(per Mommy and Daddy)
**This post is so all of our family has a reference to her wants and needs**

Clothing:
She is currently in a 2T right now
Pants are always big around the waist so see if they are adjustable
(refer to this post for reference)

Socks, PJ's and warm clothes and accessories are always great!

Shoe size right now is 7 (toddlers)
Size 8 is fast approaching

Favorite Color:
I think it is pink and purple
(typical girl)

Favorite Things:
Princesses
Airplanes
Nick Jr Characters
Trains
Coloring
Dress up
Stickers
Bath Toys
Books
Puzzles
Musical Instruments

Movies:
We have started a Disney movie collection
So far we have:
Beauty and the Beast
Aladdin
Lion King
Toy Story 1,2,3
Ice Age

Education:
We are starting a homeschooling program for preschoolers in January so anything educational with shapes, animals, puzzles, books, movies, craft supplies etc would be great!

All and all she is a typical 2yr old girl.

Water Fight!
Well with a squirt bottle but I couldn't stop laughing so I thought I'd record for your enjoyment too!
(before hitting the play button scroll down the side and
press pause on the music....your welcome Mom)

We had a FABULOUS thanksgiving!

Isaiah and I hosted the big day at our house.


We had a few family members over and enjoyed not ONE, not TWO, but THREE football games!

Kaylee saw the snow and decided to outfit herself with some winter wear

A little pregame fun

Isaiah was the man of the hour.
He hands down did the majority of the dinner. I was in charge of the NON cooked items like the appetizers.
Veggie tray and chips and dip was all I had to worry about.
He did all the rest!



Potluck style for most of the side dishes and it was time to eat!

Our cousin Cody (home from college......GO WHITWORTH) snapped some photos of me attempting to make a moment of a mother-daughter wish

Then the couple pic!

I hope you enjoyed your thanksgiving day!

The Christmas countdown has begun!!!!

Thanksgiving in the Bible
From The Torres Family

Psalm 106:1- "Praise ye the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever."

This means that we should thank God everyday and for everything because he is merciful. By giving thanks to Him you will never feel away from God.

Phil. 4:6 - "We tell God our problems, making our requests known to Him with thanksgiving."
This means though Thanksgiving we can offer our prayers to God who will know what are our problems.

Thessalonians 5:18 - "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God."
This verse talks about the power of faith and thanksgiving. It says that you must believe in God's will and should trust Him because only He knows what is good for you. Once you will start trusting his will you will give thanks for everything which happens.

Psalms 50:14 - "Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most high"
According to this Thanksgiving thought in the Bible it is believed that God commands us to be thankful so that we are humble enough to offer our gratitude towards the Almighty who protects us.

Psalms 92:1- "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High"
In this Thanksgiving Bible verse, thanksgiving is believed to be a good thing and this habit of thanking and praising lord should be inculcated.

Psalms 140:1 - "Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence."
This beautiful verse from the Psalm tells us about the power of Thanksgiving. It says that if you are thankful to God then he will always be with you. You can feel His presence by giving Thanks.

**************************************
There is an endless list of my thanks to my Heavenly Father.
I hope you take these passages into your heart and thank the lord today for all you have been blessed with.

And the snow is STILL here!!
On Monday I woke up early to check the school website
to see if school was canceled.
NOPE!
All classes where still on the books.
So Kaylee and I did our normal routine and headed out to Grandmas.
After dropping her off I made the drive to school.

Not to my surprise my professor canceled my second class!
(And I haven't been back since! Two additional days added to my Thanksgiving Break!)

After class was canceled I headed back out to get Kaylee. I was suppose to have a huge Anatomy Test on Tuesday and I wasn't sure if they were going to cancel school or not so I stuck with the plan of having her play at my friend Amy's house for a bit so I could get some much needed study time in.
Here she is leaving Grandma's.

(Before clicking the video scroll down and on the right hand side hit the "pause" button on the music)


At around 6pm I went to pick up Kaylee. It was starting to get pretty bad outside. The snow was not stopping. We started our journey home through some pretty heavy downfall.
We only live about 15 min from Amy's but it was taking ALOT longer than that. The roads were already frozen and the freeway was really bad. We got off on our exit to find they had shut down the road leading to our house. It is a big hill and it looked like medics were on scene from an accident in the middle of it.

I opted to take a different route....which still involved a hill. I made it about half way up when my Scion said " I don't think so" and we started leaning towards the oncoming traffic. I pulled the ebrake and adjusted my tires and we stopped........in the middle of the road facing horizontal!!

I tried not to panic with oncoming traffic coming down the hill. I wasn't the only car stuck so I was worried someone would bounce off of another car and hit me....with KAYLEE IN THE CAR!!

**If you are wondering where my husband was during all of this....well that is another story. He had left work 2 hours prior and was sitting in stopped traffic on the freeway!!***

I called 911 to get some help.... This is how the conversation went:

ME:"Hi.. I'm on Capital Mall Drive with my 2yr old in the car in the middle of the road with oncoming traffic coming at me down the hill"
OPERATOR: "Are either of you hurt"
ME: "No we are fine but we are stuck"
OPERATOR: "You will have to find someone to help you because all of our officers are dispatched right now"
CLICK

ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!! So much for EMERGENCY HELP!!!

