just shy of six months...

Bored of this game yet?  I will never be.  Here's the kidlets all grinning at right around six months of age.  Too fun! Gosh I love these people.

Look who's seven!

Bradie and her buddy Faith bouncing at the airpark on her birthday

FINALLY time for cake! Her patience was running low and she had done all that bouncing!

The baby that made me "mama" is now seven years old.  My heart is so full that I am flustered and only  cliches seem to fit: time has gone by so fast and it seems like only yesterday we welcomed Bradie and began to be a family.  I could not imagine life without this child.  She is a sweet, smart, funny girl who brings so much to the table.  Bradie will only continue to endear and challenge me as she grows.  I pray for her heart's soil to be fertile to the virtues being planted there.  May her outward beauty challenge her  heart to be the same.  You always hear about men being admonished to stand up and be real men.  My fierce hope is that Bradie will rise to the challenge of being a true and beautiful woman, a princess for the King.

Grandma Sally came to visit this weekend.  It was very nice and went by a little too fast.  There's something cozy to me about the end of summer weekends and it was great to share one of these breaks from the busy with my mom. No agendas, just relaxing.  I love when life allows for that.

the merri-middle-fielder

Dear boy. Puppy tails and snails for sure. Give him tools- real ones and he is happy.  I once found him with his scooter perched on Marcus' jack stands-"me fixin' my scooter!"  I know that you will not accept your high school diploma and exclaim "me did it!" but sometimes it feels like you will.  Beau, you are in danger of me not letting you grow up. I am tempted to keep my little buddy boy forever little.  So I will kiss your face lots even though you scream, because someday you'll have a beard.  And maybe even a wife.  She may frown upon that.  I guess I should start praying for her.

goings on

Gotta have one of these. This picture makes me look like a "fun" mom.  Really they ask all the time if they can get in Brooks' crib and most of the time I sneer and say "No!" The one time I said yes we had to grab the camera, of course.

Some by the front door pics of Bradie's first day of first grade.  Front door first day photo is a tradition in my family.  My mom even called to make sure we do it :) First grade?! Crazy. My children have some of the funniest expressions.  You saw some of Bradie's in the last post and now some of Beau's.

 Lining up, ready to GO!

 Here's one of Beau's last first day of preschool.  Not sure how that is possible either that my little buddy is four and a half.

I will roll over! I will!  When I feel like it.

summer wanes...

It is always with a wistful bittersweetness that I say goodbye to summer.  This has been a nice summer too! Here's one of the small group kiddos in the hot tub at "camano vuhcation" as Bradie says it.  This is roughly half the children (there are 11 now! :) and they are getting so big.  We all look at one another and say "How will we fit anywhere together in 10 years? five?!"  Who knows, but it's still lots of fun!

 I was trying to reprise a precious wedding photo that we have of Mark and Marcus taken 10 years ago... smart alecs!

 Bradie has taken to making funny faces in MOST pictures.  Her father is not pleased. However, he may be pleased if she makes these faces* when she's sixteen!

 Self-taken of me and my good buddy Christy.

 Oh Brooks.  You are cute. You need to sleep for longer than 35 minutes during the day. It would increase your cuteness severalfold.

*The kids are away with daddy, Brooks is waking infamously after only thirty minutes (I am not exaggerating!), and I am blogging with Ellen on in the background.  There was a commercial for The Voice and I typed voices instead of faces... ever do that?  I don't have to tell you that I was a poor note taker in school!

That's all, I think.

tummy time through the years

I think that having loads of kids just so you can giggle at their similarities and differences is a wrong motive.  But I bet its fun.  I am having a blast looking at only three throughout the years. I loved all three of their old-man-forehead stages.  I wish I could go back in time when I look at these and suckle their little cheeks.  Wait... I make the rules... I can still do this! It is 10 pm as I formulate this post so it's a bit late now but tomorrow they're mine.  All mine.  Watch out big kids, mama's comin' for  ya!