happy mother's day to me

happy mother's day to me! the kids brought me some breakfast (a reheated leftover of what i made yesterday, but still sweet) as we were getting ready for church. after church they took me to get some frozen yogurt at sweet frog (bonus - it was free for moms!) and then one of my favorites for brunch.

i didn't get pictures of all the special handmade gifts i received from the kids, but let me just say that their teachers did an amazing job making a mom feel special and my kids know me really, really well. look how maddux drew me with the exact outfit i wore for mother's day! it was even an outfit i had only worn one other time.

these are the forms from madelyn, but the boys gave me some great cards too. these kids have some big love for me. i need to keep these out for when i am feeling like a mommy failure.

for dinner we went to a pizza place that serves these fantastic avocado tacos. there was only one other car in the parking lot. i guess not every mom feels the need for pizza and tacos. as a thank you for coming in, they gave me a free pizza coupon!

once a year might not be quite enough when you are living in the trenches of motherhood, but the thank yous are very appreciated. love.

early mother's day date

last week maddux brought home an invitation to breakfast and tea at church this morning. he was so excited to have this special date with me! (even if it was only 15 minutes.) it was really cute how he took my hand and beamed with joy. the sweet folks who put it together also gave each child a potted flower to take home. i love this sweet boy. love.

happy mother's day to me!

it was a pretty perfect mother's day - i cooked no meals and took a nap. i can't ask for much more than that! love.

atlanta mother's day

we headed out at 5am today and drove all day long. the kids were amazing! this is our first long car trip without a potty trainer or nurser and it was so much easier. we were able to drive until about 10:30 before stopping for 'breakfast' at starbucks. and then we had lunch around 2:30 (at one very sketchy, gas station mcdonalds - there were so many flies that maddux won't sit at our table).  those were our only stops in the 12 hour drive! even the atlanta traffic was kind to us. now once we got to the hotel - where there was only very expensive valet parking - we drove around and around before deciding to drop matt off with most of the luggage while i went to have dinner with my friend shannon and her son, ollie. matt needed to get cleaned up for a business dinner for the conference he was attending tomorrow at the hotel.

dinner outside at mellow mushroom and my first beer in a very long time was a great way to end mothers day.

we were earlier getting to atlanta than planned so we had to wait a while for shannon and ollie (shannon had just returned from an alaskan cruise that morning and was kind enough to spend her first mother's day with us!).

maddux showing me how to shoot a bow and arrow, i loved his serious face.

and there is happy maddux!

madelyn and ollie. i think that this was the only moment that ollie wasn't smiling.

the kids were so great. we spent 12 hours in the car and then the first time they get out we go to a restaurant for about 3 hours! (we were waiting for matt to be done with his business dinner so that he could help me unload the rest of our stuff out of the van and into the hotel.) at least we were able to sit on the uncrowded patio, but it was on a busy road and the kids couldn't really get out all of their energy. i also had to run mason to the bathroom at one point because he got very pale and looked like he was going to throw up. i think between the chocolate milk at lunch, the chocolate milk and cheese pizza at dinner and the heat, he had a dairy overload. thankfully, he did not throw up and was soon fine.

shannon got this picture of all five kids.

it was so great to see shannon and meet ollie! i should have taken a picture but i had been up since 3:30am and it just wasn't the first thing on my mind. i was so scattered just trying to keep the kids from getting into trouble and not bothering other diners. we were all ready for bed by the time we said good-bye and headed back to the hotel. yay for a great day of travel! love.

happy (early) mother's day!

i think that this year i received the most mother's day gifts ever! since my big mother's day gift is to go to florida and see wyatt, leaving first thing tomorrow morning, we celebrated mother's day tonight. the kids were all so excited to have me open their gifts and tell me all about them.

mason made his at school and made a card too. in the picture he is holding a tissue paper poppy flower to match the paper.

madelyn was proud of her vine she drew on this bag at church. inside was a washcloth, bath gel and a small soap.

madelyn made this one at school in art class

i think this one was made in her classroom

madelyn proudly told me that she picked raspberry tea for me when everyone else was choosing apple cinnamon.

and my 'potted plant' from maddux. the third flower said how tall he is now.

unfortunately, i totally forgot about mother's day and did nothing for my own mother. well, i did a public declaration on facebook, that counts, right? love.

mother's day portrait

madelyn drew this picture of me for mother's day.  i was a little hesitant to ask what the big circles were on my chin.  she said that my face was covered with "kisses" and the circle ones were from manning - because he kisses with his mouth open!  how cute is that?!  and way, way better than what i thought she was going to say...  love.

happy mommy day to me!

i made breakfast last night (a new recipe for cereal squares) so that i could get up, nurse manning, wake up matt and get back into bed a little before church.  unfortunately, no one really liked the bars so matt fed them cereal.

after church (which was really great by the way - i may do a separate post on "motherhood" later today), i remembered to have matt take some pictures of me an the kids.  but in true mason fashion - he did not want to be in the picture.

