Mother's Day 2011...

I had one of the best Mother’s Day weekends that I’ve ever had!

The weekend started with me going to a happy hour after work on Friday for a friend’s birthday. I really had a great time hanging out and catching up with some old friends from work. When I got home I helped get everyone to bed and held Colton and watched TV and listened to the rain.

Saturday we woke up with a huge goal…get the gardens in! John headed out with Ryan to get a backpack-contraption to use to kill weeds in the yards, Joshie was still over at my parents’, Kylie was at Rachel’s, and Colton and I just hung out. After John got back he killed weeds and then he and the other court guys went and ordered our mulch (we’re all taking a day off work and mulching all of our beds in a couple of weeks). When they got back we all just hung around and talked. It was semi-warm out, but it was so dark and gloomy that it made me so tired :( It started raining (really just sprinkling) and after getting Colton to sleep in my arms and sitting on the couch, I decided that the gardens were going to have to wait! I was relaxed and enjoying the afternoon.

Late Saturday afternoon John took the kids out to get my Mother’s Day present. So I continued sitting on the couch with a sleeping Colton :) I can’t say enough how nice it was! Then my dad came over and sat with me and watched TV with me (he was actually enjoying Gilmore Girls :) ). We decided on Chinese food for dinner and my dad went and picked it up. John and the kids got back and we all had a great dinner. John thought it would be best if the kids gave me my present that night because the next day was going to be super busy. So the kids gave it to me and I was so happy – a Nook Color! I love to read, but rarely have the time. But now it’s super easy for me to carry my “books” with me so that when I do have time (during lunch at work, Kylie’s gymnastics, etc.) I don’t have to worry about not having a book.

Sunday we got up for church and packed everything up to be gone for ½ the day (Joshie had a football game right after church). One might not think that would be a big deal, but John and I get up 2 hours before we have to leave for church every Sunday, and we go and go until we walk out the door. We have to get ourselves ready, the kids ready (although Kylie can get herself ready, I love to do her hair), breakfast for the kids, the house cleaned up from the night before, all of Joshie’s football stuff packed up (since John is the coach he has a whole bin of stuff that needs reorganized each week), and then we have to pack the stroller, folding chairs, blankets and the diaper bag. Man, I’m exhausted just sitting here thinking about everything we do each Sunday morning!

Church was great because it was also Baby Dedication, so we had little Colton dedicated, and cousin Reese was dedicated too! Colton was pretty good during the ceremony…up until about the end and then he started fussing. Thankfully our pastor kept saying “I’d better hurry this up before Colton gets too made” :)

After church we quickly changed and headed to Joshie’s football game. They were playing an undefeated team and Joshie had already made up his mind that they were going to lose. We set up camp on the sidelines – it was a muddy mess! I had on flipflops and we all still had our church clothes on (casual, but still Ryan had on khakis and a nice polo) and everything was a muddy mess! I told Ryan to be careful because he was getting really muddy and he looked at me and said “it’s OK Mommy, you can get it out.” Clearly I’m the queen of stain fighting :) Even though it was muddy, it was still really sunny and warm out, so I was not complaining at all considering the conditions we’ve been having.

The little football players started out the game by yelling “happy Mother’s Day” to all of us and running over and giving us a carnation. It was a sweet gesture that my awesome husband, the coach, had thought of. Then they started playing and Joshie had a terrific game! He scored a couple times and had a bunch of flag-pulls, some of which were really needed at the time. The Saints ended up winning by 3 points!!! I was so proud of the whole team, but Joshie was such a superstar!

After the game we went home and put a sleeping Ryan to bed and fed Colton and headed outside. Kylie gave me the present she made me in school, which was a whole book of poems about me and how much she loves me. It was so sweet and I know she was so proud of it!

Unfortunately the sitting didn’t last long as we needed to go and get the kids new shoes and I wanted to get a cover for my Nook. We all decided that we would meet back for dinner after our errands. My mom kept Colton for us because he had finally fallen asleep with her rocking him on the front porch.

Again, how easy it seemed to g shopping with only three kids and no stroller :) Isn’t that funny? I’m sure if you ask a mom with three kids if it’s easy to run errands she would say “no,” but for us it was great! We got the screen protector put on my Nook and the kids all got new tennis shoes. We headed back to our house, fed Colton, and our family, my mom, and my sister and her husband all headed to a new Japanese steakhouse that had opened up by our house for dinner. I was excited because the kids had never been to one, and I thought they would have fun…and I was right! They really enjoyed the fire and trying to catch food being thrown into their mouths :)

After a great dinner we headed over to Rita’s for some Italian Ice. I was excited because one of the daily flavors was s’mores, and I love that flavor! We waited in the long line and finally got up to order and they were out of my s’mores!! But the nice owner found one that I believe had been put away for someone (an employee maybe?) and gave it to me. It was so sweet and made my day! We all went home and ate our dessert and then it was time to get ready for bed.

It really was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time. The whole day John just kept saying that we would do whatever I wanted and whatever would make me happy. He really made the day so special for me…I can’t thank him enough!