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I was trying to capture a smile with our camera. This is pretty close.
Charlie has some one-on-one time with his sister before Kade got up from his nap. It was sweet to hear him talk to her :) Whenever she’s cooing, the boys always ask me what she’s saying. I always tell them she’s saying just how much she loves her brothers. She does. But they sure adore her too!
We went to put Olivia to bed last night and were surprised to find this:
 Yes, there IS a pacifier in Kermits mouth.
Kade had put his “baby” to bed. Olivia’s bed. Aaron and I could not stop laughing and had to take a picture of it! This actually isn’t too uncommon. They both have been insisting that I swaddle their respecive stuffed animals– Kade has me swaddle Kermit (he actually was “nursing” Kermit the other day, despite my reminders that only MOMMIES make mommy juice!) and Charlie has me swaddle his bear. But this WAS the first time we found a pacifier in a stuffed animals’s mouth!
It’s official. I bought the “No-Bite” fingernail polish to help wean Kade from thumb sucking. It was an instant success. And, Kade was VERY good humored about it! He would stick the tip of his thumb in his mouth, get a huge grin on his face, and say “Bleck! Yuck! Bleck!” The best part was that it was just a joke to him.
And he no longer sucks his thumb. I give THAT a two-thumbs up!
Each of my kids have been so different as babies. It’s shocking, I know. Really, it IS quite amazing how different they are– how each of the pregnancies were different, how each of them as babies have been different. All of them enjoyable, but all of them different.
For instance, each of my babies have been completely different when it comes to spit-up. Now, in this case, I do have a preference. None. That would have been Charlie. Kade spit-up until he was 15 months old. No joke. It wasn’t tons of spit-up at once, but it was pretty consistant until about the time Charlie was born. And, Kade was (and still kind of is) a non-stop drooler. He’s finally starting to stop drooling, although it still happens. Now, Olivia has been yet another completely different story. She doesn’t spit-up all the time. And most times it’s not much spit up. But on occasion, she has projectile spit-up, and in mass quantities. She spits-up while I’m feeding her, changing her, talking to her. This usually results in at least a change of clothing, both for her and for me, and sometimes results in a shower for the both of us. Yesterday I had finished nursing and burping her and was talking with her, holding her at arms length so I could really watch her, when out it came. It flew over a foot and a half. All over my shirt. Just as we were getting ready to leave. I wiped up as much as possible but left with the wet shirt. (It is Montana, which means I knew it would be dry before I got to where I was going. Gotta love that about dry air, I guess! Quick evaporation!) She also is an occasional drooler. (Now, with the whole projectile thing… does that mean that she’s got an abnormally strong diaphragm? She must be a future singer!!!)
But, look at her. How can you not help loving her when she’s so adorable, even if she projectile spit-ups! While I have yet to capture it on camera, she’s starting to get really smiley. And she has an adorable smile! She’s also starting to “communicate” a lot more, and the boys are always asking me what she’s saying. I usually tell them that she’s saying how much she loves her brothers. Because, she does! (She is currently 7 1/2 weeks old)
 This is a typical "Elvis Smirk" that Olivia does. I love it. Like I mentioned in the previous post, Kade is always, always trying to kiss her. While in this picture Olivia is screaming, it’s not because of the kissing, I swear! She decided she was tired. She’s very tolerant of the kiss monster of a brother.
The boys have taken to pretending they’re babies. They lie down on Liv’s blankets and try to swaddle themselves, and pretend to cry. It was all I could do to get them to smile instead of pretend-cry in this picture.
Well, I love these kids. While it is sometimes quite stressful, they are mostly sweet and wonderful kids :)
With a newborn, and especially with two very young older brothers, I am asked the same questions quite frequently. And they are good questions, with even better answers. These two are the ones I get the most:
Is Olivia a good baby? Does she sleep well?
Yes, and yes. As I suspected when I was pregnant with her, she has been a very mellow, very good baby. She really only cries under three circumstances– she’s hungry, she’s tired, or she’s in her car seat. It’s true. She’s a generally very happy baby.
