It's the most wonderful time of the year!

As our first Christmas together as a little family, I was determined to get a real Christmas Tree. Tyler wasn't so up for it, but with my crafty ways (and maybe some begging) I got my way. A real tree it was! 

Sadly, the tree was dead probably 2 weeks before Christmas. You couldn't really tell though unless you touched it. Haha, it sure was a mess. I have a feeling Tyler won't be letting me get a real tree next year. It sure looked pretty when it was lit though!

Then we went and saw Santa Claus at the mall. The picture turned out pretty cute, and Tori was such a good girl!

A Christmas Tradition I look forward to every year is getting together with some family and performing the Nativity Scene. I had my fair share of having to dress up year after year, and it's nice to finally be able to sit back and watch all the little cousins dress up instead. :)

Oh, Santa Claus was there too, but Tori wasn't too happy to see him this time. ;)

Here we are as a family.

Baby Girl was in a great mood once she was in her jammies.

We just love her!

 

We spent Christmas Eve with Tyler's cousin's. We ate yummy food and mingled. It was a nice relaxing day that was much needed since Tyler and I were busy doing last minute Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve-Eve. Hopefully we learned our lesson this year not to procrastinate Christmas shopping. It was so stressful! Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve before we went to bed. Sorry there are lots of pics of Tori, but there are just too many cute ones to just pick a few!

                                   

                                              
                      
                                                                       She can stand! ;)

Christmas morning we sure had a lot of presents to open (we went a little overboard for Tori). Surprising Tori acted interested in the presents for most of the time! She just sat in her bumbo and watched. It was so cute.

Tori and Dadda looking in Tori's stocking.

She loved the wrapping paper!

Tori is the best Christmas present ever!

All done!

Then we headed over to my mom's house. We opened more presents, ate some food, and Skyped with my little brother, Jordan. He is currently serving a mission in Chile. Skyping with Jordan is definitely the highlight of Christmas for my family. We are so proud of him, and are excited for him to come home in a short 2 1/2 months! We cannot wait!

Then, later in the evening we went to my dad's house. We ate some more grub, opened a couple more presents, and relaxed. It was a long day!

Aunt Taylor and Tori were pooped!

Tori and her grandpa -how cute!

We hope everyone had a great Christmas, we sure did!

A list of events :)

Well, it's official that I'm the worst at updating this blog! I feel like I can never find time, but here it goes...

We stayed in Utah for Thanksgiving this year. We went over to my Grandma and Grandpa Monsen's for Thanksgiving dinner. It was super chill and low key, which is nice to have during this time of year.



Here we are Thanksgiving Day :)





Our bug eyed girl! :)



Tori and her Great Grandpa Monsen



 Then, late Thanksgiving night Tyler's family came into town. Tyler's parents and 2 brothers stayed with us, and Tyler's sister, Jacey, and her family stayed with their friends. It was so great to have everyone around, and we were excited that they were all able to make it for Tori's baby blessing. We definitely missed Tyler's brother's family though, they were unable to make it because they live in Ohio.

The first day we all just hung around Provo and went to the BYU bookstore and the Creamery on 9th. We also tried to do a little Black Friday shopping, but that lasted about 40 minutes. It was way too crazy, and there was nothing I wanted bad enough to have to be apart of the madness.

The next day we all went up to Temple Square. As usual the lights were beautiful, but man was it super packed. I've never been to Temple Square when it was that packed. It was still a lot of fun though.

And thanks to my friend, Heidi, Tori didn't have to freeze her buns off! The bear suit is seriously the cutest thing. Tori looked so adorable. People were totally doing double takes on Tori just to make sure there was a baby in there and we weren't just carrying around a pink teddy bear haha :)



Baby girl and her Dadda







Our cute little family






Me and my little teddy bear girl





Tori with 3 of her cousins.
Cambria, Micah, and Jonas.
Too cute!




Aunt Jacey, Tori, and Cousin Cambria


 Then on Sunday we blessed our baby girl. The blessing was so beautiful. I can't believe how emotional I was, but the spirit that I felt there was very special. I'm glad we finally got to bless our baby girl, and had family there to share that special moment with.

Tori wore my baby blessing dress. Isn't it pretty?! I really was amazed at how great of shape it was in. After all it is almost 22 years old! :) Our sweet girl looked so beautiful.





Tyler's family, minus 5

Here's my immediate family, minus 2 brothers.




Pretty Cambria, Handsom Micah, and Sweet Tori



 Cute!

Cousin Cambria rocking Tori



Oh, so sweet!



Grandma Cheryl, Cambria and Tori



We can't wait till they come visit again!

You've gotta love Pinterest

So my new current obsession, along with everyone else, is Pinterest. They just have the best ideas for decorating my home. Especially Tori's nursery. Here is the first project I've tried.... key word being TRIED. I'm going to have to give this one another go, but the first attempt was a lot of fun.The idea is to have Tyler put his hand print on canvas and then for Tori's to be inside of his. 

This is what we got when we tried to add Tori's hand print.

A smeared hand print and...

one messy baby! 

Isn't she just the cutest?!

 

Luckily I took her clothes off before we started this otherwise we would have really had a mess on our hands. Seriously though, I thought this project would be easy, but Tori was just clenching to tightly that it was nearly impossible to pry open. Not to mention then be able to place it down flatly on the canvas and make a perfect hand print. The one attempt we had she smeared as she took her hand off the canvas. Looks like we're going to have to start over another day. It was a funny experience though, and made for some good family bonding time. :)

Time to play catch up! ~ Halloween

I know I'm almost a month late, but I figure I better get this posted before Thanksgiving is here. Better late than never right? :) Well this Halloween was a lot of fun. Probably more fun for me than for Tyler and Tori because I got to dress my sweet girl up. Seriously having a little girl to dress up is the funnest. I wasn't sure what I wanted Tori to be for Halloween and had to wait pretty much till a week before to buy her costume because I wanted to make sure that it was the right size and wasn't sure if she'd still be in newborn clothes or if we'd graduate to the 0-3 months size. My first thought was a lady bug, but I couldn't find a custome I liked. Then I came across this beauty at the Quilted Bear.

 I fell in love this instant I saw it, and not to mention the price was unbeatable. I took it home to make sure it fit Tori, and of course she looked soo cute in it, so I decided to keep it. I made my own little alterations to it so it would fit her a little bit better. It turned out so cute! We decided that she was a ballerina fairy... awesome right? :) 

Every Halloween, for as long as I can remember, my Aunt Susie makes soup and pumpkin style bread bowls. Then a bunch of the family gathers together to eat before the kids go trick-or-treaing. Tyler and I headed over there as soon as we got off work. The food was delicious as usual. We always have a good time, and it's definitely a tradition I look forward to every year.

Tori with her Aunt Taylor (my little sister.)

Tori with my cousin Megan. She and her sisters were cute little witches!

After the night was through we changed Tori into her Halloween pajamas from Grandma Cheryl (Tyler's Mom.) They looked so darling on her. And we can't forget Tori's Halloween bracelet that her Great Grandma Monsen (my grandma) made her.