Easter

Well this year Easter was much bigger for Ivy then last year.  She still doesn't understand much of it but she had a great weekend.  We started the weekend off with an Easter egg hunt at the community center and she met the Easter bunny on Saturday.  For those of you who know her well, know she loves animals live or stuffed.  She was excited to see the Easter bunny but not so much to sit on his lap.  She was terrified.  I have posted the best pics that we could get under the circumstances.  There was so much going on.  Below are pics of her at her first Easter egg hunt as well as pics of her with the Easter bunny!!!



Ivy finding an Easter egg

 Daddy and Ivy with the Easter bunny                                         The Eggs Ivy found  

 Mommy and Ivy with Easter bunny

After this event we went to the park came home and we stripped Ivy down and put her in a disposable diaper to dye eggs for the first time. It was challenging and fun but I must say she had more dye on her then the eggs I think.

Sunday was her first time in church.  They do a family service and assure the parents squirming noisy children are ok for this service. Ivy enjoyed the music and she loved the children's service.  Here are some pics of her dressed up in her Easter dress. 



It was a very nice day and to end the beautiful Easter Sunday we had grilled steak and artichokes out on the deck.  It was Ivy's first time having artichokes and she loved them here is a video.

It was a great weekend and it was so much fun seeing Ivy enjoying her Easter weekend.  I am sure as the years go on it will even be more enjoyable.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!!!

Road Trip

Well as promised I am doing my best to keep up. We have only lived in Colorado for over a decade and haven't haad the chance to some close by sight seeing. Since we are moving it was our goal to start enjoying the closer attractions but we have failed to do so.  Kevin and I have been working hard to get this house packed and ready to rent. So in the midst of it all we decided we needed a much needed break and took Ivy on a road trip to South Dakota and Wyoming.  We left on Sunday March 17th and started North to South Dakota.  Ivy did pretty well to be honest. We decided to head to keystone, the city where Mount Rushmore is and stay there for 2 nights then track to Wyoming to see devil's tower.  Our first stop on the way to Keystone, was the Mammoth site.  It was really interesting.  Its this site in South Dakota where they have so far dug up 60 mammoth fossils.  Apparently there was a sink hole that the Mammoths had gotten trapped and died.  Oddly, there are just male mammoths they have found so far. No female or baby mammoths yet. I guess the females were the smart ones and knew what they were doing and kept the babies away too.  Any way here are just a few of the pics from the site. 

The next day we decided to head to Mt. Rushmore and the wind caves.  We took so many pictures so I will just post a few from each place but I have to say the pics just do not describe the beauty we saw.   

Mount Rushmore

Family Pic

Ivy climbing the stairs of the auditorium at the base of Mt. Rushmore

Wind Cave

 The next stop was the badlands.   I am only showing a few pics but words can not even describe the beauty of this place!! It should be a must on your list of things to see!!!

 The Buffalo were pretty close to the car!!!

 How Ivy road through the badlands.  She had a lot of fun!!!



Finally, our last day we went to devil's tower in Wyoming it was about 1.5 mile hike around devils tower.

Cute pic of Ivy in Our hotel room before heading to Devil's Tower

We had a wonderful trip and wish we had more time to explore before we leave Colorado but we have many new adventures a head of us.  I hope you enjoyed this post!!!!

I am back and Ivy's 1st Bday

I am so sorry that I have not kept up with my blog in such a long time.  My laptop went on the fritz and after Kevin finally fixed it I just never seem to find the time or motivation to write. As most of you know by now, we are moving to Germany at the end of April so I thought it was time I would start my blog back up so you can follow what we are doing and how things are going as we explore a new life in Germany.  Currently, I am on my old computer we are in search of new ones.  So if I have gaps in my posts over the next 3 weeks that is the reason.  I do plan on having a new laptop before I move to Germany.  In my first post I wanted to share some pictures and a video of Ivy on her first birthday.  My next post will be about a road trip we took a little over two weeks ago. I will keep up with this blog it is my promise to my family and friends who want to see what we are doing and the things we are seeing and experiencing in Germany.  Ok enough of that here is Ivy on her 1st birthday!!! I hope you enjoy!! 

She really loved and enjoyed her cake as you can see from her pictures!!!

I am having a problem with the video so I am skipping that. Sorry I hope to figure this out very soon!!!

Ivy Update, its been a while!!!

Hello everyone, I apologize as I have gotten lazy and haven't updated this blog in such a long time. I am not even sure anyone is following this blog anymore.  Any way, instead of posting a whole bunch about what is  going on I figure I will post pictures of Ivy, followed by a video, to get you up to date on her. Then I will keep up with this blog from here on out and tell you more about what is going on in our lives.  The last I posted was April, Ivy was about 3 months old. She is not 8 1/2 months old.  So here are some pictures of her through out the months.  I hope you enjoy, and I will do a better job at keeping you up on what is going on with us and our family. 

4 Months Old

5 Months Old

6 Months Old

7 Months Old

 Current 8 1/2 months Old

Here is what she started doing as of this week.  She is going to be walking on her own before we know it.

A New Me!!!

