A Peek at the Perrys

Welcome, Sterling

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Sat, 21 Mar 2015 11:54:00 -0700

What. a. surprise. I honestly thought we'd be a family of girls (and I was just fine with that), but this little guy surprised us. We didn't find out his gender beforehand and we were both floored when he came out a different flavor than the rest of our kids!

I thought I'd better record his birth story before all the sleepless nights makes my memories foggy. This guy arrived on Mar 14, 2015 -- "Pi Day", but not just a regular Pi Day, a special pie day (3.1415). I really should have eaten some pie by now to celebrate.

His birthday was sort of planned though. I wasn't due until the 25th. Because I had been having such awful round ligament pain for so long and because I had started dilating, I wanted to see if he was ready to come out with a little push. I did the castor oil-scrambled egg trick that worked to bring Mimi into the world. I figured at the very least I'd have the runs and no baby. If my body (and he) wasn't ready, it wouldn't work.

So we picked a day. And I did it. And it worked. It didn't happen quite as fast as Mimi's birth though.

8:30 AM - Ate the eggs.

10:30 AM - Mild contractions started.

10:31 AM - Kids ask when the baby is coming out.

10:32 AM - Kids ask when the baby is coming out.

10:33 AM - Kids ask when the baby is coming out.

(You get the picture.)

3:00 PM - Dropped the kids off at the Stephenson's house. Holly was already at work (L&D nurse and my BFF and had dibs on the delivery) and Traci met us there (amazing midwife).

4:00 PM - Got settled at the hospital and started walking around. We expected him to arrive around 6PM -- if it was anything like Mimi's birth. I fully expected him then, too, because... 4th baby.

7:00 PM - Progressing, but S.L.O.W.L.Y. He was taking his sweet time. We decided to break my water to see if that would get things going.

9:00ish PM - Yes. That helped. Harder labor beginning.

9:ish-10:30 PM - Don't even ask me about these hours. I don't want to talk about it. I wanted to have another natural birth, like Mimi's, but I didn't anticipate it being drawn out for this long. I was on the verge of asking for something, but I was positive he was almost here. So I held out a little longer.

10:43 PM - Hello, little boy! What? A boy? Are you sure?

I'm surprised now, but honestly I wasn't into the whole gender reveal at the time. I was just relieved that the whole experience was over and I didn't care if it was a girl or a boy. (Thinking of Lorelai Gilmore when she said giving birth is like doing the splits over a crate of dynamite. Yep. Pretty much.)

He gave out one little yelp and then didn't make a peep for a long time. He weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and measured 20 in.

We usually take a day or so to decide on a name. This time it took us almost a week -- boys names are hard for us. The girls really liked Owen and started calling him that, but we decided on Sterling Richard (after Steve's dad) instead. When we told them we decided on Sterling they took it pretty well. Except Sophie had a short meltdown and was sobbing upstairs for a little while. My mom was here at the time and was a little concerned about her... until I told her she reacted the same way when we traded our van in for another one and had to say good-bye to "Toola". She's just sentimental, I guess.

Guys, Sterling is so sweet. He rarely cries and sleeps a lot. After a week he isn't doing too badly during the night either. I got four hours in a row last night and I don't feel like I'm in a fog. Breastfeeding is going beautifully, and I'm not nearly as sore this time. (Thank you, coconut oil!) He eats A LOT. I've heard that about baby boys, though.... wanting to eat constantly.

We think he looks the most like Sophie as a baby. He has Steve's olive skin and dark hair, Sophie's lips and nose, and maybe Ivy's eyes. He's going to be one good-looking kid.

That's about it. We're still walking on air and soaking in his little newborn self. I love this stage, despite having to deal with my body's recovery as well (which is going pretty well, by the way), and I wish it didn't go by so fast.

January

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Tue, 1 Jan 2013 15:18:00 -0800

little one is just a teensy bit loved. Can you tell?

Cold days = art time! If you mix shaving cream and Elmer's glue you can use it as paint. It dries all puffy. We call it snow paint. The kids go nuts for it.

