maddux' birthday day!

today is maddux' day!  our little man is turns 3!  it is really hard to believe that he is already three.  and what is crazier, is that mason was manning's age three years ago when we brought maddux home from the hospital!

this morning we had maddux' request - oatmeal pancakes.  i think he asks for them at least four days a week (we normally have them at least once) and then we were off to church.  it was a little tight for grandma back there!  i am not sure she was even actually sitting on the seat.

after church we went to wendy's - birthday boy's choice.  we were trying to go to panera, and he was on board until parked and he saw the wendy's sign across the street.  the next stop was target because grandma wanted to get everyone a little something and it just worked out that we didn't get to go until today - not that maddux minded in the least.  then came his favorite - sweet frog!

 manning was pretty happy to be there too...

when we got back home, maddux got to open presents.  we tried to skype with big pop but we were having some trouble getting him logged in on their new computer at home so we just talked on the phone for a little bit before maddux opened his presents from them.

maddux was really excited to finally be the birthday boy!  he remembered this shirt from mason's birthday and asked me if he could wear it a few weeks ago.  i had forgotten about it and was really surprised that he remembered.

when maddux opened a card with money, he would give some to matt and some to me - even when it meant that there was none left for him.

the funniest part of presents was that maddux kept asking his brother and sister to open them for him.

maddux asked for an orange robe about three months ago and was really happy to get one!

and then we called and skyped with papa and nana while maddux opened the gifts from them. (we normally skype with them on sundays.)  nana made a silly orange winter cap that i didn't get a picture of on because i was holding the ipad for skyping.  i will point it out when it is in pictures in the future.

this was another really exciting gift - a cup he asks for every time we go to the zoo.

his 'big' gift from matt and i was a plasma car - one of those things where you just turn the handle bars to make it go.  the best part for matt and i was that it was 100% free thanks to pampers rewards!  we have purchased a lot of diapers.

i made a point of getting pictures with the birthday boy this time!  it helped that we were coming from church and already presentable.  and since grandma was here we were able to take one with matt and i together with him.

this kid got A LOT of orange gifts!

 he wanted an "orange cake" so we went to the store and found orange cake mix.  then he insisted on pink frosting!  i was really happy to find one that was vanilla flavored instead of strawberry.  my plan was to do a lovely layered cake covered in orange m&ms, but then the cake was so crazy delicate that i couldn't get it out of the pan!  so a simple 9" round in the pan it is.  thankfully, he absolutely loves it!

happy third birthday to our every growing and loving maddux!  we love you!  love.