My Mother, My Best Friend

I was loading another batch of photos that have been scanned in and came across this photo. I love it. It really captures the relationship I had with my mom. She and I were both a generation apart and peers. She was my mom, but she was also my best girlfriend. Her baby boy and my baby girls put us both squarely in the "stay at home" mom camp. We had so much fun together. We went to playgroups, we worked on projects, we traded babysitting. And I could see and learn how to be a mother by watching her.

How many people have that opportunity? I didn't have to ask my mom how to parent, I got to watch my mom parent. She was a pro at it. It was great being just a little "behind" her. She would make cool folder games for Tyler. I would think, "I should make those." But then Tyler would outgrow it and she would just give it to me.

She would take Tyler on fun outings and I would go with her. She was the grandmother that always remembered what it was like to have little kids (because she still had one). She was the grandmother that knew exactly what her grandkids needed because she could see what her son needed in a grandparent.

I know it sounds cliche to say, "My mom is my best friend." but that really was the way it was. Just look at this picture. Here we are, 3 weeks before Madelyn was born. We are having a great time together. We are at the Kemah Boardwalk. We had just had a great seafood dinner. We didn't go for any particular reason, just because the weather was nice and it would be fun to go out before the baby was born.

And of all the lessons I have learned from her one of my favorite is just that.

"Never waste a day of good weather." There are always bad weather days enough to do the chores and run the errands -- but embrace the beautiful days for all they are worth. She always did. And now I have the memories of such beautiful days to treasure forever.

My 5 Kids

Can I just say how much I love my kids? I drag them all over on crazy adventures. I make them learn things they don't want to learn (like knitting, piano, and MATH). Last night I took them all for a quick little photo shoot (the pictures of which you -- my faithful blog readers will be seeing much of over the next few weeks.) We had a great time.
 
First we headed to our little downtown to go to Crumbs and get some cupcakes.  We took a lot of photos all along the street; The weather was beautiful and the lighting was great so we packed up in the van and headed to Waveny Park. The sun was starting to set and I was hurrying the kids out of the van when I opened up the back of the van to get the stroller.  Only -- it wasn't there; In my haste, I had left it on the side walk in town. We hurried back into town, got the stroller, headed back to the park and just barely snuck in the photos (thank you high noise free ISO).
 

Julianne is auditioning

For her school musical. She has to submit a photo to go with her audition permission slip. I was so excited. She is not always super keen on "posing" for her mom to take yet another photo, but today she was a super willing participant. I can't believe how grown up she looks!

9/11/2011

Our Sunday started out a little slow. We were late to church. Why??? Because it took a long time for Catherine to get those contacts in. In fact I was very glad that we don't have her glasses here at the house to fall back on or she might very well have given up, but she didn't. She stuck with it. She got them in, we went to church and this evening she got them out within 5 minutes. I think we are officially over the hump on this. I knew it might take a little time, and it did, but now she can do it and she is confident that she can do it.









After church, Trent put together his Father's day present -- an airsoft bb gun semi-automatic rifle. He was so excited to go out in the yard and aim at the deer. Unfortunatly, none showed up. So we shot the leaves and the trees instead.









Lastly, we have been thinking about 9/11. I was pregnant with Catherine and Julianne was just a little over a year old. I was blow drying my hair and my sister Carrie called. Julianne answered the phone and brought it to me. At first I thought it was a big mistake -- that somehow a small plane had made a tragic error, but once I turned on the TV, I realized that this was no mistake. I called Trent at work and told him about it. I remember insisting that he go find a TV and see it. I drove over to my parent's house and my dad stayed home from work. We all just sat in front of the TV all day and watched the news. We were so completely shocked that something like this had happened here in America.

I went through some of my old photos and found some of my favorite patriotic photos I have taken. Enjoy!!

Saturday is a special day . . .

We had beautiful weather for our 4 soccer games.

Adam was so cute in his first soccer game.

Our little soccer league is funny-- they buy all adult large t-shirts for all the kids, all the ages. It took me some serious cutting and sewing to make Adam's fit. My mom would have been so proud!!!

After the games we went to Costco. I walked by the optometry department to see about getting Catherine an appt for contact lenses and to our surprise they had an opening right then. In no time at all she was fitted with contact lenses. All we had to do was wait for her to take them out and put them in all by herself. It took a while, but she finally did it. Then we looked and looked for new glasses for her. She never found any that she like as well as her current frames so we made the decision to just order new lenses for her current frames. This means we have to leave the frames there for 5-7 days.

Later that evening when it was time to take out her contacts it was a bit of an ordeal. To say it took forever would definitely be an exaggeration, but it FELT like it took forever. She finally got them out (on perhaps the 1 millionth try).

The only good part about the contact lens removal episode is that I missed watching the entire second half of the BYU/UT game.
 
Trent and I were just headed to bed when little Owen woke up. He was so happy and cuddly and we just brought him into our bed and snuggled with him. I could just stay in this phase forever. I am always so sad that they grow up.

Ice Cream for Dinner

Yes, seriously. 

Some days are just like that.

Here is a rundown of what had to happen from 3:35-6:30
3:20 -- leave the house (make sure to have all the soccer stuff for everyone)
3:35 -- pick up Catherine and Madelyn from school (Julianne walked home from school with a friend)
3:45 -- arrive at soccer practice fields, feed kids snack of chocolate chip cookies, help tie cleats
4:00 -- Madelyn's soccer practice that I coach
5:00-- Catherine's soccer practice that I coach; feed 7 girls from Madelyn's team a snack and watch them (don't lose them)
5:30 -- Continue coaching Catherine's soccer practice, walk 7 girls from Madelyn's team to star soccer, walk Adam to his soccer practice, Start coaching Julianne's team -- not my usual job, but her coach needed help today
6:00 -- Continue coaching only Julianne's team
6:30 -- Gather all kids, all balls, all stuff to the car

(and do it all with Owen in the backpack)

so we drove to Baskin Robbins where it was 11 cent scoop night in honor of a little boy in our town who died from cancer. 



I also took this picture of the kids by the National Ovarian Cancer ribbons.

Holiday Road