My Big Helper

Over the past few months, Tori has turned into a great helper!  I love that when I open the dishwasher, she says "dishes" and comes over to help.  Her favorite part is either loading or putting away the silverware.

She has a great time "putting away" the spoons! 

As previously posted, Tori loves to pull all of her clothes out and spread them out on the floor.  After her rearrangement of her wardrobe this afternoon, she really wanted to read some stories.  I told her she needed to put away all of her clothes and then we could.  I didn't realize that I needed to specify that the clothes needed to be in the drawers and came back to find this:

It cracks me up that Tori loves to help wind up the cord on the vacuum - especially since she is still afraid of the vacuum.  But, I have to admit that she does a great job getting it all on there!!!

I have to admit that it (most of the time) takes me longer to get things done with my big helper in tow - but I will never turn down her help!  It's great having a side-kick!!!

Conference Weekend

This weekend we had the awesome opportunity to watch General Conference!  I love being able to hear messages from all of our church leaders - they are so in tune and so many of their messages spoke right to my heart!  Since Tori is getting a little older, we decided to try adding in some fun things to help her be more involved this time!

For starters, we pulled out our hide-a-bed to make it a special thing for the weekend!

It was so comfy that we had to try really hard to stay awake at times!

We also had a few picnics in the living room and had popcorn as a fun treat! I think that we will do these for future conferences as well- we all enjoyed them!!!

Tori's new favorite toys- her seahorse and whale, joined us for the Sunday afternoon session!

Who knew that bath toys could be so fun!!!  

We don't know how much Tori got out of conference, but I am so glad that we were able to participate as a family!  I love that we could have the words of our prophet and leaders in our home all weekend long - it was wonderful!!!   

Summing Up September

September has come and gone so quickly - but was still a fantastic month!  Here are some of our fun pictures to sum things up!!!Check out how long Tori's hair is getting!  It is making it much easier for Daddy to come up with great tub hair styles!!!

Aunt Anna picked out some super cute pj's for Tori - we love the tutus!!!

And the blue version is just as cute!

I am in love with Tori's new dress from Grandma and Grandpa Allen!  A lady at church said she looked like a walking scrapbook page :)

Tori has no fear when it comes to jumping into Daddy's arms!!!

Jared and I realized that we were major slackers since Tori is over 2 and we just gave her her first bubble bath.  She wasn't too sure about the bubbles at first - she kept trying to get them off of her feet.  But it didn't take her long to embrace the fun of bubbles in the bath!

Tori likes to get nice and cozy while watching her movies!

Here is a picture of me at 34 weeks - our little guy will be here before we know it!!!

Prince loves being in Tori's room - especially under her bed!  I love this picture - I think Tori really likes having Prince in her room too!!!

Our ferocious coon hound!

Tori has learned the joy of swinging on things - and the treadmill is the perfect setup!

I have no idea how she got herself stuck in her stroller.  And Tori was really upset that she couldn't get herself out!

Happy September - you have been a good one!!!

Our Boy's First Package

Today our Baby Boy received his very first package in the mail!  He is such a laid back kid, that he even let Tori open it for him!!!

She liked pulling out his blue items...

But really liked discovering her purple shirt!!!

Yeah for boy things - now we have some blue to put on our little guy!!!

Tori looks adorable in her outfit!

Thanks so much for spoiling our kids Grandpa and Nana- it was a very fun surprise!!!

Pike Homecoming 2011

When I was in high school, homecoming week was always so much fun - all of the dressing up, fun assemblies, the football game (that we usually lost), and, of course, the dance.  I have to say, that it is just as fun watching Jared be an active participant in all of the Pike events.  This year he went above and beyond on dressing up for the theme days!  

Monday- Mix-n-match Day.  Jared's students said he didn't really get this one right since he matched too much.  The funny thing is, most of his students didn't dress up at all!

Tuesday- Old School Day.  I personally loved this one- it brought back images of Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future.  I especially loved that Jared pegged his pants.  Comments from the students - that he mixed up the days and this was his nerd outfit.  Oh, they just needed to wait for the next day!

Wednesday - Nerd Day.  Now this is a nerd outfit!  Some of the administrators were a little concerned that Jared still owned pants that were that short on him.  When he explained that we had actually hemmed his pants up to complete his look he was told that he was cute!  He really knocked this one out of the park!!!

Thursday - Twin Day.  This year Jared's twin was the other Project Lead the Way teacher.  I think you can probably guess who was the most excited to dress up!!!

Friday - Pike Spirit Day.  I think this was my favorite day of the week - mostly because Tori and I were able to be a part of this one!  We all dressed up in our red and Pike gear and were able to join Jared for the last bit of Pike's carnival.  We had some yummy hot dogs, chips, and drinks - thanks to the fabulous PTA parents.  Then we got to stay for the Homecoming Game - sadly, Pike ended up losing the game - but it was still fun!!!

