Mother's Day and Memories

The second Sunday in May ... Mother's day. 

It was a "memory" filled Mother's Day this year. 

Had the traditional breakfast and the bouquet. 

I never really know what to get my mom for Mother's Day. This year though ... she's been trying to get me involved in a big photo project, organizing and labeling pictures from all throughout the years. I'd just never really gotten on board. A couple of times when there were difficulties figuring out how to keep certain written memories with pictures, my mind would think "this would work well in a blog".  So that's what I did. I made a blog. 

It's a little like scrapbooking. Coming up with a cute title, making themed pages (like "Do You Want To Build a Snowman" showcasing snowmen built over decades, or featuring the autobiography of Grandma with a collage of photos or showcasing the California Vacation of 1980.  I got several topics up, and all the annual Christmas Letters (from 1997 - present).  I knew Mom, Chris and Wendy had been discussing ways to keep track of current correspondence too. The weekly/monthly letters we siblings send out. That didn't quite fit my thought for The Westra Way blog, which I wanted to be more classic stuff. So ... I made a second blog (Write On) for that and grabbed the last month or two of emails to include there.  That was my gift, and a gift that will keep on giving as I keep it up (I know, I'm behind on my own blog, but ...) So I sent my mom the link that morning.

After breakfast, we went out to the cemetery. 

First Mother's Day without mom for Gray. 

It was just three little boys, as the bigs were off doing their own thing.

I was trying to recreate some grass pictures taken in 2011.

We'd had a family Zoom meeting the week before for Pammy's birthday.

We then stopped by to see my folks ... with the whole Covid-19 thing still going on, we just visited out on the porch for a bit. I forgot to grab a photo. We also drove by Pam's old house (where Gray grew up, where we lived in the basement apartment when we were first married, that the kids knew as Maga's first house) and then by my old house on Hermitage. A memory-filled morning.

My brother Chris had asked us all to write up memories of Mom.

I turned it into a blog post too ...

Memories of Margie (May2020)

Landon and Sol came over for games and dinner.

Gray made a yummy dinner with tri-tip, mashed potatoes and asparagus ...

When I was growing up, there was a large orchard by the house. We kids would go wander, and asparagus grew wild there. It was tricky to find, amidst the trees and weeds, but I was a really good asparagus finder. I didn't want to eat it though, and my mom couldn't make me ... because then I just "wouldn't find" anymore. It wasn't until this last year that I tried Grayson's sauteed style. One of the very few foods I've learned to like in my old age. 

Mothers Day 2017

This Mother's Day will be memorable to me. The boys recreated some favorite photos from back in the day. They were SO cute! We had to print extra copies to give to the grandma's as well.  You can see one of the pictures in the frame here (being a FLAG PHOTO, I stuck it one a patriotic blog post, so you can see it better there) and I'll include the other two below. 

The morning was fairly standard. They always do up a breakfast in bed ... although I don't always stay in bed. It's fun to come into the kitchen and see all the boys busy helping out. 

We were able to have both grandmas over in the evening too, to pass on pictures and presents.

The day before, Olivia set up a surprise for Pam, Courtney, Ana and I ... pedicures. It was fun to get together and chat and relax while we got our piggies prettied up. 

Grayson got me a lovely boquet ... and an Amazon gift card.

I do love Amazon!

... and as promised, here's the cute photo recreations!

Little Landon

Cute Callahan

Mother's Day 2015

 Ah Mother's Day ... I had actually gotten up, but the boys said "back to bed!"  The whole "breakfast in bed" thing is a bit of a tradition. The picture with the boys looks lacking without Landon! But being Mother's Day, we'd get to talk to him later.

Gray poked his head in ...

 (barely, that's not even a quarter dome!) 

for his traditional selfie-shot. 

 Cooper helped with the bacon!

... and I got a record player! 

