3 Years Old Today!

Oh Happy Day!! 3 years!! I am amazed that I have been a mom for 3 years already! I didn't have the blog when I was pregnant with John Christian. I also didn't save the weekly e-mails that I sent out to family and friends for his first year of life! Ugh! As a result I have uploaded some photos of John Christian to show how much he's grown and changed!

I guess you never realize how important birthdays really are until you are a mother. It's no wonder my mom makes such a huge deal over everyone's birthday and always has! How could a mother not want to shout to the roof top, "Today is the day I celebrate the most precious gift in the world!"

I remember thinking my mom was so sentimental every birthday because year after year she told the stories of our birth. Same story every year about each of us. We all kind of roll our eyes and say, "We know! We've heard this story a thousand times!" As if it really didn't matter, but oh how wrong we were.

To a mother who has given birth to a child (I have no idea how adopted parents feel, but I imagine the same!) other than celebrating the birth of Jesus & then him rising from the dead what day could be more important? Your child's birthday is the day you fell in love with someone for the first time. It's a love like nothing you've ever experienced & one that no one can take away. It's when you learned that your heart could fill up with joy and break all at the same time because you realize that this tiny precious gift is yours to cherish, love, care for, and teach, but at the same time you know that you won't be able to protect him from the realities of the world & that one day if you do your job right he will grow into a man, move away, & start a family of his own. What a POWERFUL realization & it all seems to happen at once. Birthdays, not important......If you think that then you've lost your mind! Why, they are the greatest day of all & should be treated as such!!
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To John Christian:
One day when you read this I hope you will know that you are our little angel! We love you more than words can say! We learned from the moment you were born that life is a precious gift from God. The nurse called you "Our Miracle Baby" because you had a true knot in your umbilical cord that caused you a terrible time during the delivery. I'm just so glad that there were special bigger angels looking out for you and our family on that day. Our lives would not be the same without you! Even when we are frustrated with your toddler moments we still love you and you make us happy. There is not a thing in this world you could do that would prevent us from loving you! Thank you for being you! That's all we ever want you to be! You alone will always be enough just the way you are!
Happy Birthday 3rd Creole! We love you always!
Your Mom, Dad, Charlie, & Molly too!

This is me with Molly one week before I had John Christian!
I'm short, but not that short! I'm kneeling!

John Christian right after his "first bath" at the hospital before I even held him!

I was so thankful Zach took tons of photos while the nurses work checking on John Christian right after he was born.

John Christian around 2 months old!

John Christian's first Cammo at Thanksgiving!

John Christian around Christmas time!

John Christian's first cereal at 4 months old!

John Christian's first Easter and the day he sat up alone!

John Christian the first time he began to crawl the end of May.
It was a few hours after Zach left for 6 weeks at the National Training Center in California!

This was taken in Virginia at cousin Renee's about a month before John Christian's first birthday. It is one of our all time favorite photos!

Happy 1st Birthday at Chuck E Cheese. Macy, Miss Jamia, & Mr. Mike were there also!

2nd Halloween! We only stopped at Miss Virginia's & Mr. Mike's, but you loved your one treat - a sucker! You were very sticky!!

2nd Christmas!

In January of 2005 the weekend before Zach went to Iraq John Christian became dehydrated from a terrible stomach virus. We spent 2 nights in the hospital! He was quite the trooper!

Spring 2005 - Tom Cruise better watch out!

Spring 2005 - We visited Cousin Renee in VA.
John Christian crashed on the floor after playing outside in the mud!

Summer 2005 at Macy's house!

Late summer 2005. This is a classic John Christian pose!

2nd Birthday! John Christian kissing Meg as usual!

October 2005 at the Shrimp Harvest!

My Little Cowboy - Halloween 2005! Charlie was his horse!

Shrimp Harvest 2005

Christmas time 2005! My big baby!

Christmas Morning 2005

Good Morning & Happy 3rd Birthday! On the phone with YaYa at 7:30AM!

Opening his morning present with Mom, Dad, Charlie, & Molly!

Thrilled over the General Lee that makes noises!

Still shaking from excitement! It really doesn't take much to make this boy happy!

Playing on the floor with The General Lee! We already broke the part that holds the batteries in. John Christian told me that the car is supposed to crash, but I had to explain that with this car we should probably just pretend & do easy crashes not throw it up in the air and expect it to land on the hard kitchen floor!

