Saturday, December 31, 2011

Goin' out with the little dudes

Sometimes she learns to drop expectations.



{She does that which she tells others to do. 
                                           Practice what you preach.
                                                                  Novel concept.}


Just lives.
and loves


and hugs,
and giggles.


 Plays,
and soothes,
and does life.


-Takes it as it comes.
Lives in the moment.

Sometimes she can do that.

And she's hoping to do it more and more in the upcoming year...

*********************************************************************************

Christmas vacation, since last time I checked into this little spot in the internet, has been wonderful.

Coffee dates with friends,

Unheard of relaxed times with my favorite man in the whole GALAXY (sorry, that was totally a Jay sentence. ...Lots of Jay time too apparently),

Sleeping in. Every day. *gasp*

Getting some areas of my home more clean and organized than they have been in days weeks months yea... an embarrassing amount of time.


Oh have I ever been blessed in the past week.

This little one is cracking me up. So, so much.



We went on a family date today.

Brought all of our littles out bowling.

Oh, you wish you were there!

Absolutely priceless entertainment value. ;)

The only point of reference that little Mr. 2 year old has of bowling is...

a plush bowling set of animals that Noe got for Christmas.


You say we are going bowling??


Well, we need our little dudes, right??
(He seriously call them "little dudes")


Let's go bowling!


Now, WHY are you not allowing me to set my little dudes up on the lane and throw my ball at them??



You guys obvs. don't know anything about bowling.

So, the little dudes finally just found a comfy spot to observe, much to Kai's momentary consternation.


But, all little dude obsession was quickly forgotten as he fully engaged in the game at hand.


Look at him! Twinkle toes and everything.


Oh! One of the little dudes snuck in there!



Oh yeah,
Little bro rocks at this sport.


Nothin' cuter than size 7 bowling shoes.


Incidentally, mine were size 7 too. Not quite as cute though. But almost. ;)

And then there's this guy.



I haven't yet found the words to explain this;

watching your child grow and do more than you ever thought he would be able to do.

I haven't mastered the vocabulary or articulation to go beyond redundancy and cliche.

It's amazing.



Theme in pictures:
Dave: How about I do all of the work with the droves of children that we have had together, and you can stand behind a camera.
Sounds like a plan.


He was proud of himself.

His brothers cheered him on loudly.





So, as it turns out, loving with out expectations, and living with a grateful heart is recipe for pure joy. :)








Much love from us.

Us who are learning

and growing together

and having the best goofy fun.

Us who fail and stand back up

and learn a little bit more every day what it means to truly love.

Love from us and Happy New Year!


7 comments:

Hannah M. said...

Reading this post was such an uplifting way to start the last day of my year! Your family is a blessing to observe (and you do a great job of capturing things on camera!).
Happy New Year!

Aritha V. said...

Nice, nice photo's. And ... I like your eyes!

Andrea said...

Beautiful photos, what a fun family activity! Noe's little 'bowling dudes' are just plain awesome, and all your bowling dudes are pretty sweet too! :D

Nikki said...

I absolutely love this post--it's my favorite in the whole entire GALAXY so far--and I can't stop laughing over "the little dudes"!! What a sweet, sweet family date...and how angelic of Dave to do "all the hard work" so you could document this precious family date. Happy New Year!

Lindsay said...

Happy Happy New Year! May God continue to work in and through you! You and your family are SHINING lights for many ~ including me here in Eastern Oregon :)

Jodie | Velour said...

i love looking at your pictures... they're very good.

and your eyes!! mercy at all that beauty!

what a sweet outing for you guys - y'all are a precious, precious bunch.

Denise B. said...

Is that a peacock earring I glimpsed? So YOU!