Happy Halloween

Halloween was even more fun with two little ones to dress up.  Mattilee changed her mind daily about what she would like to be for halloween. So I thought I could get away with picking out her costume this year.  I'm sure next year she will be much more opinionated.  I saw these adorable costumes a year or so ago and thought how I would love to dress my girl/girls in them.  I kept watching amazon and ebay until I could find a price I wanted to pay and ordered Mattilee the pink poodle costume and Ivey Kate the pink piggy.  They both loved them! I was afraid Ivey Kate wouldn't leave her pig hood on but she loved it.:)  She was the perfect piggy, I felt like the costume was made for her!  I couldn't get enough of our pink piggy.  Mattilee's little poodle costume was killing me too!  She was too precious and loved barking everywhere we went.:)  We spent the evening at a halloween party with Matt's office and then went to our church's fall festival.  

Check out this precious pink piggy

Sweet sisters 

Piggy and puppy posing beside their pumpkins.

Pink poodle and piggy with their precious bat cousins!  

Our family at Matt's office halloween party

Painting pumpkins.

Breakfast Halloween morning

Carving the pumpkin with Daddy

At the Pumpkin Patch

Petting the horses at the Pumpkin Patch

Mattilee picked out her pumpkin!

She loved this swing!

We go to the pumpkin patch every year with our precious small group.  These families are so special to us.  So thankful for them and the encouragement and sharpening they give us.   

Ivey Kate's Winter ONEderland!

Our little Ivey Kate is one!!!  It is so hard to believe!  I feel like it's only been 6 months or so since she joined our family.  She has brought so much joy into our lives in her one year and I know that she'll continue to bring so much more.  We had a ONEderful time celebrating her.  We went with a winter ONEderland theme and had so much fun with it.

Here are some pics from her Winter ONEderland birthday party.

"I'm One"

Ivey Kate's snowflake birthday cake and snowman cupcakes.

I didn't have the right settings on my camera but the branches have a picture of her from each month. It was fun looking back through pictures from our year with her.   The little white Christmas tree has the snowman ornament party favors that said "I had snow much fun turning one" on the back. :)

Our greeter at the front door.

I tried to do our Christmas decorations less red and green and more wintery to go with her birthday theme.

The birthday girl with her KitKat (Matt's Mom).

Cousin Addie Brown and Mattilee enjoying the cupcakes.

Ready for her cake!

She didn't waste any time! She knew exactly what to do and loved it! Her birthday cake and smash cake were strawberry and were so yummy.  

It's on her nose and all over her mouth but she didn't seem to care.  

She's still digging in.

She got a trampoline from Pop and Gigi and the kids loved jumping at the party. 

What a ONEderful year with our sweetheart! 

Our precious one year old can say:

"uh oh"

"momma"

"dadda"

"book"

"bye bye"

"hey baby" when seeing another baby or any kind of doll. 

"hey puppy" to our dog, Molly and her new favorite toy stuffed puppy. 

and she can sign "please" and "all done".

She gives kisses and hugs and blows kisses.  

She can tell you where her head, hair, nose, mouth, tongue, feet, hands, belly...most parts of her body are located.
She can hold up one finger when you ask her how old she is. 

I've just recently noticed that she really seems to be understanding what we are saying.  I can tell her to go get something familiar and she can do it. If we are talking about hair, she'll touch her hair, if we see a giraffe in a book she'll tilt her head back to show me her long neck life a giraffe.  :)  This age really is so fun.  It seems they pick up on new things every hour they are awake.  

She still isn't walking but is cruising around a little.  She doesn't seem very interested in it right now. I think she is perfectly content crawling to wherever she would like to go.  I LOVE watching that sweet little body crawl down the hallway, swaying from side to side and knowing that she's coming by the hand slaps I hear on the hard wood as she crawls. They only crawl for such a short time and then they walk for the rest of their lives so she can just take her sweet time. But I have to say, I am looking forward to seeing her wobble around on those chubby legs. 

My favorite things about our Ivey Kate right now:
When she gives kisses she leans in with her mouth open.:) And when she's in the mood to give them out, everybody gets several.
Sometimes when I pick her up she squeezes my neck so tight and just keeps holding me like that.  Such a great feeling.
Girl loves to dance.  Every time she hears music she starts dancing and then looks at us smiling to make sure we see her. I can't even sing to her at night when we rock without her popping up her head off my chest and bouncing and swaying from side to side.  So cute.
Her favorite things are stuffed animals.  She loves to "love" them by saying "aww" and hugging and patting them. It is the most precious thing.  We can put several in the floor around her and she'll go to each one, hugging, patting and saying "aww".  It's so precious!

At Ivey Kate's 12 month checkup she was 21lbs 3 1/2oz and 30 1/2 inches.  She's in 90% for height and 50% for weight.  I'm so proud of my chunky monkey.  She's seems to be doing great! So thankful for our happy, healthy one year old!  

Wrapping Up Summer

This summer was packed with tons of fun for our little family.  I was a little sad to see it come to an end. We did get to squeeze in one more beach trip that made the closing of this season a little easier.  Matt's company has an agency retreat in Destin every year in September and we went for a long weekend. I love the beach in September.  We've gone a few years now with his company and the weather is always perfect.  It was so great to get to spend time away with our little family. We truly enjoyed ourselves and each other. 

