I decided I better get all my Halloween and Thanksgiving pictures on here before Christmas. We feel really luck to have both Morri and my families close by but it does make for a very hectic Thanksgiving.The Tolman clan minus the women.
Morri's really into taking pictures, unfortunately none of my sisters or my mom enjoy it very much (if you can't tell from our expressions).

Carter with his grandpa. We were also celebrating my dad's birthday on Thanksgiving, he turned 78 on the thirtieth.

Alex and his cousin Tuscan being crazy as usual.

Addi and her lovely cousin Chloe. Who she never gets to see enough.

Halloweeen 2008

We all had a very fun Halloween this year. My boys are still very much in to Star Wars and I was suprised that Addi didn't want to be a Princess this year but she lover kitties and I think that she decided that if she couldn't have a kitty of her own at least she could be one. Carter refused to get dressed up for anything this year except for the actual trick-or-treating, I guess he's just too big and cool for that.

All of us (minus Morri and Alex) at the ward trunk-or-treat.

Southern California Vacation

Morri had the last week of September off of work so we decided to take a trip to Disneyland etc. We had promised our kids that if they were good while we went on our cuise back in January that we could go to Disneyland. I don't think they believed that it was ever really going to happen (to be honest I wasn't sure it was ever really going to happen), but we finally got to to.

We stayed with my lovely sister Mary and her family which was so nice because we probably would'nt have been able to stay so long and do so much if we hadn't . We spent three day's at Disneyland/California Adventure, one day at Sea World, one day at Universal Studio's, one day at the Wild Animal Park and one day at the beach. It was a lot to fit in and some days the kids just wanted to stay at Mary's and play with her daughter Sophia and swim in the pool but we did have a really good time.




Addi wanted to ride the teacups first thing so we did. She likes to do bunny ears when someone takes a picture she just doesn't realize you're supposed to do it behind someones head, so peace-out everybody.

Space Mountain was everyones all time favorite (except Addi, it was a bit much for her).

The first sunday we were there we got to go to Morri's aunt's house who lives in Murrietta. We had a really nice dinner and played games. It was really nice to see them and spend some time together.
We spent a lot of time watching the dophins at Sea World.

Carter and alex got a good splash from a passing dolphin.

We had front row seats at the dolphin show because the kids wanted to get wet.

After about ten splashes in a row Addi and I decided we'd had enough.

Addi and Sophia celebrating the arrival of Sofia's new potty chair.

Jeni and Gabi were able to come out to Mary's one night and have dinner with us. It was so fun for Addi to be with her girl cousins, she feels a little deprived in that area.

Of course the day we had set aside to go to the beach was the coldest day we were there. But we wanted to kids to be able to say they had been to the beach so we went anyway, and didn't wear our swim suits. Clearly it didn't matter how cold it was or if we had our suits on or not. Carter and Alex got soaked. Alex added a layer of sand after that.

Addi's Birthday

Addi had her fifth birthday yesterday. I can't believe my baby could be five years old. I don't know why I can't believe it she's been acting like she's 13 for the last year and a half.

This year I suggested that instead of having a big party that Addi just invite one friend to go do something special. She thought about it and then said o.k. mom, you need a break (she's a very insightful child).

So I took Addi and her friend Allie to the cutest little spa. The Spa is called Primrose Retreat and they have a little girls spa there called Spoiled Rotten. It was so darling! They had a catwalk and dress-ups galore. There was a t.v. screen at the end of the catwalk so the girls could see themselves while they wallked. They got pink hot chocolate and pink cupcakes served on prettty china with pink flowers. Both girls got their hair done, sparkly make-up and their fingernails and toenails polished. After all the pampering they could stay and play dress-up as long as they wanted. Addi said she wished she could stay there all day. But this is the reason I could never be a true blogger--I forgot my camera! These pictures are of Addi and Allie after we got home.
Last night we had a family party with cake and ice cream. I told Addi I would make any kind of cake she wanted and she picked the rainbow cake. After making, castle, dragon, pirateship, skateboard, sheep, pig and cow cakes this was quite easy and I was very happy about it.



Addi is way into barbies now and she got exactly what she wanted.

Thank you to everyone who helped make Addi's birthday special!