Happy 6th Birthday, Avery! {& 20 questions}

Where do I even start with this one? Avery turned SIX yesterday, and we still can't believe how quickly she's growing up! We sure do like her though!

Avery finished kindergarten this year, and she's a little smarty-pants. She loves to read, and she was so sad that school ended for the summer.  She made lots of friends, learned a ton, loved her teacher, and had a wonderful first school experience. She can't wait to go back for first grade!

Despite my requests, Avery will not stop growing. She's already in size 7/8 clothes and bigger-than-12 shoes. I don't even know what size comes after 12; is it 13 or 1? She weighs 47 lbs and is 47.5 inches tall, putting her in 90% for both. 

She is a wonderful big sister. Avery is so protective of her little brother and sister, and she (usually) plays with both of them really well. She plays Little People with Harper and Legos with Landon, but if she gets to choose, she picks board games, her Leap Pad, or playing house. I love her little imagination!

Avery loves soccer! Yay! She's a good little defender, but she doesn't like the pressure. It's so fun to watch her play, and she's improved so much every season. She's made some sweet little friends, and it's been a great outlet for her.

We were super excited this week because Avery chose Jesus and asked him to be her savior! She's known the story of the Gospel since she was little bitty, but recently she's been asking lots of questions about spiritual things. We always encourage her to ask questions because we've never wanted to pressure her to make such an important decision before she was ready. She's such a little pleaser that we wanted to make sure she wasn't going to accept Christ because she thought we wanted her to (which obviously we did), but we've been praying that God would just grab her heart. So this week after lots of conversations leading up to it, Avery prayed to receive Christ at VBS! We're so happy for her and can't wait to see how God uses her as she grows in her faith.

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

In Her Own Words {answered on 7/4/2015}

{What makes you happy?} Birthdays
{What are you really good at?} Playing soccer
{What is your favorite color?} Teal
{What is your favorite toy?} My American Girl doll
{What is your favorite TV show?} Odd Squad
{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?} Kool-Aid (for the record, I'm not even sure when she's had it!)
{What is your favorite movie?} Saige Paints the Sky
{What is your favorite game?} Monopoly
{What is your favorite animal?} Cheetah
{What is your favorite song?} Downtown
{What is your favorite book?} Nancy Clancy chapter books
{Who is your best friend?} Grace
{What is your favorite thing to do outside?} Water stuff
{What is your favorite holiday?} Christmas
{What do you like to take to bed with you at night?} My puppy dog
{What do you and Mommy do together?} Play games
{What do you and Daddy do together?} Read books
{Where is your favorite place to go?} Schlitterbahn
{What do you want to be when you grow up?} Teacher

Happy 4th Birthday, Landon! {& 20 Questions}

This kid! He is hilarious and sweet and sensitive and feisty and smart and so, so many things. And he just turned FOUR!

He's a big kid! He'll make sure you know he is four now and not a baby. He weighs 41 lbs and is 42.25 inches tall, which makes him 90% in both measurements. He wears size 5 clothes and size 12 shoes (he skipped 11!).

Landon has always been an easy-going kid, and he is just generally happy! He loves life and is so silly.

He loves to play with his sisters, but he will play with Legos by himself all. day. long. if we let him. 

Landon is all boy and loves superheroes, ninjas, and fighting bad guys. But he also has a sweet, tender heart, which is a good thing since it balances out his penchant for toughness!

He loves to try new things and is so brave. He's super excited to start playing soccer this fall, and he's going to try out jiu-jitsu this summer.

This boy is a great big and little brother. He takes such great care of Harper and can hold his own with Avery. He loves his mommy but wants to be just like his daddy.

I can't believe this is our last year with Landon home before he starts school, but we can't wait to see how much he grows in preschool and at home with Harper and me!

In His Own Words {answered on 7/4/2015}

{What makes you happy?} Superheroes

{What are you really good at?} Building Legos

{What is your favorite color?} Black and blue
{What is your favorite toy?} Superheroes
{What is your favorite TV show?} Ninjago
{What is your favorite thing to eat?} Bean and cheese burrito

{What is your least favorite thing to eat?} Brussel sprouts
{What is your favorite drink?} Sprite

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

{What is your favorite game?} Candy Land
{What is your favorite animal?} Lion 

{What is your favorite song?} Everything is Awesome
{What is your favorite book?} Superhero collection
{Who is your best friend?} Green

{What is your favorite thing to do outside?} Play with water balloons

{What is your favorite holiday?} Christmas

{What do you like to take to bed with you at night?} Water
{What do you and Mommy do together?} Play

{What do you and Daddy do together?} Play with Legos

{Where is your favorite place to go?} Trampoline park

{What do you want to be when you grow up?} A superhero

Harper: 18 Months

My last Harper update was TEN MONTHS AGO. Now if someone can come mop up this puddle of mom guilt, I'd really appreciate it. Because honestly I can't keep up with the housework as it is, and my baby is 18 months old today and I need to document it lest I fulfill the neglected third child stereotype any longer.

So. Where does one start when it's been almost a year since she posted?

Well, first of all, Harper is a JOY. She totally wasn't during her first year, let's be honest. She was the cutest and for good reason. She was high maintenance to the core, and we're not just talking about typical baby maintenance. She was a tricky one, that girl. But time has done wonders, and she brings so much fun and laughter to our family!

At 18 months, Harper's vocabulary has just exploded! She puts words together and just sounds so big when she talks. The girl has opinions, too. She loves to read books, especially Sesame Street ones (for "ELMO!"), and she loves to tell us what sounds each animal makes.

She loves her brother and sister ("Avey" and "Lannon"), but I think she loves her doggie most of all (she called Meggie "Memmie" for the longest time, and I'm kinda sad that she says it correctly now!).

Harper can EAT. As long as it's what she wants to eat anyway. She used to eat basically everything we put in front of her, but now she's getting a little pickier. She'd eat blueberries and bananas all day if you let her! (We ended up doing Baby Led Weaning with her, kinda by accident, so she never ate baby food. The only thing she's eaten pureed on a regular basis is applesauce! It sure made things easier for us anyway.) And she LOVES the smell of coffee! The second she hears the Keurig brewing she yells, "Coffee! Coffee!" until she lets her smell ours. The she says, "Mmmmm!" and goes on with her life.

Our baby girl still wears 18 month clothes, although we'll move her into 2T soon, size 4 shoes, and a size 4 diaper. She's so much smaller than Avery and Landon were at this age! I feel like I have a tiny baby, but she always measures in right at 50% on the doctor's growth charts.

This photo is brought to you by a diaper blowout and an unprepared mom.

Harper's favorite place to be is "ouside!!" and she's crazy about the neighborhood playground where we pick Avery up from school every day. She's so adventurous now that I get super nervous when she climbs up, but she seems to have a really good awareness of her limitations. I may just have a heart attack before she turns 2.

After spending almost a year of keeping us up all night, Harper's finally a wonderful sleeper! (So there's hope for you yet, new parents!) She goes down for the night around 7PM and wakes up when Avery does at 7AM. She takes a 2 hour nap around noon every day. It's glorious.

She has the best giggle and knows how to melt our hearts. Harper is mischievous and sweet and we love her like crazy!

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!