We also made some homemade play doh, and I FINALLY finished Mimi's mobile. It was lonely looking in the guest room where her crib is. I love the way it turned out!

Dad uses hot sauce for entertainment.

Both of the girls LOVE to go to Whole Foods. Mostly for the free snack they give out by the front door.

That burger is from Burger Me -- the place we usually go after we attend the temple. It's called the Train Wreck: cheeseburger with chili, a fat onion rings, and a fried egg. (And lettuce and tomato, but duh. Every burger has that.) They give you a fork to help you eat it. Good thing, too, because it's usually too tall to fit in my mouth. Love that thing.

This girl is crawling and getting into everything now. She loves the bookshelves and the recycle paper box. And I was surprised to see Sophie licking the dishwasher, too.

We started doing some of our January traditions. Breaking out the borscht and getting ready for Valentine's Day. I must have some kind of illness because I find myself wanting to do more decorative crafty things. Usually it's not my thing. I love those wreaths, though!

I'm also not one to decorate for every holiday, but the girls are so excited and want to make things festive. So, we do it. And it's fun. :)

I loved Sophie's how to draw a butterfly tutorial. She's so funny!

This girl never sits still. Not even in the tub.

And I have a feeling she's going to overtake Ivy in a few years. She's strong. And determined.

December Part 2

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:07:00 -0800

Some of our Christmas traditions are putting together a gingerbread house. (Yes, I buy the kits. I'm not ready to tackle one entirely from scratch yet. At least it's not already assembled!) We also frost sugar cookies and make at least one pineapple pie. We had Steve's parents, Kimi, and her boyfriend, Steve over this year so we made two.

Ivy's a pretty good little pie making helper.

I think these are the only pics we got of the girls in their Christmas dresses. We had 9AM church and had to be there really early to practice with the choir so we took them afterward when everyone's hair was a mess. Haha.

And this little rosebud wasn't in the mood for pics.

On Christmas Eve we read the Christmas story, played Don't Eat Pete, and set out carrots and cookies for Santa and his Reindeer.

Christmas morning!

All month long we had a list running of things we were grateful for. And there's the obligatory trip to Target for Christmas clearance.

For Christmas we redecorated the girls' bedroom, moved Ivy out of the toddler bed and Mimi into the crib. A lot of moving things around and last-minute painting. It was a ton of work. But they really love it!

I love the week between Christmas and New Year's. We went out on a date and had sushi, spend New Year's Eve with the Stephenson's (and had more sushi), had a lot of movie nights and tried to finish off the rest of the Christmas goodies lying around. When you want a piece of pumpkin bread and there's no knife around, you get pretty desperate. I'm not sure who did this, but it was probably one of my children.

Happy New Year!

December Part 1

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:04:00 -0800

December started of with a smashed finger (Mine. Luckily there were no breaks. It's nice to have easy, cheap access to an x-ray machine.), yummy candles, gathering addresses, and still a lot of sunshine. I'm not sure we'll ever have a real winter in Reno.

Also, I've had the same address book for 16 years -- it was a high school graduation gift. I haven't had the guts to type them all into a program in fear of having to type and retype them if something changes and I need to switch programs. It works. :)

This girl. I swear she gets cuter and more active every day.

A couple of years ago my mom sent the girls a Christmas book that has a recording mechanism in it that allowed her to record herself reading the Christmas story to the girls. It's one of their favorites.

I had no idea getting out of a chimney simply required smelling cookies.

And I'm not above recruiting child labor for stuffing Christmas cards.

We found this nifty little wire set up from IKEA and finally hung it! Thanks, Dad!

Mimi pulled herself up to the box of pomegranates and latched right on. I laughed for days. I still laugh whenever I see this photo.

'Tis the season. :) I did a cookie swap with a bunch of other bloggers and sent out some extra-spicy gingersnaps dipped in chocolate. I also went through a ton of butter this month and made macarons like a madwoman.

I just love this pic. Even when he's trying to be intimidating he's not. Love him. :)

Happy 4th Birthday Ivy!