After I put Charlie down for his morning nap John Christian & I had a special breakfast. He was very excited about the chocolate chip pancakes with the big match in the middle. (I couldn't find a candle!) I guess they looked better than they tasted b/c he took 2 bites and was finished. What he really wanted for breakfast was fruit snacks, but I just couldn't bring myself to giving into that one! Either way it was nice to have a few moments alone with my big baby!

Dad came home from work for lunch! The boys were excited about lunch at Chuck E Cheese.

No longer are the days when I can carry John Christian by the handle of his carseat with him quietly resting in it! He was also excited b/c the weather was cool enough to wear his new jeans with his new Nike tennis shoes!

He got to wear a crown at Chuck E Cheese's! It was great b/c there were only 2 other families there, but they left. We pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. The nice guy who fixes all of the machines gave us extra tokens & lots of tickets! We left with a coupon for over 600 tickets that we will redeem one day when we have enough to buy something bigger than a pencil! That is if I don't lose them first!! :)

Big enough to sprinkle his on cheese!

John Christian was so happy his dad got to leave work for a while. He tried to convince him to take off his uniform and come in regular clothes. When we headed home he also tried to tell him he didn't have to go back to work! He sure knows how to tug at his daddy's heart strings.


He picked off each individual sprinkle! He said, "You got me a cake with sprinkles! It's my favorite!" The cake at Chuck E Cheese's taste the same as it did when we were kids and it was called "Show Biz Pizza".

The Gang's All Here!
(Except Molly)

Another present!!

Yes, little cars from the movie Cars!!

Lightening McQueen!!! Hip Hip Hooray!!!

**A special note to our friend Macy: When we pulled up to Chuck E Cheese John Christian asked, "Is Macy here for my party?" She has been with us every year so far for his birthday at Chuck E Cheese. It's our little thing we do. We told him that she was in Idaho visiting family. His response was, "That makes me sad. That makes me crazy! I'm not happy about this!" We promised him that as soon as she comes home we will have a special party just for the two of them! This made him feel a little better & once we got inside he was happy again!
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Dad came home from work a little early. He brought John Christian a special present. He's had it planned for quite a while now. John Christian has his "Official First Football" from his dad!!

Let's play catch!

Have no fear we did not forget that our boy is still obsessed with Thomas The Tank Engine!! We also gave him the Scrap Yard & The Timber Yard for his wooden tracks! His smart mom hid the trains and tracks recently to make sure he wasn't tired of trains. He's been asking for them daily & is now thrilled to have more train stuff!

YaYa and Colonel sent this a while ago. I have been hiding it from him! Yes, I didn't wrap the box from the post office, but he didn't really care about that. He just wanted the present!

Ok, this is it! This is THE PRESENT!! John Christian has been asking for this simple little Quarry Tunnel for months and months. It is almost a daily request. You can see the joy and excitement in his face in these 2 photos!! Yeah! We finally have THE Quarry! Thank you! Thank you Colonel & YaYa!!

Before we left for dinner John Christian told us, "This is the best birthday ever!" He was so thankful for everything from the presents to just spending time together. All day long we got hugs & kisses and told we were loved! What more can a mother ask for after 9 months or pregnancy, a long long labor, & so far 3 quick years?


Once all the presents were open we went out to eat. I asked John Christian where he wanted to go and he said, "I want to go to the resteraunt where they throw the peanuts on the ground!" Holy cow what a sentence for a new 3 year old!! So, off to Texas Roadhouse we went!
The staff sang to someone near us in the resteraunt and John Christian said, "Hey, but it's my birthday!" No worries, within 2 minutes it was his turn! He loved every second of the song & the attention from the wait staff! (& our waitress was worried it would scare him!)




On the way back to the car John Christian and I had fun holding Charlie's hands.



Cupcakes!
I give up! After I worked so hard to make cupcakes from scratch on Tuesday night I then threw them out b/c of the possibility of us having a stomach virus. I didn't want to make the other children sick. It has been insane around here & I remembered at 8:15 tonight that I didn't have anything for John Christian's class tomorrow. So, I ran to the store only to find there were very little options! Here is what I came up with! I added the m&m's when I got them home b/c that is what John Christian wanted & my mom always put m&m's and suckers on our cakes. All I can say is I hope one day John Christian will read this and know that I did try! At least the children are all 3. They'll probably think these wild looking things that would cause Martha Stewart to pass out are the greatest things in the world. We'll see! Just to be safe I have mini bags of m&m's, juice boxes, & grapes for everyone! john Christian never eats the cake part anyway! We shall see!