The Tolman Family

We're going private..

2012-01-18T11:58:00.000-08:00

I know I did this once before. But, this time I am serious. I have recently gotten a couple of followers.. COMPLETE strangers. I am not comfortable with the idea of having complete strangers know details about my family.. so if you would still like to follow I will gladly send you an invite! leave your email address.

Christmas break

2012-01-10T08:37:00.000-08:00

Here is a look at the fun we had down in Spring Texas this Holiday season.

Christmas Eve we enjoyed a big family dinner and Christmas play :D. Rhett was the shepherd. Clara and Avery were little sheep. The one thing that I did miss from my family was singing Christmas carols around the piano!!!

Christmas morning we all gathered at Grams and Grandpa's house to open gifts. We were spoiled! As a family we all got little motor boats to enjoy out on the pond at Grams and Grandpa's new property. We went to church and thoroughly enjoyed their very talented ward choir. Very beautiful Christmas music.

mingling in the midst of all of our fun was a ton of sickness!! :( so sad! Morgan's girls got a cold just days before we came down. Soon the Hulsberg family became tummy sick. Then on the ride down one of the Bullock kids got tummy sick and arrived ill to Grams house. Then the most of the Bullocks began to get ill. Then poor Morgan had 2 girls come down with sick tummies. Then Grandpa Tolman got flu-ish and Grams wasn't doing too great. Then Rhett got a bad cough along with the Hulsberg kids. The 2 babies Clara and Avery both got fevers for a couple of days. Rock got flu-ish. Poor Maddie got sick and her little guy had a couple of go arounds with a sick tummy. Clara caught the coughs from Rhett and they are both battling that.. did I forget anyone?!! Morgan, Raf, Steve, Damon, Keely, and I are about the only ones that didn't come down with anything.

BUT

Despite all of that we had a BLAST!! We enjoyed each others company for the while we were all down there together. We played a lot of cards, ate a lot of food, and did a lot of shopping. We celebrated Morgan's new baby due in March throwing her a mini shower out at Olive Garden. We spent a lot of time down at Randy and Jill's new property and some of us even camped out there one night. We even got some big group family photo's done on the property that turned out beautiful.

We celebrated New Years at Morgan and Raf's home. So much fun, food, cards and fireworks. It was a blast!

We loved the weather. LOVED IT! Rock and the guys spent a lot of time down at the pond working hard to help Randy get some things done and moving it along. I enjoyed being able to go for looooong runs and not being too cold or too hot. The grass had become very green and alive again after the damaging drought this summer and the moisture in the air was divine! We enjoyed a going to dinner to the Suddarths home, a friend from Rocks mission. It will be fun to see them more if we end up moving down that way.

Rock enjoyed doing some manual labor after this long semester behind the computer and in the library all the time. But he was still busy networking while we were down there. He met with several people, had a couple interviews, and spoke on the phone with a guy. It is making us anxious as graduation approaches but excited that we are seeing there is hope in finding a position after school is done! CRAZY.

That was our most exciting break. So fun. But, it is good to be home and have responsibility again. Now, just to get my kids better!

Rhett and his wings on the way home.

Roman candles were Rhett's Favorite

Clara would often hang out in this little nook in the Tech Protect "office".
It looks down into the foyer and she would yell so everyone in the house could here her.

Stinker smile

She loved these little chairs.
You could tell she just felt so grown up sitting in them.

Clara and Avery took turns sneaking snacks from each other during meal times.

Clara and cousin Avery

Her little peoples!

Rhett opening his stocking

little shepherd boy

Decorating Christmas cookies.
I'm pretty sure he ate a good 3/4 of the cookies he decorated
and more of the stuff he was suppose to use for the decorating.
oh well.

little sheep

Santa Clause

2012-01-08T19:44:00.000-08:00

I think I may have posted before that Santa Clause came early to our house! We wrote him a letter and sure enough. He came. Rhett was way excited about it. Rock and I had fun being able to find a sitter to do the shopping together.... there was NO way I could have gotten away with stuffing things into the shopping cart with a 4 year old!

We were inspired by some friends and the things they do for their family as a Christmas tradition. I think we may have done it a little different and we're just going to feel it out for the next couple of years.. but we are going to do 3 gifts (like the wise men). One fun gift, one religious gift, and one learning gift from "Santa". Then we plan on giving nicer stocking stuffer gifts as well. Then as mom and dad we plan on giving a gift from us. It may change over the year.. and we didn't do way great this year....

Rhett got a cool race car, a dog pillow pet, and a Book of Mormon story book. I made him some transformer jammies and we gave him some fun stocking stuffers that include this awesome light twirler thing... it's funny how the most inexpensive things are the kids most favorite thing. In his stocking he also got a recorder to play music on. He has fun with it .. but it is LOUD!

Clara got a bumble bee glove wash cloth, jammies that make her look like yummy peppermint icecream :D, and a musical walker. She loves dancing to it. We'll see how much she puts it to use now that we are home to use it!

I am just realizing how FAST this Santa stage is going to FLY by!! Rhett is almost to his prime years of believing.. then what will I do? They grow up too fast!

Later that day (since it was still before Christmas day) we went to the mall and decided to take Rhett to say THANK YOU to Santa for all his gifts and for coming early. Rhett was excited up until the point of actually sitting on his lap.. then he decided just to say thank you and that sitting on his lap was not for him. BUT we did have a Santa at the ward Christmas party and Rhett sat on his lap then.

3 most exciting things ever ..

2012-01-08T18:58:00.000-08:00

1. We took our first flight with both kids. It went amazingly well. Rhett had a blast and Clara was wiggly but did SO great!

Rhett on the airplane!!

2. Rock and I celebrated our 5th year anniversary!!!!! HOLY COW. We enjoyed a night out to Dave and Busters. Ate some good food and had fun playing games. My favorite was the coin drop machines..... I didn't do so hot.

Not the greatest picture.. Rock and I in the Dad's Corvette :D

3. I turned the big 25! ... yeah. I know. I look way older... It is sad how much having children ages you :( But I will say that I still feel like I JUST turned 20 :D I had the best birthday. Shopping, yummy steak dinner with the in-law's, and gift opening! I was so spoiled this year.

The things Clara has learned ... from Rhett?

2011-12-15T20:30:00.000-08:00

She is getting so fun. From about mid October to now she has learned new things every week. We've loved it. Especially Rhett. She started to officially crawl about mid October and quickly got the speed to escape from Rhett! About mid November she started to pull herself up on things. By Rhett's birthday she started to slightly cruise along the furniture and by now she is EVERYWHERE!! up and down and all around. The last couple of days have been a blast as we've watched her dare to let go of things and stand!! She's not amazing..but she is daring and she can stand for a handful of seconds at a time.

She loves to do the stinker sniff. Crinkling her nose and sniffing in and out fast. Rhett gets her going on that one pretty bad. She loves to stinker smile for the camera. She shakes her head at no, no, no. She waves her hands to say all done and to tell Rhett to get the heck out of her face!! She waves bye bye....but with both hands.. cuz she's cute. not weird :D. She has a love/hate relationship with Rhett... but she adores him most of the time and just laughs so hard at him and with him. She loves to sit and watch him play. Rock and I have had fun watching from the living room as he plays and talks to her while she stares straight up at him. She LOVES to dance. Mostly to the them music to my Jillian Micheal's DVD. She loves her little singing chair. It is just her size and she loves the music.

Her most prized possession (besides a Binky and bottle) is her blankets. Why have my kids become attached to their blankets? She LOVES hers. Snuggles it, tackles it, chews it, and loves it.

She can be a STINKER though. Of course. She "runs" away when she knows you are going to tell her no.. It is so hilarious. A couple of days ago as we were wrapping presents we'd left to get some tape and heard the paper getting crinkled. As I ran back into the living room Clara flipped around and crawled in the opposite direction straight for the corner of the couch - that is often the place Rhett will run and hide when he is naughty. Did she learn this from him? - It was so funny we repeated it several times just to laugh... I shouldn't encourage her behavior.

She also loves to yell at Rhett. Especially at bedtime.. WHY WHY WHY? - She'll stand up. Drop her Binky, and Yell at the top of her lungs... just like she use to. When we go in to settle her down she quickly flips around and buries her head into her blanket like she is asleep... as I am writing this I am laughing so hard realizing that maybe she learned this from Rhett as well!!!! haha. When his is being loud I open the door and he flips around and into bed like he is asleep. FUNNY!! oh dear. My kids. How do babies learn these things!!!

Tolman Kids Stats

2011-12-15T19:58:00.000-08:00

Clara and Rhett both had appointment last week. AND shots. I'm pretty use to this running around with 2 kids. But this appointment was rather eventful.

They made me strap Rhett down. Hold him on my lap. Wrap my arms around his arms and hands and clasps is legs between my legs. Yeah. I think they are dumb. I think they made it worse than it had to be and he wriggled more..... so. 4 shots turned into 6 shots and very VERY VERY sore legs for a few days. :( Other than that he was great. He is healthy. They checked his eyes and he can see well. He is 40.2 lbs. 42 inches tall (3.5 feet). Both in the 90%.

Our Dr. is pretty funny. Rhett gets nervous around him though... this time out of nervousness he kept spelling his name over and over again kinda sorta awkward under his breath. R-h-e-t-t, R-h-e-t-t, r-h-e-t-t... :D but he knew all his colors and shapes and whatever he was asked.

Clara did pretty amazing other than the shots as well. It was pretty hard for me to have to let Rhett sit there and SCREAM and cry from his shots while I held Clara's hands down too.. BUT they both got succors after. Clara LOVED that. She is getting bigger. AT 9 1/2 months old she is 18 lbs - 40%, 28 inches long - 70%, and her head is 17 inches - 25th percentile.. I am proud of her growth.. at 6.5 months she was 25% for head and weight and 50% for height.

December so far

2011-12-15T19:02:00.001-08:00

Ever since we'd returned from Imperial, Rock has LIVED at the school. Seriously. It has been the most busy past 3 weeks. As such is December.

We kicked off this lovely month with a birthday bash! Rhett turned 4 December 1st. Jamey and her kids came up to celebrate with us. We loved every minute of seeing them. Rhett decided he wanted to have an angry birds birthday ... until he saw Grants awesome party ... then he wanted a transformers party...but we stuck with the angry birds and he still loved it. I had a blast making his cake and planning his birthday.

The following Sunday at church they recognized his birthday in primary. Poor Rock now has a calling in the Jr. Primary and has to sit RIGHT behind Rhett and watch his silly, stinky, wiggly behavior. Rock tells me that when his teachers tell him something he responds " I'm four " to them. STINKER! Let me tell you. Rhett is a boy. But seriously. BOYS ARE SO GROSS!!! Just these past few months I've been told, heard, seen the yuckiest things by Rhett. But. I love that gross face. :D

I have been busy busy busy getting ready for Christmas. Running around town to buy gifts, make gifts, wrapping gifts and sending gifts. AND we had to go shopping for SANTA!!! So we found a sitter for that. Rhett is to old to get away with stuffing things in the cart. I feel like we are all ready to go! We are excited for Houston...but right now Rhett is excited for Santa. We wrote him a letter and asked him to come early to our home because we will not be here for Christmas day. He is coming Saturday! lucky little boy!

As I said, Rock has been living at school. It has been THE busiest semester yet with juggling both MSHR and MBA coursed and these past few weeks have been crazy. Early mornings and late nights. I have had to do a lot of single mom living. I've missed out on going to the gym as often as I had before and worked out with Jillian Micheals :D. Rhett loves to work out with me. We've eaten dinner alone a lot.

But now it is all over!!!!!!! Rock is done with his Masters in Human Resources Degree!! woot woot! We went out to a dinner celebration last night that was very nice. When students were encouraged to get up and say a few words one of the spouses stood up and said some things. She put everything very well and EXACTLY what I was thinking. How proud I am of Rock in seeing the hard work he has put into school. I have seen him evolve this sememester and handle many of his stressful times amazingly. Next semester will be MUCH less stressful. He is ready to have a bit of a break.

November

2011-12-09T16:06:00.000-08:00

As most of you know my Grandpa Shaw got very sick in October. My sister literally had to give this stubborn Grandfather two ultimatums. Either get in the car to go to the ER, or she was going to call the ambulance. Apparently, he had caused a hernia to get bigger by sneezing which then caused an intestinal block which then had him VERY sick. If he had not gone into the doctor, which we all know he would not have, he would most likely have passed away. SO. He went into the ER and they figured things out and sent him into have surgery on 2 hernia's and gal stones out and everything straightened around. He was doing quite well and on the road to recovery until one of his wounds opened from the inside. So he had to stay in longer. They couldn't re-sew that wound up so he needed extra care for it until he could go home and get a drain put in. So the Thursday after Halloween Clara and I went down to help him home.

It was great for him to get home but he still needed help with driving around, cleaning his wound, cooking and running errands. I was so happy I could go down there and help out. He seemed to be doing pretty well. He'd been off pain meds. But still getting strength back. He would get very tired from walking around and getting ready for the day. We took him into the Dr. the next day and got his drain in. He has to have it on for about 1 1/2 more months .. at least.. so at least he'll have it in for 3 months total.

That weekend was CRAZY for us. We had to find places for Rhett to be watched while Rock went to class one day and for him to go in and study and do work. (since the computer we now have at home just has the basics. No Microsoft) After fussing with trying to get different people to watch him different times of the day we finally found a daycare that he could go to all day Thursday with no cost. We decided that would be the easiest thing and went for it. So Thursday he spent the day at this emergency daycare and Friday he went over to a friends house to play while Rock went to do work. Man, that was a pretty hard experience as parents. But, Rhett was fine. He had fun and didn't want to go home when Rock picked him up.

BUT it did make me feel good when I asked him if he would rather go with someone else all day every day or be home with me. His reply was to be with me!!! Oh I love my kids! I missed him so much that whole weekend.

Once Grandpa was in a good place and my Aunt Tanya could come up and take over Clara and I headed home.

Grandpa seems to be doing amazing. Healing REALLY well with that drain vac in and no longer has in home help coming. He is now driving himself 3 times a week to Provo ( eek! ) to get his wound drain changed out. He has been a trooper we are soooo proud of him!

My Grandma is married. I forgot to tell everyone! We are so happy for her. She is in love and we are excited to have a new Grandpa. Grandpa Jack. They were married November 19th in Payson. We went down to her wedding after we stopped in Salt Lake City for Grant Hulsbergs big #5 birthday!! (that was fun!) Josalyn, Janese and I sang "The Prayer". aaaah. It made me miss singing... and my living close to my sisters! That was a fun weekend!

THANKSGIVING

We went to Imperial CA. RIGHT on the Mexico border. It was a 14/15 hour drive. We left a day earlier when Rock was done with school Tuesday night and stayed in Holden with my lovely sister Jos and her cute fam. We then picked Janese up and headed down to CA. It was the most up and down little hills hilliest drive we've been on. Luckily no one got sick.. because your stomach was up and down constantly. We got there early afternoon Wednesday. We had a lovely Thanksgiving on Thursday and went to see Puss in Boots. Rhett LOVED it. Janese and I snuck out later that night to go see Breaking Dawn ... uhm. Amazing. (if you subtract the nasty parts - you that have seen it know what I am talking about. )

Friday we went to a zoo in Palm Springs. It was beautiful weather and we enjoyed walking around dessert gardens, seeing animals and a few shows. We got to see some crazy animals and had birds soar across the top of our heads in one of the shows. The highlight for my mom was when we went to see some long horn bulls. Rock got them calling back and forth to each other... The highlight for Rhett was this very AMAZING miniature village and train set.. it was a HUGE display that went forever. Of course Rhett would love it.

We enjoyed our Saturday. Did some shopping, celebrated Rhett's birthday a bit early with mom and dad, went through and inherited some Christmas things (!) and went out on a date while Janese watched the kids. Sunday we were on the road. We stayed over in St. George at my Grandma's place and made it home Monday. Rock headed straight to school and Rhett and I started to set up Christmas in our home!

It was a quick trip, but so fun! We loved seeing my parents place. It is nothing that I imagined it would be. It is big, but small. HUUUUGE crop Fields everywhere in the valley. The weather was perfect (this time of year). Looking forward to visiting again! Sure miss living close to my Mom and Dad!

Clara and Rhett "packing" to go to Grandma and Grandpa Shaw's! Big helpers. not.

Rhett LOVES aunt Janese :D... even if she teases him.

October

2011-12-06T21:25:00.000-08:00

We had our Family pictures taken up at 2nd dam in Logan Canyon. The days during October had still been getting pretty hot but would cool off in the evening.... so it slipped my mind that it would be freezing so early in the morning up in the mountains! - it was probably 35 degrees.. and we were freezing our rear ends off!! - I didn't even think to bring jackets, luckily we had blankets in the car for the kiddo's to keep warm and they were troooooopers!! Serioulsy. I was really worried about Rhett.... and not so worried about Clara which as I thought about it... that is odd. She is just an easy going baby! I did not hear a peep out of her the whole time. Rhett did very well, too. I didn't hear him whine one time about how cold it was. He sure tried to put some personality into his portraits.

