Happy Holidays!

Real nice Mom and Dad, my first shot at writing the Christmas letter and you’re not even sending it out in cards. Something about a tight budget and saving trees. I don’t know what the big deal is about saving trees, all I do is pee on them anyway. Oh, hi by the way, my name is Butch. I’m the newest member of the Boelk family and therefore it is apparently my job to write the Christmas letter. For those who have not been lucky enough to meet me, I am a 125 lb. great dane and black lab mix. Yes, that makes me the second largest person in this family. And don’t think I don’t know it. So, this year has been quite an adjustment for me. See, I came from a shelter where I had been staying for probably 1 ½ years. Prior to that I was taken away from a neglected household where my brother and I were starving to death and we didn’t get treated the nicest. Luckily for me, I have found this great loving family and I now have a psycho sister who I really am fond of. I love all this yard I get to roam around in; chasing squirrels, digging holes, playing with my sis, and basking in the sun. But my main pleasure in life is cuddling with my family.

This new family of mine is a very busy one. That I learned quickly. Let’s see, let me start with the kiddos. These three are non-stop action, and I am often found in the middle of craziness. The girl, Taylor, well she loves dancing, reading, and socializing. This year she played tee ball again in the summer and Dad was the coach again. She also went to some Safety Camp in Iowa City with her friend Skylar and had a wonderful time. Now she is taking a couple of dance classes called jazz and hip-hop. She also recently started carrying this shiny silver stick all over the house and likes to practice twirling and throwing it in the air. Her brothers think it is a light saber, but I hear they call it a baton. Taylor goes to this thing they call school everyday, and apparently she is really good at it. She is in both 1^st grade and 2^nd grade this year and seems to love both. Speaking of school, I went to some class earlier this year as well to learn to sit and stuff. I had a lot of trouble with the sitting and letting others pet me at first, but by the end of the school year I looked like a pro. Mom and Dad seem very proud of Taylor and all she does!

Tay’s brothers, well, they have a LOT of energy. Both the boys took swim lessons this summer for the first time and had a ball. They got to ride a school bus from preschool to the pool in Tipton and thought that was pretty cool. They also both played tee ball for the first time and Dad helped coach “as needed”. Check this out; they also have fun playing in this gym bus every week at school. That sounds like fun to me. Speaking of fun, did I tell you I got to “run” the obstacle course at the end of my training classes. Well, all but going through the tube because I was a little big for that. Anyway, sorry, back to the boys. So, they are still in pre-school as Mom and Dad decided to wait one more year before starting kindergarten. They are really growing and maturing with this additional year and can’t wait to start school next fall. Though most people have a hard time telling them apart (myself included), they seem to differentiate themselves more and more by personality and character traits. Their new biggest interest is Star Wars, and they are hopeful to be getting some Star Wars themed presents for Christmas. As with Taylor, Mom and Dad are full of pride when talking about their boys.

Mom and Dad have been VERY busy with their church this year. They are often gone to meetings or at church for housegroups, prayer groups, church board, set-up/tear down, and Sunday school teaching. I guess they felt an even stronger calling from God and decided to take on finding a new home for the Vineyard Church. Though many steps were involved in finding a new address to call home, it ended with the church buying the top floor of a commercial condominium in Coralville. This 12,000 SF space was only a shell inside so Dad drew up some floor plans and with the help of Mom’s architect contacts, came up with final construction plans. From there, Mom decided to take on the construction and project management with the help of her company, Knutson Construction. It has been a tiring and stressful process, but I think they must have moved into the new church building last week because boy were they excited! I hear the new church is absolutely beautiful and the Vineyard community is truly rejoicing. In addition to that, they find themselves playing with the kids, coaching, working in the yard/garden, crafting, walking us (J) , and enjoying time with friends.

Holly and I have unfortunately found ourselves home alone on several occasions this year, as the family traveled without us (what’s up with that?). One of those being their annual trip to Minnesota with Dad’s parents and sister’s family, which they LOVED as always. From what I hear of that place I sure hope I’ll be able to go with sometime. Mom also took her annual trip to Chicago and Dad his trip to Kansas City. But their main focus has been on this other animal called a Hawkeye. Funny, I hear about this Hawkeye all the time but I never see it or get to play with it. Oh well, at least it doesn’t take any of my food. Speaking of, I’m really starting to get hungry. Sorry, must focus and get this finished. So, the family has spent their Saturday’s tailgating and at Kinnick’s stadium, enjoying the wonderful season the Hawks have had. They also spend many an afternoon and evenings at Carver’s arena as they watch wrestling, basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics. They are so proud of the black and gold no matter what the result. Go Hawks!

