You're TWO!

Dear Marlie,

Night has come and I just put you to sleep. Every night you are with us I still take you up to your room when it is time for "night night", I pray to Jesus thanking him that we have each other, and I sing you our song.  It never gets old and I honestly do not look forward to the day coming that I no longer need to do it.

But that day is coming faster than I could ever imagine and certainly faster than I'd like. Today was your 2nd birthday, daughter. It was two whole years ago that I held you for the first time. It's all going by so fast and sometimes I just want time to stop so I can spend more time with you just the way you are. It seems like only a blink of an eye ago that you were having "tummy time", or we were excited that you took your first steps, or that you were eating baby food. You are growing so quickly and as bad as I want it to slow down, it is a thrill to watch.

Now you are running around and laughing all the time. You remain one of the happiest children I have ever seen and that makes my heart smile. You say really cute things like "I love you" even though it comes out "Lud ooh". In fact, I will never forget the first time that you told me that you loved me without me saying it to you first. You were on my lap and said, "Lud ooh, Daddy" and then you reached over to give me a kiss. Right after, you just hopped off of my leg and ran off to play. It is amazing to me how you won't ever understand how special that was to me until you have a child of your own. But, Marlie, it was one of the greatest things I have ever experienced and I will never forget it. Ever.

You say "bless you" when I sneeze and you have even said it to Chloe when she sneezed before. We make you say "hibachi" real fast because you sound like a little ninja. You call Chloe "Ko Ko" and you call Crystal "Kreethu". You say "EAT" ALL of the time and tonight when we left the restaurant we went to for dinner, you turned around and said, "bye bye, Eat!". You tell everything and everyone "bye bye". You tell Chloe bye when we leave the house. You tell waitresses bye when we leave a restaurant. You even tell the bathtub bye when we take you out. You like saying bye to everything and I adore it.

So, today we had your 2nd birthday party. You LOVE a cartoon named "Olivia" that you cal "Lia" and Crystal worked so hard to have her at your party! We had Olivia cut outs, Olivia hats, Olivia cake, and more. Crystal worked and worked and worked to create the perfect party for you, Mar. She loves you so much. And you love her right back. She took some pictures at your party and even shot some video. Here are some of them:

This is you and Olivia. You are besties and you are even dressed just like her!

There were many nights when Daddy went to sleep and Crystal STILL stayed up late making sure that she made everything JUST right so that you could have the PERFECT Olivia birthday!

This was your Olivia cake. She was everywhere!

You and Faith are best friends. Faith loves you so much! The two of you get really excited when you get to see one another. Crystal made you and your friends Olivia ears and you and Faith were sweet enough to take some pictures in them for us!

And of course your Nana loves you. She is one of your favorite people, too!

Here you are with your Nana and Uncle Chad!

You and Faith have a new friend! Her name is Delaney and she loves Chloe almost as much as you do!

Here we are opening a few of your presents. You say "OOOOOOHHHH" when you get excited :)

And here is some video of the day!

Marlie girl, I am so proud of you. You are just a beautiful, charismatic, well behaved little angel and I couldn't be any happier that you are mine. Today was a great day as we were surrounded by so many people that love you. They all took the time to come be with you today and they spent their hard earned money buying you gifts. One day you will understand just how special that is.

Well, there is so much to tell you. 2012 had it's challenges for us, but it has been by and far that greatest year of our lives. We have so much to be thankful for and even if the year didn't go quite as well, we would still have each other. Over the next few weeks I will catch you up on our new home, how Crystal is now one of your mommies, too, and how we are now able to spend so much more time together thanks to Daddy's friends. I am so excited to spend Christmas with you in a couple of weeks and I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for our little family.

Well, I am off to bed for the night. I always am so happy to know that when I wake up, you will be upstairs waiting for me to come get you. So, until the morning, happy birthday, little one. You were magnificent today. I love you-from here to Pluto.

Love, Daddy

A Weekend With Family

Dear Marlie,

What a fun weekend this weekend was! I picked you up from Maryam on Friday and from there we met your Uncle Kevin and Auntie Dhustie at the driving range. You were having so much fun just picking the golf balls up and putting them in the basket. You were a really good little girl! I don't know too many 1 year olds that could go to the driving range and behave as well as you did. You made me super proud. Crystal met us at the range and as soon as you saw her you pointed at her and started running to her. You love her so much and the best part is she loves you tons, too :) After the driving range we all went to our place and grilled out a bit. It was a great afternoon and evening.

Yesterday we got up and met Unlce Kev, Auntie Dhustie, Auntie Sonya, Auntie Sonya's friend Darien, Uncle Richard, and Nana at an Easter festival. And guess who came?! Your best friend Faith came, too! Y'all hugged and hung out and we had a great time as a family there. Here are some pics

Your face is so awesome in this pic!

You smile more than any baby I know!

Your Nana loves  you!

