Oh Boyle!

Oops its been 6 months

2010-07-15T11:57:00.006-05:00

Remember that skinny little baby from January, well we traded him in for this big goofball.

Ella turned two and also turned into tinkerbell.

Here she is eating some birthday cupcakes with daddy. Peanut butter and jelly cupcakes....or "peaner belly" as ella calls it.

She and Solon are getting along fine.

Of course by "getting along" I mean she is usually squishing him in some way.

Here she is easter egg hunting, even though you can't see easter eggs or her cute basket you'll have to trust me that this is infact easter egg hunting.

I'm not sure whats going on here but they sure are cute.

There you have it.

Mother of the Year!

2010-01-21T20:28:00.003-06:00

I've been noticing lately that I'm pretty much the best parent ever.

I put Ella in charge of the little guy,
made her do all the laundry, and
fed her cheerios off my dirty floor. Then...

I let the cat put it's butt on my baby and took a picture,

and this seems safe right?Solon is totally disgusted with me.

FAQ

2010-01-04T15:33:00.002-06:00

Remember that time i forgot to take pictures of Ella's first Christmas? Well i just wanted things to be fair so i ..uh... forgot again.

Anyway we've been asked the same two questions alot since little Sol arrived, number one, how do you pronounce him name? SO-lon it ryhmes with nolan or colon whichever you prefer. It is most certainly not pronounced Salon (like a hair place) Saloon (like a bar) or Solone (like i have no idea but why would you say it that way?) He's named after Zachary's Grandfather.
Question # 2 How does Ella like him? well.....

Alot, she likes him alot. The only problem is she wants to kiss, hold, feed, and play with him which pretty much just means squish, smash, crush and suffocate him. We're working on it. She has been a little more emotionally fragile since little brother came along but she's doing really great.

Solon James Boyle

2009-12-12T16:12:00.004-06:00

At 5:30 in the morning on December 9th we knew something was up, so we took some pregnant pictures, called my mom to come be with Ella and headed for the hospital.
6 hours later this little guy showed up 3 and a half weeks early. Weighing in and 5.98 and 17 inches long.
Ella is pretty much ready to take over if anyone would let her.
She has to settle for hugging him and squishing him most of the time.
They are both terribly cranky when you wake them up
The rest of the time this is what he does.

Perfect

2009-11-03T21:43:00.006-06:00

do you ever have those days
when life is so perfect
the weather is just right
your with the ones you love
and it almost hurts because you're so happy.
You know those days
when everything seems like a postcard
you keep wishing you could pause life
and just hang on to this one sharp minute

It's almost like your flying.

We've been having alot of those days
Fun is coming out our ears
pumpkins

and candy abound
Yea we have alot of those days around here.

and then we have some of these days.......
"My greatest joy""I eat the guts of those who oppose me"

she's been busy

2009-10-07T21:22:00.019-05:00

Ella has been so very busy since she turned one. She's had to start drinking coffee it's gotten so bad.
She's been designing her own line of head wear.
She's loved and loved on the newest member of our family, much to his dismay.
She has just about worn herself out climbing every thing that is a "no-no".
The poor child has been slaving in the kitchen,
and doing her best to make this guy look good.
She had to drag her parents to the Children's museum (which is free on Thursday nights by the way)
where she was forced to push her own stroller,
spin some flowers,
and ride this orange fish thing.
She went to the beach,
where she thought seriously about getting in the waves,
but decided against it.
She's done everything she can to stop this woman from getting so chubby, but is really fighting a losing battle there.
She even graciously helps daddy with his home work. What a sweet baby.

In other news we're 27 weeks pregnant and so far so good.

We don't even love her.

2009-08-26T20:18:00.003-05:00

Attention everyone, we don't like this little girl at all. We probably won't like her little brother either.
Well.. maybe.. we like her a little.

this man

2009-08-24T12:53:00.003-05:00

Dear Blogland, or Wealthy hopeful benefactor, or whomever. I have a problem.

