smiles

lots of events to make us smile lately. good thing, since this michigan spring weather has been absolutely hideous lately. still waiting for the sun...

since our visit to the dentist (and my mom's office) last week, harper has been all about playing dentist. nana brought her some gloves, a mask, some polishers and mr. thirsty's and harper has asked to clean our teeth on a daily basis.

i could never capture a picture of her while she's playing- she runs away from me. so, when i asked her to don the mask so i could snap a quick photo, out came the tears. i'm such a mean camera-toting mama.

and as far as the other little is concerned, i've been working hard to get smiles from her, knowing in the back of my speech path brain that not having a social smile by 6 weeks indicates potential troubles. i've gotten a few toothless grins over the last few weeks here and there, and managed to capture a few close calls on my camera. but this morning, without camera in sight, when she and i were just snuggling on the couch in the early morning hours and chit chatting about how tired we both were, she gave me the biggest smile yet. and then proceeded to do it two more times throughout the day. makes this mama overjoyed and actually forget for a brief minute how little sleep we're actually getting these days. but, it's so worth it. now, just to get those grins on film.

someone whose not smiling in our family is maximus. we found out last week he needs to have surgery for his torn acl. yup, broken knee. all thanks to his slipping and sliding on our renovated bamboo flooring in the kitchen and dining room. poor thing has been limping around. hopefully, his surgery next week will ease his pains. the cost will not be easing ours, however.

and hopefully, we brought some smiles to the teachers at harper's school last week for staff appreciation week. i found this idea on a crafting blog and had so much fun making and giving them.

and inside were these hand-decorated cookies...

and lastly, more smiles were had when we put this bunch together. we had a bbq on saturday with several college friends who we haven't seen in a while. since our last get together, we've added 3 more kiddos to the mix. two of them were born within 2 days of each other.

here are crosby, reese and wyatt. avery was busy guitaring it up to join the picture and his brother, eli, was sleeping. we were also missing rowan and tegan from the evening's festivities.

crosby was crying, because her paci fell out of her mouth, and reese reached out to hold her hand. not sure she knew exactly what she was doing, but it was perfect timing and so sweet!

look at this adorable little munchkin...

and sweet little wyatt, only 2 days older than our little c.

we had so much fun that night, bringing smiles to all our faces. it was fun seeing the kids playing together (the ones that actually could play that is) and exciting to see how our lives have so changed from our college days. more of these evenings need to be had.