Because I Need to Post Something....more pics!

Total contentment and happiness is....the rhythmic lull of a washing machine and hum of dryer, sounds of overwhelming laughter as children play hide and seek in basement, knowing your children are truly happy people, pouring rain, watermelon and freshly mowed grass filling home with smells of summer, canopy of green arching regally hundreds of feet into blue sky, cardinals by the hundreds, Blue Jays swooping low, hummingbirds flitting at feeders, fireflies twinkling like glittery stars in a seemingly enchanted forest, a sweet tiny girl flashing her very first smile as she gazes intently into her daddy's eyes, seeing a milky grin when you look down at your nursing baby, observing relationships between all of our children, watching young love unfold and learning how to provide the tools for children to successfully navigate life and love. Total contentment is learning to embrace life here and see the amazingness for all that  it really is. Children's lives enhanced, growth in all of us broader and more vast than any of us ever could've imagined, world expanded into capacities unimaginable as lives are filled with each other...laughter, merriment, depth, soul searching, learning, teaching. Lives filled full with friendships and relationships we have been given here far beyond walls of family. Life is settling here....and it feels good. It is well with my soul.


Birth story to come. I need to sit and have a period of uninterrupted time to write. That seems to be a little difficult to obtain these days.

Smiles for big brothers. 

Oldest and youngest. He's grown so much it makes my heart hurt somedays. Sometimes it just feels like that tiny baby should be him. 

Just chillin....in the forbidden swing.....

She grew up somewhere along the way. Returning home from a week long mission trip to work with a sister church in TN. 

4 - 15 passenger vans hauling a group of people ready and willing to work. That's a ton of people and a lot accomplished. 

When you can see a sunset here.....

When they both come home! Best of friends that seriously missed each other. How much I missed them. Oldest returning after 7 days spent in water at Scout camp in the mountains of Powhatan, VA. Evye-girl returning home from TN. 

Rainy day play. And yes...the floor got mopped. 

Chocolate peanut butter banana smoothie. Pretty good stuff.

So happy to have her buddies back!! 

Little tiny flower butt.

Up to no good at all....

Her best buddy in life. She wakes up at 6am and runs to wake him up. Inevitably....9 times out of 10....she falls back asleep nestled up against him. Pretty sweet stuff. I love watching them together. Grayson's words last shift night as he watched her sleep in his arms during the movie...."I wonder what she'll do when I move out. I wonder how she'll handle it. She's so little." I laughed, 

'At this point it's a little more like....what will you do when you lose your tag along buddy?" He smiled, "She can tag along with  me as long as she wants to."

 Church fun

Sweet boy isn't so little anymore.

More rainy day fun.

 Ice  cream lunch date/grocery shopping day. Sometimes it's just ok to have an ice cream lunch.

Bald headed baby. We seem to be pretty good at making those. 

 She's gotten so big. Sweet girl that's just not so little anymore either. 

Bittersweet in every way. Tears fell.....almost 16 years of teaching, instructing, trial and error.....have passed like sand sifting through fingers. How it is possible for him to be so close to an adult? The realization...reality chasing us down....that the years left with him are numbered and so short now....that he will grow up and move on and go so many places in life and accomplish so much. He's an absolutely extraordinary person full of great humor, strength, leadership, work ethic, and kindness. Everything we've prayed so much about, stumbled and tripped our way over as we parent, tried to shape and mold....is now beginning to become evident in the life of our oldest. And it's an amazing thing to watch somebody else's life unfold...the direction for which they have been called, what they feel led to do, where their passions lie...this person that came from my body....grown into almost a man, another adult that is an absolutely charismatic, fun loving, person with a great purpose for their life and astounding ambition and drive to make it happen. It's a crazy bittersweet thing in life to observe your almost grown children....an entirely new place in life to be. What an honor it is to watch each of them grow....but how fast the days go by. What an honor it is to have been given them and trusted with them .

Sleeping in our room on her "tiny bed" so she doesn't wake everybody with incessant coughing. So just maybe the dog loves her a little bit.