I just wanted to say first off I am not a fan of slashing my birthday. My birthday and Mother's day are two separate holidays and should be treated as such. In fact they should really be two separate posts, but when all my free time is spent walking Davis around the house praying he will fall asleep, listening to Jackson read me book after book after book after book, wiping runny noses, finding new places to stash piles of art projects and searching for socks, I don't have much extra time for blogging.

So one post it is.

Greg is such a great gift giver. Yes I'm sure he gets a little "encouragement" from his overly demanding wife who loves surprises. I did try this year. I tried to make it easier on him. I even told him he didn't always have to go above and beyond. I told him he could go the practical route and get me some haircutting supplies. I would even be happy with the traditional gift of jewelry. But of course he didn't. What kind of husband wants to tell his co workers and basketball buddies that he got his wife sharp scissors and a smock. That is, of course, assuming his basketball buddies and coworkers talk about the gifts they give their wives (they don't).

Imagine my surprise when I open my first gift to find a camera. The camera. The camera from my dreams. WIth an additional portrait lens to boot. I was stunned. The first words out of my mouth were "we cannot afford this gift!" But after explaining to me that it was a birthday-slash-mothers day-slash-anniversary gift, I felt a little better about it. And I hate slash gifts- thats how excited I was about the camera. In fact he could have thrown a Christmas in there and I probably would have been okay with it. And as a cherry on top, the gifts were wrapped. Quite a feat for the husband who has been known to give presents wrapped in a bath towel.


Add a new cake plate and the Tangled DVD to the mix and this turned out to be the best birthday yet. Davis even gave me the gift of sleep-so thoughtful of him. Jackson drew me a myriad of pictures and Bennett sang to me and licked all the icing off my cake.

Even with Mother's day the next day, Greg was still on his A game. Greg and the boys brought me breakfast in bed (although with 9 am church I caught wind of it and showered quickly and hopped back in bed -they didn't even ask why my hair was wet). I think Greg probably needs a couple days off to recover from being Mr. Incredible for two days straight.

So on this Mother's day, I am thankful for my Mom who essentially taught me everything I know about being a mother, for a mother in law who raised such a wonderful thoughtful son, and the man who made me a mother in the first place, and who knows just what to do to make me feel special year after year, even if it means we'll be eating hot dogs and pasta-roni for a month.