You see I married this man. That's not the problem though. The problem is he is well.....restless. Really restless. For example, we've moved 5 times since we were married. We've been married 2 years. Our one year old has lived in 4 different houses in two different states. Like i said ... he's restless. Well that's not really the problem either.
The Problem is we've been in the same place for a few months now, he's been going to the same school since December, he's had the same job for 9 months. He's getting restless.
So here's what i need. An adventure. It can be anything really as long as its weird or requires some big change. Like if someone really wanted us to live in their charming guest house and cook for them and take care of their children and in exchange you would pay my husband to create art for you, or sing you ballads, or learn woodworking. Or maybe someone could call us and say hey pack your bags i need you to ......well like i said pretty much anything. Did i mention he's the most talented man in the world. He can pretty much do anything. I don't think this should be too difficult.

So if you have an adventure for a talented man and his pretty charming lovely wife ( who can really cook) Just let me know. Our only limitations are we have no money, we have an (adorable) one year old and a baby one the way, we have no money. Hurry please. He's getting antsy.

Thanks,
Carey

Oh Boy!

2009-08-13T22:06:00.003-05:00

Well it's a boy! We are SO excited. I really really wanted a boy though I wouldn't have admitted it if it was a girl. We don't have the scanner hooked up so i can't show you the ultrasound pictures but if you've seen one you've seen them all really.
The picture above is unrelated. We were dating, we were free, we had no idea how fertile we were.

a year in the life

2009-07-30T20:53:00.017-05:00

Today I give you a year in the life of Ella. Who turned one a month ago and didn't even get a proper birthday post.
Here I am trying to get labor started. It didn't work.
Fresh out of the shoot, sorry that was a gross way to put it.
One day old. Prettiest newborn ever.
Meeting papa.
One month....ish
Two monthsI'm not sure how old she is in this one.
First Halloween.
Learning to sit up.
Learning to stand up.
This is the true Ella a big goof ball.
There she is chowing down on some ladybug birthday cake. Excuse me but how did that happen?
Baby two is doing good we find out on the 13th if we're having a boy or girl. Poor number two hardly even gets a line on the blog. Already suffering from being a second child.

Well.....

2009-06-24T17:37:00.011-05:00

We've been up to quite a lot lately.

First Ella would like it to be known that she doesn't appreciate anyone touching her cheezits.Zach's brother went and got hitched, these two had a beautiful wedding and we had a wonderful weekend being a part of it. We're so glad Ella has a real aunt now.

Then we went on my families annual camping trip, my brother and his girlfriend Nicole came and we had so so so much fun.
While camping Ella proved to the world she still has no teeth.

and she ate, a lot.
The she went and turned one on us. This is her birthday night we made banana pancakes with cinnamon whipped cream which is whats all over her face.
We let her open one present. She's having a little party on Saturday when she'll get the rest.
That's about it for now. Oh yea..... we're pregnant again! I don't have a picture to illustrate that one.

The past four months.

2009-05-16T14:44:00.010-05:00

Wow. The last time I put anything on here it was four months ago. I can explain. We had no internet. So here's what we've been up to.

We moved back to Texas (into a house with no internet)

Ella basically is a grown up now.

Look at hr standing up...she's practically walking these days.
I cut all my hair off.
Ella went on her first beach trip.

Then her second.
She still has no teeth.

but she's still cute

Oh and we just move again and now we have the internet. By the way if you haven't been keeping track this is our 5th move since we got married. We're basically gypsies.

Christmas. kind of.

2009-01-05T22:04:00.005-06:00

I know you want to see cute christmas pictures but...well....I didn't take any. I'm sorry. I know that's about the worst thing I could do and poor baby Ella will probably have serious issues. Please forgive me. Here, how about I show you pictures of me so pregnant you'll swear i was having twins and you can make fun of me.

