Looking at this recent picture of my father with my boys, my first reaction made me giggle. “Wow!” I thought to myself, “There are really a lot of them!”

In my daily life, I don’t sit back often to reflect on where I am, or where I’ve come from. As I believe most of us do, I simply go about my daily life, making lunches, helping with homework, driving carpools and the like.

And then a picture like this gets taken, and I find it hard to believe that these guys are mine – all of them!

(We interrupt this blog for a second to be superstitious. Let’s all say tu-tu-tu together and spit!

Ok…now I can continue…)

I think it’s safe to say that neither my father nor I ever assumed that a picture of this sort would be taken. During my secular-college-student-days at UCLA, this picture wasn’t on my radar.

At some point, after Josh and I had been married for awhile, I saw a picture of someone’s family that stunned me. Sitting on their mantel, they had a picture that showed grandparents surrounded by their many, many children and grandchildren.

And it captivated me. I told Josh that we had to have a “mantel” picture someday, and that’s been our goal ever since.

And here we are, surrounded today by these amazing boys…so many of them.

Here’s a mantel picture for your fireplace, dad.

May there be many, many more such pictures as the boys grow and as they bring us little guys (and maybe even girls) of their own to include in the ever-growing picture of our lives.