100 Things

100 Things (AKA - How boring am I?)

You are supposed to copy the list and bold the ones you have done. Let's see how boring I really am~

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone(if a chipped collar bone counts)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Totally copied a post from someone else's blog to your own

Thanksgiving

It was a Happy Thanksgiving at our home. Turkey, stuffing, rolls, green bean casserole, yams in two varieties, mashed potatoes, gravy and too many pies filled the tables. We're so glad Ryan, Nick, Mom and Dad were able to come and be with us. There is much to be thankful for. Ryan was thankful for his first Thanksgiving dinner in over 1000 days. :0) We were glad it was a good one. Nick and Ryan made rolls and continue the Bell Boy tradition of roll making. They had a little help because we were in a time crunch, but I think they could do it on their own now. We only had twelve at dinner this year so we were all able to fit at the table and it was good to be together. For our many blessings may we be truely grateful. And for those things that we don't recognize as blessing may our eyes be opened.

Ice Skating

Wednesday night the family convinced me to take the kids ice skating for the first time. Since I have not been seen flying around a big sheet of ice on thin metal strips since the BYU days and Mike had to be at Mutual, I was a little concerned about taking three newbies skating. But we did have six adults to three small people so we went for it. We had sore arm muscles the next day, but I'm happy to say that Abby, Braydon and Cailah were all skating independently by the end of the evening. Thanks go to Ryan, Megan, Kris, Nick and Mom who helped keep them vertical all night :0) If only that had done the same for me. Actually Abby pretty much clung to the wall until she was ready She dismissed me with a "Mom you're slowing me down" after a few times around the rink0. She and Alyssa pretty much did their own thing after that. Braydon and Cailah took a little longer, but were so fun to watch. Cailah finds it easier to skate when she's jumping (and there are people on both sides holding her hands.) Braydon just runs on the skates, strange to watch, but effective. I wished I had brought the video camera. Some day I'm going to get one of those little ones I can carry in my pocket. Good times and well worth the effort. Thanks guys!

Musical Sunday

The kids (Alyssa, Abby, Braydon and Cailah) sang in sacrament meeting this morning. They did a medley of primary Thanksgiving songs, including a round. Of course they were cute (thanks to hair straighteners--see previous blog for explaination) and they did a great job. It's hard for me to judge since I was playing the piano, but many people told me they did and I believe them :0) It's fun that they are willing to sing. We enjoy preparing for it, learn new songs and have good family time doing it. The Tolman Family singers are here!

OOPS!

Kristin and I played with what we thought were pin curls last night. Clearly we need some practice.

First Snow 2008

Saturday was the first snow of 2008 and it was way cool! Short lived, but very cool. It's wasn't just snow it was HUGE FLAKES. They were awesome. The kind of snow you wish was coming down at night so you could have a bonfire and just sit around, or dance around, staring at the sky while they pour down on you. But it was still good fun even during they day. Abby and Alyssa rushed out to enjoy.

A Day of Doctors

We spent most of the day in Doctor's offices today. D and A had their yearly appointments and are looking good. Well, except for D having Bronchitis and not weighing enough so we have to worry about getting enough food down her. . . . to have such a problem for me.

When I took Abby back to school I got to pick up Braydon for his appointment. Two Sundays ago he spent the night in a sleep center and had a sleep study done. It confirmed what we already knew--the poor kid has a hard time sleeping. The doctor called it "tortured sleep." He stops breathing about 10 times an hour. Happily he starts again every time :0-) His sleep cycle chart looks like that of a 55 year old, and those of us that are getting older can understand the sadness of that. First line of defence, tonsil and adenoid removal. Now we just have to figure out the insurance etc. Ahhh. But the good news is Mike was insistent that we get it done now instead of my 'lets wait a while' stance and because of that the original study was done before we lost our insurance and the rest should be done while we still have the COBRA. Phew. We'll I'm still not breathing deeply until we see if they will actually pay anything. If not we'll have to fight the good fight with insurance again. Not the first time. And I'm sure it won't be the last. Wish us luck and lets hope this helps our Braydon get a good nights sleep.

Getting to Know Your Friends

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Okay,here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Justcopy (not forward) this entire email and paste into a new e-mail thatyou can send. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send thisto a whole bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person that sent itto you......Tis the Season to be NICE!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Paper
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial. Took Mike a few years to convince me, but now I like it.
3. When do you put up the tree? After Thanksgiving
4. When do you take the tree down? We leave it up as long as possible. (That's code for sometime in January when I get tired of having it up :0)
5. Do you like eggnog? A little bit, but "milked" down.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Ohh, my favorite is the memory of getting the Atari. Doug was priceless.
7. Hardest person to buy for? I'm just not that good at gifts for anyone.
8. Easiest person to buy for? The Kiddos
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Someday
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Can't think of a bad one.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? the old Santa Clause movie.
13. When do you start shopping? All year I look for good sales. I get serious in September and try to be done by Thanksgiving
14.Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Nope
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Toffee and Fudge
16. Lights on the tree? According to Mike way too many (and multi-colored)
17. Favorite Christmas song? Little Drummer Boy
18, Travel at Christmas or stay home? Some of both, but moving toward just staying.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yes
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Sometimes one gift on Christmas Eve.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Bell Ringers
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Family
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Cheese Soup (on Christmas Eve)
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A job for Mike.
26. Who is most likely to respond to this? ??
27. Who is least likely to respond to this? ??

