It's not easy posting in the Summer time is it? :-)

As you can tell by now we are keeping pretty busy this summer so getting around to posting in our blog page journals (Miss Emma and mine) has become a bit of a challenge. For this I say to all those who enjoy them, sorry....

I have been so busy this summer. Reading my Dick & Jane books, putt putt golfing, bumper boats and such with daddy on our special nights out and just all-around having fun swimming and jumping on my trampoline Uncle Jimmy got us last year. The toe jumps I have learned to do are awesome, just ask daddy. LOL

This past weekend I had a choice to go with daddy and Emma to the Corn Festival or go to a picnic with grandma and papa. I chose the picnic as I went with them last year and had a blast. We had the usual water balloon toss so we could get cooled off and soak a few adults along the way. The food was great and plenty of to say the least. Nothing better than good food, good fun and good people to spend an afternoon with. :-)

The neatest thing I did there was make my own ant farm. Yep! I took a plastic cup, placed leafs and grass inside it and picked up a few ants gently and made my own ant farm. Peyton my friend did the same. We must be the only 2 girls I know that like bugs! LOL Always have and most likely always will. When I was a toddler I use to pick up bee's. And yes, before you ask I got stung every single time. Silly me, I would cry over it and the next day be right out there picking another bee up just so I could go through all the ouchy stuff all over again! Grandma and Daddy says it took me quite of few stings before I realized that bee's were not the choice of bugs to pick up! Daddy says its okay to like them still but picking them up is simply not worth being stung. He was right, as usual.

I am posting a little montage of our picnic. You will get to see me holding my ant farm too. Enjoy! And by the way, after all was said and done following the picnic, Papa and Grandma surprised me and took me to the festival too!!!! They said any little girl that chooses a picnic over the once a year festival deserves both. I guess I am that special little girl...........


Picnic with Dave & Tina 7/20/08

Going to play catch up if I can...

Been a busy month for us. New sitter and so much to do in the warm weather. We go to the local parks a lot, play on our trampoline and we are watching Signing Times DVD's daily to help teach my little sister Emma to learn to sign since she is unable to speak due to her having Angelman Syndrome.

I am very good at it! Grandma says I caught on quickly and hopefully I will be able to help teach Emma. She did the sign more for grandma several times this past week! Is that too cool? It is the only one she is doing so far, but it is a start and we are so grateful for this little step of Emma's.

As so many know it is not easy being the sibling to a special needs child. I grew up faster than most and at the age of six years I have experienced far more than most my age. But its okay.....God only gives us what we can handle according to grandma and I handle life quite well. I get good grades in school, I can read like a first grader and I am learning new things daily.

For down time I spend many weekends with my grandparents so that I can play on my own. Thats special time for me and I have done this as I can remember. This weekend is my weekend with my grandma and papa. I baked a cake with my papa! What an adventure this was. I cracked my first egg which did not land in the bowl as one can imagine. It landed all over the counter and the floor. Papa and I just laughed while we cleaned up the mess. Grandma came in afterwards and snapped a couple of pictures to share with all of you.

Now I am sitting and awaiting the cake to bake so we can icing it. Papa and I had to go back and forth on the choice of icing, but I won! CHOCOLATE FROSTING ROCKS! It just finished baking and the oven timer went off so as soon as it cools down papa and I will frost it and get a picture of the finished product. So for now I gotta go and get ready to help papa. Yummy...cake tonight compliments of me and papa!


My Montage 7/5/08
Sweet thoughts to all.

Father's Day with my daddy...

Well folks we let daddy go golfing for fathers day then he took us to a picnic with friends. They had a swimming pool but unlike my little sister Emma, I am far more leerie of the water than I thought I would be.

Emma on the other hand was a floating little angel and loved being in the water as always. Well here is the little video of our pictures in the pool. You can see I am trying to float but was to afraid to let go. I am the one with blue arm floats hanging on for dear life! LOL I decided I need a pool that I can walk in to on my own. Not one that doesn't have a shallow end to it. Oh well, sooner or later I will be tall enough to stand in one like this and until then I think I want a inner tube!