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Sat, 1 Dec 2012 15:02:00 -0800

Miss Ivy had a joint birthday part with her little friend Maddy. Their birthdays are two days apart and since they'd be inviting the same group of kids we did the party together. Um, awesome idea. :)

It was easy to pick a theme since they're both princess obsessed girls. So, Rapunzel it was.

Pin the flower on Rapunzel's hair was a little harder than it looks.

... for Sophie. Silly girl :)

I made tower cupcakes with ice cream cones and topped them with colored stabilized whipped cream. I'm not sure what the deal was, but the cream started falling apart off the "tower" and seemed to break apart. Maybe it was squeezing it through a pastry bag. Or the food coloring. I have no idea, but it was bizarre. The girls loved them anyway, so that's what mattered most.

And Sophie was thrilled to wear her Cinderella wedding dress.

November

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 20:58:00 -0800

We had some family pics taken by Casey Zweifel that turned out so cute!!

As usual, the kids weren't super cooperative, but we survived.

We made a trip to Sacramento and got all the grandkids together for Great-Grandma Perry (GG).

for Grandma and Grandpa Perry, too.

We had a little shower for baby Emily. Ivy was glued to the cupcakes, as usual.

They recently finished a new park not too far from us that's pretty fantastic. My favorite part is that there's astro-turf stuff instead of tan-bark or rocks, and I don't have to worry about the baby putting things in her mouth.

Here's a few of our sweet Sophie. She's growing up so fast and loves Kindergarten! (She also looks a lot like me when I was little.)

This was the year I "mastered" French macarons. Ivy was a great helper. We did a lot of kitchen projects while Soph was in school. Dipping pretzels in chocolate is one of her favorite things to do!

Here's our silly little Mimi. This girl only stays still when she's sleeping. She's started to climb me when I hold her. Awesome.

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents' house this year. Yay! Mimi cried practically the entire 10-hour trip, to and from Idaho. The kids got into the old disks in my mom's office, and we had a good supply of Reed's chocolate milk to last us the weekend. Almost.

Lots of card games, unabashedly licking serving spoons, endless mashed potatoes, and piles of books to read.

We had to make our pilgrimage to Cafe Rio for a shredded chicken salad. (My fav ever.)

Happy Birthday to my little Ivy! I can't believe she turned 4!

Also, that s'more cake was the bomb. (From the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.)

Right before we left the girls got to ride Rhumba around the yard.

Time to prep for Christmas! We got our Christmas book advent set up, our elf "Snowball" came out, the tree was put up, and Sophie had fun playing "Rapunzel" with some gold ribbon lying around.

October

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:06:00 -0700

In October Steve and I got iPhones, which was also our first smart phones. Also, our first Instagram accounts, which means most of the photos I have of my children now are fuzzy and filtered. Ha. That photo up there of the girls and me was the first thing I uploaded to Instagram.

Another shot of our built-in and one weekend I got a wild hair (thanks to some nudging from Stacy) and painted a wall in the living room peacock blue. I love it.

Sophie really got into chalk drawings and I wanted to keep her Rapunzel and mermaid drawings forever. They're super cute.

The girls at the pumpkin patch, on the Tumblebus (a bus equipped with lots of gymnastics gear) and Ivy sniffing marshmallows at the grocery store. They're her favorite things ever.

Halloween carnival at the elementary school! This year we had Ariel, Snow White, and a zebra. The color spray we used on the girls' hair was so hard to get out. Steve washed their hair at least a half dozen times. Yay for him!

After Ivy returned from trick or treating, she pulled a Twinkie out of her bag and, in all seriousness, demanded to know what it was. It was a proud parenting moment, I have to say.

Mimi tried her best to get some candy open. Little did we know baby saliva opens candy wrappers pretty easily.

September

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 19:24:00 -0700

We had a custom entertainment/storage center put in the family room. We LOVE it! A patient at Steve's office built it for us and it's been so nice to have more cabinet space.

Little Miss tolerates her swing. For short spurts. :)

Sophie started Kindergarten! We walked her to the school and she went right in like a champ. I was teary-eyed for about 15 minutes and then realized how awesome it was that the girls weren't fighting all day. Yay for school!

