Tatiana's Birthday cake #2!

They did it again! Our adopted Aunties, Angie and Trish, made another amazing birthday cake for one of our kiddos! This time it was Tatiana's turn. They made her a HUGE cupcake because Tatiana LOVES to bake and cupcakes are her favorite thing to make right now. They also made all her favorite things with colored white chocolate! There is Curious George on the top. Along the bottom she has a Girl Scout sign, a Tae Kwon Do belt, a musical note, a chef's hat, a science beaker, a bunny, a chick, a spool of sewing thread and a book/scriptures. It was perfect! As always! Thank you aunties!

Make a wish! Nick can't wait to dig in!

Happy Birthday Angel!

Tatiana turns 10 !!!!!

Our sweet angel, Tatiana, turned 10 years old in April! I can hardly believe it! It seems like just yesterday she was our little baby girl, hooked up to a heart rate monitor we had to carry everywhere with her. She was so tiny and helpless. Now she is a beautiful, confident, intelligent, and amazing young woman! I am so proud of her and love her so much!!!

We had a little family party for her on her birthday. She opened presents from the family...

...and we decorated our own cupcakes. It was good, messy and delicious fun!



Then on April 18th, we had her friend party here at the house. She wanted a Curious George theme. Yes, she loves monkeys still and George is her favorite! Here is the cake I made for her, I think it turned out pretty cute and she loved it!

First the girls all decorated journals with stickers. They were very creative and had a lot of fun with it.

Then a rowdy game of Minute-To-Win-It! It was a BIG hit! This is a picture of them doing the "Noodling Around" task.

Silly girls!

Present time! Lots of craft supplies and kits and some monkey stuff, her friends know her well!

Cake time! Make a wish and blow out the candles so we can dig in! Yum!

HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY TATIANA!!!! WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

Fun With the Bloomfields and a Suprise Party!

March 31st-April 3rd was a happening time here at the Tolmans! Our very good friends, Jim and Chauntelle Bloomfield and their four kids, came for a visit! The live in Idaho, we use to all live in Hillsboro, OR (up near Portland) together and that is where we became friends. Chauntelle and I met when our oldest kids (only kids at the time) were 3 and 4 months old. Her daughter, Regan, is a month older than Nick. And now Regan and Nick are 12 years old and in Young Mens and Young Womens! Wow! Where has the time gone?!? Now we have four kids and they have four; Regan, Lisa, Grayson, and Tanner. They are all so cute! Ben was so excited, for weeks he was telling everyone he met, "My Bloomfield cousins are coming to visit!"

We took them to "Wacky Bounce" in Corvallis. The kids had a blast and even Chauntelle and I had some fun and got a little exercise in too!

Lisa, Tatiana, and Tanner.

Nick, Regan, and Andrew.

My sista-from-anotha-motha, Chauntelle, and me!


Chauntelle teaching Lisa and Tatiana how to do a Rubix Cube. She was actually doing this outside so that the Regan and I could quickly decorate and get things ready for a surprise birthday party for Lisa and Tatiana. You see, Tatiana was born 4 1/2 weeks early ON Lisa's due date. Then Lisa was born 2 days later! I remember calling Chauntelle from the hospital reluctantly telling her that our baby was born and asking her if she was mad at me that mine came first and she will be over her due date now. She laughed and said of course not. She was actually happy that my ordeal was over and that Tatiana was healthy. It was a high risk pregnancy and I was on bed rest for the past month. Chauntelle, even though she was also pregnant and had a little two year old, would come over all the time to help me out. She is such an AMAZING friend! We have been through a lot together. I love her!!!

Anyway, back to the surprise party! The girls were totally surprised and had no idea what we had up our sleeve. Success!!!

Look at our sweet not-so-little-anymore girls! We say that they have been best friends since in the womb! Chauntelle and I are trying to figure out if we can get Nick to marry one of her daughters so that Lisa and Tatiana can officially be sisters! Hee Hee!

So fun!

Knowing their birthdays were coming up, we had already gotten presents for the girls. They didn't know there was going to be a party attached though.

For the cake we had everyone decorate their own cupcake. They were quite creative...

and messy!

