Bronsons 3rd Birthday

So this year for Bronson's birthday present we decided to redecorate his room (in hopes to make him proud of his room & sleep in it all night long) The re-vamping included a lot of using things he already had, just making a theme out of it in his room....can anyone guess the theme? Yes... Cars. I'm not a fan of the whole TV show or Movie character theme idea, but it makes Bronson happy so I decided not to be selfish on this one. It ended up being really fun. We painted and put up shelves, got a rug and found a big body pillow and made a mcqueen patterned pillowcase, elevated his bed (brought up the box springs, lol) added a big poster of all the Cars characters and framed some special pictures. All we need to do now is find some perfect curtains, and paint his room if I ever find the energy. Right now Jeremy's college Footbal blanket is hanging on the window...it works being that it is black and red, fitting right in with the color scheme we chose. Did this work as far getting Bronson to sleep in his room? Surprisingly it totally did! He was so excited to show his room off to his cousins when they came to stay for his bday party. Its not like it completely "cured" him from wanting to sleep with mommy and daddy, but things have substantially improved and I'm not complaining :) He now only sleeps on his special bed in our room on nights when Jeremy isn't home. So on Fridays and Sundays Bronson and I have special Bronson and Mommy slumber parties.

his little reading corner

McQueen is everywhere!!! ahhh!!

We had another pool party for the little dude this year. Most of my family was able to make it, along with Jeremy's family and several of Bronson's friends from Royal made it as well. We did a Transformer's "Bumblebee" theme so everything was pretty much yellow and black. I'm not one to go all out and personalize every single, favor, treat, decoration, etc... but it still turned out cute and Bronson had a blast. My sister Nikki made him an awesome Bumblebee cake and carved the entire car out of cake. I don't know how she does it, the woman is insanely talented. We also splurged on ice-cream... 3 gallons of it. There is this little ice-cream shop in a "touristy" area about 20 minutes from our house and this summer we spent some time there for special family dates. Bronson quickly realized his favorite flavor was the birthday cake ice-cream. It basically tastes like ice cold confetti cake batter with blue frosting swirled throughout it. I have to admit, as sickeningly sweet as it sounds, its pretty dang delicious. I intended on getting tons of black and yellow balloons filled with helium the morning of his party, but the friday night before I had talked to the store manager in town and he informed me that helium...anywhere....was out. What?! That's weird, right? So I was pretty bummed but that night at the football game the cheerleaders released tons of black and gold balloons into the sky. I found out that the lady who did there balloons does her own business out of her home and she had one helium tank left so the morning of Bronson's party my MIL headed to her house and filled up all our balloons. I was so happy...the children probably could've cared less. haha. Here are some pics of the big day. Can't believe my little bubba man is 3!!!

Bronson is going to grow up remembering the great cakes his Auntie Nikki would make for his birthdays.... not the cakes his mom would make him. haha.

My little blondie taking a breather from swimming and  eating some candy

Unwrapping presents becomes a group effort :)

so...many...children... it was awesome!!

Singing Happy Birthday. Notice the enormous ice-cream bucket in the back. Credit goes to Jeremy, he was in charge of that job. ;)

My niece Teenie and my friend Marcy's little girl, Hali became quick friends. 

At the end of the day the kiddos took a ride in Bronson's power wheels :) Technically its called a Doon Racer, but Bronson is all about four wheelers so that's what he calls it. 

The party was so fun and and I couldn't have pulled it off without the help of the hubs (cooking the meat, picking up the goodies, moving tables...) my mother in law (making food, setting up, getting the balloons, cleaning, etc...) and my sisters Bonnie and Nikki who kept Bronson with them and their kids at our house while Jeremy, Averi and I stayed at Mike and Robins. Bronson's favorite part of that weekend was definitely spending so much time with his cousins. They are all best friends and it sure makes this mama's heart explode when I see my little man having the time of his life.

One day old

One year old

Two years old

Three years old

Things we want to remember about Bronson at 3 years old:

-He went through this phase where everything was "about 30 minutes"....Bronson, its time to put your cars away "I WILL!!! In 30 minutes!!" Bronson, did you go to work with Daddy "ya....for like, 30 minutes" Bronson its time to go to bed "IN 30 MINUTES!!!!"

-His absolute favorite song is Springsteen by Eric Church and he knows the entire chorus. 

-He is still in the 25th% for height and weight

-He loves puppies and kitty cats

-It is impossible to go to the store and NOT return with a hot wheels car or two. His hot wheels collection has hit and passed the 100 mark. Yikes.

-He is a big time cuddler these days and takes kissing very seriously. If he gives you a "very good kiss" this includes holding your face, ever so gently, closing his eyes and bringing you in for the real thing. 

-He still loves to dance. We took him to the Whitworth Homecoming football game in October and before the game started they were playing music in the stands/field while the guys warmed up. Bronson did some booty shaking and getting low and was honestly completely in the zone with his dancing. So much so that he was completely unaware of the nice little crowd of onlookers cheering him on. To say the least, it was awesome. 

-Whenever he hurts Averi (accidentally of course...ha ha..) he will say things like "its ok, you're tough Av. Its OK, you're just fine" in the sweetest, most encouraging voice. 

-He is really into lining things up, specifically his cars.

-He is terrified of slides...with one exception being the big water slide we went on together early this summer

-He insists on dressing himself, this has been going on for the last 8 months and he LOVES getting new clothes

-He is a very sensitive soul. This can be both good and bad. If the norm is shifted he has a hard time at first but adjusts after a little while. He will have a meltdown and be completely out of his element if his normal pace is rushed and he still does not do well with over-stimulation. He does really well if there is one person in whatever situation he is in (particularly around new people) who will give him special one on one attention, someone who will cuddle him and love on him. It makes me worry a little about him starting school... but that is years down the road.

And I had to steal another awesome idea from Lindsey because I just thought it was the cutest thing ever. She had her daughter Darcy answer a survey for her on her 3rd birthday. So we did it with Bronson and here are the results. 

How old are you? whispers "three"

What makes you happy? Juice!

What is your favorite animal?  Puppies!

What is your favorite thing to eat? Chicken nuggets

What is your least favorite thing to eat? Pizza! (ya, that's a lie)

What is your favorite thing to do? Crafts! (this surprised me!)

What is your favorite TV show? Dora!

What are you really good at? RUNNING....and pooping (ummm.... eww)

What is your favorite movie? Cars!... and not the other Cars movie (Cars 2)

What is your favorite color? Red

What is your favorite song? Woah Woah (Springsteen)

Who is your best friend? Tommy!

What do you and your mom do together? Go to the store!

What do you and your dad do together? Go to work... and wrestle!

What is your favorite sport? Football! I like to watch daddy's football.

Where is your favorite place to go? Tommy's house

What is your favorite book? The Mater book... 

What do you want to be when you grow up? Play Football! and go to work with daddy.