Ivy started pre-school, too. She goes twice a week to a friends house and loves it there.

Mimi

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:07:00 -0700

August, 2012

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 21:51:00 -0700

July 2012, continued.

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Mon, 2 Jul 2012 21:31:00 -0700

Here comes a 9-month photo dump. Prepare yourselves. All.. um.. none of you.

*crickets chirping*

Our Summer in Photos: June & July

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Sun, 1 Jul 2012 22:55:00 -0700

I finally feel like I have a handle on things. It doesn't take much for this little blog to become neglected! Here's the rundown of our summer...

JUNE

We pretty much sat and looked at this all day. (Thanks for the pics, Hillie!)

JULY

We left the house a few times!

We took the girls to Boca Reservoir on the 4th of July.

P.S. Ivy's swimsuit isn't usually that baggy. She put one on that Sophie wore last summer and it was more than a size too big.

Mimi's first trip to the lake!

And then she started chunking up...

Sophie got a kick out of my sling. I haven't been a fan of that one (I like my Bjorn carrier better.)

My attempt at getting a cute shot of the three of them.

Sophie playing with her food. In case it isn't obvious... the carrot is a person BBQ-ing. The cheese is the top of the grill and the toothpicks are cobs of corn. (Can you tell we grilled a lot of corn this summer?)

And you can make shoes out of anything.

Ivy falls asleep anywhere.

Naomi's Birth Story

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 18:22:00 -0700

If you haven't heard, this little piece of sweetness came out of the oven on Thursday. Here's how it went down....

This entire pregnancy had been different from my other two. I was sicker in the beginning, I carried much higher, I was mostly stomach (even though I gained 45 lbs...yep, have to document that somewhere, too), I had crazy sciatic pain, and some pelvic issues from before the pregnancy flared up toward the end when I got big. Being married to a chiropractor is awesome. Steve kept me mostly pain-free. I just wish there were some adjustments that targeted crankiness.

I wondered if labor and delivery would be different with this one as well? With the other girls my water had broken on its own, and I needed to be induced several hours later because I never went into labor. This time I wanted my body to labor on its own, and I wanted to avoid having an epidural (for other reasons, mostly lower back issues).

38 week appointment: I was already dilated to a 3. This was new for me, as I had never dilated before my water broke in the past. During that appointment I had met with the nurse midwife (instead of the OB) and I asked her for advice on how to get labor going in case my water broke, and I was in the same boat as the last two deliveries. She gave me a recipe for "special scrambled eggs" (eggs cooked in castor oil) that I could use in case I need a little push. I'd heard mixed stories about using castor oil (mostly getting the runs instead of going into labor... sometimes both) so I decided to think about it. Mixing it with eggs made me wonder if it would be easier on my stomach and not just clean me out.

39 week appointment (last Wednesday): I was dilated to almost a 4. I started to panic a little after the doctor said I would probably go fast once I went into labor. That was hard for me to imagine because I'd never gone into labor on my own before. (And it certainly wasn't fast.)

I really didn't want to dilate much further and not be able to make it to the hospital in time. With the other girls it took me FOREVER to dilate to a 6, but once I passed that mark I was pushing the baby out within minutes.

So...

Enter: "special scrambled eggs" Because I was dilated so far. and I was within a few days of my due date I decided to take the castor oil risk.

Thursday morning: I finished packing my hospital bag and getting some things together for the girls.

10AM: Cooked up the eggs. Said a little prayer to myself and ate them. And waited.

1PM: Mild contractions begin and eventually they got to be about 5 minutes apart. Steve came home for lunch. We left around 3, dropped off the girls at a friend's house, stopped at Steve's office for him to adjust me, then we went to the hospital.

4PM: Arrive at the hospital. I was dilated to a 4. Still having mild, but close contractions. They told me to walk around for an hour or two to see if I was making good progress before they officially admitted me.

6:30PM: Another check -- dilated to a 5.5. They decide to admit me and slowly wander off to find an IV and get some paperwork together.

