I love this little one so much! She is so curious and loves reading books! My mom read to us all the time growing up and so nightly book reads are a treasured part of my childhood. I am excited to pass that joy onto my babies!

Our Little Valentine!

We made Valentine's this year for my brother on a church mission in Mexico.

 

& then Weston & I mailed a few of these out as well.

We LOVE Baths!

Seriously, guys. I can't get over how cute she is. Or how much she loves bath time. & how much I love bath time. There were 2 baths today...

Simply because I didn't know what to do with her, because we were both tired & the smaller one wouldn't nap..eh hem.

So we defaulted to bath time! It was so fun! She can splash in the tub for a good 40 minutes before wanting to get out. I just add cups of water to keep it warm every so often! AWESOME!

Yesterday we went out on the town.

Nashville was calling our name.
So was an information meeting at a local PA school.

We made it a family affair.

Ivy was SUCH a good sport from the get go.

After I got her ready, she just sat and admired her shoes the whole time I was getting ready.

Two thumbs up to you, Ivy Jane!

We had lots of trunk diaper changes

       

Why so tense?

Lots of close time with Daddy, too!

Her & I both love having him around!

When we got home we were all wiped. But Ivy had another activity on the brain.

We've been gifted a lot of books from Nana, Jenna, Jen, Diana, Ali & some others that I've collected.

We heart reading!

That was our weekend!

It was a fun Saturday & Ivy slept through the whole meeting. Score. Best baby ever.

True life: My baby woke up at 4am.

Yeah, my baby slept through the whole night at 10 weeks and has every night since... Until last night.

I'm spoiled & wanted to roll over when I heard her crying for a while... We had a big day yesterday and were gone from the house from 9-5! That was a big deal! We were both wiped but she did a takeout bedtime last night where she slept for an hour and then woke up for a few.... Well guess who woke back up at 4?

This girl!

For those of you who are not familiar, I have compiled this handy step by step pictogram of how this goes.

The four stages of a premature wake up.

1. THIS IS SO FUN!! I'M SUPPOSED TO BE ASLEEP!

2. Mom, I really just want to chat.

3. But seriously, what time is it?

4. I guess I am kind of tired, so I'll just tip forward instead of sitting up.

There you have it! A dad, a bottle, a diaper, Edelweiss, and an hour later she was back tucked in bed all snugly

A New Kind of Friday Night

Once upon a time I loved going out on Friday nights.

Now, I am in my dreamland catching my blog up to speed.

Nerd-tastic!

For real, I got the baby to bed by 8.

HAPPPPPPPY DAY.

Weston is working the night shift & Ivy is passed out listening to perfect ocean waves & dreaming of St. Augustine. One day, little one.

It is so quiet. I'd go to sleep, but then I'd miss soaking this in. 

& you'd obviously miss reading my completely interesting blog.

Happy 3 months!

This little toot is 3 months old today!

Even though this picture doesn't show it, she is SUCH a happy & smiley baby. I feel SO blessed to not only get our sweet baby, get her here safely, but to have such a happy little one.

I know that, because one of my brother's, eh hem Spence,  cried until he was 3. Literally. (Come to find out later he had horrible food allergies, poor kid)

I think back on the day Ivy was born & how so very happy I am that modern medicine exists. Because she was breech we were supposed to have a scheduled c-section. Because she wasn't moving much & I had horribly high blood pressure, we had an emergency c-section a couple days before our scheduled one.

She hadn't been moving very well for weeks. But her heartrate was always ok, so she stayed inside baking longer. She had her umbilical wrapped around her neck 4 times.

If c-sections didn't exist she & I would have both died in labor.

She's a miracle in so many different ways!

Happy 3 months Ivy!

Not only is Ivy 3 months into life, this boy gets HOME in 3 months.

This marks the halfway point between her birth & his return after 2 years.

I miss my baby brother so much.

COME BACK FAST, SPENCE!

Mexico, enjoy him for 3 more months (+ or - a few days), because after that I get him!