I actually really wanted a record player. I had recently obtained a big box of old albums from my childhood and was anxious to relive and re-listen to all the songs. There was music this Mother's Day! There will definitely be another post about these musical memories in the future.

Here's a quick taste ...

I got a record player for Mother's Day... Hubs and the boys don't quite appreciate the miracle of the music! #littleredcaboose

A video posted by JenB (@jenblackham) on May 10, 2015 at 8:42am PDT

... I also played (and sang along) the old classic from SONGS FOR A MORMON CHILD  "When I Grow Up I Want to be a Mother" ... it seemed appropriate for the day! *Ü*  Now I just need to convert some of these to MP3 to make sharing and listening to them easier.

We had the Blackham Clan over for Gray's classic BBQ

... and then of course, there was the Facetime call from Landon

Now that's a Happy Mother's Day.

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day I got the traditional breakfast in bed treatment, and the custom cards from the kids. I was especially grateful for the coupon from Callahan for "frustration free" wake ups, which will be a change from the usual ten minute tug of war with the blankets we have every morning. There was a new chaise, some chocolates, flowers, and a big tub of licorice (which was gone by the end of the day ... I shared! It wasn't ALL me!). 

All my boys!

After church we went up to Maga's to wish her a happy mother's day, then we hit my mom's on the way home (Scott's family was there at the same time, so it was good to see them too). I'm very grateful for my mom and my MIL, and of course my wonderful boys!

Mother's Day

We started Mother's Day a bit early this year ... the Thursday before, we went out to dinner at Tepanyaki (one of my favorite places) for dinner.  We've only been with the kids once before, so it was still pretty new to them. I should have brought my camera. The little boys were so enthralled with the chef's tricks. I was torn between watching the tricks, and watching the little boy's faces. Pam was able to join us for dinner too, which made it even more fun.

 For dessert afterward, we had some ice cream at SubZero.

For Mother's Day itself, Gray had made a trip to "The Store" to pick up some croissants. These are frozen ones, lay them out the night before and they raise all night and are ready to be baked fresh in the morning. Since we've moved to the 9:00 church schedule, they have become a family favorite. We had been out of them for a few weeks, so I (and everyone else) was very happy to have them restocked and rising for a quick breakfast.

All the boys had little notes and gifts (with Daddy's help, gift cards to Amazon and Itunes).  I just have to share this little Q&A sheet I got from Colton (they did it in school). The underlined portions are what Colton filled in to personalize the paper ...

My mom is ...  41 years old.

My mom weighs...  10  pounds.

My mom's favorite color is ...  purple. 

My mom's favorite food is ...  cereal. 

My mom always says ...  "Thank you".

My mom cooks the best ...  noodles.

My mom is really good at ... Wii Fit.

My mom and I like to ...  eat ice cream.

My mom really loves...  ice cream.

I love my mom because ... she gives me ice cream. 

We better not take ICE CREAM out of my relationship with Colton or we might be in trouble! *Ü*

M-Day

Ah Mother's Day ... I'm not a big fan (the same goes for birthdays and other similar stuff ... sorry. I do really like Christmas and Thanksgiving though *Ü*). I got cards from the kids and flowers from hubby (aren't they pretty? I have to take pictures, as the flowers fade but the floral photo will always be around).

Another gift from Grayson was a new video camera. If you follow this blog, you're probably aware I enjoy making muvees, especially of the kids sporting events. Grayson doesn't quite understand the need to capture EVERY game ... so I laughed a little that he got me something that will encourage me to do that even more *Ü* I had just been using my digital camera for videos (not even a camcorder) ... I went around the house giving my new gadget a quick test run ...

Landon spoke in Sacrament Meeting. The kids sang a couple songs (I was the substitute chorister for the day). We got our yummy truffle at the end of the meeting. Colton had the talk in Primary. We had seen Pam yesterday at Thanksgiving Point, so we went out to visit my folks Sunday... played some games and ate brownies. Happy Mother's Day!