Rock got an Iphone. I didn't think getting his attention would get any harder. Men. Learn to MULTITASK!!!!!

We took a trip over to the pumpkin walk. It was the first cooooold day in October and Rhett decided he wanted to wear shorts and sandals. I was able to talk him out of the shorts (with a fight)... so when it came to the sandals I agreed only if he wouldn't tell me how cold his feet were the whole time. And he didn't. Until we got in the car on the way home.... they were FREEZING. Am I a bad mom for not wanting to fight when his toes could freeze off?

Halloween this year. Mom and Dad slacked in the celebration department - but pretty much had a huge blast with the costumes. Rhett LOVED being a pirate with his little parrot. I loved how Clara's costume came out... AND Rhett's - we had to throw a lot of things we already had to pull that one off and it turned out great. The kids wore their costumes all day long. We had fun going to a play group where we ate scary treats and snacks, made pumpkin cookies, played with goo, and listened to scary music! My treats weren't very scary, but Clara though they were yummy and stole one right of the plate and stuffed it down here face. It was pretty much gone before I realized she actually grabbed a cookie. I though she'd just bumped the cake. We took Rhett trick or treating and that was that... so exciting. I know.

Cookie Monster

Nap time and the costume did NOT mix

Fall

2011-12-06T21:11:00.000-08:00

Luke, a good friend of mine, came into state in September and on a whim came to stay with us! His brother went to medical school at the U so Luke comes to visit him often. The Taintors have been friends to our family for the duration of the time we lived in Silver Bay- pretty much my home town - I was 6 when we moved there and 17 when we moved to Hoyt lakes so we lived there for about 11 years. Anyway. We love them and it was so fun for me to have someone from my youth ( .... like I am 40 :D ) visit me!!! It has been SOOOOOOOO long since I've seen, let alone talked with a friend from my home town. I don't think Facebook counts, really.

For a single guy I know we aren't the most exciting people to stay with. Especially now that our lives revolve around 2 of the cuuuutest kids on the planet. But, we tried to make the stay enjoyable. We went up a couple of canyons, went to the USU homecoming parade, tried to get up and shoot guns but it got to dark, but mostly just spent time talking and catching up. It was good to put some of my curiosities of that little town and some old friends to rest since I haven't been there in FOREVER. Now I don't feel the need to stalk all ya'll on FB as much!!! I am a creeper, watch out. ( aren't we all?..... admit it! ) So, yeah. That was fun for us.

Rock had a fun weekend down in the Utah Valley area. He had the chance to go hike Mt. Timpanogus and go to a BYU vs USU game with some friends. LUCKY!!

We enjoyed the weather soooo much this past fall. We went on millions and millions on of bike rides around the block with Rhett's new bike. He's been a trooper getting up and going after lots of falls and has become more cautious.. but I am going say that is a good thing. Clara loved loved going on stroller rides and being carried in the baby carrier. I was glad she was a petite little girl. It made chasing after Rhett so much easier. and Let me tell you, those rides around the block were not at all a walk in the park... I had to literally run/speed walk to keep up with Rhett....so it was a great morning exercises.

WARNING!! - many catch up posts coming

2011-12-06T21:04:00.000-08:00

Not that very many people read this thing anyway, but I am still sorry that I have let the blog get so far behind. Holy cow. Honestly - I am still not sure if I really want to keep up with this blog thing or not. My big dilemma these days....

Rock is very jealous that these little things are the BIG stress of my life as he is finishing up the harder of his semesters at Utah State.

... I am a very avid journal keeper anyway so half of the stuff that I put on here I write or have already written in a journal ... I just can't justify using this as a journal as I would feel very vulnerable putting some of my "secret" thoughts on here.. though I have gotten very personal before.

So here I go! Hope you enjoy hearing about what we've been up to the past 3 MONTHS!

Who keeps who awake?

2011-12-06T19:54:00.000-08:00

This little game began about a month and a half ago.

It is fair to say that Rhett keeps Clara awake a ton too... but we feel like there is another culprit in nap time wars... and it is because she has learned to stand up in her crib. We finally had to lower her crib after this stunt was being pulled WAY to often back around Halloween. STINKER! She would stand up, drop her binky and yell at the top of her lungs and giggles at Rhett.

Life back home

2011-09-20T07:10:00.001-07:00

It is weird to be back here. Settling back into the "old" Tolman ways. And by that, I mean, we are getting sucked back into being frugal to the point where it is hard to spend money on gas to leave this valley. But, we've done it a lot since we've been back.

We headed down to the Tolman Family Reunion at Cindy's home. It was pretty fun to see the Tolman side - I don't think I've met many of them. It was fun to see Jamey and Dave and our niece and nephew again too! We went to a football draft for Rock, Jamey and Dave that evening. Fun day!

Rock picked this shirt out for Rhett!!!

For Labor day weekend we headed down to Payson and stayed with Grandma Carlisle. I loved seeing my Mom, Dad, and sisters (besides my little Janae-nae and brother) for the first time since Clara's blessing. We enjoyed the weekend full of food and memories of the Cabin. We are still sad that we no longer will have a "landing" place in Minnesota! It was wonderful to remember funny stories and our Grandpa Carlisle. We miss him. We enjoyed going to the Labor Day parade. It was Rhett's first parade... he had a hard time not getting mad if they didn't throw him any candy. What a stinker!

BYU COUG! - just passed right on by Rhett :(

Last weekend Jamey and Dave came up to camp. They were the one's that did the REAL camping though. While they slept in the tent, Rock and I slept in the cars with Clara and I in one and Rock and Rhett in the other. It was still fun though! AND I got to use my AMAZING sleeping bag that I got for my birthday last year. All I have to say is, Thank you Jill for picking out purple. Rock would have taken it from me otherwise. We headed up to Hunsaker Spring - up by Old Ephraim's grave and visited that in the morning. We spent the rest of the day watching football and eating. ( too much eating lately! )

Me and Clara and Avery

Old Ephraim's grave the Bear was as tall as the rock.

Rock turned 27 years old!!!!! We didn't do much for his bday....but I made a cake! And we had some friends over for dinner. Rocks not big on Birthday celebrations.

This past Saturday Rock was so nice to come so early with the kids in the rain to cheer me on in my 5k! I felt a little silly afterward watching all the marathoners finishing their races because I did NOTHING compared to that!! BUT I am still proud of myself. I haven't been running too much.. I try to do one long run ( 4 - 6 miles is long ) a week and then I just go to the gym and do weights and cardio 2 times during the week. So, I was a little nervous I wouldn't be able to hold the pace I wanted. But I did it! I made my goal of under 25 minutes coming in at 24:14 - my pace was around 7:48 - I was only expecting to be able to hold and 8 min pace or more. I had fun. It was really small so I cam in 4 female overall and got 1st place in my division! woohoo! I still am not sure if I like the short and fast running compared to the long and slow. I guess I will have to do another longer race sometime (most likely NOT a marathon) and see how I feel.

Yeah, It was POURING RAIN and cold!!

Summer summary

2011-09-01T10:42:00.000-07:00

Our summer has come and gone. Way. Too. Fast. We had a blast and I am already feeling a little lonely not having someone (adult) to talk to every day or having playmates for Rhett whenever we wanted! Here is some of the fun we had this summer.

We loved going swimming. Especially to the Sorenson's amazing pool. Rhett became so brave as the summer moved along...by the end I didn't know who this kid was just plummeting into the water all on his own! It was so fun watching him have a blast and grow.

We went to an Astro's ball game as a family. We will remember that a 3 year old will be excited all day about going. But, once you arrive and they realize what it is they'll want to just go home. Still fun. Great seats. Great company with Rock and Grams!

We did some work with Tech Protect that was great experience for Rock and I. We went to conventions and sales this summer picked up quite a bit. We went to one in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Morgan is working so hard on anything and everything. I am sure most of the siblings wish they could be more hands on and be there to help her out. It is a little hard to be spread out across the country. But, it's going well.

We went to music time a lot. Rhett loves music time. He loves reciting nursery rhymes and knows all the words to the theme song of Little Einsteins. I know it is probably normal for that age! But it is STILL amazing for mom's to see their kids memory capabilities!

Rhett can write his letters. He is VERY good at writing his name and can spell simple words (dad, mom, dog, cat...) He notices what words has the same letters as his name. Like the "R" in Grams or the "R" and "T" in Grant. Again. I don't think he's a genius. He's just learning so much right now it is so CRAZY!

Rhett learned how to ride a bike. I know you will all think we are so evil for having him learn by borrowing Mallory's princess bike. We are such bad parents. BUT he learned well and did not even complain about it being a girls bike because he knew if he learned well he would get his own BOY bike when we moved back. He did. It is red. He LOVES it. (except when he falls.)

Clara had a blast too. She learned a lot of things; how to sit up, get up on all 4's, scream, eat, take a bottle, fall asleep, take the roughness from Rhett. She was spoiled by all the love and having someone to play with all the time. She will miss her little "mommies" - Jocelyn and Felicity..but mainly Mallory. Mallory always knew just what she needed.. always gave me the best advice EVER! Clara loves swimming and bath time. There is no doubt about that... I should just say she loves everything. She is just a happy happy baby. So content with anything and most everything. I am a spoiled momma.

I got to play volleyball a lot this summer. I am having withdrawals and it was only once a week! I also am very proud to say that I was able to get off all of the baby weight by the time Clara was 5 months old. A great achievement for me because it took much MUCH longer with Rhett.. \ It was a ton of work.. but so worth it! It was great because going to the gym was a good outlet for me this summer.... the goal now is to keep it off! ( and hopefully lose maybe 5 lbs more so I can be pre-Rhett weight :D)

We are very proud of Rock and all his hard work in his internship! He really enjoyed it and got great, GREAT reviews. He also LOVED the commute and driving through traffic. NOT! - but it was worth it? He got to do a lot extra with his internship; go to lunches, nice dinners, and several box seat baseball games. Tyco is ( I don't know how else to say it at the moment) going under global HR reconstruction and will see what they have in store for job opportunities for Rock in a few months. However, he plans on keeping the doors open to any opportunity that comes his way. He had fun fishing. He was able to use his golfing clubs that he HAD to bring a WHOLE 2 TIMES!!! (very worth taking up the extra space.) Oh, and not to mention our gun that I think was VERY dusty when we pulled it out and packed it up to head home.

We missed out on getting to enjoy the new carpet that Randy and Jill just got put in. So, that is sad. And we don't get to see their loving faces every day. So, that too is lame. But we are glad to be home to our own things, our own beds and to the COOLER climate! Too bad we couldn't just stay there all year and see what a nice winter was like. I bet that would have been nice.

road trip back to utah

2011-08-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

I think our 3 day long Road trip could have gone worse. My kids were so good in the car!! - They never really took naps at the same time, and Rhett would ask to watch a DVD right when we got in the car every time - but really.. I think it could have gone much MUCH worse.

We made a vacation out of it. We planned to stop about half way.. I probably could have done a little more research.. but the first night we stopped in this little town a couple of hours from Albuquerque NM. It was pretty abandoned-ish. You could tell it use to be a huge deal... we decided it was kind of like Radiator Springs from Cars. It was even along the old Route 66. We got their early (even forgot about the time change so it was an hour earlier :D) and found a hotel with a pool. We got dinner, played in the pool and slept.

The bath tub sized swimming pool :D perfect for Rhett.

We woke up early the following day and made it to Moab in the early evening. We got some dinner and stayed in a hotel with a water slide! Rhett LOVED it.. so we did :D. We had plenty of time to get ourselves a lunch and other things together for our fun in the Arches national park. We woke up Tuesday morning bright and early. (I think Randy and Jill would be proud of how early we were up every morning from the day we left to the day we got home!) We headed up to the park.

Water slide hotel in Moab

Our first stop and hike was up to The Delicate Arch. SO GLAD we made this our first stop while it was still cooler outside. ( I think it was still in the upper 70's though ) This was about a 3 mile hike round trip. The majority of it on the way to the arch was up hill. I will just say that Rhett was a trooper. I think he did amazing for a 3 year old! He walked the whole way up by himself and all the way down by himself until we were about 400 yards from the cars. Granted he stopped every few steps to have a drink or a rest once the uphill started on the way there............we had to remember patients! Clara did amazing in her back pack.. just kicked with excitement the whole time. But we did it! It was way worth it. We had to be SUPER careful with the kids out there though. One wrong step and you could just roll down to your death!

Our next stop was at The Sand Dune Arch. It was a .1 mile hike.... but it felt like a little longer because you are literally hiking in sand! It was cool. Definitely Rhett's favorite. He was SWIMMING in the sand! We stayed and played for a while and then we ate lunch in the car. We enjoyed a yummy, but overly HUGE sandwich from the grocery store.

By the time we made it to our last stop, The Landscape Arch, our water supply was running low. it was only about a 1.5 mile ... walk ... round trip. By now the temperature was in the high 90's and it was HOT! luckily there was a little more shade on this hike....but that still didn't keep Rhett form stopping... seriously... every 2 steps to have water! I am so proud of him though. He made it. And I made it. Carrying a baby on your front side for almost 5 miles is hard!!!!!! That was a lot of hiking for such a little boy. We wish we could have done a little more but we were more than satisfied with how much we were able to achieve with 2 kids in tow.

Trying to cool off while Dad hiked around a little!
It was NOT successful it was so hot and we had no water.

We finished up our day much earlier than we planned and headed up to Spanish Fork. We stopped to see my Grandpa and had dinner with him. Janese met up with us too. We just were done. We wanted to get home. So we headed straight for Logan after our short visit and made it home around 9:30. We did good!!! We made it! We were all so happy to be home. Especially Clara. She was all kicks and giggles once we stepped foot into our apartment!

Help us win!

2011-08-13T16:12:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends!

So we officially started into another contest to win a $5.00 photo shoot for our family if we have the most friends like Poulsen Photography's facebook page BY AUGUST 31ST! She is a friend of ours and she took Clara's newborn pictures... if you had a chance to look at them while they were on our blog they turned out great! So, enough said. We would just LOVE to win and get some amazing family photo's with the newest member of our family. (plus it's been 2 years since we've had one done) Help us out by liking Poulsen Phtotography on facebook and make sure you tell her that Jen Tolman sent you that way! Thank you all!!

You may also check out her website!

HELP!!

2011-08-11T07:48:00.000-07:00

I know most of you probably saw this on facebook already. Rock and I would love to win a free family photo shoot. All you need to do is go to our friends facebook page, like it, and make sure you say Rock and Jen send you!!! When we get 30 of our friends to like her page we'll get the photo shoot! Do it!

http://Facebook.com/PhotographyByPrincess

Rain.. just what Spring needed

2011-07-02T20:48:00.000-07:00

Randy and Jill,
You missed out on the most beautiful thing you would have seen this summer. The rain finally came. Too late for the 4th though. Still, no fireworks in The woodlands area.

We really did try to get Rhett to smile. But, he was too worried about the constant thunder and lightening. He was pretty freaked out.

We were going to go over to Market Street for a fun evening and go to some of the 4th of July things which included a free concert. We had our dinner packed, car packed and a blanket to sit on. We stopped at Walmart to get a few things on the way and it started to rain. While we were checking out the rain was just pouring down and the power went out 2 times. The second time it stayed out for quite a while. Luckily we were all checked out. So, we decided just to go home and have our own little picnic. It was as fun as a picnic at home could get. :D

Clara's baby pillow talk

2011-07-01T19:55:00.000-07:00

Doesn't every girl like a little conversation before they fall asleep? If so, Clara is all girl. This is her new thing when she's ready to sleep and all swaddle up.

Schlitterbahn

2011-06-30T17:38:00.000-07:00

Family

We had a BLAST last weekend at Schlitterbahn with the Salinas fam dam. Rafeal's work was doing a family day thing and we got great deals on tickets. It was a blast to see all of the kids have fun in the water and be so daring! Rhett was getting super duper brave and trying to swim all by himself like Jocelyn in the wave pool. (Joc is the best swimmer EVER!) I was SO proud of her :D. We loved that there were a ton of fun things for the kids to do. A lot of little kid pools and slides!

Salinas Family

Clara's 4 month update

2011-06-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

Clara is already 4 months old! She is such a good baby! I don't know if it is real.. or if it is just the 2nd time around having a baby makes it easier.

Really, it does. Less stress over the little things; feedings, eating, sleeping(for mommy and baby), fevers, coughing, sneezing, crying, etc. Okay, I guess they aren't small things..but for the first baby those things are so HUGE. You freak out anytime the baby makes a squeak, sneeze, cough. If the baby is hot you have to take their temperature. Sigh.

