At last

Sadie Eleanor. What a little doll she is. When I needed to see if their summer outfits would fit, I tried them on her. She lay on the bed and played with her toes. When I tried to try them on Sophie, she would flip over and begin worming her way across the bed.

Here is Nathaniel, still sucking his thumb. In so many ways, he's still my baby boy. But not for much longer.

Here he is on his bicycle. Just a month ago he was whining that he couldn't get on without help, and yesterday he went on a ride with daddy and big brothers through the neighborhood.

Here he is at the top of the hill. One of the gray dots is him. This picture is reminiscent of the nature photos of my youth. I aspired to be a naturalist photographer, but I didn't have a proper camera and I was horrible at taking photos, anyway.

Here is a taste for you. Somewhere in this picture is a hawk in her nest. Can't see it? Hmm.

How about now? Can you tell which blur is the hawk? Okay, so my pictures won't be featured in National Geographic, but you can't blame a girl for trying.

My attempt at a bumblebee in flight. What? You don't care about miscellaneous animals in my yard?

How about plants. Can you find the living hydrangea. This is a miracle, considering I did nothing to it all winter. I'm glad my dad's efforts to plant it were not in vain.

My neighbor's tree. I experienced tree envy daily...

Until I realized I had a dogwood in my own yard! Poorly placed, yes. But beautiful anyway.

I also have four scraggly azalea bushes, which are now covered with bright pink blossoms.

And of course there are my birthday roses, which also miraculously survived the winter neglect.

Alright, fine. Here are the kid pictures. Ben and Bradford with their troop at the Pinewood Derby.

That car waaaay out in front is Ben's. Yeah, baby.

Bradford in a Hudson Hornet at the Pinewood Derby.

Oops. I forgot to put in the picture of my newly planted front garden. The light green plants in the center are creeping gardenias.

My beautiful Gracie. This little dress is so cute and it looked so easy to make that I decided to attempt it. Uh, I should have begun one several sizes larger, because it will take me a couple of years to figure out how to do button holes.

Susan reading to Grace and holding babies. Not bad for a novice. Hopefully she'll have twins one day.

My daily experience of reading to Grace while feeding two babies.

Isn't she just adorable as a Little Scout Buddy?

Sophie? Well, go back and look at the picture of Sadie, because if you've seen one...