch of people that I was going to send out graduation announcements. It didn't happen. Sorry, so consider it announced. I, Abigail Anne Treasure Bolton, am happy to announce that I have graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors of Science in Physics Teaching and a minor in Psychology.

Tyler took this picture of me while I was waiting with all the other graduates for graduation to begin. Any good pictures that were taken were on my dad's camera or Robin's camera.

First Day

2008-08-11T15:12:00.000-07:00

Today was my first day of "school." No students were there, it was just a day of meetings and teacher preparation time. I have a few more days of meetings and teacher preparation before the students come on August 25!

Syracuse Jr High is organized into teaching teams with several sets of 3 core teachers (English, Social Studies, and science) and I got to meet my team today. Turns out I already knew the English teacher. Her name is Melanie Jones now, but I knew her in high school when she was Melanie Lund. I was already excited about working in a teacher team, but now I'm even more excited. She has a 4 month old baby boy, so she knows what I'm going through leaving Jack all day. It will be so great to have a familiar person to talk to about the woes of being a working mom.

I am still pretty apprehensive about the classes I'm teaching, but I am looking forward to this new challenge. This may sound dumb, but in some ways I haven't felt like I've had enough on my plate lately. Ever since I finished student teaching I've spent way too much time being unproductive. Of course being a full time mom is a hard and very time consuming job, but I feel like I wasn't spending my down time (when he's napping or playing happily on his own) very well. Now I won't really have any down time, so it will be hard to waist time. It always feels good to be busy (have you noticed my overly positive outlook on the subject, yes it is sort of my way of convincing myself that things are going to be ok).
Anyway, that's the scoop on my first day.

Tyler is finishing up working for JC this week, and then he will be stay at home dad and take classes in the evening, at least for this semester. We're still trying to work out at least a part time child care situation that I feel good about. It's hard to find someone that you really feel good about leaving your child with for most of the day.

Isaac's Birthday Party

2008-08-05T15:45:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed this blog is lacking pictures of the older of our boys. Hayden stays at our house every other weekend, and we do lots of fun things together. He loves his little brother and he also is still a bit dinosaur obsessed. He is about to start first grade.
This last weekend we got to go to Isaac's (Hayden's cousin) 6th birthday party. It was a big water party in the back yard and Tyler got some fun pictures of Hayden and Isaac.

  Chillin out
   Lovin the slip'n'slide
   Isaac

Sleep Troubles

2008-08-05T15:35:00.000-07:00

Jack hates sleep. I know everything you read says you need to make sleep time a happy time and TRUST ME we have tried. We sing, rock, snuggle and everything else we hear to try, but to no avail. He takes a couple decent naps during the day, but come nightfall the disaster begins. About 8:30 I take him to our room, change his diaper, put on his jammies and nurse him. Then I snuggle him, sing songs, and lay him in his bed, sometimes it takes other times it does not. This is a picture from one night that I thought I had it just right but an hour later I found him like this in his crib. Am I a mean mom to take a picture of him crying because I think it's cute? By the way, this blanket is in his crib to snuggle, he put it like this on his own.

So Little Time

2008-08-01T10:21:00.000-07:00

Well just a personal blog here, today is August first and I now have only ten days before I begin work. I'll be honest, I am not looking forward to it. Yes I think it will be fun to teach and yes I am excited for this new opportunity, but I am not excited about leaving Jack all day long. I don't think he will be excited either. He has become quite the mama's boy. For those of you wondering, the current plan is that Tyler is staying home with Jack and taking classes from 4pm on. I know that means we will pretty much never see each other, but it was sort of my stipulation to being a working mom. It is possible that we will try to arrange care for Jack for a few hours a couple times a week so that Tyler could take some of his classes during the day and have a little study time without a baby.
I am very nervous about the classes I am teaching and feel EXTREMELY unprepared. It's very overwhelming. I guess I'll just take it a day at a time and enjoy every last minute I have with Jack before I enter the world of work.

This is an old picture of Jack, but it makes me smile

First Time Swimming

2008-07-30T11:56:00.001-07:00

Last night was the Ward Swim Party so we took Jack swimming for his first time. While you can't really tell from the picture, he really liked it. He would get on his belly and do his belly scoot crawl all over, including to where it would get deep enough that his face would get in the water when he plopped down. He didn't seem to mind it a bit. It was kind of cold, so it was sort of hard to fully enjoy the experience. We'll have to try again before the summer is over. This was also the first time I've been in a swimsuit since Jack was born, notice no pictures of that :)

I should have taken more pictures of Jack, but I was just enjoying playing with him and chasing him around the shallow water.

