Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day… was perfect.  I can’t begin to say how good it felt to breathe and enjoy and know that losing Mara hadn’t ruined Mother’s Day forever.  I definitely had some mixed emotions, but over it all hung an umbrella of happiness and I enjoyed every minute of it!

Gabe’s school helps the children make Mother’s Day gifts, and this year he made me a special little lunch sack that contained breakfast in bed – a muffin and a juice box!  Mixed berry juice and an Otis Spunkmeyer muffin never tasted so good!  He was so sweet, telling me how he made sure all the decorations on the bag matched.  This is a common argument between us – how his clothes don’t match.  So I thought his matching efforts on my gift bag were especially adorable.

I had very generously received an iPhone several weeks go in honor of Mother’s Day, and I’ve been having lots of fun with it since then, especially with the camera.  It’s a huge step up from the camera on the droid I used to have!  I’d fallen in a bit of a photo taking rut lately, and the phone (and Instagram, to be perfectly honest) snapped me out of it.  So for a special excursion on Mother’s Day afternoon I told Tahd I wanted to go somewhere and take some family photos.

Not far from us is a little nature preserve, so we packed up the kids and the tripod and set on our way.

I am so glad we went!  I didn’t get everything I wanted, but I love so many of the pictures I did get.  They’re not perfect, but for a short notice outing with a cranky 7-year-old and a tenuous 4-month-old I thought it went pretty well!

We started with a little humor. Because humor goes a long way at warming the reticent heart.  Bet you can’t guess whose heart was reticent… 😉

I’m so in love with this picture of Gabe.  He doesn’t let me take many pictures of him lately, and this one is so relaxed and cute!

Sister wouldn’t look at the camera to save her life!

We were trying really hard to get a picture of me with Gabe and Isla but she started melting down to epic proportions.  So I grabbed our blanket and nursed her instead.  While I did, Gabe sat by me and inspected my charm necklace.  This turned out to be one of my most favorite pictures from the whole day.

After pictures we went to my parents’ house to enjoy family dinner with them and my sisters and their husbands.  Nobody came prepared for pictures but I thought Mom might like a picture of her with all her girls.

<3 them all!

I really have the best Mom, and I love the way she loves my children.  It is a privilege to be her daughter!

I hope your Mother’s Day was as lovely as mine!