The family wanted me to express that this year was one of many thanks. Thanks for all of our wonderful family and specifically parents, thanks for the abundance of friendship, thanks for their wonderful church community, thanks for secure and enjoyable employment, thanks for food and shelter, and thanks for their relationship with Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit enter your hearts in both times of need and in celebration in 2010.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, GOD BLESS, and Go Hawks!!!

Love,

Brian, Amy, Taylor, Carver, Kinnick, Holly, and Me (Butch)

O' Christmas Tree

As tradition, we went and cut down our Christmas tree following Thanksgiving. Also as tradition, Amy's parents went with and we had a wonderful time. This years goal, as always, was to get the biggest tree possible. As many of you know, we have a very high ceiling (part of the design) with a space planned for a large tree.

Well, this year we did a much better job living up to the challenge. So much that we had a bit of an incident with our tree. That night, after Amy and I were finally able to sit down to eat dinner, rest our feet, and watch some football after the long day, we heard a sudden loud noise. We then looked up and saw our 10'4" tall come crashing down to the floor, ornaments and all! Yes, the tree stand broke, most likely due to the size of the tree, and there wasn't much we could do about it.

The result for that night, I had to tie the tree to the windows and door in our house in order to make it through the night. Regardless, during the day the kids had a ball decorating the tree and placing our MANY decorations whereer they could possibly reach.

Following the timber of the tree....all we could do was laugh.

A Christmas Past

The weekend before last was the annual celebration in West Branch called A Christmas Past. It was a great weekend of events, all of which are free to the public. Everything from making snowman tee shirts and ornaments, to horse carriage rides and homemade doughnuts.

We started the night by visiting Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Of course, Taylor had been talking all week about gift ideas for her Christmas list but she froze up when she got on his lap and told him to surprise her.

After talking to Santa we moved on to making snowman t-shirts at Kingdom Graphics. Each kid colored their own shirts and they turned out great. From there, we walked downtown passing by the old school brick fireplaces in the street and wonderful luminaires.

Our walk took us to a sweet train exhibit tht the kids (and myself) absolutely loved!

We then headed up to the library to make ornaments and have more treats with Becky.

On the way back towards the Hoover Museum we stopped for some homemade doughnuts by the Boy Scouts which were yuuummmmyyyy! And after that, for the finale, a horse carriage ride around the Hoover park area and downtown streets of West Branch. A chilly ride, but very beautiful.

What a wonderful night.

Would you be willing to help?

Dear Family and Friends,

Sometimes it is hard coming to friends, neighbors, and even loved-ones when you're in need. We all want to be "big", in-control, and independent! I've been delaying sending this email out in part out of my own pride and sense of wanting to believe that we're in control; also in hopes of answered prayers, hoping that a miracle would just land in our lap and everything we need would be provided for. But I'm understanding that maybe the miracle is going to come in-part through you...the people who care about us and our spiritual walk with God.

For any of you that feel awkward or offended that I'm requesting your personal help, please forgive me. The last thing I want to do is offend ANY people I love. I am sorry and do not want you to feel pressured into giving. If this is how you are feeling, you're welcome to stop reading.

Our church, Vineyard Community Church (www.icvineyard.org), was planning to move to a new location (2205 E. Grantview Dr., Coralville) starting Sunday, December 6. Our church community is a HUGE amount of our lives and we spend a lot of time investing ourselves financially, personally and spiritually in this church. Here is our need. Over the last 10 years the Vineyard Community has been scrimping and saving to finally have a place it can call home. We found an awesome location (we purchased a floor of a 3 story building) at the corner of 1st Avenue and Oakdale Blvd. in Coralville that we cannot wait to move into. It will be an incredible home for carrying out and expanding God's work!

The last 8 months have been extremely busy with construction projects, decor decisions, and balancing of funds to allow us to move in soon. But, and this is a big BUT...as we're VERY near the closing of this building we have discovered the developer has run out of money. This affects the church because the developer still owns 2/3 of the building (the bottom two of three floors). It appears the developer is in foreclosure on a number of other properties and will most likely be in foreclosure on our property (for their share of the building) in the near future.