Sunday News

2008-07-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

Something VERY exciting happened today. Jack got a new cousin. Preston Michael Black was born around 7pm. He was 7 lbs 7 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long-Jeannette's smallest baby yet. Both he and Jeannette are doing very well. I have only seen one picture on my phone, so it's hard to say much about him yet, but he looks pretty cute and my mom says he looks like Isaac did as a baby. Isaac was a super cute baby! We are excited to meet him soon.
In other exciting news, Jack pulled himself to standing on the baby gate. Candice and I were making brownies and I didn't even realize what he was doing until I looked over and saw him standing there. Tyler was out back and he got in in time to run downstairs and grab the camera (good thing he was on the opposite side of the gate). Jack also got back to sitting all on his own without any trouble at all.

New Tricks

2008-07-25T21:23:00.001-07:00

Jack is learning new tricks everyday. He is starting to move between his "baby butterfly" crawl and a real crawl, but his baby butterfly gets him places so much faster. He also can pull himself up to a standing position if what he is pulling himself up on is just the right hight (no taller than the top of his head when standing) It's so cute. I'm so amazed by everything he is learning!
These pictures were taken July 15th.

Now as amazing as he is doing with everything else, he still is not doing well with solid foods. He likes cheerios and the little baby puffs. He hates eating off of a spoon. Sometimes I can get him to eat small pieces of veggies if I put it on my finger. The other day we tried to feed him sweet potatoes. It of course like the first 10 times didn't go well. So finally we decided to strip him down to his diaper and just give him the bowl out on the grass. It was messy, but fun. I still don't think he ate much, but we got some cute pictures.

There were a bunch more, but I tried to pick my favorites.... really they were all my favorites, he's so stinking CUTE!

Busy 24th of July

2008-07-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

Today my niece Grace and nephew Porter came over because the daycare they go to was closed for the holiday, but Bill and Jenny still had work. Needless to say life was a little crazy. My mom had an appointment at 1:00 so I had the task of feeding all five kids lunch and getting the two baby boys to bed. Well lunch went pretty well and I managed to keep food going into Porter's mouth fast enough to keep him happy (that boy eats a lot better than mine does). After lunch I had Brittany and Grace stay with Jack and give him cheerios and puffs while I took Porter to the study to snuggle him and get him down for a nap. I was impressed with how quickly he fell asleep. Then Brittany read to Grace while I took Jack downstairs to get him down for a nap. He went down pretty quick too, but while I was nursing him I heard pounding on the roof (the roof was being worked on) and Porter crying. Porter is a light sleeper. So after I got Jack down I went up and snuggled Porter and realized the only quiet place was down where Jack was sleeping, so I took him down and rocked him in our chair until he fell asleep. Once asleep the only place to put him was on the floor, so I made him comfortable there and then decided to take pictures of the two boys while they finally were sleeping. It didn't last long. Porter woke up within 10 minutes and craziness began again.
In case you can't tell from the pictures Porter is about twice Jack's size. He's just a year old, but he's a tank. Carrying him makes Jack seem very light.

Jack sleeps with his little bum in the air, and I have to cover him with a blanket because my parents keep their house kind of cold.

Milestones

2008-07-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

Watching Jack learn and grow it's hard to pinpoint the time and place of each milestone. If I were a better mom I would have a big baby book that had the date of his first smile, first laugh or first time he rolled over, but I don't do so well with that. Tonight I thought I would take a minute to remember some firsts and give the approximate ages of each of them.
-First real smile (we think it was a real smile and not just gas even though they say real smiles don't happen this early) 3 weeks, we say it was a real smile because he did it in response to our voices and smiles.
-First time rolling over, 2 months, but then he didn't do it consistently until about 4 months old.
-Sitting up on his own, 5 months
-Getting up on hands and feet 5 1/2 months
-Moving forward on belly (baby butterfly, like the swim stroke) 6 months
-First laugh, can't remember exactly, but he's been doing it since at least 4 months old, and he does it like crazy now
-First syllables dadadada, mamamama, babababa, and fishy noise with lips, all around 6 months
-Moved from crawling position to sitting up: 7 months (he did that yesterday, and mastered the skill today)
-First solid food, rice cereal, 5 months and he hated it!

It seems like there have been so many more, as each day he amazes us with something new. My favorite thing right now is his really excited uncontrollable laugh. He is crazy ticklish like his dad and if you hold his hands up and tickle his armpits with your chin or mouth he can't stop laughing.

