giggle

she says they're not boyfriend and girlfriend...

...but she giggles whenever she talks about him!

Trunk or Treat!

Tonight was our ward's "trunk or treat"! All the kids go around to different cars and get treats in the parking lot, then we had chili and cornbread and a cake walk.  M made her debut as Sleeping Beauty and had a blast!  

W didn't want to dress up so Joe got him a juror tag to wear and he might have even had fun at the Halloween party!

LG was the cutest pumpkin ever!  She even has a second costume for Friday night!

Our two princesses! Aren't their mommies talented???
M said, "Gama, you have cazy hair!"
She knew exactly how to dress, how to walk, spin around, you name it!  She has been practicing being a princess for months! :)
But it's a tiring job!! :)

LG is 2 months!

and a week, actually! She's getting so big and is getting more fun and wonderful each day. For example, she recently has decided to sleep up to ten hours at night. So glorious!

Some things about my nine week old
-loves to snuggle
-has a love/hate relationship with her "firepass". Sometimes she really wants it and gets a red mark from sucking so hard on her pacifier and other times she literally gags if you put it in her mouth
-used to have right torticollis and i'm worried it's turning into left torticollis (can you OVERcorrect that??? Ali?)
-loves swaddling-she fights it for oh, thirty seconds and then she's out like a light
-is starting to have "conversations" where we coo back and forth, LOVE that!
-her eyes are STILL blue, yay!
-she has a "two head" (ask her cousin, Em) not much room for bangs between her eyebrows and hairline, definitely a Holman!

-gets chubbier everyday

-loves watching her big sister and cousins play

-is a quiet little thing, she coos but often she just sits and watches

-loves to go places in her carseat, she and I went to Target yesterday and she just smiled up at me when I took her out of the car

-loves her bjorn carrier-she just snuggles down and sleeps for hours at a time

-loves getting her diaper changed! she likes to air out! :)

-is an absolute joy!

oh so tasty!

I have a new favorite cereal. Just Bunches from Honey Bunches of Oats. I love the original but I will confess to cereal sifting for those yummy bunches and now I can just have the bunches! yum!!

If I haven't convinced you to love Arkansas yet...

Welcome to the 5th annual Mud Run: Little Rock's Dirtiest 5K!
Basically, you run a 5K in your Halloween costume and at the end they have a huge mud pit the length of a football field that you get to dive in!

M dancing to the rockin' 80's classics!
prizes were given for best costumes and the MC was Tinker Bell (in the front)

Joe and his friend in the hard hats!
other prizes for how well you get through the mud, dirtiest, best entrance to the mud, etc.  There were Blues Brothers who played harmonicas and danced into the mud pit, two Michael Phelps swimmers who adjusted their goggles and dove in and two nuns who genuflected before diving in!

And yes, they pay $25 to participate! :)

Hand-Me-Downs

...are the greatest!

Here's my happy girl in one of her many beautiful outfits from her cousin, Lola! And yes, that's my two month old fitting perfectly into that 3-6 month outfit!

I pulled out Grace and Sam's old tent for M today and she was thrilled!  Eighteen years old and still fun!  She's excited for Hazie to come and play house now!
It's been a long week.  The potty wars have been called off temporarily because I've been sicker than a dog with a horrible cold. I finally feel like I can think today but one ear is still clogged!  I did discover a new use for an old thing though! Lansinoh is really soothing on raw, chapped noses! (hope I didn't gross anyone out there!)

Trouble!

M: Mom, look at me. Look at me!

Me: Yes?

M: (whispering) I need to get married later.

M: (knocking on the door) I'm the princess! Open the door!

OCTOBLERFEST!

Last Saturday was Octoblerfest! (look carefully at the word and you'll figure out why it was a beer-free-family-fest) Since it was our little family's first year to participate, we were in charge! I still haven't figured out how to feed that many people without getting totally stressed out but it was all worth it for the fondue! Since we're Swiss, I threw a fondue party and we played playground games in the backyard.

