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. :)