Pumpkin carving

I am having some serious deja vu. I feel like I have already posted these to the blog but I don't see them, so I guess I didn't. Anyway, playing catch-up on the blog tonight. I got a new camera and lens and this was me testing it out...and getting lots of overexposed photos. I had an annoyed little boy and husband, because I wouldn't put the camera down, but how else am I supposed to learn?

Ezra requested a scary pumpkin, a nice pumpkin, and a mean pumpkin this year, and Chad obliged. Ezra was so excited to carve jack-o-"lanswers" with daddy. 

 See what I mean? Not impressed with the camera. Chad just ignored me.

 Love this picture of Ezra's hand on Chad's arm.

 The look of concentration...

 Goofy faces:

 I asked Ezra which pumpkin he liked the best, and he pointed to the mean one.

 Now he's making a sad face.

 This is his mean face.

 And his nice face.

Ivy is 9 months old!

This photo describes Ivy exactly as she is right now...happy and into everything. And she's not even crawling yet! Trouble is coming our way. :)

I can't believe Ivy is 9 months old. She is so fun! She will smile at anyone who wants to talk to her, especially at the grocery store. She can also be very testy if you leave her sight (object permanence, anyone?) and loves loves loves to be held. She is definitely a mama's girl.

This girl loves to eat. She still nurses 3 or 4 times a day. She prefers table food over baby food but she will pretty much eat anything. She likes to feed herself cheese, bananas, peas, green beans, puffs, and anything I put in front of her. She puts everything in her mouth, as you can see from the photo. She is getting pretty good at drinking out of a cup. Hopefully she will be a pro by the time she turns one.

Sleeping is pretty good. Her routine is 2 or 3 naps a day and she is in bed between 6 and 7 pm. She wakes early, usually around 6. The routine is that I nurse her but then put her back to bed, and she'll sleep another hour or two depending on how loud Ezra is when he wakes up.

Ivy says "mama" on a regular basis. The first time I heard it she had woken up one morning and was crying. She heard me open her door and said "mama, mama" very distinctly. So "Mama" is officially her first word. She babbles a lot and of course it's super cute.

I think the word thing is the main development this month...I just read the 8 month post and she is still doing a lot of the same stuff. So talking and eating are the big developments this month.

Stay tuned...working on a post for Ezra, who continues to change and grow up before our eyes as well. Crazy how kids do that. 

Ivy at 8 months

We just got home from being gone all week and I am way behind on everything, but I needed to sit down and post about Ivy at 8 months because I'm behind on blogging too and soon enough she'll be 9 months!

(Photo credits: Caroline Grace Photography)

Ivy just gets more fun all the time, as babies tend to do. She smiles so much, she has the cutest bottom teeth and she just smiles huge and squints her eyes and kind of arches her back when she smiles at you. She also has a rarely seen side that includes arching her back, and it's not quite as pleasant as the smiling thing, but I guess we are all entitled to be opinionated every once in a while and Ivy continues to be a very easy-going baby for the most part.

She sleeps pretty well unless there is a tiny noise and then she is awake. Fortunately she is flexible as far as her sleep times go, and if she wakes up early or is very tired she is usually still pretty happy. Ivy still likes to be held a lot and interacted with, but this month she has discovered how to move around in her walker. She can roll anywhere she wants from side to side and I imagine by the 9 month post I will be reporting that she is army crawling. She is putting everything in her mouth these days and is so grabby and curious about everything she sees. She is especially enamored with remotes, cell phones, or anything with buttons or that could possibly be breakable or valuable.

Her eating habits are pretty good. She wakes up around 7 (if earlier than 7, I nurse her and put her back to bed). She nurses in the morning and then has a fruit, nurses again around 11, 3, and before she goes to bed. She likes fruit a lot--prunes, bananas (both baby food and cut up so she can feed herself), apples, pears, and yogurt. She still likes the orange veggies pretty well but does not do well with green veggie baby food. She will eat green beans but only if they are cut up into pieces and she can feed herself, so I am going to try that with other green veggies as well. She LOVES puffs and that is my distraction technique when she is fussy and I am trying to get stuff done-I just put her in her high chair and give her puffs while I finish whatever I'm doing. She also likes mum mums, yogurt bites, and cheerios.

She takes two good naps a day and then usually a third little cat nap in the afternoon. I think we'll probably do three naps for a while unless she starts waking up later than 7 by some miracle. But like I said, her naps are pretty flexible. A few days a week I go to the gym during her nap time, and she rarely falls asleep there, she'll just fall asleep on the way home or when we get home. And today she and Ezra and I ran some errands and did a grocery trip and she just rode around in my beco carrier and looked around instead of falling asleep.

One thing I want to remember about Ivy is this cute little thing she does when I hold her where she buries her face in my neck if someone else comes up to talk to her. She acts all shy and smiles and nuzzles me. I love it and it is the sweetest thing ever.

We are on the downhill stretch to a year old! I can't believe it, but I am so grateful that she is growing and learning and changing every day. Ivy, you are so fun!

