August!!!!

Holy Crap it has been since March!. I have been thinking about blogging a lot lately but I guess I did not put thought into action. Well the last few months have been super crazy and fun for our little family.

Our Sweet Baby Lainie is growing like a weed. She is the sweetest, nicest baby ever. I love her to death. She goes to work with me every day and she is the Belle of the Ball around the 4-H office. Despite everyone liking her there is a new county policy going into effect very soon about no babies in the work place. Woo Hoo.... NOT! I love having my good baby with me. But oh well. Kodi is also doing pretty good. She has really enjoyed the summer. The Packer family in our ward has 5 girls and this summer the 3 oldest watched the girls and they loved it. Lots of visits to the park and lots of playing outside. Maren is talking up a storm. Her new favorite thing to do is copy all the bad things that Andrew and I say. Its really fun. But really I hope she never hears me swear cause she would for sure repeat it. Andrew turns 30 years old today. I sure am glad we got married. He really is the best guy I know. Between our crazy work schedules this summer we didn't see each other very much so I am really glad things are slowing down. now I will blog more HaHaHa

March 2013

While I have a few seconds to myself I thought I would blog a little. My little children are doing well and they are growing super fast still. I have some funny/ important things I need to get down before I totally forget about them. Kodi and Maren are pretty funny and they usually can bring a smile to my face. Last night at dinner Maren was eating some carrots but she refused to eat the pasta I made. She pulled out a My Little Pony from her shirt (I had no idea that she was hiding it there. We have a rule of no toys at the table.) She set the pony on the table, picked up some pasta and tried to feed it to the pony. Of course it didn’t eat it since it is a plastic doll but Maren looks up at me and said “she don’t like it!” Then she pushed her plate away and tells me that “Mare don’t like it”. So that was that. Maren has this personality that is just so funny. The other night we put the girls to bed but they were not having it. However I was super tired and I was not moving my giant pregnant self so Andrew had to take care of all their craziness. So Kodi kept running upstairs (naked except for her panties) yelling that she has to “go”. Maren kept dragging her blankets and toys into our room wanting to snuggle and then going back into her room to find more toy pigs and monkeys. After about 30 minutes of that they finally calmed down or so we thought. They usually go to bed at 8 and this was now like 9:30pm. All our lights were out upstairs except the one at the top of the stairs and all was quite. Andrew went to get a glass of water and found Maren parked at the top of the stairs reading her pig book so she got sent back to bed. 20 minutes later Kodi comes running upstairs freaking out about Maren sleeping in her bed. So Andrew went down stairs to find our little night owl and she was nowhere to be seen. Then he sees the princess tent move a little. She was crouched down hiding from him. She is so funny. After all that they finally went to sleep and Andrew got a much needed break. Kodi has started swimming lessons and she is having a ball. She is the youngest and the smallest person in her class. She mostly says “woo hoo” at the top of her lungs the whole time she is in the pool. She tells me that all the kids in her class are her friends but she doesn’t know any names. She loves the red slide and tries to go down it the whole time and finally when free time arrives she goes down more than any of the other kids. I am really glad that we put her in the lessons. It is helping me and her at the same time. I am well aware that I am OCD and overbearing and I have a hard time with letting control go. But with her in the pool and me on the sidelines she has to do things all by herself or with the help from her teachers. Kodi is just growing up so fast I am having a hard. Well I can now say that my 3rd baby is due next month. It thankfully is going by fast. I have never liked being pregnant but I love my little girls. My little family is changing into a semi-big family. I am about to have more children than the average American. I am super glad that we bought the truck when we did. We for sure have enough room for our little addition. For a while I have been watching my really good friend’s baby on Thursdays and she is good practice for this next little baby. I at least know I can handle 3 little girls one day a week. Lol! Now I am just scared about the other 6 days. I can’t really remember what it was like to add Maren to our family. Then again we were already used to missed sleep and diaper changing (Kodi was only 6 months old when I found out I was prego with Maren). The girls are 16 months apart. With Lanie I will at least have 23 months between her and Maren. I keep getting advise from ladies in my ward, my friends and family members about #3. They all seem to think that I will fall apart once I have 3 children. I am sure that my house will be a little crazier and that I will be really tired all the time but I am determined to not fall apart. Have some faith people. Sheesh! If I can get crazy Kodi to calm down I can accomplish anything. I am 90% sure that we will not be having anymore children. I know that Andrew really, really, really wants to have a boy but our chances of having another girl are pretty high. I think I will be ok with doing girl stuff for the rest of my life. I didn’t have any sisters and I prayed a lot growing up that I would get some. The Lord has just waited to give me the blessing of girls in my life. Plus I have a bunch of friends that only have boys and someone needs to balance them out. This blog post is just a bunch of my mindless ramblings. But oh well it is more for my benefit than anyone else. I feel really bad for Andrew these days. I am an emotional mess. Seriously anything will set me off. He could look at me wrong and I will burst into tears for like an hour. I cannot wait to have my body back to normal. I have always been a cry baby while pregnant but this time around it feels much worse. Andrew is trying so hard to make things easier on me and I really do appreciate all the effort he is making for me. Wow this post is giant I better stop while I am ahead. Hopefully I will post again before the baby comes. Who knows when I will have time after?

