A Mother's Day Tribute

"All that I am, or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." ~Abraham Lincoln

Thirty three years ago my young, beautiful mother posed spontaneously for a Montana Standard photographer. I was on her hip. It appeared the next day on the front page as a Mother's Day feature photo. I've never given the photo, that lay tucked away in my baby book, much thought.

Now that I'm a mom, it takes on a whole new meaning. It's a special photo because it represents a bond that mother and child have, but especially mother and daughter, which started for us, I'm sure, the day I was born. It's not possible to appreciate and cherish that bond until one becomes a mother themselves.

I've reflected a lot on this photo, realizing that being a mother is possibly the greatest gift God gave to woman. It's easy to take for granted at times, those little people that we love so much, and cause us gray hair, and sleepless nights. But I try hard not to take this very important role for granted.
I love my mom, I love being a mom, and I'm thrilled there is a day to honor the loveliness of mothers.

To each and every woman that reads this, take a moment to reflect on the loveliness of your mother, and your mother's mother, and yourself, if you're a mother.

CHEERS!

1977, my mother and me. 2010, my son and me.

Budding Artist

I found my box of art supplies. It had been buried in the garage for over 2 years. I was going to throw my old watercolor paints away and start fresh, then decided to let Kaleb use them for art projects. It gave me great pleasure to give him his very first watercolor lesson.
I started taking lessons when I was 9. A local artist held a watercolor workshop for kids and my mom enrolled me. I loved it so much my mom decided to get me into private lessons. I'm pretty sure this is what eventually caused me to give up my love of volleyball, and my scholarship at Montana Tech, and enroll at Western to study art.
It's such a wonderful thing to know how to do, and though I haven't picked up a paintbrush seriously for many, many years (8 to be exact), I have many desires to do so. Someday when I'm short on distractions and heavy on time I will pursue it once again. And when I do, it's going to feel so good.

PAINT
WATER
BRUSH
ARTIST
SALT
SPRINKLING THE SALT
PAINTING
A MASTERPIECE

Hodge Podge

There's too many pictures, too much fun to keep up with around here lately! And I haven't been very good at updating the blog so now I'm a little behind. I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures and write captions. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words anyway, right?

May 2nd: The princess and the doctor.
At Great-grandpa John's 75th birthday. Madeline and Kaleb get ready to blow out the candles.

May 1st: My new double stroller.Come on mom, let's go! It didn't matter to them that they still had PJ's on.

Double the fun at the May Day Festival downtown Dillon. It was chilly but having the stroller for both boys was a life saver. They could both get under the blankies!



April 30th: On the job site with daddy - in his snowsuit

April 27th: Trying to get a good picture to send out with Mother's Day cards. It was not happening this day.

April 21st: THE CURL. It happened on accident one day after bath. It's so cute I can't help but put the curl in his hair everyday.

April 18th: Fishing at the Kid's Pond. The bobber went under and Kaleb starting reeling. I'm sure the adrenaline was running through his veins. He was so excited.

But once it got to shore and started flipping around, excitement turned to hesitancy and he wasn't so sure he wanted that fish after all - as you can see by his body language.
Jaxon loved being out and about at the fishing pond too. After the traumatic fish experience the poles were retired and we threw rocks in for hours (probably not that long but Kaleb could have done it for hours.) We let Jaxon sit on the rocky shore and he too was fascinated with the rocks, which then went directly to the mouth.

John Deere Boys

The John Deere tractor sat all through the last summer because Kaleb was too timid to drive it. This year is a whole different story. He not only drives it now, he pulls a load behind him!

All good things must come to an end

All good things must come to an end, at least that's what I am always telling Kaleb when he doesn't understand why we have to stop doing something that is really, really fun. But, there I was, asking myself why it must end and wanting someone to say it did not have to. Back to reality, routine, meal preparation, laundry, cleaning toilets....but then I realized - at least I got a 12 day break - so I must not complain!

Traveling alone with Kaleb and Jaxon wasn't near as challenging as I thought it might be. By our return trip home I had it down to a science. And when I found 17 E & D, a nice man was sitting at the window seat. He took one look at my brood and the expression on his face said it all. I looked right at him with a big smile on my face and said, "Don't worry, my kids are angels." I couldn't have been more correct. After only 20 minutes in the air, both kids were sleeping soundly. I leaned my head back and let out a big sigh. At least vacation was ending on a positive note!

Once at the Missoula airport, we walked the long tunnel and when we hit the end, there was daddy - anxiously waiting. Kaleb ran fast and jumped into his arms and embraced him for a couple minutes without saying a word. It was a sight worth seeing.

FIRST STOP: Vegas. Glad that flight was over! Left Bozeman in a terrible squall (had to de-ice the plane) Flight was 45 minutes late and flying into Vegas airport with 35 mph wind gust is not for the weak at heart. I had all 3 barf bags open and ready as turbulents were AWFUL for a good 20-25 minutes (which felt like an eternity). In my mind I was betting on which one of us would throw up first (and thought it would probably be me.) Thankfully, we dodged having to actually use the barf bags. During this very bumpy ride I finally handed Kaleb his bag and told him if he felt like he was going to throw up to do it in the bag. A few seconds later I looked over and he had the top of his bag rolled down. He gleefully explained to me that it was his 'Happy Meal.' It was comic relief for me and I just had to laugh!

