Mother's Day Lunch on Tuesday

My Mother in law was out of town for Mother's Day, and I thought a little lunch in her honor could be really cute and fun. When I first had the idea Jordan told me no because he would be out of town, and she in not my Mom. After serving at the mission home and Sister Archibald expressing how much it would mean to her, and how much she would love it I called my sister in law's and put a plan into action. I made little favors to go on the plates, and we did everything in purple (because that is Ann's favorite color) made mini croissant chicken salad sandwiches, mandarin salad, juice, and chocolate cream tarts.

This would be a fabulous example of me not doing very well with the camera, because I don't even have a picture of Ann. I was able to snag this picture of Dakota enjoying dessert!

I love my Ann, and am grateful for her influence in my life, and the life of my family. I am grateful to know that she deeply cares for us, and has our best interests in mind. If I were asked where Ann's priorities were, it would be a simple answer - her family!

riding bikes

We can now go on bike rides! Ethan wanted so badly to ride like Skyler does, but he couldn't figure out how to put enough pressure on the pedals, and there really was no way that I could bend down and push him for any period of time. My brother, James totally came to the rescue. He is a welder and rigged up a handle for the tricycle that we had, and now Ethan can enjoy riding his bike too. He loves it, and is so proud of himself for riding like Skyler.

Mommy's Day

I LOVE being a mom, and I am so grateful for my little family and all that they do for me. Skyler has had the opportunity to make me a few things (at church, school etc.) and every time he gives me something he asks "Do you know why I made that for you?... Because I love you" Man, I hope that kid knows how much I love him!

My boys are soo good to me. While I was out yesterday they picked out some flowers for me, so they were on the counter when I got home.I love the hyacinths. Apparently Skyler has some expensive taste in flowers and Jordan had to keep him grounded somewhere in our limited budget.

Today I got to sleep in, and had a delicious breakfast of biscuits and gravy made for me, and a thoughtful gift of the family book of Mormon with extra references and pictures to use for our family scripture study. I love it, and hope that it will help the kids be more involved in our reading.
I also love how my relationships with my brothers have grown and developed. I had the idea to do a makeover day for my mom, but the I didn't have the money to do it, so I talked to my brothers, and between the 5 of us we were able to plan a day for my mom, and I know she loved it. I made appointments for her nails, hair, and a pedicure, and made plans to take her to lunch. My Mom is one of the most selfless women that I know, and has never taken time for herself. Had we just given my mom gift certificates she would have held onto them for a LONG LONG time, and then given them to me, so by me taking her out it ensured that SHE was pampered for the day. She is a great example to me of sacrifice and charity, and I love her dearly. Here is the before an after of her hair.
I think she looks HOT and 10 years younger!

I spent a few weeks, with the help of my Mother in Law making a new quilt for my Mom. My Dad made her throw away an old blanket that she used to cuddle up under when watching TV.I hope that she can keep warm and know that each heart was pieced together with love, and that I had plenty of help from her grandsons who loved to 'help' while I was sewing.

Happy Mothers day to all the women out there. Whether you are a mother today or not, you do touch the lives of those around you and can be a great influence on them.

I Love My Family!

This morning after getting up with Ryley and over hearing the saddest little commentary coming from Ethan ("Skyler Mommy is gone she is not in there" said in a tearful voice after I heard him go into my room, and downstairs looking for me) I went back into my bedroom and saw this. All of the my little family sleeping in y bed, although the moment would have been sweeter if Ethan didn't speak up and tell me that there was no room for me.I Love how much these boys love their sister, even if I have to remind them often each day to give her a littler personal space.

I am seriously dreading next week while Jordan is gone to the rigs.I know some mom's do this on a regular basis, but I am lucky enough never to have had to go more than a couple of days (on 2 occasions) without Jordan coming home each night, and I REALLY look forward to the sanity break that it brings. He will learn a lot, and it will be good for him to see the products he creates in practical use.

On a completely unrelated issue, Skyler has now had 3 soccer games canceled out of the 4 that there should have been.he is actually really good (much to my surprise) he scored like 5 of the 10 goals that his team got, and really understood the concept of trying to get the ball in the goal. Apparently this is one more way that he is very much like Jordan. Jordan used to score a ton of goals when he was little too, When I finally came around to playing sports, I liked to pick dandelions ;)

busy busy

So I have been really busy the last couple of weeks. Last Wednesday I got an order for 17 aprons and chef hat - yay, it was nice to have a big order, but they were needed for Saturday, yup 3 days later, and I do have 3 kids. I had a few late nights, and recruited my mom to help as well, and I got them done. Unfortunately I didn't think to take a picture of all the finished aprons until I dropped them off. They were used for a little girls baking birthday party, and I wanted to see them on all 17 little people, but they were drying after the kids got to decorate them, so no pictures there either.

This week is a cooking week (like how it is all separated ;) I have the mission home 3 times this week, and I have also been asked to supply 200 muffins every 6 weeks as well, so I needed to do those for the missionary interviews. So far I am 2 meals down, and 1 left to go. I would say that I am looking forward to a break, but then next week Jordan is out of town all week, so it will be spent working on my psychological well being without any kid breaks ;)



In the middle of all this Miss Ryley has pretty much mastered siting, and we are expecting the crawling to come within the next few weeks. can you tell that I totally made her get ready to crawl and sit just so that I could take a picture? It seems like that camera is never on hand when I want it, and all of the cute pictures I have to steal off of Jordan's i-phone. One of these days I will figure something out that will work for me.

We are also in party planing mode at our house, with Summer comes birthdays, and I am excited to celebrate with the little people in my life!