Three

• Roman is all boy!  He loves to run, play, and really never stops until he passes out
• Roman still naps between 2-3 hours a day  He usually goes down around 1pm and wakes up around 4pm
• Roman goes to bed around 8pm and wakes up around 8am
• Roman is still a great eater.  He is starting to be a little picky at times about things touching or casseroles.  Lately he doesn't like his cheese melted.  He would rather have a slab of cold cheese on bread than a grilled cheese.  Weirdo!
• Roman loves to go to curch (church)  He always seems to have a blast and never has separation anxiety at all.  He especially loves to be in Miss Betty's class.  Roman loves to come tell us things that Ms Betty says.  "Ms Betty says no to my friends" or "Ms Betty says no ma'am"  
• Roman gets to go to the gym about three times a week.  He definitely doesn't like the gym as much as church, but he loves to see Ms Regina.  She's the worker in the childcare center.  He shows off his spiderman costume and different outfits to her each day.  He even named one of his super heroes Ms Regina.  It's cute
• Roman has such a wild imagination now.  He loves to get all of his animals and superheros and play pretend.  I love watching his brain churn
• Roman can sing the entire alphabet and can name you every single letter no problem.  I love hearing him in the monitor during nap time recite the letters to his name.  I think he's looking at the wall reading them.
• Roman is fully potty trained through the day.  Whew, after looking back, I can honestly say it wasn't too bad.  I thought for a couple of days that he would never be trained.  He has had a couple of accidents here and there, but overall I would consider him potty trained.  He still wears a pull up at night because I just don't even want to deal with that right now.  One thing at a time!
• Roman wears size 2T and some 3T clothes.
• Speaking of clothes, he has a closet FULL of adorable clothes from his cousin Will and new purchases from Grandma.  He typically only wears either his spiderman costume, spiderman t-shirt, and superman t-shirt every. single. day.  I'm over the battle!  I can get him to dress up for church if I promise the costume as soon as we get home.  One lady at church told me to just let him wear whatever he wants.  He'll remember me as the fun mom that let him wear his costumes everywhere.  I guess that works.  I pretty much am just sick of the battle.  It's not worth it!
• Now speaking of battles.   Roman is so strong willed and head strong it's insane!  He takes after his mommy!  Roman knows what he wants when he wants it and that's it!  We've had lots of battles and still work on this every day.  Roman knows exactly what sad spoon is and he gets spankings pretty often.  We never spank in anger and after the spanking we discuss why he got in trouble and how much we love him.  It's a process that I read from the book Shepherding a Child's Heart.  Great read!
• Roman is the slowest person on the earth!  I think it's just his age, but it takes FOREVER to get anything done or get out the door.  I must allow extra time for meals too.  Everything is on Roman time.  Just like his daddy!
• Roman has such a sweet heart.  I can already tell that he truly loves people and cares for them.  I love getting kisses on the lips and the best thing to a mommy's ear is, "I love you too"!  He knows how to melt your heart!
• Roman is such a people person!  He loves to be around other children all the time.  He gets beyond sad when his friends have to leave.  The other day Chloe told him that she had to go home and he just couldn't get over it.  We had to watch them out the window as they drove away.  He definitely is just like his momma!
• Roman is getting so much sweeter with Carmen.  He is sharing better and loves to give her big hugs that usually end up with him rolling on her.  At least his heart is right!
• Roman doesn't forget anything and now hears everything you say.  Be careful!

I got this idea from pinterest.  I plan to ask Roman these questions every year on his birthday.  After I was finished asking Roman his questions, he took the paper and asked me several questions like what do I like to do outside.  He then proceeded to pretend to write them down.  It was a cute moment!

1.    What is your favorite color? 

Blue

2.    What is your favorite toy? 

Spiderman

3.     What is your favorite fruit? 

Strawberries

4.    What is your favorite tv show?

Dora and Mickey Mouse Club House

5.     What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? 

Chicken nuggets

6.    What is your favorite outfit? 

Spiderman costume

7.     What is your favorite game? 

Play basketball

8.     What is your favorite snack? 

crackers

9.     What is your favorite animal? 

Elephant

10.  What is your favorite song? 

"Who Who" otherwise known as Tonight's gonna be a good night by Black Eyed Peas

11. What is your favorite book? 

Dora

12.  Who is your best friend? 

Chloe

13. What is your favorite cereal? 

Wheat Squares

14.  What is your favorite thing to do outside? 

Play Baseball

15.  What is your favorite drink?

water, green juice and milk

16.  What is your favorite holiday? 

Christmas (Santa Claus)

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?

Spiderman doll, Mickey mouse, curious George, airplane, all animals, GI Joes, superheroes, knot, and hippopotamus

18.  What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? 

pancakes adn fried eggs

19.  What do you want for dinner on your birthday?

hamburgers and cookies

20.  What do you want to be when you grow up? 
baseball player on my own team

It's great to be Three!

Roman turned three on Monday, March 12th.  We had a great day as a family together.  It started with Roman's favorite, fried eggs and '3' shaped pieces of toast.

Birthday sign I made for Roman

After Carmen's morning nap, we packed up and headed to the nearby park.  We walked about a mile to the playground and then had a picnic and played.  It was perfect Franks style!  You better believe that Roman got to wear his spider man costume all day!

After naps that afternoon, the Longs came over to help celebrate with us.  We ordered pizza and I made a homemade yellow cake with chocolate icing from scratch.  It was a great time!  Roman loved playing with Chloe!

Finally cake time!

We're getting so sad to leave Dallas soon.  One of the reasons is that we love hanging out with the Longs.  Our kids are both so close in age and we have a great time together. 

Roman loved the birthday card that Chloe gave him.  She wrote her name and his name in the card!