I have a 3 year old!!!!

I said I would post some pictures of the big event and here they are. I was having a horrible pregnant day and I did not get very good pictures but these are some of the best.

The little girls just love Grandpa Tolman. Maren has the cheesiest grin.

We told Kodi that we would give her a bike when she was all potty trained. She worked really hard and has not forgotten about the bike so of course we got her one for her birthday. She loves it! When the snow melts I am sure we will spend a lot of time chasing after her. I think I will really dislike birthdays if they all go like Kodi's 3rd. I had a busy few days leading up to the event so I was already burned out. I had a scout meeting until 9pm the night before and I was babysitting my friends sick, needy baby the day of. The fist cake I made literally fell apart so I turned it into crumbs that I will make into cake pops for valentines day. I decided to try and do a checker board cake and that was the worst idea ever (those things are way harder then they look). When I finally got my cake frosted it started melting and pulling the cake apart. So I had to hurry and put it in the freezer. That led to a huge meltdown. On top of that my little children did not listen to one thing I said that day and every thing I cleaned they messed up. I mopped the floor and then Maren pulled stuff out of the fridge and spilled it everywhere. I vaccumed and then Kodi found some crunched up pretzles in my purse and she decided to sprinkle them everywhere. I won't go on because there was a lot more. Andrew told me he would get home 2 hours early to help me but ended getting home right before our guests arrived. That was the worst day I have had up until thie point in my time as a mother. I am sure being pregnant magnified it by 1,000 but i don't want to have that experience ever again. All I know is that my 2 kids + being pregnant+ babysitting a 1 year old has made me see that we cannot have 4 children anytime soon if ever. I am pretty proud of myself for not crying at all during the party. I am happy that Kodi is 3 and that she is the big sister to my other little girls. She is a real sweet heart most of the time and she is a big helper. I love her and I am grateful we have her.

Kodi is turning 3!!!

I know there is a mistake. Oops! But I guess that is how I roll. I will post more pictures later this week with her cake and party. I cannot believe that I am going to have a 3 year old. But at the same time it is good that I will since I am about to have my 3rd baby.

2012-2013

2012 is no more and 2013 is here. But I need to update on our wonderful Christmas and New Year. Sadly our little Maren was a little under the weather during most of that time and Kodi and Andrew soon followed her. Other then that we had a great Christmas. We did not do any traveling. It is so nice having my parents and Andrews parents so close to us. This year was also the first Christmas since Andrew and I were engaged that my whole family has been together. With us living in New Mexico and Payton on his mission we just have not been together. So it was really nice to spend Christmas eve with them. Here are a few pictures of our Christmas day. I made the girls scarves and there are not any pictures of me. :) I am not a dumb pregnant lady.

