It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

For Halloween the year, we decided to be characters from the Peanuts gang!  Abby and Ivy both love Charlie Brown, so it seemed like it was the right choice.  Our Halloween week was a little bit crazy because we have all been sick at one point or another.  Abby was sick with a sore throat for her little party with her cousins on Monday.  After playing one game she asked if she could go have a rest.  Late Tuesday night Ivy started throwing up and I followed shortly after... making us miss our ward's Trunk-or-Treat Wednesday night.  Today, Ivy was super tired and sad with a little cough, but we dressed up anyway and went Trick-or-Treating around our street.  It seemed a little bit like a failure, but I think we all looked great and in Abby's prayers, she kept saying "thank you for the perfect day."  Abby had fun, so that is what counts.  She was a great Trick-or-Treater and didn't turn shy and silent at any of the doors.  Here are a few more pictures!

The cutest little Snoopy dog

The saddest little Woodstock

Sally waiting for the arrival of The Great Pumpkin with her "Sweet Baboo."

Easter

Easter Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day in Boise.  We spent the day looking through our Easter baskets, having Easter egg hunts, going to church, and eating a nice dinner with the McDonalds and Grandma Jean and Grandpa Fay. Here are a few pictures!

Abby has recently learned about Caramellos by watching an old VHS tape at
 G&G Bishop's house that features a Caramello commercial.
One day she started singing, "I was right in the middle of Caramello when I found gold!"
  She was pleased to get one in her Easter basket.

A kaleidescope

One day Abby said, "Grandpa is getting me a present.  It's a pink helmet."
Lucky for her, Grandpa pulled through. She wore it for her morning Easter egg hunt.

Abby's Easter dress

Ivy's Easter dress

Sisters!

 Happy Spring!

Boise!

A few days after Christmas, we came up to Boise for a quick visit.  While we were here, Landon was able to interview with Clearwater Analytics.  He had a phone interview on the Thursday morning and was invited for an in-person interview the next day.  The following Monday, he received an offer from them!  After a lot of thinking and praying we decided to accept the offer.  We moved up to Boise on Valentine's Day and are living with my parents for the time being.  Landon defended his thesis in February and is officially done with his master's degree!  Here are some pictures to show what we have been up to.

Ivy with Grandma Nila.  This was before moving, but I had to share it because
I just love this picture.

Ivy has learned to climb the stairs at G&G Bishop's house, although hasn't
learned to go down.  We have to keep our eye on her!

Ivy loves to eat these days and loves most anything new she tries!

Ivy does this all the time.

Abby helped Grandma make cookies for St. Patrick's Day.

Abby LOVES to jump on the trampoline.  Here she is playing "poison" with the ball.

Static hair!

We have been spending the last few Saturdays going to the McDonald cousins' soccer games.

Abby and Lucy are quite the pair!

9 Months

Ivy has officially been outside the womb as long she was inside!  Here are a few updates about Ivy.

• She started crawling two days before Christmas, so just she was just a little under 8 months. She had been scooting and army crawling for quite a while before that, but that was the day she started crawling with correct form.
• She pulls herself up on anything, even if it is just a few inches higher than the ground.  She loves to stand.  
• She is a huge fan of jumping.
•  She has recently learned how to clap and will often do it on command without someone showing her first.  Sometimes she will clap when I enter the room, which is the greatest self-esteem booster ever.  
• She loves music and loves to dance to just about any song she hears.  She loves this video of Carol of the Bells.  We may have a cellist on our hands.  She loves when Abby and I sing to her and her favorite song is definitely "The Itsy Bitsty Spider."  She is so fascinated with the hand motions.
• She and Abby are becoming better friends everyday.  It is so fun to watch.  No one can make her laugh the way Abby can.  Abby is a very good big sister.  She is Ivy's best cheerleader and is always looking out for her.
• Ivy scrunches her eyes and nose when she smiles.  We love it.

We sure love her and hate that she is growing up so fast!

Christmas Highlights

We decided to stay at our home for Christmas this year.  We were able to spend snowy Christmas Eve with a lot of Landon's extended Pratt family and had a great time.  The girls were tremendously spoiled by their grandparents and aunts and uncles.  Abby got a new bed and Santa brought her a "little 'tomputer'" which was what she asked for.  Ivy started crawling two days before Christmas and enjoyed pulling presents off the stack.  We enjoyed the day staying home, opening presents and eating orange rolls, egg bake, chicken cordon bleu with au gratin potatoes and broccoli (which was Abby's favorite part).  Here are some pictures from Christmas day.

6 Months Old

 Ivy is officially 6 months old!  Since I haven't done a single post about this sweet girl, I decided I might as well be on time to document her 6 month mark.  Here are some facts about Ivy.

• She sleeps on her stomach.  Don't worry, we do put her on her back, but she always rolls over.  At first she started rolling on to her side to sleep but now she goes all the way over.  Funny girl, takes after her mom that way.
• She doesn't seem to care much for pacifiers.  She is pretty mellow so we never pushed it too hard when she was really little.  I think she probably would like one, but she doesn't know how to keep it in.  Instead, she seems to be content sucking on her fingers as well as her bottom lip (cutest thing ever).  
• She is a roller.  She isn't really rolling across the room or anything but she constantly rolls over to be on her tummy (exact opposite of her older sister).  She moves around a bit by rolling and rotating.  She isn't crawling, but she is starting to get better at tucking her knees in and lifting up her bum and torso.
• She is starting to learn how to sit.  She doesn't love to sit, but she is seeming more and more interested.  She especially likes to sit in the grass when it is nice outside... unfortunately, I don't know how many more nice days we will have.
• She has a great smile.  She will almost always give you a smile, even when she is fussy or really tired.  
• She likes to scratch surfaces these days.  She also likes to grab faces and hair (although I don't really have any for her to grab!)
• She loves to take baths and have her diaper changed.  I used to say she was the cleanest baby ever, but now I can say she has had her fair share of blowouts.
• She really likes to watch and see what is going on.  It is fun to see her take everything in.
• She is very patient and calm.  Baby #2 has been quite different.  I feel like Ivy has to just "go with a flow" a lot more than Abby did.  However, Ivy is just as sweet as can be and hardly ever complains.  

We love our sweet Ivy!

Not the most glamorous, but this is such an "Ivy face." 

Smile with a scrunchy nose.

Scratching the rug, a daily occurrence.

  

Backyard Olympics

We love watching the summer Olympics at our house and were excited for the games in London to start.  To celebrate and expose Abby to the Olympics (and to just have fun), we had our very own backyard Olympics!  Abby had a blast!

Here she is warming up for all of her events.

The 50 meter dash (while holding balls, Abby's idea).

The Ball Throw/Catch the Ball event

The Hurdles 

Just having fun running around.  We also did a jumping event, but didn't get great pictures form it.

Representing Team USA!

Here she is receiving all of her medals.

She was so pleased!

Go Team USA!

Abby thought I deserved some medals too!

We had so much fun and Abby really did have a blast.  It was amazing to me that she was so excited about receiving her medals when she doesn't really know what it means!  We are pretty sure NBC will show these photos of her when she is in the real Olympics.  We just need to figure out what sport she needs to start training for!