21/52

"a portrait of each of my children, once each week, in 2016"

 

Jaden: I can't get enough of him in his baseball uniform. Their games haven't even started, and I already have so many pictures of him in his crisp whites and reds! (Mostly because I know these whites won't stay white much longer. Whose idea was it to make an all-boys elementary baseball team wear all white uniforms?!). Team pictures were last week, and they all looked so handsome. And all of us parents are glad that they have numbers on their backs this year because with all of them dressed completely alike, we sometimes have trouble telling whose who from the bleachers!

Brandon: He had quite the Saturday. His first canoe ride, his first lost flip-flop at the bottom of a lake, his second caught fish and one massive sand mountain that he climbed over and over again. Oh - and one incredibly dirt-smudged face by the time we were all said and done. Because it literally took using all four limbs to make it up that sand hill, he pretended he was a giant monkey for hours on end - ape noises and everything.

Wordless Wednesday

A walk through UNI's beautiful campus. On Mother's Day - just a few days shy of our eight-year wedding anniversary - we took the boys to the same spots we had our wedding photos taken. They splashed in the fountain. Stood in the doorway of the Campanile. Peeked into the Union. We ran into President Ruud and his wife Judy and their dog out for the same walk and stopped to have a brief conversation with them about what the boys want to do when they grow up. And by the end of our journey, Brandon declared that he "definitely wants to go to UNI" and Jaden has asked to walk through campus again a couple of times since.

This place... feels like home.

20/52

"a portrait of each of my children, once each week, in 2016"

Jaden and Brandon: These two are bonding over baseball. Brandon has upped his aspirations for this summer and has decided to do the coach's pitch league instead of t-ball. Jaden got tested with - and then purchased - a new and improved bat at Scheels this weekend. Our friend Wade gave Brandon a slightly used glove just his size on Sunday. This morning before school, these two were out in the yard together practicing - Brandon throwing up pop flies for Jaden to catch and Jaden tossing out grounders for Brandon to grab. It was the cutest thing. Jaden's first game is just two weeks away now, and he'll be wearing the number 2 all season long. Daddy secretly calls Brandon the "pissed off relief pitcher" because he does indeed look the part out there! I've said it so many times but - it's going to be a special summer.

Mother's Day Weekend

Thankfully, the weather cooperated. I always look forward to Mother's Day more when we can spend it hunting for flowers, grilling outside and choosing some special place to go for an exploratory walk, just the four of us. Our Mother's Day weekends seem to be following these routine events from year to year - a weekend spent just the way this mama wants.

Mostly in pictures...

I skipped out on work a little early on Friday afternoon with Brandon - who did not have school - and we went to his school playground together to wait for big brother to get out. Jaden was pretty surprised to see us both playing on his playground when his final bell rang.

Brandon loved getting a chance to show me of all his favorite recess tricks.

I can't tell you how many times I heard, "Watch this Mommy! Look what I can do!" He was so thrilled to have me with him at his daily stomping grounds.

After grabbing Jaden we ventured through the Starbucks drive-thru for Frappuccino Happy Hour while the boys were treated to freeze pops and tank tops. It was a steamy early May 88-degree day.

We spent Friday night with Daddy going out to eat and grabbing a few materials for the pond Cody decided to put in our backyard. It's a work in progress, as are so many other things these days!

We headed out to the nursery on Saturday morning for plants and flowers and spent all of Saturday afternoon in our yard, while also transporting Jaden to and from after a couple of hours spent with his friends mini-golfing and go-kart racing.

We gathered with Cody's family on Saturday night for grilling and basketball, gathered in church on Sunday morning and took a stroll through UNI's beautiful campus after church before heading downtown for lunch on the parkade Sunday afternoon.

We had my parents - and Dasher - over to our house on Sunday night for more grilling - and delicious chocolate pie.

It was a good weekend, and my greatest gift of all were these pictures. The older they are, the taller they grow, the more I cherish these images of me with them.