Ben's trip to the firestation

On Friday, November 21st, I took Ben and Andrew to the fire station for a field trip with our playgroup and another little preschool. Ben insisted on wearing his Fireman Hollaween costume and he was so excited! He LOVED it!

Here he is wearing the headset in the back of one of the Engines. One of the firemen got in the front seat and talked to him through the headset. It was cute to see his face light up when he heard that.

All the children...aw, aren't they cute!

Ben and some of his friends in the Ambulance. He was just beaming!

Hang on!

Hey Chief! You driving this thing?

Can you just see the excitement in this little boy's face?!

They even got to be on the rescue boat!

All the children were given a sticker, a tattoo, and a fireman's hat.

What a fun day for fireman Ben!!!

Nick and Tatiana's belt test

Nick and Tiana had their belt test this week in Tae Kwon Do. They would like to tell you a little bit about it in their own words...

I passed the test and now I am second dan orange belt. My favorite part was the forms. Jack and Keith are both nice. Keith is our teacher and Jack is the boss. I was happy that I got a second dan orange belt. My mom and dad and my little borthers were there to watch us.
FROM TATIANA

Thursday Nov. 20 2008 I got my second dan orange belt. I liked sparring. A couple other kids got a new belts too. It was a lot of fun. By Nick

Here are the kids doing "Form 2". They had to do both 1 and 2 but we only taped the second one.

Here they are doing "Self Defense" with a lot of coaching from Jack. They didn't get this one practiced. But, in their "defense", they had only been taught it on Monday night and really had no time this week. The funniest part was they had to do the moves on each other! Jack was pretty funny about it.

They both seem to like the sparring most so here are those clips.

Bathtime!

Andrew is big enough to sit in the bath "chair" and take big boy baths with his brother Ben. Ben loves having Andrew in there and now hasn't taken a bath without Andrew all week. Here are some cute pictures of the two of them. Check out those rolls on Andrew!!!

All suds and giggles!

Brothers by chance, Friends by choice...

All of our kids are so great together and really are good friends. But when Nick and Tiana are at school all day, these two little boys have lots of time to bond. I love these sweet moments and I love the way Ben adores his brother and the feeling is clearly mutual. So sweet!

Ben's buddy

I just had to post this picture of Ben and one of his best buds. They are so super cute together! Here they are enjoying a snack together at the park this past week.

Tatiana taking care of Andrew

When andrew was born he was so cute that I had to hold him. when he was older he liked grabing things and also made cute noises he was so cute still I liked holding him. Sometimes he likes to pull my hair but I do not care because I love him so much. I also like to feed him his baby food. he does a good job eating. he also likes to smile at me and talk and laugh.

by Tatiana

Helping mommy cook dinner

This is a picture of me cutting off the outside of a potato. It was fun doing it. My mom was very happy that I was helping cook dinner. I was happy too!

This is me spreading Parmesan cheese over the food.

this is a pictureof the food when it was done.
''wow!the food looks yummy''

by Tatiana

Our kiddos are blogging!!!

Nick and Tatiana have been starting to post on our blog! Nick's will be in blue and Tatiana's will be in purple! They are having a lot of fun with it and I think it is a great way for them to practice their writting/typing skills! Anything in black and not signed is still just me. Enjoy!

At the football game

I went to a football game with my dad, sister and two friends.


We got to go on the field after the game.


We got to meet the beaver after the game.

by Nick

Tatiana's cool art

This is Linguini from ratatouille. he is a chef. he is funny. Remy was hungry and bit Linguini in the stomach Remy was in his shirt.

This is Remy the rat he makes good food he is funny too. he is Linguini buddy which I think is funny. Remy's dad is little mean to Remy.

This is wall.e the movie wall.e I made him out of foam.
wall.e is a robot.

by Tatiana

Nick cool art

This is a funny picture of a jungle. A monkey is taking the owners hat and a bee is cutting the guys hair.

This is Tarzan swinging into a tree.

This is Remy from Ratatouille.

This is WALL.E made of Floam from the movie WALL.E

Do you like it?

by Nick.

Tatiana in the Veteran's Day parade!

This is me and some of my girl scout sister's after the parade. The parade was a lot of fun.All of the girl scouts were there. we were in a kazoo band. we did Yankee doodle and lots of other songs. At the end we waited for my mom they were far be hide so we had to wait along time. Then I went to McDonald's with my friends that was fun to after that we went to my friends house and played outside in the play house. It was raining outside we had hot chocolate inside and played a little longer then my mom came I ask if I could stay my mom said I could stay so we played in the play house and had hot chocolate. later my friend's mom dropped me off at home. by Tatiana

The Cub's Veteran's Day Parade float!

