MATTIE - 3 YEARS OLD

This little girl turned 3 years old on March 9th

Height: 38 7/8" (83rd percentile)
Weight: 36 lbs 8 oz (91st percentile)
Basically, she's built like a 4 year old :)

Here's a few things about Mattie at 3:
- Loves to read books in bed
- Favorite book is Over in the Meadow (that's what she told us) and she practically has it memorized
- Jumps when she's anticipating something she enjoys
- Is often heard neighing like a horse
- Is fiercely independent and wants to help with everything - especially cooking and cleaning - and wants to do everything on her own!
- Hums to herself all the time
- Calls white dandelions "snow flowers"
- Twirls her hair (half the time she ends up twirling it into knots! :)
- Loves to play pretend! Can play by herself for hours in her own little adventure with various characters.
- Is definitely the most dramatic of her siblings
- Though she's not crazy-girly, she can be very prissy. She likes to wear pink and purple and red (her favorite colors), she likes to dress up, she likes to get her nails painted, she likes anything "spark-a-ly," as she says it :), and she enjoys wearing a crown and jewelry and being called a princess
- She LOVES animals, most especially horses
- Her favorite foods include: Mac n' Cheese, hot dogs, chicken fingers/chicken, yogurt/Go-gurt, apple juice, chocolate, cheerios (especially Multigrain) and milk, toast, marshmallows, Oreos, diced pears, apple slices, grapes, melons, corn, cooked carrots, and broccoli
- She loves to say the prayer and can say the beginning and end all by herself
- Has recently developed fears of spiders, going under water, and dark places 
- Loves to make Powell laugh
- Likes to play on Mommy and Daddy's iPhones and iPad
- She is super smart! She can count to 20, recognize the numbers, knows all her letters, can do 24+ piece puzzles all by herself, and more!
- Favorite movies are her My Little Pony movies and her Barbie and the Pegasus movie
- CJ is her best friend and she misses him when he's gone
- All her nursery leaders LOVE her and can't tell us enough about what a great little girl she is
- She hates loud noises, like the vacuum or public toilets or electic hand dryers
- She can't wait to start pre-school in the Fall. She talks about it all the time!
- Has her Daddy wrapped around her little finger (you should hear the way he talks about her :)

We're so glad she's our little girl!

MATTIE'S 3RD BIRTHDAY

Mattie turned 3 years old on March 9th!

This is what she woke up to that morning:

Daddy carried her out of her bedroom and took her to see all the pictures. And then she got to open her first gift before she even had breakfast!

French toast for breakfast - one of her favorites!

After breakfast, she opened the card from Grandma Forsgren. It had 3 dollar bills!

We took CJ to school and then got Mattie ready for her big day. Here she is, our 3 year old!

Then it was off to Mattie's first birthday activity: her very first mani/pedi!

Picking her color. She liked this polish because it was "spark-a-ly"

Though she was shy, and wouldn't talk much to the nail techs, she loved her pretty nails and made sure to point them out to people throughout the day :). Maybe we've started a birthday tradition! 

When we came home from her mani/pedi, Mattie got to open another gift: a My Little Pony movie (and those are My Little Pony fruit snacks on the table too :)!

After we picked up CJ from school, they had fun taking pictures of each other :)

Then we thought we'd open up the birthday box that Grandma Forsgren had sent. Mattie did a great job of letting CJ help and CJ was excited to see a few things in there for him too (Grandma Forsgren is always really great about that :). Mattie loved everything in the box - the candy, the butterfly blowers, the bendable rabbits, and the dress-up dolly - but she absolutely loved the music jewelry box Grandma sent her! It even had jewelry and a coin purse inside of it. It was perfect!

After her nap, Mattie woke up to find her Papa and Gramma there, along with Tyler, Gaby, Zack and Domenic! Perfect time to go jump on the tramp!

Cute cousins! 