I love reading Spencer's weekly e-mails & hearing about all the great people he is meeting & teaching in Mexico.

Want to know more about what he's teaching? Go HERE. 

Mom of the Year

Last week Ivy went through a growth spurt.

I know this, because our happy, awesome sleeper was a eating, cranky, non-sleeping machine.

Plus her clothes didn't fit her overnight.

We did a lot of bouncing, singing, swaying, silly faces, talking, laughing, and crying.

I was so tired & used my favorite tools to play mom for me.

One of them is my Ergobaby carrier.

THIS THING SAVES MY SANITY.

Some days it's the only way I can get anything done, or the only thing that will get her to sleep!

One night after trying to get her to bed for hours, I laid her up in front of a movie in my room, because she loves watching the tv lights. So, I figured she could fall asleep that way so I could fall asleep....

but she looked like this.

I turned the movie off & propped a bottle to get her to eat herself to sleep.

True love and sacrifice right there.

Well, we must have both fallen asleep, because I woke up the next morning.... when I looked over to pull the bottle off her, the bottle was full of dry formula. I fed her the dry bottle of powder instead of the bottle I made.

Where's my MOTY trophy?

A Night Out

Tonight my awesome mom offered to watch Ivy while we went on a date! Oh it was so fun to spend time with Weston!

Thank you mom!

We went to The factory for a crafty evening at Third Coast Clay. Ah, if I had my own house right now I'd be filling it with tons of hand painted pottery. Basically, it's a good thing we don't have our own house right now! Thank you mom and dad for giving us a nice roof over our heads right now!!

I discovered a new side of my husband... Or my husband discovered a new side of himself.

I like to call it the "takes arts and crafts very serious" side of himself. I will post more info about Weston's other crafting experiences later.

A little pottery selfie

Measuring, because a "to scale" practice is necessary.

His finished product. How cute is that? He now has his own bedside table coaster.

The grand finale of our date is called the "take shelter, you are in extreme iminent danger" portion. 

There were storm warnings for tonight. We went on our date. When we left The Factory it wasn't even raining. By the time we got to costco it was drizzling and  lightning/thunder. When we got to Backyard Burger for dinner, it was thunder storming. When we ran up to the counter with our food that had just been delivered and asked for it to be bagged so we could leave, it was raining sheets and the tornado sirens were on. We ran to the car and started driving home. We made it out of the parking lot and pulled into hhgregg and ran inside soaking wet and asked where we could find shelter. They looked at us like we were crazy. So we helped ourselves back to the employee only area and stayed in the stairwell till the tornado sirens ceased. Then we drove home. While we kept getting nws texts and alerts about extreme iminent danger in Fanklin and to take shelter immediately. Trees were down on Del Rio so we had to go backwards. But we finally made it home safe. It's official, I've been given the real deal welcome back to Tennessee!

Since day one her favorite sleep position is called: "The Face Plant."

#noairdontcare

I love this baby.

Sometimes a little caffeine does a whole lot of good.

Diet Dr. Pepper is my anti-drug.

This girl can splash a place soaking wet faster than Ariel, & she totally has a fin. 

Bath time is always happy time.

My favorite time. Don't mind my half dressed child. Half dressed as in her arms are in the sleeper.

EMPLOYED!

I am so proud of Wes! When we moved to TN he started the job hunt. He was able to network with a lot of the people we know here & given a lot of info about available jobs! Thank you all who helped him!

Wes was interviewed by a lot of agencies and offered a lot of jobs.

Seriously, how lucky are we?

We got to CHOOSE which job/benefits were best for our family.

What a blessing. Especially because Weston is also going to school doing pre-req courses.

Busy boy!

I am so blessed to have a hubby who is hard working & also gets along so well with people!

Weston accepted the position as a paramedic in downtown Nashville. 

He is so excited & I am so proud!

Way to go, Wes!

A Tuesday Night

Nap Attack

I know I've posted lots of pictures of her sleeping... but it's pretty much the only time I have the ability to go grab my good camera & snap pictures of her casually.

I love this sweet smiling sleeper.