Cousin Grady is 3!

I can't believe it has been 3 years since this little Thanksgiving blessing joined our family.  He has faced (and overcome) some incredible odds and become quite the little firecracker.  He is so funny and fits in well with this crazy herd of boys.  He has developed an intense love of trains (much like big cousin Brody) so nothing but a train theme party would do.  The party kicked off with a some fun over at Discovery Place Kids.  Unfortunately, his cousins just couldn't get there in time much to their disappointment.  We met them afterwards at Pizza Inn for lunch and cake.  Then, we headed over to Grandpa's house to open presents and play outside on a reasonably nice Fall day.

This kid loves trains, especially Thomas.  He was definitely more interested in getting the Thomas train off the cake than actually eating the cake, but he was a good sport to wait while we sang to him. 

The Batman shirt was very appropriate for this kid.  He's a super hero!  I love the train balloons his mama found.  When I had Brody's 3rd birthday with a train theme, I looked everywhere for a train balloon than wasn't Thomas and couldn't find one.  Brody wasn't a Thomas fan (he preferred Disney's Chuggington) so I just wanted a general train theme.  These balloons would have been perfect.  In reverse, Naomi wanted Thomas balloons for Grady and could find any.  

Little train hoarder.  He did not want to put down his choo choo's to open up the rest of his presents.  He was happy to get some Thomas movies though.  He and his little "girlfriend" were so cute walking with their arms linked together all around the restaurant.   They are sort of cousins as she is the granddaughter of our Papa James.  

Little man Mattox enjoyed spending time with Daddy and Great-Grandpa.  I think Great-Grandpa held him for an hour.  It was so sweet!  Brody was probably the only kid eating his cupcake.  He actually didn't want all the icing though. 

Grady got a whole tool set and an awesome toolbox to put them in that was hand painted by his mommy.  She even stenciled his name on it.  Of course, as she noted, it will probably be used for his trains instead of the tools.  

Big cousin Grady loves his baby cousin.  He gave him sweet hugs and shared his toys with him. 

While the kids were playing outside, I decided to use the opportunity to get some Fall leaves pictures. 

Baby's 1st Fall!

Great-Grandpa's yard with some big hardwood trees and an old split rail fence just made a perfect spot for picture taking. 

These cousins are awesome! 

And big big cousin Evan too. 

Happy Fall from Evan, Brody, Mattox & Grady!