i was showered with many (many, many) drawings and handmade cards from the kids.  and i even got some fancy gifts too!

i am so blessed to be called "mom".  happy mommy day!  manning is napping, matt is taking the bigs for a walk and i am going to take a nap.  love.

first mother's day gift of the year

mother's day tea

madelyn's school invited all the moms to join her class for a mother's tea (a mom event after the dads super hero event).  unfortunately, i had to bring mason and maddux too since it was during the day.  fortunately, that was okay and they behaved.

mason playing an animal sounds/name game on my phone while we waited for them to set up.  i think he looks so much older in this picture.

they had the moms come in one at a time.  madelyn's teacher would announce the child's name and introduce their mom.  then the child and mom posed for a picture in front of a mother's day sign. before being shown to a seat at one of the tables.  our place setting had a hat craft from our child, a portfolio of their work, evaluations and pictures from the year and a poem (which made me cry) with a handprint laminated into a placemat.  madelyn was so excited to have me there.

madelyn made me this hat wall hanging.

it was cute because all of the kids thought that they were real hat and were putting them on their moms and themselves.  madelyn didn't get that it hung on the wall until i hung it up when we got home.

here is the poem that went with their handprint:

sometimes you get discourages

because i am so small

and always leave my fingerprints

on furniture and walls.

but every day i'm growing -

i'll be grown some day

and all those tiny handprints

will surely fade away.

so here's a little handprint

just so you can recall

exactly how my fingers looked

when i was very small.

and then the kids all lined up in the front of the room and sang us three songs.

her teachers had put together a nice buffet of food and drinks for us.  (don't worry, madelyn, mason and i all shared this plate of food - and seconds too.  by the way, mason doesn't seem to have any trouble with strawberries any more - he out grew it just like madelyn did.  hooray!)

after we finished eating, miss natalie gave a little speech about how special this class was and how much they had learned that you wouldn't see in a progress report or the papers they brought home.  and then she called up each student to get a 'diploma' for completing the threes class and a gift bag.

diploma picture with miss natalie (and mason)

madelyn, miss gina and mason

it was a lovely way to finish up the school year.  wednesday is the end of year picnic at a local park, so there is technically one more day of school, but today was her last 'school' day.  love.

mother's day

mother's day was pretty low key.  all i wanted was sleep. but after matt's super late night bowling, he needed it more.  he did let me go back to bed when he got up with the kids but he was the one who ended up taking an afternoon nap.  oh well.  at least one of us got to!  he did try to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast but they were beyond burnt on the bottom - he told me not to ask and i didn't.

madelyn had made me a gift at school (pictured to the right) and she hid it behind her back when i picked her up on wednesday so that i wouldn't see it.  she kept it 'hidden' at the foot of her car seat for the rest of the week.  when she realized that it was finally mother's day she asked permission to go and get it out of the car.  she had also made a card while i was 'sleeping in'.  she kept taking the card back all day to 'add some more' because she wasn't done yet.  i think that the pictures are of the final version.

the family took me to friendly's for lunch so that i could get my free mother's day sundae - which was delicious.  and then we drove out to the lot to see the progress on the house.

since cooking isn't matt's strong suit, i make steaks and sweet potato casserole for dinner (some of my favorites).  all in all a nice day with the family.  i told matt that next year he needs to make sure that he doesn't schedule a late night the saturday before mother's day so that i can get some sleep!  but he can let me sleep any time - i won't say no! 

i thanked them all for my day.  it occurred to me that without the love and willingness of my husband, i would not be a mother at all.  for that i am eternally thankful.  love.



 

mother's day

unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures on mother's day. our church did a nice 'i love you, mom' video with some of the little kids telling why they loved their moms. madelyn made the video twice. the first was she and i kissing on our way into the church and then another with her saying "i love you, mommy" into the microphone when they interviewed kids in their classrooms during service (i was actually volunteering in the room when they did the video of her but was not close enough to hear what she had said). we went to the saturday night service and the video was a great way to start mother's day.

i had volunteered to help in the toddler room sunday morning (for obvious reasons, they were having trouble getting enough volunteers). so i got up and made pancakes for everyone before getting dressed and heading to church by my self. when i got home matt took the kids to the park for a picnic lunch (i sort of tricked him into it by saying at the last minute that i was staying home to take a nap). i got to have a nice rest while the kids got to spend some fun time with their daddy.

matt said that i could pick where we went for dinner and my pregnant belly has really, really been craving chili's chicken crispers with steamed vegetables so chili's was my pick. but i was so disappointed to find out that they don't do a beer batter any more! when did that happen?! i know that we don't eat out much but, man! they just have a normal crispy breading/batter. it was good and we enjoyed our meal out, but i was so disappointed because i had been craving it for weeks and weeks.

madelyn wished me "happy mother's day" for several days more. it was so great to have her (and mason) to celebrate the day with. love.

