NEW BLOG

Finally got the new blog up and running. Have had opportunity to post several things there this morning too, so its really running!! Here is the link, come along and enjoy the next couple of years....

http://rdbleonhardt.blogspot.com/

The guestbook is still there, on the right hand side. Feel free to sign it or leave comments either one is fine by us.

Mother's Day & Anniversary

Its a big day in our household, well we aren't home so its just with us I guess!! Its Mother's Day, Happy one to all the mom's we know, but its also our 13th wedding Anniversary. All rolled into one.

We got the computer monitor on Friday as we left for Granny and Papa's house, so its waiting to be put together when we get home. Perhaps in the next day or two I can get that new blog up and running and put pics on easier too. I will put the new link in a post on this one so we don't lose anyone.

Our thoughts are with a couple that put their papers in to adopt 2 weeks after we did (2 yrs ago). They are finally in Russia on their first trip, we do hope all goes well for them and their referral turns out to be just perfect for them. Amazing that it has taken this long for things to turn around in Russia. Makes us thankful that ours went well even with a brief interruption, at least it all was completed and in record time too. We can be grateful for the power of God in our lives and glad for everytime we can see its evidence.

Anyway, wanted to send a Happy Mother's Day wish out to all the mom's out there, and a special one to each Mom that is a Mom through international adoption. Its a nice bond we share!!

We were remembering 13 yrs ago last night our rehearsal dinner, all the people that were there, those still living and those gone on now. In many ways it seems we have always been married, and in many ways those memories are just like yesterday. Now today as I write this, we would have been putting the final touches on getting ready to walk down the aisle. We were married at a little after 2, think it was scheduled for 2:30, but the judge had a family emergency so we bumped it up a bit. Then had the reception and headed for Denver to fly to Florida. Wow, how time flies and has gone on. Perhaps it would be fun to watch the video of the whole thing again someday soon just to see all the people we miss now.

Time to check on Brayden, we are skipping nap today so we have more time with Granny and Papa and Aunt Jean before we head for home. Might make for an interesting evening for mom and dad!!

Here is a poem that came to me in the email today, thought it shared some thoughts and experiences that I have had by now...

Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not
my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind
and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child
so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of
having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond
between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom.

little auctioneer

We had attended a benefit auction a couple of weeks ago, this is what Brayden learned. He is using the spout to my water can for a mic. I took this video through the window screen so as not to disturb my little man.

we love the Bar J Wrangler's

we listen to this cd most every trip, so Brayden has learned to sing along lots.

keeping occupied

Two yrs and counting

I have been working on a new blog, but the monitor on my big computer gave up the ghost last week, so its slow coming. I had hoped to begin May 2nd with a new blog and here it is the 7th and still not done. Anyway, here is a new post to get me by till the big computer is fixed and I can use its features to do the new blog.

May 2nd marked 2 yrs since we met Brayden and yest two yrs since we came home alone. Usually I would post the first pics of him and a new one from now so the difference can be seen by all. Today I am using the new laptop and it doesn't have those old pics. I will just post new stuff and move on.

Just for fun we weighed and marked Brayden's height on the door again to mark the occassion. Last height mark was Feb 12 and since then he has gained about an inch. I often find it hard to believe when family mentions he is growing, I see him everyday all day long, but I can see on the door the growth!! He weighs in at 31.5 lbs now too. Changes all around us and I miss the ones most obvious.

We have a real chilly wind today, makes playing outside not much fun. Especially when we were spoiled with near 70 degrees the last couple of days and not much wind at all. Hard to believe its time to plant corn in the garden when the weather acts like this.

Will let this do for now and get some pics and video loaded.

cute hat...

Brayden went out to help Daddy fix the trailer for an install tomorrow. He came back to the house with his new "helmet". Made especially for bike riding I am sure!! I know for certain that if Daddy doens't get it back, he will miss it when he is on his knees on doing this next kitchen with a tile floor. :-) Who knew that knee pads made neat helmets in little boy's minds!!

Ridem cowboy!!

Riding a jackalope, not everyone gets to do that!!

Oh, you wanted Brayden pics...

Ok, now for the Brayden pics, yeah they should have been first, but then no one would look at the pretty scenery!! :-)

Our little cowboy, he loves his new hat. Oh yeah, not tired mama, in Dubois at the fuel (icecream) station on the jackalope. He had a fun time in that saddle.

Jackson and Togwatee Pass

First pic is the elk, kind of far away, then the town of Jackson, the Tetons, as much as could be seen, and Roger next to the drifts beside the road on Togwatee Pass.

Hoback Canyon

It was a bit snowy of a drive, but also really pretty

Weekend FUN...