That's my brother. He's not pregnant. It's a watermelon. There you go. I was huge. Please don't yell at me for not taking Christmas pictures.

packing

2008-12-17T14:55:00.005-06:00

We're packing up and heading to Houston tomorrow.

Ella has been working very hard.

Uncles

2008-12-16T18:14:00.004-06:00

Ella has TWO uncles that had birthday's yesterday.
This one.
and this one.

She was really upset she couldn't wish them a happy birthday in person. She's hoping this blog will do. Happy birthday you two!

She needs help.

2008-12-12T21:00:00.009-06:00

Ella wanted to let you know it snowed.

However I have a more important story to tell you.

It started out as some innocent cookie making, and decorating.
Our sweet friends Ken and Brandi made some too.
What we didn't know is Skylar has a cookie addiction. Here she is trying to run away with one as her loving father does is best to restrain her.
I caught her red handed but she refuses to admit she has a problem. Look at that belly if you don't believe me. This poor baby needs help.This is when she started to hallucinate and thought the baby gate was a cookie.

This was moments before she was "put to bed" (passed out from overdose) for the night. Please send help fast it's ruining Ken and Brandi's marriage.

I think she's achieving new levels of cute

2008-12-07T19:57:00.004-06:00

Ella tried some rice cereal. I'm not sure what this face means.

She loves it when we laugh.

what we've been up to

2008-11-30T19:26:00.015-06:00

The trees are so awesome right now

Always slaving over a hot stove.
We did it up for thanksgiving and have been eating leftovers ever since
my goodness she's cute
taking a shadowy picture
picking a tree
decorating a tree

proof there was a puffy snow man at the birth of Jesus

21 years ago

2008-11-25T06:32:00.002-06:00

21 years ago today this man was born.The summer I turned 18 I developed a wicked crush on him.
Then we went away to Nashville and I fell in love with him. I couldn't help it.
Then we got engaged.
Then the summer I turned 19 I went and married him.
At our wedding he cried. Okay so did I. Let's to stick to what's important here the man was crying when he saw how beautiful I was. He can't help himself he just loves me that's all. Moving on.

Then shortly there after I got pregnant. The summer I turned twenty, I had his baby. If you look closely at this picture he's crying again, the big softie.

So there you have it in two years I went from having a crush to having his baby and I don't regret a minute of it. Let me tell you I sure do love this guy. I don't know anyone like him. Even though he's sweet and the most loving husband and father I've ever met. Even though he's brave and kind and smart and wonderful.

You should really be celebrating his mom today because 21 years ago today she was giving birth to a really really big headed baby. That became this big headed little guy.Thank you Jennifer. I like him a lot.

oh what a beautiful morning.

2008-11-12T11:35:00.004-06:00

This is me on a typical day around here. Hanging out with the babies, having a good time, and generally enjoying myself.

This was not me today.

Today Skylar had a doctors appointment. So I loaded up the girls very efficiently and made it to the doctors office with 15 minutes to spare. I was feeling good, and snazzy, I was also having a good hair day.

Now would be a good time to stop reading, it just goes down hill from here.

When we arrive I have two choices
A) Put Skylar in the green stroller which is light and easy to steer and blessed by God. Carry Ella.
B) Put Ella in satan's jogging stroller whose front wheel doesn't turn making it nearly impossible to maneuver and carry Skylar.

Now a reasonable person obviously would have gone with plan A, but you see Ella was sleeping, and her car seat won't go in the green stroller and I was hoping she would nap through the appointment. So, because I'm a FOOL I put Ella's car seat into the Jogging stroller and carried Skylar.

This is about to get really ugly.

To turn corners with the jogging stroller you basically have to lift the back end and haul it so it's facing the right direction. Apparently you don't need to turn corners when you jog???? So there I am pushing the stroller, doing pretty good, carrying Skylar.