Clara has totally made having baby #2 blissful. It is hard in someways to have two kids. You lack in other departments (cleaning the house everyday, getting dinner to the table in time, having time "me" time, etc.) I have totally enjoyed taking care of her. But, then again, she doesn't fuss much. I can't get mad at the 4am feedings because I know all too soon she won't be waking me up because she needs me. (at least I hope she grows out of it :D) She is so fun to wake up to when she squeals with happiness and wiggles her arms and legs with joy! She is now Rhett's official alarm clock. Now that he doesn't take naps he sleeps in later which I will NOT complain about. She is chunking up FINALLY :D. There was nothing wrong with my little skinny mini..but it is fun to see the thighs get some rolls :D She is also FINALLY taking a bottle. Boy! That was a battle with her. She still loves to talk..but it has turned into more of a yell now. Oh, how I will miss the sweet soft coo's! She LOVES bath time and swimming. She loves her little monkey friends on her little play mat...but kicks it over all the time. She is starting to pick up toys and gnaw on them. She likes tummy time a lot..but it doesn't last long until she is trying to figure out how to get back onto her tummy once she rolls over. We love this girl!

At four months our little girl measures in at:

weight - 13.03 lbs
length - 26 inches
head - 16 inches

Pretty little ballerina

Kicking over the play mat with my legs!!!

Rock's foot is nothing compared to...

2011-06-28T17:40:00.000-07:00

this man's foot..

Any guesses on who this very tanned and calloused foot belongs to? Here's a closer look.

Here is a hint. He is on the show "Dual Survival" on The Discovery Channel ............

(sorry for poor picture quality... he would NOT stop moving around during his presentation)

Well. If you guessed Cody Lundin. you are amazing.. cuz I pretty much just don't pay close enough attention to even recall a TV stars face with their name.. let alone a foot :D(But this is a show that Rock and I loved watching together all the time.. so i knew this guy)

We had fun at this convention - even though they totally talked it up to get us to buy in on a booth - Hopefully just educating and getting the TechProtect name out to the few people that were there was worth it - meeting Cody Lundin won't make up for the lack of sales. Sorry!!! But I will admit that it was pretty cool - a definite plus!

bLuEbErRy PiCkiNs!

2011-06-07T12:43:00.001-07:00

Before

After

I didn't get any pictures of our blueberry picking adventure, so I waited to get some from my mother in-law's camera.. hence late in posting :D OH BOY DID WE HAVE A BLAST!! I knew it was going to be pretty exciting once we got our buckets and were headed to the flagged section to pick from that day. We weren't half way there when Rhett was asking me to hold his bucket and hold him.. WHAT?! So, we got to our flags and started to pick...

Felicity would eat about 1 blueberry for every 1 she put in her bucket. But, she had fun for a while. Rhett and Malory only lasted about 5 minutes before they started to play in the dirt. Felicity joined in and they were throwing dirt all over each other. I bet I know who started this one... (I'm sure it was Rhett).. did I even need to tell you who? They had dirt on their sweaty faces, in their hair, down their shirts in their sandals and who knows where else. They were fighting over sticks (mostly Rhett) and putting dirt into their buckets. Rhett actually had a good amount of blueberries in his until he filled it up with dirt and knocked it over later.

Jocelyn kept reminding us that she was going to get a snow cone every blueberry she dropped into her bucket (haha). She is so impressed that her mom helped make snow cones at her "end of the year" party at school that she was telling Morgan how she could just whip them up at home. Cute. She did really well with her bucket. She filled it enough to make my or Morgan's 1/2 buckets a full bucket. Jill did amazing and filled her entire bucket so we got about 2 1/2 buckets full that equaled out to be 10 lbs of blueberries!

I was a bad mom.. partly forgot how hot it can get down here! I didn't bring a hot for Clara luckily Morgan randomly had these tights in the kids' little back pack that I could use to make a turban :D! Morgan saves my life almost every day! These blueberries are YUM! But, sadly this area is experiencing a drought right now (I know.. wierd) so, the pickin's should be better in a couple of weeks. We may go again. Hopefully we don't miss it.

Since we've been here.

2011-06-01T20:22:00.001-07:00

We are so LUCKY my in-laws are so willing to let us share their home.. and they do a great job at it! I am sure they just LOVE all our messes, noise, and smelly-ness. Oh, and I KNOW they love the fact that we sleep in 'til 8 almost every morning. (Seriously, that is sleeping in.. but when you wake up in the middle of the night to feed a baby... ya know.)But, they know how to keep us busy and it's been fun! Rock's done a lot of work around the house and things have been getting a little more busy with the new family business.

Rhett and Clara

We are getting use to living in someone else's home.. and it has been quite the struggle for Rhett. It could just be a stage, but he has been struggling. He has been very defiant and cries instantaneously and drops to the floor. Along with other random things that he never use to do! He just NEEDS me to do everything for him again. Like he is a baby. I should be more annoyed that Clara is the one teaching Rhett bad behavior. (wink wink) uuugggh. It is definitely the terrible 3's. Not the terrible 2's. It is taking me a long time to adjust to everything but hopefully I come around soon!! PLEASE! But, he can still be sweet at times. (though it has been very scarce through out the days.) He loves being with his cousin's, Mallory and Jocelyn. Being with Felicity on the other hand is not as easy. They like each other for about a whole 2 minutes every time they are with each other.. then they're done. He loves to go play in the day care at the gym with Mallory and he likes to go to kindermusic, too. Mostly because the teacher does songs with choo choo trains.

Clara - 3 months old! our little bug.

Clara has been doing great. Although... it would be nice if I could sleep all the way through the night again. She pretty much gave that up when we moved here. (except for a few random nights.) But I've been trying to get her back on track by just sticking in the binky and letting her fall back asleep. Oh! two weeks ago she rolled over all by herself for the first time. like 10 times in a row!.. (I really don't know how many times..but it was more than 5.) .. and then she didn't do it again for like a week. But,we have proof in the video below! .. It took her a while since then to really get it down but she's got it now! We are in love with this little girl. Rock just melts whenever she giggles, coo's and smiles. Which she does to him the majority of the time. She seems determined to get her daddy wrapped around her finger already and I think it's working. She is a talker for sure. It is apparent that she loves the sound of her own voice. (is she conceited or what?!) She is very alert and thinks everyone that is talking, is talking to her. She is so smiley, happy and content most of the time. Seriously. Sometimes I forget she is around until I hear a little coo.

Yesterday was Rock's first day at work in his internship. He said it was a good day. Things with Rhett went great! He had been a very pleasant boy all day long for me. (if it wasn't for our blueberry picking adventure..) Why are kids so much better when their daddy's aren't around? I don't know. Or it was just a miracle day that Rhett was so sweet. :D I needed it though. Up until yesterday Rock had just been doing things around the Tolman home to help his Mom and Dad out. Projects. We even spent several days over at Morgan and Raf's new home to help put together their swing set. He has also been very busy helping more with the TechProtect business. (I'll be posting a few fun goings on with that) So, he has kept busy...but ran out of things to do this past week. Good thing he started working!

I have been keeping busy doing nothing. At least that is how I feel most of the time. Keeping up with two kiddo's is crazy for me. I am still learning the best way to juggle it all. I don't know if I will ever master it but I feel like I do ok. Most of the time I just fake it.. as long as I am meeting their needs and getting to places on time I feel good about it. Maybe that is just how being a mother is.

I also got a membership to a gym for the summer. The best part is I have someone to go with most of the time! Either Jill or Morgan. But, it has also been great to go myself once or twice to get "me time" in. Morgan has shown me a ton of things I can do and is great to coach me and tell me how much to do. I'm too lazy to figure it out myself and too lazy to push myself. The first couple of weeks were rough. I had only been running like 3 times a week with a little bit of weights before we moved down here. I would be sore for days at a time. So, I definitely felt like I was on the biggest loser one day after we got done with weights and I got on the stair climber. I was only on for like 11 minutes when I started to feel icky. And I didn't eat breakfast that morning (I had to point that out cuz I really do get sicky if I don't eat before working out) So, I got off and just felt like I was going to puke......... and I did........ in the garbage can. Morgan said she felt bad. I told her she should feel awesome for making me puke! Just kidding. She doesn't force me to do things. So that has been the most exciting thing for me lately.

Date night - Houston Temple

Here we are.

2011-06-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow! Is the month of May already gone? Is it just me, or has this month gone by fast. Time flies when you are having fun. And let me tell you.... Our life has been pretty exciting lately. We've been down in Houston for almost 5 weeks already!

We began our Journey Friday, May 6th. It started out kind of rough for our Rhett. Rock insisted that we all have a large glass full of milk mixed with chocolate syrup to finish off the milk in our fridge before we left. Not even 2 minutes into Logan Canyon Rhett had to pee. So, we stopped. I had no idea this was just the 1st of the million "Rhett" stops we'd be making on our trip. We haven't traveled very far with a 3 year old in the car yet.

Rhett thought that drinking chocolate milk with breakfast was pretty awesome until we were 3/4ths through Logan Canyon headed toward Bear lake. Yeah. Chocolate milk on an empty tummy, windy canyon roads, back seat riding and 3 year olds don't mix well. Rhett was car sick and couldn't hold it down. Screaming at the top of his lungs because he hates puking. Who doesn't?! Luckily most of the nasty got into a grocery sack so it didn't get all over our brand new car. We took a break along the shore of Bear Lake to get the icky feeling out of Rhett. He felt SO bad. When he got out of the car he kept telling us "I'm really sorry. It's not my fault." It made Rock want to cry for him :(. We spent about 20 minutes skipping rocks, cleaning the car seat, and burying the puke bag. (I'm pretty sure that was littering... don't tell anyone.) Then we were on the road again.... for at least one more hour 'til Rhett needed to pee..AGAIN. :D

Jacky and I

We decided to go to Denver that night and spend some time with Jonathan and Jacky and their cute family! Sweetest family. I loved seeing Ben and Sam. They are SO big now and speak SO well. Both in English and in Spanish. (I think..but I'm no expert :D) Rhett was super excited to see his twin cousins. But, was a little weirded out seeing them in person and realizing there are 2 boys that look too much alike. He loved playing with them so so much. Clara got to meet the Shaw family for the 1st time and we got to meet their newest addition (Joseph) for the first time as well. He is so big and smiley. They make pretty cute babies. Just wish we lived closer so we could spend more time with them!

Clara-2months & Joseph-6months

Ben, Rhett and Sam

I hadn't seen my Brother in FOREVER! It was so good to see him and my amazing sister-in-law Jacky. It is hard to be poor students and unable to travel to see each other. He has just graduated from law school and is studying for the bar! I am so proud of him.

The rest of the trip went pretty smooth. Let's just say that the purchase of a portable DVD player was a great.. I mean, GREAT idea for Rhett! Rhett's favorite game (when he wasn't watching a movie) was to play the "let the baby fall asleep and then wake her up" game. Tisk Tisk. Clara was such a good baby! She had probably 2 really big meltdowns. Saturday night, late. And again the last hour stretch into Spring! We made it just in time for a wonderful Mother's Day dinner.

But here we are (I am so late on posting these things so forgive for reading into my past) and we are excited!! It will be a fun summer. We are hopeful that this time next year we will be packing up and heading somewhere more permanent :D

Easter

2011-05-01T11:06:00.001-07:00

We had the most family fun filled Easter weekend this year. It was wonderful to spend time with the people that we love most as we remembered the sacrifice and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

We spent the early part of the weekend with Rock's family and had a little Easter hunt Saturday morning. We then headed down to Payson and stayed with my family Saturday night. Sunday morning Avery Hulsberg was blessed in SLC and right after we headed up for Clara's blessing in our ward.

It was fun to see our families! Huge thank you to everyone that helped out and came - we know it wasn't the most ideal time for everyone.

not so quick update

2011-04-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

First of all Clara had her 2 month appointment on Monday. She is just a little bug! She had the best support from Rhett. He picked the color for her feet to get stamped on her information card for mom. Of course he chose blue. After they were done stamping her feet he took them in his hands and pressed them on his lips and sad "that's such a good baby!" Then, when they came to give her shots he held her hand and told her "its okay baby. be strong." - the nurses just giggled at him! Such a great big brother!!

Head Measurement - 14.75 inches - 25%

Height - 23 inches - 75%

Weight - 9 lbs 15.5 oz - 20%

I know you can't compare kids, But I thought it was fun to see what Rhett was at 2 months.

Head Measurement - 14.6 inches

Height - 23.3 inches

weight - 13 lbs 2 oz

Clara is definitely going to be a string bean if her weight doesn't catch up to her height! But, she is doing GREAT! AND she still has all of her hair which is amazing.. still crossing my fingers that it won't fall out. She loves to smile and is starting to coo in response to talking to her. She loves her little frog on her jungle swing and gets all excited when she sees it. We are loving her and we are excited for her blessing this Easter Sunday!

Rhett is just being Rhett. We are noticing all the ways that he is choosing to express himself. Some are great! some, not so much. It is fun to watch him learn though. We are seeing little hints of jealousy creeping in. He always wants me to help him get dressed, he flops to the ground in tears even before he realizes what we are asking, and he always ALWAYS asks me to do things when I sit down to nurse..just out of the blue... why didn't he need me 2 minutes before? I don't know. We are trying creative ways to make it better though. Everything we do is a race, but that is not very fun anymore because he wants to win all the time. He is very clingy to his dad lately and just wants to be right by him when he gets home.

He is getting excited to move to Houston this summer to see his long lost cousins; Mallory, Jocelyn and Felicity. I think that they are going to LOVE having him because he seems to be way into feeding baby dolls and watching Tinkerbell on the Disney channel (as I am typing this)... is that horrible?!!!! - He just made sure that I was aware that Tinkerbell is sad. Rock will hate this when he sees it :D.

Rhett was so sad when his cousin Kameron was in the hospital with pneumonia. He made sure (and continues) to be thankful for/or bless Kameron in his prayers. He also tries to tell me that-

- "when I was a boy like Kameron I got really

sick and coughed and coughed and I had to go to the hopsitole....."

We totally believe him EVERY time.

Rock is getting ready to be done with his internship with USU HR department and done with school. He is really excited to get down to Houston and start his internship with TYCO!! - He doesn't start until June 6Th so... I'm not too sure what he plans to do with his life until then. Maybe fish. He has been itching to go every chance he gets.. with not too much luck. He hopes to power wash some driveways for neighbors when we get down there to make extra money.

As for me... I am just anxious for the next few weeks. Lot's of changes - good ones! But, hard ones. We will be sad to leave our ward.. BUT it is a good thing too because a lot of our friends are also moving on... and our ward is going to change DRASTICALLY.. So, we won't have to be here to witness that. Which will be easier.

I am nervous to be in Houston for the summer. I don't know why!! I really think I am just not excited for the drive. I am really scared to forget to bring things we need. And we'll need a lot with a little boy that will need to bring lots of toys! Plus, I am nervous to be an annoyance and in the way. More that I know I will be feeling like that all the time no matter what. Blah. I hate that feeling and it doesn't help I am a little self conscious. And with this new little baby that I am still getting to know..and we still haven't gotten a real routine down.

I am, however, excited for the fun things this summer. We'll get to see Jonathan, Jacky, Ben, Sam and little Joseph for a day or so on our drive down. We'll be seeing the Salinas fam. We've missed them since they've moved. Rhett (and Clara) will get to enjoy Grams and Grandpa. Going to the pool.. Humidity. I know I might not love it. I will for sure be sweaty, frizzy haired and indoors a lot more. BUT it brings with it the relief of dryness!! It will be a good summer - just hoping that we will get to come back up to Utah for the Tolman family reunion in Pinto Utah!

We love going on walks with our big limo!

Clara really loves bath time!

Clara smiling at Rhett - she adores him :D

... this made me feel a little better today ...

2011-04-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

.. Last night was kind of rough .. Rhett screamed/cried several times in his sleep due to growing pains in his leg. ( you have to feel so bad for him!) We could have been a little more sympathetic. And because of his screams Clara woke up more than she usually does to eat.. each session took an hour - 10 minutes to eat, a couple minutes to change a diaper and who knows how long just fighting her to get her burps out (if she doesn't burp I pay for it later with a very grumpy gassy girl.) So I have been pretty tired today - and very grumpy. I am mean. BUT this has made me laugh and has lightened my day and made me feel happy. :D.

I saw this on a blog that I follow and she found it here. Sometimes I feel guilty when I look back on my day and wonder what I have done as well. I even talk to Rock about it.. hoping that he doesn't feel like all I do is sit around all day. I really don't.. but sometimes when I see how much DID NOT get done through out the day I wonder why?

Stay at home mom's have a lot on their plate! - I am grateful I don't have to take on the extra burden's of a job... I can't understand how some women do it all!!

