Christmas Day!

We woke up Christmas morning to no electricity! We looked outside and there was no snow, no storm, so we really didn't know what it was. We figured that Santa must have accidentally taken out a power line somewhere. We are so grateful to the power company workers that took time away from their families on Christmas day to fix the power for the rest of us.

We let the kids get into their Santa gifts right away. The sun was just barely coming up so we used a flash light so see. We told them to wait until the sun came up all the way so we could see better before opening the rest of the gifts. About the time the sun was up enough and we were getting ready to start, the power came back on! I hope those power guys were able to get home to their families quickly. Here are some fun pictures of Christmas morning with the Tolmans....

Nick got the "Tri-Bot" from Santa. It is very cool and fits his interest of science and robotics.

Tatiana received the Lego Police Headquarters from Santa. She is into Police officers, firemen, and paramedics right now. She wants to be a paramedic when she grows up... or a "baker"..but definitely a mom! Ahhh, that's my girl!

Speaking of being into the rescue heroes type, Ben asked Santa for a fire engine, and since he is such a sweet boy he got what he wished for!

Santa brought Andrew a bedtime toy that projects colors and shapes on the ceiling along with music or nature sounds. It is fun for Ben to watch too since they share a room now and it is on the ceiling so both can see it.

Nathan and I got a Wii from Santa...I guess we must have been pretty good this year too!

Here are some more pictures of opening presents. This is a cute one of the boys wearing matching hats I got them. They are so adorable!!!

Andrew loved helping unwrap the presents. We got Nathan a massager for his aches and pains.

I received many very nice things including this year! But my favorite things are those made by our children. Nick made this sweet saying, "F is for Family" and the "F" is made out of pictures of our family. Isn't that sweet?!

Tatiana drew this pretty picture of a dolphin (because in case some of you didn't know, I LOVE dolphins!)

and this very nice picture of Jesus! Such a great artist!

The rest of our day was filled with a lot of cuddles...

Lots of Wii playing...

Tatiana baking yummy creme filled cupcakes with her new baking set we got her.

Yes, Christmas at the Tolmans was another good one. We had a wonderful day of being together, staying in our pajamas, eating cinnamon rolls and left overs, and just enjoying the day. We hope you all had a very merry Christmas as well!

Our Christmas Eve...

Our Christmas Eve was a very fun one this year. I love how Ben says, "Merwy Kissmis!"

This was Andrew's first Christmas and we all had fun making a big deal over him. He's so sweet!

The kids read in their "Friend" magazine about a family who has the Christmas tradition of making a white birthday cake to remember that we are celebrating the birth of Jesus. They loved the idea so we copied it. We made two birthday cakes. The one Nick decorated went to a family that we took Christmas dinner to and the one Tiana decorated stayed with us. They decided on which cake went to which family. They had a great time decorating and it really helped they focus on the real reason why we celebrate.

Here is Tatiana with her birthday cake for baby Jesus. Can you see the manger with baby Jesus in it and the stable with the star on top? Good job sweetie!

At 4:00, I took dinner to a family we know. I had two other friends help in the food preparations so it wasn't such a big deal. Then at 5:00 we had another family over for dinner, we had a nice ham dinner with all the fixings. Then we watched a Nativity cartoon. After the movie we had the birthday cake for dessert and had a good time visiting.

About the same time our friends were getting ready to leave we received a phone call from our other friends who live up the street. Rachel's (she is my Brownie co-leader I mentioned in a previous post) dad owns a limo company and they were going out to look at Christmas lights around town. Her siblings were unable to come along for various reasons so they invited us to come! So a little after 8:00 we were picked up in a hummer limo to go view the Christmas lights! The kids had so much fun and it was such a treat for us all!

Oh, and their Grandpa (the owner of the limo company) just got a cute new puppy and they brought her along and that was a treat too!

We stopped by a particularly decked-out house set to music and we all got out. Here are the kids out in front of the house. Everyone except Andrew.

Here is our family in front of the limo. This was the children's first time in one and they loved it. Nathan and I went in one of his other limos a couple weeks ago. For our office Christmas party this year Nathan rented a limo, we had everyone picked up at the office, went out to dinner in Salem, and then went to see the light display in Keiser. It was a fun evening.

When we got home we let the children open up one present. Ben and Nick got soft robes, Tatiana got new pajamas (she already has a soft robe), and Andrew got new pajamas that say "Baby's 1st Christmas". They didn't get to bed until after 10:00! What a fun-filled wonderful day!

Tatiana's day of service with the Brownies!

Tatiana and her Brownie troop had a fun filled day of Christmas service on Saturday, December 20th. The day was completely planned and voted on by the girls and I am so very proud of them all. We have seven girls now but only four were able to come. First we went to the mall to shop for a needy family that we "adopted". We used our troop money from what the girls earned in their nut and candy sales this fall. The family has three daughters ages 7, 11, and 12 so we had fun shopping! Here the girls are shopping in Bath and Body Works.

Brownie sisters spreading Christmas cheer in the mall.

After we were done shopping we went to an assisted living home and handed out homemade ornaments, colored pictures, homemade cookies, and sang Christmas carols. All the "grandparents" there absolutely loved it and it is so sweet to see a lady in her 80's or 90's sing along to "Santa Clause is Coming to Town"!

After our caroling and spreading Christmas cheer at the Home we went out for dinner at Izzy's. It is a pizza, salad, and buffet place. What a fun day, what a great group of girls! That is my awesome co-leader, Rachel, in the picture.

Some videos to share...

