And we’re off!

Tomorrow morning Torah, my mom and I are off to Texas. Crazy!! I am SO ready to be down there and start the new chapter in our life. Jacob is loving his job and is READY for Torah and me to be down there with him. The past month has been crazy with lots of ups and downs, but it was great to visit with friends and family. I do apologize if I didn’t get together with everyone, it was a very hectic month. I’m not for sure when I will be able to post again, so I wanted to do one last post. This may be lengthy or possibly just full of pictures

Getting things packed

We were shipping some of our things down to Texas, instead of messing with luggage. Torah decided to have a little fun in the box. This is her face that she ALWAYS makes b/c she knows it will get a laugh from someone.  I can already tell Christmas will be a ton of fun

Look at all those teeth! As of today she has 12, but I’m pretty sure she is working on a couple more!

Having a snack with grandpa. She LOVES to just follow him around everywhere! It’s SO cute After my dad wakes up, Torah will go and grab his shoes for him, hinting that she wants to go outside and make the rounds like they always do.

In her cute little dress. She is almost walking on her own, she has taken about 5 or 6 steps. Just hasn’t fully committed. I like to think she is waiting for Jacob to witness it full on

We went to Tanner’s a few weekends ago. We had lots of fun and the next few pictures are from that visit. Torah had lots of fun with her cousins Bryce and Grayce. They were so good with her, the next day they went to church together and Bryce asked my mom if Torah could come inside and play! That just about melted my heart.

Feeding the goats, which she really enjoyed! I wasn’t for sure how she would do, but she just kept feeding them piece by piece. It was so cute

Torah and Grayce, every year the kids get their pictures taken here. Last year Torah was 3 weeks old, so she didn’t have one then. Hopefully, we’ll be able to come back next year to visit and all take a trip back to Tanner’s!

I just LOVE this picture! The mums this year were gorgeous and Torah was having a blast with all the flowers. I’m not for sure if I’ve mentioned how much she loves flowers, but she LOVES them. She knows the sign for flower and she was signing all day “flower, flower”.

Me with the kiddos, and that is Grayce’s doll (Bryce was being a typical boy and taking it from her)

Well, I think that may be enough pictures for now! Once we get settled in I will probably post some pictures of the house and the area. I’m off to get a little rest before we leave tomorrow. Have a great weekend! And for the Parker family… YEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAW

My little helper

I was trying to get some things packed up and organized the other day. Torah decided she was going to help…

These are all the clothes I had folded and was getting ready to put in suitcases, oh well!

Here she is helping with the dishwasher

And here she is helping with laundry. She loves to pull the clothes out of dryer while I fold them.

Now if we can only make sure she continues to like to help around the house

Update

I can’t remember if I mentioned this or not, but Torah and I headed to Louisville this weekend with the Osenga family to visit with the Reagans and Jacob. Jacob just so happened to have a business meeting in Louisville the same weekend we were visiting. It was SO good to see him and now we only have 2 more weeks till Torah and I move. We were beginning to think that being apart for this long was not a good thing, but since the moving truck has yet to show up in Katy and the fact that hurricane Ike just blew through Katy, we are thinking it was a smart move. Luckily, Jacob flew out of Houston just in time, they shut down all flights right after he left And he got to spend a few more days with us in Louisville It was great seeing and spending time with him and the Reagans. We did find out that our house was not damaged, but that a tree in the back yard was uprooted and took out our fence. Not great news, but it could have been a lot worse. Please pray for all of those in the Houston area, it doesn’t sound like things are very good. The town of Katy had a lot of wind damage, I just can’t imagine. It was SO windy in Louisville today, there were trees down, siding blowing off of houses and pools blowing around everywhere. I won’t lie, I was a little scared when we were driving from the Reagan’s house to another house for lunch and a huge limb came right at the van and hit the roof. Just a wee bit scared. Luckily, nothing happened and we all made it back to Illinois safely. So, I just wanted to write a quick post and update everyone. I should be posting pictures soon, I didn’t take any this weekend so I am relying on Sarah and Candice Oh, and if you want to see some pictures of Louisville damage, check out Mandy’s blog.

Finger Painting

We thought it would be a fun little activity for Torah to try her hand at finger painting. She painted a few pictures to send down to Jacob for his office. I’m pretty sure she ended up with more on her than the paper though. You can tell in the pictures, she kept signing “please” for more paint

Starting out she didn’t quite know what to think

Signing “please”

Just a little messy!

So proud of herself

Happy Tuesday :)

I just like Torah’s little outfit yesterday so I snapped a few pictures. I was asking her to smile in this one and she gave me her cheesy smile.

We spent the afternoon visiting with Ashleigh, Arrington, Katie, Ellie and Lincoln. Katie’s husband Justin, was a saint and watched ALL 4 little ones so us ladies could go out to lunch. How great was he! We had a great lunch and good time catching up. You can check out more at Katie’s website. Towards the end of the play date, Torah decided to have a little run in with the entertainment center and ended up with a big bump in the middle of her forehead. That is twice this week that she has gotten hurt, guess that is what happens as she gets more and more brave.

What happens when a 1 yr. old thinks she can feed herself yogurt?

She was very persistent in feeding herself, so I just let her. You gotta love it!

We have success!

I had posted awhile back that Torah would not wear her bike helmet. Well, my mom decided the other day to try it out again.

And she will wear it now!

Blues Festival

Last weekend Mom and Dad took Torah and I to the Peoria Blues Festival. We had a great time:) I think we pretty much just laughed at Torah the entire time. She LOVED it!!! Like in the previous post, I have a hilarious video of her, but I will get it posted. If you are on facebook, I downloaded it on my page. She was just dancing to the music like there was no tomorrow. It was a beautiful night and everything was right under the bridge, great music and great food. No complaints here

Enjoying her first ice cream cone

Can you tell she enjoyed it!

Relaxing, eating some Kix and enjoying the music

Torah wasn’t really in the mood for pics, more interested in everything else around us

1st Birthday Party

The long awaited pictures from Torah’s 1st birthday party! We had an uglydoll themed party, because Torah loves her uglydolls The party was complete with Uglytown and all it’s residents (thanks to Mamaw for her artistic and crafty ways!).

Here is Ugly town. The kids had fun going through th e doors and crawling around everywhere.

Torah crawling through Ugly town with Aunt Caitie

She was very interested in the cake

Excitement

She didn’t really eat a whole lot of cake, just played with the frosting. It was EVERYWHERE

She enjoyed opening presents and got lots of great things

But after a few presents, she was getting a little tired from all the partying

Torah with Bryce and Grayce and Mamaw. All the kids that came to the party got uglydoll shirts that we made. They all looked really cute in the shirts I have some more pics to post, but I probably won’t get them up until I’m in Texas. The pictures we took are all on Jacob’s computer, so in a few weeks I’ll get those up Torah had a great time at her party and was loving all the attention. I have a great video, but I can’t figure out how to post it on here from my parent’s computer. Hopefully this week I’ll post it. I still can’t believe a year has gone by already. I am not kidding when I say time flies by! Hope you enjoyed the pictures. I also want to thank Mamaw, Candice, Robbie and Caitie for helping me out with the party. I was a little overwhelmed with the whole Torah turning 1 and the moving to Texas thing, so I couldn’t have done it without you guys THANK YOU!!!

Our New Home In Texas

Lots of new things have been going on in the past 2 weeks. Jacob has been in Texas since last Wednesday night. Torah and I are chillin at my parents house until the end of September. We miss Jacob like crazy, but he is LOVING his job I’ll post more pictures soon and fill you in on more information. Life has been hectic this past week and I am trying to relax, which if you know me is very hard for me to do