Just an update...

Well, the summer flew by and Aidan has once again started school. He is in the first grade this year and he really enjoys it. This year he is allowed to buy extras in the lunch line and is allowed to check out 3 library books per week. Yes, he's moving up in the world. When we went for Open House, it was quite interesting to see him walking down the crowded hallways and stopping to talk with practically every kid there. He is quite popular, we only hope it is for good things. Over the summer Aidan took a pencil box and put a picture from one of his school parties, two of Mara's newborn baby shoes, a picture of Mara when he brought her in to "share" with his class, and a feather he found somewhere. He told me that he put those things in there so he would always remember. He is very attached to his baby sister, which is a bit surprising for a nearly seven year-old boy. She definately loves and admires him too. Tomorrow night Aidan will be going to his first cub scout meeting. He is very excited. Daddy seems pretty excited as well.


Ryan spent the summer perfecting his potty training. His timing and accuracy have greatly improved, although Mommy knows better than to sit down without checking the seat. He is very interested in dinosaurs. He is also trying to tell jokes. The latest is, "Why did the chicken cross the playground?" "To get to the other SLIDE!" Ryan also is pretty smitten with his baby sister, although he tends to be less than gentle with her. His prayers are also quite interesting. Today he prayed that he would be cool. He's a nut but we love him.



Mara is nine months old. I can hardly believe it. She is the ultimate "Mommy's girl." It is so wonderful to be adored by someone! LOL. She's relatively small for her age, which is kind of nice. She still fits perfectly in my arms and that does my heart good. She is 17lbs and she is 26 inches long. She may be small, but she eats well. She is all about the food. If anyone gets anything to eat, she will try to steal it. She gives the phrase "biting off more than you can chew" a literal meaning sometimes. She has two bottom teeth, crawls like a speed racer, pulls up on things and has said her first word. Was it 'mama'? No. Was it 'dada'? Guess again. It was, "Hi." And she waves when she says it. All the time now we hear that high pitched cute little baby voice saying "hi" while waving with one or both hands. She is definitely a Tolman baby with her daddy's blue eyes, no doubt about it. I can't believe how much she's blessed our family.



Ammon had a slow summer since he is now delivering in a college town. However, things picked up at the end of August so things are looking nice. He's recently been called to be the Branch Clerk which has him going in early to church and staying after, but it's going well. Recently, his XBox 360 had an issue and had to be sent back for repair. That was a sad day indeed, but now that it's back, safe and sound, he is able to rest peacefully. Ammon had the idea of going out to the State and Metro parks on the weekends as a family. We've had so much fun enjoying nature and have some really great pictures. It's so nice to spend time as a family outside, away from the tv.

As for me, still living the life of a SAHM. Still 1st counselor in the RS presidency. I've been canning tomatoes for a week now. I am sure that when I go out tomorrow, I will get enough tomatoes for another batch. It is not unusual for me to pick about 45lbs of roma tomatoes in one day. We did not plant all these tomatoes, most of them were volunteers but I felt bad about pulling them up, so I let them grow. Now, I feel bad about letting so many tomatoes go to waste, so I am canning. I hope to be able to get a bushel of apples and make some more apple butter and applesauce. I may be getting ahead of myself though, so we'll see what happens. A few weeks ago I completed my hunter education classes and passed my test with a 100% I am now able to purchase my first hunting license. I haven't decided if I'm actually going out this fall/winter as there are a lot of things I need to get and don't want to break the bank but we'll see. One of my instructors sent me the information about the Ohio chapter of Women in the Outdoors. I plan to subscribe to the magazine and attend some workshops to build my proficiency. Ammon is very supportive of all this and has even offered to take time off and keep the kids while I go to workshops. He's a good husband, though I probably don't tell him that enough. All in all, I'm a very blessed woman.