Meet Bennett

Bennett Timothy Vakakes was born June 3, 2014 at 12:51 P.M. He was 21 inches long and weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces...our biggest baby! But the baby with the least amount of hair :). He completed our family in a most precious way! We enjoyed those few days in the hospital with him. Since coming home from the hospital, we have been WIDE open! It is a good kind of crazy :) The big boys LOVE him. They tell me all day long how cute he is and constantly want to touch him, kiss him, and hold him. We are so thankful to the Lord for this precious blessing. I am loving having a baby in the house again!!

First look!

 John and I with our caboose :)

 Yia Yia and Kiki

 First bath!

 Uncle B...who looks like he delivered the baby :)

 My brother, sister in law, and fam came to visit. Bennett had been in this world a little less than 4 hours.

 Bennett with his oldest cousin, Dylan

 Sissy gets a turn too!

 Papou

 Will seeing his baby brother for the first time!

 My sweet doctor-Dr. Robinett. He delivered all three of my boys and this picture makes me smile.

 He was SO PROUD of his little brother

 Big brother presents from Bennett----swords! I'm sure Bennett regrets this decision right about now (almost 3 months later).... ;)

 Our new normal! Vakakes party of 5!

 My heart!

 They LOVED looking at him through his little bassinet in the hospital. And especially loved diaper changing time :)

 Alex loved (and still does) to "pet-pet" him...

 Fafie and Uncle Jordan

 My sweet boys

 I look at this picture and don't know what I did to deserve these precious blessings!!

 McKinnon girls came to meet Bennett!!! Ann Clayton was NOT happy that she could not hold "her baby"

 And Alex was not happy that she kept calling it "her baby" :)

 Sweet little nugget

 Headed home!!

Dear Bennett,

 Dear Bennett,
Tomorrow is the big day! We have talked about the "caboose" joining our family for quite some time. We have prayed for you and know that you are going to seamlessly fit into our family and it won't be long before we won't be able to imagine what life was like without you.

We chose your name by chance. It had been a little over two weeks since we found out you were a boy and we still didn't have a name. It was driving me crazy! We figured we might use Timothy as your middle name since both of your grandfathers are Timothy and that is Daddy's middle name. But we were stuck on a first name. Your daddy had gone to workout and your brothers were napping so I laid on the couch and googled "baby boy names." I scrolled list after list just waiting for something to jump out at me. One name always caught my attention on several different lists...Bennett. Finally, after seeing it about four times, and each time thinking it was so sweet, I looked up the meaning. I was sold and you were named before your daddy even came home. I was just hoping he would like it :) The meaning of Bennett is "Little Blessed One." And oh how blessed you are indeed. All I could think about was how blessed you already were...not even born yet....with two brothers who absolutely adored you. 

Your brothers are SO excited for you to "come out." We made the final touches to our house today with baby things-putting the swing back together and in the den, installing your car seat....all tell tale signs that your arrival is near. Alex practiced pushing the swing ever so gently and I just hope he remains that gentle once you are actually in there! Will cannot wait to hold you and feed you and kiss you....though he has warned me that he will NOT be changing any diapers!

For about three weeks now, Alex has affectionately referred to me as Big Mama. I have no idea where this came from but we all think it is hysterical...as long as it stops once you come out ;). The name has kind of caught on and now both Will and your daddy refer to me as "Big Mama" as well.

Today I took your brothers to the McWane Center to play and to Chick-fil-A for lunch! Our last day hanging out just the three of us. I must admit when walking through the parking lot at Chick-fil-A that it did cross my mind that I might never be able to leave the house this summer because I simply won't have enough hands :) I am sure we will figure it out together and adjust to our new normal. Just be patient with us while we learn!

