that thing you do.

Oh, Quinny. You crack me up. Your two favorite words are "mama" (while following me around with your arms reaching for me, you little mama's girl) and "mine", which you say about anything you want and which often has you sounding just like one of those seagulls from Finding Nemo. You love Curious George and when we are going to watch a show you run to the tv and point and say "oo oo ah ah" like a monkey. You love Itsy Bitsy Spider, and when you want me to sing it, you make a spider out of your little fingers and say "dibby dibby". Your favorite part is "wash the spider out", which you do quite vigorously. You like to hop. Like, you just hop around. I'm not sure there is anything cuter, because of course you'd be a hopper. It fits you. Today we were playing in the rain and suddenly it turned into an intense windy monsoon. We tried to get everyone inside and you went running into the storm, squealing and laughing. That fits you too, flower child. You got your mothers sweet tooth, and you know when we are eating something sweet and trying to hide it from you. Daddy brought me a milkshake the other day and you completely commandeered it. You love that big sister of yours and you want to do what she does, which is creating your independent streak. You get mad when you can't get your shoes or pants on by yourself, and it takes a while of frustrated failures before you'll begrudgingly let me help. You figured out how to climb out of your crib. You were pretty happy with yourself, but you also wouldn't go to bed and eventually passed out on the living room floor at 10:00. We took the bottom out of your crib so you are stuck again and you were SO mad about it. But you're doing ok now. You're not ready for a big girl bed yet, sister, so just slow down. You look insanely adorable in big girl pigtails. You like to wear sunglasses. You still love your blankie and you developed a new affection for the seal, or "see see" as you would say. You have a big sweet unique personality.

But Quinny, my very favorite thing you do, is when you grab your big blanket in your arms and run to me. I scoop you up and kiss your neck and you lay your head on my shoulder and just stay still. You do it several times a day. I want you to be a little sweet snuzzly quirky mama's girl forever.

John Boy, you cray. You have an obsession with vehicles, which I've mentioned before but deserves another one. You love to push your little trucks around and our book about 100 Trucks is your favorite. You follow me around with it and hold it up to me. I think you'd sit on my lap and look at it all day. And its so funny because we just turn each page and you point and say "Vooom!" You love Thomas the Train, and on the rare occasion you get to watch it (your sisters usually override you on the vote, but I make sure you get your turn), you pace around excitedly and point and say "choo choo!". You have been SUCH a good boy lately. We are not sure what flip was switched. You have been very pleasant during the day and sweet. The thing is, when you were whiny and screaming all the time you were still so dang cute, I wanted to eat you. Well, now you are sweet and so dang cute . . . I can't take your deliciousness. Well, almost. All the sudden you won't go to bed. Really, you are going to stay up for an hour and a half yelling? Your sisters need some sleep man, and you are killing our sanity. We had it good there for like 5 minutes. Just go to sleep. You hate getting put in the car, and scream and fight against me most of the time I do. You are rough and tumble. You like to climb things and jump off things, which bodes well for your bones in the future. You just started climbing up on the backs of the couches and taking things off the wall. Driving me nuts. You also like to play with the thermostat, so the house will be freezing or sweltering and I won't know why until I notice it is set a 30 or 90 degrees. You have a vendetta against or floor lamp. It is now nicely curved. You are a wild one.

But John Boy, my favorite thing you do is when you wrap your arms around my head and make a big kissing sound. Then you lay a big wet one right on my lips. Over and over. You love mama kisses. And I love John kisses. I want you so be a noisy, choo-chooing, mama-kissing, wild child forever.

Carly Carly. You are so good. You are so full of life. You love nap time. We recently made a cup with slips of paper in it, and on each paper is something fun to do during nap time. You are always excited to pick out of it. Everything from folding laundry to math games to coloring to Candyland is in that cup. I love spending that time with you. You are getting so big. When I carry you upstairs to bed I can hardly make it up! You are so smart. You continue to love books. In fact, we recently started our first chapter book together. It is an American Girl book about a Native American girl named Kaya. You do pretty good to listen and follow along with the continuing story, even with the lack of pictures. I hope we have a long journey of reading books together in the future. But you are growing up too fast, because recently you have been very interested in what stories really happened, and what stories are fairy tales. You are so fun with the babies. I love hearing you all giggling together. They think you are pretty great. But sometimes you struggle. Sometimes you beg me not to get them up from their naps. Sometimes you say you wish you didn't have the babies. And I understand that, because they are hard. But I'm so grateful you are so good to them. You just started gymnastics and seem to have fun with it. You just love your daddy. All day you talk about him, color pictures for him, and say you can't wait to tell daddy this or show daddy that. You've got good taste because you have one fabulous daddy. You have such an impressive knowledge of the gospel. After church you like to pretend you are the church teacher, and last week you taught me a lesson about the Golden Plates, and it was all correct. Another time we were playing and you were the ice queen. You told me you made your whole ice palace out of magic from you hands. "But not all the things outside my ice palace," you said. "Jesus made all of that." You are so good. I know I already said that, but you are so good, I'll say it twice.

But Carly, my favorite thing you do is pray. You pray for us to sleep good. You pray for your mom and daddy, and your baby brother and baby sister. You pray for "our lives to go well and our hearts to go well". And what do we need more than that? My Carly, I want you to be a story-loving, spirited, praying, little big girl forever.