To Sam and Amelia:

So, your Dadoo and I are on a little weekend getaway to the mountains again. You are home with your Mammy, happy as clams I am sure. We have had such a lovely time driving through the mountains, reading books both serious and silly, eating at little local burger joints and little "country stores" clearly aimed towards yuppies on vacation. He and I , we have lots to talk about. We talk about you two and all of your little quirks and your strengths and weaknesses and how we can help you grow and feel loved. We talk about God and all that He is teaching us and ways He is growing us and how we want you to know Him. We talk about dreams and plans and friendships and family. I wanted to write down a few things that we have talked about when talking about you guys, a little update of sorts on your 27 month old selves:

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Sammy: You are talking more and more and one of our favorite things to hear you say is "Flit flots?" when looking for your shoes:) You are very intentional with your words and don't babble on and on like someone else that we know:) I love to hear you say "Whats. This.?" Or "What. Is. It.?" You also say "No like it" when eating something disagreeable which is really cute. For the most part,though, you are such a fabulous eater and sleeper still.
Your favorite foods are probably applesauce, plain yogurt, "Cereal and milk!"and sweet potato fries but you'll eat mostly anything we put in front of you, especially if it has "dip" with it. Can I just say again how thankful I am that you love to sleep and have an amazing ability to sleep through all of Amelia's shenanigins during the night?
As far as temperment goes, you have had a good stretch of happiness these past few months. Not nearly as many fall on the ground and start banging your head on the floor tantrums, which is nice for us all. I think this is coming from being able to communicate more, just getting a bit older, and your mama becoming more confident in the area of discipline.
You still share with people in a way that just makes me want to kiss your cheeks a million times. You are becoming more and more protective of Amelia. You have always wanted to make sure she has whatever you have been given, but now if you see someone you aren't familiar with holding her you let it be known that they should really put. her. down.
You still are so observant and love to flop down on the grass and look up at the sky for a while. You also love to go on long walks pushing your little push toy. You are very serious about the whole thing, pointing out lots of "messes" along the way and bees, and tall trees, and dogs and diggers and planes and "bike cycles". You carefully remove any stick or obstaclel in your way and then get right back to pushing. As you can imagine, these walks take a very long time but you never grow weary. Being outside is still your greatest desire--digging in the garden, chasing Willow, picking leaves off the bushes, finding snails and letting them crawl all over you, swinging at the park and flying down the slides, locating planes far off in the sky and looking for birds and owls and "Animals in there?"...my little nature boy.
Anyone who will chase you around the house for long periods of time will win your heart immediately. You will sit and listen to your daddy read from the "God book" for surprising lengths of time. Your attention span always amazes us. You like to watch "Kipper dog", "Little Bear", and "Letter show and Counting show" (sesame street) dvds. You know your ABCs, identify all of the letters, and can count to 20!! You also love to listen to music and know lots of words to the songs we sing at music class and at home. In other words, Sammers, we think you are brilliant:)
Seriously, though, we love you with all of our hearts and are so thankful to be your mama and daddy. We can't wait to see how God shapes your thoughtful, obedient, loving little heart.


Amelia,
Oh my. What a little character you are! You are our ongoing commentary through out the day, just babbeling constantly with a few intelligable words thrown in the mix. You always greet us, even in the middle of the night, with your signature cheerful, "A Hiyeeeee!" You are still quite the little mama and like to nurse you babies and animals frequently. You are very into naming every one's anatomy, which can be a bit awkward but we have decided that with your love for anatomy and babies, maybe you will make a fabulous midwife someday:) You play and play with your little animals and the barn that your Grandpa made you. Mostly, you make the animals talk to each other, saying things like, "A hiyeee! Cute! what happened? " and lots of other things we can't understand. You are just about the most joyful person I have ever been around, with lots of deep laughs and chuckles and free spirited revelry. The flip side to your free little spirit is that obedience just isn't your cup of tea, you have no desire to sleep, and if you are quiet for more than 2 minutes someone usually starts sprinting around the house looking to see what you have gotten into. But boy do make us laugh:)
You aren't really into sitting down and eating, but do enjoy sweet potato fries, "cereal and milk!" ,"special treats", fruit and carrots and peanut butter and honey sandwiches and oatmeal.
You love all things tiny. Tiny babies, tiny animals, tiny food, even tiny poo poo that you see in Sam's diaper. "Ohhhh, tiny poo pooooooo. Sooo cute!! Touch it?" I don't make these things up, I just report them. Like your "sister" as you call him, outside is the place to be. Lately splashing around in your baby pool au natural is the favorite activity of the day, but you also still love a good bug hunt, picking and smelling flowers, pushing around your stroller and collecting things in it, digging in the garden, and swinging at the park.
You are so affectionate and still love to be held, take a ride in the sling and give lots of hugs and squeezes and pats on the back.

We love you, you precious, wild little girl and know that you will bring joy to the lives of many!

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All for now. Have to straighten up this wonderful cabin and head home. Hope you all have had a wonderful weekend! Jen