music appreciation {lewis style}

jack got his red guitar fixed this week, and our ears are all bleeding a little now because of it. we finally decided to take him out in the yard so the whole neighborhood could partake in the joy, and i shot a couple of minutes of concert video. in loading the video into my movies folder, i saw a bit of a theme that i'd like to share with you. please enjoy music appreciation: lewis style.

my favorite moments:
the acrobatic feat at 0:46
the sudden burst of hunger at 0:54
jack's transformation from 1:14 to 1:25
and finally, the lumberjack-esque dance at 1:42.

birthmarks {learning to do "man-work"}

and now for the girly-girl version of yardwork...

speaking of isabel...

izzy may have gotten her blonde hair and blue eyes from her daddy, but there's one thing that for sure came straight from her momma...the night owl gene.  the norm is for izzy to be awake looking at books, playing with her babies, or singing away in her bed (remember the christmas carols?) hours after everyone else is in dreamland.  recently she's added a new twist to the nighttime excitement, though...

i went to check on the little ones a few nights ago before i went to bed and found abby, jack, and micah sleeping soundly in their beds (very soundly for one little guy in particular)...

i was expecting to find izzy in her normal position (a la favorite-blue-blankie-draped-across-the-face)...

but instead, i found an empty bed.  she wasn't in the bathroom, she wasn't in her closet, she wasn't anywhere.  contrary to how these pictures look, it's really dark in the kids' rooms (i just use a super-sonic flash to take these...daring, i know) so as my eyes finally adjusted to the dim light, i could see a lump on the floor at the bottom of her bed.  found her.

that one was good, but the next night was even better...

nowhere near her blankie or her book (or her BED, for that matter)...but sleeping soundly.

once again, though, i don't think her daddy minded very much at all.

besides, she seems to be in good company...

birthmarks {the way they sleep}

sometimes it's sweet...



sometimes it's messy...



a lot of times it's upside down...



but it's never boring.



that's ok...it gives daddy one last cuddle with them each night before we head to bed ourselves.

that's what happens when we wake up with nothing to do

two things have been the topic of conversation around here recently:  finding a time to travel to my grandmother's house for a visit and josh's craving for williamson brothers barbeque.  so when we woke up this past saturday with no schedule, no sessions, no plans - nothing! - we made an impromptu decision to kill two birds with one stone.  we headed to the booming metropolis of eastaboga as well as had a delish all-you-can-eat meal at williamson brothers - just outside of atlanta.

yes, it's true...we drove to georgia for lunch.  we don't ever do stuff like that, and it was such a fun memory (despite my pitiful attempts at a full-fam photo)!!




clearly micah's got a lot to learn about having a photographer momma.  he thought our cute photo op was time for a round of "head, shoulders, knees, and toes"...with the emphasis on head.





some of the damage (josh is a pro at this)...



and the day wouldn't be complete without a picture of my sweet meme...



and my sweet tootles on our way home.

when "scorching" is the forecast...

our family loves playing outside in beautiful weather.  hiking, biking, paddle-boating - we like just about anything outdoorsy.  in the spring and fall, that is.  100+ degree temps, on the other hand, are one way to ensure that we keep our feet firmly planted on the floors of our usually air-conditioned house ("usually" because our upstairs unit pulls a once-a-year summer shutdown on us just to make sure we appreciate it).

but a few days ago the kids and i were climbing the walls and josh had developed a tic from spending the whole workweek in his windowless basement office so we waited until the sun dipped down a bit then we treated our lawn and our kids to some sprinkler time. 



one thing i've loved most about this past almost three weeks of having micah home is watching him experience almost everything for the very first time.  it's all new and novel, and it's encouraging me to see things in a new light as well.  i couldn't wait to see what he thought of the sprinkler.



what?  he doesn't look impressed??  he certainly had strong feelings about it...just not the kind i had expected.



jack tried to console him...



and while that did stop the crying, what he really needed was some momma and daddy time.





then he was happy to cheer his siblings on from the sidelines.



i didn't notice it at the time i was snapping these photos, but even the older kids' "sprinkler jumping technique" tells of each of their personalities.  take abby, for example.  abby is a rule-follower, and she loves to make a beautiful production out of almost everything.




izzy, while she can dig up some huge worms in our backyard, is our girly-girl.  she's delicate and sensitive, and she does everything with a sweet touch.




then there's jack.  i'm not even going to try to explain him...i'll just trust that you fellow mommas-of-boys understand.  :-)





but back to micah's "new and novel" time at home.  one of the first things we jumped on when we took custody of him was trying to facilitate some communication abilities between each of us.  not only were we trying to overcome a 10-month-old's lack of expressive language, but we were also trying to bridge the gap between the amharic and english languages.  here's a short video i took of him at lunch time today that just warms my heart.  (thankfully i'm a much better photographer than i am videographer)

HAVE A SUPER WEEKEND!!!!

we'll see you at 4:15!!!!!!

the little engine that could

the past few weeks in 100 words or less

we romped around in the creek (read: muddy water) with the cobbs...



and had an evil-knievil-of-a-time riding the monster truck in the backyard:



the kids and i hit aldridge gardens for a science lesson (really we just needed a getaway for some good mommy/kiddie time):







uncle bailey helped josh get the roof on the hand-me-down playset we got 18 months ago but just made it around to assembling (have i mentioned that josh is a total rock star for putting this thing together?  alone.  from memory.)  and all the dead grass?  see the monster truck blurp above:




while the guys were working, the little lewis ladies and their sweet cousins cuddled a bit (brayden and jack must have been off alternately wrestling and playing matchbox cars):




during the 7 minutes they were all well, some of the fanning crew came over to play on the aforementioned playset:




and in an act designed either to exhibit great love for the newest fanning or to make me insanely jealous, josh spent 30 minutes doing this:



the kids made giraffe sandwiches for lunch one day:



and then, much to my delight, asked me to take their pictures:




to be accurate, izzy requested a "sheshun":



abby and izzy worked intently on their arts and crafts:



and we had a night in with the taylors (the answer is no, i don't have a clue what abby and izzy were doing with their mouths or why jack was staring me down like i was interrupting some fine dining experience): 



and finally, josh and i took a picture of our own to celebrate baseball's opening day:



so maybe "100 pictures or less" is more like it, but there - i'm officially caught up with photo blogging.  i've got wordless wednesday ready to go for tomorrow, but i'm praying that with our agency's wednesday report from ethiopia will come some good news to trump it!