basement organization

Our basement playroom/family room/office/laundry room has been driving me nuts lately! There are clothes piled way too high on the ironing board, the toys are taking over the entire room so you can't sit down to watch TV without sitting on a lego creation or a Wii remote and there is no room to do any office type work on our current desk! Everything is changing starting with some toy organization! My sister and her fiance (yes..I said fiance! more on that soon:) came down last week for a couple of days and Tony and Chris built this little closet-maid organizational unit for toys, dress up clothes, games, puzzles, etc. All of this was in bins on the floor before this and just having it up off of the floor has made the biggest difference in the world. Sometimes I just stare at it for a few minutes because it makes me so happy!

The dress-up clothes are hung now (the kids can't quite figure out how to hang them back up after they're done playing, but they'll get it soon) The two drawers contain all of the dress-up accessories like masks, shoes, eye patches, hats, boas, fairy wings, necklaces and other jewelry, wigs, etc. The puzzles, games and musical instruments are up high enough that they have to get an adult if they want to play which is just the way I want it!

We are getting a hand-me-down desk from my parents that used to be a big office desk at my dad's bank (so you can imagine how big it is) and I'm crossing my fingers that Santa says I can get a new couch in 2013! With some window treatments and some new paint on the walls that doesn't show every.single.fingerprint we will have a whole new basement! I'll be sure to post pictures along the way! 

Ivy's 1st - Dad's post

I think that the “first year” for all three kids has gone quicker with each one. Maybe it is the fact that there was only one commanding 100% of two adults at once, then two where it was a bit more difficult but we could at least split the duties and now with three it’s sometimes just about survival. I say that likes it’s a real thing – survival in our fortunate world is staying calm and hoping for a full night of sleep. It was a blessing to get a girl after Max; everything was new all over again in a totally different way (as I suspect will continue the rest of our lives…). With Ivy, it’s interesting seeing similarities in her from both our other two. That being said, there’s a lot of Mya in her. I took the blog I wrote for Mya when she turned one and added some commentary for Ivy in red italics after it below…

Daddy's Little Girl... 1 year old already. She can drive me crazy one second and melt me with her smile or kiss the next. Riding in cars and her knack for liking to see us multiple times in the middle of the night are the only things I would wish to change. Ivy is a bit more into her mom than I remember Mya being at this stage. Don’t get me wrong, she still melts my heart in the exact same way when she buries her head on my chest and rests, but she definitely prefers Beth… She’s better at riding in cars – possibly because of the entertainment of the other two rug rats.

I couldn't ask that she be any less determined. Like when she gets the idea in her head that diving into Chloe's water dish and spilling it everywhere would be such fun and will literally climb over, under and around me 20 times trying to get there until I finally give in and just put her dish on the counter. That determination and perseverance will serve her well when she is older. Chloe has provided enough blog time to go around, and her dish and Ivy are best friends just like it was for both Max and Mya – it’s like a tractor-beam! Constant clean-up! Overall, she is every bit as determined and stubborn as Mya was.

I couldn't ask her to be any less daring. Like when she decides to dive head first off the couch, climb a flight of stairs before she can really crawl or actually enjoy being tossed up in the air as high as I am comfortable letting her leave my arms. She is learning that taking chances with uncertain outcomes is an important part of life. Daring is the key likeness here but in a different way. Ivy will climb anything and everything. She’ll get on a chair and start rocking back and forth like she’s trying to get it to move. She also likes tosses into the air, but is a bit more gun-shy about letting go all the way.

I couldn't ask her to be any less caring. Sure, she treats her "baby" like a ragdoll and will chase Max around trying to take him down, but she also hugs that baby like it needs it and gives her brother nice big kisses from time to time. As for me, nowadays she is the first one scurrying to the door to greet me when I get home from work and she gives great hugs. She is a fun loving person and people are attracted to that! Here’s the best part – Ivy is now my #1 fan when I get home. Mya is a close 2nd in terms of showing excitement when I walk in the door. Chloe doesn’t count or she’d always win out. Max – usually he’s playing with his friends and depressingly enough I am rather invisible in those instances – my coolness must be fading with each passing year. Beth? Depends on if it was another night of telling her I’d be home 45 minutes ago… Ivy is WAY more into people than either of the other two, and we thought at the times that they were ultra-social. Ivy takes it to a whole new level with real people; she hasn’t shown an interest yet for dolls. When that time comes, I hope Mya is nice enough to share one of her 356 babies in the house. Last thing – Ivy is very caring and very protective of her siblings. When I am wrestling with Max and Mya and they yell at all, Ivy starts screaming and runs over to us and starts smacking me. Almost the same reaction we used to get out of Chloe when she thought I was actually hurting the kids – innate protective instincts.

