To ... Frames on Mom's Shelf -

First my bag of dark chocolate pretzels is gone.
Why I spent most of my life thinking pretzels were gross, I have no idea.
That or I just never got brave enough to eat them with dark chocolate.
Either way, my loss all theses years.

Second we had dinner tonight just us ... all of us ... together for the first time in 2 weeks.
Two weeks.
Like we sat around the table not rushed and ate taquitos & oranges.
Must.do.more.

Third, this ... hands down is my very favorite song, right now.
Probably will be for the entire year .... or maybe the rest of my life.
Listen here
Worship .... when we recognize who God is & respond accordingly.

Fourth, I'm kinda completely in love with this family picture.
Chad & Ben tell no lies in their opinions.
My heart bleeds everything for those people.
life.with.we

So when the entire family, all 16 of us, are together in town for barely 24 hours .....
We pull out the tripod, baby.
We ignore the fact that Chad forget to bring anything other than a t-shirt & make him wear Dad's sweater.
We drive around embarrassing our kids looking for a wall without shadows.
We run & miss the self timer.

We coax kids to not cry.
We hold babies.
We smile.
We do it for the frames at Moms house.
And the memories.
And we don't get to be all together very often, so ....

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It started years ago .... this awkward family photo where everyone lines up tallest to smallest.
Amity wouldn't stand in the line, Piper fell over & Nolan can't hold his head up yet.
Nailed it. Or not .... pretty much those little Anderson kids had issues.

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The fact that this picture exists is a memorial in itself.
They sat there just waiting to be told where to stand next, while Dad's butt froze on the cold concrete steps.
We just added one kid after another :)

Yes, it was overkill ... but once we started we just kept going.
Dad was already cold.

 Amie wins the perfectly ready award.

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Then there's this set.

Seriously - I die.
Look at her faces.
They're my favorite brother & sister.

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Then we added Amie's in-laws :)

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Someday we'll hire a real photographer to take our pictures.
Someone who'll tell us where to stand & tell us to fix our shirts & not look like dorks & add lip color.
They'll have the right lens & light & focus.
Until someday, these are the memories that fill Mom's frames.

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Can't forget the Chad pictures.

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