For those of you who don't know, I am the Cub Master of our Cub Scout pack. We did a float in our Veteran's Day parade. It was a rainy day, but not too cold. We had to be there at 9:00AM for the judging and then the judges finally came around at 10:30ish. Then the parade started at 11:00AM but we didn't hit the parade route until 12:20 because we were #171. So between 9:00 and 12:20 we tried to keep all the Cubs busy with donuts and travel games and keep them dry by packing them into our minivans. It was interesting but honestly a lot of fun too. Life is an adventure! Andrew came along and rode in the front cab of the truck where it was warm and I rode on the back in the rain with Nick. Ben stayed with a friend and didn't come because of the wet weather. Tatiana walked the parade route as part of a kazoo band with the other Girl Scouts!

Nick and some of his friends keeping dry in our van. Andrew is being entertained by the silly boys.

Nick entertaining himself with a travel game.

Our float! The boys did a lot of work on it. We won 3rd place in our division!!!

Nick is holding the picture of the soldier and sitting directly above the Army flag. Many of the boys had military coats and hats from WWII and other past wars. They looked great and it kept them warm. We had the gear loaned to us from a local Antique store. Very nice!

Even with the rain, it was fun. The best part was people throwing candy at us because I got a bag of Skittles that were vanilla, caramel, and chocolate flavored!
by Nick.

Nick's awesome train diorama!

I made a train diorama out of cardboard boxes, toothpick's, tape, paper, plastic trucks, paint and my little brother's trains.

In this picture the train just picked up a load.

In this picture the train is going over the bridge.

This is the construction site.

Ben likes the trains (probably because the trains are his).

By Nick

Ben's fun with the keyboard - funny!

This is hilarious. Ben found Nathan's old keyboard from when he was a kid and has been having a lot of fun with it. He loves to dance too!

This first video is to show you how he came up with the idea to move the keyboard from the floor onto the stool so he could sit at it like a regular piano. Ingenious!

This one is of him sitting at it playing. At the end he asks for "bubble" because that is his favorite sound on the keyboard.

And this is the one that cracks me up! He has gotten up and has started to dance around his bedroom. I especially love the part where he climbs into his crib and dances. He does this adorable little thing where he points his fingers up in the air while he dances around. Too funny!

Autumn in our yard

I was driving home from church today and I was really enjoying all the beautiful fall colors there are here in Oregon. So bold and vibrant! The air was crisp and smelled so fresh. Then I realized that I had taken some pictures in our yard recently and never posted them. So here you go, some Autumn in the Tolman's yard!

Nothing says Autumn like tall dried corn stalks in your garden!

We harvested TWELVE good sized pumpkins out of our garden this year!

I had been too busy to pick our blueberries and when I looked out there one day the leaves had all turned this beautiful red color and the berries were still on the bushes. The contrast was beautiful! I knew it was time to harvest and they wouldn't be patient with me for too much longer. But before I picked them I took a couple pictures.

We live in the city limits, by one block, but we get all this wildlife in our yard! We have had whitetail deer, great blue herons, and these pheasants to name a few. This picture was actually taken in our next door neighbor's yard, but they had come over to our yard a few times too.

Ben enjoying the last harvest of strawberries! We filled a third of the bucket (should have gotten a picture of that), and that was after he had eaten his share before even getting them inside! That kid loves his strawberries. We were able to harvest berries this year from mid-May to mid-October! Now that is some growing season!

Six secrets

I was "tagged" by my friend Dianne a long time ago and am just now getting around to doing it. (Sorry Dianne, been busy.) I am suppose to tell 6 secrets about myself. I think this is a great tag since this blog is meant to be a family and personal journal, so here you go...

