Happy Birthday Son!! I just can't believe that you are 18. It's not fair. I enjoy being your mom. I'm scared you are going to love being away from me. Please miss me. You are smart and funny. Oh and also quite handsome. And I adore you.
You amaze me. I am proud of who you are and excited to see what you will become. I know you will do great things and be a driving force for good in your family and in the world. I love you and am glad to call you mine.
So yesterday I had a conversation with a dear friend who I love and adore. She is absolutely amazing. She's kind and helpful and lovely.
The only thing that's wrong is that she has the pleasure of teaching one of my kids in Sunday School.
And well...my kid is not always easy to teach. He or she may or may not even be a little out of control. I wish all my kids came with perfect manners but they certainly did not. They are all learning.
So yesterday after our conversation and feeling a little bad. I heard "He's Mine" by Rodney Atkins and suddenly I felt better.
He or she is mine.
And I'm proud of that.
I love them just the way they are.
*Click pause on my playlist*
Dear Child of MINE,
I adore you. I know you are learning and I am perfectly fine with that. I'll take the blame and claim you every time.
I woke up early, really early for a night nurse...6 a.m.
And I woke up in the arms of my Mike.
And we laid there and listened to
Christmas music on my phone.
It was perfect, I fell in love..AGAIN.
And then we wrapped presents and listened to more Christmas music.
More in love.
And then we prepared for our annual
Christmas Eve
party at his parents house.
Mike washed my car, put gas in my car, shoveled out someone who needed it,
and made all four of the casseroles.
With a smile, In case you were wondering.
And yes...I fell even more in love.
And boy oh boy
did we have fun at our little party.
My little Jarret. He has more Christmas spirit than anyone I know.
Bryant is super cute and just a bit weird.
I think Jarret was getting ready to fart on me, cause that's what he did. I was not so happy.
Mike and Dawson playing the Minute it Win it Christmas game.
Alyson and Emilee with more fun and games.
Grandma reading "'Twas the Night Before Christmas"
Mike reading from the scriptures More Love comin' his way. I tell ya he is awesome.
All of my sweet children, some smiling and some practicing their kill shots.
Once again my Mike being the sweetest most kind human ever. Helping out his sweet brother~ Santa. Or is it Uncle Marc?
Denver's very own city and county building. It is always beautiful on Christmas Eve, we should know cause we drive past every single year!
Another one for your enjoyment.
And from my very own
Nativity
atop my fire place.
The Baby Jesus.
Dear Love CoRi dAwN Readers,
Thank you for enduring all of my crazy videos this month. The month is not over yet so you will have the opportunity to see a couple more. I would like you to know that I love Christmas, I love it because of all of the tradition and love that seem to just happen. I love because I love Jesus. And I am grateful for Him. I am grateful for His birth, His life, His death, and His resurrection. I also want all ya'll, and Mike, to know that I love Mike. He is more than I deserve.
Friends, sleep in Heavenly peace tonight because all is calm and all is bright.
When we got there the sun was just setting and it was beautiful. It didn't matter that it was getting dark because the caves are dark anyway.
OK...Sometimes I make myself laugh...really hard.
Usually I laugh at myself when I do something that isn't so smart.
And while hiking in the caves I made myself laugh.
Instead of using the flashlight app on my phone I used my cameras pre-flash for light.
And while doing that I took an amazing amount of pictures of my feet, Mike's feet, and the rocks.
They are some really nice pictures.
The kids had a blast hiking through the pitch black caves.
I was impressed with their ability to scale rocks in darkness.
While in there we tripped, bumped our heads, got a little scared, and some of us may or may not have voided, but it was a super amount of fun and one of our fondest memories of our vacation.
We also had just about the best excursion guides ever!
My cousin Ike and his lovely wife Shauna.
They and their kids were super fun and made us laugh.
And the stars!!
I wish everyone could see stars like we saw when we came out.
It was more than amazing.
Dear Ike and Shauna, Thank you for helping me make some memories! We had a blast that night and my kids are still talking about it. You two are the best tour guides ever and I love you. Love, CoRi dAwN