6:35PM: After 2 or 3 sudden "I want to punch a hole in the wall" contractions (not like the ones I'd been having up until that point), I asked them to give me something to help with the pain. They check me again, and I was FULLY DILATED.

6:45PM: (No IV yet) After another crazy contraction or two, I felt like I had to push. Nurses are taking apart the table and getting stuff together for the delivery. My water EXPLODES after the first push (Steve liked that part.)

6:51PM: Out came little Naomi after the 2nd push and onto mama's chest.

She was absolutely perfect. She weighed 7 lbs 1 ounce, and measured 20 3/4 inches.

I felt great as well, and relieved that it went so fast. I thought it was interesting that I got everything I wanted out of this delivery, but it wasn't really by choice. (Except for "inducing" myself. But I also hear that castor oil doesn't work if your body isn't ready. I guess I was.)

Naomi has been a little nursing champ since she came out and latched right on. My milk finally came in today (Sunday) and she's been sleeping most of the day and less cranky.

I'm still getting my wits together and dealing with the annoying "I'm crying but I have no idea why" episodes. I do feel good, though, and I'm glad that everything went well and we're both healthy!

We decided to name her Naomi LaRue, LaRue after my grandma (my dad's mother). Welcome to the family little one!!

(I've got a video clip of the other girls meeting Naomi for the first time that I'll post shortly....)

Sophie: Age 5

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Fri, 1 Jun 2012 16:22:00 -0700

Sophie and her best friend "Little Fuzzy"

I feel like I just wrote the post about Sophie's 4th birthday. She's so grown up. She's always acted mature for her age, so turning five wasn't a total shock since she acts like she's 14 all the time.

Sophie had the idea of filling a bucket with sand and putting the umbrella from her sand table in it. Then they grabbed boxes from inside the house to use as beach chairs. Maybe we should get some real ones...?

Sophie's fun. She has great ideas and loves being in charge. (Luckily Ivy doesn't mind being bossed around a bit.) She's also very tender-hearted and gets her feelings hurt easily, but I think it's that sensitivity that allows her to be nurturing. She's very watchful over her little sister, and although they argue and fight sometimes, she's very protective of her -- especially when we're not at home.

She's very girly and loves all things sparkly, pink, & frilly. She likes to read books, dance, listen to music, and often sings to herself (on key with pretty good vibrato, too.) Sometimes I think she's going to be my musical theater child, but then I remember how shy she can be when other people are around.

Drawing and coloring are also things she does often. The pictures she draws are sometimes people/family oriented with lots of flowers & butterflies. And sometimes she'll just draw an entire page full of circles in straight lines which brings me to her next interesting trait....

Sophie is all about symmetry and patterns. When she plays, her princesses/ponies/rocks/whatevers are often lined up or arranged in some pattern. (I can relate to that. Symmetry and patterns make me happy, too.)

Sophie's very curious. When she's interested in something she'll ask a million questions about and want to find a "movie on the computer" (aka YouTube) about it. (Lately it's been about sea animals... dolphins, whales, sharks, etc.) She's also very observant and has a good memory. She'll pick up on and remember very small details about places or events and bring them up at random times.

Lately she (both girls actually) has been supplementing her princess fetish with a bit of Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony. For her birthday cake this year she wanted the same cake as her 2nd birthday (this Vanilla Cake with Strawberry Cream Frosting), but wanted blueberries instead of strawberries. I sat down with her a month ago, she told me exactly how she wanted her cake to look and I drew it for her.

She wanted a Rainbow Dash cake. That hairy thing is Rainbow Dash herself. Don't those clouds and grass look so realistic? Sometimes I amaze myself.

Birthday cakes are a big deal around here. The girls talk about them all year long, and have them planned out for the next three years. (They always change their mind about a month from their birthdays, so I don't have to rely on my memory.)

We played it pretty low key this year. We gave her a choice between a party with friends or dinner and shopping with mom & dad. She chose dinner and shopping (much to my relief -- I'm not up to throwing a party for a dozen kids).

We're so proud of how much she's grown and learned the past year and can't wait to see how she likes Kindergarten this fall!

