Dear Daddy - We Carved a Pumpkin!

"I miss you! I love you! I carved pumpkins today. I play with Gunner today at the spooky adventure. I drew a picture and then I did another one by myself and then it was really fun to carve it and draw it. Stewart's been naughty today? I been good today. Um, I miss you really really really much! Um, one more thing..do you miss mommy? I love wearing my costume and I love when you wear your costume and Stewart. Hope we have fun at trick-or-treating!" -- Lily

Mother's Day Letters

Dear Lily,

You gave me the oppurtunity to become a momma four years ago. I will never forget that precious moment when your daddy put you in my arms for the first time. You were so tiny and perfect and you have grown into a gorgeous little girl. You have the most beautiful little freckles that fall perfectly on your sweet little nose, cheeks, and forehead. They are one of my favorite things about you! You are such a good little helper, especially when it has to do with making your brother happy. You two are constantly hugging and putting your arms around each other and it makes me so proud that you are such a good sister. Whenever we go on errands or leave the house, I always tell Stew that I am leaving so help him hurry and you always get so concerned for him and tell me to go get him and not leave without him. I am so relieved to know that he will always have you for a big sister.

You are so funny and are developing a quirky little sense of humor (which must have come from your daddy). You are starting to tease and trick me and your daddy all the time. Your favorite is to play the copy-cat game where you say everything I say. I use it my advantage and say things like, "I love my momma sooo much!" because I love to her it come out of your sweet little mouth. Today at church the choir sang Consider the Lilies and it touched my heart. That beautiful song reminds me how special of a little girl you are and how much I have to be thankful for when it come to you. It is such a blessing for me to be able to see you continue to grow and develop into your own little person. Thank you my little Lily for being such an amazing daughter. I love you very much! - Love Momma

Dear Stewart,
You are my little buddy boy and I am so grateful for the special bond that we have. I only hope that it is something you will not grow out of! You sure do love me at this time in your life and are very attached to me. It makes my heart melt every time I see you running towards me, shouting, "Mama, mama" with your little arms outstretched. And the cherry on top of it all is the sweet pat that you give me with your little hands to finish off the squeezy hug! You make me smile everyday because of your tender heart. You are almost two and in that stage where you want to test your limits. I have come to realize in the past couple days just how smart you are too. Every time you do something naughty and I tell you to stop, you throw your arms up in the air and with the most innocent face you say, "DAH, DAH." Not sure what that is, but you know exactly what you are doing because it makes me smile and I cannot continue my little lecture to you.

You are also so quick to fix when you have wronged someone. Whether it is pushing Lily out of your way, biting me (which I know you do out of love but we still have to fix that because I have gotten some major bruises from your strong little teeth), or accidentally hitting me when your rolling all over me, you immediately give a kiss. I hope this is one of your traits throughout your life to always be quick to ask for forgiveness and make right your mistakes. Your kisses are so precious and sincere! I ask for as many as I can each day for fear that you won't be as free to give them in the next couple years. The little smack that comes from your lips is to die for, soo sweet! I love you Bubos and I am so proud that you are mine and daddy's! - Love Momma

Dear Mom,
Anything that I know about motherhood, is because of you! You are the most self-less, giving person that I know. You are constantly serving your family and others around you. I only hope to someday have a portion of the charity that you have. I love being around you and am so grateful to be your only daughter (of course for selfless reasons). My favorite memories growing up were when the boys would go on their male-bonding outings. I was always so excited when they left so that me and you could have all weekend to hang out. I wouldn't trade those time for anything. I hope that as my kids are growing, I am as cool and fun as you are so that they will look forward to spending time with me :)

Now that you are far away from me, I know how much I took you and Dad for granted. Just today I had 15 minutes to kill before I needed to pick Lily up from dance class and I thought, "I wish I could stop up at Mom and Dad's house just to say hi". I miss popping in whenever I wanted whether it was to just free me and the kids from our house for a minute or to hang out for the evening when Paul was out of town. And my intention is not to make you feel bad, I just want you to know how much you are loved and missed! I am so grateful to be your daughter and I am forever blessed for everything that you and Dad taught me and and have done for me. I love you very much! - Love Laura

Dear Paul, we have a FOUR year old!

We miss you! While you are out working and traveling the world, our little girl turned FOUR!! I of course knew this day was coming, but I can't believe our little red-headed "monkey-bean" of a baby is now a little person. I can't help but think of that night at the hospital exactly four years ago holding that sweet, perfect little babe and wondering what kind of a person she would grow into. And looking at the pictures from our day today, she is perfect! A little more quirky than I thought, but I guess she gets that from you :)

So glad we could celebrate as a family by doing one of her favorites - swimming at the "bubble-gum". Even though work can sometimes put a damper on things, I am grateful for times like this when you can spend a Friday afternoon hangin' out with us!

So since you've been gone, we've been up to movie nights, popcorn, and kissy action. You did miss out this night, it was pretty fun, there were kisses all around!

This whole week has been leading up to this - the actual birth date! I am glad that she got to open her presents in front of you, although it was slightly depressing, but better than nothing! I know that she was glad you got to be a part of it.

Although it's a Sunday, I wanted her to feel like it was her birthday today (or at least as much as the days leading up to it). So we had the cousins over for a birthday breakfast bash! Stew downed 3 entire pieces of French Toast!! That's my little boy!

We love you and miss you like crazy! Your going to come home to a whole new little person...a four year old!   LOVE - Larz

Dear Daddy,

since you've been gone on an airplane me and Stewar' and Mommy are trying to keep busy...

 making soap clouds to use in the tub every night to make us squeaky clean after a dirty day of playing,

playing hide-and-go-seek,

shopping at City Creek, with a stop at the dinosaurs,

a walk to share a yummy smoothie at the park,

multiple movie nights watching second-hand turtle and kitty stars - complete with popcorn and a visit from Grandma & Grandpa Stewart,

nummy homemade french bread french toast with "tella" and raspberries,

a stop at 'Get Air', our new favorite energy-releasing place full of foam pits and trampoline slides,

 lots of milk to keep us happy, and that sad ouchy on Stew's hand (we don't even know how that happened poor baby),

and last a fun cousin breakfast with german pancakes, blue milk (apparently from a cow that turned blue after he jumped over the moon) and banana treat. 

"we had fun and cousins over, umm, be good to Stew, play with him, play with cousins. I love him hap, umm, that he wears his hat safe, that Stewart bleed his hand. I love you Daddy!" We've had fun but we are sooooo excited you are coming home today!!       LOVE LILY