Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day Daddy---from Lilly!! Thanks for being such a great daddy for me! I love you so much and can't wait to tell you in words you understand! This is Lilly and Daddy after she gave him the presents she got for him! As you can see in the above photo, she picked out a taggie ball for them to play with together and made him a frame with pictures, handprints, footprints, and a sign that says, "I love you Daddy!"

Now, I know some of you are skeptical about her writing, "I love you Daddy!" but she did with Mommy's help. The letters were really big in order to be able to read them clearly. These are a few of Lilly's 8 month pictures. You can view them all at 8monthphotos ----this is my FAVORITE batch so far!! Anywho, back to Daddy. Lilly, you should know that you are a very lucky little girl to have such a wonderful father! Here are some things that make him so great:

• To say he loves you would be the understatement of the century!!! Your daddy thinks you are perfect and that you do NO wrong. If you have been a stinker, he will tell me, "Now mommy, that isn't true--she's just little".


• He will not let you cry or fuss even for a second (even when you need to do a little fussing because you are being the above mentioned stinker). If you make the slightest little noise, he will go run and get you and do whatever it takes to make your cute little face smile.


• You have recently been sick and let me tell you if he could have taken it away and been sick for you--he would have a million times over. It just broke his (and mommy's) heart to see you not feel well.


• Before you, your daddy was laid-back about everything...NOTHING worried him. "It will all work out", he would say. Now, and this is the part of parenting I think shocked us both, is that he (we, but more so he) worries about every little thing. When you go on your first date at age 25, you can thank mommy for being able to eat solid foods and walk because if it were up to daddy-you would stay on pureed baby food so we would never have to worry about you choking! And walking---oh my goodness---you might fall down and scrape something, which I am sure you will, but Daddy just doesn't ever want to see you hurt in any way. (That isn't a joke--totally serious.)


• He is always thinking about you. He noticed the straps on your carseat were leaving marks on your shoulder and so at Wal-Mart he got strap covers for you. We still sterilize everything and boil your water for your bottles. He rushes home to see you at lunch and if he is busy and can't come home, he has us come see him. If he is home and you are napping he just paces back and forth until you make the smallest peep so he can run in there and hold you! The last time we were going to see DeDe, he tried to hook up the DVD player to hang on the back of your headrest but the cord wouldn't reach so he suggested that mommy could sit in back and hold it for you to see so that you could be entertained on the way there---I declined, but he is always thinking about and willing to do anything to make you more comfortable.


• Since Mommy became pregnant with little brother, Daddy gets up with you most of the nights you get up. In fact, some times Mommy tries to so Daddy can get some extra rest but you make it quite clear that you want Daddy. He lights up when you say, "dadadada".


• Lilly, although some of these stories are funny and the extremes, your Daddy loves you so much and will always be there for you no matter what! He will deserve every, "World's Best Dad" thing you and your brother ever decide to give him! (There are so many more reasons, but I think we will spread them over the years so Daddy doesn't get an ego...haha...just kidding about the ego.)

Matt, thank you for being such a wonderful father to our baby girl! You sacrifice and do so much to provide for our family and allow me to stay home and take care of our baby and we are so blessed to have you in our lives! You are also such an involved husband and father and I couldn't ask for anything more---We love you soooo much!!!!