For all you mommas!

I know I'm a bit late, but Happy Mother's Day! I have such awesome friends and family that are INCREDIBLE mothers. You've taught me how to be a better mom. Many of you may recall my asking for advice for various parenting obstacles and the input has been invaluable! Reading your posts about parenting has given me relief and made me laugh and brought tears to my eyes. When I graduated college Cory gave me a picture of a mother holding a child that said "the greatest work you will ever do will be within the walls of your home". It's been a bit tough to give up work and completely be a stay-at-home mom, but I feel like my life has such deeper meaning. I absolutely love being a mom.

My mother's day started out at about 12:30 in the morning with Lil' crying. When I checked on her, she felt pretty hot and so I put her in bed with me. After a couple hours of tossing and turning, I give her tylenol and a big glass of water...still tossing and turning. I put her back in bed, only to have her fuss and call my name a few minutes later. Around 4:00 I take her into the living room and we get cozy on the recliner...tossing and turning. I get frustrated...Lillie cries. I sing lullabies to console both of us, and we finally fall asleep out of exhaustion. Look at those sad, sick eyes...poor thing.

Cory and I both had obligations at church, but he ended up finding a replacement for his young men's lesson to stay home with Lillie, because I was not only doing Singing & Sharing Time today, but I was in charge of the Primary Mother's Day Sacrament Mtg. Presentation. The children sang "I Often Go Walking" and in the song the words talk about gathering an armful of blossoms of blue. The kids held up blue blossoms and gave them to their mom after the song. I thought it was cute...and it made me get a bit misty.

Last week when I was teaching the song to the children, I brought my mom to help me out. I told the kids that I hadn't seen my mom in over a year and that even though she is very far away, we could make her cry if we sang really well. (A little background...I got the idea online...you cut out a little hole in the pupil and hook up a squirt bottle to it...once the kids get the song, then you squirt them. According to the source, it said the kids LOVED to get a squirt from the mom. When I asked Cory to help me make it, he suggested - being the fabulous EMT that he is- the idea of using an IV instead so that the water will just drip out. I stuck with the squirt bottle idea, because it seemed like such a hit). So the kids were doing really well & singing like angels. So they got a squirt....there was a revolt!!! "That is disrespectful" "You don't just squirt water out of someone's eye" "that's just wrong" "you're so mean"...all of these comments came from primary children. Granted half of them are her grandchildren, but they all got so upset. I couldn't believe it...I finally had to physically put the picture away to calm them down. Isn't that funny? So needless to say, this idea was a major FLOP!!! Oh well, they learned the song, so that's good.

After I got home, Cory made us a great dinner. He gave me these beautiful earrings, using money he had been saving up for a gun. I know it was a sacrifice, and it was so sweet. I was so surprised. Notice the flowers Lil' had picked out for Mother's Day. I love my little family...they made me feel like a queen for a day.

After dinner we went for a ride, because Lillie needed to get out after being cooped up all day in her PJ's. Our friend & member of the bishopric, John Armstrong, came over around 8:30 and assisted Cory in giving Lil' a blessing. He stayed and talked with us for about 2 hours. We enjoyed our visit. The blessing helped and Lillie slept much better last night...thank goodness for the priesthood.

This last week Cory made a shadow box for Lil's blessing dress. I thought it really turned out. He enjoys working with wood (he made the shelf in the dining room, pictured above). The total cost of supplies was about $20 dollars. I'm sure it would've been much more expensive if we had a professional do it. It matches her white furniture, so I'm pleased with how it looks in her room.