Discovery Park

 A few weeks ago, I decided that we all needed to get out of the house, so we went to explore Discovery Park in Seattle. I had heard it was neat and, although we didn't get to explore much of it before we were cold and Aria was hungry, the little hike we took was gorgeous!

Blessing Day!

Ben gave Aria her name and a blessing on Sunday, March 3rd. We were a little sad not to be able to do it at a time and place where family could be there, but it was a beautiful blessing and we were happy to share it with our ward family.

I agonized over the blessing dress. I made Ellie's dress and felt guilty that I wasn't making one for Aria, too. I would have used the same one, but (being the inexperienced sewer that I am), I made the head hole too small for Ellie and we ended up cutting it off of her after the blessing! I finally found a cute white dress to buy and hopefully some day Aria won't feel bad that I didn't make it. I did make her a headband, which I didn't do for Ellie... does that make it even? ;)

Aria was ready for a nap when it came time for the blessing, so I was worried that she would fuss through the whole thing, but she didn't. She was perfect!

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our sweet girl on her special day. She was tired and not feeling very smiley right before church, but I didn't want to wait and risk having the dress ruined with spitup (or something worse)!

Eight was great, but nine is super fine!

^I stole that from a card my mom made. :)

My big boy had a birthday last week! I can't believe I have a nine year old now! 



Evan is growing up to be such an awesome young man. He's so smart and sweet and happy. He loves to tell jokes and have fun. He is the best big brother ever. He adores Aria and has been such a help to me the past few months. He continues to devour books and enjoys school (for the most part). His favorite subject is history, but he also loves to write and hopes to be a novelist some day. He also has a strong testimony of the gospel and loves to share it on fast Sundays. His favorite thing to do in his spare time is play video games or play with his bey blade toys. 

He had a birthday party on the Saturday before his birthday. He wanted to take a few friends to see The Lego Movie. They seemed to have a lot of fun! After the movie, they came back for pizza and cake at our house. And presents of course!









On his actual birthday, we did some pictures of him in the morning. 





He had some fun with the fedora his aunt Rileigh sent. Poses were all him. :)

















After we were done, I told him he could go crazy with the silly faces. 









We went to the Blue and Gold Banquet for scouts that evening. I was worried that Evan would be disappointed that was what his birthday dinner would be, but he was super excited! When we got home, Evan opened his presents from us and grandparents. 



We sure love this handsome boy. Happy birthday buddy!

 

Smiles!

Little miss Aria is turning into a smiley little thing. I just love her big, gummy baby grins. I keep trying and trying to catch them on camera or video. I haven't done a very good job yet, but here's what I've got so far...

This one is my favorite:



I always seem to capture the moment right before or right after a smile....





Here's a video of Aria giving me HUGE smiles, but I was holding the phone next to my head so she could see me and I wasn't very good at keeping Aria in the frame. :/ You get the idea, though.

She is also trying REALLY hard to "talk". Whenever we talk to her we can tell she's trying really hard to figure out how to say something back. Every now and then she'll get a little squeak or coo out and she'll look like she's SO proud of herself.

We sure are enjoying this sweet girl. :)

Sisters

I love the idea of my girls being best buds. I know they will have a roller coaster of feelings towards each other over the years, but I hope that they will end up close in the end.

I was a little worried about how Ellie would react to Aria's addition to our family. I thought for sure she would be jealous or start acting out and throwing tantrums. In the weeks leading up to Aria's birth, I started to mourn the inevitable loss of my sweet, compliant little girl.

Much to my delight, however, Ellie LOVES Aria. She wants to hold her and kiss her all the time. She loves to talk to Aria and coo at her and pet her head. She hasn't shown any jealousy, she hasn't had an increase in tantrum throwing or other negative moods. Aria loves to watch Ellie and has even smiled at her a few times already.



Needless to say, I'm relieved to still have my sweet little Ellie and I adore the budding relationship between my two girls.



That's not to say that Ellie has not been living up to her two-year-old status. She is a complete tornado if left to her own devices. She's getting good at sneaking away and making messes when I'm teaching homeschool or nursing the baby.

(Don't let this angelic face fool you!)
 

For a while, her favorite spot to play was the bathroom. Hair bows, combs, toothbrushes, water.... so many fun things in there!







We've recently added one of those toddler door handle things to the bathroom door though, so Ellie's new favorite pastime is to get into the fridge. For a while, she would sneak healthy things like grapes and blueberries. Then, I started finding things like this:

Whipped cream and lime juice? Okaaaayyy...


Chocolate chips


Teeth marks in the butter (gross!)


One day, I found her hiding from me and cradling and egg. When I exclaimed, "What are you doing?!?!" She told me she was keeping the egg safe. When I went to put it away, the entire egg carton was missing and I soon found it in the entryway, along with broken eggs. I guess that's why she felt the need to keep the last egg safe!



The bad part is that I didn't know how many eggs were left in the carton, so I wasn't sure if I got them all. I ended up finding two more eggs in Asher's bed (unbroken, thank goodness!) and havent found any more (or smelled any strange smells) since.

Ellie will make good use of any marker she happens to find.



She also enjoys sneaking apples off the counter and nibbling on them.



This is what my house looks like most days. I feel like it will never be clean again!



I've been working really hard at not getting too frustrated and just letting everything roll off my back. In the grand scheme of things, none of these messes really matter and I will look back and miss these days, right?

It's a good thing my girls are so cute and sweet.... it totally cancels out all the other hard stuff. :)