Wednesday, May 12, 2010

A Hero Among Us

This is an evening ritual...


Preston gets excited for Will to come home from work and watches out the window for him. He will repeatedly say "Papa? Papa?"


Will is such a hero to little Preston. Papa can do anything, fix anything, and not to mention he can make pretty cool make-shift car ramps.

Preston loves his Dad so much...



And all of the special moments they have together playing and horsing around...

They are so close that they even match sometimes.


(The funny thing about the above photo, is I had put Preston in that outfit that day not knowing that it was what Will wore to work as well. When he got home, I just had to laugh and take a picture.)

Will is also a hero to me. We've all been sick with the stomach flu for the past 24 hours, and even though Will has been sick himself, he has been taking care of both Preston and I. He rubbed my back and held my hair last night while I, uh, you know....And he took care of Preston while he lost his cookies as well. He has been strong and taking care of things even though he has been feeling really terrible as well.

Seriously...how did we get so lucky to have this guy in our lives?

We sure love you Will!

Monday, May 10, 2010

A Wonderful Mother's Day!

Well I had a really great Mother's Day weekend!

It involved spending time at the beach (on Saturday)...



One cute little (almost) 2 year old had fun driving his cars in the sand with Grandma.

I also got to have some personal time Saturday morning with my sister-in-law where we got to go to the temple (a beautiful place indeed) while Will babysat Preston and our neice Gwenevere.


My Mother's Day also involved one messy toddler...



And one funny husband...


And me shaking my head, just being grateful that it was not I who was going to have to clean that kid up.

Last year (2009) was my first official Mother's Day as a mom, even though I was pregnant on Mother's Day in 2008 and sort of considered myself an official mom that year as well.


Either way, I've always considered Mother's Day sort of "Womens Day", regardless if you are a mother or not. To me, it's a celebration of women everywhere who play the role of a comforter, friend, nurterer, and more. So in my own way, I always celebrated Mother's Day long before ever becoming a mother.


Though, I have to say, since having a child of my own, Mother's Day has taken on an entirely new meaning. And a special one at that.


My awesome husband, (whom as you may have noticed hijacked my Belly Diaries blog yesterday and freaked me out because all I saw was the blog title and had no idea that he had written a blog for me - the sweetie), made sure that I was free of any motherly duties yesterday.


- He got Preston ready for church - all dressed, shoes on, hair combed and styled, diaper bag packed and all.


- He made brownies all by himself - which I think may have been his first time. (I won't mention that he forgot to turn the oven off and our house was super hot when we got home from church from the oven being left on for so many hours).


- He took care of all the diaper changes throughout the day.


- He also took care of any meals for Preston - which got kind of comical for me to watch. I am the type of person who tries to keep Preston as clean as possible while he eats so it's not too big of a cleanup job afterwards. Will, on the other hand, takes Preston's shirt off and lets him make a huge mess (as seen above with the mac 'n cheese all over the face).


As fun as it is to let your child get this incredibly messy while eating - it usually leads to needing a bath afterwards because there is way too much to clean up with a cloth.


Which, in Will's case, he got unlucky and Preston decided to take a poo in the bathtub.


Seriously this never happens to me. But of course it would happen to Will on Mother's Day when he is charge - Haha. I would like to think that it would have never happened in the first place if he didn't let Preston get so messy because he wouldn't have needed a bath and would have then just pooped in his diaper instead. :)


But it's moments like that, where I appreciate the turn of events as it only makes husbands appreciate their wives even more.


- Will also took care of naptimes and bedtimes, which, um, didn't really happen. Preston wouldn't take a nap for him, and then later (at bedtime) after being in bed for several hours he decided to wake up around 11:30 and play with his trains. This is when I finally decided to take some pitty on my poor Will and help.


I got Preston back to sleep within 20 minutes with very little fight.

To top it all off, I got two very sweet homemade Mother's Day cards from my two gentlemen.

And I also got a giftcard to go get an hour-long foot massage - which WOW I was not expecting that! I'm saving that baby for when I really really need a good foot massage. I'm so excited.


The best part of Mother's Day was something very sweet and simple, which surprised even me...


