A photo album for Beth?

I'm not sure if people will remember this particular Simpsons episode (for those of you that don't know, the Simpsons is a cartoon about a somewhat dysfunctional but persistent family), but there is an episode where the Simpson family is gathered around their home and they start looking through some photo albums. There are plenty of pictures of Homer (the dad), Marge (the mom), Bart (the son), and Lisa (the older daughter), but none of the youngest child, Maggie. Bart and Lisa ask why not, and Homer and Marge provide a long explanation of why, which constitutes the bulk of the episode. The details aren't important, but the long and short of the story is that they had plenty of pictures of Maggie, which Homer kept at his dead-end job to motivate him. It's actually a charming episode, one that we kind of relived this week...

We had just shut off the TV for a break from its droning. I suggested we look through some of our older photo albums. I just grabbed a couple from their storage spot, and we started flipping through them. The first was from Hope and my years out west, with pictures taken in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and elsewhere in the mountains. Fond memories that now seem rather distant... Anyhow, the second photo album turned out to be much more recent--pictures of Hope when she was expecting Kenny, Kenny as a baby, Kenny as a toddler, etc. Pretty much a Kenny-dominated album. We all enjoyed it, but then Beth starting pleading for "her" album.

At this point, we realized that most of what we have picture-wise of Beth are digital images. We've been sent a bunch of prints of her by other people, and these we've got somewhere, but I suspect we're like many families in the digital camera age. After purchasing our first digital camera in 2003, we've hardly taken a regular snapshot. We probably take more pictures than ever now with our digital, but they sit on the computer most of the time. Certainly not the tangible feel it used to be...

We're going to try to make a better effort about putting together a collection--the best of the best, if you will--of our images into print form and keep them stored for sitting around as a family and paging through. That way, lil' Beth (and Lunker Larry, when he arrives) won't feel left out. And so the rest of you won't feel left out, we'll also post some online and send prints every now and then, too. Above is a recent picture of Kenny (with our neighbor's cat Ivan), so he won't feel left out, either...

And since I mentioned it earlier, I thought I'd send a picture taken a couple of days ago of Hope--in profile. As you can plainly see, Lunker Larry rightly deserves his knickname. This is probably the most uncomfortable Hope's been with the kids, and Larry is likely to be the biggest of the three, if he goes full-term. The last few weeks of hot, humid weather haven't helped, either. Hope's been staying busy, getting things ready for the baby's birth, but also getting things lined up for when Kenny starts kindergarten in less than two weeks. However, I suspect she will start getting orders from her medical doctor (she doesn't really listen to my orders) to slow down and do less...

Before people start complaining that I never make it onto this blogsite... Wait a minute, who'd ever complain about NOT seeing my mug on this site...? Hope snapped a couple pictures of me this week, and I thought I'd put one in to show MY suffering...

Okay, well, so it isn't as obvious as what Hope's been going through, but these new glasses really have irritated the bridge of my nose...