Ivy Jane

Oh where do I begin about my precious, strong-willed, smart baby girl?! She keeps me laughing, she keeps me on my toes, and she definitely keeps me on my knees...in prayer! My favorite thing she says & does right now is give me kisses & hugs me tight when we are rocking. If I tell her "I love you!" she says, "I love you too, Mommy!" Thank you, Lord!

This picture cracks me up...it looks like she's up to something!

 She loves wrestling with Daddy when he gets home from work...

 She loves playing with Daddy's hats...

Two weeks ago tomorrow I took the "pa pa" away. I just decided it was time (really, it was past time) to get rid of it. So, I cut the nipples on them & told her they were broken. She looked at them, tried to suck on them & then said, "broken?" I said, "Yes, they are broken. But it's ok because you are a big girl now!" She said, "I'm big girl?" Then said, "Ohhhh kayyyyyy" just like Eeyore would say it. I knew nap time was going to be interesting, to say the least. She went to sleep easily, but only stayed asleep about 30 minutes. I was cleaning the house, heard her crying on the monitor, but decided to let her cry it out. After about 10 minutes of her screaming, her cry changed to her "hurt cry" so I went to check on her. When I got to the hallway I heard her banging on her door...uh oh! She had climbed out of her crib (which is on the lowest level) & obviously fell. She had a HUGE goose egg on her forehead & a scraped nose & a bloody mouth! Oh wow, I felt like Mother of the YEAR!!! Poor baby...

I was actually wishing at this point that I had kept one paci for emergencies, but I'm glad I didn't. I actually thought about running to Target to get another one, but I'm glad I didn't. A popsicle made it all better, even though she didn't nap.

 She still LOVES to swing!

And to try her tricycle...

This pretty much sums up my little fire cracker...pink tutu and a John Deere t-shirt! LOVE IT!

She's 21 months now & is the perfect little sister for Georgia Claire. I just love how God works. She was the final piece of the puzzle for our little family of four. God knew that we needed each of our girls, and they needed us. But, the coolest part is that He also knew they needed each other! As the years go on, Georgia will be the one to reign in Ivy Jane & Ivy Jane will be the one to push Georgia to try new things! We're already seeing that with the almost two-year-old & almost three-year-old & it is awesome to see it play out on a daily basis.

Shelby turns 35

On Friday Shelby turned 35 and we were with his family to celebrate. We ate dinner at an asian place that was YUMMY! They even had chicken nuggets & rice for the girls. When I heard we would be eating out I brought along some of our "busy bags" for Georgia & Ivy Jane. They did SO WELL in the restaurant! I was SO happy! There was a lot going on & I think they enjoyed the people watching as much as anything.

Georgia Claire was so busy putting stickers on her pieces of paper that she couldn't smile...

 Ivy Jane, however, cheesed for the camera!

My love of almost 13 wedded years! I love him so much. He's such an awesome daddy & works so hard to provide for his 3 girls. I love this picture because it looks like we are on a nice little date, just the two of us! What you don't see is Shelby's grandma, his parents, and our two rugrats running around! Ha!

 See what I mean?! RUGRATS! They are so so so busy!

The famous "dinette cake"...Shelby's favorite that his mom makes...white cake, chocolate icing, with holes poked in it so the icing sinks down into the cake!

Poor Shelby couldn't enjoy supper or his cake...he ended up getting sick & got in bed, on his birthday, around 8:00. He stayed in bed all day Saturday but was able to eat chicken soup that night & bounced back quickly. He's been working SO hard lately that we think his body was just totally worn out! After he went to bed, the rest of us enjoyed some movies in the media room. Georgia & Ivy Jane thoroughly enjoyed the popcorn in their special chairs!

Georgia cannot get enough of Jules & Heather when they are around. She played with Heather's old cabbage patch doll, Christabella Mercy, the entire time we were there.

There were some HILARIOUS conversations of Ivy Jane & Georgia involving Christabella Mercy, or Mercy, as they were calling her. 

Georgia: "Ibee--Have Mercy!" (when she wanted Ivy Jane to take the doll)

Ivy Jane: "No Georgia! No Mercy!" (Ivy Jane did not want the doll)

Georgia, after Ivy Jane started playing with the doll: "Ibee--I need Mercy!"

