3 things

that made me smile tonight...

a cookie, stashed behind the bedroom curtain

the little rascal who hid it admitted to plans of a midnight snack

a clump of hair

behind the same curtain, the same rascal admitted to giving himself a haircut

and this adorable note that I found in a backpack (not belonging to the rascal)

Dear DAVID,

Your my best cuzent. Mabe

we cud play with are dogs if I can

come over for dinner.

Love,

Brooke

I needed every one of those.

:)

Our hearts...

 

(photo shamelessly stolen from my sister)

are with our dear friends, the Lowes

 who provoke us to love God more

as we watch them faithfully walk through fiery trials

will you pray with me?

there is a day coming, friends, when

"He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall

no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any

mourning, or crying or pain...He who sits on the throne said,

'behold, I am making all things new.'"

Revelation 21:4

One brother's trash...

 

is another one's treasure...

I know I've said it...

but sometimes I look at pictures of Luca, and see my brother, Karl.

Like exactly.  So weird.

 Good thing he's a handsome son of a gun.

Alexander's Super Sour Lemonade

my sweet Xan asked if he could make lemonade today

all I did was cut the lemons

he knew how to do the rest

where did he learn this?

in the end...

it was drinkable!!

I love my little guy's initiative

(he came up with the name too)

my 3 sons

Shark

I stumbled across a dead shark on a remote section of the beach one afternoon

Xan couldn't ask enough questions about it

at his insistence, we set off bright and early the next morning to find it

he was undeterred by the long walk ahead, or by the fact that it might have been washed away by the tide

 

  

we practically ran down the beach on our adventure

he asked question after question--had I seen it on the very wet sand, the little bit wet sand, or the dry sand...what did it's eyes look like, did it have teeth...and on and on

I prayed and prayed that his enthusiasm would be rewarded

just when I was beginning to wonder if we'd find it, I saw a promising blob in the distance

  

our shark

 

 

too late to say "don't touch it", he was all over that shark

he LOVED it, and I LOVED watching his joy

 

 

 

 

he's my little explorer

Beach

we had a wonderful vacation last week

the boys were so happy to be at "the big beach house" (a condo--love a kids perspective)

it was so, so good to be together as a family--mostly unplugged

the weather was perfect, the waves were big

Mark saved a little guy who was caught too far out in the surf--

and lost his sunglasses--worth it--and then got crushed by a wave and split his nose open

the cousins came for a day trip mid week, which was special

Xan was "surfer boy" until he got crashed by one too many waves--

then he was "just Xan" again

Luca, who won't wear his hat for even a minute, wore mine for hours

David got "lessons" on how to "surf" from a little guy fresh from skim camp

I loved it all--

and none of us wanted to leave

the end.

Home

but wishing we were still there...

next year feels like a long way away.