Motherhood

Today, I'm grateful to be a mom. Most days I'm grateful as well, but today I'm feeling especially happy about it. Even though yesterday was hard. And today might be too. And I'm willing to bet my bottom dollar that I have a few more hard days ahead of me in the next 60 or 70 years or so.

But she's just too cute that the hard days are just worth it sometimes.

Here's a quote that's gotten me through some of those hard days. Raising children is a commandment. Gods not going to let us just do it on our own. Besides, these are His children just as much as they're our own. They were His first:

This is not our work that we are engaged in, it is the work of God. We are directed in our movements by a superior intelligence. (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow, Chapter 9: Sacred Family Relationships)

Happy Birthday, Lena!

Today, we celebrated Lena’s first birthday!

(be prepared for lots of pictures. we had a really fun day!)

For the past few weeks, I've been talking to her about how her birthday was coming up, how we were going to have a party with family (which was so fun), and how she was going to be able to eat cake and open presents. I was hoping that the more I talked about it, the more she’d understand what was going on by the time her birthday came around. I knew this was the start of many, many family birthday traditions, so I tried to make sure I started it all off right.

Last night, Lewis and I put party hats on all her favorite animals and toys, so all her best friends would spend her birthday with her. We also blew up balloons and put them in her room after she had fallen asleep. That way, when she woke up, they would be the first thing she saw.

[I’m pretty sure it was a bad idea, because she was up at 4:15 and didn’t really want to go back to sleep. I think that she saw the balloons when she woke up and then was just so excited, she didn’t want to finish sleeping!]

When Lena woke up, Lewis and I went into her room singing “happy birthday.” Then we took her out and let her play with her balloons for a little while. She was so happy! I'm hoping she knew something fun was going on today (like her birthday). Once she got tired of the balloons and started playing with the fireplace instead, we took her outside to see all her toys. She immediately started pointing and wanted to go over and see them!

When dad came home for lunch after work, we let Lena celebrate with her cake and open her presents. She didn't really seem too interested in the cake that we gave her on Saturday at her family party. We tried to get her to eat some, but she only had one or two bites, so I was worried that the cake thing would just be stupid.

Turns out, she loved the cake. I baked it in a costco chicken can so it was more Lena-sized.

[Yes, I realize I picked a boy-colored frosting. I wanted to make it pink, but when I took out the frosting to decorate it, I only had blue, green, and yellow. So I settled with teal.]

When I put it on her tray, it didn't take too long for her hands to go straight for the icing. At first she didn't realize she could eat it, but we helped put her fingers in her mouth and helped change her thought process real quick.

going back for more.

And then she realized that there was cake underneath the frosting. And pretty soon she was just going crazy. We had to sweep and mop the floor when she was done, but she had a blast.

After cake, we opened presents. We kept it small this year. I was grateful we were able to pull the whole birthday off, including cake, presents, balloons, etc, for under $30. My kind of party!

For weeks now, Lewis and I have been trying to think of somewhere fun to take Lena on her birthday. Some place special, where we don’t normally go. We made a decision to take her to the children’s museum in Salt Lake, but after thinking about how Lena gets when we do new things for the first time, we decided against it. We wanted to take her to do something we knew she’d love. So we decided on the park, duck pond, and swings. All in one shot.

Let me just say, she had a blast!!! From the moment we parked at Neilsen’s Grove (a really cool park in West Orem), she couldn’t stop screaming, pointing, smiling and singing. She cried when we took her back to the car to head home. Seriously, she did.

we brought bread to feed the ducks. Lena caught on quickly - pulled the bread out of my hand and dropped it in the water

a few days ago, she saw the big kids walking up the slide. now she thinks she has to, too

so happy

I hope Lena had the best birthday yet (not hard to do, since this was her first). I worked hard to make sure it was a special day for her. Heck, I had fun and it wasn't even my birthday! Sure love watching all the ways they grow their first year. Lucky to have been a part of it!

ode to my siblings

So yesterday was national siblings day? Who knew. Well, a lot of people actually knew. Shouldn't each sibling get their own day, just like mom and dad have their own day? We don't have a "parent's day" where we just celebrate them both at once. They get their own! Should the siblings? I'm just blabbing. In honor of my sibling, I thought I'd post some fun memories of all of us. Most of these pictures were before any of us were married, so they're pretty old! We don't always get along, and I'm sure most of that is my fault, but I still love these guys (and gal - if you count Alicia. She counts as my sister!) with all my heart.

We sure have had a few laughs throughout the years. And hopefully many more laughs to come.

And the most recent sibling pictures of the day. The only reason why we all look so good is because mom and dad paid us to smile. Notice in the pictures above, there aren't too many smiles!

[they didn't actually pay us to smile. thought i'd throw that out there in case someone actually thought it was true]

Sure love my family!

[I think I'm going to start a sibling day for each of my siblings. So we'll have a Todd's Day, Steve's Day, Clark's Day, and Alicia's Day. Only seems fair since mom has a Mom's Day and dad has a Dad's Day. Don't want the siblings to feel under appreciated.]

grateful

Today, I'm feeling ever so grateful for my beautiful little girl. She rocks my world, keeps me on my feet, and helps me realize what life is really about. General Conference this weekend really helped me to once again realize the importance of motherhood and all the joy that it brings. And all the things that we, as parents, can do for our children so that they know that we love them.

I also once again realized, thanks to conference, how much I really need to improve. Lena deserves more than I feel like I'm able to give her sometimes. Thank goodness for the atonement and the ability that I have to repent and improve.

Here's the proof in picture form of just how perfect Lena is.

I love her to little bits and pieces. I hope I can work to be as good for her as she is for me.