Mother's Day

Mother's Day #10 for me was a wonderful day. My parents and my mom's dad joined us for lunch. My children made the day extra special with a huge assortment of handmade gifts and my husband was a huge help as I took on a busy day. After a entire day of planting and yardwork on Saturday, there wasn't a muscle in my body that wasn't screaming at me on Sunday, but the garden is planted and I'm ready for summer.

My three very grown up "babies."

Today, Bryan and I got to witness the miracle of motherhood in a different way as you'll see in the pictures later. He had his last preschool field trip to a nearby dairy farm and I had the privilege of accompanying him. This calf is about two months old.

The dairy cows waiting to be milked.

This one was especially interested in Bryan. He must have thought he smelled good, but when we got out of this barn, none of us smelled very good.

One of about twenty milking stations.

The highlight of the morning. We were there just at the right time to witness the miracle of birth. You can see the front legs emerging. This was a first birth for this cow so they helped her a bit by tying a rope to the legs and pulling. Five minutes later...

What a miracle! The kids were spellbound and not at all grossed out by all of this and the adults were fascinated as well. Definately not something you get to see every day.

Taking a turn feeding the lamb.

Showing us the difference between store bought and free range eggs.

Bryan and his girlfriend, apparently this is new in the last couple of weeks. Someday we'll teach him that dandelions don't count as flowers. :-)

My boy, who apparently couldn't keep his eyes open for the picture. He's growing up so quickly while we try to enjoy each day. We already know who his teacher will be in PreK next year and are very excited. He's going to be in a class with his cousin which makes it extra exciting.

Have a great week!

Easter Weekend

What a fun weekend it was, in fact, we're still recovering which is why this is just now getting up on the blog.

The Saturday before Easter, Ashlynn, Bryan and I, along with a niece and nephew, went to an Easter event at a local church. We had a great time and enjoyed some sunshine and fun.

While we were busy with this, Elizabeth was participating in her second REAL drama event. On Monday, she auditioned for the Missoula Theater Company and was chosen to be one of the Pleasure Isle Kids in the play Pinocchio. She then had practice Tuesday through Friday and on Saturday, the cast had two performances.



She had a ball and in our opinion was one of the best up there :-). She definately has some of her father's dramatic flare.

Sunday had the children up so early that they had time to do their Easter egg hunt BEFORE church (you have to understand that we never have time to do ANYTHING before church, so this was a rare event).

After Easter breakfast, we enjoyed a wonderful service and then headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for a delicious dinner...

...followed by ANOTHER Easter egg hunt!

Grandpa hid those eggs REALLY well.

Thanks Grandpa for hiding all those eggs! He even had to chase the neighbor kids away. :-)

Picture time with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa...

and Great Grandma....

and Uncle Mark and soon to be Aunt Christine (we can't wait!).

Followed by a rousing round of rough-housing with Uncle Mark. :-)

It was a great week/weekend with a lot of special things. We were especially grateful for the time we were able to spend with family celebrating the amazing gift of the resurrection! We hope your weekend was blessed and memorable as well.