Thanksgiving 2011

Oh Thanksgiving! We have a love hate relationship. I love to cook and bake but I hate all the dishes. Let me tell you three days of baking and cooking makes for lots of dishes. I cooked and baked a lot this Thanksgiving. I made so much food. I know I should have taken more pictures but I was very busy cooking up a storm. This year I brined the turkey. I had never used this method before. It has always scared me off. However, once I heard Lauren was doing and her turkey turned out beautifully, I just had to try it too! Let me tell you, it was amazing. By far the best turkey I ever made! Here is the menu from Thanksgiving:

Turkey with gravy

Mashed Potatoes

Rolls

Cranberry Sauce

Corn Casserole

Green Bean Casserole

Sweet Potato Casserole

Broccoli Rice Casserole - made by Ashley

Now for the desserts

Marble Cheesecake

White Chocolate Pumpkin Cake Balls

This was the first year Liam was able to watch the parade. Last year he was too young and would not sit still for parade. This year he loved it. He called it the balloon parade. His favorite part was Santa coming down at the end! 

This is the only picture of food I have. 

Liam and Chris watching football

Chris taught Liam how to Tebow! I pray that one day Liam will continually show is faith in God through his daily life and actions. 

Chris and the turkey! This was about the 10th picture I took. He was kinda annoyed at my picture taking! 

We are so blessed to have a wonderful family and friends. This was a hard year. After the loss of Pete, we knew the first holiday would be hard. I am so thankful that on this day we remembered the good times and all the wonderful things about Pete! It was a great day. 

Indoor Slide

We have been using an extra piece of wood as a slide. Liam loves it. It doubles as a slide and a race track! Liam loves it! It is requested almost daily. The ramp also can save us from the reappearing dinosaur that Liam says keeps coming. It is a multipurpose ramp!

Going down the ramp! 

Playing! 

Man on the ramp

Running from the "dinosaur"

Playing with trucks

I love this smile! 

Chuck E Cheese

Liam saw a commercial awhile back for Chuck E Cheese. He has been asking to go and play. We finally broke down and took him one afternoon. He thought it was the most fabulous thing ever. He was a little overwhelmed by all the games, that he hardly ate any dinner. It was great to see how much fun he was having. I know that we will be going back there again. Thankfully the food has improved. It was all worth it just to see how much fun Liam had playing!

Liam driving a car. 

Basketball with daddy. Thank goodness the NBA is back! 

More basketball

Football with daddy! All that football watching is paying off! 

A flying game! Liam loved it all! 

Ballons and Pete

Liam was having a hard time understanding that Pete is gone. He asks for him and we always have the same reply, "Pete is with Jesus." One of our friends gave us an idea to release balloons at Pete's grave site so Liam can understand where Pete has gone. We made the trip to HEB and got four balloons for each of us. Liam choose red! He loves the color red. We also decided to write a message for Pete on our balloons.  Liam loved his balloon. We did have a funny moment with Cathy. Cathy wrote this long lovely message on her ballon. It was wonderful. Just then her balloon popped. We couldn't help but laugh because we knew Pete would. It gets better. So I give Cathy my balloon and she writes another message. As we are trying to get Liam to release his balloon, Cathy lets her balloon go so Liam can see how to do it. It gets stuck in a tree. What is not funny about that. We still laugh about it today. It was nice to be able to see Pete and send him a message.

Liam and Chris writing on Liam's balloon

Chris and his balloon

Cathy and her new balloon

Chris and Liam trying to release their balloons

Cathy and her new balloon.....

See that tree on the right..... Her balloon got stuck there!

Our balloons going to see Pete...... Notice the blue dot in the tree on the right. Pete just wanted that balloon to stay close! 

Pre-school Thanksgiving party

Liam's pre-school held it's annual Thanksgiving party. Liam had a wonderful time. He did not however eat any of the food that was made. Liam is still very much a lover of chicken nuggets. Thankfully Lauren was there to ensure he received his chicken nuggets. Liam had a wonderful time with his party. He was going through a weird clingy stage so I had to be by his side the whole time. He made a super cute craft and played. He even ate part of his edible craft. All and all the morning was great!

Lachlan, Isaiah, and Liam! My three amigos. 

Liam and his turkey hat

Ready for the games to begin

Liam and Isaiah

Liam and Reef playing the turkey game! 

