Archived Updates
Personal Update: April 24, 2004
What a beautiful day we had today. This morning I ran our second car wash fundraiser and we made about $900 and we continued our streak of washing some exotic vehicles. Last year we washed a Lamborghini Diablo, last week we washed a Dodge Viper and today we washed a Hummer2. Not bad eh? I have the worst farmers tan that you have EVER seen in your life but boy do I look good with my shirt ON! Nikki is gone for the weekend at a woman's retreat so Keeg and I are baching (bacheloring) it this weekend. So far so good... Speaking of Keegan he has officially said his first word which is "door." Yes, I realize that is a strange first word but he is a Bolte and strange just comes with part of the territory. The real reason is our intense desire to keep our clothes in the drawers. We are always saying "close the door" specifically to our bedroom and we think that is where he picked it up. He is getting much better at understanding what we are saying. There are several (too many to mention) phrases that he understands and will respond appropriately to. He likes to play basketball now as well. He will go into the garage. find the basketball, come out tug my arm and grunt which means I have to lift him up to the hoop (I have it lowered to 7 feet) and let him drop the ball in the hoop. It's a fun game the first 20 times or so and then daddy realizes he's not a body builder and a well placed distraction is executed.
We are looking forward to going to Michigan in June (10-14) for my sisters graduation party. It is going to be great seeing all the family and friends. Of course the real motivation is getting behind the boat on a kneeboard but Briee doesn't need to know that. We're flying. Anyway, that's about all that is new. I'm posting some pics tonight so check those out.
Thanks for checking in with us! Email us and let us know how you are doing.
Personal Update: March 2, 2004
We have been blessed here in Northern Virginia the last few days to have some very spring like weather. It was 72 degrees today. I'm in hog heaven. Since the arrival of this new weather Keegan has learned that he really likes the outdoors. In fact we can't walk past a door now without wanting to go out. I think he developed this desire from time spent in, or as the case may be, outside the nursery. We are still waiting on Keegan's first word and he's come pretty close. He will point at his nose now and say "nay." I contest that is not a real word but Nikki is not so sure. At the least we have been having a lot of fun taking bike rides, walks down the street in the stroller and playing in the backyard. It's hard to believe that it is already March. At church we are gearing up for two mission trips for the youth. One to New York City and one to Washington, DC. I'm excited about what God is going to do in the lives of our teenagers. Please check out our website: www.lpy.org. I have been one of the worship leaders for the past year and I have really been enjoying it. There is never a dull moment at Christian Assembly. We recently got new carpet and tile throughout the church. What a difference! Our basketball season is almost over at the academy. Our boys didn't finish very well this year but our girls are playing their semi-final game tomorrow and hopefully will be playing in the championship game. We have a wonderful new principal who has really been doing a good job. Of course as well as things are going at school I am looking forward to summer along with the kids. Thanks for checking in with us! Email us and let us know how you are doing.
Personal Update: July 22, 2003
What a busy time in our lives! Keegan is really keeping us busy. He is now just about 8 months old. He started crawling at 5 1/2 months and he started pulling up about a month after that. The motivating factor behind Keegan's crawling adventures was definitely chasing after our 4 furry felines. In fact, the other night Rajah was sitting on the chair in the living room and Keegan was able to get a hold of her tail. This really spooked Rajah and she jumped off the chair. Keegan has the grip of a major league baseball player and held on as Rajah jumped over his head causing him to go crashing to the floor where he finally let go of the poor cat. Nikki has her first PACE student and is doing very well at it. I think it is going to be a very good business for her. She is even learning to stay on beat..maybe someday she'll even dance! We returned from the mission trip to the Bahamas on July 4th. Some of the kids returned on July 3rd. Half of our group missed the plane because of traffic and spent the night in the Fort Lauderdale airport. The trip over all though was a great success. We saw about 45 people give their lives to the Lord, we had the chance to pray with several people and each of our youth were pushed out of their comfort zones. It was a good trip. Camp happens in a week and then Nikki and I get to spend some vacation time! We will be going on a budget vacation to Nikki's parents house in Cornwall, Ontario. Anyway, I will be posting some new pictures of our family hopefully in the next couple of hours. God Bless You!