We come to a door. I place Skylar on the ground, she immediately falls and starts crying, I pick her up. I prop the door open with one foot and try to drag the stroller by me with one hand while I balance Skylar on my hip. Stroller is halfway through, I lose the door with my foot and am promptly squished between the door and the stroller. I push door open with my bottom now and shove the stroller all the way through. Skylar is still crying. Ella is now awake and crying, rendering the devil stroller entirely pointless since she's not going to nap.

I must find and elevator. Eventually after circling the bottom floor, hauling the stroller around corners, feeling Sky slowly slip off my hip, hiking her back up, shhh shhh shhhing Ella I realize the elevator was approximately 3 ft. from the door we made such a graceful entrance in. Push the button. Doors open. Scramble to haul the stroller in the right direction and push it in. I'm not fast enough the elevator leaves. Push Button. Doors open. I make it in this time. There are two girls crying still (almost three). Ride elevator to second floor. Doors open. Scramble to adjust stoller so I can exit. Not fast enough. Doors close. One free ride from the bottom back to the top. Make it out this time.

Repeat door scene at the pediatricians office. Four times. Bounce girls, pick up skylar, put skylar down, pick up ella, put ella down, repeat.

We make it through the doctors appointment. (barely). Repeat door scene. Repeat elevator scene. (I'm not kidding). Repeat door scene once more.

Finally we are out. I load the girls. Spend 10 minutes trying to figure out how to collapse this curse of a stroller. Load Stroller. Here comes the grand finale. I breathe a sigh of relief. Everyone is loaded. Everything is good. I walk back towards the drivers side door.

I TRIP AND FALL ON MY FACE

(Nearby squirrels ridicule me)

I wish I was making this up.

The End.

what happened?

2008-11-10T11:15:00.002-06:00

remember this tiny baby with a nice little head covered in hair?

when did she turn into this bald little goof ball?

oma

2008-11-07T22:06:00.003-06:00

I've been thinking about this lady a lot lately. That's my mom, giving my daughter a bath in a sink.

My whole life she's been doing stuff for me.

Did you know she cooked dinner for us pretty much every night of the week. I mean really cooked and then she would pretty much always do all the dishes all by herself. I never heard her complain. Lord knows she heard me complain if I was ever asked to so much as empty the dishwasher.

Did you know she always made time for me. For all of us really. She did ballet practice and football practice and drove here and there and cooked and cleaned and kissed and loved and never stopped being fun.

She gave up so much of her time for my brothers and me.

Did you know she taught me how to drive, and listened to me talk endlessly about very very important stuff like boys and myself and myself and usually myself.

Did you know she always always made sure we knew how much she loved Daddy. Did you know I would catch them kissing in the kitchen and be totally grossed out.

Did you know she basically planned my wedding because I had no idea what to do and am inclined to be a bit lazy. She also made my wedding cake. The grooms cake too. The four grooms cakes and a three tiered wedding cake. They we're beautiful.

All my life she's been so selfless. She's also been fun, and hilarious, and generous, and kind.
She never let all that work weigh her down and wear her out.

and she always lets us eat some cookie dough before she bakes it even though she pretends to be mad when we do.

Mom

I know I never thanked you for all of the things you did for us. You probably thought I didn't notice. Probably because I didn't. Until I got married, and then I went and had a baby.

These past couple of years I've thought a lot about all the work you did. I've thought even more about how you never complained.

I guess I just wanted to thank you, and let you know that all your hard work was worth it. I'm finding that because of you and your example being a wife and momma is a lot easier for me. Any challenge I run up against usually doesn't seem so bad when I think about you, and everything you do.

Thanks for having "callings" after Wednesday night church just so we could spend more time together (and get some starbucks.) Thanks for getting me out of the house when Ella was born.
Thanks for reading all the little house on the prairie books with me. Thanks for making whatever I wanted on my birthday. Thanks for showing me how to have a happy marriage. Thanks for giving me a bowl cut when I was little.....actually I'm still holding that against you.

I love you

Carey

a talented little girl

2008-11-04T22:04:00.004-06:00

Someone found her feet,

and is trying to sit up by herself.

Appie.

