Mama 2012

I'm still behind in blogging. And admittedly, I'm going to cheat a bit.

Here is a sweet video my friend Allen made me for Mother's Day. It is absolutely perfect. Love it. I wish I could embed it into Blogspot, but you need a paid membership. Darn.

Next up. Have you seen this commercial? I honestly don't normally cry at commercials, but I admit I cannot watch this without tears. It is so precious.


Whatever my baby girl chooses to do, no doubt I'll be the proudest Mama in town. It will be my pleasure to watch her life unfold to see what she chooses for her future.

I was perusing what I shared on Mother's Day last year - here and here. The words are all still so true to this day - both about my Mom and about my precious daughter. Mother's Day fell on May 13 this year. The day before, May 12 stood out to me. My Mom died on June 12 and this year it will be five whole years. I get pretty sad about it this time of year and with the five year anniversary, it doesn't make it any easier. How blessed I am that my daughter came into the world on the 12th of the month. I'd like to believe that it is God and my Mama's way of comforting me, loving me and allowing me to love on my daughter, as my Mom loved me.

I talked to a mama-to-be today. Her baby girl is scheduled to arrive a week from today. We talked about that moment of falling in love with your baby. I am so thrilled for her. Life will never be the same. Mine sure isn't. When that little girl asks for a kiss or hugs my neck tight - my heart absolutely melts.

I thank you, Mom, for teaching me how to love. I'm the Mom I am today because of you.

Wheeeeee!

I'm a bit behind on the blogging front. I still have lots of picture I want to share with you, but I'll likely to get to that another day. Because my to-do list is growing and I just sucked up the last hour of my life attempting to create the pictures below into a time-lapse video with no success, I've given up and will share some with you another way.

This was last Sunday - Mother's Day. It was a beautiful day and we went to the zoo. Elyse was old enough this year to play in the Kid Zone, yet many of the toys were still too big for her. But, she didn't let that stop her.

This is a cup that you sit in and your weight starts it spinning. When you are as little as Elyse it really gets going. The harder she tried to get out, the faster it spun. I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard. Fortunately, Bill went to her rescue. While I was doubled over in laughter on a bench nearby, Bill got the cup to slow down to get her out. It was quite the sight and people around us were laughing too. I only wished I had it on video (thus my attempt at time-lapse). Even funnier, was when she got out clumsily stumbling around from the dizziness.

The girl never cried though. It also didn't stop her from wanting to find new toys to climb on. She's our character. We sure do love her.

PS: Click on the picture below for a closer look.

Alley Oop!

Elyse had her first day at Alley Oop - they have a gymnastics class just for toddlers! A bunch of stuff to climb, jump and run on and no one telling her no - this girl's heaven!

My baby girl. Patience can be tough and we had to wait to go play.

It was fun to have Luke and Erin joining us!

This was a long runway and the kids were supposed to jump up and down it.

Thankfully Daddy didn't catch pictures of me showing her how to jump!

Super fun!

Luke liked it too!

Did I mention it was like a runway?

Someone was strutting like she was walking the runway!

Luke figured out the jumping!

She was constant smiles.

No fear - obstacle course.

Time to jump in the foam pit.

A little nervous at first - but she was ready to jump in with Dad!

We had a little temper tantrum when we were told we had to wait our turn. Thankfully it ended quickly.

Super fun!

The Climber

This is an old video, but evidently I'm in a video sharing mood!

Elyse was just 17 months old. Funny, how this cracked us up at the time, but now it doesn't surprise me at all! She can climb most anything. Here she pushed her stepstool over to the bathtub to climb into her bathseat.

She keeps us busy - that is for sure!