Our Beach Bunny

Dancing to the live music at Hammerheads. The next day at the pool she started dancing while walking back from getting some lunch with her daddy. Just munching her corn dog, she stopped and started groovin' to the music. She didn't know any of the people watching her, but she didn't care.  I love that she's so full of life and uninhibited.  

Trying to dance with our friends' precious son, Grayson. 

Sweethearts

Matt asked me tonight if I thought every parent's heart melts when they think of their children.  I'm sure for most parents that is the case. This little angel sure melts ours. 

And this angel too. I just can't believe how big she's getting.  

My Loves admiring God's creativity and beauty. 

Our little family.  I'm so incredibly blessed.  

One more pic of this cutie.  A sweet friend took it and I am in love with it!! 

Now, bring on the fall! We are ready for the fun this cooler season has in store. 

"One of the greatest gifts you can give a child is good memories"

Just a Saturday morning at home. I love days like this. 

The girls and I had a season pass to the water park so we went quite a few times.  Mattilee always had a blast and Ivey Kate loved splashing around in the water and even liked to ride the smaller slides with Mommy.  One day towards the end of the summer Matt was able to go with us.  He got to experience all the fun that he had only heard about all summer.  We had a great day with Daddy.  

We celebrated a sweet friend's birthday at their beautiful home on a lake and Mattliee, with the help of her Daddy, caught her first fish.  She didn't want to touch it, but was very proud nonetheless. :)

Mattilee started taking gymnastics classes in August.  She is having so much fun.  She and her classmates are too cute in their tiny leotards and so adorable to watch. 

Our friends' little girl Ava is in Matti's class too. Mattilee isn't ready for this 

picture but it was too cute of Ava. 

Ivey Kate gets to play with Ava's brother Ben while Mattilee is in gymnastics. 

At Ivey's 9 month checkup she weighed 18.5 lbs (50%) and was 29 1/4 inches (95%). 

She's a little bigger than big sister was at this age.  

The doctor gave us the green light on all foods except for the potentially allergenic 

so that night I made spaghetti and let Ivey Kate have at it.  It's safe to say she thoroughly enjoyed it. It makes mealtimes much easier being able to feed her whatever we eat.  

This little stinker loves these two fingers.  

She now has 3 teeth on the bottom and we can see two about to break through on top. 

 She "crawls" anywhere she wants to go.  But she isn't crawling up on her knees, she just kinda scoots like an inchworm.  It is quite adorable. 

 At 9 months she can clap on command, wave bye bye, show you where her head is when she is asked and sometimes she'll tap her chest with her hand when I ask her "Where is Ivey Kate?" She loves to be read books, loves any stuffed animal or doll with a face, she still loves putting everything in her mouth and loves absolutely anything to do with her big sister.   

And this one is just too cute not to post.  

Beaching it with Friends

We were invited to go along with the sweetest friends to the beach for a few days.  Just the mommas and the kiddos, no daddies.  We had a wonderful time.  The girls both loved the water and the company.  I always love the beach and I also enjoyed getting to spend lots of time with such precious friends and their kids.  The place we stayed was amazing.  It had a big water slide and a lazy river so the kids were completely entertained.  I think everyone had a great time, but we decided if we did it again we would bring our hubbies along. :)

These cheeks are just too kissable.  

Sweet Ella with Ivey Kate.  This precious girl LOVES Ivey Kate and is so good with her. 

Mattilee and Ella having fun in the pool. 

Posing for the camera. :) 

Mattilee sliding down the slide with Mommy. She loved it!  

Just us girls.  We missed you Matt.  

Precious Hands and Feet

While Matt was out of town last week, the girls and I stayed with my parents.  It was so nice to get to spend time with them. My girls enjoyed the extra love and attention from Gigi and Pop and I'm pretty sure Gigi and Pop enjoyed it too. My mom had been in charge of crafts for her church's VBS and had the materials left over for making stepping stones.  My mom has a stepping stone of Mattilee's feet that I gave her when Matti was just a baby so we decided to make one of Ivey Kate's feet since she had all of the materials.  I wanted some for my yard too so we just had a fun time sticking little hands and feet in the mold and decorating them.  I was excited about how they turned out. 

I LOVE LOVE these little hands! I think the flower hands turned out really cute! 

I knew Ivey Kate wouldn't keep her hands spread or still so we tried her little feet.  She still moved her feet but I think they turned out precious.  

I know I'll always cherish these stones with my babies' hands and feet from when they were so tiny.  

These are so simple and a great gift for grandmas. Hobby Lobby sells a kit that has everything you need but it is kind of expensive, especially if you are doing more than one.  You can just buy concrete mix for around $5.00 and decorate with anything you choose. There are lots of how-to videos online. 

Sweet Summertime

 Oh how I love these girls! 

Ivey Kate is such a sweetheart.

Have you ever seen a sweeter smile?!?

 

My silly, sweet big girl having fun in her pool.

 Excited about her new Dora nightgown

 Playing like a big girl. 

Bath time is more fun in pairs.  

 Matti really is a sweet big sister.  She loves Ivey Kate so much. 

Both these girls LOVE being outside.