I am THREE!!

A couple days ago I celebrated my third birthday! I had a great day. Mom and Dad had balloons tied out in the hallway so I'd see them as soon as I opened my door in the morning. Once I got up, I came out and Mom and Dad had a present all set up for me to play with. It was just what I asked for. Race cars and a track from the Disney movie, "Cars". I have been having so much fun playing with it.

Mom made me a special breakfast of 'birthday balloon pancakes'. Pancakes are one of my favorites anyway. After breakfast we got ready and headed to a 'fun place' called Jumpin' Janes in Dubuque. They had a bunch of inflatable slides and bouncy things to play on. It was an interesting drive down there for Mom and Dad. (Well Dad mostly since he was driving). It was raining VERY, VERY hard it was hard to see and we were low on gas. Thankfully we made it to the gas station with no problems. :) After a couple hours of playing and some lunch we headed back home.

Once we got back to the house it was pretty cold in there. Mom and Dad realized our furnace was broke so they had to make some calls and get that taken care of before we headed off to my next celebration at The Playstation in Cedar Rapids. A guy came quickly and fixed it and we made it to my celebration on time.

Sophie, Preston, Layla, Jesse, Christine, Parker, Uncle Dolly, Kari, Grandpa and Grandma Dahlstrom and Mom and Dad helped me celebrate. We had pizza, cake, presents and FUN!!

My party isn't for another week. That's when I get to celebrate with a lot more of my favorite people. So far being three is treating me pretty well! I don't have my 3 year check up until May 5. Once I do that I'll update ya with my stats. :)

Oh and guess what - on my birthday we didn't get any snow at our house but where Granny and Grandpa and Grandma Cota live, they got around 4 inches and then got some more the next day. CRAZY!!!

Here are some more pictures from my birthday!|

Trying to wake up enough to see my present from Mommy and Daddy.

Racetrack and race cars from "Cars" movie.

Cake Mommy made.

Trying to stay awake while Daddy lights the candles.

Layla, Cohen and Parker checking out Cohen's
Thomas the Train mountain from Uncle Brent and Kari.

Parker, Cohen and Layla at The Playstation

Uncle Brent and Cohen after playing in the bouncy area.

Cohen, Parker and the dads.

Marlie, Mommy and Cohen before the birthday boy heads to bed.

Weekend of celebrating....

Saturday I had a very fun day celebrating two of my friends' third birthday. Friday Mom and I headed to Harpers to spend the night at Granny's. I got to play at the park and that was so fun!

Saturday we got up and got ready to go to my cousin/friend Devon's third birthday party. I got to see Devon, her mom, dad, sister Hadyn, Great Grandpa and Grandma Jones, Granny, Sophie, Preston, Layla, Dayton, Stacia and Harrison. At the party we played pin the tail on the donkey. I had never played that before. Tonya put the blindfold on me and I said, "I can't see!!" I still had to try and stick the tail on. I did ok for my first time. Then my favorite part....CAKE!!

After the party Mom and I headed back home to get rested up to go celebrate Parker's third birthday. I had a big long nap. We were planning on going bowling but there was a tournament at the bowling alley so we couldn't get in until much later than planned. Instead we went to a really fun place called The Playstation. When we walked in and I saw the tube/tunnels, slides etc I gasped and said, "What is that called?" We played and played, had pizza and cake, it was pretty much the perfect day!






Today was a very nice day and we spent most of the day outside playing baseball, football, golf and drawing with sidewalk chalk. Makes me excited for summer!

Light reading....

Today we had to take Marlie to the "doggie doctor" for her 5 year check up. We were pretty much ready to go and Mom said, "ok, let's go". I told her, "just wait" and I went down stairs. She was getting a little upset with me because I wasn't supposed to go back downstairs - we had to leave. But I quickly went down and came right back up with the insert for the Kinect Sports video game (the bowling, boxing, track/field etc...) that I have been playing. I wanted to bring it along. She said that was fine.

We got to the vet clinic, they took us in our room, I hopped up on my chair and did some 'light reading' while I waited for Marlie's appointment to be done.

Super fun day...

