Mother's Day

So I have been thinking a lot about motherhood the last few days and I really felt like sharing them on my blog. I have been thinking about Motherhood in a lot of different ways. I used to just reflect on my own mother on Mother's day but as I have grown-up and my life has changed my views on motherhood have changed.

First I wanted to talk about my own moms. I have been so blessed because Heavenly Father gave me 2 moms. First is my "real" mom as I like to call her. I don't think I ever appreciated my mom as much as I do now that I am a mom. We are pretty close now. We had our differences when I was teenager but as I've grown up we've grown closer. She is an amazing person. She has such unconditional love for people around her. She is one of the most compassionate people I know. I often think of the Mother Theresa quote that says "If you judge people, you have no time to love them" when I think of my mom. She is always thinking of ways she can help other people out and really admire that about her. She is also an awesome grandma! It's been so fun to see my mom as a grandma. My kids call her Grandma SoSo. One memory that I wanted to share is when my mom and I went on a cruise for my senior trip. We had so much fun! We laughed so much! It was fun to spend a whole week with her. I think she was glad to spend the time with me too, especially since Dave proposed the day we got home! I was grateful for my mom this week because she came and took care of me Tuesday after I had my gallbladder surgery. It was fun to sit and talk with her. I am also lucky to have my mom #2. I don't feel like I could ever call Julie my "Step-mom" because she's just my mom. I have 2 moms and that's just the way it is. It's confusing sometimes because I call them both mom. Sometimes even my husband has to clarify who I'm talking about. They are both listed in my phone as "Mom". I am so grateful that my "real" mom is so cool about sharing me with my mom #2. That's another amazing thing about my mom! My mom #2 married my dad when I was 8. At the time I was living in Arizona with my dad and at the time it was just the 2 of us. Along with a second mom I got 2 sisters and later another brother. It didn't take very long for my mom to become my mom. She took an awkward 8 year old and helped shaped me into a pretty well-grounded teen-ager. I lived with my dad from the time I was 12 until I got married and then David and I lived with them for about 3 years after we were married. My mom has always loved me like her own. I really feel like she's my mom. She used to listen to my boring stories everyday after school and she would always listen to me tell her about the latest book I was reading. I'm sure that she was bored out of her mind listening to me talk sometimes but you would never know it! She taught me how to cook and do laundry and make a bed and clean bathrooms. She also helped me through the awful highschool years when I thought that nobody would ever want to date me let alone marry me! She kept telling me that somebody special would come along and she was right. I was so excited when she learned how to text a few months ago because it's much easier to talk to her everyday! She has also been such a fun grandma to my kids.

I have also been thinking a lot about my mother-in-law, whom I've never met. 26 years ago today she died suddenly at the young age of 31 leaving 6 young children ranging in ages 6 weeks through 9 years. My husband David was that 6 week old baby. Her name was Paula Jean. We gave Anna her middle name after her grandma Paula's middle name. It seems unfair to me that I had the opportunity to have 2 moms growing up and my husband didn't even get 1! I have no doubt in my mind that she is still a very real part of our lives. I know that she was there the day we got married and I know that she was with our children before they came to us. There are many quiet moments when Anna will get very alert and look past me and I know that her grandma Paula is near. A few years ago David's aunt's put a book of memories together for the kids. There are some pictures in the back of the book. I pulled the book down earlier in the week to show Joseph. The last picture in the book is the last family picture taken before she died. It has all the kids except David. Joseph liked to point to all the people and have me tell him who they are. I pointed to Paula and told him that was his very special Grandma Paula who watches over him from Heaven. I told him that she died. Joseph looked at me and while pointing to Paula said "grandma died." I know that he has no concept of what "died" means but it was still very sweet. Later in the week he pointed to the book and we looked at the pictures again. He again pointed to Paula and said "grandma died" He had remembered our earlier conversation. I was surprised he remembered. We went and bought a little potted white daisy (Paula's favorite flower) and we let Joseph decorate the pot with Mickey Mouse stickers and he colored her a card. We took it to her grave today. He loved the cemetery. He proudly put his pot of flowers on her grave and then he liked to look at the picture of the temple on the grave. He also liked walking around looking at all the flowers and pinwheels and balloons. We took a picture of him sitting down by a grave. He was just sitting there and it looked like he was deep in thought. I wondered what was going through his little 2 year old mind. I have thought a lot about being a mother a lot today too. I love being a mom! I can't tell you how being a mom ha changed my life. I never knew it was possible to love another human being this much! I mean don't get me wrong I love my husband but it's such a different love you have for your children. Joseph made me a little hand print with a cute little poem in nursery. I couldn't even read it without crying! The poem was about how one day I'll miss his little hands. I can't believe how quickly both of my kids are growing. Anna will be 2 months old this week and Joseph is a little boy now. It seems like he skipped the whole toddler stage! I love these 2 little people. I hope that I can do a good job raising them! I love them both so much! I am so grateful that I am married to someone who makes motherhood a priority! He is willing to make sacrifices so that I can stay home and take care of the kids. I love him so much! I'm sorry for such a long post but I just had some things on y mind that I wanted to share with you--who ever you are!

