Happy half birthday to Ivy! (long post)

Baby girl is now a whopping 6 months old as of Wednesday! To celebrate, we graduated to the Level 3 bottle nipples and tried some peaches with our rice cereal for the first time, haha.. She must be like her mom because she absolutely loved those peaches. 

Here are her stats because I've been kinda bad about recording it in the past. We just went to the dr. yesterday so it's still fresh in my mind:

Height: 251/2 in. (42 percentile)

Weight: 15 lb. 8 oz. (41 percentile)

Head: (I don't remember the measurement but it was 43 percentile)

So we know she is growing! Hooray! She sure is starting to chunk out in all the right places and I love it. There is just something so darn cute about chubby baby thighs that are so fun to squeeze and tickle. 

I think it's getting kinda funny how often I say "gosh, I just love the age Ivy is at!" I think say it every time she turns a month older and this time is no different. It's just so fun to watch her grow and develop so I find myself loving each new stage. I don't think I'm one of those mom's who wants her to stay little forever or who doesn't want her to get bigger too fast. I find that the older she gets, the more fun she becomes! I love to see how her little personality develops more each and every day. 

I guess the biggest news is that she is FINALLY starting to be pretty consistent with the nighttime now. She goes to bed around 7:30 pm and will sleep til about 7 or 7:30 am (usually only waking up in the night for her binky or bc she rolled to a corner and got stuck haha). YES. best. age. ever. And I hear it only gets better from here. Now we just gotta work on her finding her own binky in the night and we are set! LOL.. I usually don't mind waking up to help her though, as long as she just rolls over and goes back to sleep so I can go back to bed, we are usually both happy people. :)

So I've always thought she was going to be quite a little social bug.. but just lately, when a stranger (to her) holds her, she has started looking back at us and gets the saddest little frown you've ever seen. Then starts to wimper and cry a little. She doesn't do it every time, but when she does, it's actually sort of hilarious to us (I know, we are mean) but only because she hasn't really been like that in the past. I'm sure it's just a phase that she will grow out of..

Ivy is a mover. Always has been. Scooting on her back, tummy, rolling everywhere.. If you can't tell from the pictures, she manages to find herself in the most interesting places. Not sure how she managed the office chair one haha. The funniest is when she scoots or rolls to the kitchen floor. She is mesmerized by the feeling of it and the sound it makes when she kicks it, that she will end up laying there for like 20 mins or so. It's funny to watch her explore. I love playing with her but she is such an explorer that it is almost just more fun to watch her play and discover things on her own. She is a pretty independent little person already.

Ivy is really discovering her voice these days. She has become quite the talker/loud screecher lately, lol.. Sometimes I will think she is upset or something but then I'll turn around to see that she's just looking around, grabbing her toes, and screeching haha. Other times she'll go on and on with a repeated ahh's like she know's exactly what she is saying and has to tell us everything.

Not only has she been discovering her loudness but also the different sounds she can make. The most recent ones are making funny sounds while breathing through her nose (you'll see that one in the video below) and spitting with her lips. This particular one is especially enjoyable when she is sitting on my lap facing me and decides to just go for it. I end up covered in slobber within seconds haha.. Let's just say I've gotten used to that feeling...

There are many reason's why I love this age. I love that Ivy wakes up in the mornings and from naps just talking away in her crib until I get her out. And how her face lights up when I walk into the room. That she finally laughs when we tickle her. How her own funny personality is starting to show. I just know she is going to be one funny kid..

Here she is, pushing dad out of the way so she can check her email. or stocks on etrade. or something. lol!

AND FINALLY, the video you've all been waiting for (might have to click on the title link to watch it full screen):

Sam's Birthday! (and some fall pics)

November 5th was Sam's 26th birthday! Man we are getting old! ;) Sam has really gotten into running lately so Mom Robinson and I decided to get him some good running shoes, especially considering he has just been using his basketball shoes all this time. Sam and I went to the Runner's Corner where they watch you run and tell you what kind of shoes you need according to your run (and even let you test them out outside around their store). It came down to these shoes and some RED ones. Considering red is the color of UofU, Sam said he could never buy those (they didn't come in a different color, lol) and chose the blue ones instead! haha! Anyways, I went back and got them a few days later for his birthday. Don't you just love his surprised look in the picture? He had no idea! ;) On his actual birthday, Joe and Emily had us over and even bought Sam a German chocolate cake. Yum! (oh and I did make him a cake of his choice the next day, too. he wanted a better than sex cake and I did not complain one bit. I think it has turned into both our favorites..) 

