Bubbles

 

Viv loves to take a bath in the Jacuzzi tub with lots of bubbles. Hannah came to see what Viv was so excited about.  I stepped out of the bathroom for just a minute and this is what I came back to...

 Yep, apparently Hannah wanted to play in the bubbles too. :/

Santa Claus!

I'm not sure which of my children enjoy Santa the most. This year it was the 17 years old that was up first. She gathered Lauren and Joseph to go with her to wake up Vivian. Vivi is 5, so this was a really fun Christmas. When they woke her up, Hannah said, "Vivi, Santa came!" Vivian does NOT like to be woken up. So there was brief moment before she figured out what Hannah said that she was not happy about being yelled at, but then it "clicked" and she said, "Help me up!!!" They all came running into the den, all excited.

Here's to New Beginnings

It seems like it was just yesterday. It wasn’t a grandiose event; it was simple, elegant, beautiful and even a little painful, yet gloriously so. See, in order for this union to be happening; then that parting also happened and it left brokenness in its wake. And when you allow someone into your brokenness, it can be, take your breath away, excruciating, but then the healing begins, and it too can take your breath away, but in an awestruck, there is a miracle happening here, kind of way.  We both said, “Never again,” but low and behold, we said “I do” about almost a year ago, and what a year it has been.

There are no rule books for blending families. We have fumbled our way through, mostly through trial and error, if truth be told. And we have made a full year, full in the sense of full of laughter, tears, hugs, shouts, forgiveness, smiles, bumps, bruises, healing, and all the rest in between. It has been a year of stretching and molding into who we are as individuals and as a new family.  I like what we are becoming.

 

 

 

Beautiful Batteries

So, I'm not exactly pleased with my phone, nor have I ever been. Sitting at Zaxby's Sunday afternoon, I was trying to compose myself as I wanted so much to throw my phone against the wall and watch it shatter into a million little pieces. And it probably wouldn't even break just to spite me. Hannah witnessing my behavior said, "Maybe you should try speaking nice to it." :/ Oh No! She's right! Frowning because I can't think of single nice thing to say about this hot pink joke of technology, Joseph comes to my rescue. He looks at the phone and in his best Sid the Sloth impression says, "You have beautiful batteries." And, low and behold, it actually worked!