Christmas-time

So...we have been busy since Bry has been home from Ghana...mostly we've been busy eating, sleeping and eating some more!! Tori is eating something (I'm sure chocolate - there's a chance that it might be raisins, but I wouldn't bet on it).

We did get Christmas photos of the girls and even managed to arrive at Santa's place! Tori knows Santa says "ho,ho,ho" but she hasn't figured out how wonderful he is to bring toys and goodies to all little girls & boys!

Dad's not so sure about any of this!
Tori's food fest began the night we made the gingerbread house...since then, she pulls us into the kitchen to get her a "snack" which really means candy. She has recently learned the signs for candy, cookie, cracker, apple, etc. Let's just say that the apple sign is only used when she's doing her puzzle. I'd like to say that as a Dietitian, my daughter loves to eat healthy food - but lately, it's all about the candy and Christmas goodies. We also had fondu the other night - Bryan splurged and although you can't see Tori's face because the photo keeps disappearing, it was- Excitement! We'll have to do that again!

More Christmas photos to come!

Snow days & visit from Grandma

3rd Annual Shirley Gingerbread House

Grandma Francis came for a visit to meet Elaenia and to help me out. It was a fun and very FAST trip. It took her a little while to get out of Salt Lake County, but once she got to our house, we were snowed in :) Needless to say, she was checking the weather 24/7 - a little nervous for the trip home...

Tori doesn't have any real snow gear (yet), but we just had to go play in the snow while gramma watched Laeni. Here are the layers of Tori's "snow day play clothes"!

She's wearing my socks for mittens...but she'll be getting her own soon (mittens that is - not socks) The boots are ginormous, but we haven't been able to find any lil boots yet.

Tori wasn't feeling well :(

Elaenia's One Week Birthday!

I thought that since we had Elaenia a week ago, I'd post some more photos so you can get to know our newest family member...Her official name is Elaenia Marie Shirley. We thought about not having a middle name, but I thought she needed a family name in there (especially since Tori has a family name (Delene). Marie seemed to fit, although it made her whole name so long - Marie - kind of after me, and then I remembered that my Grandma's middle name was Marie. After we decided on Marie, Grandma Shirley and Aunt Cami mentioned that Marie would make a cute middle name - even before they knew we had selected it...it was meant to be :)

Cute one of Laney (or Laeni...not sure how we'll abbreviate her name) but not such a great shot of mom...luckily, this isn't about my 1st week :)

Dad has been through a lot...not as traumatic as last year watching the birth of Tori, but this birth still took a lot out of him :) Look how tired he is.

Getting right down to the dad stuff: playing and tickling!

My cute girls. This was right after Tori met Laney for the first time - Tori was napping when we arrived home...once she woke up, we introduced her to her lil sister and Tori has been in love ever since (I think). She comes running into our room yelling "daydee, daydee" (looking for the baby). When they first saw eachother, they were reaching for the other, almost as if to say, "Hey there, I've been waiting to see you again old buddy!"

Tori LOVES to "hold" daydee on her lap...

Eyes open...checking us all out!

Dad has been trying to make things fun for Tori, so he painted her toe nails...not bad for his first time - in fact, he did a LOT better than I have done...but maybe it's because Tori knows how to sit still now...

Bath time for lil Nakey-nakey.

Good Morning Bright Eyes!

Good Night Sweet little girl. She definately is not Tori...Tori had to be wrapped up tight like a burrito, but Laney likes to be lightly wrapped and able to wiggle.

One other little shot of Tori D. She LOVES frozen blueberries and so we thought we'd take a shot of the aftermath...if her finger is any indication of the blue/purple mess, just imagine her purple tongue (she wouldn't stick it out for this photo).

What a fast week in the Shirley house. What a blessing to have another sweet little spirit in our home! Happy Thanksgiving to you ALL.

After a couple weeks of thinking she was coming any day now Elaenia finally was born this morning. It was pretty crazy how fast it all happened. At first things were progressing pretty slow and we thought we were in for an all day ordeal, then about 3 minutes later we had nurses running all over trying to find a Dr (he was so close to being there, but not quite). She weighed 6 lbs 5 oz and looks a lot like her older sister did about a year and a half ago.

Ann-Marie is doing well and getting some well deserved rest. Now that it is over I think she is looking forward to being able to brag about having done it old school since we had no time for any drugs. I don't think I have ever heard anyone yell "OH CRUDDY!!" with such vigor...

Halloween Fun

This is a birthday cake I made (all cupcakes) for Rycam's 5th birthday. Bryan was key to the success of the design...the final product was holding a balloon.

Carving Pumpkins - Tori didn't last as long as this year as she did last year...after this little photo, she decided it was time for a bath!

Notice the bat-shaped mouth on the left pumpkin! A very creative Bryan came up with the design.

