Shirley Disco Christmas

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Hello...after a month & Happy Holidays! The holidays started with a trip down to Monticello forThanksgiving. It was a fun trip to see Tori's cousins and relax for a couple of days. Bryan and the guys went duck hunting a couple of times, so I'm sure he'd say he had a great time too!

The first of the pictures is Tori's 1st Thanksgiving...she had just woken up (is that proper English??) and wasn't dealing well with so many people...cute face, even though it's a sad one.

Another thing of note...Tori has her 1st tooth. Miriam, Tori's nannie :), noticed it yesterday. I had just checked 2 days ago, but no teeth then...sneaky lil' tooth!

The next couple of photos are of the 2nd annual Shirley Christmas gingerbread house. This version is a mock log cabin-complete with outhouse, swingset, and well for water. I think this year we put more candy ON the house than in our tummies :)

If Tori survives her childhood, it will have been a miracle! The last of these 3 photos tells you exactly how she felt about being stuffed inside a slimy, yucky, goopy, hollowed-out pumpkin. It was fun for us though! What a cute lil punkin' head! The final carved pumpkins weren't nearly as cute as these, so you might never get to see the Jack-O-Lanterns...just our little Tori.

Happy Halloween!!!

This has been a sad couple of days. But these pictures will brighten any sad day, if even a little. My Grandpa Parry just passed away. He was my hero. Tori Delene was named after his wife, my Grandma (Delene) Parry. A week before Grandpa slipped through the veil, Tori and I went up to visit him and I am grateful we did. We planned on visiting him this morning, but he passed away before the sun rose. He will be sorely missed by his family.

In light of this sad, sad news...here is his legacy...little Tori Delene. She wants to wish everyone a Happy Halloween. If you can't tell...she's supposed to be a ladybug - her momma made the costume, although she may not be fond of it, especially sitting on the prickly grass.

Oh What A Beautiful Morning....

I guess I should have posted something 2 weeks ago for Bryan since he was in Brazil missing Tori like crazy, but since living the single parent life for 2 weeks is busy enough, here is a post...just days before daddy returns :). This is exactly what I see in the morning and after every nap when I go in to get Tori out of bed. You can't beat a face like that! What a beautiful girl. We are definately blessed to have such a wonderful spirit in our home. I have been trying to get a video of Tori sitting up, but every time I lift the camera up to get a shot....blop, she starts to fall over. We'll get a video soon.

Tori's 1st camping trip!

Bryan and I have wanted to go camping for awhile, but Tori has been too little still to want to take her out into the cold night to sleep...but we tried it this weekend. I had a couple of cakes to make on Friday night and decorate on Saturday, so we left Saturday afternoon. Bry wanted to go down south to Goblin Valley or Capitol Reef, but we figured that would be a LOT of driving for one night, so we decided on the local canyon.

Bryan found us a substitute for our Sunday class and so we left on our adventure. Bry called an old friend of his and he and his family came up to roast hot dogs and eat smores with us. It was a fun time to get to know their family and watch Tori stare into the fire.

When it was time for bed, we put Tori in her own little bed (it was a box with a folded up blanket in the bottom to help keep her heat in) and she seemed to sleep pretty well all night. About 5 am, she started to fuss a bit, but hadn't woken up, so I just warmed up a bottle and waited...a little while later she fussed again, but still hadn't opened her eyes. I decided that instead of waiting, I'd try and feed her while she was still asleep. It worked quite well and she didn't really wake up until close to 8 am.

On our way home, we also took a drive around to see some more beautiful leaves. It was really fun to spend some quality time with my little family. I can't believe how fast Tori is growing. We can hardly get her to drink a bottle any more...all she wants is baby food. Carrots, sweet potatoes, and peas. She'll hardly take the rice cereal any more, I guess it doesn't have the flavor she's looking for! Perhaps she's destined to be a food connoisseur or maybe a famous chef? More than likely, she's just a hungry little sprout wanting more of the "good stuff." Notice the one picture of Tori in the background and her bottles of baby food in the foreground...that night we let her pick her own food :). Enjoy some more recent pictures.

Fall is in the air!

We went on a little family picnic/drive up the canyon on Sunday to see all of the changing leaves. It wasn't quite the most beautiful time I've seen, but it was still very pretty nonetheless!