Vacation after Christmas

Andy had to go back to work Monday - Wednesday after Christmas, but that wasn't too bad. Three days of work then another long weekend! We've had fun the last few days since Christmas. Here's a look at some of our activities:

Christopher helped me put Kaela's exersaucer together. He actually screwed in a couple of the screws. I was impressed! It was fun to "build" it with him, and Kaela loves it - especially when her brother is playing with the toys for her so she can watch. =)


















One of our neighbors broke her foot just before Christmas and was in the hospital for awhile - now she's home with a walking boot. Her handrail for her front steps got run over by a lawn mower this summer, and now she really needed one to be able to get in and out of her house. So...we built one. Daddy came over and helped Christoper and I put up a rail for Ms. Mary. Or rather...we helped him. =) Christopher had fun and even brought his tools out so he could help Babu.



















Now he proudly tells anyone around while we're outside: "I built that." Never too young to teach good lessons, right?! Always take care of the widows and the poor.


















DeDa came to visit!! He arrived Monday after Christmas and stayed through Thursday.
Kaela enjoyed looking at DeDa's face and smiling a lot at him.


















Christopher enjoyed having DeDa around, especially after DeDa gave him more tools for Christmas - they had fun putting together the work bench and playing with the tools afterward.


















I realized the other day that Kaela was as old as Christopher was (5 months) when we took one of my favorite pictures of him. So I dug out the sleep sack and found a similar hat and we positioned her about how he was on our ugly orange couch...just to see if and how similar they looked. Definitely two different children - though equally as cute!

Kaela .......................................... Christopher

















Kaela getting her hair washed - she LOVES having her head rubbed/scrubbed. It's so cute.

Christmas Day

After returning home from the mountains on Tuesday, we spent Wednesday preparing for Christmas. Wednesday evening, we attended a candle light service at church. Christopher caught on to the true meaning of Christmas during the candle-lighting part of the ceremony. We were all holding our unlit candles. As they lit a few up front and then walked down each aisle lighting the candles of each person on the end of each row, Christopher saw them coming. He held his out and said, "Want some!" When mine was lit, I turned to light Andy's and Christopher held his out too. After passing it on down the row, we all held our candles up and continued to sing Christmas hymns. Christopher kept wanting to share his light with everyone, leaning his candle over until his flame touched another person's wick/flame. Our hearts melted and our eyes welled up with tears as we watched our "Christ-bearer" spread the love of Jesus on Christmas Eve. What a blessing it is to have children!

Andy and I had a memorable time wrapping our gifts that evening - it was fun to stay up late and talk.

Christmas morning we went over to my parents house for the day. We gathered around to read the Christmas story, sing some songs and pray.

Christopher explaining something to Sho Sho.


















We also lit all the candles on the yule log, and at Christopher's lead, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. Christopher then got to open the last pocket on the advent calendar and put baby Jesus in the manger.


















Then we gathered to open gifts. It was so much fun this year to watch Christopher...he actually "got in" to unwrapping presents. He received his wish and got lots of stickers, though no yogurt video. =)

Getting ready to open a present from Daddy and Mommy.

















Stickers! And...hmm...batteries...hmm...


















He had to put the batteries in his pocket before opening the rest of his gift.


















MOON! IT'S THE MOON! (Oh yeah, best parents in the world - we bought our son THE moon for Christmas! ;0 ) He was pretty excited. I found this cool night light on amazon that is contoured and designed to really look like the moon. It cycles through all 12 stages of the moon, and has a remote control that Christopher can use to change the cycle. He loves it.


















We went into the hallway and shut all the doors so we could see the moon in the dark. After exploring his new remote and seeing what happened each time he pushed the button, he said, "Want to see it fly." So Babu lifted it up in the air for him. That night when we got home, he was half awake as we carried him in from the car and he said. "You want moon on your wall." You want us to put the moon up on your wall in you big boy room? "I'd really like that." Needless to say, it went up right away!
























Aunt SaraBeth and Kaela Ruth.
























Christopher showing Babu his new moon.


















A big boy cup from Babu and Sho Sho with his name on it. He did great with it for the first few minutes before we ended up with a puddle of water on the floor.


















Snacking on marshmellows while we cooked lunch.


















For brunch, we ate waffles with blueberries, strawberries, walnuts, vanilla yoghurt, honey, cinnamon, bananas and raspberries on them. SO DELICIOUS!

Some grad students from Ghana joined us all for Christmas dinner, where we sat around the table enjoying a delicious dinner and wonderful fellowship.

A wonderful Christmas. Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Beautiful Sunrise, Amazing Photography

Really, there's not much to say about these pictures, they speak for themselves. So I won't ruin them with comments throughout. I will say these two things: First, God is awesome! What beauty and creativity. And two, my husband is a great photographer. He had fun waking up early the last morning to try and capture the sun rising over the mountains. WOW!

