gavin {3 months}

Tuesday was Mason's 4th birthday, and Gavin turned 3 months old.

After we snuggled in bed with the real birthday boy, we got set up to take Gavin's monthly pictures on another family quilt.  The quilt this time is just a small lap one.  All of the grandkids got to choose small ones at Christmas, and this is the one that Taylor chose.

3 months has brought some fun changes for you.  And a really BIG, wonderful change for mommy and her sleep. 

3 months means you are noticing your brother and sister a lot more.  And you love to be held by them.  Your sister is so goooood with you!  Two times this week when you were fussy and tired as we were heading out the door to go places, Taylor rocked you in your car seat and got you asleep.  How nice it is for Mommy to have an extra good helper that loves to take care of you!

3 months has brought the discovery of your tongue.  You play with it all the time and sometimes mimic us if we play with ours too.

3 months has meant lots more smiles!  We get lots of smiles out of you every day, and just in the last few days even the beginning of a giggle.

3 months means that you are just starting to grab at things.  You still love to play under your cow and you get really excited and kick your legs and arms all over the place and bat at the rings and animals that dangle in front of you.  Sometimes we put a rattle in your hand and you stick it straight in your mouth to suck on.  Your brother and sister think it's fun to have you suck on their fingers.  Luckily they are trained to go wash with soap and water first.  But I'm thinking we need to put a stop to this just in case to many germs are be shared with you.

3 months has meant that you are sitting up a little better on your own.  Which means the kids are enjoying holding you even more since you can hold your head up on your own.

3 months means you SHOULD be starting to sleep in your crib (at least that's about when your brother and sister moved to their crib).  But that means mommy has to stop using your crib for storage for things I don't want to put away.  And, I also need to get busy with the sewing machine so that I can finish up some of your crib bedding.  But on the selfish side of things, I really don't want to move you and mess up your wonderful nights of sleep.

3 months means that your Mommy and Daddy are wondering how on earth you are this big already. You're past the newborn stage already (which is super hard on your Mommy this time!). But we love seeing the glimpses of your sweet little personality coming through.

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 After I left the room from taking Gavin's pictures, I came out of my bedroom and looked into the kids' room to see Taylor having her own little photo shoot too.  She even got a warm wet rag and laid it across his tummy (not sure what the purpose was, but she was proud), she just didn't realize that when the rag lost it's warmth, she wasn't going to get very many smiles out of her baby brother anymore.

How lucky our little guy is to have such a loving big sister who just thinks the world of him!

milestone day

It's a big day for these 2 boys.

We had a fun photo shoot this morning that made us really late for bible study.

I hope my 4 year old will let me take some good pictures of him after naptime like his little brother did this morning.

So there's a little peak of Gavin's 3 month pictures.

And a quick little note to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our big boy!

It's really really hard to believe he's 4!



baby friends

I laughed the other day when I noticed the sidebar of my blog, and all the titles on many of the latest blog posts.   Baby this, baby that, 2 months old, 4 months old, meeting siblings, etc. etc.

My blog list has blown up with babies.

 There are so many babies around here, that the older siblings sometimes get confused.

Like, how it took us weeks to call our baby by the right name - and not Leo, or Griffin or Brahm.

Or how sweet Levi had to go through a few babies names before he got the right one that belonged to our baby.

It's been fun to get pictures of Gavin with all his baby friends.

He'd like to introduce you to them all (well, most of them).

Meet Tucker.  He wasn't suppossed to come for 10 days after Gavin, but he ended up coming the day after!  He's our neighbor, and ended up being our neighbor at the hospital too.

 These pictures were taken when we visited his mom and dad in the room next door to us.

Meet Leo.  Leo is the baby boy to 2 sisters.  Good luck little buddy.

These are the babies of our small group. 

Meet Clara, Webb and Leo again.  In order from youngest to oldest. (late January back to late October)

Sweet Clara is the only girl.  Good luck to her too.

Or shall we wish her daddy good luck instead.

But, wait, there's more.

Meet Griffin and Brahm.  Born in September and early November.

All of these babies were born within about 4 months of each other.

How fun to have so many baby friends!

And now a baby cousin too!

My sister and her husband welcomed baby Alice to their family last week!

She's big, and adorable, the baby chubs are the best!

I laugh when I see her via FaceTime because I am not used to newborn babies being that big, she looks like my 3 month olds look.

We are loving FaceTime these days so we can see baby Alice. But I am so sad I haven't been able to hold her yet!  Hopefully soon!