Hi Everyone, much apologies for not keeping up with this blog.  I have been in a bit of a slump lately and just haven't felt motivated to do much.  My neighbor lost her 2 year battle with stomach cancer on Friday June 15th.  It was a sad day, but I am so glad she is no longer struggling. On top of that  I have been frustrated with the last 14lbs of my pregnancy weight and how I can't seem to shred the weight. Yet what I am cooking is healthy and Kevin seems to be losing and is the lightest he has been in years.  I found out that its because I was breastfeeding and some people hold onto the weight in order to produce milk. Well unfortunately, Ivy has decided she doesn't want to breastfeed any longer so as of this week that is officially over. I would like to lose 5 more lbs on top of the 14.  So I have decided to move forward and get out of this slump I am in. So starting this week, I am working on a New me. Working from the inside to the out!!  I am starting with my spiritual side and working on my body as well.  I am excited and will update you as I take on this journey!! I will try to do weekly Ivy posts as well. I know that is why most of you check this blog to begin with. I didn't have very many people reading this blog until she came along.  I am so behind. So in the next few days I will post some pics and videos of her to get you up to speed. I will not just post about her like I have since she has been born. I will blog about other things in our life as well!!  Tomorrow I will blog about the fires and get you up to date on them as well!! I have added a ticker on here so you can see my goal and the progress I am making on my weight loss. If its anything like the last few months it will start out going up and down until my hormones get back to normal when my milk dries up!! Sorry if I am sharing more information then you want to read but as most of you know me I just say what I am thinking and there is no TMI in my world!!! As you can see I put on 2 lbs which I am sure it water weight!!  Just a side not the picture on my ticker is a pic from the lake years ago , I think even before Kevin and I were married. We were on a boat ride!! Its one of my favorite pics and since my goal is to be bikini worthy again I thought it was a great pic!!

Videos, Pictures, and bargains, Oh My!!!

Well I figured out how to add a video correctly.  If you go back to the last post the video is now working.  I have been in the habit of taking videos as well as pictures.  So you will get weekly pictures as well as videos unless I don't see something I want to record.  So to start this post here is an adorable video of Ivy talking as she is playing on her play mat. I can't take credit for this video, Kevin took it while he was playing with her. 

Ivy just found her feet this week and finds them fascinating. I took this picture of her yesterday when she woke up from her walk she found her feet. It was just to cute not to post!!

She is so cute looking at her stinky feet!! I love her!!!   A lady at work gave me what is called baby paper, I call it crinkle paper.  She loves it I did get a video today of her playing with it, but since it takes so long to upload,  I will save it for this weekend. In the mean time here is a picture of her playing.

Well today Ivy and I went shopping. I had a gift card to Macy's and thought I would use it.  When we got there they were having a 40-50% off sale with an additional 25% off at check out.   They should have never told me that because of course I went crazy.  This is the first time I went shopping for her. I could have gotten more, but I had to stop myself.  I have decided to take back the long sleeve tee shirts and pants.  Most of it I will keep. I thought Kevin was going to kill me for getting so much stuff, but to my surprise he was ok with it.  Here is what I got.  It was a steal. Most outfits were $7-$8.

I got some pretty cute outfits and I am happy with my purchases.  Its a good start, I am sure I will find a few more things over the next few months to buy her.  Ok that is it for now.  I will try to keep posting, and I promise they won't all be about Ivy!!! Although I am sure that is what most of you are hoping to see!!

Ivy Lynn Sours

Well, Its been a long time since I have posted in here. I do apologize.  Being a first time mom and having a needy little girl its taken me some time to get organized and post.  I was going to post my birth story but since its been so long I'll give you the brief story and post pics of Ivy since I know that is what you really want to see.  I started having contractions on Friday February the 10th at 4pm. I left work thinking this was it.  I did have serious contractions 1-3 minutes apart but in between I felt good so Kev and I agreed that it was not the real thing and around 3am my contractions started to subside.  I had them on and off all weekend.  Sunday the 12th, I was tired and crampy and rested all day. About 7pm I lost my mucus plug.  At 8 pm I started labor contractions, by 2am we called the on call nurse and she told us to go to the hospital.  When I got there I was 3 cm dilated. They said since my contractions were so close they were keeping me for 2 hours.  If I dilated more they would admit me if not they were sending me home. My plan was to go natural and not use any meds.   I got to 5 cm and they had to break my water, which immediately moved me to 6 cm. After many hours of no progress and a total of 18-20 hrs of labor I broke down in tears when they said I had no progressed. Ivy was head down but face up causing the birth to slow down.  I was so devastated and frustrated at this point I decided to get the epidural.  I was proud of myself for going this far with no help, but after no progress I just couldn't do it any more. Everyone tells you that the epidural slows things down, but in my case it actually sped them up. With in no time they were coming in and telling me I was 9.5 cm, it was like 2-3 hours later. Before I knew it I was pushing.  I have to say the epidural did nothing for the contractions and they had to give me 2 bolus if other meds.  I was numb for pushing , it just didn't elevate my contraction pain. After 1.5 hours of pushing I met my beautiful baby girl!!  It was love at first sight, I was so mesmerized by her I didn't realize what was going on. Next thing  I knew they were taking her out of my arms and there were 2 doctors and 5 nurses. My placenta had not come out like it was suppose to, I had a retained placenta.  They had to remove it manually and follow it by a d&c.  I have to say I would take the contractions over that any day. That was by far the worse pain of the whole experience.  It was worth every part of it and I am so thankful for her each and every day!! I loved the hospital we delivered in and I will hopefully be able to deliver there again if we are so lucky to have another.   Yes, that was the short version. Enough writing here are some pictures of our little baby girl, followed by a video!! I hope you enjoy  

Birthday!!

 Taking a nap in my pack n play

 Playing on my play mat

 My hat is too big, but I still look cute!

 Taking a stroll wearing my pumpkin hat my mom made me!!

 

 This was taken today. She was talking up a storm until I put the camera on her, but its still worth showing!!

I will start posting weekly again, if not more often!!