Happy 5th Birthday, Avery! (& 20 Questions)

Avery turned FIVE on July 3 (yes, I'm behind on this post...oops)! We just adore this sweet girl, and she brings so much life to this family!

Avery graduated from Pre-K this year, and she'll start kindergarten in just a few short weeks! She's so excited about school and LOVES learning. She loves to write and draw and color and read, and she's an extremely hard worker. She can read quite a few words, and one of her favorite things to do is to write huge lists of all the words she knows.

She started playing soccer last fall and will play again this year. She's improved so much and is really enjoying it and coming into her own! She was really hesitant about going after the ball when she first started (she wants to be certain of success and doesn't love taking risks), but once she gained a little confidence, she was a completely different player.

She wears a size 11 shoe (almost 12), size 6 in shirts, and size 5 in bottoms (unless the 6 has adjustable waist for our little Skinny Minnie).

Avery is a talker (and is becoming a little bit of a sassy pants at home, but we're working on that!), but she's very quiet around other people until she gets comfortable. She takes in everything and really assesses questions before she answers. I love how much she thinks things through; she asks lots of questions!

She LOVES her brother and sister! She's an amazing big sister and is so patient with Landon and Harper (usually, haha). She and Landon pretend and play house all the time, and she's great at helping Harper play with her toys. Avery's a great dancer at our family dance parties! She's so much fun.

Avery loves to help others. I hope she always keeps her sweet, sensitive spirit and her stubborn persistence! Our prayer for all of our kids is that God uses their personalities to glorify himself and molds their hearts to truly love him and serve others. 

We love you to the moon and back, Avery Grace!

In Her Own Words (answered on 7/3/14)

{What makes you happy?} When we get to play cards
{What are you really good at?} Playing soccer
{What is your favorite color?} Teal
{What is your favorite toy?} Everything
{What is your favorite TV show?} Curious George
{What is your favorite thing to eat?} Macaroni and cheese
{What is your least favorite thing to eat?} Brussel sprouts
{What is your favorite drink?} Orange juice
{What is your favorite movie?} Frozen
{What is your favorite game?} War (the card game)
{What is your favorite animal?} Cheetah
{What is your favorite song?} Let it Go
{What is your favorite book?} Pinkalicious
{Who is your best friend?} Lily
{What is your favorite thing to do outside?} Skate
{What is your favorite holiday?} Christmas and Halloween
{What do you like to take to bed with you at night?} Pink Texas Rangers baby blanket
{What do you and Mommy do together?} Color
{What do you and Daddy do together?} Jump on the trampoline
{Where is your favorite place to go?} Ikea (which she visited for the first time yesterday, haha), Sea World, Schlitterbahn, and Hawaiian Falls
{What do you want to be when you grow up?} A donut maker, chef, doctor, and author ("book writer")

Happy 3rd Birthday, Landon! (& 20 questions)

Landon turned three on May 31!  And as hard as this age is (I thought three was way harder than two with Avery), it has been so much fun watching his personality just explode. He is full of energy and loves life!

 

 

Landon is our early riser. He wakes up around 6:45 every morning and usually sneaks into our bed to steal some snuggles before he has to share our attention with his sisters.

He's definitely got some expression! It's hard for him to hide his feelings. When he gets mad, his favorite angry outburst is "poopy stupid!!"

Landon wears size 4T in shirts (although our skinny boy still needs 3T shorts) and a size 9 shoe. He's been potty trained for a year now, and I'm convinced that there's nothing cuter than a little boy running around in his undies.

Landon loves to read, and he knows quite a few letters (and is trying to figure out the rest of them!). He can count to ten (higher if he's not distracted), and he asks questions about EVERYTHING. He's just a little sponge these days!

He keeps us cracking up all the time. Some of his favorite phrases are "actually," "sure," and "not again!" 

And he loves his sisters!

Happy birthday, Landon! We love you to infinity and beyond!

 In Your Own Words...

{What makes you happy?} When Jacob (M.) came to my birthday

{What are you really good at?} Riding my big bicycle

{What is your favorite color?} Black
{What is your favorite toy?} Baseball glove
{What is your favorite TV show?} Wild Kratts
{What is your favorite thing to eat?} Macaroni

{What is your least favorite thing to eat?} Pepperoni
{What is your favorite drink?} Lemonade

{What is your favorite movie?} Shrek (the musical)

{What is your favorite game?} Pop the Pig
{What is your favorite animal?} Lion and cheetah
{What is your favorite song?} The Lion Sleeps Tonight
{What is your favorite book?} Pete the Cat
{Who is your best friend?} Jacob (Ricky's Jacob)

{What is your favorite thing to do outside?} Jump on the trampoline

{What is your favorite holiday?} Halloween

{What do you like to take to bed with you at night?} "lot of things"
{What do you and Mommy do together?} Play on the trampoline

{What do you and Daddy do together?} Mow

{Where is your favorite place to go?} Hawaiian Falls

{What do you want to be when you grow up?} Fireman and baseball player

Harper: 8 Months

The Worst Blogger Ever award clearly belongs to me. At least I'm the best (worst?) at something, right? Bah, I promise my next post will be some sort of catch up post and not a baby book update, but until then, Harper is 8 (and a half) months old!

We love, love, love this sweet girl, and she is getting to be lots of fun.

Harper wears size 12 month clothes and a size 3 diaper when she's not in cloth ones.

She says Mama, Dada, and more ("moh") when she wants more food.

She usually wants more food because this girl can EAT. So far she eats: sweet potatoes, guacamole, peas, chicken, olives, cantaloupe, strawberries, watermelon, macaroni, cheese, broccoli, green beans, Cheerios, Pirate's Booty, and applesauce. We don't puree her food because she loves to eat it cut up into small pieces and, let's face it, that's much easier for us. She still nurses really well, although the amount has been scaled back since she's eating so many solids.

Harper was toothless at 8 months, but in the past few days her first tooth has poked through the bottom gums!

With this newfound tooth, her sleeping habits have totally regressed. She was doing SO much better and napping well (2 hours twice a day) and only waking once at night if at all. But now she's back to short naps (an hour or less) and waking once or twice a night. Hopefully she'll get back on track once the tooth comes all the way in.

She's a mover but doesn't quite crawl yet. She can sit up from lying down, and she gets on her hands and knees and rocks, but when she goes to move she still face plants and then rolls. She's really close though!

Harper loves to laugh, especially at Avery and Landon. She loves rides in the stroller and playing on the floor. Her favorite song is Katy Perry's "Roar" because she likes to sing all the "oh oh oh ohs" :)

She has grown so much this past month, and we are having so much fun watching her grow! Love you forever, Harper Girl!

Harper: 6 Months

Harper is six months old already! I can't even keep up anymore; time is flying way too quickly with this one.

She had a great report at her checkup last week, and she weighs 16 lbs 4 oz (70%) and is 26" tall (75%). I've still been squeezing her into some 3-6 month clothes just because they're cute and I can't bear to get rid of them! But really she's in 6-9 month sizes. She wears a size 3 diaper in disposable diapers (but wears cloth the majority of the time).

Harper is a roller and a scooter and can sit up very well on her own (although we usually stay nearby or put the Boppy around her for the times she decides to just flop backward). I probably don't give her enough floor time, but when she does play on the floor, she loves to scoot around and roll like crazy!

It's been a very hard month in the sleep department. She moved into her bedroom with Avery, and she goes to sleep initially and does well in there...until about 1:00 or 2:00 AM. I'm usually in such a zombie-like state that I just bring her into our bed and she nurses and sleeps the rest of the night with us (which means that we don't sleep well). We're working on getting her to sleep all night in her room, but it's going to take a lot more discipline on my part, and some nights I'm just so desperate that I do whatever it takes to just keep my eyes closed.

Naps are hit or miss. We're not always home in the mornings for her to get a good nap in, so she catnaps in the car most days. Basically, I consider it a good day if she gets a two-hour nap and shorter one at some point. Third child problems.

Harper babbles a lot! We have no idea what she's trying to tell us, but I'm sure she'll fit right in with her talkative big siblings.

She's a pro at nursing. I'm super thankful for that because starting solids has been very low on the priority list. We tried bananas and avocado a few weeks ago, but she wasn't super interested, and the bananas were upsetting her stomach, so we stopped. I did cave and get some brown rice cereal to maybe start soon. She still has no teeth, despite the months of apparent teething pain and frustration. Oh, and I've had to give up caffeine because she was having major reflux, and this change seems to help a lot.

Harper loves to play with her toys, and she rolls all over the place. She loves to interact with people, and making silly faces and noises is a sure way to make her smile.

When she's rested, Harper is a very happy baby! And okay, she's mostly happy when she's in her mommy's arms. I'll take it though because once she starts crawling and moving, I'll have to chase her down to get these snuggles!

We love our sweet Harper girl and are having so much fun watching her grow!

Harper: 5 Months

It's been two months since I last posted. TWO MONTHS. Poor baby Harper is definitely getting third child treatment when it comes to her blog updates! She's definitely not loved any less, but finding time to sit and write all this stuff down is proving to be quite a challenge.

Let's see if I even remember how to do this. I'm picking it up again though, I promise hope!

If you've lost track, our baby girl is now five months old! I'll throw in her four month picture for good measure, haha.

Harper Kate is SO much fun these days! And she is just the cutest. Eek, I can't get over how gorgeous she is (although I've said that about all of my precious babies)!

Loving the doorway jumper!

She weighed 14 lbs 8 oz (70%) and was 25" tall (80%) at her four month check up. She's in size 3-6 month clothes but sometimes wears 6-9 month, especially in sleepers. She wears size 2 diapers when she's not in cloth (i.e. when I'm backed up on laundry!).

She smiles and laughs a LOT. Avery makes her the happiest, but I think Landon will catch up once he figures out how to stop scaring her. We'll just say that he loves her a little too much!

Harper is a little wiggler. She kicks her legs all the time and rolls over the second we put her down. Out little ambi-roller can go from back to tummy and back again. She can scoot her little self around quite a bit, too!

She's a thumb sucker like her big brother. You know? I'm all for whatever works. Also, her tag blanket is magical. I'm not even kidding, it's what gets and keeps her asleep most days.

She sleeps okay. Harper JUST NOW moved into her room with Avery, so we're still figuring out the logistics of a baby and a preschooler sleeping next to each other without waking each other up. Harper's sleep is backtracking a little at night because she was sleeping all night until these pesky little teeth started giving her problems. Naps are iffy too, mostly because our schedule is so erratic that we just try to let her nap when and wherever possible. She IS a happy baby though, so I'm not too worried about it.

We just figured out that, in addition to her teething pain (with still no teeth to show for it), Harper is not a fan of dairy products. She's okay if I have it in small amounts, but bowls of ice cream and cereal are out of the question for awhile. Sad day!

We're starting to think about adding in some solids in the next month or so. She's been grabbing at our plates every time we're eating (although she grabs at everything these days), plus it may help her sleep better since she's waking up hungry. I'm fascinated by the Baby Led Weaning movement and am seriously considering skipping purees altogether!

The third baby seems to grow up WAY faster, and we really can't believe that she's already five months old. She brings so much joy and laughter to our family, and we can't imagine our lives without her!

We love you, Harper Kate!