Happy 2nd Birthday Mia Monkey

And, in keeping with tradition, I'm late on Mia's birthday post, too. Anyway, Miss Mia turned TWO June 25th. I can't believe it. So I tried to do a little birthday interview like I did with Aspen, but Mia just said whatever Aspen said or whatever was in her immediate view. So I'm just going to write what I observe about her. :)
1. Height and Weight: 30 3/4 inches, 21.5 pounds
2. Favorite Food: cheese for sure. This girl is definitely like mommy in that way!
3. Favorite movie: Pocahontas. One of my very favorite things to come out of her mouth is "Watch po-ca-hon-tas" and she says it so clearly and its the cutest thing to have such a big word come out of her little mouth! :)
4. Favorite book: Brown Bear, Goodnight Moon
5. Favorite toy: Balls and dolls.
6. Favorite Activity: screaming, running, falling, CLIMBING!
7. Best friend(s): Aspen for sure. She adores her big sister. Mia follows Aspen around and copies everything she does and says.
8. Personality Traits: Sweet, funny, wild, strong-willed, reserved, loving, affectionate, helpful,adventurous, fearless.
16. Our thoughts about you from the last year: Oh our little Mia Munchkin Monkey Monster....everything you do, you do with passion! You are by far the most strong-willed child, person really, I have ever met. You are the sweetest little girl on earth, unless you are crossed, and then look out world! You are so loving and affectionate, you love to give kisses to the people you love. Isaac right now is on the receiving end of most of your love and affection these days. I love getting you up in the morning and after your nap because I'm always greeted with a big Mia hug, or "squeeze me, mommy!" as you put it. And a kiss. You are so cute and sweet when you wake up. Definitely a morning person, you are on the go constantly from the moment you wake up. You are somewhat shy when you are first around people, but once you warm up, you are fine.

You seem to love, above all else, to climb up on things and jump off. And so, consequently, you constantly have scabs and bruises, scrapes and scratches. Especially on your face for some reason. You have so much spunk and spirit and are so fearless. It cracks me up some of the things you manage to climb up on. We think maybe you'll be a little gymnast or something like that. You love daddy to "throw me to the clouds" and you get so excited to do anything up high. You are on the go constantly and get very excited about a lot of things. The way I can tell when you're about to do something really wild is that you are awake! ha, ok, not that bad, but you are definitely active and adventurous. You are very much like your daddy in a lot of ways and that is one of them. You have what we call "crazy eyes" and we know you're about to tornado our lives! When you get that glint in your eye, we know what's coming. You keep us on our toes and busy for sure.

But you also have a few calm moments in the day. You are good about sitting and reading books or coloring. You also play really well with little cars and little toys that you can hold in your hand. You like to put princess slippers on and walk around with a purse in your hand full of rocks and little dolls. You have the cutest little voice when you are being sweet and you can be very charming when you want to be. :) You like to be held, especially by mommy. Most days you follow me around saying "up mommy, up mama, up mommy, up mama!!!" And if mommy or daddy are sitting and you want us to play with you, you come up and in your sweet as pie voice, say "hold my hand" and won't stop saying it until we hold your hand and you guide us to wherever you want us to be at that moment. Persistent. ;)



And you absolutely adore Aspen. You follow her around and copy nearly everything she does and says. Because of that, you have a REALLY great little vocabulary for a two year old! You can copy most words really well. :) YOu like to talk a lot and when you run out of things, you just start naming things off that you see...tree, apples, clouds, whatever. :) And when you and Aspen aren't playing together, you are fighting like crazy. It reminds me a lot of me and Aunt Carrie. The best of friends - play great together and fight even better. True sisters, through and through. I can't imagine you without Aspen, or Aspen without you.

You love to eat! Another way you are just like daddy! ;) You sometimes eat more than a grown man. We wonder where all those calories go...

