A Day for the Mamas

Mother's Day brings up a lot of emotions for me. I used to try to spoil my own mother, and now that I've been away from home for 16 years, it doesn't really happen anymore. I always send her something, and we talk on the phone, but that's about it. She was pleasantly surprised that all her sons remembered her this year, without my help. I finally turned them over to the girlfriend & wives!

But since I can't spend the day with my mom, there's no one I'd rather spend it with than my sweet grandma. She is the loveliest lady you'll ever meet! Everyone who knows my grandma Ray, just adores her. She's very fashionable for the 80+ crowd and loves purses, shoes, and clothes. But she loves nothing more than to be around family. We skipped third hour of church and headed to her snowbird home in Glendale to visit and have dinner. She made ham, baked potatoes and green salad. We brought strawberry shortcake, flowers, and great grandkids. While we were eating, Kaleb leaned over and whispered in my ear, 'This ham is SOOOOOO delicious!" I had him say it aloud to Gramma-Gramma and I'm pretty sure that made her day. Well, that and all the hugs & kisses! We visited, were completely spoiled, I even had a sliver of her Marie Calendar's chocolate mousse pie (divine), and shared pictures of our trip to Hawaii. She admitted to wearing a bikini in Hawaii when she & Grandpa went. I may or may not have done the same thing, but you'll never know...ha! The best part of that story is she had pictures in a photo album, and the cousin just older than me, showed her home-teachers once! Can you even imagine?!? She said, "Luckily it was when I was a lot younger and I looked pretty good in it" with a twinkle and a grin. I remember that photo, the bikini was red, and she was a babe... still is! :)

I used to HATE, hate, HATE Mother's Day because I wanted to be a mother so bad it hurt, and even though we were doing everything we possibly could, it just wasn't happening. I remember hating church on that day and feeling guilty while at church the whole time because I hated being there. Does that make sense? It was torture! Now I always feel happy-sad on this day because I remember how heart wrenching it was for me, and have so many friends that are now going through the same thing. I'll also never forget my first Mother's Day, bringing home baby Kaleb from the hospital, and my last Mother's Day as well. I watched on at church as a birth mother and an adoptive mother both oohed and aahed over their newborn baby girl. Happy-sad.

This year my day started out nice and early with sweet boys coming to my room full of snuggles and singing, "Happy Mother's Day, Mama!" They were more excited than me and kept asking if it was Mother's Day yet all week...so cute! K made me a fancy placemat/card at school with pictures of us, flowers, stars and little love notes. One read, "I hope you get really exsited." I asked for a few things this year: hints for a clean car, a memory book that the kids could put cards and pictures in for each holiday instead of gifts, a photo of me with my kids, and for everyone to get along. I ended up with none of the above, but not for lack of trying. Ben went to 4 stores on Friday and couldn't find one book that made the cut, I'm sure the kids tried to get along, and the picture just wasn't meant to be. But what I ended up with was perfect: the SWEETEST cards (happy tears), a new cricut cartridge (nice surprise), and a bouquet of flowers (may have bought them myself). I lounged in bed and read my scriptures and finally got to a really good part about the stripling warriors and their moms: and they remembered the words of their mothers and they did not doubt. It was just what I needed to hear as I've been feeling a little blah about my scripture study lately. While I took it easy, Ben made pancakes for breakfast, topped with strawberries. He also made me a corsage with 3 flowers from my bouquet to represent my 3 children. Two purple daisies for the boys and one white for Ruby. So sweet! I felt very loved all day long and next year when Ben asks what I want for Mother's Day and I say, "Nothing," I'll really mean it. :)

This is what we got. Not a one of Grandma or my baby girl & me in our coordinating white dresses. Ruby's is my favorite with rows and rows of ruffles & a tulle flower on the waist. :(

Grumpy D.

The meltdown hug.

Me realizing this is the best we're going to get,

so we might as well put our silly monkey faces on! K taught me this monkey face on his birthday. Love him, love being a mom of 3!