Easter

Holidays just keep getting more and more fun with Tori. Here are a few pictures of Tori looking cute in her Easter dress.

The day before Easter our church had an Easter party for the little kids. They had a bunch of balloons for the kids to play with. You can't see it very well in the picture, but Tori has a balloon stuck to her back. All that pretty, fine hair was perfect for balloons to stick to and it was pretty fun watching her try and get it off.

They also had hidden a bunch of eggs filled with candy around the church for the kids to find. Tori had a ton of fun doing this, especially when she figured out that they had candy in them. I've never seen her eat jelly beans so fast.

Tori really loved decorating eggs this year, too. Below she is showing off a few of her creations and the stickers she is putting on them.

Below are pictures of Tori helping me mix the dye for the eggs and her putting an egg in some dye at a friend's house (yes she got to dye eggs twice this year).

Some friends invited us to have Easter dinner with them, so we got to eat good food and all the kids got to find more candy and dye more eggs. In the picture below from left to right: Tori, Kenney, Anna, Luke and Andrew. Sorry, I couldn't get a single one of them to look at me (all the candy was just much too fun).

The National Zoo

During our trip to VA we visited the National Zoo in D.C. The above picture is of Tori, Aunt Danielle, Olivia and Audrey sitting together at the zoo. All the girls had a ton of fun. Tori had a blast seeing all of the animals. On the drive to the zoo I told Tori where we were going and asked her what animal she wanted to see and she said "a cow". I was expecting a little more exciting answer especially since we can drive down the road at home in Iowa and see all the cows we want. I didn't think the zoo would have any cows, but it actually had two, and Tori was very happy to see them.

Mom and Tori standing in front of the lion.

Tori sitting in front of the sea lion.

Tori and Audrey looking at the sting-rays. Tori and Audrey were very cute together and at one point just started running around in circles and singing.

Uncle Dan, Olivia and Tori looking at the fish.

Grandma and Tori watching the panda eat his lunch.

Trip to Virginia

In the middle of March we all took a trip to Virginia to see Grandma Margie and Grandpa Eric, Ryan, Amber and Audrey. It worked out really well since Danielle, Dan and Olivia came to visit from Utah at the same time. It's the first time in several years that everyone in the family was together, so of course we took a picture (above).

Tori had a blast playing with her cousin Audrey and with all the really neat toys at Grandma's house.

Tori also loved trying to teach her cute little cousin Olivia had to say "whoosee ga ga".

Above is Aunt Danielle holding Olivia. Tori and Olivia also enjoyed riding next to each other in the car a lot.

Grandma bought the girls adorable Tinkerbell outfits. If I play any kind of music in the house Tori has to be wearing her Tinkerbell or Cinderella outfit and then she dances non-stop.

Below is a picture of Tori right before church. I never leave her hair completely down because it is so long that it gets into everything. She just looks so old in this picture with her hair down, I can't believe how fast time is going.

Lots of Snow

This winter we had more snow than we ever want to have again in Iowa. It was very beautiful at times, just exhausting to shovel! Winter also lasted very long this year. Tori was probably the one person not complaining about all the snow. She loved to play in it while mom and dad shoveled the driveway. Though, it did get too cold for even her to play in it for awhile there. These are just a few of the pictures of Tori in the snow.

Above is Tori on top of the mountain of snow on the side of our driveway (there wasn't too much snow yet in this picture, but in the next couple weeks that mountain was taller than me).

Tori's two favorite things to do in the snow are to get pulled around the yard on the sled and to make snow angels.

Below is a video of Tori doing a snow angel (more fun than just seeing a picture).

Wisconsin Dells

John had a week of vacation in January, which happened to co-inside with some of our friends' vacations, so we all drove about 4 hours north to Wisconsin Dells (it's an area with a ton of water and amusement parks) and spent 3 days and 2 nights there. Our hotel actually had a large in-door water park which was a ton of fun. All of our rooms were joined by a kitchen and sitting area so it was a great place for the kids to play and when all the kids went to bed, the adults were able to play games together.

Tori's favorite thing was a small area that looked like a little playground with small slides for kids and the water was slightly warmer. In the picture above she is sitting in that area with Megan, Kennedy and Luke. Below are a few more fun pictures of Tori on the vacation. There were also fun larger tube rides that John, Tori and I were able to all go on together. Tori had a blast and was getting pretty daring by the end of the trip.

Below are all the kids on the trip (except for Kennedy who was sleeping). From left to right: Anna, Andrew, Luke, Anne, Tori and Megan.

Below are all the adults on the trip, from left to right: Jessica, Kristi, Alisha, Heather, Richard, Scott, Jon and John.

Grandma Margie's visit

Grandma Margie came to visit us for New Years and we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it was so cold and snowy that there wasn't a lot for us to do, but we had a blast just playing around. (I do think that Grandma played enough Candy Land and Caribou to last her a lifetime.)

Here are a few pictures of Grandma with "Princess Tori"

and some cute pictures that Grandma took while she was here.

Tori loved the little stuffed dog the DeHaemers sent for her

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Christmas morning

I'm very late in adding blog entries lately, but I'm going to try and catch up without leaving much out.

These are some of the pictures that we took on Christmas morning. She got lots of wonderful things from Grandparents, Great-Grandparents and Santa. Tori's Grandma Katie got her a Cinderella dress up outfit that she loved and looked so cute in that we had to take lots of pictures.

Very often when there is music playing she insists on wearing her princess dress so she can dance. She also wears the shoes all the time. She calls them either her"glass slippers" or her "high-heals".

When she was little, I didn't think she was very much into all the "girly" things; well, she definitely is now! She's loves being "fancy", wearing fun shoes, dancing, and talking about how she is a princess and daddy is a king. However, we still haven't given up hope that she'll be our little athlete. She loved the Dora tennis racket that Dad got her for Christmas.

Mom also made her a warmer blanket to sleep with since this winter has been so horribly cold.

Tori also still absolutely loves books and she got some really fun ones for Christmas, too.