Rest of February

Looking at and organizing these pictures reminds me how wonderfully full my life is right now. Any given 2 weeks time period has dozens of fun pictures, many milestones met, and innumerable fun memories.  The end of February was no different. Nothing spectacular happened, but we had a lot of fun :).

This first picture is just Olivia's nap time activity. I found it later and was just awestruck at our similarities. She pulled out everything from a random drawer, took the time to sort tooth stuff from non, and organized it all. She does this regularly with all sorts of toys, books, and less kid-friendly things.

As a result of having so much fun, the days go VERY slowly :). That isn't very often a bad thing, but I am still (and may forever be) a mom adjusting to three kids. On the 19th of February I noted on Facebook that at 9:00 I had changed 4 leaky diapers, changed 1 soaked bed, gotten 3 new kid outfits, completed 2 loads of laundry, made and cleaned up breakfast for 4, fed the baby 3 times, and vacuumed 2 rooms. I remember looking at the clock after I finished feeding Kenzie and doing a double take because it had to be at least noon. Alas, it was 9:05...and time for a cartoon so mom could rest :).

Block hot lava game!

My two lovely girls. O loves to hold Kenzie, and every time she does she expects that I will immediately start taking pictures. She just sits like this, gently shaking (hear GENTLY...) to get her to smile until I snap a few pics.

There are always lots of fun stories at the end of the day to share with whomever will listen. Sometimes - often - there isn't anyone around over the age of 4, so I have to write them down. One morning I was washing dishes and I heard from the other room two words that I will never allow in my house. Olivia yelled 'Go Duck!'. My heart started racing, fingers shaking, and I immediately began an internal debate over what exactly warranted a time out without warning (I usually try to give the kids a chance to correct the behavior before sending them to time out). I walked into the play room ready to get my Mad Mom on and had to physically stop myself when I saw that she was reading 'Duck on a Bike'. This is a family favorite book, but happens to feature the worst animal on the planet. I was relieved and took 3 deep breaths before resuming my work in the kitchen. Go Beavs!

Family reading time :) Makenzie is busy learning about dinosoars.

Right now both our kids are into look and find books. We have a bunch, but all of these toddler ones are too easy for them, especially Olivia. She turns the page and immediately points to each thing. The entire book takes her less than a minute. They are still entertaining for her though!

This picture does not do justice to the size of this book compared to Carter's little arms holding it up. There is no way this is more comfortable than sitting up :).

Here is a cute play-by-play of the best way to get Kenzie to smile. a little washcloth tickle is all it takes :).

My days are full of chasing kids around trying to keep the house clean while still managing to stop and play with them often. Makenzie uses a major chunk of that not-involved-with-the-toddlers time, so a few things have slipped through the cracks. One of these things has been deep cleaning. Our house stays picked up for the most part, but I can't remember the last time I organized the junk corner or dusted. I also haven't been as on top of cleaning vacuuming as I should be. This was demonstrated when I pulled out the vacuum and sitting behind it was a sippy cup full of what used to be milk. It had gone past sour, past chunky, to that horrible separated stage that has a smell so strong it permeates the cup. Needless to say, I took it straight to the outside garbage, not even considering the cost of replacing the cup. By the time I returned I was needed to sort out some sharing issues, then changing diapers and feeding the kids took priority, and the vacuum stayed half in the closet for the rest of the day. Maybe tomorrow I will actually get the floors clean!

Discovering the baby in the mirror is a favorite time for me. I made Alex wait so I could grab the camera before he showed her this fun new toy :). Besides this first day she has been mostly interested in the grown up in the mirror, but she smiles at herself as well :). What a fun girl!

Sometimes you come out of the bathroom and find this...and immediately wish you hadn't even seen it. Carter was SO proud of his invention that helped him make every shot. I was just sure that the whole thing would come tumbling down any minute. We are going to have a broken bone sometime, but luckily it didn't come this day. I let him shoot a few times, then convinced him that just the table would be a better platform :).

Grandma and Grandpa sent the kids some money for Valentine's Day, and they used it to take the whole family to Pojos! Daddy benefitted the most, he loves those arcade games.

Licking the beaters one afternoon...the best part of any baking day for sure.

The last week of February brought my Mom to town, and she brought this great addition to our family dance parties! Just writing this reminds me that we need to pull it out again to get through the heat of summer. Thanks mom!

Olivia's preschool class had a fun field trip to Great Harvest. This was definitely the field trip that I have been most excited for all year. Those treats are yummy :). They learned about the 5 ingredients of bread, and got to go to the back to see all the commercial sized equipment. Those mixers are HUGE!

O and her friend Lilia are so cute together. Preschool has been such a fun time for O, she learns more every day and has made great friends in the process.

The day before Valentine's Day, my phone broke. It could access the internet and send text messages, but couldn't actually make or receive phone calls. It was quite ironic and a glimpse into the world when my phone would do everything possible except be a phone. After a wrong address, a late shipment, and 16 days without a phone, I got my replacement from Verizon via my dad in Oregon. He can't send a package without packing peanuts, so here is the kids opening up this box :).

So I have become the epitome of a lazy mom with Kenzie. She is really into the mirror, but I didn't want to go find the baby mirror yet, so I just propped up my phone with the camera reversed so she could see herself in it. She was totally enamored, and rewarded me with about a dozen of the world's youngest selfies :).