The developer has no money to pay a few of the subcontractors, one of which is for the fire sprinkler vendor. In response, the sprinkler company said they would not turn on the sprinkler system. And, without proper functioning sprinkler systems our building will not meet fire code, therefore our church would not be able to move into the building even though construction is complete and our space is ready!

To fight this legally would be a long, expensive battle that our church will avoid. But even if we were to enter legal action and win, what is the reward? The developer has nothing. We would be months and months with no home, all while making mortgage payments and payments to rent the space we are currently in. Instead of directing our attention on the developer, we're choosing to work directly with the sprinkler company. Ultimately, they are owed $45,000. The church has come to an agreement with the sprinkler company to pay them $26,000 and they will turn the sprinklers on. However, our construction budget is gone and we need to raise the money to be able to do this.

After reading the above, what questions come to mind? I'd ask that you please consider and pray over if there is an amount that might feel comfortable for your family to give. ANY amount that you can provide will be enormously helpful and appreciated. I would welcome the chance to answer any questions and discuss with you and help explain why I feel this is so important to us, our kids, families, and our surrounding communities.

All checks and electronic "Bill Payer" payments will be confidential and can be mailed/sent to:
Vineyard Community Church
P.O. Box 186
Iowa City, IA 52244
Attn: Kim Leman
Memo: Building Fund/Sprinkler Help

Finally, thank you for reading and considering this email. All of the money raised to date has been raised from within the church community and we had hoped to avoid asking our family and friends who have no ties to our church to contribute. But we’re recognizing that we just can’t avoid doing that now. We’re choosing to lean into God, trust that he will provide and call on the family and friends that he has given us and share our need. We know economic times are hard for all of us right now and there are holiday season needs. We understand not being able to contribute and appreciate everyone's consideration.

Love,
Brian, Amy & the Kids

And So It Begins

When November rolls around in the Boelk household, that means get ready to camp out at Carver Hawkeye Arena. Between season tickets to men's basketball and wrestling, as well as numerous visits for women's basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, etc. Carver ends up being our second home.

This began quickly this year as we have already attended two volleyball games, three men's basketball games, and the Iowa wrestling duals. The first weekend in November was full of Hawkeye sports as Friday night we were at the women's volleyball game, Saturday we were in Kinnick for the football game, and Sunday at Carver for the men's basketball game.

Of course, up until now the focus of Hawkeye sports has been on Hawkeye football. As it should be! What a season. We finished the year of tailgating and games by taking the kids on the Hawkeye Express train into Kinnick.

We then went over on the south side of the stadium and greeted the football team as they came off their buses.

Following that, we went over to the Rec Center and watched the Hawkeye Marching Band show, and followed that up with some tailgating at Amy's parents.

We love you Hawks and are very proud of you no matter win or lose!

Tricks and Treats

We all enjoyed another wonderful Halloween weekend. How can you beat kids in cute costumes, caramel apples, candy, and carving pumpkins!

Making and eating caramel apples has quickly become a tradition in our house.

And as most of you know, carving pumpkins has always been a tradition with Amy and I. Even prior to having kids. This year each kid and adult was able to pick out their own pumpkin and how they wanted it carved.

Kinnick went with the Batman signal to match his costume to be seen later.

Carver decided to go with a scary skull.

Taylor chose a cute chiahau for some reason.

Amy went with her always favorite big pumpkin eating the smaller pumpkin. Or as I like to call it, jack-o-cannibal. Unfortunately we do not have pictures due to it's graphic nature. And I had to honor our wonderul Hawkeyes by carving an old school Hawk with a cursive Iowa.

Finally, but certainly not least, comes the costumes and trick or treating.

Following trick or treating we had the neighborhood families with kids over for a Halloween party. It was a great time and it was fun to see all the kids in their costumes enjoying treats, dinner, and playing together. The adults were actually outnumbered 12 to 10!

Nine Wonderful Years

Well, I know we haven't blogged for quite some time. I hope to get out a Halloween blog this weekend with lots of pictures of the kids in their costumes and our cool carved pumpkins of course. With that being said, I would like to sneak in one other blog first in honor of Amy and my 9 year anniversary yesterday!

I have been greatly blessed by The Lord to have found my soul mate and true companion about 12 or 13 years ago, and then be lucky enough to have married her 9 years ago. Wow, how 9 years quickly fly by! Those 9 years have been absolutely wonderful and full of many laughs, some tears, 3 kids, 4 dogs, one cat, many fish, two houses, and countless Hawkeye sporting events. My life would not be complete without my wonderful wife as she truly has been the best partner I could ask for as well as a fabulous mother to our 3 children. I look forward to the many years ahead together and sharing them with all of you as our friends and family.