Joseph and Anna with their great-grandma Stevens, ( David's mom's mom!) on Mother's Day. That's him below playing with the ducks outside Grandma's house.

So the other day I found Joseph sitting in Anna's swing. He turns it on and then climbs in and plays with his cars. The little stinker!

Anna's Blessing

We blessed Anna today. It was really nice. The weather wasn't nice but the day itself was. It was actually snowing today! Here it is the last week of April and it was snowing! David blessed her in our ward. Afterward we had a little get together at our house. It was really nice. We had lots of friends and family who came and supported us. It was special because Anna was blessed in the same dress that I was! She was also wearing a pair of booties that my great aunt knitted for me when I was in Highschool. I saved them all these years to use with my baby girl. The bottom picture is of all of us. Unfortunately Joseph wasn't cooperating!

Fun in the Sun!

We are just loving this sunny weather! We took Joseph to play at the "park" outside our house on Tuesday. He went with his friend Abby. He was wearing a baseball hat and he looked like such a little boy and not a toddler. Where has the time gone? I thought it was funny because the kids started out playing on the actual playground and then they decided that walking on the bricks along the edge of the playground was much more fun! Later that night daddy set up his Cars tent. I laid Anna in the tent next to him and he thought that was pretty cool. I am so thankful for the sun!

Anna is 1 month Old!

So this last week Anna turned a month old! I can hardly believe it! She is getting so big and she's starting to be awake a lot more often during the day. We bought her a new swing this week. Our other swing was broken and would only swing half the time. That's her below in her new swing.

Anna is such a special little girl! Having a little girl is so much fun. I have loved being able to dress her up and use bows. We had a little bit of a stressful week this week. I had a HIDA scan for my gallbladder on Thursday. It turns out that I need to have my gallbladder out. When I went for my test on Thursday I had no idea what I was getting into! The test was about 2 hours long and they injected me with radio-active dye. So the tech told me that I couldn't nurse Anna for 48 hours and that I would need to "pump and dump." I was a little freaked out by this news because I had no idea I wouldn't be able to nurse. But at this point I had been fasting for over 12 hours for the test and I didn't want to have to re-schedule. Luckily we had some formula samples at home that we could use. Anna took a bottle alright but it took a little coaxing from both David and I. It was really hard on me because it took me about 45 minutes to feed Anna and then pump and dump. Then she would want to eat 2 hours later. The first night I hardly got any sleep. By Friday night I was exhausted! Luck for me I have an awesome husband who loves being a daddy. He took care of Anna that night and sent me to bed. I got some much needed un-interrupted sleep that night! That's one thing that I have missed. It seems like our queen sized bed is now the "family" bed. Joseph starts out in his bed and then usually comes and gets in bed with us when he wakes up in the morning. That's anywhere from 5 to 8 in the morning. He does usually fall back asleep though until 9 or 10. And a lot of the time when Anna wakes up for her middle of the night feeding she ends up staying in our bed cause I fall asleep too. Below is a picture of the kids in our bed.

