February Festivities!

February has seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye. As I was looking back over our plethora of pictures of Tori, I just had to share a bunch!!!

Tori has been getting so much better at sitting up by herself - what a big girl!!!

But every once in a while she forgets how to stay up! One day we decided to put on Tori's Baby Einstein movie to see what she would do. This was the result:

It is so funny to watch her and see how fascinated she is with her Baby Mozart!!!I love all of her fun faces!!!

Tori is discovering many new and fun things to play with!After a long day of playing, sometimes a girl just need to chill out for a bit!!! There are times when we are feeding Tori that we just don't get it quite right. So one night we let her give it a shot. She did great for her first time feeding herself!!!

We finally set up Tori's highchair last week. Tori had a great time playing with her toys in it. I guess the next step will be feeding her in it!!!

This little girl's smile just melts our hearts!!!

Packages are so fun!

I think that getting a package in the mail is just about one of the best things ever! This month has been so fun because we have received three fantastic packages. The first was a Valentine's day package from Grandma Allen. Tori had so much fun opening up all of her presents.

We think that Tori has a new favorite toy!!!

And our last two packages were our Christmas packages from Utah - yeah!!! Grandma Harrison (Mom) we love you so much and thank you for extending our Christmas out - we had such a great time opening up our presents today!!!

Thanks for all of our fun presents and spoiling us rotten - we love you all so much!!!

Back Bend Queen

Over the past few weeks, Tori has decided that she really likes to do back bends on her boppy - and she is getting to be quite a pro! Jared and I think that we may have a future gymnast on our hands!!! It really cracks us up that it doesn't seem to bother her to be pretty much hanging upside down. Oh how we love our crazy girl!!!

Just Jared

Over the past few weeks, I have been noticing that all of our posts are about Tori. Of course she is the most amazing and wonderful thing in our lives right now. And then I throw stuff in about me every once in a while. But I have realized that I have been neglecting news about Jared. So this post is just about Jared!!!

In January Jared started his high school student teaching at Warren Central. For the first few weeks he was observing in the classroom and getting a feel for all of the classes. Today was his first official day of teaching. He has been so busy with lesson plans and getting ready to start. This semester he will be teaching a Biology class and a Zoology class.

On top of all of his preparations for teaching, Jared has also been so busy with his homework for his two classes on campus. Jared recently took his Biology Praxis and we just found out that he passed that exam with flying colors!!! I am so proud of him!!!

After all of this, Jared still finds time to play and read with Tori. I love watching Tori when Jared gets home everyday. She grins from ear to ear as soon as she hears him come through the door. And it is so fun listening to Tori laugh when she plays with her Daddy. No one can get her to laugh the way he can!

And Tori loves it when she gets to take a nap with her Daddy!!!

Jared is not only a great Dad, but also a fantastic husband. He is so patient with me and lets me talk his ear off when he gets home everyday. Jared, you are the best husband and Daddy! Tori and I love you so very much!!!

A Great Visit

Today we had the wonderful opportunity to have a special Stake Conference. Our Stake was visited by Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. We were so excited to hear from him and be taught by him. Elder Christofferson's entire talk was amazing, but there was one part in particular that struck me more than the rest. Near the end of his talk, when bearing testimony of the Savior, Elder Christofferson said, "Him I know." This very simple statement spoke straight to my heart. I know that he really does know our Savior! After this meeting I felt so renewed and uplifted.

After the meeting, Elder Christofferson invited everyone to come up and meet him - especially the children. This scene must have been very similar to the one described in 3 Nephi when the Savior had all of the children come to Him one by one. I could have watched all day long. Jared, Tori, and I took the opportunity to meet Elder Christofferson. It was so neat talking with him for a few minutes. My favorite part was when he asked if Tori was one of our "good works?" To this we replied that she definitely was!!! Elder Christofferson was surely about his Father's business today and it made me feel that I need to do the same more often. Today has been a truly great Sunday!!!

Learning...

The past two days I have learned a few very important things. I was able to cover two clinics at Wishard hospital and must admit that I was so nervous. I was afraid that my audiology skills would be rusty - not having really even thought about audiology stuff for the past 6 months. But, I learned that I still am an audiologist and my skills are intact. After my first patient, I now know which light switch turns the lights in the booth off - I still feel bad for that kid being in the dark for a minute!!! And I also learned that I still love my Audiology/ENT family! It is amazing how blessed I am to have all of you as part of my life and part of my family - there will always be a special place in my heart for all of you!!!

This experience also reaffirmed to me that Jared is the most amazing husband. He worked it out so he could watch Tori both afternoons, even though it wasn't very convenient for him. Although, he did have a great time showing her off!!!

But the most important thing I learned is that I made the right decision to stay home with Tori. Being with her makes everything else pale in comparison. The things that I use to worry about so much at work, don't seem very important anymore. I will always love being an audiologist, but I love my new job title of Mom so much more!!!

6 Month Check-up

Tori had her 6 month check up with Dr. Duck today. She now weighs a whopping 14 lbs 5 ounces and is 24 and 3/4 inches long. Even better then that, her lungs sound great. So now we can go down to 3 breathing treatments a day for a few days, then down to 2 for a couple of days and if her cough doesn't come back, we are done! Another plus - developmentally Tori is right on track!!!

