LG = Life's Good

I was cleaning up after dinner today and walked past the laundry room and saw something like this:Logan had climbed inside our washer. Not sure how. But he was having a great time. The washer is an LG, which I am pretty sure stands for Life's Good. And life was good for Logan as he discovered that the he could rock the whole drum back and forth, and was having a great time rocking around in there. I don't think he did any damage, but its one of those times where you hesitate to take a picture b/c you don't want to encourage him to do it again - or do it to his little brother. Don't call CPS, I'll just have to keep the door shut on it. It closes pretty tightly; I even have to give it a good tug to open it, so I doubt he could open it.

Tolan's Birthday

We finally got to celebrate Tolan's birthday last night. Here are some pictures.They made a gumball machine cake on Ace of Cakes and I thought I could do a smaller, simpler version. It would have looked better with fondant, but I didn't feel like messing with it this time.
All the birthday presents

He was ready to dig in...

taking a drink break

Logan loving the cake

When he decided he was done, he started smearing the frosting all over his body. Then he picked up a chunk of cake and rubbed it around like a sponge. After this cake-bath, I gave him real bath & then let him open presents.

Taking his new ride for a test drive

Checking out presents from Grandma & Grandpa T

The dinosaurs are a hit! Thanks mom!

Tolan is ONE!!

His actual birthday isn't until tomorrow, the 12th, but its going to be a busy day, and I wanted to get a post in for his bday. We won't get do the whole deal tomorrow with the cake & presents & everything so I will post pictures when we do. But until then here's just a little bit about our little Tolly.

( Justin's parents wanted to do a litte early celebration for his bday when they were here last month, so that's what this picture is)

He weighed 7 lbs 13 oz when he was born. We don't go to the doctor until Wednesday but I'm guessing he's about 23 lbs. Look how much he has grown in one year!

(As proof of his growth, notice that he is now wearing the same clothes his big brother was wearing the day he was born)

A little bit about Tolan & his first year:

Some names he goes by around our house: Tolly, Tonan or Tony (these 2 are Logan's) and Dirty Sal

Favorite foods: bananas, goldfish, cheerios. (Pretty standard for a 1-yr-old, but unfortunately, this is about all I can get him to eat.)

Things he likes to do: climb up the stairs, "play ball," wrestle with Logan, push cars around, and lucky for me, sleep!

Little known fact: Tolan loves any kind of drink - milk, water, juice, etc. He will find any sippy cup he can, throw his head back, and just chug it

Favorite items: his blanky and his binky

Favorite noises to make: any spitty or gurgly sound he can managae to make with his tongue, and he also does an ear-piercing shriek

Words: mama-mama and sometimes dada

One of my favorites things about him: his laugh. he has a great belly laugh. I also love the face he makes when he is concentrating:

Some of my favorite pics:

Happy Birthday Tolan!

My Vampire Child

So, Tolan has 3 teeth on the bottom and no sign of his front teeth on top. BUT, he did have the canine tooth on the top right come in and now the one on the left is coming in, but still no sign of the front 2. Hopefully they will come soon or I will have a vampire child! I can only wonder - is this punishment for reading those all-consuming vampire books when I was pregnant with him???




If so, oh well. They were good reads and I'm sure his front teeth will come in soon enough.

Sea World

We left the island on Friday & got on the road around 11:30. We drove 5 1/2 hours to Thompsons, stayed the night and were on the road again for the next 2 days. We got home late Sunday night, unpacked the car and got settled in. Then we went to bed and got up at 6 am the next morning to go to Sea World. Crazy, I know. Justin's parents were in town and were taking all the grandkids to Sea World and Justin had the day off anyway, so we went too.

7 of the 8 grandkids

Unfortunately, the sunshine did not last and we ended up going home.

A Stop in Minnesota

On our second date, Justin asked me if I knew the Thompsons. I said, "Yeah, Erin and I were best friends. Why, do you know them?" And Justin said, "Yeah, they're my cousins!" That was one crazy coincidence... Although I had known them for years, I had never met Justin. Anyway, they now live in Minnesota so we stopped by on our way home from Canada. It was the 4th of July, so we were waiting on the beach of a lake there for the fireworks.

the kids & me with Erin & Jessie

Logan with Erin's son, Jadon. They became little buddies quickly, but refused to pose for a picture.

We also stopped in Oklahoma City to see the national memorial for the 1995 bombing there. I thought that it had destroyed 1 or 2 buildings. I did not know that it was actually 16 buildings. To the left, behind the trees are the 168 empty chairs that represent the victims. This picture only shows about half of the area that was destroyed.

Trip to Canada

Here are our pictures from Canada. My mom's parents bought the 7 acre island across the border from Minnesota back in the 60's and it has remained in the family since. My mom's brothers & their families go up every 2 0r 3 years. I have only been a few times & this was Justin's first. We had a great time. My parents and my brother Neal & his wife Kelli went. My uncle and his family along with all of their spouses & kids were there too. So there were 19 adults, 7 kids, a great dane & a golden retriever. We all had fun together and there was plenty to do to keep us busy.

Smurfs

If you've ever taken your family on vacation, you know what its like trying to get everything ready to go the day before. Well here's what happened when I was trying to do that.

Its hard to see, but they are covered in blue. Blue food coloring gel for frosting...

Its easy to blame the older, more capable child, but Tolan is looking pretty guilty.

The scene of the crime: little jars of frosting colors

I thought I was going to be smuggling Smurfs across the border, but luckily it washed off relatively easily.

Tolan's First Haircut

I was going to wait and let my mom cut his hair when we see her on vacation, but I couldn't wait any longer. His wispy hair was looking too straggly.

The Before pictures:

The After pictures: