Mother's Day / Jenna's Blessing

What a special day Sunday was! We were able to bless our little Jenna Lynn on Mother's Day. Could their really be any better gift than to see my husband take our baby girl in his arms and give her a name and a blessing on this day that celebrates women and motherhood.

For many years, Mother's Day was always a little heartbreaking for me. I remember sitting through Mother's Day Sacrament meeting programs and trying so hard not to cry. At the time, I wanted so desperately to be a mother and it seemed like that blessing was very far off. Little did I realize during those difficult years how blessed my life would be.

Sunday as I looked at my new little girl and my other three little ones I could not believe how blessed and thankful I felt. I truly believe the difficulties we faced getting our family started has made me a better mom. I see each of my children as a miracle that I prayed for daily for so many years. How wonderful it is to be a mother!

Our parents, Trina, Wes, Kambree and baby Bronson were able to join us for Jenna's day.

I loved sharing mother's day with 3 very special women and mothers (my mom, my mother-in-law and my sister). I admire each of you!

Our little family

This picture just makes me laugh because I couldn't get one picture of all of the kids looking. Jenna was crying and Isaac was just mad.

Saturday morning I came out of the bedroom with Jenna and Samuel yelled surprise. I was a little confused because I couldn't see anything I should be surprised about. Then I walked around the front of the island and I really was surprised. Chuck got me a bike for Mother's Day. The night before he was in the garage forever. I was busy doing a project so I didn't even bother to go out and see what he was doing out there. Good thing since he was putting together my present.

Chuck has been wanting to get me a bike for a long time, but my form of exercising these days is trying to push a few kids in the stroller while tying a rope around someone else's bike and pulling them along behid.

I was really nervous to even get on this bike. Samuel and Bella were all excited for me to take off as they were waiting on their little bikes with their training wheels. Looking at them I was seriously wishing my bike had training wheels. I know it sounds crazy, but I have not been on a bike since I was probably 11 or 12 and I'm not even kidding! I have never even had a bike that had actual gears to shift! Yes - it's true! We just grew up riding our 4-wheeler and dune buggy all around. But it's true what they say that you never forget how to ride a bike, because I could still ride even though it's been YEARS. I didn't ride very far since I was using muscles I forgot I had and it was a little uncomfortable on my tailbone that I hope will eventually not hurt anymore.

On Sunday the kids gave me a necklace and a bracelet that they picked out themselves. They also made me really cute cards with pictures of space ships being blown up and princess shoes!


I tried to take a few pictures of Jenna in her blessing dress and it was next to impossible. She was having such a good time playing with her dress it was just making me laugh. I thought it was so cute to see her little feet sticking straight up in the air. I'm going to give it another try in a few days and see if I can actually get a few with her smiling.

I really do love this dress!

Just Darling!

A couple of days ago this is how Jenna was dressed.

I brought her out of the bedroom and Samuel said, "Oh mom, she's just darling. Good job dressing her."

Then today she was dressed like this - which I love this outfit.

I brought her out of the bedroom and Samuel said, "Mom, why haven't you dressed Jenna. She's still in her pajamas."

This is the kid who I went upstairs to tuck in the other night after I had just gotten out of the shower and he said, "Mom, I really like your hair." Whenever he sees me with wet hair he always tells me how much he likes my hair. It cracks me up because he never says anything about my hair unless it's wet.

I liked Jenna's outfit so much today I had to take a couple of close ups.

I when I showed them to Chuck his exact words were, "Just Darling".

Like father like son!

Learning from Messes

Samuel and Bella really play so well together, but this is what I went upstairs to find the other day. I try to help them keep their rooms clean, but I am not always successful! I have a baby girl who really likes to be held and personally I would rather enjoy my baby then worry about their toys (as long as the toys are contained to their room or the basement!).


This was the funny conversation we had as I looked into this total disaster and realized that someone had climbed up in the top of the closet and thrown down a lot of the Barbie toys I had stored away. (Our neighbor girl gave us 49, Yes 49 Barbies and TONS of accessories about 6 months ago. I let Bella choose 5 Barbies and some clothes and then I stored the rest up in the closet.)

Me: "Kids what happened in here! It looks like someone got out the Barbie stuff."

(I was sure I knew who had done this because Bella is my monkey girl and Samuel just likes to encourage her. He is not a climber. He thinks to much about the consequences of risky behavior!)

Samuel: "Jesus just helped me do it mom."

Me: "He did?"

Samuel: "Yep, He helped me be brave so I could climb up in the closet and get them down"

I just told the kids that they would have to pick up the mess later and let them enjoy all the Barbies. Then I laughed to myself thinking how my lunch time teaching the day before had led to this.

Every day as the kids are eating lunch I read them articles out of the Friend magazine or tell them Scripture stories as we look at pictures out of the Gospel Art Kit. Lunch used to be such a challenge, but now I look forward to this time to teach them of what really matters. The other day as we were talking about a particular scripture story I told them that Heavenly Father and Jesus can help them be brave and do hard things. Obviously Samuel took this to heart even if it was being brave to do something I considered naughty!

Each night as I tuck the kids in bed I ask them what their favorite part of the day was and then what they didn't like about that day. That night both of them told me their favorite part of the day was playing with all the Barbie stuff. I was so glad I didn't get mad at them for making such a GIANT mess, because we can eventually get it picked up. I realized this incident could have easily been the worst part of their day based on how I reacted. (I wish I could be this patient everyday! I'm working on it, but don't always succeed.)

I later caught Bella in the top of the closet throwing down the remaining Barbie items.

The kids were so excited to show Chuck and I what they had put together with a good portion of the Barbies.