It was fun! It was the perfect day and the food was soooo good! We had three yummy cheese fondues and chocolatey "snickers" fondue. soooooo yummy! We didn't do a meat fondue (cooking meat in the oil) but opted to keep it a little safer with all the kids around and precook the meat but still have all the fun dipping sauces! It was so tasty!

Out of the mouth of my babe...

Dad, don't drop Lucy now! (in a chiding tone)

Whole Oceans=101 Dalmations

headband=band-aid

chicken=kitchen

come on, my dears (motioning to older BOY cousins, Christian and Ev)

ONLY at the Arkansas State Fair

hog racing...really.

it was actually quite entertaining! I shocked so many people with how beautiful Arkansas can be when i posted earlier pics that I have determined that I need to help the rest of you discover Arkansas.  So, here's your first lesson.  hog racing is quite fun! they run around while color coded pom poms cheer them on!

and yes, the two of us took five kids under the age of three to the fair!  we are impressive, if i do say so myself.

Cousins

I love having cousins nearby!

Tina Fey is the Best Sarah Palin ever!

I thoroughly enjoyed this skit! I can't wait for more!

The Potty Princess Diaries

This princess even has a princess potty. She STILL won't go! She sits obediently and talks about going but then decides she can't. We're practicing sitting a lot. It needs to happen! She needs to go!!!
She has motivators. She STILL won't go!  I need a few days where we're just at home and just doing nothing but going potty every ten minutes and drinking juice and eating salty snacks.  But we don't have many days like that these days!  

My kitchen Essentials

I'm missing my own kitchen but also right at home in my Mom's. So, inspired by my cousin, I'm going to share my favorite things to make fabulous meals!

1. My huge nonstick covered saucepan.  It's deep and wide and I use it all the time.  (I say use, because my Mom has one too and if I were at home, I would definitely use my little sauce baby everyday!) It can take you from sauteing onions to the finished product. I just made yummy pasta al forno in it last night!

2. My toaster oven.  Everyone needs a toaster oven.  It does the job of a toaster with added benefits.  Namely, cheesy toast, poppers, cinnamon toast, pizza rolls, cookies, you name it!  
3. My color-coded plastic sheet, grippy cutting boards.  Are you loving my technical names here???? One is for beef, one for poultry, one for veggies and one for fish.  Although the fish doubles as a second veggie sheet.  They're thin and dishwasher safe and I especially missed them when I lived with Grandma Betty who only has wooden cutting boards.
4. Cutco.  nuff said. 
5. My Williams Sonoma Melamine nesting mixing bowls.  Love em!  One cracked in the dishwasher two years after I bought them, I took them back and they replaced the whole set with a brand new one because it was guaranteed.  hooray for good customer service!
5. I too am in love with my kitchenaid.  Silly me, I was intimidated by it at first.  After we got married, it sat on my counter looking pretty for over a year while I continued to pull out my crappy but familiar hand mixer.  No more.  I love this thing. It makes pumpkin bars all the more enjoyable!
So there you are.  Since moving in with relatives, I've discovered a few new kitchen joys.  Parchment paper! Apple cutters! They're fabulous! Share your kitchen faves!

Having fun with the blog...

Excuse all the banner changes...i'm having more photoshop fun.  

Out of the mouth of my babe...

"coming soon on DVD and blue ray"

"I think...of course!"

Me: "number one is cranky" (referring to M)

M:"I want to be two"

JD=Juris Doctor

My snazzy looking brother is officially a lawyer.  We went to a very cool ceremony where they took their oath, or as my Dad called it, their hypocritical oath (since my Dad took the Hippocratic oath :) The Supreme Court swore them in and gave a short speech. I'm so glad I was able to go!

Starting to Smile

I have yet to get a really good picture of it, but especially in the morning, she's getting really smiley! I love it!

ps- W's new job is with a health insurance company.  It's a temp-to-hire job while he looks for a more permanent place. We're thrilled though because for the first time in 2008, when I ask how his day is, he says "good" rather than me dreading it's going to be worse than "okay" again!  He's liking it and we're still interviewing at a few other places.  I got offered a part-time position that I'm currently thinking about taking.  We'll keep you posted but we are so blessed that he found this position so quickly to keep income coming in and to keep him busy and from going stir crazy!!!

