Tuesday Night Farmer's Market

Each Tuesday night we have a Farmer's Market in downtown Gridley. They always have a performance of some kind and a raffle drawing with lots of yummy food and free junk :). The boys love to dance to the music and have snow cones and Benson loves going and picking out his watermelon. This past week some friends of ours have a band and were playing so we headed up to support and be their "groupies". All the "groupies" children usually get up to help sing a song or play an instrument - they love the attention. This time though, Benson and Max didn't go. They just played in the grass and ran around in hypertivity (is that a word?). Baths were much needed by the end of the evening. But we all had a lot of fun.
Max! Always in the water! Benson and Skyler
(They were making "snow" with grass and then
making "snow" angels in the grass.)

One for the money, Two for the show...

As soon as Justin gets in the house and is mowed over by the boys, Benson begins asking to play this game. It's one of the boys' favorite things to do with dad but it ends up usually happening right before bed....nothing like getting them all excited just before bed! What a great tradition!!!

Crazy Weekend!

Last weekend was crazy. Both Justin and I serve as the presidents over our YM and YW and this past weekend was our 3 stake Youth Conference. The kids seemed to have had a great time as did we. On Friday I (Libby) was there for most of the day and it ended up being that way on Saturday as well. On Saturday, we had scheduled a group picture at 9:30am so I took the group of girls we had staying at our house that night early around 9am, to be on time, right?, well no one else was on time so it put the morning behind a bit. I left at 9:45am to return at 11:45am to take the picture and my shift started at noon. Well, at Noon! I was hoisted up in a utility truck (I'm terrified of heights by the way) and taken up and over the crowd to take a picture. Well at high noon it's not pleasant to look up and into the sun so there were lots of squints and complaints...but I think we got a decent picture. Then, during my shift the career fair was going on which also involved myself and Justin. By the time we were done it was 4pm and we had Alisha's birthday party to attend to at 5pm. Needless to say, we were a little late being that we had to go home, cook our dish, change our clothes, drive 20 minutes to Yuba City, drop off the kids and then head another 10 minutes to the Young's home. By 9pm that night we were home and I had crashed on the couch. Utterly exhausted. But our "relaxing" Sunday was upon us. Starting at 10:30am we had our "welfare" meeting, followed by 3 hours of church meetings and then a Stake Missionary meeting to follow. At 6pm we were home again. Let me just say how grateful I am for family being around to help out during times when we are serving the youth and our ward. How lucky we are to have help when we need it. We are so thankful everyday for all the help. During the past 4 years of serving in the youth programs, Justin and I have had 2 wonderful boys and have had a lot of fun. We know nothing other than this in life. We were just discussing how much more fun it will be to be able to serve again along side each other when we are empty nesters!!! But until then, we enjoy what we do and love having this time to learn time management and organizational/juggling skills that only comes with a full plate, which we love!!! :)

Youth Conference 2008

Time flies too quickly...

So today we got a call from Mrs. Orme who is going to be Benson's preschool teacher in the fall to check in and see if we were still planning on coming and if he was potty trained! I was proud to say we are closer this week then 2 weeks ago and then it hit me, Benson starts school in the fall (even though it's only 1 day a week this year) but still, SCHOOL!!! My little baby is now heading to school, needing a back pack and some super "cool" school clothes. All day he talked about going to school and wanted to go NOW. Funny thing was, was that for mutual we were at the high school to make posters for youth conference next week so he kept thinking we were going to his school. Anyway, I just realized and am now in shock at how time flies by so fast and how my little boy, just 3, is turning into a school going, sports playing, phone call making, attitude starting boy. How I miss the days of cuddling with a little baby. aaaaaaaahhhhhh. Okay, so we're still really excited to start this new chapter in all of our lives and will try to prepare for the crazier times yet to come.
So it's off to bed.....Good Night!!!

Thanks Shannon!

Grandma rewarded him with $1

Our potty training days have come and are going great and I owe it all to miss Shannon who encouraged Benson to "pee on bees" .

