My 3 Year Old

Where has time gone? How is it that this sweet baby below has turned 3? What a great 3 years. What a great little boy.

His birthday was on June 16th and we were still living in SLC at this point so did a little celebrating that day and saved the big party for the next day in Logan. We spent a lot of the day at the hospital but the nurses made sure and made Carter feel special. They decorated a poster for him and gave him a balloon. It made his day. He was telling everyone it was his birthday and when they'd wish him happy birthday, he'd reply "You're Welcome!"

For Carter, turning 3 means having a small meltdown everytime I ask him to pose for a picture.

After a small bribe this is the picture I got:

These were just a couple of early birthday presents before the big ones. Of course it couldn't be a Carter moment without some CARS paraphernalia. But also a smoothie maker for his kitchen..with sound effects. Loud ones!

We headed to Logan the next day for a birthday party fit for a 3 year old. We started off the morning with Mickey Mouse pancakes, and another meltdown over the picture. (He totally gets his photogenic side from his father!)

Then we set off to make his dream cake. We found the tutorial over 6 months ago and we'd been waiting for this day for a long time. Carter was more than willing to help me make his cake.
Finally a happy picture of the Birthday Boy.
He got this wonderful bouquet of balloons from his Aunt Linsey. I'm still trying to convince him that we can get rid of them now....

Now for the big reveal......THE CAKE Carter's been dreaming of for months. Let's go back and reminisce about Carter's first 2 birthday cake debacles....

Birthday #1. What was suppose to be a big basketball turned out to be the commercial "This is your brain....This is your brain on drugs." It still tasted good though.

Birthday #2 that looked like a small child made this cake. Poor guy.

And Finally: The One where the cake turned out like planned....

The race car cake. Carter was so happy with it and especially the checkered flags. He wanted to poke the whole sack of them all over the cake. I couldn't let him do it until I'd taken pictures of my masterpiece.

And then the Party started with presents. He received so many wonderful things. Books, puzzles, games, etc etc.
After all his time in the hospital with Jackson he received his very own medical kit. He went straight for the scissors and tried some horrible looking procedure on Neil.

Then came the Pinata that we had planned and longed for. I took him to the party store and let him pick out which pinata he wanted. He fittingly picked a Race car one. I sneakily steered him away from the real CARS ones because they were 3 times as much!

The 3 kids all loved the pinata. Too bad for Neil that we don't have any trees in our yard and he had to hold the pinata.

Carter was still excited even when it wasn't his turn.

Birthday Cake time. Carter had been making us sing happy birthday to him all week. He loved the attention. He was so excited to play with all his toys that he didn't even ask for seconds. Which is rare for Carter.

Learning correct form with his t-ball set. We've got a lefty here but can bat right handed if you make him.
Family portrait after the big party. Happy Birthday Carter. We love you.