Mother's Day Weekend

The Saturday before Mother's Day, our ward planned a temple trip/Primary activity. (For those of you who aren't members of our church, our church is divided into "wards" according to where you live, kind of like schools being divided up into districts and kids going to a certain school according to where they live, and Primary is like Sunday School for children ages 3-11.) We asked my mom to babysit Taylor because we had to be at the Birmingham Temple by 8:00am! We figured 1) we would have to wake Taylor up too early and 2) that would too long of a trip there and back for us to take her with us. So, we took Taylor over to my mom's house on Friday night, and she spent the night. Her first time spending the night with Grandma! Yay!

At the temple, the Primary teachers stayed with the kids in the Gardendale ward building next to the temple while their parents went inside. (Jared and I teach 4 & 5 year olds. Well, Jared really does all of the teaching because I spend all of my time chasing Taylor around.) The Primary leaders talked to the kids about the importance of the temple, how we can go there to feel the Holy Spirit, learn about the Savior, and receive strength to overcome worldly temptations, and that we can be with our families forever. Afterwards, we took the kids outside to the top of the hill behind the temple (where Jared proposed to me) and took pictures. At the very end, everyone had a picnic lunch before heading back home.

When Jared and I got back to Huntsville, we went to pick up Taylor. She and my mom were at Dreamland eating lunch and celebrating the birthday of a very close friend of ours (I guess I will not disclose his name because I have not asked permission) :-) My mom said Taylor had been a very good girl and slept all the way through the night. Yay for my big girl!

After we picked Taylor up, we went by our house real quick to change clothes and then headed to HGHS for the Hazel Green Alumni soccer game. The current highschoolers were playing against guys who played soccer while they were in high school. Taylor was ready to cheer on Daddy before the game even began. Her onesie said "Baby MVP. Making Daddy Proud" I actually bought it a long time ago for a "future son" (because it's really a boy outfit), but I figured, hey- throw some pig tails in her hair and no one will know any different (or say "oh, HE's so cute!).

As the game was starting, Taylor and I sat on the bleachers as the lone Alumni fans, and then much to my surprise, a whole slew of Mayfields came rolling in. Mom and Dad Mayfield, Alisha, Carden, Emma, Nathan, and Kenadie, Sarah, Gavin, Georgia, Ava, and Sarah's parents and brothers came to see James, Nate, David, and Jared play. The kids had a blast playing under the bleachers in their "laboratory." Taylor enjoyed munching on chicken nuggets and french fries that Emma decided she was not hungry enough to eat. Then, Sarah's brother went and bought ice cream cones for all of the kids- even the BIG kids ;-) It was a HUGE hit! We all had a great time. Unfortunately, the Alumni didn't pull out a win like they did last year. They lost 1-2, I think, but I'm sure they will be back even stronger (and in better shape) next year! :-)

(The last two pictures are at home after the game. Taylor loves to pick and "blow" dandelions, and she was showing off the cute sandals that Aunt Mimi bought her)

Georgia was a wonderful little cheerleader. She stood at the rope and yelled and yelled for her daddy until he finally turned around and waved at her. She also put some beautiful lipstick all over her face ;-) Kenadie was quite comfy and cozy snuggled up to Granny while taking a nap, and Ava thoroughly enjoyed using Sarah's mom as a jungle gym. Notice how I don't have any pictures of the other kids? That's because they were in their secret laboratory the whole time. For more stories and cute pictures of the kids, see Alisha's blog.

For Mother's Day, Jared got me a beautiful card and wrote a very sweet note inside, and he bought me a Willow Tree figurine. He said he looked all over for one that had a mother holding a little girl, but the only one he could find anywhere was the mom holding a little boy. He said we could keep looking for it and exchange the one he got me if I wanted to. I would love to have the one that he originally was looking for, but I also love the one that he ended up getting me. The name of it is "Love," and on the box, it says, "Love, everlasting and true." I just thought that was beautiful. He also gave me a day free of diaper duty! Aaahh... it's so nice not to have to argue over who is going to change the poopy diaper.. haha We also had my mom, Neal, Sarah, Bryson, and Rylan over to our house for dinner that night. They all do so much for us and are constantly having us over to their houses for dinner, and I wanted to do something for them for a change. I hope they know how much we appreciate them!

I hope you all had a wondeful Mother's Day!