Right now Jack should be in bed, but he woke up 30 minutes after I put him down and now he is 'swimming' around on the floor playing with toys. So cute. He just went out our bedroom door, and got into some sea shells... better go!

Graduation

2008-07-09T14:01:00.001-07:00

Well I guess I have officially graduated from BYU with a BS in physics teaching. I say I guess because I will not ever officially walk across the stage in a cap and gown to have photographic proof, but they will be mailing me my diploma. The reason I am not walking for graduation is commencement exercises happen to be on the same day as my new teacher orientation for Davis County Schools. I'm pretty bumbed about it, but at least I finally graduated. I guess I'll walk when I get a masters (yeah maybe when I'm 50). The exciting news, besides the fact that I graduated, is that I am writing this blog on my brand new graduation gift from my parents, a new MacBook. I am really loving it. Here are a couple pictures it took of us the day I got it.

I love Jack's Smile in this picture!

In other news, we moved in with my parents last week. I love having Jack 'sort of' back in the room with us. We have a really big bedroom with a partial wall in the middle to separate our side from Jack's side. We decided if we ever build our dream house and we aren't done having kids at that point (highly unlikely, but we can dream) we will build a master bedroom with a nursery separate but attached.
Jack is really close to crawling, he has decided scooting across the floor on his tummy works just as well so he does a trick we like to call baby butterfly. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks, but he hasn't gotten down the hand knee coordination.

Here's a couple pictures of Jack's latest tricks, these were taken on June 12.

Recap of May

2008-06-01T08:50:00.000-07:00

Well, as it usually does, time has gotten away from me and I went over a month without a single blog. I guess if I ever had any faithful readers... I don't now. But do not fear I will catch you up on the exciting life of the Bolton family. We'll start with the less exciting developments which is basically anything to do with Tyler and I. Tyler is still working at same day surgery at Orem Community Hospital. He also works as a phlebotomist in the lab a few hours a week. He prefers that job, and is looking for others like it farther north so that we can move at the end of June. In other news about Tyler, he shaved his beard off. I can't decide if I'm glad or not, but I think in terms of hunting for a job he ought to be clean shaven.
I am over halfway through my final class, and for those of you keeping track, I am still passing. I am still looking for a teaching job... well sort of looking. If you asked Tyler he would say I'm waiting for one to fall out of the sky and hit me. Can I help it that staying home and taking care of Jack just sounds like WAY more fun!
Mother's day was nice. Tyler got me a pretty little Willow Tree Statue of a mother with her baby. Before mother's day we got Hayden, Jack and their cousin Ryker together for a picture to give to grandma. It was quite an experience to say the least. In the end we chose a picture that at least had the three looking the right direction. Next year I think we should to separate portraits and put them together in a collage!
Over Memorial Day weekend friends of ours from when Tyler was in the Marines came up from California to visit. It was lots of fun. We took them to see Temple Square, and mostly just hung out. We also went to a special memorial service at the veterans cemetery and visited the grave of a, Adam, friend of Tyler's that was killed in Iraq. Then we went to lunch with Adam's parents.
Hayden graduated from kindergarten, and as soon as Robin sends me pictures (we totally forgot to bring our camera) you will all get to see how cute he was. They did a little program and Hayden did so great. He knew every word to every song and his speaking part was "I'm going to be a paleontologist." He will be 6 in less than a week and his request was to go to the Utah Museum of Natural History. I'll be honest, it sounds terribly boring to me, but Tyler gets to take him and Isaac on Saturday.
Now, if you look at the pictures we took this month there is a common theme. There is not a single picture that does not feature Jack. So let me sum up some of his new tricks and then I'll post a few of my favorites for the month. He sits up VERY well now. It's one of his favorite things to do. We also started him on solid foods. That was not one of his favorite things, but we keep trying. Early in May, Jack got a pretty bad cold that he recovered from by sleeping pretty much all day for two days. One of the pictures below shows him and dad taking a nap together. My two favorite boys. Jack has become a huge fan of taking baths in the kitchen sink. He splashes and splashes and then gets a surprised look on his face and then a great big grin. We still sometimes swaddle him to put him to bed, but he has gotten very good at wriggling his way out. I love this picture of him where he got his arms out, rolled over, and snuggled with his little dog.
Well now I am at least caught up. Enjoy these cute pictures, and hopefully there will be more soon.
Napping with dad, don't you love how we match so well!
I love baths!

