Angels we have heard on high

Tori's absolutely favorite Christmas song is "Angels We Have Heard On High". Sort of an interesting choice for a two-year old, but I think we sang it in church once and she really liked the "gloria's" and from then on she was always asking me to sing it to her. This video is from Christmas morning when we asked her to sing it for us.

Our little Angel

John just got a few days off for Christmas so we decided to stay and celebrate Christmas in Iowa. Many of our friends also stayed around, so we all got together for a Christmas Eve party and had the kids dress up for a live nativity. When I asked Tori what she wanted to be for the nativity, she said, "Baby Jesus". After explaining to her that she was a little too big to be baby Jesus, Tori's then decided she wanted to be an angel. The following are several of the pictures taken of Tori as an angel and the whole group as the nativity.

The ingenius idea for the halo made out of a coat hanger taped to Tori's back was all John's. We thought it was pretty cool, but Tori wasn't quite sure what she thought about it.

Anne & Andrew were Mary and Joseph. Tori, Hannah, & Rowan were Angels. Megan & Anna were wise men. Claire was a sheep and Ronnie was a shephard.

Decorations and Church Christmas party

Here is a picture of our Christmas tree with lights and train. Apparently we were a little late in picking our tree and the choices were very slim, but we were very pleasantly surprised with how much we liked this tree. (Tori loved it and it withstood all the love she gave it.)

Here is Tori playing with her new Elmo ornament she received this year while we put the lights on the tree.

We had an unseasonably cold December this year, with a pretty impressive ice storm and a bunch of snow. It was nice having a white Christmas and the lights looked pretty cool covered in ice.

The following pictures are of Tori in her Christmas dress and us all dressed up to go to our church Christmas party. (The middle picture is of Tori with hot curlers in her hair. At first she thought they were neat, but that only latest a minute and she didn't keep them in long enough for them to actually curl her hair.)

Santa made an appearance at the party. Some kids didn't know quite what to think about him. I was holding Tori's hand on the stage and trying to lead her to Santa so she wouldn't be afraid, when she tore her hand away and said, "I do it all by myself, mama." She was, however, a little hesitant on Santa's lap until he gave her the lollipop.

Audrey's visit

Right before Thanksgiving Tori's cousin Audrey came to visit (with Ryan and Amber, of course). Tori and Audrey are basically the same age, give or take a few weeks. It was very cute that from the moment they saw each other they were then inseparable. Anytime they would be away from each other for a more than a few seconds one or the other would start saying, "Where'd Tori go or Where'd Audrey go?" and when they found each other again they would both yell, "Tori!! and Audrey!!" Grandma Margie sent some monkeys with matching slippers for them to play with while they were together and below are some cute pictures of them holding up their monkeys and kissing their monkeys.

Below Tori and Audrey are riding the carousel at our mall, which they did quite a few times and both really enjoyed.

Amber was also nice enough to bring matching outfits for Tori and Audrey, which they looked adorable in and looked like they were sisters instead of cousins.

Tori and Audrey's favorite thing to do was to push each other around on Tori's car and run into walls while Audrey yelled, "Watch out!"

Baby Olivia's visit and trip to IL

Tori's cousin Olivia came to visit along with her mom, Danielle and Grandma and Grandpa back at the end of September. Tori loved her adorable little cousin.

She loves babies right now so she had a lot fun giving her plenty of toys and giving her "under-doggies" on the baby swing.

We love any excuse to ride the carousel at the mall, so we did that a few times while Grandma and Grandpa were here.

We also took everyone to the apple orchard to pick apples. Tori loved riding on Grandpa's shoulders and kept saying, "I want to touch the sky, I can't reach it." It was a bad year for apples at the orchard, but that didn't stop Grandpa and John from finding quite a few (I think it was actually more fun, because it really was a challenge to find a good apple.)

And, of course we had to get some of the delicious apple turnovers they make and Grandma was generous enough to share hers with Tori.

All of us, then drove to Illinois to show off cute little Olivia to all our cousins and Great Grandma and Grandpa. Above Tori is getting pushed on the swing by mom's cousins, Mandy and CG. She just loved playing with them and after we went home kept asking, "Where'd Mandy and CG go?"

While in Illinois, we visited a farm that had goats you could feed, a fun maze, an obstacle course and pony rides. Tori loved it all and was very upset when it was time to go. Below she is having her very first real pony ride. I was impressed that she wasn't scared at all, but loved it.

More cute outfitts

Here are just some pictures of Tori in cute outfits. Grandmas and friends have been very nice and have given Tori such adorable clothes. I want to make sure I get pictures of all of them, because she is growing so fast.

Lately, she's gotten a little more picky about what she wears, namely because she has started really being able to dress herself and she thinks that's the coolest thing ever.

Halloween

Halloween this year was a ton of fun because it is the first year that Tori really understood what was going on. She loved wearing her "Trick or Treat" shirt as much as she could during October. And she was very excited to be a chicken this year.

Here she is holding the dancing and music playing chicken that Great Grandma gave her when she found out what she was going to be for Halloween.

This is Tori and friends at a Halloween party at the hospital for resident families. From left to right: Anna, Tori, Kennedy, Andrew, Anne, Megan, Ethan, Claire and Luke is the lobster lying in front.

Tori also had a lot of fun carving a pumpkin for the first time. It took a little convincing to get her to put her hand in the pumpkin and grab the seeds, but once she was brave enough to do it she didn't want to stop. She also insisted that we color with crayons on our pumpkins.

Everytime she sees the pumpkins now she tells me how "Tori made a scary pumpkin and daddy made a happy pumpkin."

Field of Dreams

These are some pictures I've been meaning to post for awhile now. Back in August, one of John's roommates from college, Erik came to visit for the weekend. We had not yet been to the Field of Dreams movie site in Iowa (which is only a little over an 1hr drive away) so we decided to take him there. (It was very sunny and very hot, but we still had a fun time.)

Here are John and Tori running the bases on the field used in the movie.

Tori and mom at homeplate.

Erik knocking it out of the park. (There was a really nice man there that had brought a bat and some balls and he offered to pitch a few to Erik.)

Erik, Tori and John in the cornfield used in the movie (the corn is planted a lot further apart than corn normally is here so a person can actually walk through it).

Apple picking

One of the things that we have done several times during the end of summer/beginning of fall that Tori loves is to go apple picking. We have a U-Pick Apple Orchard about 20mins away that is really beautiful and we have loved any excuse to go there.

These first two pictures are from when we went while Grandma Katie was visiting in August(she took the pictures). We didn't stay too long that time, because it was one of the hottest days of the year.

Then we went with a ton of friends from church. Tori thought it was really cool to pick the apples right off the tree and she always had to have one in her hand to eat while she picked.

Then Grandma and Grandpa came with Danielle and baby Olivia to visit. Tori loved riding on Grandpa's shoulders and kept saying, "I want to touch the sky, I can't reach it."

The best part about apple picking was eating one of the fresh apple turnovers that were made each day at the orchard. Above Grandma Margie is generously sharing one with Tori.

Our last trip was the public library's bus trip to the orchard. Tori loves buses, especially school buses and thought it was a ton of fun to ride on a bus (she still asks me sometimes if she can ride on the bus again).

Here are Tori, Jack, Anne and Megan getting ready to go on the "hayride" through the orchard, which Tori also thought was a lot of fun.