Mother's Day...I know it's really late!!!

Jeff and I were asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting on Mother's Day. My first response was, "Hey, it's Mother's Day...I shouldn't have to speak!" Well, as it usually turns out, having the opportunity to write a talk on motherhood was such a great blessing and a wonderful Mother's Day gift!

I'm not someone who dreamed of being a mother my entire life. In fact, when Jeff and I found out we were expecting with Landon, excitement was not the predominant emotion. I was mostly just upset and terrified. Fast forward seven years later (and lots and lots of learning experiences), and I'll be the first person to tell you that being a mother is the greatest gift in the world! Motherhood has made me into the type of person I didn't think I could be, (and it's been a long, unrelenting road, and I know I still have lots to learn, too). Nothing worth having in life comes easily and having a strong family is worth more than anything else.

What I learned from writing this talk is just how inspired the modern-day prophets are! I found so much information from different apostles and prophets to help me in my role as a mother. I learned, even more deeply than before, that the Lord hasn't left us alone, He has given us counsel and comfort through His prophets to help us be the type of mothers He knows we can be. How thankful I am that my Heavenly Father has entrusted Jeff and I with the care and nurturing of these two wonderful boys! I love them both so much. They bring so much joy to my life!

Chili and Cornbread

After Blake's T-ball game, the storms came in. The rest of the day was filled with thunderstorm after thunderstorm, so we've been stuck inside. I decided to make chili and cornbread for dinner to go with the cold, rainy weather. It was so yummy.

Blake's T-Ball Game

Here's some pics from Blake's game today. Watching 4-year olds try to grasp the concepts of baseball is so hilarious! Today, Blake was very into chasing the ball and throwing it to first base. No matter where in the field the ball went, he tried to reach it first. And so did half of his team-mates, which meant that there was a herd of 4-year olds racing around the field after the ball after every hit. It was so dang cute! At one point during the game, Blake was running from 2nd base to 3rd when the ball rolled directly infront of him. As soon as he spotted the ball, he completely forgot about getting to 3rd base and instead joined the other teams' players chasing after the ball!!!! What fun.

Table Cloth

Here's a table cloth I made for super cheap. I bought a shower curtain on clearance at Target for $4.98, (gotta love Target clearance!) and added some trim.

Landscape Lighting - Before

We decided to put in some landscape lighting. I decided to give it a try myself. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and didn't cost too much.

After

After Part II

Imagination

The boys loved playing in the boxes that the Pottery Barn furniture came in. They have such a great imagination and love playing together. Blake can't wait for Landon to get home from school to play with.

Landon and Wall-e - he loves robots and creating things - it is very cute.
Blake has been into puppies and stuffed animals lately. This one is Lucky the dalmation. He carries it everywhere and loves to cuddle with it. He is adorable.

Blake

Blake in his shirt from In-N-Out.

Vegas

For my work trip to Vegas I did Hotwire and stayed in The Venetian.

In-n-out

When I was in Vegas for work, I went to In-N-Out all 3 days...it was as good as I remembered it.

Easter

The Easter bunny brought Blake a Bolt stuffed animal and Landon received Uno Attack (they are both really into Uno and games) and both received some Star Wars Legos.
This time the Easter bunny hid thing a little better and the boys had a lot of fun looking.

Mangnets

Landon and Blake's Nana and Papa Roe sent them a fun magnet game for Easter. They loved playing it.

Face painting

As soon as Blake knew they were going to have face painting at the gym for the Bunny Brunch - he knew he had to have it done. He was contemplating what he wanted done and decided to have a Batman mask. It was very cute. He wanted to have it on all day - he received some great comments while we were shopping and at dinner. There were some tears when we had to take it off at bed time.
Blake wants a printout of this picture so he can remember the Batman face.
It was hard for Landon to come to terms that Blake was so excited to have his face painted. Landon didn't like that Blake wanted it done at first and was going to have not part of having anything on Landon's face. He finally settled that he could handle having a smiley face painted on his hand. (Although he was a little jealous when people would say something about Blake's batman, but not say anything about his smiley face - we told him that people couldn't see his as well.)