My Daddy & Me

One of the things I love the most is watching Jared and Tori together! It just amazes me how close they are and how much fun they have together. I don't know how, but Tori has figured out Jared's morning schedule. For the past month-ish, she will wake up before he has to leave and won't go back to sleep until she has seen him. It is pretty funny watching her try to wake him up (if he isn't up already). She usually starts by grunting at him. If that doesn't work, she may try a kick or two. And if that doesn't work she has started to reach out and scratch his nose or grab his lip. Try and he might to get a few more minutes of sleep, Tori won't give up!!! As soon as Jared leaves, Tori is usually back to sleep within 5 or so minutes. And then when Jared gets home, all Tori has to do is here the door open and she just grins from ear to ear!!!Here are some fun Daddy Daughter pictures from this month - hope you enjoy!!!

Tori loves helping Daddy with his work!

She really couldn't be any happier!!!

Just chillin!

And some more!

No one can get Tori to laugh the way Jared can - I love it!!!

Tori loves her morning Daddy time!

I just love that these two are pals for life!!!

The Big 3-0!!!

Yep, I turned 30 today. I'm not exactly sure how I thought I would feel turning 30, but it strangely didn't hit me as a big deal. Maybe that will come later! On Sunday, we were invited over to Regina for a "Dirty 30" party. I have to admit that I was really worried about what we would be doing at this party. To my relief we had "dirty" food - some awesome meat and Spanish rice. And then we had a "dirty" game of mud thumb wrestling (if I get pictures of this momentous event, I will definitely add them). We had tons of fun!!! Other than that, we were able to talk and catch up with some of our very best friends. Thank you all so much for sharing in celebrating my birthday with me!!!!

Tori had a great time playing with Owen - I love this picture of the two of them!!!

I felt bad that we had such an awesome dinner, and Tori had puffs - it's a good thing she likes them!!!

As usual, Jared completely spoiled me. Thank you so much for all of my fun scrapbooking things. I am so excited to put them to good use!!!

Today, Jared made me an awesome birthday dinner - I love BLTs. They were so yummy!!! Jared and Tori also made me some fabulous and very tasty cherry chip cupcakes!

But, my very favorite gift was one that Jared gave me throughout the day, and he let me in on it this evening. He made sure that he gave me 30 kisses today - and started counting with our kiss goodbye when he left this morning. I love that he kept track of our kisses all day long to make sure we got to 30. Thank you so much for making my birthday so wonderful Jared! I love you oh so very much!!!!

I turned my back...

This afternoon I was working on dishes while Tori was playing in the living room. I had given her a few puffs to eat and left the puffs container by her. After a few minutes, I looked over to check on her and saw this....

She had somehow taken the lid off of the container and was surrounded by a mound of puffs. I think she was in puffs heaven!!!!

Apparently, I need to pay more attention - this little girl is smart!!!!

Bring on the fruits!

After a whole month of eating veggies, we felt like it was time to add in fruits. The advice from everyone has been to give her veggies before fruits so she will actually eat her veggies. Because of that advice, we figured she would love her fruits right off the bat. That didn't happen at all. With the introduction of each new fruit, Tori would kind of do a little gag for her first bite. She will eat her fruits, but she loves, loves, loves her veggies. I don't know if that is common, but that is still how Tori is with her fruits.

The first fruits we tried were bananas (11th). Check out that face!!!

Pears were next (14th) - with much the same reaction!

Yeah, Tori really did not like her pears at first!!!

After that we tried some peaches (16th). Of all the fruits, this was the most accepted!

Applesauce was our next fruit (18th). Doesn't it look like we are torturing her!!!

We went exotic with mangos for her last fruit (21st). Mangos have a crazy texture - I don't think we will try those again. I am sure that Tori thanks us for that one!!!

Playing Outside!!!

Today Tori got to really play outside for the first time!!! The grass was still a little wet, so we set up shop on the side walk. Tori loves being outside- and still likes to chew on Cinderella's head!!!

