Ariya Marie | ONE YEAR!

Our sweet girl turned one two weeks ago and my mind has still not completely wrapped around the fact that my baby is a whole year old.  From the day she was born until today she has been nothing but a ball of sunshine. (I mean, she HAS been a baby, so there have been plenty of long nights and fussy days but looking back on the year the only thing that stands out to me is how go-with-the-flow HAPPY she's been!)

At her 1 year checkup, she rocked the charts weighing in at 23 pounds, 7 oz and is 32. 75" long. She has 8 teeth and the sweetest little curls.

She's started to assert her independence lately and has a bit of a flair for the dramatic. When she first started taking steps she would take one step, deliberately lay down and put her head on the floor like it was so much work for her to take that one step that she needed to rest. This girl is always putting on a show!
Ariya made these weekly photos the easiest task ever. The photo shoots got more and more efficient every week and by the end, we weren't spending more than 30 seconds from start to finish and I only ended up taking 10-15 shots, most of them being good ones! She knew the drill and giggled away as soon as I got the camera out.

Ariya's favorites:
Life!
Flirting with everyone
Smiling
Music/Dancing (the girl has moves!!)
Socks (and carrying them all over the house)
Climbing the stairs
Running into the road
Playing with her big brothers
Waking up happy, clutching the tags on her blanket :)
Saying the sweetest "Hi!" and waving to everyone she meets
Dogs!
Excitedly saying "Doh!" all day
"Dada" continues to be her favorite word (mama only when she's tired/hungry/hurt)
Playing in the rain
Being outside
Bathtime
Eating ice
Drinking from her sippy cup

A photo of Ariya at 11 months and me at 11 months!

The day after her birthday, we had some family and friends over for an ice cream social to celebrate! It turned out to be the most beautiful day full of sunshine and sprinkles and thanks to our lovely niece, Emma, Ariya's cake didn't become a Pinterest fail :) 

We are all head-over-heels in love with this girl who has brought more joy to our lives than we could've ever imagined. What an amazing year its been watching her grow into her sweet personality. XOXO

And because I'm feeling sentimental about my babies getting so big, here's AVERY AT ONE and CULLEN AT ONE

Ariya | 10 Months!

Ariya doesn't get much cooler than she is right now. She's at SUCH a fun stage where she's becoming more independent and particular about things but is just so, so HAPPY all the time! She takes a few steps behind walking toys, figured out a straw and crawls at top speed. She spends her days pulling up to standing on everything and walking behind me while holding my legs (she seems to think this is especially fun when I'm trying to cook dinner or use the bathroom.)
 

 
Even after already going through this stage twice before, I'm still amazed how quickly these babies start piecing things together; understanding things that seem like they should be above them and associating real words with things. Every time she greets people with her big 'ol smile and wave and says "Hi!" my heart bursts into a million pieces. Along with "Hi" "Dada" and "Mama", Ariya knows "Dog" and gets VERY excited whenever she sees one, pointing and shouting "Tsh! Tsh! Tsh! Dog!" She also associates pretty much any other furry animal with the word "Dog" right now too :)

When I put Ariya down to sleep for her naps, I place her on her tummy and then watch her pull her feet up underneath herself and snuggle in. It's her current favorite sleeping position and the cutest thing ever.

Ariya rocked her first Purdue baseball game! (a first for all of us, which it ended up being sort of a fail because all Ariya wanted to do was crawl around a crowded hill full of people and eat discarded popcorn and garbage off the ground, so we only ended up staying about 4 innings. It was fun while it lasted though!) :)

Ariya raiding the fridge, eating lasagna (one of her most favorites!) and her and I twinning in our cheeks :)

Getting dirty and making messes is Ariya's favorite pastime and watching her in her element is so sweet I usually just let her enjoy those those messy moments, even though it means much more clean-up for me later. She is the third child after all :) Her clothes have all been brand new for her and she still doesn't own a single pair of pants that don't have stained knees. :) 

Avery and Cullen continue to adore Ariya to pieces. They are the always watching out for her and playing little games with her and she just eats it all up. She is just loved to pieces over here!