I am told the third child is usually super laid back and learns to fend for themselves. I sure do hope your personality is easy going! We have a mix with your brothers-one being pretty straight-laced and anal, the other being at the opposite end of the spectrum- wild and carefree. I can't wait to see how you will fit in. One thing I know for sure is that having two older brothers will make you a tough little guy. I pray every day that you three will be the best of friends. That you will turn to your brothers during sad times, hard times, happy times, exciting times, uncertain times. I pray that you will guide one another, encourage one another, set examples for one another, and LOVE each other dearly. I am sure there will be times when someone feels left out. I hope these are few and far between. I hope there are no favorites. I hope you boys will live life together.

I'm not sure that I ever imagined myself raising a house full of boys. I do feel like God gives us exactly what we need. I love your brothers. I love the chaos they add to my life. I love that I have to be okay with dirty feet and sweaty hair. I love that it is normal to hear toots and burps (as long as they are followed up by excuse me). I love that my mornings consist of action figures and playing "the boat game." I love that my evenings consist of outdoor play and chasing after bugs. My life with daddy and my boys is the greatest blessing. Is our life perfect? Absolutely not. But it is perfect for me. I can't wait to meet you tomorrow and see how you complete our family.

We love you already, precious one!
Love,
Mommy

Interview with Alex: Age 3

Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Toy: Big Power Ranger
Favorite Fruit: Grapes
Favorite TV Show:Ninja Turtles
Favorite Movie:The Lorax
Favorite thing to eat for Lunch: Hot dog
Favorite thing to wear: worts and a t-wirt
Favorite game: Go Fish
 Favorite snack:Crackers
Favorite Animal:Bugs
Favorite Song: Cars (Life is a Highway) and "Wock Me Mama" aka Wagon Wheel
Favorite Book: Fergus
Best Friend: Owen
Favorite Thing to Do Outside: Swing
Favorite Drink: Milk
Favorite Holiday: Easter
Favorite Thing to Take to Bed: My wugey and my pass
 Favorite thing to eat for breakfast:doughnuts
Favorite thing to eat for dinner on your birthday: Momma G's
Favorite place to go out to eat: Chick Way
What do you want to be when you grow up: a Power Ranger

THREE

If I had to write a definition for Alex, here's how it would go...
Alex: all BOY, insanely adorable, spitfire, wild man, lover of all things ninja turtle and power ranger, busy, independent, never stingy with kisses, water baby, angel love, fiesty, never short on personality, ball of energy, daddy's boy, one of our biggest blessings!

I'm sure the list could go on and on. Alex has blessed us in ways we never knew we needed or wanted. God knew exactly what he was doing when he knitted his little personality together. He is SO different from Will and provides awesome fun and balance to our family. It is unreal to me that he is THREE. That seems so big! When I rock him (or try to get him to sit still long enough), he just spills over my lap. His legs are so long and his feet seem so big.

He has been sharing a room with Will since January and just two weekends ago, we bunked their beds. About 4-5 nights out of 7, he will get up at least once in the middle of the night claiming he's "wursty" or he can't find his "wugey and his pass." He is always up between 4:45 and 5:15...knowing that there is no way I can put him back in bed and he will go back to sleep at that point, and also not wanting to risk waking Will up in that process, I just tap on my pillow and he climbs into bed and snuggles right up against me. I am so tired in that moment, but my heart smiles because that is the only time he seems little to me. Sometimes he plays with my hair, or rubs my back, other times he goes seamlessly back to sleep. It reminds me of that song, "It won't be like this for long..." I feel like we did everything with Will so "by the book." We would have never caved on things like we have with Alex. But I know these days are fleeting and will be gone before we know it.

On his actual birthday, June 1, we celebrated with birthday donuts for breakfast. He loves when we sing to him :)

 Will picked out for him a GIANT power ranger and I didn't have any bags big enough to wrap it, so we just had Alex close his eyes and Will brought it in :)

Then we headed to the zoo and took him out to lunch-his pick....Moe's (or as he calls it, "Welcome to Moe's.) We enjoyed a laid back day with our boys, not only was it Alex's big day, but it was also the last weekend we would be a family of four. So hard to believe!

