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!

Tori's 1st Birthday Party

Tori's Ladybug Cake

Ronald McDonald Face

Gift bags for those who came to the party

Tori's Giraffe Bike from Grandma and Papa Shirley

...she's getting too good at learning to get off, but it's so she can see his face...note the next photo

"Hmmm, how do I do open this?"

"Oh, I love my hair pretties! Gimme, gimme, gimme!"

Tori and all of her loot! Thank you everyone!

The chair I started to refinish - here's the before and during shot.

The after-shot of the chair. Still a little too big for our little ladybug.

The chair was given to us from Rowena.

Video of Tori eating her cake

Easter Pics & Tori's 1st birthday

Hello again. I have so much to catch up on, but I have to give in to the masses and post photos of Tori first, then we can catch up on our trip to Egypt. I wish you could all log on to Kristen's blog because she's keeping all of the Egypt details straight and organized...but unfortunately for you, I'm not so organized yet.
We returned from Egypt the night of Easter and having prepared before we left, the Easter Bunny knew we'd be needing our baskets in the evening...here are Bryan and Tori's baskets full to over-flowing of fun stuff. Brian will be proud that the Easter bunny remembered Tori's tooth brush (although she already has one, we couldn't find it for awhile, so the E.B brought another).
Tori had 2 Easters, one with her cousins (J and Jan took great care of Tori when we were gone) and one at home. These are the pics from the party at home. Easter was always kind of a big deal at our house growing up (at least it was for me :) My Easter prezzie was a Delft nativity from Holland. (sorry, not pictured below)

"Ohh, what's in here?"

"Ahh, a toothbrush. Where can I hide this one?"
Tori also got a box of animal crackers...I think she's addicted. She'll reach for the box and knows now to put her whole hand in and grab as many as possible!

Tori on her new birthday trike. As long as she's standing (not sitting on the seat) she can reach the ground. We're not having her b-day party until next Saturday cause daddy is on a trip, but I had to do something for her special day...so I gave her one of her presents. This trike is from Grandma Francis. All of her other gifts that she has to unwrap, she'll get next week.

If you look close, you can see her curly hair! This was after a nap (After a MAJOR poop-out during our primary class) so her hair has flattened out some - after the crazy day.

"Birthday pie...for ME? Oh, yeah! Where's Papa Shirley to help me eat it?"

"I don't mind if I sample some!"

"Can I eat ALL of this?"

Hope you enjoy our little photo shoot of Tori. I can't believe she's a year old already! She has definately blessed our home and we feel grateful for this year we have had to be her parents. I just keep praying that we won't do anything to screw her up too bad :). The other suprise she had for her birthday week was finding out she gets a new brother or sister in November. We're pretty excited about the news, and although we get the raised eyes a lot, we thought we'd better get our family here fast before we're "high risk" which happens next year. YIKES.

Anyway...lots of good news and blessings everyday if we look beyond the poop-outs and sandy diarrhea (info for another post later - maybe).

So, I guess I'm losing my steam at blogging. Kinda sad that it takes me a month to do anything on it...oh well...so goes the life of a full-time working mom...but that will be changing in April. After our trip to Egypt, I will be a part-timer. I'm super excited to spend more time with Tori. I think it'll take some time to get used to since I've always worked full time or 3 part time jobs. I'm sure I can handle the transition :)

Today Tori and I did a LOT of stuff. It all started this morning when Tori woke up and wouldn't stop crying. She hasn't been feeling well so we had taken her to the doc on Monday - he said she looked good, but to keep an eye on her runny nose and cough. The doc called in an antibiotic to use if 10 days of her sickness had passed with her still being sick, but I was hesitant to use it. I even went to pick it up last night, but told the pharmacist my dillemna about giving antibiotics and asked what he suggested - his answer: hydration and a humidifier. So, Tori and I left Rite Aid last night with a humidifier and a bunch of other stuff, minus the perscription....so back to this morning...Tori was crying away and could not be consoled (sp) with breakfast, books, holding, etc. Nothing worked. So, I got her in the car seat (in her jammies) and still in my jammies, I threw on a coat and away we went to get the antibiotic. It was about 8:30-45-ish am...the problem: apprently the pharmacy does not open until 9 am. I drove around until about 9 (Tori fell asleep) and drove home with the goods. When I opened the info sheet, it said I was supposed to give her a 1/2 teaspoon...sounds easy enough - none of the droppers we have (currently acting as lids for other meds) had 1/2 teaspoon...hmm...again seems easy - I'm a Pastry Chef for peet's sake, I have a few 1/2 teaspoons hanging around. Measuring spoons - not a good idea...once a little sprout has tasted the nasties, there is no way to finagel them to finish off the remaining 3/4s they didn't gulp down the way you had imagined. Needless to say, another errand today was to find a dropper - hopefully this will work better tomorrow. I should also mention that the humidifier is still going tonight :)

Ok, so another project for today, besides sweeping out the garage and driveway, yelling at Trigger the dog, folding laundry and holding Tori was putting together the bench we received for Christmas from mom and papa Shirley. It seems sturdy enough for Tori, but I also sat in it to be sure it was good for BIG bums too. Notice Tori's cute purple jacket: this was a baby gift from my friend Emily (a fellow intern in Fargo). Even though the weather has been BEAUTIFUL, Tori still has something, so I continue to bundle her up, despite very loud protests!