Tori dressed up ready to go trick-or-treating - definately NOT wanting to get her picture taken! We were all from Japan this year for Halloween. I LOVE Halloween...this year was a little different, but still fun - all of the anticipation of candy and trick-or-treaters...so fun!

OctoberFest 2009

The mighty Shirley's went to Pumpkinland to see the pumpkins and the cornmaze etc. Some of these pumpkins were as big as Tori D! In the picture below, she's contemplating the wonders of God's creations!

Grandma and Grandpa Shirley are on a road trip and will not be here for Halloween, but Grandma made sure she gave Tori a Halloween suprise. This is Dada reading Tori her card from Grandma and Grandpa...she LOVES her Halloween book!
The weather has been cooler these days and Tori is getting a little bigger (yeah, not a whole lot, but her legs are a little bit longer)- at least long enough to push herself on her bike all by herself. She knows the sign for "bike" and always signs it when she hears the word bike. SO stinkin' smart!

Sometimes as a parent your first instinct is to say "no" to every little thing. No, you can't write on the table, no, you can't play in the toilet, no, this, and no that. I almost fell in to the "NO" trap when Tori wanted to help me make pot pies...but I didn't want to stiffle her creative flair for cooking/baking, so I let her help. Dada pulled a chair up for her and she just kinda took over (although I'm pretty sure she really didn't know what she was doing - she just knew she had to hold the big stick and touch the flour :) I can't wait until she's old enough to help make cookies and then decorate them with me! Too bad my nephews aren't here - they would help me for sure!

Last week, Tori and I went up to Ogden to see my cousin Paul get married. Here he is with his wife and dad (my uncle Vern - yep, the same uncle that just married off his daughter - how is that for timing? All of his kids married off in the same fall - not bad!) and Telina's (my cousin) kids. The little ones totally remembered Tori from Jessie's wedding, and she had fun chasing them around and they loved chasing her.
This has been a fun October so far, but we'll have even more fun in this last week of the month as we take Tori trick-or-treating. I have been trying to teach her to say that magical phrase, but all she does is look at me like, "hugh? Why are you so weird mom!" Stay tuned for photos of Halloween!

Below is a video I took of Tori at the pumpkin farm - "jumping" on their blow-up trampoline thing. She would just stare at the other kids' legs and then make a whole hearted attempt to jump - all while we laughed at our little explorer!

Cute as a Bug Dancin' on a Rug

So here is our cute little bug. Don't you just love overalls?? This photo was taken a few days ago, the day my back gave out and my legs gave out a couple of times at work. I left work early, after being escorted out -Peggy wouldn't give me a choice :) Yesterday the Doc put me on bed rest for a couple of days with the good news of it only being muscle spasms (not my discs as I origionally thought). When I took this picture, I was feeling great - amazing how fast a body can turn on you :) It could be a LOT worse, so I'm grateful my body still works and am even MORE grateful for a self-less mother-in-law that came over the minute she found out and has been here ever since to help with Tori. There is NO way I would be able to do it without her. I LOVE you Carolyn!!

Below is a little video I took the same morning (before I got Tori dressed). I think she must have learned "ring around the rosies" in nursery because this is how she has been dancing since Sunday. Kinda funny...as soon as I turned Phantom of the Opera on, she was rearin' to dance. I didn't get the camera in time to film her running in place :)

Tori D

There aren't any pictures of Tori with this lil' post, but I wanted to write about Tori. Today was her first day alone in the nursery - to get practice at going (since she doesn't turn 18 months until next month). I was only going to take her the last hour since she gets way too much attention from our primary class, but she was wandering during sharing time, so I brought her in early - which was good for her because it was during singing time - her favorite!! She did really well and I guess she loved the cheese cracker snacks :)

During sacramant meeting, she likes to lead the music and during one song in particular today, she was going full blast with the waving arm. The family behind us was laughing so hard that Tori turned around gave a shy smile and quit conducting the music. Funny that someone so little can still get embarassed. I do have to admit that she was doing a fabulous job. She was so into it, I think she must have really felt something from the music.

Also during the sacrament portion of the meeting, I have a couple of books that Tori can look through, one being my old missionary flip chart and the other is a book my mom made to help the kidlets stay focused on Jesus. We were flipping through the book my mom made and we came to a picture of Christ on the cross. Tori has seen the picture before, but for some reason today, as soon as she saw it, she said, "uh oh." It's AMAZING how much a little one can soak in and comprehend, and then vocalize in their own words.

On another note...my good friend Peeps got married yesterday in the Logan temple, so here are a couple of photos of the fun day. All these weddings are so fun and exciting that I am exhausted - it's been GREAT catching up and seeing friends and family the last couple of weeks! My eyes couldn't even stay awake long enough last night to turn the bedroom light off...in fact I woke up about 3 times to turn it off, but before I could reach my hand out to turn the lamp off, I was asleep again! Luckily today is Sunday, a day of rest! Tomorrow will be another play day with my friend Anne. We're going to listen to records and make pastries and catch up! Fun times!