My parents and brother's family came over for dinner. My parents have just returned from a 20 day trip to Ireland and Scotland and they missed the party! I was going to order Alex a birthday cake from Publix and cave to his Power Ranger wishes, but my mom enjoys doing stuff like that and said she would make it. She did a great job and Alex loved it!

 Famous "Mac Money" from Uncle Mike!

We tried to make Sunday as special for Alex as we possibly could! We knew that in two short days, his world would be rocked :) Hopefully he handles the transition from baby to BIG brother well!!

Party Animals: Alex's Third Birthday Party

If I would have asked Alex what kind of party he would have wanted, without a doubt he would have either said Power Rangers or Ninja Turtles, depending on the day. I just couldn't do it. He is only turning three. I know next year he will most certainly have a say so, but this year I wanted to keep it sweet. I found a darling invite on Tiny Prints with farm animals on it that said "Join the Party Animals." We were doing the party at Overton Park, so I felt like this was the perfect invite. We could keep it simple with kid food, the park would be the entertainment, and I even found a cute "photo booth" type idea on pinterest using bales of straw, bandanas, farmer hats, etc. We planned the party for May 17th since his actual birthday would fall just two days before the caboose was set to arrive. The day before was Will's preschool graduation and after it was over we spent the afternoon running lots of errands in preparation. The weather was beautiful and I just knew it would be on Saturday as well. Saturday morning was chilly and overcast....but totally doable. Alex and I set out to pick up the doughnuts since he had requested those instead of cake. It started to rain and I started to pray. It lightened up and then eventually stopped. While it was certainly not an ideal day for a park birthday party, it would work. At 9:15 we pulled into the Publix parking lot to have the balloons blown up. The party started at 10:00. Before I could get out of the car, MONSOON type rain started pelting down. This clearly would not work. We had no idea if this rain would be short lived, but there was no way to get everything set up in this downpour and then all the park equipment would be soaked. John looked at me and said "Don't cry. Who do I need to start calling." We decided that the best thing to do would be just to re-route everyone to our house. In my car we had 48 grilled hot dogs, 48 doughnuts, chips and drinks galore....it couldn't all go to waste! I completely blanked out on who we had invited and needed to get in touch with because all I kept thinking about was the state of our house when we left. I remember laughing as I closed the door to the garage to get in the car and joked to John that we certainly couldn't have the party here if it started to rain....go figure! John was a total rockstar. He helped me remember who we needed to contact and then he made the executive decision to take Will back home with him while Alex and I went into Publix to get the balloons blown up. So they took off to clean up our disaster of a house and Alex and I ran through the rain into Publix. 20 minutes later (at about 9:50) the sun was BRIGHTLY shining and the rain was GONE. I was so incredibly frustrated! It was too late to re-route people BACK to the park and nothing seemed to have gone right with this party! However when I got home, my perspective quickly changed. John and Will had done an amazing job getting the house picked up, all our family and friends were there when we arrived, and Alex could have cared less where his party was. He ran into the backyard where kids were jumping on the bounce house, swinging, and drawing with chalk, and said "YAY!!" Did the party turn out like I wanted it to? Heck no! Those that know me, know I love a good birthday party! I love the planning and details that go into it. We didn't even set up the "photo booth" because there was no room. But no one knew and it didn't matter. I frantically got all the food set up on the table with the help of several and we had a birthday party! I did not want Alex to get slighted on a party just because his little brother was coming two days later, and he didn't. Our family and friends were so precious to be so flexible with us and celebrate our boy! As a side note, I don't know that I will ever plan a birthday party outside again :)
I look ROUGH....but just keep in mind what all had gone on that morning, will you please? :)

 Deep in thought....Maybe about his wish....

 At least the party favors turned out adorable!

 Jumpin'...tongue out always!

 LOVED his new basketball!

 Loved playing with Papou!

 Yia Yia and Papou sure do love our boy...and he loves them too! And not just because they bought him Power Rangers for his birthday ;)