October Occasions

Another month come and gone- time is flying by!  So glad we have fun pictures to remember some of our small, and not so small, moments!
I love Garrett in his duckie jammies- and that he thinks playing in the toy box is where it's at!

Garrett loved cheering Tori on during her swim lessons!

I love cuddling my kiddos- it doesn't happen often, so I'll take it when I can get it!!!

Yeah for some fun Daddy time!!!

Tori has loved adding her Toadette costume to her ever-growing stash of dress-ups!

What a stud!

Tori is becoming more of a helper all the time- love this picture!!!

Garrett has discovered a new way to get out of the ball pit.  He pushes it over on its side and then crawls out the hole in the top!

 Garrett is going to be a tool man just like his G-Gpa Jones!!!

Who needs toys?  Just give Garrett a cupboard and some bowls and he is good to go!

 What a fun place to play!

It's kind of fun when Garrett is the one splashing Tori in the tub!

Once again, we were able to join in with Jared's old lab mates for the Down syndrome Buddy Walk.  Tori loved being the sign holder for our group!

Taking a little juice break!

Here is the entire group from Dr. Roper's lab!

Ta-da!  We made it the whole way!!!

Tori has started to make requests on what she wants her hair to look like.  For instance, she will want it to look like Cinderella's hair, or Belle's hair, etc.  Well, this day she asked for Minnie Mouse hair to match her shirt!

This boy loves to sleep on top of his blankets- so cute!

A boy in a box- we'll definitely keep this package!!!

A family in  our ward was moving, so we had their twins over for a play date.  They are only a few days younger than Garrett- so we basically had triplets for the afternoon.  We had a grand time, but I'm so glad ours have come one at a time!

This boy loves blankets- our little Linus!

We love how Garrett snuggles with his blankie!

Garrett greeting his adoring fans!!!

The bandages finally came off, Tori is all healed up, and this is what her belly button looks like now!

Here is Tori singing her very first entire song!

Just hanging out!

I think Garrett is a fan of his new hat! (Oh, as a side note, the kids are in front of our new fridge.  Our old one decided to die the day before Tori's surgery- not ideal on the timing at all.  It was a bit stressful, but we found a great deal, and now have an awesome new fridge!)

Farewell, October- we enjoyed you oh so very much, roughs spots and all!!!

Our Halloween Festivities

We have had a fantastic time with Halloween festivities this year!  It all started with a fun package from Grandma and Grandpa Allen!

Yeah for fun Halloween outfits!

Garrett was more interested in the fruit snacks!!!

This year it took us a bit to come up with our outfits- we try and do a family theme every year.  Tori is the one that came up with the idea for us to be Mario Brothers characters.  We totally expected her to be Princess Peach, so when she requested Toadette, we were pleasantly surprised!  I am so proud of how this turned out- Tori's is the only costume I had to make this year!

A couple of weeks ago we attended Zoo Boo at the Indianapolis Zoo.  Here we are getting ready to go in!

Garrett loved the pumpkin bowling!

Tori was so excited to be this close to a parakeet!

This was our favorite family photo from the event!  We have Jared as Mario, Garrett as Wario, Rachel as Luigi, and Tori as Toadette!!!

I think this is my second favorite picture- we always love checking out the elephants!!!

Along with seeing the animals, Tori and Garrett both enjoyed doing a little trick-or-treating along the way!

Zoo Boo was a blast!!!

Last Friday, we went to our Ward's Trunk-or-Treat activity.  Sadly, my camera battery died shortly after we arrived.  But we did get this picture of Tori and one of her best friends Lily!

This is the only one I got of Garrett- he was not a happy Wario at the time!

We enjoyed sampling tons of yummy chili and our chili even took home the Most Manly Chili award!!! Then our kids had a grand time trunk-or-treating and getting a bunch of candy!

Which brings us to tonight.  It was a little too cold for Garrett to go out, so he got to help me man the door!

Tori and Daddy braved the cold to go out trick-or-treating!

Here we are handing out some candy.  I'm not sure why I have this look on my face.  Oh, it could have been that I was about to give candy to the kid that said, "that's it," or another one that said, "I don't like that."  Luckily, most of the kids said, "thank you!"

