3 Months

 Little Man is 3 months old now.  I think it goes by faster with each kid. I cannot believe how big he is now!  He is weighing in at a healthy 15.5 pounds.  He is in 3-6 month clothing, but I think we only have a little bit longer that it will fit.

Patton Loves

• snuggling with mommy
• watching his sisters
• watching baseball with daddy
• laying on his Einstein mat and grinning at his star
• sucking on his fingers
• talking to himself
• taking baths
• riding in the sling on mommy's chest
• waking up to see mommy during the night. Just can't get enough.

Patton Hates

• riding in the car
• being put down

Berkley is always very helpful trying to get P to smile for his pictures. She love to take pictures with him when we are done.

 Then she likes a few of her own

 Then she wants some with piggy. Here she is telling him to smile.

 Berkley Mae doesn't go to school, has no desire to go to school and hasn't been too interested in learning anything either.  Recently she's become more interested in trying to write her name and I decided to start working on letters with her. We sat down and went through them all, she knows about half of them- which surprised me.  We started letter of the day - I figured we'd do it during the week when daddy and sissy were gone. She's been really excited about picking out a letter every morning and reviewing the whole alphabet.  She's going to start going to Mothers Day out in the fall. Should be interesting!

I bought a sit and stand stroller. I never had one with Elliott/Berkley because E didn't seem to mind walking.  B has been not very happy that Patton is in HER stroller and wants him out. We went to the mall with Amanda and Rylee and B was flipping out most of the trip about wanting to be in the stroller.  Luckily we found a used one.  So now, I take it to the mall and Patton ends up in the sling and Berkley ends up walking and I push a huge empty stroller around.  Last time we went I put P in the seat so he could look around instead of hooking the carseat in.  He thought he was so big and lasted a whole 30 minutes in the stroller.

 This is how we sleep at least half the time. We take an afternoon nap together most days and he sleeps in his crib from 8-5ish then he's in bed with me. So cozy!

 We ran into Amanda and Rylee at Market Street last week. The girls were so excited to shop together! They have become great friends.  We hang out at least a few times a week now, everywhere we go Berkley asks if we can call Rylee to come too.  Amanda says Rylee is the same way. Although they still fight like cats and dogs regularly.

Our little book worm walking out from school the other day.

 Our Butterfly Project has started. The caterpillars came in this cup with food. The girls didn't have to wait long before they made their way to the top of the cup to make cocoons. Or coons as Berkley calls them.  You can see 2 of them in cocoons on the left- its a little harder to see but there is a black one hanging upside down on the right side.  I was surprised by how fast they were cocooned up.  It happened within about a half a day for each of them once you noticed the cocoon starting.

 Once they were all snug in their cocoons we moved them to the habitat where we are very anxiously awaiting their transformation to butterflies. You can watch a video here -Butterfly Video I showed it to the girls. Berkley was so cute! Every time a butterfly would come out she would gasp. She asks every day to watch the butterfly video and she regularly checks the habitat to see if they are out.

Easter Weekend

It was a busy weekend for us- we had so much fun though!

Friday was Earth Day so Elliott rode her scooter to school with her friends. Chris was home with us so he walked to school with her.  Also, he is teaching Junior Achievement for Elliott's class. Its a 6 week economics lesson. Friday was the first day and he really enjoyed it. Elliott was so excited to have Daddy be at the school to teach!

Patton, Berkley and I went to an Easter party at Rylee's BFF Addie's house.  We've become good friends with them too and we had so much fun at the party! Here are the girls doing a craft. Rylee and Berkley were the last 2 at the table. I think they would have stayed there for the whole party if we had let them!

Outside hunting eggs. Rylee was so cute- we brought eggs shaped like animals. So every time she found one she took it to Berkley.

They were on opposite sides of the gate at this point so Rylee was passing them to her through the gate.

Berkley really got into hunting eggs this year. The day before we played egg hunt forever. Taking turns hiding the eggs for each other. She thought it was so fun! Isn't her El Fenix tattoo classy with her Easter clothes?