Oh, Yeah! I almost forgot about this new adventure.

2011-04-03T11:51:00.001-07:00

... This has to have been one of the most grown up decisions we have made in our mere 4 years of marriage ... and it was SCARY!! We are still freaking out a little bit. It will be something we have to adjust to, to have a car payment.. blah!

We have been shopping around for cars. Because of our upcoming trech to Houston this summer and the commuting Rock will have to do, we decided to get something that will hopefully be more reliable for our family over the next few years. We also hope this will grow with the family until we get to a point where we can get another vehicle sometime in the future..

So, we went to look at a couple of things yesterday and ended up trading in the impala and purchasing this 2008 Suzuki XL-7 Premium with about 19,000 miles on it. We are hoping this will be a more reliable car for the next few years! .. We're still shaking in our boots .. hoping this was a good decision!

What else is new?? Check this out!

2011-04-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

Rock's family recently started their own business selling these...

...Tech Protect Bags.

What?!

A LITTLE ABOUT TECH PROTECT BAGS

Today's society relies completely on technology. There has been no way to protect this technology until now. TPB is a revolutionary bag designed to protect against damaging Electromagnetic pulse frequencies that can destroy our technological components. TPBs are made to store your technological components and protect them from damaging frequencies. By using one of our bags, your most precious information you have acquired throughout your lifetime will stay protected and secured.

To Learn More or to purchase your own bags go to their website - www.techprotectbag.com.

What is new ?

2011-04-02T09:01:00.000-07:00

... Lately I feel like nothing is new ... I think it is just because I am still getting use to our new little family!

Clara will be 6 weeks old on Monday!! at 3 weeks old she weighed 7 lbs and 6 oz and 20.25 inches long. obviously she is bigger now.. her 2 month apt is coming up fast so we'll get updated. She has been such a great baby for us!! She started to sleep through the night the last couple of weeks which has been WONDERFUL!! a full 6-8 hours most nights - Yes.. we still have random nights where it's not that great but she makes up for it. She has been so fun to have around and is starting to smile!! I tried to capture the first few smiles.. Rhett loves being a big brother. He is so so helpful to both mom and baby! He loves to make her happy and is always concerned about what is going on with her. He loves having her in his room when he sleeps for nap times and night time. He makes sure that I bring her in. If she is not there in the morning he gets nervous and has to go searching to find where she is. While my mom was with us a couple of weekends ago we took Rhett to is annual EKG appointment for his heart. Everything seems to be OK. He still has an irregular rhythm. So, until he is eight we'll be getting this checked out.. But he is a healthy growing boy and as long as that continues he'll be doing great! I don't expect anything to come from it.

The Basilica i temple expiatori de la sagrada familia

Rock has been a busy busy man this month! He had a great time in Europe. I am glad he got the chance to go and it was so fun to look at all his pictures and hear of all the things they did and saw!

He has been so busy with interviews all month for internship opportunities down in Houston. Before Rock left to Houston he had a preliminary interview with Tyco - a diversified industrial conglomerate. Down in Houston he had an interview with: Sysco - the largest food distributor in North America. While he was there he met up with an old boss (Rock had an internship with him a couple of summers ago in the compliance department for a company) who recently is working as vice president at LyondellBasell - a public multinational chemical company. His old boss took him to meet the HR guy that works for them who offered Rock an internship position there for the summer! Pretty much amazing!

After his quick trip down to Houston he had 2 more interviews with Tyco before the end of this past week! It was crazy. Yesterday was his final interview with Tyco over the phone. Minutes before Tyco's interview Rock received a call from Sysco offering him the intern position. After his interview with Tyco they asked if he had any offers on the table and Rock told him his situation. They were going to wait a few days to talk it over and let him know what their decision would but, but because Rock has to let Sysco know his decision by Monday Tyco hurried to make their decision to offer Rock the intern position there! The interview stage seemed pretty intense with having multiple interviews for the positions with Tyco and Sysco. But, Rock said that he felt pretty confidant about each of them. He was very glad that he took the time to go reacquaint himself with his old boss, too.

I am very impressed by and so proud of his hard work. It has been a long process of hunting down internships and keeping in touch with people. On top of all this it has been a great thing for Rock's dad to give him contacts with in HR to call. I am very impressed that even though there may have not been any opportunity for an internship, Rock would still call and talk to them about HR and gather more insight on what this career will in tale. I really think this helped him as he searched for internships and interviewed for them! What a weight off of our shoulders - we're excited for summer!

Clara Tolman

2011-02-27T18:54:00.000-08:00

.. Clara Tolman is here and healthy. She will be a week old tomorrow! So far she has been a GREAT baby.. we'll see how that continues as the new born stage fades away :( . I have to wake her up to feed her pretty much every time.. for my own benefit :D She sleeps soo much and when she is awake she doesn't cry too much unless you really bug her by moving her around a ton or change her diaper. But even then it is just a few squawks.

Clara Tolman was born on Monday February 21, 2011 at 3:32pm. She weighed 7lbs 2oz and was 20 inches long. We were super duper surprised to see all of that hair on her! Most people say she looks a lot like me when I was a baby.

First of all I have to say that our experience at this hospital was SO GREAT! - We had an amazing nurse who really talked to us about all of our options for the birth and took such good care of me and making sure we were comfortable. She would always explain things to us and make sure we understood and answer questions for us. She was even suppose to be off at 11am and her replacement didn't come in. When someone did come in for her at 3 she stuck around to see our new baby just because she had been there through the whole thing with us! I loved her. She was so sweet.

Monday was a pretty eventful day starting at 1 in the morning when I woke up so sick to my tummy. I think I ate something bad the night before. I was up at 1 and 5 and spent some time in the bathroom trying to feel better. When I finally got to the point where I felt okay I just decided to take a bath and get ready for the day and then call the hospital at 6. Rock said a prayer with me to feel better and we got ready to go to the hospital.

We woke Rhett up who was so excited and said " the baby's coming out today! " We took him over to Jen Carpenter's home, a friend from our ward, for the day. He finished up the day at another friend from the ward's home. (we are so lucky to have such a great ward!) We were SO sad that he wasn't able to come meet Clara at the hospital after she was born because of flu season :(. Rock's mom picked him up and brought him home for the night.

When we got to the hospital Rock started to feel sick too :( ugh.. and I was so exhausted and dehydrated. But we got things started around 8 with pitocin and they loaded me with tons of fluids. My doctor came in a little later and broke my water and then it was a waiting game. Rock had to leave for a bit to go get some tums and a blanket. Luckily we live so close to the hospital. He was so good to me through the whole labor holding my hands and distracting me and telling me how strong I was :D Just the right things to say.

A couple of hours later I went ahead and got an epidural. It took a LONG time to get it in!.. and it worked pretty well.. It wasn't as strong as I remember with the one I got with Rhett. After a few minutes Clara's heart rate went down and so did my blood pressure. Really bad because I was so dehydrated so they just let the fluids flow in as fast as they could. They gave me a shot of epinephrine to help my blood pressure go back up, turned off the pitocin and put me on some oxygen. They let me recover for about an hour or so and by this time the epidural was wearing off. So, I pushed the button. Nothing happened well after the amount of time that it should have so the nurse told me to push it again.. but still nothing happened. I was SO tired from not sleeping well, being sick, and all the contractions. So finally the anesthesiologist came back in to fix things. The epidural was working only in the middle of the left side of my back. After moving things around and seeing blood in the tube he had to take everything out and try again. :( boo. But he got it right the second time and finally I had time to relax and rest.

By this time my mother in-law and sister in-law had made it to the hospital! yay! We were so grateful that they could be there and so grateful for Jamey to bring Jill up to Logan for us. Soon enough we were ready. Our doctor was in the next room delivering another baby right when I started feeling pressure of the baby to push. So we waited for him to come in and soon enough the little baby was here!It was a little funny with the pitocin contractions being so irregular I would have a contraction and push and then wait for like 2 - 3 minutes for the next one. ( but it seemed like FOREVER!) I pushed about 2 - 3 times for 3 contractions and little Clara was born!

Things turned out pretty well.. overall my back just hurt really bad from being poked over and over and over and I was tired from sleep being interrupted every 2 hours after coming into the hospital sleep deprived to begin with. But there were no stitches or other things to be too sore from.

We could NOT wait to have Clara meet Rhett so the following day after we got the Dr.'s and pediatricians okay we headed home. We had so much fun seeing Rhett and his reaction to his baby sister. He is IN LOVE with her. He calls her HIS baby. For the first few days when she would make noises he would turn her way and run over to give her a hug and cuddle her. He has been SUCH a great helper. He loves to help change her diaper, hold her, and wake her up to eat. He gets a little too crazy at times but so far so good.

MORE PICTURES TO COME!

or you can try going to this link for some previews of newborn pictures we did.

http://poulsenphotography.com

I'm an addict...

2011-02-19T20:13:00.000-08:00

This pregnancy I've been addicted to:

Baths
naps
night time snacks
spritzy drinks (pop)
oranges
blog reading/searching
crafting

I consider all of these to be addictions of mine because they all have been filling a void for me...which is waiting until this baby gets here! I have been waiting for SO long!! 9 months feels like forever when it's something as great as a little me and him! Sometimes when I have thought about NOT doing/having one of those things and I just cannot with hold it from myself. Pathetic? yes, I agree, a little. We'll see how easy not having some of those things will be when she gets here! I am so excited!

See you after the baby comes! Get ready for some pictures!!

Clara's Birthday update!

2011-02-18T07:13:00.000-08:00

I had a Dr. appointment yesterday with that other Ob in the office because my Dr. had no available appointments... but my Dr. was so nice and even though I wasn't scheduled with him he took the time to come and see me.. and I didn't have to wait long at all which was way nice. Makes me a little more confidant that some Dr.'s actually care about their patients.

I am dilated to a 3 and 80% - a good change for 48 hours :D. He still stripped the membrane but told me that only 5 - 10% of women actually go into labor by doing that. He is going out of town next Tuesday for a week or so he said he could schedule an induction for any day up through Monday if that is what we wanted. Otherwise I might have to wait until the end of the week so another Ob could take on my delivery.

My ideal would just to go into labor when I'm ready... BUT I didn't want to go too long after my due date so I can get to a point where I can take care of a new baby and demanding 3 year old on my own... with the help from Rock and my mother in-law I'll hopefully be able to get rested up enough and some random appointments in before they leave! Maybe by the time Rock leaves I will have adjusted to the no sleep thing too. :D .. I just hope I'm not a cranky mean mom to Rhett from exhaustion.

We are so excited and anxious for Clara to get here! I feel a lot less stressed out knowing that there is an end.. Most of all that it is going to happen in good timing and not leave us wondering when the baby is going to come and not end up coming until a few days before Rocky leaves!

FYI this might be TMI for some viewers..

2011-02-15T10:33:00.000-08:00

BLOGGING HAS BEEN GREAT EMOTIONAL THERAPY FOR ME! I'M JUST GOING TO VENT AND PUT THE WHOLE SITUATION OUT THERE!!

So.. I am kind of mad today, but I am getting over it. Dr.'s appointment. First of all I didn't get to see my doctor - BUT I did see another GREAT Dr. who was so kind to me and made me feel a LITTLE better about things...ish..not really but I guess he tried. ?.

I have had my heart and mind set on THIS due date

- FEBRUARY 22nd -

Even hoping I will still come a day or two early? -

knowing the WHOLE time that my Due date is really going to be THIS due date

- MARCH 1st -

According to THIS

This chart shows the day I ovulated which is 8ish days later than the norm... therefore my due date should be about 8 days later than the due date you get from the last menstruation date... (just ignore the details..
it might make you a
little uncomfortable
- but I'm just not going to get
embarrassed over it :D )

Now it is looking like a day or 2 late... or MORE!! EEK!

(However, I am so proud of this chart.. It might not mean that much to any of you out there.. but I was way into taking my temperature after not being able to get pregnant for a while/ my body was just SO out of wack. I just want to say.. that this is not the perfect text book chart according to the days.. BUT it is according to the temperatures :D.. I am so proud of it because it was the first time since I started charting that I had seen anything like this!! It is JUST BEAUTIFUL to me :D ... If any of you have dealt with this you understand what I mean :D This is the CRAZIEST thing EVER that we can see what is going on with our bodies hormonally through our simple every day body temperature. It is pretty crazy to learn JUST how intense the human body is .. organized down to the most minuscule detail EVER that just having a hormone not being released to its full potential will throw EVERYTHING off! - Probably more noticeable in women.. cuz ya know.. we are pretty emotional. But it is just a reminder to me that getting pregnant is a MIRACLE.. everything in the body has to be JUST right and can be thrown off by the most simple of things. Any who. )

.... But from my first appointment ultrasound I was measuring right along to the day with my last menstruation date. I have been measure RIGHT on my whole pregnancy. Today.. my belly was only measuring 38.5 weeks.. which is still pretty much on track. But still no change. Still at 2 CM and 80% effaced.

The Dr. tried to strip my membranes but little Clara's head is still at a + 2 so it was hard and he felt like he didn't get in there well enough. I asked him about scheduling and induction for my due date - the 22nd - He sat and debated in his head for a long time before he answered. He said he feels like he should wait to see how my body is coming along my next appointment before he decides to schedule an induction (which is my due date.. ugh). He just REALLY knows it will be a long and hard labor for me that might not turn out too well since my body hasn't made a big change. He doesn't feel confidant my body will receive the pitocin well enough at the stage my body is at now... That is something that is TOTALLY opposite of what I want as well for my labor!!! So I am semi okay with it :D I'm just feeling a lot of pressure because Rock is going out of the country for 10 days on March 4th!! I want to be back up and at it so I can juggle taking care of new baby, Rhett, and my calling as best as I can!! + I don't want my mother in-law coming into town all the way from Houston to sit for days and days and days and then just leave right when the baby gets here.. The Dr hopes that he stripped enough today to trigger the baby to move down a little more and scheduled me to come in Thursday morning to see how things are going and try stripping the membrane a little more. So cross your fingers... or pray :D... that things start going! ... I just have a feeling that 1 more week is going to turn into 2 more weeks and then Rock will be gone!! AH! I am freaking out!!

38 weeks

2011-02-07T15:26:00.000-08:00

The last week in January was the hardest week of my whole pregnancy!! - and possibly my whole life!! Sunday at 3 AM Rhett woke up being so picky as can be and would NOT go back to sleep... I lately have been waking up around 3 in the morning and not being able to fall back asleep anyway and figured I would just be awake with him and get him to go back to sleep. I didn't realize it would take 2 whole hours... and that morning I had a stake training meeting to be at at 7 am! - and after that I had to visit a couple of sisters in the ward and I had PEC and ward council to be at before church!! SO FINALLY at 5AM Rhett fell back asleep after I pulled my oh so big pregnant body up on the top bunk with him... well.. not with him. he was still on the bottom in his bed. Just enough time to give me another hour of sleep. 6AM came too soon and my whole day started - It wasn't that bad of a Sunday.. AND I actually got to go home after the training and take an 1 and1/2 nap before my other meetings. Too bad church just doesn't start at 9AM for us :( I was just really tired and Rhett didn't even make it through all of Sacrament meeting. Rock took him home after he helped pass the Sacrament. I had started contracting in Sunday school and they didn't go away until Relief Society was nearly over. Probably because I was so tired and dehydrated. I had to stay after church because we were doing visiting teaching interviews.... When I got home at 5:30 I was EXHAUSTED... But little did I know that this exhaustion was just the beginning of a horrible week.

Monday and Tuesday I was so sick - I got a fever and chills and body aches and I was coughing SO bad. BUT I had to end the war with Rhett and the computer in his room for good. He just couldn't leave it alone!! and after putting him in time out in his room for crying about not getting to watch TV I went in to check on him and he was trying to put a DVD in for himself.. That was the LAST straw after fighting night after night, nap after nap, day after day to NOT play with the computer. So I drug the computer piece by piece into Mommy and Daddy's room. The whole entire time Rhett was following behind me crying and screaming. I am sure my neighbors heard that one. But now its out of sight out of mind there are no more fights. So worth the hard work!

Wednesday I felt ok.. but still so tired. Thursday morning was okay.. but as the day progressed I got even more sick and got another fever and was coughing horribly at this point I thought I was going to push the baby out. Friday and Saturday were pretty much recovery. The hardest part about this week was that my husband was so busy with life that he was gone all day for school and had something almost every night!! - By Thursday night I just could not take it anymore but I wanted him to have some fun playing racquetball... After that I was just DONE! So thankfully he came home and took care of me.

This past week was MUCH better. After feeling like I wasted a whole 7 days of life and getting things done it was nice to accomplish things! So I cleaned and finished some projects and took Rhett to Ready Set School and did a big grocery shopping trip AND cleaned the carpets. (Rock and I are weird and we like to clean them like every 6 months... you can just tell a huge difference and we like clean carpets in our home.) There is a friend in my ward that let us borrow her new carpet cleaner and it worked GREAT! and SO much easier than the huge rentals. I felt SO GREAT about all the things I accomplished last week!!!