It aint easy being green.

I'm Back

2008-04-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

Well I’m officially aloud to blog again. I have finished student teaching and (drum roll please) my teacher work sample! For those of you not familiar with it, my teacher work sample has been the bane of my existence since…. Well January. It is, to put it simply, a big long hideous report of everything I did for one unit I taught along with an analysis of student learning my teaching. I should have finished it bit by bit as I student taught, but I didn’t. Yes folks you are reading the blog of a world class procrastinator, but as of 8 this morning I am finished and one big step closer to graduating. Now I have one class left (again with the procrastinating, I should have taken this 2 years ago, but I was waiting for my favorite professor to be teaching it). So, even with student teaching and TWS (my pet name for my teacher work sample) over and done with I will still have very little time for all the things I enjoy the most, like blogging and playing peek-a-boo with little Jack. I won’t bore you with my to-do list, but later I will have to bore myself with it, but not until I have celebrated the completion of two lengthy and time consuming tasks Oooh-rah as a Marine would say, but I’m not a Marine, so I’m not aloud to say it, so instead Hazaa and Hooray!!
And while I revel in that bit of good news I will also share the wonderful accomplishments of the ever changing Jack. He is as cute as ever and is still a delight of a baby. He hardly fusses or cries, and while he is again not sleeping through the night, he is at least easy to get to sleep. This morning while I was finishing up my TWS he was playing on a blanket. He started to get a bit fussy, but I wanted to finish up quickly, so I let him fuss for a couple minutes, and by the time I got to him he had snuggled his blanket around him and fallen asleep—so cute! We have officially moved him to his own room to sleep It’s been hard on me, but I’m getting used to it. Among other exciting developments, he is very close to sitting up on his own, and can do so for about 5 seconds before toppling over. He loves to grab and hold onto everything, especially the dog. He gets very angry if Roxy ignores him when he wants to pet her. Another fun thing is his mouth toots, I don’t know how else to describe what he does, so I hope that makes sense. Sometimes he does it when his binky is in his mouth and he makes it fly across the room. It’s rather funny.
Finally Tyler has also reached an exciting milestone, one more completed semester! He took both of his finals last night and felt pretty good about both of them, not to mention he got some extra credit on a final project in nutrition for giving such a good presentation (it was about chocolate, so how could it not be good). I am thankful that he is going to have at least a little downtime for a little bit, at least until he starts some online classes to shift into his transition from UVSC to Weber State.
I know this was a ridiculously long entry, but it has been over a month since my last posting, so I had to catch you all up. Expect pictures soon.

Rolling Over

2008-03-09T21:00:00.000-07:00

Just a quick exciting note: today Jack rolled from his back to his stomach! He did it three times, so we know it wasn't just accidental. This means Jack can now roll over both ways. We are quite proud of him, and he seemed pretty pleased with himself as well. He is also really starting to take interest in toys. Is this excitement just a first child thing?
We were noticing today that he has grown so much, and as exciting as that is I was sort of missing teeny tiny Jack. Now that he has grown out of many of his 0-3 month outfits (turned three months on Friday) I'm begining to face the reality of how fast we will be moving through clothes. Still, every new milestone is exciting and we can't wait for whatever is coming next!

4 Days at home with Jack!

2008-02-28T18:24:00.000-08:00

Well, somehow I've lucked out again with a long weekend. Actually I am especially lucky because I don't have to go to a whole day of meetings on Monday, instead I get to stay home with Jack. So it's Thursday night and I have until Tuesday to recover from the exhaustion of student teaching. I don't understand how teachers do this every day!
Today Jack and Roxy were super cute. Roxy was laying looking at Jack with her head tilted all cute like she does, and Jack rolled from his back to his side (another one of his so cool tricks) so his head was all turned and looked up at Roxy. I should have run and grabbed the camera, but it really looked like Jack might be getting to roll all the way to his tummy and there was no way I was missing that, but... as of yet he is not a full fleged roller. Just tummy to back, and back to side. He is growing so fast. He is to the very end of his 0-3 sleepers because he is so long, but he's still pretty light. I'm doing my best to fatten him up, but so far I think it's working more for me than for him. Still not back into all my pre-pregnancy pants, but hey I can survive with just one pair of jeans right? Tyler won't let me buy anymore because he's certain I'll fit into my other ones any day now. I hope he's not to disapointed. But oh well, I'm just happy to have my little Jack and that makes everything else alright! I will have to take more pictures this weekend, Hayden will be here, and Jack's rash on his head has pretty much cleared up, not that he wasn't cute even with the rash. But for now, it's time for some serious R&R. I hope tomorrow is as sunny as today was!

