Ode to a Mantel

When Marcie and I moved into our house almost two years ago, one of the first decorating decisions we made was to make our fireplace mantel into a “Next Generation Cousins Showcase” (i.e. a place to display photos of our nieces and nephews and perhaps even one of our own “some day” as we then thought of it). At the time, our mantel was quite modest with just three photos: Kim’s daughters Jianna and Kaylie and Aimee’s daughter Jenna. But in just the past year alone, the number of kids has more than doubled with seven adorable little faces now on display on our mantel. And since they’re all growing so fast (as kids are prone to do), we refresh the photos quite often. Here is what our mantel looks like in its most recent incarnation:


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From left to right: Jianna, Kaylie, Jared, Melody, Jenna, Brett, and Sarah
I just love looking at all those smiling faces. No matter what kind of mood I’m in, the mantel always makes me happy. There’s no doubt going to be more happy faces to come, so it will be an interesting challenge fitting everything on the shelf as our family continues to grow.