I am hoping this week is just as great..... although I found that I pretty much finished all my "baby" projects last week and I still have 2 weeks to go... I don't know what I'll do. I guess I could do spring cleaning??

Last week at 37 weeks

Projects that finally got done after 1 long week of being oh so sick... I painted Rhett and Clara little wall hanging things.. they aren't the most professional thing but they were easy. My sister in-law gave me the idea from blog called Make it and Love it. I made the cover for the changing table and the little collapsible boxes. I got all of the crib bedding ideas and box ideas from a website called Sew4home.com. Way fun things on there - most come with tutorials that are so easy to follow. I just made up the changing pad cover and it is a little too small..but works.

Baby corner :D

We are now SO ready for this little girl to get here! On Jan. 22nd a friend of mine, Courtney, threw me a baby shower. It was SUCH a blessing and I just think this girl is amazing. We know each other through our husbands who are in the HR masters program together. So we don't know each other too well and it just made me SO grateful for wonderful people that take the time to think and care about others. I had already planned on Clara wearing some of Rhett's baby things and I had gotten a box with some girl things from a friend back in MN and some things for Christmas from my parents and Rock's parents. But now she won't have to wear TOO many boy things AND I'll have things for both girls and boys in the future :D

Me yesterday at 37 weeks and 5 days. :D I'll be 38 weeks tomorrow!!!

I had my weekly apt today. Last week I had lost a couple of pounds.. probably from being sick and I was at 2 cm and 80%... There was no change this week.. but I did gain a pound :D ... So I am pretty sure this baby will make it to her due date. Which I am not sure how I feel about it lately. I didn't realize how hard this last month would be!!! I can make it 2 more weeks for sure. But I am so sore and pathetically tired all the time. I guess I just need to take it one day at a time. I probably should have saved a few more fun projects for these last couple of weeks. BUT I still have a lot of bows that I want to make so that should be fun.

Rhett is pretty excited about this little baby too... He has loved helping me put everything away for the baby and getting all the clothes clean. He's had so much fun opening all the presents from our friends and family! He gets a little TOO excited about the girl things.. Rock might get mad if he finds out that the little "baby Clara" Grams got for Clara for Christmas goes with Rhett more places than just bedtime :D He loves having her all swaddled in one of the receiving blankets we got for her. He can't believe it will only be about 2 more weeks until she is here! As a three year old he is definitely a handful.. but we are learning how to adjust!

I'm LoViNg It!

2011-01-21T10:16:00.001-08:00

Fun things this week:

First of all - A new secretary was called for our relief society!! Making my life just that much less stressful! She is a way cute girl that just moved into our ward and I am excited to get to know her and her husband and I know she will do a great job with her calling.

Monday - A day off of school so I didn't have to get up too early to work out. Finished the skirt for the crib!

Tuesday - Rhett and I went over to a friends house, Jessica Dana's, and learned how to make some WAY cute bows for the baby. I learned a ton from her which is GREAT except now I feel bad that I didn't know those things when I made bows for other people!! - oh well. I sewed together the binding and the ties for the bumpers. We had dinner group at a couple's house from our ward and had so much fun! We really LOVE our ward! So many great people

Wednesday - Kind of a lazy day... Did a TON of work for my calling in the morning and then was lazy all day while Rock was gone all day for his "official" first day in his internship. Put together 1 bumper for the crib and fell in love with how it turned out.

Thursday - I took Rhett to 'Ready Start School' where he learned about feelings :D He loves to pick out books and toys to take home for a few weeks to play with! He thinks it is so cool that daddy goes to a big scwool and he goes to a little scwool. And that is how is says school "Scwool". We got a package in the mail with some gifts from my Mom and Dad and little sister's for the baby shower on Saturday. We couldn't resist opening them. I wish I would have recorded JUST how excited Rhett was about them.. THANK YOU MOMMY!!! Rock took Rhett to a basket ball game and I could tell when he got home that he just LOOOOVED being with his dad. I think as a mom you forget that they need to actually get OUT with their dad and do things. They go everywhere with their moms. I sewed together the rest of the bumpers while they were gone.

Today - Rock at work. I finished the bumpers and put together the crib with Rhett. He is so excited about this baby... We'll see if that lasts very long. Rock is going down to SLC tonight because he has a HR test tomorrow early :( So this Friday night is SURE going to be GREAT .... not.

Here are the pictures of the crib bedding!
A couple other projects that I will do with the left over fabric is a cover for the changing table pad and some fun collapsible boxes for diapers, rags, accessories.... I found a way cute website that shows how to make them and its cute that they will match the bedding!

4 years of marital bliss

2010-12-26T08:26:00.000-08:00

We had already had such a great weekend but being able to go out and celebrate our 4 year anniversary this year was the icing on the cake! We were lucky that Jamey and Dave let us leave Rhett behind as we took the afternoon to go on a date. We decided to go to the Salt Lake Temple and do sealings. It was our first time back to the SLC Temple since we were married so it was kind of fun to 're-live' some memories. After we did sealings we took the time to sit in the celestial room for a while where we waited 4 years ago before we were sealed. It was pretty special :D.

We enjoyed a little walk and lunch at the Nauvoo cafe. As we waited for lunch Rock got a pretty exciting phone call. He applied for an internship that will start this next semester with USU's Human Resource's Department. He was one of the 5 applicants that they chose and this should give him some good experience that most people working in human resources get only once throughout their carrier if at all. I don't know all the details but I do know that they are overhauling their department with the benefits and things they offer to their employees. I will have talk to Rock a little more and correct myself if I am wrong. But, Congratulations Rocky!! Now we just need to pray and prayers to help us find an internship for this summer!

Holidays with the Family

2010-12-25T22:50:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we had the opportunity to go up to Rexburg ID to see Maddie and Sawyer!! We had fun staying with them and getting to visit with them for a couple of days. Sawyer Graduated on Saturday - Maddie's B-day :D, and they blessed their cute little baby Isaac on Sunday.

Rock, Rhett and baby Isaac.

After the baby blessing we headed down to Salt Lake and stayed the night at Jamey and Dave's. It was pretty crazy with Grams and Grandpa in the room with ALL of the boys. Rock and I slept in the living room. It had been a busy day and we didn't get into Salt Lake until really late but that didn't keep the boys from getting up bright and early to celebrate Christmas from Grams and Grandpa.

That night was the Huntington Family Christmas Party!! Our family was in charge for the first time this year - but we still got a ton of help from everyone else. We worked hard all day to get ready and enjoyed the time seeing family! Grandma and Grandpa Huntington got everyone a little gift with a story for our family history stories which Rock and I read most of on the way home. We loved hearing the story of Grandma Huntington's life .. She however claimed in the gift that it was a cure to insomnia :D. She is pretty funny.

We had SO much fun watching Rhett when Santa Claus came into the room!!!! He was SOOOO excited he couldn't take it! It was one of the few times that he was so excited, he was speechless and I loved it. He was very patient and waited in line for his turn. It made him even more excited for Christmas to come and for the last few days he has been pretending that he was Santa Claus. He kept telling me yesterday that if I poked his belly he would laugh really hard. I also caught him playing pretend with a measuring tape saying "I'm Santa, who wants to be measured, come right up" (?) I don't really know where he got that from.... He had a hard time sleeping last night wanting to stay awake to see Santa. I'm excited to get Rhett excited for Christmas and Santa and all of those things.. but, I feel a little deceitful at the same time :S

Waiting to sit on Santa's Lap - Don't you LOVE Jamey's fun Christmas outfit?!!

So cute - and we are so, so excited for her new little baby that will be arriving the 29Th in a few short days!!

Thank you to ALL of our family for such a WONDERFUL Christmas! We are so blessed and cannot express our gratitude enough for all you do for us ALL year round... you have filled our Holidays with joy! We hope you all have had safe and wonderful Holidays so far. We LOVE you.

Christmas Day!

2010-12-25T22:22:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

We sure were spoiled this Christmas!! - We will have to put up some other pictures of the rest of our Christmas and holiday celebrations in the next few days because we were so lucky to have some time with family!

Santa sure worked hard Christmas Eve night helping mom and dad set up Rhett's new bunk bed... It really wasn't from Santa but was a Christmas gift from our families!! But we set it all up and had it be a Santa surprise this morning.... along with all of the other surprises that Santa and family had for us!

There MAY have been a theme to this Christmas!! Surprised?

I WISH I was this creative.. but ideas were not mine..

2010-12-10T22:31:00.000-08:00

29 weeks

So, I am getting big. At least too big for most of my church dresses. And I like to follow homemaking blogs. On this particular blog this girl has made her own maternity stuff and gives tutorials on how to make them. So this is what I did with a couple of pants that were given to me a while ago. Thinking that I would actually where them either at the end of a pregnancy or postpartum I kept them.. But, I never did wear them they were still too big and decided I would use them for this purpose and they worked PERFECTLY because there was some slack to work with when I sewed them together!!!

I had a couple of jeans that looked a little like this.

Then I cut, pinned, sewed and got this!!

And this too!

I used 2 old DownEast basic T's that I have had laying around for the belly band part.

I know it might be a little not so in style.. but they are soo comfy and I will probably where them every Sunday from here on out.. Well, maybe not ALL.. but for the most part, yeah.

For Super Duper Saturday in our Relief Society they had so, so many fun things that I JUST HAD to make some for Christmas gifts and (even though Rock always teases me about this) I made some of the same things for me and my home :D

This is a magnet board that I made to match our room because when the baby comes our office is going to move in with Rock and I :(. I hope we like being roommates with all of that stuff.. we'll have to see.

This is a birthday calendar I made... but after getting it home and working on it more ( because we all know you don't get much done during the actually SS activities :D ) I decided that it is not that cool... It is cute!!.. but I don't think it makes much sense to have all of those magnets when your not even going to move them.. But I think in the future I will be able to think of creative ways to use them if needs be. :D

Yay for feeling good about making things and having fun making things for other people too!! I didn't want to post most of them because they would be x-mas gift spoilers.. so maybe after x-mas i will.

RhEtT iS 3!!!

2010-12-10T22:14:00.000-08:00

Oh my gosh! I can NOT believe Rhett is 3. It is too crazy... After this year I decided that we are going to have to figure out ways to celebrate his birthday so that he #1-doesn't start acting so spoiled and #2-realizes when is birthday REALLY is! Though, I know we will probably celebrate early with family no matter what, because it is the BEST to have family around to enjoy those moments!

I really wasn't great at taking pictures while he opened presents.. so sorry....

We had a birthday pizza party at Pizza Hut over Thanksgiving break with my family!! Rhett felt SO SO special and got so many great gifts! Thank you to everyone for making that day special for him. It is so much fun to see little kids feel special and excited. We had a cake with no way to light the candles. So this was a little "pretend" blowing out of the candles. You can see in the begining he is looking at the candles a little wierd like "what the heck." Right after the party we headed home and he was OUT from all the fun and pizza, pop, cake and presents.

We decided we were just going to do a little family part with just our family, but then we decided ot invite a few people over. Some from the ward and from Rocks program that have kids around Rhett's age! We were so glad that some of them came to celebrate with us. It wasn't the funnest of parties ever.. but what 3 year old bday party is? ;).

Before Rhett's party we took him over to Hyde Park to a Park to do some sledding. He was in his new Hat, Gloves, Boots and coats and READY to go! He was super excited to get out and do that. Plus we just had a big couple of snow storms so there was TONS of snow! Rock and I both decided, as we pushed him down the hill and watched him do his best to bring the sled back up the hill with him, that THIS is the BEST age so far! But what do we know right?? We like it because he is still a miniature person, he can be so cute, he is learning so fast, BUT he is so independent at the same time so we can do a lot more fun mobile things with him! After we were through we went to chili's for a little apatizer bday dinner/free chocolate shake which he loved and then we had a partay!!

I did make this cake. (all except for the rocks around the bottom and the fondant neatly rolled out and place over the cake which a friend from my ward helped me with.. oh and the fondant itself... I bought it :D ) I know, HUGE surprise because Rock is the more talented creative one in our marriage. He probably could have done a better job than I did, still. I really don't EVER think I will do fondant again because it just tasted NAST! Maybe homemade would taste better, but Rhett loved it and that is what matters. Right?

Some things most people have probably already've seen:

2010-12-09T07:45:00.000-08:00

So, I have decided that I am going to find one day a month to keep up on posting.. I hope that is a realistic goal. But these are a few fun things that we've done as a family this past month or so! Rhett had a BLAST this Halloween... I pretty much LOVE this age. He is big enough to do thing on his own, but he is still a miniature person that I love to watch learn and grow. He had the choice of being a pirate or a robot.. he obviously chose to be a...

ROBOT

We pretty much have the best Primary leaders EVER and they put on THE funnest little Halloween party for all the kids. They markered pumpkins, decorated pumpkin cookies, played pin the something on the something (I forgot what it was), and did a cake walk. Rhett was the first to win and he HAD to pick a toy that would be fun to annoy us with :D

Halloween was pretty dreary. It was really cold and rainy. We tried really hard to make it fun anyway and took Rhett to a town hall Halloween party where he got to play lots of games. There was shooting a cross bow, eating a cookie from a string, the rat throw, duck pond and a cake walk. He pretty much won a candy where ever he went no matter how well he did. We liked this video of the cake walk to see how Rhett walks in his costume.... and he got squished so he didn't even land on a # :(.. but he still got candy!

We went trick or treating over in Hyde Park to Bishop Wheeler's house and just took him around that block. He knew exactly what he was doing after someone answered the door he would yell so loud "TRICK OR TREAT!". This was the year he really noticed all of the SPOOKY things. At one house they had a scary skull with candy to take and when you took a piece it would laugh and say "don't be scared!" It was funny to watch Rhett just stare scared with really really big eyes. The rest of the walk he wouldn't stop telling me about the head that he took candy from. The last house we went to was THE worst. There was a life size skeleton by the door and when Rock and Rhett walked up to the door it laughed really scary and then started to sing and dance. Rhett did NOT know what to think at all.... Rock really tried to get him excited and to dance and so Rhett tried really hard to force out a dance. But, once Rock said to knock on the door and yell "help, help!" Rhett decided that it was really scary and he really did yell that when he knocked on the door and started to suck his bottom lip in and out really fast cuz he was sooo scared. He woke up that night a few times coming to us crying because he was scared of his closet.. there was something in it.

That was our Halloween fun.

*****************************************

For thanksgiving this year we were lucky enough to be able to see my family again. And by lucky.. I MEAN LUCKY!!(that we made it down there in one piece :D but that is another story in and of itself that Rock and I will NEVER forget.. some of you may be laughing knowing EXACTLY what we are talking about. BUT you gotta love it.)

We went down to Cedar City and St. George. We were able to stay with Papa and Arlene the night before Thanksgiving at their home in St. George. Rhett had so much fun! He just loves Grandma's and Grandpa's. I really hope it was okay that he just started calling Arlene Grandma. :D We had fun visiting with them.

Thanksgiving day we spent with my Grandma Carlisle who is now living the single life in St. George and LOVING it! She was seriously GLOWING when we saw her. She always likes to have everyone do a little talent to share with each other so we had fun hearing everyone sing. We have pretty talented cousins.. let me tell you! For his talent, Rhett sang the ABC's.. cuz he's pretty much AMAZING at it! After he was all done and everyone clapped so loud and cheered for him he started all over again. The whole week following this he would sing it to me and tell me "Clap MOM!" Sad to say we did not get a video of that incident at Grandma Carlisle's. BUT he got to share his talent again later on that night at the Campbell's home :D Take a look! What a show off!!

We had another HUGE Thanksgiving at my cousins, the Campbell's, home in Cedar City. It is always so much fun to see so much family in so little of time.. but kind of sad that we can't spend more time. I pretty much just LOVE thanksgiving time.... BUT not as much as CHRISTMAS TIME!! Which is almost here! I love love love making gifts for other people. This year is going to be our VERY first year as a family that we spend totally alone on Christmas day! You have to have a first sometime, right?... Well.. as sad as we are not to have that family coziness, we are secretly excited. We hope you all have very wonderful and safe Holidays!

Baby Girl Tolman

2010-11-12T08:17:00.000-08:00

..A little Rewind (if you can call it that)..

First of all this pregnancy has been different, at least from what I CAN remember, than the pregnancy with Rhett. I think I was a lot more nauseated this time and it lasted a lot longer BUT I didn't throw up once, or even feel the urge to! Even though I didn't more than a handful of times with Rhett, I just HATE puking! My chest got really sore right away and stayed super tender until basically the nausea went away. Though the nausea tapered off when I reached about 12 weeks.. it still hung around when 5 or 6 in the evening hit and lasted for a few more weeks! I craved more naturally sweet things like fruit. With Rhett I was all about candy and salty foods..especially meat.