Oh, and did I mention she's grown FIVE inches since September? That kills me.

Happenings

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Sun, 6 May 2012 15:46:00 -0700

Just a few little random pictures from the past month...

"Look Mom! We're in a tortilla bed!" I love how food-minded my children are.

Did I mention that I have several furry grandchildren? My kids give birth at several times a week.

Ivy just being her crazy self. I wish she would stay three forever. I love it.

Oh, and this happened. As much as I swore I'd never drive a minivan I'm surprised how much I like it. Like... really like it. The more I drive it, the more I like it.

We wanted to buy a used one, but because of issues with Steve's student loans we couldn't get a loan from the bank. So we ended up leasing a new one. This is the first time we've ever had a brand-new car... or a car payment... or that paranoid feeling that someone will give me a door ding.

I totally understand why my dad always parks his cars in the boonies.

Easter

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Sun, 6 May 2012 15:40:00 -0700

The Easter bunny was good to us this year. The girls needed something to to outside besides scatter branches and landscape rocks all over the grass. We're trying out this sand/water table thing. So far they've been pretty good about tracking sand in the house and they know to wash their hands when they come in. the problem now is that water ended up filling both sides making a soupy, sandy mess. We're waiting for it to dry out.

(Mostly because I have zero motivation to clean out that thing. Or do to most things lately.)

Steve's parents came up on Friday and stayed the night, so we did our egg dying on Saturday.

I was super impressed that we didn't end up with dye all over the place!

Oh, and Steve had a weird flu the whole weekend. :( Poor guy. The girls got sick a few days later, but just for a day. I managed to dodge that bullet.

Thank. Goodness.

Here are the girls in their Easter dresses. They're into matching lately. (And Ivy's into the "bored supermodel look" lately.)

The girls got their annual Easter box from my parents. (They look forward to those every holiday now and can spot a UPS truck several blocks away when we're out running errands.) They love their new dresses and Easter goodies! Thanks Mom & Dad!

Trip to Idaho

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Sun, 6 May 2012 15:19:00 -0700

Here are the photos from our trip to Idaho in March!

My pretty little girls :)

My dad took us up to a sheep farm in Hamer to see the lambs.

(and the puppies wandering around)

Thank goodness Hillie had her camera out that day.

We took an unexpected ride on the "gut cart" (yes, it's really called that) to gather up some mamas and freshly-born lambs.

I'm pretty sure this is the laziest sheep dog ever.

These two were born not too long ago.

We got to see this guy pulled out of his mama. My kids have been asking a lot of questions lately about how our baby is going to come out. Things should be pretty clear now.

Luckily they won't strap me to a dirty cart and take me for a bumpy ride minutes after MY baby comes out. Poor mama sheep.

There was a lot of relaxing at gramma's.

And getting smooched on.

Keeping Busy

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:46:00 -0700

We never had much of a winter here.

The girls kept asking when they could build a snowman. Or make pomegranate slushies (pomegranate juice + clean snow).

The only "snowman" that was made was on our fluffy white rug. We might as well have been in California.

They had to get creative. Those may look like stickers, but they're not.

Anything long and thin that can be pinned to your head is hair.

(By the way, this was their idea, not mine. Their ideas are way more fun.)

Christmas

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:00:00 -0800

I posted about Halloween in January, why not do Christmas in February?

I've also taken less than 10 photos of the kids so far this year.

Pathetic.

So ya,... Christmas.

On Christmas Eve the girls made a gingerbread house.

I know what you're thinking... that I made the gingerbread, icing, and decorations myself. Um, nope.

Bought a kit. Best thing ever.

The kids thought so, too.

Have you ever seen a gingerbread man do a snow angel? It was a first for me, too.

Christmas was pretty laid back. The girls loved all of the gifts.

Sometimes we got dressed.

Most of us got dressed, though. Ivy's still working on that. By the way, that dust mop was one of the girls' favorite things to play with. Until they dropped it down the stairs and broke it.

House Tour

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:21:00 -0800

Hopefully this will make up for my lack of posts for the past um... month. :)
House Tour from Natalie Perry on Vimeo.

