Happy Birthday Mom!

Today we celebrated my mom's 29th birthday (don't ask her secret, she won't tell!) and we all went to Tucanos for dinner.  I hadn't been there since high school and the food was SO good.  Chace got us all gift cards for Christmas so we all thought we'd use them together for my mom's birthday...so technically it was his treat.

So a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to Chace, that was so kind of you!

The Riverwoods is gorgeous this time of year and Tobi loved the lights.  He had a blast with his Uncles, tossing him around and rough housing, Aunt Bronwyn even got in on the action!  We all decided to pitch in on a Blendtec blender, we knew she'd been wanting one for a while and employee discounts are the best way to go ha ha!  We got her the Total Blender in red and she was super excited that we did that.  I sure love having mine and it truly blends through anything!  I can't wait for her to use it because I know she'll love it...it made clam dip soooo easy this year.

Mostly I'm just glad we all got to get together again right after Christmas and celebrate my mom's birthday together.  I am truly blessed to have a family like them, including Bronwyn, and I think the extra time with them lately has been great for Tobi.  Especially with Andrew and Bronwyn, they are such wonderful people and Tobi should know them better.  I look forward to more gatherings like this with the Olson clan!

Happy Birthday Mom!  We love you!

Tobi's Two Year

I know I know...this post is WAY late, but better late than never eh?  I took Tobi to his two year well child appointment at the beginning of December and he did so good.  He got his second flu shot which was a bummer but he was such a trooper.  We've recently switched doctors and are now going to Alpine Pediatrics.  My cousin Amber takes her little girl there and after going with her one day, I was convinced I should take Tobi there too.  Plus, turns out my other cousins and my aunt take their kids there too and they all had great things to say about the doctors there.

Tobi saw Dr Alba and he was so good with him.  Tobi was being super difficult and I was at my wits end that day.  He loved the fish tank in the lobby and got a dum-dum sucker when we left.  Here were his stats for the visit:

Weight: 24 lbs  10%
Height:  35 1/2 inches  71%
Head:  50cm  80%

He is getting so tall and I'm having to double check where I leave things on the counters now.  His communication is also improving very quickly and we love listening to him talk.  He's been so much fun lately and picking up new words so fast.  He is obsessed with Elmo (which I can handle, Elmo isn't so bad), and loves the color yellow.  His favorite foods right now are bananas, apples and yogurt...and of course anything sweet.  He asks me for cake or pie on a daily basis...not kidding!  He's such a good little eater and not picky at all, it's so nice!  He'll even eat Indian and sushi with us, and he loves Chinese food.  His favorite movies/tv shows are Sesame Street (specifically Elmo's World), Curious George, Cars and Monsters Inc.  He loves bubbles and taking showers and he still picks on Daisy every chance he gets, she doesn't mind it though.

He also has a new fish, it's name is Fish, that he got from my mom and dad.  It doesn't require a lot of upkeep so we don't mind having it and Tobi loves it.  He'll sit and say "Hi fish" whenever he walks into his room and he loves to help Jordan feed it.

And that's our little Tobi!

Tobi's Elmo Beanie

Have I mentioned yet that I have TWO incredibly talented cousins that make beanies for babies and toddlers?

Because I do!

Kortney has made several for Black Bird Studios newborn and toddler photoshoots, which we were very excited about.  Here are several that she made for us earlier this year.

And recently, Amber made a special Elmo beanie for my Tobi, knowing how much he loves his Elmo.  Of course, he went nuts over it and I've received SO MANY compliments on it.

Amber also made a cute little Christmas mouse beanie for Miss Ashtyn that was SUPER cute for the holidays, so when we pulled Ben (our nephew) in the family gift drawing, I asked Amber if she could make one for him.  I didn't get a picture with it on Ben, but this is the one that Ashtyn wore.

Pretty incredible right?

Thanks ladies!  You're the best!

Christmas Day 2011

We have been so excited to see Tobi enjoy Christmas day this year and it was truly wonderful!  We started the train around the tree before we brought him out of his room (Santa was kind enough to set it up for us) and we could tell he was surprised when he came into the living room.  He didn't really know what to do at first until we started encouraging him to pick gifts to open up.  From there he got super excited and just went to town!  When he grabbed each gift and we asked him what it was he would say "box" over and over, it was so funny.  He was thrilled with everything he got, especially the last one, which was his Let's Rock Elmo.  He got SO excited and sang and danced and has been carting the poor thing around since.  I think he thought it was really Elmo at first, because he got all shy and wouldn't touch it, he'd just wave and say "Hi, Elmo".  It was such a good morning and I'm so happy that Tobi enjoyed it.

Merry Christmas!