Every year, our church makes Mother's Day very special for all the women. They make sure that none of the ladies have to teach classes that day or have any responsibilities so that they can just enjoy themselves. All of the talks are centered around mothers (and are always very sweet), and during the last hour of church, all the women go into the gym where they have tables set up and they feed us a very delicious brunch (which I might add, the guys made themselves).


While we are eating our yummy food, the primary aged children (4 yrs old - 11 yrs old) come out and sing to us. It is sooooo sweet and I always love it every year - regardless of whether or not I have kids in primary.


Yesterday, I was a bit sad knowing that I wouldn't get to see Preston singing to me because he is still in Nursery (ages 18 months - 3 yrs). When they opened up the curtain on the stage, I noticed that even the nursery aged kids were up there as well! I got SO excited and looked all over for my little Preston.


I finally found him, he was off on the lefthand side, holding a basketball of course, and looking right at me. He would see me, get all excited and then get distracted. A few minutes later he would find me in the crowd of women again and get all excited. I had tears in my eyes - it was so exciting for me. I don't know why, but just to see him up there with all the other kids. I just felt so loved, and really, it was the best part of my Mother's Day.


After the kids got done singing, they all came down from the stage and gave their moms hugs. Will helped Preston to find me, as it was kind of hard being he was one of the younger kids. But as soon as he found me, he came running over to me and climbed up on my lap. Ahhhhh my heart melted. I got a nice big hug and again, I just felt so happy to be his mother.


Once we got home from chuch, the only thing I did do yesterday was make a broccoli cheese quiche (for some weird reason I was craving quiche).


But other than that, I had a wonderful "day off" filled with lots of love, attention, and smiles.
I love my family. Thank you Will and Preston for making my Mother's Day so memorable. I love you.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Happy Mother's Day!!!!!
We LOVE YOU!!!!!!
Thanks for being the best Mom/Hot Wife in the World!!!
Preston, Baby Boy #2, & I are the luckiest Boys!


Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Recent Conversations with Mr. Thomas

Me: "I am soooo tired today. I totally overdid it. I really wish that you and I could trade bodies just for one day."

Will: "If it means I would get to stay home and play with Preston all day instead of going to work, then I'm all for that!"

Me: "Well, you would have to be pregnant too."

Will: "Well that doesn't sound like a very fair trade. How about I just take Preston with me to work one day a week? He can just run around the office and play with office supplies."

Me: "No, because it means I'm still pregnant. You have to take care of Preston AND be pregnant. And do you really think all I do is stay home and play all day long?"

Will: "Uhhh...nope."

Me: "I'm going to get you one of those belly suits and you're going to wear it for 24 hours."

Will: "Noooooo, that would hurt so bad. That would not even be fair."

That is when I gave him the stink eye, and then later got a back massage.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Mother's Day Sale

I don't normally talk too much about my music on this blog, but I just wanted to let you know, since this is my "Mommy Blog", that I am honoring Mother's Day for the month of May and holding a sale of my Lullaby Album.






This album (released Fall of 2009) was a collaboration with my wonderful mother, after the birth of Preston. It is a celebration of parenthood, children, babies, and the music we all grow up with.


It's a 2-disc album that I normally sell for $16.99, but it's on sale for $9.99 through the end of May. Disc 1 is for adults - all beautiful lullabies that are with full orchestra. Disc 2 is for children/babies - completely solo piano editions of the songs. Very simple and soothing for bedtime.


It's received multiple great reviews, it was included in Kathy Parsons' "Top 20 of 2009" list (she is a well known music critic/cd reviewer of piano music), and it qualified for nominations on NAR for "Best Classical/Instrumental Album". Scott Iwasaki of the Deseret News said “To tell you all the truth, The Lullaby Album, is quite good...It reminds me of David Lanz's Skyline Firedance. It is definitely a keeper for me." The Album includes the talents of Grammy nominated producer Paul Speer, Emmy Award winning pianist/orchestrator Jace Vek, and vocalists Lori Cunningham and Jillian Goldin. And my mom and I, obvoiusly. We wrote, arranged, and performed all of the music.


You can purchase directly through my website.


Thanks so much for your support of my music. It is through the support of friends and fans that I am able to stay an independent artist, and a stay-at-home mom. :)