The Happenings of an Insured Family

Jeff got a new job recently. (Yahoo!) But in the transition, we were left without insurance for 2 months. (Boo!) The second of those months being October...the month that held the 1-year anniversary of Eli's gory evening of 9 stitches. (Gasp!)

I'm thrilled to announce (Drumroll...) we survived both months without so much as a cough to threaten us with a trip to the doctor. (Applause!) To celebrate our first day back to being insured, we went to the park and jumped off all the high things. (Wheeee!)

I got a laugh out of the conflict of interest I found in the bathroom one morning.

Dressing up for Halloween reminded the boys it's fun to dress up anytime! The week after Halloween involved a lot of digging through old costumes, between rounds of digging through their bottomless trick-or-treating loot.

When your name is Jonah and you're wearing this bib, pictures are mandatory.

When your name is Lincoln and you're wearing a tie ... the two are unrelated, but you're cute, so picture.

It is irresistible to take a picture of this group when they all agree to put on their homemade matching ties. 

Don't mind if I do!

The strongest love/hate relationship in the family currently belongs to these two. They adore each other...and then they suddenly and drastically don't. Here's a blessed moment of happiness.

Carson got a lizard as a prize for all the reading he did the first few months of school. Eli was sick one day and as Carson was leaving to head out the door for school, Eli assured, "Don't worry, Carson. Uncle Eli will take care of him."

The stamp that everyone thought was a terrible bruise for the day it decorated Lincoln's forehead.

Here's one of those less happy moments I was talking about. Every moment I try to get ready in the morning is a battle of lap space. Now you're suddenly nodding your head in understanding of why I quit getting ready. You get it.

Savoring the days of sink baths before he doubles in size in the blink of an eye like the rest of them did.

The primary program was just the thing I needed to get me whipping out more sets of matching ties for this bunch. I'm sure it was all due to the confidence they felt in their adorable new ties that caused both primary aged boys to speak loudly, clearly, sweetly, and sing every word of all the songs to perfection (at least that's how I'll choose to remember it).

All the boys were cute, but there's something about this one with an elastic piece of cloth around his neck that had my heart melting. 

With determination and hours of daily bedtime reading, I have raised my boys to be readers -- a passion I never had but always wished for. While lugging their books up to the check-out, Eli exasperatingly said, "I love to read, but I don't love carrying around all these books!"

These two have a love/love relationship always. Carson is such a sweet baby watcher and is still as obsessed with Jonah as he was when I first brought him home.

The end.
(Wild applause. Standing ovation. Encore, encore.)