Ross Creek Cedars

Last week we went on a little adventure to Ross Creek Cedars. We got to go with Jake and Jill some friends of ours. It was so nice to get together with them. Both Carl and Jake had a stressful weekend with work and were gone alot dealing with a student. I don't know about Jill but I was getting antsy about Carl being gone so much. So it was nice when he came home early on Monday as did Jake. Which gave us all an opportunity to go to the cedars. This was Tory's and my first time at this beautiful place. Everyone else had been before. There was a bit of snow on the ground and it was pretty chilly, but it was so beautiful. The air was so clean and smelled so good. The Cedar trees were HUGE. Some were only hollowed out stumps that you could squeeze into(not me, to small of an opening SCARY). They were all so mysterious and big. It's so amazing to see living trees that size. I'm excited to go back again, maybe in the spring.

A Smile

Do you ever just have those pictures that just make you smile .... well for me this is one of them. There's really no reason behind this photo, other that we were over at my mom's and Tory was playing with this cute little hand bag that holds Kaid's old glasses in it. She figured out how it open it and so we put the old glasses on her while Ian was holding her and my mom got this picture of the two of them. I love it! She is so stinking cute.

Happy Very Late Halloween

Tory, Chance and I got all dressed up for Halloween and went to "Trunk or Treat" at our church. It was a great time Tory had so much fun riding around in her new wagon from Gigi and Papa Jimbob with Chance by her side. You can't real see Chance's costume in the picture, he went as a hot dog, he was such a good sport about it. Tory was a cute little giraffe and I was a huge white chicken. Everyone got a good giggle from my getup. I was so proud of my chicken... there's a story behind this ridiculous costume but for the sake of time I'll give you the short story.... It was a really good deal and chickens make me happy. All in all it was a very fun and memorable Halloween.

Our Baby is One

We celebrated Tory's 1st Birthday at Carvers Pumpkin Patch with friends and family. It was such a wonderful day. So many of our family members and friends made the drive, we are so thankful for them wanting to share Tory's special day. It's hard to believe that our once little baby girl is now 1 and walking. You really learn how fast time goes by when you become a parent. This past year has been so amazing, both Carl and I feel so very blessed to be Tory's parents. She has brought so much joy to our lives, and has taught us so much as well. I'm so excited for what the next year will bring. These are a few of Tory's favorite things and 1st:

First word (even though I don't like to admit it): Dada- Carl was so proud

Favorite Foods: Purple grapes, green beans and Cheerios oh and spaghetti noodles

Favorite Thing to play with: Hand bags, dog that you pull on a leash, Jackson and books

At One Tory is now walking, has a pretty good vocabulary, is not sleeping through the night(I'm sure it will happen some day, right?), loves animals, has all of her front teeth, one molar and is working on two more, she is a very happy, even tempered little girl and we are so blessed to have her as a daughter.

Tory loving her cake

and sharing a little with her Daddy.

I love this picture, in the past we have gone to the pumpkin patch for my birthday and we have always taken a picture of the group of us that go. This picture is missing our dear friend Meg, who is living in Washington D.C. and couldn't make it this year. She was in our thougts though. We did finally get Owen, Shasta and their kiddos to the pumpkin patch with us. So we definatly had to get a picture. On a little side note THANK YOU to everyone who helped us celebrate Tory's birthday. It was such a wonderful day.

Myrtle Falls

On October 20th for FHE we hiked to Myrtle Falls. This was our second attempt to go here. The first time got dark quicker that I thought it would and then this time is was raining but, Carl being the good sport that he is agreed to still go. It was such a nice little hike, most of the path was paved, with a cute little bridge going over the creek. We did have to ditch the stroller as we got closer to the falls. That last bit was kind of steep. Once you get to the top of the view point you have an amazing view of the falls, it was breath taking. I'm so excited to take little adventures like this with Tory and Carl. I love the memories.

Date Night and a 10 month Celebration

Alright so it is safe to say that I'm not so good at posting things when they happen. I have lots of good intentions though. On the 29th of August, we got the opportunity to go to dinner with some other couples. This wasn't just any dinner though, it was an Amish dinner in the middle of nowhere Montana. There is a community of Amish people in Montana that host dinners every Friday night during the summer. Some good friends of ours found this place. A couple of times Ginny and I have talked about all going there together. So finally we did it and it just happened to be on Tory's 10 month mark. The dinner was great and we even got to see a family riding in there little buggy. It was a great drive there, we drove along Lake Koocanusa. I didn't realize that it was such a huge lake. It's so beautiful and so fun to go on a little adventure. I enjoyed the time with Carl and Tory. Here are some pictures from that night.

a LITTLE bit of mud

Last Wednesday for mutual we played British Bulldog, in the mud. Usually it is mud football, but we ended up not having a football so we improvised. This is something all the youth look forward to at the end of the summer. This year I even braved the mud. I have to admit it was so much fun. This is a picture of all our young women, they sure are a great bunch of girls. I adore them.

Happy Early Birthday to me!

So we all dream of those moments, ones that you always see in movies where people get amazing surprises. Where they have absolutely no idea what was going on. Well today one of those moments happened to me. It's kind of a long story, but I'll give the short version. Carl and I have been toying with the idea of a new car. It never really went anywhere because I was being stubborn about what I would like to have. So we went to breakfast this morning and then to the farmers market in town. We were pulling on to our road and I could see that there was someone in our driveway, but I didn't know who until we got a little closer and I saw the GMC logo on the front of the car and that is was pearly white. I could have died. I couldn't believe it.... it was my dream car and it was in our driveway. So we pulled up to the house and Carl started singing Happy Birthday to me. I couldn't believe it. I was paralyzed in my seat. I was afraid that I was dreaming and any moment I was going to wake up and the car would disappear. As I open the garage door I see that my lovely pearly white mom car is still there. I'm so excited, I just can't handle it. So anyways I'm a very lucky girl, and boy did Carl surprise me. I'm not sure that I'll ever be able to beat this in surprising him.

Pool Party

Bonners Ferry sure is the place to be if you want a girl. In total there are 6 girls all about 2 1/2 months apart from each other all in our ward, Crazy. It's safe to say that Tory has great friends and cousins to grow up with. We were invited for a play date with Hailey(top left) and the Hartman Girls, Hana and Hallie. We're missing cousins Molly and Makenna on this particular day. It was so cute to see all the girls in this little swimming pool. They had so much fun splashing each other. I'm so grateful for days like this and great friend to spend time together with.

Girls weekend

So back in July, the weekend of the 25th to be exact we had the opportunity to go stay at the cabin with Chrysta. For anyone who knows me, they'll know that the cabin to me is a little bit of heaven. I have so many great memories that were made there, I just love being there. It was so wonderful to just have some girl time with Chrysta. It was also Tory's first time in the lake too. She was a little hesitant at first but, she sure warmed up to being in the water. These are a few pictures from the weekend.

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome!

Well it's official, our family finally has a blog. It's all thanks to a little addiction that was passed on by my wonderful sister-in-law, Shast. For the past couple of months I have really enjoyed reading about all the fun and exciting things everyone is doing along with pictures. I'm a horrible journal keeper, but would like to be better hopefully this will inspire me to document our memories better. I'm going to try my hardest to be persistent in updating this for friends and family. Hopefully we can keep better connected and everyone can watch Our little Tory grow.