Cars

I cherish these images. This is Luke. He is all about cars these days...and motorcycles. I almost always find him playing with them by the window. He makes the car sounds and crashes them into each other and rolls them along the windowsill. Wherever there is Luke, there is a car in hand.

I smile.

Bus Stop

Almost every day, the highlight of Luke's day is going to the bus stop to meet Jay's bus. The moment he sees that bus turn the corner, his face lights up and he makes a bee line to my leg.

I couldn't get a good shot of him today because he had a death grip on my leg. His excitement is palpable!

The students pour out of the bus like mad-men! And as soon as Jay sees Luke, the chase is on...

Jay is not the only one to chase and greet Luke. He is also pursued by a lot of the other kids from the block. But his absolute favorite is the girl in blue, Olivia. I have never seen a toddler flirt the way he does with her. She is so sweet and she gives him so much attention.

I've been busy lately...

It is family portrait season and pretty much every weekend I have had the pleasure of spending an hour or two in a beautiful park on a gorgeous day with lovely families. I don't consider it work at all. It's a privledge and an honor. Anyway, here are some of my personal favorites.

Movie Night

Saturday night we watched "Journey to the Center of the Earth" in 3-D! Jay lasted all of five minutes with those paper glasses on before we changed movies to "Journey to the Center of the Earth" in 2-D.

Luke didn't even last that long. Those 3-D paper glasses were not his friend...and he wasn't theirs.

Threatened Tigger Seeks Protection

Wrongly accused of steeling Pooh's honey, Tigger found himself imprisoned in his own home for fear of retaliation. He alleges that he has been receiving threatening phone calls and swears he saw Eeyore stalking him on the playground.

Desperately wanting to go Trick-Or-Treating, Tigger sought the protective service of...

The Big Brother NINJA Company!
The President of the Big Brother NINJA Company, who would like to remain anonymous, told reporters Friday that Tigger would be unharmed on Halloween. "We have our number one ninja on the case" she promises, "nobody with mess with Tigger tonight!"

Record Breaking Lows

A few weeks ago we had record breaking low temperatures and record breaking snowfall. The next morning Boise was literally iced over. But we still had a soccer game. The ice on the field and the mist in the air, children bundled from head to toe, made for some good photography.

Luke is pouting because I won't let him eat his goldfish crackers off the ground.

This boy on Nick's team is an Afghan refugee.

Brrrrrrrrr

Grandpa and Luke play soccer.

Setting up...

He flies!

James 1:17

"Every good and perfect gift is from above..."

When I was a little girl I wanted blue eyes. I wanted them SO badly that the thought pretty much consumed me. My favorite song was by Chrystal Gail, "Don't it make my brown eyes blue." I listened to that song over and over and thought if it can happen to her, then it can happen to me. I also loved her long, long hair. Anyway, my mom always told me to ask God in prayer for what I wanted so every night before bed I would kneel down before Him and ask for blue eyes. Every morning I would wake up and disappointedly see the same brown eyes staring back at me in the mirror. When I was older, I thought my prayers had been answered when the eyeglass company came out with blue contact lenses. But my vision was too good, nobody would give me a prescription.

As I got older and wiser I came to a place in my life where I could accept that God had given me brown eyes for a reason and that they were not going to change so I had better start loving them and the fact that they worked really well. Which, after being married to a man who has to put contacts in every morning just to find his way to the coffee, is a true blessing. Eventually, I forgot that prayer. But God didn't. On October 10th, 2000, I received my answer.

I was 28 when Nick Joseph was born. During my pregnancy I had a dream about this child growing inside me. He looked just like his dad, mustache and everything, except that he had blue eyes and blonde hair. We all had a good laugh at that one! Imagine, me and Nick, both as dark as can be having a blonde hair, blue-eyed baby! At his birth the nurse told me; "he has a lot of hair...and it's blonde!" Sure enough, she was right and his hair continued getting lighter and lighter. But the remarkable, miraculous thing to me is that his eyes are the bluest of blue. Ocean blue. Blueberry blue. Beautiful blue! It occurred to me just a few years ago that those blue eyes were God's answer. He heard my prayers as a little girl and he answered them in a way far beyond my most wild imagination. Every time I look into Jay's blue eyes I see love; God's love for a little girl who was and still is flawed beyond measure! I am reminded that God hears every prayer and He answers them. Maybe not in a way we expect Him to, but in a way that IS flawless and in accordance with His divine and perfect plan.

James 1:17-18 "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created."

Happy Birthday Jay!

I love you!!!