Roman got a big GI Joe airplane from mommy and daddy!

As Chloe was leaving that night, we were joking and talking about the word marriage.  We told Roman that he should ask Chloe to marry him.  He sincerely asked her and she eager shook her head yes.  It was ADORABLE!

Happy birthday Roman!  We love you so much and can't believe you are already THREE!!

Big boy bed!

It all started 3 nights ago when we were on FaceTime with my brother and his girls.  Roman was showing off for them like crazy and kept climbing in his crib and jumping around.  I didn't even realize that he managed to get out of his crib too.  The next day during his nap, Matt overheard a lot of banging in the monitor.  Sure enough Roman had climbed out and was throwing every single book back in his crib.  Matt walked in while he was 'mid climb' back in.  I decided it was finally time for the big boy bed.  After much hesitation, Matt came on board.  We spent Sunday evening converting Roman's crib to the big boy bed.

"I'm ready daddy, I am!"

"Are you sure you want a big boy bed?  There's no going back!!"

Roman enjoyed helping through the whole process

I rolled Carmen in to join in the chaos while I cooked dinner

The boys are hard at work

It's here!  Roman has a big boy bed!

Roman had a hard time going to sleep the first night.  He couldn't figure it out and kept asking daddy for his crib.  I finally reminded him that this new big boy bed was just like his friend Chloe's bed.  We then put the pack n' play in his room and gave him the option to sleep in it if he wanted.  Roman only woke up once crying for daddy.  He's been napping in his bed and sleeping great!  It was actually a lot easier transition than I thought it would be.  We're so proud of our boy!  He slept his last night of being 2 years old in his big boy bed! 

8 months old

Our little sweetie is turned 8 months old on February 22nd.  This is just mind blowing to me!  Slow down time!!

• She was starting to get a little more fussy and needy because she couldn't crawl and wanted to get to stuff.  A few days of daddy being home and helping and Carmen can now crawl!  She's doing so great!
• Carmen is now eating more people food.  She loves to munch on breads, biscuits, waffles, noodles, avocados, and even some veggies.  I love the finger food stage!  
• Carmen still eats at least a jar of baby food three times a day with oatmeal cereal in the evenings.  She eats all three meals when the family eats.  We love to all eat together as a family
• Carmen still loves to nurse.  I thought I was losing my supply after I got sick, but it came back and we're all good.  It's a good thing, because this picky little stinker is still so hit or miss with taking a bottle.  Sometimes she'll gobble it down and other times, she won't touch it!  Strange!
• Carmen still wakes up around 7:45 and I get her out of bed at 8am every morning.  She then nurses again around 11am, 2:30 pm ish, 5pm, and 7:30pm.  She naps in the mornings unless we're at the gym or church and once or twice in the afternoons.  A lot of days she'll nap from 1-3pm.  She's a great baby!
• She wears size 12 month clothes and size 4 diapers
• Carmen is absolutely infatuated with her big brother!  I love to see her laugh at him.  Roman loves to make her laugh. It's adorable!

We love you so much Carmen!!  You're such a sweet trooper that goes along with most situations.  You seem so much like your daddy!  What a great personality to have!

Park time

Matt was in training in Atlanta from the end of January to the end of February.  He can now fly a 767 and 757.  It's crazy that he will be flying to Europe, Africa, Russia, and all over!  Anyways, it was so hard to have him gone Monday through Friday for 4 weeks in a row!  We managed, but it was rough.  We missed daddy!  We have really been enjoying this warm winter and family time together since he's been back.  The other day, we packed a picnic and took a stroll through the trails and enjoyed a nice lunch together outside.  It was fabulous!!  Did I mention that I got a sunburn?! I just love family time!!

Sick as a dog

I think I had the flu two weeks ago.  It came and hit me hard.  Thank the Lord that Matt was home for the worst part.  I was in bed most of Friday and only got up to nurse Carmen.  I still had fever on Sunday morning and Matt had to go fly.  I packed the kids up and we went to Care Now.  The kids did great!  I was so grateful.  After a week of antibiotics, I am finally feeling normal.  Roman also was sick and had an ear infection.  It's no fun being a sick mommy to sick kids.  I guess it's good to be reminded to be grateful for health!

Atlanta

We took a trip a couple of weeks ago to Atlanta to look at the house one more time.  The history of the home is as follows:  Matt found it online and fell in love immediately back in November.  I thought he was crazy because the home had a water leak, roof leak, and a few other problems.  It is a short sale.  We put our offer on the home at the end of November.  I finally got to see the home around the first of December and fell in love as well.  We waited until a few weeks ago to hear back from the bank.  They finally came back requesting a little more money.  We are pushed to our limits now.  I told Matt that we had to go back and see it one more time.  I needed to know if the home was worth the price.  Matt's parents graciously drove to Dallas and then flew with the kids and me to Atlanta to meet Matt.  We got there late Friday night around 11pm. The kids were exhausted but they did awesome!  It was so great to have Matt's parents there with us.  The next morning, Mark (Matt's brother) flew in town too.  He works in the mortgage business so it was great to have him there.  We all came to the consensus that this is our home if everything works out.  

Both banks have approved our offer now and they want to close at the end of the month!  This is crazy!  We wouldn't move for probably another month after all of the work is finished on the home.  I'm so nervous to move across the country with no friends, but I truly feel like this is where God is leading us.  To be continued!

Pa helped out with Carmen on the flight.  She was a trooper as long as she was being fed!

We met Matt at the airport!  Yes, Roman wore his spiderman costume!

Roman did amazing on the flight.  He sat next to Grandma both flights.

Front of house

The kitchen/hearth room

Entry and great room

Dining Room/Front door

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