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!

Busy Busy Busy!

I enjoy having lots of things, dates, plans, etc, on the go - but maybe that is something I just tell myself to sound cool-headed and mature; and when it really happens I become this stress ridden beast of a person!

 Not that I'm complaing - God has been so good to us in the last forever it seems (we're bracing ourselves for a trial to come). I'm currently working on a fundraising project for Rapha House. Last year I saw a video promo for Rapha House and my heart was both broken and uplifted at the same time. Here is a link to watch the promo so I don't have to explain all that they do, plus it's more powerful to watch: Rapha House Trailer

The fundraiser event will be for women only and will be a black tie affair. So fancy shmancy. I haven't set the date yet because I am between choosing locations, both of which are perfect and beautiful! My head is swimming with ideas - this is why I don't sleep at night. I try to blame it on the baby, but it's my own fault! Anyways, it's a toss up between January and February, both of which seem just around the corner.

The Youth Sleepover is also tomorow! I was at the church last night dropping off bags upon bags of food, games, props, you name it. I'm hoping we have a big turn out, the teens all seemed really excited for the Event so I'm hoping they meant what they said and come with a serving heart and attitude! I'm also praying for the people of Salmon Arm to be open and willing to donate extra and old blankets! I don't want the teens to feel discouraged after all of their efforts.

And lastly, if life, family, and fun wasn't enough...We might be moving!

To Africa!

Totally just kidding. Maybe one day, if that's where we're meant to be, but no...Not Africa.
A little house down the road is for rent, and Craig knows the owner & renters quite well. He went to look at the place last night and came home beaming about how perfect it would be for our little family and how it's affordable - only problem is, we're second in line to get it!

Oh the agony of not knowing the future!

The gentleman who is renting the house out say's he wants to do a little maitenance and fixing up before he rents it out again, so the place wouldn't be available for another month or so - so I am hoping that the guy who wants the house doesn't want to wait that long and will move on to another prospect, leaving us with first dibs on the house!

I felt the urge to make a quick blog about what is going on in my life...So there you have it. It's cluttered, it's stressful, it's full of decision making and craziness - but like I said before, we feel so blessed. The fact that we even have these opprotunites is mind blowing. My husband and I are only 20 and 21 and we might have a little house soon! Just to say that outloud is beyond me. We couldn't do anything without Christ. Nothing. Nothing would matter and nothing would make sense, or fall into place.

I'm off to talk with Ms. Courtney White who is an intern with Rapha House who is setting me up with free promotional material and a bunch of other stuff.

Busy Busy Busy!

Oh, and did I mention I'm trying to throw a Murder Mystery Dinner party in the next couple of weeks?? You all will love the pictures from that! 

Stay tuned to see and hear about the Youth's Sleepover & Service event coming up tomorrow!

I would not survive a Zombie Apocolypse

I really should be resting. I haven't screamed, ran, hid and chased around a building like I did last night since I was a little kid at camp!

That's right, last night at Youth we played our second game of Zombie Apocolypse filled with nerf guns, lazers, darkness, obstacles, and of course Zombies (my teens can do the creepiest Zombie impressions, its terrifying).

 

 

It was such a great night - even though I honestly spent most of it clutching my gun to my chest pleading for the teens to not "eat me and turn me into a Zombie and respawn". Seriously. If the world ever came to an end via Zombie Apocolypse I would be done for! I would not be a survivor, unless if I stuck with my husband who has mad surviving skills and lots of guns (Thank you Lord for my prepared hubby!). 

I'm also very excited for Saturday evening because we will be getting together once again  to collect blankets/sheet/pillowcases etc.  to donate to the Salvation Army's "Inn From The Cold" program that provides a warm and safe shelter for the homeless people of Salmon Arm to sleep during the coldest months of the winter (Nov - Feb.). We feel very blessed to be able to help this organization and serve them and their needs! So it's going to be a busy weekend, as right after we go looking for donations, we'll be having a sleep over (which really means Pulling An All Nighter - oh joy!).