seventeen.

today is my brother matthew's birthday [yes we are all born in march]. he is seventeen and the baby of the family.

it seems so weird to me that the youngest person in our family is now one year away from being an adult. it makes our family seem somehow boring and mature [though i can assure you it is not]. i remember the days when my brothers would try to sneak into my room when i had friends over so they could hang out with us. i would slam the door and yell at them to leave. i now wish i could redo those moments for i long for the days where my brothers thought i was cool and were begging to be around me. when we are all together, we laugh and talk and sing and do nothing. it is as though we were never apart. the times we are together are becoming shorter and farther apart, but i cherish every second i get with them. my brothers are loud. they are funny. they are annoying as all-get-out. and they are my best friends.

in keeping with my new-found birthday tradition, here are some facts about matthew:
1. he used to scare me by hiding fake plastic snakes all over the house.
2. i just recently realized i can no longer beat him up so i better start being nice to him.
3. at hume this winter, matthew tried on his snow pants and they were wayyyy too tight. like, if he were a girl i would have said to myself, "those girl's pants are wayyy too tight". i pretty much died laughing as he begged me to trade pants with him and paul made cat-call noises. they did make his butt look good.
4. matthew is extremely creative at writing, speaking, acting, and art.
5. when he was younger, he had the smoothest cheeks [baby cheeks] and i loved them. i would always pinch and kiss them. i'm pretty sure it bugged him but he was always a good sport.
6. he is now the second tallest in the family [paul being the first. sorry dad].
7. one time in colorado he and i took this old timey photograph and it is extremely embarrassing.
8. matthew knows almost everything there is to know about the civil war, and made us ship back a TON of civil war stuff when we went to the east coast [ex: a piece of a cannon, a fake rifle, and a replica sword].
9. when he was a baby he was so fat my dad called him bob's big boy.
10. matthew LOVES animals and they love him. a lot.
11. matthew has to work hard at school but he is kicking butt and is a great example of strength to me.
12. he has the same color hair as me but is white as a ghost.
13. matthew is learning to play the banjo and is pretty dang good at it now.

happy birthday, matty! you rock my socks.