Xander's New Pictures

We took Xander to Target last week to get his pictures done for his birthday and I got the email yesterday with the proofs! I just can't believe that he is almost 5.

What's for Dinner????

This is a common question in my house. I really hate, I mean HATE making dinner. I take that back, I HATE the decision making process in order to get ready for dinner, once the desicion is made I'm okay with making it. If it were up to me we would eat cereal all day long because it's easy. I have a few meals that I always make, and it's getting really old. Pat usually doesn't care what we eat and neither do the kids. But my mom has these expectations for dinner, like having veggies and stuff. I just don't feel it all the time. I just need some suggestions or something. If you have any yummy and easy recipes please send them my way!!
bregirl81 at gmail dot com

Thanks!

I just want to say thanks for all your advice on the party. I did a seach and found A TON of stuff to do. I just hope there is good weather so we can play outside. I just finished the invitations today! They are way cute! I will post a picture soon.

Thanks again!!!

Calling All Poke-Moms

I need some help!! Xander's birthday is in 3 weeks and he wants to have a Pokemon party (of course) and I need some ideas for some easy games to play that could incorporate Pokemon. I am so non-imagnitive in that area. So if you have some fun ideas for some games or activities let me know! I am also hoping that the weather will be good for the party and that we can do some games outside, so think of some stuff to do inside and outside.

Thanks!!

An Overly Exciting Day

Today was a very exciting day for Xander. First, at school he had a field trip to Discovery Park in Pleasant Grove (which I helped out at). He loved being able to run around and play with friends for about 2 hours! Thanks again Karri for watching Mara for me, I really appreciate it! Then this afternoon Karri came back over to the house with her friend Billy. He brought Xander a little surprise, or should I say BIG surprise. Last week I had talked to Billy and told him that Xander is becoming a huge Pokemon fan. Billy had mentioned that he had a shoe box full of cards that he didn't want anymore, and that he would bring them over for Xander. Of course, I was thinking that there would be maybe 100 cards or so, just Billy's extras. But no. The box was FULL of cards!! They were Billy's entire collection of cards!! He has been collecting them for about 10 years and gave them all to Xander! It was so great to see Xander's face when he saw them. I was just laughing at him and didn't think to grab the camera until later. We spent a good hour, sorting all the cards and dividing up all the extras. Here is the extra's box, after organizing:

Another shot of the size of the piles:

Here is a side shot of the pile of cards that are all singles. A total of 360!! It's so awesome of Billy to give all of these to Xander.

THANK YOU BILLY!!!!!!!!!

Pat & I were going to get Xander a little Pokemon book that holds 4 cards to a page for his birthday (because he only had 26 cards), but it looks like we have to get him a big binder now!!!! I guess he's going to get his present early. And I almost bought the Pokemon book at ToysRUs yesterday, but they were all out. It's a good thing they were! LOL

Then my brother JD told me that for the release of the new Star Wars the Force Unleashed Video Game, they were going to have Star Wars people from the 501st Legion at FYE that you could get your picture with! So after dinner the kids and I went over and Pat was able to take a break from work and meet us at FYE!! Xander was in heaven but a little upset that he forgot his lightsaber (I didn't tell him why we were going to the store). Mara was excited at first, when she saw them from far away, but then freaked out when we got closer. It's a good thing Daddy was there to protect her!
Xander had to get his picture with everyone there!

Xander & Boba Fett Xan even got to fight with Obi-Wan Kenobi!!

(Watch the video too! He's so cute!)

The whole family with the group. Mara really hated being that close to people in masks, she was really freaked out about the Trooper right behind me! It was so funny :) Xander & Storm Trooper. Which I think is really a Sand Trooper, but I could be wrong. I'll have to ask Pat later.

Xander was even wearing his Yoda shirt today, so it worked out great! The girl that was taking pictures for the Star Wars group even got pictures of Xan & his shirt. The front says "Judge me by my size do you?" and the back has a pic of Yoda with Mickey ears on and even then he is too short to go on the rides at Disneyland. (This is one of my favorite shirts of his) See pic at right.

And a good one of Xander & Darth Vader as we were leaving.

Here is the video of Jedi Master Tolman 'aka' Pat doing a lightsaber fight :)

Girls Night In!!

Last night I was able to have a girls night in with my girl in-laws!! It was Gwen's birthday on the 7th, so for a b-day gift we all went to Lana's and did pedicures, had good food, and watched a movie!! It was so fun! Here is the best group shot I could get:

Me, Liza, Tammy, Maddox, Lana, & Gwen!!

Lana got a pic of the 4 of us with our feet soaking. We all did our own feet, but Lana did Gwen's pedicure for her :)
After we were done we snuggled up and watched 'Definitely, Maybe'. I love this movie and these 3 hadn't seen it, so it was fun.
Me & Lana
It was so nice to be able to get away for an evening. Thanks Pat & Morri for watching kids, we appreciate it. My heels really needed that pedicure :)

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!!