Blessed.

A couple of weekends ago my dear friend Kendall threw Kohen (and me) a diaper shower! It was such a huge blessing and so much fun! Here are some of the pictures and highlights...

Look at all the yummy food!

The diaper cake!

"For you created my inmost being; 

you knit me together in my mother's 

womb. 

I praise you because I am fearfully and 

wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, 

I know that full well. 

My frame was not hidden from you 

when I was made in the secret place. 

When I was woven together in the 

depths of the earth, 

your eyes saw my unformed body. 

All the days ordained for me were written in your book 

before one of them came to be." 

Psalm 139:13-16

This was such a neat idea, Kendall took clothes pins, glued magnets on the back and wrote Kohen's name along with this scripture reference on them. She gave them to the guests as a reminder to pray for Kohen and his arrival!

Another sweet idea! She got a book that everyone at the shower wrote messages to Kohen in the front cover (instead of a guestbook). I can't wait to get to read it to him. The book and all the sweet notes from people that love him so much!

We were so incredibly blessed by all of the gifts we received. Diapers, wipes and more!

Let the games begin! We played a few games. I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture or not but in this game we were smelling diapers! No, not actually dirty ones. It was melted candy bars and we had to guess which candy was which by smelling the diapers! It was pretty funny!

I didn't get any pictures of the other two games we played. We did a word scramble of baby related words. And the other game was guess my belly size! 

Some of the lovely guests! Oh, and the hostess made it in this picture too! 

Zoe (One of T's little buddies) was one of the smallest shower guests. I snapped a quick shot of a smile as she was peeking out from her hiding place behind her grandma. Too cute!

I was so glad that Mom and Jess came in for the shower! They drove 16 hours round trip for less than a 24 hour stay! Whew! 

I have to post these pictures too, Tristan saw his Daddy taking our picture and jumped right in!

I love this!

Here's the loot he made out with! WOW! I counted the diapers we received... 1,080! And that's not even counting the diaper cake and extras Kendall had left over from making it! Isn't that such a blessing? 

I want to thank everyone that came! And Kendall for talking me into letting her do the shower in the first place. "Every baby is special and deserves their own shower!" she said. She is right and I am so blessed to have a friend to want to do something so special for my baby and me. We are so thankful to be so loved. God is too good to us!

Finally Fall

I am so thrilled to say that it is finally feeling like Fall around here! The weather has been beautiful over the past few days and should stay this way for a few more before we get some more not so fall-ish weather.

But while it is still cool we decided to visit the Pumpkin Patch!

It was so nice out and the pumpkin patch was full as you can see.

The boys quickly got a wagon and started loading it up with pumpkins...

They had so much fun! And no, we did not buy all the pumpkins they loaded! We'd have pumpkins (and gourds) running out our ears!

Then it was time to take pictures... dun dun dun. I had to add the theme music. You know, there are just some things in life I could do without. And trying to get that perfect shot is one I kind of love and hate at the same time! I love to take pictures of my boys, they are the most beautiful children I know (except for yours of course). But for some reason when the camera comes out my patience isn't always enough! But the truth is what you see and what I usually get is TRUE to life. None of that fake stuff! You know what I mean... everyone sitting still with your little smiles on, pretending that your mom didn't make you wear the hat that is on your head! (yes this was a real life moment for me... more than once) So what we have is LIFE and I love it...

This was actually the first one I took and I was impressed! But (of course) not satisfied. So we go on...

Tristan decides to "help". Luckily, he still had all of his fingers after such a brave attempt to get Peyton to "Wook at Momma."

I can only laugh! What is this face??? And of course Peyton is sweetly saying, "cheese."

Tristan is getting a little crazy with his "CHEESE!".

And... we're done. (note Tristan still perfecting his "cheese")

Thankfully we had some good friends there with us, Brian and Kendall and their sweet baby boy, Adley. We took turns taking each other's family pumpkin patch pictures! So here we go again...

Getting set up.

This was the first and best of our family pumpkin patch pics. Thank you Kendall for your excellent photography! I will share the rest because they are like I said earlier, true to life.

See... these are the moments I want to remember. Us being truly... us.

BIG Beds for BIG Boys!

We are slowly (but surely) starting to get things ready for Kohen's arrival! This past weekend we spent all day Saturday moving furniture around. And when I say we I really mean Brandon moved furniture around... I just pointed and vacuumed when needed.

The boys have shared a room since we moved here just over a year ago. They have done great even from the beginning being roommates. We didn't think adding a baby into the mix would be wise, even if there was room in their room to add another bed (which there is not). So Kohen will have his own room until he is old enough to join his big brothers (or gets bombarded with another sibling down the road).

Here are the boys in their new Big Beds! Tristan moved up from a toddler bed to a twin size bed...

Along with his sleeping buddies Scot and Puppy.

