February, March and April

Back in February, we started to have some warm sunny days.  Luckily, we were able to take advantage of the last free zoo day at Hogle Zoo.  The girls were super excited to be able to see Rizzo, the polar bear this time, since we ran out of time to see him last time we went.  With the warmer weather, the zoo also had the train ride open, so that was fun too.  There was a baby giraffe, baby gorilla, and some baby monkeys that were fun to see.

Callie is jumping right into all of her big sisters' activities.  She has loved the swings at the park and she loves to follow them around the house and tries to play with everything they play with. 

Mia and Ari feel so spoiled when they get to go to the hair school near us to get their hair cut.  It's cute seeing them in the grown up hair salon chairs. 

We love Home Depot Kids Workshop Days!  The girls are always super excited to use the hammer and build stuff with Daddy!

In March, our sweet little Ari turned 3!  I still can't believe how fast time has gone by.  We did a family party here at the house and ate yummy Thai food and chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting and strawberries.  Ari was super specific about her cupcake request too.  We also had all of the cousins do an easter egg hunt.  The girls hid the eggs before everyone got here and we went outside and saw that they basically put all of the eggs in 5 different piles scattered through the yard.  We had to hurry and scatter them some more...I guess they haven't been on enough egg hunts yet to know how it works.  :)

We wanted to get outside one Saturday and went to check out a hike to the Grotto.  The road leading up to the parking lot was closed, so we decided to walk the extra distance.  By the time we made it to the actual start of the hike, the girls were done, so we snapped a few pictures and headed back.  Maybe another day, when that road is open again, we'll try it again.

Easter kind of snuck up on us.  Luckily, we found some cute dresses for the girls to wear.  They had fun searching for their easter baskets Sunday morning too.  

The girls have been playing a lot together lately.  They still fight a ton and wrestle everytime they get in a disagreement, but they also have lots of bonding time.  Looks like March was a fun bonding month, since there are so many pictures of the girls together!

I love this outfit on Callie!  I think red is a good color for her.  I chased her around for a whole hour trying to get some cute pictures.  I think I got quite a few good ones!  These just make me laugh.

April has been a busy month, but we've all had a lot of fun!  We've got more fun shots of the girls all together again.  The girls have two awesome Grandma's who have found some matching outfits for all 3 girls.  Mia and Ari are always excited when they get to pick out an outfit where they can match Callie too!

Mia- 4.75 Years

 Dear Mia,

You have grown up a lot!  You are such a good helper with your sisters and you love helping me one on one with my own projects too.  You're getting so independent, which is awesome, but it also makes me miss my sweet little Mia Bear.  You're growing up so fast!

Skiing has been our new focus lately.  You have loved it!  I'm so glad that I have been able to work on teaching you how.  The first time we took you, it was hard for you to hike all of the way to the bunny hill from the car and you were pretty whiny.  Once you got to ski down that hill the first time though, your entire face lit up!  You are doing awesome!  We've only been 3 times now, but you are able to stop with a wedge and take turns.  Now we need to focus a little more on controlling your speed.  You love to tell everyone that you know how to ski.  You're overconfidence must come from your excitement for it.  I can't wait to have you and your sisters be my little ski buddies, as you get older!

Every morning you like to join me when I work out.  I use weights along with a workout video and you always find a couple of Callie's toys to use, like weights.  It's funny watching you try to figure out what the moves are.  Sometimes you have it right on and sometimes you get your body all twisted.  You're never afraid to try though!

You definitely adore Callie.  Every chance you get, you want to hold her or help feed her or play with her.  Whenever you walk in the room and see that she's awake, you say, "Hi Smiley!" in a high, loud voice and immediately get big smiles from her.

You like to do things more and more by yourself now.  The newest thing has been taking showers, instead of baths.  I've been teaching you how to shampoo your own hair and rinse it out and now you are obsessed with taking showers!   You also are always building things with your legos, k'nex or magformers by yourself.  It was only a month ago that you always said you needed me or Daddy to help you, but now you have it all figured out!  It's fun watching your imagination take off and seeing what creations you come up with.

We love you lots and lots!  It's fun watching you grow up, but you have to slow down!  I'm always amazed looking back at your photos how much bigger you have gotten.  You're beautiful, inside and out.

I love you!

