.:Harper–Four Months:.

Four months! Wow!

Harper has just turned into the happiest, sweetest little baby. She always has a smile for you! Doesn’t that dimple just kill you?

Harper loves to interact with people. She’s turned into quite the talker, and we have lots of little conversations throughout the day. Sometimes it’s a lower sound, other times she squeals. I can’t get enough of hearing it; it never gets old! She also still enjoys my singing, so I love getting a reaction out of her that way.

She really has become more independent lately. I usually rotate her through her play mat, chair, and swing throughout the day. She often just ends up watching her sisters run around, being all wild! She’ll be in the thick of it soon enough!

Harper is not a fan of the Bumbo yet. Which means I need to put her in it more. She doesn’t last much longer than a few minutes before she’s wanting out.

She is rolling over from tummy to back about 60-70% of the time. Sometimes she gets stuck still, though. She’s really close – I think anyway – to going from back to tummy. She rolls up on her side, and stretches her head and neck and looks like she’s about there. No more leaving her on the couch or changing table!

Harper girl likes her binky fine enough, but what she really loves is sucking on her hands. She is always getting those hands up by her face, even when she’s swaddled. She also gets a grip on things – not on purpose – but if it touches her hand, she grabs it, and it’s tough to get her to let go!

Reece and Remi are super interested in Harper all of the sudden. They are constantly giving in her face, talking to her, smiling at her, and just loving on her. It’s really sweet. I know they are going to be the best of friends!

Harper is still a nuzzler, but not quite as much as she was before. Probably just because she is starting to get more interested in what’s going on around her. But when it’s time to start winding down to go to sleep, she’s nuzzling and rubbing her face into you.

Her schedule is about the same as it was. I’ve been trying to get her doing more set naps when we are at home. She still wakes up after 45 minutes. Sometimes, if I go in right away and rock her, she’ll go back to sleep. Reece and Remi both started taking better naps around four months old, so I’m hoping it starts soon! She generally only gets up once during the nite, and while it’s not that bad, I sure wouldn’t mind if she wanted to stop that.

She’s just our beautiful, sweet, little babe and I think it’s safe to say that we’re all enamored with her.

At four months, Harper likes:

- smiling

- talking

- Mommy singing

- rolling (when she can!)

- watching her sisters

-  binky

- sucking on her hands

- play mat

- Baby Einstein

- eating

- being held

- interacting

At four months, Harper does not like:

- being in car seat for too long

- being left alone for too long

- taking real naps

.:Valentine's Day:.

Valentine's Day this year was mostly just fun because the girls were so excited about it. 

Josh surprised us by having us wake up to three beautiful bouquets of flowers on the dining room table for all of his girls. They were gorgeous and smelled amazing!

We had just a normal day at home, which included some friends dropping off some Valentines for the girls. It was on a Tuesday this year, which is Josh's late nite at work, so the girls and I had a special dinner of chocolate pancakes and fruit. To be honest, the pancakes weren't amazing, but we all enjoyed the glaze on top of them. 

After we ate, I loaded up the girls so that we could go pick up Josh from work (his car was in the shop). We swung by In 'N Out to grab some dinner for Josh. I would have done Five Guys, which we both like better, but In 'N Out has a drive thru, so it won out. We picked him up, and then came home so the girls could open all of their Valentine goodies. 

They all got cards for grandparents with some spending money. I think they were more excited to put it in the piggy bank than anything! Can't really complain about that!

We had little goodie baskets for them, and they loved opening everything up. Holidays are seriously so much more fun with kiddos. 

And the Harpster was around for everything, too, just laying around, being cute. You know, the usual.

.:Winter Fun:.

We've managed to find some time to enjoy the winter this year, which hasn't been difficult, since our winter has been so mild!

Back in January, a group of us loaded up our kids and headed to the zoo. It was a gorgeous day, and felt much more like spring than winter! The kids had a great time running around and seeing the animals. 

We also have aquarium passes, so we were able to hit up the aquarium with cousins Jay and Evie. Fun was had by all!

Reece also started up with dance again. This time, she has some of her little buddies in her class (whose mommies are my buddies!) This day, we could only get pictures of Reece, Dixie, and Emerson together, but Dylan is in there, too! They'll be putting on a spring show of Sleeping Beauty, and much to their delight, their class will be the princesses. 

