Happy Third Birthday!!

 

 Who needs a big party when you are THREE YEARS OLD?!! Dinner with the family and then a FREE outing to a local mall with a water feature, what could be more fun?! Colton had the best time, you would think he had done this a million times. Poor thing, we had to pry him away from the water while he shivered and shook and said, "I'm not cold!"

On the way!!

The adults are staying as far away from the water as possible!!

Actual birthday celebration day fun:

 

 

I LOVE trucks!! 

  

 Some big guy! Getting ready to play with water on the deck! Then water gun showdown with Uncle Eric!

Fun with Nana and Papa L under the dining room table with balloons!

Partying is hard work! Time to relax!

 Can't believe our little guy is already 3!! He seems so old sometimes, then we peek on him when he is sleeping and he is so sweet and little. He is a joy, even when he is driving us crazy! Recently he has mentioned an old classmate at school and said, "Joseph bites me sometimes (he hasn't been at school in at least 6 months) but I still love him." So sweet!! We have been telling him that we love him all the time, even when he is throwing a fit or being ugly, but that we might be sad at him when he is ugly. He likes to check and make sure this is true and ask us on a regular basis.

Colton's First Time Bowling
He did really well as far as patience and seemed to really enjoy the first round. He was also very good a cheering for Nana and Papa L and Mummy.

We all wanted to use the kiddie ramp!

Funny words he says are "Ugee" (ugly) and finally says "other" instead of "uh" as in, "I saw him do that the uh day." He also likes to say, "ola bar" instead of granola bar, though he can say it if prompted. He often is trying to find the "emote" control for his toys. He has a hard time with the letter L, sounds more like a Y so the front door is "yocked" and he is "yooking" for something.

Fun in the great outdoors!

These are not all in order but are some of my favorite shots from hiking at Stone Mountain this spring and summer.

Poor Sweaty child!!

Don't forget to stretch!!

Colton REALLY likes when people have walking sticks, and he knows just how to use them when he made his own!

Colton has been climbing inside this stump since he was big enough to stand. He calls it "my tree" and tries to find it each visit. He is about to be too big for it though!

 

 We love to see the train and wave at the passengers!

 "Fishing" at the neighbor's pool!

Sharing the news!!

So, we FINALLY shared our secret in August, a good time at about 3 months along. I took videos of when we told Justin's family and mine, however, trying to be sneaky with a camera at odd times to have a camera out resulted in some diasterous videos. We bugged Auntie Sarah to tell us when cousin Katy Grace's birthday party was so we could plan to tell everyone. Too bad my nonchalant camera angle resulted in some headless people and some not so fun angles of people in bathing suits! And when we told my parents, I double checked to make sure my camera was ON, which resulted in me turning it OFF and missing the moment and taping a few minutes later. BUT overall it was great fun as we got this adorable shirt for Colton to wear to both events and he was very happy to share his big news! Auntie Sarah thought we were just being goofy and put him in that shirt because we are nuts. :-) Everyone was very excited and WE were excited to finally share our news about Y baby number 2!



We also sent this photo out to family and friends we wanted to clue in to the news. I actually told some close friends at work before we shared with family (just because of timing) and mostly that involved me showing them samples of shirts like I got for Colton above and telling them I wanted them to help me pick out a cute shirt for Colton. Took some of them a minute to catch on! I actually showed this shirt to my supervisor at the time who said, oh that is cute! but took a few minutes to really catch the reality behind the shirt.

The Preggo Shots begin:

THREE MONTHS: 

While we are at it, here are my before and after hair shots before my 5th or 6th donation to Locks of Love. I told Justin I would wait til I got into the pregnancy to chop it off, but wasn't going to grow it back til at least 4 months AFTER new baby Y arrived. I recall the massive hair loss and dreadlock-like hair I had after having Colton and I'm not doing that again!! 

So much lighter!!