Andrew Turns Three!

 Happy Birthday to the sweetest, craziest three year old I know.  There is just no one quite like Andrew.  He is always keeping us on our toes.  I always have to brace myself for a tackle from this little man.  I think he thinks he is a professional football player where the game never stops.  He is always, always tackling us and hard, I might add. His funny facial expressions and off the wall comments keep us laughing.  He often tells me, "Mom, if you say no then I'll just say, 'waa, waa, and then I'll just TOTALLY freak out!'"  Awesome, huh?  The other day we were following Josh in the car and we were getting left in the dust.  Anna was in the back screaming, "Hold on, let us catch up Dad!"  Andrew quickly chimmed in, "Yea, then we can put ketchup all over Dad and eat him!"  Andrew is always on the lookout for the bad guys.  His singular focus in life right now is to put the bad guys in jail.  He loves to pretend to be a super hero.  We love this little guy and loved getting to celebrate him on his birthday!

 We have a tradition to make pancakes into the shape of the number of your new age.  Andrew got his "3" pancake and was in heaven.

 We opened presents in the morning and he was just gushing over every one of them.  I think we could have gotten him anything and he would have been thrilled about it.  This boy is easy to please.

 Granny and Grandpa bought him this new winter coat.  Doesn't he look cute, no pants and all?

 I'm trying really hard to get more pictures of all three kids together.  I don't think Anna is very excited about this idea.

 We sang to him again at lunch with his PB&J.  He thought that was cool.

 We also had a little birthday party for our superhero.  We made it into a Super Andrew party.  He thought it was so cool.  Totally made it worth the effort.  I think a part of him really honestly believes he is a superhero.  We had some really great friends come out to support Andrew.  Gosh, we sure are going to miss St. Louis.

 I made these little caped lolipops.  They're kind of hard to tell what they looked like, but trust me, they were cute.

 We had the party at the Rocket Ship park and all the kids just ran around and had a great time.  I think I prefer having a party at the park.  There is hardly any clean up.  Count me in!

 Daniel and Daddy had some quality time on the slides.  I think Daniel has found his new favorite thing.

 You can always tell when Andrew is saying "cheese" in a picture.  So cute.

 I tried to get him to give me a better smile, so instead he just smiled harder so he could go down the slide.  Little stinker!

 Daniel was in heaven on this slide.  His laugh just melted my heart.

 Finally, I get a good smile.  He was so happy!

 This is a job for....Super Andrew!

 Watching him open presents was darling.  He was so excited about all of them.

 I love how they're all peering into the bag.  So cute.

 We played a little Red Light, Green Light and then called it a day.  He probably will never remember any of this, but it sure was great to see him smile and feel special on his special day.

Happy Birthday Daniel!

 My little sweetheart turned one a few weeks ago.  I feel like he's just always been here.  It's hard for me to believe it's only been one year.  At the same time, I can't believe it's already been a year.  I actually felt kind of sad when he turned one because he isn't my little baby anymore.  I know he is still a baby but he's crossed that threshold into the toddler phase.  There is just something about Daniel that I can't get enough of.  It was so fun to celebrate his birthday as a family.  The kids loved singing Happy Birthday to him.

 Something you may not know about Daniel is that he is a snuggler.  My other kids aren't so much.  Daniel will let you hold him and he will tuck his little hands into your chest and just curl up in a little ball.  He loves it.  He loves giving hugs and likes it when you make a big deal about it.

 Daniel also can throw a tantrum with the best of them.  Really!  He loves to throw himself on the ground and yell and scream.  Ahem, I'm sure my mom is thinking, "it's payback time."  What can I say, he gets it honest!  I was pretty hard as a child, so I hear....from everyone who ever knew me as a child,....all of the time.  ;-)  Daniel likes to pretend that he wants whatever it is you're holding out to him and then he chucks it across the room and grunts.  We try really, really hard not to laugh but it's so cute.  That little stinker!

 Daniel loves to wrestle with Andrew.  He thinks it's so fun.  They always make me nervous, but as long as Daniel's not crying, I'm OK with it.  Having boys is a whole different ball game than having girls.  Andrew had been giving Daniel an especially hard time the other day.  Later that night, we hear Andrew screaming and crying.  We look down and Daniel is standing on Andrew's throat and just smiling.  I guess he had it coming to him.  Boys are so fun, especially these two.  If I ever tell Andrew to leave Daniel alone, his response is always, "But he's my brudder.  He likes it!"  This is as Daniel is screaming bloody murder.

 We had a train birthday party.  I'm all for simple birthday parties.  When they are this young, they don't really know the difference anyways.  We just had a family party for Daniel this year and it was super fun.

 Anna thinks she is the mom of this household.  She is Miss Bossy Pants.  She was giving Daniel specific instruction on how to open the present.  By the end of opening gifts, Daniel was a pro.

 I've decided that I LOVE books for birthdays.  It's my favorite gift to give them.  The tradition has begun, never to be stopped.

 Daniel looks disappointed doesn't he?  So funny!

 This is Daniel's first cake.  I think he liked it.  He was a little unsure at first but quickly got the hang of it.  Now he's a sugar pro!  ;-)

Happy Birthday my sweet boy!