Lights on Temple Square and Funny Girl

Here we all are! On our way home (with a car so packed we cannot believe we got everything in!!!) we went to see the lights on Temple Square! Holy cow there were a lot of people there! I even saw Stephanie Tanavausa and her whole family! Small world! Well, here are some pics of the lights!

Ahhhh...the Dinger Family of three! Tori is all bundled up!

Tori and Mama!

Tori and Daddy

Look at those eyes! It's a funny picture because Tori is looking at the light that shines when the flash is on! Ha ha ha!

The temple was beautiful!

we remembered to get one of the two of us...but it is a bit blurry and dark...oh well!

QUEEN VICTORIA...playing with one of Grandma's hats!

Tori in Grandpa's hat!

Merry Christmas!

What is Christmas without pictures of the Dinger family? Ha ha ha! Well, here is the spread! Enjoy!

Our gingerbread house village. Tender huh?

Grandpa with Tori...rocking to sleep on his new easy chair.

Tori and the cupie doll hair.

Tori and her I love Santa shirt....daddy and Tori

Her Christmas outfit.

Wide awake for presents...the Christmas tree

Look at the haul...she was spoiled! She got a few toys, some clothes and the taggie blanket.

An Awakening

A few days ago Tori woke up giggling from a nap....this is what I found! Cami and Tori...what a cute team!

Happy 4th Anniversary Babe!

(This is a picture of us on my 26th birthday...just after, or right before we got engaged. Wow...we sure look young...and a lot skinnier!)

A Little About The Man That I Love (A fun little something I got off a friend's blog...Thanks Katie!)

What is your husband's name? Jason
How long have you been married? 4 years!!!!

How long did you date? 3 months

(This is one of our engagement pictures)

How old is he? 26

Who eats more sweets? Uh...I think we are even on that!
Who said "I love you" first? Jason!

Who is taller? Jason

Who is a better singer? I think that is a toss up...we both are amazing! Ha!!!

(This is the engagement picture that we sent out with our invitations!)

Who is smarter? Uh...well...GPA wise...I think he is...well, I haven't really checked lately. Baby wise, me. Street wise...hmm...that may be a toss up or leaning towards me. Advice wise...Jason for sure!

Who does the laundry? Me.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me

Does he snore? Yes, but I can get him to stop pretty easily if I beat him (he is really hard to wake up sometimes, or I just push him to his side).
What does he do in his spare time? Read (I made him a reader...this I am very proud of), plays board games with me and friends, hangs out with friends, watches movies...

(This is one of my favorite wedding pictures!)

Who mows the lawn? Our landscapers! Ha ha! The joys of owning a condo!

What is his favorite candy? Reese's Peanut butter Cups and Reese's Sticks
Who cooks dinner? Me
Who drives? He does.
Who says they are wrong? I usually say it first, but most of the time he fesses up!

What is his favorite meal? Hands down...Spaghetti!

(This is on our Honeymoon at Disneyland!)

Who kissed who first? He kissed me first ;)
Who asked who out first? Well, we technically didn't really date...we were friends and then we went directly to hanging out 24/7 (this was before the whole talk on not hanging out but dating from a BYU Fireside). Don't get me wrong...we did a lot of stuff together, but he never actually asked! We just did.

(This is one of the last pictures of us together that I have on my computer! Sad huh? That was a year and a half ago! Looks like we need to focus on pictures of us and not Tori...but she is sooooo cute! I guess we can do 1 of us to every 100 of her! Ha!)

Who wears the pants? When all is said and done-he does. I do pay all the bills though and manage the money...
Does he say he loves you every day? Yes! Of course!!! He makes me laugh everyday too...that is the deal!

Our Story

Well...we met in April or somewhere around then...at a ward prayer. I wanted to talk to Jason because he served his mission in Spain (I studied in Spain and I am kind of obsessed with it!). I really didn't find him attractive, but he was nice. Well, we had some friends in common, so we hung out some. We were playing a game called Scum one night and I thought he was really funny...so I think that is when the crush started. Well, we hung out a lot more and I started to like him a lot (he, by the way, thought I was overbearing, too old and probably a little crazy!) We had a lot of fun as friends. Well...I made it a goal to not wait a century to tell someone that I liked them because of past mistakes in relationships (if you can even call them that), so I told him that I liked him, and he basically said that he was just not attracted to me in "that way". Well...after a few days and still being friends with him, we eventually got over the whole "not being attracted" stage and decided to go for it. We kissed and it was all history. Ha ha ha! The kissing was in June...I think that we got engaged in August sometime...I will have to consult the journal...and we were married in December. The reason why I married Jason was because he complimented me so well...where I was a little boisterous, outgoing and wild (which I believe has been tamed a bit by marriage and mothering) he is down to earth, a good listener, steady and lovable! I can't believe that he would listen to all of my jabber back then...but he made me laugh and we had so much fun together, so we went for it! Good thing! He is AMAZING! I couldn't ask for anyone better! Love you Jason!

Wow..sorry...I will post more I promise!

Jason has been on the computer non stop working on papers and I have been busy finishing Christmas presents! I am almost done...just a few final touches!

We also decorated the house for Christmas and made Christmas goodies for all of our neighbors and friends! Wow we were busy! So that is my excuse for not posting!

Well, here are some pictures from the last little bit!

Two weeks ago I let Tori play with her cereal after she ate it! I took a whole bunch of funny pictures, but I liked this one the most. I figured she could get dirty since she was going to have a bath afterwards. I got a cute bath video too, but I am still not sure how to add the video without it taking so long!