Saturday night we went over to my parents for a barbecue. My grandma Meredith and her sister Vernie were here visiting from Spokane. It was fun to see them and be able to show off my cute kids. My brother and his wife and kids came too. Joseph loves their little girl Eliza. She's 7 months old so she's more interactive then Joseph's baby sister. He loves to try and make her laugh. Below is a picture of Anna and Eliza. They are 6 months apart. Sorry the photo's sideways!

Having 2 kids is definitely more work than I thought. There are days that I am completely overwhelmed and I feel like I am a bad mom. But I also feel incredibly lucky to have 2 healthy kids and a wonderful husband who loves his family. I feel so blessed that he works so hard so that I can stay home with the kids! The happiness and love I feel as a mom totally out weighs the frustration!

Happy Easter!

Easter was so fun this year! Friday night Joseph colored Easter eggs with his Uncle Christian. He pretty much just liked to put stickers on the eggs after they were dyed and dried. I tried to show him that he could color on the egg with a white crayon and then they drawing would "magically" appear after they had been dyed, but he didn't really understand why he couldn't see anything when he colored on the egg. (Joseph putting his eggs in his bucket)That was the day after he broke my memory card for my camera so I don't have any pictures of him coloring eggs :( Grandma SoSo and Grandpa Terry had an Easter Egg hunt at their house the day before Easter. They gave Joseph a bucket and let him go find eggs. Joseph didn't quite know what to do. His cousin Johnny had already been to an egg hunt so he knew exactly what to do and what was inside the eggs. I thought that once I showed Joseph what was in the eggs he would get excited and start looking for more. But he didn't really get into. He was more interested in playing with the race cars they had there. He did go and find a few to put in his bucket. After the hunt Grandma and Grandpa gave each of the kids an Easter bucket of goodies. Joseph got a new "Cars" outfit and lots of candy and Anna got a new dress and a stuffed Bunny. (Looking for eggs) It was a lot of fun! We also had dinner and visited with my grandma who was here visiting from St. George. Easter Sunday Dave had to work so I took the kids to church with my parents. I do have to say that my kids were pretty much the cutest kids at church!!! It was fun to go to church with grandma and grandpa. It was Anna's first time at church. We got there before my mom and the other kids got there, but of course my dad was already there saving us a spot. (Ready for Church!) It was cute because Joseph was looking at the Hymn book when they finally got there and all of a sudden he looked up and saw Aunt Ashlie sit down next to him and he got a huge grin on his face and started pointing at her to me. He was like he couldn't believe that they were there. He was also excited because he got bubbles in nursery! Afterword we went back to my parents for dinner. David got off at 3 so he was able to make it to dinner. My parents had some Easter Eggs for the 2 boys and a big bouncy ball. Joseph was excited. After dinner and dessert we came home to see if the Easter Bunny had come to our house while we were gone. (Joseph with his Easter Bunny stuff) David had to be to work by 7 this morning and since the kids are still asleep when he leaves we decided to wait until that night to have the Easter Bunny come. It was a fun ending to the Easter Week-end. We came home and their Easter Baskets were set out on the counter. Joseph got a "Cars" bucket with "Cars" Easter Eggs, a Buzz Lightyear Kite, a stuffed Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc., and of course a chocolate bunny. Anna got a pink bucket with a stuffed baby Dumbo and a chocolate bunny. (Anna with her new stuffed Dumbo) The Easter Bunny also left Mom and Dad an Easter Basket with some of their favorite treats too. I feel like we have soooo much candy around our house now! It was fun to spend this week-end with family.

Cute Cousins

So this will be my last post with pictures for awhile...Joseph broke my memory card tonight. Luckily he broke it while it was in my computer after I downloaded all my pictures. So at least I didn't lose any pictures. I just won't be able to take any pictures for awhile! Today we took Joseph and Anna to see their "cookie grandpa" (David's Dad) and Aunt Ashley at the cookie store. It didn't take Joseph long to spot the cookies with M&M's or minis as Joseph calls them. It also didn't take long for him to convince his Grandpa to get him one! Once he saw how to get into the cookie case he just went ahead and helped himself to as many as he could get to before we stopped him! Below is a picture of Anna with her cousin Wyatt. They are almost exactly 2 months apart. Wyatt was born January 15th. Anna looks like she is smiling and Wyatt has such a serous look on his face!

