1st month and 1st Snow

Well...not much to say. Brooke is getting longer...not really bigger. Last time we checked (Friday) she was 6 1/2 pounds and 20 1/2 inches long. She is 3 ounces fatter and 1 1/2 inches longer! Which means she is tall and skinny. Anyway...we had our first snow yesterday. Tori donned her little snow suit and her boots from her grandparents (on the Dinger side) and played out in the snow with Daddy...well...she could barely move and wasn't exactly sure about the snow. She was still freezing! Enjoy the pictures.

Ummm...why am I in this snow suit and why is there white stuff on our porch?

Wow! I am totally adorable in this get up! It's freezing out here!

The cutest picture of Tori and Daddy coming in from the snow!

Brooke at 1 month! (Sorry no open eyes today...she is growing and needs her beauty rest!)

If you want to see something really freaky go back to May 2008 in our archive and you will see how much Tori and Brooke look alike. It is kind of ridiculous. Tori just has more hair!

Thanksgiving and Christmas with the Dingers

I am typing this blog with one hand. Tori is down for a nap and Brooke just ate! The Dingers (Gwen, Dennis & Marie) came up for Thanksgiving right after my mom left. I was solo for only like 7 hours. :) anyway, it was fun to have them here and to help out with our Thanksgiving feast.

Here is a tender picture of Brooke in the other little outfit that my mother bought her and with the blanket that she made!

Thanksgiving. Jason doing the honors of slicing the turkey. It is the first time that we used our electric knife. Then there is Tori with her little Thanksgiving feast. She mainly just played with all of the food and had a roll and some milk.

Chilling after the big feast. I didn't stuff myself, that was for the earlier years! Tori is pretending to be stuffed here!

Well...I know this is a little weird, but we had Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We knew that we wouldn't be able to be together and that Jason and I can't really travel with the munchkins during the winter so we celebrated Christmas! Tori is sporting a pink tutu that her Auntie Marie made her while opening her presents. She got some blocks and some "pretties" (or necklaces and bracelets). She loved to open the gifts, but got tired of the whole thing pretty quickly.

Tori in her new killer shades.

Ahh...Jason with Brookie.

The whole fam.

Tori enjoying her new blocks!

She is so excited!

Last but not least some pictures of Brooke today. A whole 3 weeks old!

Is that a smile? So stinking cute!

I know...where have I been?!

Well...our computer got a virus or something and we were without Internet for a week or something and we had to back everything up and whole reboot our computer . This blog has a lot of pictures. Sorry...I don't have enough time for more than one blog. I am hoping that Brooke won't wake up while I am doing this! :)

Here is little Brooke. She is 4 days old here. I think that this is her first day home. And that is Brooke in her carrier...on her way to the doctors.

Here she is in her first tanning bed. She didn't like it all that much until Jason thought to put her blanket in there. 8 hours of cooking and she was as good as new!

Tori enjoying a little time with me and Brooke. She is still not so happy that I can't lift her up all the time...I must admit that I do cheat sometimes and lift her. All of these pictures of Tori in her argyle are for my sister. This was one of Liv's dresses and it is adorable!

Tori and her antics. She will only eat with an Elmo bib and here she is climbing like a monkey!

Tori likes to observe Brooke. I still don't think she has any clue of what she is. Tori loves to play in warm laundry.

This is the best shot I had of the whole outfit Lora! Sorry it is kind of blurry. Tori with Jason...relaxing on a Sunday.

Tori has a boyfriend. Although he is married, I don't think she cares. Adam and Tiff came up for a visit too! It was great to see them. We miss them so much! I wish that they would visit every weekend! Tori also has learned to climb on kitchen chairs and then on to the table! I am in trouble!!!!

A Brooke photo shoot! Isn't she so cute! I love her cuddly preemie clothes! (Thanks Mom!)

Brooke with her eyes open...so far they are dark blue with light blue surrounding the iris. So pretty! I hope she gets to keep them! My mom bought Brooke this outfit! It is a little big, but I has to get her dressed! Adorable! I miss my mom already! She went home yesterday. I am flying solo today...oh oh...I hear the milk beast now! I must feed Brooke!

More of what you want...pics!!!

Okay, so it's late at night and we are really tired. So I'm going to keep this short and sweet (Brooke can handle the "sweet" part actually). She was 6 lbs., 4 oz. and 19 inches long. Today was her last day at the hospital and she came home this afternoon to a mommy-deprived and befuddled sister. :) The only pic I (Jason) got of the two of them was the one at the bottom because I was using the camcorder instead. But don't worry...the grandparents littered their eyes with flashbulbs!!! Hopefully it doesn't affect Brooke's vision...or mine for that matter. Enjoy!

A Little Taste of Brooke!!!

Well, Kendra is sequestered in the hospital...it seems like she is off limits almost because of the Swine Flu...so I (Jason) will be creating my second post ever. Luckily, Brooke has made it easy for me by being born and ensuring that nobody cares how stupid my blog posts are as long as they get pics of her! :) So here you go....

Enjoying our new little baby girl...Awesome!!!

Content Brooke

Not-so-content Brooke

Very Content Brooke!
(after a nice shampoo)

That's what ya get for now. But don't worry, I'm sure there will be many more pics on their way soon!

How Tuesday became Sunday!

