We're Back

We're alive.

We're unpacked.

We have clean clothes.

And a clean fridge. (The best time to clean it out is when it's empty :))

We had a great time with my family.

I'd show you all the fun things we did, but the pics are on Steve's laptop. And he's snoozing behind me.

I'm not that tired. Maybe because I slept 6 consecutive hours last night, (a record since Ivy's birth, I think) and I feel great.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great Christmas.

Be back in a few.

Once again we forego the Christmas cards . . .

and settle for a blog post. (Crossing our fingers that I actually send cards out next year.)

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope that we all remember our Savior whose birth we celebrate today.

Love,

Steve, Natalie, Sophie & Ivy

(photo by Jana Laurene Photography - Thanks Jana!)

Quite possibly . . .

the cutest pair of baby shoes I've ever seen: K-Swiss, size 2.



My mom really knows how to pick 'em.
(You should see her own collection. It makes me light-headed just thinking about it.)

It's Good to Have a Sister

To help you pick up things . . .

To have someone to see cool things you find . . .



To keep you from eating things you shouldn't be eating . . .



To let her throw leaves on you . . .



And while it may seem like fun in the beginning . . .



She might just keep doing it over . . .



And over . . .



And over.



That's why it's good to have Mom around, too.

Thanksgiving . . . and other stuff

I'm miserably behind in blogging, as I am with most things. Especially Christmas prep. I always think to myself, "Next year I'm totally starting in August." But I never do. And I always wish I did.

Anyway, here's a little report about the last two weeks. . .

Decorating for Christmas

Yes, we did it before Thanksgiving. And no, I don't feel like we pushed Thanksgiving aside either. We're going to be gone for a week and a half during December and I wanted the girls to enjoy them for a while before we leave.

We didn't put up our tree, though. #1 reason was because we have no space left to put it. Too many toys in the front room. Like last year, we'll (I'll) have to go through and purge and reorganize their toys before Santa drops his load. (Please make it light this year, OK Santa? Oh, and nothing that makes noise, please. Thanks! :))

I'm not posting pics of all the decorations because they're kinda silly and mismatched. (One reason why I love my tree -- it's matchy-matchy.) But I wanted to show you these little white trees. Once again the dollar section of Target came through :) The trees were $2.50 a piece and each tube of ornaments were $2.50 (I bought one for each tree). Plus they're plastic, unbreakable, and not swallowable.

Ivy's Birthday Party

In case you're curious, she's 28.5 inches long and um. . . about 15.5 lbs. Sigh. I think it's a combination of being incredibly picky about food, me not producing tons of milk, and now that she's climbing on everything and cruising around, she burns even more energy. The doctor isn't terribly worried, but did mention that they may consider checking her thyroid. Might not be a bad idea.

So we invited all of Ivy's little friends over for some dessert. Ivy liked her birthday "cake". After the disaster of Sophie's first birthday (complete with rash and vomiting), I didn't want to take any chances so I made her a blueberry muffin and topped it with whipped cream. She ate the WHOLE THING. Ivy's only picky about things that are good for her. Sure, I could fatten her up easily if I gave her a truckload of muffins.

By the way, whipped cream is a great substitute for frosting - if you're not worried about giving your baby dairy. It cleaned up SO easily and didn't get stuck to everything.


I love this picture. Ever since the baby boom last fall I've wanted to get all the babies together for a picture. This one is perfect, too. I can't believe we got all of their attentions at the same time. (The two on the left were born in September, the two on the right were November, and the middle guy was December.)

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Sacramento with Steve's family. We left that morning and Sophie helped get Ivy ready by "fixing" her hair - getting her hands wet and rubbing water all over Ivy's head.

The day after Thanksgiving we took a trip to the Sacramento Zoo. Sophie's always up for a trip to the zoo, but we tend to go a little earlier in the day. She just couldn't stay awake on the drive over, and ended up sleeping half the time.

Ivy had fun, though. This was the first trip to the zoo where she was awake for the whole thing and actually noticed that there were animals there.

Ivy's favorite thing, though, was the zoo map. It had a picture of a leopard (I think) on it and she had one in each hand practically the whole time. And she went nuts when we actually saw it in person.

This is probably the best smiling photo we have of Miss Stone-Faced Ivy. (And kind of a weird photo of me. Where did that extra chin come from?) I think she hurts the feelings of little old ladies who talk to her in the grocery store. She's hard to crack sometimes.

Oh, look who woke up and joined the party . . .

I usually don't take photos of the animals at the zoo (Seriously what would I do with them? Scrapbook them?), but a few of them won me over.

The one on the top is a bongo. It looks like a zebra and an addax had a love child. The bottom left is a red panda and of course, there were flamingos. They were a lot brighter in color than the ones we have at the zoo here.

"Smile, Sophie!"