As you view these pictures, think of these song lyrics:

FOR THE GLORY OF MY GOD
by DAVE CHUMCHAL

If the rocks cry out
I will sing along
Every knee will bow
I will be among them
For the glory of my God
When creation speaks of Your mighty name
I will join in voice and there proclaim
For the glory of my God

PRAISE THE LORD!

Tolan Christmas Vacation at Wolfe Laurel

For Christmas this year, my parents found a great cabin in Wolfe Laurel, a ski resort near Mars Hill, NC. Our whole family was able to get together for five days and spend some great time together. It was such a blessing to all be together and be able to forget about work and chores at home and just relax and enjoy the Christmas holiday.

Andy found his favorite spot as soon as we arrived: a comfortable couch - and snuggled between his two kiddos.
























We celebrated Andy's birthday with a delicious oatmeal cake with coconut icing/topping.
























Christopher's favorite place in the whole house was a small closet off the living room. It was empty except for a few games on the top shelves, and it became his hideout. He spent HOURS in there, playing and eating...and ordering anyone nearby to come in there with him.

















I think Babu may have spent the most time in there with him. One morning, they were in there for an entire hour! Whenever Christopher wanted out of the closet, if someone else was in there, he'd open the door just enough to squeeze out, look at the person and say: "Stay there. Be right back." and then close them in the closet and run get whatever it was he wanted. It was pretty funny.


















The first morning, Andy took Christopher hiking for an hour or so. It was pretty cold out, but they had lots of fun. The next day, they went out again with Babu to go fishing and play in the water.

Christopher found rocks! And water! He's in "heaven."
















Fishing with Babu.























Walking with Babu, hand in hand.
























It was wonderful to get to spend extra time with my babies, not having to clean the house, pay bills...etc. I love them!

Christopher was trying to help Kaela hold a crayon so she could color with him.

















We worked several puzzles together...I love puzzles.

Aunt SaraBeth, Christopher, Sho Sho, GiGi and Mommy.
















Sho-Sho, Mollie, Si, Rachel, Kaela and SaraBeth all working on getting the edge together on a jellybean puzzle. Talk about concentration - that one took a lot of hard work and careful observation to get all those jellybeans in the right place!


















We ate a lot of delicious food: mahi-mahi that Daddy caught in the Bahamas, indian food, thai stir fry (pictured below) and quesadillas. We each took a night cooking a meal, so that was fun, and allowed everyone not to have to spend every evening cooking.


(LtoR around the table) SaraBeth, Anna, GiGi, Daddy and Kaela, Mollie, Si, Andy, Christopher and Rachel. And I'm pretty sure my mom was in the picture - so either she got up to get something or she's hiding behind Anna's head. =)

















It was great to have my grandma (mom's mom) there. She had a wonderful time with her great-grandkids, and we enjoyed hearing some of her stories from "the old days."

















Each night, we sat in the living room, lit the yule log, and sang Christmas hymns, talked about old Christmas's and had a little devotional. Precious times.































Christmas cookies! Christopher was able to help make them this year, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Cutting out shapes with Babu and Aunt Anna.























Decorating them with icing with Daddy...oh what a mess, but oh what fun!
























Babu and Christopher had there own little game where they crawled all around the house pretending to be bears. Christohper thought this was pretty cool!


















Then they found a bear rug to wear while they crawled around. Christopher wasn't so sure about having it on his back, but liked it on Babu.


















The gang: Si, Mama, Daddy and Anna; Mollie, Andy and Kaela, Rachel and Christopher, and SaraBeth.

I think we got one a little better than this - where Christopher was actually smiling - but it was such a silly smile with his eyes scrunched closed and Kaela looking away, that I thought I'd put this one up instead since it shows what it was like trying to get a picture. =)


















Thanks Daddy and Mama! It was a lot of fun!

Christmas Photo Shoot

We've had a lot of fun with our studio equipment this holiday season. Andy set up all the lights and back drop, I posed us, and then with a little help from a remote control, we took our first family portrait in our studio. It was challenging since there was noone behind the camera for Christopher to look at, but out of about 99 we managed to get 1! =)

Merry Christmas from the Didyks!



















Andy took a couple more shots of Kaela and me.
























And then one of Mommy with her kids. Christopher was giving Kaela a kiss.























Taking this shot of Andy and Christopher was a little easier since I was behind the camera for him to look at. And actually, the way I finally coaxed a smile out of our son was by "hitting" myself in the head with one of his toy plastic balls and yelling "OUCH!" And then snapping a picture immediately. Silly guy...so compassionate yet thinks it's hilarious when someone says ouch.























While Andy was in Memphis over the next few days, I attempted my first use of the studio lights and took some pictures of my siblings to use as Christmas gifts. We had a lot of fun, and I think they turned out pretty well. Of course, how can you go wrong with such beautiful/handsome subjects, right? ;)

Anna Leigh and SaraBeth.

















My sisters.






















Mollie and Silas.


















And finally, Uncle Silas found a pretty cool present in Santa's bag!