We are a very blessed family I have come to learn. We don't really ask for much but at the same time it is like we are never without. This Christmas I tried to make every person I gifted something. It was a lot of work but for me it just made me feel better. For Andrew I made him a fleece blanket that was Green Bay Packers. I kinda thought that he would think it was dumb since we have so many blankets in our house. But he loves it. He is just like Maren (she is always carrying around a blanket) I swear when ever he is home and all of our house work is done he is dragging that thing around. Sometimes I forget that it is just nice to have something that is just yours. Andrew is really out numbered in our house and he is overrun with girly stuff so I am glad that I could make him something that is just for him. :) For New Years eve we were pretty boring. We had Andrew's dad over for hot wings and potatoe skins (YUM!!!) and since most of us did not feel good we went to bed at like 10pm. But on New Years day we did have some fun. We went over to my parents house for Lunch and some games and after a quick nap we went bowling with our friends the Poultons. Then we went to cold stone for ice cream. At the bowling ally I am pretty sure the staff was ready for us to leave. I kept letting Kodi take my turn and the ball would get stuck like half way down the ally. Oops! But we love our little girls and we like having then with us for fun things. So I just wanted to make a little list of things to look forward to in 2013 1. My sister in law Riley is having her 2nd baby girl on the 11th on January. 2. My sister in law Lisa is having her 2 baby boy around the 17 of January. 3. Kodi is turning 3 on the 24th of January. 4. We are having our 3rd girl in April. We are naming her Lanie Jane Tolman. Lanie means Heavenly Flower. I thought that was really pretty. Jane after my mom and Andrews mom. Janet and Jean both have the letters j a n e in the first 4 letters of their names. We have not told them yet ;) 5. Maren is turning 2 in May on the 19th. 6. Boating in Bear Lake over the 4th of July. 7. Our friends the Allreds might visit us. 8. Andrew is turning 30!!!! Wow he is old. 9. Andrew is looking for a new job so I can stay home with my monsters. 10. I don't know. Spending loads of time with Andrew and my little girls. This year has a lot to look forward to and I am excited for it. Happy 2013 Everyone!!!

Big things!!!

