What a difference a year makes!

I got this years canvases in the mail and had to take side by sides from last years'....  Oh my word! They are seriously growing right in front of our eyes....  

Cute Ivy

The baby of the family is always adored by everyone.  The kids think Ivy is the best thing ever and they can't get enough of her.  It's easy to see why, just look at her!

She loves to be outside!  

I love having these two little girls as the cabooses.  They get along so great and Meg doesn't mind snuggling all together during nap time :)  

They always (and I mean ALWAYS!) hold hands when we take the big kids to school and almost everywhere else we go too.  

Ivy's favorite thing to do is stick her finger up her nose and then look around at all the kids until someone notices and screams "GROSS!", then she laughs and does it again.  

This is how Ivy falls asleep more often than I care to admit....  She watches YouTube Kids until she falls asleep. I find her with the phone or iPad like this all too often :)

She loves to climb and explore everywhere she can... She definitely knows how to entertain herself.

Holding hands again on the way to the library....  Seriously, I could just die!  

Ivy gives Miles a hard time, all the time!  He tries so hard to love her and she just wants nothing to do with it....  She's learned that when he picks her up, he'll quickly put her back down if she grabs and twists his ear.  She's so smart :).... but it doesn't keep Miles from trying.  He is so cute and patient with her.  

She learned to make a fishy face...  

Meg is the sweetest helper with Ivy.  One day Ivy went down late for her nap and I had to pick up Jr High carpool, so Meg volunteered to babysit...  I was nervous about it at first, but then I remember FaceTime!!  I  called Meg and we talked the entire time I was gone (which was only about 15 minutes).  It was awesome not to have to wake Ivy up from her nap...  

... and this is why I want to be sure she always gets her full nap.....  

Someday Morgan will really be driving Ivy around...  I can't believe how fast these kids are growing.  

I had to take a picture of Ivy looking like this because it's how she looks most days... It's good for her to know what her childhood was really like as the 5th child.  

Even when I do her hair, she wakes up from her nap looking like this... I figure what's the point most days :)  

And did I mention that these girls love to hold hands in the car!!!  Oh my word, this mothering thing has serious perks!