Cravings?

I definitely don't think there were any cravings in the 1st trimester BUT the a few of the things that sounded good to me when I knew I HAD to eat included:

Plain beagles with strawberry cream cheese
onion beagles with cream cheese
string cheese
Pickles
cinnamon french toast
and my MOST favorite was anything fresh fruit.. mmm

I think more cravings came around the middle of the 2nd trimester. Some of the cravings have come and gone but include:

spicy chicken stuff like buffalo wings and hot n spicy mcchicken - this one was hard because I couldn't just go and get it anytime I wanted.. I had to resist and find something else to satisfy.
French toast with cinnamon
Yogurt
Chocolate - blame it on Halloween because that's when it got BAD!
Cheese and crackers
frosted mini bites cereal
My MOST FAVORITE!! once I got a few recipe's to make them - Green Smoothies!! Can't get enough!!

Back to our first appointment/ultra sound

We brought Rhett along with us to this appointment. He sat with Rock as the Dr. talked with us and asked "Is Mommy gunna die?" ... Random?... He remembers what the going to the Dr. is like now and the things they sometimes say to kids, so when he started the ultra sound he reassured me by saying "Mommy your really brave!" When they started to measure the heartbeat I was SO excited! I had waited for what seemed like forever to hear it! Rhett got excited and when the Dr. told him it was the baby's heartbeat he had to act like a 'know it all' and said "yeah, I know, Heartbeep." After the appointment he wouldn't even let us look at the pictures that we got and held them right against his chest the whole way home saying that he loved the baby and would tell us to "look its like the baby's heartbeep" showing us the pictures. TOO FUN!!

Here is the first look we had at our little growing baby!
About 11 weeks along!

This is a look at our fun Ultra Sound
check up for the baby about 18 weeks along!

we didn't get very many pictures but we
DID get a DVD and I finally figured out how to
get some pictures off of the DVD to share!!

one of the 2 pictures we had printed off
- a 3D look at our little girl!

Little baby Arms crossed in front of her face. (DVD)

What the U.S. thech was looking at in
both 2D(?) and 3D at the same time.
Baby's arms still crossed in front of her face
- you can see inside her skull! (DVD)

I know these are hard to tell what they are.
You can see a baby arm, the chord and little leg and foot.
Kinda Cool! (DVD)

Just a cute side view of little baby girl all cozied up. (DVD)

Same side view in 3D.
Her legs were crossed like that the entire time!
They couldn't get her to undo them! (DVD)

This was the hardest part!
The Tech said that she knew without a doubt that the baby is a girl and just really could not get a good clear shot to "prove" it to us. So, she spent a lot of time showing us what the anatomy looks like on a girl = 3 white lines. I hope you can click on the picture to get a closer look for yourself! There are arrows pointing to the girl parts. (DVD)

This is our little girl!!

And last a current picture of me at 25 weeks along!

She is moving so much now! Mostly when I get done exercising and right when I get into bed. I run out of breath trying to speak to people.. it is SO embarrassing when I am conducting in church and cannot breath! The belly is definitely growing up into my lungs and squashing my guts too so I get really hungry, but then fill up really fast. Rhett makes sure that I know my belly is getting bigger and bigger EVERY DAY - no joke. He loves to go the the 'baby' doctor with me and asks if we are going most days. He hugs and kisses my big belly and tells me he loves my baby too :D I LOVE seeing him interact with everything that is going on.

THIS is love

2010-10-13T11:03:00.000-07:00

I was reading Nie Nie today.. my usual blog check up :D.. and she had a video with this song playing and I just could not help but BAWL my eyes out!!! Hourglass by Mindy Gledhill

I am a little too sentimental when it comes to time passing... I was like that ever since I was little. I had this special tape that was made with my name Jennifer about being a little baby and growing up someday.. I would listen to it over and over and over and just cry. I remember one time my mom said that she would have to take it away if I was going to keep getting so sad over it.

Now I find myself getting like that when I think of my little boy and how much and how fast he is growing and I can't help but want to hold on to EVERY single little memory!! aah! and on top of that I am extra emotional from being pregnant!! I think my mom needs to tell me she is going to take him away if I keep crying over it! :D

I keep a journal for Rhett.. I hope to do it for all of my kids but know that the more that come into my life the more busy life will get and I just might not be able to keep up.. But it has been SO fun and so worth it as I go back and read all the little things. I didn't want to forget a thing and throughout his first few years have written every couple of months about the different developemental stages he is going through, his likes and dislikes, and of course all the cute things he does and says. As he gets older I plan to just write about the special things that happen in his life and the achievements that he has made. One day when he gets married and has a baby I want him to have it.

As I struggled through the emotions of trying to get pregnant again and things were just not going as I planned the ONE thing I feared for most was not being able to give him the chance to experience being a sibling here on this earth. I know we would have figured something out. But at that time as a mother, and a women I just felt like I might failed him and it made me feel so awful about myself.

Through that time I have learned so much. I felt so much love from my Heavenly Father as I got extra "special" time with JUST Rhett and I at home. He is my most favorite, favorite!! I am so grateful to be bringing a little sister into his life at this time! I have LOVED EVERY SINGLE minute of watching and listening to how excited his is about this baby. He tells me every day "mom, I love your baby." I wouldn't change a thing now of the timing of this pregnancy!

This is a part of my last journal entry to Rhett:

Rhett, I cannot express the love that I have for you. I sometimes do not understand why you, a sweet, loving, fun, silly, little Angel was sent to ME! I am so glad you can be a big brother. These memories I write are more for me than they might ever become for you. I don't want to forget ANYTHING! I always want to remember how you grow and all the sweet things that come and go SO fast! All of these things are too precious to forget because they make you who you are. It will be hard to watch you grow and change so fast, but it has been filled with the most joy I will ever experience. I love you and I know your daddy adores you. - Mommy

Made By Hiedi Giveaway!

2010-10-12T10:09:00.000-07:00

One of my most favorite blogs to follow is madebyhiedi.blogspot.com. There are always such cute cute creative things on here that inspire me to be more crafty and I love it!

I love, love, love these towels!! check out this super cute halloween giveaway! I want to get one of these towels so bad for Rhett!! Maybe I will have to learn how if I don't because I know he will LOOOOOOVE it! I have a love/hate relationship with things like this because I LOVE getting things for Rhett that I know he will go crazy over just to see the look on his face! It is PRICELESS ( most of the time :D )

To see the girl behind the towels and to enter to win go to:

http://madebyheidi.blogspot.com/2010/10/spooky-halloween-towel-giveaway.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MadeByHeidi+(Made+by+Heidi)

Rhett and Baby Room ... WHAT TO DO?

2010-10-09T09:20:00.000-07:00

In the place that we live in we have the option of getting on a waiting list for a 3 bedroom apartment if we would like to. I think we'll put our name on it and see if we can't get into one in the next 5 months, But we've pretty much decided just to stay in our 2 bedroom no matter what. So I am not completely sure of what we REALLY want to do. So here is the list.

Pro's:
- we'll get more storage and living space and not have a chance of feeling crammed.
- we'll have a 3rd bedroom and 2nd bath so it will be more privacy and working room for both us and guests when they come
- having the 3rd room will give us the possibility of having a nursery making toddler and baby nights/naps easier to handle.
-if we have a nursery I won't have to figure out how to mesh toddler boy and baby girl together. not that its the BIGGEST deal on earth.... but I want to decorate for my girl like I did for Rhett!

Con's:
- if/when we move out of Logan I'm pretty sure we'll only be able to afford a 2 bed. apartment anywhere we move
-I'm okay with having a smaller place to clean. Adding another bathroom and bedroom will just add more work when adding a baby is going to be PLENTY more work for me to do.
-I'm pretty sure that in a 3 bedroom apartment I would just be wanting the 3rd room to be the office/guestroom/holiday storage space so the baby will be sleeping in with Rhett anyway.
-and lets face it - moving is the HUGEST PAIN on earth.. even if it might just be across the parking lot.

So, I guess we will be making that decision as it comes.. Most likely we will stay where we are. But I am getting sooooooo ancy to start bedding for the baby! The BIG problem is trying to figure out how I can make Rhett's room and the baby room look like one. It will drive me nuts to have too much going on in one room! I know that other people don't think that is a big deal... but I'm wierd like that I guess.

Right now the thing that has me hung up on these colors in Rhett's room are his navey blue striped curtains. I wasn't pregnant when I got them so I didn't even think MAYBE I should do something a little easier to make nutral. But they are great cuz I got them for $4 each at Ross and they keep the room nice and dark because when the sun comes up it hits Rhetts room first. So we had an early bird this summer until we got those curtains...

So here is my idea for making the room one with some pictures I found online for examples of the color palette. :D

Rhett

I really want to use our crib for the baby so I don't have to bend up and down to lift baby out of bed and put her in bed. (it's so weird to say her!) So we are going to most likely get a twin sized bed for Rhett. (something simple and inexpensive) I plan on making him a blue/naveyblue and orange quilt for his birthday to go on that new bed whenever we get it. I will try and pick out the baby bedding fabric when I get his so they can match pretty well.

Baby

As for the baby bedding I am going to do a peachy/orangey/cream clolor theme with a little navey blue touch in there somewhere. Kind of like a orange cream soda color theme using soft flowing material to make it pretty, frilly and girly.

So there it is. Exciting. I know :D

If anyone has GREAT ideas PLEASE share them with me. Decorating/color palettes are NOT my forte! I am not the most creative person on earth and would love any good ideas!

Jean quilt and headbands

2010-10-08T19:09:00.000-07:00

A LONG LONG time ago I wanted to make Rock this jean quilt for fathers day. I gathered all the jeans I could get and got a ton. ( thanks to many friends and family. you are all so great! ) I decided in April that I would get going on it once we were moved and settled into our new home.

I finally started cutting out squares here and there and with a lot of trial and error finally got them all cut out a little into June. But after the cutting part was done I decided to take a break for a day or 2 that turned into a week and pretty soon Fathers day was just one week away!!

This is the front of the quilt after we got it all together. Sorry about the little boy in underwear shot... but lets be honest Rhett and I spend many of our days in jammies or undies :D

So, I started sewing hoping that once I got the front of the quilt put together that the rest would be a breeze. I finally got the front together and decided to take a break for a day and thought that at least I could put the back together, tie and finish the quilt in a couple of days.. turns out that the one day break turned into a week.... Fathers Day past... and then the procrastination set in.

Once I began to feel the fatigue and nausea of pregnancy I used that as my excuse (but seriously... I could hardly do one or two things a day!!) and weeks turned into months and then September rolled around and Rocks birthday was in 13 days. So, I made it my goal to finish by his birthday!

Putting the back together was more of a challenge than I thought.... Rock picked out some fun fish fabric and we figured out a way that we could make the back look cool.. which it does, but it was a TON of more work than I thought trying to figure it all out on my own.

I got the back together and once again took a little break that turned into a week that turned into 2 weeks. Rocks birthday came and went and FINALLY I was just going to get it done. There were some more trial and error problems with the tying but it took me 3 days and I FINALLY had the finished product.... WHAT A RELIEF!!

It is worth it to have it done but now I just look at it and cringe at how annoying it was to get done! I learned a lot about putting a quilt together through trial and error so MAYBE I will try another, much easier one for Rhett's birthday.

I know... It IS huge... but Rock insisted. At least half of my body won't have to freeze in the night. I never win in the fight for blankets at night.

We slept with for the first time last night and oh my! We are going to have the warmest bed on the block!! It was supposedly going to be in the 30's last night so we decided to leave our window open anyway and ended having to turn on our fan too it was sooo hot! It was kind of nice to cuddle under that thing once the room was pretty cold!

I know I might be the lamest person in the world but lately I like to wear things in my hair. I don't know where the obsession began. So, because we are poor college students and we can't afford to buy $15.oo headbands I decided to make some of my own... but honestly I have yet to make one for myself! I liked them so much I just started to make them for birthday gifts to my little sister's and sisters in-law.. The first ones I made were for Morgan and her little sister in-law Brittany. I don't know if they liked them.. but I still think they are cute :D. Yes, I did wear them to model in a picture before I sent them away. Am I a nerd or what?

These are the most recent one's I made for Janese's birthday which is this Sunday!

These are a couple of the ones that i made for Brittany and Morgan

From Spring to Fall...

2010-09-03T19:05:00.000-07:00

I have been SO terrible this summer keeping up with my blog!.. Once I realized how far behind I was the more I procrastinated sitting down and putting my time into the blog. So, out of laziness here are some fun things that we enjoyed this summer and maybe some of the in between!

Way back in May my sister in law Jamey and her hubby Dave took a vaca to D.C. for a few days and we watched Mason and Grant for a couple of days! Rhett LOVED having Grant here to sleep with. It was fun to have another baby around but made me so, so glad that I am getting a little break from changing diapers now that Rhett is potty trained!!

Making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with the boys! YUM!

June was quite an eventful month in our family. We had been settled in our ward only 1 month before the bishop called us with some callings. Rock got the exact same calling that he had in our last ward.. but he only was in that calling for about 4 months. He is the 2nd Sunday Elders Quorum teacher and he does a good job! I always get compliments that he taught a great lesson. I was called to be the new Relief Society President. At first I was super intimidated by being one of the newer people in the ward, and I still feel that way from time to time, but as my presidency and I have worked together and gotten a routine down and new goals underway things are going well. I have been learning so much about myself through this calling and am so grateful that I have a good presidency to work with me! They do so much and have made me feel more at ease and confidant to do the things I need to do.

Fathers Day. Rhett of course is the present opening helper. Its his JOB.

Just the day before I was set apart in my calling I found out I was pregnant! We could NOT believe it and were so so excited! Keeping it a secret was hard to do. Here are some more recent pictures.... Baby update soon to come

15 weeks.

17 weeks (-1 day)

The last week in June we went to the Huntington camp out where we had fun playing games, eating food and sitting around the fire. The weather was perfect. Rock was still in classes so I would pick him up from school and head out to the campground that was at Gueneva Campground in Logan Canyon. Seeing everyone was GREAT! We just love our family!

My most favorite!!! My little Rhettzel Pretzel!! TOO CUTE!

July was also pretty eventful. I went down to "help" Josalyn with her sweet new baby Ian... but ended up just being a bum. I felt so bad. The day after I got there is when the nausea and tiredness kicked in FULL throttle. Oh my gosh, it was so bad. So, sorry Josalyn. I really didn't mean to be a pain I swear, I swear! I was so super excited to help out and see the baby and see Mailon and be with you!

Oh my gosh!

Rhett is SO excited about the new baby and LOVED his big brother shirt that we made for him!!

I was getting more anxious as the weeks turned into days until we were at the cabin because we wanted to spill the beans of having a baby so BAD!!! I can't tell you how hard it was I was so excited. We made Rhett this shirt that says "I'm going to be a big brother" to surprise everyone! The wait was well worth it! But, I still think it was more exciting for me to tell everyone our news than it was for everyone to find out! We had a ton of fun at the cabin with Rhett this year. He went swimming, four wheeling, on boat rides and did some fun arts and crafts. He also took his naps, went to bed on time, and played well with all the cousins for the most part and had very few time outs. I was SO thankful for it because I was dreading being at the cabin with a Meany, hitting, saying "no", crying all the time Rhett.. and that just was not him this trip! LOVED IT. When we got home from the cabin he really missed it and asked "is this like our cabin." So for a while he was calling our home, cabin. Here are some of the fun pictures from the cabin this year!

A week before the cabin. Fun in the tub!

Rhett is getting use to his "SUPER READER SUIT" (you know, from super y.. dont ask)

Rope swing

Our ward Primary always does a spotlight and Rhett was the lucky July spotlight!! So here are some of his favorite things!!

August has just flown by like the rest of the summer. A couple of weeks ago Rock went down to Salina with his Mom and Dad for a week to try his luck at hunting elk. It didn't turn out so great.. but he had fun with his family. That same weekend I went down to Ian's baby blessing and got to see Janese and Janae before Janese started school at SUU. After the blessing I met Rock in Salina and drove out toward the camp to be with them the last couple of days that Rock could hunt. I had fun being there with everyone and even got to go out hunting with Rock one evening. Rhett had a ton of fun playing with the kids and camping out in a tent, even though he cried going down for naps and night time. He loves campfires. The most unpleasant thing was having to go pee so much now in the middle of the night that I had to force myself to wait until at least 4 in the morning.. but couldn't sleep through it from then on!! Mostly I was just spooked that there were aliens out there waiting to get me... I know, I am a LOSER!!

Well.. that pretty much covers our summer.. I may add a few more of the fun things here and there that we've done and enjoyed!!

.. we should have knocked on wood ..