Tobi and Santa

The morning of Jordan's birthday, he decided to take Tobi to the mall and see Santa.  I missed out because I had to work, but I was glad that Jordan got to take him because I knew how much Tobi would love it...he ADORES Santa Claus.  They got there right at ten when the mall opened and only had two kids in line in front of them.  Tobi got a little upset because he couldn't just walk right up to Santa and chat with him, but when it was his turn he was one happy little kid.  He was full of jibber-jabber, smiles and giggles.  Afterwards, Jordan took him for a treat and then brought him home.  Here is Tobi's picture with Santa!

Christmas Eve 2011

This year we decided to change things up a bit and we had Jocelyn and Steve come over and hang out with us.  We decided to keep it simple and ordered Papa Murphey's (yum!) for dinner and then made some super delicious sugar cookies to leave out for Santa (Jocelyn has the BEST recipe ever...so good!).  Tobi got some really cool glow sticks from Jocelyn and Steve and he played with those a ton before going to bed.  At that point, we decorated cookies and watched our favorite, Nightmare Before Christmas (so good!!!).  It was the perfect way for us to spend our Christmas Eve this year.

Thanks Jocelyn and Steve for joining us!

Family Visits

We decided this year for Christmas we wanted to stay home on Christmas day and hang out, just the three of us.  So we did our family visits the day before.  We started our Christmas Eve by going to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  We went with Andrew, Bronwyn, Chace, Allen, Jocelyn and Steve.  It was so fun getting to go with all our friends and siblings and I'm glad we decided to do that.  Afterwards we went to my parents house and exchanged gifts.  Jordan and I got a turkey carving knife and a turkey plate which was very cool because we didn't have any yet.  Then Chace gave us a gift card to Tacanos...so excited to use that!  Little T-bob monkey pants got a super cool tent/tunnel combo, a flashlight, and his very first plane from his Nana and Papa Olson.  And then he got a train from Uncle Chace to go around the Christmas tree at home, he was super excited about that!

From there we drove out to my grandparents house to give them their yearly calendar that I started doing last year.  It turned out way cute and my grandma was very happy with it.  She gave us a plate of her homemade Christmas goodies (we look forward to those every year!) along with some really cute snowman kitchen towels.  Then she gave Tobi a cute little cozy outfit and an Elmo cellphone, which of course he wents NUTS over.  The kid LOVES his Elmo.

After that, we drove home...all of us exhausted, but ready to hang out with Jocelyn and Steve while we got ready for Santa to come!

Pizza Pie Cafe

We had Jordan's birthday dinner at the Pizza Pie Cafe tonight and we had several of our friends/family join us.  It was so nice to have everyone come and support him on his special day, and we were so happy to have them celebrate with us!  We were joined by EVERYONE in my family (they are so supportive of our birthdays and I'm so grateful they took the time out of their days to celebrate with us), and Nedra, Randy and Marlei (so glad they came too!  We don't see them often enough and we loved having them there.  We didn't get a good turnout from Jordan's family so it really meant a lot to him that they were there) and we were also joined by Allen, Jocelyn and Steve (again, so grateful for such great and caring friends!).  Afterwards, several of us went back to our place to play some Xbox games (Jordan's favorite) and just hang out.  Everyone seemed to have a good time, especially the birthday guy!

Jordan's 25th!

Jordan is a whopping TWENTY-FIVE years old today!  Tobi and I love him so much and we're so excited to spend this special day with him.  He is so appreciated and we want him to have the best birthday today!  I don't know what I'd do without Jordan and little Tobi seriously WORSHIPS his daddy.

Happy Birthday Jordan!  We love you!

The Festival of Lights

We took Tobi out last week to see the lights in Spanish Fork.  It was only $5 for us to go through and the lights were amazing!  Tobi loved it and kept saying "Wow!", "Cool!", and "Pretty!"...it was so fun to watch him enjoy it, I've been excited to take him all season.  As much as I don't like Christmas, I still want it to be enjoyable for him, and seeing the happiness in him makes it easier for me to get through the season.  We stopped at the gas station right before so we had drinks and snacks while we went through.  It was so nice to go out with just the three of us and I wish we could do it more often!

Even cooler, two days later...we took him again!  Only this time we went to Thanksgiving Point and Jocelyn and Steve came with us.  Tobi again, LOVED the lights and it was a lot of fun to go through again with our friends.  Tobi sure loves spending time with them.

The Leavitt Party

We also had the Leavitt Christmas party this last weekend (busy I know!).  There was a lot of good food and good company.  Jayson did an awesome job with the planning, complete with a candy sock game, white elephant, and Secret Santa.  Tobi had lots of fun playing with the other kids and had a blast opening his gifts from everybody.  We got an awesome ornament from Nedra that has our names on it, it was so thoughtful!  We also got a gorgeous picture frame set from Grandma and Grandpa Bourne, and we can't wait to put our most recent family picture in it.

Tobi had a Santa hat that he wore for almost the whole party and kept going around saying, "Ho Ho Ho"...it was super cute, we just love that little boy!