Kevin
Personal Update... Updated 04/20/03
Happy Easter! We finally got camera happy again and I finally have a couple of hours to update the site. We have been busy out our ears as of late. I have been taking Real Estate classes to possibly start selling real estate as a part time job. I enjoy real estate and find the whole process very interesting. It will also help ends meet. PACE is starting slowly for Nikki which is normal and we live in a very expensive area. How would you like it if half your income went to rent? But God provides and we know this is where He has placed us. Things at church are certainly exciting lately. God is really touching people's hearts and jump starting them. It's a great time to be part of Christian Assembly. As I mentioned PACE is starting off slowly but it is starting for Nikki. She screened her first potential student last week and she has her consultation with the parents this week. We're really excited about it. I think Nikki is going to do very well at this type of work. She is really good at teaching and tutoring. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before it starts to pick up. Keegan is doing well. He is now 4 1/2 months old. Can you believe it? He is turning over both ways, lifting his whole body off the carpet, and pushing himself backward. It is just a matter of short time before he is crawling. He is a new adventure every single day. April first was an extremely sad day for me. I traded in my jeep for a 00 Ford Explorer (click here for picture). We needed something that was more of a family car but we certainly didn't want a minivan or station wagon. In January we visited Nikki's parents and had to rent a vehicle that could accommodate Nikki, Keegan and I plus all the stuff. We didn't want to have to rent again. We're still trying to sell the mustang is you know anyone who wants to buy a mustang convertible for $5800. We still have the bug and the motorcycle. It's a pretty good deal. Anyway, that's what's going on in our lives.
Personal Update... Updated 03/06/03
Well, it's been a month since I last updated and I noticed that Shane (Callicutt) had updated his so I figure I outta keep up. Life is never dull around here. This past week (March 3-7) Nikki has been on vacation with her parents down to South Carolina. She took Keegan with her. I have been a bachelor all week which has been alright. I've gotten a lot of work done. She says Charleston is beautiful. I can't wait to hear all her stories. It is rather quiet around here though. Fortunately I have a huge pile of laundry to keep my busy. It's so difficult matching all those socks. All the cars are running well, my motorcycle still starts despite all the snow we've had. It feels like a Michigan winter here with all the snow we've had. I put some pics in the snow storm section. Our worst fears were confirmed. The majority of people don't drive well around here in good weather, bad weather was a nightmare. On the Sunday night of the storm we loaded up in the Jeep (4x4) and drove around helping people push their cars out of snow drifts and just taking in the awesome beauty of that much snow. Washington was literally shut down for about 3 days. It was great getting some time off work though. I tried to go in to the office but even with my Jeep I couldn't get through the snow in the parking lot. When they finally plowed the parking lot on the Tuesday they brought in a front loader. One of the ones that turns in the middle. Crazy times. We had a great time this past weekend having all the family here for Keegan's dedication. Even Grandma made it out.
We have a senior high retreat coming up this month that we are really looking forward to and youth summer plans are in full swing. We have a team of 26 going on a mission trip this summer to Grand Bahama Island. I was kind of disappointed last year at the small number (10) that went on our first mission trip but when they got home and told everyone how great a time they had we have over doubled! It's great unless you have to call all of them. We will be doing drama, children's ministry, beach ministry (yes, it really is work) and several other outreaches with local churches. I'm really excited as the majority of our team has never been on a mission trip.
Personal Update... Updated 02/06/03
Today is Keegan's 2 month birthday. On Monday night he slept through the night for the very first time. Nikki and I didn't sleep very well because we were concerned something was wrong since he regularly gets up between 3am and 4am. Last night (Wednesday) he did it again! We had forgotten what it was like to get that kind of sleep. What a blessing. Keegan is smiling quite a bit now and has lots of fun wide awake times. He loves going to youth group and church. In fact, last week he had his debut performance on the Sunday morning worship team. Nikki needed some extra sleep so he went with Daddy to worship practice. I was playing the congas that morning and I had him in his snuggly. He went right to sleep when we started playing. Nikki got to church a little late so he just stayed up on stage with me for the first part of worship. I'll make a musician out of him somehow. His baby dedication is set for Sunday, March 2nd. We're very excited because Grandma and Grandpa Bolte, Great Grandma Reneaud, Granny and Pappy Robillard and Aunt Brianna are coming. I think Uncle Steve will probably come too. Of course I think they all just sit there and try to come up with reasons to come and visit the little guy. We know they don't come to see us anymore :) Church is going well, the youth group is going to Grand Bahama Island on our mission trip this summer. We have a ski trip this weekend which we're looking forward to. I don't suppose Keegan will be skiing the year. Maybe next. Uncle Steve's going. Anyway, that's an update. God bless you.
