Happy Mother's Day!

My mother's day came one day early this year...

Yesterday, Mike and the kids couldn't contain their excitement and gave me my mother's day gift early.  Mike had quite a plan and executed it beautifully.  He'd planned a scavenger hunt for the kids and I...

 

{the oven}

 

 

{our Mother Goose book..."Little Boy Blue page"}

  

 {the train table drawer}

The "freight"

...an iPad air!  I'm feeling pretty spoiled all up in here.  Sometimes Mike and I celebrate big...sometimes we give each other a high five.  This was a very big surprise for me.  We've had LOTS of fun with it and I'm already making plans on using this as a tool for teaching and for a behavior reward! {and for my own fun!}

Today I got up early and made breakfast (because I wanted to!) and got ready for church.  It's nice when you give yourself extra time and aren't rushed.  We had time for some pictures with my loves:

 

Blessed to be called mommy three times over...

 Ameliya Darby, age 6 weeks

 Natalee Cynthia, age 5 1/2 years

 Xavier Micheal, age 3 years, 10 1/2 months (almost 4 if you ask him!)

 Blessed to have these rare and precious jewels.

We celebrated today with Mike's family as we hadn't had their Easter celebration yet.  We rolled 2 holidays in one and partied extra hard.  

Even though we weren't hanging with the Tallman crew today I caught a picture of my mom {Grandma Num} with her grands...

 

 Her brood of grandkids is growing...

 

Then, mean mom that I am, I made my kids wait to change out of their church clothes until we'd gotten pictures with Grammy Sara and Great Grandma Betty.  Because sometimes moms are just in the mood to make some picture memories...

Because we hadn't celebrated Easter yet, the kids got to do another egg hunt...they were super impressed.  Mother's day celebrations will never be the same - they'll expect this every year...

Then we came home, planted some flowers, took late naps, and enjoyed some time outdoors.  A truly lovely day all around.

Whether you are a mother, auntie, grandmother, friend, sister, or mother-in-waiting...Happy Mother's Day today and everyday.  Thank you for your positive influence in our lives and the lives of the children around you.