Yeah for Homecoming week- we can't wait for you to come around again next year!!! 

Our Budding Artist

Today Tori brought home her 2nd official drawing from nursery.  She is getting to be quite the little artist!  It was especially apparent how much her skills have grown when I pulled out her very first drawing (sadly, I didn't write down the actual date - but it was completed roughly 6 months ago).  If you look really hard you can see a few added colors to the page!

And then we have her masterpiece from today - yep we have a Picasso on our hands! (It cracks me up that they are the same picture, too!)

We can't wait to see what artistic talent continues to develop down the road!!!

Labor Day Festivities

Labor Day has always seemed like a pretty random holiday to me.  But, if it means that Jared gets a day off of work to spend with us, then I am all for it!  We started out our morning at our ward's annual Labor Day breakfast at Franklin Park.  It has been so blisteringly hot around here, that waking up to a chilly morning kind of threw us off.  We all wore jackets, along with shorts, thinking it would warm up in no time.  Lucky for us we had our jackets and a blanket in our car- because it did not warm up.  After our yummy pancake breakfast, Tori was off to discover the playground!  She loves slides - anytime we drive past one she says "wee-slide, wee-slide, wee-slide" for as long as she can see one.  So, she was in heaven trying out all of the fun slides!

And her hair loved the slides as well!!! 

Then she found the horsies, or "neighs" as she usually calls them.  We loved that she pet her horse first...

and then climbed on for a ride!!!

And of course we had to take some time on the swings!

Jared was also able to join in the annual football game.  It cracks me up to watch the men and boys from our ward play this game every year - I think they have about 15 plus people on each team.  It seems a bit chaotic to me, but it is a highlight every year!  So sad that I didn't get any pictures of Jared in action. 

After our ward activity, we headed home to thaw out a bit and spend some time with Prince.  We all enjoyed being able to chill for the rest of the day (I so love this picture of these 3 chillin')!!!

As a side note, recently Tori has started to change her babies' diapers.  She usually makes a sound that I really have no idea how to type - something along the lines of "ick" but with a very German sounding 'g' thrown in there some where.  Anyways, then she will run out of the room to go get a diaper (or in this case 2 diapers)...

and proceed to change their diapers! (So glad I finally got some good pictures of this process, I love it!!!)

I love watching her figure things like this out!  It really is amazing how much she is learning and growing everyday!!!

Self Discipline

I think I have posted previously about how much Tori likes to help get Prince his food- and then proceed to dump it all over the floor.  While this act is mildly annoying, it really doesn't hurt anything and Prince seems to enjoy going on scavenger hunts to find all of his food!  Well, the thrill must have worn off, because Tori has upped the anti.  Now she has decided to start dumping his water bowl all over the floor- super duper annoying.  Not only does is make a big mess (we usually end up with a ton of water under the fridge), but then Prince and Tori are right there trying to help "clean" it up afterwards.  This afternoon Tori dumped his water out right after I had filled it up.  I'm not sure exactly what I said to her - something along the lines of "no Tori" or "stop" or "don't dump the water" - and most likely in a rather harsh tone.  Then I frantically went to work trying to clean up the water mess while also attempting to keep Prince out of it.  In the middle of clean up, I heard a chair being pushed across the floor and turned around to see what Tori was up to now. 

And this is what I saw - Tori had put herself in time out!

She even looked sad and remorseful- which made me wonder how harsh my tone really had been. 

But then her little smile came back and I knew we were okay - I did give her a big hug as well!

August Adieu

August has been a really great month!  But, like so many others, it seemed to fly by and was over before we even knew it.  Here are a few of our fun pictures for you to enjoy as we say adieu to August!!!

Earlier this month, the Young Women in our ward had an activity where we learned Polynesian dancing.  Nia did a fabulous job teaching us and even had a lava lava there for Tori!!!

Just by looking at this picture - whose idea do you think it was to go outside and play in the rain?

I don't know what was going on - but Tori seemed very concerned about it!!!

On this occasion, we played with colored bubbles and then had Oreos for our Family Home Evening activity and treat.

Tori loved every part of our evening!!!

It totally cracks me up that Tori will move everything off of her bed- all of her blankets and stuffed animals- move them into a corner in her room, and then fall asleep on the floor.  Surely her bed has to be more comfortable!

I think Daddy was reminded that playing with Tori can sure tucker you out!

Luckily, several of her friends make great pillows and nap buddies!!!

Tonight we went swimming with the youth in our ward.  Tori was gearing up for it all day long by playing with her star floatie toy!!!

Yeah for our fun swimming activity - we all had a great time!

Farewell August - you were a grand month!!!