Our Ivy girl is 10 months old already! She has changed so much since my last post and it's so amazing to watch how fast she learns things. I feel like almost every day brings something new and exciting. At 9 months she weighed 17 lbs. 8 oz. so I'm sure she is about 18 lbs. by now. Just a little thing but a ton of personality. We think she is pretty darn cute.
Ivy really interacts a ton with us these days. She is getting pretty good at imitating noises and sounds we make. Some of which, I didn't even realize I did until she started copying me (like tiny snort noise and huffs haha). She can say mama and dada pretty well now and loves to make super loud ahh's too, especially in echo-y areas haha..
Baby girl loves ducks and the quacking noises they make. She quacks (or makes some sort of noise) along with the singing ducks in her Einstein movie every single time they come on. She loves other animals too but for some reason, she just thinks ducks are so funny.
She is walking now! Not all the way but pretty close. In these pics from a couple weeks ago, she would only take a couple steps without assistance but now she will go about 7-8 steps before plopping down on her bum. Occasionally you will catch her getting ahead of herself and trying to sprint forward before face-planting. It's hilarious! Sometimes I think she is just in a hurry to grow up. If she doesn't feel like walking, she seriously speed crawls to wherever she wants to go.
Still sleeping through the night really well (except when she is sick) and takes two naps a day. She loves singing songs (will sing with daddy when he pulls out his guitar) andfinallyloves reading books on mommy's lap before bed. That one took a while to get used to because she is always on the go. But she is really into pointing at everything now which makes it so fun.
Now that the weather has been warming up (besides today, which is snowy) we have been able to spend a lot more time outside. We have been going for walks and playing at the park fairly often. Ivy loves to watch the kids play at the park and all the cars the drive by while on our walks.
She is a pretty adventurous little thing these days. Always exploring every inch of every room. She especially loves the bathroom and hates it when we close the door so she can't get in. She discovered the flush button a couple weeks ago so we decided to keep the door closed from now on. hehe. All the other rooms are fairly baby proofed so I never mind when she ventures anywhere else. If she is quiet for a minute or so, I'll go in and ask her what she found and she always has the guiltiest look on her face, drops what she's holding, and scurries away haha! It's so funny to watch..
^Ivy was in heaven when daddy let her play with the old keyboard. She is always after all the electronics, naturally.
Discovered the package of goldfish mommy accidentally left on the floor, hehe. Jackpot:
She still doesn't eat very much but has always been a pretty finicky eater and I'm sure she will be that way forever. Some of her favorite foods (when she does eat) are bananas, peaches, strawberries, canned carrots, potatoes, peas, occasionally green beans, cottage cheese (with strawberries), occasionally string cheese cut up, Spaghettios(I put veggies in them to make it a tad healthier), and we just started trying chicken and turkey (not a huge fan of either one yet).. A few things she doesn't seem to like- tortillas, bread, blueberries, eggs, or even apple juice. I know, she is so strange. I will keep trying everything though. I know her taste buds are still developing and her likes and dislikes will continue to change a lot.
We just can't get enough of this girl. I love being able to stay home and play with her all day. More than I ever thought I would. It is so much fun to help her learn and discover things every single day. I'm a little nervous for the toddler years and for her to become more strong-willed than she already is (yikes!) but I'm sure it will be a blast. Difficult, but fun.. I hope. haha.
And now for another video. I love making these. Hopefully I'll have the patience to continue to make them when we have more kids:
Last week Sam was able to fly down to Houston for a "brothers weekend" with his bro's and dad. They did all sorts of manly things like shooting, motocross biking, playing basketball 20x a day, and of course going out to eat and playing board games. I didn't hear all the details but apparently it was a big success. I'm glad Sam was able to have some fun with his brothers without any other distractions going on. Nice break from school (especially because we don't get spring break here at BYU).
Sushi date before taking daddy to the airport:
At Dad R.'s ranch:
Motocross with Jeff's bikes:
Just missing Steve who couldn't make it.. Maybe next year:
Ivy and I had plenty of fun little dates together while daddy was in Houston. Here we are about to try some Cakebites from the Sweet Tooth Fairy:
A couple weeks ago, our neighbor Katie and her baby came up to play for a little while. Ivy thought it was very interesting to have Emmalyn playing on her table with her. We don't have very many visitors that are Ivy's age so it was a nice change. She thought Emmalyn was hilarious. It was really cute to watch them together. Luckily, I was able to get a few cute pics of the two...
Sam's cousin Jenny got married the weekend after Valentine's day. It was so exciting because we are pretty close to Jenny and were so happy when she met Doug. They are perfect for each other! Their wedding was in Manti and it was fun to drive down and see this beautiful temple. Neither of us had ever been inside before. It was beautiful! A few younger cousins had also come down and were able to watch Ivy for us during the ceremony. We were so grateful for that. Thanks Breanna! Sam's mom also flew in the day before to come with us and it was fun to have her for a short visit. Anyways, Jenny looked absolutely beautiful! I'm so glad we were able to go! Congrats Jenny and Doug!