Peyton moved out of the baby crib and into the Cars toddler bed...

With his sleeping buddies Puppy and Giraffe (his other buddy that didn't make it in the picture but I'm sure isn't far).

Tristan is SO proud of his Big Bed! Friday we had already gotten his new sheets and blanket for his big bed even though it wasn't going to be set up until the next day. Going to bed that night he said, "Momma, I need my big bed. Not this one..." pointing to the Cars bed. I told him that this was his last night to sleep in the Cars bed. He was okay with that. He jumped into bed, not another question asked. Oh and it was one of the first things he mentioned the next morning... "I'm gonna have a BIG BED!"

Peyton was so extremely excited about his new bed that it took him a lot longer to go to sleep than usual. You have to know that Peyton usually falls asleep while you're walking him to his bed! He has never been one to argue with sleep. But has already realized his new freedoms that come with this big boy bed! Like the fact that he can, oh I don't know, GET OUT OF BED! He was found... playing in the closet... playing with the door stop... and just standing at their door starring down the hallway at us. Each of these times he was put back in his bed only to be found doing the next thing. I have a feeling this is going to be fun...

The first night in their new beds they actually ended up falling asleep in the same bed! It was priceless. Brandon went to check on them and he quickly came back and got me to follow him into their room to see them... they had both fallen asleep on Tristan's bed! Tristan was actually laying on Peyton's back like he was a pillow! It was so sweet. I wish I had taken a picture!

It's hard to believe our boys are as big as they are. And they're doing nothing but getting bigger everyday! I know when Kohen gets here they're going to seem even bigger. I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet! Good thing we have 6 weeks left before he gets here. Wait!!!! What?!?!?!?!

I love rain. This hurricane season we have really been blessed not to have any hurricanes! Praise the Lord! What we have had is a lot of rain. With the rain comes lots of cloudy days, lots of humidity, a nasty muddy yard and lots of mosquitos! Because of all the rain (and mosquitos) we have spent a lot of these last weeks in the house.

Now I don't know about you but when there's no sunshine and it's not easy to get out of the house... you can get very stir crazy! We have to be extra creative on those days.

On this particular rainy day last week the boys became... Super Heros!

While playing in the tupperware cabinet (something they have enjoyed doing since they were little) they found these "capes" where my aprons usually hide.

Who would have thought aprons could be so much fun?

Three.

This little Hunk if man flesh turned 3 this past week. Three! I am still in a bit of shock I think.

Although he is has such a big personality and attitude that he fits with 3 very well.

"Um, Mom..." Is his new starter to many of his questions that often spark very interesting conversations.

And since when did I become... "Mom"?!? In truth this new title of mine has not completely replaced "Momma" or "Mommy". Thankfully.

Lately T's "exercising of independence" as a good friend called it recently has gotten much more frequent. He is such a big boy sometimes (in his mind) that he often has to be reminded that he's not quite that big just yet.

There are so many things about this little guy that I adore and pray never change! Like his love for being a big brother...

Whether he's leading little brother around the Spray Park or dressed up as Super Heros (in Daddy's socks of course)... he loves being the big brother and planning their next adventure.

He loves to help out in the kitchen...

Any time I'm doing something he thinks looks interesting, he is right there watching and waiting to help with whatever he can. (He rolled all but 1 and a half of those by the way)

He gets a kick out of making people laugh...

This was his lunch attire a few days ago. Just because. He thought my reaction was pretty funny when I turned around to see his goggle covered face starring at me. You see he had not been goggled just moments before, I was pleasantly surprised to say the least! And I could not stop laughing! He thought it was the funniest thing ever and even better that it was because of him that I was cracking up!

He wants to be just like his Daddy...

From the first time B had his bow out shooting getting ready for this upcoming bow season, Tristan decided he needed a bow too. So B told him he would get one when he turned 3. From that moment on it was the only thing he wanted for his birthday, a bow like his Daddy's bow. Seriously for a solid month the only thing he would talk about was, "On my birthday I'm gonna get my bow. And we're going to go to the porest (forest) and shoot my bow. I'm gonna shoot a deer!" I am so thankful we were able to find one!

He is learning to love Jesus and The Word of God. He loves to sing songs to and about The Lord. And has done an amazing job learning bible verses! He knows...

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. -Ephesians 6:1

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul (he would say soldiers up until a month ago) and with all your strength. -Deuteronomy 6:5

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Psalm 100:1

I pray God will use T's tender and loving heart as he grows and matures and one day make him into a Man after His own heart.

We have been so blessed these past three years with our Tristan Yates. I have laughed and cried thinking back on memories and looking at pictures from when he was just a little peanut on a sonogram picture to the first time I laid my eyes on him! The time has just flown by but I have loved every minute of it and can't wait to see what the next days, weeks, months and years will bring. But as far as today goes...

We'll keep working on being 3.