My sister & I teamed up to get some newborn pictures of Ivy when she was about 10 days old.

She had a hard time with jaundice & despite my editing efforts, this poor little girl still looks like a little Dorito!

I love this baby & have loved every second, step & beginning phase with her.

I am so blessed!

10 days old

3 weeks old

Noted.

Life lately has been a little crazy. I feel like the past 2 months have flown by. Two months ago from last Thursday I was put on bed rest. This coming up Thursday is 8 weeks since Ivy was born. It is pretty crazy to think about the past little bit of time. She is such a sweet-natured and patient baby. Lucky for me!

I feel like it has been a blur. Ivy was born, then we had to pack up our whole life out west. & then we moved back to TN & since then Weston has been job hunting & car hunting & I've been trying to unpack, etc, etc, etc. The days go by so fast! Ivy is so much fun & really showing her personality. She's the sweetest. & so funny. She loves to talk & smile. She even mimicks my sounds sometimes. It's adorable, really.

 I try really hard to do all the best things for her! I am also so lucky to have such an incredible husband, who is so supportive & helps me in the morning wake ups after I've done the middle of the night shift. I sure love him & her. I am also so lucky to have such supportive parents. We are living with them as of right now. My mom is so sweet & helps me with Ivy if I am needing like 20 extra hands. My dad is awesome & helping Weston car hunt & networking to find a job.  My grandmother is such a sweetie, too, & helps by lending an extra hand to hold Ivy. & my littlest brother Chase, who is actually 6'4.5" is a champion. He's such a helpful kid. Seriously sweet. He spent Christmas in Utah without a complain, because my parents wanted to help us get everything moved. It was all so priceless to have the help & support. Though, they weren't the ones that dragged me back to TN, I am drawn to want to be around them, because I love them so much & enjoy spending time with them! My familly is so great!  I'm missing my sister Danielle like crazy, this is the first time we've lived apart except for my senior year of high school when she was away for college. I miss her. & my little brother, Spencer, is in Mexico serving a mission. I miss him so bad! He gets home in May, though & I'm counting down!

How embarrassing. We didn't read the instructions and did them wrong. Is that even possible?

"GET IN MY BELLY!"

(**disclaimer, it is 1:1 apple juice: water bottle. She is very constipated from the soy formula & after a couple weeks of horrible constipation, he recommended this remedy. It helped a ton.)

Eagle's nest.

On the 4 of January, my youngest baby brother had his court if honor (only a year after he  earned his eagle award!) I am so proud of you, Chase!

Someone did not get cold.

We had a horrible "arctic blast" come through Tennessee & it was disgustingly cold. Colder than I have ever seen it ever here. Well, one of those nights we had to go outside to get to Chase's Court of Honor!

I was so happy we had Ivy's "Bring home from the hospital" outfit to wear to keep her warm! That girl didn't freeze in the slightest. She was a happy camper. I loved being able to show her to some of the people I love that helped raise me!

I love living back here again.

My awesome parents!

 Ivy had a good time celebrating afterward at a family favorite, Garcia's.

(A picture WITH Chase is coming)

My mom watched Ivy tonight so we could go out together. It was so nice and so fun to have uninterupted time together!

We went to eat at Oscars. It is one of my favorite places to eat in Franklin. My brother introduced us to it! He was in love with it and is friends with Oscar. I've missed Spence while he's been in Mexico.

We went to the movies too. This time without Ivy! She's gone to 2 movies already! Hah!

It was my second time seeing Frozen and I loved it all over again! Weston was not thrilled to see it, but love, love, loved it also.  We both give it 2 thumbs up!

Feets.

Seriously? I love those feet. I take 1,457 pictures of them weekly.

"Hey, Ralphie!"

Have you ever seen A Christmas Story?

A giant thank you!

The print I made for the doctors & nurses that cared for Ivy!

7 weeks ago.

I'm reminiscing.

This was about 6 hours before Ivy was born.

Holy huge pregnant lady.

Wow, I'm so happy she's here for SO many reasons!

Christmas in Bicknell

After our never ending packing job for our apartment. We drove our little loaded down care down to Bicknell to Weston's parent's house for Christmas!

Oh look, it's a Christmas themed Ivy blog post!

She's my favorite.

I take a lot of pictures of her. And she's pretty much my main focus of everything. Including this blog, apparently! I hope you enjoy!

Weston finally started feeling better after another huge sinus infection.

He was happy to be able to be around & hold Ivy again. He stayed distant while he was sick.

Weston's grandpa checkin out the first great grandbaby!

This face is too precious. This is her tiny little frowny face she makes when she is hungry.

Aunt Tasha getting lots of Ivy time!

Ivy loved hanging out with Tasha's puppy!

Just kidding. They were both sleeping so we stuck them together on the chair.

Her puppy is so cute, though. Ah, I love dogs.

We took family pictures on Christmas day.

Isn't she so precious.

I love this baby so much!

Again... so sad. I just want to kiss those cheeks!

Grandma Joanie got lots of fun Ivy time & soaked it up!

On Christmas we got to Skype w/ Spence in Mexico! I wasn't able to see any pictures & he wasn't able to see Ivy, either. But it was so good talking to him! This is what she did while we talked!

& this...

& this...

We played a lot of games & while we played Ivy slept.

That little rocking napper my coworker gave me has been the MVP of babyhood, as my mom says.

Seriously, it weighs about 2 pounds so I can carry it anywhere. It folds up flat. It vibrates. It cradles. It rocks. & Ivy LOVES it. Seriously. It's all she's ever slept on...well besides a luggage rack & a flat bed.

She started smiling more. Oh, I love that smile.

We love our Christmas present!

Aunt Kellie with Ivy while the rest of us played Ticket to Ride.

We had a great time being in Bicknell for Christmas! I sure enjoy spending time with Weston's family!

Weston, BS

Congratulations to my graduate!

Weston graduated with his Bachelors degree in December!

I'm so proud of him!

Packing.... FOREVER.

We SURVIVED.

Wow, we survived.

Monday morning the week before Christmas we started packing. My mom & I started. She was the most priceless help. Ah.
We packed for 2 days straight while Weston was taking his finals. His last finals of his under-grad degree. Hallelujah!
Then Tuesday night Weston started helping us pack, too. It was so good to have his help! I was mostly wasted from being up at night with Ivy.
We got it packed up. The ward came & helped us load our truck. After we actually got the truck. That was hang-up after hang-up. It was a nightmare. But we got it loaded & we left for Weston's parents house on Friday morning before Christmas. Then we stayed there through Christmas & left the next morning for our move!  I'll write about Christmas later!

We said our sad goodbyes to Weston's family & got an hour on the road & our car broke down.  As in it REALLY broke down. Our axle broke. So, there we sat in a national park with no cell service at 8am the day after Christmas. We couldn't get cell service to call 9-1-1 & the first car to drive by 10 minutes after drove right past Weston frantically waving his arms. We just needed them to call his dad once they got to cell reception area.

So, just picture this. I pulled Ivy out of her car seat so she wouldn't feel cramped in it while we weren't driving. I'm bawling. Weston is under the hood and body of the car trying to figure out our issue.  He finally decided to run up the mountain next to us to the peak for cell service. I'm freaking out thinking he's going to fall off the ridge & then I'd have a baby & a maimed husband laying at the foot on the other side of this mountain. I just wanted to curl in a ball and go to sleep. BUT he got cell service, called 9-1-1 who radioed his dad (he's a highway patrolman.) Weston's family came & got us with a trailer & loaded our broken car onto it. 

My parents were meeting us about 2 hours away with our moving truck & we already had a car hauling trailer because we were planning on towing our car home anyway, because my parents had another car.

It was the most horrible & eventful start to a move I could have drummed up. It was so nice of his family to come rescue us & so nice of my parents to first of all come out to help us move & spend Christmas away from home in order to help us move. Not to mention my mom who broke her back to get us packed & ready to move. She's amazing.

It has been a crazy month to say the very least.

One that I never want to repeat again, except for all the sweet moments with Ivy. She's the most incredible baby & I am head over heels

The packing was exhausting & the first 3 weeks of her life she slept for 5 or 6 hour stretches at night...(Lucky, I know) & then when packing week began she suddenly switched her days & nights... but it ended up being a total bonus, because she slept all day while we packed. Except I was a waste of space, because I was so tired & overwhelmed.

New year!

It's what all the cool kids are doing, right?