Blessings of Motherhood

I've been kicking myself for not writing down the cute and precious stories that happen daily in a home and those tender moments with my kids. So a quick story...we went shopping for birthday decorations and all the food for Jack's birthday on Wednesday and his Birthday wasn't til today. I prepped Emma and talked to her about surprises and secrets on birthdays and how we need to not say anything to dad about the upcoming events. She held tight and did fantastic. So while he worked yesterday, we cleaned and decorated the house and got all ready for when he would get home this morning and we called him to say good night and just before I hand her the phone I reminded her not to mention what we had prepared that day. As you may all understand, her four year old person couldn't take the suspense of a secret anymore and she had to blurt it out. Well, I had told her she could fall asleep cuddling up to a movie with me last night, and well, consequences of making poor choices had to happen and that was to consequence that I chose at that point. I was pretty bumbed cause I put some work in yesterday. Well, first she was mad, then when I laid the guilt on pretty thick and she felt pretty bad about what she had done, she just cried and told me over and over again how sorry she was, but still wanted to watch a movie. Nada. But I absolutely knew she was sincere with her apologies when she told me that she wanted to say prayers with just me and talk with me after I put Jackson down for the night. So I came back in, she said her prayers and then broke down sobbing and told me she was sorry she ruined the surprise and that she didn't want to watch a movie anymore. She was so sweet. So she went to sleep and I got feeling bad about making her feel so badly and letting her go to sleep feeling that way so I tried to wake her up to say sorry, but she was out of it. Anyway, she woke me up in the middle of the night to ask for help going potty and then asked me to cuddle up with her for a minute. At that point, 3 am, I once again told her I was proud of her and loved her and was sorry that i got so mad and dad would still have a fun birthday. She just rolled over and hugged me and says "I'm so sorry. I love you so much."
Today, I was in the kitchen preparing a birthday meal and listening to conference going on in the other room. It was Elder Ballard's talk on mothers and Jack and Emma were watching it together. So he got to the part where he was telling the kids what they could do around the house to really help their moms out like make their beds and help out with the dishes and say thank you when clean clothes are in their drawers, but especially wrap their arms around their mom often. Well, I hear her say "I can do that" and she ran into the kitchen and threw her arms around me and kissed me and said I love you, mom. I tell you, she is a sweet little girl.