I thought it would make a cute picture to have Tori holding a dandelion in her hand. I should have realized it would go straight in her mouth...

It is bad that I made sure to get a few pictures before I got all the seeds out of her mouth?

Daddy's Dress

When Jared's Mom was pregnant with him, she was given a beautiful blue crocheted dress in anticipation of a girl joining their family. Well, when Jared was born, the dress was lovingly tucked away. It was then pulled out again with each successive pregnancy. But, as the sixth boy was born, the little blue dress still had not been worn and was once again tucked away in Mom Allen's cedar chest. When Tori was born, her Grandma Allen once again pulled out the little blue dress and finally a baby girl would get to wear it!!! Thank you so much for giving this dress to Tori! I love that she will always know that this dress is as old as her Daddy, and how long her Grandma Allen waited for a baby girl to wear it!!!

Daddy's Pillow

Jared has one pillow that Tori loves!!! I think it has some kind of magic qualities. If Tori won't go to sleep, we put her on Daddy's pillow and in no time she is out for the count. It really has come in quite handy several times- what a great secret (or not so secret) weapon!!!

I love how cozy she looks, all wrapped up in her Daddy's pillow!!!

Drinking?

Today was a pretty exciting milestone for Tori - drinking out of a cup for the first time!!! At first she wasn't quite sure what to do...

Then she got really into it - literally...

And started grabbing the cup to get more!

But the funny thing is, we don't think she really even liked the blue kool-aid. What a funny girl!!!

8 Months

Today is Tori's 8 month birthday - can you believe it. It is crazy how fast time flies and how fun it is watching her learn and grow everyday. Tori is still not crawling forwards yet, but can scoot backwards like a champ. It is pretty funny watching her get farther and farther away from her toys. And then she looks at us like we did something. Here are some great pictures we took of Tori today - she is getting so grown up!!!

This was Tori's first time playing with grass - she was fascinated!!!

Look at our big girl sitting up like a champ!!!

I love the flowering trees in Indiana, they are so beautiful. So we got creative and took Tori's picture in one of them. She really was quite patient with us!

And that adorable smile that we love so much!!!

Happy Easter

Our Easter celebrations have really spanned this whole past week. Since we had General Conference this weekend (which was absolutely wonderful!!!), Tori wore her Easter dress last Sunday. Grandma Allen sent Tori the most beautiful dress which was so perfect. Here is Tori in her very first Easter dress!

Just because a girl is all dressed up doesn't mean she can't have a great time playing as well!

On Thursday, our apartment complex put on an Easter egg hunt. This was so great for our little family. Here is Tori as we were getting ready to start out. Her Uncle Douglas says she looks like a grandma looking for her lost crochet needle - and he is right. But she still looks so cute!

After the hunt started, Jared grabbed a few eggs and then we set Tori in the grass, with the eggs in front of her, to see what she would do. And of course, the eggs went right into her mouth!

Here are a few more!!! And just in case you were wondering, she left her glasses on the whole time - totally cracked us up!

Sadly, we didn't get a family photo on this occasion. But we did get ones of each of us with Tori. Here she is with her Daddy!!!

And here is Tori with me!!!

Even though Jared is not an egg fan, we still decided to color Easter eggs - yeah, more devilled eggs for me!!!

It's a good thing we stripped Tori down to just her onesie, we had a few close calls with the bowls of die!

And of course, the eggs had to go in her mouth. I don't think she likes the taste of egg shell!!!

And here is our little Miss Tori with her very first Easter basket!!!

Above all, I am so glad that we were able to have General Conference this weekend. As always, the talks were absolutely amazing and just what I needed to refill my spiritual cup. I think it helped us to focus much more on the Savior and the real reason why we celebrate Easter. I am so grateful for all that He sacrificed for me that we might live with Him again. We wish all of you a very Happy Easter!!!