Stats

A very healthy little girl!
She is 16 pounds 3 ounces
and 25 1/4 inches!

Firsts...

Total:14
Well...sorry about last week (but that means lots of pictures this week!). I let the week slip by. I was really out in my front yard digging out the horrible flowers (grape hyacinths aka the devil's flower) for 12 hours! Yeah, it was ridiculous! I also planted some pansies in the back flower garden in front of our beautiful irises.
I also worked hard on the girls' room. Jason made their little toy shelf and then I redecorated (mainly adding in Tori's new toddler bed). So last Wednesday Tori started sleeping in her toddler bed, and miracle of miracles, she doesn't even try to get out! She loves it! She also is eating in her "big girl" booster at the table with Jason and I because Brooke has now taken over the high chair!
Oh, and she asked to get out of the bath tub the other day and use the toilet (we got her an Elmo toilet seat) and when she was done (I am not exactly sure if she went) she cheered herself on! Ha ha ha! We haven't started training her yet and probably won't until the middle of June when we are here long enough to be all over it!
Saturday we went out and bought a freezer for our garage. We saved for it for about 5 months (every time we went to get groceries we would take $20 out in cash and put in the envelope labeled freezer...we did that instead of buying food storage for 5 months) and we got a great deal at RC Willey's! It will soon be in our home! Yeah!
We also went out for Mother's Day lunch at Red Robin. For 20 (!) Weight Watcher points I had 3 Clucks and 4 fries (plus I had Ranch...I know...but I was living it up!). Then later we went to Walmart to buy more pansies for the front and I got a hydrangea bush! I love them so I was way excited! (So more planting for me sometime this week. I will definitely get a picture when I am finished! On the way home from Walmart we bought TCBY for dinner! Ha ha ha! I know! But it is a holiday and TCBY really is good for you! :)
While we were eating our frozen yogurt, Brookie got to taste her first rice cereal! She loved the spoon more than the food, but she swallowed it and was a very dainty eater. It didn't get all over!
Sunday I got cards from the gang and $ for a trip to Old Navy. I really need new clothes! I also got some time to make Tori her Zoo book which I have been trying to do for about a month (it was meant to be a birthday present!). I finished it yesterday, she loves it!
This week is all about getting prepared to go to Oregon to visit with the whole fam damily! YES! I can't wait to see them all! Ok... now for the pics! Have fun viewing our shenanigans!

Rice cereal rocks!

She is getting so big! She was all over the spoon!

Where is the mess little girl? I think she was way more ready for food than Tori was!

Speaking of the Too...Here she is eating her first meal at the table in her "big girl" booster! Classic spaghetti picture...she looks way tired and needs her bangs cut!

Better pictures in the booster. This was Saturdays dinner. Notice the smile. Who wouldn't smile when your dinner is only a TCBY cone?! (notice the cone?!) Hers was free for mother's day!

Jason with Brookie

Our irises! They are out and beautiful. I think that we have 5 different ones, but these 3 are the only ones out right now.

Pretty! I am not really that big of a fan of the yellow ones, but oh well...not digging those things up!

Tori after a bath in my shower cap!

Her last nap in her crib! Bye-bye. Now Brookie sleeps in there! YES! She sleeps in the bassinet for a few naps during the day, but she is out of our room!

This is where Brooke ended up while I was putting together their room.

The many faces of sleepy Tori.

Trying to get a picture of us. Tori is actually saying cheese! Ha ha ha! (My hair is not done! and I am in my pjs...don't make fun!)

A Birthday!

Lost: 1. Total: 11!
Well....I cannot believe that I have a 2 year old. Tori really had no idea what her birthday was...but she did know that she was supposed to blow out the candles! Ha ha ha!