Makin' Jam & Playin' in the Cottage

My cousin Jessie was married this past Friday and so Tori and I went up for the big day, and to support my uncle Vern. Mom flew in and my great-aunt Helen and her husband also drove in for the event (other family members came as well). Helen wanted a 4-generation group picture, and this is as close as we could get since my grandma passed away several years ago.
Bryan has been finishing half of the basement, so I thought I would post a couple pics of our favorite part - "The cottage" playhouse under the stairs. As you can see, Tori is already having a ball playing inside. (This is a shot of Tori helping dada put up sheetrock inside and taking measurements.)

This is a front shot of the playhouse with sheetrock. We're planning on painting it to look like red brick, putting shutters on the outside of the windows and having a porch light on the left-hand side. There will be shingles on the top part of the roof. We might be playing inside more than Tori :) Vern helped Bryan with the electrical work, so now Bry is a pro!

My great-aunt Helen picked a plethora of peaches from Vern's house and decided that I needed them, so after making 6 batches of peach freezer jam, I thought I should make another flavor...here is Tori helping me make raspberry jam (super easy, but not quite as cheap as the peach jam with free peaches!)

Notice the big black pot??? This was one of the treasures Vern gave to me when we were up at his house. There are a lot more suprises, but I can't spill the beans, since Bry hasn't seen them yet :) The pot will be perfect for Halloween though because we can put candy inside or make homemade rootbeer in the cauldron. So many possibilities!

Look at Farmer Tori move!

So...a few weeks ago, Tori decided that she was ready to walk and forget crawling altogether! After we had tried to get her to walk, she was ready to do it on her own. As a matter of fact, it was a week after our Francis family reunion, so my mom has been looking on the blog everyday to see if we posted a video...sorry mom. Here it is, and Tori is even wearing a pair of overalls that my mom brought down. Sorry the video is sideways, but I can't figure out how to turn it after I've taken it sideways. If you listen past my commentary, you can hear Tori saying mouth and grandma, etc.

This, That & Some Other Stuff...

So much to write about, so little time. This is a snippet of what we have been up to for the last month or so. I tried to upload Bryan's Father's Day video, but there was an error...so I guess these photos will have to do. We have experienced many fun adventures since Egypt (which we still haven't written about). Below is a sampling of some of our fun! Not pictured is our new vehicle, which we love already and will have many more adventures in...other than that...this is our life since we last wrote:

Tori's 1st real swimming excursion. She rather enjoyed the event. Luckily the water was relatively warm and she had her magic floatie and her dada to make it fun!

Tori and I sharing a fruit and yogurt smoothie. I have to drink fast if I want to even have any - Tori LOVES these drinks!

A little hike to Stewart Falls - good easy hike, but my "condition" makes me short of breath, so anyone passing by might think I was about to die :)

Tori LOVES her bedroom wall that her grandma painted for her when we moved in to the house. I've caught her trying to catch the bees on the wall and trying to pick the flowers :) She's a lil' cutie pie.

At the beginning of July, we had a Harris Family Farm party in Malad, ID. The farm was celebrating 140 years of farming! We stayed most of the day and caught up with family and walked around the farm where we spent many summer days as kids. In order to be part of the celebration, I volunteered to make homemade rolls. When my great-grandma was alive, NO ONE left the farm without a hot loaf of bread, rice pudding, or something in their tummies. I thought it would be fun. The party was Friday and I was contacted Tuesday about the number of rolls needed...400! WOW...a lot of rolls, but I could make them before work and after work - double batches. Mom gave me a new recipe and it wouldn't take much time for each batch...or so I thought...until I realized that my mixer was unable to hold a double batch and I received another call the next day raising the number from 400 to 600...Needless to say, I made somewhere near 550, and luckily, we didn't run out. Bryan was a little miffed that I was making so many rolls, but afterwards said that it all turned out well. I was grateful to be a part of the celebration! Our family photo (above) is from the festivities. Tori's first pony ride.

Tori in all her diaper glory forgetting to look at Old Faithful. I'm sure it's because I called her name so I could take a photo of her lil' face.

The whole Francis gang met up at Bryan's family's cabin in Island Park (outside of W. Yellowstone) for a reunion. Things went a lot smoother than I had thought, since there were 17 of us hooligans in the same area. Most people can only handle a little Francis at a time - I hope we didn't overwhelm the Park. The reunion hats, mugs and bags were a suprise from my uncle Vern! A lot of time and energy went in to those!! Thanks Vern.

Bryan & Tori feeding the "ducks" in Idaho, a much needed break for Tori after all the traveling in Yellowstone! She screams every time we try and put her in her car seat now.