On the day she was born, Mason was talking to Aunt Rebekah and I heard him ask "how old is Baby Alice?"

I laughed out loud, and poor boy had no idea why. I love the way little minds thinks sometimes.

So there you go.  You got your baby fix, in case you needed it.

insta-friday {valentine's edition}

I am so so so in love with the camera on my phone.  Not just that it takes super pictures for a phone, but also that it's just THERE, easy and accessible and I take way more pictures of our normal everyday than ever before.

Here's a peak back at our Valentine's week via my phone.

We started the week out with a family date night.

 Shopping for new shoes for Daddy

And then dinner at Olive Garden.

My girl knows how to order - chicken alfredo is both our fav!

It was Mr. Gavin's first family date night - and I think he loved it.

We also took the kids to Walmart to spend their gift cards from Uncle Jason and Aunt Stacy.

Mason spotted something he really hopes to get for his birthday.  He took this picture so that no one would forget about it.  Daddy was proud.  We need some OU stuff around here I guess.

 Here's the only picture I got of Taylor's Valentines for preschool.  On the back we put Matthew 5:16, "let your light shine before men..."

Thanks Pinterest!  But no thanks to Walmart and the 2 packages of glowsticks that we bought with all the glowsticks glowing already when we opened the package. I realize that 10:30pm runs to the store to pick up forgotten school supplies will be inevitable down the road - but really, for preschool?  Man, that's starting way too soon.

For lunch on V-day we met Daddy at Arby's.

And thanks to a fussy little baby, Mason and I got to finish lunch alone while the rest of the fam went to the car.

I told Mason it was our "date". So we decided to take some pictures.

Daddy came home with guns and roses for all of us.

Well, a gun for the boy, and roses for his girls.

And we had a heart shaped pizza for dinner.  Half sausage for mom and dad, and half pineapple for the kids.

Now we have a birthday party to prepare for in a few weeks.  And if a certain little boy can stop changing his mind on what kind of party he wants every other day - maybe I'll have more than 2 days to plan and get things done for it.

gymnastics

The few times we've caught gymnastics on TV, Taylor has loved it!  She runs and puts on her American flag swimsuit and comes out to the living room to do gymnastics too.  A few times Daddy has made her a temporary balance beam in the garage, promising that one day he will make her a real one.

She begs us to help her do cartwheels and flips.  We try to talk her into just doing somersaults.  We're not really sure how to help her do a flip - in a safe way.

She's been begging to start gymnastics class, so we finally got her enrolled in one.

Saturday was her first class.

 Thanks so cousin Sydney, she already knew how to do a bridge!

 This little guy has to wait his turn for Tae-kwon-do in March.

So for now, he just sits and watches patiently and perfectly.

Haha, who am I kidding.  Luckily there are some fun things to keep him busy.

Her teacher is absolutely wonderful with the kids!  It was so fun to watch.

 She was very serious the whole time.  Not many smiles.

But we are learning that that is her personality in new places with new people.

But we could still tell she was loving it. And she was definitely all smiles afterwards.

our "big" kids

Seems like posts these days are filled with the cuteness of a sweet little baby.

But I don't want to forget about capturing these 2 little ones. Or shall I say our "big" kids.
They definitely took advantage of the unbelievable and strange winter weather we had for weeks.

Yes, in shorts and bare feet.
A few mornings last week Mason spent 2 or more hours outside playing.  It was lovely.

 Taylor is getting to the age that she really really wants to help me with any thing Premier related.

I showed her where to put the labels on my new catalogs and she labeled several packages for me and did such a good job.

Mason is into Legos these days. It is SO fun to watch him get so excited and so proud about his little creations.

We've also been adding some fun decorations around the house.

Daddy keeps coming home to find more prettiness around him.

The kids begged me to build a fire this day.  Building them isn't the hard part.

It's the keeping them going that's hard.  You know, with the distraction of 3 kids.  It's hard to stay attentive to what the fire needs too. 

But I was so glad I did.  It was SOOOO cozy and we had such a wonderful time hanging out in the living room all together.

Are you getting ready for Valentine's Day?  We are celebrating tonight with a family date night.  Then we are putting Taylor's valentines together this weekend and making a mailbox for her first ever Valentine's party.  And yes, we are doing something from Pinterest!  Isn't everybody?

Paper Valentines from Walmart may be discontinued in the near future with all the Pinterest ideas I'm seeing everyone doing this year!