Right after I feed her, if I lay her down on her back on the floor she will coo and talk and smile and kick and wiggle very happily for a good 15 minutes. She loves to be held, though, and when those 15 minutes are up she really doesn’t like much else. As for sleeping, she’s been amazing. My boys never went longer than 3 hours or so at night between feedings until they were weaned. Probably just as much my fault as theirs, but still. Never longer than that. They would go right back to sleep afterwards, but I woke up exhausted for a long time. Not so Olivia. For the past few weeks, she’s been going to sleep around 9-9:30 p.m., and most nights wakes up at 4:00 a.m. to eat, and then is back up again at 7-7:30 a.m. to eat. I am waking up rested. With a newborn! (She’s 7 weeks now) She then goes back down about an hour later until about 11-11:30. I feed her, and about an hour and a half later she’s down again for another long stretch. She generally is up around 3:00 or 4:00, I feed her again, and then she’s up off and on until she goes down for the night, with some power feeding (cluster feeding) going on with some short catnaps in between. It’s been awesome! And she’s learning already how to self-soothe and get herself to sleep. Seriously. The. best. baby. ever!
How to the boys like her?
Like her? No. They LOVE her. ADORE her. Kade, especially. He can’t stop kissing her. He can’t resist! He is totally and completely enamored. Charlie, too, but not nearly as bad. Case in point– during Sacrament Meeting yesterday, the boys had a hard time staying sitting… They kept trying to get into the eisleway where Olivia was dozing in her carseat, to give her a kiss. Kade tries to kiss her as often as he can– when I’m feeding her, when she’s sleeping, when she’s on the floor or the couch, when we’re holding her, when he’s supposed to be eating dinner… He’ll steal as many kisses from her as he can. It’s very sweet.
As I said, Kade seems to be especially attached and protective of Olivia. Saturday, we were in the car, heading home after running a few errands. Olivia just woke up and was screaming because she was hungry. I tried to get her to take the pacifier (a funny thing in and of itself… she doesn’t seem to like them much, gagging on them and whatnot…) to calm her down, but she wouldn’t take it. Since I knew there was nothing more I could do until we got home, I just let her scream. But then, suddenly, it stopped. I turned around, and saw Kade, holding in her pacifier, stroking her head, and telling her, “shhhh, shhhhh… You’re alright baby. You’ll be just fine…” Heart meltingly sweet.
He also often comes up to her and says, in the sweetest, most tender voice, “Oh, she’s so small!” or “She’s SO cute!” “She’s so sweet!”
So far, this having three kids hasn’t been too bad! Now, we just need to get back up to Shelby so we can be together as an entire family, and so daddy can spoil his baby girl and his two baby boys and his wife ;) And, as far as we can tell, that will be in 2 weeks. 2 WEEKS! Hurray!
Hoar Frost
 This year has been an incredible year for hoar frost. Freezing Fog. I love hoar frost. It’s gorgeous and fragile. While Marissa was here a month ago, she took some beautiful pictures of the hoar frost that greeted her. See them here: Missy’s Hoar Frost. Aaron also took some lovely pictures of hoar frost on one of his daily long drives north. What I love is how directional and beautiful they are. Manna was described as looking like hoar frost in Exodus, and white hair is called “Hoar Hair” in Isaiah. Here are a couple more of the pictures that Aaron took one exceptionally frosty morning: 
Valentines Day
Our dear friend Beth invited us over to decorate valentines day cookies last Wednesday. We had a blast! Especially Kade and Charlie, who could not keep their fingers out of the frosting or their mouths! It was a welcomed reprieve after being at home for a couple of days without getting out. Olivia slept the entire time, and the boys had a great time playing with Alex, Allen, Conner, baby Josh, and each other. I had a great time socializing with my friends Beth and Carissa. We will miss this crowd once we move!
  
Cute Dress
And finally, some recent pictures of Olivia. She has been such a fun addition to our family. The boys absolutely adore her and are constantly trying to kiss her, no matter what she is doing, whether it be sleeping, eating, or just hanging out. Kade is especially attached to her, which I think is really sweet.
