Mother's Day

Phew! It's been a busy couple of weeks! Blogging has been so far down on the to-do list. Time for some catch up.

Let's start with Mother's Day:

We're trying to take advantage of all these state parks around us as much as possible before Memorial Day comes and we have to start paying to get in. The afternoon was pretty nice (a chance of rain, and it did end up raining by the end of our little trip), but all I wanted for Mother's Day was be outside with my family, so we took a chance with the rain and went to Taughannock Falls. There is a perfect mile and a half, mostly flat hike to these falls, perfect for a stroller and kiddos. 

Shae loved throwing rocks into the water and Belén was obsessed with this little puppy.

Being with these three on Mother's Day was the best thing.

My pictures at the falls with the kids was a crazy mess of blinking and funny faces, so here's an only slightly better picture from the week before when the kids and I went on the hike with some friends (which is why we knew about it in the first place).

These state parks just have the greatest playgrounds, so we obviously made some time to play, until it started to rain on us and we booked it to the car.

Little kiss through the window for her favorite daddy.

I went to a pretty awesome Relief Society training up in Syracuse last week where I got to listen to Sister Joy Jones--General Primary President, Sister Linda Reeves--General RS counselor, and Sister Carol McConkie. 

While Sister Jones was talking about some things with primary, I couldn't help but think about my little babies tucked away in their beds at home. She said a few simple, but powerful things that really stood out to me:

- Children of the church make up the most investigators and converts in the church.

- Children teach us more than we teach them.

-If the Savior were here, he would be in the Primary room, with the children.

She spoke about the challenges that many wards/branches face of getting people to accept Primary callings and it just tore at my heartstrings a little. It made me want to resign from my current calling and submit my name to be a Primary teacher. It's hard work teaching those little ones (as a teacher, a mother, a friend, a grandma, etc.), but what a special opportunity it is to teach the ways of the Lord to these tender children that sometimes seem to not pay attention to anything you say or do, but who really are soaking in so many things that you say and do.

I'm so thankful to be a mother to these little kids of mine and am even more grateful for the other "mothers" who act and will act as influences of good in their lives, cause heaven knows that I can't do it alone.