the old year left and the new year came

WARNING: This is another uneventful post. For New Year's Eve, we were not an exciting group. I spent most of the day sick so going out and painting the town was not an option for me. The most eventful thing I did was go pick up my paycheck and go to the bank...woot! woot!

We had been invited to a friend's house for a small party to celebrate the ending of 2008. Nathan decided he would go and take Remington....ONLY if it was ok for me to stay home alone. He went to the store and got me soup before he left. I helped him get Remington packed up and off my boys went. The dog and I spent most of the night on the couch watching (sleeping) chick flicks. I went to bed around 10 and the old year left and the new year came before I knew it! Nathan and Remington got home around 1:30am. Remington did good at the party as long as he could see Nathan. Nathan held him for a while and put him to sleep around 9pm. No New Year's celebrating for him either!

On New Year's Day, Nathan went hunting in Nebraska with his dad and uncle. Remington and I met up with my brother and his family and did some shopping. We came home and hung out with Masha. Brian, Terry and the kids spent the night. Like I said before, very uneventful.

May you all have a wonderful year ahead of you. Make great things happen!

Christmas #2

This year was Remington's 2nd Christmas. On December 20th we left Denver and went to my parents' for a few days. We had a Christmas party at my brother's house with my mom's side of the family. Remington got lots of hugs and kisses from my aunts and cousins. He also gave out lots of kisses and high fives. On the 22nd we had Christmas dinner with my parents, brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew. We also opened presents. Remington doesn't understand the presents or Santa thing yet but he liked sitting on the boxes and ripping the paper. He would rip a piece of paper off and then go give it to my dad and say, "thank you." He's pretty proud of saying thank you when he gives you something.

While we were there, Nathan, my brother, my dad and my nephew did a lot of hunting. Geese and elk in which they were successful at both. Remington and I just hung out at the house while I did some work. Nothing too exciting and definitely nothing eventful.

We came home on Christmas Eve and went to our friends' Kim and Jason's for dinner. We shared gifts and ate a wonderful meal. I felt crappy so I fell asleep on the couch with Remington. Again, pretty uneventful.

On Christmas morning, we went to Nathan's parents. We opened gifts first. Remington again was happy to sit on the boxes. He got really excited when our 5 yr old nephew opened his gifts. Brendan was so excited about Bat Mobile and whatever other toys he was opening. Remington clapped and squealed because Brendan was so excited by his gifts. We had a wonderful lunch and then all headed over to Mammom's house with the extended family. Everyone was there. Small house with 20 adults and 4 or 5 kids becomes mayhem very quickly. We stayed there a few hours and then came home. Again, pretty uneventful.

Nothing like last year when our dog locked us out of the car while it was running!

Baking

I started doing some last minute baking when this is what happened.

Merry Christmas from the Tolands!

Where in the world have we been?!?

The answer: NOWHERE!. We didn't drop off the face of the earth. We are still here south of Denver. Nothing really exciting has happened in the month since I've blogged. So here's the lowdown:


Nathan has been working hard. Traveling to West Virginia, Boston, Anchorage and San Antonio.
Tawnya has been working two jobs. Reebok AND motherhood.
Remington has been working two jobs. Walking and talking. That's right. walking...everywhere...fast! He jabbers all day long which leaves Nathan and I wondering what he's saying and telling us.
Squirt has been working two jobs...sleeping and staying away from Remington!

Tawnya, Remington and Squirt went to the farm while Nathan was in Boston. We had lunch with old friends and got to see some family.

We spent Thanksgiving with Nathan's family which is always a hoot.

The three of us spent a weekend in Craig for elk hunting. Nathan, his dad and uncle stayed at a motel while Remington and I stayed at my aunt and uncle's house. We all had a good time and I was glad to have a whole house in which to entertain Remington instead of a motel room. He helped Aunt Myrna undecorate her tree as fast as she could decorate it. He loved sitting on her kitchen counter and "helping." We had a great laugh at their dog JJ who barks and jumps at the smoke when they burn their trash. I have a video that is just hysterical. Squirt stayed in the city with her friends Daisy (English Bulldog) and Pickle (Bassett Hound). She had her own suite in the upstairs portion of their house. Thanks to our friends Jason and Kim, our dog was well loved.

