For Moms

This is a special Mother's Day for my family, since it's the first one my sister gets to celebrate as a mother. I couldn't be happier for her. 

What could be better than being a mom to the sweetest baby in the world and having this beautiful face light up every time you walk into the room?

 Maybe being this beautiful baby's Aunt Allie..... who gets a good amount of smiles and kisses, too. 

And who gets her very own Mother's Day card for the first time. 

I've loved this child so much from the first second I heard her heartbeat and even more since the first time she wrapped her hand around my finger that sometimes I feel like I am her mom. Hopefully, that's exactly what I'll be to her- a second mom. 

Just like my aunt always has been to me. 

She's the perfect example of a woman who does it all. She is an amazing wife, mother, sister, aunt, daughter, and Christian. Somehow, she balances that with a demanding job and still manages to find time to take pictures and scrapbook for her family. I've always credited any creativity and talent in photography that I might have to her, and hopefully I've picked up a few (or many) other similarities to her along the way. 

My own mother is the definition of sacrifice. She's always, always, done anything and everything she possibly could for us. I don't want to even begin to count the miles she's driven back and forth to see us, clean for us, bring food to us, or anything else.  Most of those things we didn't even have to ask for. She just did it. Thank goodness I found a husband who treats me as good as he does because you could say I'm accustomed to being taken care of. Very well. And now she's just as giving and caring to Anniston as she was to us. 

My Granny has always given us the love, support, crocheted goodies and sweet treats that a Granny should. She is one of the most positive people I know- she is always so genuinely happy. There is something to be said about always being able to see the silver lining- and in my Granny's case, she can sometimes find it in the funniest way possible. She's probably the coolest Granny there is, because she emails us and talks to us on Facebook, all from her iPad. Most importantly, she raised one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, probably the man with the best heart ever- my Dad. 

Words cannot even begin to express the love, admiration, respect and gratitude I have for my Grandmom. This woman has set the bar so high for women in our family- I hope we can live up to it. The amount of love that she had- and still has for my Granddad is inspiring. The passion and dedication she has for caring, cooking, and being there for us is so endearing. The energy that she has at almost 85 is unheard of, and is a result of daily exercise and healthy eating habits for years and years. The hard work and savings she has built to be able to give to us and others as much as she does is unbelievable. Her southern charm, sweet laugh, unexpected jokes and insistence on being grammatically correct..... well that's just Grandmom. I look up to her so much.

I hope you all know how much you mean to me. 

(  And if you didn't, this sappy post should give you a pretty good idea. :)  )

Happy Mother's Day