Spring and Summer Adventures

The cousins in California

Gigi bought us 49ers gear!

Gerber Baby Contest Photo #1

#2

And #3

Charlie's Mother's Day Extravaganza breakfast for me. Have you ever seen more bedecked shortcake?

Our Living Room Hub

Brock trying to stand

After a giggle-fest of watching Charles drive his motorcycle down a ramp

Smiling for Daddy 

We love the lake

Brock and Grandma Dowers

Charles on his birthday morning

Our 3-year-old captain of the Tuggy

"July 5th I was born and my birthday...same!" 

Happy Birthday Charles

A Budding Danny Macaskill?

Birthday canoe ride with friends

"Brocky, you're wide open"

A fine-looking sailboat crew

Our picture for our church photo directory, with each boy's typical camera smile!

Can you guess who inspired the baseball interest?

You betcha-- Uncle Spence

Daddy and his helpers

He is Risen!

 Take the hand away and...I'll crash on big brother.

  

Game Time with Gnoma.

Uncle Easy and "Brocky-D" on the sidelines.

 A photoshoot at halftime...

 Now you know where they get their good looks...

 ...and where Daddy got his.

  

 Looking at the table below, any adjective I think of seems like an understatement, so I'll steal a Charles exclamation that he voiced one day when Daddy came down the stairs with a Bulldog shirt on: "Yep!"

 
And when you add all the feasters, capital "YEP!"

Can you guess what Charles' favorite course was?

 "I jumped up, and MADE the basket."

Thank you Grandma Cathy!

Whose naptime is it?

 Who needs a bed when you have Uncles?

I spy Charles and Daddy.

 

 

 

 

 Our favorite kind of tummy time.

 

 

 

 As Charlie said, the above is a typical Brock look. It has been known to send Charles into fits of giggles.

Mommy, guess which one of us can roll over? Wait a minute, we both can!

"Oh dosh"

 Several reasons why I love the above picture: 

1) It reminds me of God's faithfulness. Our boys and all their grandparents, on our couch on a Friday afternoon, unplanned. How many other Moms get this in their normal everyday? The Ansetts offered to take Charles to Uncle Easy's basketball tournament (with a pitstop at the Harley Davidson store to boot). Meanwhile, the Dowers stopped by to change for a company party in Spokane. 

2) It reminds me of God's faithfulness. This particular Friday followed a particularly discouraging Thursday. Discouraging in an everyday kind of way: me battling lots of impatience with Charles, me dreading errands the next day, and overall a long day without Daddy. God completely changed the foreboding cloud into showers of blessing: grandparents to make Charles' day and make my Winco trip that much easier, and then filling our home with 4 of our favorite people unexpectedly.

3) It reminds me of God's faithfulness. Look at who our boys get to grow up with! Look at these 2 marriages! Look at this godly heritage!

Charles saw this picture (below) and said: "Oh dosh."

Believe it or not, something has entered Charles' life that has the potential to compete with motorcycles: Basketball. And it wouldn't be basketball without the shorts.

 Gotta love the forearms.

 Okay, here is a selection from this morning's photoshoot. What cracks me up is the "behind the scenes" truth behind this photoshoot. Yes, it pretty much was the only "accomplishment" of the morning. Yes, I'm delighted you can't see my hair or my outfit during this photoshoot. Yes, Brock is a lot more topsy turvy than these pictures illustrate. Yes, Charles got cold and we came in and made hot chocolate. Yes, I can't wait to hang some of these in a new picture frame!