golden.

three years ago today my life changed forever. my entire life was spent only thinking about me. and then eventually trav was thrown in there, too, but he took care of himself pretty well. i had no idea how it was going to change me, exactly, but i knew that it would. becoming a mother is nothing and everything that i thought it would be. but thanks to this little dude, it is the best thing that has ever happened to me. i have been going through a major "where's my life at right now" thing lately and i have to say that i am very content and happy. i love spending every day with calvin and learning from him as much as i hope he is learning from me. to my big three-year old, i wish you a very happy, golden birthday!

a few of our favorite calvin things:

"that's silly, mom"
calvin will randomly tell me that he loves me. melts my heart every time.
he is still so fearless. he will ride his bike down the steepest hills on our bike rides without getting scared.
he is a little serious. sometimes i have to remind him to laugh at certain things or get excited about things he should get excited about.
after he's done talking to someone on the phone he says, "okay, see ya, bye."
he can sing the entire abc song.
when miles wakes up from his naps calvin will go into his room and say, "hey buddy. did you wake up? mama's coming..."
currently loves cars, trains, and dinosaurs.
he loves reading books and playing board games.

i became crafty on sunday night and came up with this with all of my extra paper.

trying to get rid of all of our leftover halloween candy. a perk to having a birthday so close to halloween, i guess. thanks for posing, alise!

we had some family over to help celebrate. it was fun having everyone in my home. thanks to everyone who came to help calvin have a special day!

blowing out candles.

cousins!

the dino cake.

presents.

playing with presents.

these last two pictures are funny. once most everyone had gone home i was busy cleaning up the kitchen while the kids were playing with calvin's new toys. when i came out i saw these three playing instead.

and then a little while later i looked over and alisa was intently looking at this toy. ha, so funny!

calvin has been looking forward to his birthday for a looong time. whenever he saw a toy or something he wanted he would say, "bring it home for my birthday, mom". i think all his dreams came true!