Playin' in the Dirt

I love that Tori is finally in the "helping"phase!  She wants to do everything that her daddy and I do, and for the most part we let her experiment with most activities even if it means her "helping" will double time it takes to complete.  She loves to help me cook, especially stirring and adding seasonings.  She will whine and cry while Im making dinner until I pick her up and put her on the counter or let her stand on a chair and help.  She "helps" me put on my make-up, brush my hair, and put on my shoes in the morning. 

One of my favorite things in life is to share the things I love with my daughter and today was one of those days.  Every year I look forward all winter to getting outside and planting flowers!  I figured Tori would run around the backyard and play while I got some work done in the garden and planters.  I should have known she would want to "help" but I had no idea she would actually help!  She helped make the holes, put the flowers in, and patted the dirt down.  I think I loved it just as much as she did! :)

"Helping" daddy mow the back yard.  [I should warn you, these pictures and video were taken on my iphone so they're a little over-exposed and blurry.]

 Filling the flower pots with dirt all by herself!

 Such a big girl!

We found a worm and she was very interested to watch it wiggle around in my hand but as soon as I put it in her bare hand she screamed and dropped it.  :) 

 One of the finished baskets!

 Window boxes and hanging baskets are all ready to grow like crazy for a beautiful display this summer.

A short video of Tori helping plant flowers.

I am so glad she had so much fun because I found a great sale on flowers and bought way too many!!  I could definitely use her help planting them all!

Easter Part 2

The Easter Bunny came to Tori's house!!!  It was an Elmo and bubble themed basket this year.

 She didn't really understand when we were telling her a bunny was going to come in the middle of the night and bring her a basket of goodies but boy did her face light up when she came down stairs and saw it :)

Then Nana and Uncle Jeff came over with another basket of goodies!  The picture is of her trying pop-rocks for the first time!  Her reaction was priceless.

 Nana spoiling Miss Tori with lots of goodies to eat.

 Yummy Easter breakfast at our house.  Then we went to church, which was a beautiful service!  It was like a party celebrating Jesus' rising!!

 Next we went to Grandpa Jim and Grandma Gina's house for lunch and a real egg hunt.

 Looking for eggs!  She did a great job looking for the eggs and would get so excited and sqeek when she found one by herself.

 Holy Cow!!!!  Jackpot!!

 Another big egg!

 Tori with her monster eggs :)  The orange one is almost as big as her!!

 With her cousins Olivia and Fletcher with their loot from the egg hunt!  So much fun!

Then we finished up the night at Grammy Pam's and PaPa Eddie's house for dinner and another gift bag for Tori :)  Mommy was tired from such and crazy weekend so I slacked off and didnt get any pictures!  (Bad mommy!)  We had a great weekend spending time with family and watching Tori rip into her toys and eggs.  She gets spoiled every holiday and loves it!  She makes every day more exciting and so much more fun!  We love her so much and so enjoy being her parents!!

Easter Part 1

We had such a great Easter weekend!!  Im going to have to split this post into 2 pieces because we crammed so much into just a couple of days!  Friday night we dyed Easter eggs with Nana and Uncle Jeff.  The dyeing process was too slow and boring for miss tori so she got to paint her eggs!  She LOVED it!!

 The finished products!

 Saturday morning we went to an Easter egg hunt at Knight's.  They separated the hunts by age so miss Tori didn't get trampled.  So many eggs!!!

 Look what I got!!!

 Tori got to meet the Easter Bunny!!!  This meeting went so much better than Santa did! :)  She gave even gave him a hug!  I guess he looks a little more friendly, being that he's basically a big stuffed animal!

 Then Saturday afternoon we went to the Cardinals game with Uncle Jeff!!  There was a 70% chance of rain for the whole afternoon but we went anyway since it was Red Schoendienst Statue day.  It actually ending up being a pretty nice day until about the 8th inning.  And we were even winning when we left..... but yes we did lose that day and Tori's streak continues. 

 2 Gold Gloves awarded at the game!  Molina and Pujols :)

 Miss Tori had a great time and clapped for more than half of the game!  :)  She danced to each batter's walk up music and cheered each time we did!!



Bucking Bronco's

Sorry about all the camera shake in this video but it was just too funny not to post!  Tori loves to ride her bucking broncos (aka the doggies) and the broncos dont seem to mind much.

RESOLVE Challenge~Infertility awareness

RESOLVE is a huge support system and database for families struggling with infertility.  They have challenged bloggers world wide to support infertility awareness month by answering this question: "What is the biggest infertility myth and how has it effected your life or the life of your friends and family members?"

My husband and I have not used birth control since early 2007.  We have been blessed with one child (the subject of this blog) through the miracles of God and infertility treatments.  While we were trying for baby#1 there was no warning signs that we would have trouble, just negative pregnancy tests month after month.  Only another family with infertility can understand this struggle and the questions in the back of your mind.  The uncertainty was the most painful part of this struggle for me.  "Can I even have a baby?" "What is wrong with me?"  "What did I do to deserve this punishment?"  So when we decided to see an infertility specialist we heard a lot of advice, the most common was "Just relax and it will happen."  This is the myth I would like to explore because it was one of the most painful things you could have said to me at that time.  Stress is caused by infertility, not the cause of it.  In fact, trying not to stress would stress me out!  It is very difficult to be patient when you want to have a baby, and it seems like everyone you know either gets pregnant on the first try or by accident!  At a time in my life when it was not known if we would ever have a biological child we were actually told "You should just adopt and then you'll get pregnant!"  This is also a common infertility myth since the birthrate for women after adoption is that same as the general population.  This is one of the worst things you can say to a family just realizing they have a reproductive disease.  Adoption is a wonderful in cases where the family has decided that is the way they would like to build their family but is not something you jump right into or choose as a means to have a biological child!
 I'm not sure why so many people feel they need to give advice to a family going through the battle of infertility if they have not been through it themselves.  What worked for your family will most likely not work for us.  I have an ovulatory disorder, which means I do not normally ovulate.  Without ovulation there will be no pregnancy.  Luckily for us this is a fairly easy and straightforward disease to treat but should not be casually dismissed.  Infertility treatments are physically and emotionally painful, exhausting, embarrassing, and expensive!  The drugs have a long list of side effects which include for me insomnia, daily head aches, mood swings, bloating, weight gain, and hot flashes that happen at the worst time possible.  Infertility can put serious stress on a marriage, family, and pocket book.  What families need at this time are support, prayers, and understanding.  One in eight families will experience some degree of infertility in their lifetimes.  Either yourself or someone very close to you are likely to go through this battle.  It leaves us changed and so much more appreciative of the small blessing in life.  If you have questions about infertility or are looking for support, a great resource is RESOLVE.org.  Please be part of the RESOLVE challenge this month and break the silence of infertility. 

Here is a great video to help to understand what 7 million families are going through: Infertility Is....

Welcome Spring!!

We had a great weekend with beautiful weather!  We got tons of yard work done and even planted our first baby tree :)  I cant wait for May so I can start planting flowers!!  We went to St Louis for the day on Sunday and took some pictures at Forest park and went to the zoo.  Tori loves to see the animals and gets more excited every time we go!  This time she was so excited to see the monkeys and was making monkey sounds the whole time we were there :)

 Penguins! 

 There is a great ape sitting by the tree.... "MONKEY!"

 Saying "where did the monkey go?"

 Up close! 

Our next weekend off we have tickets for a Cardinals game and then Easter, then we have a little trip planned to Chicago, and in June we have a beach vacation!  We are so excited for the warm weather and spending lots of quality family time with our munchkin!