We're so lucky to live near so many fun things to do. Definitely helps break up everyday life! (Which is maybe more for me than for the kiddos!)

.:Harper–Three Months:.

Wow! Three months! That last month went fast.

This little lady is just such a joy. She has her crabby/fussy moments, but she is starting to turn into a much happier/content baby. We’re finally able to put her down for longer than five minutes at a time. She is starting to love the play mat, and she actually does well in the swing for periods of time – We’ve never had a swing baby, so this is new to us!

Harper has started finding her voice in the past week or so. It is so cute to watch her get all excited and finally get the noise out. Her talking is always accompanied with lots of smiles, too, and I don’t know that there’s a sweeter sound or sight. She often talks while on her play mat or swing; I’d just love to know what’s going through that cute little head of hers.

Harper is a total snuggle bug. She loves to be held, and often when you are holding her, she’ll nuzzle in towards you. It’s like she can’t quite get close enough! She doesn’t often end up in my bed anymore, but before when she would, or now when she does, she always manages to get right up next to me, and on her side facing towards me, as cozied up as she can get. I have to admit, it’s pretty sweet!

Harper has been awesome in her car seat up until this past week. All of the sudden she is not sleeping very long in it anymore. I remember this happening with Reece and Remi, too, and it’s a sad day when I have to start keeping her home to get her to nap well. Speaking of napping, we have absolutely no schedule with this little lady during the day. I’ve been much more lazy this time around. Reece and Remi both never napped until around four months, so I just haven’t even tried with Harper. I should probably start trying to enforce some sort of schedule with her so that when she’s ready, it will already be in place.

That being said, Harper’s nites are generally pretty good. I usually feed her around eight-ish, and she will go to bed until 10:30-11:00. After that, she usually gets up between one and two, and then again between five and six. After that feeding, I just get up, so it’s kind of like she’s my alarm clock! I’m hoping she can keep it up! She stays in her own bed most nites for the entire nite, and then I’ll pull her in to bed with me for that morning feeding. After that, she’ll sleep in my bed for another hour or two, which is really nice!

Baths are still not Harper’s favorite thing, but she is starting to tolerate them much better. I’ve gotten pretty efficient at bathing her as quickly as possible!

One thing Harper does like is when I sing to her. Reece and Remi never reacted to my singing when they were babies, so it’s been fun to see Harper light up when I start singing to her. Too bad it makes Remi mad when I sing.

This little baby is just super sweet, super cute, and super cuddly. Pretty much smitten with her (most of the time!)

At three months, Harper likes:

- binky

- being held

- eating

- Mommy’s singing

- play mat

- swing

- smiling

- talking

- cuddling/nuzzling

At three months, Harper does not like:

- baths (only tolerates)

- being left alone for too long

- being put down for too long

- taking real naps

Love this beautiful baby!

Seriously, don’t you just want to gobble her up?

.:Harper’s Blessing Day:.

We were able to bless Harper this past weekend. My parents came into town, and we got surprised by Dani, Jefferson, and fam making the trek down from Boise. It was a whirlwind weekend, but we were able to hang out, eat, laugh, and enjoy being together.

We had a great turnout to Harper’s blessing. I went away from the day convinced that we know and have the best family and friends around. We’re so blessed to be surrounded by so many good people, and to have so many people care about our little family so much.

Harper was beautiful in her blessing dress – which is the same dress both Reece and Remi wore. She didn’t make a peep during the blessing (although Remi was doing some nice modeling moves on the coffee table during the blessing), and Josh gave her a beautiful blessing. I’m so grateful that he is worthy to hold the priesthood and be the head of our home. The girls are so lucky to have him for a father, and we’re all so lucky that he takes care of us so well.

We didn’t take many pictures (duh!) so here are the few that we got from the day. (Sad we didn’t really get any with anybody else!)

Our little family – Josh and his girls

Beautiful babe

Reece and Tay playing with Grandpa Paul and his tablet (I’m surprised he still gets it out around Reece, with how much she hassles him to play with it!)

Remi playing with Grandpa Gary

Remi has the ability to fall asleep anywhere. Literally, anywhere. (She is her father’s daughter!) Skipping a nap was a bit too much for her.

More of beautiful Harper.

Harper and cousin Evie checking each other out later in the evening. They are going to be best buds!