Oh how I love my family! We ended the weekend with a stop off at Grandma & Paw Paw's and then it was home to Louisiana! Nice trip, but always so good to be home! 

Life

Since I last blogged I have no idea where the last two weeks have gone or what has happened really. I'm just a busy momma of two very busy little girls. 

We've been loving on each other... 

going round and round in the tire swing...

 playing bubbles...

 climbing (with her blanky)...

 snuggling under the "cubbers"...

 listening to music therapy...

 eating ice cream...

eating popsicles...

 drawing with sidewalk chalk...

 playing with play dough...

 playing dress up with Caroline...

 LOVING playing dress up...

 and holding hands...

Thank you, Lord for the life you have given me with these two girls!

Easter 2012

Easter Sunday...our first Easter service at our new church in Louisiana. I walked away feeling like I had just experienced what Heaven is going to be like! I had the most worshipful experience I have ever had. Before we went to church, we had a visit from the Easter Bunny! The girls had lots of fun going through their baskets...

Georgia was SO excited about her new Strawberry Shortcake movie!

 Sleepy Ivy Jane with crazy bed head loved her fairy...

After church we drove to my sister's house to have Easter lunch & an egg hunt. Georgia Claire was beside herself with excitement! She LOVES her cousins.

And these were the best pictures we could get of the four of us. I love Georgia Claire in the first one...

 Me trying to get Ivy Jane to smile & look at the camera...

 Ivy Jane yelling "CHEESE" and Georgia is clearly over the whole picture taking thing...

Our Brave Girl

Georgia Claire is getting braver & braver...we saw that in full force on Good Friday when we spent some time at the park. She's always been a little timid, probably because of her low muscle tone, but she is coming out of her shell! The other day she climbed up the "rock" wall on our play set THREE different times. I tried to stand behind her in case she fell but she said, "No no no Momma, you go over there!" Friday at the park she just took off to climbing like I've never seen her climb before.

This was the thing I was MOST excited about. It's about 3-4 feet off the ground & she just walked right across like it was no big deal!

 I love this little brave girl so so much!

Our Twenty Month Old!

Ivy Jane has been such a joy these past 20 months...it's hard to believe she will be two in just 4 short months! A little about her since I plan to use the blog as an online baby book since I have NOT filled in much in her book...poor baby! She is still going to physical therapy twice a week for her torticollis. She is no longer tight on her right side, but we have to strengthen her left side. She uses her right side for almost everything. Her head still tilts to one side slightly and her right shoulder is always higher than her left, but she's getting stronger and stronger! She loves her therapists...YAY! 

She's fearless, trying anything and everything. Her language is CRAZY! She repeats everything...our own little Myna bird! She "reads" books, and is singing "Jesus Loves Me" & "The Alphabet Song". The other night Shelby was counting with her really slowly and he got to six and she says, "seven, eight, nine, ten!" as fast as she could. It was like, "C'mon dad!" She recognizes some numbers, knows her colors, and loves her "Jo-ja"! She wakes up ready for breakfast or "befast" as she calls it. She says "uh uh" for yes, and our ABSOLUTE FAVORITE THING she says right now is "shoo boop" when she wants us to scoot her up! It will melt your heart to hear her say "I yub you!" She's our little fire cracker & is definitely strong-willed, but she is a sweet girl! 

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks...

She fell asleep on me after playing dress-up, and yes, she's still in her tu-tu!

 She loved her fudgesicle the other night...

 She's learning to ride her tricycle, even in her diaper & Crocs (or Pinks, as she calls them)...

 Trying to put the bunny ears on straight proved to be a hard task!

Tonight we went to the park & she wanted to "drive" almost the entire time. She kept saying, "Jo-ja, are you?!"

We love you, Ivy Jane! You are our second miracle baby & loved so dearly! Thank you for adding so much joy to our life!

Bunny Ears

Today the girls were playing around with the bunny ears from the pictures we took last year...

...so I decided to take pictures of them this year! They are getting so big!
and SO funny!
I bribed them with candy & Ivy Jane couldn't put it down to smile for the camera!
Georgia on the other hand...
thought I was hilarious!