Bolander Family

kid pics

2011-01-02T19:56:00.000-08:00

So Christmas was meant to last just one day and maybe its simply better that way.

It' s a time meant to be treasured it can't always be here

but the feeling it gives us can last the whole year.

Well another year has come to an end. So many wonderful memories we made. We are ever so grateful for family and friends who filled this year to the brim with joy and happiness. The experiences we have had have made our bonds stronger and strengthened our faith. I am ever so grateful that God has blessed me with a wonderful man who continually lifts and strengthens our little family. Grateful for the pitter patter of the beautiful, wonderfully spirited children he has blessed us with that continually make us laugh and feel complete. Grateful to know that there is a God who loves and watches over his children continually, and for His Son who so meekly died so that we could live again. There is so much joy that this knowledge brings to our souls - making any trial and heartache seem easier to bear and shoulder. Making the happy moments better. The happiness it brings to our lives spreads like wildfire and shines brightly - what a blessing...let your light so shine...
Then we do our best to be the Lord's hands here upon the earth, doing good and spreading sunshine along the way. The only way to be is to live happy, always looking for the good in others and in all situations.
May this year bring happiness to your heart and may you be able to find the joy that can only come from our savior Jesus Christ.

Happy new year!

"Try a little harder to be a little better." Gordon B. Hinckley

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The glorious happiness of the gospel of Christ

2011-01-01T17:27:00.000-08:00

My uncle Lalo passed away and we went to celebrate his earthly life and it was absolutely the most memorable funeral service I have experienced, other than my parents. It was full of the joy of the atonement of Christ and the hope that we have because of His divine sacrifice; how having faith amidst our daily trials will strengthen us and help us be strong, how trials come so we can experience the sweet goodness life has to offer, well basically everything that Christ has taught us, how blessed it is to have gospel truths at a time such as this. What joy came to my heart to see family I haven't been able to see in so many years. It, to me was a reflection of the reunion my ancestors were having in heaven, embracing their brother, son, husband, father back after so long. What a glorious reunion.

some of my long lost cousins...haven't seen them in over a century

2010-12-31T17:23:00.000-08:00

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Baby cousins...not so baby anymore!!!!

dinner with moms family

2010-12-31T16:48:00.000-08:00

My sister Pita and my cousin Benito. My Sister Nina and Benito's son

My sweet Tio Lalo's (whose life we gathered together to celebrate) son Lalo Jr.

2010-12-30T10:46:00.000-08:00

this was our last sunday of 2010, i was washing the dishes gazing out my the kitchen window, contemplating how beautiful the lighting is on overcast days like this...perfect for pictures!!!! even though the kids were not completely ready for church we couldn't pass up the perfect moment...once again these crazy kids were in the mood for pics and posed themselves. they are so fun when they WANT to take pics.

praying your year went out with a bang and brought great memories - for life is what we make it so lets make it great.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
Helen Keller

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2010-09-24T07:41:00.001-07:00

We celebrated Christmas this year with our family and friends and felt the blessings of the True Spirit of Christ and the real reason for this glorious season. The children were so excited to give and share and see what others thought of their gifts, they were genuinely grateful for things that they received and I couldn't help but think that our Heavenly Father feels the same joy I did this season when he sees us reaching out to his children in love, care, understanding, and faith. Lifting another and bringing them closer to Christ, what a glorious glorious experience this is. And to think that it can last all year long...this love and empathy and serviceable attitude.
I am truly grateful for the great example Christ set for me to follow, how I follow and how I serve others...will determine my true gratitude and my true testimony of My Savior. Epiphany moment...(for myself that is)
I pray each of you had a wonderful Christmas and that each of you feel our love, we miss you and think of you way more often than we post :)
Merry Christmas~

2010-09-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

so here are some pics of our newest adventure... 5 children in soccer. Maybe I should write a book and become famous!! hahaha!
Well these are only a few I Chose these because of their expressions, the one with Vigo clasping his hands was after he made a goal, ran straight to change their points, So cute!!!!
Then there is the ever serious about competition Drake and his intensity comes out so prevalent in all the pics I have of him.
Alia the princess who would rather be dancing ballet then being smashed between all those sweaty boys! before she kicks in the ball she does a little show - so so so cute!!!

