Our first visitors were Gramma and Grandpa and we had great weather while they were here. I’m talking like 8o’s, so we spent a lot of time outside. And now thinking about that we have gone from 80’s to the 30’s very quickly. Actually, today’s high was 48, by Tuesday the high is 73. Crazy, crazy weather, not sure I will ever get used to it. Anyway, we had a great visit with Gramma and Grandpa. Torah played lots of basketball with Grandpa and lots of reading with Gramma. We were pretty much outside from the time Torah woke up until nap time and then back out until dinner. Enjoying the nice weather as much as we could. She loves playing basketball and since we have drawn a “free throw” line with her chalk she loves it even more! And I will say, she is pretty good, I’ll take the credit for that one

Can you tell we had lots of visitors? Just let me tell you the schedule we had for the past few weeks: Gramma and Grandpa came Nov. 11th – 16th, Mamaw visited from the 19th – 23rd and then Caitie came from the 25th – 30th! A little crazy, but we loved every minute of it! Unfortunately my dad wasn’t able to come with mom to visit, which was very sad, but at least mom could come! Can’t wait to see dad in January, haven’t seen him since Sept. While mom was visiting we didn’t have the greatest weather, it rained quite a bit, which I blame her for It was raining when she left IL and I think it followed her here. B/c the day she left it was gorgeous and it started raining in IL when she got in, HA! We did a lot of shopping, which seems to be what we do with mamaw! When mom would ask Torah what she wanted to do during the day, Torah would say, “shopping!!”. We’ve created a monster, a shopping monster! We also did some cooking while mom was here and just tried to spend as much time together as possible. Torah wanted my mom in her room at all times. I think they practically read the entire time! Torah would read a story and then say, “your turn mamaw.” Very cute! Not to worry, she is drinking soy milk at Starbucks!

During Thanksgiving Aunt Caitie came to visit, it was great having her here during the holiday weekend. We had lots of fun and Torah was pretty much attached to Caitie the entire time! As soon as she would wake up in the morning, she would say, “Where’s Caitie??”. And then proceed to go wake her up She sure loves her aunt Caitie and pretty sure she cracked Caitie up with all her crazy phrases that she says. The girl talks non stop and says some of the funniest stuff! While Caitie was here we went to the Thanksgiving parade which was in downtown Houston. We had a lot of fun, a minor meltdown at the beginning b/c Torah did not want to wear a coat, even though it was probably 40 or 50 degrees. Gotta love the public meltdowns! After she realized what she was going to see, she was fine and having a good time. We also drove around that weekend and looked at Christmas lights and let me tell you, they do things big in Texas! I will have to snap a few photos to post, b/c it is unbelievable what some of these houses look like! Torah was in awe of the lights, which makes it that much more fun. She would just keep saying, “Oh, it’s so beautiful” or “So pretty!”.  We also did some baking with aunt Caitie and crafts and pretty much just hung out. It was great spending time with her and can’t wait to see her again in a month when we visit IL!!

While Caitie was visiting last week, we decorated the tree and the house for the Christmas season. I love the feeling of putting up the decorations and the glow of the Christmas lights! If I could, I would have a tree in every room, and garland and lights on every doorway! Decorating was especially fun this year because Torah was so into it. We pretty much let her put up all the ornaments and she decorated the smaller trees in the dining room with some beads and randomly throughout the day puts her bracelets or necklaces on them as decorations We also got a few wooden ornaments at Hobby Lobby and she colored them, she was so proud of those ornaments. Especially when I told her she could put it on the tree  And just today, Gramma sent her, her very on tree with lights and ornaments. I’ll have to post pics of that soon! Since my blog is acting all funky, I’ll just post pictures and no captions, lots easier to look at. Sadly, we won’t be going back to IL for Christmas this year, instead we are heading up there in January. I’m a little sad we won’t be with family, but it gives us the opportunity to begin new traditions with our family. I have my days when I’m a little down about missing out on the family time, but at least we DO get to go back soon after the holidays. Enjoy the pics!

