What's in a Name?

Mom-Mommy, originally mom-eeeeee!
Dad-Daddy
Grandma-bama, uma
Grandpa-papa
Jake-Jay-chee
Hazel-Hay-so
Christian-titchen
Everett-Effit
Grace-Zaysee
Becca-beppa
Sarah-saaa-ah
Jonas-nuss

ALL of us!

Christmas Eve dinner-for more beautiful pictures, visit Irene's blog!

Merry Christmas from the Ho Ho Holmans!

We are having a wonderful time in Arkansas! We hope you're having a fabulous Christmas!

It wouldn't be a Tobler Christmas...

without a tree disaster! :)

notice, there are actually TWO trees here! (one was too small in the big hearth room, so they got a second, but it kept tipping over!!!!)
we had to rip the lights off and make a big mess to clean it up!

This is why we're not sending a holiday card yet!

this is what happened when I tried to get a picture of M in her pretty holiday dress! :)
Luckily, this one turned out a little better! :)

Free?

I was released from my primary calling on Sunday. I'm still weepy about it. I'm so sad to be done. I begged them to keep me until I move, but it was not to be. It's amazing to me how intimidated and scared I was of this calling and now I am so so sad to leave it. I have grown to the love the children in my ward so much.

This calling was very much an answer to my prayers. I was really having trouble with my voice and wishing I could take voice lessons but knowing we couldn't really afford it. Then I was called to be the primary chorister. I lost my voice from pushing it so hard for the first three weeks and then realized that i needed to be singing all week long to make it strong enough to sing loud for the kids every week. It made my voice stronger, it helped me keep my range and I learned some wonderful new songs this year. There is nothing cooler than a group of kids 3-12 singing a cappella "Listen, Listen" with quiet voices. I love it! And I will truly miss these kids.

Would you like some cheese to go with that?

I am soooooooo sick of whining!!!!! I will not disclose who my big whiner(s) is(are). But if it doesn't come to an end soon, well, it ain't gonna be pretty!

I learned something new today...

...M LOVES candy canes! I would have never really thought of that but we got one at our ward party and she pretty much chewed the whole thing up! And I mean chomped! She didn't suck on it daintily. No, she chomped down and crunched the thing to death! I hope her teeth are okay! :)

the Countdown begins!!!

We go home to AR in one week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My sister goes home tomorrow night-I wish I could be there that soon but I get to spend two weeks at home so I can't complain. Did I mention that I get to go home in a week?????????????????????????? Did I mention that I'm excited?????????????????

These boots are made for walkin...

Grandma Jan asked if she could get M some snow bibs and boots for playing in the snow. Of course she can! :) She now has some cute purple snow pants that match her coat and cute cute cute new boots!
This morning she insisted on wearing them, even though she was sans clothes :) Here she is in her "ugg-ish" boots! So cute!

thank you thank you

I love comments! I love hearing from all of you! I probably shouldn't get my self esteem from reader's comments, huh! But I seriously love to hear what you think, so keep 'em comin!

I am so bad!

So, my Christmas shopping is all done. So, what do I do? I wander around Target while M is at play group today and find these:
They were on sale. They would literally match everything. They're adorable and comfy. Did I mention they were on sale? In my defense, my black Sunday flats kicked the bucket last year and I haven't bought shoes in forever until this year when I needed to replace a bunch like said black flats that kicked the bucket. I'm not bad, am I? :)

The Nutcracker

I took some AWESOME pics of this display and more than half are now gone! I'm not sure what happened to them but I'm so bummed! My sugar plum fairies, Russian tea dancers, everything, they're gone! Oh well!

Mommy's Little Helper

I made reindeer poo yesterday. Other people call it chex muddy buddies, puppy chow, there are lots of names. Why? I'm not sure now that half of it is already gone! :)M wanted to "help". This is code for, stir once, play in the sink while you work, and lick the spoon!
But she obviously had fun!

Then and Now

Me and my girl
Me and my girl on her first Christmas

And this Christmas

Call me...

Gruffscrooge Rottenfoot

It's my "Grinch" name! M's is Miserlytroll Rottenfoot! :) Love it! :) I got this off a friend's blog-find out yours!

A better day

I had a rough week turn into a good day. It transformed from a week filled with house selling frustration, bad weather, bad traffic, bah humbug, not in the Christmas spirit problems to a lovely day with my two favorite people.

Today, lots of good things happened.
1. We had no traffic or icy, snowy roads all the way downtown so we made it there in 20 minutes.
2. I found a bathroom once we got there JUST in time!
3. We had a lovely lunch at the skyroom on the 12th floor of Macy's (formerly Dayton's) with above 2 favorite people.
4. We saw a WONDERFUL, magical Christmas display at Macy's of the Nutcracker! (more, with pics, on that later)
5. M LOVED the Nutcracker display and asked to go through it again...it wasn't crowded after lunch so we did! And then she asked again, but we said twice was enough! :)
6. "Austenland" by Shannon Hale FINALLY came in at the library! happy reading to me!
7. I made bank in the holiday section of the library! I think I have 12 days of Christmas books! (more on that one later, too!)
8. I got to take my sweetie home with me at 1:45 after our lovely lunch and display (which is good because the lovely lunch gave me a tummy ache)
9. My lovely sweet too-busy-to-do-this-but-did-it-anyway-because-i'm-her-daughter, Mom, sent me three Christmas music mixes in the mail! We got Jake's boogie woogie Christmas, a MoTab Christmas mix, and a BYU Christmas Celebration! thank you, Mom!
10. I belted out the first track of the BYU mix in the car at top volume! It was a Mack Wilberg arrangement of "Angels We have Heard on High" that I sang in my high school choir so I knew every word and note and even remembered the key changes! Gotta love going to high school in Orem, Utah!

a list

Gma Jan requested a list of the "cute things M says right now". so here goes. i may have to add to this one as i remember them later.

syes (yes-i LOVE this one! i admittedly ask her yes/no questions just to hear it!)
want have some
hay-so (Hazel)
on-chiz (oranges)
gee-jis (Jonas)
uppa (up)
mimi (Megan)
want Elmo
wawa (water)
bee-bup (sung to the tune of the clean up song)

she brings me all the pieces to her little people nativity (best purchase ever!) one by one labeling all of them: mommy, daddy, jizus (Jesus), and all of the animals are cows!

when i telll her it's time to shower, she runs for her towel and waits expectantly at the top of the stairs saying "towel?" over and over and over until i get there.

right now she's walking around the living room singing to herself. i swear, she can't get any cuter!

Sorry!

sorry about the crazy green background where you it hurt your eyes to read it for a few days! I was having technical difficulties! hopefully this looks better!!!