Love,
Mommy

Mia-isms

Feb 14, 2016

Mia has been asking a lot of "why" questions lately, trying to understand things better. She also has been thinking about how Callie came out of my tummy and asking who's tummy other people came out of.
M: Whose tummy did you come out of, Mommy?
K: Grandma JJ's
M: Whose tummy did Grandma JJ come out of?
K: My Grandma Evelyn's
M pauses: Like our doll, Baby Evelyn? (A few months ago, we suggested that the girls name their dolls, instead of calling them things like, the white dolly. We suggested Dolly and Evelyn, after their Great Grandma's and the names stuck.)
K: Sort of. Baby Evelyn is named after my Grandma Evelyn.
M: Hmmm. Ok.

Feb 10, 2016

Eric has been trying to teach the girls words in Spanish every now and then.  The other day Mia asked, “Daddy, What’s Spanish in car?” 

Feb 5, 2016

I gave Mia her envelopes for her Valentines and she started writing names on them.  She spelled them by sounding them out all by herself.  Here is what she came up with: Grandma JJ= GramoLaLa (The L’s were backwards J’s); Grandpa Paul= Grampol; Grandpa Peyton= Grampatin; Paula= Polu; Grandma LuLu= GramoLooLoo.

Feb 1, 2016

Mia and I have been working on a reading book together. She recently learned about quotation marks. When we opened up the next lesson, she pointed to the quotation marks and said, I'm going to count the headphones."

Jan 9, 2016

According to a friend: In Primary Sharing time, they had some random letters (GOMPF) written on a chalkboard. They had started the lesson and all of the sudden Mia yelled out, "GOMPF! That spells GOMPF!" You got a lot of chuckles for that one.  :)

Dec 24, 2015

We had a funny conversation the other night at dinner....We said something about when Steven and Heather came to visit us and Eric referred to Steven as Steve-O. Mia asked, "What's a Steve-O?" Eric responds, "You know, a brother of a Dave-O." Mia responds: "What's a Dave-O?" Eric says, "Uncle Dave-O and Kelcey." Mia, "Oh, I know them!!" Then she recalled more specific things about when they came to visit us this summer. 

Dec 23, 2015

We were driving through the Christmas light display and came to a green dinosaur. We asked the girls what they saw and Mia yelled, "A Christmas Giraffe!" It was a green dinosaur with a red hat, so it kinda made sense. :)

Nov 12, 2015

Mia likes to do my Zumba DVD workouts with me in the mornings.  One morning she noticed that the Zumba instructor had pulled his hood over his head.  She asked, "Why does he have his hood on?  It's not raining."  Haha!  We had to explain that sometimes people wear hoods, like hats, even if it's not raining, just for looks.

Ari- Almost 3

Dear Beautiful Ari Baby,

You're almost 3!  You seem to be regressing back to baby mode.  You have made a lot of requests lately to be held more or to be fed your food.  Either you're jealous of the attention Callie is getting or you're trying to postpone growing up and being more independent.  You never seem to show anger toward Callie, so I don't know if it is jealousy.  You are always so sweet to your baby sister and have always been willing to help with anything she needs.

Sometimes I forget how little you are.  You seem to just follow right along with Mia most of the time and keep up really well with her.  We bought you skis and you were so excited to go!  By the time we get you from the car to the bunny hill, you get too worn out to try though.  You were excited the first two times we took you, but by the third time, you told us you didn't want to do it anymore.  I think you know what your limits are and you're just not ready for it yet.  Hopefully next year, you'll be able to try it again!

Now that you're almost 3, your naps are getting shorter and shorter.  Most days you'll go down for a short nap or quiet time and then we still have a little time to play together before we go pick up Mia from preschool.  You love snuggling and reading books or playing with your baby dolls.  I love those sweet one on one moments with you!

You have such a sweet personality.  You and Mia fight, like normal sisters, but you are always the first to say sorry.  When Mia gets in trouble, you always feel bad for her and want to help her immediately, even if she had just hurt you.  You're always willing to share your candy or treats with all of us too.  Sometimes you'll even offer more than half.

I don't know why, but you apparently hate wearing pjs to bed.  You put them on every night and after we tuck you in, you take them off.  I don't know how you don't freeze without them on in the winter!  We're still trying to figure that one out.