Yeah, that’s right I said  it, snow day in Houston! Not much, but we did get snow and as I type this it is 31 degrees! Crazy I tell you, crazy. We took advantage of the snow and played outside. However, finding warm enough clothes was a challenge. No winter hats or gloves and last years coat which was a little on the small side, but she didn’t mind! Torah had a blast and we literally had to chase her down to get her to come inside! I’m thinking she will like visiting IL in January Oh and sorry for the craziness of my blog, can’t figure out why the pictures and text is all jacked up!

We’ve had a lot of family visiting the past few weeks, we got very spoiled with having family around! Torah did a lot of cooking with family the past few weeks and is constantly asking to help. She is a very good helper, but wants to do EVERYTHING! Here are some pics of her cooking adventures.

Rice Krispies with sprinkles of course! Her and mamaw made these together

You’ll have to excuse the bed head! The girl has some crazy hair in the morning! She enjoys cooking, but is not a fan of getting her hands dirty.  She would barely hold the edges and then place them in the pan

How cute is this?!

After baking Chocolate chip pumpkin cookies, which were delicious! This is also after Caitie and I turned our heads for a second and Torah dumped the entire bottle of cinnamon in the dry mixture! She was so excited to help, she said, “mommy, look I’m helping!”  Jacob made a quick trip to the store shortly after this

Can you tell she is so proud of her cookies?!

Making dumplins with Aunt Caitie, or eating the dough

I will say this new love of cooking has really made me want to cook and bake a lot more. I think I was kinda in a funk there for awhile. But now that Torah can and enjoys helping it makes cooking more fun. Can’t wait to make some christmas cookies and let her decorate them!

Torah and her bff Daphne have been having lots of fun lately! It is quite funny to see these girls playing together, always up to something and always laughing! Here are a few shots of the girls hanging together, courtesy of Chris and Jenny’s amazing photo skills.

This picture is of the girls playing in the fountain at Discovery Green. A great little park in the middle of the city, we actually got some family shots there too, courtesy of photomojo.

having fun dancing together!

More dancing to “Single Ladies”, Torah still loves that song. I even think Daphne broke out break dancing later in the evening

Torah has 2 of the same hat, so we broke those out to go along with the dancing!

Quick post and totally random. I’m totally drooling over this jacket from Janie and Jack. If I had the $70 to spend on a coat, I would totally do it. I actually would love this coat for myself!

And another amazingly cute coat, this one just happens to be $88!! But it is oh so cute! This one is from mini boden and yes I will be stalking these coats until they go on sale, possibly for Torah to wear next year

This is what happens when we fall back 1 hour

We were watching a movie, I happened to be checking facebook, look over and see this. Totally asleep in her chair, her head kept bobbing back and forth! Poor thing, but she is in bed now Can’t complain about her going to sleep 1 hour early, not so sure about the waking up 1 hour early though.

Our little horse, or as Torah called herself, a pony. The tutu had a tail in the back, it took people awhile to figure out what she was

Torah had a lot of fun on Halloween, she has been watching a few of her shows that had Halloween specials and reading a few Halloween books that got her excited. I was very surprised that she actually wore here costume, especially the headband. But she didn’t want to take it off, she even ate dinner wearing it, when we got done trick or treating . The nice thing was  we had went to the church for trick or trunk and then went to a few houses on our block and she was satisfied!

I don't know if you can see the tail or not, but it is there. It was a little chilly for Torah to wear a short sleeve shirt and the only brown shirt we had was polka dot. So, I guess she is a spotted horse

she couldn't wait to eat her candy! As you can see she had her arm in her pumpkin the entire night.

Trick or treating in the neighborhood. She did really well at saying trick or treat and thank you!

We had a great weekend and a great Halloween! We also had Torah’s 2 yr pics taken along with a few family shots this weekend. We saw a few peaks and they turned out great! If I can post a few, I will do so! The girl was so into the photo shoot, you should have seen her working the camera while sitting on the bench! Hope everyone had a great weekend!