And on February 28th we took all the girls (including my mom, who was still visiting) to the BYU @ BSU gymnastics meet. It was fun to see top 25 quality gymnastics, and we represented with Kenzie wearing OSU gear. It has now been 2 years since I have been able to see OSU gymnastics in person. Hopefully third year's the charm :).

The first week of March included a great trip to Utah! Coming up soon :)

February's Cold

February is a cold month in Boise. We continue our mostly-indoor activities and get a little stir crazy. This year with a 3-month old, we ventured out even less than usual, but we had a lot of fun regardless. The first day of February brought visitors! Amber's house is definitely the Four Seasons of houses to stay in while driving through Boise, but we got to play host to David's family, which was a blast! I really enjoyed catching up in the evening, and they are such a fun family. It was a special treat for Olivia, who got to play one-on-one with her older cousin Megan. Megan was very kind about her mispronunciations (she insisted that her cousin was named Mee-gin) and the girls enjoyed playing together and resting together after a night with not enough sleep :)

Kids holding hands with Daddy and family story time are definitely my picture weaknesses. I just love these pictures of my sweet family reading together. This particular night, Kenzie fell asleep in Olivia's lap. She is an amazing big sister, very patient and loving towards Makenzie. She is always anxious to learn, and has figured out that if she asks me to 'show [her] what to do so [she] knows when [she] is a mom' I will almost always let her stay and learn with me :).

On the third (please disregard the awful sweats...working on that baby weight :)) we decided enough was enough in the kids' play room. Christmas had created a tornado in this room that never really got cleaned. The kids weren't taking any responsibility for cleaning up their messes, so we decided to clean the 'mom' way. 2 hours and lots of organizing later, the play room was empty sans the toy box and the bookshelves.

I had to take a photo shoot of this sweet girl the first time she wore this outfit. The blues and greens are so great for her complexion - thanks Auntie Ashley!

In other random stories this month, here is a fun animal fact from Olivia: 'Probsis (Proboscis) monkeys have a big long nose...to keep pretors (predators) away from their family. And they have four stomachs!'
Facts like this aren't unusual at our dinner table, and come as a result from the kids watching Wild Kratts. The kids seem to remember facts like this about every animal they see, so I totally don't mind playing the show for them. I look forward to being corrected about animal facts until Olivia moves out as an adult :)

The kids have recently started looking forward to video game nights! Olivia is starting to really understand which button is for each function (a feat I have yet been able to accomplish) and Carter is happy with a controller that hasn't been turned on, as long as you tell him he is the Hulk :). They play Lego Marvel and Lego Star Wars, and we are still working on the rule that we don't go around the house yelling 'Kill them! Kill them!' randomly.

Carter's first time making Valentines :). He loved counting out 3 kisses and 3 hugs for each of his 'dance friends'. Many of the girls in Olivia's dance class have siblings Carter's age, so they have all become friends throughout the year.

First mom haircut! It wasn't without mistakes, and 2 haircuts later I can safely say that I am still learning. However, it will save us a bunch of money, so this kid is stuck with mom cuts for the foreseeable future. P.S. Haircut suckers are GROSS.

This girl has amazing eyelashes. They warranted a photo shoot one afternoon. Right after I took these photos, I had to stop for a laughter break because Olivia came up and shared this fun animal fact: 'Mom, did you know that some babies...fennick foxes poop then they roll around in it? Our baby wears a diaper' This fact was actually from watching Jeff Musial come on the Tonight Show. The kids both love the animal skits, and I figure there's no better way to introduce them to late night television at this young age.

Just before her 3 month birthday, Kenzie moved into her crib! It's amazing how tiny she looks in there.

This picture was me faking myself out about Carter potty training. So far, Carter loves Lightning McQueen and his McQueen underwear, but is not very motivated to potty train. So I am not even trying. He will get into underwear eventually; until then, I'd rather change diapers than clean accidents.

Apparently it was a week of firsts! We pulled out the Bumbo...can you tell how excited she was?! The other kids were excited too, and they managed to get their thighs out after some extreme exertion.

We tried a Cute Girl Hairstyle for Valentine's Day. Actually we put it in on Wednesday the 11th. The most amazing thing was that 3 days later it still looked this amazing, Definitely a repeatable hairstyle.

Kenzie got her first black eye at the gym on the 11th. A bigger and much more mobile baby was apparently jealous of those lashes...but she was very tough about it, the instructors at the gym didn't even know it had happened until I noticed when I picked her up. Poor little thing, but part of me is glad that her first injury didn't come at the hand of one of her siblings. I'm sure she will have plenty of familial-instigated injuries in future years.

We had a couple fun cousin dates during Valentine's Day week so moms could chat and arrange some piano music. I just love watching the kids play together, they have such fun.

Guess who's 3 months old! Makenzie Brooke is a beautiful, smiley little girl who is totally coming into her fun personality. She absolutely loves her shaker laughs every time she bonks herself in the head, and smiles at every little shake that she makes. The other thing that can distract her from anything is her big sister. I have to make Olivia leave the room when Kenzie eats so she won't spend the whole time craning her head to get one more glimpse of her big sis. She has one super ticklish spot right between her shoulder blades; Alex gets her in fits of uncontrollable laughter a few times each day until I come to her rescue :).

The saddest part of Kenzie's day is rest time, when Olivia and Carter can't play with her. She is totally happy as long as she's in the middle of all the commotion that is our house every day. She is the perfect third child for our family. She weighs in at about 11.5 lbs, and is just shy of 24 inches tall.

I just love these smiles...can't believe I get to see them every day :)

Tummy time with sister.