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This girl cannot get enough when it comes to books, and you can usually find her tucked in a corner reading a book IF she is not attached to my hip.

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2010-04-25T19:33:00.001-07:00

Song for a Fifth Child

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton
Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

2010-04-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

Cowboy Breakfast

2010-04-25T19:24:00.001-07:00

So the kids school hosts an annual Cowboy breakfast. This year they had a contest for best dressed and most talented....of course not all four Bolander children could have been chosen (they would start thinking I'd paid the judges!!) but they are all winners.
Maya and Addison both won - most talented -Maya for singing Ingrid Mickelson's song "the way i am" and Best dressed to Addison. The boys danced The Cotton Eyed Joe (which they learned the dance steps off you tube!!) fun stuff here down yonder in Texas~~~

2010-04-25T19:20:00.000-07:00

2010-04-25T19:05:00.001-07:00

Okay so trying to play catch up, missed out on most of the summer pics, maybe for my own sake I will come back for those.
These are a few pics from Drake's 8th birthday party. Yahoo!! When did these kids grow up?

2010-04-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

Yumyum

2010-04-12T19:14:00.001-07:00

Alia

Bolander's 2009

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2009-08-22T21:42:00.001-07:00

Wow. The circus with the troop 2513...loud and fun! I think I was the "loud"...hehehe but if you know our family that is no big surprise. But let me tell you we had a blast!!! so much fun. There are many photos here but we want to remember how much fun we had and what we saw.
Maya took the pictures of the elephant painting the picture. she did great!!!!

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2009-08-22T20:18:00.001-07:00

YAHOO for swimming.
It seriously is the only way to survive this drought and record days in the 100's.
I honestly can not take the heat, I know I sound spoiled, you'd think I was actually born in Idaho and not TEXAS!
There is no better place than the water to let you appreciate the Texas summers - oh yes if I get in the water then I could care less how hot it is. Thank you whoever invented the pool!!! This was one of our MANY days at the pool. It was our first unofficial Tues night YW activity - you see we used to meet on Wed until recently and we would have had to skip a week but we snuck it in....unofficially that is. A great way to get to know each other.

2009-08-22T19:37:00.000-07:00

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I walked into my bedroom the other night and I found a pleasant surprise... Not dirty laundry but sweet cute and hug able laundry, now I like clean clothes, don't like laundry, but today it was the best part of my day.

Then when Vigo heard the fuss I made over having such a great load of laundry he too jumped in and got some ohh's and ahh's.

Aren't children so stinking cute?

2009-08-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

2009-08-22T19:05:00.001-07:00

5 little monkeys! Cute! Hey wait a minute, do I see a resemblance? Alia loves this game, our cute little Brandon and his family are to thank for this. They live a couple of houses down from us and the kids love them so (and If I am wrong on the name, sorry It's Brandon or Brayden but I think I am right, and if you know me I am not good with names - ask my kids!)

2009-08-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

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This is Eva's sweet little present...I think mom helped out a LOT...handmade little chef hat and apron. Is this not the cutest thing?! Danielle you are an angel. Thanks! Love you guys!

2009-08-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

2009-08-22T18:55:00.001-07:00

The birthday cake is always fun, then telling how old you are...well can anyone tell me you handle that question any better? Third time is the charm!

2009-08-22T18:54:00.000-07:00

2009-08-22T18:40:00.001-07:00

So i'm really bad at actually getting invites out, well cards in the mail period are hard for me. Cory laughs at my expense whenever this is the case. I get cards well in advance I write them, address them, stamp them (if I have a stamp that is), and then keep them in my purse ready to get mailed for the next month, or year..s as some of you have had the blessed event for one or more of my overdue letters to finally arrive in your home.
Thus sorry for those of you who were not notified last minute of Alia's party because although my intentions are good I still am not all together.
Here are the guest who so graciously accepted and showed up. Thanks to all for letting Alia and our family enjoy you this special day!

