Christmas at The Ivies!

I love Christmas decorations! Even more so now that we have Ryan to enjoy them! I couldn't wait to get our tree up! I was determined to get everything out of the attic and put up the weekend right after Thanksgiving. Thanks to a helpful husband we did it! Our house is now festive and I think Ryan really likes it. In one weekend we got our tree up and decorated, outside lights and decor up, stockings and mantles done, and we took our family Christmas picture (thanks to our awesome photograoher Mamaw!). I even got our Christmas cards ordered. I feel like I am actually a little ahead of the game! It isn't even December 1! Now I need to start shopping. And I really need to start getting Ryan's new room ready before new baby gets here. One thing at a time.....

Ryan woke up from her nap to find the tree all decorated! She had helped me a little bit but was more interested in watching Barney than helping. Chris and I did most of it during her nap.


She was in awe! She kept saying "tee" (tree) and "oooooooh"


Our stocking are up!


The Elf on The Shelf! I can't wait for Ry to name him and look forward to finding him every morning. I am sure we will read this book 100 times before Christmas!


My newest decoration (Mom and I both made snowmen for our houses!)


I bought a beautiful new wreath for our door!


This was our Chritmas craft last year. Ryan made handprint ornaments for family!
26 days until Christmas! We are ready for Santa! Yay!
About 60 days until Baby Ivie #2- we are NOT ready! EEEEEKKKK!

Ryan's Tunes

Ryan is hooked on her children CD's. It used to be something that we would put on if she was really fussing. Now we can't get in the car and go anywhere without listening to songs about baby bumble bees, monkeys in the bed, old mcdonald had a farm......The list goes on and on. Two of her CD's have over 40 songs! It is never ending! She loves it! In between tracks when there is a 3-5 second pause she lets out a grunt to let you know she is ready for the next song to start and that we better not dare turn on our XM. Sometimes at night when I am laying in bed uncomfortable a random kid song will be on repeat in my head. It makes me wonder if I am losing it. Chris said that when he was running the other day he had a song on repeat in his head too! Chris asked me the other day if I thought Ry was old enough for headphones! Ha! Christmas IS right around the corner! Those would be a gift for everyone!

Ryan jammin in the back seat! (she has sore teeth from her molars coming in)


Chris acting out how he feels about the music!

Goodbye Bottle

I get a few months off!!! Yay for me! I had two months of no breast feeding before I started growing another human being inside me. Now I get a few months of no bottles before I get to do it all over again with the new baby! Should I even store them away???
The good news is our big girl is bottle free. Good, but kinda sad. She sure did enjoy her bottle first thing in the a.m. and right before bed. It is probably the last thing she did that falls under "baby" not "toddler". But it was time. And she was ready. At 16 months I had already gone 4 months past our pediatricians recommendations! Mamaw and Grandpa aren't quite sure about it, but I think they will adjust! We still do our normal routine in the morning and at night, which consists of laying in our bed and snuggling. We also still refer to the sippy cup as a "ba ba". And she actually holds it herself! Whoo hoo Ry!

Sink Baths and Other Fun Stuff!

We spent Sunday with the Coxes! It was a wonderful day! We hadn't seen Tauri since we visited her dorm early in the semester and we are all missing her. We had a nice long visit and Ryan had a ball! Here are the pictures from our fun day.

If you have a sore hiney Aunt "Rox" knows how to fix it- cuz she rocks! Sink bath with calomine lotion! It is also nice to have a sink the size of a baby hot tub!



Also doesn't hurt to have a sweet auntie bring you drinks while you soak! There is a reason she is Ryan's Aunt Rox!


Fun! Fun! Fun!- She stayed in there for about 30 minutes, splashing and laughing.


One of Ry's favorite activites at Unc's house is to play with Tauri's backpack of animals and toys. Tauri used to take this backpack of fun everywhere when she was little. Ryan loves to sit and take out each animal one by one and name them. She can spend hours and only get 1/3 of the way through! And the biggest surprise is that if you sing the clean up song she will actually help put them away! We are working on our own backpack collection at home. It's genius! Happy Meal toys will now have a home!


The boys played some washers! Ryan tried to play too. It was too cute. Unc let her throw a few and Ryan thought it was so fun!


Ryan and Grandpa


Ryan with her Aunt Tauri


Ryan and Mamaw


Ryan loves to run around the big backyard. Her slow mama tried to keep up with her!

Turkey Day 2010!

I am so full! It is not good to eat like I did when you are almost 8 months pregnant and barely have any room left! Ugh! But what a great day we had! I took on the task of cooking. Mom and Chris helped me a lot and Chris and Dad fried a turkey. I only had to make a meal for the 5 of us, so it wasn't too intimidating. I took on the sides and desserts this year. Everything turned out good and we all got full! Here is the menu we had:
Fried turkey
Dressing
Corn Pudding
Mac n Cheese
Green Bean Casserole
Jello Fruit Pudding
Buttermilk Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Chocolate Pie
We (Chris and I) snuck in a nap after we ate and then we laid around and watched football. It was heaven! We have a LOT to be thankful for, once again. Most of all it is that we are surrounded by our loved ones. I am so thankful that Ryan has so many people that love her and that make an effort to be a part of her life. Family is everything!