She is a great baby– a good sleeper, at least at night. Several nights in a row, she’s only awakened to eat once, and the other nights it’s only twice, the second feeding being around 5:00 a.m. Then she goes back to sleep. It’s wonderful. She just started smiling on Sunday, valentines day (funny, eh?), and has started cooing and squealing. It’s so precious!
 She is always furrowing her eyebrows like this, like she’s concentrating really hard, trying to take everything in. Her eyes look like they will be like her dad and her brother’s eyes… bright, deep blue. LOVE it!
And girls are just SO fun to dress. I mean, c’mon! Boys clothese are never THIS adorable!
So we are pretty late in getting Charlie’s 2 1/2 pictures. Sears had their GREAT sale – $7.99 and NO sitting fee. We love it. So the result is a HAM of a Charlie being good for yet another picture being taken. He had alot of fun and I was grateful that I was able to be there this time. You really cannot see where kade took a pair of scissors to Charlie’s head AGAIN!
The boys are dressed. Olivia is fed and dressed. I am dressed. Diaper bag packed. Errands arranged. And I can’t find the car keys. I had them JUST LAST NIGHT. So I am not going anywhere today.
So frustrating.
First of all, would you believe that we actually went the ENTIRE time Marissa was here without getting a picture of her with any of us, until this morning right before I took her to the airport, and even then, it was only of her and me, I having just rolled out of bed… ::sigh:: PATHETIC. And she has the picture, so I can’t even post it!
We had a wonderful time with Aunt Missy here. She was such a HUGE help for me, letting me sleep in until 8:00 or 8:30, or even 9:00 one morning. She played with the boys, making awesome train tracks, building garages and big buildings out of blocks, taking them out to play in the snow, reading books to them, taking them to Safari Land, teaching them how to talk while plugging their noses (it’s ALL about the pee-ew stinky plant!!!)… SHe also helped me send a package to Aaron for his upcoming birthday. Although I probably would have survived last week, she made last week much more pleasant for me. Marissa also helped with dishes, baths, scripture study, holding baby Olivia, putting the kids down for naps and down to bed… I really was spoiled to have her here, at the expense of her family, who went without their mom and their wife for a week. Missy– we really do “Missy” you a lot already. I want you back! Can you come?
While she was here, she also took some pictures of our family and newborn pictures of Olivia. While I direct you to her photography site, Marissa Noe Photography, she said I could post a few up on my blog for your viewing pleasure :) I am really excited to have these pictures of my growing family!
       
Having a little girl has been a new experience for us in the Matthews household. Aaron doesn’t quite know what to do with himself– he goes shopping for something and comes back with a cart full of baby girl clothes (only a slight exaggeration) … To be fair, he does throw in some consolation prizes for the boys… But he never went and bought clothes for them “just because”… He’s been tempted to go back on our agreement of no babies in bed with us, because Olivia is SUCH a cuddler… and I am finding another woman in bed with my husband. I feel cheated! Of course, all of this behavior is also rather endearing and adorable, and I love to see him with his little baby girl.
But then, there was LAST NIGHT. I had fed, and fed, and FED, and changed, and changed, and CHANGED Olivia from about 6:00 p.m. until 10:30 p.m… with just 20 minutes or so in between feedings. (These “power feedings” or cluster feedings are actually pretty nice, because she does actually sleep through the night with the occasional feeding every few hours) And she was still fussy, but obviously tired. So, I handed her off to Aaron, who was in bed waiting for me to finish feeding Olivia AGAIN. She was lying on her back, and fussing, so Aaron put his hand under her, turned her on her side, and snuggled with her. INSTANTANEOUSLY, this is what happened: (taken with my cellphone… quality is not the best…):  All I am saying is that we had BETTER be moving to Shelby REAL quick, because if I can’t get my baby girl to sleep, I know who can!
One of my FAVORITE General Authorities of the Church is Jeffery R. Holland. I love to listen to him speak. I finally found 2 of my most favorite talks from Elder Holland to new mission presidents. You can download them then burn them. The audio is not the best however I hope you find as much joy in them as I have.
Atonement –
Doctrine –
Let me know what you think :-)
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