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.