I Love My Kids!

So it is Mother's Day Eve, my eighth official Mother's Day, and I just have to say how much I love my kids! It's about 11 p.m. and they've been asleep for a while now. Ryan is at his yearly awards banquet for work (which was a dinner cruise this year and I didn't feel like attending at 81/2 months pregnant). By the way, he just called me and is on his way home, and he is one of the top five salesmen again this year and in the "President's Club". He doesn't think it' s a big deal, but I'm proud of him anyway.

Back to Mother's Day. Maybe it's just because I'm a little hormonal and emotional while in the last days of my last pregnancy, but lately I've been feeling a little sad about my kids growing up. Maylan is 7 1/2 and seems to learn more from her books than she does from me these days. She claims her teacher at school is smarter than I am and she uses words like "foolhardy" and "deceitful" and she wants to learn how to hypnotize people. I am so proud of her and she is such a great kid and I know she'll do well in life. The older she gets, the more I see of myself in her and I love that. Here's a picture of her sleeping right now. She's a little sweaty because no matter how hot it is, she always has her comforter pulled all the way up to her chin. She still seems like my baby when she's asleep.

I'm having the same problems with Brandon growing up. He's 4 1/2 now. He went with Ryan's dad last night to his ward's Fathers and Sons and had no problem saying goodbye to me and hopping in Grandpa's truck. Don't get me wrong, this is a good thing for him, but I sure do love my little mama's boy. He gets up and gets himself dressed every morning. He can play on the computer without any assistance at all and lately he's been pointing out to me how "patient" he is being when he waits for me to help him with something. He's still always willing to snuggle and I'm just hoping those days never end.

They're both so excited for their new baby sister to come and I can't wait to watch how the three of them interact together. I love my kids, I'm so grateful for them. Being a mother is truly the most rewarding experience of my life. I need to try harder to cherish these times, because, looking back, I can see how quickly my kids have grown and changed and it won't be too much longer before they're off to college and missions and marriage. Anyway, happy Mother's Day to everyone out there!