The night before Jason and I made her this cute banner (Jason cut out some of the wrapping paper flowers) and I wrapped all of her presents from us: 2 puzzles, blocks (to build towers so we don't have to wait to go to the library to play with theirs), an Abby boat that floats in the bath tub, & a Hippo bubble blower.
Well, we celebrated her birthday with a little party with all her little girlfriends. We invited 3 other families and their little munchkins for the occasion. There were 7 girls total! and one of our friends just found out that she is having another girl! Not one boy in the mix yet! Let's see if I can name all of her little friends: Hannah (her bestie), Courtney, Caroline, Megan and Sarah (Sarah will probably end up being Brookie's bestie because they were born only 3 days apart!).


I made cupcakes for the occasion and when Tori saw them she immediately climbed up on her highchair and demanded to have one.

To her chagrin, I made her wait until the party and after dinner! She was excited for dinner though because she had Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets and applesauce. That was a winner for all of the kiddos! We adults had pizza...mmm... and very sinful!

She also got a hold of the tape and taped her mouth shut! Ha ha ha!

Next on the list was opening presents. She got the above mentioned gifts from us and she also got a baby bottle that fills up and then empties magically, a snow white figurine, smarties, Swedish fish, a bucket with a shovel and some more puzzles. My friends are so smart, they let their kids all pick out something at the $1 store and then each kid gets to bring something! Ingenious! My mom and Dad bought her everything for her party including goodie bags that included: a beach ball, bubbles, sidewalk chalk and M&Ms from the $1 section at Target (some of Tori's favorite things) the pizza, balloons, 4 pairs of summer PJs, Wiggles Go Bananas on CD, and a little table that we have yet to pick out (IKEA here we come!).


Puzzles!

Bubbles!

You can tell what her favorite gift is: the Smarties! (Pure sugar! She never gets this stuff for the fact that she was up until almost 10PM on a sugar high!) She looks like a chipmunk! Ha ha!


After presents we had the yummy cupcakes. There are 2 varieties because I ran out of frosting! I love the picture of her trying to blow out the candle. She had a FABULOUS birthday! Happy 2nd buggie!

Tori's 2nd Birthday Top Ten:
1. Airplanes: She pretends to be an airplane all of the time and whenever she hears one she sticks her arms out and makes her plane noise.
2. The Wiggles: I think that we watch Wiggles Go Bananas at least once a day!
3. Animals: She loves to watch a slide show I made of all of the animals that we have in pictures. she is crazy about monkeys, tigers, koalas, squirrels, chickens and leopards.
4. Socks: She likes to pick out her socks everyday. She loves to wear Elmo socks the most and then Abby , but on occasion she will pick out just plain white or pink.
5. Sesame Street: obsessed. I think that she wants to live on sesame street!
6. Food: namely applesauce, chicken, soup, yogurt and eggs.
7. Cooking: Now that she has her own pretend kitchen she pretends to cook often and she loves to help me make Mac and Cheese and eggs.
8. Reading: Her favorite books right now are Panda Bear Panda Bear, That's Not My Airplane, Organic Animals, Go Dog! Go!, and anything Sesame Street.
9. Singing with the motions! I love it...her favorites are: Itsy Bitsy Spider, Popcorn Popping, The Wise Man and the Foolish Man, Row Row Row, and The Wheels on the Bus.
10. Going to the park or Zoo

On another note...I have found a new addiction. The Hunger Games Series! I read and LOVED the 1st book and I can't wait to finish the 2nd and then buy the 3rd!!!
We can't leave a blog without a little picture of Brookie!

Fun in the sun!