How did we celebrate our anniversary you may ask? Well, that is a good question with an interesting answer. In fact, the answer may probably seem sad to most of you, but to us it was just fine. :-)

Due to our busy schedules and the three kiddos at home, we did not want to have another babysitter come over last night so we decided to get together for lunch instead. Yes, we took this opportunity to dine in style at the University IMU River Room. Of all places in the Iowa City area, why there? Well, this is where we spent many hours as students enjoying lunch together and studying or hanging out with friends, so why not revisit those moments. It was a lot of fun as we embraced some old memories and pondered all the different choices of food.

For the evening events we enjoyed a nice meal together as a family as always, and it seemed that the kids were more behaved then ever for this dinner (which doesn't take much) which was a wonderful anniversary gift in itself. We then played a crazy game of Candyland and Bingo with the kids, and concluded by watching Just Married (one of our all time favorite movies) together once the kids were in bed. May seem lame to some, but to us it was just perfect as it was time together enjoying some of our passions in life.

Amy, thank you for being married to me for these 9 wonderful years. I love the fact that I married my best friend and soul mate, and wonder what great things lie ahead for us in the future.................

Maybe watching a Rose Bowl together!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Anniversary!

Goal Accomplished!

We did it! Amy and I completed our first triathlon's this past Sunday in the Tri-Hawk's triathlon at the Coralville Reservoir.

The Tri-Hawk triathlon is a sprint triathlon consisting of a 500 yard swim


15 mile bike


and 3.1 (5k) run.



Our first goal was to complete the triathlon and that we did! In fact, we ended up doing really well for our first triathlon, and from what we hear the toughest one in the state.

I finished in 1 hr, 33 minutes and Amy finished in 1 hr, 55 minutes.

I owe special thanks to my awesome wife, as I would not have completed this without her organizing our workout schedules, pushing me through the eight week training we completed, and providing wonderful support. It has always been a goal of mine to complete a triathlon and I have trained several times before either suffering an injury or just backing out prior to the event.

So here's a totally amazing story. There was a guy who blew out a tire about 2 miles into the 15 mile bike. He had those type of pedals where the pedal is the shoe. So you just hop on your bike and slip your feet in the shoes and go. Amy and I both passed him on our way back in from the bike and we saw him walking his bike. After we were all finished with the run part and the race as a whole and loading up our bikes, we heard all of this cheering. Turns out it was this guy just coming in from the bike. He had pushed his bike while running the remaining 13 miles of the bike course. And if that wasn't amazing enough, he did it all barefoot! He ran into the transition area, threw his shoes on and sprinted out to do the 3.1 mile run. Turns out he ran the 3.1 miles just under 20 minutes. Completely, completely amazing! What determination to not just quit!

Can It Really Be???

Yes, the boys turned 5! In a blink of an eye, our once 10 week premature twin babies have become young boys. Where does the time go????


This year we were able to celebrate both the boys birthday and an Iowa victory over ISU which made it that much more special. This celebration included numerous kids, family, and friends. We had a house and yard full as the boys enjoyed their special day with friends from school, neighborhood friends, and cousins.

I love this picture below, and the look on Kinnick's face. Apparently, he really enjoyed the rescue trucks as a present!

As always, our children had the opportunity to pick the theme for their party. And this year, they chose Rescue Vehicles. With high priority placed on Firemen and Firetrucks.

And as always, Mom did not disappoint again with a wonderful homemade cake. Of course, there is no way Amy was going to let their be any Cyclone colors in our house on that day. Thus, she decided to make the fireturck Hawkeye colors rather than the standard red. Just another reason why I married her! Look for more pictures and a description of the cake on her blog www.amystreats.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday Carver and Kinnick. We love you both so much and have enjoyed watching you grow. Thanks to all those who joined us on their special day. We had a wonderful time.

Go Hawks!

And a Small Fry

A couple of weeks ago we enjoyed a great first Hawkeye weekend by going to Fry Fest with kids on Friday and ending with tailgating and the football game on Saturday.

We all enjoyed the many festivities at Fry Fest including.......

The Hawkeye Viper


The Hawkeye Marching Band


The Skydivers

The Harleys

And a very close and exciting win against a very good UNI team.