Mother's Day

We are coming off a great week.  We had a few special birthday fun days for Blake this week.  And, Saturday, in the words of Blake, was "The BEST DAY EVER!"  I think that is one successful birthday celebratory week if I do say so myself!  And I will do a full recap of our birthday festivities, but for now, this post is all about ME.  Just kidding.  But seriously, I hope all the moms and those who serve a "mom" role in people's lives, had a special and happy day!  My mothers day lovin started Friday morning.  I left Brady at home with Brad and had a special date with my first born at his school.  We had muffins together (or my big, growing five year old ate his muffin AND my muffin) and he showered me with gifts he lovingly made at school.  Blake handed me the biggest gift first, a flower pot he painted special that had pictures of our family on the "flowers" inside.  He said, "I made this for you to make you happy."  Love him.  The class serenaded all their moms in the room with a cute little song, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", except at the end, when the words say, "Ain't no river wide enough could keep me from getting to you babe" they took out the babe and said "mom" and pointed to their mom.  It.was.adorable.  And I got teary eyed for sure. 

Then we had to guess which portrait was the one hanging on the wall our child had done of us.  On the top of the picture was  "She loves to...." And each child filled in the blank.  I went to the wall to try and find the picture my son had drawn of me and as soon as I saw the answer to the question on a particular drawing I KNEW it was Blake's.  Cracks me up.  He calls Kroger "the blue store" and Market Street "the black store".  Apparently I just LOVE to grocery shop!  

It was such a special morning and was such a treasure to me to get spoiled with little handmade gifts from Blake and have some one on one time together that I never have with him.  

Today we got to have a nice brunch with my parents and grandmother and we really enjoyed our time together as a family!  This was the best picture with my boys we could manage.  Comical.  Oh well.

And as much as I adore my time with my boys, I think what helps me be the best mom I can be, is some time away from mom duties from time to time.  Once we got home, Brad took my grocery store list and sent me off to a movie.  I did something I've always been too embarrassed to do for some reason, see a movie by myself.  But I LOVED IT.  I enjoyed the movie, I enjoyed the quiet, dark theater for a few hours just relaxing and then I came home to my house filled with groceries, some beautiful pink tulips on the table and boys I couldn't wait to hug and love on!!  I am beyond blessed.  There is nothing I wanted more in this world than to be a mom and I hit the mom jackpot getting to be Blake and Brady's momma.  It is the hardest thing in the world, to be a mom, but the absolute most joyous and rewarding thing as well.  I am so very grateful.  I am grateful for Brad's mom for helping raise the best partner in all of this I could EVER have.  And even though we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like due to geography, she is always there for us and makes up for lost time with the boys when we see her.  I am also so grateful to my mom.  She's shown me how to be a good mom and is such a great grandma to my boys.  She instilled confidence in me as a new mom when I wasn't sure if I was doing things "right".  She continues to always encourage me and tell me what a good mom I am and sometimes, on the hard days, when you think maybe you're not doing anything right, those words always mean so much.  And I hold onto them to lift me back up and brush myself off and start new the next day.  
And these three guys make any of my worst days still full of sunshine.  O.So.Grateful.