Jack Martin- 3 Years Old

Our handsome, spunky, ball of energy is now 3 years old!  

Jack is such a blessing to our family.  We had always talked about wanting 4 children, and after having 3 early miscarriages before Jack, we thought our family might be finished at 3--the same way we thought we might not have any children at all after having 3 miscarriages before Sean.  Looking back on those periods of pain and sadness, I am in awe of how God decided to first give us even just 1 child to quickly 3...and then "just one more" for 'our plan' of 4 children--but then He decided to bless us with a 5th one as well-- to further our trust in Him in all circumstances.  God is good beyond our comprehension.

Now for a little short trip down memory lane

Jack was born with the most hair of any of our children.  

He was my inspiration to get back into my love of crocheting & sewing which led to a little Etsy shop named Lilly Bee's Boutique.  I have hopes of starting that back up again....one day...

 This shot below looks just like one of his ultrasound pictures--a glimpse into the miracle of pregnancy

 The amazingly talented Amanda McQuade took all of these gorgeous newborn photos of Jack.

And now fast forward and 3 years have gone by in a flash.  And Jack is giving me a run for my money.  He's inquisitive, loud, funny, entertaining, unique, loud, and quite intelligent.  It's actually very difficult to homeschool the oldest 3 with him around, so we have plans to hopefully send him to preschool a few mornings a week next year.  It think it will be good for him to have some structured time with other kids his age before starting school with him in a couple of years also.  

 Jack enjoying the snow last week.  Sean played with this tractor when he was 3, so I'd say it's earned it's usefulness.

We had a superhero party for him on Saturday.  His recent love is for Spiderman, so we asked his friends to dress up as superheros.  We had a joyous surprise when family dressed up as superheros as well!  We couldn't get Jack to take a picture with them, but here are Super Nana, Super Papaw, Super Woman (Auntie Dawn) with Darth Vader ;)

Jack's buddy Spiderman joined him for the party too!  He was so excited all day asking when his "brudder Jeffey" was going to arrive. ;)

 A sneak attack photo with Super Nana since we couldn't get a posed one.

 The kids made spider webs with pull apart twizzlers.

 We made a spider web maze in the hallway with yarn and painter's tape.  It was so much fun!  Lynn helped assemble the web.

 It's cool how the string looked like laser beams in certain shots.

 They did all the clean up work ripping it down in the end ;)

 It took a whole container of red food gel to get the buttercream red.....

He was having a hard time blowing out the candles...

So he stood up to get a closer attempt, lol

 At this point I think I was saying, " Don't spit on the cake!" haha

 Lilly ended up helping him in the end ;)

 Luke decided to wake up from his nap to enjoy the party.

 And ended up enjoying his cake a little too much!

 Inside Nana & Papaw's card was a $5 bill and the card read, "Abe Lincoln is your super hero!" hahaha

 I'd say Jack agreed!

 Everyone was envious of Jack's new panthers shirts.  Sean was saying, "This one fits me!"

 Cam Newton!

My phone died at this point, but Jack also got a Mr. Potato Head which ALL the kids went NUTS about because none of them have ever had one before!  It ended up being the hit of the party when Lilly discovered how to put on the tongue like the mouth ;)  Thanks for all the great gifts, everyone!

We'll celebrate his actual birthday Monday (February 1st) by our family tradition of Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast, mmmm!  Happy Birthday, Jack!  And hopefully next week we will be celebrating doughnuts for a Panther's Super Bowl Victory!