We were anticipating a fast and early training last year when Benson began going potty on the little singing toilet we got for him just months before. After a couple weeks things were going well and high hopes were arising, however our annual trip to Oregon was approaching and the comfort of our home and stresses of travel took it's place and happen to land us back into diapers. Needless to say, another year of diapers for us.

As summer approached this year our hopes were high again! Benson runs around naked and usually ends up peeing on whatever he's around. No interest still.....until the encouragement of Shannon - THANK YOU - he talked about peeing on the bees but that was about it until the 4th of July, 2008, next day. He was running around, jumping all over the place and you knew what was going on. He had to pee and we were around tons of people at a party and Benson had no diaper on. His several tries turned into a success just minutes later when he found himself sitting on a toilet and an audience of one, cheering him on.

Days go on and things are still going strong. He's doing so well and loves to wear underwear. The underwear that was purchased last year is now too small and he calls them the "baby" underwear. Now he has "bigger" boy underwear which his struts around in.

Yay for Benson!

Soccer Camp

Our little Benson isn't so little any more. Since his birthday falls in the middle of the school year he has to wait one more year to play soccer but I recently discovered a camp called British Soccer Camp that come once a year for a week long camp and they start at 3 years old. Benson lives, breathes and eats all sports so this is right up his alley. He got to attend for an hour a day for a week. Coach Alaina was great and taught the kids some fun games while learning techniques. I was happy we choose the late afternoon time since we only had 3 children and the mornings were packed. The kids really benefited from this extra attention.

Each morning Benson would wake up and get his soccer "uniform" on and be ready 7 or more hours in advance. He had a lot of fun and asks if we can "play" camp all the time. We are looking forward to him being able to play sports in the coming years. He has a natural talent and I can't wait to see how he does in a team. We always joke that Benson will be our quarterback and Max our lineman! We're on our way to a team of some sort! Go Tolman's!

Dribble, dribble
Team Players
Always sliding
Our little "Beckham"

Happy 4th of July

It seems if we joined each years pictures of the 4th together the only difference is how many people are in each photo and each person seems to have aged. As of this year it was Max's second 4th of July and Benson's 4th. We began our day with the downtown Bigg's parade where most of the kids (being, Karsyn, Blake, Chase, Jaxson, Tanner and Benson) all got to ride in the mouse car and throw out fly swatters at the crowd. The rest of us along with the youngest of children hung out by the side of the road to watch and observe if any of our children would bail out or scream. They all seemed to enjoy it and made it safely around the block. Since they were toward the beginning of the parade, we were all able to be together and watch the remainder of the caravan of entertainment. Candy eating, lollipop licking, sticky hands touching, hungry kids were enjoying each moment while I tried to take in each moment with my camera crazy self....after 100 too many shots, the parade was over and lunch was way past due. As each of the several past years we all joined together at Amy's Sister-in-Law's house to enjoy some yummy food and swimming until dusk falls and we head to the driveway of Ann and John's to watch the Bigg's firework display. By this time of day most of the kids have had a great evening's nap in preparation to stay up until the stroke of midnight when the candy crash has taken over and the bug spray is as thick as a layer of skin. By midnight we were all in and ready for bed. Justin and I were exhausted and barely made it through prayers before we crashed. The day was fun and next year will be exciting to see the changes in our family and any new additions that may come along. We'll see....

Flyin' Chase

High Jumpin' Benson

Flippin' Ty

Pencil Jump Karsyn

S'more S'more?

Mr. Blues!

Yummy lollipop!

Benson and Jax

Max
Mom and Boys

Max and Brady

Having fun?

Weeeeeee.....

Benson and Max

Tolman Family 2008

Ready for the ride!

Cool Shades for Max

Mouse Car Ride

Karsyn, Tanner, Blake, Chase, Tyler and Benson



Benson and Jaxson

Here we go....

Okay, so after months of starting up this site we are actually beginning to pound at the keyboard and upload some photos. We're trying to minimize our lives by converting most of our networking sites to one...one single site to share with all our lives and the craziness that surrounds us. Hope you enjoy and find humor in our lives and grand experiences with our boys. They definitely keep us busy and on our toes. Each day is a new adventure and each day we learn something new. So, welcome to us....here we go!