Mother's Day 2012

Mother's Day was awesome this year.....because I have the most amazing husband and kids!  They are such wonderful blessings in my life.  I am so blessed to be a mother; and even more blessed for the children that Heavenly Father placed in my care on this earth.  I am blessed to be a part of their lives and watch them grow and develop; nothing brings me more happiness than my three kids and my husband.   They truly help me to become better each day and strive to be the mother and wife they so deserve.  I woke up to breakfast in bed - yummy fruit with fruit dip and orange juice along with cinnamon swirl toast and a red long stemmed rose on my tray as well.  They each gave me a homemade card and Toby took them to buy me beautiful roses and cards and a gorgeous diamond necklace that has a circle of a mother and a child on it with the diamond in the middle.  Jaron composed a song just for me and played it for me.  He is so talented - it made me cry.  The cards made me cry too.  Brielle was so sweet and told me many many times throughout the day how much she loved me and how beautiful and special I am to her.  She was just as excited about Mother's Day as I was.  She also made me a cute book of colored pictures of her and I and what she appreciates about me.  She also made a flower bookmark and the flower petals were of her fingerprints.  Mikenna made a card out of my name, and also a memo board for me.  Toby also took us out for dinner and we enjoyed a nice long family walk together afterwards.  They also served yummy cheesecake and punch at church for all the mommy's!

Mikenna's Name Poem:

M - Most Wonderful Mom Ever!
A - Awesome Mom!
N - Neat and Nice!
D - Dedicated in everything you do.
Y - You're a great soccer mom!

At church I cried some more.  In Relief Society they showed a video of all of our kids saying into the camcorder what they appreciate about their mom.  Mikenna said "She loves me and helps me a lot and buys me lots of things."  Brielle said "She helps me with a lot of things".  It was really cute.  They also had a musical number about enjoying the journey of motherhood.  I really had to hold back the tears with that song.  I also loved the quote that was recited by the teacher by Marjorie Pay Hinckley:

“I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children.
I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.
I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.
I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.” 
― Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Joy in the Journey - 

Julie de Azevedo 

We may not see the end from the beginning

We cannot comprehend all the Father has in store

We may not have the answers to the question

But through the life that we’ve been given

He longs to teach us more

Every rock we stumble across

Can be a stepping stone

There are precious hidden treasure

Scattered all along the road

Chorus:

There is joy in the journey

Joy in the climb

Twisted and turning

Reaching for the open sky

Carving out each footstep.

In the struggling we find

There is hope, there is joy

in the journey

We cannot know what is coming round the corner

We may not see the mountains or the valleys up ahead

so every day we put our faith in heaven

and in the light of the morning we find strength to rise again

all of us are travelers searching for our home

in the learning we are not alone

Chorus

There is joy

So much joy

There is joy in the journey

Twisting, turning, reaching and learning

There is joy

I loved the messages that were brought about in church today.  It filled my spirit with hope, love, faith and peace and feeling oh so blessed for all of the things Heavenly Father has entrusted me with.  It may not be easy at times to raise children; but the journey we take as mothers to raise them and to go through the happy times and the challenges with them and to watch them reach their potential and learn and grow - I really believe we live our lives parallel to them; and we also learn and grow and become better people, better mother's and better daughter's and friends and sisters.  My children are my teachers as I teach them.  It's a beautiful circle of love.  I love being a mom and I am grateful for my own mom and for the wonderful example that she has always been to me.  I look to her example often and strive to mother my own children with what she has taught me through her own life.  I am blessed to have wonderful woman around me and in my family.  I am grateful for their examples and for their own individual strengths and talents that I can learn and draw from.  I am grateful for my two talented beautiful sister in laws and for the wonderful moms they are.  And I am grateful for my sister for the amazing person she is and the role she has taken in mothering 6 wonderful kids.  I am blessed with amazing examples. My grandma Higley who lives her life close to God and loves those around her with all of her heart.  I am blessed to have aunts who are wonderful mothers and friends that I associate with that are wonderful mothers.  

I draw strength from every one of them and admire their own talents and womanhood.  I am blessed to have been so close to my Grandma Winder and to have been able to watch how amazing she was as a wife, mother, daughter and friend.  I am so grateful to my wonderful husband who treats me in a way that my children know through him how much he loves me and how special I am to him.