This year, fall was a little different here in TN.. The leaves took quite a bit longer to turn and then it seemed like once they were finally colorful, they only lasted a few days! I remember the leaves being far more vibrant for much longer last year. Oh well.. At least we were able to enjoy those few days of color on a trip down to visit Kristin and Neal in Alabama. But first, just wanted to post a few random pics from the past month or so that fit in to the fall theme..
The spiders were generous enough to decorate for Halloween back in October...
Enjoying a date together at a local BBQ place.. It closes every winter so we were sure to stop by for their finger-licking ribs before time was up:
This season, Sam and a bunch of his buddies formed an intramural football team. They even ordered jerseys and everything! I guess it paid off because so far, they've been unstoppable! It's been fun watching the games. They are pretty legit. ;)
A couple snapshots taken around our parts... before we headed down to Alabama:
Finally reunited with my lovely sister! She is about 23(?) weeks along in this photo with her 5th! Expecting a girl. :) So excited that our baby boy will have a cousin close in age. The next few photos was at Millie's swim meet. So much fun! Millie was awesome! And Ivy loved watching the kids swim in the water:
Aaand the main reason we went down for a visit was for Sam to be a pacer and crew for my bro-in-law Neal (in the middle) while he runs his (2nd!) 100 mile race! Needless to say, things didn't go quite as planned as Neal came down with a terrrrrrible stomach flu early on in the race but he still ran 30 miles of it! That's more than a marathon....while sick. He's crazy. Haha! So they ended up coming home early but it was still a fun weekend, regardless. And totally worth the trip. Sam was grateful to see how they did things in the longer runs so that he could be better prepared for his 50K that was the weekend following. That post, up next! :)
Lastly, just wanted to include the only two decent photos I took with my nice camera the entire weekend. We were just having too much fun! Someone tell this girl to stop growing up!
We started off the festivities with painting a mini pumpkin with puff paint a week or two before Halloween. Didn't get a chance to grab a big pumpkin for carving but this was enough to satisfy our pumpkin decorating itch! And turned out super cute, if you ask me... Ivy loved how sparkly and fun the paint was.
The next part of our festivities was our ward Fall Harvest party down the road a ways (complete with good ol' outhouse as our bathroom)... They had a horse for petting, hay bail maze, bonfire, zipline, hayrides, chili and hot chocolate for dinner, and finished off the evening with a make-shift trick or treat line for the kids. Since our church building is being remodeled, we didn't really have a decent parking lot to do the traditional trunk or treat but this was just as fun! The most country style Halloween I've ever been a part of, hehe:
Ashley and Ryan, some good friends of ours had the best costumes! And Sam thought it was only appropriate that he went as Daniel Boone, haha:
The last part of our festivities was on the morning of Halloween. Snapped a few cute shots of my pretty girl in her butterfly costume and then headed out... Our library put on the cutest party for our toddler time group and it was definitely the highlight of our week. Ivy had a blast with all the treats and fun craft they had prepared.. Afterwards she kept saying, "library, so fun!"
Listening to Miss Cindy read her fun Halloween books:
I actually had to teach the evening of halloween until about 5:30 and by the time all was said and done, we were pretty worn out from the day and decided to forgo trick or treating. Lame, I know but Ivy kept begging to paint and we already had our fair share of treats from the whole week. It worked out for the best for everyone. ;) Ivy isn't quite old enough to know the difference and was very satisfied with her Mickey Mouse picture. We'll see about next year! haha:
It's finally starting to sink in that a little boy will be joining our bunch here in a few weeks. My friends threw me a baby shower a couple weekends ago and everything turned out awesome!! I am very blessed to have the most amazing friends here in the area. There are quite a few of us in the "student wives" group and we have all gotten pretty close over these past months/year.
With the gorgeous hosts, Amanda and Diana. These girls mean a ton to me. I feel very lucky to have them in my life and for how much fun we've had getting to know each other over this past year. Love you two so much! (Oh and I swear there is a belly under my shirt. For some reason I chose a rather loose top that day, lol)
The set up... I thought the yogurt bar was such a great idea! And delicious. (also note the chocolate milk per my request, haha. Definitely a pregnancy craving):
Navy blue/white m&m's as the favors:
Lovely friends!