I cannot believe it is December. This year has just flown by. I have some exciting things to talk about today. 1. Andrew is Graduating from Grad School. 2. Kodi is Potty Trained. 3. We are having another baby. So first of all after going to school for what seems like a million years Andrew is Graduating. Well he already has his bachelors of Arts (NMSU 2010). But now he has his Masters in Organizational Communications. Woo Hoo. I am so happy. He studied so hard and worked on his papers so diligently. Now no more school for us. :) Kodi is almost 3. In fact her birthday is next month. We have been struggling with the whole potty training thing for 9 months. It has been the worst thing ever. But the week of Thanksgiving I was talking to one of my sister in laws and asked for some advice. Thankfully it has worked and now Kodi is totally out of diapers. She even goes to Grandma's house in panties. On Tuesday we were at WalMart picking up some stuff and one of the things I was dreading happened. Kodi said "mommy I need to go potty". I had a little panic attack. "What if she pees her pants?!!!!!" kept running through my mind. We were at the back of the store and the bathrooms are at the front. Maren was having a little whine attack and was driving me crazy and Kodi kept walking in front of the cart as I was trying to run to the bathrooms. Thankfully we made it and she went. But still I don't like those situations. but I am pretty sure all potty training moms have gone through that. So I have just passed through an important mom right of passage. I guess. Well Big News for those that have not found out yet. I am pregnant. Yikes! I know. 3 children 3 and under. Yes we are crazy in this house. However if you really know us you already know that is true. Our little one is due in April so I am half way done. Just so I can remember since this is the closest thing to a journal I need to say how horrible this pregnancy. I am not trying to get the readers to feel bad for me. It is weird how each pregnancy is different. With Kodi I could not go into the grocery store or my own kitchen with out throwing up. With Maren I threw up every single day for 6 months. And now with #3 I have also been really sick. In one week I lost 4 pounds. That was awful. I literally did not eat for days at a time. But almost worst than that is the back pain that I am having with this baby. The days I work are the worst. By 6pm I cannot move. I mean it hurts so bad that I am brought to tears. Not many things make me cry and I have a pretty high pain tolerance. But this is horrible. It does not matter if I try to walk it off, sit down or lay down nothing relieves the pain. As a rule while pregnant I try to stay away from pain relievers and cold medicine. I even talked to my doctor about it. She of course told me that the more I exercise the better I will feel. I wanted to tell her to shove that advice. I already exercise everyday and that makes it worse. I just know that this baby is really special so I will just deal with all the crappy pregnancy stuff. Ok I am done with talking about that. Funny Tolman girl story time. This last week the girls and I were setting us the Christmas Tree and Kodi was being a big help :) She got all the ornaments and was putting them on 1 branch at the bottom of the tree. I told her it might be good to spread them out a little. So she put the rest of the ornaments on another branch. SO when she was finished only 2 branched held all of our decoations. I spread them out without her fighting me and now out tree looks great. Later that same day Kodi was looking at the tree and told me "Mommy I love the Christmas Tree in my heart". It was really sweet. On Tuesday, While at Walmart, I got us a gingerbread house to decorate. When we got home the little girls were really excited to put it together. Quickly it all went down hill. The second I opened the candy it was like wolves after a rabbit. Those little bottomless pits I call children were eating the candy faster then I could put it on the house. I guess it turned into an Ashley Gingerbread house instead of the Tolman Girls house. But I got it done and it looks great. hahahahaha. Maren is the sweetest little girl ever. I just love her so much. She has been doing this thing where she grabs your finger and pulls you when she wants something. She is also into smelling me. It is a little wierd but funny at the same time. When I pick her up she puts her nose on my shoulder and takes a big sniff. The first time she did it I was concerned that I smelled bad. But now its like a little greeting that she does. I am really excited for Christmas. Each night we have been reading a Christmas story to the girls and we have been watching lots of Christmas movies. Our house is all decorated and I love this time of the year. It just seems like everything is a little better. The girls and I have driven around our neighborhood 10 times already looking at lights and they love them. Shhhhh, no one tell Andrew. But I am working on a 12 days of christmas gift that I am excited for. I hope he really likes getting little surprises everyday. So for now. Merry Christmas!!!!

Stationery card

Framed In Snowflakes Christmas Card

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A taste of the Nash 2012 Family Pics

Eat until you drop.

Holy smokes my children eat like crazy. I am not kidding they eat so much that I might have to put a lock on my kitchen. Yea right! So this last week I went to the grocery store and loaded us up since I have not been in like a month. I bought some apples. 5 to be exact. I was a little lazy and I left them on the counter instead of putting them in the fridge. Well I went about my day and did not think about the apples again. Until Andrew asked me where all the apples went. I was a little confused I didn't do anything with the apples, remember I was being lazy. Well come to find out our little Kodi had eaten 3.5 of the apples and Maren ate the other .5. Little monster. Then the very next day my mom had given us some cookies. I am pretty sure that there were 6 on the plate. I ate one and I left the plate on the counter (I should have learned my lesson) Then like 2 hours later Andrew askes me where all the cookies are. Again I only ate one so where did the other 5 cookies go. Oh our little cookie monsters munched all those cookies. Its like my children have hollow legs. Where do they put all that food. I am just glad that they like to play and dance to burn all that sugar off. Sweet Kodi did something this week that made me one proud momma. We were watching my friends little girl P.J. who is 9 months old and is a little sweet heart. Well we were eating lunch and Kodi asked for seconds, so of course I gave her some more food (I am telling you she eats a ton!) She asked if she could say a second prayer. So I let her. This is her prayer "Dear Heavenly Father, Thankyou for this day, thankyour for the food, thankyou for a mom that plays with me and is fun, and thank your for letting P.J. come over and play....." then she finished her prayer and I was so happy that she said her own prayer (she is only 2 remember) and that she is glad that I am her mom. I know that I have left Maren out of this Post but this was just a funny Kodi week I guess. There will be more Maren adventures to come I am sure. :)

October......