And now, it's a week before Christmas and all the presents are bought. Some are en route and hopefully they get here in time. None of them are wrapped but that's what midnight is for! The decorations are up. The tree is up with only lights on it. I think it will be that way for a few years. It does look better than the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I was able to get cookies made for the neighbors and am going to attempt to make Divinity. Wish me luck.

Trick or Treat

Since Remington was so little last Halloween, we didn't dress him up as anything. He just chilled in his little orange outfits. But this year, he was Pooh...thanks to cousin Brendan and Grandma Bonnie. He went trick or treating at a few of the neighbors' houses with Brendan.

And to appease his father and impress whoever...he was Baby Rambo!

Boo at the Zoo

Remington went to the zoo for the first time over the weekend. There were lots of people there as it was their annual "Boo at the Zoo" where (mostly) kids dressed up in Halloween costumes and went trick-or-treating. We met some friends there with their 7 month old boy. Here are some pictures and a video of Remington watching the orangutans.

Before all the animals and people...



After the animals and people....

Pumpkin Festival

We went to the Pumpkin Festival at the Botanic Gardens at Chatfield. We met the Schells there and slopped through the mud together. It was cold but we still got some good pics and a few small pumpkins.

I'm sure it will be more fun next year when Remington is self mobile and it's not muddy. We'll see.

Happy Birthday America!!

We left Denver on Thursday headed for Pagosa Springs. Nathan's parents bought land there a few years ago and have their camper there. They pulled our tent trailer over so all of us could camp. We had a great time. We took Remington's jumper so he would have something to do and not have to be held the whole time. He did a great job. He slept through the nights, ate well and napped better than he did on the previous camping trip. We didn't watch any fireworks as Remington was already asleep. I think next year he will really enjoy watching them. While there, Nathan cut down a dead tree that was over 100 ft tall and 3 feet in diameter.

See the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mbRItSJrAo

The guys went fishing, Remington spoiled his grandma and Mammom (greatgrandma). He also got lots of smooches from Grampa! I relaxed and finished reading Little Women. Remington had his first experience with watermelon. He held his own piece and shoved his face into it like he saw everyone else doing! We all laughed at him and he looked up like "what? you all are doing this too!" It was so fun to watch. We headed back to Denver on Monday. It was a relaxing time but it was nice to get home.

Remington's first camping trip

For Memorial Day weekend, the Toland family headed southwest. We went to Pagosa Springs to camp on Nathan's parents' property. Remington did well on the 8 hour drive to and from. He slept some of the way and played some of the way and fussed the rest of the time. Once we got there, we put Remington in the pack and play while we sat up camp. He squealed with joy because he finally got to move around on his own. He didn't nap at all unless we were riding in the truck which made for really long days for momma. He did surprisingly well all weekend out of his natural environment. He slept well at night (until 5:30 or 6 AM!!!) Remington seemed to enjoy all the attention he got from Gampa, Gamma and Unkie Matt. There were several photo ops but we didn't always have the camera at hand. Here are pics of Remington wearing Matt's hats.

He has learned to "whistle" by blowing air out of his mouth. I'll try to catch it on video sometime. After eating breakfast in the camper, Nathan and Matt were trying to teach him how to use a call. They would blow and then give it to him. Remington would put the call up to his mouth and blow but make noise himself. It was pretty funny.

All in all, it was a good trip but we were all glad to be home Tuesday evening.

Christmas to Remember

Today is Remington's first Christmas. Last night we went out to Nathan's parents for dinner. This morning we drove back out there for opening presents and lunch. It had snowed overnight so it was absolutely beautiful. We take our dog Squirt with us because she's part of the family and loves the open space at their house. We had a great time opening gifts. Remington held Gamma Bonnie the whole time we opened gifts. We had lunch and were all getting ready to go the Mammaw and Poppop's house.

