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.

IT'S A GIRL (again!)

Hey Ya'll. Bryan here. So Ann-Marie had an ultrasound this week and found out that we are having another girl. Everything looked good and the due date is Nov 16th. Not sure what I'll do with all these girls around here, but at least now since I learned so much with Tori this next girl won't be so tough. For example I know what does and doesn't match with pink, the difference between a long shirt and a skirt, the best way to put on tights, etc. Still working on those dang ponytails though. It looks like I'll have a lot of time to practice though...

Quick trip to Ohio

So...my lil' bro graduated from Dental School on May 17th and Tori and I flew out to suprise him...so did my sister and my youngest brother and his family. Although Brian may have been suprised that all of his siblings flew out to be there (he already knew my mom and dad were coming out) he was definately NOT suprised that I was coming. The problem is that I have a really hard time keeping a secret, especially when it's so fun, so I may have called him too many times to tell him I wasn't coming. Oops.

Tori had a fun time playing with her cousins and it was fun for me to play with the little ones. I don't often get to play with my brothers' kidlets. Tori and I fared the trip pretty well, but now Tori has an ear infection, so that isn't fun.

We also went to Niagra Falls and Kirtland, OH as field trips :)

Tori Giggles

So...I was feeding Tori some whole milk pudding, as a treat and to try and get some meat on her bones, and I was being a goof ball as usual...she was just laughing and laughing. It was so funny that I thought I would try to get it on video. She's not laughing nearly as hard as she had been, but it's still cute for the grandmas to watch! Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to turn the video clip to be upright...hope you don't get a kink in your neck!