Happy Mother's Day

As a little pre-post before my official post for the day, I wanted to include a few pictures of Alexa's tatoo art. She LOVES drawing all over her body and will do so almost every day. Yes, it is a huge pain to scrub off, but I love that she is so creative about it!

Another add on before the official post is a few pictures of Steve's chalk art. The kids love asking him to draw different pictures for them on the ground.

May 10

Happy Mother’s Day! This was probably the best mother’s day so far. Steve made me eggs and we had a few donuts that we bought at the store yesterday. I think Jared would eat at least five donuts if we’d let them. He’ll say “My stomach hurts” and yet keep right on eating more. We went to my mom’s house for dinner after church so we hurried to wrap three presents (procrastinating as usual!) and get the kids ready. Surprisingly we were only about ten minutes late. We have two services at our church, and we usually attend the first service which is less crowded. However, my grandmother, sister, brother-in-law and nephew were coming to the second service today, so we got there at 10:30 instead of 9:00. I don’t really like them going to the second service Sunday School since it usually is crowded and often doesn’t have enough adult help. Once Steve and I had to stay up there the entire time.
At first the kids sat next to us during the songs, and then Steve took Jared up to his class, while Alexa wanted to sit with us and listen to her granddad preach. At home, it’s so cute because she will stand in front of the fan and “preach” which usually just mean talking about all the people she loves. I think maybe talking into the fan reminds her of talking into a microphone. Anyways, she eventually got restless so Steve stood with her in the back.
We gave my mother her gifts at the house. We bought her an exercise mat which she had been wanting and Amy bought her a shirt and earrings. Andy and my dad gave her a gift card. Amy had also made this elaborate fruit tree which had pineapple, blackberries, watermelon, grapes and melon. Later my sister-in-law brought a home-baked cake with frosting. I proudly brought my store bought potato salad and Hawaiian bread. I admit, I did have twinges of inadequacy, but sometimes it gets to be too much when some people refuse to even think about bringing anything store bought to a dinner. I know what my priorities are and if constantly making fancy dishes to eat and insisting on making everything from scratch means taking away time from have wonderful new experiences with my children or spending time with my husband, the choice is very easy.





The kids had a great time playing mainly with grandparents and their cousin. They have a tendency to be a little rough with him sometimes since he’s only 19 months old. He seemed to like being chased for a while, though, and only started crying when they kept it up too long. I don’t blame him being scared of two kids yelling and jumping up and down in your face. Plus, he was really tied from not having a nap all day.

Before we left we took a walk with my mom and her dog, Teddy. It was strange since I used to take walks with Teddy around the blocks when I used to live at home. It was also sad to see how much more run down the neighborhood seems. It can be very depressing to see front lawns full of weeds and houses in such a state of disrepair. Jared and Alexa loved the dandelions everywhere, however! They had little yellow stains under their noses from sniffing them so much.

On the way home, we stopped to pick up a pizza and the kids fell asleep in the car. One present I always ask for is a break from doing any type of cooking or house work for the entire day. To keep them awake for a little while longer and get at least some type of food in their bellies (a daily struggle), we let them watch Cinderella (borrowed from my mom and which they had never seen before). They really liked it. They don’t watch too many Disney movies. I think they’ve only just seen Toy Story. Someone gave us Shrek, but they’ve haven’t seen it yet.
After their usual MO of running out the their room shrieking and jumping on the couch, Steve went in their room, read Jared his current favorite book , Oliver and the Monsters, and the kids read some books in their bed by themselves before eventually settling down to sleep.

Yes, it was really a great day.