Recent Happenings

So I find myself bored at work, with nothing to do, and realize I have not updated the blog in quite some time. I wish I was better at it, I read blogs from Pinterest all the time and am jealous of these creative women who are so good about always updating their blog --- not to mention, they make it so much fun to read! Maybe I'll make it a New Year's resolution to update at least twice a month. We'll see.

Any-who we have had some exciting things happen the past couple of months. Our Tori girl is just growing up so fast. Within a month and a half she decided to start crawling (around 13 months old) and the went quickly to walking (14 months old.) We couldn't be more proud, and neither could she. She is a very independent little girl with a lot of personality and energy, she keeps us very very busy.

 I love that her hair is getting so long that I can pull it up in ponies!

                                                           Our little model girl

Tori just turned 15 months old (can you believe it?!) and with that comes another well check up visit with the doctor. I like going to the doctor to see the progress she's making, but HATE it because she always has to get her shots. Today was Tyler's first time coming to the doctor with us, so it broke is heart to have to watch his baby girl look up at us with horror and tears in her eyes as the nurse poked away. Luckily, Tori recovers pretty quickly and hasn't suffered any major side affects from the shots.Yet. (Knock on wood.) I am happy to say that she's growing (still very petite) and weighs almost 19 lbs. She's in the 17th percentile for her weight and in the 12th for her height.

At the doctor

Currently Tori loves to climb the stairs, play peek-a-boo, dance, play outside, swing in her baby swing (yes, she still swings in her baby swing!), read books, play with stuffed animals and eat. This girl eats more than any baby I've ever met, and she'll eat ANYTHING you give her. We have been very fortunate that she's a good eater since I know it's not always so easy to get kids to eat. Something really funny she does is anytime she hears music that sounds like a hymn, she'll start waving her arm like she's leading music. It is soo cute. 

Here she is sleeping in her swing

Our little girl also loves to talk talk talk. Here are some words she's learned (in no particular order):

Dadda

Momma

Ball

Ba-Ba (bottle)

Wa-Wa (water)

Tay Tay (for my sister, Taylor)

Doggie

Woof-Woof

Hey

Hi

Bye-Bye

Nigh-Nigh (night-night)

Uh-Oh

Vroom (car noise)

Tuh (light, and she points at the lights)

Where is she/he?

Where is it?

What's this?

Bath

Boo

Flower

Sledder (the name of her favorite beanie baby dog)

On a completely different note, we have really enjoyed how beautiful the weather has been! This fall has been the most perfect weather and allowed us to spend a lot of time outdoors. This Halloween was a lot of fun since Tori was able to appreciate things a bit more than last year. We carved pumpkins (far too early, and were rotten before Halloween) and let Tori play in the "pumpkin guts." I think she enjoyed it, and was especially fascinated by the candle inside. I'm horrible at remembering to take pictures, so we didn't get any of our finished/lit pumpkins.

We also went to the pumpkin patch right by our house again this year. If you live near Springville I highly recommend it for the kids. They have wagon rides, animals, a play pit full of corn kernels, a maze, and lots of pumpkins! Tori didn't really know what to think of all the corn kernels, but loved the hay and seeing the animals.

        This is the only "decent" family picture we got

Tori was pebbles for Halloween. She looked so stinkin' cute. I was a major slacker this year and didn't even have her costume until 2 days before. I knew what I wanted her to be, but it took me forever to just sit down and make the costume. I was nervous that it wouldn't turn out cute and that I'd have to go buy her some expensive costume that I didn't even really like. Luckily, it turned out perfect. And to think that it only cost me $4-$5 to make, and I made it without sewing. Score!!

We attended my work party and also went to my grandma's house, my mom's house, and my aunt's house. It was a busy day, but we had a lot of fun.

Then just this past weekend Tyler's parents were able to come to Utah and spend a couple of days with us. We enjoy it when they come, since they only get to see Tori a couple of times a year. We just bummed around Park City and did some Christmas shopping. On Sunday we had an early Thanksgiving with The Monsens since my grandparents are moving to Arizona for the winter and won't be around for real Thanksgiving. Two Thanksgivings? Yes please!

      

 Here she is cruising around in style in Park City  

Family Trip

We've been wanting to get away on a trip for some time now, and we've also been wanting to see Tyler's family, so we decided to go visit his sister, Jacey, and her family in Reno, NV. Tyler's parent's and 2 brothers also drove out from California for our family get together.

While in Reno we went to Lake Tahoe. It was my first time going there. It was so beautiful.

 We were especially excited to see how Tori would react to the beach and water. She loved it, just as we thought she would. She loved playing and walking around in the sand.

She didn't even mind when we buried her in the sand. She is too cute.
She also loved the water, even though it was freezing cold.

Tori especially enjoyed spending time with her cousins. They are too cute. I wish we lived closer to them so that they could play all of the time.

On Sunday we spent some time at the Reno Temple. It was very pretty, and had a great view.

Even though it was a short trip, we had a really great time. We cannot wait to go back, and hope to see them all again soon.

Birthday Girl

We have a 1 year old. I'm still getting use to the idea. Our sweet little preemie baby girl cannot be one! The time flew by way too fast, but it sure has been the most amazing time of our lives. To celebrate Tori's 1st Birthday we had friends and family over for a BBQ in our new backyard (*will blog about the backyard later.) Since Tori is our first child, and she was having her first birthday, I knew I wanted the party to be good. I spent the entire day (and weeks before hand) preparing for this party. With all the decorating, baking, and cleaning I began to get a little stressed wondering what I had gotten myself into inviting 40+ people to come celebrate with us. Well, all the stress was worth it. The party turned out wonderful. I was so glad that most of our close friends and family were able to come. The love and support we have received from our family and friends during Tori's first year of life as been amazing.

Tori is a very easy going baby who just loves to play and be the center of attention, so I knew she would have a good time with all of our guests. After everyone was done eating some BBQ we brought out the cupcakes, and Tori's GIANT cupcake. I thought they turned out cute :) 

We sang Happy Birthday to Tori, blew out her candle, and prepared her for what she probably thinks was the best part of her life, thus far. Time for her to indulge in her giant cupcake. And that she did. She just kind of played with the frosting at first not really knowing what to do with it, and then decided she would just dive right in!

She even was nice enough to share :)

Then we opened presents, and to my surprise Tori opened them herself. I expected her to not really know what to do with the presents, but I was wrong. I should have known, baby girl is so inquisitive and smart. Then after a little while she wanted to play with her presents, so Mommy was left to open the rest.

It was such a great night, I loved that we had everyone there to celebrate with us. I know Tori did too. :)

April April April

I've been dying to get Tori's pictures taken professionally since we haven't gotten any since she was a newborn. They turned out sooo stinkin cute. I'll put a couple here and upload the rest on Facebook.

We spent Easter in Utah this year with my family. My brother also had his homecoming talk Easter Sunday, so we had a lot of family get together. It was a good time. Here is Tori in her pretty Easter dress.

The weather really started to warm up this month, so we spent a lot of time outside at the park and taking walks.

Tori's first time on the swings. She loved it!

 

 Tori also turned 8 months old this month. She has completely mastered eating baby food/treats and sitting up on her own. She even sprouted her first 2 teeth! As exciting as the teeth are, she has definitely been more cranky than her usual self. She was also sick this whole month as well, so I finally took her to the doctor and they said there was nothing that they could do for her. Poor girl, she's been sick with a cough for over 2 months now. They weighed her and she was 14 lbs 8 oz.

Our cute little Tor-Tor