Luckily two guys saw what had happened and offered to get my car off the hill. They finagled it through other stuck cars and into a parking lot.
By now it looked like a blizzard outside!

Then it was time to trek it home. Luckily I had bundled Kaylee up when we left the house that morning. Holding her in my arms we started up the hill.

We made it home. It felt so good to be inside and out of the cold.

Then it was time to worry about Isaiah. He still wasn't moving and of course he only had a 1/2 a tank of gas left!! Oh men, they never think of those things!!

Long story short....He made it home that night safe and sound. He ended up parking his car where mine was and walking home but he made it in one piece.

The next day (since school was canceled and work was out of the question) we decided to take a walk down to the mall for some Starbucks Apple Cider and Hot Chocolate and to let Kaylee play in the indoor playground.

All in all we have enjoyed the weather together as a family. Now its time for the holidays!!

So I know that it's the week of THANKSGIVING but honestly our tree has been up since LAST MONDAY!! I know, I know.... way to early..... but tell that to Isaiah. I went in the bedroom for a nap last Monday after school and woke up to Christmas decorations and the tree box coming out of the closet.

Oh the joy of having a fake tree. I know it may seem like we are "missing out" on the whole "Christmas Tree experience" but I have had MANY years of the real deal and frankly I am a fake tree kinda person. No mess, no dying tree, and candles do a great job of scenting our home of the holiday smells.
So we turned on some seasonal tunes, organized the decorations, and off we went.

See there was some education involved with this....I taught her how to FLUFF the tree.
We used the NON BREAKABLE bulbs this year!

And the star went up. Kaylee thought this was the coolest part. Now every time we light up the tree she points and tells me all about how daddy held her to put the star on top. I have heard the same exciting story at least twice a day for a week and it hasn't gotten old yet.

Even a semi- smile during a dance to jingle bells to end the night!

I changed the wording in the song to put a positive spin on the events of today!

We came home from church to a soft blanket of snow!
After a much needed nap, Kaylee put on her boots and coat and headed out to the pond outside our front door.
We always tell her not to go in the grass because it is muddy and rainy and fear of her going in the pond, so she was apprehensive at first to venture into it
but after the mommy approval she dug right in.





Gotta love the Great Northwest!!
(PJ's and no makeup.... classic post church Sunday attire for me!)

Oh the joys of 1997!
Back in the middle school days with bad hair, tomboy cothes and pre-braces.
This flashback is of my OTHER two favorite people....

My sister Stefanie and my brother Zach

My dad had just received orders in the military to be re-stationed from Alaska to New Jersey.
They decided to road trip across the country to their new home and they stopped in California on the way.

I look back and wonder where time went....
(and what Stef and I were thinking when we looked in the mirror.... haha)

Now we are all grown up. Well two of us anyways....
I'm obviously married with a daughter
Stef graduates this May from Long Beach State University
and Zach will be graduating high school next year.


I love and miss you both!

Next week.....
The Torres boys!

WOW!! What a weekend!!

It is Monday night at 10pm and I just finished editing ALL of the 1000 or so pictures we took over the span of four days! CRAZY!!
I sometimes wonder what moms did before digital photography.
I can't imagine what life would be like without my SLR, my point-and-shot, my handy camcorder, or my cell phone camera.
I really have no excuse but to film my daughters ever waking moment :)

So hear goes....
I'll break down the Birthday Weekend for ya...

(since there are SOOOO many pictures I put them into collages.
If you click on them they will enlarge for better viewing....your welcome...haha)

SATURDAY!!
Time to party!!

So as a disclaimer... I LOVE TO PLAN!!
I think it has something to do with my type A personality. I love to dig deep and find my frugal yet sophisticated Martha Stewart side and go with it.
As you probably know already Kaylee's favorite Nick Jr show is Yo Gabba Gabba. If you don't have kids around this age you probably have no idea who Foofa, Brobee, Muno, Plex, and Tootee are. Kids go crazy over these characters!! It is fascinating!


The Gabba Party:


We were so lucky to have a gal that Isaiah knows made this amazing cake and cupcakes!
We put out hats on and the party started!

As soon as the food was accessible Kaylee had her plate and her mouth filled with strawberries and Cheetos. Crazy combo but she loved it!
As you can see her face was covered with food the entire time.
Being that it was a Gabba Party I wanted to have the show playing in the background. Since Kaylee's TV time is limited at home, her eyes were glued to the TV for most of the party.
She did take a moment to make sure that EVERYONE had a Gabba sticker. She is obsessed with any kind of sticker! She will take an entire sheet and put them all over her body. The other day I was changing her diaper and when I moved her shirt out of the way she had them all over her stomach.

Time for Cake and Ice cream!
She even blew out her candle by herself!
(my little girl is growing up...)

After cake it was time for presents. It was hard trying to keep her attention on opening them. Once she opened one she was ready to play.
It almost seemed like Christmas in high speed.
All in all it was a FABULOUS weekend! With friends, family, and lots of love there was nothing more I could have wished for.
Thank you to everyone who made this weekend special and thank you to all of our family and friends who sent their love on Kaylee's special day!

Up next.....
THANKSGIVING!!!

(ps.... Isaiah already put up the tree! Crazy man!)