1 Year Old

Happy birthday to our little one year old! Ava has grown from a sweet little baby to an even sweeter toddler! She has such a happy demeanor.

12 Month Grow Bear

Her top two teeth broke through this month and I can tell she has others on the way! Although she's not walking yet, her favorite activity is grabbing our fingers and walking assisted. She would do it all day long if we had the energy for it!

Ava loves dancing. Her favorite tunes are the ones that play when she pushes the button on her alphabet and farm animal magnetic games on the refrigerator. She has also grown quite fond of Aiden's wrist bands. Since she sees him wearing them all the time, she follows suit and puts them on any time she finds one on the ground.

Speaking of wanting to be just like her big brother...

Ava got to spend her actual birthday with her besties, Kennedy and Addison and the pool! What better way to spend the day?

This little munchkin is such a joy. She is very rarely fussy or unhappy, and when she is, she needs her diaper changed or she's ready to go to sleep. Otherwise, she is such a little light in our loves and we absolutely cherish her!

Ava's First Birthday Party

We had so much fun celebrating our one year old! Since Ava has a summer birthday, we decided to have a pool party and Grammy and Grandpa's house! They were such gracious hosts and allowed us to take over the back yard.

Daddy and Grandpa made an amazing ballon arch to put over the pool.

The party favors were beach balls.

Mommy and Grammy made pool party themed ice cream cakes and a special fruit cake for Ava.

We displayed Ava's monthly grow bear pictures in some old windows from Nana and Papa's farm.

I can't believe our baby girl is already one! This past year went by so quickly and she has grown into such a sweet, adventurous toddler.

We were so grateful to all of the family and friends who came to celebrate Ava's first year!

Ava had a blast opening her gifts. She especially loved all of the tissue paper!

Aiden even got a little gift for being such an incredible big brother this past year.

"Mama! Take a picture of me!"

At the end of the night, we took the ballon arch down and Aiden and Ava had so much fun with it!

I just love this last shot of Ava. It captures her happy, fun-loving personality so perfectly!

Cheek Bites!

One of the things Eric's grandma is known for is biting her children's and grandchildren's cheeks. It has rubbed off on Papa as well as all the aunties. Ava's not quite sure what to think of it now, but chances are she'll do it to her own babies one day!

Our Trip To Montana

Eric's cousin James and his new wife Regan were hosting a wedding reception in Coram, so we booked a place in Glacier National Park and headed east! Unfortunately for us, car troubles delayed us and we were a couple of hours late to the reception. We were bummed to miss out on as much time as possible with our amazing extended family, but we made the most of it and had a great time.

Aiden was bursting at the seams with excitement to play with all of his cousins. He had perma-grin all night!

Shrugging it out with cousin, Oakley.

Ava was pretty excited to finally meet Haven. She immediately planted a big, fat kiss on her!

As our anniversary gift to each other, Eric and I decided to splurge a bit and stay in a cabin at Apgar Village in Glacier National Park. Our cabin was right on the water and our view was amazing!

We spent the entire day on Sunday relaxing and playing at the cabin. Nana and Papa, Nick and Molly, Ann, Shawn, Hannah and Delaney joined us for a bit too!

Ava was in heaven surrounded by so many rocks. It was all I could do to keep them out of her mouth!

One of our favorite parts of the day was lounging in Lake McDonald in the inner tubes we brought. It was heavenly!

In the evening we drove up Going to the Sun Road and walked around the visitor's center. As always, the drive did not disappoint! We saw a ram and a mountain goat with her baby at the top!

On Monday we headed out for a little "hike" in the park. We decided it would probably be best to stay on one of the lower trails so that Aiden could get as much energy out as possible before the long car ride home. He was in heaven finding sticks!

After our hike, we headed to Big Fork where we met up with Nana and Papa to go see Great Grandma Agnus. She is the kids' only living great grandparent so it was a special treat to introduce them to her! Four generations!

This trip, although pretty short, was amazing. We loved spending so much quality time with our own little family as well as our extended family. We are so blessed to be related to so many amazing people!