My 2nd Mother's Day

I thank God for my Mom and all that she did and still does for me & our family ... no one (not even my Mom, although, she tried and tried for years) could ever explain enough for me to grasp this amazing feeling & love of being a Mother ... I'm sure I cannot explain it to anyone's own satisfaction, either. It is the best thing I've ever gotten to do and sometimes, the hardest ... all rolled into one ... and I know, we've only just begun! This past year has been the best, most rewarding year of my life and I can't wait to see what this 2nd year holds! I honestly do not know how my heart can continue to grow in love for this sweet girl and her Daddy anymore than it already is ... my heart is overflowing and yet, I continue to love them more and more each day!

This Mother's Day was my 2nd official one! This one was different from my 1st one in many ways, but we had a great weekend celebrating it with my little family of 3!

Mommy & Daddy and our sweet Kendall ... Mother's Day weekend ... Grapevine Botanical Gardens

(Because I didn't start our blog until last July ... here's what my 1st Mother's Day was like ... for our scrapbooking records.) Last year on Mother's Day, my sweet baby girl was only 10 days old and working so hard to grow, develop & just survive ... I can remember thinking "I'm not supposed to be celebrating my 1st Mother's Day THIS year" ... because Kendall wasn't due until July 13, but I was already a 10-day-old-Mom (although I wasn't allowed to do normal motherly tasks for her at that point) and she was the precious one who'd made me a Mommy!

My parents, sister, brother-in-law & nephew Mason were all at our house visiting us for Mother's Day weekend and to see Kendall again (of course!) ... Ash & I went to the hospital to visit Kendall that morning. When we got into the NICU, there was a sweet, sweet Mother's Day card from Kendall (that Ash had given the nurse the night before) ... that was taped to her isolate ... and the night nursing staff helped Kendall make her 1st arts&craft project ... her 1st hand print ... which I will cherish forever! (They also made me a special present - her tiny hand print and foot print framed ... that frame and her clay hand print are both displayed in her room still today, now 1 year later!)

Kendall holding my finger (and twirling her hair like her Mommy does!) 1 year ago ...

Kendall's 1st art projects ...

Once we got back home, the Dads made us a special lunch ... we opened up all our Mother's Day cards and gifts ... and later that afternoon, we got a call from the Burkles saying they wanted to drop something off at our house in a few minutes ... the "something" they were dropping off were Ashley's parents ... who'd just flown in from the Ukraine as a surprise to us (everyone else was in on the surprise except for Ashley & I)! No wonder we weren't able to reach them to wish his Mom a happy Mother's Day! My family left to go back to Abilene and we took Huni and GranGran to the hospital so they could meet there 7th grandchild for the 1st time! It was quite an emotional day (I'm sure partly due to my hormones which were not quite right at that time, partly due to the pain meds I was still on and partly due to our stress & exhaustion with the situation of having our sweet baby in the NICU) ... but that was my 1st Mother's Day and I won't ever forget it!

on one of Kendall's dressers in her room, sits this 8x10 shadow box of one of her 1st outfits she wore in the NICU, a NICU diaper, her 1st pacifier, and one of her 1st hats that she wore ... her hand print craft ... the sweet lamb the hospital chaplain gave her and the Bible from the hospital (that is given to every baby born at Baylor).


So, THIS Mother's Day ... was totally different from last year's! We started off the weekend on Friday night with a little swimsuit/pool photo shoot of Kendall (to be used on her birthday party invitation)! I love to take pictures of Kendall with our Nikon DSLR camera, but I am certainly "not a professional" here, so most of the time it takes a team effort to do a photo shoot ... 1 person takes the pictures (we LOVE the "continuous mode" or what I refer to it as "paparazzi mode") and the other person gets her attention (which is normally the most difficult job). As soon as Ash got home, the photo shoot took place ... she did so well, we continued the shoot at the Grapevine Botanical Gardens in her sweet little pink fancy birthday dress ... as part of her 12 month pictures.

We had a packed Saturday and went to church at the Saturday night worship service, so we could watch Jasmine, one of the girls on our football team for the past 3 years (her dad is Ashley's assistant coach each football season), be baptized. Lots of the Upwards players came, as well ... some that go to RHCC normally and some that are from our community that don't normally go to a church ... so it was great to have everyone there! Kendall enjoyed her time in the worship service and loved sitting with Leesa & Erin Rocha (Luke's mom and sister) ... she also talked away to a little friend, James Bankes (his 1st birthday is May 10th) who talked right back to her ... they were sitting in front of us and they both kept reaching out for each other and talking back & forth ... it was so adorable (and a little distracting), so they both got to go to the nursery, so they could continue and we could focus! Rick preached a great sermon in his series about being "called" by God ... and this one was on Mary being called to be Jesus' mom. It was really good ... very touching ... and it was my 1st Mother's Day sermon ... it's had a bigger impact on me this year, than other Mother's Day sermons in the past ... as I know I've been called to be Kendall's Mommy! (A job I do not take for granted, but great to be reminded of how important it is, as I get to be with her all day, each day ... especially when I feel like we're doing the daily mundane things at home ... it was a really good, inspirational sermon that I need to go online to listen to it again!) When we went to pick up Kendall back up from her nursery Bible class, she gave me a beautiful pink gerber daisy (one of my favorite flowers!) and her painted hand print she'd made ... so sweet!

Here's Ashley holding this year's hand print and last year's side by side ... Kendall has done sooo much growing!

We enjoyed a yummy dinner at Macaroni Grill as my Mother's Day dinner after church. Ashley took my picture with Kendall, but I'm sorry to report that those won't be posted on the world wide web ... because I look terrible! So, we'll have to have some re-takes ... and I'll add it in later! In the meantime, here are 2 recent pictures of me & my sweet baby girl who made me a Mommy ...

us at her birthday party on her actual birthday, May 1st!

I love this sweet picture of Kendall ... she is holding my finger and looking up at me ... my sweet girl on Mother's Day ... oh, she melts my heart!

Ash gave me a sweet card from him and a sweet card from Kendall ... and he even had her sign her name! (It made me laugh ... he is so sweet & thoughtful and just a little bit funny, but don't tell him that I think he's funny ... we have a battle about that! ha!) I also got the newest Mercy Me CD (which is awesome!) and a silver charm bracelet with Kendall's name & birthdate engraved on the little girl charm (which isn't ready yet, but as soon as it is, I'll post a picture of it) ... I love it!

Kendall's 1st signature!

We enjoyed a lazy Sunday together ... and just spent some much needed time as a family around the house & playing with Kendall! We took more pictures at the Botanical Gardens that I'm posting on a different post next ... but here are a couple of my favorites ...

As a side note, unrelated to Mother's Day weekend, on May 5th (Cinco de Mayo!), Kendall was introduced to a sippy cup! This is her drinking from it for the first time ... she loved to hold onto it and is still working on the concept of tilting her head & cup back together to get the water to come out, but she's getting there!

her 1st drink ... such a big girl! (For the record, she is drinking 3oz of water & 1/2oz of prune juice, for her constipation issues.)