Happy Birthday to Me!

Jason came home with this beautiful boutique, a frappacino and Starbuck's gift card. What a wonderful gift! I'll be frequenting Starbuck's for awhile!


Can you guess how old?

My friends Ali (baby Carter), Emily & Jessica (and Alaina) helped me celebrate my day by taking me to lunch. It was very thoughtful of them. They even sang "happy birthday" to me in the middle of the restaurant (those of you who know me know that this makes me really uncomfortable and embarrassed. I did survive however)

Alaina

Kory

Carter

The rest of my day was filled with the duties of "normal" life...washing clothes, cleaning house, etc. I spent my evening at the ball field watching Kyle play.

After Kyle's baseball game last Thursday we took off for Grandma and Grandpa's (at 8:30 p.m.). It is a 3-hour drive and Jason having been up since 5:15 a.m. was just a little delirious by the time we arrived at 11:30 that evening. Apparently he was waiting for me to offer to drive and I was waiting for him to just stop and say, "you have to drive". Aside from the delirium and misunderstanding we arrived safely. On Friday we spent most of the day with my dad and his wife, Sheila. They have 5 horses one of which was a week-old colt. They are beautiful horses and the boys loved petting them and feeding them hay.

Abby & Sheyenne

Sheyenne

The boys and Grandpa petting Sheyenne

Annie

Haas

Raindrop

Annie & Raindrop

The boys playing on the hay

My mom and I spent Saturday together at a Mother/Daughter brunch hosted by her church. We had such a wonderful time together. The boys spent the day helping dad and grandpa build sections of a dock and put it in the lake. After all the work was done Dad and Kyle did some fishing.

Oh and Friday night Jason, Kyle and I went to a Phillips, Craig and Dean concert in Minneapolis. How awesome!

Have a wonderful week.

Happy Mother's Day

Mom, I'll love you even when...

I'm all grown up, Happy Mother's Day!

(This is the card I received from Kory today. It made

my heart melt completely.)

A MOTHER...

When you're a child she walks before you,

To set an example.
When you're a teenager she walks behind you

To be there should you need her.
When you're an adult she walks beside you

So that as two friends you can enjoy life together.
~Author Unknown~

As I reflect on being a mother and the challenges that go with it...Will my child ever be potty-trained?...Will he go to school with a pacifier? And as I am trudging through the stage of indifference (you know, the "I don't know" and "I don't care" answers to every question). With fear and trepidation I will enter the years of puberty with an eye-rolling teenager. But I will ever be thankful that God has given me and my boys (Jason included) the ability to laugh. Without it, I might just go crazy! Laughter soothes the soul and is the best medicine.

God's blessings to all the mothers that are in my life!

A Visit From the Hedlunds

On Friday the Hedlunds (my sister and her family) left KC for a visit to Wisconsin and after 10 hours they arrived safely. Grandma and Grandpa also made a 3 hour trip and arrived in the afternoon. The weather was amazing, which the kids took full advantage of. We hardly even knew they were around, except when they needed something, like food :) I was only able to get a posed group picture on Sunday morning. Every other day they were scattered about and always in motion. Us girls, of course, escaped for awhile on Saturday for some shopping. On Sunday we were actually able to get 11 people showered and ready to go with time to spare. That hardly happens with just the four of us. We even had time to enjoy Jason's scrumptious breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage and potatoes. We had such a wonderful time of catching up and relaxing. Although, the time was short and it was sad to see them leave on Monday, we are very thankful for this moment of time we had together.

Kayla, Kyle, Blaine, Brian & Kory

Kory & Auntie Tara

Jeremy & Tara

Me & Tara (have to update the "sister" photo)

Baseball season has begun

Kyle had his first official Little League baseball game last night. It was freezing! They played a team comprised of mostly all 11 & 12 year olds. They were huge compared to our team of mostly 9 year olds! Kyle played right field, but only a couple of hits came out his way. His team did lose, but overall I think they did pretty well and held their own. I am hoping to get some much better photos of him. Last night was too cold, I didn't want to get unwrapped from my blanket to get up and walk around the other side of the field. I figured it was okay, I have 16 more games to take pictures at.

This evening we have kindergarten orientation for Kory. It's hard to believe he is almost done with pre-school and will be beginning his official school career in the fall. He has loved pre-school and has made some great strides...he can actually say all of his A,B,C's now. This is huge progress! This is the child who will not do, say or learn ANYTHING until he decides for himself that it's a good idea and worth his time. I'm glad that somebody could convince him that knowing his A,B,C's is a good thing. Now let's see if being such a "drama queen" can be curbed :)

I completed filling in our calendar for May today and there are only 5 days in the whole month that are empty. The first three weekends are filled with either us going somewhere or someone visiting, which leaves the last weekend, Memorial Weekend, with nothing planned...yet. I think that May in going to fly right along. At least I'll have plenty to write about :)

Check in with us when you can, we would love to hear from you. Have a blessed week.