You're beautiful, Ari!  I love your sweet personality and gorgeous blue eyes!  Our family wouldn't be the same without your love and compassion!

I love you!

Love,
Mommy

Ari-isms

Feb 13, 2016

We were making breakfast in the kitchen and the girls were running back and forth. All the sudden it started to smell stinky, so I asked if someone had tooted.
M: I didn't.
A: I didn't.
M: It was Daddy.
D: No, it wasn't me.
A: Was it me?
I don't think we ever figured out who it actually was, but apparently you think it might have been you.  ;)

Mia came running into the family room and yelled, "Ari!" Ari tried to hide by ducking her head under her little doll stroller.

Eric took a video of Callie showing off her crawling skills. Mia and Ari were playing in the other room, so there was a lot of background noise. Ari came over and asked to watch the video. As we were watching, we heard Mia yell (in the video), "Ari!" Ari immediately yelled back, "What!?" not realizing she was responding to the video.

Feb 1, 2016

You have the cutest tickle laugh! The other day you started whining about needing to take a nap and I tickled you until your whining turned into your cute tickle laugh. You actually were laughing so hard that you snorted. It was even funnier because you were wearing pink pants and a pink shirt, so you looked AND sounded like a cute little piggy.

Jan 4, 2016

Mia and Ari Conversation:

A: What are you?

M: Did you say, What are you? Did you mean, who are you?

A: What are you?

M: A person

A: You’re not a person, you’re a Mia Bear.

Callie - 8 Months

Dear Callie O'Malley,

Look at these pictures!  You are sooo happy!  Every time we go out, people are always complimenting you on how cute you are.  I have to agree!  I think you're pretty darn cute myself!

You seem to be going through separation anxiety at times.  Sometimes just making eye contact with a stranger at a store sets you off and you immediately start crying.  Other times you'll just keep looking back and forth between me and them to make sure everything is ok.  Luckily, you're a pretty big fan of Daddy, so you're ok when I leave you with him.

Busy is a good word to describe you.  I know you're going to just get busier and busier though.  You're able to do an army crawl pretty much anywhere you want to go.  Just tonight, Daddy saw you pull yourself up into a standing position. You didn't last long, but I'm sure you'll figure it out soon.  You are actually pretty good at entertaining yourself.  If we scatter your toys in the family room, you'll crawl around and play with them for a while before getting fussy.

Your favorite food is yogurt.  You are very picky about having the same thing too frequently and you're not a fan of veggies.  You love your yogurt though!  It's your dessert every night and it usually helps you sleep through the night too.

You seem to be picking up on baby sign language.  Daddy has been working on teaching it to you and we've noticed multiple times that you'll pat your diaper or clench your fists, as if signing diaper and milk.  I don't remember your sisters doing it this young, but you do seem to be doing it pretty well!

Daddy and I love watching you play.  You're pretty lucky.  After your sisters go to bed, you get to stay up and soak in a lot of one on one time with us.  You're super cute and we really enjoy spending that time with you.  You get really excited about it too, so it's a win-win for all of us.

You're beautiful, Callie!  I love your sweet giggles and your happy personality.  I can't believe you're almost 9 months old!

I love you!

Love,
Mommy

Callie Moments

Feb 18, 2016

You got an ear infection.  Neither of your sisters ever had one and when you were super super fussy yesterday, I thought for sure the Dr was just going to say you had a cold/cough, since that is what happened every other time we went in with your sisters.  You had a bad ear infection in your left ear though, so at least we were able to get a prescription to help you! 

Feb 10, 2016

You sat up on your own today, from crawling!  You’ve been trying to do it for a while now.  Mia saw you do it this morning and then Daddy saw you tonight.  Mia and Daddy were both sooo proud!  They just kept cheering you on.  They love you lots and lots!

Feb 8, 2016

Eric and I went skiing and left you and your sisters with a friend of ours for the majority of the day.  When we got back, you were so smiley and loved being held by me.  Once we were within reach of Daddy, you kept hitting your hands against his arms because you were so excited to see him!  It was pretty cute!

