Pretty Sneaky....

Jared just got TONS of bonus points.  What a great blog post he put together!  He snuck home from church to do this I guess. Very clever man.  Ah, it's awfully nice to get "spotlighted" myself (the kids love when I spotlight one of them on my blog or when they get spotlighted at church or school - but moms don't usually get that sort of thing).  And it's so fun and interesting to see what the kids and Jared especially appreciate about me.

The kids and Jared brought me breakfast in bed this morning.  Right after church the kids presented me with the little gifts they each made at school and preschool - the twins and Eliza have been hinting about what their presents were for days and they were SO excited to finally be able to give them to me.  Then we took Mother's Day photos (that photo on Jared's blog post was my Mother's Day photo from last year).  Here we are:

We went on a beautiful little hike behind our house.  It was heavenly to just wander, going at the kids' pace and noticing every little wildflower (there are so many out right now).  I love not hurrying and not having a destination sometimes (especially after this last super-packed week).  And now Jared and the kids are in the kitchen making dinner and they've banned me from the room.  Life is good - really good.  A few days ago I was a basket case of worry and stress - so I guess the contrast makes today extra good.

Since I've got a little quiet time to reflect, I thought I'd record some of my favorite things about motherhood over this past year - just the first things that come to mind:

• Having kids old enough to have real conversations.  They have such great questions and ideas and thoughts.  I love really getting to know each of their unique personalities as they sort of "come into their own."  It's an amazing feeling to get to the point where I not only love my kids with all my heart, but I also think they're interesting, cool, fun people that I really enjoy hanging out with on a whole new level.
• Reading with the twins.  They snuggle up on either side of me, burrowing their heads up under my arms so that I can just barely reach the book - they're getting big!  I'm so glad they still insist on sitting this way for story time and that they still delightedly run to the book cupboard when I announce story time.  See the photo at the end of this post to see what I mean.
• Seeing Ashton's love for music along with his musical abilities really bloom this year.  He's so good on the guitar, he's really learned a lot on violin and he's absolutely loved choir and "Orffestra" at school this year.  He's a star bass xylophone player and can play by ear on several instruments.  
• Seeing Isaac take off with reading and have his moments in the spotlight this year as he won the 3rd grade science fair at his school and placed in a state-wide poetry contest.  Isaac's really our middle child and he needed this!  It was beautiful to see him beaming as he received his prizes and even more beautiful to see his siblings congratulating him.
• Watching Eliza "mother" every smaller kid around and teach her little brothers so many things in such a patient, sweet way.  See a video of her teaching the twins to tie their shoes here.
• Having Oliver and Silas get so excited about milestones like writing their own names and starting to notice letters and then whole words in the world around them.  And seeing their big siblings super excited about their little brothers' progress - so often one of them will come to me and say something like, "Oliver is so smart - you know what he just told me?"
• Sitting at the top of Angel's Landing together - that was an amazing moment that none of us will ever forget.
• Having Liza scratch my arm and Isaac play with my hair while I read to the big kids at bedtime - the nice glow of the lamplight, the opportunity to talk about interesting issues raised by the book, the snuggly together feeling of it all.
• Having my totally un-huggy Ashton give me several big heartfelt hugs on his birthday and on Mother's Day.
• Having a little arm thrown around my neck and a kiss planted on my cheek so often as I type away on my computer - welcome little momentary interruptions that I'm so blessed to have.
• Seeing Jared baptize Isaac in Bear Lake. I'll forever have snapshots in my mind of that beautiful little boy and his handsome dad hand in hand wading out into the lake, their white clothes contrasting with their end-of-summer tanned skin, the lake blue as blue around and beyond them, the huge smiles on their faces as they emerged, wet, cold and triumphant.  Seeing my dad congratulate Isaac while Isaac wore the very baptism clothes my grandma made for my dad as a boy - generations connecting, goodness and beauty all together, laid out before my eyes.
• Having a twin on each knee while I reply to an email or two before taking a break to read to them or do puzzles with them.  Loving that they just want to be near me - even if I'm not giving them my undivided attention at the time.
• Eliza presenting me with some truly beautiful drawings and totally sweet notes complete with very logical spelling on an almost-daily basis.  
• Watching all five kids up on the stand singing Mother's Day songs today in church - Silas singing at the top of his lungs (not exactly on key) and causing plenty of giggles and knowing smiles cast in our direction from people sitting near us.  Ashton was trying to hide behind Isaac and wasn't exactly singing - but the rest of them were singing with all their hearts and looking right at me.  Beautiful.

I could go on and on but dinner's ready!  How blessed I am to be the mother of these valiant, sweet, bright, beautiful children.