Heart Smiles

My mom had hip replacement surgery on Tuesday.  Everything went well and she is doing good, all things considered.  The children and I were headed to the hospital yesterday to visit Lao Lao (Lao Lao is Chinese for "maternal grandmother").

When we are going "out" I want the children to look nice.  When the children (and I) all look nice and presentable I've found that we get more smiles from everyone around us, and are more likely to hear "What a beautiful family you have!" rather than, "You have your hands full!"(said with a look of consternation).  (Oh, if I only had a dollar for every time someone has uttered those words to me, though, Jas could retire!)

But I digress...

Since the children were looking so cute...I decided to take 20 seconds and snap a picture of them before we loaded up in The Silver Bullet.

I took 7 pictures in those approximately 20 seconds.

In every one of them Gabriel is smiling like this.





He seriously is trying to smile.

He was being obedient and smiling for the camera.  This is just the way he smiles on command right now.  [sigh]












All my children have gone through this awkward smile phase, and I know it will pass.

But in the meantime, these pictures make my heart smile.

I love that G is so exuberant (if misguided) about smiling for the camera.

I love that my 9 and 10-year old boys love and think it is cool to match their 2-year old brother.

I love....these children.  "All" these children.  Yes, they are all mine.

Oh, Lord, how I love these children...and thank you for them!