Toone Family

Look at me, posting two days in a row! I was thinking to myself last night and this morning that I've seriously got to do something to spice up my blog entries. Coincidentally, I received a message from a friend who acknowledged that yes, I do ramble in my blog. Fun rambling is one thing; rambling that makes you want to poke yourself in the eye so you have an excuse to leave is something totally different. Today I think I'll share some Amanda-isms. I should be keeping a book of these; she seems to have an endless supply, and I'm sure that I've already forgotten some of the really good ones. Well, better late than never. The other day, Amanda found a piece of cheese on my bed. Logan and I had eaten a plate of nachos up there. Anyway, she was rather distraught about this and immediately confronted Logan when he came home from a church meeting. Amanda: "Dad, you're not supposed to eat nachos in your bed." Logan: "Really? How come?" Amanda...

I can tell already that this post is going to jump all over the place, so I couldn't go too specific on a title. : ) My friend Jessica's mother passed away last week, and her funeral was on Saturday. I still haven't had the opportunity to talk to Jessica in person (I realize that viewings are typically held for this purpose, and there were two viewings, but I didn't attend either of them. I just really don't like viewings and avoid them whenever possible. Hopefully I'll be able to get together with all the girls later this week so we can spend some time with Jessica). Her mom had MS and had recently suffered a severe decline. So it's not like it was terribly unexpected for her family, but it has still made me contemplate the role of mothers and what it means to me to be the mother of my children. I've come to the conclusion that all the "motherhood fears" I had before my kids came along (i.e., cleaning up vomit) have now been replaced wi...

February 18th is the day! My doctor is planning on doing surgeries on President's Day, so I'm good to go! That means I have 3 1/2 weeks until this baby comes. What a relief that it won't be any longer than that! I'm sad to say that I am already at my all-time high pregnancy weight gain -- and a lot could still happen in the next three weeks. Amanda weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. at birth, and Lily weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. -- both very average. Logan's mom had big babies, though -- especially her boys. Logan weighed 9 lbs. 1 oz., and his brother Clayton weighed 9 lbs. 12 oz.! I suppose it's possible that this kid has inherited the "big baby boy" gene through his father (but it's more likely that I've gorged myself on ice cream, egg rolls and pretty much everything else I've had the slightest inkling to put into my mouth). It's a good thing the news from the doctor was positive. It almost made up for the fact that we waited for AN HOUR AND A ...

This past weekend, we piled our little family into the car and headed for Logan to attend my cousin's wedding and our nephew's baby blessing. Rather than riding up on Saturday and then making the long, dark drive home -- only to get up early the next morning and drive up again in time for the blessing -- we got a room at the Super8 and stayed the night. Now, as accomodations go, one can go A LOT swankier than the Super8. However, if you're on a budget and you're just looking for a way to avoid cranky children, the Super8 will probably fit the bill. When I walked into the lobby and took stock of my surroundings, these were my observations: duct tape covering the places where the carpet had worn through; the more-than-slightly-noticeable scent of air freshener (this always makes me a little nervous because I always wonder what odor they're trying to cover up) and flourescent lighting (which makes everyone look sooooo attractive!). These were Amanda's comment...

So today I took the girls to a playdate at the neighbor's house, and shortly after arriving home, a friend dropped her two kids at our house so she and her husband could work on a painting project. It can be enlightening to see my kids' interactions with others. Sometimes I think Amanda is not socially where she is verbally/academically. Her vocabulary and general understanding seems to be quite a bit ahead of her peers. But she'll often break off from the group and keep her distance, finding some other type of amusement for herself. If I ever happened past her nursery class and peeked in the window, I would often see her playing alone -- or talking to the teachers. I think I need to make more efforts in regard to her social life -- even though it means large chunks of time out of the day. It's not like it's a chore for me; I get the opportunity to socialize with other moms, which I enjoy. However, it does mean that the house did not get cleaned today! Actu...

So pretty much every day, I face the same conundrum at least once: should I be Nice Mom, or Not-So-Nice Mom? Nice Mom reads stories for an hour straight (even if the beds need to be made), bakes cookies just for the sake of having cookies (which makes a mess and a bunch of dishes to wash) or takes kids outside to play in the snow (even though it takes at least half an hour to get everyone ready to go outside, and someone usually ends up crying). Not-So-Nice Mom is usually more on top of the housekeeping, and she typically gets to do more things for herself -- but her kids watch more TV and movies (which doesn't necessarily mean that they're unhappy). Usually I end up being some combination of the two Moms, but I almost always feel some form of guilt for not being enough of one or the other. There are days when I feel I've successfully managed to be both -- but those days are pretty rare for me! Don't get me wrong; it's not like I wake up every day feeling defe...

Another week is over! After an EXHAUSTING Saturday spent putting finishing touches on some recent home improvement projects, and then cleaning the house from top to bottom, I can finally say that my house (and my life, by association) does have some semblance of order. It feels good. However, I'm sure I only have a moment to bask in my satisfaction. Lily can take a perfectly clean/orderly space and transform it into chaos in about five seconds flat. She's typically very cute about it, babbling and tottering around the house. However, this doesn't change the fact that she leaves a swathe of destruction wherever she goes. Sometimes I marvel at how different she and Amanda are. Amanda is more thoughtful, more verbal and more concerned about giving the right answers. She's quite often content to be by herself, and she likes things done in a certain way and order. Lily is loud about everything -- whether she has the right answer or not, she's going to let you k...

Amanda woke me up this morning saying, "I want to go outside and help Daddy shovel." Groggily I replied, "I'm sure Daddy's only going to be out there for a couple of minutes; then he's going to work." Half an hour later, she was back. "Daddy needs my help to shovel." What was he still doing here? I got up and looked outside. WHOA! We got some serious snow during the night. Sure enough, there was Logan outside, trying valiantly to clear our driveway and walks of all the white stuff. It was past the time that Logan has usually left for work. I guess he decided that rather than sit on the freeway for an hour and a half, he'd do something productive. By the time all was said and done, I think he was out there for two hours (in his work clothes -- which, as a sidenote, were DISGUSTING by the time he made it back inside. They went straight into the wash!). I'm worried about the commute he makes to USU three times a week. Sardine...

Ah, the first Sunday of the year! We have been attending church from 1:00-4:00 for the past year, and now we attend from 9:00-12:00. I think the earlier schedule is going to be good to me! It's so much better when the kids (especially Lily) can have their meals and naps at the time they normally do. However, I'm going to have to figure out a way to prevent Amanda from turning my alarm off in the morning before I'm awake (a little stunt she pulled today). Seriously, if Logan's meetings hadn't ended early (which they rarely do), I think I would have slept until well into Sunday School. Amanda attended Primary for the first time today. I think she's the youngest Sunbeam; she turned three just a couple of weeks ago. She was a little nervous when I dropped her off, but she seemed fine when I picked her up from her class at the end of church. I must be getting old! I have a kid who's old enough to be a Sunbeam (sniffle, sniffle)... Logan starts school aga...

I'm officially entering the blogging world! I received so many fun links to blogs from friends and family, I was inspired to start one myself. Hopefully this will motivate me to keep a better history of our family (which I am not very good at). Have patience with me as I attempt to become technically competent!