Layton and Kathryn {Engagement Photos}

When I met sweet Kathryn, she was only 12.  That was many years ago.

She has now grown into a fine young woman.

And just recently, this young man asked her to marry him.

Kathryn has been one of my kids' favorite babysitters for awhile now.  

She plays things with them, things like hide and seek and Candy Land.

We actually don't have many babysitters, and my kids every so often will ask me if they can have a babysitter.  I believe that to be a nice way of saying, "I'm tired of you, Mommy, and I want someone more fun to come play with me."  But I don't take it personally.  Kathryn IS more fun than me.

And gorgeous too :)

It's always strange to photograph people who cooperate with me.  I say, "Sit on this bench and look that way and smile."  And they do.  Amazing.

I really didn't know Layton at all before our mini session.  He comes from wonderful, Godly parents.  He loves the Lord.  He picked a lovely woman to marry.

But more importantly, he's very photogenic. (kidding)  This can sometimes be unusual for guys, so I'm very grateful for that.  Thank you, Layton.

Thanks for letting me photograph you.  

Wishing you many more years of laughing like this together.

I'm excited to see how God is honored from your lives merging together into one.

Congrats Kathryn and Layton!

Framing

Well, the wood arrived.  Along with this lovely potty right in the front yard.

Which really takes some of the effect away when you're trying to photograph the house from the front.

But this is the real deal.  And we all need to use the restroom.

We came around lunch time of day 1 of the framing, and these guys we already hard at work putting up walls.  The first thing I noticed is how rarely they looked at the plans.  They were out, but I never saw them look at them.  I think I'd have to look at them every 5 seconds.  This is probably why I'm not a framer.

The first time we walked into our house with walls.

It was very fun to feel the space.

I'm not sure what these are, but they sure do look important.

They go between the floors.

This is the kitchen wall.

The living room.

Graham has decided he wants to be a builder.

For these guys, this is better than watching television.

Bringing cookies to the guys.

Tying each other up in the back yard.

And playing with random sticks.

And this concludes Day 1 of framing.

Next up, the second floor.

Embrace the Camera {My Oldest Two}

Soon they'll be taller than me.

But for now I have to stoop down to be in the picture with them.  

I depend on these two for a lot of things... like help with the younger kids or a chore done well.

I'm so grateful for their sweet spirits.

They get the blunt most of my mommy-hood mistakes.  

And they graciously forgive.

Love them.

Embrace the Camera here.

The Slab

So the next day, we got to walk on the slab.

I'm standing in my living room for the very first time.

It is quite surreal to stand in this place I've had mulling in my thoughts for months.

To walk through the spaces.  It all felt very small.  But I've heard that is normal.  For it to feel small.

I'm not worried about it.  

Soon the pitter patter of little feet will be running all around this floor.

The quiet street is about to get a bit more noisy.

The Foundation + Five on the 5th

So much has happened since my latest update.  I'll fill you in on the excitement in my posts later this week.

Where did we leave off?  Well, we were preparing for the slab to be poured.  It rained hard for a couple of days while we waited, but we continued to visit the lot and look nearly every day.

I'm fairly certain that girls don't do this when you ask them to pose for a photo.

Or this.

Or this.

Special thanks to our camouflaged friend who made that particular day all the more fun.

Then on February 15, I got this text.  "Urgent!  Just told that they are pouring your foundation and will be finished pouring by noon."  This is one of the benefits of having a great builder.  They let you know about fun things like this.  We quickly packed some snacks and headed over to the lot.

This is Will (on the left).  He's our builder.  More importantly, he's our friend.  When we arrived, he was already there checking things out.  The boys had a million questions for him.

This is what we saw.

And some very large trucks.

Very large.

They stood and stared for quite some time.  

Cutie.

The front porch.

Eating a banana while he watches all the commotion.

Smoothing out the cement.

Happy boys.

Fun jumping over the exposed sewage line.

We put the boys' handprints in the foundation before it dried.  

Nathan wasn't quite sure what we were doing.

Joseph.

Samuel.

Asher.

Graham.

All five of them.  And their ages under their handprint.

Our fearless builder.  So great to have him here for our big day.

My five on the 5th pictures for this month.  These are from the next day when it was dry enough to walk on.

Cute boys sitting on many future memories.