Tappin' My Toes

I've been a fan of Sara Bareilles for a while now (even before her hit "Love Song" became popular!) and so of course I'd love her new single that is playing on the radio these days. This music video is so cute, original and creative. I love it! 

I'm going to be a little bit busy these next few days with Youth stuff and Christmas-y things! That's why I am just posting a quick little video to showcase this song to you. 

Blog again soon!

Brothers

Craig and I always talk about how Sam & Hogan are going to be the best of buddies...But we never expected their brotherhood to blossom this early!

Sam can't sit up on his own yet, but he perches himself on my lap or the couch or wherever Hogan is, reaches his hands out towards him and starts petting his fur, letting Hogan lick his fingers and the barf off of his chin (that part is really gross, but I let it slide. It saves me cleaning a million wash cloths...)! 

So I set them up for pictures. These aren't natural by any means, in real life it's way cuter. But by these pictures you get the idea.

 Sam had his hand wrapped around Hogan's leg before the picture took!

"Hey! Where are you going man?"- Sam

The infamous puppy kisses!

   Just chillin'

A boy and his dog. Nothing is as sweet. It's just as they say: Worms and snails and puppy dog tails - that's what little boys are made of! 

It's so wonderful that Hogan just turned 1 year old; meaning these boys will be together for a long time, Lord willing! I like this picture, and although the dog in the picture is a shepherd I like to imagine it's Sam & his pooch.

 Man's Best Friend

 

I Heart Victoria's Secret

This makes me happy, and causes me to dance around my bedroom while folding my mass amounts of laundry.

 

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am a lover of Victoria's Secret products - especially clothes. They have great value and quality and every year I save up my money to get a couple of sweaters or whatever else suits my fancy. Next time I'm going to get jeans, because they make jeans especially for girls with long legs! Yes! No more flood pants! 

This time around, I got my winter coat from VS. Here is the coat featured on the site:

It's great little double breasted wool peacoat. Comfy cozy and a great price (the best part)! And here's me in my little number that I got a couple of weeks ago. I try to find excuses to go outside so I can wear it.

 

Me and my little pink camera. I can be such a girl sometimes. The jacket doesn't have dirty specks on it...That is my bathroom mirror...Which I didn't know was that dirty until the picture was taken. Guess who's cleaning the bathroom while the baby sleeps! 

So I'm still loving the coat and I suggest that you go and check out Victoria's Secret over the next little while and buy something for a friend or a sweetie for Christmas! Great deals going on right now! (I should be a VS spokesperson, no?)

 

The Little Things

Oh, I could just eat him up sometimes! I hope my mom

see's this...I should go give her a call...Hi mom!

"Super Hero's Assemble!"

I've been losing it lately! I swear, this whole parenting thing makes you so scatter brained it's crazy. I know it's no excuse - but I'm blaming not making a blog for a while on the craziness. 

On Saturday the 20th I hosted a Superhero theme Murder Mystery Dinner party at our apartment. 8 of our great friends came over, decked out in spectacular costumes and ready to figure out whodunit. It worked out perfectly, because the 20th was also the birthday of one of our friends, so the dessert was a birthday cake in his honour. 

The whole evening I was so busy narrating, preparing food, setting up stuff and trying to solve a murder that I didn't take that many pictures of my amazing decorations or all of the food that we ate...I'm sorry! I can't even explain it all because it's not as cool as seeing it in real life. So, I apologize, you'll live :) Next murder mystery you'll get a more 360 view of everything.

But the pictures I do have are still fantastic and hilarious, to say the least. 

My character was Electra, so I sported some very cool & borrowed

super hero gloves from a friend and had a red lightning bolt on both my 

cape and shirt. Standing with me is my bff, Blair a.k.a. Shiver (who in 

the game was my frienemy...it was hard to act bitchy to her all evening!)

Eric (in red) as The Red Wonder, a Rap Artist by day and a Super Rap Artist

By Night! With him, the man in black, the birthday boy himself, Dustin a.k.a

Mr. Fabulous. With a chiseled jaw line and strong chest like that how couldn't

he play Mr. Fabulous? Haha! 

Eric, Craig as The Jester & Crispin as Nerdon (who was the murder victim in the end!)

Halfway through the night Craig thought it would be funny to give himself a mustache

with my mascara? 

 MJ as Blue Blaze - a sexy lawyer by day and Superhero by night.

We all bugged her for not having a cape, which she retaliated by saying

"Justice is my cape." 

Touche.

Jesse as Gonch, and his fiancee Erica as Ginch. Everyone wanted

Erica's gold spandex...So good.

 Mr. Fabulous figuring out the crime (the murderer was Blue Blaze!)