Father's Day with my Daddy

Enjoying Summer break....

Well folks.... school is out and I am officially a first grader. And one that can add, subtract & already reads like one! My family is so proud of me. We have a new sitter and she is mommy to one of Miss Emma's classmates! Jordyn, the pretty little girl on my little sisters blog page is who we are being cared for by over the summer. Mikayla is Jordie's big sister and she plays a great deal with us and we are loving that. It has been an adjustment to leave Aunt J's but they took away the support to help daddy pay for daycare so we had to find something affordable and Jordie's mom already knows Miss Emma and was more than willing to step in. So Miss Emma and I are cared for quite well. And she is an EMT too that volunteers for the local Fire Department so she is great if we ever need emergency attention! Wow! What a package!

I have to continue my reading over the summer and bring back a list of books I read. And I have my school shopping list for this upcoming Fall already. So I have ample time to gather all my supplies before school starts up. We will be moving to a new house by the end of the summer. Grandma is letting us rent her current home and will be moving into a new home. How is that for cool? And we get to keep the backyard park and play house grandma & papa got all of us girls. I am so so excited. My own yard and house. And Miss Emma knows this one well, so it should be a good move over all for her. They are going to angel proof her room "before" we move in. Dutch door, window protectors, and so forth. If I understand correctly, we will be renters for a couple of years till daddy can buy the house. Then it will be all ours! It has a huge yard and plenty of room for us to play safely.

Well that is the news of the week. Gotta a Fathers Day picnic to go to.

Love to all.

What a week...

Well folks I have had a very busy week. I met Elmo and Dora with my little sister, Emma. That was an experience! Emma ended up being afraid of her favorite character when she came face to face with him. Not me! I hugged him just fine! I really did try to help my little sister go to him but she was not budging for that. I think grandma finally got her to sit ever so quickly on his lap, but I was so busy watching everything I honestly can't remember. LOL There were lots of kids to see.

For the holiday we had a cookout and a bon fire with sparklers. Wow was that fun! Its nice to be able to sit outside now that the weather is warming up. Oh how I love the outdoors.

On Tuesday when I returned to school I got to read a Dick & Jane book to my kindergarten class. Ms. Collins is so proud at my reading abilities she let me do story time with our class. I felt like a teacher. Ms. Collins told my grandma on grandparents day last Friday that I come to school with such enthusiasm and that I leave just as enthusiastic as I came. I think that was a compliment, don't you? I just love my teacher and I love going to school. :-)

We have had some pretty great weather and been able to play outside a lot. Emma and I love the outdoors. I have learned how to do toe jumps on the trampoline. Great practice for me now if I decide to become a cheerleader in the future. I have also been practicing my reading and writing. I do this in my bedroom at my desk to keep Miss Emma from pulling at my books and papers. She just loves doing that kind of stuff. And me, I do like a bit of down time which daddy says it just fine. All big sisters enjoy time to themselves once in awhile. I am so glad my daddy understands these things. He is such a smart daddy!

At school we had field day and got to do so many fun things. Water balloons, races, games and great snacks! Who ever knew we could have so much fun in one short day! I love it, I love it. LOL I am a wee bit saddened by it all. I have made so many friends this year I just know I am going to miss them all when school ends. And Ms. Collins won't be my teacher next year. That is really saddening to me. She has been so awesome I cannot imagine not having her in first grade. But daddy says I will just get another wonderful teacher so not to worry myself about this. He says its all part of moving on to the next grade in school and I will get use to it. I hope he is right about that.

Ooops! Daddy is calling me for tubby time so I better get going. Grandma is suppose to be over tomorrow to play with Emma and me, so I need to get some rest. Hope everyone has a great weekend. I know we will. xoxoxox

Catching up on things!

Well it has been a busy month and I think grandma and I have fallen short of keeping everyone current on what I have been doing, so let me try to catch you up on things.

