I want to be like my mom when I grow up

My mom came and stayed with us for a week after we had the baby. It was heavenly. Really, it was so nice that it made me consider having another baby right away just to have her back again :).

My mom is almost perfect. I only say "almost" because I am sure she does have a flaw, even though I can't think of one. I am so lucky to have a mom like her...but it is also hard! I mean, how can I ever live up to that? I try, but I can never be quite like her! Here are some of the hundreds of things we did while she was here:

She put up valances in both my family room and kitchen. I already had the fabric...oh wait, it was fabric that SHE had sewn and sent me from Idaho. I am really really embarrassed that she sent it to me months ago (it was the same fabric that I bought up there and recovered our kitchen chairs). So it looks great. I love it.

She help me organize my whole house. Literally, the whole house. We went from room to room and just tore things out of closets, decided if we wanted to keep it, made a box for it, and put it away or threw it out. All my linens and towels now have a place to go. All my cleaning supplies are organized. Kids clothes...ALL purged. We went through so many baby and kid clothes and organized everything. Oh man, I felt so free! Even the kitchen stuff...she made space in our kitchen I didn't know we had. Everything looks so much better and the drawers aren't so cluttered. It was amazing. Now (as Scott put it) my job is just not to mess everything up :)

She cleaned. Oh she cleaned. Every cupboard, every drawer. Every inch of the floor. Every item that could be washed, she helped me take to the laundry mat and then fold it and put it away (I think we did eight or nine loads). The bathroom was perfectly spotless. She dusted every shelf and desk and fan and dresser. She vacuumed every nook and cranny in this place. I wish you could have seen this woman work. She is a true professional.

She went to Target, Costco, and Walmart several times for big trips in stocking up on groceries and buying bins for all of our organizing and even random house items that would make our home more functional. Then she would go back and return/trade them in when we wanted a different color or size.

She cooked and cooked. Not only did she make all the meals for the week that she was here, she made two of everything so that we could put it in the freezer and have another meal. She also cooked probably 10 lbs of ground beef and put it in different bags in the freezer, so now I can just pop one into the microwave to unthaw it and my ground beef is ready. She also just helped me brainstorm lists of all the meals I want to make in the next few weeks and made sure I had all the ingredients for everything on hand. She did anything and everything ahead of time that she possibly could have to make things easier for me.

The first few days, she took the baby in the middle of the night. She woke me up when it was time for Drew to eat...but feeding him is the easy part. It is the countless times that the binky falls out or he needs to be burped or held to sleep that is really hard. But she sent me off to bed and I put in earplugs and got lots of sleep. Unfortunately, after the second night, she was starting to feel sick and we didn't want to take the chance of getting the baby sick. (By the way, she did all of the other things I have mentioned all while feeling under the weather). But during the day, I got nap after nap after nap. I got at least a two hour nap just about every day she was here.

She played and played and played with the kids. She did SO much with them. They went on walks, played at the park, went to Happy Hollow (I went with them and mom rode on the rides with them), played "The Green Arm" which is a game that she made up with the boys and they played it for hours out in the parking lot and apparently I don't know how to play it right because I have tried and they always tell me I am doing it wrong. She made them delicious meals and the boys continue to ask for "Grandma's oatmeal" or ask that I cut the toast "the way Grandma would cut the toast". She made cinnamon rolls and cookies with the boys. They played with light sabers that Grandma made out of paper towel rolls or something and just this afternoon I told the boys that I was going to throw them away because they were totally smashed and broken. They both cried. And when I finally said they could keep them but it would have to be back in their rooms and not right in the family room they said "We can't. Grandma put them here so that our light sabers would charge." When I told them that I was pretty sure that the light sabers could charge in their bedroom they both looked skeptical and asked to call and ask Grandma. (Like I said before, I will never live up to the legacy my mom is leaving)

She "helped" me give Drew his first bath...which turned into my mom taking pictures of Drew getting me very dirty (yep, it is what you are thinking) and me calling for her or Scott to help me and they just laughed so hard that they cried and kept taking pictures.

Last of all, but probably most importantly, she and I just talked and talked. We laughed so hard. I pretty much sat on the couch while she did all of these amazing things and she just listened to me and gave me advice and made me feel like I was the most wonderful person.

I am completely blown away by how amazing my mom is. I am not at all joking when I say that I want to be like my mom when I grow up. She is truly just the kind of person I want to be. I love my mom so much. I am 30 years old and I cried like a baby when we dropped her off at the airport. She is my very best friend (besides Scotty, of course). I just keep on trying to be just like my mom!

Here is my wonderful mom with the three boys. They love her so much!

Riding the roller coaster..Cam is with her and Ty is right behind them. You can tell that Ty wasn't very happy that he didn't get to ride with Grandma.

Riding around on these little scooter toys. It might look easy..but those things are hard to ride and she chased the boys around forever!

This is a very embarrassing picture for me to post...so you should know I am posting this so you could see that she took this picture while laughing hysterically as I am begging for her to help me.

Loving little Drew.