And winning the grand prize - a huge chocolate assortment. He was pretty happy.

That's a good birthday if I've ever seen one...

 And here we are! The most epic Superhero picture ever.

It reminds me of another Superhero group picture I've seen....

This one perhaps? Just count the similarties!

It was such a good evening and it went so smoothly. The whole game (3 rounds + plus mini games + eating) took just over 3 hours! I was so nervous it was going to be like, half an hour, and then really lame and awkward...But everyone gave great reviews and now Blair can't wait to throw one when her and Michael move into their house in Salmon Arm in only a few short months! So exciting!

Get ready for more busy-ness in the next couple of weeks - especially with Christmas nearing! One more month exactly!

I promise I'll behave myself and be better at posting blogs :) Until then, God Bless!

Tight & Bright

On Friday evening, my very brave, creative and hilarious Youth girls got together to get dressed up in our brightest neon tights, dresses, wigs, etc. and go out to take some funny pictures and spend some time together over appies and pizza at East Side Mario's. We got a lot of stares...And these pictures will explain why we got those stares.

Oh yes, baby, that is a chicken hat on my head ^          

 We invaded the Centenoka Mall....

And these are some pleasant pictures of us at East Side...Being dorks.

I am so blessed to have such awesome girls that are apart of the Youth Goup. They are quick to bring their friends out to events, quick to help me with anything I need and quick to being loving and patient with their girl friends!

It was most defiantely a success Girls Night and I can't wait to do it again! ...But maybe less bright...My eyes still hurt...

Bon Jovi!!

This is all I have been talking about for the past few days, so it only makes sense that I would blog about it too!

On Friday the 12th, I sat at my computer, refreshing the ticketmaster.com page every 10 seconds waiting impatiently for the Bon Jovi Live 2011 Tour tickets to go on sale. And then it was time...10:00 AM hit and the tickets were up for grabs! In only 7 minutes, Vancouver's GM Place sold out. And yes, I was one of the lucky ones who snatched up two tickets for Craig and I to go and see the show in March 2011! The concert will be one day after my birthday, so it's basically the BEST birthday present I could ever ask for!

I've always been a Bon Jovi fan ever since I heard his songs playing on the radio in the car on the way to school, church, the mall as a kid and a teen. But it wasn't until I started working with Craig that I fell in love with his music.

Craig was so sick of listening to Salmon Arm's not so great radio station, and so he went out and purchased a fancy Sirius Satellite Radio for work. Together we'd work side by side, listening to the "Hair Nation" station, which plays all the 80's hits...Bon Jovi being featured every 4th song! So I got to be quite familiar with the rock 'n roll singer.

Although his classics "Livin' On A Prayer" and "It's My Life" are more than superb, my favorite songs are "Always", "Bad Medicine" & "This Ain't A Love Song". You don't hear these songs on the radio that often, which is why I love them. When you do hear them, your heart flutters a bit. A memory comes back. You can't help but dance and play the air-guitar...Yes, you heard me, play the air-guitar. And you get into it.

 Well, it's quite obvious that I cannot wait for March to come. In the meantime, I'm listening to Bon Jovi every day. Craig say's I'll be sick of him by the time we go to the concert, but I don't think that's possible.


Here is Bon Jovi performing "Always" live. A little taste of what we'll hear in only 4 months!

First Date and a Bath

Yesterday a good friend of mine from high school came over with her little baby girl, Olivia, who is one month younger than Sam. Obviously we have destined them to be wed one day, and they will give us beautiful grandchildren and Olivia will become a part of Team Bolen (she'll have to get it tattooed if she really wants to be apart of this family. As for those of you who don't know...Craig and I have matching "Team Bolen" tattoo's).

Olivia is such a sweet little girl who is stereotypically gentle, soft, pretty and kind...Unlike her future husband who is rambunctious, unexpected, demanding and loud.

These are some pictures of their first date; Of which will be featured at their wedding, naturally.

You can practically smell the romance...

Olivia can't quite hold herself up like Sam yet, but she's getting there!

Matching soothers!

I know that a bunch of friends and family tune into my blog to get updates on our busy lives here at the Bolen residence (Hey all!) and to watch Sam grow, so here's a little taste of our evening routine which includes bath time! 

Sam absolutely loves his bath. He amuses himself with his toys, wash cloths, and bubbles for over half an hour. Which is a long time for any baby to sit and do the same thing repititiously (is that even a word?)! 

  Such a little ham.

 I'm not quite sure which one he really loves more - the bath, or the 10 minutes after the bath where all he wants to do is roll around in his towel in his crib. He loves the feel of the towel on his little naked bum I guess.