"happy easter day!"

yes, that is how madelyn wished me a happy mother's day this morning - "happy easter day". easter must have made quite an impression because she has wished me happy easter a few times now. she was able to say "happy mother's day" a few times, but mainly it was "happy easter day".

when i told her that it was time to get dressed this morning she replied "yea church! God loves, God loves!". she must have decided that we were headed to church because i was already dressed - i didn't say that we were going to church. it made me so happy for her new association with "church" - "God loves"!

after church we went to get breakfast, but it turned into lunch after we waited over an hour and a half! madelyn was starting to melt down, but then recovered after a book of stickers, some crayons and paper, and running around with some other kids. the other kids were hopping on one leg and madelyn was trying to imitate them. i love the original pancake house! it is always worth the wait.

matt finally woke madelyn up from her nap at 5:00pm (more than 4 hours of napping). plus, i think that he was excited to give me my mother's day gift - a netbook! i have been shopping them around a little because i thought that it would be better for me than our desktop computer. (a netbook is a low cost, super-small laptop style computer that is primarily for email and internet use.) i am using it to blog tonight and could not be happier with it! i was going to use my birthday money to get one, but matt totally surprised me! it will be nice not to have to run downstairs every time i need to look something up real quick.

i also got lots of surprise hugs and smiles from madelyn today. i am a lucky mommy (and wife). love.

life at warp speed

madelyn changes so much every day that a few days skipped and i have quite a few stories to share!

first of all - happy mother's days to all you moms! my first mother's day was pretty nice. we went to church this morning and i got a surprise gift from madelyn when we picked her up from the nursery. they had stamped her hand on a coffee mug for me with her name and the year on the bottom. on the back there was this message:

"This isn't just a mug as you can plainly see.
I made it with my hand which God made a part of me.

It comes with lots of love especially to say,

I hope you have a very special Mother's Day!"

of course that made me tear up! it was so thoughtful of them to make that with her. (although i don't know how in the world they got her to hold still long enough to get a clear imprint of her hand!) madelyn did her own artwork at home for her grandma and nana mother's day cards. usually i let her hold a marker, but i decided to try crayons. the markers must not taste as good as the crayons is all i have to say about that...

it was if madelyn knew that it was mother's day and said "ma-ma", "mom" and "mo-mi" a lot more than normal today. matt and i also agree that she is starting to call us by the correct names. (as you regular readers might remember, matt and i have to agree on a development before it 'counts'.) she will look at him and say "hi, da-di". or reach to one of us and call us "ma-ma" or "da-da". she does call matt "da-di" more than "da-da" though and i get called "mom" mostly.

and here is video of matt and maddie playing 'catch' today! she is not ready for the majors or anything, and the timing of her release needs some work, but you can tell that she is trying to throw him the ball. she was actually doing it mainly with her left hand and i was going to post this saying that she is a southpaw, but as soon as i got the camera she switched hands on me! figures, huh? enjoy.

just in case my life wasn't exciting enough, maddie added a new death-defying feat to her resume - standing in her highchair. now, i know what you are thinking, lots of kids can stand up in their high chair. but how many can climb up it to get the seat in the first place under the age of 1! she got up and in and up to standing in under 15 seconds! the speed at which it happened was probably the scariest part. of course this was not the time for a picture!

she has also really dropped her morning nap for good (i think so this time anyway). it makes my mornings a little longer, but i am pretty much guaranteed at least a 3 hour nap in the afternoon. she has even gone as long as 4-1/2 hours!

another new activity of madelyn's is talking. not just making noises, but actually 'speaking' softly as she does things or when she wants me to understand her. i don't quite know how to explain it and haven't had much luck getting a really good example on video, but it is so sweet. my favorite is when matt or i are holding her and she touches our face and talks softly to us. however, she also has the opposite form of talking where she grunts - until she gets red in the face. and these are not the same as poop-y noises. she does these for her own amusement and we find it to be hysterical! which of course makes her do it more. this video is a vocal version of the grunting, but she does it silently too until her face is almost purple and her eyes are bugging out and then she will stop and start laughing. it is just a game and not a tantrum where she holds her breath. take a look to see what i mean.

and here she is playing with the same puzzle with some grunting, but she does two other things that i wanted to share. first she thinks that the puzzle board is a big book and is trying to get it to open by turning the pages. if you watch you will see her try to lift the bottom corner and then turns it on the side to try and use her thumbs to get it open (this is how she acts with her books is the only reason i understood her confusion). and then she starts kicking her legs with all the puzzle pieces. you can even see at one point she tries to bring some of the pieces back within kicking range. she does this with her blocks too. it thinks she likes the noise of them all banging together and seeing them jump around when she kicks her legs. (warning: it is kind of long - almost 3 minutes)

lastly, i just wanted to share a picture of some of the tulips that i cut from our backyard this weekend. they are one of the first signs of spring around here. this morning there was frost, but the tulips promise spring! i really can't wait for our peonies to come in! we plants the bulbs almost three years ago and had all but given up on them and then - surprise - the bushes are coming in this year! yeah!

sorry for such a long post. love.