After Tori's appointment, we were able to visit the Special Care Nursery for a few minutes. It was so much fun catching up with some of Tori's nurses. They were so excited to see her and how big she is getting. It just hit home once again how blessed we were to have such wonderful nurses watching over Tori and our entire family. We love you all and can never thank you enough for all you have done and continue to do for us!!!

A Fun Weekend

Friday night Tori was doing an awesome job turning to sounds. I have to admit that this made my little audiologist heart so happy - our baby girl can localize to sounds! I even took some video (sorry it is sideways)!!!

Friday evening Jared and I were able to attend the High Priest's Valentine's dance. Tori was able to play with some of the girls in the Beehive class in the nursery for a little bit. She had so much fun with them!!! It was really nice for Jared and I to be able to enjoy the amazing dinner without worrying about Tori. We haven't been able to do that for some time. We even got a dance in!!! Tori did join in on the last part of the evening, but was soon whisked away by Brother Evans. Before we knew it, he had Tori asleep on Fat Mountain - the affectionate name he has for his stomach! I so wish I had had our camera, it was so cute! Thanks again Brother Evans!!!!

Yesterday, Jared surprised me with the most beautiful flowers and yummy chocolate! I absolutely love lilies and the roses are gorgeous! Thanks for spoiling me Jared!!!

In the afternoon, Jared, Tori, and I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a baptism for one of the families Jared gets to home teach. Missy, we are so excited for you and glad that we were able to share in your special day!!!

Last night Tori had her first real food - if you can call rice cereal real food! I'm not sure what we were expecting, something along the lines of rice cereal all over the place and Tori not eating anything. She really surprised us and did pretty good for her first time eating off a spoon!

The very first bite!!!

This year it was my turn to plan our Valentine's Day activities. My plan was to have fun and festive food throughout the day. It started out with heart-shaped pink pancakes for breakfast. I was proud of myself for having them ready before Jared had to leave for meetings at 7:30! But the best was yet to come. For our romantic dinner we had steak (which I made Jared grill since he is our resident grill master!), and cheese fondue. I'll admit that the cheese fondue was a little interesting, but not too bad, and the steaks were absolutely amazing. We even had dinner by candlelight for the first half of the meal!!! And then we finished it off with some awesome chocolate fondue for dessert. Happy Valentine's Day Jared! I love you oh so very much and am glad that we get to spend the rest of forever together!!!

As this was Tori's first Valentine's we tried to make sure that she was dressed for the occasion. We picked out a dress that was pink with hearts all over it - it was just perfect for today. She looked so adorable as I got her ready for church. And I was even more pleased that we made it to church with her still looking adorable - we have a curse when it comes to dresses getting spit up all over them on Sunday mornings. But we made it intact. As Jared was getting Tori out of her car seat he noticed that she needed her diaper changed and offered to take care of it. I went into Sacrament meeting and didn't think much about it, until Jared and Tori had been gone for about 15 minutes. I just knew that our curse had hit again. And yep, I turned around and there was Tori in her backup dress- it's a really good thing that I pack one!!! So the Valentine's dress didn't even make it into the first meeting, I had a feeling I should have taken a picture of her before we left this morning - oh well!!! But we made sure to get pictures of Tori in her super cute new Valentine's pajamas!!!

And we had to get a backside shot as well!!!

From the looks of this picture, I think Tori had a great Valentine's Day!!!This video shows just how much Tori enjoyed her very first Valentine's Day- and it's even in her own words!!!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!! We hope you all had a great day and know how much we love and appreciate all you do for us!!!

Half of a year....

Our Tori is 6 months old today! It seems like the last 6 months have just flown by, we have had our baby girl for half of a year!!! Jared and I have heard her say a few "m"s and "d"s - we'll just have to see if she says Mommy or Daddy first!!! Just this last week she has discovered her toes - it is so fun watching her play with them!!!!

This smile just melts my heart!

Oh, so big!!!

Not so Super...

For those of us whose blood runs blue, the Superbowl didn't turn out so great. Don't get me wrong, the Saints played a great game and are a really good team. We would just have liked the Colts to be the ones on top in the end. Oh well, there is always next year!

Our family got all decked out to support our team!

Thanks for having us over Willisons - we had a great time!!!

Peacefully Sleeping?

Yesterday morning I went in to get Tori and found her sideways in her crib. She has been moving backwards for some time, but that has been it so far. I have no idea how she turned - sometimes I wish I could watch her while she is sleeping!!!

I love the look on her face - almost like I am interrupting something really important!

Playing Hookie

I think that taking care of Tori has worn Jared and me out. Somewhere along the way we got sick as well. So all three of us stayed home from church today. We made the best of it and decided to have a camp out in our living room while we watched BYU TV for some spiritual messages.

I think that Tori really liked the fun setup!

And she really liked playing with her teething ring!

And for the first time, Tori helped Jared and I make dinner!

Tonight we had the wonderful opportunity to talk with my Dad and Charlene over the webcam. Tori loved getting to meet her Grandpa and Nana Harrison!!! It was especially sweet since they were the last ones on either side of the family to see her! Thanks Jer and Kim for helping us get this all set up!!!