Gramma Sheila brought over special birthday cupcakes! Mattie was eating hers like a kitty :)

(don't you love the post-nap and post-trampoline hair? :)

Then it was time for Mattie's birthday surprise. She loves animals, so we went to the local animal shelter and walked some dogs! The kids got to choose which dog they wanted to walk, and then we got to take the dogs into some pens and let them run around and play. It was a blast!

Checkin' out the dogs and cats 

Mattie and the little dog she chose to walk

Playin' in the pen 

Mommy and Powell with our sweet Mattie Gayle

Look how happy she is! Someday she'll have a puppy of her own (just not yet :)

After playing with the pups, it was time to head back for Mattie's favorite - Costco pizza - along with strawberries (both plain and chocolate covered), apple slices, Go-gurts, and pink lemonade. After eating, it was finally time to open gifts.

Besides a unicorn from Tyler and Gaby, the My Little Pony train, and a Lala Loopsy mermaid doll, Mattie also got a cute little piggy bank (that was actually a pig dressed as a lamb :) from CJ that he picked out all by himself, and a fabulous dollhouse from Gramma and Papa

Then it was time for cake! This year we started a new tradition. Before singing "Happy Birthday," everyone was given a coin to put into Mattie's new piggy bank. We passed the bank around and as we placed our coin in, we told Mattie either a birthday wish we had for her or something we love about her. It was special and we hope the tradition lasts.

As she requested: Mattie's pink horsey cake

"Happy birthday to you..."

Mattie asked for the horsey's eye. The birthday girl gets what the birthday girl wants..even if it's a little weird :)

Happy 3rd birthday to our little princess!

We love you, Mattie!!

MONDAY NIGHT MUSINGS

Tuesday December 13th - Monday December 19th

- I discovered that Mattie can count to 15 all by herself

- Apparently CJ has developed an association of going poop with the bathroom fan on and I'm not sure he can go without it. I'm basing this on the fact that while we were on our road trip to Utah for Thanksgiving, we had made a pit stop and CJ had to go. I went in there with him, and he insisted that I turn on the fan before he would go...but there was no fan (I know, gross). So I then proceeded to make my own fan noises (basically just blowing really hard) and I guess it was good enough for CJ because then he went. What a silly kid! :)

- Powell is such a good baby, I can't get over it! I know parents aren't supposed to have favorites, but he is definitely my favorite right now. Ask me in a 18 months and my kids will probably all be on the same pedestal again, but for now, he's got the most of my heart :)

- Why do my kids love to be naked? When we're at home, they run around in their underwear half of the time. And with Mattie still working on getting #2 down, she's naked from the waste down a lot of the time too. They especially like to strip down before sleeping, but I can understand wanting to sleep in just undies. Anyway, I usually don't think much of it. But every once in a while I notice that my kids never have pants on in candid pictures at our house. Or even worse, sometimes people drop by unexpectedly, like our neighbors that we've never met before, and Mattie is running around with no undies on! Uh, kind of embarrassing!

- I've decided I'm not a fan of our wood floors. Yeah, they look nice, but I hate how loud they are! Every time the kids drop a toy - or more realistically, throw a toy - the loud clatter that follows sends chills up my spine and irritates the heck out of me. And poor Powell probably doesn't get as much tummy time as he should because we haven't made the huge financial commitment that is buying a large area rug yet and I'm not going to lie him down on a hard floor. And our couches are getting trashed because we spend the majority of our time in the great room and our kids are constantly climbing all over them and eating on them, etc, because we don't have a floor that they can really play and relax on. However, it's great for spills and messes, so I guess I should focus on that instead, right?

- CJ is so into Christmas this year. I often catch him several times a day making up a song about Christmas and singing it to himself. The singing part he does all year round, but the Christmas songs are new :)

- Mattie is very aware that Christmas is Jesus' birthday. She is the first one to answer almost every time whenever we ask why we celebrate Christmas. We're really hoping that it will stick all season long.

Happy Monday!