Dear Cadence,

Today you turned 3! Yesterday as Mom was hurriedly running around setting up for your birthday party, she thought of how quickly you grow and change and she may have shed a few tears. We want to always remember what a special girl you are at this time in your life.
Here are some things about you right now:

--Your favorite song is "I Love NYC" By Andrew W.K., although you also love Bram's Lullaby, I Love to See the Temple, and the Strawberry Shortcake theme song.

--You love music and dance. You can shake it like nobody's business! One of your favorite things to do is to turn on some music and dance all together with Mom, Dad, and Campbell.

--You love colors. Painting, coloring, play-doh, they are all experimentations with color for you. And you love "matching". You notice who else is wearing pink, or red, or whatever, or if somebody's shoes match their skirt.

--You love to play pretend, especially pretending that you are an authority figure who gets to boss mom around! You usual insist that YOU are mom, and I am Cadence. You also love to play dress ups and to take good care of your dolls.

--Like always, you still make friends everywhere you go. You look people in the eyes, you open your mouth and whatever comes out always makes somebody smile!

--You are extremely motivated to complete your responsibilities and have recently turned a new leaf with whining and "keeping your hands to yourself" (aka not clobbering your sister). You get an ice cream cone at the end of a responsible week.

--You have a vocabulary beyond your years and you use it constantly. Today you told me to not be so "naked to your sister", which means "nice", apparently. You use words like ridiculous, hilarious, and terrible.

Daddy made you pancakes (your favorite) with "marshminnows" (your other favorite!)

To celebrate your birthday this year I was worried that we wouldn't be able to have a party, since we have only been in Flower Mound, TX for a month. We invited friends to the community pool to celebrate and 35 of us came to party! We had rainbow cupcakes and some snacks, and lot's of sun and water. Even your third cousin Sam Nelson came, who was only 4 days old! (Still impressed, Nadine!) Everybody had a lot of fun and you ever-so-politely thanked most all of them for coming to your party.

Cadence, we are so proud of you. In only three years you have managed to turn our world upside down and inside out, and we've never been happier. We feel guilty sometimes that we are just learning how to be parents and so we make a lot of mistakes with you. But you are resilient, clever, and cheerful, and we doubt there's much of anything we can do to ruin your beautiful spirit.

We love you. Happy third birthday.

Love,
Mom and Dad.

Here are some more pictures from your party: