Another Mother's Day Gift

Hannah Beth gave me this sweet book for Mother's Day. She made it at school, and it is a precious keepsake. I was just thinking about the fact that blogging it not only lets me share it with you, but it also helps me save it for even longer than the book will last! :) She may want to show this to her kids some day.

A Wonderful Mother's Day!

For Mother's Day this year, I received:

Homemade cards from the kids (thanks to Grandma for help!). It was all Hannah Beth's idea to make hers into a butterfly. She loves art projects!


Nathaniel was so proud of himself that he made an "H" on his (and a "T").

My indulgence is these DELICIOUS cream cheese muffins. I won't even go into how many calories are in them, but I love them and was very excited to get these! :)

And some beautiful and very colorful flowers! The kids and Daddy did a great job spoiling me. We also went out for lunch to a yummy buffet. Lots of veggies!

Right before church Hannah Beth and I were in the dining room and I looked up at her and she looked like this:

I was concerned at first - I thought she had a bloody nose! But no... she smelled my flowers a little too closely and got pollen all over her face! I had to laugh. It was actually a little hard to get off! :)

Then later in the afternoon we all got a treat! Our first swim in our pool! It was a warm enough day, but I often don't go swimming the first few times we go because I like warm pool water and the kids and Thomas are much more willing to brave the cold water. To my surprise it wasn't bad - cold at first, but I was able to get in and get used to it and really enjoy it. The biggest joy was seeing the kids and their excitement over finally getting to go swimming in our pool. Hannah Beth loved practicing all the things she just learned in her swimming lessons at the YMCA. Isn't that one of the best things about being a Mom? Just seeing their pure joy and excitement over things! It was wonderful family time together, and I also got some sweet pictures!

Family

My sister, Tracy, and her husband, Dwight, and their three boys (Andrew-5, Zachary-3 and Aaron-16 months) live in Tanzania, Africa. They are back in the US for a few months and came to visit for almost 2 weeks in late December/early January. My younger sister, Heather, was also here over the holidays. It was fun to be all together and let the cousins get to know each other face to face instead of over the web cam and instant messages. Hannah Beth and Andrew got along well, and Hannah Beth did a great job holding her own in the midst of all the boys! Nathaniel and Zachary also had fun together and especially enjoyed playing outside (thankfully it was usually warm enough!). We took them to the mall, out to Thomas' parents house in the country, and to the children's museum in town that we absolutely love!

I'm back!

I'm sorry for any of you who have been checking my blog and found NOTHING new for over a month. I've been busy, busy and sometimes just neglecting my blog. I finally feel like life is getting back into a normal routine and I'm ready to catch up on all those things that have been lagging!



In December, on top of all the regular Christmas preparations and activities, we had an additional project. Since Thomas and I receive monthly support for our ministry, we have over the last few years given a year end "thank you" gift to our supporters. It has always included something homemade from my kitchen. This year I made Cakeballs. I had never heard of them before, but came across them on the internet (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cake-Balls/Detail.aspx) and thought they looked good! They were lots of fun to make, although the process of shopping (for ingredients) and baking and making the cards and packaging and mailing always ends up as a very big and long process! We succeeded in getting them to everyone before Christmas, and hopefully the people we sent them to enjoyed them as much as we did making them!



I will catch up with a number of posts showing the highlights of December and January for us.

A Ballerina, a Princess and a Cow

Hannah Beth goes to ballet one day a week, and her teacher used to take dance from Thomas' mom and is a close friend of Thomas'. Usually I have to sit out in the lobby and wait for her (although I have made a great friend with one of the other moms that way!), but last week we were able to observe her class. She did a great job, and of course had to keep peeking over her shoulder to make sure we were still watching! Nathaniel provided additional entertainment by trying to do the ballet moves with the class (although he was in the back with Thomas and I).

Hannah Beth had a couple of fall costume parties, and Grandma and I took the kids out on Halloween to a few people that we knew. They had a great time and got tons of candy - especially for only going to a few places. I am really good at monitoring how much candy my kids get. What I am not so good at is monitoring how much candy I eat!!!

Nathaniel's favorite thing about the night was stopping by the Rescue Squad and seeing the trucks, complete with lights and sirens!