You also really like to clean! You like to put socks over your hands and wipe down the walls and the counters and mostly, the windows. Its pretty cute. You also like to take baby wipes and clean the tv, the chairs, the floor, whatever you can reach. And you are always right there to help mommy load and unload the dishes, as well as the washer and dryer. I hope that when you are older, you will still like to help out. :)

Oh Mia, we just love you so much. You are always entertaining and there's never a dull moment when you're around. You have so much personality in that tiny little body of yours! I don't have any doubt in my mind that you will accomplish anything in life that you set your mind to and you will grow up to do great things. We love you and are so grateful for all of the fun and adventure you bring to our family. :)

Happy 3rd birthday to our beautiful little girl...

Aspen turned THREE years old on the 12th (yeah, i know i'm behind in this post. story of my life!) I can't believe three years has gone by so quickly. I remember holding her in my arms the moment she was born just like it was yesterday. I am so so so grateful to her birthmom for allowing Malo and I to be such a big part of her "birth" day. For suggesting that I be the one to "catch" Aspen when she was born, for allowing Malo to cut the cord, the dad's best job. ;) I am just so grateful for her and for everything that she sacrificed for our Aspen. Words can never express the love I feel for her for her decision to place Aspen with Malo and I. We felt the strongest love I'd known until that point instantaneously. Aspen is an amazing little girl. So quirky and fun. So sweet. So perfect for our family.

Anyway, my friend Emily does birthday interviews with her kids each year and I always think that's such a great idea, but the kids haven't really been old enough to do them until Aspen this year. But its a fun idea. So here is Aspen's interview for her big #3. (Oh its so cute...she keeps saying "I be three on mine birthday!" even though its been almost two weeks...i love her.) Ok - and these are the answers she gave...I may or may not add in a few sidenotes. ;)

1. Height and weight: 38 1/4 inches, 32 lbs.
2. Favorite Color: "Green and pink"
3. Favorite Food: "Green eggs and ham." (she has never actually had green eggs and ham...she just likes the book.) "TACOS!" "Happy Birthday Cake!"
4. Favorite movie: "Tinkerbell and The Little Mermaid."
5. Favorite game: "Hide and Seek." and then after a minute, she said "um, the castle game." (its CandyLand Castle game...matching shapes and colors...really cute little game.)
6. Favorite book: "Brown Bear" "Princess" (I am not sure what the princess is that she is talking about.)
7. Favorite treat: "POPSICLES!!! Please can I have a popsicle feel my better??"
8. Favorite toy: "blocks and necklaces"
9. Favorite Activity: "when daddy comes home. and jump on trampoline." and "exercising with mommy" (don't let that fool you into thinking I actually exercise! ha!)
10. Favorite Outfit: "beautiful dream come true dress." (she loves dresses! she loves ones she can twirl and dance in. and she is so balanced because she will play outside in the sandbox or dig in the dirt and look at bugs, all in her pretty dresses.)
11. What makes you happy? "when daddy comes home." and "mommy runs with me." (she likes being chased, specifically around the island in the kitchen...she calls that "run with me!")
12. What makes you sad? "i can't have popsicles."
13. Best friend(s): "daddy friend and mommy friend and mia friend and baby isaac friend. and abby. and scott."
14. Your testimony: (she needed a little help with this, she doesn't quite understand what a testimony is quite yet, but she said she knows Heavenly Father and Jesus love her."
15. Personality Traits: Sweet, funny, fun, slightly manipulative (as in you know how to work people to get what you want. :) ), helpful, kind, serious, cautious, analytical, contemplative, silly, very friendly and outgoing, loving and very affectionate.
16. Our thoughts about you from the last year: Oh my goodness, where to even start? Aspen, you were a miracle sent to our family. We prayed so long for you and were so so so so happy and ecstatic to finally have you in our lives and in our family. You won our hearts from the moment you were born and you are so so so perfect for our family. There is not a day that goes by that we don't thank our Heavenly Father for you and for your siblings. We are so blessed to have all three of you.

You start most days the same way...waking me up asking for food. ;) You always try to get ice cream or popsicles first thing in the morning, and all day long, really. Most nights you come get in bed with mommy and daddy around 3am. You snuggle up as close as humanly possible.

