Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Grandma Tolman had her 89th birthday on Christmas Eve. The whole family went over to her house to wish her a happy birthday. She was so tickled to have so much of her family close for her special day.
There were so many people in her house, there was no place to sit. She just smiled and smiled. She said several times that there is nothing better than family. She got misty a few times when she thought about Grandpa Tolman and her family that couldn't be there, but then she would just start beaming again.
She blew out all the candles on her cake, so I guess she gets her wish.
I hope her 90th year is as great as her 89th. We love you Grandma Tolman!

Fun With Static

Tristan insisted on wearing this Santa hat every time we were over to Ty's parents' house. The kids all got a kick out of what happened whenever it came off.
Science is fun!

Minor Surgery

Just 3 days before Christmas, Tristan went into hospital for some minor surgery. He had a hernia that the doctor believes he may have had for several years. Maybe since he was 5. He thinks the hernia was aggrivated by football this summer.
Poor kid couldn't have anything to eat after midnight and his surgery wasn't until after noon. He was starving by the time we checked in. His pre-op nurse cracked us up. She kept talking to Tristan like he was 2. She used a baby voice and kept saying things like, "Remember, we always need to wash our hands, don't we?" and "Wow! You're almost 85 pounds, you big, big boy." You should have seen the look on Tristan's face.
After he had changed into his gown and right before he was taken into surgery, one of the surgical nurses came in to check things out. It was so weird, cuz it was a guy I went to school with, Nathan Seedall. It was strange to turn my son over to a guy who had been such a goofball in high school. The surgery lasted about an hour. When he came out of surgery, the first thing he said was, "Bacon." I guess he's not one of those people who gets nauseous from anesthesia. The surgery was a success and he was ready to start playing the next day. We had to remind him to slow down several times and there were a few times when he was walking like an old man and asking for Ibuprofen. I suppose that's better than laying around, whining and complaining for a week! He's such a strong kid.

So Disappointing

On Friday, we took a little road trip to Salt Lake with Ty's parents. Ty's cousin Ben whom Ty hadn't seen in nearly 14 years get married. We left the house with time to spare. It was a fun trip with the parental units and us talking and laughing and singing along with the Christmas music on the radio. Then we hit the Utah border. We also hit the biggest snowstorm ever.
Ty had to slow down significantly to navigate the icy roads and crazy Utah traffic. We pulled off the freeway to the Salt Lake Temple at noon. When was the wedding? Noon. We raced into the temple doors and tried to convince the man at the front desk to let us in. These things never start on time, so it should be okay, right? Wrong. The Nazi at the desk wouldn't let us go in.
We were disappointed to miss the wedding, but we would see Ben and his lovely bride at the ring ceremony and luncheon to follow. The most disappointing part was missing the man who preformed the sealing. It was the Prophet. Yes, President Thomas S. Monson did the sealing! Can you imagine? Sitting in a room with the Prophet? Listening to him speak on such a personal level? Wow! I guess he was quite a cut-up and had the small assembly laughing several times. He had several stories about Aunt Ann and times when she used to be his secretary so many years ago. *sigh* Such a disappointment. Aunt Janet was furious when she heard how close we were and that the man wouldn't let us in. She said we would have been in plenty of time. Oh well.
I feel bad for the couple, too. Their wedding pictures are gonna be a mess. The snow was dumping and the wind was howling. Not exactly the best setting for pictures. Honestly though, they were so giddy in love with each other, they probably didn't notice. The guests, however, were freezing!
We had some time to kill between the wedding and the ring ceremony, so we walked over to the Conference Center. A nice man inside offered to give us an abbreviated tour, since we only had 40 minutes before we had to be at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for the luncheon and stuff. That place is beautiful. And HUGE! It can seat 21,000 people. The stage/pulpit area was all decorated for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas program. It was so pretty. The artwork in that building is amazing as well. Gee, I wish I could create beauty like that.
The ring ceremony and luncheon were so nice. It was fun to get to talk with Ty's family that he hadn't seen in years. I loved seeing the way Ben and Donna looked at each other. It brought back so many memories from when Ty and I got married. All of this took place on the tenth floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The view, when we could see it, was amazing. The problem was, it was snowing so hard, at times we couldn't see the buildings next door! At one point, I was sure we would have to get a hotel room and wait out the night.
We decided to risk it and try to get home. We figured, we could always stop along the way if we had to. The trip home however, was fine. The worst thing we had to deal with was SLC's rush hour traffic. The snow was light, the roads were clear, it was a beautiful trip home. If we'd had that weather on the way down, we sooo would have made it to the wedding. *sigh*

My Dog's So Smart

It's really cold here. Really cold. And Mayzee has no undercoat, so she gets cold when she goes outside. So, we got her a coat to wear when she goes out.
The other day, Mayzee rang the bell on the back door, letting us know she needed to go out. When I opened the door, a blast of cold air hit me and I looked at the thermostat: 3 degrees. So I said to Mayzee, "You want your coat?" She stopped on the porch and looked at me, cocking her head to the right. "You want your coat?" She tilted her head to the left. So I grabbed her coat off the counter and repeated the phrase. She started like she was gonna run to me, so I leaned over and repeated the phrase one more time. She raced up the porch and into the house, stopping right below my hands so I could put the coat on her. As soon as the coat was secure around her waist, she went trotting outside to do her business.
She is so proud of her coat.
Another smart thing she does, and has done since we first got her at 12 weeks, is: if she has found something to chew on and is chomping away, or holding it in her mouth, preparing to chomp and we say, "Drop it!" she will spit it out immediately and trot off to find something else to do. She's done that since the first time I said it to her.
She amazes me. She's such a smart puppy.

Gingerbread Dreams

Sometime before Thanksgiving, Ty went out to pick up a few things from the store and came back with a Wilton gingerbread house. I stored it in the back room until there was a little more room in the house (a.k.a. my parents went to Texas) and then promptly forgot about it. Then, all my friends started posting on their blogs about the cute gingerbread houses they made, so I got it out for the kids and I to decorate. (Of course, my friends are much more creative and actually made their gingerbread, but I'm just not that good!)
I was kinda grumpy when the activity started, but after a few minutes of playing with my kids, I was having just as much fun as the kids. It was so fun to see what ideas the kids had and how creative they are. We were very limited on candy pieces, but the kids came up with wonderful designs with what they had. I'm pretty proud of icicles hanging from the eaves!

The Killer Dog

My dog is simply ferocious! She is terrified of the vacuum cleaner. From the first time we got it out, she has gone ballistic at the simple sight of it. She even knows that it belongs in the hall closet and if you act like you are going to open the closet's door, she will start barking like crazy.
When the vacuum comes out, she begins growling and nipping at the wheels. She makes the strangest sound and completely freaks out. Maybe we're bad "parents" but we can't help but laugh hysterically at her. She seems to have an instinctive fear of all cleaning implements. The first time we brought out the shopvac to clean the stove, it hadn't even been turned on yet and she went nuts. Then, yesterday, I got out the mop and broom to do a little cleaning up and she started lunging and biting at the broom. I think she hates cleaning even more than I do!