My little turkey! I want to gobble her up!


Mom and I cooking. I attempted to do everything (with a LOT of help from her!), except the turkey. I had to take a few sitting rest breaks!


Ryan was such a sweet girl all day. It was almost like she knew it was a holiday where you show the ones you love how much! She gave everyone Thanksgiving hugs!


And kisses!


The men out in the cold frying our turkey! It was so yummy!


My two favorite turkeys!


Ivie Famiy Thanksgiving 2010 - There will be four to our family soon!


Round Two eating for Ryan after her afternoon "nap". (she really just played and sang and read in her crib for 2 hours!) Chris and I took a real nap.


The Thanksgiving streaker after her bath!


We wish you and your family lots of love and laughter! Thanks for being a part of our lives! XOXO

Thanksgiving Eve 2010

This year we knew Chris was going to be off Wednesday and Thursday for Thanksgiving, so I decided to take off Wednesday too! We had such a great day hanging out together. We shopped for all of our ingredients for our Thanksgiving meal, went to Chick-fil-a (for Ryan), went to the park, hung out at Mamaw and Grandpa's and did some prep work, Chris and I baked a pie and made our sides after Ryan went to sleep, and we finished our Christmas craft! It was a great day!

It was 76 degrees so we had to go to the park- we knew a cold front was on its way!


When Chris says "I'm gonna get you" Ry runs towards him! So fun!


My sweet pea is turning into such a big girl!


Ryan thinks her Daddy is so fun (so do I!) I love watching them play.


Ryan was saying "mo side!" (more slide)


Mommy stole a kiss


Ryan loving on the baby :)




Reading her library books with Mamaw


Chris and I have started a new tradition that our kids will join in on in a few years. We have decided to make a Christmas craft every year. This year we painted a wooden advent calendar. It was really fun to do together.

Talking Turkey

Ryan is saying all kinds of words and her voice will melt your heart! She can imitate anything and actually performed for the camera today! Here are a few of her words.

This Is What I am Thankful For

We just got Ryan's Halloween pictures from our photographer. Here they are!


And below is Baby Ivie #2's most recent 4D picture.

Chris and I feel very thankful that these two babies are ours!
(I am also very thankful for Chris, just didn't have a recent "professional" picture of the guy!)

Both kids are growing fast!

Ryan is doing more cool stuff! She is imitating EVERYTHING and her vocab is really growing. Not only does she imitate, but she knows what she is saying. She can pick up things so quickly! Here are a few of her new words: uncle (at Uncle Devin), ice keen (ice cream), puppy, baby, cheese, moe (more), ba (bath and ball).
She can throw a ball, wink on command and she loves to cuddle the baby. It is the cutest thing we have ever seen. If we mention the baby (sometimes referring to it as "Mommy's baby" or "Ryan's baby") she will immediately come over to me and lay on my belly and pat and kiss it. She did bite me once, but other than that it is pure sweetness coming out of her. Chris and I still can't believe that she does this. It really seems like she knows! I can't wait to see her kiss her sibling, hopefully without the bite!
Baby Ivie #2 is growing fast too! At our sono yesterday (that we lucked out and got 4D pics) the baby measures 3 lbs 12 oz! That is big for 29 weeks! The baby put on 1 lb 6 oz in 3 weeks. Thanks to the tummy bug I didn't gain a pound! The good news is that the baby continues to grow (we are measuring 2 weeks ahead of average) and that the amniotic fluid is also what it shoud be. We got some more good pics of the sweet face and the baby was opening and closing its mouth. My blood pressure was also good, so I can continue to work. I scheduled out all of my appointments, which makes the end seem so near. I am so grateful that this pregnancy continues to go so well and that we have a big healthy baby that will soon be joining us. We have so much to be thankful for!

I just love this picture. Kendall is Ryan's friend from the Tuesday library storytime that my mom takes her to. Mom took this with her cell phone, so it isn't the greatest quality. Kendall is about a year older than Ry. I can't wait to see my kids hug each other like this! Happy Thanksgiving!

Saturday Morning Chores

Ryan is really into "helping" these days. Especially with laundry. She loves to look at her clothes and pretend to fold them. It can be very frustrating to watch her unfold all of my hard, clean work. She looks so cute doing it though, and I guess that is what I get for trying to do a chore while she is awake. So, this past weekend I let her fold clothes all she wanted (her dirty clothes basket was left in the hallway). I waited to wash it and fold it until nap time.

We had to watch a little Barney after breakfast before we got started on our chores







Here is a picture of my never ending chore. Ryan's room! She LOVES to take every book off the shelf. She actually stops and spends a few minutes reading each one. But God forbid I try to put a few away. She immediately drops whatever book she is looking at and comes right over to quickly grab the book that I just put away. She glances at a few pages and then tosses it back on the floor.

She also loves to take everything out of her dresser. Never ending!