some mornings, it takes more effort to peel myself out of bed than others.  i have to give myself a mental pep talk, visualize the steps of our morning routine, and give myself another mental pep talk.  and maybe an extra five minutes to close my eyes and pretend i’m still asleep.  because no matter where we are, what we’re doing, or what day of the week it is, we have the same exact routine every. single. morning.  times three. assignment #13:  routines. the following set of pictures should be viewed more like my mental checklist rather than the actual steps.  because the real-life execution of said steps is much…

ok, so i’m not completely satisfied with these photos.  the truth is that i very rarely am with any of my photos.  gah.  but it was the best i could do today with two somewhat silly, bouncy, kinda unwilling to hold still for any amount of time subjects before i gave up and called it a day.  and then realized i shoulda adjusted my aperture in order to get more of their faces in focus.  and then realized i just wanted a nap more than anything else.  hey, i’m all about the priorities, ya know. assignment #12:  the eyes. the boy.  looking at his eyes make me happy.  in them,…

if you were to ask him, he’d say he wants to be just like his daddy when he grows up.  which means, if you were to ask what he wants to do when he grows up, he’d say he wants to be a doctor.  he’s not quite clear on what exactly daddy does at work, but mikey does know that he works in a big building called a hospital, wears blue pajamas to work, and uses cool tools to help people feel better.  and that’s good enough for him.  though he does avoid the touchy subject of giving shots altogether.  it’s probably best not to bring it up. his daddy…

assignment #10:  space- where they are comfortable when lauren needs a bit of alone time, we can most often find her parked on our bed in our room.  i purposely keep our room dark so that i can slip in there from time to time, and hide from my kids, i mean get a bit of rest.  i call it my bat cave.  she doesn’t mind the darkness as long as her two favorite things in the world are in there.  the memory foam pillow and the ipad.  and they usually are.  she props herself up on daddy’s memory foam pillow, casts all other pillows and blankets aside, and does…

one thing phil really enjoys is music.  whether it’s listening, singing, or playing, he enjoys it all.  he led worship for our church and college group for a number of years.  his ability to play a mean guitar was one of the things i admired about him way back when.  lugging his guitar around with us was a normal part of our dating years. unfortunately, the majority of his time since we’ve been married has been taken up with his schooling, training, working.  so much so that things like hobbies have long been pushed to the back burner.  and his guitar has seen way more dust rather than playing time…