"Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God, But only he who sees takes off his shoes, The rest sit 'round it and pluck blackberries."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Random Pictures



Playing downstairs. (They were being really cute and I went down to take a picture.  Then they started fighting and I had to force them to pretend they were being nice for the picture.) Spencer not-eating all the food we could possibly think of that he might want to eat.  He is my picky-eater and he would prefer to eat only fruit for the rest of his days.  Below: Spencer taking self-portraits on my phone.




Falling asleep on the stairs because I was too slow taking him up to his bed:


We find out we're having a boy in January!  (Grant was very surprised.  He had wanted a boy, but he is very used to the girls getting their way.  He could not understand how it wasn't a girl like they said.)  Then we had a pizza celebration meal with the boys.  Below that: my boys walking to school in their capes.  Grant really wanted them to dress up.  Spencer blowing kisses.  And Ellie sitting next to a vaseline covered couch produced by Spencer.  She read her way through the entire episode.  Spencer was kind enough to put away the vaseline jar when he was done (it was covered with goo, as was the door handle to the closet he found it in.)












And.... Spencer during a carwash.  True, they happen rarely enough that he hasn't had a lot of practice.  But boy, was that child terrified.  Even if Meg held his hand.  

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Last Throes of Summer

Boy am I behind!  These are our last pictures from summer-time.  Ice cream, sleeping all over the house, and enjoying a lake in Iowa with friends.  None of us were really ready to head back to school, but time keeps going...



These kids all fell asleep on their own this day.  You would think I kept them up at all hours.  Actually it was Sunday, and they dropped where they fell once they got home.







Wednesday, August 14, 2013

At Home Adventures

We've had great cool weather here in Iowa, so for Family Night we headed to the Apple Orchard.  This is one of my favorite things to do here.  Last year there were no apples because of a late freeze, but we got some yummy ones this year.  Spencer was overjoyed, because he LOVES apples.
























Playing LIFE with the family.  Spencer had to be strapped into his high-chair because he was not very helpful.


Comatose after Church:


Tuesday, August 13, 2013

The Beach - Picture Overload!

This year we got to go to Justin's family reunion at Carlsbad Beach.  We didn't go last year, and so everyone was excited to go again.  Spencer loved the sand and was wary of the water.  Ellie dared to go out for a little body surfing this year.  Meg and Grant splashed and looked for shells and had a great time.  We all enjoyed seeing family.  Thanks for the Beach Grandma Duck and Grandma Paula and Grandpa Mark!

Our view in the mornings (and yes, I did move Spencer into the bed each morning to get another hour or so of peace):










Spencer is a little obsessed with himself lately.  When he sees me holding the camera he sticks his head close to it and poses like this:



This, I think, is my favorite picture I took this year:
















Meg's eyeballs got a little sunburned so we tried to convince her to wear sunglasses.  She insisted on wearing them above her eyes so that she could see.