Friday, February 10th

Yesterday was my sweet mother’s birthday. I meant to post about it, but I didn’t get a chance. After I picked Easton up from school, we headed over to my mom’s to meet Becca there before heading to lunch with my mom at Olive Garden. Yes, we did indeed have the 4 children under 6 with us. I was watching Jaedyn, so she came with us as well. My mom said she was so happy the grandkids could come to her lunch, but I’m not sure if she really meant it or if she was just being nice like she usually is. But we didn’t have anyone to watch all the kids so we didn’t really have a choice. Lunch was fine – it went as expected with 4 children. They weren’t bad, they were just kids. It was just chaotic. At one point Becca and I looked at each other and just started laughing because the kids were falling off chairs, having to go potty, wiping big green boogers on their shirts (Teagan) so that the adults watching us at the table next to us could be thoroughly disgusted, spilling food, spitting chocolate mints out on the floor, and just being cute little kiddies. Sometimes when I’m out with my kids and they’re being rambunctious I wonder if people judge me with my pregnant belly and think, “What the heck is she thinking have more of those things?” Maybe I wonder that too sometimes, but mostly these children just make what would be a mundane and monotonous life a whole lot more exciting and fulfilling. They were really very good at lunch, so I don’t want to sound like they weren’t. But they’re children – they do chaos naturally, and they do it well.  I didn’t get a picture of all of us, but here are the kids with G-Ma Romero.

They are all very cute. And my mom is such a wonderful mother and grandmother and showers those babies with love and Vitamin C. Jacob always jokes that they leave my mom’s house healthier than we brought them.  My mother has the kindest heart of anyone that I know. In all my years, I have never heard her say an unkind thing about anyone, even people that deserved it. She has always been an example of that sincere and pure love of Christ, and her heart is so good and so she is always so concerned with the needs of her family and others. I can’t even count the times my mom would go through a drive-thru at a fast food restaurant to buy a meal for a homeless man she just drove past on the street. Or the fact that she still wakes up in the night to make medicine from my 24-year-old brother who lives with her. I don’t know how she ever sleeps worrying about everyone else all the time. I also don’t think she ever ate when we lived with her. She was always giving her food away, and she still does that for all of us now on Sunday dinners. I so just want to be like her – the way she emanates the love that I know we are all supposed to have but haven’t figured it out yet. Happy birthday, my beautiful mother!

I’ve always wanted to share these pictures of my mom. These are from her high-school days. Oh that I could have her stunning beauty as well.

Isn’t she a babe?

This morning Melisa’s girls came over while she went to a baby shower. She has the most darling girls, and the boys love them. Jaedyn also arrived at 9:30. My friend Gina picked Easton up from school and brought him home since I had Melisa’s girls with me. They left about noon, and I started making the frosting and baking the sugar cookies for the cousin party we were having at 2pm. I actually made the dough last night, but we had to roll it out and cut the hearts today. The party turned out darling! All the kids had so much fun, and Easton said that he wants to always have a party like this. They ate so much junk, but that’s okay once in a while.  They exchanged Valentines and treat bags and played with their balloons and frosted sugar cookies and made foam heart Valentines. It really turned out great! The heart garland I made from paper plates. The little mailboxes were in the $1 spot at Target. Most of it came from Target. And the cake stand was made by my friend Andrea for a  birthday gift. There are a whole lot of pictures.

Our party was over at about 3:30. After getting everything cleaned up, Jaedyn left and so did Sadie and Becca. The boys hung out playing with their stuff and eating candy. I didn’t make dinner because it’s Friday, and I refuse to do that. So about an hour after Jacob got home the four of us had a nice and delicious dinner at Café Rio. It was a wonderful day spent with my favorite people in the world. The boys are in their room right now watching Hercules. I don’t let them watch movies when it’s bedtime, but I figured that it’s ok to watch a movie on Friday night in their bed. Right? And my sweet hubs just walked in their room and asked them if they wanted popcorn. I heard cheering, and then Easton said, “You’re the best dad in the WORLD!” Sometimes it is so fun to let your kids do things that they don’t normally do, like watch a movie and eat popcorn in their bedroom at 9:47 pm. We’re sticklers about bedtime, even on the weekend. But it’s okay to let them have a little fun too, and it makes me happy to do it because they think it’s the most awesome thing in the world!