Tolman Family

Uploaded by popular demand ... Jessica is walking! And, once again, Hank might be the best part of the video.

So, we may be terrible parents, but we thought this was so funny. Jessica wouldn't take an afternoon nap today and by dinnertime she was exhausted. She was so tired that she couldn't even chew her food. The best part was that Hank could not stop laughing at her and it was keeping her awake. This video was much longer, but I cut it down...because watching a baby fall asleep may not be as interesting to you as it was to us.

Last year I wanted to throw a Halloween Party. One last shabang before the baby was born. She was due on Nov 7th, so I figured I'd have plenty of time. So, I got everything planned and stayed up till midnight one night making darling little invitations to hand out at church the next day. Well, the next morning I went into labor. I was so disappointed that I didn't get to throw my party! (Our cute little newborn helped me get over that pretty fast). So, This year I am finally throwing my Halloween Party. I have been planning it for months. I couldn't easily salvage last years invites, so I made these little Mummy ones. They're supposed to be kind of like trick-or-treat bags. At first I was planning on just inviting a few couples over for a nice dinner, but we decided to invite everyone from Hank's work instead. Fifteen people and their families. I'm worried. Do you know how much food I'm gonna need? And we don't have a big house. Where are ...

Yesterday I, Danica, built my very first computer! It is our HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer). Hank ordered all the components on the internet and walked me through putting it all together. We made it completely from scratch. Brand new case, motherboard, processor, dvd drive, ram, hard drive, power supply, everything! Then I loaded windows onto it and hooked it up to our TV. Since we don't have cable we just stream all our tv shows and movies straight to the TV. (We were using an old, broken laptop before and this is SO much nicer!) This is me happily connecting all the wires. Jessica is a very tech-savvy little baby. If there is something electronic around she is there in an instant...ready to chew on it. In other news, several people asked if Jessica is walking yet. No, she is not, much to Daddy's chagrin. She can stand up all day, and she cruises around the furniture like a pro, but she will not take a step by herself. If I try to force her to walk holding my ha...

Well, we finally had Jessica's real birthday party. We invited a bunch of her friends from our playgroup. It was a Paris party with pink poodles everywhere. So cute! The cake, sadly, did not turn out as planned, but everything else went really well. Singing Happy Birthday. It surprised her when everyone said her name in the song! No organized games for the little kids, but the balloons were a huge hit! Jessica opening presents with jut a little help from her friends. By the end of the party she just wanted to kick back with Mommy. We had so much fun!

Jessica is one year old! Can you believe it? We had a big party planned for her birthday, but then we both got sick so we had to postpoe the party. We decided to go to the Tucson Zoo instead. Jessica loved it, that is, when she actually noticed that there were animals there. After the Zoo we went out to eat at Claimjumpers, then went home for presents and cake. It was really a nice day with just Mommy and Daddy and Baby. She wasn't sure what to think about the my-size elephant. Opening a mountain of presents! She really got the hang of ripping all the paper. Thank you Grandmas! Just a few of her many presents! It was so funny when we put that cake in front of her. She is such a dainty little eater. She looked at me like, "you want me to do what with the cake?" She just stuck her little finger in the frosting. This is as messy as she got before daddy tried to help her. Happy Birthday little angel!

...And experimenting with our photo editor... Time flies!

A couple of weeks ago my family came to visit us in Arizona...and I'm just barely blogging about it. We had so much fun while they were here. Little Jessica got spoiled rotten! (And so did I, since they came for my birthday.) We went and saw all the sights, and they got to see our new house. I'm so glad we had some visitors, it's been the highlight of my summer. "Jessie the Kid" in Tombstone, AZ 4 Generations of Girls (Sister Sammy, Sister Melanie, Baby Jessica, Me - Danica, Mom Denise, Grandma Carolyn) Chillin' with Grandma Martin on the 24th Visiting Bisbee. My dad was here too, but he seemed to always be the one taking the pictures. Unfortunately Hank had to work most of the time they were here, but he did get to go to the Sahuaro National Park with us. You can't tell, but behind us is a sea of 15 ft tall cactuses...cacti?

Yesterday was my 25th birthday (ahhh!). Hank gave me a beautiful watch and Jessica gave me a gorgeous necklace with her pink birthstone and a "J" carved into it. They sure know how to make me happy! Just shower me with jewelry! They also both made me the cutest homemade cards. I was very impressed. We kinda celebrated all weekend. Hank's brother, Mark, came down to visit and we loved showing him around our town and just relaxing with him. Jessica absolutely loved him! Partly because he fed her every kind of food he could find. Jessica sharing her watermelon with Uncle Mark. She ate 3 wedges of watermelon and still couldn't get enough! By the way, thank you so much to all you well-wishers who called to tell me Happy Birthday. I didn't realize that the baby had crawled away with my phone, so I missed everyone's calls. But thank you!!

"What a good story..." "Wait a minute - is that a shoe?" "OMG! I want to touch it." "What? I'm just listening to the story." "Hey, she moved it." "Mom, she moved it." "Wait a minute - is that a story?"

We went camping this weekend for Father's Day. It was so fun! The weather was beautiful, the scenery was spectacular, and the company was even better! We camped out at Cochise Stronghold, where the great Indian, Cochise, held of the US army for two years. The mountains were made up of gi-normous boulders which Hank couldn't resist climbing up. Jessica gave Hank his Father's Day gifts there. She gave him two storybooks, a box of his favorite chocolates, and a finger-painted card. We went on some really awesome hikes. We brought our GPS and found some geocaches. Here's one of them. I think it's more fun to go hiking when you find treasure hidden at the end. ( www.geocaching.com ) We had a couple mishaps while we were there. As we were leaving to go hiking Hank backed out of our campsite and didn't see the tree that was behind us. We heard a loud crash and turned around to see our entire back window shattered! I guess that's what emergency funds are f...

This is one happy girl! She loves discovering new things and going on adventures. Here are a few of the things Jessica loves: Going to the park. (Don't worry, I was standing just outside the shot ready to catch her if she tipped!) Swinging. This might be her very favorite thing! Her new crib! And Mommy's happy that she finally has her own room! Her Daddy. Nothing makes this girl's face light up like seeing her favorite guy walk in the room. Swimming. Even when the water's freezing, she loves to splash around in it. Crawling. Jessica is a crawler extraordinaire! She zooms all over the house, following me wherever I go.

Remember how I said that this is my new favorite magazine? Well, I have awesome/terrible news. I took a survey when it first came out and I left a comment and they actually published my comment in the magazine! See that big red quote in the top left hand corner? Well, that's mine! I said that! Word for word! Now take a closer look... Notice anything funny about that quote? Only one small problem: my name is not Verna Buchanan!!! They put the wrong name under it! That was MY quote! I'm so disappointed - I've never been in a magazine before. And now I still haven't! Anyway, you should buy the June/July issue of the Food Network Magazine and be so excited for me and just pretend that I sometimes like to go by Verna.