I’m checking out blogging from my phone. My amazing husband showed me how to talk to my phone and blog. I didn’t type a single thing on this post.
Author: Joy
Here I am! My laptop died even though it wasn’t even very old. So I’m testing out the whole blogging thing on Pace’s “Transformer Prime” tablet that he uses for work. Maybe he’ll have to purchase one of these things for us! Here are a few photos for now.
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Testing out the wordpress app again
I’m blogging from my transformer prime. This thing so far smokes the iPad. I love it. The optional add on keyboard is really snazzy too. Thanks work!!
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Update on Caroline Jean
Caroline is 5.5 months old, 17 lbs., gobbles up rice cereal, holds her toes, & dives toward/grabs toys.
But most importantly, she’s still very kissable & yummy!
I’m not very meticulous about keeping super-detailed notes about this baby girl– She is the 3rd child, after all. *sigh* But I do keep some notes, & I do adore her just as much as I did her siblings at this age!
There’s something so wonderful about babies at 5 months. They do more & interact more, while still maintaining their pre-crawling pudginess. Caroline isn’t extremely vocal or smiley, but she is such a content, easygoing girl. She likes when I just carry her around the house, outward-facing so she can take in all the action, and grab anything within her reach.
One way she expresses her contentment is by making a nasal humming-gurgling sound that always makes us smile. Hard to describe—Pace says we’d better catch it on video before she stops doing it!
Caroline has a lot more hair than Chase or Charlotte did as babies. She enjoys grabbing faces & hair. She has just a little bit of stranger anxiety. No teeth yet! She likes naps and expects them. At sleep times, she likes to have a pacifier & to be snuggled up to her Minky blanket.
This baby girl currently wakes up all the time at night (and I’m unfortunately not great at being an outstanding, cheerful mommy to the older two when I’m utterly exhausted). I’m working on weaning Caroline off the middle-of-the-night nursing in hopes that she will sleep better soon. If that doesn’t stop the night waking, we will say good-bye to the pacifier so that she isn’t dependent on a parent replacing it in order to get her back to sleep.
And we think that Caroline is a beautiful baby!
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Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Three Kids in a Tub.
And I managed to keep the photos G-rated.
They hadn’t ever bathed all together before, and I don’t intend to make it a habit, but Caroline was kicking and leaning eagerly toward the bathtub as Chase & Charlotte were having a grand ol’ time in there. I could tell she clearly felt left out, so I put her in there as well. The more the merrier! Chase was very careful and held his baby sister tight.
Chase & Charlotte’s smiles looks a little weird in this pic because they had gum in their mouths. They’ve been obsessed with gum lately, & they faithfully save their earnings from chores (5 cents/chore) to buy gum. I figure they can spend their money on whatever they want, as long as they pay tithing first. When Chase buys gum, he saves the pack as long as possible, but Charlotte eagerly shares with all the friends that come over and helps herself to it all the time, so her pack of gum is usually gone in 1-2 days.
The other day, Chase rationed out tiny pieces of his Bubble Tape gum to a couple of friends. When they complained about the tiny amount of gum he had given them, he calmly told them, “Life is not fair.” When I heard it from the other room, I just had to chuckle to myself.
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When Grandma Comes to Town
There’s always a lot of fun when Grandma comes!
Here she & the kids are working on some Dot-to-Dot books. (This is usually the time when I battle with Chase to get his homework done. Somehow, Grandma motivated him to do all his homework in just a few minutes, so he had tons of time to just hang out! Grandmas are always full of tricks!)
Pausing to sing a little song
Grandma instilling a love of reading into the children
She showed me how to make a tasty minestrone soup. Very hearty & delicious.
We went to watch a Physics Show for kids at our alma mater, BYU. Chase & Charlotte liked checking out the statues & sculptures at BYU. We also got to discover where all the elevators & ramps are, since I’d brought the stroller!
I can’t even explain how ODD it felt to be walking around at BYU, toting three children along with me. It is so cliché, but honestly—WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?? I was just barely attending BYU as a single student! Could it really be that it was 10 years ago that I was starting school there (and meeting some of the best friends I’ve ever known)!?
On our way out, we stopped in at the Wilk for some bowling. It was enjoyable, but I think the munchkins would’ve been just fine having 3 turns instead of 10.
Chase was rather dramatic about it. He’d start really far back, run up, chuck the bowling ball, and fall flat onto the floor. No holding back there!
Intense focus. His expression here looks very Pace-ish!
My mom watched our kids so we could go out on Valentine’s Day. Pace surprised me by taking me out to a dinner & games night at the McGowans’ house. It was nice and relaxing.
Delicious food!
Pretty flowers from my Valentine
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Can You Tell…
… Which kids are Chase & Charlotte in this picture?? Haha!
Fair skin, blonde hair, & blue eyes all around! I guess that’s not too rare in this state of Utah. 
The resemblances crack me up every time we get together with this brother & sister duo.
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January Fun
Charlotte is in love with this purple sparkly box from Uncle Gino. She carries it everywhere & puts all sorts of little things in it. She loves filling every purse/container she can with trinkets!!
Mmmm! Vanilla cupcakes, pudding + whipped cream-filled, frosted with strawberry buttercream frosting.
CTR pretzels from the Friend magazine that Chase wanted us to make. (Yes, we let them rise too long beforehand.)
We adore baby Caroline.
Chase likes to do Charlotte’s makeup sometimes. This time, he did more of a war paint type of job. It was cute. He took our pictures.
Close-up so you can see her pretty makeup!
I usually still have Charlotte do Quiet Time in her room, even though she doesn’t nap anymore. My kids seem to officially no longer nap by age 3 at the latest. But I’m so glad she still cooperates with having about 30 minutes of quiet time. She likes to listen to the Beauty & the Beast songs during this time.
Yes, she’s winking in this picture. She thinks it’s the coolest thing in the whole world that she can wink & GG can’t. She said, “These are my babies” about her little dolls/stuffed animals gathered around her.
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Beware of the Chase-inator
Chase is playing Mini Mites Hockey this winter.
Too cute!… I mean… fierce, rough, & tough!
But don’t worry, he’s not all tough guy these days. He has a special tenderness in his heart for this little tiny sister. He rocked her to sleep in the rocking chair for her nap yesterday morning.
Chase cares about Caroline a lot. Any moment that she starts crying, he tells me anxiously that I need to pick her up! Otherwise, he takes the initiative because he can’t stand to hear her cry for more than one second.
Chase brought this drawing home from his church class a couple weeks ago, & it made my heart melt.
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Every Girly Girl’s Dream
My parents gave Charlotte this adorable mini vanity & stool for her 3rd birthday.
Perfect for a little girl who is obsessed with stereotypical girly things! No, not with baby dolls, but with jewelry, makeup, & everything princess-y. And since Uncle Cotton gave Charlotte a big bag of real makeup for Christmas (thanks, I guess) & princess hair things for her birthday, she had the vanity drawer well-stocked in no time.
Charlotte has had a couple of friends over to get all dolled up with her. She had been very tidy with the makeup before she had this friend over… But after her friend smeared red lip gloss all over the place, I made them call it quits!!
It’s a shame that I didn’t take pictures of her & her other friend Ava, after they had done what they called “scary makeup” on each other! Which meant huge, multi-colored circles of cream eye shadow on their cheeks, and dark streaks across their eyelids.
Ah, to be young again!!