Mastitis

This is so not fun.  

I'm one of those people that women hate. I don't get cracked nipples, I don't get blisters, and once my babies figure out how to nurse, they basically don't have to work too hard at anything except not drowning in milk!  

I have a clogged milk duct and spent Sunday feeling flu-ish, pumping to clear out my milk, nursing all day (LG was a fan of the new "schedule"), and basically feeling crappy.  It was not fun.  And it still hurts.  I'm doing all the right things and getting better but it still feels like someone's pinching my right side.  TMI?  W's new job doesn't get us insurance for 60 days so I'm also avoiding modern medicine.  Wish me luck!

What do you think?

My family thinks that M looks a lot like me and LG looks very Holman! So it cracked me up when we stopped in Denver and all of W's family thought LG looked just like M!  

These are at similar ages.  Their skin tone is different, their eyes are different, their mouths and noses are the same though, in my opinion.  What I also love is when people tell me how dark and how much hair LG has!  Well, now you see why I look at them funny-they didn't know that my firstborn had more and darker!  I love my girls!

A Dress and a Name

Many of you have asked about LG's beautiful dress.  It's the same one M was blessed in two years ago and the same one all of her Tobler cousins have been blessed in...

Miss Lucy was named after her great great grandmother, my great grandmother, Grace Leona Montague Head Howell. My grandma Grace has a city in Idaho named after her.  My genealogy books have a story that when this small town was being named and a post office added, the person in charge saw a beautiful baby laying in a drawer for a bed and asked her name.  He then named the city after her.  I don't really remember grandma Grace but when I ask my Mom about her, she always says, "she was a delightful and talented woman."  My sister is also named after grandma Grace so I guess LG is named after my sister in a way as well which we love.  Lucy?  We just like the name!  That's kind of how we do things, choose a first name we like and a family middle name.  Just ask her big sister.

My mother made this dress with lace that was handmade by grandma Grace herself!  The bottom trim is actually from a pillow case.  My Mom then added a long dress to it and made a slip (not seen) that is also trimmed with handmade lace made by grandma Grace.  All of us grandkids (my siblings and cousins of my generation) were blessed in a very fancy, old blessing dress that was made for my great uncle and made by grandma Grace.  It was handed down to my grandma Bobbie and many of her grandchildren wore it (my generation).  It was retired either shortly before or after 2000 when grandma Bobbie died.  So my Mom made one for her grandchildren.  All seven of them have been blessed in it.  Many of them also wore handmade booties made by grandma Grace but my girls wore beautiful satin baby shoes given to me for my girls by my Grandma Betty (who we were living with recently).  I made her bow (to answer Emily's question) My mom then embroiders the name and date of their blessing into the slip as a record.  It's pretty cool.  

LG's Blessing Day

We blessed LG the first Sunday we were here.  Just a few short weeks ago, we thought her blessing would be a little different with lots of cousins helping but neither of my brothers...but now we're here and so both my brothers and my Dad were able to assist.  LG's Dad did a great job and gave a very sweet blessing and the baby slept through the whole thing.  She did such a good job.  I'm so blessed to have such good babies!!!

Denver Stop

I'm finally uploading pictures and found a few more cute ones.

I love this one.  I keep wondering what each one was thinking

Go Cougars!

Our Last Hurrah!

We went to the BYU-Wyoming game on our last Saturday in Utah.  It was by no means a suspenseful game, but it was fun!!! 

The fall leaves are already "falling" down the mountain.  It's so cool because you can see this stripe of red and orange that is halfway down the mountains and continues to fall lower as the fall progresses!
This was one of their MANY touchdowns!

Proof that we went...and got sun burned!!! Except for LG who stayed safely in her carrier, covered and roasting her mom and dad! I'm glad that W was so intent on going to a game this fall or we would have missed it!! Thanks to Paul and Claudia for watching M so that we could go!!