The Tolberts
Welcome to the web space of Nathan, Sara, Aaron, and Audrey Tolbert.
Have a look around, and read up on our lives!
We have pictures, video, and blog about our life, so use the menu at the left to explore!
Wow! It's amazing how these babies have changed in the last month alone! We now have walkers and talkers. It's like they blossomed overnight into mobile communicators. It's so refreshing for them to be able to tell or show me what they want or need. Here's a video of Aaron going from the occasional step taker to a full blown walker. People kept teling me my life would get crazy when they could both run in opposite directions, but for now we're enjoying their new abilities.
This video doesn't due justice to how Aaron and Audrey are using words and signs, but I caught them on video by accident and they were just so accomodating that I had to share it.
We're growing and doing a lot lately! Mom said she'd write a 16 month update cause we're doing so much but till then, here's a glimpse of what we're doing this summer...
Here we are trying out our new simming pool and playing with our ball. Super Fun!
Here's Audrey playing with bubbles. We laugh and squeal when it's time to get out the bubbles!
Here we are eating handfuls of the forbidden Sugar Cereal. Mommy caught us when she heard Audrey saying "yummy yummy!". And last but not least there's a picture of us painting a card for the greatest Daddy in the whole entire world! We love our Daddy and he loves us!
Our kids are still obsessed with shoes. When they see their shoes (or our shoes), or hear anyone talk about shoes, or see a picture of shoes, they erupt into a chorus of "shoes, shoes, shoes!" (Ok, it sounds more like shez shez shez, but we understand).
Also, recently, whenever Audrey sees a picture of a baby, she points and tells us "Baby"
So the other day a copy of this Reader's Digest was sitting on the floor. If you can't tell, that's a picture of Jay Leno in the bottom left. Audrey excitedly picked it up, started pointing, and saying "Shoes, shoes!". Then she paused, looked at it again, and started pointing at Jay Leno, saying "Baby! Baby!"
We certainly got a chuckle out of that.
So here's what we've been up to lately. First, we've been reading books. One of my favorite things to do is sit on a pillow in the corner of the couch and take all the books out of my very own library bag and look at them. My favorite book right now is Blue Hat Green Hat by Sandra Boynton. When Mommy gets to the "oops" part, I say "uh oh!" so it's kind of like I'm helping her read. Mommy also reads me a book about hats and she's hoping I'll start keeping one on my head. It is more interesting to wear a hat around after reading a book about hats. This summer we sometimes even go to story time at the library twice a week! I like watching the other kids and dancing to the music. 
In other news, my brother is walking now. I like to clap for him and say Yay when he walks. His favorite thing to talk about is shoes. He also does some sign language. He makes the sign for sippy when he wants his cup, but I just say 'sippy' when I want mine.
We've been spending time outside, too. It's different than last year when we sat in the bumbos on the sleeping bag. Now we can walk all over the yard and down the sidewalks. We planted a garden and mom and dad have been working some in the yard. They kind of skipped the yard work thing alltogether last year. We're having a good summer and hope you all are enjoying yours, too!
Recently I got hooked up with some chances to tell about China in a nearby elementary school. It’s always fun to go back and teach once in a while. During the school year I teach a large group lesson to 1-6th grade at our church on Wednesday nights. I enjoy taking material and coming up with creative and interesting ways to present it. So my sister-in-law’s sister-in-law (in my family we call these our outlaws) is a teacher and asked me to help out with their school’s Field Day. The kids cycled through presentations about different countries. I spent one day teaching 1st grade and another day giving 12 presentations to 2nd-5th graders. Here are a few of the fun discussions we had…
Student: Are there ninja’s in China?
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Me: Why do you think the Chinese people would build such a big, long, strong, Great Wall?
Student: Maybe Jesus told them to.
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Student: Are there ferocious animals in China?
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Student: Do they have Chinese noodles in China?
Me: Yes, they do
Student’s very excited response: I knew it!!
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Me: Are there any other questions?
Student: My dog just had puppies!
Awesome Aunt Jenn happens to live close to the school I taught at and watched Aaron and Audrey for me. Thank you Jenn!