Finally, I was united with my grandparents and we drove over to Henderson, NV to see my cousin Shelly and her husband Patrick. We enjoyed a dinner together at The Cheesecake Factory.




It was really wonderful to see my grandparents, but I would caution anyone who ever considers staying in a fifth wheel with 3 adults and 2 children. It was a little cramped, cold at night, hot during the day and the sleeping accommodations were tough. My over-sized suitcase lived on their kitchen table the length of our stay. Oh well, that just meant we had to eat out! :)



THE SECOND LEG: The short jaunt to Tucson was easy. It took us longer to drive back to Vegas than my actual flight time to Tucson. I was eager to see Garry and Bonnie's new pad and for Kaleb to have a place to play. My 8 days in Tucson were wonderful. Here are the highlights.
* Mt. Lemmon. It was gorgeous at the top and fun to climb around on the rocks.
* Reid Park Zoo. Though this was my second trip to this zoo, it was even better this year. My brother Kevin, Kaleb and I spent the afternoon together while Bonnie and Garry stayed home with Jaxon. It was fun spending time with just Kaleb and Kevin.
* The Mosaic Cafe. Kevin and I went out for the most amazing Mexican dinner. Oh and the margarita was great too.
* Racquetball. I could have played everyday I was there, but I probably wouldn't have been able to walk.
* The sunshine, the fragrant air, the flowering cacti.
* Afternoon shopping trips - kid free. THANK YOU GRANDMA BONNIE!!!

Kevin and Kaleb during our outing to the zoo.
Grandpa Garry with the boys on a walk.

At Windy Lookout on Mt Lemmon. What a view!


Two worn out sleeping beauties.
Kaleb meets a pool pal named Pedro.
Shading up while Kaleb swims.
No vacation would truly be complete without a little kid sickness! Both boys had bad colds before we left and a week into our vacation, Kaleb had a sleepless night telling me his molars hurt. I didn't put it together until morning that his ear was bothering him. Lucky for me, a family friend, who just happened to be a retired ER doctor, made a house call. Kaleb got some antibiotics and was better in no time for the plane ride home.

It's good to be home, be back in my own bed, back into a routine, even back to cleaning...okay, maybe I shouldn't go that far. :) We made some great memories and I'm already anticipating our trip next year!

Checkin' in from Tucson

Had a few moments to put some pics up of our trip thus far. We're having a great time and are trying to make the most of every minute in the sunshine.

The Hansen's new home - from the backyard

A perfect sandbox for little boys

A fun day at the zoo

Uncle Kevin and the boys playing with blocks

Popping up popcorn for a bedtime snack with G. Bonnie

Jaxon and his new expression

The first time in the pool for Jaxon - he really enjoyed it!

Tricks in the pool - getting BRAVE!

Jaxon taking it all in

Big jump into the pool

Easter Fun

We gave the kids Easter baskets in celebration of Easter and tried to explain to Kaleb that Christ died on the cross for our sins and rose again and is ALIVE! After explaining it to him in very simple terms, I waited a little while and asked him why we celebrate Easter and he said because of Jesus. I was delighted and proud of him for retaining that information :)

Because we are leaving for warmer weather, there were a few things the kids needed for the trip so I included them in the Easter basket! Kaleb needed a new pair of tennis shoes because his 6 1/2's were getting very tight. Both Eric and I commented within the past few days how long Kaleb's foot has gotten and now he's comfortably in a size 8 shoe. He got "fidder man" tennis shoes and I thought he would be wearing them to bed last night, but he parted with them just fine when it was time for jammies.

He also got some new equipment which will come in really handy for the plane ride. Nothing like new boy toys to keep a boy occupied!

Jaxon got a few short outfits and a hat. It might sound like Jaxon got short changed, and well, I guess he probably did. But I can get away with that this year for two reasons.
1. He doesn't know the difference (yet),
2. He has all the hand-me-downs from Kaleb and since they were born in the same season, all Kaleb's stuff is perfect for him. I dug out all the clothing Kaleb wore to Tucson the first year we went (Kaleb was 9 months) and it is really a good thing I didn't have to purchase new stuff!

We rounded out the evening with Easter egg dying. That was a lot of work and prep for the whole 10 minutes Kaleb spent enjoying putting them in different colors. Then he just got bored and figured out you could bang the eggs together and make a lot of tiny cracks in them.


I think Eric enjoyed dying eggs the most. I stand corrected..... I mean Eric enjoyed dying 1 egg the most. Yes, he spent about 30 minutes dying one single egg. I bought this camo egg dying kit and he was determined to achieve the perfect camo egg. I'll let you be the judge.

We'll enjoy a nice quiet family dinner tonight. This will be the first year (I think) in our married time together, that we haven't spent Easter with family. It will be just the 4 of us and I am really looking forward to it!

I hope everyone reflects on the resurrection of our Christ, the King of Kings! He did indeed RISE from the dead and is ALIVE. May his Holy Spirit live in you today, tomorrow and forever.