You can learn a lot about someone in a year. It's been fun seeing her explore and learn new things every day. She can be a real pistle, but it's hard to not smile even then. AMEN… Love her and am thankful every day for all the love and life. Now where is that remote and what is that in her mouth this time!?!?

Happy 1st Birthday Ivy!

Dear Ivy,

Happy Birthday to our sweet baby girl! One year ago today you made us a family of 5! This year has flown by, but I've tried so hard to enjoy every moment of it. You have brought so much joy to our lives and we feel blessed to be your parents.

You still haven't slept through the night, but I take 100% blame for that. I just can't seem to let you cry it out (even though we've tried several times) and when it takes me less than 5 minutes to be back in my bed and sleeping it doesn't seem like that big of a deal. I try not to complain about being tired and I'm careful who I tell that you're not sleeping through the night or else I get lectured about how you don't need to be eating in the night:)

You are such a lover. You will go up to any adult in the room and hold your hands out to be picked up. Sometimes you put your head down on their shoulder and it just melts hearts. Most people think they are your favorite and I don't have the heart to tell them that you do that to everyone! At Mya's field trip the other day, you went up to the DNR lady who was leading the field trip and she carried you around for awhile! I hope you can always bring smiles to the faces of others.

Now for some stats and other tidbits...you weigh just over 20 pounds, wear size 4 shoes, size 3 diapers, wearing 12-18 month clothes, take 2 naps a day..one longer one and one shorter one, go to bed around 7, have 6 teeth that are through and two more on the bottom that are just about ready to pop through. You love your purple blanket with the silk around the edges, like the pacifier at bedtime and in the car, but could take it or leave it the rest of the day, can sign "all done" and "more" even though I'm pretty sure your "all done" just means GET ME OUT OF THIS HIGHCHAIR, you hate being contained, are starting to throw tantrums when things get taken away from you, you prefer to read books by yourself instead of letting me read them to you, you love to be sung to and I can tell you're trying to do some actions with the songs, you have very little hair, but it is coming in a bit darker than Mya's, you hate when Chloe barks and when I put the shade up in the morning in your dark, dark room.

We've only had to call Poison Control once and you've had Chloe's food in your mouth several times, but I don't think you've actually ingested it yet. Her water dish is your favorite toy behind my cell phone, the remote control and the kids' backpacks. You love to carry around bags, backpacks and purses through the house. It's a tad annoying when the bus is here and we can't find Max's backpack because you put it somewhere! You take your socks off every chance you get, you really dislike things on your head and you've had a very difficult time adjusting to daylight savings time ending.

I'm really going to miss the baby stage. Can't believe I just wrote that because prior to you I was not really a baby person. Either you were so much easier or I finally figured it out after two other kiddos:) The newness of having a baby has not worn off yet with your brother and sister. They are still equally excited to see you every morning when I get you out of your crib as they were when you were a newborn and your big sister still asks countless times per day if she can hold you. They can't get enough of you (except when you wreck their Legos) and I hope it stays like that forever. I'm so happy you're the one who was picked to be in our family...we love you Ivy Anne!

11/11/11

11/11/12

playing catch up

Things are getting back to normal around here and I wanted to write a little bit about our Halloween activities! A couple weekends ago we went to the local pumpkin patch and had a lot of fun. It was the day after a big rain storm so we were all pretty muddy by the time we left, but the kids loved running through the corn maze and running through the pumpkin patch trying to pick out the perfect pumpkin! Ivy is starting to become a little pistol when we go places. She's not content to sit in the stroller or in your lap. She wants down all the time and wants to eat random things too!

I'm loving all of the hand-me-downs Ivy is wearing of Mya's these days. It's so fun to remember Mya in the clothes and tell her about how it was her shirt when she was little. Here's Mya at the pumpkin patch in 2009 in the same shirt Ivy wore in 2012:)

Max and Mya had a great time trick-or-treating once again. They filled their pumpkins and had a blast counting the pieces when they got home! Chris reported that Mya got really scared at one house and that it took her awhile to get back at it, but eventually she did! Max was a GI Joe Ninja, Mya was Sleeping Beauty and Ivy was some sort of blue horned monster! My mom got that constume for Max when he was 18 months and it was so warm (and cute) that we decided to put Ivy in it as well!