A letter to my kids.

Savanna, Weylon and OakLeigh,

I just want you 3 to know that mommy loves you more than life itself. I know that there are a lot of times, and it seems like more often than not, that I am grumpy and ornery and take it out on you. I want you to know that I am sorry for those times. I hope that you know how much you mean to me. I want to be the kind of mom that you could come to for ANYTHING. No matter what happens in your life, I will always love you and will always be there for you. NO matter what kind of mistakes or choices you make, good or bad, I will always love you. I will always be there for a hug if you ever need it. I will always try to support you in everything you do. I watch you sleep at night and am amazed at how blessed I am. There was a time in my life that I thought I would never become a mother. I thought I would never have an opportunity to see what motherhood would be like. Then when I was 26 my life turned around. I know that Heavenly Father guided your dad and I together. I know that he answered my prayers, and I found my eternal companion. And then gave me the most wonderful gift He could ever give me. YOU! I hope and pray I can live up to the expectations my Heavenly Father has for me as a mom. I hope that I can teach you in a way that will help you succeed in everything you want. I hope that I can teach you to love your Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ as much as I do. I hope that I can teach you to always be prayerful and get on your knees daily. I hope that I can teach you that you are loved. I hope that I can teach you to love yourself. I hope I can teach you to love others, and to serve others, and to have charity in everything you do. I hope that I can teach you to be honest in your life every day. And to be valiant and to stand for what you know is right. I hope I can teach you that I love you and will do anything for you. I am so blessed and thankful for each of you. For all the qualities you have. Savanna I know I give you a hard time about crying. But I am so thankful that you are so sensitive and caring. Weylon I am thankful you are so stubborn and WONT GIVE UP OR IN till you have your way. OakLeigh I am thankful that you are a little monkey and can make all of us smile with your little quirkiness! I love you all and I hope you know that!

Love Mommy

The kids and their new kittens.

Realizations!

There are times in your life when you have poor pity me days...There are times in your life where you are so thankful for EVERYTHING you have and you REALIZE how much you have. Well I have had a mixture of all those lately. I have my poor me days. You know the ones, "I am fat. I am getting gray hair. My kids do NOT listen to me. My husband's dang chickens stink so bad. My kids are fighting again. I yelled too much today. I didnt get to exercise today. I am sick of babysitting. Stupid student loans. I want to spend some time with just me...Kind of thinking". And then after my poor poor me thoughts, something happens. I get on my knees and pray and ask for help. And I can literally feel my Heavenly Father wrap His arms around me and tell me He loves me. And then my wonderful husband will come home from work and give me a kiss and tell me he thinks I am beautiful (helping me to forget for a small while that I am chubby and not so cute) and will help with the kids and dinner. And my sweet Savanna will sit by me and tell me she loves me and rub my arm for a minute. And my sweet Weylon and OakLeigh will play nicely together and help each other out! And then I know that my prayers are being answered every day. We are all healthy. We are an eternal family. We have a good job. We live in a nice, warm home. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ as our foundation and with my Heavenly Father's love and help, all things are possible. Life is good today. I love my kids and Brandon more than I can express. I am watched out for every day because I have been blessed with them in my life. And then my perspective changes for the day and am able to realize all I have. The little things don't matter as much. So what if I am chubby? I can work on that and try to change it. So what if I am getting gray hair? I can buy some hair dye. I am able to wrap my arms tightly around my children each day and hold them tight. I can always count on my Brandon to make me laugh. I know I can get on the phone and call my mom and dad and hear their voices. Thank you Heavenly Father for hearing my cries in the morning and helping me to realize all that I have...once again.

Weylon's Oral Surgery

We drove over to Casper last night and had dinner at our dear freinds house, Paula and Elvis Dean. They are the nicest people anyone could know. We had a great dinner and their grandkids, Nate and Gage, entertained my kids for a few hours. They didnt want to leave they had so much fun! It was so nice to relax and visit! Then we drove to our nice motel, Mainstay Suites...Very new and nice! And the kids had a blast~ any kind of overnighter is great fun for them. Weylon and Brandon got up and took a long shower this morning and Weylon was so excited to go to the dentist. Brandon took him and I stayed with the girls.

Oh OakLeigh!

