Lucky us!

Well, we are getting ready to celebrate Sam's first birthday in just a week and a half.

We are so lucky to have her in our family - I really can't express my deep love for her or how I feel like I have known her so much longer than one year.

It's like we've been together forever somehow.

Samantha has taught us many things in her short time on this Earth.

For example....

She's taught us that you can eat many, many things with only two teeth.

She's taught us that you can make mince meat out of someone much bigger than you

if you are keen and sneaky.

She's taught us that the second child can be as bright and brilliant as the first in so many other ways that we never imagined.

She is cool. Calm. Collected. And silly.

She claps to music that Papa Dennis used to love.

She loves to play ball.

And Daddy makes her laugh the hardest.

She lives and loves with passion and wears her heart on her sleeve.

She studies the world carefully and seems to know things you are sure you never taught her.

What a special year it has been to know our perfect, beautiful, and one and only

Samantha.

I can't wait to see what this next year will bring.

Another lifetime of love is in store for us every day that she is with us.

How lucky we are, and we'll never forget it!