Blue Bird

Today was.....an odd day. But there were some fun highlights. There was a power outage that lasted for most of the afternoon. Because there was no television or music going I noticed a lot of birds in our back yard and the park. When Jason came home for lunch he saw this beautiful Rocky Mountain Blue Bird. We pulled out the binoculars and Ethan and I spent almost an hour watching him and the robins and meadow larks hop around in the snow.

Jason had to head back to work and when he left he said, I wish we could get some pictures of him. So....I put on my brave face and ventured out into the snow camera in hand. As I mentioned the park was literally swarming with birds. Easily over a hundred birds were swooping and hopping around. As you may know, I have a pretty intense fear of birds. So going out to get some pictures was no small task. My heart was pumping as soon as I opened my back door. Luckily I was able to get pretty close without scaring the blue bird off or having a panick attack. I did jump a little when he suddenly took flight and flew right over my head. But Jason was really happy to see my pictures so it was totally worth it.

Daddy's Boy

Kellan Jack has reached his half birthday. 6 months old! Where does the time go? While the time seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye, I cannot imagine my life without this precious angel. I am addicted to his sweetness. When he takes a particularly long nap I find myself missing him and I have to talk myself out of waking him up just to hold him. Kellan is a happy little man. He loves to smile and coo and babble.

Most of all, Kellan loves his Daddy. He is without a doubt a daddy's boy. When he hears Jason's voice he turns to find him and gets a huge grin on his pudgy little face. He will turn from me and almost throw himself at Jason. And the best part about it is Jason is equally thrilled to see Kellan. I love to see Jason scoop Kellan up and plant a thousand kisses on Kellan's cheeks until they are booth giggling. The craziest thing is that Kellan will protest going to bed if he hasn't had enough time with Jason. If I put Kellan down before he gets to play with his daddy he will cry the second he hears Jason get home and start talking until he gets to see Jason. Kellan has started saying "dada" and I swear he knows exactly what he is saying. It is not just babble. He doesn't say it for the most part unless Jason is with him. Or he will quietly whisper it and look around. It is the craziest thing.

This baby fadora is seriously so stinking cute. I can't get enough of Kellan in hats. He is adorable.

During a field trip with Jase we learned that many species' babies are born with big eyes and short noses so they will be appealing to their mommas so they will take care of them. Kellan has this look down. Big blue eyes that turn down slightly at the ends and melt me instantly. And the cutest little button nose that crinkles in the middle when he giggles or when he gets upset. This is one thing he has gotten from me. I love his little nose crinkle.

Kellan is rolling more and more. And he is working on crawling. He tries to pull himself around, but hasn't quite figured it out. I am perfectly ok with this. I sort of like not having to chase him around just yet. He is also working hard on sitting by himself. He can, but isn't totally steady. He's a little tipsy. The funniest is when he bends over and his belly gets in his way and he has to take big gasps of air. He is thick. Kellan also has discovered his toes and they are his absolute favorite toy. He loves to pull on them and try to get them in his mouth. Kellan is also a thumb sucker. It is so sweet. For the most part he only sucks it when he is going to sleep but I love it. Someday I know it won't be so cute, but for now it isn't hurting a thing and I am content to let him soothe himself.

We love our little hunkin man! We call him Hunkin, because he was born just before Halloween and we had lots of pumpkin out. I was calling Kellan my little pumpkin and Ethan said, "No Mommy, he a hunkin." That's how Ethan says pumpkin. It just stuck. Sweet little hunkin man!

Date Night

This more of a journal post than anything else. And I have been meaning for days to get this done.....but life with 4 busy boys is, well, busy. So while 2 are off to school and 2 are still asleep I am getting this done!

I have the most incredible husband. A week and a half ago we had planned a date night to see Water for Elephants on its Friday opening. Jason and I both read the book, a rare thing as we have pretty different tastes in reading material.....shocker right?! And we were both excited, ok probably me more so, to see how the book would be adapted for the big screen. As Friday got closer, our date night seemed to get further out of reach.

As some of you may know, Jason has a pretty difficult job, to say the very least. And recently it has gone from difficult to at times highly dangerous. His clientele is a hard population to work with and the particular batch he has now can be quite violent. It seems Jason has come home beaten and broken more often than not of late. From scratches to bites, to broken bones, to near death experiences of narrowly escaping being thrown out of windows and off ledges.....as I said, it's been difficult.

Wednesday Jason was informed that a former client had been released from jail by a judge. Just released. No one was there to pick him up, he had no where to go and was just let loose on the streets. Without going into details, because frankly I don't have them, Jason is far too ethical to share those, the client was drunkenly returned to Jason's employers care. This client had been released from their care when he was put into jail, and they had no duty to him whatsoever. The man knew this and left the facility. A staff called Jason at 11:30 Wednesday night to tell Jason the client had left and was walking the streets again. Jason, being the person he is, jumped up grabbed his jacket and keys and took off into a thunder storm to find this man before he hurt someone. Of course I was less than thrilled with this plan. In fact I think my words were, "Jason you are not Dog the Bounty Hunter!" Jason kissed me and off he went into the night. This was probably the most scared I have been for my husband related to his work. I prayed nearly the entire time he was gone that he would make it home safely. Jason believes he was led to find this man by inspiration. I believe he is right. It was literally a search for a pin in a hay stack. By 2 a.m. Jason was home and the client was in responsible hands.

When we woke later that morning Jason told me he may be flying to Alaska to return the client to the Alaskan authorities. I try hard to be supportive of Jason in his career and for the largest part I am. This was asking a lot! This man is highly dangerous, violent and unpredictable. He has attacked Jason numerous times. And now Jason is going to fly with him for hours to Alaska. No way! At 11:15 the call came. Jason was going. He had 30 minutes to be to the airport. I cried, I complained, I tried to talk him out of it. I shouted, "You are not an air marshal! You are a counselor! This is not your job!" Jason calmly agreed with me. Then because Jason is the most selfless person I know said, "Victoria I have to go. If he goes alone, he will destroy some innocent person's life." How do you argue with that? I still cried and was unhappy about the whole thing and finally said, "Fine but you better be home for our date night." Truthfully I just wanted him home, but the date night part was to ease the tension and make light of my emotions.

Jason left the house at 11:20 a.m. Thursday he traveled to Idaho Falls to Salt Lake to Seattle to Fairbanks Alaska and back. Non-stop. During his travels his boss who set up the flights accidentally put the wrong name on Jason's tickets so he spent quite a lot of time proving to security at each check point who he was. Jason was right about the need for the man to be escorted. Had Jason not been with him every step of the way someone would have gotten hurt. Jason finally deposited this man to the authorities and turned to get back on a plane to fly home. When his boss offered a hotel for him in Fairbanks for a day or two Jason told her no.....he had to be home for date night. And sure enough! After 27 of hours of straight travel Jason made it home to me at 1:30 p.m. Friday.

And then stayed awake through the entire movie we caught at 7 that evening! What a man! I am so blessed he is mine!

Jason tells me he loves me every single day. And more importantly he shows me he loves me every single day. Jason is the perfect man for me. And I love him with my whole heart. Seeing the movie that night wasn't the most important thing. Had we missed the movie the world would have continued to spin, but my husband made me and our time together a priority above all else. There is no greater love on Earth.