My dear sweet Keegan on your 3rd Birthday

How is it possible that the sweet little baby, my first born, whom it feels like I held in my arms for the first time yesterday, is 3 years old today?

My heart grows everyday for you even when I think it is not possible to grow any more. It continues to grow not only with your sweetness and intelligence and, if I must say so, your adorable looks, but also with your naughty antics, never-ending energy, and sassiness too. Along with all of your "I want it"s, "no"s, "because"s, and silent defiance, you are also the most brilliant, intelligent, and loving three year old I know.

The sentences that come out of your mouth never cease to amaze me and the kindness you show when your friends and family (and even strangers) are sad blows me away! On Monday when I went to your school to pick you up, you were holding one of the 1 year olds hands and her mother (one of the teachers) said that she got scared when the vacuum came on and you rushed to her to hold her hand and hadn't let go since. That's you, a great comforter! You love to be a daddy to all of your babies and you love being a big brother to your new sister - that is a role you were born to be!

Keegan, at three, you are most definitely coming in to your own. You love Woody and Buzz and all things Toy Story. You love the new Disney Movie Planes and Dusty Crophopper and going to the movies in general. Finding Nemo is still a favorite. You can play with trains, planes, automobiles as well as dolls, puzzles, tools, and balls. Your quirky sense of fashion and funny personality suit you to a tee! I can only imagine what an awesome young man you will become since you are such an awesome little boy already!

Everyday I ask you who is mommy's big boy and you proudly say it is you and everyday you also tell me that "mommy has two babies now" in a way that is looking for reassurance. I assure you my sweet boy, the boy who stole my heart three years ago, that you will always be mommy's baby.

My sweet newborn Keegan - such innocence

 My awesome little boy!

Big brother Keegan with baby sister Caelyn on his 3rd birthday!

Keegan posing with "my donkey Eeyore and my batman." That smile makes mommy's heart sing everyday!

gender reveal

I went back and forth on whether to do a Gender Reveal Party.  It's something I've seen on Pinterest and always been intrigued by.  The having to wait a couple weeks after our ultrasound to find out the gender didn't bother me.  I just didn't want people to think it was tacky and I was concerned about planning if all didn't go as planned... and I was only beginning to get my energy back so it had been daunting to think about until the second trimester.

I had my monthly appointment in mid-March and our ultrasound was scheduled for  a little over a week later on 3/29.  I talked to Jay and my sister about it - I basically had to decide that week if I wanted to do the Reveal Party.  Jay was all for it and Kara thought it was a great idea too.  My mom said we always love to throw get-togethers so it wouldn't be weird at all - just another excuse to party!

Basically what we would do is have the ultrasound tech determine the gender and write it down and put it in a sealed envelope. We wouldn't know.  Then we would give the envelope to a baker and have a cake that was gender neutral on the outside but pink or blue (cake or icing) on the inside.  We'd have our closest friends and family over for a get-together and all find out together. Fun right?

I decided no official invites until after the ultrasound in case Baby Lee didn't "cooperate."  I was looking at Etsy for some fun printables and my sister convinced me we could make our own.  I got some inspiration from Etsy but came up with my own theme - Mickey silhouette with a bowtie and Minnie silhouette with a bow... then I themed it out from there.  I love a theme.  From the return labels on the invitations, to the invites, to food tent labels, to cupcake toppers, etc.  I really liked how it turned out! I didn't print anything until after the ultrasound though.

My mom came with us to the ultrasound.  It seemed like the tech was uncomfortable writing down the gender.  Before she even checked it, she was telling us how it wasn't 100% certain and so on.  We gave her the option of telling my mom or writing it down.  She told my mom.  I do NOT know how my mom did such a good job keeping it a secret.  It did make me feel better about the cake though because my mom was able to order it and be pretty specific.  Good thing we were both busy with work and we only had 2 weeks to keep it under wraps!  Easter was the following weekend and the party after that.

Some people still didn't get that WE (Jay and I) didn't know the gender either until the party.  It was a blast!

Now for the fun party - the pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wait a minute, what do you mean I have to share my room with a baby SISTER?!?!

PS - I've also labeled this under 35 by 35 for the "printables." They are just clip art, fun fonts, and Microsoft office but I figure they count and I came up with them myself :-)

Super Cousins Super Birthdays!

Craig turned 7 in March and Connor turns 4 in April.  Originally Kara and I were going to plan full out parties for the boys.  We had been collecting supplies and coming up with ideas.  We were going to do Legos for Craig and Monsters for Connor. We were getting pretty excited about the parties.  It was going to be our gift to them.  Then things changed and my brother and sister-in-law wanted to go more low-key, joint, family dinner sort of thing so we scrapped the party planning ideas.  We were still to make cupcakes though so Kara made the cupcakes and I made super hero cupcake toppers.  They were a hit at least!  The party was only a couple of days after (I know this post shows up before) the Gender Reveal Party.