2008-02-18T09:36:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm still in my pajamas and it's almost 11am, so I probably should be doing something other than posting on my blog, but I wanted to share the cute pictures that we took this weekend while Hayden was here. Jack was so cute when Hayden first got here on Friday night. He couldn't stop staring at him no matter where Hayden was in the room. I think he likes his big brother, and Hayden liked playing with Jack too now that it is so easy to get him to smile and jabber.
Another great thing about this weekend, Jack started taking a binky and will now fall asleep just fine on his own if he's already pretty drowsy. This is a lifesaver for my poor arms and back that are tired from hours on end of rocking. He is sleeping pretty well at night, and takes good naps during the day. He is more fun every day. He is now rolling from his front to his back pretty regularly, and his smiles and jabbering make every day brighter.

A Long Weekend!

2008-02-15T15:30:00.000-08:00

Well I have now taught five whole days. I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but I'm feeling totally burned out. I'm especially bumbed because my students' average on the first test was a D. Pretty discouraging. I always knew teachers were busy, but I swear I did not sit down for more than 15 minutes today from 7-3, and that includes my lunch! How will I ever stay on top of it.

But enough whining about it because now I have a nice LONG weekend. I don't teach again until Wednesday, and I'm already almost ready with my lesson plan, I just need to plan an assignment. So this weekend is all put the house back together and play with family time. But before all of that... I think it's time for a nap, if only I could convince Jack of that.
Jack of course is being extra cute today. Right now he is sitting in his bouncy seat jabbering and smiling away. Earlier we was laying on his back just hanging out, and I left the room for a minute and he had rolled to his side (not quite his stomach, but I was still impressed). Hooray, Jack just had a big yawn, so either he is bored of me reading my blog to him, or he is about ready for a nap. So enjoy this incredibly cute picture I took of him yesterday, and check back again later.

2 month check up and SHOTS

2008-02-08T15:16:00.001-08:00

Poor Jack had to get 4 shots today. The doctor thinks he's great and is impressed by his growth, but he still needs his vaccinations. I'm sure Jack thinks I'm the meanest mom ever for letting that nurse jab 4 tiny needles into his perfect pudgy thighs, but with all the sleeping he's doing to recover, maybe he'll forget the whole event. He cried so hard while he was getting the shots, I don't know if I've ever heard him cry so hard, but he calmed down quickly after. I wasn't sure what to expect after he woke up from his nap, but I wasn't expecting an entirely different child. Jack screamed for almost half an hour and there was little I could do to console him. I felt so bad as great big tears streamed down the side of his face. Finally I got him calm, and he immediately fell back to sleep. I think next time I have to get any shots I'm going to sleep it off as well, it seems to be helping Jack.

So for now things are quiet, but he will probably wake up soon, and then who knows what. I hope to have my happy baby boy back, but I think that might require a little Tylenol.

Baby Jack

2008-02-08T14:30:00.000-08:00

For a long time I thought blogs were kind of silly, then the other day I was playing with Jack and he smiled so big and SO cute that I wanted to show and tell everyone I knew. That's when it came to me, I finally have a reason to blog. Before Jack, Tyler and I did pretty much the same thing everyday (SSDD Tyler would say, but you'll have to ask him yourself what that means, I think he learned it in the Marines). Work, school, work, school..... and so on. Now it feels like each day is a new adventure. Sure, it's still a lot of the same eat, sleep, poop, eat, sleep, poop, everyday, but now the monotony is interspersed with new discoveries, new growth, and new joy. Like for instance, not only was Jack blessed this week (which was a priceless family memory) but he also learned a new trick. He rolled from his front to his back. Tyler and I were beside ourselves with pride. While it may have been an accident, he has repeated the trick, but not regularly. His first real smile that wasn't just from gas relief was equally exciting, now we live for every smile.

Sadly I miss many of his smiles during some days of the week. I started my student teaching last week and he stays with his FABULOUS Great Aunt Bonnie while I'm at school. We are so grateful for her help! Still, I miss him so much everyday and race to my car as soon as I can get away from school.

So now I will join the world of proud parent bloggers, and while I know most of what I say will be far from original, since most moms have gone through everything I'm going through, I will say it anyway. My way of shouting from the rooftops: "My baby boy just smiled, and my world keeps turning because he did!"