Three

At this time 3 years ago a very precious little girl was about to enter our world! At the time, we didn't quite understand what was instore for us as began this journey called parenthood, but over the past 3 years we have truly been blessed to be known as "Calloway's mom" or "Calloway's dad". Today I was gone most of the day shopping with my MIL, Mark's Grandmother, and my 2 SILs. We had a blast but when we returned home, Calloway gave me the biggest hugs and kisses and squeezing my neck tightly, she said, "I missed you so much mommy!" It almost brought tears to my eyes. I was so thankful to see that little bundle of joy. As we aproach her birthday tomorrow, I cannot even begin to express the love I have in my heart for that little girl. She has taught me so much about life and little life lessons. The love that she has for Mark and I is so joyous and I know that one day (probably in about 10 years from now) she won't give me those hugs and kisses when I've been gone all day but.....that's ok. She'll choose her own different way to show us love. BUT for now, I'm thankful for the slobbery kisses and tight neck hugs.

Calloway has gotten to choose this year how she wants to spend her birthday, so we are going to have pizza for lunch (her favorite is cheese), go bowling, maybe go see a movie (Tangled?), and Grandmother Roselyn is making her a cookie cake. We will celebrate with a Dora the Explorer themed party.

At the age of 3, Calloway loves: Disney princesses (she's just gotten started liking them -especially Ariel, Cinderella, and Belle), Dora the Explorer and Diego, Strawberry Shortcake (a new found love), saying the word "actually", calling us Mommy-O and Daddy-O, pretending to be a puppy, reminding us that "she's just pretending", pretend cooking things in her kitchen, pretending anything actually, showing a huge interest in playing a musical instrument, saying that she's having a sleepover or that she's babysitting, jigsaw puzzles, she still LOVES macaroni & cheese, McDonald's Happy Meals (everytime we go to McD's she must run to the toy display to see what toys they have), bread, butter (yes, she eats it by itself - sometimes straight out of the container), she's really starting to like chicken more and more, cheese pizza, singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "Jesus Loves Me", "Jingle Bells", "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", and other songs all by herself(plus the songs she's learning in Preschool Choir, still going to Little Gym and you can finally do a forward roll all by yourself, saying your memory verse by memory - Genesis 1:1, and she has started showing favoritism to her "woofy" a stuffed dog that she must sleep with. (*That's all I can think of for now!)

Dearest Calloway,

I love you with all my heart! I am so happy that Jesus chose me to be your mom and more thankful that He allowed me to stay on this Earth longer to be your mommy. I am so excited to watch you grow physically, mentally, emotionally (when you told me you were mad the other day), and spiritually. It's neat to watch you learn more about Jesus and daddy and I love teaching you about music and God. We cannot wait to see what God has in store for your life. We hope that you have a wonderful 3rd birthday and that God blesses you with many more. I love tucking you into bed at night and if I forget to kiss you or tell you to have sweet dreams, you get sad and make me come back and do it all over again! Thank you for being my little shopping buddy and always telling me that we need to buy new shoes! You are a joy and a delight! You truly are my sunshine and light up my days. I love you Callaboo!

-Mommy