Make a wish!

After presents and cake we had a fun and rowdy night of "Minute to Win it!" Here is a picture of all the kids doing the challenge entitled, "Face the Cookie" (although we are using Ritz crackers, they already had too much sugar!)

The morning that the Bloomfields had to leave...Nooooo!

We miss you all! Thanks for visiting and we will see you soon! Love you!

Angie's Cake for Nick!!!!

WOW!!!!! These girls did it again! Auntie Angie with the help of her assistant, Auntie Trishie, made ANOTHER AMAZING BIRTHDAY CAKE for our family! This time it was Nick's turn! She make a cake that had both a LEGO theme and a camping theme! It was AWESOME!

Big view from one side...

and from the other side...

Check out the LEGO man fishing off the dock! He caught a big one! The LEGO man was made with melted white chocolate in a LEGO ice cube tray! The fish was also out of a mold and the dock is Kit-Kat bars held up with pretzels!

Two sunbathers. More LEGO chocolate people. The sand is crushed graham crackers and the beach towels are Fruit By The Foot! The rocks are rock candy and the tree is a Rice Krispy Treat!

I think this may have been my favorite part. The LEGO men are camping! The tent is made out of Pop Tarts! The sleeping bags are made out of TWINKIES! Holy cow! Can you say CRE-A-TIVE!? The log is a Twix bar and the campfire is all sorts of cool!

A close-up of our sleepy campers...how cute! The black dirt is crushed Oreos.

Are they amazing or what! I love their creativity. The kids look forward to seeing what they will bring every time. It feels like a crime to eat such a masterpiece, but it always taste oh-so-good! I wonder how long poor Angie is going to be able to keep this up! She keeps offering though and as long as she does, we will enthusiastically say "YES, PLEASE!"

A BIG month for Nick!

February was a big month for our Nick. First of all he turned 12!!! I cannot believe my baby is 12 years old! I cannot believe I am old enough to have a 12 year old! I was sneaky and after school the day before I left him to babysit the boys and I went and put up a couple signs in his locker. Nothing too embarrassing, just something to surprise him and make him feel special when he opened his locker on his birthday. He really liked it. Of course I used Garfield, what could be cooler than that?

He opened presents and cards from grandparents. The kids look forward to getting Great Grandma Zimbelman's homemade cards every birthday. She does elaborate cards. She enjoys doing them, she is good at doing them, and the kids love them. Here is Nick holding this year's card. She tries to do it around something they are currently into or like. This year is all Martial Arts for Nick's card.

Here is the inside. We love how she also always incorporates pictures of the kids into the cards.

On his birthday we had ice cream cupcakes from Cold Stone. He was anticipating another birthday cake when his grandparents came for the weekend and another one of auntie Angie's famous cake creations later in the month. So we went with the ice cream cupcakes so we didn't get caked-out.


The day after his birthday Nick had his first Boy Scout Court of Honor. He received several merit badges and his First Class Scout rank. We were very proud of him. It was a little weird for me because I was in Cub Scouts for all those years with him and now he is a big Boy Scout. My little man is growing up!



Nick got sick on the Friday of his birthday week. The poor guy had the stomach flu last year ON his birthday and this year again the day before we were to do all him birthday fun with the family. We were all hoping he would feel better by morning and that no one else would feel sick. Thank goodness everyone woke up well and we were able to continue on as planned!

Nick is growing up and maturing. He decided that instead of a "friend party" this year, he would rather spend the day in Portland with his family. So what did we do for Nick's special family day? Well, first we took our scientist to OMSI where his siblings and he could do all sorts of scientific and engineering cool things. And then we took our LEGO maniac to the LEGO store and let him pick out something (we gave him a spending limit of course.) He loved that!



On Sunday, the 13th, we had another little party for Nick. It was a VERY SPECIAL DAY! First of all, grandma and grandpa Tolman were here. But what made the day SO SPECIAL was Nick was ordained to the office of Deacon and received the Aaronic Priesthood! His dad performed the ordination and a few other worthy priesthood holders, including his grandpa Tolman, also stood in. I was overwhelmed with emotion, but held it together pretty good. Wow! Our son is 12 years old! Wow! Our son is worthy to hold the Aaronic priesthood! Wow! Our family now has two worthy priesthood holders in our home! Wow! What a glorious day!

Tatiana really wanted to make Nick's birthday cake all by herself. So she did! She even decorated it! I think she did a very good job!

She made it look like the LEGO sensai and it also tasted great too!


Nick with his proud Father and Grandfather.

The missionaries also came over for dinner and cake. They have been such a good influence in Nick's life. Really for all of our kids! We couldn't ask for better young men for our son to look up to.

Happy Birthday Nick! Happy 1st Class Scout Nick! Happy Aaronic Priesthood Ordination Nick!!!

Nathan's Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE! Nathan turned 35 this year! We had a nice little family party here at home. He isn't one who likes a big fuss. Trust me, one year I threw him a surprise party and he was not too into it. He likes hanging out with his friends, but not being the center of attention. So every since we keep it low key for him. What the birthday boy wants, the birthday boy gets!

And he got quite a bit! Look at his loot! We love our daddy!

I made his favorite dessert, Pumpkin Bars! We all love them! Maybe I'll post the recipe someday... if you're lucky!

Make a wish! I am not sure what he could possible wish for, he is the man with it all! (I know the photos are out of order, not my fault...blame the computer!)

WE LOVE YOU HONEY!!!!

Ben's 5th Birthday!!!!

I think Ben had a great 5th Birthday! We all had a lot of fun. He wanted to have a fireman birthday, but he has had a fireman birthday for the past TWO years! So I tried to convince him to do something else. Then he couldn't make up his mind because he liked all the ideas. So we ended up giving him everything (it is his birthday after all)! He had a costume party with Halloween games, a Dinosaur Train birthday cake and time tunnel (those of you who have ever watched his favorite cartoon (Dinosaur Train knows exactly what the time tunnel is!), and a big fire engine to play in. Whew! What a party!

First I wanted to include a picture of the lunch we had on his birthday, Jack-o-lantern quesadillas!

Tatiana got creative again and made Ben a birthday banner out of craft pipe cleaners (or chenille wire for those of you who know it by that name.)

Check out this AMAZING CAKE!!!! It is a Dinosaur Train traveling through a graveyard and pumpkin patch! How CREATIVE!!!!

And these are my AMAZING friends! Angie (the corn) made the cake and her roommate, Trish (the salt) helped her. I love these gals! By the way, Angie is a chef, can you tell!?! I couldn't even dream of making something this cool! She is the same friend who made Andrew's birthday cake for me, so I asked her to help with Ben's too and she was happy to. THANK YOU both!!!!!!

Playing in the fire engine I made out of a big box I got from the furniture store. They loved it! It lasted a couple weeks, but now it is gone. Oh well, it was a blast while it lasted!

Jack-o-lantern bean bag toss I made out of another box. The pictures with Ben are blurry, so you get one of his friends in action here.

A "catch the ghost" game that the kids all had a blast with. Each child held on to a string and one child (Ben in this picture) tried to catch a ghost with the funnel before they were all pulled out of the middle. It produced a lot of giggles.

Nick and his friend, Jake, were very nice and pulled slowly when it was a younger child's turn, this time Ben caught them both! Gotcha!

We also had a treasure hunt. Tatiana put this game together. She made clues that sent the children around the house finding pieces of the skeleton, then they would bring them back and piece by piece the skeleton got put together. Her is Ben posing like the skeleton. Cute!

Time to make a wish! It was hard to eat such a masterpiece, but it did taste as good as it looked!

And finally, PRESENTS!!!!! Ben was richly blessed. He had a blast!

More presents!

And some crafts while we wait for parents to arrive.

Ben in front of the "Time Tunnel". It turned out really cool! I had woven glow sticks through the top of it so it glowed inside. I would lead the kids around the couches and through the time tunnel. Then when they were all out on the other side I would say, "Now it is TIME for games!" or "Now it is TIME for cake!"... you get the idea.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN! WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

I simply cannot believe my baby is already 5 years old!!! Where did the time go???