It was in the 70's here! What a beautiful weekend! I wanted to be outside all week. So here is the total for this week...4 pounds! And the grand total = 10 pounds! I think last week was just a fluke. Anyway, Grandma and Grandpa Dinger were here this weekend to pre-celebrate Tori's birthday! She will be 2! Wow, how time flies. They will be boarding a cruise to Hawaii and will miss her actual birthday (we are so glad they are sacrificing to help the economy by cruising to Hawaii!). Tori now has a pretend kitchen and bubble mower. She loves both. We also are slowly putting the girls' room together. Tori's toddler bed and their dresser are now put together.
I have worked hard on my Power Point Presentation for a Relief Society Meeting tonight on "Scripture Study and Marking". It has been polished to a sheen and I give it tonight so wish me luck!
We did so many things with the Dinger's! There was shopping, the zoo, the park and playing out in the backyard! The possibilities were endless because the sun was shining bright! We bought a whole bunch of strawberries from Costco! YUMMY! I made this fabulous dip (cheesecake pudding mix, 1 small tub of cool whip and 1 vanilla yogurt cup) and had it with strawberries! It tastes like a sin, but it really isn't that bad for you!
Jason and I went on a date last night to our dollar theater (our first time, and we will return...they have $4 tickets that include 2 things from concessions!). We saw Percy Jackson... The movie didn't stand anything to the book! Oh well.
Tori went to the doctors today and has a clean bill of health. She is a big 23 pounds (10%) and 31 3/4" (20%). she has always been small, so she has a clean bill of health. She did not like the doctor today though! It was funny! She was totally scared, but got a kick out of me reading "Hop on Pop". If it is true that she will be double her height at age two as an adult she will be just like me... 5'3". Short!
Here is a slide show...there were just too many pictures for posting!

Blogging? Who has time for that?!

I know...it has been a long time and I didn't even post last week! YIKES! Well, Just so you know, the total weight loss is 6 pounds. You are thinking...shouldn't it be 8?! Well, I guess I didn't loose weight last week (maybe because I ate so much dang Easter candy! But hey...I didn't gain any weight. I did have some self control! ha ha ha!).We didn't celebrate Easter due to the fact that both munchkins had colds (the snots and hacking!) and the weather wasn't all that great. Tori did get Easter candy and an Easter basket filled with empty eggs (we didn't put her candy in the eggs...although she had plenty of it!). I have a feeling that there will be continued Easter celebration this weekend (Grandma and Grandpa Dinger are coming for a pre 2nd Birthday Celebration) and Auntie Marie is sending a Happy Spring Box.
That week was just a blur because I was up a lot with Brooke who was hacking up a storm. There was a lot of laundry done that week (croupy baby = lots of throw up). But both girls just seem to have the residual little cough every once in a while, but naps and sleep are back to normal. At first I thought that Tori's cold was just tooth pain (she finally got her last canine in), but she gave it to Brooke. Miraculously Jason and I were both immune to this cold! But I did have a spin with a doctor last week with an infection (I will not go into details but one infection spurred on another infection caused by a dose of antibiotics...it looks to be a cycle).
I have also been working really hard on a Relief Society Meeting presentation (that is to be 45 minutes long!) on Scripture Study and Marking. I have been studying and working on a PowerPoint for about 2 weeks now. It looks good so far, but of course I have way too much information so I am hoping that a little inspiration will help me whittle down all the amazing material that I have found. The best thing about doing this presentation is that whenever I seem to work on it (or my calling in YW) the girls have amazing naps or sweet little Brook is just content to swing or play on the floor without too much attention! I know that this is a tender mercy of the Lord for sure!
We also have been working really hard on our flower beds in the backyard and front yard. Saturday I learned how to prune rosebushes from about 5 different "how to" videos online! It is really amazing all of the information that we have at our fingertips! I finished taking out all of the cursed forget-me-nots in the backyard beds, but we still have the rose beds and flowerbeds in the front to tackle! We are also thinking about gardening! I think it will be a lot of work, but a lot of fun! I will keep you posted on what we decide to do.
Well, all the rest can be explained in the pictures! Enjoy!

Playing outside! It is the best in the Spring because it is not too hot! Tori loves our Curly Willow in the backyard.

So cute!

Even with a cold Brooke really liked to chill on a blanket outside. (Check out the cherries on her bummy!)

resting

So much drool!

Go cougars!

This is another time in the cherry outfit (Monday to be exact) and she is wearing shoes for the first time!

Something is wrong with this picture!

Painting, take 2!

I call this "The Butterfly"...

and this is "Superheroes"...

and this is "Sunflowers".

Last, Brooke rolling around. She frequently gets stuck on legs of chairs, tables, and other pieces of furniture. She just turned 5 months! Her first nap on the love sac (while I am blogging!)