Mother's Day 2015

Mother's Day can go either way.  Sometimes I'm just not in the mood, and some times I'm in the mood for some serious celebrating.  This year was right in between.  Glade has been stressed and out of town for about a month now so I didn't have any expectations where he was concerned.  I knew all my littles had made sweet things for me and were dying to show me!!  They offered breakfast in bed, but I vetoed that a few years ago when they brought me a plethora of food balanced on a cookie cooling rack complete with seriously warm milk.  This year was just NICE.  And I'm sincere about that.  After a little bit of contention over who got to plan the "treasure hunt" for my gifts, all was well.  Katy made me a cute poster and several other things from activity days and school. I got the traditional facts about mom book from here.  Apparently I'm 250 in tall and weight 300.3 lbs.  Now, if you take that into proportion, I'm quite thin!  She's also aware I like quiet time and hate Chipotle.  I love those books.   Bo and the other kids found a chunk of wood and carved nice messages in it.  They even wrapped in Christmas paper!  We all had breakfast together on the "prom" table and then went to church.  I had the wonderful opportunity of speaking in church this Mother's Day.  We had a missionary reporting on this mission so they asked a couple of missionary moms to report on their sons and share a faith promoting story.  I'm not really sure what I said, I had nothing specifically prepared when I got up there. Every time I started to think of something to say, I would start to cry.  So I just tried not to think too much.  Of course, I didn't make it through without a few *cough cough* tears.  But it was fine, other than just maybe a bit mean to ask a missionary mom to speak about her kid who is far far away on Mother's Day.  Whitley and Nick came with us to church since they couldn't be there for dinner.

After church, I got a nice nap and cleaned up for dinner.  We got a last minute surprise of the Elders calling and asking if they could come to dinner.  I always love that and Elder Tagg was leaving in a couple of days so we got to say goodbye.  Chelsey and Whitley and Mom all came over and we ate Chocolate covered strawberries and Oreo balls while we waited for Stephen's call.

It was a wonderful day and of course there were so many beautiful messages on FB today.  Not just from my own kids, but just so much love floating around.  Here's my tribute:

I love Mother's Day!! It's a day to celebrate and be grateful for all the "moms" in our lives. I have them in so many varieties. First, I have a Mom. The BEST mom! She is my right hand a lot of the time and is never too busy to be wherever stuff is going on. She gives and serves and then gives some more. I love her!! Someday I'll be as good as she is, still working on it. ♥ I also have a wonderful step-mom who has been nothing but kind and loving and supportive my whole life. She loves my family like her own and has been such a blessing to us. I have a MIL who gave me a wonderful husband who was raised in love and passes that along to our family. I have a grandma who I just adore who inspires me through her daily endurance of what has not always been an easy life. I have had SOO many friends throughout my life who have taught and supported and loved my family. They are examples to me in many many ways. I have wonderful sweet daughters who are experiencing motherhood for the first time, what a joy! And women across the world who are mothering and caring for my sweet missionary boy. And Lastly... I AM a mother! The best thing I've ever done with my life. This is not a day to celebrate my "greatness", but to express my humble gratitude for the blessing of having all these wonderful children entrusted to me by a loving Father in Heaven. Of all things I ever do, they will be my greatest accomplishment. So Happy Mother's Day to all women, moms or not, for I'm positive you have been a motherly blessing to those you have loved and served. ♥

— with Bernice Manary and 5 others.

Rhett Prom 2015

I love Spring Formal!  It may also be known as Mormon Prom due to the fact that it's put on by the church.  The beautiful part is that its only $15 per couple and that includes access to all pictures.  Also, dress code is strictly enforced and music is appropriate.  My older kids hated going to their school proms because they were so raunchy.  This is the perfect substitute.  Rhett took if GF Jocelyn.  They doubled with Rhett's good friend Logan Shope and his date, Dakota Taylor.  They came to our house for dinner: chicken cordon bleu, roasted potatoes, corn, rolls, salad and chocolate cake for dessert.  Yum!  After, they all rode together to the dance.  Rhett texted me a couple of hours later letting me know they had cereal at the dance.  I think he said "best prom ever".  He kinda likes cereal.  And I kinda like that he wanted to share his excitement with his mama.  They had a great time and it may or may not have been their first kiss. ♥

Dalin

Dalin Catch Up: January - April 2015

Dalin is such a seriuosly good kid!  He gives everything 110% effort.  Now, he hasn't quite learned to handle defeat well and he totally underestimates himself, but he tries!  And he is so so good.  He tries so hard to do the right things and gets upset when those around him are making bad choices or keeping him from doing so.  He is kind and loving and so helpful.  Let's not forget super smart!!  Yep, just a stinkin good kid all the way around.

