Rock Canyon Trail

The awesome thing about Utah is there are amazing hikes everywhere! The mountains are our backyard and scenic hikes are just minutes from where we live (It's like this throughout the valley and in SLC too). We have decided to start hiking a little more this semester and a couple weekends ago we started out with Rock Canyon Trail just behind the Temple and Rock Canyon Park (for those of you that are familiar with Provo area). It was Ivy's first hike and she couldn't have been more happy. She loves to be up looking around a lot so this was perfect for her. She didn't get cranky at all until she started to get tired towards the end. She let out one little cry and the next thing we see is her just lean her head back and close her eyes. She was OUT! It was hilarious....

tired girl....

This hike was beautiful! And a great start for someone who is super out of shape (me! ), even though it just about killed me at some parts, haha. Next up, Stewart Falls.... I've heard that's a fun one. Any other favorites around here?

Throwback

Finally got around to digging through my baby pictures and just wanted to post a few to compare with Ivy. It was funny because any pictures from when I was younger than 4 months were all with my mom holding me while standing back with the whole family, where you couldn't even see my face haha! So this is all I've got. Hopefully one of these days, I can get a hold of some of Sam's baby pics, too. Anywho, I give you... Baby Kathryn at 4 months. 

I'm pretty sure Ivy has my exact eyes but different nose and mouth. and thank goodness she didn't get my ginormous ears. lol.. Here I am with my Papa:

With big sis Kristin:

Aaaand just some other fun ones I found while digging.. me with Kari and Alexa, oh wait I mean Kelli, hehe:

It's crazy to me how much my niece Alexa looks like Kelli!

Halloween:

This last one is my favorite. Kari was a MOM for halloween. haha!! and we weren't ever sure what kelli was...

School pride

WELL. Let's just say after last Saturday's game, I was slightly embarrassed to be associated with BYU. (only half kidding, lol)..... Until I saw this little number from Monday night's show called The Sing Off:

I've heard Vocal Point in the past and seen them in concert a few times and thought they were good but this performance was pretty awesome. And the judges and crowd seemed to really like them too. Great job guys! So proud to say I'm from BYU again. Thanks for restoring my alumnus dignity. haha! Good luck in the rest of the competition! Oh and if you haven't seen this show yet, I highly recommend it. There are some great groups this year.

I have a 4 month old.

It's true. Baby girl turns 4 months old today. Crazy how time really takes off once school starts. Even though she may not quite be as big as most 4 month olds yet (only 11 lbs 14 oz as of a week ago), Ivy is so darn smart and so much more wiggly these days. It is so fun to watch the new things she does and discovers each day..

No giggles yet but she is such a cheese ball when it comes to smiling. Her big grins just melt my heart! It's kinda funny though because usually when she smiles this big, it's completely silent, lol. However, she has started cooing and talking a lot more. The other day at church it even sounded like she was trying to sing along with us during the hymn. It was hilarious. 

Just had to include this next picture. It's really the only time this girl has fallen asleep in a random place bc she was so wiped out haha. It was the day we got into Provo and she was crying on the bed but Sam and I were both busy doing something. Plus we didn't have a porta crib or anything yet so I had nowhere to put her for a nap. a few minutes later, I didn't hear her crying anymore and went to check on her. She was completely passed out. It just cracked me up:

Ivy is doing much better with naps these days and will even nap in her carseat when we are out! yay! When at home, she really only cries for about 5-10 minutes in her crib before falling asleep each time (it must be just her way of winding down I guess) and stays asleep for at least an hour or two. If we are out running errands, she has gotten much better about falling asleep in her seat and staying asleep. Before, the littlest bump would wake her up but she doesn't really care about things like that anymore. She just stays asleep now which makes things soo much easier for me. 

She has recently discovered her toes. They are probably her most favorite thing right now. She is always grabbing them and just lately started sucking on them, hehe.. It is the cutest thing to watch. Oh and she is a constant wiggler. No longer are the days when she can just sit quietly on my lap looking around. She has to be standing or wiggling around. all. the. time.

We are slowly getting better at nighttime.  She will now go all the way from 9pm til 5 or 5:30am before I have to feed her again (with the usual few wake ups for her binky before then) and then go back down til around 7:30 or 8. I'm starting to put her down in the evenings around 7:30 or 8pm and making that last feeding sort of a dream feed, really. That way, I can eventually just stop the dream feed. I just wanna wait til she gains a little more weight though... 

Ivy can now roll over both ways although she isn't very good about tummy to back yet. She has done it a number of times but I dont think she gets the correlation between not liking being on her tummy for very long and being able to push herself back over. It's almost impossible to keep her from flipping over from her back to tummy lately though so she will have to learn pretty quick, lol..

She really has turned into Miss grabby-hands lately. She constantly goes for my watch or bracelet, and is really good about holding and looking at her toys. And then shaking them so hard that she startles herself hehe..

Little miss has sort of started doing this little army scoot lately. Because she isn't very good about flipping back over, she squirms and squirms out of frustration til she reaches her toys nearby. Then she usually just looks at them. But I have seen her reach for her binky on the floor and try to pull it closer to her face to try and get it with her mouth. That's when I really realized I have a smarty pants on my hands! 

Just a funny quirk, Ivy loves scratching on fabric. loves it. she does it every time she is next to some sort of thicker fabric. like the sheets in our bed, the sides of her changing table, the sides of her carseat, my jeans.. This actually doesn't surprise me bc I remember when I was pregnant, there were some times that I swore I could feel her little fingers sort of scratching my tummy on the inside lol..

We are so grateful that Ivy is such a happy baby and have so much fun with her every single day! This was a couple days ago when we met Sam for lunch on campus by the duck pond. She loves her daddy! He can make her smile no matter how cranky or tired she is...

And here is our little cheese-ball. I just love her scrunched up nose. 

Football Season! Woo! (and a note on breastfeeding)

It's finally here. Football season has begun and we are so excited. BYU's first game was on Saturday and it was so much fun getting all dressed up in our football shirts, Ivy included! The game was awesome. Little bit of a rough start but we came out on top. against Ole Miss. as an independent team. yess. It's going to be a great season. College Football is so awesome.

Also, this is my first year to compete in Fantasy Football for NFL which is pretty exciting as well. Sam has done it the past few years with his brothers/wives and last year I got pretty into it with him so I decided to give it a shot this year. Although I don't have an excellent knowledge of which players are good or bad, last night were the drafts for both of our leagues and I think I have ok teams so far. We will just have to wait and see!  For some reason, we get more and more excited every year for football season and I'm sure this year won't disappoint.

In other news, I finally did it. I weaned Ivy from breastfeeding. She hasn't really been a fan even since she was a newborn and I just got sick of fighting with her every day during feedings trying to get her to eat. I tried to hold out as long as I could but I think my milk supply started to diminish in the evening time and that made things even trickier. Then one night I supplemented a little after trying to breastfeed (because I could tell she was still hungry) and she slept til 5:45 in the morning from 10 pm!(then went back to sleep til 8 ish) Hallelujah! That's when I started thinking it might be a good idea to just switch over altogether. I'm still pumping a little until my milk goes down but other than that, we are to formula now. Ivy doesn't seem to care which it is as long as it's in a bottle and not me haha. Oh well. She is close to 4 months now so I didnt think it was that big of a deal. Baby is happier, Mommy is happier, and I don't regret it one bit. :) Let's hope this little girl starts to chunk up a little! She's not anywhere near fitting into her 3-6 month clothes yet...