Thankful...

As I sat in church today I became overwhelmed with gratitude for my life. I am not one to really sit and write down my deep personal feelings on this blog, but I do want to document my thoughts from today. Too often I get so overwhelmed with all the to do things on my list that I rarely sit back and enjoy what is going on around me. I thought about my weekend. Our kids are now overtaking all our time. We were thrilled on Friday when we got the call that Sydnee's dance practice was cancelled. One of Shawn's young men is working at Dunkin Doughnuts, so he called and said that everything was free on Friday night. So we met the Tringhams and let the kids have egg sandwiches and doughnuts for dinner. We then sent the boys on to a movie and Allison and I took the kids to a park. They had so much fun running around with their friends. Natalie and Decker are both so nice to my little ones too. Brynlee thinks Natalie and Allison are her best friends! Then Sat. Guy watched the kids while I ran some errands and went to look for fabric. All you moms know how nice it is to just get away for a little bit with out any kids! That night Tanner had his first football game. To say he was excited would be a complete understatement! He even layed his clothes out the night before. Decker had a game a couple hours earlier, so Tanner and Sydnee went with them to watch. We went and got pizza and let the kids eat it at the football field. Crew was loving it! He was so dirty, but oh so happy! Well I started looking around as it got closer to game time and thought about how lucky my kids are. Tanner had his grandparents who missed the big ASU game there to watch, Shawn stayed to help Guy coach even though his kid was on a different team and had already been there for 2 hours, cousins came running up to support him and he is on a team loaded with his buddies, not to mention that he has the Dad that volunteered to coach last minute when the other coach quit! As a kid I don't think it gets better than that. Unfortunately the lights would not work, and the game was cancelled, but thrifty's ice cream made up for it. The date night did not happen this weekend, there were no pedicures, and no fun shopping, but we were together as a family and it was fun! Ten years ago I would have never thought of that as an ideal weekend, but for now it works. It is hard and at times can be so demanding to be a parent! I remember when I was pregnant with Sydnee my Dad told me that being a mom is the most unselfish job you will ever have. Most of the time it is not glamorous, and some days I don't know if I can spend one more minute in the car, changing diapers, doing laundry, cleaning and all the other daily things that fill my plate. But today I am grateful, grateful for my husband, my 4 sweet kids, my family, Guy's family, great friends, and the gospel. I know that there are mothers out there that would love to hold their sweet babies today and are not able too, or kids that long for parents to love them and spend time with them. I am grateful I have the opportunity to be with my children all day every day! That when my kids forget their tennis shoes or lunch, they know mom is home and only a phone call away. I hope I can keep what is really important into perspective and really try to become a better wife, mother and friend.