He Did It!!!

He Pooooped on the potty!!!!

Oh, what a proud day in a mother's life!! After spending two days shacked up in my house refusing to put a diaper on the kid, he finally did it...at the pool, so I didn't get a picture or trust me, I'd have a picture of the specimen! And he finally got his "poo poo present" that has been sitting on top of our fridge for a month! Yipeeeeee!!!!

Four Months!

My beautiful baby Olivia is four months old today! I have loved every second of this month! She is all smiles and spit up! And she rolled over this month which has been fun! She is such an easy going baby and we absolutely adore her!

A Little Livy

I've been bad about taking pictures of Livy lately but don't you worry, I'll take plenty on Thursday for her four month "birhtday" and post lots!

Here are a couple shots from the pool. She feel asleep in my arms sitting on the edge of the pool and I laid her down to see if she would stay sleep on her back (she's never slept on her back a day in her life) and she did! And then I changed her diaper and she STILL stayed asleep!

And the last pic is the only other one I have of her lately. Her bow is from cutieties.com if anyone is looking for cute, cheap bows!

What the HAIL?

So here in Texas we get some pretty ODD weather. Today it was a scorcher. Like the kind of day when you have sweat in places that shouldn't sweat. There were big gray clouds in the sky, it was going to rain for sure but what did we hear instead? HAIL. Balls of ice all over the place and then the rain came and then the wind and then I thought, Oh great, did I miss a hurricane warning? After 20 minutes of a very loud and intense thunder storm It's nice and quiet again. Weird! Here is some documentation...





Poor Johnny boy is so scared of loud noises. Here he is by my side right now trying to finish his nap with his hands over his ears. He'll probably be sleeping in my room for the rest of his life after this storm!

Farewell Fiesta

As many of you may know, my very best friend and very best cousin Sheree is moving to Dallas. Our very good friend Jamie is also moving-to NYC (with four kids!) so I put away my Kleenex box and decided to throw a "Farewell Fiesta" for our recipe group! It was a total blast. TONS of great food, GREAT friends and hilarious conversation!


I will miss you both! Love you!


Josie, Tamara, Sheree and I. We supply 1/2 the little boy population to Katy, Texas!


Sheree and Marci. Long time friends! Sheree, feel free to steal all these pics and post them on your blog!


BFF


Jamie is what I have always called a TRUE know-it-all. She doesn't just act like she knows everything, she really does. You can ask her about pretty much anything and she'll give you a very accurate and scientific explanation! Here she is doing what she does best...


The food was seriously A-mazing! I made Cafe Rio pork and salad, there were two salsas, queso, guac, bean dip, taquitos, rice, beans, shrimp enchiladas, beef enchiladas, mint ice cream cake and chocolate pie. Mmmmmmmmmmm!


Amy, Kristin, and Jamie #2


We had 17 people so I pulled in my living room couch and everyone fit comfortably!


Here's the greatest group of girls you will every find!

Happy Father's Day!

I am so grateful to have a day to celebrate fathers! Johnny and I woke up this morning and made breakfast for daddy-waffles, sausage, eggs and peaches. We played all day, went to church, and had John's dad and sister over for dinner. The perfect day.

Just want to give a shout out to all the fathers in my life:

John, it has been such an incredible experience to watch you become and grow as a father. You are an adorable daddy to our children, I love you so much!

Dad, I love you for your endless examples of service and hard work. You are the greatest grandpa ever to my kiddos!

Grandpa Toolson, I have always loved being around you and your funny sense of humor! You are a man of great wisdom. Thank you for being such an incredible father to my dad and patriarch to our Toolson family!

Grandpa Baker, I love you so much! I love your hugs and your laughs and your whistles and your Wranglers and your boots! Thank you for adoring me even when I didn't deserve it!

