Froufy Dress

When I dressed Baby Sister yesterday, Buggy said she looked just like a baby princess.

Mother's Day

I have to admit, I've never loved the holiday of Mother's day. My own mom disliked it growing up, so maybe that is where some of my prejudice comes from. Either way, today doesn't really rank as one of my "favorite holidays". That being said, I do have some thoughts that I've been pondering over for a few days now, that I would like to put down in writing.

If you would have asked me 10 years ago what I wanted to be "when I grew up", the job of "Mom" definitely wouldn't have topped the list (probably wouldn't have even made the top 5). All through my teenage years I had plenty of other big dreams that I wanted to fulfill, most of which would have made child rearing difficult. Getting married and having babies, just didn't appeal to me.

Thankfully, God had other plans for me. After I met my husband, and got married (pretty young, I might add), it took a little while, but eventually I realized that the career aspirations I had were not as important as family (particularly my family, or the family I was supposed to have). That is when things changed for me forever.

These days I can't imagine being anything else. Being a Mom is what I am supposed to be doing. The peace and indescribable joy that I feel when I look at my children outweighs any feelings of loss I may have over old dreams that never came to fruition.

Don't get me wrong - there are days where if I hear the word "Mommy" one more time (think whiny tones) I am going to loose it. And there are plenty of nights where by the time 8:00 pm rolls around, I don't want anyone to touch me, or look at me, or talk to me - and I just want to be left alone.

But, there are also days where my heart melts at an expression on one of my kids faces, or I laugh out loud at something they've said or done. And almost everyday, at least a little bit, they make me smile and thank my Father in Heaven for letting me be their mom.

I know that I am not the world's greatest. I do the best I can, but I make plenty of mistakes. I am truly grateful for children who forgive me, and still love me even when I mess up. Especially, even when I mess up big.

My pregnancies are long, difficult processes with less than easy recoveries. We've had major health scares with all of our children. Most likely I will spend every day of the rest of my life worrying about them. And yet, I would take it all a thousand times over again if that is what it took to have them.

I love being a mom. There is a time in my life when I never thought I would say that, but it is so true. I am grateful that my children are safe and whole and healthy and that we can be an eternal family. It really doesn't get any better than this.

I also have to add a "Happy Mother's Day" to my own mom and mother-in-law. Two of the greatest moms I know. Hopefully someday my kids will feel the same way about me.

**On a side note: The primary kids, and all the youth from our church sang a wonderful "non-traditional" Mother's day song during church today. This post is getting a little long, so I wont include it here but the words and music can be found here. It is a really beautiful, touching song. I really recommend checking it out.

Princess

My Sister-in-Law sent me this video a while ago. She thought we could relate to it. It isn't very long, and pretty funny.

For the Grandparents

The boys have been doing a lot of artwork lately (stupid Seattle rainy weather), and they really wanted to share it with their Grandmas and Grandpas. But rather than put up random photos of their interpretations of modern art I thought I would at least add them into the pictures. Enjoy!

Name Blocks

One of my good friends is having twins at the end of the month. Her baby shower is tonight, and for her gift I decided to get a little bit more creative than I usually do (yeah, I'm probably crazy) and make her some name blocks. I was a little nervous - I haven't made a set of these in a while, but another one of my friends (who I stole the idea from) gave me some pointers, and I think they turned out pretty good - so I have to share.

I'm not thrilled with the way that the colors are coming out on my camera though. The main colors are chocolate brown and celery green, with some blue and yellow accents. These were a really fun project, and surprisingly less time consuming than they look to be.




**In case anyone was wondering, they were a huge hit at the party. Thanks for the feedback.

Cause They're Just so Cute...

Okay, so you already know that I am a sucker for pictures of my kids, and Baby Sister is no exception.

"AM" and I took her into the studio today just to get some fun shots. Some of them need a little photo shop work, but here are my favorites so far.





She is starting to smile more and more, but chose not to perform for us while the camera was out today (of course).

And of course, the Beefster had to get in on the action. This kid really does crack me up on an almost daily basis.

He didn't sleep in this hat, but he did have it on almost immediately after waking up. I haven't really been able to get it off all day (which is okay, he has some pretty crazy hat hair ; )).

Desperate for Attention

The title pretty much sums it up.

Tulips!

If you live in the area, you know about the Tulip Festival. For those of you that don't, plan a trip to Washington in the spring. Photos just don't quite do it justice.

About an hour north of where we live, in Skagit county there are bulb farms that grow an unreal amount of Tulips, Daffodils, and Iris' every year. And every year, we go up and see the fields.

Last year we got rained out on the only day we could go, so I was very much looking forward to going this year. We tried to go over Easter weekend when the Grandparents were here, but if you recall, all we found were daffodils. The tulips hadn't come out yet.

Well, usually the tulips are all gone by the beginning of May, but because they bloomed late this year, we were still able to find some when we went back today. It was a little overcast but the fields were beautiful. Here are just a few of our many, many pictures.

For Grandma

This one is for Grandma, she sent us some new hair bows. I haven't been able to get a picture of the head band yet (it's a little big still), but here are a couple of the cute glue-ins. Thanks Grandma! We'll have more soon.

6 Weeks Old

So, pretend that I am making this post yesterday. That was my intention, it just never happened.

After totally missing Baby Sister's 1 month birthday, I figured I'd better at least make an acknowledgment of her 6 week mark. Plus, I am sorely behind on posting new pictures of her (sorry Grandma and Grandpa). So without further ado, here is Baby Sister at 6 weeks old.

Yeah, she's starting to chub up just a little. We love it!

My Favorite Feature on this dress.

If you can't tell, it says: "Does this diaper make my butt look big?"
Ironically enough, she is wearing a disposable and not one of her usual cloth diapers in this picture (it was wash day), so her hindquarters are a lot less bulky than they normally are.