Monday!

Well I haven't posted for a few days. Seems like life just gets going so fast and we forget to stop and take a minute. Well the day started off like any (bad) Monday does. Brandon got ready to go to work and dang it, his keys were locked in his truck ....along with Ninny the cat. On Sunday we had to take Savanna to urgent care, so all the car seats where in the truck. Well Weylon wanted to help daddy out and got all 3 seats out ALL BY HIMSELF and put them back in the suburban...but in the process his little helper OakLeigh was pushing the lock button on the truck. And of course Ninny the other helper had to be right in the way. Well thank goodness that cat is half retarded and already missing most brain cells. Because any NORMAL cat would have roasted in that truck. It was pretty hot on Sunday. Not Ninny. He stretched out and slept on the seat from 2 or 3 in the afternoon till we broke into the truck Monday morning. He didnt even mess in there?! Then Brandon left for work LATE only to realize after the 16ish mile drive he forgot all his stuff in the suburban and had to come back home and get it all. LOL. Poor guy. That was his monday. I say it slowly got better because we have such amazing friends here in our little branch. The most charitable people you will ever know. Brock, Clinton, Jared, and one of the youth, Jacob, showed up to help him finish the roof on our garage! YAY! It looks so nice! Thank you all for your help and friendship. It means so much! Brock, Clinton and Jared along with SO MANY others, also were the ones who helped build it...well actually they did build it. When we lost Steven, and I was in the hospital to deliver him, basically the whole slew of men from the branch showed up and built MOST of our garage up for us. Brandon and some youth and Jared got the frame work all done, then Brandon was in too much pain to do much more. And then when we lost our little Angel - our wonderful branch finished for us. So amazing to have the best people surrounding you all the time. I know our Heavenly Father was looking out for us when we were sent here. It is were we are supposed to be.

On another note, Weylon is supposed to have his dental surgery done tomorrow~ I sure hope his cold is gone by the morning or they wont do it and will send us packing back home. AAAGH. We have been waiting for almost 4 months as it is to get this done. So I hope and Pray all goes well. Poor little guy has such bad teeth. When they started growing in, they were brownish and bad looking...so he has to have 8 caps, and some cavities fixed too. Good thing they are putting him completely out because it took 2 nurses to hold him down just for the x-rays! Makes me nervous though. I am so thankful that is the only problem he has. I look at so many people out there with sick little kids. My heart breaks for them. I cry when my kids get the flu. I cant imagine going through what they are going through with major diseases and sicknesses. I love my kids more than anything. I am so thankful for their good health! And pray it will always be that way.

This is my little Cowboy. Weylon loves "straps" and says he cant ride bulls without them on!