Sam decided that since it was his birthday, he could wear whatever he wanted, so he chose his Hawaiian Tommy Bahama shirt. What a stud. ;) Happy Birthday Babe! Thanks for everything you do for us! Especially how much you make us smile and laugh everyday! Love you!

Just wanted to include a few pics from our walk a couple weeks ago. Fall is certainly here!

There's no place like home.

Sam and I aren't your typical dressing-up sort of people when it comes to Halloween. That's why it's so much more fun now that we have a baby to dress up instead! hehe.. Ivy was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and it was sort of destined to happen, I think. She got the dress as a gift during the summer but it was a bit big until just the past couple months (Ivy has always been a little petite). From the moment I saw the dress, it was all I could think about, that it was such a perfect Dorothy dress. So for Halloween, I decided if I could find some decent priced shoes to match, that she would be Dorothy. Then, low and behold, for $3 at a shop here called Kid to Kid, I found some gently used red velvet shoes that would be so easy to paint with red glitter glue. It was awesome how everything just fell right into place. and she was the cutest Dorothy in the world. But I guess I am a little biased. ;)
(btw, did you spot "Toto" in the first pic at the top? lol! I would have taken some with him but he was a little too hyper right then)

Sorry it's sort of a picture overload, I just couldn't leave any out because she looked so gosh darn cute in her costume! hehe.. Anywho, since Ivy is a bit young for trick-or-treating, my neighbor Katie and I decided to take our baby girls out to the park in their costumes (we have to go somehwhere, right?) This was Ivy's first time on the swing and she was LOVING it. The picture you see is of her smiling so big that it almost looks like she is crying haha! Katie's little girl Emmalyn was a ladybug. She was so cute! After the swings we let the girls play in the leaves a little. Emmalyn just loved the leaves but Ivy wasn't a big fan, lol.. No worries though, at least we got a few cute pictures..

Mom's visit

Last week my mom came out to visit for a few days and it was so nice to have her in town. I'm know Ivy appreciated having a different play buddy around than just boring ol' mom or dad, too. ;) She just loved her Mema and had so much fun with her every day. She even loved her enough to eat rice cereal for her! successfully! lol. All she needed was one little lesson from Mema on how to swallow it and now she is a pro! Thanks mom! hehe.. We were also able to visit some close family and friends while my mom was here, which was nice..

Ivy sitting with with Aunt Susan at lunch.. 

While my mom was here Sam and I were able to go out on an actual date. alone. for the first time ever. I'm not sure why we've never done it before. I think it's just a combination of not wanting to find a babysitter and Ivy still being pretty well behaved where ever we do take her with us (which is starting to change I think, lol). In either case, I do think this event was long overdue and we were so grateful to be able to have a night to ourselves. I didn't even have any feelings of anxiety while being away from Ivy, maybe it's just because she is a little older now. We went out to eat and then to Color Me Mine (pottery place). We were thinking of going to a late dollar movie afterwards but we ended up staying there allllll evening (mainly so Sam could finish his mural, hehe). It was so fun! We painted mugs so we have something to drink our hot chocolate in this coming winter. It was also nice to hear that Ivy did just fine with my mom so maybe we will have to do this more often in the future. Thanks mom! 

Halloween pictures coming soon!

BYU Football Game

I know this is just a tad late but a good friend of ours gave us their tickets to the BYU football game vs. Idaho St. a couple weeks ago because they weren't able to go. Lucky us! And thanks Andy! ;) It was Ivy's first live football game and probably her last one for a while considering this is our last year here, lol.. We had so much fun together and Ivy was such a good girl just sitting and watching, or sucking on her toys (or cup!) the whole time. We were able to stay for the entire first half before it was about time we headed home to put our worn out baby down for a nap.. Not to worry though- BYU creamed 'em just as bad, if not worse, during the second half as they did in the first half.. so we didn't miss much, hehe..

We got a Powerade and I let Ivy try the straw. She didn't know what to do with that so we started to take it away. That's when she reached for cup and started sucking on the side.... and wouldn't let go, lol: