And #3 shall be...

Well, it is official!  Our little boy is set to arrive just 4 weeks from now and we could not be more excited!  Although we did not set out to name all of our kids "C" names, nor is that particularly my preference for all to start with the same letter, but we have decided to continue the trend and name this little one Carter Robert Botts.  Carter was another name that we both really liked from the beginning and it just seemed to be right!  Robert is my father's name and a perfect middle name for this one!  We are SO excited to meet him and I can definitely tell you, that I'm READY for him to get here!  :)  This pregnancy has been a little more difficult.  I'm older, I'm busier and I already have 2 little ones with minds of their own who both weigh around 35 pounds and like to be carried!  My body is just plain sore at night and this one kicks NON-stop!  I'm not sure what we'll be getting with a third let alone a boy!  But we are excited non-the least!  The kids keep asking me when he's going to get here!!

We had our last ultra sound at 34 weeks.  This was a little early, but I have been measuring just a tad bit on the small side.  This was no surprise, as I was small for both Caroline and Cooper as well.  He measured just a little over 5 lbs, so nothing to worry about!  He will probably be somewhere around 7ish by the time we have him.

We LOVE you Carter!!

SPRING!!

Spring is FINALLY here!!  I feel like we have been waiting for this for SO long lately.  We had a wonderful day of sunshine here on the first official day of spring!  I wish I could say it lasted through this weekend, but at least we got to enjoy it when we did!

Cooper decided that he wanted to get out his new water table that he had gotten for his birthday.  I was about to start cooking dinner so I figured, why not?  He was SO excited and it kept him entertained that I really didn't even think twice about watching him.  I was inside and saw his head through the window with a BIG smile!  He said "Look at me mom!!  I'm a hippo!"  He had climbed onto the table, in the water IN HIS CLOTHES!  Jeans, socks and all!  He could not have been happier!

Of course minutes before dinner was about to be ready, little miss Caroline decided she needed to join in the fun.  She at least put her swimming suit on, but they still both managed to make a mess of my windows!

 Instead of spending time drying them off and making a mess, we moved dinner outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather!!  We sure love sunshine!!

3 YEARS OLD!!

So what do you do when you're nearly a year behind in blogging and you've missed SO many important milestones?  Well, I guess you have to admit to yourself that you just can't do everything and just start where you are.  Between teaching preschool, being pregnant, emptying my iPhoto of almost 40,000 pictures so my computer will work, while ALSO taking care of 2 little munchkins, I have just not found the time.

  

BUT... with all of that said, we were able to celebrate a special little boys 3rd birthday on Saturday, March 15th!  This was pretty much the first time we hosted a party at our house since we had moved in and the first time I had put enough effort into planning anything.  We had a B.L.A.S.T!!  And the best part is that I think Cooper felt just as special as we think he is!  

Of course Cooper's birthday of choice was, yet again, an Elephant party!  I decided to change it up a tad bit from last year and make it a circus party WITH elephants instead.  He wasn't too thrilled with the invitations and told me that all he wanted was elephants, but he was SO excited later on to have a CIRCUS birthday!

 The weather wasn't the best, but the rain managed to hold off until the afternoon, so an 11 am party was just perfect!  It is amazing how quickly the guest list adds up when everyone has two or even three kids!  We added it up and ended up having 54 people here!!  I {mainly JOSH} was worried that we would all be stuck inside and it would be a madhouse!  Our house actually did quite well and it didn't seem crowded at all!  {I think I can safely say that our marriage was saved!  :) }

I hardly saw either of my children the whole time!  Caroline disappeared in her room, but was a great host and played with all of her friends!

 Tough guys in their elephant shirts!

 No matter how old he gets, he will always be my sweet sweet boy!! 

 …and hopefully he never loses the mama's boy in him!

 We re-used the big elephant from last year and I made elephant tails for everyone.  We played pin the tail on the elephant and the kids thought it was hilarious!

Cooper did quite well!

His comment after the next person went was "Elephants don't have 2 tails!"  Smart little boy!  :)  He sure knows his elephants!

Next we broke a clown piñata.  The kids had fun moving the string up and down as well as hitting it with the bat! 

 But the most fun was the CANDY!!!

 Cooper had a large audience and enjoyed all of the Happy Birthday attention!

 Of course he also had a lot of help blowing out his candle!!

 We all had a great time!! Thank you to all of our wonderful friends and family who helped us celebrate!