Fun In Utah

As usual, we got home with a ton of fun pictures with our family!  Here are some of our favorites- enjoy!!!

Tori loved wearing Lincoln's shoes - luckily, he was nice and let her borrow them often!

Parker loved getting Uncle Jared with his rocket - and he had a fan club cheering him on!!! 

Thanks Grandma for giving Tori her first braid - so adorable!!!

Henry made sure to introduce himself to Uncle Jared - I had to capture this!!!

There were a ton of creative juices flowing!

Fun walks with Nana!

Tori took some time to smell the roses- and all of the other flowers available!!!

It really seems to me that some of the best moments are when everyone is just together and nothing more!!!

Daddy thought it would be fun to put Tori in here - Tori did not agree!

What a fun Daddy/Daughter moment - I love this picture!!!

I don't think Uncle Willie liked Henry's food- it's a good thing Henry did!

Everyone enjoying the pop fireworks (sorry I can't think of what they are really called)!

These kinds of moments just melt my heart!!!



The cousin shot - Parker, Henry, Tori, and Lincoln (oh, and Aunt Terrah's fun green ball)!!!

Tori and Uncle Jer are definitely pals! 

Yeah, a fun picture of me and Tori - I love it!!!

Tori had a great slumber party with Uncle Jer and Aunt Kim!!! 

We are so grateful that we were able to spend time with our family in Utah - it really was awesome!  Can't wait till we can do it again!!!

Sidewalk Chalk Extravaganza!!!

Whoever invented sidewalk chalk was a genius!  It is amazing how much fun it can produce - and we are so glad that Aunt Krista thought of this great activity!!!  All of us kids - both old and  young - were entertained for hours! 

Here are some of the masterpieces!

Parker, Lincoln, and Jared were hard at work... and Tori was dumping her water on all of it!

Somewhere along the way the artwork turned into making chalk outlines...

Tori seemed a little concerned with the whole process!

I love that Parker and Lincoln's arms don't exactly match up - which is a good sign considering the chalk outlines!!!

I think the boys had a great time making their daddy's outline - they did a great job!

Talk about making some awesome memories!!!

Dinosaur Park

Grandpa and Nana Harrison treated us to a trip the the Dinosaur Park in Ogden one day.  Even though the day was pretty warm, we still had a great time seeing all of the dinosaur exhibits.  We especially enjoyed watching how excited Parker and Lincoln got as we discovered the dinosaurs they knew- which was a pretty impressive number!!!

 Willie and Krista had the brilliant idea of taking a family photo by the entrance sign - and we totally copied them! 

We arrived at the park right around lunch time, so we found a great picnic spot by this river.  All of the kids loved watching the water - and I love that we got a great cousin shot!!!

I have no idea why we didn't take pictures of any of the real dinosaur exhibits - they were pretty awesome.  But we did get a couple really fun pictures of Tori! 

She made one great dinosaur cowgirl!!!

What do you think - could our little girl really be the "World's Most Dangerous Creature?"

Here is a picture of Tori's first real swinging all by herself - she loved it!!!

Thanks for the fun dinosaur adventure Grandpa and Nana - we had so much fun!!!

Swimming Fun

While we were at Grandma Harrison's, Tori had a fabulous time swimming with her cousins Parker, Lincoln, and Henry.  It really was a pretty sweet setup with two separate pools.  Uncle Willie, Aunt Krista, and Daddy made it even better by adding in a bunch of hot water- the pool water ended up being the perfect temperature!  These pools provided days of entertainment for all of the kids - and the adults too!!!

Here are Tori, Parker, and Lincoln in the big kid pool!

It took Tori a bit, but she finally did actually get into the water!

Aunt Anna joined in on the fun as well!

Tori also had a great time with Henry in the little kid pool - I think she liked that there wasn't as much splashing in this one!!!

I love this picture - Henry has the cutest smile, Anna is looking super-cool, and Tori looks adorable in her swimsuit and pigtails!!!

Hurrah for swimming in the backyard - not much else says "summer" quite the same way!  Thanks Grandma Harrison for the fun memories!!!