These two pictures were taken on the 5th. We went to our ward's Christmas party. She wore the outfit that Grandma Frann got for her for Christmas...like me (or vice versa) my mom is a bargain shopper and she got the whole outfit (jeans, shirt and jacket) for $15. I did have to take it back to Macy's to get a bigger size before she wore it though (and had to pay the taxes) because Tori was too long (the shirt was a belly shirt and the jeans looked like she was in a flood). Needless to say in some clothes she has reached 6-9 months!

We had the Dunns over last Monday to decorate the tree and make chocolate covered pretzels! Yummy! We covered other things too like Carmel corn and kix. White chocolate covered Kix are delicious. I also made some peppermint bark from candy canes and white chocolate.

A week later Tori wore the cute outfit again...I couldn't resist! Isn't she adorable?! I think these pictures are funny because you can't see her long blond hair with the window behind her. She looks bald! Ha ha ha!

I made this wreath last year and finally finished putting on the snowflakes so that I could put it on the door (thanks to a bargain $3 magnetic wreath holder from Wal-mart!) I made this stocking for Tori with buttons and notions from Wal-mart. I already had the stocking so I just added some flare!

Tori playing with her new favorite toy...Noah's Ark, also given to her by Grandma Frann for Christmas!

One of Tori's new favorite pastimes is to listen to the singing snowmen that we have. She loves them and will sit and watch them for as long as I can stand the music! Cami loves to get in on the fun too!

Tori's tag blanket..shh...it's her Christmas present!

So I really wanted to buy Tori one of these tag blankets, but they were so expensive! So I thought to myself...I am going to make one. After some searching I found a pattern on line, except after I followed this lady's direction the tags ended up on the inside of the blanket. So after about 30 minutes of seam ripping and re-sewing...TADAH! Here is Tori's tag blanket. It cost me $3.91...really less than that because I bought 1/2 yards of each of the fabrics and only used 12 x 12 pieces of each. :) I used 7- 5" pieces of ribbon. You gotta love Walmart for the cheapness! I am very happy with the results! The directions are on this website http://fun.families.com/blog/make-a-baby-cuddle-blanket

but remember that you need to sandwich the ribbon between the two flannel pieces, or you will be seam ripping too! Ha ha ha! Stay tuned for more of my craftiness...I would post more, but they are all Christmas gifts.

Thanksgiving in Oregon (Make sure you see both of the new posts!)

Well...we went to Oregon for Thanksgiving! Wow...what a full house. We were there with my whole family (Mom, Dad, Seth, me, Jason, Tori, Lora, Jake, Oscar & Liv). It was kinda crazy, but I love it! I missed my little niece and nephew so bad! I was glad to see that they are getting bigger and still love me (even though they idolize Jason...I will let him have them if I get an occasional hug and kiss). Oscar ans Liv loved Baby Toe-ie and Tori loves them. Tori was fabulous and just let the kids play with her all day.

Besties: Tori and Liv

Uncle Jakie and Tori

Auntie Lora & Tori
Day One: We took the munchkins to build a bear. Tori slept through the process, but I made her a bunny. Liv made a bunny too and named it Poe. Oscar made a dinosaur and named him Steve. The guys all went to dinner and bowling with my dad. They had fun...Jake won! Lora, my mom, all the kids and I hung out at the house and played. The kids danced jigs around Tori mostly. Jake made two kinds of lasagna the day previous to our arrival...let's just say that I pigged out! YUM!


Tori in the purple twinner outfit

Its hard to get everyone to look at the camera...this is the best shot!

Liv playing with Uncle Jason


Dinner with the Gabels. Nikki and Tori.

Nikki, Norma, Mady and Susan with Tori
Day Two: We saw Bolt (the new Disney movie) with the kids. It was cute and so much fun to watch it with Oscar and Liv (Tori slept through most of it!). Jason almost peed his pants...he loved the hamster. The hamster, Rhino, was really hilarious...he made the movie!!!
All the girls went to dinner with the Gabels (Norma, Susan, Nikki and Madyson). That was fun!


Grandpa feeding Tori
Day Three: Thanksgiving! We decided to go to the zoo because it was free...boy was it crowded! It was fun though to see Liv get excited about the animals. Tori was bundled up sooo tight, and fell asleep just before it stated to down pour (gotta love Oregon!). That night we had our Thanksgiving feast made by chef Jake. Yummy! I made the green bean casserole!

Jann and Tori
Day Four: Shopping of course! Lora, Mom and I braved the stores at about 7:30 after a McDonald's breakfast. We got some good deals on kids clothes and a few presents for Christmas. That night we had dinner with Jann (aka Jannie bear...my favorite babysitter...well person really...when I was little) She brought over bears for all of the kids. How tender.

The best Christmas shot of the three munchkins. Liv, Tori and Oscar. (Lora has the better pictures of the three of them!)


Tori and all of the presents!

Ahhhhhh!

Unwrapped!

Merry Christmas!
Day Five: Christmas take one! We have a tradition that if we are only together for Thanksgiving, then we celebrate Christmas too before we leave. The kids had lots of fun opening presents. Tori was in love with all of the paper and bows. She of course got a haul. Clothes, shoes, a toy Noah's ark, a glow worm, some books and a wobbly penguin. That night after the kiddos were in bed Jake, Lora, Jason and I went on a date! It was our second double date. We went to Chipotle and ate some yummy fresh Mexican food! mmmmm!
Day Six: This was the sad day because we all left. It was sad to see the Olesens leave and sad to leave my mom and dad. We made it home safe and are ready for December!