Personal Update... Updated 12/28/02
Keegan's first Christmas was a great success. Out of the 500 presents under the tree I think Keegan got 492 of them! I guess we'll have to get used to that. Grandma and Grandpa Bolte arrived Christmas Eve Day along with Aunt Briee and Uncle Steve in time to go the Christmas Eve service at church. This was the first Christmas in 3 years that the entire family has been together for Christmas. Unfortunately Peter and Debbie couldn't make it down. Nikki and I will be visiting up there next week. Christmas morning was a very special time. It has been a very long time since I have seen that many presents under our tree. Check out our Christmas Page to see all the juicy details! After a wonderful time of opening presents we all relaxed for the day. Then for dinner mom made an incredible turkey dinner. We all got up from the table about 10 lbs. heavier! The next day my dad treated Steve and I to a ski/snowboard trip at Round Top mountain in Pennsylvania. I snowboarded, Dad skied and Steve did both. We had a great day but we were sure tired when we got home. Then we watched a couple of movies as a family. It was lots of fun especially since I finally got my surround sound hooked up again. The entire time has certainly been an unforgettable experience. Keegan's first Christmas will definitely be one to remember.
Personal Update... Updated 12/09/02
What an exciting past few days. Keegan was born on Friday, December 6th, 2002 at 7:54pm. He weighs 8 lbs. and 2 ounces and is 21 1/2 inches long. His first word was...wait a minute, we haven't gotten that far yet! He's doing great and so is momma. Nikki was in labor from approx. 11pm on Thursday night. Her new favorite word is epidural. The birth went great. The only tense part was when Keegan's head came out the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck twice but the doctor moved fast and it turned out fine. We were told afterward that if Keegan hadn't been born so fast they would have had to do a C-section. We were trying to avoid that. Before Nikki even began pushing he was right there waiting to be born. God is Good! I've often heard people remark after they have witnessed a birth how after seeing something like that how anyone could question the existence of God. I would have to concur. It was the most amazing experience of my life. My wife is the most beautiful person in the world to me and she has given me the ultimate Christmas present. We came home from the hospital on Sunday morning around 11am. Keegan spent the entire day in family member arms. Unfortunately he got so used to being in someone's arms that he doesn't like to be put down into his bassinet now. We're working hard today to get him used to it. It was a very long night last night (Sunday night). I apologize if we have not called everyone we want to call. It's been very busy around here. Thank you to all who have called and sent flowers. You are a great blessing. Thank you especially to our church (Christian Assembly) who has been so supportive. Keep a watch out for further updates.
Personal Update... Updated 12/03/02
December has finally rolled around and life just keeps rolling on. Basketball starts at Christian Assembly Academy tomorrow. I am the head coach of the boys team. We are in the process of a church "face lift" reconstructing the front of the sanctuary which will effectively take the church out of the 80's and move it into the new millennium. : ) We have less than a week until our due date of Dec. 9. This is quite an exciting time of life. It is more crazy than waiting to get married. At least when you're getting married you have a concrete date to look forward to. At this point Nikki has lost her mucus plug and has dilated 1 centimeter. From what we can tell from "What to expect when you're expecting" that means the baby could be anywhere from 24 hours to 3 weeks away! Doesn't that drive you nuts?
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, we did. You can check out pictures of our Thanksgiving. Steve came up to visit and we ate at the Pennells house in Burke. Great turkey, great mash potatoes and great stuffing! What more could you want? Anyway, we're looking forward to all the family visiting in the next couple of weeks. It's going to be nice to have the help around the house. God Bless.
Personal Update... Updated 11/12/02
9 months!!! We're 9 months along! I remember sitting there at 2 months and even up to 6 months and wondering if Nikki would ever start showing. Well, there isn't any wondering anymore. She is beautifully pregnant. The excitement level is hard to contain. We're kind of hoping he comes early rather than late just because the waiting after December 9 is going to be like lashings on the back. Unfortunately we can't really hurry the process. He's going to come when he's going to come.
Last weekend we were in Virginia Beach for the first time. We had a youth retreat at Triple R Ranch in Chesapeake. We had a great time and Nikki did great even though we are nine months pregnant. The food was wonderful. There were over a 100 kids there with 41 of them coming from our group. We combined with Kevin Mahaffy's youth group at New Life Christian Fellowship. We had a great camp fire time on Saturday night where the kids gave testimony of what God did in their lives over the weekend. On Sunday we went to the beach. The day was beautiful but the water was VERY cold. That didn't stop us from going in. Steve (my brother) and I ran and dove in. You can check out pics hopefully soon at www.lpy.org.
