The Big 3!

Three years ago on August 29th at 7:15 in the morning our sweet baby boy blessed our lives! We are forever changed and our hearts are more full than one could ever imagine due to it! I have to say, life has gotten more challenging as he proceeds to grow and push boundaries with us every minute of every day! Brian and I are both stubborn and hard headed and there is no doubt are child has come by these traits naturally! He fights us tooth and nail for everything! There is a battle everyday over clothes, eating, not beating up his sister, naps and the worst of all BEDTIME! I am mentally exhausted after a day with him! The constant rebellion against what he is supposed to do and not do is nerve racking! However, that being said I would not trade it for all the sweet loving things he does and says on a regular basis! Here are some of our favorites:

-Mommy/Daddy hold me all day/night

-He will point to our arms and say, those are my arms!

-His great manners he almost always says thank you mommy

-The sweet way he talks to Henley when she wakes up from a nap. He asks her "have a good nap Henley? Have sweet dreams?"

-How protective he is of his family. That's my Henley, my mommy and my daddy

_We always ask him "Who is your best friend?" He tells us Mommy, Daddy and Henley

He has such a big heart and is such a good snuggler! I would not trade a thing for any of it!

On the morning of his birthday Christian woke up to find his big birthday present downstairs! He received a big boy bike with training wheels! He had picked it out a few months ago and he had no idea he was getting it! I think he was a little shocked when he saw it and was not so sure what to do! It was cute! Immediately the phone started ringing that morning with family members calling to wish him Happy Birthday! His Nene and Poppy were the first to talk to him. He kept them on the phone while he opened his gift from them! It was a tractor that actually moves! It has an electric arm that moves up and down and can pick things up and dump them out! A huge hit for Christian and all his friends that saw it when they were over for the party! I believe there were some fights over it later in the day!

Now, on to the party we had to celebrate or big boy turning three! This year his birthday fell on a Saturday and that is when we had his party! I invited all his friends from school and a few others he has in the neighborhood. There was a great turnout and we had around twelve kids at the party. Christian is into tractors big time so we originally thought we would have a tractor party. However, when I started doing some searching everything was John Deere tractor decorations and I have to say, very ugly! He likes yellow tractors and John Deere is green. I decided he did not really need a certain theme party this year, but I would make him a tractor cake! Yep! I did it again and made his cake this year too! I really enjoyed doing it and makes me feel like I have made something really special for him! I am getting quite skilled at making and decorating cakes! It is so much fun to see the outcome of your hard work! My mom did this for my sister and I and I think I will continue the tradition with my children! It is a lot of work, but worth it!



























Since August is always so darn hot we decided to rent a huge double water slide for the kids and adults! We chose a slide that we the parents could go on too when the kids were all gone! I have to admit that it was a lot steeper in person then it looked on line. Some of the kids were quite skeptical of it including our own birthday boy! Brian actually dragged him up kicking and screaming determined that he would like it once he went down! That was a bad assumption because Christian was not so excited to go down the slide for the rest of the afternoon! We had some friends with slightly older children who were tearing down the slide like crazy and we even had some fearless little ones too! Christian had a few friends who went down the slide like it was nothing, some friends needed you to go down with them and some never went down again after the first time! It was absolutely hysterical to watch the faces of the kids going down! I think they all had a great time regardless! Henley loved going down the slide with her daddy and so did Porter who is one year old! They might be dare devils when they grow up! We also put out the slip and slide for the ones who were not so keen on the slide and that was a hit as well!

We had hot dogs, chips and home made potato salad (which took forever for me to make) I had no idea what I had gotten myself into with that under taking! I got a lot of compliments on it and everybody wanted the recipe, so I guess that made it worth my time! :) Once everyone was done eating we got the cake and sang Happy Birthday! I do not think I have ever seen Christian smile so big in my life! I think he absolutely loved being the center of attention! I have no idea what parent he inherited that from??? We all had cake and ice cream and the kids all continued to play in and out of the house! Some people wanted him to open their gifts, but I actually tried keeping that to a minimum. I think it just gets to overwhelming for them and you just need a more controlled environment! My parents bought him this big jumpy from One Step Ahead so he opened that and we blew it up for the kids to play in! It is about as big as our play room so I am going to have to find another place to put it! He received a great gift from his Aunt Heather, in fact the only gift that has any educational benefit what so ever! Thanks Heather! I will be very appreciative when he is able to spell words! His Aunt Julie and Uncle Steve gave him the DVD Shreck and a CAT tractor that makes all kinds of sounds and movements! He got so much stuff I am not sure what I am going to do with it all!?

As if the day was not full of fun...it was only going to keep lasting because cousin Bennett was staying over for the night! Julie and Steve had a Wedding shower they were throwing at their house so we offered to keep Bennett for the night! We figured that it would not be to bad because they both should be worn out from the party! However, they were like two little energizer bunnies that just kept going, going, going! Julie and Steve snuck out around 2:30 and Bennett was none the wiser! She had fun playing and helping Christian open some more presents. She had one little meltdown where she wanted mommy and daddy, but we diverted her with one of her favorite movies Shreck! Julie had told me that she might want to take a nap, but she was showing no signs of that happening! When it was around 4:30 we decided we would just keep moving until they passed out! We packed everybody up on the golf cart and went for a ride around the neighborhood! Some of our best friends live down the street and had been at the party earlier so we dropped by their house to see what was going on. They were all outside playing so we stopped and joined in on the fun! Susan has three boys so Bennett was the only little girl playing with all 4 boys (Henley tries to join it, but she is to little)! There are quite a few toys to play with at their house with three boys, so Bennett was in heaven with some of them! They have this monster truck that is electric and she LOVED it! We were not so sure if she could steer it, but we helped and she did not do half bad! I think she would love mommy and daddy to buy her one for Christmas! Later the ice cream lady came by and we got everyone some ice cream! Brian and I were laughing because we knew Julie would hate to have her eating this messy stuff with out a bib on to protect her clothes! Sorry Julie I hope the stains came out!? We could not deny her sweet little request to have some!

It was 6:00pm now and we decided that it was time to go home and get baths and go to bed! They had a long day and were worn out! We went home had baths, ate dinner and off to bed...so we thought! Julie had told me that Bennett was easy to put to bed and that all I had to do was tuck her in with all her blankets and she would go to sleep. Christian was watching a movie downstairs, so I took Bennett up to Christian's room to watch Shreck and I figured she would be out quickly! I was wrong because she protested and told me she was not tired at all! Bennett told me she wanted to sit in the bed not lay down and watch her movie! It took a little convincing, but I finally got her to lay down. Once her little head hit the pillow she was yawning and I knew it would not be long! My child on the other hand was downstairs fighting it like a mad man! We had a child every hour on the hour fall asleep. Henley at 7:00, Bennett at 8:00 and Christian at 9:00! Me at 9:30!!!! It was a great day and we all had so much fun! We thoroughly enjoyed having Bennett around and it is something we should do more often! Christian did not want her to go home the next day! In fact, that morning when he woke up he was not screaming for mom or dad, but for his beloved cousin Bennett! Thanks to everybody for making it such a special day! Happy Birthday to our Big Boy! We love you so much!!!