20-24/52

20/52
proud little logger

20/52
monkey boy

21/52
Avery's first catch!

21/52'tractor' and 'truck' are the most popular words in his growing vocabulary

22/52
birthday boy

22/52
the boy with the smirk

23/52
those glasses can't hide it - his baby face peeks out in his sleep

23/52he could just ride all day

24/52He makes being safe look good ;)

24/52that wispy baby hair :)

My Big Three-Year-Old!

One night as we were taking a walk, I decided the stars were aligned and the weather/lighting/attitudes were just right for an impromptu photo shoot in the field. 

Because I didn't want to waste time choosing an outfit and risk missing the moment, I decided that being being shirtless with tousled hair and markered arms is just the way a 3-year-old should look in photos anyway :)

This was a rare day because Avery was more than willing to model for me and let me follow him around with a camera while Cullen was the one that wasn't really into it. Avery made sure he made it into a few shots though - he continues to amaze me with the love he shows toward his little brother. 

I even got Justin in for a few sweet photos. These three... I am one lucky mama.

And now that So You Think You Can Dance has started a new season, it's all dancing all the time at our house. Avery made up 'the ticket game' where he pretty much just role-plays being on the show and receiving a ticket at the end of his dance. Here's a sample of one of the 'games', I added a music overlay because usually he just dances to the music in his soul :)

Three.

On Saturday, my baby boy turned three years old. Birthdays are always so bittersweet; I love to reflect on how Avery has grown but in doing so I remember him as a squishy little newborn and wonder how that baby has been on this earth for three whole years already. I've never before experienced time passing so quickly and so slowly all at the same time. 

Avery has developed the most magical little personality ever. He picks up on everything and has a beautifully wild imagination, always telling stories and acting out incredibly detailed scenes (usually involving hunting or some sort of work with heavy machinery) He is still the world's best big brother (minus an incident involving a can of sunscreen and Cullen's face) and goes out of his way to look out for his little brother and teach him new things on a daily basis.

Currently, Avery is really big into:
 
Big trucks/tractors/machinery (his construction birthday party theme was inspired by this obsession!) 
Every morning, we ask Avery what he wants to do that day and the first thing he says EVERY day is 'play Monster trucks'. It's a simple request and the majority of our days revolve around just that - monster trucks in the living room, excavators in the sandbox, tractors in the stairway, dump trucks in the kitchen.

Hunting. He 'hunts' bears, deer, scary cats, coyotes, and occasionally snakes with a golf club. He stalks quietly throughout the house making strange noises he says are animal calls until he spots one and takes it out. Sometimes he recruits me or Cullen to be a fellow hunter and other times we're the [insert whatever animal is in season for the day].  This child is all boy.  In part, he was born with this love of the hunt, and partially encouraged by dad's stories and the few survival shows he's seen on TV) 

Bird watching. We have a bird feeder out the window next to our dining room table and are entertained during every meal by the birds that hang out there. He knows them all by name and has little conversations with them over his oatmeal.

Dancing. He's been a strong rhythm/movement guy from the start, but after accompanying me to Zumba a couple of times a week he now puts together actual routines and can associate moves with different songs. And now that the new season of So You Think You Can Dance has started, he's adding all kinds of new moves to his repertoire. It's a dance party every night in the Olive house!

Motorcycle riding. He calls his balance bike a motorcycle and will correct you if you call it otherwise. He LOVES it and is getting really good on it, so good that he has no interest in learning how to pedal. Something to work on in year 4 ;)

Gardening. His excitement when he sees that plants are growing or producing some fruit/vegetable is amazing, he really has a love for watching things grow and I hope that only continues to grow within him.

Hugging/tackling Cullen. It's become a daily occurrence in our house, one boy goes in for a 'hug' that is really sweet for about 20 seconds and then one of them tackles the other to the ground and they both break out in a fit of giggles. I just sit back and make sure nobody gets tackled into a wall, I see no point in trying to fight nature here ;)

Fishing. He is SO proud when he helps reel in a fish and after only fishing a couple of times, will hold the fish all by himself (shoot, I won't even do that!) and gently release it back into the water.

Mowing the lawn. He is a very dedicated helper when it comes to mowing, and will walk with dad behind the mower for the entire time. He breaks concentration only to give me a thumbs-up on his way by. 

Sunbutter and Jelly sandwiches every day for lunch. Thank God for sunbutter - Avery doesn't have to miss out on that childhood staple because of his peanut allergy.

Giving hugs/kisses/high fives. Avery is much more willing to open up and talk to people (other than Justin and I) than he was 6 months ago. He has also become more comfortable giving hugs/kisses/high fives to family and friends, even those he doesn't see very often. My shy boy is coming out of his shell and makes "best friends" with every little person that he meets. Sweetest thing ever.

Avery has his moments of defiance and tests me daily, but overall is a really reasonable boy and listens very well. If he gets cranky, I know he's tired, overheated, hungry or not feeling well. 99% of the time if I remedy these things, he's back on track. He's at a really fun age right now where his vocabulary has become much more clear, he's hilarious and he's so excited to learn and see/do new things.

Avery knows his ABCs, recognizes almost every letter and knows it's sound, counts to 30 (but gets a little tripped up with the teens), knows every color (and knows what colors make up other colors - art teacher mama for the win!), bites his nails, is so genuinely kind and polite, wants to pray at dinner and say what he's thankful for, is fully potty trained during the day (still wears a pull-up at night), and still sleeps in his crib with no less than 6 friends that must be accounted for before he will rest. (big Tigger, little Tigger, Panda, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Seahorse, and depending on the day - baby Charlie.) 