Funnies + Ivy's Birthday pics

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:34:00 -0800

And here we have some funny quotes (from the past 6 months... literally) and photos from Ivy's 3rd birthday (on Thanksgiving). I'm almost caught up! The quotes start from the most recent and go back until last summer.

Enjoy :)

P.S. If you're on Facebook, then most, if not all of these will sound familiar to you. I basically pasted all of my silly status updates into this post.

We were at Target the other day and Ivy was walking beside the cart. A lady walked by us and said, "Oh, is she new to walking?" I said, "Uh, no. She's 3." The lady goes, "She just looks like she's having so much fun!" I never thought about it before, but that IS the way she looks when she's walking around. (Especially if she's holding something we're about to buy.)

***

Since Sophie learned to make her own toast, she's now the resident toast maker for the whole family. My favorite part.... she walks into the room with her hands on her hips, "super hero style" and announces that she just made toast. I love it.

The girls came out of the bathtub last night with towels wrapped around their fronts. Ivy said, "I'm bringing honor." then started humming "Honor to Us All" from Mulan.

***

I asked my kids (out of the blue) what they were thankful for. Ivy immediately says, "Jesus. I'm tankful fo' Jesus." Me, too, Ivy. Me, too.

(Ivy was going through my "OB office goody bag" and pulled out some prenatal vitamin samples.) Ivy: I want a vitamin.
Me: Those are special vitamins for mommies with babies in their tummies. Do you have a baby in your tummy?
Ivy: No. I have a crepe baby. (The last thing she ate.)

***

Ivy: "I want to go somewhere fun."
Me: "Where?"
Ivy: "The office."
Me: "Dad's office?"
Ivy: Nods her head with ginormous eyes.

***

Ivy: "What's in this smoothie?"
Me: (listing off the fruits in the frozen tropical mix) "Strawberries, melon, mango, papaya--"
Ivy: "WHAT? PA-PA-YA?? That's not a word!"

***

Sometimes Ivy doesn't want to get dressed because she wants to "be wike Taw-zan."

I guess my kids aren't getting dressed today because "kitties don't wear clothes". So if you happen to drop by and see them crawling around the floor in their underwear you'll know why.

***

Ivy's on a roll lately. Her definition of a date: "When you watch a boring movie."

***

As I was helping Ivy in the bathroom she goes, "Wow. Dat was da biddest poo of my whole wife."

***

Made me feel kind of old = My kids pick out a VHS tape from the library to watch, then I have to explain what rewinding is and why it won't start RIGHT NOW.

***

Our neighborhood pool is closed for the winter, so my kids are out back in their kiddie pool. Naked. Ivy's idea.

***

The girls got busted for doing something they shouldn't and Ivy says (almost crying), "Dat's why we need to be twiet!"

***

So, my kids are obsessed with these little Disney character (mostly princess) plastic figurines. They play with them ALL DAY LONG. Last night they were talking about which ones were their favorite...

Sophie: I like the princesses the best. They're nice.
Ivy: I like Gaston.
Sophie: Gaston isn't very nice.
Ivy: No he's not nice. Bad boys are my favorite.

***

Ivy: (Hugging a container of sliced cucumbers and peppers) These are my friends. One is Jenny. And one is... Fopsicle.
Me: Popsicle?
Ivy: No, FOP-sicle.

***

I asked Ivy how many grapes she had left in her cup. Her reply, "Um... wike... fouw tausind."

***

This morning I sat up in bed and saw Ivy, with her mermaid tail on, "doing yoga" in the hallway outside our bedroom.

***

Ivy: I waked the pwincesses up wif a woud toooooot.

***

Conversation I just had... (on the floor after I just tickled her)

Sophie: Did you take a shower this morning? Me: Yes.
Sophie: Then why do you smell like that?
Me: Like what?
Sophie: Yucky yogurt! *giggles*

(For the record, I never had any yogurt that day. I think she was smelling the crusted yogurt on her face.)

***

Ivy came running out in only a diaper and said with a smirky smile, "Do I wook modest?"

