7 days

Honestly, when Nancy over at Ordinary Miracles & the Crazy 9 asked if anybody
was interested in documenting their life in photos for 7 days,
I thought there was no way I'd be able to keep up.  Guess who surprised herself?

Yep.  Me.  I did it!

Initially, I thought I could handle the challenge by simply using my iPhone.

But then I thought that would be too easy for me, as I have been using my iPhone to document 

every day life more frequently.

And since this was a challenge, well, then, I needed to actually challenge myself.

So here we go.

Day 1

Daddy sang his little girl a lullaby.

Day 2

Part of our morning routine.

A little selfie, that's me in my PJs.

Some play time.

I surprised myself with the shot above, as it was taken in our dining room which is the most poorly lit room in our house.  The light I used to expose the shot is coming from about 10 feet behind their heads, from a small-ish window in our laundry room.

Settings were f/1.6 SS 1/30, ISO 3200.  

Yes, I can't believe I hand held this shot!

More play.  I can't remember now what they were singing to me.

Madeline insisted on wearing these bottoms which were not the same pink, 

but you couldn't tell her that. lol.

Day 3

Reading a catalogue that came in the mail.

More from this day in a later post.

Day 4

Night time routine- potty before bed.

Can you tell that Madeline enjoyed her cookies and cream ice cream?

Day 5

More play and cuddling.

Day 6

My ballerina was all tuckered out after some dancing.

More from this day, too, in another post.

Day 7

I shared a bunch from this day already.

This was taken when my sister and her family were here this past weekend.

So there you have it!

As you can see, I tried to capture some of what we do on a daily basis.

Morning and night time routines and lots of play.

I have to say a big THANK YOU to Nancy for putting me up to this challenge.

It ended up being easier than I thought it was going to be because I was intentional.

And if you're keeping up with Havi's adoption, I have some good news.

Our placing agency approved our homestudy today!  We have just a few

minor corrections to make, and then we'll be able to submit our I-800A.

Back in March, when we got the homestudy ball rolling, I had hoped that we would

have our approval from our placing agency by the end of May.

Well, God's funny that way....waiting until the last day of May.

But He answered my prayer.  (Yep, He's Faithful!)  It was approved in May.

We'll be submitting our I-800A some time next week!

Can I get a woot?!

Memorial Day weekend fun

We had no big, super gigantic plans for Memorial Day weekend, other than to hang out with family.

My sister and her peeps came into town. That meant a lot of extra lovin' was going round.

I stole alot of kisses from my nephew.

There were a lot of diapers being changed, feedings, and some snuggle time.

The kids did a lot of swimming.

On Day Two we had planned to hit the beach.

But a nasty storm brewing off the coast kept us at home.

Intermittent rain kept us from getting water logged and swimming away the whole afternoon.

The kids were ecstatic, though, when it would finally let up and they could swim again.

When it rained, though, Patrick took the time to put together a new train table for our back porch.

He had a lot of eager, little helpers.

And when not helping, they doted on their baby cousin/brother.

I always love hanging out with my sister.  

We are best friends. We love each other like crazycakes.

If it weren't for the rain, we would've snapped a few more photos of us together.

This was all I managed with my iPhone.

We can't wait to see them all again in a week and a half for Madeline's first dance recital.

Although I wished we lived in the same town, I'm so glad we aren't a plane trip away anymore.

And on the adoption front, I just learned that our home study was forwarded to our placing agency for review last week.  So hopefully in the next week or two, we'll get to submit our I-800A to immigration.

That means I have some serious paperwork to do.  So I better hop to it!

The joy of reading

As I mentioned earlier this week, we love to read as a family.

We read together throughout the day.

And although Madeline is just sounding out CVC words, she loves to "read" right along with us.

Sometimes they got a bit distracted by birds on the feeder, band aids, 

playing knock-knock, or howling like wolves.

Still, we had a fun afternoon.

 

I guess all that reading tired Caleb out.

He wanted to put Madeline down for her nap that afternoon.

Seems somebody else needed one too.

Linking to:

   

Making faces

Reading.  We love it!

Caleb and I spend most afternoons reading to each other while Madeline naps.  

(She gets read to also, just at different times of the day.)

On any given day, we read aloud to each other from two different books.

At the moment, Caleb is wrapping up

Little House on the Prairie and Mr. Popper's Penguins.

I'm reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Door in the Wall (to him.)

The other day, after we finished reading to each other, I thought I would grab my camera 

for a few shots of the two of us.

Now, understand that I knew, prior to taking the shots,

how handholding a camera does a fabulous job at enhancing one's nose.

So please, pay no attention to the distortion of my nose in the photos below.

It's not really that large. 

I had no idea Caleb was resting so peacefully on my shoulder until after I viewed the photo.

Isn't he precious?

Well, we couldn't keep things totally serious.

Some face making was in order.

He is such a funny, little guy.

Anyway, I do love our afternoons reading together.

It's such a special time.

I also snapped this photo of Madeline playing "tot school", as we call it,

on my iPhone early one morning.

The light trickling in the room fell only on her body.

I love the low light effect.

Finding joy in the simple things

This is NOT a post I want to write.

In fact, it has taken me all week to get up the strength to type it.

If you've been following the blog for a little while, 

you know that my sister's dear friend, Gina, 

was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer.

For the last year and a half, she has been fighting hard.
She has had very little good news throughout her journey.
When one treatment option has failed, she tries another.
Two months ago, she found out that the medication from the clinical trial she was on wasn't working.
So she went back to regular chemotherapy drugs.
This week she found out they're not working either.
Now she doesn't know what to do.
She's running out of options.

As she has experienced these ups and downs, she has done her best
to find joy in the simple things, like taking her kids to school, eating lunch with them,
or laying in the hammock.

Seriously, don't we all need to stop and enjoy those simple, every day moments?

So here are some every day moments I captured of my dumplings one afternoon.

1. Watching the birds that hang out in our front yard.

2. Sharing some love.

3. Coloring a picture.

4. Watching a BrainPop video on the iPad.

Madeline just had to show me her "new" boo boo.

And I just ADORE this shot- how Madeline is resting her head on her brother's shoulder.

And yes, that is a yogurt mustache Madeline is sporting in these photos.

Real life.  Simple moments.

I'm cherishing these in my heart.

How about you?

What are you doing to enjoy the simple, every day moments?

And if you have a moment, would you please lift up Gina and her family in prayer?

Thanks a bunch.

Linking to:

Simple as That  Show Off Your Shot