Feed the Birds

January and February seem like a blur now looking back, but I do remember that while I was living them it was a much different story.  My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer at the beginning of December and as much as she tried to reassure me, I still worried for her.  The surgery was planned for the beginning of January.  I won't go into any details, this is her story to share with you, but it was a successful surgery with the doctors declaring she was cancer-free.  So many prayers were answered.  As you can imagine it was a very emotional time for our family where we were able to turn to our Heavenly Father and exercise faith.  Most of January she spent in recovery with worried children pestering her with questions.  February she made a quick trip down to visit.  It was SO good to see her and spend time with her again.  I love living in the Bay area, but I hate how far away from home it is.  It makes those hard times that much harder being away from family.  My mom's goal while in town was to help set up the nursery.  Looking back, we kept laughing at how early we were setting everything up, since Daxton wasn't due until May, but thank heavens we did everything in February instead of waiting!

Everyday we made a plan of where we wanted to go shopping, what we were looking for, and other fun things that needed to get done.  It was such a HUGE help having mom here.  I was seriously in shock over how much needed to be done before a baby comes; everything that we needed to get...crib, dresser, rocker, car seat, stroller...seriously the list can go on forever.  It made reality hit home pretty quickly for Dallas and I!

Mom and I had so much fun shopping together.  We would send picture updates to Dallas at work to make sure he approved...(he had to put his foot down when I wanted to get Daxton a full white tux with tails for his baby blessing in June...I'm not sure why?!)  We were quite productive though, and by the end of her weekend stay, we had most of the nursery necessities with several items being shipped asap.  It was such a huge burden lifted from my exhausted pregnant shoulders!


After our successful days of shopping, we met up with Erik and the kids at the Martinez Shoreline.  I love going out to the shoreline and looking at all the boats in the marina and walking along the pier.  There is something so calming about the ocean, and even though the Martinez Shoreline is not the open ocean with crashing waves along the coast, it's good for a quick trip.  Mom and I brought a loaf of bread for the kids to feed the birds.  It was quite the sight watching all four kids go crazy amongst the hundreds of birds, especially Rulon.  He couldn't figure out why all the birds kept following him even after he had thrown all his bread far away.  Little did he know that his father was throwing bread crumbs at his feet!  Erik also had fun throwing bread at mom while birds swooped down towards her head.  I'm sure it made her relive her fears from Alfred Hitchcock's film "The Birds."  After a fun afternoon of feeding the birds and playing at the park, we all went out to dinner.  It was the end to a wonderful weekend!
Thanks again, mom, for all your help!