Derrick's Third Birthday

Our "little" Derrick Boy turned THREE.  He actually turned three back in February....Don't worry, we did celebrate on his actual birthday, it's just my blogging skills that are delayed.

For his birthday he got Despicable Me 2 and a MagFormers toy.  He also got a green  "car" cake, made by yours truly.  We also celebrated by going to Chuck E Cheese the next day, but sadly no pictures were taken.

Derrick, we love you so very much.  You are such a wonderful and sweet boy.  You make everyone in this family so very happy.

Here's to many more birthdays!

 

My Derrick Boy

That Derrick of mine, he's just darling.  He seriously is the sweetest boy ever.  He loves playing with his siblings, sitting next to me (anywhere and everywhere and always), singing, doing chores --especially the laundry, and he is the absolute best at giving compliments.
Since this past Christmas he has been taking naps with me, and when we lay down on my bed, he wraps his arm across my face and strokes my hair. LOVE.
A few weeks ago I was getting ready to go somewhere and he said to me "you look really pretty, Mom." And then the next day he told me my hair was beautiful. :) (it was in a pony too. :) )
Derrick absolutely loves Perry.  He hasn't been jealous one bit. When I take showers, I lay Perry on the rug outside the shower, to keep an eye on him, and the last few days I've done this, I've spotted Derrick lying on the floor next to him, smiling and chatting with him. So precious.  I've also seen Derrick sing to Perry when Perry has been crying and upset. I told you, he's darling!
Tonight, in order to get Derrick to fold his arms for family prayer, i told him to show Perry how we fold his arms, so he did, and then all through the prayer Derrick kept commenting, "like this Perry, like this! "
Yep, I'm in love and slightly obsessed with this cute 3 year old of mine.  He amazes me every day.  He knows his alphabet! He taught himself to write the letters P, H, and O.  He can count to 12, knows what those numbers look like, and can name NUMEROUS shapes, including a hexagon and octagon. 
Oh Derrick, you are so special.  We love you in this family, and I'm so extremely grateful to be your mom and watch you grow.

Lunch Date

Megan and I had a lunch date today.  I love, love, LOVE doing this with my little girl.  I hope we always do this. 
Meg was cute, when i told her we were going our, she girl so excited and went and picked out a "special "outfit. :)
We always go to Panera and order a "Pick Two ".   I get a sandwich and she gets a bowl of soup with a side of bread to dunk in the soup.  I love it.

Love!

I am in love with this baby!

Family bingo night!!

Juat another day in Paradise

We put our house on the market last Wednesday and by Saturday we had 2 offers!  We accepted one and so today was the inspection. Since it was inspection day, i was busy running around getting the house all tidy. Anyways, at one point i was holding Perry while vacuuming and Derrick was hammering me with his toy hammer in the bum (he and megs were pretending to be bad guys) while Megs was shooting me with her toy gun, while wearing a mask, cowboy hat, and a hook on her other hand.  And all i could do with all this craziness was laugh and think, "it's just another day in Paradise. "
True story.  I love my kids!

Carter's Baptism

Carter turned EIGHT this year.  EIGHT!!!  Can I really be the parent of an 8 year old???  Crazy.

Since Carter was turning 8, that also meant that he was going to be getting baptized.  Again, crazy.

Bo's mom and my parents all flew over here to be with Carter and celebrate his baptism with him.  Isn't that wonderful?? I love that Carter got so much support.

So Carter's birthday was on a Friday, and his baptism was that Saturday, the 11th.  He shared his baptism with another little girl from our ward.  Because of a huge snow storm we had the Sunday before, Carter didn't have any school the whole week before his baptism, so that was great that he didn't have to go to school most of the time his grandparents were in town, and also no school on his birthday!

For his birthday, since I had my hands full with visitors, we decided to just take Carter and two friends to a bounce house place on his birthday.  Then that night we had cake with just the family. 

Carter's baptism was wonderful.  Carter was just glowing the whole time.  You could tell he was really soaking it all in and just trying his hardest to be reverent.  My darling boy.  I also loved watching Bo baptize Carter. What a wonderful Dad and example to me and the kids.

The rest of the grandparents trip (they all came for a week-Wednesday to Wednesday) was spent with trips to the zoo, eating yummy food, like Steak and Shake, and having a girls day where the grandmas, and Meg and I, got pedicures and lunch and did a little shopping.

It was a really fun trip, and the kids LOVED having so much Grandparent time.  I gotta admit, it was nice having more adults than kids. :)