6 months

swinging at Grandma's

snuggled in Papa's arms

sleeping on Grammy

after bath time

I CAN NOT believe our Ivy is 6 mos. old. It seems like we were just in the hospital walking the halls so I would dilate. As tiring as these 6 months has been, its gone pretty fast. I have to say the last 2 months or so life has gotten much easier, mainly because I've received more sleep. Ivy has not slept as well as Jonas did. But, this week she has caught on again. I say again because she has been so inconsistent compared to Jonas. However, getting her first tooth at 4 months old hasn't helped her sleeping patterns. Thankfully, she has been sleeping 9 hours every night this week. Yea!! The expression you see in the last picture is what we see throughout every day. She really is a good baby and so smiley. She rolls all over the floor and is starting to scoot backwards and even forwards a little. She isn't sitting unattended quite yet but I noticed her working on her balance tonight. She LOVES watching our dog, Daisy. She tries to follow her every move. And its been nice having a big brother around to help entertain her. Jonas does a great job helping me and Ivy out at times. He is very loving towards her and gets concerned about her. He has panicked twice now when Ivy wasn't in the car with us. He said "Where is Ivy? We have to get her!" He is very sweet. We are so thankful for such a healthy baby girl. We dealt with one minor cold around 6 weeks and nothing else, but teething. Summer is finally here and I can't wait to get her in the pool. She loves bath time and doesn't mind water in her face at all.

I finally feel a little caught up on blogging. We are headed to California, on Monday, to see my sister. I can't wait to get some great pictures of the Pacific Ocean at Laguna Beach!

A special day

I don't remember if I blogged about this over 1.5 yrs ago...
When Jonas was 13 mos old he had a severe allergic reaction to eggs. The reaction occurred when he had his 5th egg over a period of 2 weeks. I was excited that he liked eggs and it became a breakfast staple. After that 5th egg his body rejected it because he had too much protein in his blood stream. He broke out in hives and started vomiting. Thankfully an anaphylactic attack did not occur.
He was tested a second time at age 2, after keeping eggs out of his diet completely from 13 mos of age. This means I read every label of every food item purchased to know whether or not he could eat it. The test still showed positive, however it was not as strong of a positive as the first time. His doctor suggested we continue to keep egg completely out of his diet for another year and have him re-tested at age 3. We all adapted to this way of life for him but I've noticed in the last 6 months or so Jonas has been more disappointed when he can't have something. For a long time we'd say "no baby, you can't have that". He'd say "does it have egg in it?" So, he understood but lately his face was really starting to show disappointment.
We are getting ready to leave for California to see my sister and I thought it would be really nice to get him re-tested now. (2 mos shy of his 3rd birthday) Our meals while traveling would be so much easier, not to mention grocery shopping for my sister.
The big day was yesterday. As we prayed with Jonas the night before and at breakfast I just felt a peace that this would all be over with. We thank the Lord that Jonas has overcome this allergy. The test was NEGATIVE!
We celebrated with his first brownie ever after lunch yesterday. Then for dinner we had breakfast. :-) I grew up on cheesy weesies (dad's name for them), scrambled eggs with cheese, and introduced those to Jonas last night. My next grocery trip will be interesting...I wonder how many labels I'll be reading for no reason. :-)
Here are some recent pictures of our little man who is growing up fast.
We love you so much Jonas.

Hangin with Grandpa Barker

Ha ha...he was totally faking so papa could get a funny picture

crazy kids, tired mommy

A good crazy... :-) I love them to the moon and back. Life has just been busy and I don't find myself doing much on the computer other than working and glancing at Facebook. I'll try to post more often!

Ivy is quickly approaching 6 months old. It is unreal, at times, to think so much time has passed since we welcomed her into this world. Joe and I were getting the kids ready for bed last night, changing diapers and getting PJ's on. I looked at him and said "can you believe we have two?" I hardly remember when it was just Jonas, and looking at their sweet faces last night I couldn't believe they are both ours. God has given us the most wonderful gifts. Ivy is the sweetest most smiley baby during the day. Unfortunately, her nap time and bed time have been quite unpredictable. (hence the reason for my tiredness) We were very spoiled with Jonas. I know she has it in her to sleep long and well but I think teething has just messed her up. She got her first tooth at 4 mos and a week later her 2nd tooth came. I believe #3 is going to pop through soon. I know this has a lot to do with her sleeping habits. Jonas didn't have his first tooth till 7.5 mos.
We will be leaving for California in about 12 days, to see my sister and her family. We can't wait! I'm already stressing about packing and traveling on a plane with two kids etc...I'm nervous. We don't fly much. In fact, Joe has never been on a plane and its been 1.5 years since Jonas and I flew somewhere. So, I'm nervous for a lot of reasons! But anything is worth having my sister meet little Ivy. Its going to be a special time!

Well I'm going to bed. I never know if Ivy will wake up in the middle of the night!

Here are some recent pictures...

Here are pictures from Easter day.

me and Kim (sisinlaw)