Our Coates Family Party

We had our Coates famliy Christmas party this last weekend and it was so much fun!  I love being able to visit with all our family members that we don't get to see often and it's so fun to watch Tobi interact with them.  We had some DELICIOUS food and some super yummy desserts, followed by a visit from.....Santa Claus!!!

I wasn't sure how Tobi would do and he ended up loving Santa.  He gave him high fives and kept trying to chat with him, even when it was the other kids turns to be on Santa's lap.  He had me cracking up, he was being so cute, he was so fascinated.  He got super excited when he got his treat bag and even tried to share his candy with Big Ol' Red.  We played a trivia game and just hung out with everyone, catching up and telling fun stories.

Tobi wore his awesome snowman shirt I made for him and Ashtyn was ADORABLE in her snowman onesie, everyone loved it.  It was such a fun party and I'm so glad we got to go!

The Snowman Shirt

After a very crazy and stressful day, Jocelyn and I decided to bag all plans and replace them with new ones...for the night at least.  What was supposed to be a pecan pie bake fest turned into an order pizza and sew up some super cute snowman shirts party.

I had seen a holiday post a few weeks back where a super awesome mama did the cutest little snowman shirt for her little man and I fell in love...I knew I had to make one for my Tobi.  I already had a little white shirt so Jocelyn and I raided her mom's button stash for black buttons, and may have even swiped a few scraps of fabric to use for carrot noses, thanks Jan!  We ended up with so many buttons, we decided what the heck, lets make some for Ashtyn and Rand too!  We lined up our buttons how we wanted them and then marked the shirt with marker so we would know where to sew our buttons on.  After that, we just cut some orange fabric in the shape of a carrot nose and did a zig zag stitch to keep it in place.  And done!  Yep, it was seriously that simple.  Then for little Miss Ashtyn's, we simply added a bow to girl it up.  They turned out SO SO SO cute and I can't wait for Tobi to wear his to our family party tonight.  He likes the buttons on it and was super excited when it was finished.

How cute is he in that shirt!  I can't get enough of his cute little face.

Moxtek Christmas Party

Jordan and I got to go to the Moxtek Christmas party up at Thanksgiving Point tonight and it was so fun.  We had some super yummy food with awesome entertainment while we ate, followed by games and gifts.  Jordan ended up getting an assortment of Scentsy stuff which he wasn't too thrilled about but I was super excited ha ha! He said if I was happy, he was happy and insisted he didn't want to trade for something else (have I mentioned he's the best husband ever?  Because he is.)  Once we got home and went through it, I think he was a little more excited about it.  Andrew and Bronwyn were also there which was AWESOME and Andrew totally won an award for being such an awesome employee (and implementing a system to help improve production) which made us all very proud of him!

New Ornaments

I found these ornaments a few months ago and after getting my Rudolph Christmas houses, I fell in love with the ornaments too.  I thought it would be fun having them on my tree too.  Jordan, being as awesome as he is, let me order them as well.  I have my first set of three on the tree and I can't wait to get the rest!

My Christmas Houses

Earlier this year I found an adorable Rudolph Christmas house set and totally fell in LOVE with it.  I told Jordan how much I would love to have them and he told me to go ahead and order them.  Through out the year, I've been getting one house at a time until the collection is complete and I've been so excited to put them on display...they are ADORABLE!  We put them out today and I am so happy with them and so grateful that my awesome hubby let me get them.  Jordan is the best!

Here they are on display in my curio cabinet.

And here are the individual pieces.....

These are the characters that came with my houses.  Each one is just so cute and I love the memories it brings to mind, of watching this movie during Christmas when I was little.

This is Hermey's Dentist Office...so cute!

This is the Reindeer Stable, complete with each Reindeer's name, I love it!

This is the Reindeer Flight Camp which is also SUPER adorable.  I love the Jump and Land spaces on top of the house!

This is Santa's Workshop, I love the slide on the side that has the gifts shooting through.

And last but not least, this is the Claus' Mansion...so so so cute!

What do you think!  Now you see why I had to have it right?  And for those of you who are anything like me and you are dying to have your own set in your home during the holidays, you can order your own set here.

Oh Christmas Tree

We finally got our tree set up today.  Jordan loves Christmas and is always so excited to set up the tree.  It was really cute watching Tobi help with the ornaments, he oo-ed and aaw-ed over each one and was so careful when he touched them.  And then he walked around the apartment saying "ho ho ho" over and over.  Even though I struggle with Christmas, I have to admit it's nice having the tree up.  It brings a good feeling into the home and it's wonderful seeing how much Tobi enjoys it.

Here are my two fabulous guys hard at work. :)

And here is our beautiful tree!

Hey December

I cannot believe it is December already!  Where has this year gone?!  Honestly, this is my LEAST favorite time of year but if I can survive it...hello 2012!  So on that note, here's the desktop....