Well, the honeymoon has ended when it comes to ease-of-photo-taking. Gone are the blissful days of plopping her down and talking to her while she beams up into the camera at any moment of the day. Now it's more of a 15 second photo shoot, 11 seconds of which are spent wrangling her back and smoothing the backdrop. Thank goodness she's as happy as she is for those 4 good seconds of face time :)

Ariya Marie | 9 Months!

Ariya is on the move! On February 28, Ariya took her very first crawling stretches and she woke up on the 29th and was off like she'd been crawling all her life. The next day she pulled up to standing and now she's essentially looking like a toddler and I wasn't quite ready for it. 

Ariya wants to play with anything that isn't formally considered a toy so we basically have baskets of colorful, singing decor taking up space in every corner of house while she happily spends her days hunting down and knawing on Nerf darts :) She puts everything in her mouth but thankfully (knock on wood) has yet to have any choking incidents.

Ariya is growing at about the same rate as her brothers did at this age: WAY too fast. At her 9 month appointment, she measured in at:
29.5" long (95th percentile)
21 lbs (81st percentile)

Ariya eats finger foods almost exclusively now and is still a good eater. She very much prefers fruits to vegetables, blueberries, grapes and mango being a few of her favorites. She will often clean all the fruit off her plate, throw the rest off onto the floor and whine for more of her beloved fruit... such a rascal. In other news, she's consumed her weight in dirt and sand and summer hasn't even officially begun yet. Yikes!

Ariya is such a celebrity when we go out and about. She smiles her big winner smile and just loves to have people talking to her. She's started saying 'hi' and waving when we pass people and going grocery shopping is the best, I just love watching her spread her light throughout the store. "Hi Dada!" is her sweetest phrase and something she says very frequently now when Justin walks into the room. She tends to only say "mama mama" when she's tired and wants to nurse, but I'll take what I can get :) Clapping is still one of her favorites. She knows what 'no' means and when I do say 'no' and she listens, she immediately applauds herself and giggles.

Time is a crazy thing, and motherhood has totally warped my sense of it. I find myself wanting to take photos of everything or write things down more so I don't forget these days, I'm so grateful I get to spend them with my babies. A fun little photo project 39 weeks in and 39 weeks out:

And our sweet baby girl at 9 months old. This world is such a brighter place with her in it!

Avery at 9 months here

Cullen at 9 months here 

xoxo

Cullen James the THREE-Year-Old

 
Cullen is a fiercely independent 3-year-old, in all senses of the word. He can dress himself, brushes his own teeth, gets a stool and climbs up to fetch whatever he needs, cleans up after himself, gets his own snacks, follows quite complicated directions, loads his clothes into the washer, listens carefully and watches to learn. He's also fiercely stubborn and thinks he should be able to cook eggs all by himself, 'text his managers' with my phone (AKA send garbled emails and change all my settings), wear his clothes every which way and apply his own make-up. >>>>> Ha!

Cullen is my biggest helper and has an amazing memory and attention span. He loves to tell stories (with surprisingly accurate detail) and usually has no fear talking to anyone and everyone that will listen. He LOVES to chew gum is the kind of guy that would offer up his very last piece of his most favorite gum without hesitation. 