Pogo Pass Fun

Phoenix Rock Gym

Laser Tag and Dairy Queen

Phoenix Zoo 

 Look at him helping his little sister ♥

 Jumpstreet

  

Dalin's Birthday

Dalin turned 14 this year and wanted to have his birthday party at the Paintball Place, which is also on the Pogo Passes.  So he took a couple of friends with him.  Funny stuff!  First, self proclaimed Nerds.  Their conversation on the way there was in some foreign language that I think had to do with video games.  Then we (Mom and me) dropped them off to play and she and I went to grab dinner.  When we returned, we found two kids already having quit.  Once exclaiming that he got hit right in the kidney and it was the only one he has!  The other saying he couldn't feel his legs anymore.  Oh. My. Gosh.  Then Dalin and the other kid came out, Dalin in "tears" saying those kids were jerks and not playing fair.  They four of them were a mess.  I'm fairly certain none of them will be doing that again any time soon.  It wasn't on the agenda, but since I felt so bad for these kids I took them for ice cream after wards.  Memories.

 Castles and Coasters

This was a fun surprise. We weren't sure we were going to like it, but it turned out really fun.  The three big kids hung out together and Dalin didn't even puke once!! 

McFarland

There was a movie based on a true story about Cross Country running, so I took the two boys on a date night to see it.  I sure like these kids!!  The movie was really good too.

Random Selfies

Dalin's Choir

Dalin LOVES choir and is in the honor choir at his school.  They went to Disneyland recently to compete in a festival.  He had a bit of a rough time trying to keep his standards and not be made fun of by a few of his roommates.  But he rose above it and had a pretty good time.  For his final concert, they did a tribute to Broadway and his choir did a medley from Les Mis.   

Lunch in Cali

Dalin with Kermit's star

Missionaries

We love the missionaries!  We try to have them over as often as possible, we love the spirit they bring to our home.

Elder Petty

 Elders Thomson and Tagg

Track and Field 2015

Dalin competed in Shot Put, Discus and ran the Mile.  Occasionally he did a relay too.  He isn't the fastest kid, but he always tried hard and really improved his own time this season.  His main event is Shot Put.  He qualified for state in both shot and discus.  He didn't place, but we were sure excited that he got to go compete!!

Mother's Day Skype 2015

The long awaited day!  Because of time differences and church, we weren't able to Skype till 8pm our time.  Long wait!!  BUT, he called my phone first....I seriously thought someone else was posing as him, he sounded so different. If he would have randomly called and didn't tell me who it was I wouldn't have guessed it was my own son!  I made him tell me something personal and even then I told him I still didn't believe him.  Then he laughed and I knew....it's him.  Took a few minutes to get everything set up, but then we were good.  The whole family talked to him for about an hour.  They all took a turn telling him stuff and asking questions.  He was so sweet and patient with them. He took us on a tour of his apartment and sort of met his companion.  Even showed us the inside of his fridge.  I had let them all know I wanted him to myself for awhile, since after all, it's MOTHER'S day. So after an hour, they all said goodbye and I took the laptop into my room for some quiet time.  It was so great!  We talked for an hour, just he and I.  We talked about more personal things going on and some reflection.  We talked about his plans for college, Taylor, some of his companions and the challenges of being on a mission.  I can't express how awesome it was just to talk to him like old times.  And I only cried once!  I didn't even cry when we said goodbye, it wasn't that hard at all.  Lots of moms expressed their post Skype blues, but not me.  I felt really content.  I love love love him.

As a side note, I had to talk in sacrament meeting today.  They had a returned missionary report and a couple of missionary moms report on how their sons were doing and to share a faith promoting story.  Welp, I'm sure you can imagine, that was a tear fest for me.  I wasn't even sure what I was going to say when I got up there cuz every time I tried to start figuring it out in my head,I would start to cry.  So not fair to ask a MM to do that on Mother's Day.