1) I don't like people touching my face. But I love it when people play with my hair. Weird and quirky, I know.
2)My name is Satina but I have a couple relatives who always call me "Tina" I hate the name "Tina" and will correct anyone for using it. But because my name is so unique I have been called many things; Satrina, Sanita, Santina, Serina, Cetina, Katrina, Selina, etc. I am fine with people messing up my name and I kindly correct them, but I hate the name "Tina"!
3)I have a nose like a dog! I am very sensitive to smells and if there is an unpleasant smell I get so bothered by it. I have a hard time sleeping with anything other than my own pillowcase because it has my smell. I also have chronic nose bleeds and have had my nose cauterized 22 times!
4)In 1995 I was a semi-finalist in the Miss North Dakota Teen USA pageant. It was my only pageant I ever did and was an interesting experience but very uncomfortable for me. I had an even lower self-esteem back then and was totally out of place. But it was an experience that helped shape me. I did gain more confidence and was on several committees trying to make a difference in the community. I was even the chairman of the Youth Advisory Committee for the Police Youth Bureau. I was so involved that in 1997 I went to Kansas City to be the youth member of a team to represent my hometown for the "All American City" competition. We actually won the honor that year!
5) I am very organized. My brain doesn't function properly in clutter, I literally have a shorter attention span and a shorter temper if my house is a mess. I have to have order, its an illness. I have learned to let go over the years. Yes, I use to be much "worse"! And I have learned that for the first year after having a baby I will have to set my standard to 60-70% of what I normally need it to be, because if I strive for the order and cleanliness that I normally enjoy I will never achieve it and just be stressed out over it. People always compliment my clean house and organization, what they don't realize is that it is a sickness!
6)I have suffered from depression. Both post partum depression and chemical depression. I was on medication for 8 years when I decided I needed to get off of them. I felt an urgency to get off meds and felt it was something I had to do...its hard to explain. So I have been successfully off any anti-depressants for 4 1/2 years now! And during those 4 1/2 years I have gone through a miscarriage, high-risk pregnancy ending in an emergency Cesarean section, our newborn in the NICU for 2 weeks, post partum depression, my biological father's family finding me and my mother and that side of the family's response to that (long story!), another high risk pregnancy with more bed rest, and hardest of all was losing my brother to a long battle with leukemia. I have had my melt downs and have soaked my pillow with tears during these times, but after a good cry I was able to put myself back together and be a mom and wife again WITHOUT any pills to help me feel whole. My secret? No secret really, my faith has played a huge part in my healing and I also have taken up running. Running is my new anti-depressant. How cool is that?! And with God ANYTHING truly is possible!

So there you go. Now you all know more about me, hope I didn't ruin any delusions!

I tag anyone who wants to play along! Leave a comment or e-mail me telling me that you did it so I can read them!!!

Another sweet memory

This is another one of those sweet memories I just have to record. Nick was showing Andrew things in one of Childcraft books and Andrew was very interested in all the pictures and listening intently to Nick's voice. Then Tiana came over and sat down and listened too. A few minutes later Ben joined them on the couch. It was a very sweet moment. Big brother reading to all the kids and everyone sitting so nicely together on the couch.

So I got out the camera to take a candid shot and first I got this one...

But once Andrew heard the camera he instantly looked my way and gave me this great big smile! Priceless! The rest of them ignored me and kept looking at the book, they are too use to mommy taking pictures I guess.

Ben's 1st airplane trip with Daddy!

A couple weeks ago Nathan realized that he has never taken Ben flying yet! He was just too young, or something always seemed to come up. So when he mentioned it to Ben last week, Ben got extremely excited! Nathan told him that he would take him flying on Saturday.

Well, all week long Ben would wake up and first thing ask if he was going flying with daddy today. He would do the sign for airplane and say, "Daddy, me, apane, now?" And I would have to tell him that daddy was at work and he would go in a certain number of days when it was Saturday. Then he would ask me all day long, "Daddy home? Daddy Home?" When I would say, "No, daddy's still at work." He would say, "Nooo, daddy home now. Daddy, meee, apane, now?" It was a contant thing all week long. So when Saturday finally came and after he had to sit through the kids' Tae Kwon Do tournament in the morning, he was more than ready to go flying with daddy!!!

Here is Ben and his long awaited (long in the mind of a three year old!) airplane trip with daddy! Nathan said he was so excited, he was giddy when they got there!

When they were done, Ben wanted to fly on other airplanes and even the rescue helicopter. He kept pointing to others and asking daddy if they could go on those ones next. When Nathan said it was time to go home he started to say, "No home! no home!" Ha ha ha! He is so funny! He definitely has the flying bug, just like his daddy. And Nathan has a new flying buddy!

Nick and Tiana's 1st Tae Kwon Do Tournament!

Nick and Tiana had a big day on Saturday, November 1st! They participated in their first Tae Kwon Do tournament! Tatiana walked away with a medal for "forms", a third place trophy for "flag sparing" and a second place trophy for "point sparring"! Way to go Tatiana! She is very proud of herself. Here she is holding her two trophies and proudly wearing her medal.

Here she is after receiving one of her trophies at the tournament.

Nick received medals for both "forms" and "flag sparring" and a FIRST place trophy for "point sparring"! Way to go Nick! He is very proud of his accomplishment!

Nick recieving his trophy at the tournament!

Here is video of Tiana's flag sparring match. She is relentless! The first one to pull of both of their opponent's flags wins the match.

And here is Nick's flag sparring match. Afterwards he said, "I would have won, but her flag was behind her and I couldn't reach it." I had noticed that, but heh, life isn't fair.

Here is Tiana's point sparring match. She did really good. I do not understand how this one works, but I know she did well. Thank goodness for headgear! She is the kid closest to the camera.

Here is Nick's point sparring match, the one he received the first place trophy for! He is furthest from the camera in the red gear. This match went quickly because Nick got some good point hits in there fast. Way to go!