Mountains green, sparkling streams

We've been home for a few weeks now and this is the first time I've been able to sit down and post some pictures from another wonderful summer in the mountains. The cool air and beautiful scenery are great, but there is so much more to being at Blue Haven. The people there are our second family, and knowing that our kids get to grow up around them is such a blessing.  

Sweet Ivy accomplished a few milestones while there--one of them being trying solid food for the first time. Sweet potatoes--I think she liked it!

Sweet expression on a sweet boy--I think this is chocolate all over his face from one of Jennifer's creations.

One of the highlights of our summer is when grandparents come to visit. Gramme came for a whole week! All the kids love her--they fight for her attention.

This picture made me laugh because Ezra is too busy telling Ivy to look at the camera (which she is already doing) to look at the camera himself. I can see from this picture how much Ivy grew and changed during the summer; this is from when we first got there.

Ezra and his buddy Sandy (Michael and Jan's dog)

What little boy doesn't love to catch lizards?

We took Ezra fishing for the first time, and sadly did not catch anything. Mom, you are going to need to start stocking your tank so we can fish at your house!

One big happy family--All the Montandon siblings, their spouses, and some of the kids (missing Ezra and Lucy) at the 4th session "Redneck Reunion." What a fun theme!

Typical outfit Ezra would pick out for himself on any given day

And another typical outfit

Ezra LOVED Matt. Ezra was a tough nut to crack this summer. He was shy and at times not so friendly to the large numbers of people in his face all the time. Matt made it his goal that he was going to win Ezra over, and he did pretty early on. I think with a cookie or some candy or something like that. They were fast friends. Thank you Matt and all the other staff for loving my children and taking the time to win their affection. (I am tearing up as I wrote that!)

This is not such a flattering picture of me, but I love it of Ezra. This was a typical morning in our cabin. Ivy would wake up in the middle of the night to eat, and so I was trying to get some extra sleep when Ezra would wake up bright eyed and bushy-tailed. This particular morning he climbed into bed and was laying next to me so sweetly. I cherish moments like this with my usually rambunctious boy. (I really was asleep in this picture--Chad captured the moment)

Mom, don't look at this one. This was the first of many accidents that happened over the summer. Some of our awesome first session teachers bought a couple of really nice playscapes to put around camp. Well, the first one was up less than a couple hours before Ezra walked right in front of another kid swinging and got kicked in the face. Poor baby. In all, he had this accident, fell numerous times, a bee sting on his ear, pink eye, a virus with fever that lasted a week, fell off his bike and hit his head, fell off a folding chair which clocked him in the face and gave him a couple black eyes, and got bit on the finger by a squirrel. Yes, a squirrel. It had been caught in a live trap and Ezra stuck his finger in and he had to be on antibiotics for a week. No wonder he was glad to be home!

This is Ezra's room. This year they built a little room for him with a door. What a nice addition to our cabin this was! I didn't have to worry about keeping his toys all picked up, and he stayed asleep when Ivy cried. They also gave us a bathtub this year. Soooo much better than the single stall shower that leaked every time we showered! And we could bathe the kids in our own cabin!

Another one of Ezra and Ivy's special friends, Dayton. She was dishroom manager and helped us out with the kids a lot. We miss you, Dayton!

This picture makes me laugh. I can still remember Ezra saying "No more pictures" as he held up his hand.

I was trying to get a picture of his pinkeye--the first time in three years that he's had it. It eventually cleared up then went to the other eye. You can also see the remnants of the bruise on his nose from the folding chair hitting it.

Playing with gramme and some cousins

Crazy haired baby in her bumbo.

Family pic

Silly songs--Ezra loved silly songs! Every first night of a session we have silly songs and staff introductions. Some of Ezra's favorite songs were "Way up in the sky," "Little cabin in the woods" and the Zulu Warrior song. He will still sing these or request them at bedtime every once in a while.

So cool in his shades and rainboots

Hanging out on the nurse's porch. I think we might have a picture very similar to this of Chad and Elle when we were nurse for a session about 6 years ago. That would have made Elle a little over 2 years old.

Ezra and another one of his buddies, Jenny. Jenny was a cook and Ezra would often want to go over to the "cooking store" to play with their toys. Jenny, we miss you too!

Aunt Erin & Uncle Josh came to visit. These are my sister's and my kids. Ezra and Ivy had fun playing with all their cousins this summer.

Dad came to visit for two weeks and brought his dog, Augie. Augie enjoyed being in the great outdoors.

Mackenzie, Kellen, Josh, Bonnie, Dad, Ezra, me, Chad, Ivy, Erin and Noelle

Kellen and Ivy (trying to get Kellen's sucker). All the older cousins loved holding Ivy

Erin & me with dad

At a campfire together...we love wearing jackets and having fires in the middle of summer!

People asked me if it was hard having two little ones up there. Yes, it was hard, but because of the ages of the two kids this year I think it was easier than it has been with just Ezra in years past (10 months and 22 months). I think next year keeping up with Ivy will be a challenge--she'll be about 16 months old and Ezra will be wanting to run all over the place. But we are so thankful for the opportunity to minister at Blue Haven and our prayer is that we will be able to be there for as long as we are effective. 

May his love from above bless Blue Haven forever!