Mom's Day & Disappearing Presents

...join with me in pretending Mother's Day wasn't 8 days ago...

Mom's Day

One of my favorite things about marriage is seeing my husband and my brother become friends. They are brother-in-laws, obviously, but they also like each other and are real life friends. And it's awesome. (Especially since my brother scared off pretty much every boy who ever had interest in dating me, until Taylor came along. He instantly liked Taylor. That's big time.)

So, out of all of the fabulous events from Mother's Day weekend, my favorite was the gunfight between Jared and Taylor.

It all started with sweet Beckett and his little $1 squirt bottle, that he frequently squirts himself in the face with.

The bottle was quickly hijacked and used against him, along with a homemade water bottle squirt gun.

This of course left Beckett excluded, toyless, and undefended as the grown men waged a full-fledged water war against each other.

The lesson learned here is that in a lot of ways, there really isn't a huge difference between ages 2 and 28. Boys will be boys.

Mother's Day 2013 was a fabulous week/weekend/day, and I'm so glad my own momma got to be in town with us to celebrate. Here are some of my favorite pictures from our time together.

And if you're wondering why I put the far right picture in since my kid's eyes are closed and his pants are halfway off...let me show you the collage I made from our own Mother's Day photo shoot:

 

You gotta work with what you've got, and we didn't get a whole lot to work with.

But I love it. The photos we ended up with are a perfect depiction of real, day-to-day motherhood. 

Every moment isn't giggles and gumdrops, but there is beauty in the moments that don't go according to plan. And when that crazy toddlerface boy is all grown up and moved away from home, I bet these are the pictures I'll love the most. Real life.

(I'll probably especially love that any and all photos from 2012-2014 had at least one fire truck - aka "f&^%a" - in them.)

Disappearing Presents

Can I tell you about my Mother's Day present from Taylor?

It's a painting of 3 little boys sitting on a tailgate. Simple. Fun. 

Perfect for Beckett's room or a playroom.

So cute, right?

Let me find a picture of it hanging on my wall...

Oh, wait. 

That's right. 

I don't actually have it anymore.

Long story short, I had to exchange the painting Taylor got for this one and right after I took the picture above of the new painting resting safely in the back of my car, a crazy lady came up to me at the store and told me she had to have that very painting right this second. Something about a retirement party and this painting being the centerpiece and her regretting not buying it the second she saw it instead of shopping a little first (even though I'd called ahead that morning and been assured they had saved said painting for me)....I don't even know.

It was all very strange, but I gave it to her (mostly because I was afraid she would cause me bodily harm if I said no). Allegedly they have another one on it's way, but they won't return my calls. And they still have our money.

If it never gets resolved, I just want to say:

Mother's Day painting, 

I loved you so much for the 30 seconds I had you. Maybe next time we can spend a little more time together. I hope you had fun at your retirement party and that your new owner gets on high-dose medication to prevent her from accosting fellow shoppers in the future. 

XOXO