blast from the past

The photos of Elizabeth and Philip at the top of the hill at the baseball field last weekend had an awfully familiar feel.  

The shot was taken exactly 3 years ago today.  

(Obviously a cooler April that year.)

This shot was last Saturday in the same spot:

It's amazing to see how much they've grown.  In the first picture, Elizabeth was 5 and Philip was 3.  Paul and I had only been married for a little over 6 months when that photo was taken so we were a relatively new family.  It would be another week or so before we found out that Finn was joining our family.

Now we're a family of 6, rooted together; the kids barely remember a time when they weren't all siblings.  We have our moments with the shift in dynamics that inevitably happens depending on who's home at any given time.  But I see these two pictures, and I fill with amazement that we've managed to raise step-siblings who don't even really know that word.  They love one another and fuss, laugh, fight, play, tease and care as one family.