Delayna's Picts

Sweet Baby Girl


Classic Delayna

And yeah, I'm outta here!

Going Private

We're going to try making the blog private. Let me know if you would like an inivite. Happy to have come visit, just trying to keep out the cyberwierdos. Thanks, Alyson

Delayna at 1

D's not talking to me so I guess I have to write this for her. At one Delayna is a crack up. She is definately a toddler and is all over the house. She has completely abandoned crawling and it bopping all over. She does not do leisurly strolling about the house. She's off! It totally cracks me up. Her favorite toys are the little white screw covers off the toilets (yes, absolutely disgusting!), pencils (she finds them EVERYWHERE) and a green bouncy ball that just barely fits in her mouth (she's thinks it's hilarious.) She babbles constantly and uses great body language to help her make her point. Everything from the full head back belly laugh to big emphatic head nods when she's serious. She loves to dance and if she hears anything resembling music she'll be grooving! Occasionally she'll eat some real food now, but still loves her ma, ma, ma. And no, that's not mom it's milk and she'd like it warm and in a bottle NOW PLEASE. She still has major stranger anxiety so good luck making friends. Ryan has high hopes for Thanksgiving since he'll be here for a week. Yeah! It's sad that she doesn't like new people much because she is so fun and has so much . . . how should we say it . . . personality, but other people don't get to see it since she WON'T LEAVE MY LAP. But we love her and are glad she decided to show up in our family. Happy one year Baby D.

Silver Linings

As many of you know Mike was laid off on Tuesday morning. It was a complete shock and we've been reeling in the wake of that event this week. But I wanted to let you know we are OK. We're grateful for everyone's concern, and we're doing better now. I can even talk about it without crying now (Yes, Doug and Randy you can call me now ;0). ) There are blessings in everything and this is no different. We'd rather not be going through this, but we are grateful that we are healthy, there is food on the table, a roof over our heads and for all the support we've recieved. Happily we've been working hard on our year's supply, have a paid for car, and both have good education and work experience to draw on. We are grateful to have a temple near by where we were able to go and recharge our batteries, remember what is important in life, ponder, pray and feel peace. I'm so glad Kristin is here to lighten the mood with jokes, music, and free babysitting :0).

Weekend Girls Trip

Kristin beat me to blogging so I'm copying. I'll have to get pictures lately.

This past weekend Alyson and I left the kids with Mike and headed to Grandma Thompson's house. We have been wanting to get all of her old photo's scanned before she gives them away and she wanted to get some photo's scanned to play in her digital photo frame and her TV. So we went up kids free and spent the weekend scanning old photo's and video taping her talking about the photo's. We learned some very fun facts about Grandma.
Friday night Trevor, Bethany, & Ryan met us at Grandma's for dinner....Grandma's stew. They headed back to Provo that night so they could attend the football game on Saturday. Al and I stayed and literally spend all day until about 4:40 scanning picture. By that time Grandma was tired of talking and we were tired of scanning so we watched a movie, had some more stew and then watched another movie. It was a very nice trip visiting and fun listening to some family history.
We got a few really great photo's. Ryan was my test subject as I was getting the timer ready to shoot.
They kids had a very nice weekend with Mike, filled with a morning trip to the donut shop, Kung Fu Panda and Superman II with popcorn....they hardly missed up.

Happy Happy Birthday Delayna!

She did it. She made it to one year old. Sadly Delyana is not feeling well today so we're putting off taking pictures untill the nose can stay clean long enough to take a picture and she's willing to leave mom's lap for a few minutes. I'm having a hard time writing reflections on the past year tonight, but when she's feeling better D may write her own letter :0)

What a Weekend

What fun we had. Mom, Dad, Nick, Ryan, Trevor, Bethany AND Mom and Dee arrived in time to enjoy the trick or treaters and some hot spiced cider and fresh scones. Yummy! Saturday we got up bright and early to take Nick to the temple to recieve his endowments in preparation for his mission. That's all eight. Now we just all need to get to the temple at that same time! Then is was home to prepare for Abby's Baptism. Kyle, Tammy, Bronson, and Sarah came to share the special day with us and is was a great day! It is always a whirlwind when so many great things are happening and those we love are with us. Hard to believe it is already over, but we have great memories to keep.

Here are few of the pictoral highlights.

Mr. Clean joins the family of rag dolls, pumpkins and golfer. (And those of us with "Halloween Shirts." We are happy to note that Trev now knows what a Halloween shirt is.)

Whoo HOOOOOOO I got a sucker! Is that pure joy or what?

Mike's family sharing Abby's special day. Braydon was VERY sad that Bronson didn't get to come back to the house afterward. He had a lot of fun with him.