Well...it looks like Brooke will be coming a few days early. We will be going to the hospital on Sunday and having the little munchkin around 8 in the morning. Yippee! Let's just get her out of there! I had a Non Stress Test yesterday and today. She looks really good and has good heart sounds, movement and fluid, but the doctor is concerned about her fetal movement at night (it isn't quite up to his standards and makes me lie awake at night praying that she will move and that I don't have to go to the hospital). So he moved the c-section to Sunday!
As for Tori...we just took her to her 18 month Dr's appointment (her new Dr is going to be great! and didn't even question me about having an alternative vaccination schedule!). She weighs 22 pounds (3%) and is 31 inches long (50%). She has always been skinny, but average height, so she is doing great. She is healthy and got her flu vaccine. The doctor thinks that she might have some eczema (we have noticed dry red spots on her skin) and she recommended some lotions, but other than that she is doing great and is cutting her final molar!
Of course I won't leave you without pictures!
Tori over the past 18 months:

First of all notice that she started out with dark hair, grey eyes and pretty dark skin. (in the hospital...3 days old)

Still has grey eyes, but her skin is lighter and her hair is blonde! (4 months)

I think that her eyes turned Hazel here...she is 8 months.

She is 14 months here...with blonde hair and hazel eyes.

Here she is all 18 months of her! What a cutie!

Halloween!

We took Tori to her first Trunk or Treat that our ward threw yesterday. She looked so cute in her little Forest Fairy outfit (Livy's last costume) and had a ton of fun getting candy. She would even take a piece of candy out of the bowl and put it inside her Elmo! She got really excited when she got a roll of Smarties and looked at me and said "Um" which means some and so of course I had to give her some.

I dressed up as a pregnant native american. :) That is about as good as you get. Our little forest fairy enjoying the leaves and if you look closely you will see that her cheeks are stuffed with smarties and she has one in her little fingers!

With Smartie in hand, trick-or-treating. Tori enjoying the sugar high!

Ahhh!

Tori with Dad...licking her fingers for a little bit more Smartie dust! And with me.

Monday for Family Home Evening we carved pumpkins. Jason made a traditional one, I made a cat and Jason made a Mickey for Tori. I thought they turned out pretty cool!

This is my stomach compared to Tori's pumpkin! :) Ha ha ha! I went to the doctor's yesterday and told him that I am starting to go crazy (I am constantly making sure that the baby is moving and when the poor girl is asleep I will make her move for me). I told him that I would really like to have a Non Stress Test and see what the umbilical cord was doing. Of course I was crying and he reassured me that everything was ok and that he would take the baby earlier if it would make me feel better (I assured him that my craziness wasn't that debilitating and that I could wait a week and a half). But I am having Non Stress Tests now. She is a girl for sure and I know that she has hair. She looks so huge in the ultrasound now! I got to see all of her parts and her cute face. Her cord is just fine. After the test tori and I waited for about and hour so that I would get a Swine Flu Vaccine.

Ok... I know this picture has nothing to do with Halloween, but Tori loved bubbles so much that I bought her some bubble bath. She thought it was cool for 5 seconds (hence the cute picture), but then she threw a fit and wanted out of the bubbles! It was hilarious!

2 weeks and counting!

Climbing on the center table...what a little monkey!

I can't wait until there is single digits until Brooke is here. I have to tell you that I had a strange dream that I went in to have the C-section and we had a boy instead of a girl and I threw a hissy fit! I told them that they said I was having a girl and that I wanted a girl or a refund! Ha ha ha! I have to tell you that I am really tired of being pregnant!
Well...life hasn't been all that exciting lately. I thought that I was having contractions last Wednesday, but no such luck. I think that she was just dropping, but I had contractions for about 2 hours, not enough to get me to the hospital, but enough to get my hospital bag all ready. Tori was a month and a day early, so I didn't have a bag packed or the room ready. So this time we are a little bit more on top of things.
Tori just keeps on getting bigger. She turned the magic 18 months on Saturday and she went to Nursery the first time on Sunday. There are a lot of kids in her class and she was a little bewildered when we went in the classroom (there was a lot of crying), but she found herself a nice lizard and a green ball to play with and she was happy. I left when she was preoccupied. I didn't go in to check on her (that would have just caused a tantrum) but I jumped a little every time the door opened in Sunday School and Relief Society wondering if they were coming to get me. Jason said he peeked in (what a weakling! ha ha ha) and he said that she was having fun. Our nursery is split so all of the 2-3 year olds are in a different room. I think that makes it easier.
Here are a few pictures of Miss Tori...enjoy!

One day I brought the camera into the my bedroom. Immediately Tori came over and gave me "the hand" no pictures here mom! and then crawled under the bed. :)

Here is an ok picture of me and Tori...I put the camera on timer and caught this picture.

I have told you about Tori's monkey habits that slowly get more dangerous everyday. She loves to climb on things and she has figured out that if she moves her little chair to the center table she can climb up and dance. These are pictures of her trying to get off.

Dancing and singing to her favorite CD "Sesame Street's Greatest Hits". Enjoying a snack of cheddar chickadees. (like the fountain on her head. It was a pony tail until she took a nap!)

These were taken today. Notice the drool on her shirt. That is another new trick...she drinks out of her sippy and lets the last sip of milk dribble down her shirt!