Aria Lately

Aria is 16 months old and such a little joy to have around. It's amazing when you think that a year and a half ago we didn't know her but now our life would not be the same without her! 

Aria is a total girly girl. She loves shoes and sparkly skirts, having her hair combed, getting her toenails painted and all things baby. She loves to rock her baby, feed her baby, and carry it with her wherever she goes. Her favorite thing to wear is her purple tu-tu with silver sparkly stars. If she sees that it's available in her closet and I pull something else out she totally loses it. She reaches for it every time she sees it. Every time she finishes a bath and I set her on the changing table she reaches into her basket and hands me her hair detangler and a comb! So very girly. That's not to say she doesn't also love to hang with her brothers. She watches everything they do and repeats almost all of it. She just has a baby in one hand while she does it.

She is an expert at climbing the ladder to the bunk bed. And by expert I mean she is obsessed with climbing that thing. Any time she catches the boys' door open she runs straight in and races to the top. She's fast. It's terrifying. She cannot be left alone for a second. She has also set the new record of climbing out of the crib. She is officially the youngest Hagen to do that with the boys coming in shortly behind her at 18 and 19 months. At playgrounds all she wants to do is climb ladders - any height, any angle, any anything. That's what she will be running for. So can she keep up with those big brothers? Oh yes. That is not a problem.

Aria is talking a lot! And it is so fun to hear and see her little opinion on things. She definitely has an opinion on things. If you ask her a question and she doesn't want to do it (like "Aria, are you ready to go to bed?") she shakes her head no. She signs "please" and sometimes "more". She says:

Baby (day-dee) It's almost indistinguishable from Daddy.

Daddy

Mommy

More-more

All done

Toesies

Woof

Uh-oh

Tyler

Boom (When any one falls, bumps or drops something)

Amen

Bubble

Thank you

Here-go (when she hands you something)

Boo!

Hi

Bye-bye

Nigh-nigh

Love you

I know there are more. I just can't think of them right now! 

She loves to sing. My favorite is anytime we sing Jesus Loves Me she starts pretending to drum with her fingers like drum sticks. And she loves to dance. She blows lots of kisses and gives lots of sweet but messy real kisses.

This girl is so loved by her big brothers. Just today I walked into the living room where they were playing in a blanket fort. The boys had gotten her hair bows out and she was sitting in front of them letting them put them all over her hair.

If either Tyler or Carsten cry about something she runs over as fast as she can to give them a hug. She loves them so much. One of our favorite tricks is if Aria is mad about something and we can't calm her down we just tell Carsten to make her laugh. He looks at her and laughs and she immediately switches from tears to giggles.

Aria is not shy. We are going to need to work on this with her. She would go up to absolutely anyone to tell them hi. And she just keeps waving and saying hi until they notice her. I took them all to the dentist last week and while the boys had their appointments she went up to every person who came in the waiting room to show them her baby.

She also likes to play with duplos, kitchen toys/food, toddler play mobiles and gears. She likes to carry around a baseball bat and throw balls and she loves to be pushed around on scooters or trikes. Did I mention she likes climbing? She does that a lot. :-)

Aria is such a sweet little girl. She is quickly becoming a little girl and not a baby anymore! But I try not to think about that. She still likes being my baby right now. :-) 

Road Trip!

I don't usually like to post things out of order - but I got a little ahead of myself last time. :-)

In the beginning of June we made a very last minute decision (like 2 days beforehand) for me to take the kids on a quick trip to Kansas. It was spontaneous, but it was a great idea. They did great in the car and had so much fun with Grandma Ronni and Papa Joe!

We didn't tell them we were getting ready to go anywhere. Somehow I managed to get most of the packing done without them even noticing! The night before we left we walked to the park and asked them where they would go if they could get in the car and go anywhere in the world. They of course said, "Kansas!" And we said, "Ok, that sounds fun. Let's do it!" They were so excited. :-)

Breakfast stop!

Making donuts!

Tuckered out and cute on his little cot.

Homemade bubbles! They loved this.

A day at the zoo.

The peacocks are almost always the favorite at this zoo, but the wallaby had a baby in its pouch! It was so cute.

Laying out at the pool.

Carsten had a cot to sleep on and Tyler was in a bed. But every night they ended up together. They are so sweet. 

Our Orange Leaf visit!

This is an example of Aria doing everything they do. She was still eating ice cream when the boys stood by the unicorn. Five minutes later when she finished and was cleaned up, the first thing she did was run across the room, stand against the wall and say, "Cheese!"

Another afternoon in the pool.

This picture cracks me up. I have no idea what they're doing, but it's cute.

I thought I might be crazy to try to pull this trip together in a day. I was already tired from a busy weekend and the whole packing and driving thing isn't exactly relaxing. But it was so fun! It was the easiest drive I think we've had. They all had fun and we made great memories with Grandma and Grandpa!

Happy 4th!

We had such a FUN weekend! Carl has been super busy with work lately and so it was really nice to have this long weekend to enjoy. On Friday Carl and the kids got up early to surprise me for my birthday with the sweet coffee mugs they made me. Since I was woken up to all this cuteness (which I loved), apparently I wasn't coherent enough to remember to take pictures. But they were so sweet. And they continued to make and wrap beautiful paper presents for me to open all day. We also went to a fun park that we just discovered next to our new grocery store. We will probably go there on the way to get groceries every time now.

And we went to one of our favorite areas near our house for dinner and Starbucks that night.

On Saturday we went paddle boating! It was a really fun and low key way to spend the morning. 

And that night we had a Hagen-Zehr night. We've celebrated quite a few 4th of July's together and this was another fun one. We had fun grilling and talking surrounded by the chaos of six adorable kids. :-)

On Sunday we went to Benihana's for lunch after church. I always think Hibachi grills are fun but we never go to them because Carl would rather just eat sushi there. I don't know why I've never thought of this before, but I finally had the light bulb idea to choose it for my birthday. It was a win for everyone! I have a feeling we will be celebrating more birthdays here. And not just mine :-)

We've had our very own Hibachi chef's at home ever since. They've been making onion volcanoes and throwing eggs into their hats like little pros.

That night we went to fireworks. We found out about this one on the 3rd last year and we love it. It's around a lake and even though there's still tons of people there, it feels a little more spread out. And it's nice to have the whole day on the 4th at home! All three kids loved the fireworks, and no one fell asleep this year! Not even Aria, crazy girl. She does not want to miss a single thing and she will do everything in her power to stay awake if there's something fun going on!

She thought about falling asleep for a few minutes when I laid the blanket out. But then she jumped up and never slowed down.

And finally, on Monday we stayed home and just had fun here. We started the morning off right with our red, white and blue crepes!

So excited! And loving the eating standing up thing.

I think it's safe to say that Aria likes our 4th of July crepe tradition.

A lot.

I wanted one cute picture of the three of them on the 4th of July. That may have been too much to ask for:

We got one of the three!

Two out of three!

One set of eyes. Sort of.

Back down to two.

And then there was this.

Runaway!

There is no stopping her when she has her mind set on something. That day it was set on not being in a picture.

She was perfectly happy to sit and eat tree bark while Tyler and Carsten smiled for me.

She was not so happy when it was taken away.

These were the best I could do:

After all that drama we did some sparklers, grilled and had our annual 4th of July Dirt Cake. That was a hit. :-)

Again, not so much with the smiling for the camera. I should have known better than to give them a gummi worm before the picture. :-)

It was a winner of a weekend! We all had so much fun. Happy 4th of July!! :-)