Mother's Day

Well since Mother's Day was last week, it has been on my mind of all the amazing moms that have touched my life! First of all there is my mom...who is also my best friend.(Besides Brandon of course...) She was there for me at every single important moment of my life. She supported all of us kids through all our running around...and with 5 kids in 5 different sports, somehow she still managed to be there to each event almost every time! She was there for me through my embarassing stages...(oh wait that's not over yet. haha..) Like when I locked myself out of my locker after swim practice and had to walk home IN THE SNOW in only my swimsuit, cap on head, and thank goodness for those prescription goggles...if I didnt have those on, who knows who's house I would have ended up at. haha. (Damn those goggles that kept fogging up and I had to keep stopping - BAREFOOT IN THE SNOW - to keep defogging!) What a sight I must have been to her as she got home from bus driving, to her teenager sitting on the couch, still clad in swimming suit, cap and goggles, sobbing cause she couldn't remember her locker combination...but did she laugh...well of course she did. WHO WOULDN'T LAUGH AT THAT? But she also put her arms around me and gave me a hug and helped me call the school and get the locker combo from them, also drove me to the pool to get dressed, and then drove me to the school...thanks mom for laughing at me when I needed it, but also being there for me too!
She has been here for me through all my trials and triumphs. When I lost our little Steven, she (and dad) dropped everything and came right to Wyoming to be here for us. A time that I just needed my mother's encouraging words and strong hug, I could depend on her to be there. We talk everyday on the phone. Even when we don't have a dang thing to say, its so nice to hear her voice for the day and to tell her I love her. When I got married, Brandon was shocked that I talked to my mom EVERYDAY. It in fact drove him crazy, but after almost 8 years, he is used to it now. And in fact, now, if there is a day that he thinks I havent talked to mom, he says, "you better call and check on your mom and make sure everything is ok, you haven't talked to her yet today". LOL. He likes to give us a hard time, but he loves my mom too and is very thankful for her!
Another mom that is so very important to me is my Aunt Betsy. She passed away 13 years ago. I was living with her and Wes, and their 5 kids when she was diagnosed with cancer. I lived with them up until a few months before she passed away. But she has always been like another mom to me. She taught me how to drive stick shift. What a brave woman for even trying! And she never yelled at me, even after the millionth time of popping the clutch to fast and killing the old blue toyota...She was patient, smiled, and said try it again Erin. She was a fabulous school teacher. I can bet my life savings, that every single student that had Aunt Betsy as a teacher, LOVED her. She was very dedicated to her teaching, and loved her students. And it showed, there were thousands of people at her funeral to pay tribute to her! She was such a good mom too. I remember when Seth was 3, he bit Katie on the arm. And Betsy got down at his eye level and talked to him very calmly about why you shouldnt bite. She didnt jump the gun, as I have done so many times, and yell or spank him...She talked to him about it, gave him a very loving punishment, and when it was over hugged him and talked to him about why he was in trouble. The next time he bit Katie, she bit him back though! And Seth never bit again. HAHA! It was a good learning moment for me! I always think of how Betsy still supported each of her kids, even after her surgery to remove the cancer and you know she was in pain. She still went to Logan's basketball games. And still supported KiLeigh and Lexi through their activities. And of course, she always hugged them and told them she loved them. When she passed away, there isnt a doubt in my mind that those kids knew that their mom loved them. She made that very clear in her words and actions. What a wonderful mom she was! I love you Aunt Bets! And you are so very missed! Please take care of my little Steven for me! (I know you are)
There are so many moms in my life, I cant name you all! But Granny and Grandma are great examples to me. To many experiences to name right now with them. I love you both! And Aunt Jo Even though you haven't given birth to any children, you are momma Jo to us all. You have supported each of your nieces and nephews through everything. All of us know, if we ever needed support for anything, it could come from you. Jo you have done a lot for me through the years and I love you and appreciate you so much! You were at some of our swimmeets, at all of our graduations, weddings, mission farewells and returns, college graduations...And I admire you for how you take care of Granny. I am sure its a task that doesn't get a lot of appreciation, but I know Granny appreciates it. And we all do.
So thank you to all my Mothers in my life. I love you all and want you all to know that you are so important to me! Thanks for enriching my life and helping me to achieve so many goals, laughing with me and AT me, hugging me, chastising me, and loving me.

Wyoming Wind!

Well I really didnt know what to label this post as. I call it Wyoming wind because it has literally been blowing so hard NONSTOP for the past week. Then we got ready to go to bed tonight, and it stopped! It has been so windy that Weylon doesnt even want to go outside and that is really strange for him. He would stay outside from sunup till sundown if I would let him. It has been a pretty busy day. Me and the kids went to Moorcroft for the primary activity. We were gone from 930-1230. Then we had a birthday party to go to in Gillette. Then had to go to Smiths and get groceries as we were out of everything. So it has been a very long day and the kids were so tired tonight. I wanted to say that I am so thankful for the kind thoughtful people in our community. The other day I took the kids to Mcdonalds to play and woman who was watching her kids play, bought my kids all an icecream cone! Right out of the blue! That made their day! The kindness of this young mom brought the biggest smiles to my childrens faces! And I am so appreciative and thankful for her kind heart. And today, at the birthday party, a co-worker of Brandons saw Weylon playing at one of the driving arcade games. She went over and put a quarter in the game for him! The smile on his little face went from ear to ear! And he talked about it the whole way home. Its the little things like that, the kind jestures of good people, that make life so much better! Its the little things that go a long way and I am so thankful that their are still good, kind, caring people out there! So I guess I need to think about paying it forward. Instead of getting ticked off that I had to wait in line cause I ALWAYS pick the SLOWEST cashier EVEr...maybe I should make my wait better by doing a kind deed.