November Highlights

Tori and I got to spend a week at Grammy and Grandpa's house while Ej was working out of town at the beginning of the month. Tori was thrilled to be going to visit them, and couldn't get out of the car fast enough when we pulled in. Our time there was filled with lots of stories, lots of giggles, and lots of leaves.

storytime with Grandpa

reading with Grammy

GIGGLES AND

BELLY LAUGHS

LEAVES!!!!!

The rest of the month was filled with lots of fun play time with friends,

and a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with the Mattos Family which included boxing on the Wii.

Lastly, here are a couple more cute pics of Tori from the month.

Our Little Fairy Princess

We took Tori to the harves party at the church halloween night. She was a little skeptical of all the costumes at first, but warmed up when she saw her 'big big classroom' with the slide. She and Jilly were much more interested in playing on the slide than doing anything else.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Meet Baby Ratliff

It's not the clearest picture, but at least it's something of our newest addition. The tech wouldn't say for sure, but based on the pictures we had of Tori in utero, and the fact that the tech didn't find any 'boy parts', I'm pretty sure IT'S A GIRL. Let the planning begin!

The Great Pumpkin Hunt

Last weekend we went on our annual pumpkin hunt with 'the gang'...Mattos', Lees, Ratliffs, and Wells'. We started out the day at Kenny and Tracy's new house enjoying a delicious potluck breakfast, and then headed out to North Plains for an adventure at Lake View Farms. None of us had been there before, but thought it would be a fun place for the little girls since there was a boat ride and a train ride out to the pumpkin patch, and the opportunity to have faces painted. It was a beautiful day and loads of fun celebrating friendships and traditions of the last 4+ years.

Random

I realized once again that it has been a while since I posted any new pictures. We haven't had any adventures lately, but there have been a few kodak moments at the Ratliff household over the last couple weeks.

Tori has developed a fascination with shoes. If ever there are shoes, not matter whose they are, in her line of sight, she runs to them and puts them on. Tennis shoes are one thing, but when she came walking down the hallway in my boots I had to laugh. There's a picture somewhere of me about this age in my dad's cowboy boots too. I'll try and find it for comparison sake :)

The piano is still a huge fascination with all the girls (Tori and the girls I watch) and we generally have some music time every day after nap time. Here's Macy, Tori and Jilly all wanting in on the action at the same time. I love the picture from behind. I'm not sure what they're looking at, but it captured all their attention.

And speaking of nap time, Tori managed to get herself all bundled up in her blankets the other day, and this is how I found her.

We do have some exciting things coming up over the next week. First on the agenda is our annual Pumpkin Hunting trip this weekend. Watch for pics of that adventure. Also I have an ultrasound scheduled for next week. Keep your fingers crossed that Baby Rat is cooperative and we will find out whether we'll add a brother or a sister to our family. Perhaps I'll even get brave and post some pictures of my ever-growing belly (no promises though)

Annual Traditions

The last couple weekends have been filled with some of our favorite summertime family traditions. The first being our annual Mickelson Family Reunion, which has successfully been occuring for 11 years now. This year we spent the weekend in a beach house in Lincoln City and had great fun. Tori had lots of fun playing with her 'cousins' Sam and Manuel, as well as running on the beach, eating a ton of food that Papa Jerry fixed, soaking in the hot tub, and running around on the deck. She also spent a good deal of time coloring with her Great Grandma Lois. Here's a slide show of parts of our fun weekend.

The second tradition that occured was the annual Mattos/Ratliff (aka Mat/Rat) trip to Seattle. We have been going for 4 years now, heading up north, staying with Mandy's dad and getting spoiled, attending a Mariners game, and generally having a fantastic weekend with our best friends. This is the girls' 3rd game, and they still do suprisingly well sitting through the whole game with little fussing. Tori was really interested during the first few innings, cheering on the Mariners, especially Ichiro (which sometimes comes out as Go Cheerio!), and getting into the applause when a play was made. Then she would turn to me and excitedly give me the play...Mariners hit the ball!