March in a nutshell...

 One of the best parts of the month was having guests! Our friends Pete and Sandy Oveson stayed at our house while they were in town for a NYC weekend. We hadn't seen them since we left Dartmouth, so it was so wonderful to catch up!

 We had a few snow storms in March, which meant cancelled school, dance class, etc. We tried to keep ourselves busy with crafts and projects and baking. 

 A quiet afternoon with all three children happy and content, which isn't always the case!

After several frigid weeks (well, months!) it finally warmed up to 40 degrees one afternoon, so we bundled up and set out on a walk. 

 It was such an icy winter this year. From January to March our driveway was one big sheet of ice. (We have a gravel driveway, so we can't get it totally shoveled well). We had so many falls on the ice, but the girls actually got a kick out of "ice skating" to the car each morning.  

Crazy hair and mismatched/inside-out day at school

 Another semi-warm day! Bryn ran outside to celebrate and sing on the porch :)

Tate loves Bryn's sweet friend Jane.

 Dress-ups every day!

 First park day since October- woo hoo!

The girls slicked Tate's thin hair to the side, but he wasn't so sure about it.

 Lots and lots of cuddling... a.k.a. mauling Tate all day long.

 It's hard to make dinner when I have this cute little face distracting me.

I hadn't painted for a few months because things were busy with Tate, but I finally got back into it and have finished a few watercolor commissions this past month.

 Mya and her beloved baby doll

 "facetime calling Grandma" on a calculator 

Of course I'm biased, but I always think Tate is so cute on Sundays :)

Shout out to my sister Marie who made all his bowties.

 And that is March!

Tate: Four Months Old

Mr. Tate is somehow four months old already! 

He is just getting better and better, happier and happier, and cheesier and cheesier. He has his moments of fussiness or tiredness, but he really is a happy little guy! He smiles easily, coos all day, is starting to laugh (the best!!), and also likes to do these fake cough/sneeze noises when he wants to get our attention. Oh man, we love this guy!

He nurses at 7 am, 10:30 am, 2:30 pm, 6:30 pm, and 10 pm. He is a speedy eater, which is nice because his feedings are only 5-10 minutes, but the downside is that he gulps, gulps, gulps, and then spits up a lot. I'm still avoiding dairy and I guess that is helping(?), but Tate still spits up all day every day. Bryn outgrew her crazy spitting-up phase at 8 months, so if Tate is similar to her then we are halfway done with the projectile spit-up! Tate's other eating "issue" is that he's starting to get really distracted when he eats. Sometimes he'll nurse for 3-4 minutes and then all he wants to do is smile and coo, or crane his neck around to find Bryn or Mya, or scratch at my shirt or something. So now when I feed him I try to find the most boring, quiet part of the house and I won't even look him in the eyes or else he'll stop nursing and just want to smile and "chat". It's so funny :)

He definitely gets lots of love and attention from Bryn and Mya. He is sometimes nervous about it, but he actually really loves his sisters and they always get big smiles out of him. 

Other things about Tate at this stage;

He sleeps really well at night. We lay him down around 10:30 or 11 pm and then he goes right to bed and sleeps through the night. Sometimes he wakes up around 5:45 when Josh is getting ready for the day, but he'll just give Tate his pacifier and he'll go back to sleep til I wake up at 7 am.

He naps 3-4 times a day and he's a decent napper. He sleeps better at nights than during his naps, but that's probably because it's hard for him to nap with Bryn and Mya's noisy playing.
What else.... Tate love, love, loves his baths! 

He loves grabbing little toys, shaking things, sucking of anything he can - including his fists and fingers.

He still doesn't love tummy time, but we do it three times a day and he'll usually last 10-15 minutes until he gets cranky about it.

He rolls over every few days. He also shimmies around a lot, rocking his body and gradually rotating his body around to look at new things around the room. He never wakes up in the same spot of the crib where he originally began his nap.
As of this week, he is in the 80th percentile for weight (16 lbs. 3 oz), and his height is the 90th percentile (I can't remember the actual length).

Tate, compared to Bryn and Mya at this age.

We sure love you, Tate!

February

 February is always a loooooong month back east. Snow, snow, more snow, freeeezing temps, and lots of cabin fever! But we made it through, and even had a little fun along the way...

Bryn was thrilled to celebrate the 100th day of kindergarten. She's majorly in the fairy mood lately, so for her 100-things poster she made this "Jewel Fairy".

 Mya is the puzzle queen

 Tate actually tolerates his tummy time sessions now. Woot woot!

Tate has a major crush on his sweet nieces Leah and Abby

I found Mya just posing in the hallway, so I had to snap a picture.

We escaped a blizzard and joined Jake and Tyra's family at the Lifetime pool.

 Winter time = lots and lots of random projects and creations. 

This was our attempt at a drive-in movie and the girls loved it.

 Cute Mya

 This ice rink is actually our driveway! It's been totally iced over for a month now and we've had some pretty good falls. Our drive way is gravel, so we can never shovel it well. It iced over several weeks ago and it's been so cold lately that it just won't melt (even with ice melt). 

 Just more of cute Mya. This girl loves her dress-up skirts!

 Bryn spends half her time reading and the other half making books of her own. This is a book she wrote about unicorns and I got a kick out of the cover. 

 Bryn is a great help with Tate. She loves to brush his hair and sing to him and he just "coo's" right along with her. 

 My Relief Society had a flower arranging class and it was so fun. The perfect activity on a snowy Saturday!

Breakfast-for-dinner with Jake and Ty's fam.

 Tate loves these sweet cousins!

While Bryn is at kindergarten...

One of Bryn's favorite book series is the "Rainbow Magic" books. She's read over 50 of them (they are short!) and she's now converted Mya! Bryn reads them out loud to Mya and it's pretty cute. This particular day Bryn read an entire book and half of another book in one sitting. And Mya actually sat there for over an hour and listened to the whole thing! She normally doesn't last that long, but it was pretty great!

 Silly girl

Cutest little guy

 Josh traveled a lot in February, including a week in Newport Beach, CA. We did a few video chats with him and showed Mya the beach town that she lived for the first 6 weeks of her life.

 There's nothing better than getting a text from Josh with this pic! Tate loves the baby carrier lately.

One of the big highlights of the month was having the Ovesons stay with us for a night. We used to have game nights with the Ovesons when we were at Dartmouth, so it was wonderful to catch up with them and play games like the old days :)

And let's throw in a few more pics of happy Tate! 

So long, February!