Spring is definitely trying to explode here in Ohio. Been a wet one so I have not been able to play outside as much as I would like to. That makes me sad. On the upside I am doing "awesome" in school. Ms. Collins (my kindergarten teacher) send home notes to daddy all the time on how great I am doing in school. Did you know I am reading at first grade level already? We had grandparents day at my school today and Ms. Collins told my grandma how wonderful I am and that she loves my enthusiasm at school. She says I am as happy when I arrive as I am at the end of the day when its time to go home! :-)

I have been talking to Dr. Esson and he has really been nice to talk to. With all that I have gone through change wise in my home Miss Shayne thought it would be good for me to have someone to chat with and it has. He lets me play frogger when I visit him. I like that game! Daddy and I have been spending more time together, just the 2 of us. I like that too! With Miss Emma we are both kept pretty busy so its nice to get a little one of one time with just each other once in awhile.

Last week was a bummer. My mommy canceled visitation and daddy let me call grandma and papa because I was crying. They told me I could join them in town while they were shopping and then they took me to the park to play. I even got a Frappucino from Starbucks (without the coffee). It was yummy! We ran into Arielle (my cousin Boo) and she joined us at the park too. We had so much fun. I am glad grandma and papa know how to make sad feelings go away. I think that is what grandparents do best. Make us feel all better inside.

Miss Emma has been a busy little angel lately. Did you know she is saying da-da, na-na & goo-grl? Can you believe that? First they said she would never talk and now we are hearing her call my daddy and grandma (Nana) out loud. She is so cute! She is also been going potty at school too. She has gone 2 full weeks at school now. Every single day!!!! Woo-hoo for my little sister! Woo-hoo!

Did I tell you grandma got me Dick & Jane books? She said she use to read them when she was my age so she wanted me to experience them too. I have already read 3 of them to her, papa and daddy! They love my reading. Daddy enjoys my reading all the road signs when we are traveling in the car too. It is amazing how much I have learned this year. And my report card has been totally awesome too. I get rewarded for good grade with $5.00 and grandma and papa take me out to breakfast at Bob Evan's each report card time. I love it, love it, love it!!!!

Well daddy and I have a date tonight. We are going to the races just the 2 of us. I like racing and so does daddy. Its one of the things he and I do together in the summer time. We both like the loud noise of the engines. He makes me wear my headphones but I can still hear them rev up.

Wishing all of you and nice Memorial Day weekend.

My kindergarten year montage...2007-08

Oh I my family says I have grown in so many ways this school year! I am now reading first grade level, adding, writing and so much more. How fun it has been just to be a little girl and Miss Emma's big sister. And as always...daddy's princess! xoxo


Tori's Kindergarten year 2007-08

Spring has sprung!

The Garage Sale- 5/21/08

Well Spring is finally here and oh how I love to play outside. The swings and trampoline are still my all time favorites at home and on weekends I get to play in our playhouse at grandma and papa's house. Two weeks ago Olivia and I had our own yard sale. I think I made mention of it but never shared any pictures on my blog page. Grandma is going to share some of the pictures with all of you this weekend.

Papa took one look at what we had done and called grandma out to see it for herself. I am not sure what they found so amusing but they were laughing for quite some time over it. I guess they had no idea how resourceful Olivia and I can be. We did not actually sell any of our toys, but we sure had a lot of fun pretending. Enjoy!

Oh yes, before I forget Happy Mother's Day to all those dear to my heart. xo

Trying to catch up......

