jack would like a stuffed anne perry for his birthday

as i was telling a friend tonight, i intentionally put my camera away for a while around here because i woke up one day and realized that i was spending way more time documenting life than i was living life.  if josh and i took the kids to the park, i came home with 150 photos...but no memories.  if we headed to the zoo for the day, i returned with loads of animal photos, abby/jack/izzy photos, and abby/jack/izzy-with-the-animals photos.  but i interacted almost solely from behind the lens of my camera.  so i tucked it away, focused on playing with my little people, and found a much healthier balance.

so now that i'm back to blogging about day-to-day life with the lewis fam, i thought i would pull out photos from some of our recent fun and prove to those of you who thought the life and times of the lewis crew had all but vanished that we're still here, we're still having fun, and i'm still taking pictures of it all.

i'm just taking less pictures of it all and enjoying it mostly sans camera.  :-)

a few weeks ago, our friends anna and paul brought their three girls up to birmingham for a visit and a little playtime.  now i've talked about this family many, many times before, but let me say it just one more time: the lord blessed us immensely when he crossed our paths almost 15 years ago when we were all freshmen at samford university.  i simply adore anna and paul, and i simply adore their little darlings.

this is what kept addie entertained during their visit...

but this is how poor audrey kate and anne perry spent most of their time here.  with my kids all in their faces.

but in their sweet, good-natured way, they soaked it all in and actually seemed to enjoy it.

 

even when jack did this...  (notice both of his hands)

what warmed my heart the most, though, was seeing jack and anne perry play together so much.  my girls are always up for playing with a baby, but jack...not so interested.  he's been talking continually lately, though, about wishing his little brother would come home soon, so i think he was happy to spend some time with the under-one crowd.

gracious, i love these little people.  all six (hopefully soon seven) of them!