Lamont turns 39 today, Leland turns 36 on Halloween. Happy birthday, guys!

Most of these photos are the same ones I posted in celebration of September 24, and October, 31, 2010. Back then I thought I'd make a post for Lamont's birthday, then later on make one for Leland's birthday. However, as brothers should be, they're together in lots of photos, so I combined their birthday posts.



First, though, here are the three of us last November 13, outside the Hollywood Theatre--we'd just seen that wonderful documentary "Muscle Shoals." I'd already seen it and loved it, knew that their Daddy would've loved it, and wanted to make certain that they saw it. The two of them thoroughly enjoyed it!



One more photo before the repeats from 2010--this one that I took on Christmas Day 2013 in my apartment. Leland, Lamont, their friend Lee, and my sons' roommate Brody. Four great guys! And we can celebrate one more birthday--Brody's is Sept. 24 also, and, get this. He was born in the same exact hospital as Lamont, not the same year, but the same day, in Kansas City, Kansas! The two of them met when they both worked at a hotel and became roommates not too long afterwards.



Now for the repeats from the 2010 combined birthday post. In this photo, Lamont is between four and five and Leland is between one and two.



Lamont was three years, one month, and one week old when Leland as born.



When Leland was six weeks old in December, 1978, the four of us moved from Kansas City, Kansas, to Jackson, Mississippi. To help us, my parents came in their Winnebago so the kids and I could ride with them. My husband LeRoy drove the Ryder truck. My brother came, too, in his own vehicle to help out with any and everything. Here we are, early spring 1979, at the John Bell Williams airport out from Raymond, Mississippi. Our friends had flown down from KC to visit, in that airplane right there beside us. I'm holding our older son Lamont. LeRoy is holding our younger son Leland. LeRoy and I loved our prescription glasses that got darker out in the sunshine. We look pretty doggone cool, I think.



Our friend, Ronnie, the pilot. Our friend Lyndall, holding Lamont. My sweet, dearly departed husband LeRoy, holding a dozing Leland.



Baby Leland with me, his Mama.



About 1990, Lamont and Leland with their great-grandmother Vivian, my Daddy's Mama. If it really is 1990, then she's celebrating her 92nd birthday!



Mama and Daddy's backyard. We've got seated, left to right my Aunt Baker and JL's grandson Patrick, my son Leland, Patrick's fraternal twin brother Michael. Standing, left to right, my son Lamont, and the twins' older brother Steven. Lamont is in 6th grade. He broke his arm skateboarding, and one year later he broke the other one, skateboarding.



Lamont and Leland horsing around on Leland's 21st birthday, in 1999. I loved the photo so much that when I taught myself to make calendars, I put it in the background of this 2000 calendar.



Leland's kindergarten graduation.



I think this is kindergarten, too.



I think Lamont's about 18 months old here. We're still living in Kansas City; he's wearing a sailor hat that he loved to wear. I sewed those curtains myself.



Our cutie's a bit tired here.



Precious son Lamont.



Precious son Leland.



Lamont with Papaw, my Daddy. Lamont's got a Tupperware lettuce storage bowl on his head. He loved to wear it!



Leland's a few months old here--it's 1979.



Lamont's standing on a chair in our house in Kansas City, at the kitchen sink.



The guys are six and three here.



Here they're four and one. Love that jacket on Lamont and that bow tie on Leland.



LeRoy with Lamont who is probably close to one year old.



LeRoy with Leland who is probably five or six months old.



My two precious sons. I love them very much.



Lamont and Papaw.



Grandma and Leland.



The guys, taken on July 9, 2004. They got up early before they had to go to work at their respective restaurants, just so they could see us off back to Mississippi. Grandma and I had come to visit on June 30, fell in love with Portland, and jumped at the chance to join Lamont and Leland there, especially after they said, "Move out here! We'll take care of you when you're old!" They certainly did take care of their Grandma before she died in January, 2011, and they continue to take care of me.



And here they are, the photo that I took it on 9/11/2010.

More from Mother's Day, 2014

Sweetheart of a subject to photograph, Rachel, my son Leland's girlfriend



Sweetheart of a photographer, my son Leland

I took these photos at Forest Park on the Lower Macleay Park Trail.

Seen on my Mother's Day Hike, No. 1

Forest Park, Lower Macleay Park Trail. As I took this photo, several thoughts ran through my mind. Yea, there's the bathroom. Will I be able to keep up with these three fit young people? How close are the woods? How long will it take for the work on the NW Thurman Street Bridge to be completed? I found one answer online--the bridge will reopen in fall, 2014. (It was closed on April 1, 2014.)



A view up through the bridge-to-be in the early stages of being rebuilt.



The woods! The creek! A person on the path in the distance! We shared the trail with lots of people walking, lots of dogs, and quite a few people running.




There's a house up there, in the trees. When we saw someone walking with a paper grocery bag, I mentioned picnic to Leland. He suggested the person just might be walking home from the grocery store! Wow!

Mother's Day, 2014--a blessing.

I took this sweet photo earlier today while on a Mother's Day walk with my sons, Leland and Lamont, and Leland's girlfriend Rachel. At my suggestion, they took me to Forest Park, a public municipal park--all 5100 acres of it--in the Tualatin Mountains west of downtown Portland. On part of the Lower Macleay Park Trail alongside Balch Creek, we walked off the sidewalk and into the woods within moments. It was a treat, a real treat, to be out there with them on such a beautiful morning. As you can tell, lots of people were out and about because, when the sun comes out in Portland, that's what you do.



After walking for .85 miles (according to info I found on the Internet) one way, we turned around at the Stone House and walked back to the start. The three of them went to get the car while I waited and watched people and dogs, then we went to one of my favorite restaurants for brunch--the Bijou Cafe in downtown Portland. A very special day, all around. 



A vandalized map of Forest Park. The map is a decal applied to the plate, not enameled onto it. If it were, then the vandal or vandals would not have been able to scratch those letters on it on the upper right or to scratch off that portion of the map at the lower center. Jerk.

My Artsy Attempts at Photos of the House Framing Model, 1940, part of the exhibit Old-Growth Architecture: the Art, Craft, and Function of Wood, on display through July 2014 at the Architectural Heritage Center

Two nails, one crooked



Blue ray of light comes through a crack



Warm yellow in the background



Leland, just beyond the focus



Leland, in focus



Leland, in focus and inverted

Do you have a favorite?

House Framing Model, 1940, part of the exhibit Old-Growth Architecture: the Art, Craft, and Function of Wood, on display through July 2014 at the Architectural Heritage Center

From the label: Models like this were used for teaching construction at vocational schools. The "exploded view" of this model allowed instructors to show all phases of the domestic building process, from framing to shingling. Gift from Ken Barker and Jeff Stookey My son Leland took photos of the model, too.



Framing.



Shingling.



Another view.

Tomorrow, my artsy attempts. I need to go back take some more.