All we are missing is Chloe :)

Here is your Nana, your Daddy, and your ninos!

Us. :)

After the festival we all went back to our place again and grilled some hamburgers.  You and Faith were running around everywhere having fun together when you weren't trying to steal her grilled corn.  Hey, I understand! It was good!

And today you got to go to Daddy's soccer game with us. You were such a trooper today and you had a lot of fun with Crystal while daddy played his game. I loved having you there! You and Crystal went to the playground because you got bored and cranky. Crystal got some video of you on the swing!



What a great weekend we had with you.  When the day was over, we gave you a bath and got you ready for bed because it was a long day for you. Your mom told me a few months ago that I don't have to "put" you to sleep anymore. She said that I can just put you in your crib and you will talk yourself to sleep. But I still put you down every night you are with me. As soon as we get in your room I turn off the lights and you lay your head on my shoulder. I always whisper a prayer with you that goes, "Dear, Lord. Thank you for the time we got to share together today. Thank You for letting me be Marlie's Daddy and for letting her be my daughter. We know that You could have given us anyone else, but You chose to give us to each other and we are so thankful. We thank You for Your love and we know that You are God. Please keep us healthy and whatever life brings to us, please never leave us. We will never leave each other and we will never leave You. We love You, Jesus. Amen."

When we finish the prayer, I sing "Three Little Birds"by Bob Marley to you. That will always be our song. I will never forget the first time you were screaming and I picked you up and rocked you to sleep. This song was playing and I was singing it to you and it has been our song since. You know, I know that I don't necessarily have to put you to sleep. But it's in those few moments that I feel like we get to just be Daddy and daughter. I get to hold you in the dark while you rest your head on my shoulder and I get to look at you while you try to keep your eyes open. Some day I won't be able to do that anymore and I will greatly miss it. I put you to sleep when I have you because I feel like in some way I am making up for all of the nights that I lost. It makes me sad that isn't really the case. I won't ever be able to get those nights back. But what I can do is make sure every time I have you I hold you like never before. And, daughter, I promise I will do that forever.

Well I still have a lot to catch you up on and I will soon. You are in your bedroom right now and I am glad I get to wake up and kiss you bye. I'll see you in the morning, honey. Until then, I love you from here to Pluto.

Love,

Daddy



So Much to Show You!

Dear Marlie,

It has been months and months since I last wrote you and so much has happened since then!  Over the next couple of weeks I will be catching you up on the end of last year as some really special things happened in our lives.  We celebrated your first birthday, we had a GREAT Christmas together, daddy and Crystal got engaged, and SO much more.  I am going to start by telling you about this weekend though because it was super, super special.

This weekend was our weekend with you and we always have a lot of fun.  You are still a very happy baby and it's adorable to see your personality shine.  You like to laugh and are always smiling and, my dear, you love to eat.  You and Chloe are best friends and there are times that you love Crystal more than you love me.  But, hey. It's okay ;)  Here are some of the pics from this weekend!

We took you to see Chloe's friends, the horses.  You didn't flinch at all and we had a blast!

This is Chloe waiting on her friends

You looked really confused near the horses, but after some time, you were even feeding them yourself.  Maybe it's because you realized that they just look like big Chloes?

And before I post this video, I have to tell you that you started walking not long ago.  I'll never forget it.  Literally days prior you would stand up and as much as we tried to get you to walk, you would just fall on your bottom and crawl.  Then out of nowhere, you were walking all over the place and you loved it.  It was something else.  I was in daddy's bedroom and Crystal was in the living room.  She called you to her and you just set out on your own.  Such a big girl.  So independent.  Watching you walk to Crystal literally took my breath away and I couldn't help but cry.  I can remember so vividly holding you for the first time in Plano Medical and here you are walking in front of my eyes to my fiance.  It was a special moment.  Real special.  NOW, you are a walking pro and you walk with the best of them.  Check you out!

So something really neat happened today.  Today was your baby dedication and I couldn't be happier.  What it means to be dedicated is that I as your father, and we as a family are committed to raising you in a Christian home.  One of these days you will get to understand what it means to love and be loved by God and all of our family was there to be with us as we celebrated.  We got you a great new dress, some new shoes, and Crystal always has you in head bands, so we got you a matching one of those as well.  Today was significant and I can't wait until we can talk about all that it means.  Here are some pics from the day.

This is us with Pastor John!

This is a picture your Uncle Kevin took while Pastor John was praying over all of the families and babies that were being dedicated.  We asked your Nana to join us for the prayer and she is praying with us.

Well, honey, so much has changed since the last time I wrote, but one thing remains the same; you are still the joy of my life.  That won't ever change.  I will be writing you again real soon to catch you up on more that has happened over the last few months.  I had tons of fun with you this weekend and I really do already miss you although you only left 3 hours ago.  I know you are resting well right now and I hope you are having super sweet dreams.  Until next time, I love you from here to Pluto, Marlie.

Love,

Daddy