The Girls

I just have to post these photos, no particular reason except that I know Lauren will appreciate them, and Stephanie is a faithful reader, and I have them sitting on my external hard drive screaming to be seen. I love these girls and all the little amazing things they do. They are a joy and delight, they increase the laughter and the volume in our home and constantly remind me to slow down and love more.

This was taken when we went out for my birthday to Cafe Kadosh. She is so gorgeous and did a wonderful job humoring the grown ups as we talked and sipped our coffee. Of course the fancy dessert at the end helped things. 

Who doesn't love naked babies? And naked babies with fluffy hair?! I want to kiss her pudge just looking at this photograph.

 I had to see what her hair would look like in a spike. It's a bit similar to Cousin Valor's, although his hair grew into a natural mohawk. Very cool.

Happiness is chilling on the couch with your sister.

Nothing much more going on, just chilling this Shabbat with Maasen, enjoying the sunshine and cool breeze. It's a great day to say Thanks to the One Who makes all things possible.

Happy Anniversary

So what did the jet-setting Jerusalemites do for our ten year anniversary? Really exciting stuff:

we went to the city center, got some falafel, bought a second-hand matzah plate...

 and a play mat for Emmylou so she can roll around and nap in the living room...

picked up some fancy dessert at my favorite cafe, Kadosh...

and headed home. I made Chipotle-style burritos for dinner and after we put the girls to bed we enjoyed our dessert by candlelight and talked till midnight about our future. We lived through the past ten years together so we didn't feel the need to re-cap that. The night we spent a lot of time looking ahead. Not knowing what the Father has in store for us excites us and gives us hope (as I write this I'm reminded of Jeremiah 29:11, which was Cassidy's memory verse last week. It really is true -- He does have plans to give us hope and a future, no matter what life looks like).

We also looked through our wedding photos, which was a blast. Everyone looks so young (ten years, as a matter of fact) and thin and happy. And in about every fourth photo Tom is making me laugh. For example:

I like to think he learned the "Pez Head" laugh from me... 

Closed eyes, that must have been a REALLY funny one... 

Oh wait, this is when I forgot my vows, because I thought 

it was a good idea to memorize them... 

 He brings out my inner dork...

You can tell by his expression that he thinks he's funny, too... 

 This is a classic example of Tom's style of humor: awkward. 

The more people that are uncomfortable the better...

Notice his grip on my arm and the way he's holding both of my hands. 

Why is that funny? I don't know, but I'm laughing pretty hard.

I like to think we had a classy wedding, but really we're not known for being classy. More like dorky, and happy, and food-oriented. These photos pretty much sum that up. And for the record, I still laugh like this at Tom on a daily basis. While his commitment to Jesus was the biggest thing that drew me to him, his ability to entertain me was, and is, a close second.