Swimming Lessons

For the past two weeks Johnny boy has been taking swimming lessons at the Houston Swim Club, a big in-door pool that does nothing but swimming lessons year round. It's a great place! The people are so friendly, the instructors are kind and very patient and it's pretty decently priced. Anyway, Johnny has done very well and I'm so proud of the little guy. He is terrified of the water and getting his face wet and in just the two weeks he has gone, he'll get his face wet, go under and float on his back. Here are some pics for daddy and papa!


He's always a little hesitant to get in


The first day he did this I about peed my pants I was laughing so hard. He's supposed to kick to the other side but he just sat there and tried to balance and thought he was going to tip over and die and he couldn't do anything about it. Mean momma! He's getting better at it now. At least he doesn't scream his head off anymore!



And this is Johnny bawling once again because he had to swim to Ms. Kayla (the teacher) without her holding his fingers. But he did it!!

Round Four:Do or Die

As many of you know, I have been trying to potty train Johnny for a year and half now...and have been totally unsuccessful! So now with another child wearing diapers, formula and INSANE gas prices, I am determined to get this kid to go in the toilet. And if this is what he wants to wear while doing it, then so be it.

Date Night!

Johnny boy and I had a date night last night to go see Kung Foo Panda. I was excited to not be sitting home on a Saturday, Johnny was so excited to get his little drink and popcorn and the movie looked pretty funny. I mean, you can't go wrong with Jack Black!



So excited to eat my popcorn!


After 25 minutes of previews I tried to distract him...


Note to self: next time avoid the arcade upon entering theater and try to show up 1 minute before actual movie begins

We ended up having a great time in the arcade and got our money back for the movie we didn't see!


And I bet this is what daddy and Livs did while we were gone!

What a Guy!

My superman of a brother, Sean is DONE with his mission in Lima, Peru! I can not believe how fast time has gone by. He left when Johnny was 15 months old and now there's a new little Allen and Johnny is a big THREE year old. He served an incredible mission. He learned the language, fell in love with the people there and has had many, many baptisms! I am just so proud of him and all he has accomplished. It has been incredible to watch him grow into a man while serving for these two years. I know he was exactly where he needed to be and I can't wait to see what life has in store for him now. Congratulations Elder Toolson, I sure love you!

Cutie

I had to post one of the only pictures on the planet where Olivia is looking at the camera and smiling. And if you're wondering, she's sitting in Eva's doll stroller, so cute!

I'm Like Totally Going To The NKOTB Concert!!!!

A couple of weeks ago my dear cousin Crystal Ainge posted this on her blog...

I really want to go to the New Kids on the Block concert in Boston, September 26th. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Austin probably won't be the one to accompany me, so anyone want to come? I'm looking for someone who will behave in the following way:

1. Sing and dance to every song.
2. NOT make fun of me for singing and dancing to every song.
3. Must be willing to get there early and leave AFTER the concert is over and enjoy every minute of it.
4. Cannot be critical of the New Kids even if their dancing isn't what it used to be.
5. Must secretly conspire with the New Kids event managers to get me up on stage for the part where Joey Mac sings "please don't go girl" and hands me a rose.

Other information:
There may be some hair crimping and over-sized buttons involved.

Tickets are expensive (around $200-$500 for decent seats), which is another reason I'm sure Austin won't want to come (and there's no way he would abide by the above criteria). But I'm hoping there's someone out there that would want to come to the reunion concert of all reunion concerts with me. Thank you.

And I'm totally going!!!! It's gonna be CRAZY fun.

More Pics

Here are some more pictures from yesterday.

What a Blessing!

We blessed Livy girl yesterday at church and John did such a great job! Yes, she cried the whole time but that's because the men had her laying on her back almost at a decline...the minute it was over and John held her facing out, she was happy as can be! We'll remember that for the next one!

We had a family dinner at our house afterwards with lots of yummy summer food. The Pruitts, the Allens and the Nixons came over and played all day. I am so grateful for family!

And just if you were wondering, she only got a tiny, tiny bit of spit up on her gorgeous dress (thank you mom, it was stunning!)!