Mother's Day/Baby Dedication/Cry Fest

 I can wrap up my Mother's Day is two simple words...cry fest. We wanted to have Landry dedicated and we just kept letting time slip away from us. So with Mother's Day approaching and the brick feeling of it being the first Mother's Day without Tonya, we decided it was be a good distraction.

 

My mother-in-law flew in to see Landry's dedication. It was great having her here and to have her be part of the celebration. Nolan woke up as pale as a ghost and throwing up. Nothing will remind you that you're a mom on Mother's Day than taking care of a sick one. Rescheduling the dedication was not an option since people had flown in for the event and we had more people coming to church to see it.

So we're the deadbeat parents that gave our son a tiny bit of Dramamine and had him lie down on the back pew. But I think it worked because by the time church was over he was playing on the playground and running around and crying because he was so starving. So that's why Nolan is missing from our dedication pictures. There's always a story to keep our lives interesting.

Landry looked like an angel. I was nervous about having her in white. My luck with white is disastrous. A blow out or spit up is usually involved. But we made it through the whole service without any disasters!

It was her first time wearing shoes and she wasn't sure about those things.

Rob, our minister and friend, did the dedication and she was totally working the crowd with her coos, and Rob even paraded her up and down the aisle and she just stared at him. It was too cute.

My sister's best friend Sheri made it to service with her beautiful family. Having Sheri there was like having a piece of Tonya there with us. One of Tonya's last wishes was that necklaces be made for her girls with her ashes so she can always be close to their hearts. Each of us wore our necklaces to honor her on our first Mother's Day without her here with us.

During the service, the choir sang "Love Never Fails." Which is the same scripture that was read at Tonya's butterfly service and I pretty much lost it. I hadn't lost it like that since her service. It just really struck me that all these big events like Landry's dedication were going to be without her to celebrate. Madison, my oldest niece, was there and it made my day.

Nolan has been throwing up sick three whole times in his life and my mother-in-law happened to be in town for two of them. She's going to think we're going around letting him lick doorknobs.

And on top of the whole thing, our very close and dear church friend just graduated from Brite Divinity School from TCU and they're moving to Colorado after three years of love and laughter here. So once again, the kleenexes made an apprearance. Justin did a photo shoot with them so they could remember Texas forever.

The emotions were uncontainable all morning. Seeing my church family love her like I do, having my family there, and the blessings and love she's brought us in eight short months were just too much.

I know the blessings are overflowing in the midst of sadness of losing Tonya. I think the tears were a rollercoaster of my cup overflowing, shadowed with a hole in my heart.
 

The blessings are helping me heal. Thank you God for the blessings.

 last Mother's Day, right before we found out Tonya's cancer had returned.

Mother's Day

There's no other day out there that makes you feel like more of a rock star than Mother's Day. The homemade cards are something I make sure that I keep. And for one day at least, I know that my amazing husband will handle all arguments, chores, and parental duties. And on a year when I'm pregnant (or any year for that matter), that sounds absolutely fabulous. 

 

I won't tell you how long it took me to get up from the position of this picture. There were a couple of audible grunts. 

After church, we drove out to my sister's. We had a little potluck and filled our bellies. With all this royal wedding fanfare and it being Kentucky Derby weekend, we wore hats like we were in the Blue Grass state rather than the Lone Star state.

 

Grandma was loving herself some garden stepping stones and Nolan was proud of his gift.

 

And even though it was Mother's Day, Granddad even got some love...

 

One thing that goes without saying on Mother's Day that's an absolute necessity? A nap. You know one of those leave-me-alone-I'm-hibernating naps.

It was a glorious one too.

But the thing that I love most about Mother's Day is the reminder that I'm a mom and would never trade it for anything. I'm so thankful that motherhood has brought be a deeper understanding of my own mother and given me so much in common with my sister.

 

 And I'm so grateful for being a mother once again and for the first time getting to experience being a mom of a daughter. 

I pray that our relationship is strong and everything that I hope it will be.

Mama projects

There's something about projects that is therapeutic. Hear me out, 80% of the time they are a beat down in some form but the finished product is well worth it and seeing something tangible to show what you've done with your time...well, it puts my self esteem right up there with rock star status.

And some people might think I'm creative, but my secret? I'm really good at copying and stealing ideas. I would say that only 1% of the ideas are mine so really I guess I'm just good at being a thief and being cheap. I got this idea off The Idea Room who just makes me look like the biggest slacker because most all of the ideas are actually hers and she does it with five kids. Yep, just slap a big L on my forehead. But in the meantime, I just keep stalking her blog for more ideas until maybe someday I can come up with my own.

So this project is one for Grandma for Mother's Day who's been working hard on her backyard. We thought it would be a good addition.

Two things I learned in the project after THREE trips to Home Depot. DON'T buy the concrete I have pictured in the following photo with Justin...WRONG stuff. Well, unless you want something that might cause bleeding soles on your feet for garden stones.



This is the good stuff you need and it's a whopping $5.

The second thing learned...if your garage floor is as filthy as mine, be willing to let your kids feet resemble hobbit feet from The Lord of the Rings. Baths will be needed and the bath water will be gray...

Next we poured the concrete into the plastic plates that go underneath plants and used some some fun rocks and jewels to decorate the stone.



After about 3 days of drying, I'd say that they turned out pretty stinkin' cute.
In fact, I wouldn't mind a couple made for me...hint, hint, Justin.

