Happy Mothers Day! - a tribute to the influential women in my life

Several women in my life have played important parts in shaping who I am today. This is for them.

First, my mom. My mom is amazing. She has overcome a lot in her life, to become and strong, loving, and giving person. She raised me with love and guidance and the spirit. She taught me the power of prayer. There is no doubt in my mind that she always stayed close to the Lord. I remember many times seeing her pray. She prays long and fervent prayers and I know they're heard. As a Grandma to my kids, she can't be beat. She sends them cards, she bakes cookies with them, she takes them to the park and to movies. She's the best ever, and I'm lucky to be her daughter. I love you, Mom!

My Grandma Jean is my mom's mom. She had a really hard life (she got married when she was 13 to get out of an orphanage that her mom used to just drop her off at for months at a time) and that's just the tip of the iceberg. But what my Grandma taught me was the importance of service. She was very giving of her time and talents. Many of my cousins lived in her home (a pink house with pink trim!) at one time or another. Everyone in my hometown knew Grandma Jean. She was fiercely independant so it was difficult to return service to her, but she just kept giving. She always sent birthday cards to everyone she knew. She was famous for her peanut brittle, and she served in the boy scouts organization til she died. She's been gone about 1 year and a half but her legacy will live on with many many people.

My Grandma Johnson is my dad's mom. She taught me the importance of family. Every year we have a family reunion in the summer and a family Christmas in the winter. All my Aunts, Uncles and cousins are there. I grew up close to my extended family and I remember being surprised when I got married and found out that my husband barely knew some of his cousins. That was totally foreign to me. My Grandma celebrates occasions. My extended family does their best to be at graduations, mission farewells, weddings, baby blessings, baptisms, etc. We like to camp and play games and just be together. Many of my fondest memories are from family reunions. We all live fairly close together, too. I like to think it's because Grandma has kept us having so much fun over the years.

My Aunt Brenda is my dad's sister. Because she listened to the spirit and followed a prompting to invite me to live with her young family when I was 19 (something a lot of people would not have done), she changed my life. She offered stability when I was kinda flying by the seat of my pants. She was an example of motherhood at a time in my life when I didn't want to be mothered, but was just a few short years away from becoming a mother myself. She gave me unwavering and unconditional love and acceptance at a time when I was struggling to find myself. She was a shining example of faith as I watched her endure the hardest thing a mother has to endure with the loss of her infant daughter. Seeing that and learning from that was a huge part in me understand and learning from my miscarriage a few years later.

Mrs. Taylor was my third grade teacher. She stands out in my mind as a great teacher. I always felt like she trusted me and encouraged me. She had a gift of gently correcting her students without making us feel badly about ourselves. She gave me opportunities to help my fellow students and she facilitated a love of books that I've never lost.

I could go on...

My Aunt Jami (actually, my dad's cousin...but she's always been like an aunt) has taught me about being positive and kind all the time, various Young Women leaders taught me to love myself, Sister Hafen (my Sr year seminary teacher) taught me how to make everyone around you feel like they're the most important person in the world.

I've been very blessed.

I love you all and thank you for helping to shape me into who I am today!

and now....3 reasons that I love to be a mother.

Nathan. He's so much like me. He's quiet until he gets to know you, he's sensitive and he loves to make people happy. He's also logical (not like me) and has a sarcastic wit that cracks me up coming out of a 5 year old. For Mothers day, I got to go to school with him where he read to me, his class sang to us (all the moms were there), he served me fruit and sweets and he said "My name is Nathan, and my mom is special because sometimes she lets me play video games in bed." lol. He also made me a shirt that says "The art of being a mother, 2007" and has a picture that he painted of me on it. This is after school on Friday. He was showing me the tree that's always covered in lady bugs and that's me in my shirt that he made.




#2. Aria. She's my best girl. She always wants to be wherever the party is. She loves attention and she loves to cuddle. She's great at complimenting people (especially me). She's happy, and creative and fun and sweet.

That night was the father/son campout so Aria, Gabe and I invited my sisters, my friend and a girl my sister babysits to go out with us. We went to the spaghetti factory, then to this really cool place called Catacombs. This is Gabe going down the stairs...it's decorated like a medieval dungeon, they serve pizza and smores that you can cook at the table. We just went for smores.

Gabe going down the stairs to the dungeon.



Aria making smores. She was completely enthralled with it!




The kids that were with us on our girls (and baby) night out.



And Gabe. Gabe is awesome. He's hilarious. He loves to make people laugh, he loves to tease, he loves to play and have fun. The world is a big joke to him. And you can't help but love him.



I mean, seriously....this is what he does if I try to scold him. You just can't stay upset when after saying his full name in a "mom voice" this is the face you're met with. That grin is going to get him out of a lot of trouble over the years.



HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!