Kristen Lanoye Photography

My sweet little goose,

Tonight we gave you kisses and put you to bed for the last time as a two year old – I can hardly believe you will be three in a few short hours! You are so excited for your birthday this year – you have been talking about your Elsa party for weeks. While this age has been a bit challenging it’s also been tons of fun – your little personality is so cute and you are so smart and fun to talk with. You are always singing and dancing around and asking people to play with you “just two minutes”.

You are still a great sleeper and a pretty good eater. You and brother share a room and go to bed at the same time each night – I love listening to you guys chatting before falling asleep and you often play games – throwing your lovie and bear from your crib to his bed and back and I can hear you giggling away while you do. In the morning I always hear wake up brother, good morning brother on the monitor – so so cute. Your favorite things to eat are “basketti”, chicken nuggets, fruits like bananas, mandarin oranges and blueberries, cereal, toast and all kinds of snacks. You’re constantly asking for a snack 😛 You are obsessed with all things Elsa and frozen and you love other princesses too especially Cinderella and Belle. You and brother are also huge fans of the movie Sing and know the whole soundtrack by heart after listening to it thousands of times in the car. Your love of Mickey, Minnie and Peppa are still going strong as well. You love going to daycare and playing with your friends and you love our weekly trips to Chick fil a with friends. Much to this tomboys dismay you love all things girlie – you LOVE shoes and twirly dresses and all kinds of accessories – secretly I love dressing you up even though I don’t enjoy that stuff myself. I never imagined myself a girl mom but watching you grow and develop into a sweet little lady has been one of my life’s greatest joys.

Happiest of birthdays to you my sweet girl – I can’t wait to see what this coming year has in store for you. Mama and Dada and Christian love you so so much <3 Love, Mama

You wore this dress at least 75 days out of the last year so it was only fitting to take your birthday pics in it <3

My sweet little guy,

In a few hours you will wake up and be 7 years old – I have no idea how that happened so fast – it seems like just yesterday your dada and I were bringing you home at a few days old – you made us parents and we couldn’t have asked for a better kid. You are an amazing little person – absolutely all boy now and so freaking smart. You suck up knowledge like a sponge and are good at almost everything you try. You just finished kindergarten with almost perfect grades and good behavior all but a handful of days the whole year. You just finished your second year of baseball and did amazing – your fielding and hitting have improved so much. You are a great little swimmer and love being in the water and you are learning drums, ukulele and keyboard right now and loving all three. You love playing games and can kick my butt at rummy tiles, love building legos and can build complicated sets with little assistance and you LOVE playing your ipad or video games especially with dada. You are the sweetest big brother to Ellie – always concerned about her and thinking about her when you’re apart and you will always put down whatever you’re playing to play with her when she asks. You guys do fight like siblings do but the majority of the time you play very well together despite the age difference between you.

Your favorite person by far is still dada – you guys are the best of friends and spend every moment together when he is home. You guys are always off on movie dates, outside riding scooters, having movie nights in mama and dada’s bed at home or playing pads or video games together. You love playing with your cousins, our friday chick fil a dates with Maddie and her brothers and hanging out with Austin. You have lost five teeth so far and I love your handsome grown up smile. It is so awesome to see you building your own relationships, learning so much each day and becoming your own little person. While part of me is sad that my first baby is growing up so quickly, I feel so blessed to be part of shaping you into this grown boy you’re becoming.

Happy Birthday to the boy who made me a mommy and has made me so proud every day since. I cannot wait to see what is in store for you over this next year and I hope it goes a little slower than the last.

I love you to the moon,

Mama