 
The boys just loved slipping their hands on their stones to fit the matching puzzle piece. Although, sometimes those chubby fingers needed a little guidance.

 

But when the hand fit like Cinderella's slipper there was a facial expression to match the excitement.

Oh, I think the reason I want a pair for myself the most might be because I want to remember how small their hands were and for a moment in time...they never grow up.

Mother's Day

Saturday was a full day of soccer and a young family event at church so we crashed hard early Saturday night. So my first Mother's Day gift was that the boys let me sleep in until 9:00. I had to go wake up Nolan at 9:15...he was out! It was wonderful and very much needed to catch up on sleep. I'm known to stay up way too late working on blogs and other silly things (it's the only time that I have time!). I asked Nolan to get dressed and this is what he came downstairs looking like. I had to pause as late as we were to take a picture....so priceless.

Before we left for church I wanted to get at least a couple of pictures to remember Mother's Day with my boys, so we snapped a couple in a jiffy before walking out the door. And, you even get to see my flowers while they're still living...just give it a week.

 I found out that I was the back up for Children's Church this weekend and the teacher just had a baby so understandly their family wasn't at church. Justin took care of it and made sure that someone else covered it so that I had a teach free day at church...so sweet. They handed out flowers to all the moms in church...too bad my children walked past me and were looking for some other mama. Justin had to chase them down the aisle to point out where I was. Justin sang and played guitar during the service with another church member, Dee, called "Mama's Last Amen" There were ladies tearing up all over that sanctuary. It was pretty and I was so glad that I got to be in the service to hear it.

Next, we headed to my mom's house to celebrate with her. On the way, Nolan called Gram (Justin's mom) to wish her a Happy Mother's Day. We wish so much we could all be together to celebrate.

My sister and her girls were there and my wonderful niece Madison took both boys to eat outside with her and my other nieces so that I could have a nice quiet lunch. It's the small things in life that make me happy. My mom was happy to have most of her grandkids with her. Can you believe she's missing five grandchildren from this picture?

After our wonderful lunch we exchanged gifts and cards. I'm still enjoying the beautiful flowers that the boys brought me to my picnic. I decided after smelling these flowers throughout the house, that I might just go buy myself flowers every week. I also enjoyed a fabulous pedicure that made me just melt.

 Since it was a little chilly out today, we cuddled up in a blanket. I'm not sure if it was because it was Mother's Day, or just because they were cold, but the boys actually sat there and let me snuggle.

Before I had children, I NEVER cried at movies. Justin used to call me heartless while he would be fighting back the tears. Notice I said before children because now I'm an absolute mess. All it takes now is a commercial, and it's a weekly event when we're watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to send me looking for Kleenex. I can't help but think of "What if that were my child," with anything I approach in my life. I bawled today in church, cried Friday night at a movie and that's just in the past two days. I know that I've never laughed, cried, or smiled as much in my life as I have in the past 4 1/2 years. What can I say?  I love these boys so much. They are my strength. They are my heart. They are my everything.

An early Mother's Day surprise

Every year at my school we have a Mother's Day picnic the week before Mother's Day. In years past I was either pregnant, on swine flu break or thought it would be too much to have my own kids up there. This year I thought I would take a chance and have Justin bring them up there for me.

How many brownie points does my sweet hubby score? He goes entirely out of his way to pick them up (really...I'm talking at least 30 min.), picks up a BEAUTIFUL bouquet of flowers including my favorites like gerber daisies and lilies with both boys in tow, picks up lunch for me, changes Campbell's shirt so he doesn't look like a daycare ragamuffin, and stays late after work to make up the time he missed...all for me!

Since it was going to take another 30 minutes to drop them back off, we decided it was better just to leave them with me the last hour of school. I was so nervous about how they were going to act but they were really great. That last 20 minutes of school was really rough with Campbell, but we made it. Another day when we were about 3 hours late on nap. They were both zonked before I even hit the highway.

My students loved them and since 95% of them are Hispanic, they couldn't help but just stare at Campbell's big blue eyes. One of my girls said, "Those girls won't stop talking about his eyes, Mrs. McDonald. Be careful, they might rip them out." Let's hope not.

I'm one lucky mama.

What an awesome Mother's Day

I think this Mother's Day was super special. Not that the others haven't been but this one just really warmed my heart. The boys were great. They got me a beautiful ring from James Avery. I was especially flattered that they thought my fingers were as skinny as the size they bought me. We went to church and had lunch with my mom and sister afterwards. During church, Nolan went up for the children's sermon. I love that our church does this and I just love the adorable things that kids say up there. Nolan is the youngest by far. The other kids up there yesterday were 3rd grade and up. Well, Nolan had his first adorable children's sermon moment on Mother's Day. Our youth minister asked all the kids what was something kind that they were going to do for their moms. He handed Nolan the microphone and my heart started pounding fast. I was nervous that either Nolan wasn't listening to the question because he was so busy waving at me and saying, "Hi mommy!" or that he would say something that had nothing to do with what the children's sermon was about. But quick as ever, as if he had been planning to say it all along, he said, "I'm going to be nice to my baby brother," in his super adorable 3 year old voice. The congregation immediately roared with "aaahs" and laughter. I was just smiling ear to ear and so proud of what a sweet boy he is (well most of the time). And you know what, he actually was nice to Campbell but he usually is anyway. What a great gift!