Mother's Day Weekend

 {One of my Mother's Day gifts, new running shoes}

We had a great weekend here at the Dodson household. Friday afternoon Morgan and I went to the doctor, got some prescriptions that would help us feel better, and Friday night I got knocked out and slept the best I had in weeks. My body needed a serious reprieve from all the coughing I'd been doing and I felt so much better Saturday morning after getting a full nights sleep. Saturday morning we all got to work cleaning the house and working outside. Riley took down our poor play set that was falling apart and got that area all cleaned up and Morgan and Kendle hauled the scraps and the wood to his truck to be taken to the dump. After that the twins went down for a nap, Kendle and Morgan went to my mother-in-laws for the afternoon and Riley went to go scout a game to see who they would be playing this week. I was really tempted to go rest up and take a nap while it was quiet, but I put on some work gloves and decided to go do some weeding instead. I got all of the front weeding done and most of the back. There is something so satisfying about pulling weeds and seeing an instant effect of everything looking nice and clean. Later that afternoon we got to work on our new "fire pit" area, which was really pretty simple. We just raked all the peagravel to smooth everything back out and clean out the debri, assembled the fire pit, and I planted some cute little trees in some bright green pots to put around it. I'm still looking for some better chairs, but anything is an improvement from what it looked like before, trust me. Now all that's left to do is to frame the edges out with some wood to contain the pea gravel better. This is definitely everyone's new favorite spot. I'm trying to convince Riley to try and make us some cute benches to go there.

Sunday I woke up to Riley making me a delicious breakfast. Granted the kitchen was a mess and the whole house smelled like a diner, but the food was really good. He had gotten up extra early to make me bacon, scrambled eggs, country hash browns, english muffins and orange juice. It was delicious. At the table were also some beautiful roses and some cute gifts from the kids. It was a great way to start Mother's Day. I wanted to take a picture with all the kids before church and of course at least one of the kids has to start crying. Don't ask me why this always happens, but it does. This time Morgan had a whole bunch of stuff in his hands and in his shirt pockets and I made him take them out (because he couldn't take them to church anyways), so then he totally started crying and he was the only one NOT smiling for the picture, but I love him anyways and it keeps it real I suppose.

And here is one of the funny out takes.....



So as you can see, we took what we could get in the two minutes we had to spare to snap a few pictures.

Church was wonderful, there were so many good speakers and inspiring thoughts that were shared (not to mention the chocolates and cheesecake we were treated to). It made me remember more than ever to be grateful for the opportunity to be a mother and that this is what I wanted in my life so I need to choose to be happy and make the best of whatever comes along, and also I need to be the type of mother my children deserve to have. It was one of my most enjoyable Mother's Day Sundays I've had in a long time.

Last night after putting the twins to bed, we gave in to Kendle and Morgan's begging and tried out the new fire pit. We sat around and watched the sparks fly into the dark sky and listened to the crackling fire. We watched Riley stoke the flames and add more wood.  We stayed there until it was way past bedtime and my feet in my flip-flops got cold. It was one of those rare moments in time where you could just soak in the contentment and see it mirrored in your children's faces. It was the perfect way to end such a wonderful day. I'm grateful to my little family for making me feel so loved.