2010-05-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

NIGHTMARE OF HORROR by Rhett Curtis Tolman

.. Yesterday, Wednesday May 12, 2010,
Rock and I felt like we were in a nightmare.
featuring our own..

just days before we were commending Rhett on how GREAT he has been with coloring. He draws on paper, and we let him color on the moving boxes and we still had yet to experience a toddler coloring on the wall. Well.. we should have knocked on wood...

Let me take you back. A couple of days ago I got a little jewelry box thingy from the D.I. We sanded it down and repainted it out on the balcony... we put the paint away and we left the cardboard box that we put the paint on and the brush out on the balcony. You think being out there for 2 days and 2 nights that all of that stuff would completely dry out. Well, the paint on the box dried.. but little did we know, the small brush still was wet enough to do some big damage!

It was around 10:30 a.m. I was in the bathtub. Daddy was still relaxing in bed with his eyes closed and Rhett must have been super board. Coming to the end of my bath I heard some scritch scratching on the bathroom door. I thought it was just Rhett wanting to get into the bathroom. I decided not to go see what it was. I got out of the tub and dill-dallied around for a little while getting ready for the day when I heard rock scream "JEN HELP! HELP!" I freaked out, whipped open the door and stepped into A HORROR MOVIE?? or was it a NIGHTMARE?? There was this sweet little boy and a black paint brush looking at me as I screamed "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" and then he quickly seemed to admit that he knew it was naughty. Dropped the brush and began to cry. (which is so hard as a mommy because it makes your heart break when you know that they know it was wrong and feel so ashamed! ugh)

This is how it all happened - RHett had gone out on the balcony from the master bedroom while dad was sleeping.. found this brush that should have been dry, I don't know how in the world it wasn't. He found that it painted on the door window and then the ground leading through open door and decided to then try it on the wall just inside the bedroom door a bit. He then continued to the master bedroom door, down the hall (probably on one side) into the living room, around to the kitchen, back into the living room, in the hall, in his room and back up the other side of the hall to the bathroom door. Rock said he opened his eyes and saw the black by the balcony door and then sat up and saw it all over a screamed!! WHAT A NIGHTMARE!!

We hurried and tried to scrub it off and eventually ended up going to Walmart and thanks to these:

We were able to get the walls all cleaned! THANK GOODNESS!!! Rhett had to have a time out in his bed for about 10 minutes and think about what he did.. then I made him come out and help clean up his mess. At first he was using a rag and realized that it wasn't coming off and saidj "Mom, it not woaking, it not woaking. I sorry. Look Rhett did. Its naughty." I said "It wasn't very nice was it." and he agreed by tilting his head to the side and saying "uh-huh." That was before we got the magic erasers.. then it came off for him great. As I talked to him about it he agreed that it was not the right choice. He told me sorry all throughout the day. I hope he learned his lesson! NO MORE PAINTING ON WALLS!! .. After all was said and done, I realize that it wasn't the end of the world. But boy oh boy my head was spinning in circles when from room to room I discovered more and more paint.

Settling into our new home in Logan

2010-05-13T13:09:00.001-07:00

Moving is such a chore! After living in the same place for almost 3 years we forget how big of a job it is! Thank you to everyone that helped us out with the moving, loading, and cleaning! We are so grateful for all the helping hands. We really really appreciate and love all of you. I realize that there are many many more moves in our future as young as we are and after all of the hard things I am glad for all the good things that come from moving.

ThInGs I LiKe AboUt MovInG:

Re-orginization, getting rid of garbage and useless junk, finally getting the courage to get rid of old clothes that we've had for years and know we'll never wear again, finding lost things, finding hidden money, seeing things that bring back good memories, facing a new journey as a couple and a family. :D

We are so excited to start this new chapter in Rock's education and as a family. Though it won't be a huge change, leaving Provo behind was a little bitter-sweet for us. We really loved our ward, we loved the atmosphere of BYU and I know Rock will miss it a lot. I was so used to my surroundings: where I went grocery shopping, where I took Rhett to the park, the post office, my running routes. We will miss taking trips up the beautiful Provo Canyon for fun, fishing, hiking and cookouts. The thing that got me to tear up a bit was leaving that small apartment. I know, I know!! Many of you heard my complaints of really wanting more space! That is all still very true... but we have had many great things happen to us while living there. We made the huge transition from Snow College to start at BYU and were so proud when we found ourselves that apartment! Living there We were able to build a great relationship with my Grandparents and after Grandma Shaw passed away I was able to be there for my Grandpa! I am going to miss those weekly visits desperately. We loved being close enough to visit the Hulsberg's and Salinas' often. They have done so much for us and it will be harder being more than an hour away. One of the biggest things was bringing sweet little Rhett into our family! That was such a huge event for our young family and has brought so much love, joy, and light into our lives! We have matured so much as individuals and as a family since that time. Seeing that, it made us realize that though change is hard sometimes, it is a good thing. We'll take all of those fond memories with us. Now we are onto a new adventure to learn, discover, and grow as a family and we are READY! So, BRING IT ON!

Here are pictures of our new apartment. We are loving all of the space and storage! I am definitly loving that I can decorate with any colors that I want. For those of you that don't know our old little apartment, though great, already had color themes that we could not change to the rooms. So I've had fun with NO more patriotic theme in the living room, sunfloweres in the kitchen and now I can have the colors that I inteded to have in my bathroom! (not that those were bad or anything) So fun for me. Rhett is loving it the most!! He is always bouncing off the walls: up and down the hall, in and out of rooms, on the couch, off the couch, out on the patio, back inside, in moms closet, under the table! seriously????.. I don't know where this kid came from sometimes..

Living Room + Rocks new baby :)

Living Room - Entry - coat closet

Living Room - Kitchen and Dining area

The kitchen looks a little small but we actually have more room in these cupboards than we did in our old apartmen! And I love the Lighting in these rooms. It is so nice and bright.

The Balcony

This is fun for me to let Rhett just go and hang out by himself. He loves being out there. It goes out the kitchen and also had a door that goes into the master bedroom + a large storage closet that is GREAT!!!

Master Bedroom

We love love love our closet! so huge.. we decided to sell our dresser to give the bedroom a little more space. Rock made fun of me for setting up my keyboard there.. He mocked me.. as always :D.. saying "oh, just because there is a perfect little spot and it fits perfectly I have to put my keyboard there.. ha!!"

The bathroom is pretty large.. still wishing we could have gotten into a unit with 2 baths.. But we still really like it. I painted a couple of shelves that Rock fixed up for me to hang on the walls and I got an old jewelry box that I painted just the same as the shelves too. I'll post some pictures of it later.

Right picture: facing the master room. The washer/dryer closet are just outside of the master room on the left and the bathroom is on the right.

Left picture: facing the pantry closet with the utility closet on the right and Rhett's room is on the Left.

Rhett's Bedroom

Rhett is loving his huge room. We plan on putting stars on the ceiling like the one in his cousin keely's room because he loved those when we stayed there. His closet is a disaster.. but HUGE!! We got all his toys organized and he plays in there all the time now. We also still have his room as the office.

The office space.

Floor plans - ours is the 1 bath

I FINISHED!! - 1:53:32

2010-04-28T21:06:00.000-07:00

Salt Lake City Half Marathon - April 17, 2010

running toward the Gateway. Almost there!

I thought it was all talk when Connie and I started to talk about doing a half marathon back in December. But shortly into January I found myself getting registered for the Salt Lake Half!! I couldn't believe it and didn't think I'd actually be able to pull it off as well as I did! It was a lot or work: early mornings, freezing weather, snowy/rainy/slushy sidewalks and trails, wet shoes, wet clothes, long weekend runs, and last but not least the big 13.1 mile run.

Finish line photo with our medals!

The best part of it all was the great running partner and friend that I have made! All the hard work became something that I looked forward to and missed when I had to run by myself on days that she had work. She has listened to me as I talked her ear off about a ton of aimless things and has been super understanding of anything and everything I had to say. So, maybe it wasn't the running that was my stress reliever after all.. it was Connie letting me vent! :D I am going to miss her so much when we move :(

So, the big day came and went in a blur because we have been soo busy with moving and finding housing that I found it surprising when I wasn't super duper nervous ready to pee my pants the day of the race. I was so concerned about all the little details in moving and the last minute things that have come up with that, that when I got to the starting line I was just ready to go go go!! I was ready to run all the anxiety out of me!

The course was so pretty! It started at the Olympic Bridge at U of U and went down foothill over I-80 and back under through Sugarhouse, over to State street up towards the capital and by the Salt Lake Temple to the Gateway Mall. So the first half was a pretty gradual downhill and leveled off half way through than a gradual up hill which got more incline up state street then it leveled off again back toward the Gateway Mall. So not too bad of a course!

about mile 7.

The starting line was lined with thousands of people and I didn't believe it when Connie told me the first few miles would fly by and I wouldn't even know... But as we came up on mile 2 Connie said we had just ran about a 9 minute mile!! the next few were about 8:30-9 minutes and I couldn't believe it! I felt like I was running so slow and I really think it was because the crowd is sooo huge and you are all running at a similar pace that it just seems slow. Plus all the adrenalin that you get after the gun goes off. Because it was such a great pace and there were so many people around me the first 6 miles fly by for me.

I stole this from Connie's blog. mile 8 or so.

We were chugging along and I was feeling GREAT!! Then we hit mile 9 and that is when the count down started! My right hip was getting a little tight and my right toes had gone numb about 2 miles back but were getting heavier and more painful as we crept along. I did as much as I could to see if I could get the blood flow to be a little better - it didn't do much for me and I have a black toe nail to prove it. I don't think I could feel it hitting the top of my shoe as much as it did. Boy oh boy that thing hurt once the blood came back!

I so hope this doesn't fall off!!
It hurt so bad and was getting lifted off of the nail bed!!
NOT good.

We got through mile 9 and I remember saying to myself just 3 more miles, just 3 more miles.. then frantically searching for the sign that told us we only had 2 more miles left. into the 11th mile I just hit a mental wall!! Once again I am glad I had Connie there to work me through it... I know I probably didn't react to her coaching as much as she liked but just having her there kept my arms and legs going up that hill before we got to the 12th mile. I shuffled up that hill as I watched some other people pass me going strong!! That had to have been our slowest mile at maybe 10 minutes? And I really felt like I was in great shape until I saw them pushing through it! Once we hit the top I was able to get back into a strong rhythm and just pushed it through until we passed the Salt Lake Temple and were coming up onto the gateway mall.

I didn't really know exactly where the finish line was due to not studying the course like I probably should have. There were three turns that we had to go around before the finishing stretch. When we came up on the first turn I was hoping the finish line would be there and started to pick it up a ton. Once we made the turn and didn't see it I could have DIED and tried to keep the pace. Then we came up on the second turn and picked it up even more. Again, when we turned the corner we only found another corner. I could have DIED!! Finally we turned the last corner and thought FOR SURE it had to be there and picked it up again and turned and STILL could not see the finish line for about 50 more yards!!! AAAAH!! I wanted to KILL myself. (not really). Then at last there it was.. FINALLY .. the finish line in view and we just went for it and pushed with all we had left (at least all I had left).

Coming up on the finish line trying to kick it in.

I was sooo done when I crossed the finish line and I almost PUKED!! SICK! I had to stop myself and just try to breath as I frantically was looking for a place just in case I couldn't control it. The finish gate was lined with people handing out water and medals to the runners. I just kept thinking, don't puke you'll puke on the people. After a minute my stomach settled down and I was starting to recover! aaahh! I feel like my running high comes from after the race is done and just recovering so fast and feeling good again. After that the pain seemed all worth it just for that feeling. Right after the race I remember thinking I will never do this alone or maybe never again. But after I recovered I realized that it really went well. Those last 3 miles took it out of me mentally for sure but the rest of it was fun and I love the atmosphere. So for sure I will be doing another half and more 10K's and some 5K's throughout the year. Just for things to work toward.

After it was all said and done! Rock had a final the same time
the race started which was sad..
so Rhett decided he would come and cheer me on.
Thanks so much to Uncle Dave and Aunt Jamey for all their help!!!!

I was so burnt out from running track and cross country in high school and always having to meet others expectations that I just didn't want to run at all after that. So beside from the occasional jog I just didn't do much running until Rhett was about a year old. Even then I only ran about 2 times a week and just had no motivation. I am really really enjoying it again. And this time it is for me and doing my personal best! And I made a new friend through it all and hope to still run races with her in the future! You are great Connie!

PRIVATE!!

2010-04-02T16:46:00.000-07:00

So I guess I could have just posted this before I made this private.. but I forgot.. so now it is not private for a little while again so anyone that missed out can get their email to me either on facebook, blog, or email me at jenshaw5@hotmail.com!! HURRY!!

2010-03-16T11:41:00.001-07:00

Rex Lee 10K results

You can kind of pick us out - this is the very start of the race I'm
wearing a bright pink headband and connie is just behind me a little bit

Still HAVE to vent a little about this.. both good and bad vents I think. So as you know.. and I know family - ALL of you know about this.. I ran the Rex Lee 10K a couple of weekends ago with the best people in the world!! The day our times came back was super exciting for me.. AND I was VERY surprise. I finished in 45:32!! They claim that it was an average of 7:21 miles.. but I have to disagree. First of all after measuring the course both online and with my pedometer(which I got from my mother in-law for my birthday and I love wearing it on my runs)... the course wassn't a full 10k :( it is like 5.6 miles which is a whole HALF MILE SHORT!! It makes me a little sad/mad.. but I'm over it now...so therefore my minutes per mile based off of a 5.6 mile race would be just over 8 minute miles!!! Which I am still happy about!! And if we were to do a full 6.1 instead that day we would have finished somewhere around 49:32. So I am still pleased but definitely should have just let myself believe it was a full 6.1 mile time :D. And once again, this was all due to the best running partner who stayed by my side the whole time and coached me through the toughest parts of the race!! THANKS CONNIE!! I will miss running with her when Rock and I finally have to move...You can check out the race result times and different age group brackets and women and men brackets by going to http://rexleerun.byu.edu/results.php. I wasn't so sure if everyone else that I ran it would want me to post their times or not!! But its fun to see just how fast people ran and where they finished in different brackets!!

Under Half way.. making our way
down the long downhill part of the race

Sprinting through the finish - I honeslty had to

reach deep down inside to find the will to go any faster

Waiting to turn in our time chips

Do I always have to be such a DORK!!

.. Keeping life busy is a good thing lately ..

2010-03-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

So.... I normally don't post things that are this personal.. but it fits into the drive behind all of my excitement that I find in these small things in life.

some of you may know, and others may not, that Rock and I have been trying for quite some time to add another little baby to the family.. But, I don't like to think of it that way anymore. After receiving guidance through a very special blessing and over some time, we've decided that we are now patiently waiting for the time in our future that our Heavenly Father has set aside for some more precious spirits to come into our lives. I must admit that I am the one that suffers from little patience and have found that I have to choice to make the best of all of this time and newly found freedom that comes along with having such an independent 2 year old.

Although I still face times where I allow Satan to pull me now and struggle to pick myself back up again, I know that one day I will look back on this time and see that it was just a small moment compared to the years that lay ahead of me here on this earth. Not only that but when I look back on this time I want to feel proud of the way I used my time to better myself. I feel it would be a mistake to spend this passing time in total misery tucked under my covers full of tears only to regret the time, though it might be just a moment, was wasted and I done nothing to further my self esteem, self worth, and spiritual growth.

ANYWAYS... These are some of the things that I have done in the past year to keep myself motivated and occupied and I have absolutely had a blast with it all!!

#1 - I learned how to make bread!!.. and EATING it too!

.. I know its not that HUGE of a deal, but for someone who really has a hard time baking things besides brownies out of a box it makes me feel good. Not to mention the money it saves us.. its not much, but a couple of bucks here and there always makes a wife/mother feel like she is doing a great job! Little things like making some yummy meal or treat always makes me feel good and I've been really enjoying cooking for my little family!

The beginnings :D Its double sided!!

#2 - I picked up some sewing projects! The latest is this CUTE apron.

.. A really fun girl in our ward put together an activity to help us along with this fun, cute apron. Early last spring I made an apron for both my mom and mom in-law for mothers day.. they were a little mediocre, but I was proud of them. And now I had the chance to make my own and I love it. You may see in earlier posts that I made my little sister's quilts for their b-days and plan on making them both something that goes along with them. My big goal for fathers' day is to sew Rock a jean quilt.. inspired by my sister in-law Morgan.. but mostly because he stole a jean quilt from his mom when he left for college and REALLY needs to return it. I mostly enjoy sewing because it brings back some great, loving, fun memories of my Grandma Shaw! I miss her but always will have a piece of her with me as she was the one who introduced me to sewing and taught me a lot of things!

