the one about floating waffles

My sweet little Quayd is so dang funny! He is so much like his dad in so many ways. One example is food habits. Most of the time, it drives me nuts because they are both so picky! But also, when they find a food they like, they don't like to wander far from it. I am all about variety ao I love to switch things up a lot, but not these two. Quayd's latest food obsession is Eggo Waffles. He is very particular about how he eats them though. I have to toast it, butter it, then cut off the outside edge. I cut it into bite sized pieces and put syrup on it. With every fiber of my being, I hate maple syrup. I hate the taste of it and I despise the smell of it. So when Quayd has waffles, I make him bathe afterward so I don't have to smell it all day. Maple is one of those smells that never goes away.

Adult ADd moment! I am going to stray for the subject for a minute here... Before we had Quayd, we used to sit by this family at Church. In Sacrament meeting, their kids always had this cereal that smelled like maple syrup. I had one of their kids in the nursery when I was the Nursery leader and even hours after they ate that cereal, I could smell it on them. From that day on, I decided that I would never let my kids smell like maple syrup.

Anyway, getting Quayd up in the morning is usually a total joke! He is so mean! So cramming in waffles, bath and everything else was getting dificult. One morning, I put Quayd in the tub and fixed his waffle. I put the waffle on a small plate and let him eat it in the tub. (The things we do for our kids!) Well, then he decided that was a great idea, so now we have to do that every morning. I kept thinking I needed to take a picture of him. Well, today was the day. As I was walking out of the bathroom to put the camera away, I heard, "OH NO!!" I went back in the bathroom and found this.

the one about my Mother's Day

When I woke up this morning, I found this letter waiting for me.

Mandy,

I wanted to write you a letter for Mother’s Day and tell you how much I love and appreciate you. You are such an amazing person. This last year has seen some real highs and some super lows, but the constant in all that happened was our family, and our marriage. It’s hard for me to express how much you mean to me. You really are my other half I am not whole without you. I love how we can communicate and understand the others thoughts without even being together. I love sharing our lives together, and I am so proud to have you as my wife and the mother of our boy. It’s hard to believe that it has been ten years already. Thank you for being you i.e.: loving, funny, caring, sensitive, ambitious, intelligent, spiritual, well natured, driven, successful, motherly, nurturing, good humored, awesome, crazy, outgoing, down to earth, and patient just to name a few. Thank you for fighting when you were so sick for me and Quayd. We would never be where we are today without you. Thank you for writing down your birth story, it is hard to talk about and even harder to remember. It is that time in our lives that defines who we are today, and thank you for giving people a small glance inside our story. I cherish those memories from that time, but it still scares me to death to think about it. Thank you for being such a special part of my dad’s life, I really want you to know hoe much it meant to him and I. Thank you for helping me get through such a tough time. The wound is still open in my heart but you help me keep going. Thank you for being you and understanding me and my screwed up emotions, No other person on this earth understands me the way you do so thank you. Please know that I will always be here for you, if you stumble I will steady you, if you fall I will always pick you up. You are mine and Quayd’s world. Happy Mothers day to the BEST MOM and WIFE in the WORLD.
Love, Brett

We were outside playing this afternoon and Brett took a picture of Quayd and I. As I was starting to post this, I remembered that I had some pictures of Quayd and I on my first Mother's Day. Then, something totally strange happened. I went downstairs to find them and got in my little photo storage thingie. I am pretty organized when it comes to this stuff, so it only took a second to find. I had never scrapbooked these pictures so I had them in a little file folder thing. I do most of my pictures this way, then if there is any type of memorabilia that went with the pictures, I can stick it in the folder. I had totally forgotten about this, but in the little folder was a letter my father-in-law, Mike, wrote to me on that day. Of course, I sat down, read it and cried my eyes out. I really want to share it with you. I have scanned the actual letter, but I will type the words too because his handwriting is a little tough to read.

Mandy,
Just a note to tell you how much your being in my family means to me. When you became a Mom, I became a Grand Dad. When I became a Grand Dad, you became my daughter.
I will never be able to tell you how much I love you, and just how strong I feel about you being my daughter.
You are my hero and a big part of me. If I have to share my son with someone else, I want it to be you and if I got to pick wives for my son, you would be at the top of my list.
I hope I can always be there for you when you need me and know I will always try.
I will love you to the end of time and will thank you for longer than that.
I will always love you
Dad Lane

I am so glad I found that along with these pictures.





Ok, now that I have that all of the way, I can tell you about what we did on this awesome, fun, relaxing day. Well, last night after our big nap after our big yard sale, Brett had to go to the races for the fire department. I told Quayd I wanted to go on a date. I asked him to take me to the new Chinese buffet in town. When we got there, I saw my cute sister-in-law Brynn's family. They were all there just about to be seated. They invited Quayd and I to sit with them. We did, and it was lots of fun. After our yummy dinner, Quayd and I went to Lowe's and wandered around for awhile, bought a few items, then headed for Wal-Mart. Since Quayd sold a bunch of his old toys and he helped me so much by getting ready for the sale, I told him I would buy him a new Wii game. He chose Wii Playground (and hasn't stopped playing it all day!) On our way home, I realized that we were just in time to catch a late show at the theater. So we went to Speed Racer. It was cool, and he LOVED it. We met Brett at home, and I was off to bed. They stayed up and played Wii for awhile.

This morning, we talked about going somewhere to breakfast, but decided the lines would be too long, so we decided to cook our own breakfast. We made strawberry crepes. We had so much fun sitting around the breakfast table laughing and eating! I know my plates are ugly (they are just cheap Wal-Mart plastic ones) but look how yummy the crepes look! Eating crepes on Mother's Day also reminded me of these pictures I had in my picture box. It was Quayd eating the crepe filling when he was a baby.
Wasn't he such a cute baby? He loved this stuff!!

Brett gave me money to buy clothes for Mother's Day, so look what I got. Wow, the picture doesn't do much for it, but it is 6 CUTE shirts, a pair of shorts and some Capri's. I also got 3 new pair of Teva flip flops. I am so excited for my new stuff! I needed new clothes BIG TIME!

Since it is Mother's Day, I have to take a minute and thank a few of my Mothers. Of course, my mom. She is so special to me and I love her so much. For many years, it was just she and I. I treasure those times. We grew so much during that time. I am thankful for all she has taught me and for all of the fun times we have had together. I also want to thank my Mother-in-law, Gleneita. I love her so much too! She is amazing and strong and I admire her so much. Most people have lots of scary "mother-in-law horror stories," but seriously, not me. Gleneita is AWESOME and I wouldn't trade her for anything. I worry about her so much and I try so hard to make her life less stressful, but I probably just create more stress. Really, I love her so much. I also have to give my Grandma, Doris, a shout out. I lived with her for a period of time when I was a teenager and I feel like I can never repay her for all she did for me. She is so sweet and good to me and my family. She is just always there. I can always count on her. She is my rock. (I have no good pictures of any of my three moms, so these will just have to do.
Aren't they beautiful women? I love them all so much!!

I seriously had such a great Mother's Day. It was just so relaxing and I got to spend the day with my two most favorite people! I am so blessed to be married to such a great guy and to have such a special little boy. I love Mother's Day. I always have. I love that it happens in the spring time and all of the grass, trees and flowers are starting to bloom. It makes me so grateful for the WONDERFUL life I have.