This turned out to be a very long post

In honor of Mother's Day, I thought it would be nice to take some pictures of me and my special little boy. It was harder than I thought it would be.

Brendan is always wound up after church so it probably wasn't the best time to try to get him to stand still. But I love his cute little outfit and I wanted some nice photos of us, so we tried.

This is about as good as it gets but I'll take it. I think I have the most handsome boy. I just love him.

(Please excuse my messy floor.)

Being a mother has had it's ups and downs but it's something that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. I love Brendan more and more each day, and I feel blessed to have him. Being a mother has also made me appreciate my mother and mother-in-law so much more. Especially since I know I wasn't always the easiest child and Chris' mom had her share of shenanigans from Chris. I'm grateful for their examples, support and love to help me in my journey of being a mother.

And since I know there is no better gift for a grandmother than pictures of her grandchild, I will commence with some recent ones.

We went on a short hike Friday evening since it was so nice out. It was supposed to rain all day but luckily it cleared up and we were able to enjoy it.

My two boys. They melt my heart.

Brendan is in a full-on daddy mode. He wants daddy all the time. Those two are such good buddies.

Enjoying the scenery and throwing rocks into the water. Oh, the rocks. Brendan loves rocks.

Most of the hike was spent with Brendan searching for large rocks on the trail. He's gotten very good at saying "Rocks! Rocks! Rocks!" We had to stop every few moments for him to pick another rock and throw it a few feet.

I think we may have to start him a rock collection.

A photo by Chris. I think I need to put him behind the camera more often. I don't have many photos with me and Brendan but I sure do love them.

Saturday started off with a bang. We ran some errands and then toiled in our garden. I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to growing things but hopefully luck will be on our side. We didn't get anything planted just yet since it took most of the early afternoon just to get the weeds pulled and the ground tilled.

After working in our garden, we met a friend and her son and grandson at the park to enjoy some playtime. The park was packed with teenagers, which I thought was odd at first but I guess there's not much else to do in Berlin on a Saturday. Brendan was a little upset because all those teens were hogging the big-boy swings. He prefers them over the child swings but he still enjoyed them.

Brendan was also sporting some new shorts I got him this week, which Chris says remind him of his Jam's shorts of the 80's. I think our boy has inherited my short legs.

He became a pro at climbing. I shouldn't be all that surprised since he climbs on everything these days.

He loves the slides. When he reaches the bottom, he stands up proudly and claps for himself. He's done this since he the first time he started going down by himself. We'd cheer for him and clap, and now it's a routine for him.

A very sad boy as we strapped him into his car seat. He hates leaving when he's having so much fun.

Picking his nose generally helps though.