Well everybody, been a few busy weeks so not much blogging being done. I've been busy and grandma has been busier than me. So let me try to bring you up to date. Last weekend daddy to us to kids day which was sponsored by my little sister, Miss Emma's school. Wow! There were clowns, games to play and food to eat. We really had a nice time. :-)

Then Saturday night my cousins Olivia and Abigail were spending the night with grandma and papa so I invited myself to join them. I do that any chance I get as I love spending time with Olivia. We decided to have our own yard sale in the backyard. You should have seen papa's face when he saw ALL the little tykes furniture out of our playhouse and the table we set up with a table cloth over it. His face was priceless! Then he called grandma out to look at what we had done. Oh my! She could not believe her eyes....then she wanted to know how two little girls got all that furniture out of the playhouse? We just laughed and told her we did it ourselves. And we did! Papa said it was going to rain so we needed to start cleaning up so we showed them. Both Olivia and myself started picking up the table, then the chairs, the refrigerator, the stove, the kitchen and the tea party kitchenette. One by one we put everything back in our playhouse except the picnic table. Papa said it could stay outside. Whew! We were both glad as we were getting pretty tired by now anyway.

Grandma bathed my little cousin Abigail (she's 7 months now) and then ran a bath for Olivia and I. We began singing songs in the tubby so grandma came in and videoed us. She is going to try to get it posted once she figures out how to cut it back a bit. It is too large to download on my blog page right now as we sang too many songs. LOL Our favorite song was the one that starts with; "It's raining, its pouring, the old man is snoring". You know how it goes.... Well we improvised! We sang "papa" is snoring and laughed our little heads off all the while. Grandma was laughing too. And papa, well once he got over the shock of his granddaughters singing about him he started laughing too. Grandma is calling it our tubby duet.



Abigail of course was good as gold. She is such an awesome baby! She is just so happy and fun to watch. She even has a new tooth. Wow, she is growing so fast these days. Miss Emma stayed home for a little one on one time with daddy. I thought that was nice of her to not want to leave him alone all night. She is such a little sweetie!

Tonight grandma is over at her friends house as she is very sick. Grandma has been doing this for weeks now so her friend is not alone. I guess several of her friends are all chipping in to do this right now so she is not alone. Papa really misses her but he is kind enough to understand that she is needed right now. He is a good papa isn't he? Well grandma cannot type anymore for me right now as her friend needs her so till next time lots of love and hugs your way.

Been a busy couple of weeks..and we fell behind in posting.

Well as you can gather our typist Grandma Donna has been a bit busy as of late. Her friend is very ill and she has been spending nights with her to assist in her care. Please everyone, pray for grandma's friend Dawn. She is a very special lady who IS fighting for her life.

To catch you up on my life; Daddy took us to an indoor amusement park at the IX Center last weekend. It was so cool! Even Miss Emma got to ride a few of the rides and of course she loved them. She loves everything that little sister of mine.

This past weekend I met a new friend, Dr. Esson. He is such a nice man and is a great listener. I think he and I will become good friends in the weeks to come. I also got my report card for the third grading period. Whoa! I did awesome! I have the highest possible marks I can get in kindergarten. And my teacher wrote that I am very enthusiastic to learn and my enthusiasism is contagious! That is what some people say of my little sister Emma with all her giggles and happy demeanor.

I guess we are both contagious little girls when it comes to learning, laughing and loving life. Papa and I did a breakfast date Sunday morning. My mom canceled visitation with us again, so Grandma & Papa invited me to spend the day with them. I always feel special when I am with them and it offers me a bit of big girl time to play on the computer without Miss Emma trying to turn off the buttons! You know how that goes with our angels. They cannot get enough of exploring the world around them.

The weather has been up and down, but I have been able to play outside a bit. Jumping on the trampoline and swinging. Two of my favorite outside activities. Friday, a friend of ours took me out for a girls day and we did lunch, some shopping and got our nails painted. You know the typical girl stuff. :-) I am really into bling bling stuff like sparkles and rhinestones and pretty things these days. Daddy says I get that from my grandma. You know what? I think he is right on that one. And grandma and I both love pink!

Over all, life has been pretty great for my little family. Spring is finally coming and the sun is shining again here in Ohio. Boy have we all been waiting for the sunshine! Spring break is over and I am back in school and happy to be there. I love school and enjoy learning as my teacher tells daddy. And daddy says that IS a great thing to love, learning. So I guess I am on the right track.