Bookends

For the past week, we were able to visit our family in Utah!  We had such a wonderful time, but now that we are home the task of blogging all of our fun is looming over my head.  The biggest question is where to start.  Anytime we visit family we come home with a gazillion pictures and so many great memories.  So, after much contemplation, I have decided to start with our bookends - the flights to and from Indy.  As documented in past posts, we have an Allen family curse when it comes to flying.  And yes, the curse is still very much present - we had to circle around Denver for about an hour waiting for a thunder storm to pass, which made our flight to Salt Lake super late, then there were only 2 outside baggage guys working so it took forever and a day to get our luggage, etc.  But we also had some glittering rays of good luck on our trip as well- we actually made it home to Indy early and none of our luggage was lost on either leg!!!  Now that Tori is getting older, it is fun watching her interact more with the world around her.  She had a fantastic time running along the walkway in the airport - who knew that could be so much fun?!!!

Jared and I were so grateful to find a relatively quiet spot in the Denver airport on the way back.  Tori slept for about 2 hours on the floor- yeah for great naps!!! 

This morning Jared made sure that Prince was home and waiting for Tori when she woke up.  (Thanks so much to our friends for watching him while we were gone!!!)  Their reunion was priceless- I am so glad we caught a little on video!

Stay tuned for the rest of our adventures in Utah!!!

Daddy's First...

Today Tori gave her Daddy his very first Father's Day tie!!!  While I am sure it won't be the last, she definitely started him off with a bang!  Check out the fabulous placement of each sticker - obviously Tori took a lot of time and thought for each one! There really is no better way to say "Happy Father's Day!"

Happy Father's Day!

Since today (the real Father's Day) was quite booked for us, we celebrated Father's Day with Jared and our Dads yesterday.  Tori and I started our preparations earlier this week by wrapping Jared's present.  Tori did an excellent job picking out the wrapping paper with "doggies" on it (aka - reindeer)!  I then let her pick out some bows - she picked all three offered and they looked great!  Too bad she had so much fun playing with them and rearranging them that they quickly lost their stickiness - I don't think Jared even got to see them on his present.  Tori also decided to start unwrapping the present right after the initial wrapping - needless to say, the present spent the rest of the week up really high!!!

Tori was so happy to be able to help Daddy finish the unwrapping job yesterday!

And then the two of them got to read her present together - she gave her Daddy a book about a perfect Father's Day!!!  (Our little guy also gave his Daddy a book that they will get to read together in October!)

The rest of our festivities included lots of yummy food throughout the day, phone calls and webcam chats with our Dads, and lots of time together as a family!  Last night, Jared let me know that he really did have his perfect Father's Day!!!
Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there - especially ours!  Thank you for all you do for us and how involved you still our in our lives!  We love you both so very much!!!  And a huge Happy Father's Day to Jared - thank you for being such an awesome Daddy!  Some of my most favorite moments come from watching you with Tori!  And I am sure those moments will just get better and better as we add our little baby boy into the mix!  Love you tons and tons!!!

Let's Hear it for the Boys!!!

Or at least our boy!!!  Yep, that's right - we are having a boy!!!  He will be joining our family on or around October 31st and we are super excited!  After our appointment, as we were driving home, Jared said he was so glad that he had Father and Son campouts to look forward to- that made me melt!  As far as our ultrasound - our little guy is growing right on track.  Which is really a huge relief for us - Tori was always measuring a little small.  All of his organs and other parts they can see look fantastic!  For me - my pregnancy is going okay.  I still get sick, but the time in between is getting longer and longer - and it is way better in that regard than pregnancy #1!  We are now 19 weeks along - crazy that we only have a few more months before this little guy will make his grand entrance!!!   

Here he is- our little man at 19 weeks!!!

And his very first picture of his feet - I love it!!!

Pool Time!!!

During our week in Texas, we got to go swimming several times!  Tori hadn't been in a pool since last summer, so she was a little hesitant and cautious at the first of our week.  It was so fun watching her gain more confidence and totally enjoy her time in the water! 

Tori had so much fun playing with Linken in the pool!  While Tori held back a little, Linken was completely the opposite - that kid has no fear!!! 

Tori loved having Daddy right there!

Plenty of splash-time was put in!

This is one of my favorite pictures from our trip - so much fun!!!

Tori made sure to share her joy in the pool with me, too!

I don't think Daddy was ready for this splash!

These two have great balance!

You can always share kisses - no matter where you are!!!

For our last swimming venture, we were able to go to the neighborhood pool with a shallow section just for little kids.  It was perfect for Tori- she was able to be so adventurous!

Check it out - walking in the 2 feet section!!!

Tori loved this "sandy beach" part!

I can't get this picture to flip the other way - but I still love it!!!

That wraps up our time in Texas - we had a blast!  Sadly, the time always slips by so quickly and we have to come back home.  But, we are already looking forward to being with our family again - we love you all so much!!!