A Picture Post

 I know I've said it before, but pardon the grainyness of these photos, they are iPad quality.  The other camera is lost somewhere in the bowels of the house.  Not only can I not find the camera but neither can I locate the bowels of the house.  I have decided to include myself a little more in the photos (and I need to work on Dave) as kids need to look back and see mom and dad in the family photos:  what did they look like in their 20s, 30s etc.?  I know that I cherish the few pictures that I have of my parents throughout their lives.  And, wow, isn't Sarah turning into a little beauty?

 Isaac regularly steals Jacob's glasses.  He also spends a great deal of time naked, but we don't need to talk about that here.  He looks cute both ways.

 I found this photo on our iPad after we spent a morning at the local rink while Dave coached broomball.  Sarah's godfather was guarding the iPad for us and, apparently, he took some photos.  When I found this photo, I showed it to Dave and asked, "Do I make that face a lot?  Because I have never seen that face before and I hope that's not my default face because, if it is, something needs to change."  Dave reassured me that this is not a regular Elena face; however, he did go to Confession that afternoon.

 Hannah and Ben love to dress Sarah in her clothes and do her hair.  Ben also likes to brush my hair.  He followed me around the house with a brush last night as I attempted to get ready for a talk that Dave and I were giving.  He never got a chance to work on my locks but he does brush his own into a mohawk.  (For those of you who know my Uncle John, the similarities between him and Ben are many! not the mohawk, the hair-brushing.)

 Ah, the sisterly relationship.  Finally, there are sisters in our house and, oh, how they love each other.  The other day when Hannah arrived home from school Sarah squirmed in my arms until Hannah came to take her.  Beautiful.  I pray that their relationship is close despite the large age difference.

 And this picture, my friends, is so like photos of me as a baby that I might just be able to stop having children.  What a narcissistic family-planning process...

 Hmmm, proof positive that some naughty twins got hold of the iPad.

 This shot catches the essence of both Joe and Isaac:  happy, happy, joy, joy with a dash of near-fatal accident thrown in.  Believe it or not, this is Isaac on his fully-dressed days.

 Sammy has a friend!  Friends of ours (two of the best additions to the Bay) have a lovely girl dog called Aowyn.  We have a bit of a dog-exchange agreement so that when one couple leaves town the other couple watches the left-behind dog.  Sammy absolutely loves when Aowyn comes to visit and Ben is in his element with more than one animal in the house.  Aowyn actually has a very calming effect on Sammy and I quite enjoy when she is here.  We do, nevertheless, contain them with a chair when eating a meal; they are dogs, after all.

Continuing with the chair theme, this is evidence that Isaac also found the iPad:  this and fifty other pictures of the exact same chair rails.