Tori loved trick-or-treating this year!

What a pro!

Tori and Jared followed this "duckie" around all night long.  Tori was tickled to pieces to get a picture with her!

Tori couldn't wait to check out her haul!!!

Garrett wanted to check it out, too!  He moved in quick and got a hold of some dots! (I love this picture- I'm sure we are going to have more than one squabble over candy in the next few weeks!)

Happy Halloween- we have thoroughly enjoyed celebrating all month long!!!

Cricket Hunt

When Jared got home from work tonight, Tori asked him what a cricket was.  They looked up a few things on Daddy's iPad and then they opened up the window to see if they could hear one.  Tori was so excited when she heard a cricket that they decided to take their cricket hunt outside.  Their excursion started out a bit rough when Tori realized it was cold walking on the grass.  But once we got her all settled down to listen for crickets on the back patio, things went great!

Our fearless cricket hunter!

To the untrained eye, this may look like just a bunch of grass.  But, nope- Tori and Daddy found their cricket!  Their hunt was a success!!!

Tori's Surgery

As a bit of background information- Tori was born with an umbilical hernia.  Basically, she had a hole in the lining of her stomach that let her intestines poke out a bit.  This is what it looked like when she was about 2 months old.

The crazy thing is, it has never bothered her.  And as she has gotten older and more active, it has shrunk considerably.  This is what it has looked like for the past year or so.

But, even though it has looked much better, she has still had a hole about the size of a finger tip.  For now, it really isn't a problem, but as she gets older it could end up causing some major issues.  So, while we we nervous about proceeding, we felt like it would be a good time to get her hernia all fixed up.  Her surgery was set for today!
Our morning started extremely early- we had to be at Riley Hospital for Children (where I use to work and the best children's hospital ever!) by 5:45 am.  Once there we got Tori all checked in.  Some of the first things they did were weigh her and take her blood pressure- she seemed a bit nervous!

But once they let her put on her "orange pajamas" she was all smiles!

Daddy and Garrett hung out in the hall a bit to pass the time.  I love that they are both making the same face!!!

Maggie (the Child Life Specialist) came in to visit with Tori and let her decorate her anesthesia mask with stickers.  Tori also got to put some bubble gum chap stick inside to help the funny air smell better.  Then they practiced taking good deep breaths!  Maggie was so awesome with Tori!!!

While we were waiting to meet all of her surgical/anesthesia team- Tori had a grand time playing!

This is Tori with her nurse Ray.  Holy cow-he was so amazing and wonderful with Tori!  It started when he let her play with his phone.  We chatted with Ray for a few minutes while he got to know Tori, then we kissed her goodbye, and the two of them went off down the hall like the oldest of friends!

Tori's surgery went great!  Dr. Billmire (her surgeon) was done and back up to talk with us a little over an hour after the surgery started.  Tori was ready for Daddy about 20 minutes later, and Garrett and I joined them about 15 minutes after that- all of this went much quicker than anticipated.  Here is Tori shortly after waking up with her new cup and puppy pillow!

The nurses watched Tori for a bit to make sure she was doing okay after the anesthesia.  The only issue that popped up was a little bit of leakage from her surgery site- which they assured us is pretty normal.  Tori was a little sad that she couldn't take her orange pajamas  home. But she did get to take her cup, pillow, some fun farm animal toys, and a whole stack of stickers!  After a final goodbye from Ray (seriously, he was so fantastic), we got all loaded up in our Riley red wagon, and we were good to go home!!!

I am so glad that we had Tori at Riley- her surgery really couldn't have gone any smoother!!!
When we got home, Tori was so surprised and excited to find a new princess castle for Grandma and Grandpa Allen waiting for her!!!

Here is a picture after her surgery- it looked much prettier when we left the hospital.  But I had to change her bandage and I think I went a bit overboard on the tape- that's going to be fun to get off!

We can take the bandage off in a few days- it will be interesting to see what her belly button looks like now! Our new task- to try and make Tori slow down (we'll see about that) for the next couple of weeks so she can heal!!!