Photo Stash Finds

I found a photo stash - it's kinda like finding a wad of forgotten money the pocket of your favorite jeans. We used to keep lots of photo frames around the house, ironically, when the kids were small. Now there are very few in the house. Over the years, as the frames made their way into the Goodwill box, I'd take out the compiled photos, which were just stacked under the frame glass, new on top of old, and stash them - Someplace Safe. Which is a mistake I've continued to make my entire life resulting in the permanent loss of multiple library books, important documents and wedding day earrings.

BUT it was wonderful to see these special photos that have been missing for so long! Thought I'd share some with you all:

We have a long history of fun photos taken inside those pull-curtain booths. This booth shot was taken in Pigeon Forge, TN, in one of those cheap midway/arcade/go-cart areas. I'm newly pregnant here, but it was still a secret. That's my very first maternity shirt, which I couldn't wait to wear --- even though I was only three months pregnant and not really showing at all. How exciting it was to put on the clothes that made the whole parenting adventure even more real, since finally I had an appropriate costume. Maternity clothes were just never, ever that much fun again.

Here's a photo of my mother- and father-in-law holding Our Middle Son on his church dedication morning. Check that expression on Dad's face - he looks like that baby might be exploding any second. Like he's holding a fully loaded, trigger-haired flame thrower. And yes, he was wise, because that's almost exactly what our Second was (is?) like. Even though he looks placid enough in this photo, you never knew when he might twist and leap out of your arms.

This is truly one of my favorites! It's Our First, not even two years old. He's standing at the door of the kitchen, barred by a kitchen-chair-turned-into-a-baby-gate. That expression was his and his alone - it's his supreme joy face.

If only I could kiss those fat baby cheeks one more time!

Taken with our old Minolta manual, this was before I was able to computer crop. That's why the ladder is still visible in the background reminding me of the painting job I had been working on, and proving that this photo was snapped just before we sold that, our first, house. Sometimes I think I now crop out background details that would be happy reminders later. I'm 'crop-hasty'.

More photo-stash finds later!