pictury in Jesus!

What dinner is like nowadays

 Friends, readers, fellow stay-at-home mothers who follow my blog; I enjoyed yesterday. As the Skinners are/were in town for a week, we decided it would be fun and appropriate to have a good, old-fashioned Skinner/Johnson/Du Toit get together.
   Please understand, I have lots of friends that I love dearly. I never seek to show favoritism or anything of the sort amongst the women and men that God has placed in my and Stephan's life who we both love and cherish dearly. The reason a small get-together like the one we had yesterday was so special is because the Skinners and the Johnson's were the first "couple-friends" Stephan and I made after we got married. We have been friends with them the longest and we used to have fun get-together like the one yesterday a lot. Since the Skinners are moving back we will soon get to enjoy everybody's company like in the olden days! Only there are three pretty noticeable differences:

Lauren's all, "sup?"

   Instead of couples, now we're families! And a few of the biggest differences having a child makes are:
         1.) Photos are tougher to take. Getting all the babies to hold still/smile/stop crying/stop hitting Aubrey was a pickle!
         2.) Event are shorter. That's the only drawback to having babies this far. By 8 at the latest, babies were ready for sleep-sleep and made it very clear to all adults there that they felt that way. Wise parents with children at more advanced ages than ours tell us that that changes for the better as the kids get older. (whew!)
        3.) I wish to rephrase my first statement: posed pictures are tougher to take. One of the more entertaining things about having several babies at one event is the plethora of candid photo opportunities that come out of no where! (as you all may have gathered by the amount of pictures of my and other peoples' babies on my blog). Of course, nobody had their camera ready for what would have been the cutest picture ever in the world: At one point, Lydia, who was standing next to Noah, randomly and without parental prompting, bent down to give Noah a kiss. Noah, in turn, lifted his face to return the kiss. Aubrey, Ashley, my mother and I all started howling and clapping like we had just witnessed an adorable miracle. We made Lydia cry. Noah smiled. (He seems to like attention.)
    In closing, I say this: God has blessed Stephan and I with many things, all of which we don't deserve in the least, but one of my favorite blessings, one that has made a huge, positive influence on my life and my walk with my Lord, are these and all my friends. Thank You, God! And thank you, friends, for being my friends! 

Ain't we precious?

Noah has closed himself in his room again. That never bodes well.