andrew

this pic was taken at the beach last fall you can just read his mind... really? the day is really over? i can't be at the beach anymore? my little beach bum!

andrew has grown. no, seriously grown, like seven inches overnight. (maybe that's exaggerated but i think you get the point!) i keep finding out just how much he has grown every time he ventures down the stairs with a non-school outfit on. those shorts that fit him in the fall are about mid thigh now and watch out for the t-shirt sleeves hitting him just below the shoulder! (once again, a little bit of exaggeration!) so, i hired my trusted babysitter last saturday and went shopping. no. luck. none. anywhere. the problem i'm finding is that little mr. andrew has not only grown physically, he has grown mentally and now, as my nephew in law (is that what you call your niece's husband?)  says, he's got a serious swagger! so, my favorite places to shop for him are not quite right, and the few shops that carry the styles he likes have a very limited selection in size skinny and tall. but, most days around here, he opts for his basketball shorts a too small t-shirt, his volcom flat brimmed hat with some sanuks on his feet. eric says we're doing him an injustice by living in a land locked state. i would have to agree. any time we spend at the beach, he's in the water boogie boarding, throwing a football around with eric or begging us to stop shopping so he can get a tan. yes, last time at the beach he actually refused to put his t-shirt on at lunch because he said he was working on his tan. he's a total beach bum and apparently needs to dress the part. so today i made pass number two on the shopping. again, no luck. so i've been searching the web and guess what! they actually have the sizes i need in the styles andrew and his blonde shaggy locks agree on! so, welcome to the world of online shopping, once again. now if i could just get eric to agree to let me put it all on is credit card...

today i sat on the stand at church in my regular spot, hiding behind the piano and organ, appearing when the music began and disappearing once it ended. i love this calling. i love catching the eye of friends who make me smile. i love watching families arrive together i love watching my friends with their families, i love watching the primary kids copy my movements and get embarrassed when i smile at them. and, most of all i love watching my husband with my babies. today georgia sat on his lap, snuggled in close with her soft and bo. andrew was on his right side snuggled in, coloring in his star wars activity book. dylan was asleep in the aisle in his car seat. what a sweet picture i have in my mind from today. i don't know how to even express the emotions that swelled up in my mommy heart but i was totally overcome. it's a powerful thing, this family business. we started as young sweethearts, madly in love with each other with huge dreams and empty wallets. slowly that love grew and we added so much of our dreams to our reality. we added one tiny person, then another and now our third. while our wallets aren't much fuller, (thanks in part to three rapidly growing children) our home is and our hearts are. a young couple blessed their baby boy today, they named him andrew. this took me back eight years to a snowy morning in utah. i remembered blessing our andrew, how it seemed like such a miracle, this little tiny baby, that he was really ours. i watched him today, from behind the piano, he's turned out to be such a handsome boy. full of joy and energy topped off with a faux-hawk. (he made me do his hair that way today)   i can't believe he will be baptised this year. and that sassy georgia, what can i say, she has stolen our hearts. and i can't wait to see what our laid back go with the flow dylan has in store for us. what a gift to be a mother, to have a beautiful family and to have so much love around me. there are a few snapshots of life i carry with me, this will always be there, in my mind. a father and his three babies, snuggled together on a church bench. maybe next time i could come out from hiding behind the organ and piano to join them. hmm, maybe not, then i'd have to play finger puppets and color star wars guys and search for binkis for dylan.