Our family is so large these days that pretty much every holiday event doubles as someone's birthday party. This year, Mother's Day fell on my brother Nick's birthday, and Jett (his son) had a birthday two days earlier. That means that Sunday's lunch was a big ol' celebration! I had every intention of editing these photos before posting, but knew I'd just drag my feet on getting that done and the blog would go without posts for another week. So I'm posting them as-is. An active blog is better than a once-in-a-blue-moon post with good pictures, right??
Let's get to it. Remember how my niece Bren used to NEVER smile for my camera? Well the times, they are a'changin'. This little chicken is a cheesin' fool these days. She took a picture with everyone!
I'm one day in on my quest to take more pictures of my mother, and so far, so good!
Beth hosted us all for the big event and she had a big, delicious spread! We stuffed ourselves silly. My brother Ben and his wife Erin were a little later to arrive...Ben won't take a serious picture for me even after I threaten to put it on the internet. This is the best I could get and his darn glasses have an awful reflection!
Ben and Erin brought baby Ramer with them (and Parker too!) so we all had to kiss all over him.
To Bren, babies are just like puppies. They're fun to hold...
...and even more fun to pet!
Bren recently asked her mama if she could put a baby girl in her belly. Beth, I think these two may be up for a little sibling...
Beth (pictured below with her sister Shea) finally told Jett that it could be present-opening time.
There were lots of presents to open so it was hard to keep up. I'm not really sure I know what everyone got.
I know Nick opened a box full of outdoors t-shirts because I helped pick them out.
Jett has gotten pretty into fishing lately so we gave him an official fishing vest. He's the cutest little fisherman I know!
Nick's big gift from all of us was a Yeti cooler. I don't really know what all they hype about it is but he seemed pretty excited. Something about it can keep your beer cold for a really long time and it's bear proof (as if that's been a problem in the past?). While we oohed and ahhed over the cooler, two 3-year-olds moved into it's empty box.
Ramer got down on the floor to play too but he wasn't up to showing me his new scootin' moves.
It wouldn't be a birthday party without cake and candles.
The two birthday boys waiting for us to sing to them.
While we were singing, I think there was some strategizing going on about who would blow out which candles.
Whatever their plan was, it worked! They got 'em all!
Once, back when we were little and were visiting my grandmother, she had just finished baking a cake and icing it for us to have as dessert later in the day. When she came back to the kitchen after a few minutes, she found that a piece had been cut out of the dead center of the cake. That was courtesy of my brother Nick, and he still hasn't grown out of his need for the center piece. God bless Beth for putting up with his idiosyncrasies.
Parker was first in line for ice cream.
I told him he couldn't have any until he smiled for my camera.
Beth served cake with ice cream and whipped cream in edible waffle cone bowls. I may have eaten every last bite of mine!
Shortly after cake we said our goodbyes and headed to the car. I couldn't resist snapping a last picture of these two cuties.
They were way too into their conversation and playing with the sand to even look up at me. I wish I could've stayed and listened to them for a while...three-year-old conversations are pretty entertaining!
That was the fun part of our Mother's Day. The rest of it involved a trip to Walmart (ugh) and me deciding at 7:30 (without having eaten dinner) that I should trim back all of our bushes. I don't know what I was thinking, but I guess that made it both a fun and productive Sunday!