Well I guess I lied. Last time I was on blogger I said that I would be better about updating my blog and that was way back in like June or July. A lot has happened since then and way too many funny stories of my little girls to even try and remember. So I will just go over what I have on my crazy mind right now. I love Fall. It is just a nice time of the year. The trees are so pretty and the temperature is nice and cool. It just gets me in the mind of Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was at Fred Meyer the other day and they had a Halloween section, a Thanksgiving section and a Christmas section. And sorry for all you haters out there but I loved it. I am not ready for Christmas music yet but I just love this time of the year. I get to spend so much time with my little ones now that work has slowed down for me and I just enjoy every minute we have together. Maren is my little sweet heart and I just love her so much. She is like a little Ashley. She and I just snuggle and laugh and have so much fun together. She is the calmer one of the two girls but at the same time she is sneeky and always gets her way. She is just so much fun. Every day around 3:30-4:00 she just feels like running. So she runs and laughs and talks to her self in our living room. She goes laps and laps around the room and it is so fun to watch her. She also loves her big sister. Lately I have had to be the mean mom at nap time. The girls take a nap at the same time in the same room. But recently Kodi has been climbing into Marens crib and they just laugh and play and have so much fun. I have to be a kill joy and put Kodi back into her own bed so that they both can have a rest. I am so glad that they are such good friends. I was so worried that they would be really mean to each other. I never had a sister so I have no idea how that dynamic works. But now I wish I would of had a friend to play with. Kodi is also a little Ashley. Imagine that. They both have certain parts of my personality that I just look at them during the day and think "YEP I gave them that". Usually its not a good thing. But I am so happy that they are mine. We are still working on potty training Kodi and it is just not working. I really such at potty training. Seriously she is going to be 3 in Jaunary and she needs to get her butt going on the potty. I have tried everything. She is stubborn like her Dad. (yeah thats who I will say she gets it from) I think I have given up a little. She is driving me crazy. I hope Maren is not this hard. If she is Kill me now. Kodi is a wild little woman I sometimes get worried that other people think I need to get a better handle on her. But she acts the same everywhere we go. She is just happy and energetic. She never walks anywhere. She either jumps, skips, hops or runs everywhere she goes. I am not kidding the next time you see her check her out. I cannot keep up with her. The other day the girls and I were talking about Aunt Lisa and Aunt Riley and the fact that they are going to have babies in January. It is a special month at our house since Kodi's birthday is also in Jaunary. Kodi was asking about the babies and I told her that they are in her aunts bellies. She gives me this disgusted look and said "thats sick Mom, why would they put the babies in their bellies?" So then I had to explain that they grow inside there mommy's. She was still a little freaked out so we went online and watched a few videos on babycenter.com. In the video it says that the embryo's look like a little like worms so now Kodi always talks about her new cousins being worms. Pretty funny that kid. I know that there are a ton of other fun things that have happened to us in the last few months but this post is getting long enough. I love my little family and I am so proud of my little girls. They just brighten my day. Andrew and I are really blessed.

Sunday Fun Day!!!

Ok since I have decided to be a blogger again I had better just get my posting done on a day that I have some time. So Sunday it is. Well this week totally kicked my booty. I worked like 45 hours and I took 2 hours of on Tuesday and the whole day off on Friday. We had so many night meetings and was needed at all of them. But I was super glad to have Friday off. The girls and I went shopping, visited Grandma and Grandpa Tolman, went to Blackfoot, visited grandma Nash at work and then we took a group nap when all of our errands were completed. I would say it was a great day with my little ones. This next week is looking to be about the same. But I have been a good mom and I have dinners all ready for the week, laundry is all done, and the house is clean. Woo Hoo me!!! So I have also been really busy making Shutterfly books. There is one posted that I am super proud of. It is an ABC book and I think it turned out really great. It was way fun to make and best of all it was free. I just love how shutterfly does that. I get like 4-5 free books each year. That really is the only way to scrapbook. Plus I love how they save your pictures online so if my computer ever crashes my pics are saved. So my super wonderful sister in law Jami took some 1 year old pictures of Maren and below is just one of the many pretty pictures she took. This one is just my favorite. So Enjoy!