Happy Birthday Daddy and Joseph!

It was the week of Birthday's at our house! Wednesday was David's birthday. He's 26 now. Crazy how fast time goes by! Joseph helped me make daddy breakfast in bed. We brought him his breakfast in bed and gave him his birthday presents. Joseph and Anna got him a "Cars" game for the Wii. ( Anna with a flower in her hair that is about as big as her head) I let Joseph pick out any game he wanted. It wasn't really a shock that he picked out a game with "Speed" on it. I got David a electric razor. Later that day we went to visit my dad. He had surgery on his ankle on Tuesday to remove some bone spurs. My mom had to go back to work so we took the kids over to see grandpa. Anna had her 2 week check-up later that afternoon. She's gained a pound! She's 8 lbs 10 oz now. The doctor said that everything looked good and she's growing great. (Joseph had a long day of shopping. He needed a nap and so he just closed his eyes) She moved from the 30 percentile to the 50th! Later that night we had our weekly game night. I made a Banana Cream pie to share. David would rather have Banana Cream pie than birthday cake! I of course forgot to take any pictures of David's birthday. Friday night I got to see my Aunt Laura Kaye and my cousins from Oklahoma. We played games that night. It was so fun to see them. Laura Kaye was married to my mom's brother, Gary, who passed away from a brain tumor 2 years ago. 3 Summer's ago Gary and Laura Kaye spent a few months with us while he underwent treatment at the Huntsman Center. We got to know them pretty well during that time. Since he passed away his wife and family moved from Idaho to Oklahoma so it was fun to spend time with them again. Saturday I went and ran errands for Joseph's party. My sister Ashlie ended up spending the night both Friday and Saturday night to help out. (Joseph's birthday treats. Aunt Ashley made the cookie bouquet and Amy made the awesome cake and cupcakes.) I don't think I could have made it through Costco and Walmart with out her and my mom! It's a lot harder to go places with 2 kids! You should have seen the back of the car. It was so packed full of stuff! This afternoon we had a party for Joseph even though his birthday isn't until this Friday the 10th. We had a hard time deciding when to do his birthday party. David works 15 hours on Saturdays so that left Sundays. With next week being Easter that left today. We had a Mickey Mouse party. We did it at our house and used the group room. ( Joseph blowing out his 2 candle) We had hot dogs which is one of Joseph's favorite things. Our friend Amy made him the cutest Mickey Mouse cake. Check out the picture. Yeah she's pretty talented and does cakes on the side. So if anyone has a special event coming up and you need a cake let me know and I can direct you to her website. Her specialty is giant cupcakes. We also had a pinata. It was fun. We used a golf club to hit and that made the Grandparents nervous. Looking back on it now it is pretty scary to give a 2 year old a golf club and tell him to swing it in a room full of kids. But lucky for us no one got hurt. The younger kids didn't quite get the idea that you have to hurry when the candy falls out. ( Dallin helping Joseph open presents) But the bigger kids were nice enough to share their candy. Joseph got some really cool gifts. He was so excited and luckily his cousin Dallin was there to show him how to open his presents quickly. He ended up being pretty spoiled. We had so much fun and it was great to have access to the group room. It's crazy how many people we had. Joseph loved playing with his cousins. It was funny to see all the boys together. Joseph is pretty loved. I can't believe that my baby boy is almost 2 years old! I feel so lucky to be a mom. Joseph is such a good boy. He loves being a big brother. He calls his baby sister Nana. There are times I look at this little boy and think about how much I love him. It's amazing the love you feel for your child and it's amazing how you can feel that love for the second one too. (Boy cousins Taylor,5, Dallin ,2, and Joseph) Joseph is defiantly a special boy. Our next adventure will be potty training so wish us luck. I am also so lucky to be married to David. It amazes it me that I am more in love with David now than I was 5 years ago when we got married. He is such a great dad. He never complains about helping out with the kids. I love him so much. I am so grateful for both my birthday boys!