A familiar story (with pictures)

This post is dedicated to my mom, who mentioned today that she is tired of "Uplifting Words". Actually, I hope she doesn't mind, but this post is dedicated to all moms. I think that my plight is probably a familiar plight to all of the moms out there.
It is the plight of getting a good picture of yourself among the family photo archives. I am usually the one taking pictures, capturing family memories and making my family members look like models. And then, every once in awhile, I realize that I'm not a part of the family photo archives.
So what do I do then? I mention to my husband and my children (in a manner that induces guilt), that it's too bad that there aren't more pictures of me, that my children won't know what I looked like when they were young and that my husband won't remember me when I was young and skinny and cute.
Then my husband snatches the camera over the next several family activities and takes lots and lots of bad pictures of me. Pictures where I look like I have a double chin, where my eyes are half-closed, pictures where I am so far away that you can't really tell it's me, pictures where there is food in my mouth, pictures where I am in the middle of talking, etc.
After these pictures are taken, I sneak off and delete all of them from our camera (yay for digital cameras!). I mean, I don't want bad pictures of myself remembered, brought out in years to come, and becoming the fuel for family jokes.
Several months later, this whole process is repeated again.
So, here are some fun family pictures and activities from the past several months (you will notice one member of the family who is missing in all of them ....)

Kate has finally fallen in love with the Thumbelina dress-up that my sister gave her for her birthday. At first she wanted nothing to do with it, but now she wants to wear it every day and calls it her "pretty dress".

We participated in the Raleigh Stake Day of Service this past Saturday and enjoyed doing the 5K together. Cletus and Hayden ran and Kate and I strolled. Hayden ran the whole thing! He is quite a little athlete.

A couple of weeks ago we went to the NC Zoo. (Now for a little negativity: The day was really hot, the zoo was super crowded, we didn't see very many animals, my allergies kicked in unmercifully, and to be honest ... I don't really like our zoo.) The kids had fun though, and that's what matters.

And, finally, Kate helping with the laundry as only 2 year olds can!

Uplifting words

You might think that I was going to comment on General Conference. Not yet. Just wanted to share some words from our sweet 7-year old.

Me: "Hayden, what do you think Dad is going to say when he sees my new hair?"
Hayden: "It looks ugly, babe."

Hayden during sacrament meeting to me: "Mom, when you die, can I have your diamond?"

Hayden after school Friday: "mom, a kid offered me $2 to let him copy an answer off of my worksheet, so I said okay."
Me: "What?!? Hayden, that's cheating and it's not honest."
Hayden: "It's okay mom, it wasn't a test."
(I guess all of the examples on cheating, honesty, etc. in FHE and Primary lessons are about a test. Apparently we're going to have to be a little more specific with this kid)

Hayden last week: "Mom, you know those things you can get where a school pays for you to come there?"

Me: "A scholarship?"

Hayden: "yeah, I'm going to get one in magic"

Hayden in the middle of a chaotic afternoon: "Why do I have to do all of the work around here?"

Hayden at the waterpark with me last year waiting in line for a water slide: "I wish I had a mom who didn't have fat legs."

He also started crying several months ago when he discovered that all of the money we've been saving for his mission wasn't his to spend on whatever he wanted (video games and candy).

Hayden asked us recently if, since his birthday was at the end of October, if we could decorate the church in a Halloween theme for his baptism.

Well, he's a gem. He just keeps us on our toes.

Before and After