I'm a Blessed Mom

Today was a wonderful Mother's Day. Brian let me sleep in, made me breakfast (which those of you who know him know he doesn't cook, so that made it that much sweeter!!), then took all the kids to sunday school so I could have a nice, relaxing morning. It was WONDERFUL!! And he got me pretty much the most amazing gift ever--he totally spoiled with a great iPod because I'm totally old school and have never owned one--super fun. As amazing as Brian was today, my sweet kiddos also reminded me that I am so very blessed. Today we just slowed down and hung out. And I don't know about you, but it's a wonderful reminder just how much I enjoy the presence of my kiddos. I had precious, quality time with each one--snuggle time with Mikaiah, a sweet talk with Anna in which she put her little arm around me and said, "I just love you, Mommy.", and snuggling to read a book Jakin chose (one of my absolute favorites, written by Karen Kingsbury--Let's Go On a Mommy Date--BTW, have I mentioned that Karen and I are best friends? At least that's what she told me when I MET HER a few months ago. Yeah, eat your hearts out, all my crazy reading friends. I'll write more on that later...) The book talks about all these fun things that a mom thinks of to do with her kids, but something keeps them from doing each thing. Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing enough things to invest in my children's lives and this book is such an encouragement to me. The last page sums up why days like today are so special...
"Hey wait, you're here beside me now, is this our Mommy Date? Never mind the other places. Here we are. Why wait?...See, time will take you far from here; you're growing way too fast. All I want is Mommy time to make the moments last. Something we'll remember so that come some far-off day, you'll know how much I loved you 'cause we took the time to play."

I caught a few moments from our day:
I'm totally not letting these outfits go to waste and match them as much as possible. They were obviously thrilled to be posing...


So, I just told them to do something fun, like dance...


Then Jakin abandoned ship in search of his cars...


But the girls were willing to pose for a few more...


After naps, we worked in the garden a bit (and yes, Anna is the only one in play clothes. Don't judge us...)


Mikaiah kind of reminds me of a little 1950s housewife--working away in her cute little dress...


It was a precious day and God gave me some sweet reminders of why it's so wonderful being a mom.