Oh to be a Mother

I've been meaning to post these pictures for a couple of weeks, but the last two weeks have been quite hectic...a nasty cold, which we ALL got, the flu, wonderful little bugs in hair from school--gotta love public school (sometimes I wish I had the patience to do home school), and ANOTHER nasty cold! So after wiping noses, cleaning up puke, steam cleaning the carpets and washing EVERYTHING in site, I'm sitting down to write about how wonderful being a mom is. :)

The day before Mother's day we finally planted out garden. I know its late, but we only planted a few things...peas, tomatoes, zucchini, and herbs. How cute are Kedric and Reilyn planting the peas?

 Actually Mother's Day was super! I loved every minute of it. I didn't think anything special would happen with James gone, so I wasn't expecting it to be any kind of a special day. But Reilyn was so sweet and made it super special for me. With the help of my mom, she made me a really cute necklace and matching bracelet out of coral and turquoise beads. I love them! You'll see them in some of the pictures below. She also made me breakfast. She was so cute about it. We were at the grocery store the night before, and she tells me that she really wants to make me breakfast, but the only things she knew how to make were pop-tarts and cereal. I told her that she could make me toast and yogurt and I would love it. This is what I woke up to....

She had set a place for everyone, made a toast for everyone, and placed a yogurt by their plate. What a cutie. I love that she gets excited for stuff like this!

After church we headed over to my moms and we all went to the Arboritum at UW. It was so beautiful with all the Azaleas in bloom. It looked like heaven to me! And how cute are these three little rascals?

Eva-- rolling down the hill in her white dress!

It was also Jadeyn's birthday-- I can't believe she is 19! 

Later that night, Maci rolled over 5 times! So I got the camera out, and she wouldn't roll anymore, she just stared and the camera, and hasn't rolled since-- :)

Every morning Kedric and Maci crawl in bed with me. (Well I bring Maci in bed with me when she wakes up to eat in the morning.) Kedric loves to play with her. He was so cute saying good morning to her when I took this picture.

We dolled Maci up today, and she was "twins" with Reilyn. Reilyn was so excited to have the same dress as her. 

Even though being a mother is seriously the hardest thing I've ever done, and even harder when James is gone and I have to play single mother.... the cute little smiles, the fun giggles, the moments of tender love shown between siblings, the little acts of 6 year old's service, the little hands stretched out to hold mine, the sparkle in a babies eyes that tell me there is a heaven, and the little arms squeezing my neck to say good night, definitely make it the most wonderful thing.

Cuties

Maci is 3 months old now!! I can't believe how fast its gone by. She is such a GOOD baby! She sleeps through the night, for 7-8 hours each night. She hardly ever cries. When she wakes up from a nap so just lays in her crib looking around. She's such a blessing! I just love her so much! She loves to talk and has such a cute little smile. She gets embarrassed sometimes and turns her head to the side when she smiles. I'll have to get some pictures of her smiling, although it's hard because when I pull out the big camera, she just gets a confused look on her face!

Kedric is pretty cute too!  He's even cute when he's mad. :)
(Reilyn's cute too- of course, I just don't have a picture of her.)

Fun times and lasting memories

The last few weeks before James had to leave for training, we had some fun weekends. Reilyn has become quite the little runner, and has been training for the YMCA fun run for kids with James, so we took the kids out for the run. They had a short little run for the little ones that Kedric got to run in...he did awesome! Reilyn's race was a 1K, and she did great! It was literally 35 degrees outside! So cold!

After the race, we headed straight to Moses Lake. James' mom hadn't met Maci yet, and I hadn't seen her for a while, so it was good to see her. It's always depressing to go into Nursing homes, but it is fun to see how excited they all get when they see the kids. I know that a lot of the people in the home don't get visitors very often, so it's hard when they want to play with our kids, and we can't stay too long with them. Reilyn and Kedric are both really good with them, and say hello, and give them high fives. Reilyn read a book to Ceann, it was so cute. James' dad is so good with her. He visits her everyday. He's such a great example of loyalty. It's so sweet to see him with her. I love how he just holds her hand to let her know that he loves her.

Kedric got to wrestle with his boy cousins. He doesn't have too many of those on the Glauser side. He had a blast, and I was a nervous wreck watching them wrestle. :)

The next weekend, we were able to take the kids up to the Open House for the Vancouver Temple. On the way there we had to stop at the Tulip Fields.

This was so cute. What a good sister!

The temple was gorgeous. We got there for the tour at 8:00 PM and they still let us in. It was really cool to be able to go inside the temple with our kids. What an awesome feeling it was in the Celestial Room with our family there together.

This last picture was in front of the Science Center in Vancouver. We took the kids there after getting rained on in Stanley Park.