I had a great day yesterday! It started off by Grandpa Cota coming to visit in the morning. Then a trip to the grocery store where I was so sleepy I was nodding off in the cart - mom has never seen me do that since I've been able to sit up on my own. So to keep me awake she let me pick out a cookie from the bakery - it was so yummy! It had a puppy face frosted on it.

After we got home I took a nap. While I was napping Parker came over to visit. His mommy had a Dr. appt. so he was hanging out with us. We played and had cupcakes he brought us.

Then, last night Uncle Dolly and Kari came to visit! We had dinner at our house, played Kinect Sports, and played with my little bowling set. I was tired last night!

My first wedding dance...

Mom's cousin, Casey and his wife Vanessa got married in November in Hawaii but recently had a celebration in Waterloo. It was my first wedding dance. While I didn't really do much dancing I did have a lot of fun running up and down the dance floor with some of my extended family who are about my same age; Layla, Devon, Harper and Gaitlin. Oh....and the very best part - there was CAKE!

I love cake!

Devon and I. She was trying to get me to dance but I wasn't having that. :)

Taking a break from running - hangin' with Dad.

More funnies...

Marlie likes to try and hover around the dining table when we eat. Mom and Dad try to keep an eye on her and make her go lay down when she does it. Well I've been helping in out with that job for awhile but the other morning I was eating breakfast and Marlie was begging at my chair. I said, "MARLIE OUT!" Mom came to help out and said, "Marlie, go lay down." As Marlie started to walk over to her bed I said, "Keep movin'!" That made Mom giggle.

What a weekend!

I had such a fun but busy weekend! It started on Friday morning, Mom and I got up, got ready and were on the road by 9:30 to meet Grandpa Cota so I could spend the day with him. We had a lot of fun. He showed me the huge pink elephant in Marquette. I guess it's been there a very long time. When we got back to his and Grandma's house we played with toys. They have some wood blocks I used as bowling pins and bowled for quite awhile.

That evening Mom came and picked me up and we headed out to meet Granmda Dahlstrom and Kari so I could spend the evening with them at Peggy's house while Mom went to watch Bailey in a play. Mom came to Peggy's later and we all spent the night there. Saturday we had cinnamon rolls. They were so yummy. When Mom first asked if I wanted one she told me, "they are kind of like cake". Well if it's like cake count me in! I LOVED them! Later I got to have actual cake too for Kari's baby shower. I sat with Great-Grandma Dahlstrom while I ate my cake. After I ate my piece of cake I got down off my chair and said, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOMMY!" :)

During the gift opening I was kind of trying to steal the show with my Wheel of Fortune bit. There was a gift bag that said, "BABY" and I started in on the whole, "is there B? Yes there's one B. Ding. I buy a vowel? An "A"..... etc. Everyone thought I was pretty funny. I like to make people laugh. :)

During the shower I had fun playing with Kaylee, Julia and some of my other cousins. Kaylee and I got to drive a JD Gator around. It was fun, but I thought it was a little bumpy.

After the Baby Shower Mom and I loaded up and headed back to Harpers. I needed a nap before the big St. Patrick's Day party and Grandpa and Grandma Cota's house. I took my nap and when I woke Granny made me mac and cheese and gave me some peas and oranges. When I got up in my chair at the table I said, "No. Pancakes." (Granny always makes pancakes for me when I'm at her house). Mommy explained I would have mac and cheese for dinner and Granny would make pancakes for breakfast. So I went ahead and ate my dinner.

After Mom and I were at the St. Patrick's party for about an hour I came out from the bedroom where I was playing and said to Mom, "I'm ready". Mom thought that was pretty funny. She got my coat on and took me back to Granny's. When Mom told Granny what I has said she laughed too. Well right after Mom left to go back to the party it was very clear to Granny why I was "ready" to leave. I hopped up in my chair at the table, put my hands in the air and said to Granny, "PANCAKES?!" So Granny made me pancakes and I gobbled down two of them. :)

Sunday Mom and I got up and went and visited my Great-Grandpa and Grandma Cota and then my Great-Grandpa and Grandma Jones before we headed back for home.

It was a fun and tiring weekend. I got to see so many people this trip!

Here a couple more Gator pics: