Summer of Fun

To appease my brother, who seems to think that my children have entirely forgotten his existence since he has been in Texas all summer and that he will soon forget theirs if I don't post some pictures soon, I have posted just shy of a kajillion pictures, serving as evidence of our summer activities.

So here's what we've been up to lately:

Eating popcorn in our skivvies.

Keeping up on our summer reading.

Reuniting with the West Side Class of 2000. I can't believe it has been ten years! We had so much fun catching up with everyone at the reunion. There were actually two or three other classmates in attendance that aren't pictured here. Out of a class of 45, I didn't think the turnout was too bad. Besides, all of the cool people were there :)

Enjoying the Famous Preston Night Rodeo with Grandpa.

Enjoying the famous Preston Night Rodeo Parade.

Enjoying the Famous Preston Night Rodeo Parade in the rain.

Dressing up in our Sunday Best.


Running through sprinklers.

Drying off after running through the sprinklers.



Previewing the Pioneer Day Parade floats at the South Towne Expo Center. (Very cool and completely free)


More summer reading.

Participating in the Primary 4th of July Parade.



Keeping cool in the summer heat.

Loving the water.


Mowing the lawn - you're never too young to start.



More summer reading - and check out the hair. So cute, but extremely time consuming and frustrating. Haven't attempted it since.



Watching Uncle Matt and cousins, Lucas and Noah, in Peter Pan. LOVED it!

Racing in the Mountair Mile: A multi-sport children's race.


Running in the run/walk portion of the race.

Rolling in the bike/trike/scoot/wagon portion of the race.

Visiting the dinosaur museum.

Strolling around the neighborhood.

Giving dad a lift.

Watching Toy Story 3.

Celebrating Father's Day with Opa.

Testing the capacity of all household boxes, baskets, and containers.

Working up the courage to try the water slide at Mom's company's summer party.

Continuing the previously mentioned capacity test of all household boxes, baskets, and containers.


Trying to figure out what exactly Aunt Andrea does with her doll-head from beauty school.

Playing with our buddies at Wheeler Farm.

Sad Story

You know when you're headed home from a good day's work and you call your husband to see how things are going and he tells you he's taking your 15 month old daughter to Insta-Care because she cut her finger, but "she's fine" and "No, she's not covered in blood" . . . so you race to meet him at the doctor's office and the doctor has to put four shots in her finger to numb it and then takes x-rays and pokes all around inside and finds that a tendon as been damaged and sends you to Primary Children's ER to have it looked at and you spend 5 hours in the ER getting two more sets of x-rays and watching your daughter get her finger numbed up two more times and sedated twice while countless doctors, nurses, and specialists pull her finger apart trying to decide if the tendon damage is enough to require surgery and they eventually decide to just stitch it up and have you follow-up with a hand surgeon in a week so you get the same result you would have gotten nearly six hours and two-thousand dollars ago at Insta-Care, but don't worry, they go ahead and wrap her hand and arm up to her elbow so it looks like she either broke her arm or was hit by shrapnel, but it's okay because you feel like you got your time and money's worth except when people ask what in the world happened and you say, "Oh, she had to get stitches in her finger" and they look at you with pity and say, "For heaven's sake, how many?" and, although you don't want to disappoint them, all you can say is "Four."

I hate when that happens.

FYI: Tori somehow cut her right ring finger in the gears of an old exercise bike. She is doing just fine and was so tired from being at the hospital until nearly 1:00 am that she is taking a three hour nap! I love it when that happens :)

Crazy Girl

Tori is 15 months old and is one crazy girl. She's such a cute, petite little thing, but what she lacks in size she makes up for in attitude. Her personality is coming out in full force and she definitely knows how to voice her opinion.

Here is a the latest info on our Tori-Girl:

Height: 29.9 inches (50%)

Weight: 19 lb 15 oz (10-25%)

Language: Can say, "Momma, Dadda, Uh-0h, and Ruff-Ruff" and actually knows what they mean. She also responds to almost every question with a grunt and a head shake.

Nicknames: Tori-Baby, Baby Girl, Baby Sister, Sister Girl, Tor-Tor, Torrence, McGilicuddy (don't ask)

Favorite Toy: toilet plunger (DISGUSTING!! Which is why our bathroom door is to remain closed at all times)

Favorite Blanket: pink-flowered fleece

Favorite Animal: fascinated by dogs and likes to imitate them

Favorite Book: anything with actual paper pages that she can bend and crumple

Favorite Pastime: sucking her thumb

Favorite New Skill: giving crusty looks to strangers and loved ones alike

Favorite Food: almost anything she can feed herself, the messier the better

Favorite Game: "wrestling with Tate" or "see if you can catch my sippy cup as I chuck it off my high chair"

Favorite Annoying Habit: removing her shoes and hairbows

We sure love this fun, sweet, opinionated, stubborn, beautiful little girl!

We love the zoo!

School's out for the summer! (Phil's last day was Thursday) And daycare's out forever! (The kids' last day was Wednesday) We decided to celebrate by heading to the zoo. The weather was perfect, the day was perfect. I don't think we've ever had more fun at the zoo.

Cowgirl

Keith and Robyn got their horses out for the kids to ride on Memorial Day. Tori LOVED them. Just look at her reaching out for them and then her face lighting up when she finally gets a turn to ride.

Tate, meanwhile, was begging me to let him go back to the yard and play. He was content just watching the horses from a distance, although he finally did warm up and have a ride himself.

Life Lately . . .

Oh yes, we've been keeping busy around here. Life is good and we've been having fun. Here's a little bit of what we've been up to:

Eating lasagna and ENJOYING every bit of it.

Visiting the penguins at the Aquarium. (There were actual live penguins there, we just didn't get any pictures of those.)

Finding out that there are penguins just your size.

Cuddling with blankies and sucking our thumbs.

Visiting Idaho and getting rides on the motorcycle with Uncle Tyson.

Learning to walk! And getting pretty good at it, too. (I know. A still-shot just doesn't do it justice. It's much more exciting in action.)


Building and playing on our new swing set.

Loving the slide.

Celebrating Mother's Day with Oma.

Pretending to be a little mother ourselves. (Tori hasn't met a baby-doll yet that she didn't love)

Figuring out that we are so blessed to have everything that we do, and being reminded to enjoy every minute.

For those of you that don't know, Tori was diagnosed with an ASD (Atrial Septal Defect) in April. Translation: She has a moderate sized hole in her heart that will need to be repaired at some point. She is still happy and healthy, so the doctors want to wait for her to get bigger before she has surgery. Right now we're looking at either open-heart surgery, or a catheter procedure in which a device will be placed in her heart to patch the hole by going up through a blood vessel in her leg. We are hoping that the latter is a possibility, but we will just have to wait and see. We are so thankful for such awesome doctors, nurses, and medical advances. And for this amazing little girl.