"The Smile Song"

This is Liah and Emily singing "The Smile Song"... I'm playing the piano, and I came up with arrangement myself. Emily learned this song at preschool, and I just love it! How can you help but smile??

p.s. This picture is from 2 years ago! My girls sure have changed a lot!

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Go comment on Alicia's blog and wish her a happy 30th birthday!

Mother's Day thoughts...

On April 1st, I got this email from my dad:

It was 18 years ago today in the early morning ...

... that the ambulance came and took your angel mother away.

Lorie was 12, Brandon was 3, and you can do the math as to how old the rest of you were. [I was 9]

I hope you all will take a moment to contemplate how rich your life has been these last 18 years...

And how infinitely the opposite it might have been.

Love,
DaDa

Wow, that really got me thinking. I can't imagine the last 18 years without my mom! My mom has been here for me when I got married, took care of me when I had each of my babies, brushed my hair and got me ice while I was laboring with Liah...

I love my mom! Growing up, I always felt overshadowed by my older sister and my brothers. Mom was really busy with them. I came across my journal last night that I started the day I turned 16. Boy, was that ever an eye opener! I laughed so hard as I was reading it. But something stood out to me that I never realized before. After my sister left to college, I had a LOT of time with my mom! Sure, she was busy with my brothers a lot, but I read in there about going to a wedding reception with just me and her, shopping for the gift, finding wrapping to wrap it with. I wrote in there about a couple of outfits that my mom bought for me (which being a younger sister with muchas hand-me-downs is saying something!). I read in there about making 20 quarts of peach jam in one day, and I word for word wrote down the recipe on how to do it! Oh, the things my mom taught me! Even being the overshadowed one, my life has been so richly blessed because of my mother, just like my dad said! and how different it could have been!

I've been thinking a lot about motherhood lately and just how spiritual it is. When we come to this earth, we forget everything about our former life. But we have a loving Heavenly Father who wants us to return to Him. He doesn't want us to be alone. It is absolutely beautiful that he sends his spirit children directly to a mother who carries them for 9 months, and learns during this time to love this little person inside her before they have ever even met. When they are born, they are placed directly into their mother's arms! Even though they don't remember anything about their former life, they already have someone here who loves and cares for them more than anything in the world. And it's my job to get to teach my 4 little ones how to get back to Him. I will forever be grateful for my mother. I couldn't have chosen a better one.

I LOVE YOU MOM!!! Happy Mother's Day!

Emilya Bedelia

Jeremy started putting Addison on the potty whenever he has to poop... yes, Addison. My 9 1/2 month old. Surprisingly, he has gone 3 times this week. He actually loves sitting on the potty. Whatever. (I only roll my eyes a little bit.) 3 less diapers to change, right? So we asked Emily today to go put the flushable wipes on the back of the toilet. I just went in to clean my bathroom and this is what I found:

...in back of the toilet... close enough, I guess! Oh, these kids are constant entertainment.

...and just because I thought it was cute:

(Addison fell asleep with his leg propped up on Jeremy's shoulder)

Happy Birthday Gramma!!!

Happy Birthday Mom! (aka Gramma) We love you!!!

Love, Amy, Jeremy, Liah, Emily, Sean and Addison

p.s. Liah learned this song 5 minutes before she played it.

p.p.s. This is about take 500 or so. Liah kept getting angry at Emily. We had lots of "you're going to see this when you're 20 and be really embarrassed that you were screaming at your sister" comments...

LOVE YOU MOM! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Stampede!

Remember this scene in the Lion King? Simba's hanging around that tree in the gorge minding his own business and all of a sudden here comes a stampede?

Now picture 3 moms hanging out at the park next to the elementary school letting their 10 little kids play, minding their own business. The kids at the elementary school are all out at recess, and a large, very large group of them (I'm talking easily 100+) starts congregating in one area of the field at the school. All of a sudden, they all start rushing toward these poor 10 little kids. Oh, certainly they are going to stop as soon as they get to a certain point and turn around and run back towards the school. Must be P.E.? These poor 10 kids are frozen in time with horrified looks on their little faces as this stampede of older kids overruns the little play structure they are playing on. 3 moms are very furious and start trying to round up these poor little kids between these 100+ older kids. Some of these older kids sit down at the picnic table and start getting into the lunch of 2 of these little kids. In the chaos, one 4 year old girl rushes over to her car and cowers next to it and one 3 year old boy makes his way into the outhouse at the park... can we just say sick??

As we were loading up our kids into the car, one of the teachers came over to us and apologized profusely and said they were taking the kids back to the school... thanks...

Um, what the heck?!?!?

Addison is 9 months old!

I love you Addison Tavish!!!

Thank you for bringing such happiness,

smiles and laughter

to our family every day!