2008-11-02T09:09:00.013-06:00

So here are Halloween pictures, and if you haven't heard already we're moving back to Houston in December!

We heard there was going to be some sweet trick or treatin' going down at the the mall on Halloween so we headed over. We thought we might stop by the apple barn for some produce before we got down to the trick or treatin'.$4.00 for a 1/2 peck hmm that seems a little steep.
but we found this cute little appie and couldn't really pass her up.
Then we met up with the Pittmans and Skylar got down to business trick or treatin'. She was so serious about getting her candy. By the way Skylar is the little girl I take care of during the day, isn't she sweet? Speaking of taking care of babies anyone in Houston need a nanny in December?Here's Ella with Brandi. Ella thinks Brandi is hilarious.The girls did some lounging on a bean bag. Ella tried to eat Skylar, and I did a terrible job of taking pictures.
Ella stuck her tongue out at me as she drove by in her sweet car. She's so sassy when she wears the appie suit.
We had one tired appie by the end of the night.
Umm this picture is our of order but here's our little appie playing in the yard.Ella also had an alternate costume. Aunt Barbara sent us this cute little mummy hat so we had to dress her up as a mummy just to see how cute it was. It was very cute. Thanks aunt Barbara.

This post is not about your grandbaby

2008-10-28T11:09:00.011-05:00

There are four very angry grandparents in the greater houston area right now.

So Zach and I made a delicious pie. I know what you're thinking. "I thought you didn't have a kitchen remember because you're so poor." You would be right of course but the sweet people who let us live here for free because I take care of their daughter for free do have a kitchen and they let us use it for free if we give them some pie for free. Everybody wins.So here's my handsome hubs rolling out a pie crust. Yes dear reader that is a home made pie crust that he pretty much made all by himself....try not to lust. Yes I am aware that the collar of his shirt is hardly attached but it's his favorite shirt and if I threw it away he would divorce me, and lets be honest I don't want to lose a pie crust making hottie.

Here's our pie with only the bottom crust. No that's not ketchup you weirdos it's raspberry apple.
Here's me with the pie ready to go into the oven and needing a haircut. Me, not the pie, the pie is nicely groomed.
Here's the pie looking absolutely delicious right out of the oven.
Here's how much of the pie we got to eat before the dog belonging to the sweet people we live with ate the rest of it while we were on a walk. We're still bitter.
Here's my hunky hubs doing the dishes....
He changes diapers too....

Here's a cute picture of baby Ella so I'm not disowned by her grandparents.

blog failure

2008-10-22T12:30:00.002-05:00

Last weekend my sweet husband, precious little girl, and i went to a pow wow. That's right a celebration native american style. There were all sorts of crafts and demonstrations and food and traditional native american dress and dancing. It was a beautiful, beautiful, day. I even remembered my camera specifically so i could blog about the event. Here's what a great job i did.
One picture of Zach carrying Ella. No ones face showing.
One picture of zach enjoying some fry bread with honey and powdered sugar
One picture of a pouting Ella.

And this four second video.

I'll try harder next time.

a talk with dad.

2008-10-18T12:46:00.002-05:00

work

2008-10-16T17:38:00.007-05:00

Did i mention all the work we made nana do this weekend?
She took tons of pictures.
She entertained Zach.
and me
She dressed, undressed, bathed, and changed diapers for ella. Not to mention taking us out to eat a million times, which i don't have pictures of because we were too busy stuffing our faces while nana held and played with a grumpy Ella. She even watched Ella one night so we could go on a date. Simply put she spoiled us and now we have to do all the work ourselves and we miss nana.

Nana

2008-10-14T10:36:00.014-05:00

This is what Ella did all weekend, played with her Nana. She didn't take one nap in her bed and you can probably smell how spoiled she is all the way from Houston.
Friday night Nana arrived.
Saturday we went to the zoo where zach and Jennifer posed with a goat that you can't really see.
We saw some ella phants
Ella managed to look even cuter than last week.