He enjoys getting wild and crazy with Avery but also needs down time to play quietly alone - he is usually aware enough to know what it is he needs when. He loves to drive his 'dune buggy' Power Wheels even though he rarely keeps his eyes on the road in front of him. He's a pro on his balance bike "monster truck/dirt bike" and is slowly becoming more confident on his pedal bike (though he knows he's faster on the balance bike, so usually chooses it)
       

Cullen is a host of ups and downs - the sweetest boy you can imagine and the sauciest little threenager too, all within an hour's time. He has a quick temper and unfortunately knows many more negative behaviors than his brother did at this age (thanks to said brother's influence no doubt)  His go-to insult is 'dummy' (or something to the effect of: 'dummy-summy-wummy-dumb-dumb') When he gets tired, he loses his sense of play vs. reality and plays the 'bad guy' a little too well. (AKA, stay out of his path)
 

Cullen is such a mama's boy and loves to help me out with whatever task I'm working on. Cooking, folding laundry, gardening, unloading groceries. He's also usually up for trying his hand at whatever project I set my mind on (We've grown to call these projects 'experiments' due to their often lackluster results, ha!) He's a bit of a clean freak and loves to grab a handful of baby wipes and tackle a section of the house with them. He is

also surprisingly responsible about cleaning up his own messes.

He knows the words to every Moana song and could tell you the entire story from memory. He LOVES his li'l sis and his face always lights up when she's around. Despite the fact that their days are filled with little spats and power struggles, he and Avery's bond continues to be strong and grows every day.


 
Cullen shares a room with Avery! He sleeps on the bottom bunk and Avery sleeps on the top. Cullen goes to bed first and after he falls asleep, Avery sneaks in. Cullen's bedtime routine includes PJs, brushing teeth, a story, having 3 songs sung to him (ABCs, You Are My Sunshine, and "My Oh-maze" (Amazing Grace) - in that order) while having his back rubbed under his shirt, a blown kiss and a thumbs up before closing the door, and turning on his monitor music.

About two months ago, Cullen completely potty trained himself!  He found some little underwear in a box while moving into his new room with Avery, decided he was going to wear them and we've never looked back, he even soemtimes gets up all on his own at night to go! After it happened, I realized he probably would've trained earlier, I just didn't even think to encourage him. Oops! In the end, it was SO much easier and happened SO much faster because he was self-motivated. 

My favorite of Cullen's current traits is that he randomly tells us 'I love you' at frequent times throughout the day. It tends to happen at the times I need it most, helping to keep us all in the present.  Kiddos are so good for that, and Cullen is one in a million. Sweetest boy ever.

On Cullen's birthday, we started the day off with some Moana cereal (!) and a little Look-and-Find for the birthday boy (his favorite!) Then we spent the rest of the day at the Children's Museum in Indianapolis with grandma and grandpa :) Such a fun time celebrating our big three-year-old!

Ariya is 8 Months Old!

Ariya continues to learn and grow so much faster than I can keep up with. She is an absolute ray of sunshine in our days, 8 months in and I still can't get over what an happy, agreeable baby she is.

Every week I pull my camera out to take her weekly photo, she just poses and smiles her sweetest smile. The whole ordeal takes less than 5 minutes and somehow I still have the hardest time choosing just one photo - they're ALL so cute!

This month:  
Ariya earned her 2 bottom teeth! Her first popped through on Jan. 10 and the second showed up not long after. In true Ariya form, she cut those teeth without batting a sweet little eyelash (although many drools were certainly drooled!)

Ariya has her own room! At the end of January, Cullen decided he wanted to try sleeping in Avery's room (again) BUT this time, Avery decided he was ready to sleep on the top bunk. Apparently the stars aligned and this new arrangement finally took hold - which means Ariya moved into Cullen's old room and claimed it as her own.
 
She's grown out of her sleep-all-night-every-night routine a bit and often won't fall asleep until she's nursed and rocked about 3-4 times. Even then, she will get up at least once or twice a night, sometimes for extended periods of thinking it's morning when it's not. Despite losing her rockstar sleeper medal, she still wins the award for happiest morning baby- I really look forward to peering over her crib at her ecstatic little face in the morning! 

She either takes 2 shorter naps, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon, OR she takes one monster nap in the middle of the day. Every day is a little different and, being baby #3, her naps are often interrupted or taken on-the-go. Naturally, she is A-OK with wherever the day takes her, as long as she has us around she's happy.

