Forget Me Not Friday

I find that I am letting to many moments and memories pass me by because I don't want to get on here and post one sentence about something that happened or something one of my kids said that make me laugh/cry.  I have decided to make notes throughout the week and then have a 'Forget me not' journal entry on Fridays.  I also find that I feel that if I don't have a picture to go with my story, it is not worth taking the time to write about it.  So here is to change!!  I want to make a disclaimer right now though....I cannot guarantee that I will have something to write about for each one of my kids.  So if all the memories I journal about for one week are about only Braden or Jaycee or Morgan or Sydney, it does not mean that I love the others any less!!

Here I go...

*Braden's favorite saying right now is, "Wow, I didn't see that coming!"

*I love the relationship Braden has with his dad.  The most important part of Braden's day is having cold cereal with his dad, helping him take his lunch out to his car and waving out the front window while signing I LOVE YOU with his fingers.

*This week has been one of those LOVE/HATE weeks.  I hate that Braden has been sick, but I love that he wants to snuggle with me all day!  Him and I have been napping together the past two days in my bed.  Today I told him that we only do this on special occasions and that it wouldn't happen every day.  He looks at me and says, "Is today a special day?"  I said, "Yes."  He says, "I want everyday to be a special day."

*Jaycee has finally reached the ripe old age of pulling everything (and I mean everything) out of all the kitchen cupboards and drawers.

*I love when I can hear Braden and Jaycee laughing together.

*Jaycee has learned to sign 'daddy'.  She loves him so much.  If he is the one to get her up, she goes wild in her crib with excitement.  If I am the one to get her up, she looks at me and signs daddy...

*I LOVE the way Jaycee holds her arms out to me when she want s to be picked up or to be held.

*Sydney has the most curdling, ear piercing scream ever, but having said that, she is my most loving and affectionate child.  She is always the first to give a hug, and she has no problem hugging ANYONE!!

*Poor Morgan slammed her index finger in the door about two weeks ago.  Two days after she was aloud to remove her brace, she slammed that very same finger in the door!  I guess some of us have to learn the hard way!

*This year has been one of the roughest starts to a new year I have ever had (next to the kids being diagnosed with Celiac Disease).  I don't want to go into to details as to why, but I feel like the life has been sucked right out of me.  My kids have suffered, my house has suffered, pretty much everything has suffered, but in that process it has allowed me to reflect on a lot of things and it has opened my eyes and made me realize I can do a lot better in many areas of my own life.  I need to love more, hug more, play more, read more and thank my Father in Heaven more for all that I have and have been blessed with.  I am most grateful for the gospel in my life and for the comfort it gives me in knowing a pathway has already been paved for me.   I am grateful for a husband that holds the priesthood and that loves me even when I am not lovable!  I love that he is a great dad.  I know that the Atonement is real.  My faith has been restored that people can change.  It may not be over night, but it can happen.  Overall, this has been a growing experience, a painful one, but aren't that what trials are all about?