Well time to get ready for school. Lots more to learn and do for me. Have a great day!

Another sleep over...woo weeee.

Well my friend Skyler stayed over and what a night. We played hard and furiously while my little sister Miss Emma slept through it all. Good thing she did as daddy would have not liked us waking her up. She needs her rest.

This week is Spring Break for me and Miss Emma returns to school. Worked out well so Aunt J does not have both of us all day long as she is new to sitting with both of us and learning all our little qualms day to day. I am a bit of a stubborn little girl with a strong mind on how I see things, so I guess I am challenging as grandma and daddy prefer to call it. Just so much going on in my life right now and lots of changes. They are all positive changes, don't misunderstand. But still changes and I am adjusting well over all.

School is great and my teacher continues to report to daddy on how well I am doing. I like to read. I also am quite the little computer girl these days. I enjoy playing games on PBS Kids, Starfall and Noggin kids sites. I am quite good with the computer mouse and know my way around the games sites I play on. After all I am 6 years old now and getting smarter every day!

We went for visitation with mommy and she ended up having daddy come pick us back up. Said she wasn't feeling well and did not wish to stay at the center. So, of course daddy rescued us as always and off to have fun with our friends today. We went out to breakfast and watched 2 really cute movies. Alvin and the Chipmunks was really good. You must see it if you haven't yet. I highly recommend it to all ages.

Oh yeah, got my Spring picture taken at school. Wow have I changed since Novemeber. Here is a copy of the proof grandma captured as the order has not arrived yet. Check me out!



Well off to bed for me so I can get some rest. Hugs to all. Princess Tori

Still tired from my sleep over....yawn...yawn.

Well my sleep over with Olivia went great. We had our own little pizza party, played games and of course we played with all my new little pet shop animals. Watched a few movies and stayed up far later than we should have. :-) You know how we girls are when we get together. Too much girl-talk and giggling going on to think much about sleeping. My Daddy got me a second special birthday cake so Olivia and I could celebrate my birthday together. We had to cancel our original sleep over birthday celebration due to the snow storm a week ago. My daddy is a sweet man! Turning 6 years old is too cool. I got two cakes and celebrated not once but 3 times this year! I placed a tiny video below of the cake Daddy got me. It's the little Pet Shop characters. I am really into them these days. Got bored with my little pony's for a while. You know how we girls can be. LOL Well, I would love to write a bit more but I am really tired and need to catch up on my sleep. I was a bit cranky today and it IS a school night. I will try to catch up this weekend. Special hugs to all.

My sleep over is tonight... :-)

Hi everyone. I just got off the phone with my cousin Olivia. She and I are planning our sleep over at my house tonight. I am so excited and so is she. I told her I got all kinds of pet shop figures and a new pet shop game to play just with her.

This is my first official sleep over at MY house. Usually we do our sleep overs at grandma Donna's but in November we had one at Olivia's home for her birthday and now its my birthday sleep over with her at my house. Yippee!

We are all wondering how Miss Emma (our angel) is going to handle this but I guess like everything else in life, she will adapt just fine. She is so resilient for an angel and I am thankful to have my little sister. Even when times are tough and she doesn't let me have as much time to myself as I would like. I am very protective of her due to her disabilities and her need for me.

We started going to a new private daycare provider this week. Her name is Joyce, but we call her "Aunt J." She told daddy that I am very protective of my little sister and daddy said; Yes she is. As with my little sister, I love my whole family very much. :-) I will write tomorrow and let you all know how our sleep over goes tonight.

Big angel hugs from Tori.....6 years old (3-5-02) and big sister to Angel Emma.

Welcome to my blog page!

Hi everybody!

Grandma has set up my blog page so I can have a weekly journal of my own. Is that cool or what? Now that I am 6 years old she thinks I am ready to keep a diary to share with family and friends. I hope you will enjoy it as I begin my own blogging this upcoming weekend.

Keep an eye on my site as I share my thoughts and lifes journey through the eyes of a 6 year old. You never know what you might learn.