Mama had to work a prom in Big Piney on friday night so we made it a family getaway. Brayden played with several balloons at the prom for awhile, until it was way way past his bedtime, then Daddy took him back to the hotel and they went to bed. I got there about 11:45 and crawled into bed. Well I had to move Brayden off my side of the bed and into his bed, then I crawled in. I was worried about him falling out of bed, Daddy wasn't able to come up with much in the way of a barrier on each side of the bed. Anyway, once during the night I thought I heard his head hit the night table so I inhaled loudly and sat up, Roger reacted to my reaction...it was just Brayden's hand flopping over to the night table, not his head. Then a couple hours later we both heard a bump, Roger inhaled loudly and sat up and I reacted by jumping out of bed, walked all the way around Brayden's bed before I realized he wasn't in it...walked back over to my side of the bed and sure enough he was laying there on the floor still snoring. :-) Amazing how incredibly flexible they are and resilient too. He woke up when I picked him up to put him back in bed and said "mama in bed here", so I crawled in next to him to KEEP him in bed. :-) Mama didn't get much sleep that night, but it was enough to get by. Brayden woke up at 7:30 on the money and said "mama awake??". Its better than the constant beeping of an alarm clock, but it often is earlier than I would like, especially if I have had a short night. There was a cafe attached to the hotel and so we packed up some and then thought we would go down for breakfast...well in Big Piney there is a shortage of good help, too many gas/oil field jobs that pay lots better than waitressing. The cafe was closed, in fact I think most people in BP eat from the gas stations. We went a head and checked out and headed for Pinedale thought we would eat breakfast there. We looked for a McDonald's, but that area is soooo deprived, no McD's in sight. We ended up at Faler's store at the bakery, we had donuts and ham and cheese buritos that were actually VERY good. Then we headed on out for Jackson. It was sunny altho had snowed a bit early that morning. Roads were real good though for the most part. Going through Hoback canyon was very very snowy, not on the road but everywhere else. We couldn't believe the snow they have over there. We saw a crm colored pickup parked out by the road and it was almost completely covered with snow, could see just alittle of the passenger side window rest was mostly covered. If we had 1/4 of the snow they have over there, we would be doing great. It snowed the whole time we were in Jackson, just light snow and was really pretty chilly. We did a little shopping. Brayden was most interested in cowboy hats. Had to try several on and finally mama and daddy found one we liked and it wasn't terrible expensive. I found a nice family used clothing store there and had a nice time perusing the store. We had bbq for lunch and then went to see the elk on the refuge. The sleigh rides ended on friday, so we missed out on that, but we could see them anyway. After that we headed home. Roger was feeling alittle tired so he asked me to drive once we were headed up Togwatee. Of course, not long after I took the wheel, the roads got bad, its quite something when the snow on the sides of the road is taller than the car, the road is white and the snow is blowing off the top of the drifts on the sides making the top white too. Made me hope for NO traffic in either direction!! We got through it fine and came upon traffic stopped competely for a cattle truck that had started sliding and ended up with his trailer blocking both lanes of traffic. Roger put his coat and hat on and went up to see if he could help. He found a very young man and a very old man were team driving that truck, the young man had one chain out and was trying to chain one tire, hoping that would help. Roger asked for more chains and he got out chains still in the packages. :-) After about 15 min a couple pickups with snowmobile trailers got in line and the guys from those headed up to help too. We ended up sitting there in line for about 30-40 min. A white pickup coming from Dubois stopped next to Roger and asked if there was anything he could do to help (after the trailer is moved enough to open one lane), Roger said yes, to stop by the maroon grand prix and tell his wife he was ready to go home. I got the message a few minutes later and pulled out of line and slipped my way up the hill to Roger, picked him up and left the other 9 guys there to finish getting the truck going. After all, we only needed one lane to get traffic moving, and he was sick, so it was time to get on home. I was just glad we didn't end up with several hours up there. A snow plow came to the back of the line behind me before they got the truck moving, he turned around and left. A man in Dubois (after we got icecream) said he came back down and called the highway patrol, we never saw any headed up there on our way down, so no telling how long it might have taken without some resourceful young men. Home looked awfully good Sat night.

Roger is doing better today, still quite a bit of stuff in the sinus areas, but he is working and in a pretty good mood. It was beautiful here today, 50 degrees. I had a nice walk and now it is getting windy and stormy looking. I will get some pics posted as I know that is what is wanted most, not just the story line!!

layin around singin

Thought this was cute and would share it. He is singin about happy and food first then he gets into chanting Defense at some point with good job mixed in then starts singin about his backhoe. He was certainly happy and content while I was getting lunch ready.

indoor hunt

This was supposed to be before the outdoor hunt, but it wouldn't work right, so here it is again, see if it works this time...


We thought Brayden would understand the egg hunt thing this year, so we did one. It snowed with the sun shining, like a white out while we were doing the indoor hunt. It didn't amount to much, except a lot of exclamations!!

outdoor hunt

See not much snow, but there was a cold breeze.

first experience with dye...

Driving Daddy's pickup

sorry to those that tried to view this post and it didn't come up right. I tried to use the blogger video upload, for some reason it doesn't work for me.

just before it falls...

Brayden was building with blocks Grandma gave him, I got this pic just before it fell down.

No tired Mama

On the way home from town the other day Brayden told me "no tired Mama", it wasn't long and he was sawing logs.