Next he gets into his jammies and burns off the rest of his energy in his ExerSaucer. Here Sam is talking to his all time favorite toy, Charlie the Horse. He gabs his day's frustrations to Charlie.

Then he  gets bundled up all snug and tight, and lulled off to sleep. This is the last look he gave the camera before he fell asleep. I think he's pretty content! 

So now that I have literally prepped you and used pictures to show you my son's evening routine, I should be getting phone calls upon phone calls from all you readers volunteering to babysit so Craig and I can go on a date! My cell is in my pocket...I'll be waiting...

Good night everyone!  

4 months already?

I haven't posted anything about my little Sam in a while, which is funny because he is the reason I started a blog! To keep friends and family updated...Oops! I got a little carried away with other things I guess.

Sam turned 4 months old on Monday the 8th.

How crazy! It really has gone by fast...Maybe not the nights where he's been screaming bloody murder, or the times when he just won't stop fussing because of his colic, but all in all it does seem like we brought him home from the hospital just yesterday. Soon he'll be all grown up and moving out (is it ok that I'm a little excited for that? Just a little...)!

Here's a little collage I made of Sam. I took all of these pictures this morning so he is still fresh in his 4th month of life. I think he's so handsome. Actually, I know he's so handsome. My little charmer.

Picture Perfect

Yesterday I got my boys all handsomed-up in their best "Christmas" style attire and we headed to McGuire Lake to take some pictures for the Christmas card that we'll be sending out to friends and family this year.

One of my bestest friends ever, Blair, is the perfect example of the I-May-Not-Be-A-Professional-Photographer-But-You'd-Never-Know-Because-My-Pictures-Are-So-Great person. She was willing to put up with a hyper puppy, a crying baby, a perfectionist me and a goofy Craig for a little bit in the afternoon, and I can't thank her enough for that!

Even though it's November, there is absolutely no snow on the ground! Which is weird for us BCer's! We keep hearing all this chatter on the news about having the largest amount of snow this winter than ever before? I'm not so sure I can believe it!

Here are some sneak peak's of the pictures that were taken (just some silly ones). I won't show you the final 3 that were chosen to grace the cover of the Christmas card, you'll have to wait to see those in a couple of weeks when you get a card in the mail!

Haha! I can't get over how disturbingly funny that face is...

 

We had a great time taking these pictures, and all my boys behaved! I'll admit I was nervous on the car ride over...You would be too if you lived on this funny farm!

Service "Over" Event

To some, it was Service "Sleep" Over Event...To me, it was just an "over" because I did not get a wink of sleep last night at the Youth's event. Sam was really good for the sleepover, it's just I couldn't fall asleep, it was so frustrating! And at 3 in the morning, Sam woke up and couldn't fall back asleep for the life of him because of all the teens running around the church screaming, popping balloons and just being crazy (which is totally fine and expected! It's just not so good for tired babies...). So I whipped out my cell and called Craig, and this is how are conversation went.

Craig: Huh-huh-hell-hello? (remember, 3 am.)
Me: Heeeeeey baby...
Craig: No. No. No. No. No. No.
Me: But honey, the baby can't sleep! We need to come home for a couple of hours! Please come get us!
Craig: (after a long, menacing pause) I'll be there in 5 minutes.

He really does love me, I must never forget that.

So Craig came and got us and I was at home from 3 am - 6 am. Then I was back at the church to make breakfast for everyone. No one even noticed we left, because at 3 is when everyone more or less crashed.

The "Service" part of the night went really well! I was so nervous that we wouldn't get many donations but we came back with so much stuff from people in the neighbourhoods around our church. Some people just turned us away, but others practically gave us their whole linen closet! It was so encouraging to see that the majority of houses we went to had people who were more than willing to help out the Salvation Army's Inn From The Cold.

That being said, here are the pictures that I promised! Enjoy!

This is a shot of the huge pile of blankets/sheets/pillow cases/etc. that we collected!

Dinner consisted of Pizza, Chips, Pop, Slurpies, Popcorn and Candy...you know, your basic food groups...10 large pizza's disappeared in about 5 minutes. It was scary.

 Snuggling up in our jammies to watch our Midnight Movie - the classic Princess Bride.

 Playing "Mafia" at 1:30 am. Everyone was so overtired that it was such a gong show!

 The "Man Sanctuary" that some of the guys built and slept in. So good.

 7 am the next morning...The ones who survived, don't they all look lovely.

Breakfast consisted of pancakes, sausages, and Tim Horton's muffins & donuts! So much eating, so little time!

 Two of my fantastic girls, Erin & Jenn

It was such a fun time and I'm still so thrilled at how many donations we collected! Now I'm going to grab yet another nap to catch up on last night! Have a wonderful day!