Vacation to Texas

Tori's First plane ride! We were so worried about how we were going to keep her entertained on the flight, we packed lots of toys and snacks to keep her busy but she ended up sleeping most of the way there :)We spent the first few days with Brian's brother Scott and his wife Catherine and son Braden. The kids are finally getting old enough to play together! They're so sweet to watch, and Braden did great sharing all his toys. We has a great time on the river walk, playing mini golf, frisbee golf, and playing with the kids.

Then we spent a few days with my side of the family. We stayed with my cousin Laurie and her husband Gary and mom and Jeff stayed with cousin Stephanie and her husband Luis and son Caleb. We spent a whole day in Fredricksburg, a quaint little town with tons of shops and boutiques, went swimming, and hung out with my Aunt Carole. Cousin Steph also took us to the Alamo and to Rainforest Cafe on the River Walk.

For the last part of our trip, we all got together and rented a beach house in Rockport! That was so much fun!! We spent lots of time relaxing at the beach and fishing off the porch! What a great way to spend time with our Texas family!!! We hope to do it again soon!!

Waiting to fly home :)

Baby Geese!!

We have 12 baby geese in the pond in our neighborhood!! We've been walking to the pond every evening to feed them and they've gotten so comfortable with us that we can feed the mom and dad by hand! If you give Tori a piece of bread now she rips it up and throws it on the floor ;) I thought my baby was growing before my eyes, but these babies seriously grow every day!! We just came back from vacation and they're hardly fuzzy any more!

Backyard Shenanigans

We love spending time in the backyard, especially when the neighborhood kiddos stop by. Its non-stop action with these kids, and Tori just sits back and watches them run around. She loves to be pushed in the swing and get slide rides by our neighbors' son Will.

A change from the usual Indiana Jones, Batman is in my backyard! Sweet little Willa!

Tori loves splashing the water in the dog bowls, so I figured I'd take her outside with a pan of water and let her go crazy. This is now one her favorite things to do on nice days :)

Trip to the Magic House

Here are a few pictures from the Magic House in St Louis. They were renovating the Magic House the last few years that we were living there so we wanted to see what had changed. They added a ton but still have all the exibits I remember from when I was a kid.They have a new "giant beanstalk" for kids to climb on. Tori loved it, she's been climbing the stairs the past few weeks and she took right to climbing up the leaves of the beanstalk.Playing with blocks in the toddler area.

Uncle Jeff! Finally putting all that hair to good use.

Blowing bubbles with daddy in the bubble room.

Thay had a whole exibit where you dress up like characters from Tom Sawyer. I think Brian may have enjoyed this one more than Tori :)

Oh no! Four Tori's!!!!

They also had a rooms where kids dress up and act like they're working. There was a Schnucks, a pizzaria, a library, a bank, and even the oval office!

The Magic House was full of fun places to play in and hide, I'm sure Tori will really love it in a few years.

Nine Month Old

My beautiful baby girl is already nine months old! She is such a joy, always smiling and giggling. She "talks" constantly, her main "words" are dada and baba. She looks at the dogs and says da :) She is such a great eater, she will eat anything we give her including broccoli, asparagus and salad. Her pediatrician says she's doing great. She is 27 1/2 inches tall and 17 pounds 9 ounces. She pulls up on everything and crawls all over the house. She can even open the baby gate if its not securely locked. She still loves to be held and cuddled, she pulls up on my legs and fusses until I pick her up. She is non-stop, she won't even slow down to let us change her diaper! We're getting good at diapering her as she's crawling away! She loves being outside and is just so curious about everything around her. We just love her so much!

Can't believe it!!

We can't believe what happened tonight. We spent all day shopping and Tori did very well but was getting sick of being in a stroller or car seat most of the day so we came home and had her crawling all over the living room to burn some energy before dinner. She's been cruising the furniture for a few weeks now and she was walking up and down the ottoman. Brian and I were sitting on the couch and she just let go of the ottoman and took about 4 steps to us!!!!!!!!!! We got the video camera out immediately and caught the rest on video. We have been saying for a while now that we thought she may start walking by the time we go to Texas to visit family next month but we had no idea it would be this quick! Now that she's not afraid to let go I'm sure it won't be long until she's running around! I still can't believe that our baby girl just took her first steps!!

Adventures at the Dinner Table

Tori is learning how to feed herself. Its so much fun to watch her experiment, but it sure is a messy process! She loves to eat graham crackers and Ritz crackers because she can hold them herself and munch on them. We're also working on learning to eat from a bowl... or at least we're trying to :) Peas, small pieces of bread, and stove top are all winners as far a squishability and dinner time fun.

Miss Independent lovin her graham crackers!How do I do this? Good thing that bowl is suctioned onto the table!Squish!Wrong side of the spoon honey.... :) But very good try!!Loving every minute of it Even the dogs love dinner time, haha. As soon as Tori hits her chair the dogs are right under her.

Working on picking up bread pieces, you can see the concentration on her face.

Tori and I went out to dinner with Nana last night, we went to the Thai Kitchen and let Miss Tori try her first Thai food. She LOVED it! I fed her dinner before we went because I didn't think she would like all the spices but she slerped down noodles with the best of them and smacking the table (her way of saying "feed me") for more! I took a cute video on my phone but Im still trying to figure out how to get it onto the computer.