Addie with her adorable pigtails hunting

A picture of all the kids. nice huh?

Saturday Elliott wanted to teach Berkley to ride her scooter. We've really dropped the ball on this kid and her biking/scooter abilities. Maybe because she isn't the least bit interested. Elliott got her all ready in safety gear. (To tell you the truth it would probably be best if this is how she always played outside. She falls down more than anyone I know.)

She rode the scooter for less than a minute.

We went inside to decorate eggs!

Berkley wasn't too into the dipping thing. The little egg grabber was too hard for her and she surely wasn't going to dip her hands in to get them like Elliott. So we got her a paint brush and she had lots of fun painting them. Still with the El Fenix tattoo. Luckily I finally found the baby oil and got it off!

Easter morning Elliott was up at SIX THIRTY. Unfortunately we forgot to have a conversation with her about Easter morning rules, like not coming into our room 100 times.  Finally we allowed her to wake Berkley up at 8 to get all the fun started.

The Easter Bunny left a hunt for the girls with clues.

Elliott is so good at reading all the clues all by herself!

Berkley waiting for the next clue and hanging out with her "Belle Snapper" the Easter Bunny brought.

The Easter Bunny left caterpillars and a Butterfly habitat for them! We are enjoying watching our caterpillars grow.

Now we're hunting eggs.

That Bunny sure did get them in some tough spots!

Berkley took a mid hunt break to eat candy out of an egg she dropped.

PJ finally rolled out of bed to see what all the fuss was about.  He looks so impressed.

 After church we went to my parents house to hang out. Another fabulous Easter Family Photo.

 Not fun to try to get a picture of 3 kids when someone is being crazy.

 This is probably right after I told her I would eat all the candy out of the basket at Grammy's house if she didn't take a picture for me. (Notice Patton's cute shoes?)

 Patton and Papa having a nice chat

 I decided to try to take some pics of Bax since I took all those ones last year on Easter when he was a puppy.  They are all from this angle because whenever I got on the ground with him he would run and attack me.  Its a good thing he's adorable!

 Today we went to the school for their monthly celebration assembly. Elliott got the Star of the Month for demonstrating the core value of Humility. Such a sweet girl!

Lady Bugs and fun around the house

The other day I found 2 lady bugs in the backyard, so I caught them for the girls and put them in a bug catcher. They were SO excited. This led to an entire evening filled with catching lady bugs. I think they caught about 10! They were everywhere. I let them each keep them in a bug catcher over night. We looked up what they eat, bugs, so I told them we had to let them go the next day so they could get some food. Chris is impressed that I actually will touch lady bugs. I suppose I am too ;-)

 Patton loves our bed. Loves it. In fact today he actually fell asleep on his own. In our bed. Chris jokes that Patton is taking over and he's going to find his pillow in Patton's cradle. All I know is that this boy is SO snuggly.  I am starting to understand why he has to be snuggled to go to sleep, I am getting pretty used to it myself!

 Crazy girls at bath time

 Patton loves his baby Einstein mat. He breaks into a huge grin when I lay him on it. His favorite is the red bird, he always grabs it with his hands and the star with his feet. He just lays there smiling and chattering to himself.  He also rolled over on Saturday! From his tummy to his back.

 Sweet sleeping angel. (In our bed)

 Daddy and P giggling about Patton's toots.

 E and I had a day of shopping for clothes on Sunday.  It was so fun to go to the store with just her and let her pick out and try on clothes.

 Berkley as Miss Piggy

 One time last year I dressed up in one of my old bridesmaid dresses.  A few times B has asked me to do it again, but since I was pregnant I told her I was too big.  After P came she continued to ask and I told her I probably couldn't fit into them and it would make me sad. Finally the other day I relented and dressed up in my dress from Amanda's wedding. She insisted I needed a crown and high heels too. Then we had a tea party. It was quite fun :-) I am called the Queen when I dress up.