Life with your arm around me

That's Melanie's waking-up-from-naptime face.


Nathan's goofball-fooling-around-when-I-have-the-camera face.


"It's okay if I wear my fire shirt now 'cause it's summer this year now, right?"


"Peanut butter." (That one is really really getting old now.)


Beautiful mulberry toes. I guess I could wash their feet everytime they come in from playing outside...but they'd still have a purple tinge to them...so I don't bother. :o

"I can put my arm around Melanie just like you put your arm around Daddy at church, right Mom?"

"Why do you put your arm around Daddy?"

"Because I love him."

"You don't mind if I put my arm around you, right Melanie? Is it okay?"

(she nods)

Park day

After such a busy week, it's time we took a day to relax at the park. They never seem to object to that...

It's sure nice having a giant sandbox as part of the park!

I did have to break up three fights over Nathan's special big shovel, though. Too bad for them we don't have three of them...but hey, learning to share is something that might just maybe possibly perhaps come in handy one day in the distant future for them. Either way, it's banned from coming next time. Poor shovel.



Maybe I can retire from swing pushing permanently? Too bad he can't lift her up onto it too!


Since our camping trip, Matthew's been much more willing to walk on "rugged" terrain. That is, on anything that isn't perfectly flat. He does the sand in the park fantastically now!

And he loves the hill! It actually has a pretty good incline--which the photo doesn't capture. He knows how to do the up and the down. What a big boy! (sniff sniff)


It is so much fun to run!

School Days

A lot of people ask if Nathan is going to school in September. The first few times I was shocked and thought:"My biggest Baby ready for school? Never! He's far to young still!" After looking at these pics though, I think perhaps he isn't a baby anymore.

So this week, he is going to school. Vacation Bible School, actually. He was sure excited to go, and had been looking forward to it for several weeks!

What a crazy busy week it is, and VBS is only in the mornings--not even full days. I'm the designated craft person, and am the head honcho in the craft room. We have hammers and nails hiding in the storage room, so no one messes with me! :p

When life stinks more than our socks

it is time to keep our socks on longer.

Lately (but not today, since today I had a lovely visit :) ) I've had a lot of exposure to frailty, sickness, loneliness and death. So many people have so many things they struggle with, and I sometimes feel that I just have it too good, and really have no idea how to relate to others who are doing really poorly.

This Sunday our minister paused his series because an elderly man in our congregation had a heart attack--he gave us great words of comfort instead. The death of this man was shocking. Even for me. This jovial gentleman, this time last year, was telling me to have my baby on the 20th, since it was his birthday. I didn't manage to force Matthew out on the appointed day, but now I wish I had.

Psalm 139:18b When I am awake, I am still with you.
Isn't it such a comfort that there is more to life and death than just what we can see?

Oh Baby!

The kids didn't drag me out of my bed even once last night, so to celebrate, I thought I'd treat you all with a brief stint of sentimentality about my soon to be not-baby.


There are no perfect words to describe Matthew. I think that nerd, stinker and pest do a pretty inadequate job, but they do convey 5.973% of the image of him in my mind, at least. Often he reminds me of BOTH of his J... cousins...which makes him even more adorable for sentimentality reasons too.

Someone mentioned that he's thinning out. I guess he must be on a pretty tough exercise regime: he balks at anything to do with babies (except beating up on babies, and cuddling with Mommy) so I guess he thought it was time to loose some baby fat.

He walks around furniture with ease now, and manages to keep his feet and body moving fast enough to keep up with the "walker".

Soon I will have no babies left.
*sniff*

Only toddlers.

THREE toddlers.

*panic!!*