Zachary Turns 3!

My little man isn't so little anymore. He is getting more and more sassy by the day. He is totally attitude one minute and the next minute hugging you and giving you kisses. I love this boy to pieces!

We did our normally photo shoot at the house. Here are some of the pictures I got this time...

His "monkey" hat. My mom bought him this and he just loves wearing it. I couldn't resist getting a few with it on.

I don't allow too many pictures to be taken of me, but something that I don't have very many of is pictures of me being pregnant with Aiden...and I definitely don't have any like this with Zachary and I. I decided while we were taking pictures to take a few of the two of us.

His favorite Puppy! He carries this thing everywhere!!!

• He is wearing 3T clothes.
• Size 11 shoes (this kid has some big feet)!
• Knows his colors
• Can count up to 15ish (once he gets up to the teens sometimes he goes all over the place)
• Loves to ride his bike, including in the house
• Loves being outside
• Is potty trained, except at night, we are still working on that
• knows quite a few shapes
• Loves playing with his friends

The weekend before his birthday we had a small birthday party for him. He is WAY spoiled and got so much stuff. His birthday party was "Mickey Mouse" themed, but Costco has a limited selection of decorations to pick from, so Zachary picked a dinosaur for his cake.

We made cupcakes for him to bring to daycare the day before his birthday. He helped decorate them.

We even got outside to try out his new scooter.

On his birthday, both John and I took the day off to spend it with Zachary. We decided to go to the children's museum. He invited his friend Noah to come with. They had a blast. Then after that we went out for lunch. He picked Wendy's.

Between Zachary's birthday party and birthday fell Aiden's first birthday in Heaven. It was a tough day. Since we had so much cake and cupcakes in a very short time, I didn't order a birthday cake for Aiden...although I thought really hard about it. I did make sure to eat some cake for him. On his birthday after church we all headed up to the hospital to donate our items that we had been collecting. Even thought I wish that no one else would have to go what we went thru, I do know that it does happen. I wanted to honor Aiden and give back. We were given so many nice things when we were in the hospital and I wanted to make sure that someone else got something similar. Without donated items, the hospital would not be able to give you the things that they do.

These are the things that we gave...

There were 12 blankets (the same size we were given) - 6 for boys and 6 for girls. 12 hats (the same size as Aiden wore) 4 were blue, 4 were white and 4 were pink. Then we also gave little boxes for the parents to put their special belongings in. My plan is to make this a yearly donation in honor of Aiden on his birthday.

Even though a year has gone by, the pain is still there. It still hurts that he is gone. But we try to make the best of it and to look at things thru a positive light.

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our 4th child (1 miscarriage, Zachary, Aiden and baby #4). God has blessed us with this pregnancy and I am leaning on him to help get us thru. Zachary is so excited to meet his baby brother and so are we!