Mom of the year award

First I wanna say how much I LOVE my baby girl. I always thought I'd have another baby by now, but since I don't, I have just had a lot of one on one time to enjoy Aspen. (And don't mind me if I hate you a little bit when you announce your pregnancy...it's really a love hate.) She is a fun little girl. She is full of love. She can be a little stinker. She is use to being an only child, so she does complain when she doesn't get her way with other kids, and she is not big on big groups of children. She does better one on one. Hope she does okay in kindergarten. She has made me a better person, and she has made my life worth living.

I don't know how many of you know, but when I was in high school something very special and sacred happened to me. I don't share it hardly ever, but I feel like it's a good thing to share now for some reason. I was having a hard time in life and I was not super active in the church. I wasn't in a great place in my life. I was living with my sister ShaMayne for 2 months in Oregon and her husband gave me a blessing. In the blessing he told me I would have a dream and that it would be important for me to remember that dream. I didn't think much of it, and I wasn't even sure I believed I would have a dream, but I did. It was quick, it was short, but it was different than other dreams I have. Just in the way it felt mostly-I can't explain it. There was a little girl in a white dress, and everything around her was white. She told me her name was Aspen -and that was it. Then as my dream was ending and she was disappearing, she said one word. Temple. That was it-then she was gone and the dream was over. And from that moment, I knew that I was going to have a little girl, and that to have that little girl I needed to be married in the Temple. From the moment I knew I was pregnant I knew it was a girl. No one could convince me otherwise, and I would feel really upset with people said they thought it was a boy. I am sooo thankful for this little spirit. I KNOW she makes me a better person. I KNOW she was meant to help me be stronger. I KNOW she is what has helped changed my life so much. I love her more than I can say.

On another note...

Aspen had a birthday party for her 5th birthday today. I was really excited, I actually decorated for it, made a cake and decorated it, provided little gift bags for the kids that came to the party (8 kids is a lot at a party) and got balloons - her special tangled balloon she requested, candles, gifts, I was AWESOME this year in the preparations (thanks to Miranda for decorating the cake and playing with the kids! She and Nicole helped me soo much I was so dang thankful!)

Anyway, for those of you who know me, you KNOW I am really not that creative and rarely prepared for anything. At least I don't make them fun, and I don't decorate. But this year I did! And by golly, I was gonna document it all. So I arranged everything nicely, took photos of it all, all the activities, decorations, friends who came, a group shot, the cake, it was all so nice and fun.

And then they all went home not a minute too soon. I was exhausted. Then I decided to be good at blogging too since my day has been so on it and so awesome. When I went to pull the photos off my camera lo and behold...no card in the camera, no photos, nothing documented, cake all gone, decorations already put away, kiddie bags gone. No 5 year old birthday girl photos. No blowing out the candles photo. And then I about started crying, except no tears came. Instead I bust out laughing my butt off, because I had been so stressed about it all being perfect, and being sure I documented it so I was a good mom and could blog about it, and it didn't happen. So as all you other awesome moms are posting about your kids birthdays because you were good enough to actually be able to capture it, I will secretly be cursing you lovingly under my breath, but Its only because I'm super jealous you have it more together than me.

Mom of the year award right here. I'm just that good.