Alivia Turns One

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BABY GIRL! I LOVE YOU AND I CAN'T IMAGINE MY LIFE, OR OUR FAMILY, WITHOUT YOU. YOU ARE AN AMAZING LITTLE GIRL.

Things Alivia is doing now:
1. Says Dadadada all the time. She loves her Daddy!
2. Says Mamamama sometimes, but only when she REALLY wants something from me. :)
3. Says "Please", "More", "Thank you", and "All done" in sign language
4. Waves Hello and Goodbye
5. Blows Kisses
6. Does pat-a-cake by herself
7. Knows where her eyes and her head are
8. Clicks her tongue and sticks it out
9. Stands by herself
10. Has taken two steps ALL BY HERSELF!!
11. Climbs stairs
12. Does a lot of other cute and amazing things that I can't even think of :)

She's getting so big and she is so smart. We have truly been blessed to have her in our family. She and Dainen have so much fun together, she loves cuddling with Mommy, and she can't wait to play with Daddy when he gets home. She is so happy all the time and always has big smiles for us. She is a joy and I love her more than words can say.

(I really wanted to post some pictures, but it's not letting me right now. I will get some up as soon as I can.)

Ahhhh! Time goes too fast!

My little baby girl just rolled over BY HERSELF for the first time! She's only 4 months old, people. I can't believe it! She is getting so big. Part of me wants her to stay small for awhile longer. I still want a baby. But she is just getting so big. Ryan can already balance her in his hand, and she loves it. She pulls herself up to a standing position when she has your fingers, she's trying to sit up.... Oh my! It's going too fast!

3 Year Old Boy 3 Month Old Girl

Dainen turned 3 years old!! And Alivia is 3 months old! So we had to take pictures :)














I LOVE my cute kids!!

San Francisco - Fort Point

Ryan's parents came and stayed with us for a few days before Alivia's blessing. We had a lot of fun together. We went to Fort Point in San Francisco. If you haven't been there, I would recommend it. It was really cool!

Here we are driving across the Golden Gate Bridge.


Here is San Francisco!


Fort Point was one of the first forts built on the West Coast. It was built to protect the bay, but it was never needed. They had lots of cannons like this, and some even bigger.


We were lucky enough to be there right when they were doing a cannon demonstration. Dad, Ryan, and Dainen got to be "soldiers" and load the cannon. Afterwards, they got their "Cannoneering certificate". It was so cool!


Here are Ryan and Dainen pushing the cannon ball into the cannon. I wish I had been on the otherside so I could have gotten a picture of Dainen's face. He loved it! Ryan held on to his hands on the rod and lifted him up to push the cannon ball into the cannon. He thought that was pretty fun.



The view from the top of the fort is so amazing. The fort is located under the Golden Gate Bridge, right by the water, so the view you get is of the bay and the underside of the bridge. (It's cooler than it sounds.)

Here are some pictures from when Ryan, Dainen, and I went last fall with some of Ryan's classmates.


Here we are at the top. I told you it was cool!


We had fun while Ryan's parents were here. It was good to spend time with them. And I'm so glad they got to spend time with their grandkids.

Alivia's Blessing Day

What a wonderful day!! We felt so blessed to have so much of our family here to support Alivia. She looked so beautiful!! And the blessing she recieved was so amazing! What a special little girl we have. I'm so excited for her to be a part of our family.

See how beautiful she is?!!


A four generation picture with Alivia, me, my dad, and his mom.


Grandma and Grandpa came all the way from Idaho to be with us. They stayed with us for a few days so we had a chance to do some fun things. (More on that later.)


The WHOLE Ivey Family!! Brad and Mallory, and Mike and Ariel came all the way out here from Utah just for this. They spent more time in the car driving here and back than they did actually being with the family. Sorry guys!! But it was SO AWESOME that they came! And we were so glad to FINALLY meet Ariel! YAY! (Although, I just realized that she is not in this picture. Sad. But she was in others.)


My little family.


What a fantastic day!! Thanks to everyone who came to support us, and to those who were supporting us from afar! We love you!

Easter Pictures

I know I have a bias opinion, but my kids are THE CUTEST kids EVER! And I have these pictures to prove it! Hahaha!
These are our Easter outfits. Aren't they cute?? Dainen LOVES holding his sister.



So I found this cute little dress for Alivia and I just fell in love with it. So I wanted us all to match. Ryan and Dainen already had ties, so I just needed to find a shirt or something to match everyone. It was so frustrating!! I am so NOT a fan of shopping when I am looking for something specific, cuz I can never find it. Plus, I was shopping with both kids, so it was just frustrating at the get go. But I finally found something, a super cute top, so I was pretty excited. Easter morning, I'm getting the kids ready for church, Dainen is done and ready to go and I'm getting Alivia dressed... the dress that was the inspiration for all of our outfits was too small! :( It's ok, though. It was just barely too small, so I kind of forced it on... is that bad? It wasn't squeezing her or anything. Once it was on, it was fine. It was just getting it on that was kind of hard. Anyways... here she is in her cute dress.


These family pictures are kind of blurry but that's because we set the camera on the mantel of the fireplace all the way across the room and set the timer. So I had to zoom in A LOT. But that's ok. They still look good. I like this first one better, except for the huge gap between Ryan and me. The second one is cute too, though. :)


Yay for Easter!


We truly are blessed to have the family we have. We love our little kiddos! And how blessed we are to have a Savior who loves us enough to lay down His life for us, and take it back up again so that we can return to live with Him and our Father in Heaven. I know that He lives and loves us! Happy Easter!

Moments that make it ALL worth it

Being a Mom is hard work. And sometimes it is very thankless and I feel so under appreciated by my kids. But every once in awhile, there are these sweet moments that make it all totally worth it.
Some of those moments happened for me this past week:
1. Dainen started saying his prayers completely by himself, which is so sweet in and of itself, but the other night he said, "We're grateful for Alivia, that she's here in our home and not in Mommy's tummy."
2. When Dainen wakes up in the morning, he comes into my room where I'm rocking Alivia and before he acknowledges my existence, he climbs over to Alivia and says, "Hello my love!"
3. I was giving Alivia a bath and she was screaming and crying. Dainen came over, put his hand on her head and said, "It's ok, Alivia. I just love you."
(Are you noticing a theme?)
4. Dainen started calling Alivia "huggies" because he likes to give her lots of hugs.
I really do have the cutest kids ever!! And they love each other. What more could a mom ask for?