Jennifer (far right in this next pic) is my voice student. She was actually the only non-student spouse there but she had no problem fitting in with the girls. :) I was so happy that she was able to come:
The whole gang (minus a few that came later)! I just love all of these girls! Each one of them is super special to me and it has been amazing getting to know all of them and to have such a great support group while living here.. I'll never forget the love and support they have shown my little family. Awesome, awesome women.
Our baby girl is 2 1/2 this coming month and she has really grown up these past few months.. Just wanted to do a fun update on her with some videos..
I guess the biggest update is she is finally over her social anxieties that she had back when she was two and all through the summer. She no longer gets nervous or upset around a lot of people or unfamiliar places. I think the time we realized she was finally growing out of it was back in September when we took her to the very busy county fair.. I was a little hesitant on how she would do but she absolutely LOVED every bit of it. From that time on, we never worried about taking her places.
She loves all things crafty, including crayons or pencils, watercolors, and play-do. Other favorite toys right now include books, her little people, stuffed animals, dress up jewelry, her car and bumblebee, and the past few weeks- her halloween pumpkin, lol.. She also loves singing with the radio and songs at home- ABC's, I am a child of God, Bushel and a Peck, do as I'm doing, Ivy come out and play with me..
Ivy really is the biggest goofball and such a tease. The other day, I got her out of bed and she ran off into our bedroom, I wandered off to the kitchen and Sam got out of the shower and was in our bedroom.. He said he had no idea she was in there until he heard a giggle come from our covers. She had hid under there and was completely quiet until after she knew he was there. It was hilarious. She loves silly faces and being completely obnoxious with friends her age, growling like a monster or laughing hysterically at nothing at all. Gotta love this age.
She's always been an independent girl and that has not changed. Loves to put her own shoes on, eat with her own silverware, even asks for napkins when something spills so she can wipe it up. Tries to put on her own clothes (and take them off, haha).. She also follows directions fairly well and can be reasoned with when she gets upset about things, most of the time... Her stubbornness does come out every now and again but let's hope she keeps her easy going personality a while longer (we'll see what 3 is like, haha)...
She's really become a great talker. putting more words together every single day. Most of her phrases are actual sentences now. And it's adorable to hear her really try to pronounce words correctly. For a while "store" and "door" sounded the same but now she tries really hard to say "ssssstore" when she is telling me she wants to go somewhere.
Last month a good friend started teaching gymnastics to some toddlers in the area and Ivy has been loving it! She catches on pretty quick to the things Miss Jill teaches. Her attention span starts to wane after 20 minutes and she starts to get restless but as far as ability and coordination goes, she keeps up pretty well with the 3 year olds. And it's just so darn adorable to watch.
Here she is practicing her straddles and tucks.. Short but I thought it was cute to see what the class is like. Oh and she's the one copying everything Jill is saying, it's hilarious:
These last two show her cute little personality.. In this one she is singing the "clean up" song (randomly while playing with blocks, lol). Her phrase "help you" is what she says when she wants me to help her with something.. most of the time she figures things out though:
This last one is my favorite. I had no idea she even knew numbers 11 and 12 until the day before this video. Not sure where she picked it up but it totally cracks me up:
Other facts:
-no potty training yet! I can tell she's not ready so I'm not going to push anything until after this baby comes. She likes to sit on the potty but hasn't quite gotten the concept of why we sit on it yet. haha
-loves playing instruments or pretending objects are instruments. Also loves when we play the piano for her. I guess this combined with her obsession for Little Einsteins makes it fairly obvious we are raising a little music nerd, hehe.. it was inevitable.
-favorite color is most definitely green.
-very aware of emotions lately. describes things like "happy spider"or being scared, or a crying baby
-recently was gifted a wonderful glider rocking chair and it has made bedtime so much easier/ way more enjoyable. Never ever cries at bedtime since we've had it.
-still a picky eater but not much of an issue anymore. I just rotate the meals I know she will eat and throw in some random stuff from and every now and then she'll give things a try but wont eat it.
I can't wait for Ivy to become a big sister. I'm fairly positive she will be great with her baby brother and will love him. I've never seen her become jealous or possessive of me or Sam and I think she'll love being able to help out when he's finally here. I'm staying realistic and not forgetting that patience will run thin from time to time, or even lots of times, lol.. but I am excited to see how she grows as our family grows.
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