Help or Hinder??

So this morning I was in the kitchen doing dishes and Mara thought that she would be a good helper and bring me her breakfast bowl, which is great that she puts her dishes away. So after I finished the dishes I found this:

Apparently she wasn't done eating. I'm just lucky that she doesn't like milk on her cereal.
So she was really helpful in one situation, but a totally hindrance in the other.

Gotta love toddlers!

Family Cabin Trip

I'm a little behind in blogging, but that's okay.

Last Saturday we went to our cabin with my mom, Karri, Grandma Joan, Max & Conli. It was great to be down there, and it's always more worth while when we get to sleep over. Karri showed Pat & I the first 2 episodes of the show "Big Bang Theory" (which we totally loved and have added it to our list of shows for this season!!) And we stayed up late (but not really, we just kept the kids up with us, so it seemed like it was later then it was). Sunday morning Brent, Lisa, Sawyer, JD & Chris all came down in time for a big waffle breakfast!! It was so yummy! We then pulled out the games!! We played 'Pop 5' which is alot of fun with charades, humming, drawing, etc.

Here is JD, Me & Pat 'playing' around.

Then we played 'Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture' which is way fun!!

JD, Me, Pat, Brent, Lisa, Sawyer, & Karri

While we played games the kids were just running around crazy! Which they normally do when they are together. Seriously, they have too much energy!! Xander & Max wrestling:

Conli & Mara playing princesses:

After the games were done I pulled out a new game that I am borrowing from Lana (Thanks again!!) It's called 'Say What?' There are 5 balls in the game, and it will say famous phrases from movies, songs, TV, etc. The phrase is all out of order and you have to move the balls to get them in the right order!! It is so fun!! There are some different ways to play with limited guessing or timed mode. I played with JD, Lisa, and even my Mom tried!! It was way fun and JD was totally the winner every time. But Lisa did way awesome and got one right in the first try, and she didn't even know what it was saying!! It was so cool!! I totally need to buy this one! JD is a little addicted to it!
Karri was so nice to take the girls outside. Here they are probably looking at bugs.
These girls are just so cute together, even when they are way dirty from being outside. Notice all the dirt on Mara's face: She had a runny nose and the dirt attached to it!! She was seriously the dirtiest I have ever seen her!
Before we left we were able to get a good family picture. This was only the second picture and everyone looks great, and even Sawyer is looking at the camera! And of course what's a family picture without a funny one!
I love being at the cabin, as I have mentioned before, and it was great to have everyone there. I hope that as the years go by we will be able to go more often.

Family Fun!

We were able to get together last night with all of Pat's family. It was great to see everyone and the kids always love to be together. Because of the occasion, I brought my tripod and we took some family pictures :)

Here are Mara, Bryton, Aubrey, & Addi (the only girls in the family) for some test pictures.

Here's the whole Tolman Clan

(minus my bro-in-law Doug, he is a police officer and had to work)

It's so fun to see the family in one big picture.

And we got a fun picture of all the grandkids with Roger & Tammy. There are 11 boys & 4 girls.

This morning we were playing outside and Mara picked this flower out of the garden. She was so cute and pulled off all of the leaves. She finally let me put it in her hair and this was the 'cutest' picture
My mom went out shopping and found this costume for Xander. Looks like he will be Ash Ketchum from Pokemon for Halloween. (I can't get him to take the thing off, he's so happy!)

A busy week

Last weekend I was able to go to Swiss Days with my mom, Karri, Aunt Terry, cousin Lindsay, Aunt Laurie, Aunt Merrilee, & cousin Catherine. We do this every year, and I love it!! This was the first year that we took cameras with us, and even then we didn't take many pictures. The big group picture was on Karri's camera and I don't have that yet, but here is at least a pic of me & Karri. (I will add the other one when I get it) We go to Swiss Days on Friday night, stay in Heber that night, then drive to the outlets in Park City on Saturday, have lunch, then come home. It is alot of fun and I find that each year I spend less and less, which is good. But once we get into a house, I think I might go crazy :)

At Swiss Days my mom bought some new princess dresses for the girls (to go in her dress up box) So Sunday we got them all dressed up and they loved them. Even Sawyer gets in on the fun. It's so cute to see her get into all the girl stuff, she just watches Conli & Mara and wants to be like them :) Here is Karri with the girls.
Last night Karri came over and wanted to look for some things in my mom's shed (which is a great storage area for mom, Karri and us. Karri got out some of her boxes that had Barbie's in them and Mara went crazy!! She loved them, especially the shoes :) Here she is with Karri's Barbie apartment and some of the dolls. I guess I need to get her some Barbie's now!! She even took one outside with her.
I found this 'Boo' doll (from Monster's Inc) in a box and Mara has adopted her and even gave her a really good ride on the swings.
After going in the shed I told Karri that we should go through it and organize it better. So after dinner we did just that!!! We were able to fill my mom's car with a bunch of stuff to go to DI and were able to throw stuff away too!! Now there is alot more room for things, and this morning Pat & I were able to take totes of things from the house and put it out in the shed too!! Now we have more space in the kids room, which makes me happy :)

Overall it's been a great week so far. And this weekend will be full of family time!! Pat's brother and family are going to be in town and we are having a party tomorrow night with his whole family. Then we are going to our cabin Saturday & Sunday with my family :) I'm so excited to see everyone!!

The Beginning of School!

So I'm a little late on posting things this week. Xander had his first day of his 2nd year of preschool on Monday. (He misses the deadline for Kindergarten by 6 weeks) He is going to a gal named Koni Youd that lives in my stake. She is awesome!!! He goes Mon, Tues, & Thurs. afternoon's and is already learning so much. He has started singing 2 different songs for me already. Koni is really great at drilling each letter and it's sound, and she makes them write alot too!! Xander usually writes his name in capitol letters and the first day of school he came home with a cute little clock and his name was written with lower case letters!! Already this is shaping up to be an awesome year of school!!

Mara had to get in on the picture fun.
Monday nights is when Pat mows the lawn, and that is always the guaranteed time for us to be out on the swing set. I was able to get a really cute picture of me and Xander (after about 6 tries) Notice the goggles: Karri bought him a pair, which is funny since the swimming season is almost over.
Xander and Mara were taking turns "catching" each other on the slide.

Then they finally decided to go down the slide together!!
Oh summer is just so fun (too bad I don't like being outside too much). I am just proud of Mara this summer. In May, she wanted to get in the swing, but not be pushed. And she wouldn't set foot near the slide. Now she wants to be pushed "Higher" and loves the slide!! She is just growing up so much.

More Indy Toys!!

I was at Target today, and as usual, had to check the toys. We have a collection of all the Disney Cars for Xander, so I was looking at those (there were no new ones today). Then I decided to check the Indiana Jones toys because I knew that there were going to be new Adventure Heroes guys to add to my collection, and sure enough the 'Temple of Doom' guys were there! (Which is my favorite Indiana Jones movie) I snatched them up and called Pat in pure excitement :) I just love them! Here they are:

Indiana Jones & Willie Scott

Temple Guard & Short Round
Temple Priest & Mola Ram
And next month there should be 3 sets from 'Last Crusade'!!!!

Pretty as a Princess!!

Mara has been in full 'Dress Up' mode for over a month. Once we get her PJ's off she will put on a dress up dress. It's so hard for me to get her dressed for the day. Usually I won't even try unless we are leaving the house. Good thing I don't mind her running around in only a diaper for most of the day!! :) Here she is looking cute, expecially because the top shows her belly!! I think it's funny!!

She is head to toe, Snow White!! I love it!!

You know...

You know you're baby hungry when you tear up watching an episode of Blue's Clues where Mr. Salt & Mrs. Pepper introduce their new baby Paprika!!

I am so pathetic!!

On another note: Today Xander was telling me about how many people live in our house. That we had 3 girls and 2 boys. Then he told me that I need to have a baby boy come out of my tummy. I asked him why it needed to be a boy and he told me that it had to be a pattern of boy, girl, boy, girl. He then said something about how a baby 'shoots' out of my tummy, I corrected him and said that a baby doesn't shoot out, it gets pushed out. He then told me that when I push out a baby boy that we have to name him. I then asked him what we should name the baby and he told me he would think about it.

He also said something last week about how many seats we have in our car, and that we can have one more baby to fill the car up. I asked him if we would only have 3 kids, and he said no, but when we have another baby after that, that is when we need to get a new car.

So apparently Xander is baby hungry too!!!

Oh, the things kids say!

(I just think it's funny because I am thinking about babies alot, but never say anything around him. So it's interesting that he is thinking about it too.)

Stef & Scott

Pat and I were privileged enough to be able to attend Stefanie & Scott's sealing ceremony today. It was so beautiful! Just being in the Temple makes me cry, especially when 2 people come together for eternity. I am so proud of Stefanie. She has been through so much in her life and this was an amazing day for her!

Congrats girl, I love you!!

Me, Stef & Court

While Mana's Away...

My mom and sister left to go to Yellowstone on Saturday morning. So while she has been gone we did a few things. We took our friends Kenny & Susan and kids to our cabin Saturday night to stay over. It is always nice to be there and even better with friends :) I didn't take many pictures (which is weird for me), but Saturday night we ate at T-Cee's then stayed up late and the kids watched movies and we just hung out. Susan had about 4 chapters left in 'Breaking Dawn' so us girls stayed upstairs (I cross stitched while she read) and the boys took care of the kids for awhile. We ended up going to bed about 11, which is so late for my children, but they both did really well once they got to sleep. Then Sunday morning we got up and had breakfast. The boys went outside to catch bugs along with Mara & Livvy. Pat said that they were holding hands walking around with each other :) We really didn't do much other then relax. Here are the girls on our huge fish pillow:

It's good to always take a group picture to commemorate the trip. Too bad I didn't get more pics :(

Thanks again guys for coming with us. And as Susan mentioned to me, one of these days we are going to have a girls getaway. Too bad it's already the end of the summer, guess it'll have to be next year :)

While my mom has been away it's given me a taste of freedom, LOL. That sounds bad. It's just that we have been living here for 3 1/2 years, so I forget how it feels for it to just be us (me, Pat & kids). Usually once we get the kids to bed, Pat & I stay in our room and watch TV or movies or whatever. So while she's been gone we have stayed up in the kitchen and watched the Olympics! (We have a DVR, so we have been recording them and watched stuff after the kids are in bed) So after 2 nights of sitting on hard stools, Pat moved the nice chair into the kitchen and watched. It was so funny that I had to take a picture:
Pretty much we have been doing our regular routine, except that Pat has been a little sick and came home from work yesterday. It was nice for me to have him home an extra day this week, but not fun that he was sick. He pretty much slept all afternoon anyway. But I was able to pull out my scrapbook stuff, Yippee!!

Then today was Pat's monthly hair cut and he decided that he was going to shave his beard off too. He just looks so weird to me this way. I'm used to the facial hair and I love it. Needless to say he likes it too, so it was just the one time shaving and the beard will be back in a few days time :)

And thus ends the "alone" time. My mom & Karri just pulled up to the house. Their time away gave me a little more yearning for a place of our own. All in good time.