Photo Book

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Well I am back!!!!!

Holy smokes it has been like forever since I have posted on this thing. Actually since February. So many great things have happened to our little family. - Uncle Payton came home from his Mission - We got to go to New Mexico and Texas for Spring Break to see our wonderful friends and family. - Maren turned 1!! - Maren not only is walking (at 10 months) but she is running all over the place. Just like her big sister. - I have started working full time for the summer. - Kodi got to go on 2 overnight camps with me and she did great. - I have been crafting like crazy. I don't even know all of the fun stuff we have been doing. I just know that we are super busy. I just got called to the Primary presidency (2nd counselor) and that is taking up more time then I thought. I have been helping a girl with Rodeo Queening and that has been really fun but super time consuming. She got 1st attendent at the State contest! Which is amazing for her 1st year. Work is going really well. I am so busy with all the projects, camps, and programs that I am running it has been really hard to not take my work home with me. When people ask me how everything is going I really don't know what to tell them. Andrew is finally done with his summer school classes so that is nice. If we could just get rid of one more thing then we would have more time to spend together. But this summer seems like all we do is run from one thing to the next. Which is good that we are able to so many things with out little sweet girls. We get to go to Bear Lake with my family this week and I am so excited. I love Bear Lake. It is pretty much my favorite place to go in the summer. We will be boating, building sand castles, swimming, doing a dutch oven dinner cook off, and a movie night on the bit projector. I just love my family and I can't wait for this trip I need it! On a sad note Andrew's Grandma Darrington dies on Sunday. She lived a good long life and it was her time to go. She has been parted from her husband for 19 years and she had dementia for the last 7ish years. It will be good for Andrew's parents to not have to be care takers full time. I know how much they loved Gladys but they need this time for themselves. Well except for the days that they tend my little girls. Well Kodi and Maren are just getting so big. Kodi is our wild woman. She keeps us in line and she always has some lip gloss in hand. Her hair really matches her personality. It is wild and crazy, Blonde and super curly. She is almost potty trained and we are so pumped to not have to change so many diapers. She is a Momma's girl and she loves to come with me everywhere. I can't believe how fast she is growing. Maren is almost the exact opposite of Kodi. She is really laid back and is always happy. She has the best smile and she totally has Andrew wrapped around her little finger. She is a daddy's girl to the max. I kinda think it is that way because Kodi is more like Andrew and Maren is more like me. So each of us always has to have an opposite to hang with. Maren is really daring and she loves to take risks. She really likes to scare us. We are doing really well and no major complaints. We love summer and we are having lots of fun. I am going to try and be better and post some of the pictures that I have taken recently. But you know me...............

Naked Kodi

So Kodi is going through this phase where she doesn't like to wear clothes. I did not teach her this! But she is constantly stripping out of her clothes. I will get her dressed and then like 10 minutes later she is running around in only her diaper. She is so crazy. So now you know about her love of being naked. Last night/early this morning I heard her fall out of her toddler bed and start crying. So I went into her room and she is sitting in the middle of her room butt naked. No diaper, nothing! She was just sitting there crying. It was really pretty funny to walk in seeing that. But the reason she was crying wasn't because she had fallen out it was because she had peed her bed. I later found her diaper, it was dry and balled up and hidden. She got to sleep with Mom and Dad after that. I love that little wild one. She keeps our lives interesting.

February 2012

As you can see I got a new hairstyle. It is a little wild but I totally love it. I also added some cute photos of my little gurlies. :) Enjoy.

Kod turns 2 cont.

Kodi turns 2.

Our HOUSE

My cute babies

Shadow box fun!!!

Amy and I made these over Christmas Break.