Nathan put all the gifts in the car and started it so it would be warm because it was still snowing. The dog decided she wanted in the car so Nathan left her in there. I got Remington buckled in and we were all headed out. I couldn't open the door to the car. It was locked! Our genius of a dog had stepped on the lock button and locked us out of the car! Remind you that the car is running. We didn't have an extra key. We tried to get her to step back on the lock or window buttons. Nathan and his dad tried to open the door using a coat hanger. Nothing worked. So we all packed up in Nathan's parents car and headed to Mammaw's house. We left the dog in our car with it running. We would stop by our house and get an extra key on the way home.

It was snowing and traffic was awful the whole way there. On the exit ramp to their house, Nathan's brother slid off into the ditch. We were two blocks from their house and Nathan's dad turned around. Why he didn't drop us off first, I don't know. We got to the car and Matt and Masha climbed in the back of the SUV. Off to the grandparents' house we go. When we got there, Nathan's uncle had backed into his cousin's new jeep and dented the bumber. Good times were being had by all. So after being there about an hour, we headed back to our house for the extra key. They left Remington and me at home to veg and stay warm.

Nathan and his parents stopped and got a small tank of gas just in case our car had ran out. When they got back to our car, it was still running, the window was rolled down and the dog was nowhere to be found. Nathan thought, "great, now our dog is missing. I can't go home without the dog, Tawnya will be devastated." When they opened the garage door, Squirt came running from somewhere and was so happy to see them. She had stepped on the window button and got out of there! Nathan said she hadn't been out of the car for very long because it was still warm inside. It was still snowing. What a traumatic experience for our little crazy dog!

Turkey with the Tolands

With the passing of my grandma, we decided to come home and have Thanksgiving with Nathan's family as planned. This would give us a chance to rejuvenate before heading back to the farm for the funeral.

Remington got to meet more of Nathan's family and took special pictures with his Great Poppop, Gampa and Dad. He laid on the floor next to me during dinner. Like always, we had too much food. We are so blessed to have such wonderful families. What a special time to be together. I sat and watched how everyone interacted and recalled memories of childhood and early adulthood as we gathered at my grandparents house for such occasions.

The little pumpkins' first pumpkin day

Today is Remington's first Halloween. Of course, he's dressed in orange because it's one of my favorite colors. He had his one month checkup today. He is now 8lbs 8oz. He's now up to 35th percentile. Whatever that means. I can't imagine what a baby would weigh and the 90th percentile?!? I guess since he's small, he can go trick-or-treating and eat all his candy.

He did really well with the dog barking at all the trick-or-treaters.

Camping isn't a bad thing when you're pregnant....

...just falling and breaking your ankle when you're pregnant is! That's right, I fell and broke my ankle while camping. We were camping with the Franks at Jellystone in Estes Park. We had everything set up for the three day adventure. We were eating dinner and I was walking to get the dog untangled.

I was walking down a slight incline and down I went. As I fell, I turned to my side so I wouldn't hurt the baby. I heard my ankle pop a few times. I knew it was broke instantly. I decided we should go to the emergency room to reassure that the baby was ok and get some crutches to continue the shortened adventure on.

After taking a quick tour of Estes Park, we finally found the hospital. After explaining what happened to everyone who worked at the hospital, I finally got hooked up to a fetal monitor and the little man's heartbeat had dropped to about 140bpm....It was still a steady beat so that calmed me down. Only to get a nurse to lecture me about wearing flipflops. I wanted to yell at her. It's 99 degrees outside, I'm six months pregnant and I'm not supposed to wear flipflops....that woman has a lot of nerve telling me that!

The xrays showed a crack all the way through the fibula (the little, outside bone) and some severe ligament damage around my ankle bone itself. Well now we know what we are dealing with. Surgery!