TTT: Catching UP!

 I just logged in to blogger and was greeted with "last published on March 17, 2013." Really? That long ago? I mean, I knew I was behind but I didn't realize it had been almost three weeks. I'm hanging my head just a bit over here. I've carried on with my weekly post for three years. Through new babies, sicknesses, traveling and everything else. And none of that has been going on around here. I've loved writing this blog and chronicling our family's adventures. And I certainly have not had any intention on stopping. But maybe I just needed a break. Maybe I just got so busy with life that pausing to write about it took a back seat. Maybe life seemed so uneventful that I was uninspired and thus, the back seat was an easy place to put it. 

But I'm still here. We are still here.

And despite an apparent unacknowledged writer's block, life has been quite lively. I suppose three weeks is a little too long to reflect back upon. The little nuances have skipped my memory and left me scratching my head. So instead of breaking in to wordy details as is standard, I'll share some photos to help me jog my memory.

Easter happened. Such a favorite, favorite time of mine. A time to appreciate the infinite number of gifts God has given me. Like the most beautiful little family I could have ever imagined.

 And what's Easter without family, cousins and dying a few eggs!?!

And for Mark, a few much needed days off. Work has been uh, "less than desirable" lately and he's been burnt out so having a three day weekend was so nice not just for Mark, but for our family too. We were supposed to go to San Antonio but at the last minute plans were changed and Andy and Abby came here with John and Will. 

Plenty of goodies, of course.

Priceless photos...

And lots and lots of fun! (parents drinking margaritas somehow didn't make the shot.)

Oh, and this....went to....

THIS. Behaving like a person being attacked by a swarm of bees while getting a haircut produces such results. But to be honest, his little nearly-bald head has kinda grown on me. He lost all of his "baby-ness" with those locks and is now just an adorable little boy.

And of course, there's always the normal shenanigans.

And moments when I pause, see a little face, and lose my breath. 

And thank God for this beautiful life.

(To share a little on these pics with you, I was laying with Rudy telling bed time stories. The way he looked at me with such love melted my heart so much that I had to attempt to capture it without him knowing. So in the darkness, I turned the flash on my phone camera and snapped a quick pic. Despite the fact that there was dirt on the camera lense, making it horribly blurry, there's something so beautiful about that face to me. I know it's probably wishful thinking, but I hope that my Ru will always look at me this way. Of course, he insisted that I take another one so he "could smile" which produced the first shot above. Such a handsome, sweet little boy.