You are very much a daddy's girl, you always have been. You know when I start making dinner that daddy is almost home and you and Mia start watching out the front window for him to pull up in his truck. And the squeals of delight once he walks in that door are music to my ears. :) You love for him to play with you, to throw you up in the air (just not too high), to wrestle with you and tickle you. You also really know how to "work" him to get what you want. He loves it. Often you will stop what you are doing in the middle of the day and say "I'm real real sad. because. because i miss my daddy." And on nights when he works late, you don't think we should eat dinner without him. In fact, you usually get really mad if we try to eat without him. When he's home, its hard for you to leave his side, whether he's mowing the lawn, working on the cars, dinking around in the garage or just sitting on the couch.

You are such a great balance between girly-girl and getting dirty girl. You love LOVE to be outside and getting dirty, and you also love to dress up in pretty dresses and fancy shoes and put on as many bracelets as you can fit on your arms. You love the water and you have always taken to it quickly. You are very cautious in many areas, but the water you have always been comfortable in. You are getting very good on your little tricycle and we're starting to think it might be time to move you up to a bigger kid bike - yikes!

Your have a great vocabulary base and are getting a good grasp on sentence structure and grammar. And you say some of the funniest things you don't expect to come out of a two, er uh, three year old. You make us laugh everyday. You love to read and be read to. Recently you've started reading to Isaac and Mia, usually "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" You also really love us to tell you stories, especially The Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs. And you loooooooooooooooooooooooove music, singing and dancing. You can sing quite well and there are several songs you can sing all by yourself now, but the ones you do most are "A Female Dear" (doe, a deer, a female dear, ray, a drop of golden sun....etc. you always ask for "a female dear" and it took me awhile to figure out you were asking for what grandma sang with you every night she was here after Isaac was born), Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and I am a Child of God.

You are very social and friendly. Quick to say hello and welcoming of people. You make new friends easily. You and Mia play really well together (and also fight like crazy!) and you are gentle with your baby brother. You have a great imagination and use it often. You like to color and paint. You also really like our little science experiments. You like to figure out how things work, how they fit together, how they come apart. You really like measuring stuff when we're cooking. You've always been my little helper in the kitchen. :)

You pick up on things VERY quickly. You were potty trained in one day back in November. One morning we put you in big girl undies, you had about 6 accidents in the morning and that was it. After that, you went in the potty. Still, you rarely have accidents. :)

I could go on and on forever about you, my sweet Aspen, but I am going to end with this. You are so loved, Aspen, by everyone you come in contact with. There are so many people in your life who would do anything for you and love you with all of their hearts. Especially your Heavenly Father. He loves you enough that he helped your birthmom make a very hard decision to place you with a loving mommy and daddy. He loves you so much and has a plan for you. And He sent you to a loving home, with a mommy and a daddy who love you with all their hearts and who will always make sure you have everything you need and you will always be loved. We love you, sweet girl.

Smiles

Isaac is such a sweet little guy. He's been smiling for a little while, but the last few days all we have to do is make eye contact and say something to him and he breaks out in a huge grin. I love it! :)


Its nearly impossible to get a decent picture of all 3 of my kids. This is the best I have been able to get so far. One day I'll get a super cute one, I hope. Gosh, I love these kids so much. So so so much.

I think this is such a sweet picture. Aspen is a VERY very good big sister. She's had a lot of practice since Mia was born just 13 days after Aspen turned one. She's such a sweet girl and getting so big and so helpful. I don't know if you can tell, but he's talking away to her. Its so sweet watching my kids interact. (especially when there's no fighting involved!!!)

Isaac is just about as big as Mia. My guess is he's going to catch up to her by the time he's one. As it is, she only weighs about 6 pounds more than him and lengthwise, he comes up to her chin. She loves baby Isaac and wants to hold him and touch him and love on him all the time. I have to watch her closely, though, because she also wants to wrestle him! ;) Daddy's genes for sure. :)