Dear Lilly,

Wow. I can hardly believe it's been two years since you rocked into our lives and changed our family forever. It's been a wild ride the whole two years, but I wouldn't change a thing. The morning I saw that pink line appear on the home pregnancy test, I knew life was going to change drastically. I kept thinking, "Oh God...THREE kids!? Are you sure? Can I really handle this?" Your Dad didn't even really believe me when I took him out to dinner that night and slid a note written on the restaurant napkin that said "I'm pregnant." We were both shocked to say the least. :)

And then nine months and fifty pounds of baby blubber later I had had enough and schedule a date for you to come into the world. I know...I'm the epitome of patience. Your birth was the fastest of all three...a record 3.5 hours! I can still remember how heavy and warm you were when they laid you on my chest. Wow...what an amazing feeling! In 3.5 hours I had gone from a wife and mother of two kids to a woman who had just been handed a third child, a second daughter and had no idea what chaos and absolute joy she was about to bring to me and our family.

This past year has been quite interesting, Lilly. We have watched you go from a baby who was unsteady on her feet, waving her arms around like a monkey to keep her balance to a more sure and steadier walker who fell and hit her head a lot and then ZOOM...I think that was Lilly who just flew by me at mach speed! You are by far, my most daring and acrobatic child. You run without a care, you stay right behind Abby and/or Zach in almost everything they do. In fact, this Summer was the first year in Zach's whole life that he'd even get into the pool waist deep and this, your first year of being in the big pool, YOU jumped feet first into the five foot deep end! Does that tell me anything about your bravery? Yes. Yes, it does! You taught yourself how to swing on the swing set this year, just by watching your older siblings get up and go. I've never had to show you or help you get on a swing and you even push and pump yourself. You gave up the highchair this year too. You wanted to be a "big girl" and sit in the regular seats like your sister and brother, so we let you try. However, we had to make a compromise and give you a booster set so that A) you could reach your food and B) you could still be strapped into the seat. Otherwise you jumped up and down at your own will and disrupted dinner too much. Just in the past few months you started sleeping all through the night too! Hooray! I thought the night would never be here after all three of you kids, but it is and I'm SUCH a happier mom for it. Your vocabulary has taken off too. You never seem to want to talk when other people are around so that we can show you off, but dang girl, we are impressed! You can easily tell us what you need/want, what you do NOT want (this is the big word right now, you'll hear this word a lot too as you get older, it's NO!), who took what from you and how you want them to be punished severely for the infraction. Hee hee. Well, okay, you can sort of tell us that. It comes out like this..."Mooooooom, Zachy took dat. He spanken! *wagging finger at Zach* NO! NO! Zachy!" It's too cute really.

*deep sigh*

So Lilly, I just wanted to take a minute out of the crazy life to say how much I love you, how much we ALL love you. God really knew what He was doing when he nestled you down in my womb without my consent and I praise Him for what you've brought to our family as well as what you will bring to Him. I'm sure He looks in on you and marvels at the qualities of Him that He sees in you.

I know you don't really get the concept of a birthday yet, but I hope that today you feel extra special with all the extra hugs, kisses and love you receive from Daddy, Abby, Zach, Grammas and Grampas and all the people who think you are something special...especially your Mommy.