Happy Birthday MOM!!!

Happy Birthday to our beautiful, funny, wonderful Mom.  We love you.  And we're going to tell the world why:

1. She makes the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

2. Seriously, you think your mom wins here, but she doesn’t

3. And popcorn, she wins at popcorn

4. Even now that all of us have had years of experience at making the Sunday night popcorn, Mom’s is still heads above the rest

5. Right now she is saying to herself, “I know it is.”

6. She is very modest, but knows when she’s good at something

7. And sassy. Holy Cats, is she sassy

8. She wasn’t always this sassy, she’s aged into it

9. She has the best smile

10. With dimples

11. She laughs at everything

12. Including her own jokes

13. She even laughs when she’s not sure why she’s laughing

14. If her kids are laughing she is laughing

15. Except she doesn’t laugh with us at George Costanza

16. She has standards

17. She is always thinking of others way more than she thinks of herself

18. She once requested a picnic in the park and batting cages for her birthday because she thought that would be fun for all of us, even though she doesn’t do the batting cages

19. She loves it when her family is all together

20. When we are she’ll just sit back and glory in it

21. She recognizes blessings

22. She’s kind

23. If she needs to tell you hard things she will do it with love

24. And tears

25. She doesn’t think that crying is a good thing but crying is how she shows love

26. Her faith is steadfast

27. We have never seen her waiver in it

28. And she is faithful

29. If there is a job to do she will do it

30. She loves the Lord

31. She loves the Gospel

32. She loves the Book of Mormon and has read it every single day for who knows how many years

33. She has the most beautiful voice

34. She makes every song sound better

35. She even has a trophy to prove it

36. When she was in college she was part of a singing group and the stories that have come from that time are priceless

37. She loves Dad

38. We have never heard her say an unkind thing toward him

39. She knows that Dad will give her whatever she wants but she never abuses that

40. She has always supported him through everything

41. Including decades of church service that took him away from home a lot

42. But she always greeted him with a hug and a kiss and a sandwich

43. And sent him off again with a freshly ironed shirt

44. Let’s talk about laundry for a sec. She’s done a lot of it.

45. And cooking and cleaning and making sack lunches

46. She has given birth 8 times. EIGHT TIMES!!!

47. Without drugs

48. But she never holds that over us like some mothers do

49. She does hard things, even when she doesn’t want to

50. She signs all of her emails “Love, MOM” like you better not forget it

51. She is our biggest cheerleader

52. She is helpful

53. She gives practical advice but never pushes it on us

54. She has always taken being a mother very seriously but has done it without hovering, smothering or pushing. 
55. She has always let us learn our own lessons

56. She is always happy and eager to see us

57. She sees things that we can’t see with her super powered Mom Eyes, both physical and spiritual

58. She has raised us by example and taught us how to be good

59. We have never doubted what Mom would want us to do because we have seen her do it herself

60. She’s our MOM