For some reason I couldn't get videos uploaded when I was trying yesterday so I tried again today and it is working! I had to share these fun times in the snow with you! I hope you enjoy.

This one is of Tatiana and her friend Katie sledding down the hill. For some reason they went as far and as fast as they did. They surprised us all. It was quite a funny site and the girls were laughing pretty hard about it.

Ben went sledding once and decided that it was too fast for him so he went "rolling" down the snowy hill instead. So cute!

Church Christmas party

Our Ward's Christmas party was this last Friday and it was a lot of fun. They had a delicious ham dinner, served family style. That was nice so we didn't have to stand in line.

Then they had a nice play but on by ward members and everyone was involved somehow. Here is Nick and Tatiana singing with the other Primary children.

Our Winter Wonderland!

Okay, NOW the snow has all melted and we have NO white Christmas. But check out these

amazing picture I took of our yard last Friday morning. Oh, how beautiful!

Looking out our front door...

To the right, out our front door...

Looking at our house...

Our back yard...untouched by little feet...yet...

Our blueberry bushes. Remember the picture of these I posted with the red leaves on them this fall? Just look at them now...what a difference!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Our snowy week

This last week was an interesting one for us. The kids went to school two days! On Sunday evening it started to snow more and Monday and Tuesday they called off school due to hazardous road conditions. Then they were back in school on Wednesday and Thursday but out again on Friday. Tatiana was quite upset that there was no school on Friday because she missed her class party. Nick's teacher had their party on Friday but the whole school was going to have a "read-in" that they missed out on. Oh well, as you will see from the pictures and video, they had lots of fun in the snow and at home!

They had a lot of fun sledding on a hill near our home. At one time there were five adults and 14 children. There is a road on the bottom of the hill (not a lot of traffic, but some) so one or two adults would always stand in the road and yell "Car!" if a car was coming and before sledding down the kids would yell "Clear?" and we would give them the thumbs up or down and yell "Car!" if there was someone coming. We were very safe and no one got hurt. Everyone had a great time.

The kids did some "snow painting" with spray bottles filled with water and food coloring. Even the neighbor friend joined in the artistic fun!

When the cold got to be too much the kids would come inside for hot chocolate and we even made some Christmas treats! Yummy!

On Thursday Nick had a nice little class party. I am his room-mom again this year and I love it! It gives me a chance to be involved and then I don't feel guilty about not being able to help in the classroom every week like I have in years past. At the end of the party I went to take a quick picture of Nick and a bunch of his friends came running over to be in the shot. Funny bunch!

The Friday brought a lot of snow again so they were stuck at home with mom...life's rough. Nick and Tiana rolled up these huge snowballs and dug out the middles to make snow caves. It was a fun project and it kept them busy for quite a while. Ben enjoyed helping too.

You know Dasher and Dancer...

But do you know the CUTEST reindeer of them all? Here is Andrew in his cute little antlers in front of the Christmas tree. So sweet!

And yes...he is SITTING UP! Our little reindeer is growing up too fast!

Andrew's first snow

Andrew's first snow! He was pretty inpressed. Oh, how adorable!!!

Nick's Dragon

I got a pet lizard. He is an albino leapard gecko and I named him Dragon. He is very light, like air, because he is a baby. He will maybe get 12 inches long. I paid for him, his tank decorations and his food. Mom paid for his tank, lamp, light bulb, sand, thermometer, humidity guage and water dish. I have wanted Dragon for a long time and finally got him. It was hard to decide on which lizard to get, but I like Dragon and I am happy with my choice. He is in my bedroom next to my bed on my dresser. He is very cool. We all like him. I took him to show my class at school and everyone thought he was cool. I have to take care of him everyday. Everyone in the family has held him. We all like him.

Our "Brother Earl"

We have a very dear friend named Earl "the Pearl" Jensen. He turned 90 years old this past July 4th. He passed away this last Wednesday. We all went to his funeral yesterday morning to say goodbye to this wonderful man. We love Brother Earl. He was a gentleman in every sense of the word. He always wore a "gentleman's hat" to church or anytime he went out. He always had a smile on. Never let you leave his side without giving you some wise advice, telling you a story or singing you a song. He loved to sing. He loved to talk about his wife, Daisy, who had passed away years ago. He loved talking about his son, Chris, who he was so very proud of. Chris was his last living child, besides a step son. He loved our kids and gave them gifts and they would draw him pictures. He loved our visits and we always felt like honored guests in his home. He had a dog named Sammy who would sit and let Ben pet him. The kids liked giving Sammy treats as Brother Earl would give him trick commands. We know Brother Earl is in a good place and we know he is happily in the arms of his Daisy, but we are sad. We wanted to hear more stories, hear more songs. We just thought Earl would live forever!

I had organized our Brownie Girls Scout troop to go caroling at the home where Earl was staying the last few months. I was excited to surprise Earl. We don't go until the 20th. Now I will be sad. I should have told him we were coming. He probably would have held on until after the 20th, knowing Brother Earl. He would have done anything for anybody, including that.

We love you Brother Earl, you were a Pearl of a man and we will miss you! Keep smiling!

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Nathan had a very nice birthday complete with lunch at the office (forgot my camera), his favorite dinner of Chicken Enchiladas (made the "real" way as Nathan puts it), gifts he needed and his favorite Pumpkin Bars for dessert!

He received a new set of combs from Tatiana because she keeps "borrowing" and losing his. Plus her long hair keeps breaking the teeth off his very old comb. So now he has four! He also got a new leatherman knife and a little leatherman key chain knife. His old key chain one was used so much that his scissors were too dull to cut string!