Monday, May 14, 2012

Mother's Day 2012

Yesterday was my 6th Mother's Day.  The kids all made cards for me and we went and had brunch at the Shack.    I feel more and more blessed every year that I am a Mom.  I know my kids love and adore me as much as I do them.  I try and reflect on all of our blessings everyday as to not take things for granted.  Often when I reflect, one of my biggest fears is not getting to say the things I want to say to the people I love.  I was able to tell my Maw Maw Alice on this Mother's Day that although she is not my Mother, she has helped mold me into the Mother I am today and that I love her very much and have learned so many great values from her.  I also told her that as a Mom now, my kids often ask me where I learned this and that from and her name comes up quite a bit.  I realize more than ever today just how much she really taught me and I am so blessed to have had such a sweet amazing woman to help support me and learn from.  She told me that she loves us all so much and that she prays every night for our happiness and she is very proud of us.  I love her so much!

Arizona trip 4/22-4/30

This year Mike did his third Whiskey Off Road Race in Prescott, AZ.  He worked hard all year to train and lost 60 lbs.  His goal was to finish the race under four hours to better his time from five hours the year before.  He finished it in 3:58.  Since he planned to drive into Arizona for the race, we decided it would be a good opportunity for us to all go and visit.  We arrived at Cherrie and Brian's on the first evening.  Cherrie and Brian built a beautiful 8 bedroom house so it was more than accommodating for us :).  The first day we settled in and ate Cherrie's homecooking.  The next day on Monday, we were able to drop off all of the kids to Phoenix Children's Academy for the day.  Cherrie and I were able to go and get pedicures and manicures and have lunch at Nando's.  We closed out the night with a meal of Hawaiian food that Cherrie cooked and all the kids got to go swimming and play together.  The next morning, all of the kids had breakfast together.




Cherrie planned a playdate at her house so that I could invite a bunch of my friends over.  She had a nice spread of snacks and all the kids got to swim and play.  Those included were Rebecca, Gia, Cassie, Tatum, Alivia, Zander, Leslie, Skye, Kristina, Lawson, Aubrynn, Cherrie, Luca, Aidan, Maile, Miles, Stacey, Jack, Max, etc.


Lawson, Aubrynn, Anderson, Alivia, Roman, Alice, and Rose

Rose pushing Tatum on the swing

The next day, Daddy took us to breakfast at Liberty Market and then we hung out at Cherrie's all day and walked to the park.  That night we went to Amiee and Chris's house and had bar b q and visited.

Liberty Market

Liberty Market

walking to the park
The next day on Thursday, we hung out at Cherrie's in the morning and then Daddy took us to Joe's Farm Grill and we met the kids old babysitter Lisa there.  Mike met with his Casa foster kid that evening and we just hung out at the house the rest of the day.  Lori and Kale Wilson came and visited us at Cherrie's.




That night we went for a girls night at Firebirds restaurant and I got to meet up with some of my good friends.







the next day on Friday, Mike left for Prescott, Az for the race. Cherrie dropped off her kids at school and we took our kids to Harkins Theatre at San Tan Village and signed them into the play center and we watched The Lucky One and then had lunch at Some Burros after. We also ran into my friend Kristi Novac at the movies.



That night we moved over to my friend Stacey Durney's house.  We hung out and had dinner with her and the kids played together.  The next day Stacey made breakfast for us and we brought the girls to their friend Graci and Gweni's house to play.  Stacey and I took all of the boys to Harkins playcenter and we went and saw Mirror, Mirror.  Then we picked up the girls and took them back to Stacey's, let them swim for a while and cooked dinner and had movie night.


Having lunch before the movie

Max, Roman, Rose, Anderson, Alice, and Jack

After the movie

Graci, Rose, Gweni, Alice

Rose, Graci, Alice

Little Burritos after swimming at Stacey's

The kids plates at Stacey's, should have taken pic at Cherrie's



The next day, Mike came back from Prescott, AZ.  We visited with Steve and Stacey and then headed back to Cherrie's to get our luggage.  We then headed out back to Oklahoma.  We stopped in Anthem, AZ and met Peter Abadie and Alex at Red Robin for lunch. 
Overall, it was great seeing all of my friends.  The trip was a little too long and it was hard to find stuff for the kids to do but in the end we created lots of memories and had a great time.