You started clapping!  You will do it randomly when you’re sitting with your toys and when you get excited or see us clapping.  You have also started waving.  If we wave at you from across the room, you will do a small wave with one of your hands.  Your sisters love it when you wave back at them. :)

Feb 1, 2016

You’re basically crawling now!  You usually just crawl by pushing yourself against one knee.  You can get to whatever toys you want and you’re able to go across the room.  I put you down in the family room and was working on something in the kitchen and you crawled all the way across the family room to the steps into the kitchen and whined to get my attention.  When I came over, you tried to lift your arms up for me to hold you, even though you were laying there on your tummy. 

Dec 17, 2015

You can roll over now!  Usually you do it when you’re trying to grab a toy that’s just out of reach. The first time you did it, you were just over 6 months and we had put you down on your back on your play mat. We looked back over and you were on your tummy!

Your favorite new skill is clicking your tongue. You’ll do it a few times and after you get our attention, you smile so proud! :)

Nov 29, 2015

Now that the weather has been getting colder, I've started wearing my hair down more. Tonight, you started waving your hand around and caught some of my hair in it. You just kept running your fingers through it and waving your hands in it. It was fun watching your curiosity. Luckily, you were very soft and gentle. Once you start pulling it, I'll have to wear it pulled back again! :)

Nov 24, 2015

You are a little comedian! When we were at Grandma Lulu's for Thanksgiving, Daddy started tickling you at your waist while you were standing on his lap and you literally crumpled into a ball. After he repeated it a few times, everyone started watching you and we were all laughing. You started doing it on your own without even being tickled and loved the laughter and attention you were getting.

Nov 13, 2015

You cried for the first time yesterday when we left you with a babysitter.  She has watched you quite a few times before and you have always smiled at her, but I guess separation anxiety was setting in last night or something.  Luckily though, it was your bedtime and she was able to put you to sleep.  You woke up when we got home and gave Daddy and I huge smiles!  You were sooo happy!  It was sweet!  Hopefully you can be happy for the babysitters too though.

You also have started holding onto toys now. It’s fun watching you play (mostly chew and slobber) with them.  You’re going to roll over any day too!  You roll onto your side now, but so far, that’s as far as you go.

Lexi confuses you. Whenever you see her coming, you just stare. When she’s close enough, you reach out to pet her. You’re probably still trying to understand what she is. She likes you. She knows, from her experience with your sisters, that you are too little to torture her at this point. :)

When I nurse you now, you always reach up and grab my nose or chin. It's pretty funny. I remember reading somewhere that when babies touch their Mom's faces, it's a sign of love. You definitely love me a lot because you do it all the time!

January / February 2016

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to spend more time playing with the girls.  I'm realizing that I only have 1.5 more years of having all 3 of them at home with me, until Mia goes to school all day.  I've been trying to find ways to focus more on playing with them.  On New Years Day, Eric and I just played with the girls all day.  They hadn't even played with all of the toys they got for Christmas, so we used that time to play with their new stuff! We also had a lot of snuggle time with Callie!

We got lots and lots of snow this month and had an opportunity to walk through the park.  We had a snowball fight, built snow angels, built a snowman as if he had fallen off the slide and ran around.  Callie slept through it all, but she missed out on a lot of fun!

Our beautiful Mia Bear and Ari Bug!

After seeing all of the snow we've been getting, I started researching when and how to teach the girls to ski.  We were able to find used gear for both Mia and Ari and it should still fit them next year too.  We've gone 3 times now and Mia really really enjoys it. Ari seems to get worn out just getting from the car to the ski hill and hasn't actually had enough energy left to ski much.  Mia is already able to do turns and stop.  I plan to take her up the lift in a few weeks and use a harness.  Ari has said she doesn't want to go anymore.  I think next year, she'll be more comfortable with the skis and she will have a lot more fun.

I took the girls to the zoo for an afternoon.  We saw a couple baby gorillas and monkeys.  The momma gorilla even checked out Ari, as her baby swung on the triangle bar behind her.  We also saw some lions right up against the window.  An elephant was even showing us tricks by working his way through a tunnel.  It was a great day and we had a lot of fun.  

February has been a great month too.  Eric and I have been on some fun dates: trying on fedoras, eating yummy food at La Jolla Groves, and going to a 7 coarse dinner at UVU put on by their dietetic students.  We had our biggest snowstorm yet and the girls built a huge snowman.  He slowly leaned over more and more each day, but still stood up!  Callie had lots of fun playtime with her toys too!