Christmas Songs

Christmas songs are a hit in our house this month! Tori sings all day long.

Her favorite so far?

Jingle Bells

The lyrics?

"Tinker Bells, Tinker Bells, jingle all the way..."

Holidays

Halloween
Tori is really enjoying all the holidays this year. Mom and Dad are having so much fun rediscovering the holidays (and everything, for that matter) through Tori. This year, Dad and Tori carved a pumpkin for Halloween, and Tori made her own Halloween cards for her friends and cousins.



Tori is a Tinkerbell fanatic. So, when she got a great hand-me-down Tinkerbell costume from her friend Stella, there was no other discussion about what Tori would be for Halloween. (Or what she would wear on Tuesday, Saturday, for bed, when she woke up... yes, I have had to hide the costume.)


Here is Tinkerbell with Spiderman (Colton) in Boise on Halloween. We celebrated my Grandpa Treasure's 80th birthday on the same night.




Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving at our home this year with Dad and Mary. We had a great day together. This is the turkey Tori made for Thanksgiving.


And here's Mom's big turkey together with the bird he made for Thanksgiving dinner. Tim is a great cook!



Advent and St. Nickolaus

With two cultures in our family, we get to celebrate double the traditions! Here is the Adventskalendar I put together for Tim and Tori. It is the same calendar that Tim's Omi has put together for him since he was little.


St. Nickolaus even remembered us here on the West Coast. We left our shoes out on the night of December 5th just in case. And sure enough, we all had treats by the next morning! Tori took inventory of everyone's loot.




Randomness

I pulled out my crochet hook today to make a hat. Tori was fascinated with it, and kept pulling on the yarn and wanting to hold the needle. So, I found some yarn and a needle she could use herself and put her to work. She had so much fun crocheting like Mommy.


Tori loves to help Daddy. Here, she is helping him measure the wall to hang a new mirror.


Tori's hair has grown slowly, but we can regularly get a ponytail into it now. She (most often) likes to have her hair done. And she loves mirrors.


This is Tori's friend, Stella. These girls love to laugh and play together, and would do so all day if they could!

Funny Girl

After watching a video of her friend Maisey, Tori asked me to make a video of her so Maisey can see it. Here is the result:

Swimming in October

Here's a video of our new favorite pastime. Part of the fun for Tim and me is that it's October. Neither of us are used to doing things like this in October! Except for a couple of cold days, we've enjoyed lovely weather this month.




We also went to San Francisco one Saturday to enjoy an air show. The weather wasn't good enough for too many planes, but we still enjoyed seeing some stunts, and we loved seeing the Blue Angels. We had a fun time sitting on Chrissy Field in the Presidio (right next to the Golden Gate Bridge), eating lunch, watching people, and enjoying some time together as a family.

Life with Tori

Tori's photo session

Tori is so fascinated with cameras that it's usually a trial to keep her away from ours. Well, one night we finally gave in. We showed her how to take a picture, and if she kept her fingers off the front, we ended up with a good view of Tori's world. Enjoy!

California Girl

After we left Idaho, we drove to Utah, loaded up our things from storage, and headed to our new home in California. We took 2 days to travel. Tori did a good job considering the really long days being confined in a car seat. This is our truck and trailer hauling our car. We were stylin'.


Since we've been here, we have found many fun things to do. Here are some pictures of our activities from the last couple weeks:

We took the train into San Francisco on day, and then rode the bus around SF. Tori was excited about the train and buses, even if she doesn't look too enthused here, sitting on a bus.

One of Tori's new favorite activities is visiting the "ocean water" and playing on the beach. If we let her, I think she'd live there. This was Tori's first trip to the beach. Here, Tori has little patience with mom taking a picture. She just wants to play in the water!

Tori and Daddy digging a pit.

Tori having fun in the pit. She thought this was great.

Our little beach baby.

Tori decided one day that it was time to get her nails painted. Mommy has never even tried this before with Tori, since Tori has no patience for sitting still, and her toes are extremely ticklish. But, she was a model child. She sat so still, and loves her "pink toes."

Tori's pink toes and orange fingers.

We had lots of fun last week when Nana and Papa brought Nick, Jessica and Colton to visit us. We played all day and had a great time together.
This is Papa, Colton and Tori playing in Tori's tent.

Uncle Nick and Aunt Jessica playing with Colton and Tori.

Nana reading a book in German, and Papa playing with Tori's clown walking stick.
Tori's room is the funnest room in the house!

Tori loves to go to the park to slide and swing and run around.
This picture is from our latest park trip.

We arrived in California on Tori's birthday. Just a few days before that, she started telling Mommy when she had to "poopoo on toilet". Since I've not started toilet training her, I thought this was too cool. So, we bought her a toilet seat as soon as we moved, and I haven't changed a poopy diaper in weeks! We will finish the toilet training process soon (I hope).

And so, we find ourselves in California, and Tori is turning into a true little California girl. She is changing to much, and I sometimes wonder what happened to my baby. She's fun to play with, and is so imaginative. She already shows what an active imagination she has when she role plays with her dolls. She has the funnniest sense of humor that could only come from her Daddy. She loves to play with her dolls, legos, barbie tent and pink car. She amazes us by counting objects (she has no problem counting to 10, but the order gets a bit imaginative after that). We are also amazed by her ability to memorize the words to songs. It usually only takes her one or two times of listening to a song before she has the melody and words down (again, she does have some imaginative variations of some of those words, but still very fun). She surprised Mommy one day by singing the ABC song from start to finish. She loves the primary songs, which only compete with the Happy Birthday song as a favorite. She runs this house, often making Mommy and Daddy wonder who is raising whom. We love you, Tori!!

Tori with "Annie".
Grandma made this doll for Mommy when Mommy's 7th birthday.
Yes, "Annie" has been around awhile.

Idaho 2009

At the end of our trip to Germany, we flew back to Salt Lake City and then headed up to Idaho Falls to stay with Grandpa, Grandma and Jessie. We got back just in time for Jessie's graduation!!!

(I still think of Jessie as being 7 years old - I don't know what to think of a school system that allows 7-year-old's to graduate high school!)

Congratulations, Jessie. We're so proud of you!

The next day, we all packed up for a camping trip to the City of Rocks with Papa, Nana, Nick, Jessica, Colton, David, Julia, Stella, and Jessie. We had a great time.

Tori and Colton got good use out of their new camp chairs.

Aunt Julia and Stella, who has a smile for everyone!

Tim, the fire master

Mom and Tori trying to wake up after a cozy night in the tent.

The whole family hiking.
The scenery was beautiful. The City of Rocks is very unique,
and I'd recommend it to anyone who's never been there.

Aunt Jessie and Tori being silly on the ride home.

The next weeks were filled with lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa. Tori loved to play with the neighbor's dogs and look at their horses. She loves the kitty, although the kitty is scared of Tori. And one major highlight of Tori's stay in Idaho was...

... helping Grandma mow the lawn!

Tori was also fascinated with the piano. She would flip pages in the Primary song book and "play" the song on the page. She liked it when Mommy would plunk out melodies from the songbook, and then Tori would sing. Ever since her piano days in Idaho this summer, Tori has been obsessed with pianos. When she hears piano music on the radio, she happily announces to everyone: "pano!".

Tori and her "pano".

Tori celebrated her 2nd birthday while we were in Idaho. She got an airplane from Grandpa and Grandma, and a baby stroller from Mommy and Daddy. Mommy made her cakes, and although they didn't turn out like I had imagined, I still think they looked cute.





And, just like in Germany, our time with family came too swiftly to a close. But, we're so grateful for the times we can share. So, in the words of Tori...

"Love you, Gramma, Grampa, Jessie!"

The next part of our summer adventure? Moving to California! Stay tuned...