2009-08-22T18:40:00.000-07:00

2009-08-22T18:27:00.001-07:00

These and the pics under Alia are all from her party, The ones with the children are from the arts and crafts project, the itty bitties made sticker magnet frames and the older kids made animals with modeling clay, they each seemed to enjoy themselves very much.
In the picture with the frames are Alias friends Boston and Eva. The kids at the table are Addison, Maya, Drake, Vigo, cousins Leo, and Ricky.
The pics under Alia were from the dance off. Boy even the newborns (Brooks and Brandon) were shaking their bootie.

2009-08-22T18:27:00.000-07:00

2009-08-22T18:24:00.001-07:00

Blurry but self posed and cute as a button! Here is our Birthday girl and it's her party and she can pose if she wants too. She is so hilarious and loving!

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Young Women having fun... this is supposed to our planning meeting, turned into a photo shoot and then they used me for protection when it turned into a battle ground...hahaha. These are only a few of the girls I am blessed to work with and we did get a lot of planning in that night.

2009-08-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

2009-08-21T18:38:00.001-07:00

Alia's birthday- 3 years old!!!!! Augh can the years stop and let me enjoy them, who sped up the clock?! When I was young it seemed like summer was too long and the weekend would never end and it was an eternity before I had another birthday. Now I blink and the whole year has passed me by! how and when do these precious little ones get to be so big?
This was Alia's actual birthday, my very great friend Veronica called me that morning and asked if we wanted to go to the Witte museum with her and then go celebrate Madison's birthday (they live in Houston and were in SA for the week visiting family). So we doubled up birthday bashing since it was Alia's b-day. We had a blast with the whole gang. The cake was specially made by Madi's aunt Jasmine (she's good, huh?.
Now the bubble picture - never buy these bubbles, they don't work - but they are good entertaining fun for making adults go crazy and others laugh at your expense - made for a good calorie burning laugh fest.
Thanks Marshal, Veronica, Jasmine, and Lizzie for letting us be part of this awesome day and for letting us double up the birthday fun. You guys are great!

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The Witte Museum is so fun. We got a family pass this year and we have throughly enjoyed it.

2009-08-18T08:31:00.000-07:00

2009-08-16T17:38:00.000-07:00

Well Alia's birthday came all to soon! Three is a great big number when it is your last little one. I didn't have a lot of prep time but we were able to go to the movies for free! Free is good! Then we went to McDonald's, and had a fun air conditioned play time. Eva and Jacob went along with us the whole summer to the summer free movie Tuesdays. It turned into a tradition for us.
But this day made me sad and joyous. Sad because you know these tender years are passing before your eyes all too fast. If I don't appreciate these small moments they will pass me by and I will never again have them again.
Joyous because you want to see them progress, grow, become their own individual person, see who they are and how they think. But still I don't want her hands to get any bigger or her hugs to get fewer.

2009-08-16T17:37:00.000-07:00

Youth Conference

2009-08-16T17:27:00.000-07:00

So soon right after camp they called me to be YW Pres.! Wow how much fun and excitement can one person be blessed with in one year let alone one month!!!! When I say right after camp I literally mean right after camp, because Youth conference was right around the corner and I was called the Sunday before youth conference. So much fun. I didn't get many pictures because I was running ragged here and there but it was a fun filled spiritual, and positively enchanting time. The youth had so many great learning opportunities. They played a life size game of LIFE where all of life came at them in an instant one minute they were graduating from high school and the next they were married with five children! They learned the pros and cons of getting or not getting an education, marrying the "right" person, making the right choices, etc. It was all very good and they really seemed to get the picture. The set of pics that I did get were on the last day and they did a ropes course and team building. This is Alieta, one brave soul in our YW that i was able to get pics of. Fun stuff, wish I'd had the extra money to do it myself (heehehehehe - sometimes it pays to not have money!)

2009-08-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

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The bridging Ceremony with the Girl Scouts

2009-08-16T16:47:00.000-07:00