BABY GIRL!!!! I love you so much! You are in such a fun stage right now, and you still take fabulous naps-could it get any better?! You just started dance class last week and LOVE it. It is the cutest thing ever. We sure love you!

Ivy:18 months!

SO SWEET, BUT SO BUSY! (AND LOUD)

THE WATERMELON QUEEN!

USUALLY YOU SLEEP IN UNTIL ABOUT SEVEN, BUT ON VACATION YOU WERE UP MOST OF THE NIGHT AND AWAKE AT 5:30. I WAS SO SO TIRED!

WE VISITED THE SCIPIO, WHERE MOST OF THE THOMPSON SIDE IS BURIED. THIS IS THE BEST PICTURE I COULD GET OF YOU WITH ONE OF THE "IVIE" HEADSTONES. YOUR NAME CAME FROM THE FAMILY NAME OF IVIE.

BEING A HAM AT THE BURGESS' AND MAKING EVERYONE LAUGH

FIRST DAY OF NURSERY (AT MIMI AND PAPA'S)

IVY! You have become a toddler right before my eyes! I cannot believe how much you have grown up! You love to play with the boys, and are starting to fit right in with them. You love to play, and we recently introduced you to "running hugs" which are your new favorite thing! You also love to pray, and will fold your arms without being prompted and use your sweet prayer voice to "pray" when someone is saying the prayer. You love meal times, and you love to snack. You get quite upset when you don't get the treats you want though! You have learned how to throw quite the tantrum, and gave us a good one just today when you didn't get the whole bag of m&ms. You go to nursery, and will cry when I leave you, but warm up quickly. (so they say!) You love music and dancing. You love when we play ring around the rosies, or popcorn popping, or any of the nursery songs with you. When they sing them during nursery though you just watch quietly. You can blow kisses, and on good days will give a kiss too! Your favorite book is your Eric Carle one about animals. You always point to books, but usually you don't last the whole time before getting bored! You hate baths, which is so strange to me, so you usually shower with the boys. Even though you hate baths, you love to swim! You had a lot of fun this summer in the kiddie pools in our backyard! The boys just adore you, and have taught you how to love your monkey stuffed animal. They take such good care of you! Sometimes they get a little too excited/rough but its all out of love. We just our lives with you in it!

Ivy: 16 months

At 16 months you-

-Are trying to jump

-Are "talking" all the time, mostly jibberish but learning now words too

-Are starting to yell when you want things (oh boy)

-Love to play with your brothers

-Sleep pretty consistently from 7-6:30

-Take 1-2 naps a day

-Love your alice in wonderland book

-Love to dance

-LOVE shoes

-Still hate diaper changes and getting dressed

-You don't like the bath, but love to shower with your brothers

-Love to be outside, and love the little tykes car

-Love wearing bows, but hate getting anything with rubberbands in your hair

-Are always putting on bracelets and my chapstick/lipstick

-Are so playful and silly. The boys and I always say that we are so glad Heavenly Father sent us a silly baby because we love your personality!

-Have all four molars, plus the 6 other teeth

-Still love to wave and say bye-bye to everyone you see!

Ivy: 14 months

IVY!
You turned into a toddler somehow, and I'm happy/sad about it! We all totally adore you! Even if your brothers sometimes shoo you away when they are trying to play. You are our favorite thing to play with. You are just so fun these days!
-You wave and say "bye-bye" to everyone. We make you do this a million times a day because we love it so much!
-You are learning to walk and are so proud of yourself. You pretty much have it down, and will be a pro in the next week or so.
-You love singing songs. Your favorite is one from music time-tiny tim. You have even started singing the "bubble, bubble, pop!" part.
-You love to take baths with your brothers and make them laugh with all of your splashing.
-You have started copying little things. You love to grab the hair gel or brush and do your hair. You like to put my bracelets on.
-You love going on the trampoline and think it is so funny to try to walk on it!
-We took you to the beach yesterday and you laughed and giggled over the sand.
-You can say a handful of words: mama, dada, hot, bye-bye, ball, bottle, and bubble. (the last few are just different variations of bah but we know what you're talking about!)
-You know what the gorilla, fish, and any animal that says "roar" says
-You ROCK pigtails!!

ONE

IVY:

You are one!! We all can't believe it! You are such a sweet, happy part of our family and we all adore you! Your brothers think you are the greatest. Cooper is always so sweet to watch out for you and hold you. Cooper thinks it is so fun to play with you and is always trying to make you laugh.

You are cruising a little bit, and can stand for abt 10 seconds by yourself, but you really aren't close to walking. You can clap and point, and raise your arms up during pat-a-cake. You like looking at books by yourself, but don't really like to be read to yet. You just try to flip through the pages really fast. Your favorite toys are all of the boys things-usually what they are playing with at the moment. You like table food, your favorite is any type of yogurt. You can sign "all done".

You are pretty reserved, but there are a few things that really make you giddy:
-Baths
-Brushing your teeth
-Cake/cupcakes (we learned this from your party)
-The trampoline
-When the boys hold you

You are not afraid to tell us when there is something you don't like, such as:
-getting dressed
-diaper changes
-when your brothers won't let you play with them
-when we have to take away small toys that you can't play with

You are very petite. At your doctor appt you were 26.5 inches long and weighed 16 lbs 15 oz. Good things come in small packages!

We put balloons in your room for you birthday. You loved them. We had pizza in the shape of a 1 for dinner that night and opened presents and had cupcakes. You seriously LOVED your cupcake. Before bed the boys gave you one last present-they built endless block towers that you could knock down over and over. I'm not sure who loved it more-you or them-but it was definitely a good time.

We love you so much Ivy. I love that you will still snuggle with me when I rock you to sleep. I love your little voice babbling all day long. We love your little reserved but playful personality. Happy Birthday baby girl!

ELEVEN MONTHS!

I cannot believe how close you are getting to being one year old! You are growing up so much!
-You LOVED your first Christmas. You loved playing with everything under the tree all month long. You would play with the tree and the ornaments, and all the presents. Luckily nothing got destroyed though!
-You drink from a bottle, hallejuah!!
-You also love table food, we found out ham and stuffing are huge hits with you! You out-ate both of your brothers when we had our Christmas Eve dinner
-You pull up on everything!
-You aren't cruising yet
-You are afraid of falling and sitting down once you are standing, so you just stand there and cry when you are ready to get down
-You are cutting both of your top molars right now
-You are getting a little better about going to other people. We still haven't left you with anyone yet though
-You are starting to understand a lot of what we say to you
-You love baths
-You can act out pat-a-cake when I do it with you
-You got the nasty shigellosis bacteria that everyone else got in December. It was NO FUN! But you got the mildest case of all, and handled it very well.
-You are into EVERYTHING and put EVERYTHING in your mouth!
-You are the sweetest thing EVER!

TEN MONTHS

(FROM 11-27)

It is amazing how much more we get to see of your personality every month! Here is what you are like at 10 months...
-HUGE stranger anxiety. Will only go to mom and dad, and sometimes not even dad.
-You won't take bottles and mom doesn't make milk, so we feed you formula from a syringe because it is the only way you will eat.
-You love to wave and clap
-You sleep really well at night
-You have no interest in standing, or walking. Even when we are holding on to you, you don't want to do either.
-You love table food!
-You are shy, but love attention. Kind-of a juxtaposition!