***

Sophie: "Ivy, zip your mouth!"
Ivy: "No! It doesn't have a zippew!"

***

Scene: Ivy's sitting at the table having a snack. I'm doing dishes.

Ivy: "Let's talk about ... you get me a drink."
Me: "Do you want me to get you a drink?"
Ivy's eyes get big, eyebrows go up, and she nods.

***

After lots of chattering and moving things around in their bedroom)
Sophie: "Ivy, I'm a snack lady!"

We go to Costco a lot.

***

Cutest thing I've seen today: Ivy sitting at the piano with our Tangled songbook singing, "And at yast I see da yiiiiiiight!"

In which we revisit Halloween in January

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Mon, 2 Jan 2012 18:21:00 -0800

So, I was digging through my photos last night and realized I never posted these from our trip to Salt Lake.

IN OCTOBER.

Yikes, guys. In my defense, this was about the time I started feeling crappy (pregnant) all the time.

If it looks like the kids are trick-or-treating in my grandma's backyard it's because they are. Kind of. We missed the trunk-or-treat down the street, so we decided to do trick-or-treating Easter-style by hiding the candy around the yard and having the kids find them.

Up there we have a cowboy (Carter), Tinkerbell (Ivy), and a kitty (Lydia).

The kids didn't care that it wasn't REAL trick-or-treating. Sophie was the oldest one of the bunch, and as long as she got candy in her mouth, she was happy.

Ivy, too.

Trick-or-treating can be exhausting.

The next day we got some cute shots of the kids in the swing.

The big kids, too.

Ivy kills me in that picture. She's nuts.

Christmas Peek

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 08:59:00 -0800

I still have to write about Thanksgiving and Ivy's birthday, but I thought I'd throw some Christmas photos up to hold you over until then....

We certainly had a lot to be grateful for this year. The fact that our house worked out is a small miracle in itself. We have felt so good about our decision to settle here, and everything just worked itself out.

Because of Steve's work schedule we stayed home all Christmas weekend. It was nice for the kids (and all of us) to have some down time and just enjoy Christmas at home. They've been going through a lot these past few weeks as we've been working on the house, moving out of our rental and taking more trips to Home Depot than they ever wanted to make in their little lives.

This was the first year we've been able to put up the big tree since the year Ivy was born. Neither of the girls remember it from that year so they were thrilled to pieces when we got to decorate it.

Then the next day they took all of the ornaments off (within their reach) because they wanted to "start over". All of the ornaments stayed on the floor for several hours because they got "too tired" to put them back on. *Sigh*

I'm especially grateful for this guy. He's been working so hard this year and loves his job so much. They love him, too, and he plans on staying with the group for a while. Hopefully in a few years he'll have his own office :)

Here we are after church on Christmas Sunday. Even though church was only an hour the hairbows (so cute Hillie, thanks!!) still didn't make it through the meeting.

Somewhat normal smiles. Finally!

Callahan Park

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:26:00 -0800

Back in October we found this cute little park at the base of the mountain tucked away in a subdivision. It's our new favorite... too bad we'll be moving to the opposite end of the city soon.

Conference Weekend

natperry@gmail.com (Natalie) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 06:23:00 -0800

Here I go... posting about General Conference two months late.

*Sigh*

There has been a lot going on, and with Facebook and how often I communicate with my family I don't really feel the need to "announce" things on here like I used to.

If you haven't heard (I doubt any of you fall into this category... if there are any of you left.) we're expecting baby #3 in June and we've closed on our first house TODAY. I've got the key in my pocket to prove it. I'll post some pictures of the house and such (hopefully before Christmas!).

Back to conference...just know that real human beings weren't the only ones to enjoy the spiritual messages shared during those two days.

We had a pretty fabulous dinner that Sunday, too. We love roasted chickens. I knew Ivy was a little carnivore, but I had no idea she would pick up a drumstick and go to town on it. (She certainly didn't get that from me. *shudder*)

Speaking of strange eating habits, Ivy has always been the yin to Sophie's yang. Here we have our little veggie girl eating plain lettuce out of the salad bowl.