The zoo wore that poor baby out!
Sunday ready for church. We also went to birthday party on Sunday but didn't get any good pictures. I think Nana got some so ask her.

Eskimo

2008-10-10T11:56:00.005-05:00

Ella got a coat for winter and it's just about the cutest thing I've seen all year.

These two are always up to something.

Punkin' patch

2008-10-07T10:39:00.012-05:00

Heading to the Punkin' patch.
Punkin' Patch
Found a good one.
In case you were wondering if i ever get to hold Ella
Three Little Punkins
Playing in the car
At home with our punkins
umm back at the punkin' patch?

I'm sorry but it just has to be pronounced that way.

the two cutest people i know.

2008-10-03T11:13:00.009-05:00

Any one want to guess who Ella's favorite is? What if i give you some hints.

He's really hairy.

He carries her around in the sling so she doesn't have to ride in her stroller (shes under the hat.)
He lets her nap on him even when momma insist she needs to learn to go to bed in HER bed.
He uh....sits with her in a gigantic rocking chair?
again with the napping.

You guessed it. Zach.

Why you shouldn't vote for Obama

2008-09-27T22:25:00.002-05:00

www.bornalivetruth.org

Happy Birthday PaPa

2008-09-26T19:11:00.004-05:00

Happy Birthday Papa, Daddy, Greg. We Love You.

Poor.

2008-09-20T17:46:00.011-05:00

Here are some more pictures since her grandparents are the only ones reading this thing anyway.

Cute, cute, cute.

Some lumberjack that wanted to hold our baby... he seemed nice
beginning of the nap
end of the nap
Dad getting a work out.
Ella's mean face

So here's just a few of the things we have resorted to because we are A. very poor. and B. Live in one room. That's right no kitchen, no living room, just a big room. (we do have a bathroom don't worry)

1. We spend 2 hours at whole foods because its sample Saturday and that basically means "free meal" to us if we can go around enough times without the sample people getting suspicious.

2. We make one big bowl of cereal in a MIXING BOWL and share a spoon because all our other dishes are dirty and we don't have a kitchen for dish washing.

3. We eat every meal in bed, not because its romantic,because we don't have a table.

4. One of us will stand in the shower and talk to the other one who is sitting on the bed because the shower curtain only comes up to about shoulder level.

5. We say things like, "I'll get that from the kitchen." and hilarity ensues because after all the "kitchen" is a corner of our room.

I just praise to Lord for my sweet husband, because if i was doing this with anyone else one of us would be dead by now, but with Zach it all just ends up being hilarious.

Oh and here's a video of Ella trying to stand up which is all she wants to do these days.

Ella's thoughts on Ike

2008-09-12T19:17:00.000-05:00

Hmm Ike you say. I think the only safe evacuation route for my grandparents is straight to Nashville.
I'll just sit and wait for their arrival.
Well that's taking too long maybe i'll fly.
Ahh just thinking about grandparents makes me smile.

Just some cute little Ella stuff from today. She rolled over, but i haven't caught it on film yet.

oh and P.S. stay safe Houstonians.

Ever get that feeling like there's a hair in your mouth?

2008-09-06T16:50:00.000-05:00

Ella does.

Back to real life.

2008-09-01T11:28:00.000-05:00

Ella wears three month clothing for the first time.
Ella travels to Nashville

Ella meets her uncle Joe

Ella takes a bath at the lake

Ella playing with daddy at the old house

So we've had a bit of a long vacation since Ella was born. Zach got a month off at the end of July and all we've done is play. I even managed to trick myself into thinking it could go on forever. However after all the above pictured fun, today Zach went back to work and I tried to get our place in order. Not as much fun as playing all day.Not at all.

The Boyles Move to Nashville

2008-08-30T16:15:00.000-05:00

Well here we are in Nashville finally. Which is the main reason for this blog so our friends and family back in Houston can keep up with us. Here are some recent pictures of ella since thats what you're after anyway!