just a couple of a couple...in reverse.

i uploaded these pictures in reverse by accident...so...whatever. here is casey AFTER his haircut.

sporting a scott disick look...before the battle of the haircut began. i had to play hardball and so did he. in the end, he got to watch chugginton if he allowed me to trim his hair.

the before...wild man hair.

ugh...she is getting so stinking big. but she's cute, right? :)

just a shot to highlight these curls that three of the kiddos have. i have NO IDEA where they come from as matt and i both have crazy straight hair. so crazy. and so cute.

soooo...that's it. until next time...when i may actually include some words with actual thoughts and stories and purpose. maybe.

chad, sara, and miranda.

lately, i have been overwhelmed with all the day to day things that keep me busy. i have felt frustrated because so many of the things i am responsible for are tasks that feel mundane to me. my days are filled with ordinary, thankless jobs. dishes, laundry, cleaning.

last night, i became familiar with this family and cannot stop praying for chad. i also can't stop thinking about how he would give anything for even one minute of my ordinary day. over the weekend, he lost his wife of 15 years in a car accident. to make things even worse, she was pregnant with their first child who was due later this month. the baby, a girl that he named miranda, was born via c-section 45 minutes after her momma had died. miranda lived for 3 days on life-support. yesterday, she died as well.

you would think that he would be a total wreck, right? wrong. he has a blog that he has been keeping since discovering that after a long struggle with infertility, they were expecting their first baby. since the tragedies have occurred, he has updated a couple of times. he is filled, it seems, with hope and thankfulness and love for his family. i expect that in the days to come, as the shock wears off, he will mourn outwardly, but the grace he has shown in the confidence that that he is being held up by the Lord is astounding. he knows that his wife and their baby are waiting for him in heaven...and he is comforted.

so as i sit here, wanting to whine about doing the dishes of my giant family of loud messy eaters, i will shut my mouth and wash. i hope that i can remember that some people have tragedy and i simply have everything i ever prayed for. so...yeah. sometimes life is hard, but c'mon. for me, it's a cake walk compared with some folks.

so today, i am going to shut it, i'm going to hug my family, and i'm going to pray for a family who needs it more.

chad and sara's blog is below...check it out and say a prayer.

http://sadandchara.blogspot.com/

birthdays and balerinas.

ellee turned four! don't even get me started on the emotional wreckage that sentence leaves behind (how can she possibly be four? where have the years gone?!) but in the midst of such an exciting weekend, we made some lovely lil' memories and i thought i would share...

for her fourth birthday, we had a princess gala. we all dressed up in our best and ate ellee's dinner of choice...chili. it was magical!

ellee got to blow out the birthday cupcakes! (don't judge me for the store bought treats...i totally ran out of time what with making the chili and getting all dressed up.)

ellee told me that even though she is now four, i am still allowed to pick her up and twirl her. so there's that anyway.

isn't she lovely?

amidst all the birthday bashes, there was ballet...here are my two lil' ballerinas

and my linebacker.

the three bigs. three of the four reasons i have had no time to really blog lately...you can't blame me though, right?

the four. love love love love them.

here's what the first 64 tries looked like.

first position...i think.

yep...first position.

aaaand first position.

what a momma's boy. :)