At the luncheon:
(no I did not wear just white to a wedding, haha.. I had a blue dress on under my sweater.. in case you were wondering)
In the past, Valentine's Day for us has often been trumped by something else going on that day such as a funeral, wedding, etc. Therefore, it was so fun to actually be able to celebrate the holiday on the day itself. It was especially nice to wake up to roses from my sweetheart as well as very cute and creative valentines for both Ivy and me (I gave him his gift later on that day and he loved it). Sam was so sweet to come up with something thoughtful for each of us and even had breakfast planned at Ihop considering we were going out with a couple people for his work later that evening.. Can't complain though. They chose to go to Cafe Rio and it turned out to be the perfect place. We had a lot of fun. Here's to a great Valentine's Day! Sort of the first one ever for us since being married. haha..
Sam said he wanted to get me a "new Max" because my floors keep getting dirtier now that we don't have Max around to clean things up anymore, lol. He is so thoughtful! I love it! And he got Ivy a fun musical table that she absolutely loves and plays on every single day. What an awesome daddy:
Yummy breakfast at Ihop:
My gift to Sam.. We write on it fairly often and it has been so fun lately:
So I've been growing my hair out for a few years now. It's finally getting to a length that I am happy with but lately I have felt like I needed a change. I'm not ready to chop it quite yet so I decided to color it. At first I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go lighter (maybe the new "ombre" look) or darker but in the end, I chose darker with a hint of red. Sam's cousin Lisa did it and I LOVE it. It's not a huge difference but it's enough to satisfy my boredom and make me feel like my color isn't so blah anymore. Lisa always does such an amazing job with my hair. I don't know what I am going to do when we leave and won't have her anymore.
More posts coming soon! Valentine's day, a wedding, and more!
The weekend before Valentine's Day, Sam got us tickets to go to BYU's annual Big Band Night with Christa and Andy! I've heard about the event and even had friends sing in it in the past so I was super excited that Sam was wanting to go this year. We even got a babysitter (which we hardly ever actually do, haha)! The event was a flashback to the 1940's complete with dinner, dancing, and live music with performers and an actual big band. Some good friends of ours, Scott and Michelle (who also supplied us with some of out costume attire, thanks guys!) were performing so it was super fun to be able to hear them sing all night long! They were amazing, of course. :) It was the most fun date we've had in a long time and I'm so glad we were able to go. We dressed up and danced the night away in a good ol' fashion canteen from the 40's. Loved it!
Waiting to get in the doors.. Sam was super hyper. I think he was excited to have a babysitter and get out for once, hehe:
These past few months have been pretty fun with my neighbor Katie. It all started when we figured out we both like getting together making bows and flowers for our baby girls. Then we decided to make cute little Thanksgiving onesies (pictured here). We would go in together to split the cost of ribbon, fabric, etc. to keep things pretty cheap. Anyways, we tend to just share whatever stuff we have on hand and it has really seemed to work out whenever we feel like getting crafty, hehe.
I was excited when she had some of this leftover snowman fabric from a blanket she had made. I decided to go buy a small section of hot pink fabric from Hobby Lobby (our favorite store) and made Ivy a little car blanket to take on her lap when we go places. I thought it turned out pretty darn cute!
So I had some pink fabric leftover from that blanket. I also had some brown minky fabric and ribbon leftover from our craft back in November so I decided to get creative and make a little taggy lovey (mini blanket) for Ivy (there was enough fabric for Katie to make a little one for her baby too, which was fun). I just cut everything out, hot glued the ribbons in place and had my friend Christa help me sew the edges later on that night. Ok lets be honest. She sewed the whole thing haha! Doing little projects like this make me wish I had a sewing machine of my own. Can't say Ivy absolutely loves it but she has never been one to get attached to blankies or anything. Oh well. She still plays with it from time to time. :)
Ivy's binky clip ribbon started getting really gross so I grabbed some extra ribbon I had and stitched it to the clip. I love this size of ribbon so much better than any of the thick stiff ones I've seen in the stores...
And my biggest/most expensive project to date has been these letter boards for Ivy's room. I got the idea from a post on pinterest and modified it to what I preferred. I didn't mind spending a little bit of $ considering I hadn't dont any sort of decorations for Ivy's room and most of my crafts so far had been pretty dirt cheap. Anyways, I just LOVE how it turned out. I know the fabric in the middle looks a little red in the photos but it is a bright watermelon pink and matches the bedding perfectly:
And finally, just a little craft I did for Valentine's day (and surprisingly VERY cheap). This was actually my gift to Sam. Another idea from pinterest and I love it! Sam really likes it too. We've already written some sweet/funny things on there. It's been super fun so far.
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