So the waiting game continues as the clock ticks down to the final weeks before the arrival of Keegan. Thanks for reading.
Personal Update... Updated 10/29/02
Yesterday was 34 weeks along. At this point we have our bags packed for the hospital just in case although we really aren't expecting to have to head out the door until about November 26. That will be about 2 weeks before our due date. When we first got pregnant I had not thought at all about what is practically a month of sitting on pins and needles wondering if today would be the big day. But as the day has gotten closer we figure there is at least a month of intense anticipation. They say the baby could be anywhere from 2 weeks early to 2 weeks late. WOW! Nikki is definitely ready to have the baby. Each day gets a bit more uncomfortable for her. On Wednesday (Oct. 30) we have our hospital tour to see the maternity ward and we'll be able to ask a whole bunch of questions as to how things will happen what type of room we'll be in and most importantly, find out how good the snack bar is : ). It really is exciting. We have also signed up for two more prenatal classes. Hopefully we'll attend them by ourselves and not with baby. We are, however, hoping baby does come on the early side of the coin because we would like him born as far from Christmas as possible while still entering the world healthy.
Things are going well at both Nikki and I's jobs. She is finding it a bit harder to work 8 hours a day but so far it hasn't caused too much problems. We're hoping the office she works in will be accommodating as long as she is able to work there. We're getting ready for our fall retreat at Christian Assembly which is on November 8-10. It appears as it will be a chilly retreat compared to last year's relatively warm retreat. It should be fun though, especially with Nikki being as pregnant as she is. We're still not sure if she will make the trip or not. We'll see how she feels. I have gotten in contact with a few old friends recently which has been a great pleasure. I found out Jessie and Andrea Holt are doing great along with little Ethan born in July. I hadn't talked to Jessie in quite some time. And I also got a hold of Nicky Kragt (Zurbrick) whom I haven't spoken with in ages. It was certainly a pleasure. God bless until next time.
Personal Update... Updated 10/05/02
We are coming up on 32 weeks along and time is finally starting to move a little faster. I can now think of it in terms of only two months to go. Some might say I am way too excited about this and my life will never be the same. I hope my life is never the same after each day I live. I hope I mature in my faith in Christ. I hope I grow in wisdom and understanding. I hope my love for my wife grows stronger and deeper. No, I fully expect my life to change drastically when Keegan (or Josie, they could be wrong right? wouldn't that change things?) arrives but I am sure as God promises that He will not leave me or forsake me and that makes me confident that whatever changes occurs I will stand steadfast. Nikki is in Colorado Springs right now. She just finished her PACE training and she will be flying back tomorrow (Oct. 6). She says she has had a good trip and is very excited about the program. That's certainly a good thing. I had the opportunity this morning to volunteer at a distribution center in Washington with some other youth helping give furniture to those who were in need. It was quite a blessing. We got a new kitten last week. We have been thinking about it for quite some time now and I found a beautiful grey and white kitten at our vet so I took her home. It was kind of a surprise for Nikki since she didn't know I had found one. You should have seen the look on her face when she stepped into the kitchen and Sachi ran across the floor! Check out pictures of Sachi in "Our New Kitten" section. It is still kind of tense with the other cats since they are not at all used to her. Elli, in particular, is having a difficult time. She also just went through surgery so that makes it more difficult. She is now officially an "it." Our cars have still not sold but I'm confident God will take care of that. Church life is great. We have been blessed with such a wonderful youth group (lpy.org). We have been studying about spiritual gifts and the way God has designed the church to work together kind of like a body. So that's an update of what's happening in our lives I hope you will take a couple of minutes to click on the email links and tell us what's going on in your life.
Personal Update... Updated 9/14/02
It's funny how we live in such a metered time. We keep track of time down to the nana-second yet that doesn't change how we perceive time. It seems as though we have been six months pregnant forever. Nikki says time is flying by and time is practically standing still for me. This Monday (9/16/02) we will finally cross over into the 28 week mark (7 month). Nikki is really "showing" now. I think maybe it is time to move up to a king size bed to accommodate her belly. This really is such an exciting time and I am enjoying every minute of it. I will hopefully be adding more pictures to the pregnancy pages in the next couple of days. The last pictures that I posted up there definitely are outdated. We are keeping busy working and getting ready for baby. I just built some shelving in Keegan's closet for his clothes. We're trying to organize the room and put away all the wonderful baby shower gifts we have received. Those who know me know that I am a man who likes order and I figure this may be the last time Keegan's room ever sees order until he is 18 and moved out to college. Relish it while I can right? Nikki's application for PACE was accepted and she is going to Colorado Springs for her training Oct. 2 through Oct. 6. Please pray that she is able to be attentive and not overwhelmed. She will be in classes for ten hours a day three days in a row. That's a lot of classroom time. Well, things are going well. I should have more pics up in a couple of days. God bless.
Personal Update... Updated 8/24/02
I am so grateful I don't have a boring life. Last Saturday I got to feel my first "sign of life" from Keegan. Nikki finally let me put my hand on her beautifully growing belly and he kicked me! It was so weird I had to ask her if she had gas :) We have started getting our nursery put together since the kittens moved to their new home last week. I have a couple of pictures of it up. We still have a bit of work to do. The bedrooms in our house are not real big so I had been using the closet in the nursery to hang up all my shirts because my chest of drawers is in the closet in our bedroom since it didn't fit in the room itself. So now that Keegan is coming I have to move out of his closet and do some rearranging. I can't wait until the little guy gets here. I have signed up for real estate courses. Our largest struggle right now is how we are going to make it financially. The greater Washington area is a wonderful place to live but it definitely requires two incomes for us to make it and we certainly don't want to put Keegan in day care. We are going to do whatever it takes to make sure Nikki can stay home. Besides my real estate courses Nikki is pursuing a program called PACE which is designed to help kids who have not learned how to effectively process information begin to process it correctly. It is a work at home solution similar to tutoring. She will have her training in Colorado Springs. We are confident that God will provide but the looming question is always how and I don't think God is in the business of telling us all His plans before hand. He wants us to be a people of faith. School starts on Monday so I am back to playing the dual roles of youth pastor extraordinaire and the feared and revered physical education teacher. It will be nice to get back into a more set routine. Youth group is going well. We had 7 or 8 new kids out last night and I'm pretty excited about that. God bless you. Thanks for stopping by.
Personal Update... Updated 8/13/02
We just returned from a wonderful trip to Sterling, CO...the vacation capital of the United States!!! Well, it was a wonderful trip. We were able to see lots of our wonderful friends. We spent the whole weekend with babies (Thanks Shane, Radene, Brian and Lindy) and we are so excited for ours to arrive in December. While we were there Lindy threw us a shower at First Baptist and we were blessed with several baby survival tools. We also fought with a rattle snake...kind of. As we were coming in from a drive in to the abyss we ran over a rattle snake. Brian and I had to go back and see it. Surprisingly it was still quite alive and well. We started throwing everything we could at from the windows of the vehicle to see if we could get it to strike. It was coiled up and rattling like crazy. Brian was freaking out because it was so close. We moved the vehicle a bit away and got out and started to throw rocks at it. After several misses I finally hit it and it started to come after us. We got back in the vehicle so fast. It was such a heart pounding experience. We are happy to be home. The kittens are getting huge. I should have pics of them up in the next couple of days. That's all for now.
Personal Update... Updated 8/4/02
Wow, the summer just flies by. Two weeks ago I was in Chihuahua, Mexico watching God change the lives of 10 of my team mates and saving people from hell. Last week I was at Summit Lake camp watching God do heart surgery in 51 campers and 8 leaders. God is really amazing in the way that He works in His children and I am continually in awe at the part He allows me to play. Nikki is really looking pregnant now. She thinks she's fat but she's not. Little Keegan is starting to kick too. I can't feel it yet but Nikki does. We just passed 22 weeks yesterday. There's only 4 months left and it certainly is scary. But just as I've seen God's faithfulness over these last few weeks I confidently look forward to His provision for my family in the next few months. This coming weekend we will be spending in Sterling, CO the nations #1 vacation destination. We're looking forward to seeing Shane & Radene, Lindy & Brian, and John & Debbie. That's it for the update. God bless.
Personal Update... Updated 7/10/02
Life is never dull for us. Today was an extremely exciting day. We had our ultrasound appointment marking another historic landmark in our pregnancy. Today our little peanut (if you saw the first sonogram you know why we called it a peanut) became Keegan Zechariah. The ultrasound attendant said he was none too shy about his manhood. We got to watch Keegan kick and curl his fingers. There is nothing like the awe of watching a little life growing and moving. Pregnancy is such a wonderful thing...from the guys perspective. I would assume maybe Nikki would have a slightly different view. Not that she isn't enjoying pregnancy but I don't feel sick or have to get new clothes. We both are looking forward to our due date of December 9th.