Feet

Who doesn't love some feet? I know Liam doesn't have baby feet anymore but he still has super cute feet!

I just love those little piggies! 

Reading the big book

Liam loves to go to the library. He loves to pick books and sit on the fire truck carpet and red. He also loves to pick a movie. The other day Liam picked out the original Thomas the train book! Some may not know this this book is a large chapter book with lots of words. It is not very age appropriate for him. Every time I tried to put it back, he would find it and put back in our basket. So we spent the afternoon in Pete's chair reading and learning about Thomas and his friends.

Reading! 

I love this pose! 

Silly little things

There are some silly things going on in our house these days. Liam is growing his imagination daily! It is an amazing thing to watch and see how everyday is an adventure. He can turn a car into a tow truck plane and fly around the house. Liam is exploring and I love watching him at work. He are some of the things he loves to do.

This is fun! First you pull the back over your head.........

The the front over your face!!! 

Now we roam around the house until we walk into a walk or something! This bring major laughs! 

This is the face I get when I ask for smiles! 

Amber made us some frog hat for Chili cook off. They are now getting some major wear at home! 

It is even more fun to jump on the sofa when you can't see! 

Liam and Daddy "ROAR!!!!"

Nothing beats praying on the potty! He knows God is always with him even in the bathroom! 

Pete Torres

Words can not express how to write this post. I have struggled with this post for weeks. I am unsure if posting this was the right thing to do or if I should leave well enough alone. We have finally made it though the services and still feel no closure. I  just don't know how to heal. Despite all the events of the last few weeks, Chris and I have learned so much from our Church family. The out pouring of support, love, and prayers are amazing. We never would have been able to begin our healing process with out the help of our family and friends. Everyday is still difficult. However we are slowly healing. We are so blessed to have Liam. Each day he reminds us of how amazing life can be for us. He has not forgotten Pete and neither will be. 


We are encouraging those who wish to help but don't know how to please give blood. Pete received many blood transfusions though out his life and always wanted to give back. Blood donations can be given at University Hospital at the Medical Center in San Antonio Texas. 

Call this number for directions 210-358-2812 and when you go, 

tell them you wish to donate on behalf of Pete Torres

and give them this:

CareLink acct # 20735012

Peter Torres a.k.a. Pete, was born on December 12, 1977 and died on October 29, 2011. Pete shall forever be remembered as the older brother who always cared, the son who put others before himself and the husband who's love was limitless. Pete was a selfless person who centered his life around giving every last ounce of time and love to friends and family until he no longer could. Pete battled Leukemia and various other diseases over the last six years of his life and even though the battle took a toll on his body, Pete never stopped fighting. It is with Pete in our heart that we should all be so lucky to have his spirit and will to live, despite the struggles he faced. Pete is survived by his wife Cathy Torres, his mother Petra Torres, his father Peter Torres, his grandmother Johanna Kirchdorfer, his younger brothers Chris and Dylan Torres and his younger sister Emily Torres. Pete will also be loved and remember by the many friends and family members that he is now waiting for in Heaven.

Halloween

This was the first year Liam had an opinion on his costume. He wanted to be spiderman! I will say he was the cutest spiderman ever! He did love being spiderman. He would run around the house pretend shooting webs at people! 

Playgroup - minimal crying this year with the forced picture

Another good photo. I do believe buzz jumped off the sofa after this! 

Liam and I made a halloween house. He thought this was the most fun. He loved decorating with sprinkles and candy corn. He however did not like to eat the candy corn. It was a fun afternoon and great surprise for my Turtle!

Liam and his house

Sprinkles!!! 

Oooooooo!!!! 

Dumping more sprinkles on our house! 

Before Halloween, we had Trunk or Treat. I was not very good at the pictures this year. Liam did get the concept of asking for candy. The only thing is Liam does NOT eat candy. He eats m&ms and some fruit snacks. So this is a big score for Chris and I!

Here is our trick or treating gang.... Lachlan (Flash), Reef (Black Spiderman), Ethan (Ironman), Jonas (Batman), Isaiah (Buzz Lightyear), and Liam (Spiderman)

Silly Spiderman...... 

My three amigos!!!! This is the best picture I could of the three of them! 

Ringing doorbells! 

Spiderman could not carry his bucket of candy anymore.... it was too heavy!