Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year, I helped the girls make stepping stones with their pictures and hand prints for grandmas. The grandmas seemed to like it (but then grandma's like anything that grand kids do!) They had so much fun decorating and writing messages for Grandma Read, Oma Mare and Grandma Grace. Summer only put her hand in one of the stones, then didn't really know if she liked it, so on the others we just made a sun and put "you are my sunshine". She is our "Summer Sunshine" and we always sing "You are my Sunshine" to her. Whitney had a great time putting her hands in the "mud" and put the inscription "Love You".

I got the best present of all, after being gone for nearly three weeks, John came home the Saturday before Mothers Day and stayed a whole week!! So it was more like a Mother's week rather than a Mother's Day! It was nice having him home. (He always has a honey-do list when he gets home). I was able to go outside and run in the mornings, rather than on the treadmill. It was nice to be able to run to the store and not have to load and unload kids, he could just stay home with them. More laundry gets done (because John is always so good to help with laundry and housework). It is nice to have adult company, it is nice to get a kiss and a hug from your spouse everyday, it is nice having reinforcements when it comes to discipline and just everyday things the girls need. I know I take him for granted while he is home. He is so good to me and is an awesome husband.

We had John's family over for a Mother's Day dinner and then met up with my family at a park in Roy for a BBQ, playing on the playground, and a game of softball (always an all-star game with us!). To cap off the day, we had a camp-out on the trampoline. We ended up coming into the house about 2 am and finishing the campout on the family room floor.

This is Whitney trying out the pony saddle on Tio's dog Coda. Coda was a good sport, and maybe we should have Whitney try some Mutton Bustin!

Summer enjoying some pie at the BBQ

Our campout on the trampoline

It is crazy to think of me as a mother. I feel very inferior to all the other mothers around me, but I love my girls and I love being a mother most of the time (I almost typed every minute of it, but Whitney is crying at this moment, so I can't say every minute of it, but really close). I truly wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I put a thought down at the bottom of my blog page that I saw on a church reader board once and I think it is so true. It said "with children, the days are long, but the years are short." Amen.

I always thought I appreciated my mother and all that she has done for me, but after becoming a mother myself, words cannot express the gratitude and love I feel for my mom and all that she has done and sacrificed for me. She has always been the perfect example to me of a mother. I look at all that she has accomplished as a mother and while she was a mother, and I stand in awe and hope someday to follow her lead and the pace she has set; but I'm not really even in the same race as her! Thanks mom for being so great and such an example to live up to, you are so inspiring! Love you!

Thanks to my other mom Mare for making me a daughter. I am truly lucky to have a great family of in-laws and it is because of your role in the family that makes it so great. Thank you for making John the man he is. Love you!

Mothers are so great, there should be more official "Mother's Days" during the year because I know that I do not tell the mothers in my life how grateful I am to them for all they have done in their life to get me to this point in mine.