Ivy- 5 months

This little lady is the family delight!  Everyone is totally in love with her.  

It's been getting cold out and Ivy loves her little hats :)  

I've been told by many people that Ivy reminds them of a little cabbage patch doll…  

TOTALLY!!!!  

Ivy can roll over, but she still chooses not to.  She gets around by scooting on her back.  She's so funny!

And she still does her daily crunches :)  (She does them the hard way too, with her lets straight and lifted off the ground)

Ivy hair has been totally different than my other girl babies.  She has darker and more hair than the other two.  The funny thing about Ivy's hair is that she grows funny patches.  Her hair in the back is all short, but she has these two little patches of long hair above her ears.  We got one picture of them wet and curly before I chopped them off.  I wish all her hair would have been that long, but it looked super silly with just the two little clumps.

Ivy needs a picture for the sibling wall…  But this one didn't turn out :)  It came with her face totally zoomed in.  Her picture was bigger than life size :)  The company sent us another one, but the kids had fun with the gigantic baby head picture.  

After a couple of attempts, (first was the gigantic baby head, second attempt was the right size, but her skin was pink… I know my girls like pink and all, but she looked silly on the wall with pink skin…), the third one they sent was just right.  She looks cute up on that wall!!  Now I just need to get our family picture updated with Ivy in it.  

Lots of smiles and smooches from the big kids.

My little laundry supervisor.  

Cutest sleeper around…  She sleeps longer when she wears her hat.    

So cozy!  This girl rarely naps in her crib.  It's much more cozy to sleep in someones arms or snuggled in a real bed.  I don't blame her.  And I know how fast these months pass by, so I am always happy to hold her or lie by her while she sleeps.  It's my favorite.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am soooo behind on blogging…. Ivy has been a sick-handful lately, more on that later.  First, let's catch up on the busy last couple of months :)

This lady has also been a handful!!  2 knee replacements and 1 shoulder replacement in the last 6 months…  Poor Mom!!  But my dad has been amazing and has taken such great care of her.  She had her shoulder replaced about a week before Thanksgiving, so we decided to give the poor woman and break and have Thanksgiving at Brooke & Steve's house instead.  For the first time ever, my mom got to just sit and relax on Thanksgiving… (Maybe she planned it that way on purpose?? Smart lady :))  

For a family gathering it was fairly quiet since some of the cousins were with their other parent this year.  It was what we call their "off-year".  We will have all the kids next year.

Ivy is still great at taking naps wherever we are.  She's a dreamboat of a baby!  

One Dehner family squished on a loveseat!!  How appropriate on Thanksgiving because I am most thankful for them and for the love we have for each other!!  Smooch!! 

Our Meggie Peggie turned 4!

Meg has always been our little sunshine!  We all just adore her.  I can't believe she just turned 4!!  4!!  Time is a flying :)

She went out for her birthday lunch with Grandma and Grandpa and picked out a pink lego set and a pink water bottle for her dance class.  In case you haven't noticed, Meg is still a PINK girl.  Pink, pink, pink!!  

She loves her new pink pillowcase from Grandma and Grandpa!  

Mrs Char made a fuss at preschool :)  

Pink party time…  Sitting on the blanket while we read the book Pinkalicious.  

Then we painted fingers and toes pink!

Bracelet making was crashed by these boys!! 

Mike helped to decorate the pink cupcakes.  He likes all the pink around.  He's a sucker for his little girls.  Good thing because we have 3 of them!  

Boys pretending to be girls :)  

Meg got a new cupcake game and a new pink dance bag for her tap and ballet shoes. She started dance a couple weeks ago and she is the cutest thing!!  

Just when she thought her birthday was over, there was a knock on the door… Special delivery!!  There was a package from the Seymours on the porch…  

This girl couldn't have been happier when she opened her box of Sunchips and Frozen activity box.  Auntie Beth knows exactly what this girl loves!  

A Disney Recital

The kids just had another piano recital.  All those mornings of practicing (and the many tears) are really paying off.  The kids are getting so good at the piano and they are so fun to listen to.

This year their teacher did a Disney themed recital.  Morgan played "A Very Merry Un-Birthday" from  Alice in Wonderland and Miles played "The Wonderful Thing about Tigers" from Whinnie the Pooh.  

(Unfortunately Mike wasn't able to make it because he was in class, but we knew when he signed up for this whole Executive MBA thing that he'd miss a few things… We were all on board with making that sacrifice for a couple of years… But we still missed him!)  

Grandma and Grandpa came and cheered them on.  They have sat through so many recitals in their lifetime… I sometimes feel bad telling them about these things because I know they'll always come and support the kids and I feel bad knowing they have to sit through it… They assure us that they love it and want to come, but I know it's a sacrifice and we really appreciate them.  The kids sure feel loved and special having them there!  

School Pictures 2015

Their school pictures this year turned out ADORABLE!!

Happy Halloween!

This was on our back porch just before Halloween… Freaky!!!   

But the kids loved playing with it through the window.

I liked the kids' costumes this year.  They were a lot more work than I thought they'd be and they took some planning, but they liked them so that made it worth it.  (sort of… next year they can make their own :)  

We got together with some friends and made a Halloween dinner… I was very proud of my mummy hot-dogs and bone shaped rolls, but the jello worms were the best of all!  You'd never know by looking, but they tasted delicious.  

Even though our Halloween dinner wasn't on Halloween, the kids dressed up anyway.  

Ivy and her friend Emmie at the Halloween parade at school… We should have planned better and dressed them as tweedledee and dweedledum with those squishy cheeks….  

I was in charge of the treat for Will's class party… I always do donuts with vampire teeth inside the donut hole.  They are scary :)  

Will and I had way too much fun playing with them in the car after school.  

The cousin Halloween party at Grandma and Grandpa's house! Bingo, pinatas, food and lots of fun.

By the time we went trick-or-treating, the kids had dressed up 5 times.  I was exhausted by the end of the week!! Good thing there was lots of yummy Halloween candy to give me some energy back :)  

CornBelly's

This year was the first time we took the kids to CornBelly's at Thanksgiving Point.  It was awesome and will definitely be a new tradition every October.   The kids and I loved it!  (Mike not so much, more about that later :)    

I took the kids through the corn-maze…  I'm not a huge fan of them, but the kids liked it so that made it bearable.  

Meg and I wondering if we'll ever find our way out  :)  

But at least there was plenty of food around if we did get stuck in there for days and days :)  

Miles found a basketball hoop… Enough said.

And this is why Mike didn't like Cornbelly's… It rained.  If you were to ask Mike, it poured…  If you were to ask me and the kids, it sprinkled.  Either way, it only bothered one of us :)  (And ironically it was the one with the least amount of hair :))  Next year I'll be sure to buy tickets for a dry sunny day.  

This was the creepiest thing I've ever experienced…  I don't recommend going inside if you are claustrophobic in any way… I made the mistake of taking Ivy though on my hip, and I have a feeling it reminded her of going through the birth canal 4 months ago :)  It was that bad.  

Plenty of laughs on the barrel roll…  

A wet little Meggie.

How cool would it be to have a rocking chair at home big enough for the entire family… I want this!!  

I can't wait to go back next year when it's a little drier and we have more time to explore.  I'm excited about this new tradition.