12-19/52

I promise I haven't given up taking weekly photos of the boys, I have just failed to upload them here. We've been enjoying spring to the fullest, playing outside ALL the time -rain or shine- and all the excitement has made this mama pretty wiped by the end of the day and not very motivated to open up my computer.

Looking at this post full of photos makes me realize that I need to post more often, look at how they've grown in these eight weeks!

12/52
Bedhead all day. Every day.

12/52
That squishy face.

13/52
Exploring inside the baboon's mouth @ the St. Louis Zoo.

13/52
Proudly sporting gramma's scarf.

14/52
The boy with the sunglasses becomes the boy with the funny tan lines.

14/52
Puddles. Dirt. And a big smile.
All boy.

15/52
That under-bite grin.

15/52
Just chillin' in the swing.

16/52
Future Foreman.

16/52
Sunscreen mohawk.
And a battle scar from an unfortunate incident with a toppling bike.

17/52
He's a natural in the garden.

17/52
He fell asleep during our walk, sitting straight up.
At least he had a good grip.

18/52
Ice cream cones for the win.

18/52
He gets a huge kick out of spraying himself in the face with water.
It helps get the outer layer of dirt off ;)

19/52
Sunday morning comic.

19/52
This face lights up my life.

10-11/52

10/52
Heartbreaker.

10/52
Birthday cuddles with my baby boy

11/52
The nap war ended in mom and dad's bed
The beginning of the end? (please, no...)

11/52
Such a smiley bug :)

Cullen's First Birthday Party!

Last Saturday, we invited some of our closest friends and family over for a little barnyard celebration of Cullen's first birthday!

We kept it simple with a milk-and-cookie theme and got REALLY lucky with some gorgeous weather so we were able to spend most of the day outside. (there is something magical about the first really warm Saturday of the spring, it is food for the soul!)

We are so incredibly grateful to have had my brother Josh, my sister Jenna, and her friend Lexi staying with us the weekend of the party. We wouldn't have been able to pull it all off if they hadn't been here to help us prepare. THANK YOU GUYS! 

We had a few small snacks but the focus was on the cookies! We made sugar cookies, brownie cookies, cranberry/white chocolate cookies, rice krispie treats, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cream pies, and strawberry cream cheese cookies (these were a last-minute addition and turned out to be my favorites- I highly recommend them!) 

I made a few pennant banners to hang, strung up all 52 of Cullen's weekly photos and got the kids some cute little milk bottles (with cow straws!) to fill with white or chocolate.  Justin and Josh created a super awesome obstacle course in the driveway for the kids to conquer and we pulled the sand table out of storage. The one organized activity I planned was a 'pig round-up game' that consisted of 13 kids gathering 24 pig-face balloons into 1 inflatable pool (thanks for creating such great pigs, Jenna!). It was pure chaos and pretty hilarious to watch. Most of the party I just wandered around watching all the little people laughing and running around thinking how grateful we are to share this life with such great friends.

Also - it seems we now have TWO boys who love to wear sunglasses!

And, of course, Cullen got his own cake to smash. It took a little convincing to get him to really dig in (probably because he'd already had plenty of cookies by the time we brought out the cake) but Avery showed him how it was done and he took over from there :)

Such a fun, fun day! It may be true that first birthday parties will never be remembered by the birthday boy/girl but any opportunity we have to get together with some of our favorite people and share some some cookies, we take it! It was even a big enough event to get a family photo - a rare occurrence indeed!

 Happy birthday, sweet Cullen. You bring so much joy to our days!

Cullen James is ONE!

A week and a half ago, this sweet boy turned a whole year old. Cullen is sweeter than ever and is learning and growing so fast these days I try really hard not to blink. He is in this really magical stage right now where he is so happy-go-lucky all the time and gets excited about pretty much everything. That being said, he is certainly growing into his own little personality and has a strong opinion about everything (and will share that opinion, usually pretty loudly.)

As is probably the case with most second children, Cullen sometimes feels like he gets the short end of the stick when big brother gets to do things that he can't (like use scissors or reach things on top of the counter). We try to involve him as much as we can which is also why this second child ingests far more Plah-Doh and paint than is probably recommended - but he's certainly getting lots of sensory learning opportunities!

Cullen's Favorites:
EATING. His current favorites are:
-meat
-beans
-grapes
-graham crackers
-ice chips
-yogurt
Blowing raspberries on everything (especially tummies)
Snuggling
Climbing
Chasing Avery
Mimicking Avery
Wrestling with Avery
Singing 'ba ba black sheep'
Being outside
DANCING
Bubbles
Waving
Swinging 
Remotes/cell phones 
Reading books
Drinking from a straw
Smiling and laughing
Getting what he wants. Right now. (like standing in the kitchen yelling until someone hands him his cup, or a snack)

Cullen Dislikes:
•Getting dressed/changed
•Not being able to do everything big brother can do
•Being hungry or tired

Cullen currently has 8 teeth, his hair is growing longer (and curly!) behind his ears, he usually has some sort of scrape or bruise on his face (he's a brut!), has the most perfect little toddler strut and THE sweetest little scrunched-up nose when he smiles.

   
And here are the final photos to wrap up Cullen's first year. I already miss my chubby little baby, but I'm so smitten by this sweet toddler that has taken his place.

This boy came into our lives on a snowy March morning and filled a void that we didn't even realize existed. It feels like just yesterday and forever ago all at the same time. I can't imagine my life without this sweet little soul in it and I know his daddy and big brother feel the exact same way. Watching how he and Avery have bonded and continue to grow together makes all our rough days in this last year totally worth it. No joke- this smile has magical healing powers:
 

Avery @ 1 Year