Lilly's Dedication

Lindsey, Aaron & Lilly at Lilly's Dedication

Lilly with her Grandma Cathy (Lindsey's mom)

Little Lilly Eats her Hand

Atticus Makes Some Noise

Yesterday we drove up north of The Cities to visit our friend Cindy Waltho. Every couple months Atticus and I go up there for a morning or afternoon and have good conversation and talk about art making (Cynthia is a painter too -- though she has been doing it for a long time and I'm just now learning to work with oils). She is always such an encouragement to me. She's finally in that stage of life where her kids are almost out of college, making good decisions, happy, growing as people...a delight for her to know as friends...so now she can use her spare time (she's a professional food stylist by profession) to focus on fine-art creating. And she is a fervent, un-dusty Christian who I know prays for me and my little family and who I know understands how important it is to give oneself to your husband and children and the community around you. So I feel like I have a friend with a perspective farther down the road of life that is a strong woman, a happy woman, a creative woman. And it certainly helps that she appears to have genuine affection for my son -- something that isn't too hard to have considering his flirting, charismatic ways -- especially in the presence of an admiring public (-: He adored the cat (which wasn't really reciprocated -- no wonder, considering Atticus' pulling of her ears, fur and tail...). We even got to watch a colorful array of chickens (one of my favorites -- a plymouth barred rock) and a strutting, flamboyant dandy of a rooster (a bantam?). Right before we left for home, Cindy pulled out a rainstick, a pot, and a wooden marimba and handed Atticus these yarn-ended mallets. He just loved it. And these photos are so funny -- they make him look like a total drummer boy.

How 'bout that wrist-hand technique?

Playground with the Millers

Atticus in Leah Miller's front yard...

Atticus and Cal in the red wagon

Isaac swingin'

Big Cal decides he wants in the baby swing too

Atticus' favorite part of the slide was climbing up the slide.
He adores walking up any slope --
the "hill" in our front yard gives him great joy. Strange kid (-:

Here are the faces of both sides of the teeter-totter --
Cal was just hilarious chortling with glee when I'd make
his butt do a paddle-smack with a teeter-totter bounce.
It was so funny!

Brad and Me, Anne's Photos Part 2

I love these four pictures of Brad and me...they capture us easy and happy...and even playful, things that we find pretty elusive. But when we are "in register" and walking "in time" together it is so satisfyingly good.


These three photos are how I wished I looked...everybody has those photos and those glimpses in a shop window or dim-lit bedroom window -- "there!" you say to yourself, "if only I could just stop the film right there and keep that lighting and expression and spirit...then I'd be passable...But I am actually becoming almost happy that we are so kleidoscope-ish in our moods and expressions and "modes" -- such a wildly complex puzzle we all are. I think it is a zillion-fold more interesting playing this "game" with another person's complexity folded into the tangle. On bad days I think this is a disaster. On good days, an adventure -- definitely, an adventure.


These are my three favorite pictures of Brad (above and below this comment) because I think they look the most like the man I love -- when he is relaxed and satisfied and quiet in his soulish parts.

Anne's Photos Part 1

Being the family "recorder" I really don't have many photos of our family all together, especially of Brad and I together. So I hired my friend Anne Golliher to come over and take some pictures one Sunday afternoon. Thank you! I've had some printed out and will be sending out some packets to some of you guys we think might appreciate them.