# 3 - Running! the best stress/anger/anxiety reliever I could ever get!

.. Plus losing a few pounds always makes anybody feel much better about themselves! I've always ran at least a couple of times a week but have really picked it up this fall once I got the best running partner EVER. Connie has definitely inspired me to get back into running and for the first time since high school I've been able to run my first race! I definitely could not have pushed as hard as I did to the end with out her. We ran the Rex Lee 10K at BYU last Saturday with my sister in-law Jamey and a friend of Connie's! Running has been great not only for me to enjoy, but a way for me to really support and be excited for others and share in their joy! I was sad that Morgan was unable to come run it with us due to an injury, but Jamey came and ran it and she did AWESOME!! I was super excited for her and so proud. She is definitely competitive, but also a great example of someone that does something to their fullest when they commit do doing something! Connie and I signed up for the Salt Lake Half Marathon that is on April 17 next month!! After the 10k I am a little bit more optimistic and excited to race again!

Before the race!
Jamey, Me, Lindsey, Connie

#4 - I am a Certified Nursing Assistant! (CNA)

.. I have my certificate, and CPR certificate and am ready to work as soon as we figure our whether or not and where we are moving. Through the GREAT support of all my family, but mostly Rock, I was able to keep plugging through a 6 week course through MATC. Rock was able to watch Rhett at night all nights, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays I had the help from a great girl in our ward Liz Ostler. She is in the primary presidency with me and has a little baby of her own. I appreciated her help so much for those couple hours each T & R for the duration of the course. It was a big change from just being a mom. I spent the nights from about 4:30 - 9:20 traveling and sitting in class! During the day I spent anywhere from 3-4 hours studying for the daily test and reading! I could not believe how much better I was sleeping.. I think I was just totally draining myself between running, daily home things, and for sure the mental stimulation that you don't get day to day staying home with a toddler. I could not believe the headaches I got some days!! We had 4 days of class spent in nursing homes for clinical hours that I came to enjoy. There are good and bad things to everything, but I really, really enjoyed this class and am excited to further my education in hope to become an RN someday :D

#5 - My church calling! Primary president..

.. So I know this seems weird. We are only in a married student ward so we only have a nursery!! But, I love it and it has been such a great learning experience for me.. in both temporal and spiritual ways. I've slowly, but surely gained a little experience in scheduling and organizing a group of people. I have definitely gained a STRONG testimony in the leadership of the church and the organization of the church and in the love that our Heavenly Father has for all people. Though this testimony could never be strong enough, there are always things that I learn and feel of the gospel that strengthens the way I feel and know our Heavenly Father and Saviors love!! I know that the leaders that serve in the church serve through pure love on behalf of our Heavenly Father that his plan fulfilled to the fullest. I have really, really come to love our ward and finally feel like I have found my place in the gospel on this earth and know it will always be the biggest part of my family's life and I am so grateful for it. It will be hard to move, but I know that I will have a ward family where ever we go! We are all here on this earth with the same goal to return into the presence of our Heavenly Father. I feel like this has been the biggest thing that has helped me through out all of the tough times and negative thoughts. I have learned that it also has to be a very, very, very consistent thing to help block out all of Satan's blows and negativity that I've allowed from time to time come into my life and that has made me feel like the dirt of the earth.

So, I think this is as personal as I get, but definitely something I like to express and let others know about. It is through others' stories of trial that has helped me get through many of my life trials..

Publish Post

Graduating is the easy peasy part now...

2010-03-15T08:51:00.001-07:00

.. Its deciding what to do and where to go afterward that is now the hard part. Decisions decisions. I am SUPER proud of my Rock for all the hard study and work he put into school and now will be graduating with his bachelors in philosophy, but I am even more proud of him for all the hard work and stress he has been going through to make the transition between Graduation to Real Life a little easier(?) on our family.. So.. we probably won't be getting to the Real Life for another few years still.... but we are on our way to continuing on the path and it all comes down to whether or not we want to continue school now, or take a break for 2 years and save money for more school later... While still awaiting news from several law shcools Rock has recently found interest in a couple other things which has really put an overcast on the law school venture for now. The more we learn about these other programs the less he feels that law school is the right thing for him. So in the meantime it is between an MBA at USU OR Teach for America.

Rock applied, was interviewed and accepted to the Teach For America (TFA) Program. For those of you who do not know much about what it is.. better luck asking Rock.. but here's what he's told me about it. You apply for this program and specify the area of the country you would like to be and what grades you would be most comfortable in teaching. For 5 weeks during the summer you live in your area in dorms as you go through course to get certified as a teacher. You are under contract for a minimum of 2 years with the program and will be making a salary depending on the area you are in. During those 2 years you have to option to continue your education with a school that works with TFA to get your Master's in Education that you will need to pay tuition for. So, you teach school during the day, go to class at night, and even teach Saturday school. Those who know about this program know how prestigious it is and what it takes to be qualified to be considered for this program. So good job for Rock for getting in!

Rock also decided last month to take the GRE and apply for a Masters in Human Resources program at the MBA school at Utah State in Logan Utah. After hearing back from TFA and finding out just how fast we'd have to give them an answer Rock has been on the phone almost every day making sure to push his application along in hopes that he would hear back from USU sooner than later. They called him last monday to let him know they would LOVE :) to have him in their program. I don't know very much about this program except that it takes 18 months to get through. I hope to find out a little more as we way our options!! We've really appreciated all of the advice, support, and love from all of our family and friends as we've been going through this transition! We are so excited and nervous. But, we are so ready to make a decision and move on into the next part of our lives.

The fun things of mommy-hood...

2010-01-28T09:27:00.000-08:00

Of course I love being a mom.. though sometimes can be very challenging and sure drive my patients to the very last straw.. in between all the time outs, potty accidents, hitting, screaming, not eating food, not taking naps, throwing fits, getting into all my makeup, and just being a 2 year old.. there are soo many fun fun things that makes me forget and I think I have the best kid in the whole wide world.

#1 Love: Bankies and/or sucky

Top 10 things Rhett does that make me happy:

1. He tells me "pretty mom" when I get ready for the day. While I'm doing my makeup and hair. After I'm all dressed. If he see's that I have jewelry on. It makes my day
2. He says "oh! thanksyou mooooom" when I give him things. My favorite is if I give him a hug or a kiss!! sooo cute!..Even if its just because I want him to hold something so I don't have to. Or its really cute when I surprise him with a treat!
3. He says "oh! sorry." as he rubs his hand on my cheek, which is a hard one because he usually does it after he hits me for telling him no or putting him in a time out. But he also says it if he bumps into anyone or.. sometimes he says it to THINGS he runs into!!
4. He says "PLEASE mom." REALLY REALLY cute in his soft high pitched voice when he wants something really really urgently.
5. He sings "cleeeeaanbuh cleeeeaanbuh" for the clean up song while he helps me clean not only the toys.. but he really LOVES to crab a rag and clean things with me! He's my little helper!
6. He asks "wha wrong?" when he see's me get hurt, or sad, or just concentrating on something really hard.
7. He ask "whateeer doin...mom?" no matter what I am doing. Sometimes he comes along my side to help if he can.
8. He is still my baby and reminds me by cuddling in my lap and tries to talk like a baby saying "blahblahblahblah".. He's my little baby!
9. He gives me the sweetest huggies and kissies. my most favorite thing in the whole world..especially when I don't have to ask for them.
10. He tells me "mommy..POTTY" when its time to go which makes me so proud of what a big boy he is!!

Funny stories that I can't help but laugh at but also remind me how much he is soaking up into his little brain these days:

1. When we got back from our fun trip to Houston earlier this month I had a TON of grocery shopping to get done. So off to the store Rhett and I went one morning after I had dropped Rock off at school. We had sooo much stuff in our cart it was overflowing. Rhett had fun the whole time putting things in it as I handed him things. I was especially impressed and grateful this trip because Rhett behaved sooo well. No impatients at all. When we got to the check out line we started to put things on the runway.. not realizing how much stuff I had in my cart the lady behind me started her own little pile on the runway causing a teeny problem. I only had a small space to put all of my things on one by one, the register lady kept pushing her things back so I could continue putting my things up there, but what made it worse was that my little helper had been pulling things out of the basket and getting them mixed up with the other ladies pile!! AAH! So the lady decided to put all of her things back into her car and sort out the things that were mine. I told Rhett "Thank you for helping, but PLEASE don't".. like he would understand.. After we got all of that taken care and it was time to pay, I pushed Rhett forward to the credit card swiper thing as I finished putting the last few things from the bottom of the cart on the runway. Meanwhile he had already gotten my purse, unzipped it, took out my wallet, opened it, found where I kept my cash (which isn't that easy to find), pulled out a handful and was already handing it to the lady saying "here go!". The lady just cracked up and him as I had realized what was going on! It was so funny to see that he knew where my money in my wallet was and that he even knew what money looked like. I don't use cash that much and I surely haven't shown him money and explained what it was. The things they pick up on it is sooo crazy!!

2. Another funny story... We had made chicken broccoli rice for dinner and Rhett was sooo very helpful with putting it all together.... He loves to help in the kitchen lately.... Well, after dinner I was in his room putting his clothes away after I did laundry. He'd been playing quietly by himself and came into the room very seriously and said "mom?". I looked up at him with question on my face as I saw he had a piece of fake wood that you can screw in screws that belonged to his tool set in his hand and a sock over his hand. He came very very close to my face and looked at me from under his eyebrows. He held up the piece of wood in is hand with the sock on it to me and said VERY seriously "its hooot, its hoooot." I had no clue what he was talking about so I asked him "what?" He pointed to his hand and said a matter of fact "Its hot." Finally it clicked in my head that he see's me put on oven mits to take dinner out of the oven all the time and every time I do when he is by me I tell him "It's HOT don't touch".

How can these little cuties be so smart? I have no idea sometimes where he comes up with these things but it is sure fun to see their imagination and/or problem solving develope. It is AMAZING!

#2 Love: Tow Mater

On another note things in our house are going well.. the big thing lately is potty training which is going AWESOME!! the only problem we have and HATE is that he will not go #2 in the potty!! He just doesn't say anything until after it happens.. or he won't go if we know he needs to and sit him on the potty!! ANY ADVICE? .. It has been SOOOO nice to not have to change/buy diapers! LOVE it.. just hope the #2 kicks in soon!

Also, here are some fun family pictures taken and edited by Emily Hawken. Check out her blog http://www.slushphotography.blogspot.com! She did an awesome job and we absolutely LOVE them!! Enjoy!

Janae's Quilt

2010-01-21T08:43:00.000-08:00

I never did show this one off.. and wanted too cuz I think it fit her personality.... well here is the quilt I made Janae for her birthday!

Celebrating 3 GREAT years!

2010-01-13T09:20:00.001-08:00

I want to take this time to express my gratitude towards my husband Rock. I am so in love with him and I finally can understand what my mom was saying when she said she loved my dad so much more than the day they got married. I am so glad to be married to Rock. He is a great example to me through morals and through the love and respect that he has for his Mom and Dad and all of his sisters. He has definitely brought out the best in me and continues to do so as he helps me improve qualities of being a better sister, daughter, and friend to those around me. I never thought I would love being a mother, homemaker and wife as much as I do. Because of Rock's encouragement to be a mom and homemaker I feel like I finally have become who I've always wanted to be. I just didn't realize it until now. I have discovered hobbies that I really enjoy and new talents that I didn't know I had. I've gained more knowledge of the gospel and a stronger testimony because of the things he has shown me and the things that we go through together. I feel the Divinity of my Roll as a women in my Heavenly Father's plan and know that with out Rock I would have never been able to explore this side of life.

Rock and I had quite the adventure celebrating our 3rd anniversary on December 21!! I can't believe it's been 3 years.. It’s been the happiest, fun, crazy and exciting years of my life and it flew by. We wanted to do something extra special this year because we knew it would be years before we would get this chance again. Partly also because I secretly wanted to make up for the last couple which were wonderful but our first anniversary we had our little baby so we didn't do much and our 2nd anniversary was on a Sunday and celebrating my birthday(dec. 22) and anniversary on the same day just doesn't feel this same at all.

So with babysitting help for all of the sisters/cousins/grams and grandpa/brothers in-law and a borrowed vehicle the Camero (Randy's newest addition to the family) we headed downtown for the night. Our original plans got changed when we should up to the Hotel we made reservations for didn't have our reservation. Come to find out after we got home from our big vacation that they had the reservation under the wrong date, December 31st instead of 21st and they had us down with the name Polman not Tolman. After being charged we got it all straightened out AND our money back..

We ended up staying at The Inn at the Ballpark across from the Minute Maid Ball Park. It was fun because we've enjoyed going to Astro's games there together the summer we lived down there. We walked around downtown and ordered in one of my favorite kinds of food.. CHINESE!! yum! We watched "Marley and Me" and then... fell asleep? It was so much fun just to hang out just us two for one night all by ourselves!

We have so much fun with each other and it helped us remember that we are each others bestest friends. Even though I LOVE being a wife and a mother it really felt good to not have to worry about some of those resposibilities and enjoy being a lover and best friend. It made me feel young again.. which I know sounds weird. But seriously I feel old being practically the only 23 year old in our ward with a 2 year old! So that was our little get away so fun! we are looking forward to more happy years to come as we learn and grow as a family together.

The Holidays...

2010-01-13T08:15:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the lack of pictures .. our camera screen is broken and it’s very hard to get good pictures if any at all sometimes.. we tried our hardest :(

This past Christmas '09 .. X3!!! We seriously feel like we've had a million Christmas mornings this past year. I got worried at times that Rhett was thinking this was what life is all about now, opening presents. From his birthday, to our early Christmas before break, to my birthday, to the Houston Christmas, to the one we had with gifts from my mom and dad when we got home!! It was nuts!!

We were so lucky to get to spend 2 weeks down with the whole Tolman crew!! It was the longest drive of my life... adult bodies are just not made to sit/drive/sleep/eat in cars for a whole 24 hours!! .. Straight through both ways.. But we did it and it was so worth all of the fun we had seeing everyone!

We did tons of fun things while we were there. We celebrated my birthday. The first couple of days we were there the men got to try their luck with fishing.. The next day they went out to go duck hunting which was sad because there were no ducks in sight :(. We had fun taking all the kids out to do things but they also had plenty of fun, sometimes not so much fun, playing with each other all day. We played lots of card games. We went to see the movie Avatar in 3D one morning. LOVED IT. A group of us had a chance to go out and play some paintball.. It was Rock and I's first time and it became apparent with a few mistakes that I'd made with rules. All in all it was fun to go and try. We want to invest in something like that for our family in the future.

For Christmas we enjoyed watching the Nativity movie and enjoying the Christmas spirit. Christmas morning was just as much fun watching all the kids open presents and best of all we got to open ours too! We are so grateful to Randy and Jill for all they have done to make our Christmas so special. For making the stay so much and for all the hard work that was put into cleaning up after everyone, cooking and all the patients it took to have the house full of craziness for a whole entire 2 weeks!!

Rhett turns 2!!

2010-01-10T10:48:00.000-08:00

I CANNOT believe it's been 2 years (and a little over a month now) already!! Are you kidding! I can't believe how time flies. I had so much fun planning this birthday.. I have to admit that I am kind of a fanatic when it comes to special dates in my son's life.. I tend to go a little over board trying to make it as special as possible even though I know its not actually going to be as exciting as I make it to be in my head. I'm sure I'm not the only mom that plans for weeks in advice to only have an hour of enjoyment.. but its all soo worth it. I LOVE being a mommy!

So obviously we had a blast putting together this awesome SpongeBob party together for Rhett... Its his new father/son time to sit on the couch and catch a few fun giggles with Rock. He mostly laughs because his dad does, but still he loves his "pongeba". We had fun with all the family we had around. We celebrated the day after Thanksgiving since all of my family was in the area so we had Jonathan, Jacky, and their son's Ben and Sam. We had Josalyn, Dan, Mailon and Josalyn's little bean (which we are sooo excited about)!! We had Candace and a couple of her kids, Grandma Carlise, Aunt Tanya, Scott (who became one of Rhett's new buddies). We also had Morgan and Raf with Jocelyn, Mallory and Felicity... and of course my mom and dad and my sweet sisters Janese and Janae.. FUN!! It turned out to be a pretty big bash but it was great!

The funnest and funniest part of the party was opening presents and hearing him say "WOW!!" a million times! He got a TON of fun new toys.. so many in fact that I went home and cleaned out some of the toys he's out grown and put them in storage AND we didn't buy him much for Christmas this year as we knew he would get plenty from Grandmas and Grandpas. Maybe that's a plus (until he gets a little older anyway) that his birthday is so close to Christmas time. He's most FAVORITE toy that he got was the "Mater" truck!! When he opened that present he stopped EVERYTHING and would not open another present until he had his new Mater in his hands.. He now drags him everywhere we go.. his love.