There is never a dull moment at the Tobler household...

So, Sophia wakes up from a nap and walks out with two lollipops in her mouth, one on each cheek to be more specific. James got a ton of candy from his Primary teacher and had them in his room. She found them and ate a ton of them. They were stuck on her blankets, clothes, hair and even on her bed. All we could do was make her throw them away and laugh. Later that night as we sent James to bed, he comes back laughing and asking for us to come see something. I went to his room and just busted out laughing. I ran back to get the camera. Here is what I found...Have a laugh on us! There is never a dull moment in our lives with our kids.

Abuelo's Come to Visit...

My parents came to visit from Utah for a couple of days. They brought with them more Christmas presents from family and themselves. James got tons of clothes and a pair of soccer shoes, the girls got clothes and Disney Porcelain Princesses Dolls. The kids were so happy to see them and enjoyed being with them. Especially "Abuela" who makes them "arepas" to eat at their request. It was a short, but pleasant visit. I took pictures, but for some silly reason I cannot download them right now. So, I will have to add them to the blog later. The weather has been odd...we have had three days of snow, but also hail and rain combined. The sun comes out long enough to melt it all and then the slush becomes black ice over night. But, I have enjoyed it, I personally don't like it when the snow stays for days. I like this shift of weather and the sun peeking thru at times. It is absolutely beautiful to see out into the Lake and then back at the mountains on days like these. But, I do look forward to SPRING!!! Rob will be flying out to Illinois to visit his family over the weekend and then driving back with his 19 year old sister Wendy. She will be staying with us for about 5-6 months. We look forward to her visit. We'll keep you posted on that. As to the addition of another room to the house, we have come across a road block. Our house was built in the 1930's so we may come across some Septic field problems. The county has no records of our field and we may not meet the standards and regulations that are up-to-date, required to get a permit to build. We live near the Lake and so the regulations are more strict. We are hoping to be able to get approved and not be told that we have to update our septic system. That is so out of our budget and totally unplanned. So, the plans are temporarily on hold until we find out what we need to do. We are sure praying about all this and we still feel it is the right time to do this. We'll let you know.

My little sister Nelsy and her husband Weston come to visit...

My little sister Nelsy and her husband Weston decided to come for a surprise visit this weekend. The kids were so excited! Rob had a chance to take an extra day off so we could go somewhere and Play. We went to Seattle for a day on Saturday and went to the Children's Science Museum. The kids loved the hands-on activities there. There was so much to do. I think I enjoyed the live-butterfly display most. There were over 300 butterflies in there. They were incredible! Then we walked around the Public Market in town. That was not so fun for the kids, but the adults had fun looking at unique stuff and people. We did get to see the Space Needle from afar as well. We were so tired by the time we got home. On Monday we stayed in town and took a nice walk along Lake Padden, then we went Bowling. When we asked the kids what their favorite thing to do was during their Uncle and Aunt's visit, they said they liked the walk along Lake Padden. Just goes to show that sometimes to have a good time there is no need to spend money and do elaborate things. With my sister's visit came late Christmas presents from my side of the family. The kids had fun having Christmas all over again. The girls were most excited about the barbies they got from cousins and the Barbie furniture from my Sister and Weston. When they were done with that they got to playing around with an old white-haired wig possing in all sorts of funny poses. Then the kids and Rob acted out scriptural characters from the Bible and Book of Mormon. That was hillarious. We just had a good time, and were sad to see them leave today! Thanks for Coming to visit, and for being such wonderful people to be with.

A Potty-Training moment...

So, Sophia has been showing signs that are promising as to getting Potty-trained soon. Rob finds the weirdest things to tell her, to motivate her. This time he told her that if she went poop in the potty that he would take a picture of her and her masterpiece. Well, without fail, she took him seriously and she did her business and dad kept his word and took some pictures. I hope no one gets grossed out, but it is just too funny to not share with family and friends. Besides it is a Tobler thing, to do weird and disgusting things. Sophia is so cute in these pictures...Have a Laugh on us!!!!

Back to Reality...LIFE at its BEST!!!!

So, we spent the first week of going back to school, with stomach problems. For a minute there we thought we had the STOMACH FLU, but thank goodness it was just something we must have eaten, but it lasted 2 days. The "WE" I am talking about are Eliza, Juliette and Myself. We had two nights of vomiting for the girls. Only at night of course. I didn't have the joy of experiencing such relief. I am just not a throwing up kind of person. Anyhow, we are all better now, and "NO" I am not expecting. With the New Year also came the deciding factor as to Adding another room to our little house. We have been contemplating this for about 2 years now, and have been putting it off until now. This is the year! We have been praying about it and finally feel good. It is so scary. We don't have the estimate yet as to the cost of it all, but the anticipation is killing me. I hope it doesn't cost SO much money. But, we have a growing family that needs the extra room. I know poor James needs some privacy. He is rooming with Sophia and it is not often fun to have a 2 year old scream in the middle of the night, or get up and turn on the light to play with toys and then gets back in bed an hour later. He is so patient with her. He gets his things taken away and misplaced all the time. He doesn't have a hiding place because there is no room for one. But, they are sure the perfect roommates. Rob and I began reading this book about how to better parent Eliza and Sophia. It is called "The Strong-Willed Child" by Dr. James C. Dobson. We are also going to read the book called "1-2-3 Magic" for some effective disciplining skills. We are so desperate to make changes and improve our home life. The changes of course always begin with us, it is just a daily struggle, and we easily forget the focus and purpose of which we started making the changes in the first place. Home-life can get chaotic and be a battle over POWER-STRUGGLES. But, there are more moments of love, and laughter than none. We try to have a sense of humor. We simply forget how simple life really is and how we have so much control of our attitudes, and happiness. We have the greatest influence right under our control, how we choose to influence is the part we fail to note and enforce. I want to become the person I am intended to be in accordance to the Lord's Plan and Will. I want to influence my children and everyone in my life with the "good of me". I want to have my children remember a happy, loving, compassionate, forgiving, self-less, devoted, dedicated, optimistic and as many Christ-Like attributes as possible, type of Mother. I want to become the kind of person I want my children to be. I know that is what prayer is for and that it can be done. The Lord has a hand in all things and I know He will help us raise these kids thru these rough times. It is pure divine intervention that we need. Anyhow, I just had some feelings and thoughts to share. Thanks for reading! On a different note, have a little fun with these silly videos of Sophia and James goofing around with a balloon before bedtime...They found plenty of ways to use 2 balloons. Please forgive our son's crude and rude sense of humor...

New Year's Day Family Run...

On New Year's Day we participated in the "Lake Padden Polar Bear Dip/Run". It was 2.6 miles around the Lake and then those who wanted to take a dip in the Freezing Lake could do so after their run. There was ice on top of the Lake. James thought about it, but he was smart enough not to take the dip. Eliza was a super sport to keep up with her mom. James ran the whole thing SOLO in 19:37 min. Rob got to push the heavy jogger and ran the race in less than 32 min. I was so impressed with them all. It was a cold day, and so very muddy, but we had a fun time. We decided to make it a tradition for every new year's day. Then we watched all the crazy people jump into the Lake, some in funky outfits. We admired their bravery from afar, and heard screams, squeels, laughter and talks about how cold it was. We saw some come out shivering, others it seemed like they had not been affected at all by the freezing Lake. James had some thoughts at home later about what to wear next year. He is considering to take the DIP. He did get in the Lake across the Street from us, that night with the Neighbors. He went up to his knees and said it was cold enough. BURRRRRRRR!!!!