Avery: 5 years old

1. Our big 5 year old girl is really becoming more and more independent each day! She likes to lay her clothes out for school the night before, literally spreading out her top, pants, socks, headwear on the ground, steps back to admire her work and says, “I’m going to look so cute tomorrow.” I sure do appreciate her confidence and independence!
2. She loves to bake and really is the best little helper in the kitchen. With all of the holiday baking we did last month, she now wants to make something everyday. I’m always surprised to see how much of it she’s really able to do on her own, she loves measuring out all of the dry ingredients and is getting really good at it.
3. Girlfriend is STILL talk about how much she misses our elf on the shelf, Poppy Styles. If Poppy Styles (our elf) had a fan club, Avery would be the president. She was so eager to find the elf each morning, that she was waking up as early as 5:00! After a few (ahem) gentle reminders that she needs to stay in her room until her clock turns green, you better believe she was at the top of the stairs at 6:30 on the dot ready to find her beloved Poppy Styles.

Emerson: 3 years old

1. Emmy is princess obsessed, she is always wearing a princess costume or nightgown over her clothes. You want to be Belle at school, you go girl! I know this is a short lived phase and I decided it’s not harming anyone and it sure does make a lot of people smile.
2. Speaking of having an opinion about what she wears, Emmy has two pairs of shoes that she wears, her purple sparkly rain boots and her purple sparkly furry boots, see a pattern?
3. “Mommy does it” and “Uppy Mommy” are her two favorite phrases right now. Girlfriend is my little shadow, she loves to come upstairs with me when I’m getting ready and is very busy washing her face, washing her hands, putting on lipstick and proudly states “ready for the day!” when she is all done.

Isla: 11 months old

1. Isla wants to keep up with her big sisters so badly, she is cruising on all of our furniture and is even standing all by herself for a few seconds at a time. I have a feeling she will be walking ANY day now!
2. Girlfriend loves to help with the dishwasher, when she sees us open up the dishwasher she makes a mad dash over to help. She loves to grab out all of the silverware and bottle parts from the bottom rack and is not very happy if you politely tell her you don’t need her assistance.
3. Our poor baby reached a milestone we weren’t looking forward to this month, her first time being sick! It was SO hard to see her not her usually, smiley self, it really just broke our hearts. We are so very happy that she seems to be on the mend and are so thankful to our friends/family who really stepped up to help us out in such a scary time. I’m just PRAYING we got our “sickys” out early this year!