Tolman Family

My mom already called me saying that I was too slow getting Halloween pictures out, so here they are! This was earlier in the month. We grew about 20 pumpkins in our garden this year! The pumpkin patch ended up taking over half of our yard. We celebrated the holiday yesterday. First we went to a fun party with our moms group. Games, face painting, crafts, trick or treating, and lots of food. Jessica loved her witch costume (thanks Grandmas!) and does the cutest little "hee hee hee!" During the costume parade she held up the line 'cause she didn't think walking around the room would be that much fun. But because no child can be left behind she still got a medal at the end for doing such a good job. Then we went to a multi-ward trunk or treat. Jessica absolutely loved it! At first she was nervous saying "trick or treat," but once she realized it was the ticket to more candy she was practically yelling it at people! And the best part about Halloween..

Jessica is two! Yep, we've had this little angel in our family for two whole years! We threw her an impromptu party at Grandma's house while we were in Utah. Boy, did this girl get spoiled! The great part about being in Utah is that we can be with both families at the same time...which means double the presents! One of Jessica's favorite new toys was her shopping cart. She went around Grandma's house and "shopped" out of all of her cupboards! Dora cake! Unfortunately, Jessica got sick on her actual birthday, so we didn't get to do quite as much as we wanted. We went to Applebee's for lunch. This is Jessica, casually taking yet another birthday call. Great Shape Barbie from Toy Story One grateful girl! They came and sang to her at Applebee's and brought ice cream. Jessica was enthralled with the singing...and a little scared! But she loved the ice cream! All day we were telling her it was her birthday, but all she was concerned about was w

September 24th was Anna's (official) due date, so we went up to Utah to see her newly placed headstone. We invited our families to come out for a little picnic at the cemetery. It was a beautiful day, and a nice way to remember our little girl. Click on the picture to see an enlarged view of Anna's headstone. Jessica pointed to the engraved baby and said, "Anna" and then pointed to Jesus and said, "Jesus." It's amazing how clearly she understands everything that's going on. Sometimes I think she understands more than we do. Soon after we got home from Utah in July, a friend brought us dinner and these beautiful mini yellow roses. They weren't doing very well indoors, so I looked it up online and found that they could revive if planted outside. When I went out of town in August Hank planted them outside for me. For a couple months nothing happened and we thought they were gone. Then the other day we went outside and saw blooms! They'r

Well, we've had a very busy Summer. Just a two weeks after we got home from Utah in July, Jessica and I were on our way out again. I went to the Cookie Lee convention in Las Vegas and earned an award for selling $25,000 in jewelry. From there we went to Zion's for a Sommers family reunion. It was our second time camping this Summer and Jessica did really well. I was thankful for her squeaky shoes so I could keep track of her in the woods! Then we headed up to Utah for a couple more days to visit Hank's family and Anna's grave. September 17th was Hank's last day in the Army! Woohoo! We thought we would be moving when he got out so we spent the weeks beforehand packing our house....only to find out that he got a job here so now we have to unpack everything. Hank's brother, Mark, came down to visit us for about a week before he leaves on his mission. While he was here, he and Hank convinced me to take a last minute trip to Southern California. We went

I know this is the first time I've mentioned this on my blog, but I guess it's about time. It has been three weeks since our daughter, Anna, was stillborn. I was seven and a half months pregnant when we went to Utah to visit family for the holiday weekend. While we were there I noticed that I hadn't felt the baby move for a little while, so Hank and I went to the hospital to check it out. When they did an ultrasound they found that her little heart wasn't beating. From early on in the pregnancy we knew that things weren't quite right. She consistently measured six to eight weeks too small and the doctors suspected a heart defect. They had told us that there was a possibility that she wouldn't make it, but we tried to keep our hopes up. So, when we saw her on the ultrasound, we knew right away what had happened. The doctor induced labor and after about 10 hours I delivered our little angel. Anna Denise was born at 1:19am on July 4, 2010. She weighed 1

Happy Father's Day! We had such a great day yesterday, celebrating Daddy. For the past couple of weeks Jessica has been working on her presents. She made a mug, cookies, and a crown that says "King for the Day" (Hank liked that part!). I went for an easier approach - on Saturday I took him to Lowes and told him to pick out some tools. Ya know, it's interesting, this is a guy who claims to not like shopping, but he looked like a kid in a candy store walking up and down those isles! He chose a socket wrench set, a wire stripper, and more wrenches. Sunday we made French toast for breakfast, ham and potato casserole for dinner and these delicious (and might I add, super cute!) brownies for dessert. To all our Dads: We Love You!

I taught Relief Society for the first time today (and hopefully the last!) and I was so nervous! I actually already have two callings - 7 yr old teacher and Activity Days leader - so I don't really know why I had to teach in the first place. Then we found out Hank has to be at a field training for the next ten days so he couldn't even be at church. So I got a sub for my primary class. THEN Jessica woke up sick this morning so I couldn't take her to nursery! She came with me to RS and I just asked everyone to keep an eye on her while I taught. And of course she was wild and passed between like 5 women. Anyway, despite all of that, my lesson turned out pretty well. It was about the life of Christ. I had planned a pretty short lesson, expecting everyone to make a lot of comments. Well, they made a ton. I didn't even get through half of what I had prepared. I just had to keep steering the discussion in the right direction because they got off subject easily. As

Hank's family came down to visit us last week and we had so much fun! We went and saw all the sights in the area (Tombstone, Bisbee, Kartchner Caverns) and just hung out at home (finishing 3 huge puzzles and beating the entire Mario game). We went swimming, went to movies, and went to church activities. Jessica absolutely loved having them here. Five more people to spoil her! Jessica found this adorable pink phone at an antique store in Bisbee. It was only $200... Kaitlyn, Owen, Kristine, Olivia, Mark, Hank, and Jessica eating pizza ! We went to see a free movie in the park. Kaitlyn and Owen both competed in food eating contests and won! (my iphone pics didn't turn out very well). Hiking on Memorial Day. It was so hot! Thanks for coming, guys! You made our Summer!

Our backyard is finally beginning to take shape. We actually bought this house because of its amazing backyard, but until now we never really used it. Last summer Hank built me my garden boxes, so we had our veggie garden, but that's about it. Jessica's favorite part is her new car. She actually has something to keep her entertained while mom and dad work. This is my extremely attractive gardening pose. This was taken a couple weeks ago, and now the flowers are really starting to grow. My favorite part: our new patio set! I've been looking for one forever and I finally found the perfect one! It's such a nice place to sit and relax on a hot summer afternoon. This year for our garden we have salsa garden (tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, etc.) and a little pumpkin patch for Halloween. I'll try to post more pics later in the summer so you can see how everything is turning out.

I know this is late, but we went to Las Vegas a couple weekends ago for a birthday bash/family reunion. It was so fun to spend time with all of our long-lost family. We hung out by the pool and went to Lake Mead. Jessica had so much fun hanging out with all her cousins and uncles. Uncle Greg and Uncle Randy were particular favorites. We were also lucky enough to be there for Brielle's blessing. She was such a doll! Here is Arista, Grandma, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Deanna, and Mom.

I just found these pictures that we took a few months ago, but I thought I'd put them on anyway. Jessica and I took a trip up to the Phoenix Zoo (about 3 hours away) with a few of our friends from our moms group. It was so fun to see Jessica interacting with all the animals. She had so much fun! What is a cow doing in a zoo, you ask. I don't know. Two little lovebirds sitting on a tractor... Staring contest...Jessica won. She loved the monkeys so much, she wanted to go live with them! Don't worry - it's a statue.