Ariya EATS! She will gobble up 1-3 baby bullet servings for breakfast, lunch and dinner along with a bunch of finger foods. She loves to eat and is so good at feeding herself. Her current favorites are kale, apples, mango, sweet potatoes and avacado/pear. She tried some cheese for lunch today and pretty much thought it was the greatest thing ever -  a true Wisconsinite at heart :)  

The love Ariya has for her brothers is so strong and so obvious, she ADORES them and all of the loud and crazy games they play. The boys are so, so sweet- always making silly faces, kissing, singing or tickling her and she repays them by giving them nothing but smiles and giggles.

As long as I am nearby, Ariya is generally happy and oh-so-smiley with everyone she comes across. I love to watch her smiles light up everyone around her- her brothers, our friends, or perfect strangers at the grocery store. Her happy energy is contagious and makes my day - every day.
 

Ariya is a strong girl and her circle of destruction is growing larger by the day as she inches closer and closer to crawling. It will be a bittersweet day for all of us when she becomes fully mobile. Keeping her away from choking hazards is going to become my full-time job and although the boys try all day to get her to crawl, I don't think they truly grasp what this means. They love little sis like crazy, but they love her on their terms. We will see how well they adjust to her being all up in their business all day. Ariya, my dear, you're welcome to stay put just as long as you'd like :)

Ariya loves to play games that get a reaction out of us, this one was especially funny this day - that belly laugh!! :) 
 

Ariya @ 6 months old!!

Ariya continues to be a dream baby. The kind of baby I've heard stories about but didn't believe actually existed. She couldn't be more easy-going and happy, constantly smiling and content. She sleeps, eats, is healthy, and loves everyone. Walking into a room and watching her face light up to see me is probably one of the greatest joys of my life. These babies... what a power they have over sappy mamas like me!

At her 6 month well-baby checkup, Ariya weighed in at 18.5 pounds and 28" long, in the 90/95 percentile. She wears a few 9-month outfits but is onto mostly 12 month clothing. (skinny pants for infants are sort of a joke...right?)  

Her first tooth (on the lower left) popped through yesterday (Jan 9) and she's been chewing on everything in sight. Although she will tolerate being on her tummy for short periods, it's not her favorite so she's mastered sitting and crawling isn't even on her radar yet. (Which is just fine with me, I've been working on hiding away the small jewels, Legos and coins that I find but somehow new ones keep appearing.)

Ariya loves to eat! On top of being a very efficient nurser, she got her first puree on Thanksgiving day and has worked up to eating twice a day- at breakfast and dinner. She's tried: oatmeal, peas, apples, mango, sweet potato, avacado, green beans and carrots. She loves them all (mango is her favorite) and gets very excited to eat when she gets in her high chair!
 
About a month ago, Ariya moved from sleeping in a cradle in our room to sharing a room with Avery and sleeping in a crib! After numerous failed attempts at getting Avery and Cullen to share a room, it just made sense to put our best sleeper (Ariya) in with our oldest sleeper (Avery). So far, it's working out great and Avery is so proud to share a room with his li'l sis.

We spent our holidays at home this year and Ariya enjoyed every bit of her first Christmas. She is at THE perfect age for it - old enough to get joy from all the little things like wrapping paper and lights but young enough to stay where I put her and not EAT said wrapping paper and lights :)  

Avery and Cullen continue to love love LOVE Ariya. For as much as they bicker with each other, they are nothing but sweet, kind, and gentle with li'l sis. This little girl is so loved, by so many. She's brought so much joy to our life, I can't imagine what we would do without her!

I took so many photos this month that were meant to make their way to Instagram and well... didn't. Here are some of my favorites of my girl - 

And a few of my favorite videos!

2016 was so, so good to us. 
We are excited to welcome 2017 and all the adventures that await!